Neatorama

Sea Otter Boogers Posted: 25 Feb 2009 11:00 PM PST These Japanese snacks are actually called “Sea Otter Boogers” and apparently are quite tasty treats made of candied black beans. They’re yours for only about $6, of course, you have to speak Japanese to order them. Link

Crushingly Beautiful Egg Shell Art Posted: 25 Feb 2009 10:53 PM PST This egg shell art is truly stunning. InventorSpot has more pictures of these lovely, detailed art pieces by artist Ron Cheruka. Link

Christian Faur’s Crayon Pixel-Art Posted: 25 Feb 2009 09:11 PM PST It’s amazing what some people can creatively do with everyday objects, and Christian Faur has recently dropped my jaw … He makes pixel-art out of crayons, No not drawing with them, but using them stacked in a tray to make a picture. My earliest memories of making art involve the use of wax crayons. I can still remember the pleasure of opening a new box of crayons: the distinct smell of the wax, the beautifully colored tips, everything still perfect and unused. Using the first crayon from a new box always gave me a slight pain. Through a novel technique that I have developed, I again find myself working with the familiar form of the crayon. Link - via blog From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by JKirchartz.

Photo Evidence of Tacky Weddings Posted: 25 Feb 2009 05:34 PM PST Some of you might be familiar with Cake Wrecks, a site that mocks botched baked goods. This site is sort of like Cake Wrecks for weddings. If you think the camo tuxes are something, wait til you see the Hello Kitty dress and the gal who chose hot pants and bustiers for herself and her bridesmaids. To each his (or her) own, I guess! Link Photo by Stacy Reeves, obviously. I checked out her site and she actually does very lovely work; don’t hold the camo outfits against her.

Obama Look-Alike in Indonesia Posted: 25 Feb 2009 04:12 PM PST Ilham Anas of Indonesia has become famous for his resemblance to President Barrack Obama.  What first started out as a joke, when his friends posted pictures of him on the internet, has turned into his 15-minutes of fame: "The pictures spread very quickly on the Internet. It was phenomenal. Then TV stations and an advertising agency got in touch with me." Ilham says he is often mistaken for Obama and people ask to take pictures with him. "I never thought I would be a star in a commercial, then this happened. It's very fortunate," Ilham said. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

British Angler Catches Largest Freshwater Fish Ever Posted: 25 Feb 2009 04:09 PM PST Ian Welch of Aldershot, Hampshire (U.K.), caught the biggest freshwater fish by rod in Thailand, a record 55 stone (770 pound) freshwater ray!  It took 90 minutes to land, 13 men to heave it out of the water… and weighed 55 stone when they finally got it to the scales. So it’s little wonder that when Ian Welch first hooked the record stingray, it almost pulled him into the river. Mr Welch, who weighs 111/2 stone, said: ‘It dragged me across the boat and would have pulled me in, had my colleague not grabbed my trousers.’ The angler, from Aldershot, Hampshire, was fishing in Thailand when he landed the ray, which is the biggest freshwater fish to be caught with a rod. The biologist was helping with a stingray tagging programme on the Maeklong River, when he hooked the fish. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

Knitted Burger Posted: 25 Feb 2009 04:07 PM PST I <3 this knitted burger by Etsy seller nillakitty (she’s selling the pattern, not the burger itself). Our very own Jill Harness found this and other fun burger-related items, as posted on her neat article at InventorSpot: Link

Long Hours at Work May Lead to Dementia Posted: 25 Feb 2009 11:22 AM PST Hard work never hurt anyone, or so the adage goes, or did it? According to the latest research by Marianna Virtanen from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, long hours at work can harm your brain: Long working hours may raise the risk of mental decline and possibly dementia, research suggests. The Finnish-led study was based on analysis of 2,214 middle-aged British civil servants. It found that those working more than 55 hours a week had poorer mental skills than those who worked a standard working week. The American Journal of Epidemiology study found hard workers had problems with short-term memory and word recall. Link

3 Little Words That Stopped Foreclosure: “Produce The Note” Posted: 25 Feb 2009 11:21 AM PST For homeowners caught in the nation’s housing collapse, having their homes foreclosed is like a nightmare that they can’t fight … or can they? Chris Hoyer, a Tampa, Florida, lawyer told homeowners that there are three simple words that they can say to stop the foreclosure process, or at least delay it for a while: produce the note. Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork. And just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill. Lovelace and other homeowners around the country are managing to stave off foreclosure by employing a strategy that goes to the heart of the whole nationwide mess. During the real estate frenzy of the past decade, mortgages were sold and resold, bundled into securities and peddled to investors. In many cases, the original note signed by the homeowner was lost, stored away in a distant warehouse or destroyed. Persuading a judge to compel production of hard-to-find or nonexistent documents can, at the very least, delay foreclosure, buying the homeowner some time and turning up the pressure on the lender to renegotiate the mortgage. Link (Photo: Chris O’Meara/AP)

The Miracle Liquid: Electrolyzed Water Posted: 25 Feb 2009 11:19 AM PST The miracle liquid can clean your toilet and is powerful enough to kill anthrax spores and oh, you can drink it because it’s just … water. Here’s the skinny on the miracle liquid known as electrolyzed water: It turns out that zapping salt water with low-voltage electricity creates a couple of powerful yet nontoxic cleaning agents. Sodium ions are converted into sodium hydroxide, an alkaline liquid that cleans and degreases like detergent, but without the scrubbing bubbles. Chloride ions become hypochlorous acid, a potent disinfectant known as acid water. "It’s 10 times more effective than bleach in killing bacteria," said Yen-Con Hung, a professor of food science at the University of Georgia-Griffin, who has been researching electrolyzed water for more than a decade. "And it’s safe." Link

Fish With a Transparent Head: The Video Clip Posted: 25 Feb 2009 10:44 AM PST Remember the post about Micropinna microstoma, the fish with a transparent head? In that post, Neatorama reader sniggitysnags told us about the existence of the video clip by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute researchers: MBARI researchers Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler used video taken by unmanned, undersea robots called remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to study barreleye fish in the deep waters just offshore of Central California. At depths of 600 to 800 meters (2,000 to 2,600 feet) below the surface, the ROV cameras typically showed these fish hanging motionless in the water, their eyes glowing a vivid green in the ROV’s bright lights. The ROV video also revealed a previously undescribed feature of these fish–its eyes are surrounded by a transparent, fluid-filled shield that covers the top of the fish’s head. This animal is so awesome that we just have to put it on Neatorama’s front page again: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - Thanks sniggitysnags! More info at the MBARI website.

BMW Z4 Used as a Paintbrush Posted: 25 Feb 2009 10:42 AM PST What happens when you give an artist a canvas the size of a football field and two BMW Z4’s? You don’t have to wonder: South African artist Robin Rhode had the pleasure of using the cars as paintbrushes. His creative results are reminiscent of spirographs we all played with as kids: Imagine a canvas nearly as large as a football field. On it bold, swirling shapes in primary colors like red, yellow and blue. As the eye uncovers the rhythm of the lines, curves, circles and color splotches, something else is revealed: these forms must have been created by tire treads! A work of art like no other, created by an artist like no other - the new BMW Z4 Roadster. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Frau.

If Your City Were Nuked Posted: 25 Feb 2009 10:38 AM PST CarlosLabs, a design firm based in Sydney, created a Google Maps mashup of cities around the world and what they would look like if hit by various nuclear devices.  You can choose your city and then a weapon (Fat Man, Little Boy, Tsar Bomba, Asteroid) and press "Nuke it!" and then see the extent of thermal damage.  The concentric circles of different colors mean different physical effects.  The center of the circle is conflagration, where most people would die within 24 hours.  The purple circle means 3rd degree burns, requiring medical care.  The pink circle means 2nd degree burns, like burns from boiling water.  And the yellow outermost circle means 1st degree burns, like a sunburn. The map here shows the extent of damage if a nuclear device was dropped on Los Angeles. Link - via carloslabs From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Most Unfortunate Names Posted: 25 Feb 2009 09:16 AM PST Parents may think they are showing their sense of humor when they name their baby, but how would YOU like to go through life with a name like Terry Bull, Paige Turner, Justin Case, Barb Dwyer, or Anna Sasin? Those are some of the names of real people uncovered in Britain. Retired airman Stan Still, 76, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, said his name had been “a blooming millstone around my neck my entire life”. “When I was in the RAF my commanding officer used to shout, ‘Stan Still, get a move on’ and roll about laughing,” he said. “It got hugely boring after a while.” The names were compiled through The Baby Website and through phone directories. There are more names in this story from the BBC. Link -via Buzzfeed

Elton vs. Billy Posted: 25 Feb 2009 08:48 AM PST To promote their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame giveaway (in which you can win a trip for two to the induction ceremonies), mental_floss is featuring rock and roll quizzes. Today’s Lunchtime Quiz challenges you to identify short clips from songs. Which ones are from Billy Joel, and which are from Elton John? I, of course, scored 100%. Link

Multiverse Posted: 25 Feb 2009 08:46 AM PST (vimeo link) It looks like a portal to another dimension, or maybe a time-travel machine. Multiverse is an art installation in a 200-foot-long tunnel between buildings in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Designed by artist Leo Villareal, it features around 41,000 LED nodes. I see there’s a moving sidewalk in the tunnel. I’m afraid if I were so lucky as to see this in person, I might never make it to the next building! Link -via Gizmodo

Mermaid’s Dream Comes True Posted: 25 Feb 2009 08:24 AM PST When she was a child, Nadya Vessey’s legs were amputated below the knee due to illness.  One time, another child asked what happened to her legs, and she replied that she was a mermaid.  She couldn’t get the mermaid idea out of her head, so she wrote to the company that created the special effects for the Lord of the Rings movies as well as King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia.  Her request:  Will you make me a mermaid tail?  The company, Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand, agreed. Two years later, she now has a fully functioning mermaid tail with an attached suit, making her look like a real mermaid.  Link (image credit: Stuff.co.nz) From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

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