It's been 25 years since the John Hughes movie Weird Science premiered. It is the subject of today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, which tests your memory of the film that catered precisely to the fantasies of teenage boys everywhere. Since I've never been a teenage boy and haven't seen the movie since it was new, I flunked the test miserably. You have to do better (you can't do any worse)! Link

Deliver Me To Hell is an interactive zombie movie that contains the things you love: zombies, violence, mild gore, scantily-clad women, iphones, and pizza. You decide which directions the plot takes, and if you don't like how the story turns out, just start over again. I wish life were like that. Produced by Hell Pizza of New Zealand. Link (embedded YouTube clip)

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It seems that Zach Anner's life is taking some momentous turns. Too bad we don't know what they are. Fans will be glad to see he now has his own website. Link

Previously at Neatorama: Zach, Zach, Zach, Zach, and Zach.

Minnesotastan found a strange photograph on a Japanese site with no information. Commenters looked around and suggested this is "sausage jelly", which is the egg case of the snail Polinices sordidus, commonly called the sordid sand snail or moon snail. Other photographs of sausage jelly do not show the eggs as hatched. Have you ever seen anything like this? Link

This looks like a lot of fun, but watching the video is a lot less messy than doing it yourself. Some of the bubbles this guy made are at least 15 feet across! Note the video is in slow-motion, on second look I don't think it's in slow motion, but you still get a good look at how giant bubbles collapse when they burst. I also have to wonder, at what point does a bubble become so big that it is no longer round? Link (embedded vimeo clip)

Do you have some nice vacation pictures? Can you take some? National Geographic Traveler is sponsoring the World in Focus Photo Contest with both amateur and professional divisions. Get this- the grand prize in the amateur division is a 10-day expedition to the Galapagos islands! There are lesser prizes as well, like a trip to Hawaii and cameras and stuff. Even if you don't enter, you can see the entries and vote for the "people's choice" award (which is separate from the contest judging). The deadline for entries is August 23rd. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image source: National Geographic Expeditions)

This is the The Aerogenerator X Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, a design concept that will generate more wind power than current vertical designs. It is 885 feet wide and will rotate three times a minute over the ocean. Besides generating more power, the advantages of such a design will be the ease of repair compared to vertical turbines and the fact that it will pose less of a threat to birds. See it in action at Gizmodo. Link -via The Litter Box

If you enjoyed Jill's post 30+ Excellent Comic Con Costumes From 2010, you can see more of the many photographs she took during the convention. Find them in the posts Comic-Con Costumes from 2010, 25 More Pics of Sexy Comic Con Cosplay Girls, and at mental_floss, Independent Comic Con Artists.

This adorable purple octopus, possibly a younger relative of our own Octowriter in the sidebar, could be a new species. An expedition off the coast of Newfoundland identified 11 new species of marine creatures. The project, involving Spanish and Canadian scientists, uses a ROV (remotely operated vehicle) to explore the ocean as far down as 9,800 feet, or 3,000 meters. See pictures of the other new species at National Geographic. Link

(Image credit: Bedford Institute of Oceanography)

When you rob a fast food outlet, you expect to come away with a lot of cash. One thief in Atlanta was sorely disappointed with his take, so he called the Wendy's he robbed to complain.

"Next time there better be more than $586," he said during one call. He made "a similar threat" in the second call, police said.

About 11:15 p.m., a man wearing a ski mask and holding a gun walked up to the drive-through window at the Wendy's at 1940 Piedmont Road, police said. He told an employee to put the cash drawer on the counter.

Police are hoping to get clues as to the thief's identity by studying the security cameras. Link -via Gawker

(Image credit: Flickr user TheTruthAbout...)

The following is an article from Uncle John’s All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader.

We take it for granted today, but less than 100 years ago, the supermarket seemed like some sort of bizarre fantasy. Wait a minute-that's what it seems like today, too. Well, anyway, here are some historical highlights.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

At the end of the 19th century, a typical food-shopping trip wasn't as easy as it is today. Buying groceries would have included, for example:

* Stop at the butcher for meat. (You could also choose from a small selection of canned goods and bread.)

* A stop at the fruit store for fresh produce.

* Stopping on the street to buy from milk wagons, and from horse-and-wagon peddlers hawking their specialties-anything from baked goods to fish or ice.

* A final stop at the local grocer, who sold canned goods, potatoes, and sugar in 100-pound sacks, molasses, and sauerkraut in barrels, bacon in slabs, and butter in tubs. But strolling through the aisles was out of the question. At the counter, customers told the grocer what they wanted and a clerk would fill their order.

THE SELF-SERVE STORE

Then, in 1916 Clarence Saunders opened the Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis, Tennessee. "Astonished customers," write the Sterns in their Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, "were given baskets (shopping carts weren't invented) and sent through the store to pick what they needed-a job formerly reserved for clerks." Although customers were a little bewildered by the dozens of stocked aisles at first, Piggly Wigglyy was an immediate success. It grossed $114,000 in the first six months-with expenses of only $3,400. Before long, there were over 1,000 of them in 40 states. The self-serve grocery store began to spread.

ROAD WARRIORS

Amazingly, one of the biggest factors in the growth of the supermarket was the invention of the automobile ignition switch. Previously, housewives had to limit their shopping to store within walking distance; it was too difficult and dangerous to turn the starter crank to get the car started. But once their was an easy way to start the car, housewives were set to travel miles to get a bargain.

This led to another significant innovation: the free parking lot. For the first time, parking was available right in front of the store, customers didn't have to look for a space on crowded streets. The attractiveness of this concept was demonstrated when the Kroger Grocery and Bakery Company opened in Indianapolis, surrounded on four sides by free parking lots. The store performed 40% above initial predictions, and a whopping 80% of customers arrived by car.

PRICE MAULING

When the Depression hit in 1929, families found themselves struggling to buy food. Michael Cullen, manager of a Kroger grocery store, suggested opening a huge self-serve store far from high-rent districts, selling everything a shopper needed under one roof. Kroger executives thought the idea was crazy. So Cullen did it on his own, using his life savings. King Kullen, the Price Wrecker, opened in March 1930 in an abandoned warehouse in Jamaica, Long Island.

Cullen knew the grocery business inside and out, which allowed him to buy drastically reduced merchandise from the surplus stocks of food manufacturers. Plus, his store's size gave him great buying power; he he bought massive quantities at lower prices than his competitors could. Success came quickly. Two years later, Cullen was operating seven more stores, and the super store concept was widely imitated. A few years later, in 1933, Cincinnati's Albers Supermarket became the first store to actually use the term "supermarket".

When Sylvan Goldman invented the shopping cart in 1937, supermarkets had everything they needed for long-term success.

SUPERMARKETS' WEAK SPOT

As chain stores became more powerful, both the media and independent grocers began campaigns against them. Even Time magazine referred to them as "cheapies", assuring the American public that these giant disgraces were only due to bad times and would disappear soon. Independent grocers launched campaigns to boycott supermarkets because they used "unfair" methods to overcome their competition-such as staying open at night and selling items at or near cost. But customers were thrilled to be paying significantly less for food and continued to patronize them. In New Jersey a law making it illegal to sell food at or below cost was passed... and then quickly withdrawn when consumers raged that it was making them pay more for no good reason.

A SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY

But the real explosion in new supermarkets came in the baby boom years. In 1951, Collier's magazine reported that more than three new supermarkets were opening a day in the United States, a pace that only increased in the 1960s. In 1950, supermarkets accounted for 35% of all food sales in America; by 1960, that figure was 70%. Small groceries began to thin out.

Now the media reversed itself. Supermarkets were no longer a national disgrace-they were a unique symbol of American ingenuity. Beginning in 1956, the U.S. government even began using supermarkets as a propaganda tool to promote "the American Way." Soviet premier Nikita Kruschev and Queen Elizabeth both paid rapt attention as guides at supermarkets demonstrated how a steak was wrapped in cellophane. The U.S. Information Agency even arranged for the Pope to come and  bless an American supermarket.

The government set up demo stores in several European cities, where people were amazed at the variety of food under one roof. Italians in particular were astonished by certain aspects of American supermarkets, such as pet food, which didn't exist in Italy. It drew such a large crowd that the pet food section had to be removed. Another was the concept of self-service. Italians were amazed that they could actually touch food before they bought it. Some even suggested that the United States had devious motives in introducing the supermarket. Left-wing newspapers were full of conspiracy theories.

Supermarkets are widespread in many countries today, but they remain an international symbol of American culture and know-how.

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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader.

The 13th book in the series by the Bathroom Reader's Institute has 504 pages crammed with fun facts, including articles on the biggest movie bombs ever, the origin and unintended use of I.Q. test, and more.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!

Different artists were invited to illustrate one-line episode summaries of the TV show Law and Order. All are interpreted independently: confused, straightforward, humorous, or artfully. This one by comic artist Kate Beaton used the line "A missing boy is found." I also liked "Fraternity Closes Ranks During a Probe" but didn't think it was appropriate for this site. Link -via Buzzfeed

Dimas Aliprandi of Joao Neiva, Brazil always wondered why he didn't look like his sisters. When he was 24, he finally could afford a DNA test which proved he was not the biological child of his parents. His parents were shocked! Further investigation found that Aliprandi was switched at birth with another boy born on the same day.

He said the hospital then searched its records and found Elton Plaster was born there on the same day.

The records led Aliprandi to the 35-acre (14-hectare) farm where Plaster lived with his parents, Nilza and Adelson, in the town of Santa Maria de Jetiba, about 30 miles (45 kilometers) from the Aliprandi home in Joao Neiva.

The Plasters agreed to do DNA tests.

"They discovered that Elton was the biological son of the man and woman that I had been calling Mom and Dad for 24 years," Aliprandi said. "Meanwhile, Elton discovered that the couple he had always regarded as his biological parents were mine."

What happened afterward is the most remarkable part of he story. The Plaster family invited the Aliprandi family to come and live on their farm, where they built another house! Both young men are now living with both their biological parents and the parents who raised them. Link -via reddit

(Image credit: AP/Julio Huber)

The Denver Post photo blog has a wonderful collection of aerial photographs of New York City. I had trouble selecting just one to tease you with. Link -via Laughing Squid

(Image credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

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Jack and Betty were high school sweethearts who went their separate ways 62 years ago. He ended up in California; she lived in Virginia. They reconnected by internet, and Jack traveled to meet Betty again. You're going to love this. -via The Daily What