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A young boy comes up with a scheme to get some carnival money. A short film featuring traditional hand-drawn animation by Izabela Melamed. -via Metafilter

In one comment thread this week, several people said our link format is very confusing. Now, I don't know if they were trolling or what, since that's the first time I heard that particular complaint, but I want to remind you that anytime you have trouble accessing or navigating around Neatorama, we want to know about it. Also, if you have opinions or suggestions about the site as a whole, you are welcome to leave those comments right here. Of course, "this sucks" counts as an opinion, but it isn't very useful to us in our quest to make Neatorama a pleasant experience for the greatest number of readers. But if you care about making the site better and have an idea of what we can do, let us know! And we will work to bring you neat and interesting things, like these exclusive articles from the past week:

Adrienne Crezo brought us Science Sides with Captain Obvious: Unsurprising Study Results this past Wednesday.

Eddie Deezen contributed a post about his favorite comic strip with Charlie Brown and Snoopy: A Brief History.

The Ancient and Modern Ecology of Execution was reprinted from the Annals of Improbable Research.

We learned about the Soviet lunar program in The Secret Race to the Moon, courtesy of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.

From mental_floss magazine, we heard of some Great Moments in Presidential Debt.

Congratulations to the winners of the Decipher the Doodle Contest at NeatoBambino! For everyone else, there will be another chance soon.

Once you are caught up on the main site, we have a lot of other offerings! Always keep up with NeatoBambino. Read some fresh new literature on our newest sub-blog Bit Lit. Soothe your eyes at the Neatorama Art Blog. Check out past articles on all kinds of subjects at The Best of Neatorama. Join in the discussions at our Facebook page. And be sure to follow Neatorama on Twitter!

Get ready for gallery after gallery of great, not-so-great, and over-the-top cosplay pictures from Comic-Con, coming soon to a website near you! Cats are celebrating Comic-Con as well, over at I Can Has Cheezburger, and they've got a great roundup of costumes from comic books, science fiction, and movies to show off! Link

How well do you know your Pixar films? Do you know who did the voices? Of course, you know Tom Hanks did Woody and Tim Allen did Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story movies, but other celebrities provided voices you might not know about -unless you recognized them. Test yourself in this Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. Come on, I scored 60% just by educated guess! Link

Medieval knighthood sounds like a romantic career in fiction. What a life of chivalry was really like doesn't seem all that great. A team of scientists tried to replicate the work of a knight clad in up to 110 pounds of metal by dressing up volunteer historical re-enactors from the Royal Armories in London, and putting them on treadmills. Even though they were used to wearing armor, you better believe they worked up a sweat!

Sure enough, the researchers found, armor was exhausting. The men used 2.3 times as much energy to walk while wearing the armor than without it, and 1.9 times as much to run. Being outfitted for battle turned out to be even more tiring than hauling around a backpack of the same weight would’ve been. As it turns out, covering your legs with enormous, heavy metal plates makes moving around a lot harder.

Link

Who says internet memes don't last? Some people have the most fleeting memes tattoos on their bodies. Imagine trying to explain to your grandchildren why those things were so important to you that you had them permanently inked into your skin. Ranker has a list of ten memes, some with more than one tattoo found. A couple pics are NSFW. Link

Don Schoendorfer makes wheelchairs out of lawn chairs and bicycle wheels. His hobby was inspired by a woman in India who crawled across the dirt because she had no wheelchair. After building 100 of the inexpensive chairs, Schoendorfer founded the organization Free Wheelchair Mission in order to get the chairs shipped to those who need them worldwide.

It costs less than $60 to have each chair made, shipped and delivered to "some of the most remote corners of the globe," according to Schoendorfer's website, freewheelchairmission.org.

Better yet, the recipients don't have to pay a dime for their new mobility.

Schoendorfer says he hopes to distribute 20-million wheelchairs in total.

Link -via Breakfast Links

(Image credit: KTLA-TV)

Properly managing one's finances seems like it should be a prerequisite for running a country. But these U.S. leaders could have used more dead presidents in their wallets.

HARRY TRUMAN -THE BUCK STOPPED THERE

Prior to becoming president, Harry Truman's ventures in private business earned him more trouble than profit. He lost several thousand dollars investing in a fruitless zinc mine, and even more money funding a short-lived haberdashery in Kansas City. Eventually he began to view politics as a more stable career than business. Even as a senator, Truman was forced to borrow money and live more modestly, as he sent much of his income home to support his farm in Missouri.

Upon leaving the White House in 1953, Truman refused to exploit his former office as a stepping stone into the business world. This left him with just a small plot of land off which to live. He hoped that his memoirs would bring in extra cash, but between paying the ghostwriters and the taxes, Truman netted just $37,000 from the book. His insolvency grew so pathetic that President Eisenhower passed the Former Presidents Act in 1958, which created a pension for Truman. The former president made use of every last bit of it, leading an active life until his death at the age of 88.

THOMAS JEFFERSON -LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF  MONEYLENDERS

During the 1700s, tobacco rarely turned a consistent profit. So Thomas Jefferson, like many plantation owners of his time, lived in perpetual debt. Eager to look the part of a Virginia gentleman, Jefferson borrowed money for expensive clothes, furniture, and wine. He continued to indulge in this lifestyle through his presidency and into retirement. Jefferson's beloved country estate of Monticello was especially draining on his finances. Its high ceilings and large windows led to excessive heating costs, and its flat roof and cavernous skylights leaked with every rainfall. by the time Jefferson was in his late seventies, the neglected bills had piled up and doubled with interest.

To lessen his financial woes, Jefferson started selling off the things he loved. He sold his entire collection of books to a Congressional library and even hatched a plot to give away a large parcel of land in a statewide lottery. When news of the lottery (and its purpose) reached his former colleagues, generous donations poured in. Despite these efforts, Jefferson died in debt. Two decades later, his grandson finally paid off the founding father's tab.

ULYSSES S. GRANT -THE BOOK DEAL OF THE CENTURY

In 1881, former president Ulysses S. Grant settled into his retirement with what seemed like a prudent investment in his son's Wall Street firm, Grant & Ward. But when the younger Grant's partner, Ferdinand Ward, absconded to Canada with all the money, Grant found himself short $150,000.

Grant considered it a matter of personal honor to pay back the debt in full and rejected any financial assistance. He sold off much of his land, but it wasn't enough to cover his losses. To generate more income, the former general wrote a series of articles about his Civil War exploits, which the ever-humble Grant doubted anyone would read. Surprisingly, the articles were a huge success, and Grant's longtime friend Mark Twain convinced him to pen his personal memoirs. Completed just before his death in 1885, Grant's autobiography became one of the best-selling books of its time -earning more than half a million dollars.

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The article above, written by Brian McMahon, is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the May-June 2011 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!

Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff!

The space shuttle Atlantis ended its final mission today when it landed in Florida just before 6AM ET. This photograph, showing the shuttle's final descent path, was taken this morning by the Expedition 28 crew of the International Space Station. See a much larger and more impressive photo at NASA's website. Link -Thanks, Ned!

Ramen noodles aren't just for preschoolers and starving college students anymore! But before you select yours, consult the Ramen Rater. The Ramen Rater has sampled and critiqued 451 unique varieties of instant ramen noodles from around the world -so far! Those ratings, as well as all kinds of recipes and other information about noodles, can be found on his website, also called The Ramen Rater. Link

Who says you can't go on a nature hike just because you're in a big city? There's plenty of edible plants growing right there in the streets of Washington, DC!

During two expeditions on Friday, adventurous eaters, amateur botanists, and a handful of curious locals descended on the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of the Nation’s Capital in search of edible plants and wild foods with the renowned forager, ‘Wild Man’ Steve Brill. Our tour, co-hosted by Roadside Food Projects, Atlas Obscura, and Think Local First D.C., covered all of one block. But the number of foods we found, many of which were weeds you’d walk by without a second glance, didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the available bounty growing between the city’s streets.

Read about the safari and the things they found at Atlas Obscura. Link

(Image credit: Dallas Lillich)

Tom McKinney of Yuba City, California fell off a ladder and couldn't move. His neck was broken. His 10-year-old daschund Chelse was the one who found him. No one else was around, so McKinney told Chelse to get help -and she did, by waking McKinney's sleeping wife and alerting her to the emergency. Now, Chelse is inspiring McKinney to walk again. After all, she had been through almost the same thing herself!

Doctors were worried that Tom may never walk again, but just two months later he’s moving around. He says he drew strength from Chelse who, seven years ago, also had to learn to walk all over again,

“Our vet had said, “you know that she had broken her back,’” said Tom.

They never thought Chelse could walk again. Tom says that if she can do it, why can’t he?

“[She] basically said, ‘don’t you quit.’ Anyway, I won’t,” said Tom.

With video. Link -via Arbroath

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced they will install new software in their body scanners that will somewhat protect travelers' dignity.

A software upgrade that the TSA has been testing in airports in Las Vegas, Atlanta and Washington since February would instead create a generic human form (as shown above) and indicate if the scanner detects a hidden object under the clothing. The technology would also show the TSA agents on what part of the body the object has been found.

As with the current system, if the scanner detects a hidden object, TSA agents will peform additional screening. If nothing is found, the scanner clears the passenger to move on.

“This software upgrade enables us to continue providing a high level of security through advanced imaging technology screening, while improving the passenger experience at checkpoints,” TSA Administrator John Pistole said.

It will take months to complete the tests. Link -via The Daily What Geek

When a movie becomes a hit, the studio's natural tendency is to do the same thing again. However, making a sequel that is anywhere near as good as the original film is hit-or-miss. Making a third movie that is worth watching is even more difficult. There have been many attempts, many failures, and a few successes. Unreality magazine looks at the few successes that had a certain something that other movie trilogies don't. Link

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

The comic strip Peanuts was originally called Li'l Folks. The great Charles M Schulz created it in 1950, and it soon became the most popular comic strip in history. Like so many of the great cartoon characters we all love, the main characters went through a metamorphosis before they became the characters we are all so familiar with.

Two characters in the comic became the "stars" of the strip, the runaway favorites. The two were, as we all know, Charlie Brown and his dog, Snoopy. The original Charlie Brown character was not the wishy-washy loser we all now know. Amazingly, the original Charlie Brown was quite popular with the Peanuts gang. He was addressed, frequently, as "Good ol' Charlie Brown." Several of the Peanuts girls actually had crushes on him.

And Lucy, who was to become his main nemesis, actually fantasized about getting married to him!!! It even took a few months before he adopted that famous zig-zag shirt. Slowly but surely, Charlie Brown got more and more insecure. And eventually he evolved into the lovable loser we can all associate with.

Snoopy, Charlie Brown's dog, soon became the comic's runaway most popular character. But the early Snoopy was pretty much just an ordinary, slightly mischievous dog. Introduced almost immediately in 1950, Snoopy walked on all four legs, much like any other dog.

It wasn't until 1956, six years later, that Snoopy got up and started walking in his famous walk on two legs, like a human would. Snoopy, again, very ordinarily, would sleep "inside" his dog house. It wasn't until two years later, in 1958, that he started lying on top of the dog house, as we remember him. And the first time Snoopy tried that, he had a nasty fall.

Eventually, Snoopy, who originally was a mute dog, developed the trademark "thought balloons" over his head. These enabled readers to follow his thoughts and responses, verbally as well as physically. Over the years, almost in an inverse ratio to his owner Charlie Brown, Snoopy became cooler and more confident.

Charlie Brown and Snoopy became a kind of yin-yang of the two sides of all of us. One side, Charlie Brown, symbolized the lack of confidence, shyness, and insecurity we all harbor, to a greater or lesser degree. And the other half, Snoopy, is the confident, totally-in-control, cool character we all, in our hearts (and fantasies) want to be.