Neatorama

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• Rolling Shutter Effect
• Combination Dinner Table/Dishwasher
• Dog Yoga
• Artificial Hand and Arm from the 19th Century
• Modern Artists Reimagine Classic Comic Book Covers
• Robot Tape Measure
• Beer Bottle/Musical Instrument
• Hipster Dinosaurs
• They Stopped Niagara Falls
• Falling Off the End of the Earth
• Beer Popsicle
• Accompanist Needed
• Cat Saves Owner from Pit Bulls
• New Cupcake Flavors
• Paper Rings from Books
• Low Bridge

Rolling Shutter Effect Posted: 30 Aug 2010 06:26 PM PDT (YouTube link) Have you ever seen an airplane propeller that looked like this? It’s called the rolling shutter effect {wiki}. A cell phone camera records what it sees by scanning from one side of the frame to the other (or top to bottom), and strange things happen when the scene you are shooting moves faster than the image scanner. Another video illustrates how the slow scanning process of a cell phone camera creates this effect. -via reddit

Combination Dinner Table/Dishwasher Posted: 30 Aug 2010 05:20 PM PDT Carroll J. Boylan patented this gadget in 1995. Supposedly, you can load your dishes into a dishwasher without leaving the table: A space-saving dishwasher has a washing basin having side and bottom walls and an open top, and a vertically shiftable rack assembly for carrying dishes. A shifting mechanism is coupled with the rack assembly for selectively shifting the latter between a lower cleaning position, wherein the rack assembly is disposed within the basin below the open top, and an upper loading position, wherein the rack assembly is disposed above the open top of the basin. The dishwasher further includes a lid member for covering the open top of the basin when the rack assembly is in the cleaning position. Structure is also provided for cleaning the dishes carried in the rack assembly, when the assembly is in the cleaning position. The dishwasher is particularly designed for installment within an opening of a substantially horizontally extending table-top or kitchen counter top. Would you find this invention useful? Link via Anticipate This!

Dog Yoga Posted: 30 Aug 2010 02:08 PM PDT (Video Link) Yoga instructor Leeta Koontz suggests that yoga may be helpful for your dog. Urlesque has a roundup of her trippy videos, the first of which talks about the spiritual connection between you and your dog. The above video specifically addresses placing your dog in the Downward Facing Dog yoga position. Link | Previously: Dog Yoga in Japan

Artificial Hand and Arm from the 19th Century Posted: 30 Aug 2010 01:34 PM PDT From the files of the Science Museum’s History of Medicine website comes this impressive prosthetic limb, dated to the 1850-1910 period. Made from steel and brass, this unusual prosthetic arm articulates in a number of ways. The elbow joint can be moved by releasing a spring, whereas the top joint of the wrist allows a degree of rotation and an up-and-down motion. The fingers can also curl up and straighten out. The leather upper arm piece is used to fix the prosthesis to the remaining upper arm. The rather sinister appearance of the hand suggests the wearer may have disguised it with a glove. The object is apparently part of the Wellcome Trust collection.  One wonders if it was found in a hydraulic press and donated to them by a woman named Sarah. Link (where there’s lots more cool stuff…)

Modern Artists Reimagine Classic Comic Book Covers Posted: 30 Aug 2010 11:08 AM PDT Covered is Robert Goodin’s ongoing project to invite artists to remake classic comic book covers. Pictured above is one example: a 1966 Jimmy Olsen cover by Curt Swan and George Klein next to Lauren Gregg’s version. Link via Nerdcore | Lauren Gregg’s Website

Robot Tape Measure Posted: 30 Aug 2010 10:55 AM PDT Robot Tape Measure – $6.95 Robots sure are helpful (before the rise and enslave all humanity anyhow). Take, for instance, the Robot Tape Measure over at the NeatoShop. The double-sided retractable tape, capped with a retro wind-up key, is double-sided and measures both in inches and centimeters: Link More: Robot Stuff | Fun Back To School items | Fun & Unusual Office and Desk items

Beer Bottle/Musical Instrument Posted: 30 Aug 2010 10:53 AM PDT Tuned Pale Ale is a product by designer Matt Braun. There’s a musical scale down the side of each bottle. You can drink down to a particular level, blow on rim, and the bottle will play a note. If you get a few people together with these bottles, you’ll be able to perform a melody. Braun writes: This product aims to promote more of this type of social interaction. This product aims to inform users about the musical qualities of existing bottles and to make the bottle a better instrument. Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Tuned Pale Ale

Hipster Dinosaurs Posted: 30 Aug 2010 07:49 AM PDT Artist/musician Molly Lewis modified coloring books to turn dinosaurs into trendy hipsters. Poor Tyrannosaurus Rex. At least he’ll have a project and a mission to join. Link via Geekosystem | Molly Lewis’ Website Previously: When Coloring Books Go Bad

They Stopped Niagara Falls Posted: 30 Aug 2010 07:20 AM PDT Niagara Falls is made up of three waterfalls from the Niagara River. In 1969, the US Army Corps of Engineers stopped the flow of water over one of them, American Falls, to study the stability of the rock underneath. For six months, tourists could walk over the rock bed where the falls had been. Ultimately, the Corps decided that stabilizing the rock bed would not be worth the expense. Link -via the Presurfer (Image credit: Flickr user Russ Glasson) Previously: The falls also stopped flowing in 1848 for natural reasons, and froze completely over in 1911.

Falling Off the End of the Earth Posted: 30 Aug 2010 07:06 AM PDT We have all encountered the common misconception that Columbus’ crew was afraid of sailing off the edge of the earth, as if the explorer’s view of a round world were something new. Columbus’ crew may have been fearful and unruly, but not because of any fear of an edge to the earth.  They were concerned because they were sailing south – into the “torrid zone” – where they thought the heat might evaporate the water to render the seas too shallow for their ships.  They also may have been concerned that a westward voyage to reach the Indies was impossible because they didn’t have enough food and water to cover such a distance (and they were correct – they didn’t have enough provisions for a voyage to Asia and would in fact have died had they not bumped into the Americas). Link

Beer Popsicle Posted: 30 Aug 2010 07:04 AM PDT New York restaurant Diablo Royale Este serves a dessert called The Hopsicle Experience. It’s a frozen can of beer on a stick! Now, the thing about the hopsicle is that it looks like your standard can of Tecate: Red. Cylindrical. Icy cold. Except the barman-witchdoctors at Diablo have taken the "icy" bit quite literally, injecting the beer with simple syrup and lime juice, jamming a wooden stick into the hole of the can and then putting it in the freezer. For four days. The result is a genuine beer popsicle, which the bartender must saw in half with a serrated steak knife (or samurai sword) to open. Then it's up to you to push the wooden stick upward to dispense the hopsicle in true Push Pop style, and decide if you want your savory sweet frozen joyride bathed in tequila as well (note: you want this). Could you recreate this at home? Be sure whoever is wielding the sword is completely sober! Link -via Rue the Day

Accompanist Needed Posted: 30 Aug 2010 06:59 AM PDT Want ads are sometimes hard to figure out because they don’t give enough information. This one, however, is confounding because it gives a lot of information! It is supposedly looking for a piano accompanist for a singing tour. The requirements are very specific. Some of my singing engagements take place late at night, in the homes of strangers, without audiences or music, and may appear to be elaborate art or jewel heists. For engagements like this, the accompanist may be called on to pick locks, crack safes, break windows silently and jump over large, sometimes barb-wire topped fences with me riding piggy-back at all times. Accompanist must possess a thorough knowledge of the canine psyche in order to tame six to eight guard dogs simultaneously and then retrain them to attack their masters in under two minutes. Ideally, to keep everything music-themed, the taming/re-training would be done with a flute. Proof of diplomatic immunity is a plus. See the whole thing at McSweeney’s. Link -via Nag on the Lake (Image credit: Flickr user alexanderward12)

Cat Saves Owner from Pit Bulls Posted: 30 Aug 2010 06:55 AM PDT A 97-year-old woman owes her life to her cat Tiger. Sophie Thomas of Clare County, Michigan was caring for her lawn when a pack of dogs approached. Thomas says, "All of a sudden these four pitbulls came marching in and they surrounded me. They kept going around and around. One of them kind of lunged for me and I hit him on the head and he backed off. Then another came towards me and I was scared stiff. I gave him a wack. All of a sudden, my cat jumped in the middle of it.” The cat ran towards the garage and the dogs chased after giving Ms. Thomas just enough time to run inside. Fearing the worse for her pet, she waited, and washed her wounds in the sink. That's when she spotted Tiger at the door. Thinking back she says she owes the cat her life. Thomas says, “I always thank god that my cat came because she was the one that really helped me out.” Ms. Thomas suffered minor injuries. The dogs are in quarantine for ten days. Link (with video) -via Arbroath

New Cupcake Flavors Posted: 30 Aug 2010 06:52 AM PDT Stacy Conradt makes cupcakes, and is planning to experiment with new styles and flavors. Key Lime: vanilla cake with key lime frosting rolled in graham cracker crumbs.Captain Crunch: crush the cereal into the flour and the frosting. Whopper: vanilla cake with malt powder; chocolate frosting with crushed Whopper candy. Mochaccino: Vanilla cake with chocolate frosting that has coffee granules in it. Or maybe just coffee flavoring, topped with a coffee bean. Chicken and Waffles: waffle-flavored cupcake with maple-flavored frosting with a little piece of friend chicken on top. Must. Try. This. She has a much longer list of proposed cupcakes. Which ones do you think will be a hit? Link

Paper Rings from Books Posted: 30 Aug 2010 06:49 AM PDT Artist Jeremy May carves holes into books and laminates the results in order to create rings. Pictured above is a ring made from Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman. If you were able to wear a book as a ring like this, which book would you choose? Link via DudeCraft

Low Bridge Posted: 30 Aug 2010 06:43 AM PDT (Video Link) There’s a railroad trestle over Gregson Street in Durham, North Carolina that has a clearance of only 11 feet, 8 inches. Truck drivers have been crashing into it since as early as 1956. The above video shows 13 crashes taking place there over a 13 month period, but the link is to a site chronicling even more crashes at the site over more than 50 years. Link via The Presurfer

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