Neatorama

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• Blackcurrant Tango Ad
• Bird Experiment Shows Aesop’s Fable May Be True
• The Bin Banquet
• Buddha Shaped Pears
• Deep Fried Butter!?!
• Flipbook Animation Music Video
• The Airplane Graveyard
• Nun Pulls Car with Her Hair
• Problem with Close-Talking? Blame the Brain
• Not Your Typical Low-Income Housing
• 15 High Speed Trains From Around The World
• Star Wars Religious Art
• Clonehenges
• Project 2,996
• Turn on the TV Using the Power of Thought
• Haile the Drumming Robot
• Men Become Less Intelligent After Speaking to Attractive Women

Blackcurrant Tango Ad Posted: 04 Sep 2009 11:20 PM PDT We posted about The Man Who Walked Around The World (link to clip here at the Zeray Gazette), a fantastic ad for Johnny Walker whiskey starring Robert Carlyle, directed by Jamie Rafn and produced by ad agency BBH London. It was all shot in one continuous take and was simple yet with a very engaging narrative (thus showing us that you don’t need no CGI to be good). Well, if you thought that was good, this one out for Blackcurrant Tango, with a little added humor to the one continuous take idea: Link [YouTube Link]

Bird Experiment Shows Aesop’s Fable May Be True Posted: 04 Sep 2009 09:10 PM PDT Aesop’s fables, those famous animal parables that teach us about morality and life’s lessons, have always been assumed to be based on imagination than factual basis.  But one study suggests that at least one of the fables may actually be based on fact.  The fable about the thirsty crow tells of a crow coming across a pitcher of water that is too low to reach with its beak.  By dropping in one stone after another and raising the water level, the crow is able to drink from the pitcher, thus teaching us that little by little does the job. In a study conducted by Christopher Bird of Cambridge, a relative of the crow called a rook was exposed to a six inch clear plastic tube with a worm floating in it.  The birds instantly used stones to raise the level of water in the tube, bringing the worm closer to the surface.  They even figured out that larger stones brought faster results. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

The Bin Banquet Posted: 04 Sep 2009 09:07 PM PDT London’s Borough Market, which specializes in fresh gourmet food, held a banquet for 500 in which all the ingredients for the featured dishes were scrounged from what supermarkets throw out! This bin banquet was staged to highlight the scandalous amount of food waste in the UK. Each year, we throw away 20million tonnes of food. Every day, that equates to nearly three million tomatoes, five million potatoes, 4.5million apples, seven million slices of bread and one million sausages. What we demonstrated was that so much of what we discard is, in fact, perfectly safe to eat. No one got ill; no one said anything about the food tasting anything but 100 per cent fresh. But a lot of people got angry when we reeled off the figures about how much we waste, and the fact that each family in Britain throws away more than £400 worth of perfectly edible food a year. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Rossy21.

Buddha Shaped Pears Posted: 04 Sep 2009 08:32 PM PDT You’ve seen square watermelon and even heart shaped cucumbers, but Buddha pears? They are made with a cool plastic mold that is attached while they are still little. I’d love to say more about them, but I don’t speak Spanish Portuguese, so I can’t read the original site. Any of you Neatorama readers care to help translate? Link Via BoingBoing

Deep Fried Butter!?! Posted: 04 Sep 2009 01:53 PM PDT The same genius who invented deep fried cookie dough, deep fried coke and other innovative fair foods is at it again. This time, Abel Gonzales Jr., is bringing you the ultimate in artery clogging death foods -deep fried butter. This one actually manages to put chicken fried bacon and bacon sandwiches using chicken for bread to shame. So here's what Gonzales does: He takes 100 percent pure butter, whips it until it is light and fluffy, freezes it, then surrounds it with dough. The butter-laden dough balls are then dropped into the deep fryer.For purists who just want the unadulterated taste of butter, Gonzales serves up plain-butter versions of his creation. For others who want a little more pizzazz, he offers three additional versions with flavored butters: garlic, grape or cherry. Tasters seemed to like it, claiming it tastes like a hot roll with butter. Link Via Consumerist

Flipbook Animation Music Video Posted: 04 Sep 2009 11:42 AM PDT (YouTube Link) This music video for the song “Here Come the Guns” by Choo Choo La Rouge features a series of moving flipbooks. It was put together by animator Greg Condon. From an interview with the artist: CF: Why did you choose flip bookery as your medium? GC: I used to make flip books on post it notes all the time as a kid and have always wanted to do something where the action spills from one flip book to another. The rhythm of this song seemed to time out perfect with flipping through a post it note pad, so it felt like a good match! Via Urlesque

The Airplane Graveyard Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:43 AM PDT It's been locked up since 9/11, but Ransom Riggs of mental_floss managed a visit to the Mojave Air and Spaceport and took plenty of pictures. The inactive airport is used as a parking lot for planes and also a junkyard of planes that will never be flown again. The result is a collection of photographs that are urban decay with an aviation slant. Link

Nun Pulls Car with Her Hair Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:42 AM PDT (YouTube Link) Kung Fu artist Zhang Tingting of Kaifeng, China, decided to become a Buddhist nun. This required shaving her head. To mark the end of her secular life, she decided to pull a car with her hair: The 52-year-old artist has performed across China for decades, after taking up martial arts when she was 17. She began living the life of a nun two years ago. Before bidding her meter-long braid farewell, she pulled six passenger cars some 50 meters (164 ft) through a Beijing suburb, then repeated the feat with ten cars, for about 30 meters, in her hometown of Kaifeng, Henan Province. Although Zhang and her plait are now permanently separated, the hair has been preserved. Authorities are considering sending it on a pilgrimage to sacred Buddhist sites in Tibet, or displaying it in a local museum. Link via The Corner

Problem with Close-Talking? Blame the Brain Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:40 AM PDT Why is it so uncomfortable to stand really close to a stranger? Sure, there are the potentially icky things. Sometimes an elevator car is so crowded that you can smell a fellow rider’s shampoo or chewing gum (or worse). But even when a stranger is perfectly groomed, it’s usually a bit revolting to be pressed against him in public. Why? A team of scientists from Caltech put SM through a series of tests in which they asked her to indicate the position at which she became uncomfortable as another woman, a researcher, approached her. SM’s preferred personal distance was 1.1 ft. (0.34 m), about half the preferred distance (2 ft., or 0.64 m) of a group of comparison subjects. At 1 ft., you can easily discern whether someone showered after the gym — although in the lab experiment, the Caltech researchers made sure the experimenter was well-scrubbed and had just chewed gum before interacting with SM. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Rossy21.

Not Your Typical Low-Income Housing Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:40 AM PDT Discarded frame samples become ceilings, license plates become roofs, wine bottle bottoms become stained glass windows… Dan Phillips is a self-taught carpenter, electrician and plumber who has created an unusual connection between two seemingly unrelated problems: The shortage of affordable housing in his neighborhood and the plethora of junk and discarded materials filling landfills. "Look at kids playing with blocks. I think it's in everyone's DNA to want to be a builder. …You can't defy the laws of physics or building codes,but beyond that, the possibilities are endless” Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Princess Sloth.

15 High Speed Trains From Around The World Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:39 AM PDT Oobject does it again with another brilliant list comprised of 15 of the world’s most magnificent (and FAST) high speed trains and railways. Simply a must see. In America, we're used to driving. In fact, we thrive on it. However, in other countries, high speed rail is a key factor in getting people where they need to be. Some trains in existence can cover an entire country in a matter of hours, while the best we have is Amtrak's Acela Express, a service that the Japanese and French laugh at for hours on end. Explore the world of high speed railways with us and be sure to vote on your favorite. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by vveneziani.

Star Wars Religious Art Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:13 AM PDT Image: Worth 1000 user Sylver Charlie Jane Anders of the science fiction blog io9 has assembled a gallery of some of the best photoshop pieces that blend Star Wars and Western religious art. Among Anders’ sources are the photoshop contests of Worth 1000 and Something Awful. The image above is derivative of Leonardo da Vinci’s Litta Madonna. Link

Clonehenges Posted: 04 Sep 2009 07:53 AM PDT Like The Last Supper or the Abbey Road album cover, Stonehenge is such an iconic image that people the world over recognize it, even if it’s made of bamboo or old refrigerators. Web Urbanist has collected 20 Stonehenge recreations from all over. Some try to faithfully resemble the original in England, others are art pieces using recycled materials. Pictured is Phonehenge in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Link -via Interesting Pile

Project 2,996 Posted: 04 Sep 2009 07:50 AM PDT On September 11 2006, more than 3,000 bloggers joined together to honor the victims of 9/11 by remembering their lives as individuals. The project helped to put a face on each person instead of seeing them as a large group of people. You can access a list of those posts with links here. Project 2,996 will be repeated this year. If you would like to post a tribute on your own blog on 9/11, sign up now. Link -via Holtie's House

Turn on the TV Using the Power of Thought Posted: 04 Sep 2009 07:29 AM PDT A 'telepathy' chip that allows people to control computers, televisions and light switches by the power of thought is being developed by British scientists. The idea was conceived by Dr. Jon Spratley while he was studying at the University of Birmingham. The tiny sensor would sit on the surface of the brain, picking up the electrical activity of nerve cells and passing the signal wirelessly to a receiver on the skull. The signal would then be used to control a cursor on a computer screen, operate electronic gadgets or steer an electric wheelchair. This type of technology would allow disabled people such as Stephen Hawking to have more control over their environment. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by scaryman.

Haile the Drumming Robot Posted: 04 Sep 2009 06:10 AM PDT (YouTube Link) Gil Weinberg and Scott Driscoll of Georgia Tech developed a robot that can improvise rhythms as it hears music: Haile is a robotic percussionist that can listen to live players, analyze their music in real-time, and use the product of this analysis to play back in an improvisational manner. It is designed to combine the benefits of computational power and algorithmic music with the richness, visual interactivity, and expression of acoustic playing. We believe that when collaborating with live players, Haile can facilitate a musical experience that is not possible by any other means, inspiring players to interact with it in novel expressive manners, which leads to novel musical outcome. Link via The Presurfer

Men Become Less Intelligent After Speaking to Attractive Women Posted: 04 Sep 2009 06:00 AM PDT Psychological researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands conducted a study which supports the popular impression that men lose their minds in the presence of attractive women: The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive… Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man. This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities. Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived. Researchers said it was as if he was so keen to make an impression he ‘temporarily absorbed most of his cognitive resources.’ Link via The Presurfer (Photo: Getty)

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