Got an odd glove? Make it into a cute little squirrel, with directions from Tokyo crafter Miyako Kanamori reprinted from her book Happy Gloves! Link -via Nag on the Lake
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Got an odd glove? Make it into a cute little squirrel, with directions from Tokyo crafter Miyako Kanamori reprinted from her book Happy Gloves! Link -via Nag on the Lake
Johnston Atoll is a US territory covering about 50 square miles of islands in the remote Pacific Ocean. From 1934 to 2003, it was under the control of the US Navy and was used as launch site for nuclear testing and super-secret experimental aircraft and who knows what else. The base was abandoned when the atoll was turned over to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. See photographs from various phases of the base's history at Urban Ghost Media. http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2010/04/isolated-and-abandoned-military-airbase-johnston-atoll/
(Image credit: Google Earth)
Neatorama author Jill Harness collected the funniest slogans from baby shirts that parents inflict on their little darlings. This one is a natural, after her tribute to president Roosevelt a couple of weeks ago. See them all in this post at Oddee. Some text may be NSFW. Link
Hamish Mowatt of South Ronaldsay, one of the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland, unearthed a Neolithic tomb in his backyard garden. Now archaeologists are scrambling to document and preserve the 5,000 year old grave site.
So far, three skulls are visible in the stone chamber, which is filling up with water. Experts think there might be multiple connected chambers on the site. http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/bankstomb2010.htm -via TYWKIWDBI
(Image credit: Sigurd Towrie)
Mr Mowatt said he had always wondered what lay under an 8ft stone in the garden and eventually curiosity got the better of him.
He dug a small hole close to the stone to see how thick it was. He then managed to get a thin wire pushed under the stone and confirmed there was definitely a space underneath. While doing this, a finger-hole size appeared in the earth to his right. This allowed him to push the wire in — to a depth of three feet.
By carefully removing a small area of earth and two stones, Mr Mowatt could see a rock face. Shining a torch inside, he saw a chamber with about nine inches of water lying in the bottom.
Mr Mowatt added: "I have an underwater camera, so I got it in through the hole and the monitor rigged up. On the screen, I could see the rock face clearly, but when I went further I could clearly see what I thought was a white skull, with two eye sockets, looking back at me."
So far, three skulls are visible in the stone chamber, which is filling up with water. Experts think there might be multiple connected chambers on the site. http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/bankstomb2010.htm -via TYWKIWDBI
(Image credit: Sigurd Towrie)
A Tweet from Rob Corddry (formerly of The Daily Show, now with Adult Swim) is turned into a comic by David Barneda at Twaggies. Experiences with my youngest child lead me to believe this is true wisdom. Link
If you send text messages with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, you may have noticed the annoying autocorrect feature that guesses what word you are trying to say - and is sometimes hilariously wrong. Damn You Autocorrect is a site that collects screencaps of these often incomprehensible assumptions. Some text may be NSFW. Link -via Metafilter
(vimeo link)
Sean Christensen interviews a woman about a very important sandwich she made for her brother many years ago. Even small things can become an unforgettable part of your family history. -via The Daily What
The following is an article from The Best of the Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
Who's your favorite cartoon character? Ears ours.
IMPRESSIVE STATS
Bug Bunny is the world's most popular rabbit:
* Since 1939, he has starred in more than 175 films.
* He's been nominated for three Oscars, and won one -in 1958, for "Knighty Knight, Bugs" (with Yosemite Sam).
* Every year from 1945 to 1961, he was voted "top animated character" by movie theater owners (when they still showed cartoons in theaters).
* In 1985 he became only the 2nd cartoon character to be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Mickey Mouse was the first).
* For almost 30 years, starting in 1960, he had one of the top-rated shows in Saturday morning TV.
* In 1976, when researchers polled Americans on their favorite characters, real and imaginary, Bugs came in second ...behind Abraham Lincoln.
THE INSPIRATIONS
Bugs was born in the 1930s, but cartoon historians say his ancestry goes further back. A few direct antecedents:
* Zomo. You may not have heard of this African folk-rabbit. but he's world famous. Joe Adamson writes in Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years and Only One Grey Hare:
Continue reading
Who's your favorite cartoon character? Ears ours.
IMPRESSIVE STATS
Bug Bunny is the world's most popular rabbit:
* Since 1939, he has starred in more than 175 films.
* He's been nominated for three Oscars, and won one -in 1958, for "Knighty Knight, Bugs" (with Yosemite Sam).
* Every year from 1945 to 1961, he was voted "top animated character" by movie theater owners (when they still showed cartoons in theaters).
* In 1985 he became only the 2nd cartoon character to be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Mickey Mouse was the first).
* For almost 30 years, starting in 1960, he had one of the top-rated shows in Saturday morning TV.
* In 1976, when researchers polled Americans on their favorite characters, real and imaginary, Bugs came in second ...behind Abraham Lincoln.
THE INSPIRATIONS
Bugs was born in the 1930s, but cartoon historians say his ancestry goes further back. A few direct antecedents:
* Zomo. You may not have heard of this African folk-rabbit. but he's world famous. Joe Adamson writes in Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years and Only One Grey Hare:
Like jazz and rock'n'roll, Bugs has at least some of his roots in black culture. Zomo is the trickster rabbit from Central and Eastern Africa who gained audience sympathy by being smaller than his oppressors and turning the tables on them through cleverness -thousands of years before Eastman invented film. A con artist, a masquerader, ruthless and suave, in control of the situation. Specialized in impersonating women.
It's time for another round of the Name That Weird Invention! contest. Steven M. Johnson comes up with all sorts of wacky inventions in his weekly Museum of Possibilities posts. Can you come up with a name for this one? The commenter suggesting the funniest and wittiest name win a free T-shirt from the NeatoShop.
Contest rules: one entry per comment, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Please make a selection of the T-shirt you want (may we suggest the Science T-shirt, Funny T-shirt, and Artist-designed T-shirt categories?) alongside your entry. If you don't select a shirt, then you forfeit the prize. Have fun with this one!
Update: Congratulations to noah, who suggested Club-Foot "Combine with Racquet-Bangles and Mallet-Trousers to be the ultimate 'One Man Country Club'" and to Caroline who called this Caddidas! Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop. Stay tuned for another contest coming soon!
"Pac-man's skeleton" by Le Gentil Garçon, in collaboration with François Escuilié, palaeontologist
David Israel's latest BoingBoing quiz: something that should tax even the hardest-core retrogamers. The subject: musical scores from arcade and video games by Namco, one of the golden-age greats from Japan.
Click to play:
Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight! Daylight Saving Time ends in the US, with the exception of... oh, just read about it in Neatolicious Fun Facts: Daylight Saving Time. Here are the other Neatorama exclusives you'll want to catch up on from this week:
Stacy rounded up Movie Trivia: Back to the Future for the trilogy's 25th anniversary.
It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it. Jill investigated Disneyland (again) for Neatorama Facts: The Jungle Cruise.
I found myself learning about Akron, Ohio in Neatolicious Fun Facts: Marbles.
Over at NeatoBambino, Tiffany confronted the fairly new concept of Midterms For Preschoolers, and decided it might not be such a bad idea after all.
Steven R. Johnson designed fashion accessories for Burdened Office Workers to go in the Museum of Possibilities.
From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader comes the story of Human Oil (and Other Hoaxes). Uncle John also launched a Holiday Sale!
The Annals of Improbable Research reported on What’s Cooking at the Museum of Burnt Food.
Birds of a Feather from mental_floss magazine gave us three strange poultry stories.
We launched our first giveaway for the new literary sub-blog BitLit, in which you can Win Free Autographed Copies of Overwinter! Instructions are in the giveaway post.
The winners for the October 29th Name That Weird Invention contest are Noah, who suggested "Colostocamp", and Hannah for "Loitering Within Tent". Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop! Congratulations to both winners, and to the Honorable Mentions listed in the contest post.
In Mal and Chad's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy, congratulations go out to winner tyson, who said, "If you elbow me off, I'm just going to come after you on that rhino." That's good enough to win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!
In the What Is It? Game, the mysterious object is a Japanese traveling candlestick, it's missing the part that would have caught the wax. Oskar got it right first, but didn't specify a T-shirt. Congratulations to Cristal who said "Mr. Burns' liver spot locator," and won the prize for the funniest answer.
If you missed this week's Neato-Puzzle, you still have time to try it out.
Elsewhere, GeekDad did a nice writeup on the new fiction sub-blog, BitLit, including a talk with curator David Israel.
Once you've caught up on Neatorama, check out other great links from around the web at the NeatoHub. And then get your holiday shopping done early by ordering from the NeatoShop! Have a great weekend!
Stacy rounded up Movie Trivia: Back to the Future for the trilogy's 25th anniversary.
It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it. Jill investigated Disneyland (again) for Neatorama Facts: The Jungle Cruise.
I found myself learning about Akron, Ohio in Neatolicious Fun Facts: Marbles.
Over at NeatoBambino, Tiffany confronted the fairly new concept of Midterms For Preschoolers, and decided it might not be such a bad idea after all.
Steven R. Johnson designed fashion accessories for Burdened Office Workers to go in the Museum of Possibilities.
From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader comes the story of Human Oil (and Other Hoaxes). Uncle John also launched a Holiday Sale!
The Annals of Improbable Research reported on What’s Cooking at the Museum of Burnt Food.
Birds of a Feather from mental_floss magazine gave us three strange poultry stories.
We launched our first giveaway for the new literary sub-blog BitLit, in which you can Win Free Autographed Copies of Overwinter! Instructions are in the giveaway post.
The winners for the October 29th Name That Weird Invention contest are Noah, who suggested "Colostocamp", and Hannah for "Loitering Within Tent". Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop! Congratulations to both winners, and to the Honorable Mentions listed in the contest post.
In Mal and Chad's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy, congratulations go out to winner tyson, who said, "If you elbow me off, I'm just going to come after you on that rhino." That's good enough to win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!
In the What Is It? Game, the mysterious object is a Japanese traveling candlestick, it's missing the part that would have caught the wax. Oskar got it right first, but didn't specify a T-shirt. Congratulations to Cristal who said "Mr. Burns' liver spot locator," and won the prize for the funniest answer.
If you missed this week's Neato-Puzzle, you still have time to try it out.
Elsewhere, GeekDad did a nice writeup on the new fiction sub-blog, BitLit, including a talk with curator David Israel.
Once you've caught up on Neatorama, check out other great links from around the web at the NeatoHub. And then get your holiday shopping done early by ordering from the NeatoShop! Have a great weekend!
What do you do with the pelt of an extinct animal? Get it appraised, of course! Bill Warren of Fallbrook, California picked up an unidentified animal skin at a garage sale for $5, and found that it belongs to a Tasmanian tiger, or Thylacine (seen in this video), which was declared extinct in 1936.
But the pelt cannot be sold because the Thylacine is still on the endangered species list from the US Fish and Wildlife service.
Link -via Fark
(Image credit: Charlie Neuman)
Most of the known skins reside in museums and universities. All of which makes a pelt extremely valuable for private collectors.
“They’re a very rare item to come across,” said Andrew Snooks from Armitage Auctions in Australia.
Snooks said the auction house is negotiating with Warren to obtain the pelt. After the house confirms that the pelt is indeed a Tasmanian tiger, it will go up on the auction block.
Snooks said the last Tasmanian tiger pelt sold at the auction house went for $68,000, and a rug made from eight pelts sold for $260,000.
But the pelt cannot be sold because the Thylacine is still on the endangered species list from the US Fish and Wildlife service.
“It’s like putting a Brontosaurus on the endangered species list,” Warren said. “It’s driving me nuts.”
For now, Warren is applying for an exemption and hoping for the best.
Link -via Fark
(Image credit: Charlie Neuman)
After two decades of research into alternative energy, engineer Lonnie Johnson has developed an energy-producing device called the JTEC, which could double our current efficiency in converting solar power into electricity. The concept has scientists, research centers, and the US Air Force excited about its potential. One scientist called the JTEC “a very clever way to extract energy from a heat engine … It’s incredibly elegant.” Here's a partial explanation of how it works:
Besides efficiency, the advantages of such a machine are durability, as it has no moving parts, and the absence of polluting waste products. Lonnie Johnson already made a name for himself as the inventor of the Super Soaker. His biography (included in the article) is almost as fascinating as his latest invention. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Ben Baker/Redux)
Johnson’s latest JTEC prototype, which looks like a desktop model for a next-generation moonshine still, features two fuel-cell-like stacks, or chambers, filled with hydrogen gas and connected by steel tubes with round pressure gauges. Where a steam engine uses the heat generated by burning coal to create steam pressure and move mechanical elements, the JTEC uses heat (from the sun, for instance) to expand hydrogen atoms in one stack. The expanding atoms, each made up of a proton and an electron, split apart, and the freed electrons travel through an external circuit as electric current, charging a battery or performing some other useful work. Meanwhile the positively charged protons, also known as ions, squeeze through a specially designed proton-exchange membrane (one of the JTEC elements borrowed from fuel cells) and combine with the electrons on the other side, reconstituting the hydrogen, which is compressed and pumped back into the hot stack. As long as heat is supplied, the cycle continues indefinitely.
Besides efficiency, the advantages of such a machine are durability, as it has no moving parts, and the absence of polluting waste products. Lonnie Johnson already made a name for himself as the inventor of the Super Soaker. His biography (included in the article) is almost as fascinating as his latest invention. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Ben Baker/Redux)
Remember, remember the fifth of November... Oh yes, this is Guy Fawkes Day! In the 400 years that have passed since the Gunpowder Plot, a lot of the historical details of the story have become garbled in popular culture, and many people don't know the story at all. But Guy Fawkes is not the only English folk hero. Oh you know King Arthur and Robin Hood, but have you ever heard the story of Jan Tregeagle?
Geekosystem has his story, as well as those of nine other folk heroes from English history. Link
Aside from having a hilariously awesome name, Jan Tregeagle was definitely a magistrate in the 17th century who was so much of a jerk that stories circulated claiming he made a pact with the devil. And murdered his wife. And that he supposedly rose to power by stealing an estate from an orphan.
Geekosystem has his story, as well as those of nine other folk heroes from English history. Link
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