Katja's hamster Fred has a home to die for, for a hamster. Katja converted an Ikea Expedit bookcase into a multi-level hamster home featuring a different room for each activity. Fred has a large room for running, stairs and ladders to traverse, a room to burrow in, a room to take a dust bath in, a room to eat in, variable lighting, and plenty of places in which to explore and play. See more pictures and find out how it was done at Pawesome. Link
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Katja's hamster Fred has a home to die for, for a hamster. Katja converted an Ikea Expedit bookcase into a multi-level hamster home featuring a different room for each activity. Fred has a large room for running, stairs and ladders to traverse, a room to burrow in, a room to take a dust bath in, a room to eat in, variable lighting, and plenty of places in which to explore and play. See more pictures and find out how it was done at Pawesome. Link
It's once again time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what the pictured item is? Can you make up something interesting?
Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.
Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?
For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
Update: dj2kenne was the first with the correct answer: the object is a TV antenna rotator. A lot of people knew the answer, and a lot of people made up great meanings for the letters N-E-S-W-N -you really should go read them all! The prize for the funniest answer goes to amanderpanderer, who said:
Back when the internet was a more clearly defined series of non-searchable tubes for conveying information, people were bombarded with information shooting out of the pneumatic delivery devices and into their offices, living rooms and school dorms. Being less savvy at identifying the sorts of information being sent to them, internet users often relied on external devices like this one to help them distinguish between the relevant and irrelevant materials being delivered. This is the 1953 InternetIdentificationIdentifyer, or III, in stunning bakelite brown. This device sat near the pnuematic exit and served to classify and catagorize the material presented.
The catagories are:
News, Entertainment, Sex, Wikipedia, and (of course) Neatorama.
Now we have RSS feeds, so I never miss a Neatorama posting. Ah, progress!
T-shirts will go out to both winners.
These are the Ha'iku Stairs on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. They were first built as a ladder to reach the top of the ridge during World War II, when a radio transmitter was installed on the top of the hill. Later the wood was replaced with metal steps, 3,922 of them! The stairs are now closed to the public, but hikers still risk trespassing charges to try them out. See more pictures at Atlas Obscura. Link
George Washington didn't look forward to being the first president of the nation he helped to create, but there was no one else seriously considered. He was elected unanimously in February of 1789, but was not certified by Congress until April.
Washington knew the job would be difficult, but he didn't know exactly what it would entail, as no one had held the office before. He knew the citizens had high expectations that he might be able to deliver. He also knew that he was setting precedents, and that future presidents would be compared with the first one. Read about his reluctant step into history at Smithsonian. Link
(Illustration: Joe Ciardiello)
Because the vote counting had been long delayed, Washington, 57, felt the crush of upcoming public business and decided to set out promptly for New York on April 16, accompanied in his elegant carriage by Thomson and aide David Humphreys. His diary entry conveys a sense of foreboding: “About ten o’clock, I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity and, with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New York...with the best dispositions to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations.” Waving goodbye was Martha Washington, who wouldn’t join him until mid-May. She watched her husband of 30 years depart with a mixture of bittersweet sensations, wondering “when or whether he will ever come home again.” She had long doubted the wisdom of this final act in his public life. “I think it was much too late for him to go into public life again,” she told her nephew, “but it was not to be avoided. Our family will be deranged as I must soon follow him.”
Washington knew the job would be difficult, but he didn't know exactly what it would entail, as no one had held the office before. He knew the citizens had high expectations that he might be able to deliver. He also knew that he was setting precedents, and that future presidents would be compared with the first one. Read about his reluctant step into history at Smithsonian. Link
(Illustration: Joe Ciardiello)
Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, is not the only community to elect non-human politicians. Several races have been won by other dogs, different animals, and even inanimate objects! Cracked has a rundown of the most notorious of these, like the mule who was drafted to run.
Contains some NSFW text. Link
In 1938, the people of Milton, Washington elected Boston Curtis as their Republican Precinct Committeeman with 51 votes. Boston Curtis was, of course, a mule.
It wasn't Boston's idea to run for office. Most of Boston's ideas centered around eating grass, or maybe pooping, until one day, the mayor of Milton, Kenneth Simmons, dragged him downtown to the courthouse and put his hoofprint on some documents. One election later, Boston was a republican precinct committeeman.
Contains some NSFW text. Link
(YouTube link)
An underwater wedding ceremony yesterday at the London Aquarium drew the attention of a turtle who came forward to object to the union of this man and this woman. Or maybe he just objected to the the couple trespassing in his territory. Or possibly he just wanted a bite of that delicious wedding dress! -via Buzzfeed
Tambun Gediu of Kg Sungai Tiang, Malaysia, was hunting squirrels when he encountered a tiger. The 60-year-old man tried to climb a nearby tree, but the tiger dragged him down. Gediu's wife, 55-year-old Han Besau, heard the tiger's roar.
Link -via Arbroath
Realising it was coming from the area where her husband was hunting for squirrels she grabbed the nearest 'weapon' - the wooden ladle - and rushed into the nearby forest.
Staring in horror at the sight of her husband fighting desperately to prevent the tiger tearing him to pieces, she didn't hesitate and charged at the animal, yelling at the top of her voice and bashing its head with the ladle until it ran off.
Tambun, who suffered deep lacerations on his head, face, neck and knees, had to wait more than 10 hours before he could be taken to hospital in the nearest town, Gerik, because rescuers had difficulty reaching his remote village.
Link -via Arbroath
The following is an article reprinted from the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research.
by Lorenzo L. Love
Yreka, California
illustrations by Peaco Todd
It has often been said that the dog was the first animal domesticated by humans. The date of this has long been placed at 14,000 to 20,000 years before present. Recent analysis of mitochondrial DNA of dogs, wolves, and other canines show that dogs had actually split off from wolves 135,000 years ago. I propose that not only have paleontologists been mistaken about the date of the domestication of dogs, dogs were not even the first animals to be domesticated. This place of honor belongs to the ancestors of the common house cat, Felis catus.
The cat was the first animal to be domesticated, more than 4 million years ago, long before the genus Homo evolved. And in fact it was the cat, or rather the loss of cats, that molded and shaped the evolution of Homo. (If "domestication" doesn’t sit well with you when applied to the relationship between a prehuman primate and a cat, think of it as a quasi-symbiotic relationship.)
There are many unexplained matters in the early history of hominines. How could the australopithecines survive in Pliocene Africa? No tools for hunting, too small and weak to complete with other scavengers, teeth (in the gracile form) unadapted for plant eating, they seem to have been unable to even feed themselves. And the slow and small australopithecines would have been easy prey for the first large carnivore to come along. Where did they spend the night? In spite of their disadvantages, australopithecines managed to survive almost unchanged for 2 million years. How? And why did these survivors suddenly evolve into a new genus, Homo, just then the large carnivores were dying out? The answer to all these questions: the Pliocene Pussy Cat.
Continue reading
by Lorenzo L. Love
Yreka, California
illustrations by Peaco Todd
It has often been said that the dog was the first animal domesticated by humans. The date of this has long been placed at 14,000 to 20,000 years before present. Recent analysis of mitochondrial DNA of dogs, wolves, and other canines show that dogs had actually split off from wolves 135,000 years ago. I propose that not only have paleontologists been mistaken about the date of the domestication of dogs, dogs were not even the first animals to be domesticated. This place of honor belongs to the ancestors of the common house cat, Felis catus.
The cat was the first animal to be domesticated, more than 4 million years ago, long before the genus Homo evolved. And in fact it was the cat, or rather the loss of cats, that molded and shaped the evolution of Homo. (If "domestication" doesn’t sit well with you when applied to the relationship between a prehuman primate and a cat, think of it as a quasi-symbiotic relationship.)
There are many unexplained matters in the early history of hominines. How could the australopithecines survive in Pliocene Africa? No tools for hunting, too small and weak to complete with other scavengers, teeth (in the gracile form) unadapted for plant eating, they seem to have been unable to even feed themselves. And the slow and small australopithecines would have been easy prey for the first large carnivore to come along. Where did they spend the night? In spite of their disadvantages, australopithecines managed to survive almost unchanged for 2 million years. How? And why did these survivors suddenly evolve into a new genus, Homo, just then the large carnivores were dying out? The answer to all these questions: the Pliocene Pussy Cat.
ShortList Magazine put together a list of foods that didn't catch on. Do you recall the McLobster? I don't. I remember EZ Squirt, but I never tried it. Never wanted to.
Read about these and more, and be glad these things are not on your menu today. http://www.shortlist.com/shortlists/list/793/failed-food-launches -Thanks, Ben!
Last time I checked (lie: I never have) people have always been happy with the colour of ketchup. Tomatoes are red. Ketchup, made from tomatoes, is also red. Move on. Heinz, the people who should really know about these things, decided that it would be necessary to bring out green, purple, blue and 'mystery' coloured ketchup turning a popular sauce into a terrifying experiment. Children and the colour-blind were nonplussed. The rest of humanity wept.
Read about these and more, and be glad these things are not on your menu today. http://www.shortlist.com/shortlists/list/793/failed-food-launches -Thanks, Ben!
Steve Spangler has produced several toys based on the Coke/Mentos reaction, such as the Mentos Geyser Tube and the Soda Geyser Depth Charge Kit. The newest, the Soda Geyser Car, was introduced at Toy Fair 2011, which is still going on in New York City. Cool Things has two videos of the car in action, so you can watch as this vehicle moves under its own "rocket power" fueled by Mentos and Diet Coke. Looks like a lot of fun for kids who have plenty of room outdoors and a water hose to clean themselves off before they enter the house! Link -Thanks, Sunny!
(YouTube link)
The theme to Civilization IV made history last night by becoming the first song written specifically for a video game to win a Grammy award. Composer Christopher Tin accepted the award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for the song "Baba Yetu" {wiki}. The lyrics are the Lord's Prayer in Swahili. Vocals are by the Soweto Gospel Choir. This video is for those who love the song and for those not familiar with it.
This is not your grandmother's doily, indeed! Portland, Oregon artist Jo Hamilton takes the art of crochet to another level by reproducing faces with yarn. She also does landscapes in crochet. http://www.johamiltonart.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=crochet -via Nag on the Lake
In 1967, Colorado State University graduate student David Cheever wrote a term paper on the Colombian cut flower industry. In 1969, he went to Colombia and started a business. Things took off from there.
The Colombian flower industry has its problems, like hard work and low wages, pesticide dangers, and environmental impact -not to mention the effect it has on the US flower industry. On the other hand, there is a movement to certify fair labor practices, and working with flowers offers workers economic independence and possibly a better life than they would have otherwise. Smithsonian has the story of how your flowers are grown, picked, and shipped. Link
(Image credit: Ivan Kashinsky)
It’s not often that a global industry springs from a school assignment, but Cheever’s paper and business efforts started an economic revolution in Colombia. A few other growers had exported flowers to the United States, but Floramérica turned it into a big business. Within five years of Floramérica’s debut at least ten more flower-growing companies were operating on the savanna, exporting some $16 million in cut flowers to the United States. By 1991, the World Bank reported, the industry was “a textbook story of how a market economy works.” Today, the country is the world’s second-largest exporter of cut flowers, after the Netherlands, shipping more than $1 billion in blooms. Colombia now commands about 70 percent of the U.S. market; if you buy a bouquet in a supermarket, big-box store or airport kiosk, it probably came from the Bogotá savanna.
The Colombian flower industry has its problems, like hard work and low wages, pesticide dangers, and environmental impact -not to mention the effect it has on the US flower industry. On the other hand, there is a movement to certify fair labor practices, and working with flowers offers workers economic independence and possibly a better life than they would have otherwise. Smithsonian has the story of how your flowers are grown, picked, and shipped. Link
(Image credit: Ivan Kashinsky)
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