| Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing Spurs Productivity Posted: 02 Apr 2009 11:47 PM PDT 
 Next time your boss catches you reading Neatorama instead of what your job description specifies, tell him/her about this study from the University of Melbourne.
Dr Brent Coker, from the Department of Management and Marketing, says that workers who engage in 'Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing' (WILB) are more productive than those who don't. "People who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about 9% than those who don't," he says. "Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos on YouTube, using social networking sites like Facebook or shopping online under the pretense that it costs millions in lost productivity, however that's not always the case."
Link (image credit: Flickr use Valerie ReneƩ) |
| 11 Extinct Animals That Have Been Photographed Alive Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:19 PM PDT 
 The Bubal Hartebeest was a magnificent, tough beast which was once domesticated by the ancient Egyptians as a food source and for sacrificial purposes. The creature was even mentioned in the Old Testament. Although it once roamed throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East, the deep-rooted mythology which surrounded the animal was not enough to save it from European hunters who began hunting them for recreation and meat. The last Bubal Hartebeest was probably a female which died in the Paris Zoo in 1923.
Animals are going extinct at a much higher rate now than through most of the earth’s history. Many species have disappeared since the development of photography. Take a good look, because this is all you’ll see of these eleven species as they were. Link -via Digg
Previously at Neatorama: Video of a Thylacine and an attempt to resurrect the Quagga. |
| Housing Drunks and Letting Them Drink Saves Millions Posted: 02 Apr 2009 07:28 PM PDT 
 Classic social programs dealing with long-term alcoholics are expensive and do not have a great success rate. In 2005, a controversial experimental program in Seattle began to put homeless drunks in their own apartment building and let them drink as they pleased.
A new study came out in JAMA this week detailing whether the concept of “Housing First,” as it’s known, had any impact (here’s an AP piece on the study). The 98 street drunks whom the study tracked had cost the public $4,066 a month prior to entering 1811 and afterwards they cost $1,492 a month after six months in the facility and $958 a month after 12 months. That’s a pretty big savings and, oddly enough, some of the residents began to drink less. Some even got sober. (Some also died.) [...] While this sort of program would have to replicated elsewhere to see if these savings hold, it sure is a vastly more humane way to deal with a chronic urban problem than in the past. It also has all sorts of implications for addressing homelessness among the mentally ill, chronic crackheads and junkies of every stripe. My own guess is that, for example, housing the mentally ill who are homeless instead of herding them into very stressful homeless shelters or leaving them to the streets would improve their mental health issues dramatically, with or without medications. There is something magical about having a roof over one’s head, even a modest one.
The financial aspects of this experiment are not all that surprising, but is it really a good idea? Is it more ethical to spend time and money to try to save people from their own bad decisions, or to give them the dignity of living their lives the way they choose, however harmful? Does this kind of program send the wrong message? Or would it make our streets safer? Link -via reddit (image credit: Flickr user dno1967) |
| Around the World in 80 Telescopes Posted: 02 Apr 2009 09:15 AM PDT 
 The European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching, Germany presents a 24-hour webcast involving astronomical observatories around the world. Live streaming video will be available, plus links for each participating observatory and the times they will be online in Universal Time (GMT). The webcasts will start Friday morning at 5AM Eastern Daylight Time, or 9AM UT/GMT with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, then move around the world. The webcast is part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy project to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy. Link -via Metafilter
(image credit: Gemini North Observatory) |
| Man Swallows Scissors Posted: 02 Apr 2009 07:21 AM PDT 
 How does a grown man accidentally swallow a pair of scissors?
Lin Kong had borrowed a four-inch-long pair of nail scissors to use instead of a toothpick to clean his teeth after a meal. But as one of his friends told a joke, the 27-year-old laughed and swallowed the clippers. As he tried to cough up the scissors, the points, which were facing upwards, dug deeper into his throat, causing serious damage.
Surgeons in Putian, China used local anaesthetic and surgically removed the scissors. Link -via Unique Daily |
| Mock Duck Posted: 02 Apr 2009 07:04 AM PDT 
 Mock Duck is “a delicious assortment of thrift store cookbooks”, with scanned pictures and descriptions that will make your mouth water… NOT. This page is from a 1962 British cookbook called TV Suppers from Heinz. Gaily coloured peppers almost make you forget you’re eating beans again. Pizza is topped with canned spaghetti and a lattice of anchovy fillets and processed cheese.
Link -via Everlasting Blort |
| Swords + Umbrellas = Swordbrellas! Posted: 02 Apr 2009 06:38 AM PDT 
Umbrellas for the Civil but Discontent Man (2008), by Bruce and Stephanie Tharp,
manufactured by Kikkerland
Just because it’s rainy season it doesn’t mean that you have to go without your swords. Here are three such combination of weapon and umbrellas by Bruce and Stephanie Tharp of Materious: "Sigmund Freud contends that aggressiveness is a fundamental human instinct whose inhibition is a necessary obligation of social life. These umbrellas combine a symbol of gentlemanly refinement–the full-sized, black umbrella–with an element from more manly sword-bearing times. The umbrellas offer brief psychological respite from the dictates of social amiability.
Core 77 has the write up of the couple’s art display in Milan Design Week 09: Link - via oobject |
| The Milky Way Galaxy Over the Atacama Desert Posted: 02 Apr 2009 06:37 AM PDT 
 The Atacama Desert in South America is one of the driest places on Earth. It is so dry that it is virtually sterile (indeed, a team of scientists who tested the soil for life in simulation of NASA’s Viking missions called the soils of Atacama "Mars-like").
But in the hand of French astronomer Serge Brunier, the beauty of the Atacama Desert is revealed at night: At night, the purity of the sky is unmatched. When the Sun goes down in Atacama, the sky quickly turned dark blue and the glow of thousands of stars awakened while the desert - invisible, empty and silent - seems to disappear.
Check out the time lapse video clip of the Milky Way galaxy over the Atacama Desert: Link | If you like that, check out Sky Time Lapse’s website as well. |
| Human Red Arrows (with Wingsuits!) Posted: 02 Apr 2009 06:36 AM PDT 
 Inspired by the UK Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows [beware: self-starting audio] aerial acrobatic team, a team of daredevils strive to emulate the stunts using only wing suits:
The team leap from a plane at 13,000ft and fly inches apart as they glide to earth at 120mph with smoke canisters strapped to their ankles. [...] The extreme sport of wingsuit jumping started in 2002 but has grown in popularity and evolved into formation sky-diving. The team - called Topgun’ - has members from Denmark, Sweden, Britain and Holland and jumps all over Europe in formations including up to 16 divers.
Link (with a blurry yet wicked cool video clip!) - via The Presurfer (Photo: Mark Harris / SWNS) |
| Bose Ads by Nirmalya Chakraborty Posted: 02 Apr 2009 06:34 AM PDT 
Nirmalya Chakraborty created a series of fantastic print ads for Bose, featuring many of their sound equipments to create faces of famous musicians: Link | More at La pubelle blog |
| Pop-Up Garage Posted: 02 Apr 2009 06:33 AM PDT 
 Forget a 3-car garage. The new status symbol for the haves in London is this £40,000 pop-up garage by Cardok:
The £40,000 parking spots can be hidden beneath a flowerbed, lawn, or even another parking space. Owners simply press a button on a keyring to raise they car out of the ground much like the rocket launching apparatus in Thunderbirds. There is already a four month waiting list to get the sci-fi style parking space installed and bosses of Cardok - the company behind the hydraulic platforms - say orders are pouring in faster than they can build them.
Link (with a video clip of the garage in action) |
| Monet Cake Posted: 02 Apr 2009 06:32 AM PDT 
Claude Monet Tulip Fields with the Rijnsburg Windmill, photo: megpi [Flickr]
We’ve featured a lot of cakes on Neatorama, but never ones so colorful and gorgeous. COLOURlovers has a round up of some of the most vibrantly colorful designer cakes. Beware, reading it may just make you hungry  Link |
| What Is It? Game 94 Posted: 02 Apr 2009 05:47 AM PDT 
Today’s collaboration with the What is it? blog brings us this strange contraption for your guessing pleasure: do you know what this strange tool pictured above is for? Place your guess in the comment section. The first correct guess will win a free Neatorama T-shirt. If no one got it, then the funniest guess will win. Contest rules are simple: one guess per comment, please - you can enter as many guesses as you’d like but please post no web links or URLs (let others play!) For more clues, check out the What is it? blog. Good luck! |
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