Neatorama |
- This Week at Neatorama
- Notice Anything Different?
- Hitler Died On This Couch
- Cold Blooded Vampire Fangs Ice Tray
- 10 Neat Facts About G.I. Joe
- Man Dominates Video Game (or perhaps Vice-Versa...)
- The Intricacies of Giving a "High Five"
- School Officials Confiscate Toddler's Cheese Sandwich
- Little Guys Who Became Historical Heavyweights
- House Cat Nurses Newborn Bobcats
- 10 Largest Homes in the United States
- Telephone Remake
- Stud or Dud?
- A Rare Fly-and-Run Accident
- Fortune Scarf
- Futurama
- How Did You Know? Day Four
- The Chillout Song
- Catching Up With The A-Team
| Posted: 01 May 2010 04:08 AM PDT
Jill Harness was very busy writing this past week. Last Sunday was International Penguin Day, so she collected fascinating fun facts about penguins in the article Chilling Out With Formal-Feathered Friends. On Monday, she posted Doctor Who? What? about the many faces of the beloved British sci-fi hero. She also brought us Dancing To The Beat Of A Different Bass, a roundup of strange and different guitars. Jill was busy Catching Up with the A-Team by looking back at the TV show and looking forward to the feature film. If you’re looking for distractions on Facebook, she also gave us Fabulously Funny Facebook Fan Pages. Stacy Conradt looked at Unexpected Inventions from Unexpected People. I had no idea that two of the Marx Brothers were inventors! Stacy also posted If at First You Don't Succeed: Very Famous Book Rejections. Do you think Shakespeare would have such problems getting published today? Alex collected 10 Neat Facts About G.I. Joe in honor of the official declaration of April 30, 2010 as “G.I. Joe Day” in Rhode Island. David gave us the debut of Ask Otis! to introduce Neatorama’s new YouTube channel and invite your questions for future episodes of Ask Otis. This week’s featured guest post was 15 Little Known Geek/Nerd Holidays and Observances by D. Salmons from iGadget Life. A handy resource for filling out your calendar for the year -after all, you don’t want to miss an opportunity to celebrate! From Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, we learned about the Top Ten US Generals. Many folks added their favorite generals in the comments, and argued about whether a Confederate war leader can really be considered a “US” general. From Mental_floss Magazine we found out about Little Guys Who Became Historical Heavyweights. It’s the history we don’t already know that’s the most interesting! Our contests included the What Is It? game. Congratulations to winners Jerry Kelly and das! Alex posted a rather cryptic teaser about an iPad giveaway coming soon. And as always, David is running nearly-constant contests on Neatorama’s Twitter feed and Facebook page. Neatorama is proud to team up with mental_floss for the How Did You Know? contest. You can catch up with the daily challenges on day one, day two, day three, and day four to get ready for the big challenge on Monday. There are several ways to win prizes, but you have to play!  | ||||||
| Posted: 01 May 2010 02:23 AM PDT
In addition to the new look, we've also launched a couple of new sub-blogs on Neatorama. The first, NeatoBambino, is a blog about babies, kids and the wonderful world of parenting, written by my lovely wife Tiffany. The second, Neatorama's Art Blog, is a wide-format blog similar to our first sub-blog Spotlight. The Art Blog is dedicated to letting indie artists introduce themselves and their artwork in their own words. As we add more artists, we'll be rotating these posts through the main blog.
If you know an artist (or if you are one) who would like to be featured (it's absolutely free) on Neatorama's Art Blog, please let me know! These sub-blogs are based on John Sessford's awesome WP-Hive WordPress plugin. As I've mentioned before in this blog post, all of us at Neatoramaland are excited to be able to create focused sub-blogs under the Neatorama umbrella. This way we can expand Neatorama to cover more topics without changing the eclecticand fun nature of the main blog. Take a look around and let me know what you think ;) | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 02:32 PM PDT Sixty five years ago, on April 30, 1945, Hitler and his wife Eva Braun ended their lives in an underground bunker after Berlin fell. Shortly afterwards, LIFE photographer William Vandivert was on scene to photograph the destroyed city and the bunker itself. These never-before-published images are now available from LIFE Photo Gallery WWII: Inside Hitler’s Bunker. This one above is captioned:
Link – Thanks Ben! Previously on Neatorama: 17 Strange Facts About Hitler | ||||||
| Cold Blooded Vampire Fangs Ice Tray Posted: 30 Apr 2010 01:24 PM PDT
Need to add a bite to your beverage? Take a look at the Cold Blooded Vampire Fangs Ice Tray from the NeatoShop. Perfect for Bloody Mary and other spine-tingling drinks for the vampire lovers in your family: Link | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 01:09 PM PDT
To celebrate its homegrown hero, Rhode Island governor Donald L. Carcieri proclaimed today to be "G.I. Joe Day." And to help you celebrate, here's a quickie 5 Neat Facts about G.I. Joe, only from Neatorama: 1. G.I. Joe owes its existence to Barbie. That's right - in 1963, toy creator Stan Weston thought that since Barbie was so popular, he could come up with a similar toy for boys: a line of Barbie-sized dolls with military theme to be marketed for boys. He brought the concept to toy manufacturer Hassenfeld Brothers (who later shortened the name to Hasbro). Three prototypes were created: "Rocky the Marine", "Skip the Sailor", and "Ace the Pilot." 2. G.I. = "Government Issue" 3. The name G.I. Joe itself came from a 1945 American war film called The Story of G.I. Joe, starring Ernie Pyle and Robert Mitchum.
4. World's First Action Figure. Because they thought that boys wouldn't play with dolls, Hasbro coined the words "action figure" to market the toy. 5. The first G.I. Joe product, G.I. Joe: America's Moveable Fighting Man has 21 points of articulation, which is actually patented. 6. G.I. Joe has a scar across his right cheek. This enables Hasbro to copyright its toys, because otherwise the human figure itself cannot be copyrighted.
8. In the wake of the Vietnam War, Hasbro dropped the military-theme and rebranded the line as "Adventure Team." 9. Bullet Man, the weirdest G.I. Joe ever
In 1976, to compete with the superhero toy craze, Hasbro added a superhero to its G.I. Joe line up: Bullet Man, the Human Bullet. Collectors didn't like it then (Joe's enemy was a caveman from outer space!), but given its rarity, Bullet Man is now highly valuable. 10. "Knowing is Half the Battle" - The G.I. Joe catchphrase came from its cartoon series in the 1980s. At the end of each episode, there was a public-service message showing kids in a situation where they did something wrong and Joes giving advice. The PSA always ended with the phrase "Now we know!" "And knowing is half the battle!" Joe Headquarters has a list of these PSAs. If knowing is half the battle, what's the other half? Your choices are "unbridled violence," porkchop sandwiches, or this T-Shirt from Nerduo. | ||||||
| Man Dominates Video Game (or perhaps Vice-Versa...) Posted: 30 Apr 2010 01:02 PM PDT Mike Leyde, a 56-year-old California man has “broken” the game of Bejeweled 2. After playing several hours per day for three years (2200 total hours of game time), he achieved a score that can never be beaten.
Mr. Leyde reports that he only plays classic games like Tetris, Minesweeper, Spider Solitaire and Video Poker – not the “hardcore” games that his children play. Explaining his feat, he said “"If you're going to invest time in something, you might as well be as good at it as you possibly can.” Link. | ||||||
| The Intricacies of Giving a "High Five" Posted: 30 Apr 2010 12:38 PM PDT
Who knew it was so complicated? Apart from the different techniques of the maneuver itself, there are a variety of social connotations and implications. This video explains the details. Found at Swimming Freestyle. Previously at Neatorama: Rob Wants to Give You a High Five. | ||||||
| School Officials Confiscate Toddler's Cheese Sandwich Posted: 30 Apr 2010 12:28 PM PDT
Clearly in a situation like this there are two sides to the story, and the media may be focusing on the family’s side because it makes for more interesting press; there may be other issues between the family and the school, or concerns re the child’s diet. It seems reasonable to take the news with a grain of salt (or if you’re British, with salt substitute). Two links. Image credit Luke Leitch/Times Online. | ||||||
| Little Guys Who Became Historical Heavyweights Posted: 30 Apr 2010 10:50 AM PDT History is full of events that would have ended quite differently if some previously unknown person (or animal, in one case) hadn’t seized an opportunity. Here are four such stories. The slave you don’t mess with in Texas
The soldier who took out an entire army During the war of Spanish succession, the French army had nearly taken the citadel at Turin, in present-day Italy.But then an undistinguished Italian soldier named Pietro Micca devised a clever plan. In the tunnel where the French had made their breach, Micca armed a mine, lured the French closer, and then blew himself up along with his enemies. The event turned the tide of the battle and, ultimately the war. It’s now thought that Micca didn’t intend to sacrifice himself, but there’s a museum in Turin named after him anyway. The beverage vendor who helped Buddha reach Enlightenment
The mole that made a mountain
Image credits: Flickr user TakenByTina, Flickr user el patojo, and Wikipedia user Mikiwikipikidikipedia. The article above, written by Graeme Wood, appeared in Scatterbrained section of the Mar – Apr 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine (the excellent “The Future of Sex” issue!). It is reprinted here with permission. Don’t forget to feed your brain by subscribing to the magazine and visiting mental_floss‘ extremely entertaining website and blog today! | ||||||
| House Cat Nurses Newborn Bobcats Posted: 30 Apr 2010 10:35 AM PDT
The bobcats will be sheltered for about 18 months and then returned to the wild. Link There’s also video and a news story of how Bobbi came to be involved. Link -via Arbroath | ||||||
| 10 Largest Homes in the United States Posted: 30 Apr 2010 09:51 AM PDT Take a look at the ten largest homes in the United States that were built before 1950. Nine of these homes are open to the public and get millions of visitors every year but the one home on the list that is actually owned by the public is not open for tours anymore. Every one of these homes is a great place to visit. Pictured is The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. The home has 70 rooms covering 65,000 square feet, and it’s only number five! (image credit: Wikipedia user upstateNYer) From the Upcoming | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 09:46 AM PDT A group of GIs stationed in Afghanistan lip sync and dance to Lady Gaga’s song “Telephone”. They did a great job, but you can almost feel the boredom that inspired this. -via YesButNoButYes | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 09:32 AM PDT
How did The Green Monkey perform? Read and find out. Link | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 09:26 AM PDT
The plane stopped in a field. Pilot Joe Curtis grabbed a mysterious bag, jumped out, and ran toward the airport! Curtis contacted the FAA about the accident hours later. Link (image credit: Marty Caivano) | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 09:24 AM PDT Noëlle took her favorite fortune found in cookies and made it big enough to wear as a scarf! You can get one at her Etsy store. Link -via The Daily What | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 09:23 AM PDT On this date in 1939, the New York World’s fair opened. One of the exhibits was a ride called Futurama, sponsored by General Motors. Visitors got a glimpse of what life would be like in 1960, particularly the vision of an interstate highway system and urban planning. Separation of industrial, commercial, farmland, and residential areas were presented as an admirable goal. Curiously, new highways bypassing the slums was proposed as preferable to improving those neighborhoods. Read more about Futurama and Futurama II (at the 1964 World’s Fair) at Wired. Link -via Metafilter | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 09:05 AM PDT Neatorama is proud to be a co-sponsor of the latest How Did You Know? contest at mental_floss. You could win prizes from the Neato Shop, mental_floss, Motionbox, or Roku. Day three of the five-day trivia hunt is up at mental_floss. Solve today’s challenge and find out how you can win a prize from Neatorama! It’s not too late to figure out Tuesday’s challenge, Wednesday’s challenge, or Thursday’s challenge as well, which will help you figure out the overall challenge on Monday. And you might win a prize just for playing, even if you never get any of them correct! Jump over to mental_floss for all the contest details, and play now. Then check back on Monday for the final and biggest challenge of all! Link | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 07:47 AM PDT An overwhelmed young woman wrote to ZeFrank and asked for a pick-me-up. She sounded depressed, so he wrote a song for her. Then he got other people to sing it as well, and then mixed the voices into a lovely choral affirmation. It made her feel better. It might make you feel better, too! Read the story of how the project came about. Link -via b3ta | ||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 07:45 AM PDT The A-Team movie is coming out soon and its sure to stir up the standard anger from the show's loyal fans like most of these things do, but what is it about the A-Team that has made it such a cultural icon? Is there more to this ragtag group of mercenaries than meets the eye? You bet there is. So let's take a deep look at the je nais sais quoi that allowed this somewhat formulaic show filled with cartoonish levels of violence to become a long-standing success story. Image via Wikipedia A Custom Role For Mr. TAlmost everyone's favorite character in the show is B.A. Barracus, played by Mr. T. The funny thing is that the entire concept of the character, and largely the overall show, was based around Mr. T's public persona. In fact, when NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff pitched the show, he presented is as a blend of The Dirty Dozen, Mission Impossible, Seven Samurai, Mad Max and Hill Street Blues, with "Mr. T driving the car." Naturally the character based after Mr. T shares his love of gold and his mohawk. In the show, he got to point out that the look is not related to the Mohawk people, but is instead an African symbol. Image via Wikipedia What's With B.A.?Since the show's inception, B.A. was said to stand for "Bad Attitude." It was even spelled out in the pilot episode when reporter Amy Allen explains, “Bosco Baracus. Known as B.A. for ‘bad attitude.’ The man is a mechanical genius. He also has one of the worst conduct records in the army. He likes to slug officers.” In season 4, you learn that the letters are actually his real initials, as his real full name is actually Bosco Albert Baracas. In other countries (the show has been notably popular outside the U.S., particularly in the U.K.), his character's name changed so he could maintain a cool nickname. In Spanish-speaking countries, his character is named Mario Baracas, so the M.A. can stand for "Mala Actitud," which is an accurate translation of the original. In Russian, he is D.N., or "Durnoi Nrav," which similarly means "Bad Attitude." In Italian, his name is P.E. Baracas, which stands for "Pessimo Elemento," which is similar to saying "Bad Guy." In Hungary, his name also means Bad Guy, but they simply call him "Rosszfiu." The weirdest translation I found was the name they give the character in Taiwan, "Guay Tou" which seems to translate to "Wacky Head." Mercenaries or Heroes?The members of the A-Team are often referred to as mercenaries because they are such tough guys who are willing to kick butt for money, but the plots almost always required them to fight bad guys for an innocent client (usually a girl) and they often refuse to accept payment in the end. Additionally, the team is made up of loyal Army soldiers who are only on the run due to a serious misunderstanding. The story is that during the Vietnam War, they were given orders by their original commanding officer to rob the Bank of Hanoi to help put an end to the war. Unfortunately, when they returned to base after the mission, they find that it was burned down and that their commander was killed by the Viet Cong. This erased all evidence that they robbed the bank under orders and they were court-martialed for the crime. They were sent to Fort Bragg, but escaped prison. Image via herzogbr [Flickr] Ratings Rule The Plot TwistsWhen the show came out, it was incredibly successful. The first episode was broadcast after Super Bowl XVII on January 30, 1983 and reached over 25% of the viewing audience. Over the first three season, ratings continued to place the show consistently in the top ten for its time slot, but by the fourth season, viewership started to decline. Some people say this was because more people started to watch family-friendly programs like The Cosby Show, but the network execs thought it might have to do with the show's predictable plot lines. As a result, they changed things up in the fifth season by letting the team get captured by the Army and work to do suicide missions in exchange for a pardon. Unfortunately, fans hated the idea of the team working under someone else's orders and viewership decreased even more, resulting in the cancellation of the show after a total of 98 episodes. Star PowerThe show was big enough at its peak to attract a number of popular celebrities of the day, including Boy George, Isaac Hayes, Hulk Hogan, Rick James, Pat Sajak and Vanna White. Also, a bit of merchandise was released during the show's reign including everything from action figures to a Mr. T cola-flavored popsicle. Cartoon Violence Brought To LifeOne of the most widely-remembered things about the show is its cartoonish levels of violence, which almost never actually resulted in injury or death. While some estimates claimed that the show often had as many as 46 different violent acts per episode, co-creator of the program Stephen J. Cannell argued that these acts were not of any consequence because the violence was so unrealistic. Cannell also admitted that the violence without injuries even got to the point where it was a running joke for the writers, who would often test the limits of realism on purpose and incorporate things like unbelievable helicopter crashes where the victims would simply get up and walk away. Image via SiamEye [Flickr] Sexism On and Off The ScreenDuring the show's run, critics often called it sexist because the females on the show were almost always playing the damsel in distress. The only recurring female characters were those of the "assisting reporter." It's one thing to have the appearance of sexism on screen, but both of the actresses were notably disliked by other cast and crew members who simply didn't think a woman needed to be on the show. The first of these two actresses, Melinda Culea, was fired after she started demanding more lines and more action scenes. She was quickly replaced mid-season with Marla Heasley who was expected to be more fragile and feminine. Even so, she was quickly let go by the start of the third season when the producers decided they didn't need a woman cast member. Heasley claims that her first day on set she was approached by George Peppard, who played Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith on the show. He told her:
Later on, he shared his same sentiments in an interview with the Australian paper, the Sunday Mail:
Dirk Benedict (seen above), who played Lieutenant Templeton “Faceman," recently remarked that the show was made to be a guy's show and that if it had to be made in modern times, they would force it to me so much more feminine that a more proper name would be, "The Gay-Team." I can't help but wonder if he feels that way about the new movie, particularly considering that Jessica Beil is playing a ruthless Army officer dedicated to tracking them down. Image via Marrevee1 [Wikipedia] Changes For The Big ScreenSpeaking of the movie, that's not the only major change that's taking shape in the plot. Instead of being Vietnam vets, the team now served in The Gulf War. They are still on the run after being accused of a crime they did not do and are branded war criminals. Both Jules Daly and Stephen J. Cannell, the show's original creators, are working on the project. One thing you'll have to say goodbye to though is the cartoon violence as one of the lead writers has said they intend to have the film be far more gritty and in the vein of Casino Royale and Batman Begins. Mr T. was offered a cameo, but he turned down the offer and Ice Cube was originally offered the role of B.A. Baracus and John Singleton was assigned to direct the film, but both ended out being pulled from the project. Instead of Mr. T or Ice Cube, MMA fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will be playing B.A. Baracus. Poster image via Wikipedia So how about it A-Team fans, are you going to check out the flick? Sources: Imdb, Telegraph UK, Wikipedia #1, #2, #3 |
Because of the huge number of stories, links, and videos on Neatorama this past week, it’s possible you might have missed some of our original articles. We don’t want that to happen!
Hello Neatoramanauts! Notice anything different?
7. In 1967, Hasbro introduced its first female Joe: G.I. Nurse Action Girl. It was a spectacular failure ... and is now one of the world's 
Big Tex may owe its independence day to a small slave named Emily West. According to some sources, when Mexico’s General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna marched into the area in 1836, Emily noticed him leering at her.She dispatched another servant to warn the Texas army of Santa Anna’s battle plans and stayed behind to exploit the general’s weakness. On the morning of Sam Houston’s attack, she distracted Santa Anna between the sheets, leaving his army leaderless and ineffective against the much smaller Texan force. When Emily’s owner learned of her bravery and sacrifice, he freed her, and Emile (known as the Yellow Rose of Texas) lived out the rest of her life as a free woman.
Before achieving Enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama explored the extremes of hedonism and asceticism. For the latter, he meditated alone in a cave for 40 days and emerged nearly dead from starvation. Upon seeing him, a local village girl named Sujata approached Siddhartha and offered him some milk and rice pudding. The meager sustenance gave him the energy to walk to the tree under which he meditated and achieved Enlightenment. Although the story is likely apocryphal, it’s possible that Sujata was the most important beverage vendor in history.
When William of Orange and his wife assumed the English, Irish, and Scottish thrones in 1689, the Jacobites labored to overthrow him and restore the House fo Stuart. But what a gang of ornery Scotsmen couldn’t accomplish, one proud ittle mole did. Legend has it that a clump of dirt created by the rodent’s burrow tripped William’s horse, throwing the rider off and shattering his royal collarbone. As he tried to recover, William caught pneumonia and eventually died. Amazingly, the mole’s hard work was not forgotten. For years, the Jacobites continues to toast the “Little Gentleman in Black Velvet” who helped eliminate their nemesis.
A house cat in Florida named Bobbi had six kittens and then nursed two other kittens for an animal shelter. Her latest assignment: three bobcat kittens!
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Racing is in the spotlight as the annual Kentucky Derby is set for tomorrow. Horse breeding and racing are expensive businesses which can pay off big or turn out to be a money pit. Mental_floss has several stories of studs that were duds, and some that succeeded way beyond the investor’s expectations.
Ken and Carol Marcoux of Boulder, Colorado were parked on the side of a road to watch planes take off from the local airport. They saw a small plane approach, buffeted by the wind.
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