Neatorama

Posted: 06 Sep 2008 11:34 AM CDT

Are men today losing their DIY skills? Glenn Harlan Reynolds wrote a really interesting piece for Popular Mechanics on how Americans are losing their ability to deal with every day real-world problems:

Even the simplest of automotive tasks, changing a tire, seems to be beyond the ken of many people. According to AAA, nearly 4 million motorists requested roadside assistance last year—for flat tires.

And just look at the Popular Mechanics Boy Mechanic books to see the kinds of skills that boys and teenagers were once routinely expected to possess. These books (which PM published in the early 20th century and recently reissued) assumed that young readers would be prepared to construct a fully rigged ice boat, a toy steam engine, or—I’m not kidding—a homebuilt “Bearcat” roadster powered by a motorcycle engine.

It’s hard to imagine too many teenagers tackling projects of that magnitude these days. To be fair, young people today are likely to have skills that earlier generations never dreamed of—building Web sites, say, or editing digital movies. But manipulating pixels and working with physical materials aren’t quite the same thing.

Does this matter? And if people are becoming less mechanically handy, is that so bad?

Link

(Illustration: Paul Blow)

Missing Cat Poster Got Boy ASBO’d

Posted: 06 Sep 2008 11:33 AM CDT

In 1998, the UK government introduced a law designed to deter harassment called the Anti Social Behaviour Order or ASBO. The law has been controversial - some hailed it as a great way to deal with wayward punks whereas in other instances, something like this happens:

Daniel Cope, 13, was devastated when eight-year-old Milly disappeared from the family home.

He spent hours hunting for the pet with his parents before printing off 100 posters with tortoiseshell Milly’s picture and putting them up on lamp-posts near the family home in Whitstable, Kent.

Just three days later, Daniel’s mother Heather, 43, received a phone call from a community warden telling her they had to come down. [...] ‘She said it came under an anti-social behaviour act and we could face an £80 penalty. I just burst into tears when she told me, I couldn’t believe it.’

Link - via Arbroath

Murder by Haunted House

Posted: 06 Sep 2008 11:32 AM CDT

Sean A. Jennings wanted to get rid of his wife, but didn’t want to go through all the hassles of divorce (plus that pesky alimony thing). So he devised a clever plan to kill her. Here’s the bizarre story of the haunted house attempted murder:

On the 7th of October, 2007, Sean Jennings started building a haunted house in the garage for his two kids to enjoy on Halloween.

Sean told his wife, who uses a wheelchair on a regular basis, that he needed her to take a few steps up on a ladder and measure a rope he was planning to use to hang a plastic skeleton from a beam in the garage ceiling. Of course he couldn’t just let her walk into the garage, he needed her to go in blindfolded.

He said that it was going to be a surprise. [...]

She was a few steps up on the ladder, with the blindfold still on when Sean Jennings put handcuffs on her and slipped a noose around her neck.

People You’ll See in Hell has the story: Link - via mentalfloss

VideoSift Clips of the Week

Posted: 06 Sep 2008 11:32 AM CDT

(Links open in a new browser window/tab)

	Hypnotizing Animals Ever seen pigeons in trance? How about a hypnotized alligator? Turns out humans aren’t the only ones that can be hypnotized - some animals can be put in a weird trance-like state. Now if only they’d talk about their mothers … Link
	The Men in Black … with a Ukulele! Here’s Stefan Raab of German’s TV Total and Will Smith singing the theme song to The Men in Black. Unplugged. With a ukulele! Link
	Lil’ Jukebox Hero You’re gonna see a star in the making. He’s got the lipsynching technique down COLD! Here’s a cute little kid singing to Jukebox Hero. And remember, you saw him on VideoSift first! Link
	Grapes of Wrath We’ve seen bad things happened to reporters on live TV before on Neatorama, but this is a first: being attacked by grapes! Love how the anchor just ignored the whole thing (and hope that the dude is okay) Link
	How to Stop a Row with Your GF in 30 Sec Men, let’s end with something practical. Here’s the secret to stopping an argument with your girlfriend in 4 easy steps. You’ll thank me later. Link

For more the web’s most interesting videos, check out: VideoSift.

Bloons + Desktop Tower Defense = Bloons Tower Defense

Posted: 06 Sep 2008 11:31 AM CDT

Paul Preece’s Desktop Tower Defense is an insanely addictive Flash game that inspired tons of clones (which is kind of funny, since DTD itself was a "remake" of StarCraft’s Turret Defense).

Here’s one funny clone: Bloons Tower Defense, the perfect combo of Bloons and DTD where you get to pop baloons along a maze. Link - via Waxy

Previously on Neatorama: Desktop Tower Defense and Desktop Tower Defense Strategies

Man Beat NFL Rules by Changing Last Name to “Ocho Cinco”

Posted: 06 Sep 2008 11:30 AM CDT

Wide receiver Chad Johnson of the Cincinnati Bengals wanted to put his nickname Ocho Cinco (his jersey number "eight five" in Spanish) on the back of his uniform, but strict NFL rules only allow for real surnames.