Here in the US, we play a version of football that is so different, the rest of the world calls it American football. And in our peculiarly American way, we make a holiday out of the end of the football season. We call it Super Bowl Sunday. This tradition is now in its 45th year, which can make those of us who remember the hoopla surrounding the first Super Bowl feel really really old. Some like the game itself, some watch for the super-expensive advertisements, and some just like the parties. Why, as I write this, the "hot topic" at the Super Bowl site is whether nachos, popcorn, or buffalo wings are the best Super Bowl snack. While you're counting down the hours to the game, you can catch up on the exclusives you might have missed earlier this week at  Neatorama.

Phil Haney warned us about the overuse of a Hollywood trope in The “All In Your Head” Movies.

Jill Harness had two features on animals this week. First, the heartbreaking stories of 7 Animals Humans Brought to Extinction. Then, to lift your spirits, 13 Animal Friendships Sure To Melt Your Heart.

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader gave us the origins of interesting flags from around the world in Fly the Flag, Boys!

From the Annals of Improbable Research, we learned about Alchemy’s Shower of Gold, which means exactly what it sounds like.

The Roma's Long Road to Equality came to us from the folks at mental_floss magazine.

The What Is It? game on Thursday had a winner right off. Berhard said it was a nutcracker, and he’s right. Among many funny answers, the winner is The Professor, who claimed that due to budget cuts, this is the new Times Square New Year Ball Drop! Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop.

In the Name That Weird Invention! contest, the first place winner is Golfyball for the name Bumpermarket. Second place goes to ladybuggs for the Grumpcart. Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!

Mal and Chad's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy returned on Wednesday. Darrel came up with the winning line this week: "Boy somebody needs a Tic Tac." That wins him a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!

You'll find exclusive Neatorama articles on a wide variety of subjects all in one place at The Best of Neatorama. Work the slider at the top of the page to bring up posts from 2006 to 2011. And when you've had your fill, check out neat links from all over at the NeatoHub!

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Slate is doing a series of travel posts with our friends Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras at Atlas Obscura. Part one of the hidden wonders of South America is about The World's Most Beautiful River. This video is from part two, A Death-Defying Commute. A 60-year-old cable spans a 1,200-foot-deep ravine between two mountains near the village of Guayabetal, Colombia. Dylan took a chance on riding the zipline.

"Your rope appears to be a little frayed," I pointed out, warily. But Mario, who has been going back and forth on the cable since he was 8 years old, said that he was so confident in his harness, he would happily take one of us across with him. I laughed at the idea. Dylan, in a momentary lapse of judgment, forgot that his fiancee and mother might someday read this and eagerly volunteered.

The couple of dozen cables used for traveling in the area were considered dangerous, but since the gorge is the border between two states, jurisdiction over the ziplines is complicated. Most of them were removed and only four cables remain. Read more about them at Slate. Link

This Sunday, the Packers battle the Steelers in the Super Bowl. You may be a fan of either, and you may know all there is to know about football, but how much do you really know about the two cities? Test your knowledge of Green Bay, Wisconsin and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in this Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I scored 62% (8 out of 13). Anyone who does better can claim bragging rights right up until kickoff time! Link

In the ad campaign for Dos Equis beer, 72-year-old Jonathon Goldsmith plays "the most interesting man in the world," whose blood smells like cologne, and who sharks named a week after.

Goldsmith is not this man. Still, he has more in common with him than you do. A montage of highlights from the real life of Jonathan Goldsmith might include (had there been cameras present) footage of him rescuing a stranded climber on Mt. Whitney, saving a drowning girl in Malibu, sailing the high seas with his friend Fernando Lamas (the inspiration for his Interesting persona and, according to Goldsmith, “the greatest swordsman who ever lived in Hollywood”), and starting a successful network marketing business (“I was a hustler, a very good hustler”), which, for a while, anyway, enabled him to flee Hollywood for an estate in the Sierras. Among the outtakes might be glimpses of his stint as a waterless-car-wash entrepreneur. “I love the old philosophers,” he said. “I have a large library. I am not a die-hard sports fan. I love to cut wood."

Goldsmith lives on his sailboat with his wife, who is also his agent. Read more about this interesting man who used to intercept Warren Beatty's dates at the New Yorker. Link -via The Daily What

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Here are more scenes from the Edwardian Ball and World's Faire 2011 last month in San Francisco, where the man with the Goldfish Bowl Helmet caught our attention. The Los Angeles version is scheduled for March 5th. -Thanks, Mark Day!

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This project has something for everyone: those who enjoy gadgets, bicycles, graffiti, overthinking, steampunk, art, and/or rainbows! Creator Akay calls it a "complicated technical solution to aide in simple acts of vandalism." Read more about it at Underwire. Link -via Laughing Squid

Excuse me, did the Oregon Trail really go through Los Angeles? Jeff Wysaski of Pleated-Pants created this thought-provoking street poster. Link -Thanks, Jeff!

Lovina, a bakery in Tokyo, will make a birthday cake for your dog. Not just a dog cake, but a cake that looks like your dog! See more pictures of birthday dogs and their custom-made cakes at Japan Probe. Link

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This creative video from Do the Green Thing maps the way we walk through our lives. The point is to walk more and drive less for the good of the environment, but the video is entertaining even without an environmental message. Link -via the Presurfer

Think about it: when someone hugs you, it lasts about three seconds. If they hold on longer, you know something else is going on, like a child not wanting to go to sleep at bedtime, or a lover craving closeness. A study of Olympic athletes congratulating each other confirms the three-second rule. But it's not just a rule for hugs -almost everything we do happens in three-second durations!

Crosscultural studies dating back to 1911 have shown that people tend to operate in 3-second bursts. Goodbye waves, musical phrases, and infants' bouts of babbling and gesturing all last about 3 seconds. Many basic physiological events, such as relaxed breathing and certain nervous system functions do, too. And several other species of mammals and birds follow the general rule in their body-movement patterns. A 1994 study of giraffes, okapis, roe deer, raccoons, pandas, and kangaroos living in zoos, for example, found that although the duration of the animals' every move, from chewing to defecating, varied considerably, the average was, you guessed it, 3 seconds.

"What we have is very broad research showing that we experience the world in about these 3-second time frames," says developmental psychologist Emese Nagy of the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom.

The Olympic hugging study was produced by watching videotapes of televised athletes. They tended to hug their coaches a bit longer than three seconds, their opponents for a bit less, but they averaged out at, yes, three seconds. Link -via J-Walk Blog

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I've found myself watching a lot of Law & Order reruns lately, mostly because you can find it most hours of the day on various TV channels. Now we have statistics that track the outcomes of the cases in each season. Not only that, but they are compared with what was actually going on in New York City at the time -the NYC murder rate and the politics of municipal law enforcement. Some of the changes in the show over time reflect the real world, and other changes were made for the TV audience. Read the analysis at, appropriately enough, Overthinking It. Link -via Metafilter

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Snooky seems to be a bit touchy. But the story has a happy ending. -via Buzzfeed

While some cities are buried under snow, a road in Cambridgeshire only looked that way as it was covered in duck feathers. A truck carrying the feathers caught fire and spilled its load on the A14.

A ruptured diesel tank caused the fire in the lorry, which was carrying the duck feathers on the A14 near Hemingford Grey.

The westbound carriageway of the road was shut after being covered in the white feathers and a rolling roadblock was in place eastbound.

Diversions are in place but motorists are advised to avoid the area.

The truck was destroyed, and the feathers went everywhere. Link (with video) -via Arbroath

German designer Manfred Kielnhofer designed this chair of plexiglass and light tubes. What an eye catcher!

Light art object or cosy chair? Get two features in one. Once put in the lobby, in the hall or in your shop – the interlux (or plexi-tube) chair will be the perfect eye catcher.

You can also change the light tubes easily – so you can change the colours and enjoy different atmospheres. Try a fresh green in spring, a warm orange in autumn and a golden shine at Christmas!

More photos of the interlux chair are included in a page about Kielnhofer's similar chair made of tubes fashioned from recycled newspapers. Link

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Googy is the title character starring in a new Channel 101 webseries. There's no lessons, no dark twists, just silly, happy fun! Read more about it at Urlesque. Link -Thanks, Anastasia!