Business names don't always follow the rules of grammar, and some are so old you don't know for sure if they are grammatically correct or not. But you might know what the signs look like -right? We'll find out in today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. You'll be given a store name, and you decide whether there is an apostrophe in it or not. It's not as difficult as it sounds -I scored 80%. Link
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Business names don't always follow the rules of grammar, and some are so old you don't know for sure if they are grammatically correct or not. But you might know what the signs look like -right? We'll find out in today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. You'll be given a store name, and you decide whether there is an apostrophe in it or not. It's not as difficult as it sounds -I scored 80%. Link
A few years ago I was charged with the task of introducing The Turtles at a concert. They had a Hammond organ on stage with a Leslie speaker; just the sight of them brought back memories of the music they made. There are quite a few iconic sounds that made a mark in pop music and stay with us forever.
The Word magazine has a list of 40 of those sounds, with the story behind each and samples for you to hear. http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/40noises -via the Presurfer
Almost every sound in rock and pop history that's caused your ears to prick up, or your eyebrows to raise, has been sampled or digitally reconstructed for our music-making convenience. But these sounds all started somewhere; a musician or a producer made a noise - often by mistake - and someone in the studio piped up and said, "Hey! Actually, that sounds quite good!" And so the palette of rock and pop music was formed - a series of happy accidents, developed, refined and combined, mixed down and presented to us. Here are some of the most distinctive and, in no particular order, the records that best showcase them.
The Word magazine has a list of 40 of those sounds, with the story behind each and samples for you to hear. http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/40noises -via the Presurfer
These cupcakes were made by chef JB Cada & Stephanie Santos of The Regali Kitchen in the Philippines. They consist of chocolate cake with caramel icing and edible toppers featuring insignias from the HBO series Game of Thrones. Link
Costume designer Heather MacCrimmon made dresses designed by three little girls "too young to be influenced by commercial fashion." What resulted is three outfits that any 7-year-old girl would be proud to wear. Link -via Metafilter
Air Force Lt. Col. Dan Ward did a cost/benefit analysis of a fictional project for the Pentagon's in-house publication Defense AT&L Magazine. It's a cautionary tale about the Empire's Death Star.
Ward says that droids are a much better bargain for any military budget. It's tongue-in-cheek, of course, but can be related to some actual military spending projects. Read more about it at Wired's Danger Room blog. Link -via TYWKIWDBI
Previously/Related: The Economics of Death Star Planet Destruction
The Empire’s answer to Ash Carter should have seen it coming. It’s embarrassing enough that the galaxy’s supposedly most fearsome weapon was felled by crappy duct work.
But it was entirely predictable. A project so big and complex, Ward writes, will invariably stretch the oversight capabilities of acquisition staff. In this case, it led to manufacturing delays and prevented the Empire from realizing that one of its thermal-exhaust ports was a de facto self-destruct button.
Moreover, for all the expense poured into it – $15.6 septillion and 94 cents, to be precise — the Death Star is destroyed twice, and in its two iterations only ever manages to get off a few shots.
Ward says that droids are a much better bargain for any military budget. It's tongue-in-cheek, of course, but can be related to some actual military spending projects. Read more about it at Wired's Danger Room blog. Link -via TYWKIWDBI
Previously/Related: The Economics of Death Star Planet Destruction
(YouTube link)
Honestly, bodies aren't supposed to work like that, much less look graceful doing it. This footage was taken at the Braun Battle of the Year USA qualifier in Los Angeles on August 20th. The winning crew was Battle Born, who advances to the ultimate tournament November 19th in Montpellier, France. Link -via I Am Bored
This Twaggie was illustrated by Cecile Dyer from a Tweet by @derekasaurus. Like all Twaggies, it can be purchased on a t-shirt or print. Link
Artist Jason Welborn mashed up two of your favorite movie heros in this poster, featuring Clark Kent as agent 007 in The Man with the Kryptonite Gun. It's part of collection of DC Comics/James Bond mashups featured at Draw2D2. Link -via @johncfarrier
Brazilian Lucas Jatobá gave us the video Goodbye Barcelona! earlier this year. Since then, he's been in Sydney, Australia. On his 30th birthday, he gave 30 gifts to random stangers and made of video of the experience. The music is “To Build a Home” by Cinematic Orchestra. At Jatobá's site, you'll find a list of the gifts, and links to more pictures and the funny "making of" video. Link -Thanks, Lucas!
(vimeo link)
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center may be gone, but they live on in film. Dan Meth put together this supercut of the buildings' many appearances in movies. Here's a list of the movies the towers were seen in. -via The Desonesto Doctrine
After years of marketing to only small consumers, American Apparel decided to begin offering a limited selection of fashions in size XL. In announcing this, the company launched a competition called The Next BIG Thing Contest to find a plus-size model. Nancy Upton is a size 12 actress, and no fan of American Apparel. She entered the contest with the intention of mocking it.
Upton submitted a set of photographs of herself (mostly with food) taken by her friend Shannon Skloss. After the photos were approved for the contest and posted, Upton received more votes from the public than any of the other entrants! Upton writes about her feelings on winning the contest at The Daily Beast. Link -via Metafiter
More pictures and links about the project can be found at Upton's blog (some are NSFW): Link
(Image credit: Shannon Skloss)
The puns, the insulting, giggly tones, and the over-used euphemisms for fat that were scattered throughout the campaign's solicitation began to crystalize an opinion in my mind. How offensive the campaign was. How it spoke to plus-sized women like they were starry-eyed 16 year olds from Kansas whose dream, obviously, was to hop a bus to L.A. to make it big in fashion. How apparently there were no words in existence to accurately describe the way American Apparel felt about a sexy, large woman, and so phrases like “booty-ful” and “XLent” would need to be invented for us—not only to fill this void in American vocabulary, but also make the company seem like a relatable, sassy friend to fat chicks.
Upton submitted a set of photographs of herself (mostly with food) taken by her friend Shannon Skloss. After the photos were approved for the contest and posted, Upton received more votes from the public than any of the other entrants! Upton writes about her feelings on winning the contest at The Daily Beast. Link -via Metafiter
More pictures and links about the project can be found at Upton's blog (some are NSFW): Link
(Image credit: Shannon Skloss)
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces.
Before World War II, cartoons with war themes attempted to use humor or satire to sway public opinion. The spread of military newspapers and the inclusion of cartoons as a feature designed to boost morale changed all that.
UP FRONT
Arguably the most well-known of the World War II cartoonists, Bill Mauldin created the characters Willie and Joe, who were depicted as rank-and-file soldiers dealing with the realities of war without sugarcoating that some leaders, including General George S. Patton, would have preferred to see. Mauldin's caricatures, which began in 1940 when he was an 18-year-old in the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Division, were initially published in the division's newsletter and soon became hugely popular with the soldiers on the front lines. In 1943 Mauldin's cartoon was picked up by Stars and Stripes and was then distributed domestically by United Features Syndicate as Up Front, thanks in part to the war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who helped bring the cartoons to the attention of the general public.
Bill Mauldin did not attempt to glorify the fighting in any manner; rather, he used wry humor to demonstrate the absurdities of war. For example, to make an exaggerated commentary on the practice of sending increasingly younger soldiers to the front lines, Mauldin showed Willie and Joe in a bunker, reading a notice handed to them by an adolescent dressed in a soldier's uniform. One says to the other, "I guess it's okay. The replacement center says he comes from a long line of infantrymen."
SAD SACK
At the time that he was drafted in the U.S. Army in June 1941, George Baker was a struggling animator on the verge of losing his job with the Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles. Although the war in Europe had been raging for several years, the possibility of the United States entering the war seemed remote to many at the time. Baker and other soldiers went through the motions of their training with little sense of purpose, waiting for their one-year enlistment to be up so they could get on with their lives.
To break up the monotony of Army life, Baker began to create drawings on his own time, attempting to explain pictorially what life was like in the armed forces. After taking his drawings to several New York publishers and being rejected, a despondent Baker put his cartoons away and tried to forget about them. However, a few months later, the armed forces sponsored a cartoon contest for servicemen. Baker decided to enter one of his drawing into the contest -and won first prize. This caught the attention of the editor of the Army's Yank magazine, Major Hartzell Spence, who secured Baker a position on the Yank's staff. Baker worked for Yank for the duration of World War II, moving from one training camp to another as a salesman for the magazine while also being exposed to the many facets of Army life, which he then used for the basis of his cartoons.
Continue reading
Before World War II, cartoons with war themes attempted to use humor or satire to sway public opinion. The spread of military newspapers and the inclusion of cartoons as a feature designed to boost morale changed all that.
UP FRONT
Arguably the most well-known of the World War II cartoonists, Bill Mauldin created the characters Willie and Joe, who were depicted as rank-and-file soldiers dealing with the realities of war without sugarcoating that some leaders, including General George S. Patton, would have preferred to see. Mauldin's caricatures, which began in 1940 when he was an 18-year-old in the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Division, were initially published in the division's newsletter and soon became hugely popular with the soldiers on the front lines. In 1943 Mauldin's cartoon was picked up by Stars and Stripes and was then distributed domestically by United Features Syndicate as Up Front, thanks in part to the war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who helped bring the cartoons to the attention of the general public.
Bill Mauldin did not attempt to glorify the fighting in any manner; rather, he used wry humor to demonstrate the absurdities of war. For example, to make an exaggerated commentary on the practice of sending increasingly younger soldiers to the front lines, Mauldin showed Willie and Joe in a bunker, reading a notice handed to them by an adolescent dressed in a soldier's uniform. One says to the other, "I guess it's okay. The replacement center says he comes from a long line of infantrymen."
SAD SACK
At the time that he was drafted in the U.S. Army in June 1941, George Baker was a struggling animator on the verge of losing his job with the Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles. Although the war in Europe had been raging for several years, the possibility of the United States entering the war seemed remote to many at the time. Baker and other soldiers went through the motions of their training with little sense of purpose, waiting for their one-year enlistment to be up so they could get on with their lives.
To break up the monotony of Army life, Baker began to create drawings on his own time, attempting to explain pictorially what life was like in the armed forces. After taking his drawings to several New York publishers and being rejected, a despondent Baker put his cartoons away and tried to forget about them. However, a few months later, the armed forces sponsored a cartoon contest for servicemen. Baker decided to enter one of his drawing into the contest -and won first prize. This caught the attention of the editor of the Army's Yank magazine, Major Hartzell Spence, who secured Baker a position on the Yank's staff. Baker worked for Yank for the duration of World War II, moving from one training camp to another as a salesman for the magazine while also being exposed to the many facets of Army life, which he then used for the basis of his cartoons.
(YouTube link)
The Yip Yip Martians from Sesame Street were a hit at DragonCon 2011. The description at YouTube says it all:
simply put, one of the most entertaining and crowd pleasing cosplay costumes EVER... there wasn't a single person who saw these guys who didn't explode into joy.
If you are not familiar with these characters, you can watch the Muppets in one of their original Sesame Street sketches. -via reddit
Grant Woolard is so patriotic, he sang the national anthems of six countries -and then mashed them up in this musical collage. It works surprisingly well! You'll hear the anthems of Germany, Canada, France, the UK, Spain, and the US. -Thanks, Grant!
Tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. We mark the occasion every year, but this milestone is different. Of course, we will never forget the victims of those attacks, but now we are looking ahead. New buildings are rising, Osama bin Laden is gone, and 9/11 is being added to school history curriculums. The Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania will be dedicated today, and the National September 11 Memorial in New York will be dedicated tomorrow. We had own own mini-memorial for 9/11 victims here at Neatorama, courtesy of StoryCorps. We also had a lot of other neat stuff for you this week.
Eddie Deezen recalled some of our favorite Evil Twins from '60s Television.
There's more Scooby-Doo than you realized, as Jill Harness told us in Scooby-Dooby-Doo: Still Running Strong.
From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, we learned about serial killer Belle Gunness: The Terror of La Porte.
Four Score and Seven Lattes Ago looked at the role of coffee in the Civil War, courtesy of mental_floss magazine.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Body of Work: Guéguen and the Goad of Small Things. Imagine a French scientist spending his life researching things like breasts and their effect on men.
Strangely, the most popular post of the week was from a few years back. 10 Insulting Words You Should Know was linked on Metafilter and The Daily What, which we appreciate. I think someone has been perusing the Best of Neatorama!
Contests! We got contests! In the Star Wars Lightsaber Mini Hunt from last week, we had four, count 'em, four winners, announced here.
We started a contest last weekend called Our Little PostSecret, which is still open for entries, but not for long! The three winners of the new PostSecret book should be announced tomorrow night.
In the What Is It? game this week, the object pictured is a cobbler’s tool for stretching and holding leather when making a shoe. Quite a few people guessed it was a clamp, but Winslow was the first to mention shoes, so he wins a t-shirt! Amanderpanderer had the funniest answer, amirite? “All ladies know this…it’s a speculum. Gynocologists seem to think it works best when it’s put in the freezer for a few minutes first.” For that, she also wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop.
When you've caught up on everything here, be sure to check our Facebook page every day for extra content, contests, discussions, videos, and links you won't find on our main page. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what's going around the web in real time. And remember, we always welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions for making Neatorama ever better.
Email This Post to a Friend