The following is an article from Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader.

Ready to brush up on your science? Don't worry -it's fake science. Here are the names and properties of various chemicals, elements, and other substances ...that exist only in books, movies, and TV shows.

Dilithium: Crystalline mineral used in the operation of the warp drive on the U.S.S. Enterprise on Star Trek. It controls the "anti-matter" used to power the warp drive. which somehow allows the ship to travel through space faster than the speed of light. Dilithium is in the "hypersonic" family of elements.

Energon: Highly radioactive and extremely unstable, this substance is found throughout the universe, but in its liquid form it's both fuel and food for the giant robots from space in the Transformers cartoons and movies. The search for energon is what leads the evil Decepticon robots to earth, where the chemical is abundant.

Beerium: In Yahoo Serious's Young Einstein (1988), Albert Einstein turns out to be an Australian who, in addition to his many scientific pursuits, invented rock music and beer. He invents beer by splitting the beerium atom, which releases carbonation.

Byzanium: In Clive Cussler's 1976 novel (and the 1980 movie) Raise the Titanic!, the Pentagon begins work on a secret defense system that uses sound waves to deflect missiles. But it requires tremendous power, which can only be produced by a rare, radioactive element called byzanium. And the world's only store of it is locked in a vault on board the sunken Titanic, requiring the book's protagonist, explorer Dirk Pitt, to go get it.

Adamantium: A metal alloy that covers the skeleton of Wolverine in the X-Men comics and movies. It's what allows him to have metal claws protruding from his hands.

Ice-nine: This substance drives the plot of Kurt Vonnegut's 1963 novel Cat's Cradle. Ice-nine has such a high melting point that any substance that comes into contact with it instantly freezes. In the novel, scientists fear that since ice-nine could freeze everything on Earth, it could bring about the end of the world.

Carbonite: A Star Wars substance in which living things could be frozen and suspended indefinitely. Most notably, it's how Han Solo was imprisoned for delivery to his nemesis, Jabba the Hut.

Unobtainium: In the movie Avatar (2009), earthlings go to the distant planet of Pandora to mine this fuel source, worth $20 million per kilogram. Writer James Cameron actually took the name from real life: scientists have long used "unobtainium" to describe rare or possibly non-existent materials.

Vibranium: A recurring substance in Marvel Comics, it first appeared on earth 10,000 years ago, when a meteorite made out of it crashed in Africa, causing natives to mutate. In the 1940s, a scientist named Dr. Myron MacLain obtained some while developing iron alloys for military tanks and used it to create an indestructible shield for the Nazi-fighting super-soldier Captain America.

Eitr: According to Norse mythology, this bright-blue liquid is the source of all life, from which the first creature, the giant Ymir, first emerged.

Amazonium: In the comics, Wonder Woman's lightweight armor-like bracelets are made of this metal, found only on her native "Paradise Island". (On the TV show, her bracelets are made of "feminum".)

Melange: The much sought after spice from Frank Herbert's Dune (1965), it's a drug than can both extend life and bend time. Unfortunately, it's extremely rare and extremely addictive. Once you've started taking it, you can't stop -or you'll die.

Deutronium: Found on various planets throughout the universe on the '60s TV series Lost in Space, it's combustible in liquid form, making it the fuel of choice for the Robinson family's Jupiter 2 spaceship.

Cavorite: Making appearances in novels by H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds, First Men on the Moon), it's a rare element that, when heated into a liquid and then cooled, can block the effects of gravity.

Nitrowhisperin: From Get Smart, it was invented by scientist Albert Pfitzer in an attempt to create silent fireworks. It's exactly like nitroglycerin, except that it explodes in silence. The evil KAOS organization tries to use it to destroy the world in a 1968 episode of the series.

Chemical X: In the 1990s cartoon The Powerpuff Girls, the Professor attempts to concoct the "perfect girls" out of "sugar, spice, and everything nice", but accidentally drops in Chemical X, which gives the three little girls super powers.

Mithril: A rare metal in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth of the Lord of the Rings, it looks like silver but is lighter and stronger than steel. When a cave troll stabs Frodo in the Mines of Moria, the hobbit is saved by his vest made of mithril.

Upsidaisium: From the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, this mineral floats in the air, unbound by gravity. Its only known source: Mt Flatten, a mountain that hovers in the sky. (Bullwinkle inherited the mine from his Uncle Dewlap.)

Flubber: In the 1961 Disney film The Absent-Minded Professor, Medfield College chemistry professor Ned Brainard (Fred MacMurray) botches a calculation and accidentally creates an elastic substance that absorbs energy when it hits a hard surface, causing it to bounce sky-high. He names it 'flubber" (a contraction of "flying rubber"). First Brainard uses it to help basketball players jump higher, which helps them win the big game, and then he charges the flubber with radioactive particles, enabling his Model T to fly.

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The article above was reprinted with permission from the Bathroom Institute's newest book, Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!

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If we don't have visual cues to guide us, people tend to walk in circles. Many theories have been put forth for why this is so, but experiments that control for variables such as right-handedness, brain-side dominance, and more strength on one side come up with the same results: we tend to go in circles. Read more about it at NPR. http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2010/11/03/131050832/a-mystery-why-can-t-we-walk-straight -via Metafilter

An unnamed man broke into a funeral parlor in Vienna, Austria, found a bottle of wine, drank it, and fell asleep in a coffin where the undertaker found him in the morning!

The man, whose identity was withheld by police in Vienna, broke into an undertakers in Penzing district on Tuesday night. Undertaker Heinrich Altbart discovered the man fast asleep in one of the coffins the next morning. The 25-year-old intruder reportedly nodded off after having emptied a bottle of red wine he discovered in a wardrobe.

Altbart, who took a picture of the napping would-be robber, said today (Thurs) the man caused "substantial damage" by smashing the front door of his office.

No word on what the intruder was actually looking for. http://austrianindependent.com/news/General_News/2011-01-06/5860/Burglar_nods_off_in_coffin -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Heinrich Altbart)

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First, watch the video. Then come back and read the rest of this description. J.W. Suchow and G.A. Alvarez studied how motion affected awareness of color change in their research on change blindness. Try it yourself!

Keep your eyes fixed on the small white mark in the center. At first, the ring is stationary and it's easy to tell that the dots are changing. A few seconds later, the ring begins to rotate and the dots suddenly appear to stop changing.

But play the movie again, this time looking directly at one of the dots and following it as the ring rotates. You will see that, in fact, the dots had been changing the whole time, even during the rotation—you just didn't notice it. This failure to detect that moving objects are changing is silencing.

The findings were published in the journal Current Biology, with an abstract available online. Link -Thanks, Rob Hartmann!

Ani is an abandoned city in Turkey near the Armenian border. At one time it had 200,000 residents, but no one has lived there for 300 years. Huge empty ancient buildings remain, all alone in their magnificence. The history of this city is long and bloody, and the remaining archaeological site is in danger of disappearing completely. See lots more pictures at Kuriositas. Link

Augustin Zamora was walking his Great Dane Scooby in Chicago Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, another man was following a 14-year-old girl.

The girl had just gotten off a Diversey Avenue bus near the 2800 block of North Whipple street and was walking home when she noticed a man following her, the Chicago Tribune reported. The man grabbed her as she ran up the stairs to her home, threw her to the ground and began to undress her.

Startled when Scooby and Zamora approached them, the attacker ran into an alley at George Street where he was corner by the team until police arrived.

Police charged 28-year-old Larry Smith with criminal sexual assault. Link -via Buzzfeed, where you can see more pictures of Scooby.

Cupcake Soaps - $11.95

Smell the buttercream flavor of this box of three cupcakes! But these sweet treats aren't for dessert -they're for bathing, or showing off in your guest bathroom. Cupcake Soaps come in a clear gift box for easy display. Newly available at the NeatoShop. Sweet!

Link | More Soaps

Heidi the Cross-eyed Opossum lives at the Leipzig Zoo in Germany, where she is set to be a part of Gondwanaland, a new area of the zoo which will open in July. The two-and-a-half year old opossum has already inspired a song and a plush toy.

It is a long way from home. According to the zoo, Heidi and her sister, Naira, originally came from the US state of North Carolina, where they were turned over as foundlings to a facility for wild animals. The sisters then made their way to the zoo in Odense, Denmark, before ending up in Leipzig.

The reason for Heidi's crossed eyes is unclear, but zoo officials speculate that it might be because of fat deposits behind her eyes, caused by a bad diet early in life. The eyes might look off, but they cause the animal no pain, and don't affect her ability to get around, according to the zoo. She is, aside from her looks, a normal opossum.

See more pictures of Heidi at der Spiegel. Link -via J-Walk Blog

This awesome beanbag chair in the shape of a Snorlax (from the world of Pokémon) was made by DeviantART member SmellenJR for a Christmas gift.

This took I think... over 100 dollars in supplies to make. I ended up with a little extra cream colored fabric and muslin. Thankfully muslin is super cheap.

Most of the work was done the last minute to be in time for Christmas. The box we put it in was perfect because when she lifted the top box off, it's arms flopped out as if to say: "HUG ME!"

Link

Just in case you were busy this past week packing up Christmas decorations or digging out of the snow, here's what you can catch up on from the past week at Neatorama!

At NeatoBambino, we saw a series of kids with amazing accomplishments this week! Read about the 11-year-old who is building a house, a 2-year-old who can identify US presidents, and a 10-year-old who discovered a supernova! And I can't even get my kids to load the dishwasher.

Jill Harness gave us the stories of 11 Amazing Animals That Saved Lives.

In the Museum of Possibilities, we learned about the Bike Vest, which is both a vest AND a bike!

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader had several Cold Cases that still haven't been completely solved.

We got a dose of science gone wacky in Feline Reactions to Bearded Men from the Annals of Improbable Research.

From our friends at mental_floss magazine, we saw The Confederacy's Plan to Conquer Latin America.

There were a lot of entries Monday in the Name That Weird Invention! contest. First prize goes to inky for StairChaise. The second place winner was steamtroll for the Stratolounger. Third place: DS for the name Lofty-Boy, and in fourth place was yuck2me for Loft-o-Lounger. T-shirts from the NeatoShop go out to the two winners who posted shirt selections with their entry! Honorable mentions: The Over-Study, The ChairCase; Over Easy Chair, Chairway to Heaven, Thermo-Chair, The Vertigo Lounger, Decliner, and Reclimber.

Wednesday brought another chance to win with Mal and Chad's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy! Mysfyt had the winning line: “Avast, I be Peg-eye the pirate.” and wins a T-shirt from the NeatoShop!

In the What Is It? game on Thursday, Vince had the right answer: the device is to hold logs while they are cut! Kelly gets the funniest answer prize for “The jawbone of a Domokun.” She was the first of many to see a Domo-kun in this device. Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!



Congratulations to the December winners of the How Did You Know? contests co-sponsored by Neatorama at mental_floss: Chelsea Tymms, Nate Littlefield, Aaron Sugar, and Gabe Jacquez all win prizes from the NeatoShop!

Still looking for more enjoyment on the 'net? Check out our earlier feature articles at The Best of Neatorama, and find more cool stuff elsewhere with the NeatoHub!

Ball of Whacks - $29.95

Another new item at the NeatoShop is the toy called the Ball of Whacks. It consists of 30 magnetic pyramidal pieces -just imagine all the weird shapes you can make out of them! A great stress reliever or boredom-fighter at work or at home. Also available in black.

Link | More New Items

You'd be surprised at how many book stores across the country (and probably around the world) have cats living in them. It makes sense -people who enjoy books usually enjoy cats as well, often at the same time. In this mental_floss article, you'll meet a dozen of the many bookstore cats who have their own fans, locally and online. Pictured is Asimov, resident cat at Seek Books in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Link

Recently-unearthed documents from the the German Foreign Office reveal a World War II dog story destined to eventually become a movie. A dog in Finland named Jackie could do a Hitler salute so well that the Nazis considered it a gross insult.

The dog, Jackie, was a mutt owned by Tor Borg, a businessman from the Finnish city of Tampere. Borg's wife Josefine, a German citizen known for her anti-Nazi sentiments, dubbed the dog Hitler because of the strange way it raised its paw high in the air like Germans greeting the Fuehrer with a cry of "Heil Hitler!"

On January 29, 1941, German Vice Consul Willy Erkelenz in Helsinki wrote that "a witness, who does not want to be named, said ... he saw and heard how Borg's dog reacted to the command 'Hitler' by raising its paw."

Borg was ordered to the German embassy in Helsinki and questioned about his dog's unusual greeting habits.

He denied ever calling the dog by the German dictator's name, but admitted that his wife called the dog Hitler. He tried to play down the accusations, saying the paw-raising had only happened a few times in 1933 — shortly after Hitler came to power.

The German Foreign Office was ready to arrest Borg for insulting Hitler, but no one wanted to testify against the man. Link -via Metafilter

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Lord of the Potty Dance! This Czech troupe is talented. There was no need at all to inset a Riverdance video. -via the Presurfer

You knew some presidents were hams (cough*Clinton*cough) and some no doubt ate ham, but I bet you've never seen a gallery of all the president holding hams! Click on a president (or a ham) and you'll be taken to a larger picture and interesting trivia about that president. Link -via J-Walk Blog