It's the 21st-century version of the poodle skirt! Lenore of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories made a circle skirt festooned with a scene from the classic video game Missile Command. Instructions are included. This would be perfect for your next geek sock hop! Link

It's a shame we can't pay our income taxes with Monopoly money, the subject of today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. Can you distinguish the denomination of Monopoly bills by their color? It's easier if you've played the game lately! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/24628

The Big Picture blog from The Boston Globe has a lovely roundup of blossoming flowers and (better yet) images of the way people all over the world celebrate the arrival of spring. Shown here is a party in Afghanistan, where the equinox is celebrated as the beginning of the new year. Link -via the Presurfer

Image credit: Reuters/Omar Sobhani

Oh my -a play pretty that plays music! Click the tiles to not only make designs, but listen to them as well. This might take your entire day away. Link -via Bits and Pieces

Instructable user randofo outfitted his office chair with a gas detection sensor, then programmed it to publish updates on Twitter whenever a fart is detected! "Office Chair" now has 2,395 followers on Twitter. Here is a sample of the results:

# I wish I were some other chair
about 15 hours ago from web

# He farted right on me again
about 17 hours ago from web

# allow me to repeat... ppppfffffffffftttttttttttt
about 18 hours ago from web

# Ugh. That was a gross one
about 18 hours ago from web

Link to instructions. Link to Twitter feed. -Thanks, Emily Farris!

Who knew there were so many types of trombones? Douglas Yeo has pictures of all kinds of trombone configurations. Pictured is a buccin, a trombone with a bell ending in a zoomorphic head. Link -via Metafilter

I'm amazed at the different reactions we get from the variety of posts here at Neatorama. Some items have no comments at all; others have discussions that go on for days. The same thing happens at the Neatorama forums and in the Upcoming Queue section. Some discussions are overwhelmingly positive or negative, others feature a lot of differing opinions, and some veer off-topic into something completely different. What kind of web commenter are you? Veteran journalist Michael Malone takes a look at the different types of commenters.

The Troll -- Everyone knows this guy (and it's usually a guy), who intentionally visits sites in order to stir things up, provoke a furious reaction from other posters and then disappear. Classic examples are the Free Republic types who visit Daily Kos and vice versa.

The Skimmer -- The commenter, usually sour, who reads only a headline or sentence of a piece, draws exactly the wrong conclusion, and then embarks on an embarrassing rant.

The Kumbaya -- These folks always show up two-thirds of the way through any heated on-line debate and ask, "Why can't we all just get along?" They are inevitably ignored or trashed.

The Parser -- What would we do without the Internet Grammar Police? These folks assiduously correct the online writings of others -- never quite catching on that the Web is designed to be fast, fresh and sloppy.

There are a couple of dozen types identified altogether. Link -via Geek Like Me

(image credit: ABC News)

Enter your birthdate at Dead At Your Age, and you will find out which famous people died at a younger age than you are now. I don't know if this is supposed to make me feel good or bad, but I found out that I have already outlived Rod Serling and Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. I'm sure that I have outlived a lot of other famous people, but those died closest to the age I am today. http://dead.atyourage.com/ -via the Presurfer

People talk about the "misconceptions" they had as children concerning sex and reproduction in the film Kinda Sutra.

Where exactly do babies come from? And how are they really made?

Mixing humorous animation and interviews, Jessica Yu poses these questions to a variety of adults and youngsters who explore their earliest understanding of sex, conception and how the two, uh, intersect.

Cute and funny, but probably NSFW unless you wear headphones. Link -via Metafilter

Colors and flavors come in such a variety that they need super descriptive names. Can you tell which of these twelve names are colors of Pottery Barn paint and which are flavors of Ben & Jerry's ice cream? I went by the rule that if it sounds really delicious, it's probably paint. However, I didn't score all that well, so don't take my advice! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/24573

I made this nifty little word search puzzle featuring Neatorama authors, features, and favorite subjects! See if you can find these words:


You can make your own custom word search, too! Link -via Bits and Pieces

When Bailey the retriever went to the veterinary clinic in Corfe Mullen, Dorset, England, the doctor thought he had a tumor. What veterinarian Keith Moore found inside the dog was five golf gloves, ten socks, one stocking, and part of a towel!

"Vets obviously do a fair number of foreign object removals but I doubt I will ever see anything like this again in my career.

“Even for us, from a vet’s point of view, it was pretty amazing.

“It was like doing a magic trick. We were just pulling out one sock after another,” he joked.

Moore believes Bailey must have been eating laundry for years to accumulate such a mass. The dog has fully recovered from surgery and acts like a puppy again. Link -via Arbroath

(blip TV link)
Kacie Kinzer's Tweenbots experiment is less about robots and more about human nature. She designed small cardboard robots with smiling faces that will move only forward. Kinzer then would set a robot down in an area of New York City with a flag that indicated its destination. The only way it could get "home" was with the help of passers-by. People really came through! Over several months and many missions, each time a robot got stuck or headed in the wrong direction, someone would set it straight or otherwise helped it along its way. My question is: would people have helped a robot that wasn't so cute? Link -via Gizmodo

(Daily Motion link)

48-year-old Susan Boyle always dreamed of becoming a professional singer. When she walked out on the stage of the TV show Britain's Got Talent, no one expected her to do well.

Miss Boyle told presenters Ant and Dec that she lived alone with just her cat Pebbles for company. She said: ‘I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve never even been kissed.’

She then stomped across the stage and began clumsily gyrating her hips towards the judges, prompting laughter from the audience.

But you can't always depend on first impressions. Link