Neatorama

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• Japanese Massage Chair Prank (with Rockets!)
• E.T.A. by JUNK
• The Cold, Hard Facts About Freezing to Death.
• Mom Tattooed Kids (as Young as 10 Years Old!) Because They Begged For It
• Creative Light Writing Proposal
• The Musical Light Bulbs of Michael Vorfeld
• Timelapse Video of People in Yosemite
• This Optical Illusion is Nuts!
• Kool-Aid Man at the Battle of Yorktown
• Travis Pastrana Flies a Car
• Can Microwave Technology Make Things Cold?
• LEGO Domino Row-Building Machine
• Parkour Flip Book
• Vintage Ad Browser
• Farewell Performances
• Guitar Picks
• Escaping Prisoner Becomes Stuck
• Harry Dubin at Work in Old New York
• Amputee Skydiver
• Heavy Metal Baby
• 15 Strange Thematic Weddings

Japanese Massage Chair Prank (with Rockets!) Posted: 05 Jan 2010 12:49 AM PST The next time you’re in Japan, beware of massage chairs in saunas: [YouTube Clip] … and vans (later half of the clip): [YouTube Clip] Yes, they’re a bit (okay a lot) low brow, but very funny. Oh, Japan … thank you for playing pranks that will surely bring about multi-million dollar lawsuits if done in the United States! Via Gizmodo

E.T.A. by JUNK Posted: 04 Jan 2010 06:42 PM PST E.T.A. by JUNK from Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen on Vimeo. JUNKworks has released another great short for Vimeo, set in the distant realms of space.  It premiered in 2008 at the Bingen, Germany Breakpoint demoparty, and presents a scene with a very bored spacefarer named Marvin. Full screen, volume up.

The Cold, Hard Facts About Freezing to Death. Posted: 04 Jan 2010 06:30 PM PST The process of freezing to death is presented in horrifying detail in this classic article. It’s not just a matter of getting cold and dying. For example, just before they freeze, people with hypothermia tear their clothes off in a fit of what’s called "paradoxical undressing." At 85 degrees, those freezing to death, in a strange, anguished paroxysm, often rip off their clothes. This phenomenon, known as paradoxical undressing, is common enough that urban hypothermia victims are sometimes initially diagnosed as victims of sexual assault. Though researchers are uncertain of the cause, the most logical explanation is that shortly before loss of consciousness, the constricted blood vessels near the body’s surface suddenly dilate and produce a sensation of extreme heat against the skin. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by McJohnny.

Mom Tattooed Kids (as Young as 10 Years Old!) Because They Begged For It Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:56 PM PST Well, they wanted it. That’s the reason Jo-Jo Marsh gave for tattooing her own children (one as young as ten years old) with a home-made tattoo gun (with a guitar string as a needle, no less): "We were making it look like it was a cross," said Jo-Jo Marsh, "so the kids could have something they could say it was." Jo-Jo Marsh shows Eyewitness News the tattoo on her son’s hand. The mark is a cross-like symbol left by a home-made tattoo gun with a guitar string as a needle. "We didn’t even break the skin barely," said Marsh, "they are very tiny, just through a few layers, on the top, they will fade away, that’s how minuscule this is." Marsh and her husband, Jacob Bartels, face child cruelty charges after detectives found the same mark on six of the couple’s seven children. One of the children is just 10 years-old. [...] Marsh defends her actions saying the kids were begging for tattoos like hers. She told [WRCB TV] multiple times during our interview that she changed the needle each time. Marsh believes as the children’s guardian, she should have the right to tattoo them if she chooses. "Shouldn’t I have say so over what goes on in my child’s life," said Marsh, "I have custody of my child, I’m not going to hurt my child." Child abuse or simply a mom with a cutting edge sense of style? Link

Creative Light Writing Proposal Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:44 PM PST When Derick wanted to propose to his girlfriend Emily, he decided to do it in a big way. A really big way: by creating a light writing proposal that covered several blocks in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. It took Derick and his friends 3 nights of shooting and over 800 exposures to make the image. Follow the link to the making-of video and a description of how it was done. I knew I wanted to find a very special way to propose to a very special woman. I liked the look of light writing, but I wanted to do something on a much larger scale. To my knowledge, a light writing of this size had never been done before. I had the idea of placing a camera at the top of a tall building and mapping out the words "Emily, will you marry me?" over part of the city. I used Google Earth to check out the views from several large buildings in downtown Raleigh, N.C. Since none of the letters could fall on areas that were inaccessible by foot, the requirements for the vantage point were very specific. I finally found the perfect spot – the top of the Clarion hotel. Luckily, the Clarion has a restaurant that is open to the public on the top floor. I went up one afternoon and snapped some pics for reference. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by moviemaker.

The Musical Light Bulbs of Michael Vorfeld Posted: 04 Jan 2010 01:54 PM PST (Video Link) German percussionist Michael Vorfeld creates sound installations by turning different light bulbs on and off. The popping bulbs and flashing lights create a uniquely rhythmic experience for his live audiences. The above video is from a performance last February in Brussels. Official Website via Urlesque

Timelapse Video of People in Yosemite Posted: 04 Jan 2010 12:33 PM PST People in Yosemite: A TimeLapse Study from Steven M. Bumgardner on Vimeo. Steven Bumgardner’s video clearly shows the impact of people on Yosemite, but it also shows how the magnificence of the setting reduces people to the scale of insects.  The time-lapse element is reminiscent of Koyaanisqatsi. I chose busy places during busy days to show the effects of this mass of humanity. I could have just as easily pointed my camera in another direction and shown nothing but plants, animals and wilderness. Yosemite is popular, but it’s also still a relatively wild place. Music by Peter Gabriel.  Videos like this one are the reason HD was created; use the “expand” button in the lower right corner to best appreciate the video. Via The Daily Dish.

This Optical Illusion is Nuts! Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:55 AM PST [YouTube - Link] If you don’t find this optical illusion of two lug nuts by YouTube user brusspup amazing, you’re nuts! From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Bopple.

Kool-Aid Man at the Battle of Yorktown Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:45 AM PST This isn’t quite how I remember the Battle of Yorktown, but presumably artist Joseph Griffith did careful research for this painting marking the 225th anniversary of that battle. This image is part of a post full of Kool-Aid Man references in pop culture at Jeremy Barker’s Popped Culture. Link

Travis Pastrana Flies a Car Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:22 AM PST (YouTube Link) When he gets bored with doing double backflips on his bike, skydiving without a chute, or inventing new sports like the Hydrojump, Travis Pastrana takes life easy with a casual drive in Long Beach, CA.  Watch him sail this rally car 269 feet with the precision landing of an experienced pilot.  Don’t miss his celebratory backflip into the water! 26-year-old Travis Pastrana set the world record for a rally car jump on New Year's Eve, flying his Subaru 269 feet over water and landing on a barge in the harbor of Long Beach, California. The record blew away the old one set by Ken Block at 171 feet. Pastrana had to throw the car sideways and slam it against a wall at the end of the barge to stop the car, as he said the ramp was slick with dew. (Brian Lohnes)

Can Microwave Technology Make Things Cold? Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:18 AM PST No, it can’t. Microwaves work by speeding up atoms in an object, thus generating heat. “Microwaves can only speed up atoms, not slow them down,” writes Sandeep Ravindran of Popular Science. But Ravindran was curious about whether it would be possible to build a reverse microwave — a device that can instantly chill an object: Scientists do have a high-tech method for slowing atoms, however: lasers. Shoot a moving atom with a laser, and it will absorb the laser's photons and re-emit them every which way, causing the atom to hold nearly still. Placing an atom at the junction of multiple beams can slow its momentum in all directions, decreasing its energy and cooling it. This drops an atom's temperature a couple hundred degrees Fahrenheit—much colder than anything you'd want to put in your mouth—in less than a second. But because it works most efficiently on low-density gases of atoms of a single element, physicist Mark Raizen of the University of Texas doesn't think it will be useful for cooling food anytime soon: "Not unless you can subsist on a thousand sodium atoms." Link | Photo: NASA

LEGO Domino Row-Building Machine Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:06 AM PST (YouTube Link) Matthias Wandel used LEGO Technic parts to build a machine that distributes dominoes in rows. His website is filled with other similar gadgets, most of which are made out of wood. Link via Make | Wandel’s Wooden Machines

Parkour Flip Book Posted: 04 Jan 2010 10:58 AM PST (Video Link) Parkour is a sport consisting of running, climbing, crawling, and jumping over any obstacle in a path through an urban environment. Vimeo user saggyarmpit, a graphics design student in Singapore, created this amazing flip book animation video showing a parkourist in action. via CrunchGear

Vintage Ad Browser Posted: 04 Jan 2010 09:20 AM PST Find hundreds of ads going up to a couple hundred years back with the Vintage Ad Browser. I spent a lot of time looking around, but kept coming back to this perfume ad from 1890. The picture has nothing to do with the product, but it doesn’t matter, since everyone loves babies and dogs, right? Link -via the Presurfer

Farewell Performances Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:55 AM PST A star actor’s final performance should be something memorable, but that doesn’t happen often. In many cases, the actor probably didn’t know it would be their final performance. For others, their career was already fading, or maybe old age limited their options. Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss asks: how many of these final performances can you match with the well-known actor who played the part? I scored only about as well as you’d expect with random guesses. Link

Guitar Picks Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:29 AM PST At first you think: it’s “free” and “this machine accepts all credit cards”, that’s not right. And then you think “Oh…” This clever recycling idea was submitted to There, I Fixed It. Link -via reddit

Escaping Prisoner Becomes Stuck Posted: 04 Jan 2010 07:43 AM PST 42-year-old Roberto Carrillo didn’t want to be in jail for New Years Eve. He tried to escape the cell in Valle Hermoso, Mexico by squeezing through a gap he saw where the roof met a wall of bars, but there wasn’t enough room. He became stuck hanging upside-down and had to be rescued by laughing guards. A source at the jail told The Sun: ‘If he’d had a brain, it could have been embarrassing.’ Link -via Arbroath

Harry Dubin at Work in Old New York Posted: 04 Jan 2010 07:41 AM PST Jeff Kisseloff interviewed grocer Harry Dubin about an article written about him in 1947, but then found something much more interesting about Dubin. I picked up the album and opened it, and my eyes nearly jumped out of my head. Inside were some 30 color photographs taken in and around the city in the 1940s. I had never seen such vibrant photos of the city in those years. In fact, I had never seen any color photos of the city in those years, yet here they were. It was such an interesting collection. Each of the pictures depicted a man in uniform intently doing his job, whether it was a street sweeper, gas station attendant or hansom cab driver. When I looked at them twice, I realized something, all of them were Harry! Needless to say, while our subsequent interview was wonderful, the album left me speechless in delight. These were the most evocative photographs of old New York I had ever seen. Harry explained that all of them were taken by his son Ronald, who was then a teenager, after Harry managed to convince each worker to change clothes with him in an alley and let Harry do his job for a few minutes so the picture could be taken. You might want to check back with The Kisseloff Collection as more pictures are added. Link -via Metafilter

Amputee Skydiver Posted: 04 Jan 2010 07:36 AM PST When Alistair Hodgson was 21, he was a British paratrooper stationed in Northern Ireland. A booby trap exploded and tore him apart. His horrific injuries healed, except for the leg that was blown off and the other leg which had to be amputated. That was 17 years ago. Now Hodgson is the British National Freestyle Skydiving ­Champion. Besides training in his sport and coaching other skydivers, Hodgson works to inspire other disabled vets returning from Afghanistan. "It's so hard. But you have to ­rehabilitate yourself, find a focus…something to hold on to. If I can inspire just one other person to lift themselves out of that same dark place I was in – train for the Paralympics in 2012 or something, then it's worth it. "There was a time I thought my life was over and I still have very dark times when it's difficult to deal with. Sometimes people poke fun at me or I catch sight of myself in a mirror and think, 'You're in a hell of a mess'. “But when I'm in the air it's like it never happened. I can ­compete at a world level – alongside people who have all their limbs – and have found a way to fly." Hodgson will compete against able-bodied skydivers for the world championship in August. Link -via Fark

Heavy Metal Baby Posted: 04 Jan 2010 07:34 AM PST (YouTube link) I had to find out who sells that pacifier. You can get one at Perpetual Kid. Video via Unique Daily.

15 Strange Thematic Weddings Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:24 AM PST The wedding planner blog Wedding ABC has pictures and information about fifteen weddings that were designed around unusual themes, such as a Halo wedding, a Nazi reenactors’ wedding, and one in which attenders were dressed in nothing but bodypaint (so, somewhat NSFW). Pictured above is a mysterious wedding in which participants wore gas masks. Link via The Presurfer

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