Neatorama

---

• Patrick Stewart goes from Captain to Knight
• Law Requires Police To Check For Illegal Immigrants. Arizona? Nope: Mexico!
• The "Grim Eater" Stole Food From Funerals
• Big Daddy Tumblers for Father's Day
• Penguins Playing Soccer
• Man Uploads, Downloads, and Re-Uploads Video to YouTube 1,000 Times
• 15 Best Costumes at the 2010 London Marathon
• Online Dating Guide
• Prop Newspaper Pops Up Everywhere
• Iron Man R2D2
• Origami Mask
• Futuristic Fossils
• Jackboots on Whitehall -- A Movie Made With Action Figures
• Online Dating Ghostwriter
• The Origins of our Most Famous Toys
• Billboard that Smells Like Steak
• Flowers You Shouldn't Stop to Smell

Patrick Stewart goes from Captain to Knight Posted: 04 Jun 2010 04:32 PM PDT Patrick Stewart was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday. No word on if it was for "boldly going where no man has gone before" or just keeping Riker in his place. "This is an honor that embraces those actors, directors and creative teams who have in these recent years helped fill my life with inspiration, companionship and sheer fun," said 69-year-old Stewart, who recently returned to the British stage following a long career in Hollywood that included playing Professor Charles Xavier in three "X-Men" films. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by djinny.

Law Requires Police To Check For Illegal Immigrants. Arizona? Nope: Mexico! Posted: 04 Jun 2010 02:16 PM PDT We don’t post a lot of politics here on Neatorama, so pardon me for this post about the new and controversial Arizona law that forced local police to check whether a person is an illegal immigrant (presumably from Mexico). Critics contend that the law will lead to racial profiling. Even Mexican President Felipe Calderón has blasted the law as violating basic human rights. Whether you agree with the law or not, here’s the point of this post: it turns out that despite its bluster, Mexico actually has very similar laws on its book against the country’s own Honduran illegal immigrants! Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said the law "violates inalienable human rights" and Democrats in Congress applauded Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s criticisms of the law in a speech he gave on Capitol Hill last week. Yet Mexico’s Arizona-style law requires local police to check IDs. And Mexican police freely engage in racial profiling and routinely harass Central American migrants, say immigration activists. [...] "There (in the United States), they’ll deport you," Hector Vázquez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, said as he rested in a makeshift camp with other migrants under a highway bridge in Tultitlán. "In Mexico they’ll probably let you go, but they’ll beat you up and steal everything you’ve got first." Chris Hawley of USA Today has the full story: Link (Photo: Sergio Solache/USA Today)

The "Grim Eater" Stole Food From Funerals Posted: 04 Jun 2010 02:12 PM PDT Funeral homes in Wellington, New Zealand, have been hit by an unusual thief, dubbed the "Grim Eater" for reasons that will soon become obvious. From The Dominion Post: A fake mourner who repeatedly gatecrashed Wellington funerals was so keen on the food that he brought along tupperware containers to fill up and take home. The "grim eater" attended up to four funerals a week during March and April before he was stopped. Harbour City Funeral Home director Danny Langstraat said the company eventually grew concerned enough to take a photograph of the man and distribute it to its branches. "He was showing up to funeral after funeral, and without a doubt he didn’t know the deceased." The man, thought to be aged in his 40s, went to different churches and venues around the eastern suburbs, including Miramar, Rongotai and Kilbirnie. "We saw him three or four times in a week. And certainly he had a backpack with some tupperware containers so when people weren’t looking, he was stocking up." The man was "always very quiet and polite, and did as the rest of the mourners did in paying his respects". The man in question was later revealed to be a local artist named Reese Tong: Link (Photo: Kent Blechynden/The Dominion Post)

Big Daddy Tumblers for Father's Day Posted: 04 Jun 2010 02:11 PM PDT Big Daddy Tumbler and Dad’s Root Beer Tumbler Need ideas for some cool Father’s Day gift? Your old man would surely appreciate these: the Big Daddy Tumbler (from San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales & Lagers brewery) and Dad’s Root Beer Tumbler, glasses made by the artisan company BottleHood by "upcycling" beer and soda bottles. For more nifty Father’s Day gift ideas, check out the NeatoShop: Link

Penguins Playing Soccer Posted: 04 Jun 2010 02:09 PM PDT (Video Link) South Korean fans are getting excited about their national team’s chances for winning the World Cup, so naturally they dressed penguins from a Seoul aquarium in team uniforms and put them on a model soccer field. Link via Geekosystem

Man Uploads, Downloads, and Re-Uploads Video to YouTube 1,000 Times Posted: 04 Jun 2010 02:00 PM PDT (YouTube Link) And the video above is the result. Patrick Liddell, a musician, modeled his experiment on Alvin Lucier’s 1969 composition I Am Sitting in a Room, which did something similar. Liddell says “I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a digital fact, but more as a way to eliminate all human qualities my speech and image might have.” Here is his YouTube channel, which contains all 1,000 videos, and below is the original video (via Urlesque). (YouTube Link)

15 Best Costumes at the 2010 London Marathon Posted: 04 Jun 2010 12:02 PM PDT It’s marathon time again, and this year there were more crazy British people showing up in zany costumes than ever. Uncoached brings us 15 of their top picks. I wouldn’t be able to run 100 yards in some of these things. Link via Attuworld

Online Dating Guide Posted: 04 Jun 2010 11:35 AM PDT Cracked devised a great infographic to help you navigate the labyrinth that is online dating. Featuring the most commonly used interests and phrases, this guide will help you avoid a lot of pain. Obviously, people exercise plenty of factual calisthenics in their online profiles. And just because Denny’s menus may show you a more appetizing photograph doesn’t mean you should stop eating there. The same goes for online dating. Just look through those menus with a healthy dose of skepticism, and maybe your next Grand Slam will be everything that you expected. Image and story via Cracked

Prop Newspaper Pops Up Everywhere Posted: 04 Jun 2010 11:18 AM PDT The people over at /Film have come across a hilarious gag that we’ve all seen without realizing it. There’s a specific newspaper that’s been used and re-used in film and television, and even commercials, as the go-to prop for any scene involving the paper. I don't know the story behind this prop newspaper, but I assume it was created as a royalty free prop for television shows. Somewhere along the line, the prop became a reoccurring gag between propmasters. Image and story via /Film

Iron Man R2D2 Posted: 04 Jun 2010 11:07 AM PDT R2D2 appears to have been given a makeover by Tony Stark in this mix between Star Wars and Iron Man. The creator, Mike Verta, is an expert in visual effects and modeling, and has outdone himself in this computer rendering. I’d love to see a real one puttering around. Image and story via Nerd Approved

Origami Mask Posted: 04 Jun 2010 10:27 AM PDT Origami artist Joel Cooper made the above mask, entitled Delphus, out of one sheet of elephant hide paper. It’s 16 cm tall and 5 cm deep. We last looked at his amazing works about four years ago, and he’s only added greater precision and detail to his portfolio. At the link, you can see progress photos showing how Cooper does it. Link via Make | Artist’s Blog | Photo: Make

Futuristic Fossils Posted: 04 Jun 2010 10:18 AM PDT Artist Chase Black has unearthed fossils — from the future! His series “Creatures from the Mechazoic Era” consists of sculptures of fossilized robots and cyborg animals. Pictured above is the long-extinct felis catus. You can view a gallery of his creations at the link. Link via Geekologie | Image: Chase Black

Jackboots on Whitehall -- A Movie Made With Action Figures Posted: 04 Jun 2010 09:17 AM PDT Hiring lots of actors and building elaborate sets (and then blowing them up) is expensive. So the directors of Jackboots on Whitehall used 12-inch action figures to scale down the cost. Above is the trailer for that movie, which is a comedic alternate history of World War II. After trapping the British Army at Dunkirk, the Germans drill a tunnel under the English Channel and send an invasion force through into the heart of London. “Never,” as the movie’s Churchill says, “in the field of human conflict was so much buggered up by so few.” Naturally, the Scots, led by a farmer voiced by Ewan McGregor, save the day. via Geek Tyrant

Online Dating Ghostwriter Posted: 04 Jun 2010 09:08 AM PDT So you’ve met a nice girl online. Or rather, you’ve seen her profile on a dating website. But you’re not sure how to impress her. Solution: hire Max Hartshorn, a professional online dating ghostwriter who will tell you what to write in order to impress her. Hartshorn is a hired gun, ghostwriting correspondence on behalf of single men unwilling, too busy or too inept to do it themselves. His online dating is done on commission for Virtual Dating Assistants, one of the first full-scale Internet-dating outsourcing companies. For $600, Virtual Dating Assistants guarantees clients two dates a month; the “executive service” package promises five dates a month for $1,200. “I get paid for each woman who writes back positively,” explains the modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac. “It’s very analogous to sales . . . like a cold-caller or a telemarketer.” Link via Volokh Conspiracy | Photo: US State Department

The Origins of our Most Famous Toys Posted: 04 Jun 2010 08:22 AM PDT This article takes a look back at 8 of our most famous vintage toys, what they looked like in the beginning and how they were created.  Includes looks at baseball cards, comic books, Hot Wheels and Pez dispensers. Matchbox cars were started in 1953 by British toy company Lesney Products. Co-owner Jack Odell created the idea for the tiny cars because his daughter was only allowed to bring toys to school if they could fit in a matchbox. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by pholley.

Billboard that Smells Like Steak Posted: 04 Jun 2010 06:29 AM PDT We’re coming one step closer to smell-o-vision, and it’s great news for meat-eaters. Actually, the more I think about it, I’m not sure it’s great news for anybody. A new Billboard on River Highway in North Carolina not only shows a gigantic piece of steak on an even more giant fork, but it actually pumps out the smell of steak for passing drivers to suffer through. Let’s hope the cabbage farmers don’t get the same idea… Image and Story via Gizmodo

Flowers You Shouldn't Stop to Smell Posted: 04 Jun 2010 05:28 AM PDT The Stinky (Image credit: Flickr user b-nik) The Voodoo Lily Take comfort, Jan Bradys of the world! The voodoo lily-along with other jaded members of the arum plant family-has found an effective way to cope with having the pretty and popular calla lily for a relative. Refusing to go unnoticed, the voodoo lily generates a distinctive odor said to approximate that of rotting flesh. And while this helps it attract flies and other pollination-worthy friends, this “sacred lily of India” has another trick up its sleeve. Common in Asia, the voodoo lily is reportedly able to rid the body of toxins. Of course, that hasn’t prevented the more superficial types in other parts of the world from dubbing it “stink lily” and “devil’s tongue”. (Image credit: Flickr user Jami Dwyer) Skunk Cabbage Also a member of the arum family, the foul-smelling skunk cabbage grows mostly in Canada and is known as “devil’s tobacco”. (Apparently, Satan isn’t much of a connoisseur.) In late winter, skunk cabbage gives off heat in order to melt the surrounding snow, strategically making it one of the first plants visible to flies when spring comes. But to its benefit, if its leaves are damaged for any reason, the skunk cabbage uses its ability to release a foul odor to keep predators away and protect itself. The Sinister (Image credit: Flickr user goateebird) The Stinging Tree For low-lying plants in the rainforest, it can be a pretty hard-knock life. Being the farthest thing from the sun’s rays and the closest thing to hungry herbivores, ground-dwellers such as the stinging tree of Australia have learned a special way to hog any light they can get.  In order to seize its brief moments in the sun, the plant is equipped with leaves covered in tiny, shard-like hairs just nasty enough to irritate the crap out of any human or plant that dares invade its personal space. So, how nasty is nasty? Australian legend holds that some stinging tree victims have killed themselves rather than endure the pain. (Image credit: Flickr user petrichor) The Venus Fly Trap Not familiar with the Dionaea muscipula? You might know it better by its wicked nickname, the Venus Flytrap. And while that’s a plenty-cool pseudonym these days, the misogynistic botanists who came up with it in the 17th century didn’t mean for it to be flattering. They tried to draw a connection between the Flytrap’s method of luring insects and what they saw as the world’s other great temptress: the vagina. (Image credit: Flickr user robstephaustralia) The Cobra Plant Possibly one of the sneakiest carnivorous plants out there, this pitcher-plant relative attracts insects with its long, bright, purple-spotted stalk. When a bug lands on the “cobra tongue” and follows the sweet smell of nectar into the bulb , it gets caught …but doesn’t die. In fact, the insect is only killed when it tries to escape. Because the walls of the cobra bulb are translucent, an insect is given the false impression that it can simply fly out of the cobra’s lair and go on to live a long, multi-day life. Instead, the bug bumps against the wall, rolls down the stalk, and drowns in the cobra’s digesting pool at the bottom. Of course, tricking a fly is one thing. Tricking a monkey is quite another. According to legend, some Asian pitcher plants, known as nepenthes, have swallowed snakes and small monkeys. However, many botanists believe the largest item consumed by a pitcher plant of any kind to be a frog or small rodent. (Image credit: Flickr user peupleloup) Bladderworts Scared of swimming in large bodies of water? Quit worrying about snakes and start focusing your irrational fears on the rootless, carnivorous plants known as bladderworts. These 7-foot-long monstrosities boast hungry bladders-small, hollow sacs designed to ensnare and entrap small animals such as water fleas and aquatic worms. In fact, when prey swim near the plant, tiny hairs on the surface of the bladder are triggered, cuing the bladderwort to take in a big sip of water, thus drawing in its victim. ________________________________ The article above appeared in the Scatterbrained section of the January-February 2006 issue of mental_floss magazine. 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 for more!

You are subscribed to email updates from Neatorama To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610