Craig Jones has raised the bar for elaborate, theatrical, public marriage proposals. He spent $9,000 and made all the arrangements himself. But Alison said yes, so I guess it was worth it! The wedding is planned for March 2013. Link
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
The following is an article from Uncle John's Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader.
As a kid growing up in New Jersey, Uncle John often went to Palisades Amusement Park. Then one day they announced they were tearing it down to build an apartment complex. Many areas have an attraction like that -it's an important part of the cultural landscape for decades ...and then it's gone.
ATTRACTION: The Hippodrome
LOCATION: New York City
STORY: When it opened in 1905, it was called "the largest theater in the world." With a seating capacity of 5,300, only the biggest acts -in both size and popularity- performed there: Harry Houdini, diving horses, the circus, 500-person choirs. But the daily upkeep for such a mammoth theater, coupled with the cost of staging huge shows, forced a change. In 1923 it became a vaudeville theater and then, in 1928, it was sold to RKO and turned into a movie theater. It then became an opera house. Then a sport arena. The Hippodrome was finally torn down in 1939.
WHAT'S THERE NOW: An office building and a parking garage.
ATTRACTION: Aquatarium
LOCATION: St. Petersburg, Florida
STORY: Housed in a 160-foot-tall transparent geodesic dome, the 17-acre Aquatarium opened in 1964. Tourists came from far and wide to visit this aquarium, which overlooked the Gulf of Mexico and was home to porpoises, sea lions, and pilot whales. But it rapidly started losing customers -and money- when the bigger and better Walt Disney World opened in nearby Orlando in 1971. In 1976 sharks were brought in and the site was renamed Shark World to capitalize in the popularity of Jaws, but it didn't help.
WHAT'S THERE NOW: Condominiums.
ATTRACTION: Pink and White Terraces
LOCATION: Lake Rotomahana, New Zealand
Continue reading
As a kid growing up in New Jersey, Uncle John often went to Palisades Amusement Park. Then one day they announced they were tearing it down to build an apartment complex. Many areas have an attraction like that -it's an important part of the cultural landscape for decades ...and then it's gone.
ATTRACTION: The Hippodrome
LOCATION: New York City
STORY: When it opened in 1905, it was called "the largest theater in the world." With a seating capacity of 5,300, only the biggest acts -in both size and popularity- performed there: Harry Houdini, diving horses, the circus, 500-person choirs. But the daily upkeep for such a mammoth theater, coupled with the cost of staging huge shows, forced a change. In 1923 it became a vaudeville theater and then, in 1928, it was sold to RKO and turned into a movie theater. It then became an opera house. Then a sport arena. The Hippodrome was finally torn down in 1939.
WHAT'S THERE NOW: An office building and a parking garage.
ATTRACTION: Aquatarium
LOCATION: St. Petersburg, Florida
STORY: Housed in a 160-foot-tall transparent geodesic dome, the 17-acre Aquatarium opened in 1964. Tourists came from far and wide to visit this aquarium, which overlooked the Gulf of Mexico and was home to porpoises, sea lions, and pilot whales. But it rapidly started losing customers -and money- when the bigger and better Walt Disney World opened in nearby Orlando in 1971. In 1976 sharks were brought in and the site was renamed Shark World to capitalize in the popularity of Jaws, but it didn't help.
WHAT'S THERE NOW: Condominiums.
ATTRACTION: Pink and White Terraces
LOCATION: Lake Rotomahana, New Zealand
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader.
What do you think -was King Arthur a real person, or is he purely the stuff of legend? Either way, he makes for a good story.
TABLE TALK
In England, the most popular tales of chivalry are the Welsh legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. No one knows for sure if there was a real person who served as the inspiration for Arthur ...or if so, which historical figure it was. The earliest known mention of Arthur is a reference to a mighty warrior in "Gododdin," a Welsh poem written about 600 AD. Another 200 years would pass before Arthur would receive another mention, this time in The History of the Britons, which credits him with winning 12 battles against Saxon invaders.
It's likely that tales of Arthur were also spread by word of mouth, because when Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote down the tales of Arthur in his History of the Kings of Britain in 1135, he recorded Arthur's birth in the late fifth century, childhood, military conquests, marriage to Guinevere, relationship with his mentor Merlin, and his death in 542 when he was mortally wounded in battle by his treacherous nephew Mordred. Geoffrey is also the first person to identify Arthur as a king, not just a warrior.
COOKING THE BOOKS
So where did Geoffrey of Monmouth get his information? He claimed to have gotten it from a "certain very ancient book written in the British language," but did not identify it by name. Historians now believe there was no such book. They theorize that Geoffrey simply recorded the popular tales of his day, and when needed, made up his own details to fill in any gaps, drawing from legends surrounding leaders like Alexander the Great and Charlemagne. That didn't stop readers from taking The History of the Kings of Britain seriously -it served as the standard text on British history for more than 600 years.
Continue reading
What do you think -was King Arthur a real person, or is he purely the stuff of legend? Either way, he makes for a good story.
TABLE TALK
In England, the most popular tales of chivalry are the Welsh legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. No one knows for sure if there was a real person who served as the inspiration for Arthur ...or if so, which historical figure it was. The earliest known mention of Arthur is a reference to a mighty warrior in "Gododdin," a Welsh poem written about 600 AD. Another 200 years would pass before Arthur would receive another mention, this time in The History of the Britons, which credits him with winning 12 battles against Saxon invaders.
It's likely that tales of Arthur were also spread by word of mouth, because when Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote down the tales of Arthur in his History of the Kings of Britain in 1135, he recorded Arthur's birth in the late fifth century, childhood, military conquests, marriage to Guinevere, relationship with his mentor Merlin, and his death in 542 when he was mortally wounded in battle by his treacherous nephew Mordred. Geoffrey is also the first person to identify Arthur as a king, not just a warrior.
COOKING THE BOOKS
So where did Geoffrey of Monmouth get his information? He claimed to have gotten it from a "certain very ancient book written in the British language," but did not identify it by name. Historians now believe there was no such book. They theorize that Geoffrey simply recorded the popular tales of his day, and when needed, made up his own details to fill in any gaps, drawing from legends surrounding leaders like Alexander the Great and Charlemagne. That didn't stop readers from taking The History of the Kings of Britain seriously -it served as the standard text on British history for more than 600 years.
A lonely city-dweller goes for a late night swim and (literally) runs into a kindred spirit. The Czech short film by Alexandra Hetmerová won the Best Animation award in 2010 at the International Student Film Festival, and quite a few other awards. -via Everlasting Blort
Hey, you know what would be a great last minute (or bonus) Father's Day gift? Bookmark Neatorama on his computer! That is, if he doesn't already visit us regularly. You'll be sharing neat stuff with Dad every day! Otherwise, I hope you've got plans to make Dad feel like it was all worth it raising you on the one day a year set aside for such honors.
We had a neat thing happen this week -Neatorama set a new record for the response to a single Facebook post. Thanks to everyone who liked, shared, and/or commented on it! And congratulations to our social media editor David Israel, who not only promotes the best stuff from Neatorama, but also shares extra non-blog internet treasures with those who follow our Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest sites.
The What Is It? game is still open for your entries. Rob from the What Is It? blog is traveling, so we will post our winners shortly after he posts his official answers. In the meantime, there are t-shirts up for grabs, so get your entry in! Update: the winners have been chosen. See them here.
And we had some fine features this week, but you may not have had a chance to read them yet, so let's review:
Eddie Deezen brought us the story of Disney’s Folly: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
David Israel wrote The 6 Types of People Who Watch/Don’t Watch HBO’s Girls.
From mental_floss magazine, we saw 7 Tiny Books That Packed a Big Punch.
The Sad Tale of Centralia was from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
And from The Annals of Improbable Research, we got Cosmic Headlights and the Origin of Gamma Ray Bursts.
The post that drew the most comments this past week was The The 6 Types of People Who Watch/Don’t Watch HBO’s Girls, followed by Game of Thrones Put George W. Bush’s Head on a Spike. Nothing else came close this week.
If you need yet more reading material to get you through the weekend, you'll find a complete listing of our long feature articles archived at The Best of Neatorama. Have a Happy Father's Day!
It's summer time, and that means new deep-fried fair fare from “Chicken” Charlie Boghosian, who brought us Deep-Fried Kool-Ade last year. At the San Diego County Fair going on now, Chicken Charlie's is offering Deep-Fried Breakfast Cereal. In addition to Trix, you can select Cinnamon Toast Crunch and possibly others, depending on who stocked up on cereals for the day. Link (Image credit: Shauntel Lowe for Imperial Beach Patch)
Guo Zuchun drives a train in Chongqing, China. One day he saw three tiny owls on the track and managed to stop the train before hitting them. They were too small to fly, and are believed to be victims of a storm that destroyed their nest.
You can see pictures of the baby owl riding the train with Guo at Austrian Times. Link -via Arbroath
Two were given to a local wildlife centre to be raised, but Guo was allowed to keep one as a pet.
Now the young owl thinks his new life is a hoot, says Gou.
"I take him to work every day and he sits on the dashboard in front of me having a good look at what's going on around us," he said
"He seems to like riding the train more than he likes flying," laughed the driver.
You can see pictures of the baby owl riding the train with Guo at Austrian Times. Link -via Arbroath
It's not what you think. It's a blog that deals with all kinds of subjects: food, fun, foreign policy, fungus ...as long as it starts with an F! The official mascot of the site is the Fennec fox. There's also a map in which you can explore F places and submit your ideas for more. It's fantastic! Link
Getting pregnant is a real chore for the King of the Beasts (or his mates, actually).
But that's tame compared to what some animals go through! This story is just part of the list 11 Utterly Bizarre Animal Mating Rituals at Oddee. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Arno & Louise Wildlife)
...typical mating bouts last for up to four days, involving between 20 and 40 sex sessions per day. In fact, it's estimated that for every cub that survives past the age of one year, its mother had to mate three thousand times.
But that's tame compared to what some animals go through! This story is just part of the list 11 Utterly Bizarre Animal Mating Rituals at Oddee. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Arno & Louise Wildlife)
In the Dalton Trumbo novel Johnny Got His Gun, a horribly wounded soldier loses his arms, legs, and face. He keeps his wits, but is unable to communicate for a long time. When he can finally let those around him know that he is still conscious, they ask him what he wants. When he gives his answer, he is denied his only request. That nightmare is a possibility for many people thanks to new technology. Neuroscientist Adrian Owen works to communicate with patients who are thought to be in a vegetative state, but may be victims of Locked-In Syndrome. Owen looks at brain function during fMRI scanning and tries to discern whether increased activity in parts of the brain are attempts to answer questions or communicate. He has had some success with several patients.
On the surface, allowing such patients to have a say in their own future seems to be the humane thing to do. But how can we assess a patient's intellectual ability and competence with such new technology? And how can we judge a patent's mental health under such grim circumstances? And even if those questions are put to rest, what is the right thing to do? This is not just a theoretical argument. Tony Nicklinson, who can only communicate by moving his eyes, will petition a court next week to allow his doctor to legally end his life. Adrian Owen's communication technique may uncover other patients with the same wish. But he is not ready to ask them yet. Link -via The Browser
(Image credit: John Hryniuk)
Owen's discovery1, reported in 2010, caused a media furore. Medical ethicist Joseph Fins and neurologist Nicholas Schiff, both at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, called it a “potential game changer for clinical practice”2. The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, soon lured Owen away from Cambridge with Can$20 million (US$19.5 million) in funding to make the techniques more reliable, cheaper, more accurate and more portable — all of which Owen considers essential if he is to help some of the hundreds of thousands of people worldwide in vegetative states. “It's hard to open up a channel of communication with a patient and then not be able to follow up immediately with a tool for them and their families to be able to do this routinely,” he says.
Many researchers disagree with Owen's contention that these individuals are conscious. But Owen takes a practical approach to applying the technology, hoping that it will identify patients who might respond to rehabilitation, direct the dosing of analgesics and even explore some patients' feelings and desires. “Eventually we will be able to provide something that will be beneficial to patients and their families,” he says.
Still, he shies away from asking patients the toughest question of all — whether they wish life support to be ended — saying that it is too early to think about such applications. “The consequences of asking are very complicated, and we need to be absolutely sure that we know what to do with the answers before we go down this road,” he warns.
On the surface, allowing such patients to have a say in their own future seems to be the humane thing to do. But how can we assess a patient's intellectual ability and competence with such new technology? And how can we judge a patent's mental health under such grim circumstances? And even if those questions are put to rest, what is the right thing to do? This is not just a theoretical argument. Tony Nicklinson, who can only communicate by moving his eyes, will petition a court next week to allow his doctor to legally end his life. Adrian Owen's communication technique may uncover other patients with the same wish. But he is not ready to ask them yet. Link -via The Browser
(Image credit: John Hryniuk)
The library in Troy, Michigan, was under a threat to close if a referendum raising taxes .07% did not pass. Things looked pretty grim until a creative campaign using reverse psychology was designed to turn the focus from the tax increase to the library and its books.
The campaign to save the library won an Effie Award in the non-profit category. Link -via Metafilter
Troy Public Library would close for good unless voters approved a tax increase. With little money, six weeks until the election, facing a well organized anti-tax group who'd managed to get two previous library-saving tax increases to fail, we had to be bold. We posed as a clandestine group who urged people to vote to close the library so they could have a book burning party. Public outcry over the idea drowned out the anti-tax opposition and created a ground-swell of support for the library, which won by a landslide.
The campaign to save the library won an Effie Award in the non-profit category. Link -via Metafilter
Imagine that you spent time and money developing a brand and an advertising icon and someone else just decided they'd use your idea, too. You'd probably take them to court! There are gray areas in copyright, though. How much of an idea is stolen or not, and how much damage is done to a brand varies from case to case. The case of Aunt Jemima was an important precedent, because Aunt Jemima Mills Company (which made pancake mix) didn't like it a bit when Rigney and Company used the Aunt Jemima character to sell pancake syrup. Find out what happened and why at mental_floss. Link
Twenty-five years ago today, the GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) was born. It was developed by Steve Wilhite of Compuserve. It immediately led to the production of animated GIFs, which brought us the Hamster Dance and the distinctive look of GeoCities websites. Today, gifs are more sophisticated and funnier than ever, because instead of just passing them around, people make their own. In honor of the anniversary, The Daily Dot invited artists to create GIFs specifically for the occasion. The GIF here is from Pusheen the cat. See the rest at The Daily Dot. Link
Denis the Cat Burglar Newman loves to collect things, like the neighbor's laundry from clotheslines. In this security video, you can see him bringing home his ill-gotten gains, over and over. Neighbors in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, know where to go to claim missing items. Denis was a shelter kitten, and lends his criminal fame to the organization Homeless Cat Rescue Bedfordshire. Link -via Arbroath
Many Russian drivers use a constantly-recording dashboard camera for legal defense in case of trouble, which leads to some awesome clips for the internet audience. -via Buzzfeed
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