(YouTube link)
The Sagan Series put together an inspiring video in honor of the final space shuttle flight, narrated by Carl Sagan. You can see the sources for all the video clips at the YouTube page. -via reddit
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
In honor of the final mission of the space shuttle program, I Can Has Cheezburger posted a cat's retrospective of NASA history. You'll find moar pictures and funny videos of kittehs and their dreams of space exploration. Link
All of us at Neatorama are pretty proud of the new line of Zombie products in the NeatoShop -they've been featured on blogs all over the internet! The Magnetic Dead and the Zombie Doorstops are hand-crafted by Odd Art Fabrications. There will be more zombie items available, too -sooner or later. Meanwhile, you'll want to catch up on everything that's been going on here at Neatorama.
New author Adrienne Crezo posted her first Neatorama feature article, The Sixth Sense and Beyond, which has nothing to do with ESP, on Wednesday.
Eddie Deezen told us the story of The Beatles' Strangest Gig.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Chernoff and the Face Value of Numbers.
Putting Liberty on a Pedestal was our Fourth of July selection from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
Deconstructing the Color Wheel was republished from mental_floss magazine.
Over at NeatoBambino, you'll always find something interesting, even if you aren't looking for news and information on babies and children. For example, watching happy toddlers laughing will make you smile.
In this week's What Is It? game, the mysterious object is an anvil for hand forming sheet metal with a hammer, for making armor or other curved metal parts, also called sinking or doming. Berhard knew that, and said so in the very first comment! For that, he wins a t-shirt. As for the funniest answer, greg urbano said, “it is a discarded reflecting dish used by aliens to gauge their distance from the earth as they approach for landing, similar to the reflectors we placed on the moon to bouce laser beams back, im almost certain of this because i have seen this on other planets during my travels.” However, he did not select a shirt. You can see more picture of this anvil in use at the What Is It? blog.
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. Thanks for spending time with us at Neatorama!
New author Adrienne Crezo posted her first Neatorama feature article, The Sixth Sense and Beyond, which has nothing to do with ESP, on Wednesday.
Eddie Deezen told us the story of The Beatles' Strangest Gig.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Chernoff and the Face Value of Numbers.
Putting Liberty on a Pedestal was our Fourth of July selection from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
Deconstructing the Color Wheel was republished from mental_floss magazine.
Over at NeatoBambino, you'll always find something interesting, even if you aren't looking for news and information on babies and children. For example, watching happy toddlers laughing will make you smile.
In this week's What Is It? game, the mysterious object is an anvil for hand forming sheet metal with a hammer, for making armor or other curved metal parts, also called sinking or doming. Berhard knew that, and said so in the very first comment! For that, he wins a t-shirt. As for the funniest answer, greg urbano said, “it is a discarded reflecting dish used by aliens to gauge their distance from the earth as they approach for landing, similar to the reflectors we placed on the moon to bouce laser beams back, im almost certain of this because i have seen this on other planets during my travels.” However, he did not select a shirt. You can see more picture of this anvil in use at the What Is It? blog.
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. Thanks for spending time with us at Neatorama!
Today is the official birth date of South Sudan, a new nation that is independent from Sudan as of today. Crowds in the capital of Juba celebrated by dancing in the streets and chanting "Freedom!"
South Sudan starts out as one of the poorest nations in the world, with infrastructure problems, illiteracy, lingering conflicts, and a large refugee population. There is nowhere to go but up. Link
Learn about the new country's flag, anthem, seal, and history at the blog South Sudan Info. Link
South Sudan's sovereignty officially breaks Africa's largest nation into two.
It is the result of a January referendum overwhelmingly approved by South Sudan voters.
The referendum was part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war pitting a government dominated by Arab Muslims in the north against black Christians and animists in the south. The war killed about 2 million people.
Amid the independence celebrations, some residents paid tribute to relatives killed in the war.
"It is very emotional. I'm excited, but I'm also thinking of all the people who died for this to happen," said Victoria Bol, who lost dozens of family members.
South Sudan starts out as one of the poorest nations in the world, with infrastructure problems, illiteracy, lingering conflicts, and a large refugee population. There is nowhere to go but up. Link
Learn about the new country's flag, anthem, seal, and history at the blog South Sudan Info. Link
Nikola Tesla was born in what is now Croatia on July 10, 1856, which is 155 years ago today. It's a good day to take a little time and find out more about this extraordinary man.
Read the story of Tesla's life and inventions, along with plenty of photographs, in an excerpt from the book Tesla: Master of Lightning by Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth. Link
Few inventors contributed more to advances in science and engineering in the early 20th century than Nikola Tesla. As one of the Fathers of Electricity, Tesla did groundbreaking work on alternating current (AC) power system, electromagnetism, hydroelectric power, radio, and radar to name a few. Many of his inventions (Tesla obtained some 300 patents in his lifetime) became the stuff we take for granted today: when we flip a switch to turn on the light, we owe a lot of that electrical magic to Tesla.
As fate would have it, Tesla, one of the world’s greatest inventors, died penniless and in obscurity. Even today, many people mistakenly attribute many of his inventions to others (Edison, for example, is in the name of many power companies in the United States – ironically, they use the AC system devised by Tesla rather than the more inefficient direct current or DC system espoused by Thomas Edison; Tesla also invented the fundamentals of radio transmissions before Gugliegmo Marconi).
Today, there’s quite a bit of resurgence in Tesla’s popularity, which is helped in part by his mystique as a "mad scientist." Amongst his more outlandish ideas, Tesla worked on death rays to knock out enemy airplanes out of the skies, pocket-sized resonance machine that could topple buildings, ways to send electricity through the upper atmosphere, force-fields to protect cities, and so on.
Read the story of Tesla's life and inventions, along with plenty of photographs, in an excerpt from the book Tesla: Master of Lightning by Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth. Link
Walt Disney World in Florida is a mecca for tourists now, but back in the early 1960s, it was just swampland. Walt had his choice of many locations, so why did he choose the Orlando area? An article at mental_floss has the answer. But even after he decided on the site, buying the land and building on it had their own problems.
Of course, the property now is worth its weight in gold. Link
Although he had solved the problem of where to build, a new dilemma cropped up: Walt knew if he was making queries about buying land under his own name, the insanely cheap swampland price of $180 an acre would immediately skyrocket. To avoid price gouging, he created a number of fake companies and purchased the land under their names instead. It only worked for a little while – the Orlando Sentinel caught whiff of the scheme and published a story reporting that Walt was the man behind the purchase of thousands of acres of land in Orange and Osceola counties. He was right about the money – in some cases, prices went up to $80,000 an acre.
Of course, the property now is worth its weight in gold. Link
The Viva Vox Choir performs Rammstein's signature song "Du hast" in Belgrade. In case you're not familiar with the song, you can hear the original at YouTube. -via The Daily What
A search for the origin of a clown costume led Elyse Luray of the PBS series History Detectives to do research on how the character of Ronald McDonald came about. Several people had a hand in creating the advertising icon.
But it was another clown who refined the character into a company mascot. Read all about the history of the McDonalds clown at AOL Weird News. Link
Previously: Ronald McDonald's first ad.
Around 1963, a McDonald's in Washington, D.C., decided to boost business by sponsoring "Bozo's Circus," a children's show featuring future "Today Show" weatherman Willard Scott.
It was very successful, increasing sales by 30 percent fairly quickly.
As part of the show, Scott created a new character, Ronald McDonald, that looked much different than the famed clown seen today.
This Ronald had a food tray for a hat and a paper cup for his nose, but Smith says corporation executives were able to see the possibilities for something even more iconic.
But it was another clown who refined the character into a company mascot. Read all about the history of the McDonalds clown at AOL Weird News. Link
Previously: Ronald McDonald's first ad.
(YouTube link)
Aren't they something? These little owls look like a statue with blinking eyes! The description from the folks at Wild Care is at the YouTube page:
These orphaned Screech Owls are being weighed in WildCare's Wildlife Hospital. They will stay in care until they're old enough to be released back into the wild. Orphaned birds like these are always raised with others of their own species and contact with humans is kept to an absolute minimum. These little owls are gaining weight and soon will be ready for release!
-via Buzzfeed
Ron Gordon, the teacher who brought us Square Root Day, wants everyone to celebrate another calendar event, Odd Day, which is tomorrow (7/9/11).
Odd Day is coming Saturday, 7/9/11. Three consecutive odd numbers make up the date only six times in a century. After 7/9/11, only two days remain in this parade of Odd Days which began with 1/3/5. The previous stretch of dates like this started with 1/3/1905---13 months after the Wright Brothers' flight. We've established a contest and are offering the date in dollars ($791.1) to be shared by the winners. Prizes will be distributed to those who involve the most people in the Oddest Parade of Odd Characters, write the best Odd Ode, or create the best Odd Celebrations.
I was one of the winners of a similar contest Gordon held to promote Square Root Day. Happy Odd Day! Link
Officials have noticed increased sightings of the plant called Giant Hogweed. It is found throughout North America, but if you see one, stay away. The sap from this plant will burn your skin and cause painful blisters that last for days, maybe months. Buzzfeed has images of the plant so you can identify it, and some possibly disturbing pictures of what it can do to you. Link
(Image credit: Wikipedia user Farbenfreude)
San Fermin in Nueva Orleans is a festival that begins today and runs through Sunday. It is a homage to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain, which is also happening this week. If you can't make it to Spain, you can run with the "bulls" this Saturday in New Orleans!
The event will replicate and pay homage to the world famous Encierro of Pamplona, Spain, aka The Running of the Bulls, only our bulls are members of New Orleans’ all-female flat-track derby team the Big Easy Rollergirls and select participants from other rollerderby leagues across the country!
Oh, and there will be a special appearance by a group of Elvises on wheels as well! Link -Thanks, John Brauner!
(Image source: Facebook)
Photographer William Carrick and his partner John MacGregor traveled throughout Russia between 1857 and 1878 taking portraits of Russians of all stations and occupations. These pictures form an ethnographic overview of Russia in the 19th century, and are a historical treasure. This picture shows a young vendor with his hand-carved wooden abacuses for sale. See a varied collection of Carrick's photographs at Environmental Graffiti. Link
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