Fresh garden-grown vegetables are wonderful! So is this silly animation about them, created by Si Bennett to encourage Oliver to eat his vegetables. Works for me. -via the Presurfer
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Mike Boon designed an alphabet that kids who are just learning to read will love. Oh, and their parents and grandparents who learned to read with Dr. Seuss books will love it, too! Can you name all the characters from A to Z? The answers are at Mike Baboon Design. There are prints for sale, too. Link -via Buzzfeed
This past week has been an eventful one here at Neatorama! We had more than the usual number of feature articles, a contest with lots of winners, and joined another social networking site. Yes, Neatorama is now on Pinterest! Tell all your Pinterest buddies to come see us there.
The highlight of the week was the Spot the Neatobot game! It reminded me of an Easter egg hunt, with everyone looking around on the website for a badge featuring the Neatobot. Those who follow Neatorama on Facebook, Twitter and/or G+ got hints on where to look. Twenty people won twenty t-shirts from the NeatoShop, and if you haven't checked your email yet, you may find that you're one of them!
If you are one of the winners, we'd really like to see what you look like wearing your t-shirt from the NeatoShop. So put it on, take a picture, send to to us, and when we get enough, we'll post them right here on the site. In fact, if you've won a Neatorama or a NeatoShop t-shirt in any of our contests, send us your best modeling image. I look forward to seeing you!
Jill Harness was busy all week marking important calendar events. Tuesday was the 84th anniversary of Fred Rogers' birth, so she brought us the article Getting to Know Mister Rogers.
William Shatner turned 81 on Thursday, so we had Let’s Have a Shatnerpalooza!
And for the film opening, Jill put together 20 Fantabulous Hunger Games Arts & Crafts.
We got to see some eerie but beautiful high-resolution underwater photographs of the historic wreckage of The Titanic Today at the Spotlight Blog, courtesy of National Geographic magazine.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader gave us the lowdown on the Beat Generation in the article Meet the Beats.
It’s Good to Be a YAVIS came to us from the Annals of Improbable Research.
And mental_floss magazine told us about The 10 Greatest Love Affairs in History.
In this week's What Is It? game, the mystery object is a simple ice cube crusher. The first with that answer was just a guess, who wins a t-shirt! The funniest answer came from upiru, who said, “It’s a chewing-gum tester of course. Some clever students even use it to chew their gum discretly under the classroom table.” That’s good for a shirt, too! Congratulations, and thanks to everyone who played along. See the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog.
The post with the most comments this week (outside of the giveaways) was, not surprisingly, Would You Reveal Your Facebook Password to get a Job? But catching up fast is the more recent post Should Airlines Charge Fat People More?
When you're caught up on everything from this week, you can check out past feature articles at The Best of Neatorama. Pick a year and browse through an amazing variety of neat stuff to read!
You may have heard that the first rock 'n' roll song was "Rocket 88" in 1951. But there were folks singing (and even recording music) about "rocking" way before that. What we call rock 'n' roll grew out of the blues and the rhythm & blues songs of the 1940s. So what was the first recorded rock 'n' roll song? That may be argued about for a long time to come. Mental_floss has five rocking songs that are good candidates for the title -and four of them are from the 1940s! Listen to them and tell us what you think. Link
The amount of a specific type of ocean water in the depths around Antarctica is shrinking, according to measurements taken between 1980 and 2011. The rate of loss is about 8 million metric tons per second!
Scientists don't yet know the exact reason for the change, or whether it is a cycle or a long-term trend. Link -via Blues News
This mass of water is called Antarctic Bottom Water, which is formed in a few distinct locations around Antarctica, where seawater is cooled by the overlying air and made saltier by ice formation (which leaves the salt behind in the unfrozen water). The cold, salty water is denser than the water around it, causing it to sink to the sea floor where it spreads northward, filling most of the deep ocean around the world as it slowly mixes with warmer waters above it.
The world’s deep ocean currents play a critical role in transporting heat and carbon around the planet, which helps regulate the Earth's climate.
Scientists don't yet know the exact reason for the change, or whether it is a cycle or a long-term trend. Link -via Blues News
The fence at the Argo Gold Mine in Idaho Springs, Colorado is made out of old skis. It's just one of seven perfectly serviceable fences made of recycled sports equipment featured at Environmental Graffiti. See others made of surfboards, hockey sticks, bicycles, and even bowling balls! Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Vilseskogen)
Arielle Clementine threw a surprise birthday party for her friend Dustin, featuring a science theme throughout. The drinks were served in test tubes, the food in Petri dishes, and the birthday cake was decorated with a periodic table! But the menu was out of this world, featuring Korean Pork Belly Ssäm garnished with Pop Rocks, skewered beef on pipettes filled with horseradish sauce, spherical honey, carbonated fruit, and a final course featuring Miracle berries. You'll find links explaining these scientific dishes, plus more pictures, at her site. Link -Thanks, Arielle!
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
It is the most famous rock album cover of all time: The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. One of the many things that still fascinate us about this incredible album is the cover. The concept for the cover was called "people we like."
According to artist Peter Blake, the designer of the iconic Sgt. Pepper cover: "In my mind I was making a piece of art rather than an album cover. It was almost a piece of theater design."
Blake continues: "I offered the idea that if they had just played a concert in the park, the cover would be a photograph of them with the group who had watched the concert. If we did this by using cardboard cutouts, it could be whomever they wanted."
Each of the four Beatles was told to compile a list of people they admired, and their choices would all be featured on the album's cover. Ringo, always the least pretentious of the four, declined right off the bat. "Whoever the others choose is okay with me," Ringo said.
John Lennon's off-kilter mind immediately came up with Adolf Hitler and Mohandas Gandhi. Hitler was immediately nixed for obvious reasons. But, incredibly, a paper cutout of Adolf Hitler was actually made and was there at the photo session on March 30, 1967. Legend has it that Hitler was actually in the final shot, but during the session, one of the Beatles stood in front of him, covering the camera's view. Gandhi got the axe by EMI executives, believing it would hurt album sales in the Far East.
George, "the mystic Beatle," of course, chose four Indian gurus. Bob Dylan was a clear choice by all the Beatles, who worshiped Dylan.
Fred Astaire was definitely a "Paul" choice. The legendary dancer was an easy sell and was reportedly delighted to be featured. However, despite Paul's initial assurance to EMI that all the requested "guests" would "love to do anything to please us," several of the chosen figures gave EMI more than a bit of difficulty. Shirley Temple asked to hear the finished product produced before giving her consent.
The Beatles all wanted Mae West to be on the cover, but she was apprehensive. "What would I be doing in a lonely heart's club band?" Mae asked. To placate the legendary sex symbol, all four Beatles wrote and signed a letter to Mae, and she finally agreed.
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It is the most famous rock album cover of all time: The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. One of the many things that still fascinate us about this incredible album is the cover. The concept for the cover was called "people we like."
According to artist Peter Blake, the designer of the iconic Sgt. Pepper cover: "In my mind I was making a piece of art rather than an album cover. It was almost a piece of theater design."
Blake continues: "I offered the idea that if they had just played a concert in the park, the cover would be a photograph of them with the group who had watched the concert. If we did this by using cardboard cutouts, it could be whomever they wanted."
Each of the four Beatles was told to compile a list of people they admired, and their choices would all be featured on the album's cover. Ringo, always the least pretentious of the four, declined right off the bat. "Whoever the others choose is okay with me," Ringo said.
John Lennon's off-kilter mind immediately came up with Adolf Hitler and Mohandas Gandhi. Hitler was immediately nixed for obvious reasons. But, incredibly, a paper cutout of Adolf Hitler was actually made and was there at the photo session on March 30, 1967. Legend has it that Hitler was actually in the final shot, but during the session, one of the Beatles stood in front of him, covering the camera's view. Gandhi got the axe by EMI executives, believing it would hurt album sales in the Far East.
George, "the mystic Beatle," of course, chose four Indian gurus. Bob Dylan was a clear choice by all the Beatles, who worshiped Dylan.
Fred Astaire was definitely a "Paul" choice. The legendary dancer was an easy sell and was reportedly delighted to be featured. However, despite Paul's initial assurance to EMI that all the requested "guests" would "love to do anything to please us," several of the chosen figures gave EMI more than a bit of difficulty. Shirley Temple asked to hear the finished product produced before giving her consent.
The Beatles all wanted Mae West to be on the cover, but she was apprehensive. "What would I be doing in a lonely heart's club band?" Mae asked. To placate the legendary sex symbol, all four Beatles wrote and signed a letter to Mae, and she finally agreed.
We tend to take them for granted, but doors are quite useful, aren't they? The song is from Elliot Mason with video by Mike Fordham. -via b3ta
The AMC series Mad Men returns to TV this weekend after an absence of 17 months. To get you into the proper retro mood, Collector's Weekly presents ten authentic consumer products that will take you back to 1966 -or introduce you to the styles of that year if you weren't around. I spent several years coveting a pair of white go-go boots myself. Get mod, baby! Link
Master Corporal John Celestino of the 31 Canadian Brigade Group, training at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, wanted to try the training exercise against a US National Guard soldier. Who will win? Watch and see! For those outside North America, the Canadians are wearing the brighter green. -via reddit
There are many places in the world where two nations claim the same piece of land, but here's one that the two bordering countries are rejecting. Bir Tawil is an 800-square-mile parcel of land along the borders of Egypt and Sudan, but neither country claims the land. In fact, both countries would rather the other claim it! It's a question of whether the nations honor an 1899 border line or a 1902 border, which is all explained at Now I Know. Link -via the Presurfer
A duck broached the perimeter of the White House lawn on Wednesday, but the ducklings following her couldn't mount the concrete barrier. Secret Service agents came to the rescue, and lifted the ducklings through a fence. The agents received a round of applause from tourists watching the incident. Apparently, White House security determined the ducklings and their mother were no threat. Link
Buzzfeed put together an NCAA tournament bracket that has nothing to do with the actual basketball games, but instead pits the teams' animal mascots against each other to rank which is the cutest. Which means no matter what team you like, you can enjoy a series of sweet wildlife photographs. The wildcats above represent Kentucky. Link
Robojelly, new from SyFy! That's what it sounds like... but this is real. A team at Virginia Tech has developed a robot based on the movement of a jellyfish. They named the resulting mechanism Robojelly, and it should eventually be able to run completely on the power of seawater!
Can you guess who sponsors this research? That's right, the U.S. Navy. Link -via Metafilter
A jellyfish's movement is down to circular muscles located on the inside of the bell -- the main part of the body shaped like the top of an umbrella. As the muscles contract, the bell closes in on itself and ejects water to propel the jellyfish forward. After contracting, the bell relaxes and regains its original shape.
This was replicated in the vehicle using commercially-available shape memory alloys (SMA) -- smart materials that "remember" their original shape -- wrapped in carbon nanotubes and coated with a platinum black powder.
The robot is powered by heat-producing chemical reactions between the oxygen and hydrogen in water and the platinum on its surface. The heat given off by these reactions is transferred to the artificial muscles of the robot, causing them to transform into different shapes.
Can you guess who sponsors this research? That's right, the U.S. Navy. Link -via Metafilter
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