Last week, Jill posted 65 Seriously Great Comic Con Costumes here at Neatorama. But she took hundreds of photographs at Comic-Con! If you are jonesing for more fans dressed as comic book, video game, TV, or movie characters, you can see (or find links to) a lot more in a massive photo post at Rue the Day. Some costumes even mashed up different universes, like this Star Trek red shirt being attacked by an Alien facehugger. Which makes perfect sense when you think about it. Link

Now, here's a blog on an extremely narrow subject that many will find fascinating. Fashion It So is all about the clothing and costumes seen on the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Charlie and Anna are having a good time capturing screenshots and coming up with commentary on the fashions of the 23rd century. For example:

This episode opens up with Worf having trouble getting on his Starfleet formalwear:

You know, I think Worf probably could take a Mr. Universe pageant. And by take, I mean UTTERLY DESTROY IN THE FIELD OF BATTLE. In fact, why isn’t that part of the Mr. Universe pageant?

Link -via @JohnCFarrier

You can always find videos of adorably cute and sometimes funny kids at NeatoBambino. This one features a father who means well, but his attempt to teach the baby to laugh backfires in a big way. http://www.neatorama.com/neatobambino/2011/07/30/father-tries-to-teach-baby-to-laugh-diabolically-fails/

We often post about endangered animals, but plants can go extinct as well. Plant species' fortunes are affected by the actions of humans and other animals. Consider the strange case of the plant pictured here known as Cabbage on a Stick:

Cabbage on a stick is pretty much what it sounds like: a tuft of leaves that looks like a head of cabbage sitting on top of a thick stick. It's also known as alula. In the wild, this plant is only found on the Hawaiian island of Kauai and without the work of botanists, it would be extinct. Because the only insect that could pollinate the cabbage on a stick, a type of hawk moth, doesn't exist anymore, the plant species can only reproduce if humans hand-pollinate it. Botanists repelled down cliffs to reach the existing alula, pollinate it, and bring some back with them to grow in nurseries.

Other plants are endangered because of over harvesting, environmental encroachment, or even poaching. Link

What makes a good advertising slogan? The Atlantic looks at how some slogans stay with us for decades while others flounder. It's not always a matter of crowing about the quality of the product.

In the 1980s, British Rail tried to convince potential passengers that they were making significant improvements to their service with the slogan, "We are getting there." Passenger experience suggested otherwise, and the much-ridiculed slogan proved short-lived. Ford's "Quality is Job 1" met a similar demise around the same time. There is nothing wrong with slogans acknowledging weakness and being aspirational, but they do have to pass the test of experience. Avis' current slogan, "We try harder," was originally coined in 1962, as "We're No. 2. We Try Harder." Positive customer experience ratified the claim and helped Avis achieve significant sales growth.

Included with the article is a gallery of big advertisers and their slogan histories. Link -via mental_floss

The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Universe.

Why are bulldogs so gosh-darned ugly? And Dobermans so scary? It's not by chance.

(Image credit: Flickr user cayenne2006)

Scientists speculate that the first dogs separated themselves from the wolf pack about 100,000 years ago. And until a few hundred years ago, dogs pretty much bred themselves willy-nilly with little record of human intervention. That is, until the dawn of...

THE UNNECESSARY DOG

In postmedieval Europe, lower-class dogs pulled carts and herded livestock (and were completely unappreciated for it). But on royal estates, "unnecessary dogs" -the darlings of kings and countesses- were becoming the objects of previously unheard-of emotional attachments. By the mid-19th century, these pampered pets outnumbered the working dog population. And by the late 19th century, dog lovers who were fiercely loyal to particular breeds started forming private registries and kennel clubs so they could just as fiercely protect those prized bloodlines.

DESIGNER GENES

(Image credit: Flickr user Peter Jackson)

Today, after nearly 100 years of serious breeding, most pedigreed dogs are extremely inbred. The chance that a purebred dog will have a different combination of genes at any given site on a chromosome is very small: 4 to 22 percent. In most mutts, it's a healthy 57 percent. Between two members of a typical human family it's an even healthier 71 percent. The degree of uniformity among purebreds means that when a bad trait gets locked in by chance, it tends to stay as long as the breeding is confined within the group.

MORE THAN ONE SICK PUPPY

So when you hear the phrase "indiscriminate breeding," it doesn't mean despoiling those pure bloodlines with a doggie liaison outside the breed (horrors!), it refers to the breeding of pedigreed dogs who are known to carry traits that are bad for the breed- mostly physical, but behavioral as well.

A lot of breeders are doing what they can to breed out the bad stuff while keeping in the good. But meanwhile, here's the poop on a few distinctive breeds: where they came from and -because of indiscriminate breeding- the reasons why you might end up spending all your time and money taking them to the vet (or the doggie shrink).

BULLDOGS: THE UGLY SWEETIE-PIE

(Image credit: Flickr user Fuzzy Thompson)

The dog who looks like Winston Churchill-or is it the other way around? He waddles, he slobbers, and he's the snoring champ of all dogdom.

People in Norway are leaving many flowers as memorials to the 77 people killed in the July 22 attacks. The Norwegian news outlet Dagbladet is compiling photographs of memorial flowers to add to this mosaic. It already has 2370 photographs, and submissions are still being accepted. At the site, you can zoom in to see each individual photograph. Link (English translation) -via Dark Roasted Blend

Do you recognize them? You can highlight the following invisible text for a spoiler, or go to the link for the full story. Or both. (RSS text is not invisible)

In this 1960 photograph, the seven original Mercury astronauts participate in U.S. Air Force survival training exercises at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada. Pictured from left to right are: L. Gordon Cooper, M. Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Virgil I. Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald K. Slayton.

Even telling you what website the link goes to would be spoil the surprise, but it's a site we've sent you to before. Link -via Nag on the Lake

Vintage ads have a way of making me glad to live in the 21st century. Link -via Boing Boing

A car was pulled over in Plattling, Germany, when police officers saw it was being driven by a skeleton! However, the driver was found to be a 23-year-old Brit named Martin Williams.

He told police he'd snapped up the plastic life-size model at a local flea market but strapped it into his front passenger seat because he thought it would be damaged in the boat.

A police spokesman said: 'It was only when we stopped the car that we realised it was a British right hand drive car - and the skeleton was therefore in the passenger seat.

"We could not make any charges against him as it is not illegal to have a plastic skeleton in your car."

http://austriantimes.at/news/Around_the_World/2011-07-29/35269/Ghost_Busted -via Arbroath

First off, it's awesome to have a Princess Leia costume. You know, with the buns and all. But how cool is it to have a Princess Leia costume made of duct tape? Yeah, that's what this is!



Lindsay Boo Barrasse made this out of tons of duct tape. She gives us some details about how it was done:

This past week, Neatorama focused on some big events in our feature articles. Comic-Con in San Diego had the whole internet abuzz! Sites from all over sent us links, but we had our own reporter covering the event. Jill Harness didn't disappoint, either, as she brought back tons of pictures. See the best of them in the post 65 Seriously Great Comic Con Costumes.

We also had The Final Shuttle Mission, which went up on the Spotlight Blog on Wednesday, since we wanted to present all those gorgeous photographs in a larger format. Thanks to Logan Kugler, Steve Pemberton, and Sean Tamblyn for bringing it to us.

Jill also continued her series on Disneyland attractions and their history with Neatorama Facts: Star Tours.

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader brought us the story of America's playground in Coney Island: Dreamland by the Sea.

Paper Airplane Producers: Morning Types vs. Evening Types came to us from the Annals of Improbable Research.

And from mental_floss magazine, we got a bunch of interesting stories together in Ten Incredible Perfect Moments in the History of Editing.

Have you seen the new Captain America movie yet? We teamed up with Geeks Are Sexy this week to give away a Captain America Mystery Box! The prizes are not limited to movie swag, but also include stuff from the NeatoShop. The contest is still open. Yes, there are hundreds of entries, but you can't win if you don't enter!

Want more? Be sure to check our Facebook page every day for extra content, contests, discussions, videos, and links you won't find here. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what's going around the web in real time. And if you have kids getting ready to go back to school, get them something to make them feel special like a lunch box or backpack from the NeatoShop!

Shark Week starts this Sunday! Who's your favorite pop culture shark? I have several, and they're all here in a list of the greatest sharks from movies, TV, and even viral news. I bet you'll see some you'd forgotten about -like SNL's Land Shark.

One of the most classic recurring sketches in Saturday Night Live history, Chevy Chase's Land Shark character was basically a shark who would coerce its victims into opening their doors by pretending to be plumbers, repairmen or, in this clip, a member of Unicef.

Once the unsuspecting people opened their doors, the Land Shark would eat them whole, making a comment on the ridiculousness of the hysteria over sharks after the release of Jaws.

That's my favorite, but there are sharks for every generation in the list at Ranker. Some text NSFW. Link

The movie Cowboys & Aliens opens nationwide today, marking Harrison Ford's 40th credited movie role. In honor of the occasion, the National Post created 40 icons of Ford in his roles (although strangely all appearing to be the same age). Each is linked to an explanation of the role depicted. Link -via Buzzfeed

The August deadline for lifting the debt ceiling is looming. Will the US government default on its loans? Has that ever happened before? Yes it has -in 1979.

In the spring of 1979, Congress was in the midst of a similarly heated debate about raising the debt ceiling, Legislators eventually reached a last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling and (they thought) save the day, but something went wrong. The Treasury didn’t redeem $120 million worth of securities that matured in April and May.

In other words, the U.S. Treasury defaulted on its securities even though Congress settled the debt-ceiling issue. What happened? It’s not totally clear.

Here's the short answer: When all else fails, blame the computers. Read a more thorough explanation at mental_floss. Link