Neatorama

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• 12 Gross Candies Perfect For Trick or Treaters
• Creative Reuse of Broken Skateboard Decks
• Ninjabread Men
• Swimming with the Pigs and Other Strange Vacation Ideas
• World's Largest Sushi Arrangement
• The Snazzy Napper
• Do You Want an Internet Kill Switch?
• Man Filmed Self Blowing Goat
• Daft Punk's New Tron Music
• Dropping a 1,169-Pound Pumpkin on a Car from 175 Feet Up
• The Most Disgusting Jobs in Science
• Boba Fett's Invoice for Jabba the Hutt
• Breast Cancer Detection Device the Size of a Lunchbox
• New Monkey Species Discovered, Eaten
• Fainting Goat Kittens
• Weird and Wonderful Pizza Cutters
• Novels That Inspire Real Life Murders
• Monster Plushies
• The Avengers as Medieval Vikings
• Quittin' the Mac: How a Mac User Came to the PC Dark Side
• The Ultimate Moving Experience: Troll-A Gas Platform
• Reverse Geocache Puzzle Box
• Japanese Fembot Has Incredibly Realistic Facial Expressions
• Could Retired Space Shuttles Be Used as Space Stations?
• Star Trek Cited in State Supreme Court Decision
• Relive the 70s with Fridgecouch
• People Are Awesome
• Man Robs Bank, Calls Taxi for Getaway Service
• 10 Things I Learned at BlogWorld in Las Vegas
• LED Matrix Jack-o-Lantern

12 Gross Candies Perfect For Trick or Treaters Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:50 AM PDT Because many people wait until Halloween is only a few days away to buy candy so they aren't tempted to snack on it before the trick or treaters arrive, I assume many of you still haven't hit the stores to stock up on sweets. If you're looking to get candy that fits the gross and creepy mood of the holiday, then you'll be happy to hear that I collected some great ideas to disgust your ghoulish guests. If you already have candy or don't get any trick or treaters, then you can still read about these abhorrent candies and wonder about the sick minds that come up with this stuff. Harry Potter Cockroach Clusters You've probably all seen the Harry Potter jelly beans with such delightful flavors as earwax, pepper and vomit, but these cockroach clusters are equally disgusting although less popular. Like a real cockroach, they have a squishy center with a crunchy shell. Fortunately, these candy versions have a gummy underbelly with a crunchy candy shell on top. Hotlix Suckers If fake cockroaches don't do it for you, perhaps real bugs will. Whether you like worms, crickets, ants or scorpions, Hotlix sells a variety of bugs sealed in a lollipop. All of them are entirely edible and utterly icky. Image via Erin_M [Flickr] Fear Factor Candy With all the nauseating eating challenges in Fear Factor, it's only sensible that the show spawned its own line of revolting treats. While there are way too many products to list here, some highlights include slimy gummy octopuses in syrupy goo and gummy frog legs with crunchy bones that come with a blood dipping sauce. Chocolate Doo Drops While this may look like dog droppings, it is actually made from one of Europe's finest chocolatiers, Guittard Chocolate of California. Best of all, it's over a 1/3 of a pound…yummy! Chocka Ca Ca Bodily functions are a huge seller in the nasty candy category, which is why it's not surprising that there are not only dog poop candies, but chocolate turtles in baby diapers as well. On the upside, the diaper is still clean and usable, so many parents will find the packaging to be refreshingly useful. Urine Sample Candy Nothing like a sterile sample of urine to get your sweet tooth buzzing. Naturally the flavor is a slightly sweet and sour lemonade candy, just be sure not to get the candy mixed up with your company's random drug test sample or you'll have a terrible taste in your mouth while you try to explain the results to your boss. Zit Poppers Pus is yet another of those exciting bodily fluids that excite the gross candy maker's mind. With gummy Zit Poppers, you can squeeze the pimples and enjoy the sweet strawberry and watermelon flavor of the bloody pus inside. Candy Blood Bag For aspiring vampires that haven't yet acquired the taste for real iron-rich blood, these candy blood bags are a good stepping stone. Lick Your Wounds Candy Scabs Like real scabs are to blood, these candy scabs are essentially the same thing as candy blood, only in a dried version. They supposedly taste like cherry sweet tarts, but the real fun isn't in the taste, but the design. The Band Aid part sticks to your arm and the bandage area opens to reveal the edible scab. You can even refill the bandage with more scabs so you can keep munching. Ear Wax Candy When you are ready to move from scabs to ear wax, try these utterly sickening ear wax candies instead. The plastic ear is filled with candy gel that you can enjoy when you pull it out with a lollipop stick shaped like a Q-Tip. Hose Nose If you would rather swallow snot than ear wax, then you may enjoy the Hose Nose. It pours liquid candy that can be squeezed directly into your mouth with the nose shaped dispenser which looks like a giant schnoz. Chum Bucket While the candies above are all gross due to the design, there are some candies that are just gross by nature (salted liquorice, I'm looking at you). While the packaging of the Chum Bucket is gross, the fact that the candies actually taste like chum is what makes them completely revolting. There are tons of other gross candies out there, these are just the sickest ones I was able to find. If you know any others, feel free to add them in the comments.

Creative Reuse of Broken Skateboard Decks Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:24 AM PDT Designer Beto Janz reuses broken skateboard decks to promote Ultra Skate Store in Curitiba, Brasil. The decks are left near skateboard locations around the city. They look like skulls and display contact information for the store. Link

Ninjabread Men Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:46 AM PDT Ninjabread Men – $8.95 Gingerbread man had no chance! He presumably met an early yet delicious demise, with the arrival of the ninjabread men from the NeatoShop: Link See also: More Fun and Unusual Kitchen Stuff

Swimming with the Pigs and Other Strange Vacation Ideas Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:44 AM PDT Forget swimming with the dolphins! Here’s the better (stranger) vacation idea: swimming with pigs! Swimming with dolphins? You can go one better! Visit the paddling porcines in Big Major Cay and jump in for a dip if you’re brave enough. They won’t bite—well, as long as you don’t whisper "BLT" within earshot. Read more strange vacation ideas from Oddee: Link

World's Largest Sushi Arrangement Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:43 AM PDT Norway and China aren’t two countries you’d normally associate with sushi, but here we are. Behold the world’s largest sushi arrangement or moritsuke, created by Norwegian chefs in celebration of the ten millionth importation of Norwegian Salmon. Now, I don’t know if all those sushi were consumed after being displayed for some time, but if they were, then I’d wager it also created the longest line for the bathrooms: Link

The Snazzy Napper Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:41 AM PDT Need to sleep in public but can’t buy the Night Owl Sleeping Mask from the NeatoShop because it’s sadly sold out? Don’t close your eyes … to this amazing new product called the Snazzy Napper. It looks like a cross between a burqa and a snuggie! Link

Do You Want an Internet Kill Switch? Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:39 AM PDT Would you agree to the government having a kill switch that shut down the Internet in the event of a malicious cyber attack? The majority of Americans do: Sixty-one percent of Americans said the President should have the ability to shut down portions of the Internet in the event of a coordinated malicious cyber attack, according to research by Unisys. […] "A majority of the American population is willing to grant the President the authority to cut short their Internet access to protect both U.S. assets and citizens, suggesting that the public is taking cyber warfare very seriously," said Patricia Titus, VP and CISO, Unisys. "Our survey shows that the American public recognizes the danger of a cyber attack and wants the federal government to take an active role in extending the nation's cyber defense. It will be up to officials in all branches of the federal government to respond to this call to action in a way that is measured and well planned." Link

Man Filmed Self Blowing Goat Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:37 AM PDT Finally! After waiting all these years, I can use the bleating title sentence on Neatorama. And yes, you can see it in action here: Link [YouTube clip]

Daft Punk's New Tron Music Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:37 AM PDT Undoubtedly some of you have seen "Derezzed," the music video for TRON: LEGACY by Daft Punk that went ’round the Interweb earlier today. But if you haven’t it’s filled with awesome snapshots of the upcoming movie: Link Previously on Neatorama: 10 Neat Facts About Tron

Dropping a 1,169-Pound Pumpkin on a Car from 175 Feet Up Posted: 27 Oct 2010 07:40 PM PDT (Video Link) Utah’s largest pumpkin for the year, weighing in at 1,169 pounds, was dropped on an old Pontiac after being hefted up by a 175-foot crane: The pumpkin was grown by Matt McConkie from Mountain Green and it is calculated that the descent of the giant pumpkin reached a top speed of 67.1mph for 3.1 seconds before meeting its end. Link via Geekologie

The Most Disgusting Jobs in Science Posted: 27 Oct 2010 07:32 PM PDT Annalee Newitz of io9 compiled a list of some of the grossest jobs in scientific research, like fart statistician: How do you know when you fart too much? Because gastroenterologists have studied human fart production, figured out what the average number of daily farts should be, and determined that levels above that might indicate a medical problem. All hail the fart counters, who are keeping our gastrointestinal tracts healthy. And because I know you want to know: The mean number of farts in humans is “13.6 episodes per day,” according to one expert. Other featured jobs include testicle crusher and corpse grinder. Link | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Charles Williams used under Creative Commons license

Boba Fett's Invoice for Jabba the Hutt Posted: 27 Oct 2010 07:23 PM PDT Illustrator Brock Davis made this invoice. It’s one that bounty hunter Boba Fett would have sent to Jabba the Hutt for capturing Han Solo. Link via Nerd Bastards | Artist’s Website Previously: Ghostbusters Invoice: Gettin’ Paid for Ghostbustin’ Expressionist Versions of Classic Arcade Games

Breast Cancer Detection Device the Size of a Lunchbox Posted: 27 Oct 2010 07:07 PM PDT Zhipeng Wu of the University of Manchester (UK) has developed a breast scanning device that is more portable that mammogram machines. Also unlike x-ray mammography, it uses microwave technology to accomplish the same task: [...]concerned patients can receive real-time video images in using the radio frequency scanner which would clearly and simply show the presence of a tumour. Not only is this a quicker and less-intrusive means of testing, it also means women can be tested at GP surgeries, which could help dramatically reduce waiting times and in some cases avoid unnecessary X-ray mammography. The scanner could also be used at home for continuous monitoring of breast health. The patented real-time radio frequency scanner uses computer tomography and works by using the same technology as a mobile phone, but with only a tiny fraction of its power. Link via DVICE | Photo: University of Manchester

New Monkey Species Discovered, Eaten Posted: 27 Oct 2010 04:19 PM PDT Early this year, scientists heard of a new and different monkey in the Kachin state of Myanmar. When they arrived at the site, they found the monkey had been “discovered” by the hunters who killed it. It was eaten soon after. Scientists first learned of “Snubby”—as they nicknamed the species—from hunters in the remote, mountainous Kachin state (map) in early 2010, according to the U.K.-based conservation group Flora & Fauna International (FFI), which announced the discovery Wednesday. The hunters told the team of R. strykeri’s fleshy lips, upturned nose, and odd respiratory issue: Rain falling into the monkeys’ noses possibly causes the animals to sneeze, so they often spend soggy days with their heads tucked between their knees, the hunters said. Local hunters told the FFI team that the rainy season was a good time to look for the monkeys because they made more noise during rain. Eventually, more of the snub-nosed monkeys were seen, but they moved so fast no photographs could be taken. Link (Image credit: Ngwe Lwin)

Fainting Goat Kittens Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:43 PM PDT Charlie and Spike are two very cute kittens that are normal in all respect, except when they hear a sudden noise: at the slightest sound, the kittens respond by collapsing and falling into a rigid paralysis which lasts about a minute before they return to normal. This condition has hardly ever before been diagnosed in a cat, is rarely found in dogs and is more common in goats. See a video clip of the fainting goat kittens over at VideoSift: Link

Weird and Wonderful Pizza Cutters Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:42 PM PDT These ain’t your daddy’s pizza cutter! Walyou has a gallery of 17 weird and wonderful pizza cutters, some of which can easily be mistaken for exotic weapons. This one above is the Easy Rider Pizza Cutter by industrial artist Frankie Flood. Link Previously on Neatorama: Custom Pizza Cutters See also: Pizza Boss 3000

Novels That Inspire Real Life Murders Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:41 PM PDT Stories can change your life – some inspire you to learn and to achieve, but alas some can lead to evil. Weird Worm has a list of 4 novels that inspire real life murders. Take, for example, John Fowles’ The Collector: The Book: The first book in John Fowles’ distinguished career, “The Collector” (published in 1963) has been on the edge of popular culture for decades. It even inspired a highly regarded movie that almost nobody seems to remember. And maybe that’s for the best. In the novel, Frederick Clegg is an avid butterfly collector and with what seems to be a nasty version of Aspergers syndrome. Lacking social skills, he lives emotionally apart from the rest of the world until he wins a soccer pool that allows him to finally live physically apart from people as well. However he grows lonely in his cabin in the woods and kidnaps young Miranda, whom he had been obsessing over for quite some time, and keeps her in the cellar, adding her to his collection (book titles!). Anyway, some changing narration shows Miranda and Clegg’s twisted relationship, as well as the scope of Clegg’s illness. Let’s just say, in the end, he resolves to continue to add to his collection. The Psychotic: Christopher Wilder, a serial killer of eight young women in the early-mid eighties, was found to have the book in his possession when he shot himself. Robert Berdella, the Kansas City Butcher, tortured and killed at least six men in the 1980’s, and claimed to be inspired by the film version of the novel. The killers Leonard Lake and Charles Ng are the most closely tied to the book, as Lake was directly inspired by and obsessed with the novel. Lake sought his own potential Miranda’s, deemed “M-Ladies”, two of whom were abducted and ultimately killed. The pair also killed close to two dozen others. A chance arrest on a firearms charge related to shoplifting lead to their discovery, with Ng fleeing before being caught and Lake swallowing a hidden cyanide pill while in custody. Read 3 more examples of novels that inspire (some) people to kill: Link

Monster Plushies Posted: 27 Oct 2010 12:34 PM PDT Monster Plushies – $11.95 Move over cute, lovable plushies – here comes gruesomely cute, loveable monster plushies from the NeatoShop. They’re the perfect gift for your fellow B movie lovers: Link | More Fun and Unusual Plush Toys

The Avengers as Medieval Vikings Posted: 27 Oct 2010 11:28 AM PDT Marvel artist Francesco Francavilla came up with an amazing art for the re-imagining of The Avengers as a band of medieval vikings: The Hulk is seen as a, well, hulking Celtic druid, Captain Amerigo wields the familiar star shield, Thor is the actual Norse god, and there’s a man walking around in what appears to be iron [man]. Link

Quittin' the Mac: How a Mac User Came to the PC Dark Side Posted: 27 Oct 2010 11:27 AM PDT Natania of Geeks Are Sexy is a decades-long Mac user … but recently she came to the dark side. Here’s how a Mac lover turned against Apple: Price me out. My MacBook can’t hold its weight anymore. A new MacBook starts at about $1,000. Other laptops, however, with far better specs, running Windows or Linux, can be purchased for half that much. So, with the Mac, what I’m really paying for is the logo and the shiny factor, not the performance factor. And since I’m doing a lot of graphic design these days, not to mention gaming (which will be addressed below), specs are a lot more important than they used to be. There’s a point where you examine the specs of the machines side by side and really have to ask yourself how much the Apple software is worth. Because that’s where the price tag is. [...] Make it difficult for the gimpier geeks. I’ve got carpal tunnel. I can’t use a normal keyboard. Typing on the MacBook is a special kind of torture for me, so I have to buy ergonomic in order to avoid the pain. Does Apple have a version of their delightful aluminum keyboard with a gentle, ergonomic curve to it? Nope. And the newest Magic Mouse… don’t get me started on the kind of pain involved using that (seriously, did they try to make it painful? Is this some strange torture device?). Link

The Ultimate Moving Experience: Troll-A Gas Platform Posted: 27 Oct 2010 11:26 AM PDT What’s the largest thing you’ve ever moved? Your fridge? Imagine if you have to move something larger than all of the house stuff you’ve accumulated. Say, something like a the Troll-A gas platform: It stands almost 500 meters tall and weighs 656,000 tons – it’s one of the biggest man-made objects ever towed (it has now been dwarfed by Texaco’s Petronius platform which is "arguably" the tallest structure in the world.) Bigger than any aircraft carrier, higher than most TV towers, this vessel asks for a titanic team of ships to tow it to another location – and imagine splash this thing would make if it toppled! Dark Roasted Blend has the picture gallery of the ultimate moving experience: Link

Reverse Geocache Puzzle Box Posted: 27 Oct 2010 11:24 AM PDT Mikal Hart wanted to give his friend a wedding present like no other – so he engineered a box that can only be opened at a particular location. Here’s the story of the Reverse Geocache Puzzle Box: Hmm. What does “Distance 391km” mean? “Access Denied” suggests that getting inside the box is indeed the objective of all this button pushing. Just for fun, let’s try again. Uh oh. We seem to be consuming our limited supply of “attempts”. The “No signal” problem seems to be solved, but the message “Distance 391km” remains puzzling. Does the box know its own location? Is there something 391 kilometers away? London? The Hague? A circle of that radius drawn around Paris intersects quite a few interesting places in France, England, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany. Link | Part 2 of the story – via Gizmodo

Japanese Fembot Has Incredibly Realistic Facial Expressions Posted: 27 Oct 2010 11:05 AM PDT (Video Link) Actroid-F looks almost human. Not just in the way its face is sculpted, but the way that it moves. Guinness World Records lists it as the first true android. In the above video, the robot mimics the expressions of its operator. The people behind the project suggest that it could be placed in hospitals as an observer. via CrunchGear

Could Retired Space Shuttles Be Used as Space Stations? Posted: 27 Oct 2010 10:55 AM PDT When the space shuttle program shuts down, the orbiters will be sent to museums. Would it be more cost-effective to recycle them as space stations? Bjorn Carey of Popular Science says no. First, shuttles only carry about 14 days worth of power. But a larger problem would be refitting them so that they’d be habitable on a long-term basis: But what really makes a shuttle station a bad idea is the lack of amenities. The shuttles don't have room for all the exercise equipment that astronauts need to stave off rapid bone and muscle loss. They don't have individual bedroom compartments like the ISS does; to get some shuteye, astronauts instead zip themselves in sleeping bags and Velcro themselves to a wall. They don't even have a garbage chute. "They'd have to figure out some way to bundle up waste—human waste included—and toss it out a hatch," Curie says. "And because there isn't a launcher to shoot the waste into the atmosphere to burn up, it would just float and collect around the outside of the station." Link | Photo: NASA

Star Trek Cited in State Supreme Court Decision Posted: 27 Oct 2010 10:44 AM PDT In the decision for Robinson vs. Crown Cork and Seal, Texas Supreme Court Justice Don R. Willet wrote: Appropriately weighty principles guide our course. First, we recognize that police power draws from the credo that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Second, while this maxim rings utilitarian and Dickensian (not to mention Vulcan21), it is cabined by something contrarian and Texan: distrust of intrusive government and a belief that police power is justified only by urgency, not expediency. The footnotes also include a quotation from Khan Noonien Singh. Link | Image: Paramount

Relive the 70s with Fridgecouch Posted: 27 Oct 2010 10:36 AM PDT Do you miss the 70s? Of course you do! But designer Adrian Johnson now lets you relive those halcyon days of yore with a couch made from old refrigerator parts and the backseat of a car. One of his designs comes with a built-in stereo. Unfortunately, it’s an iPod dock, not an 8-track player. Link via Dude Craft

People Are Awesome Posted: 27 Oct 2010 10:24 AM PDT (YouTube link) This music video for the song “Mecha Love” by Hadouken is a compilation of people doing awesome things. A very few are from viral advertising and use special effects, but the vast majority of these clips are just people doing what they do, awesomely. -via Laughing Squid

Man Robs Bank, Calls Taxi for Getaway Service Posted: 27 Oct 2010 10:21 AM PDT If you’re going to rob a bank, it’s a good idea to have your plan thought all the way through before starting: Taxi driver James Anderson tells the Missoulian newspaper the man was acting strangely when he picked him up at a Missoula coffee shop. He says the man first asked to be taken to the University of Montana campus, but couldn’t give Anderson a specific location. The man then asked to be taken to a hotel, but not before stopping to buy cigarettes. The cab fare was $7.50, and Anderson says the man tipped him $5 as they arrived at the hotel. Officers then pulled up and surrounded the taxi with guns drawn. Link | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user emilydickinsonridesabmx used under Creative Commons license

10 Things I Learned at BlogWorld in Las Vegas Posted: 27 Oct 2010 09:29 AM PDT The slogan is “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” but since Neatorama sponsored my trip to the BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2010, I had to report my experiences to Alex -and I might as well share some of them with you. It was my first excursion to any kind of trade convention, and my first trip to Las Vegas. (Image credit: Flickr user Justin Bugsy Sailor) 1. Bring more money. Las Vegas, or at least the big resort casinos, are designed to extract as much money as possible from every visitor and then send them home. Rooms are relatively inexpensive compared to other cities, despite the fact that my room rate went up between the time I made reservations and the time I checked in. I skipped the $10 sandwiches in the airports and later regretted it, because the cheapest hamburger at the hotel was $15. Try the all-you-can-eat buffet, it’s only $42. However, once you leave the hotel, you can find normally-priced food -IF you can figure out how to get there! I played the slots just enough to say I’d gambled in Las Vegas, but not enough to rate the free drink treatment. If there is one tip for a Las Vegas trip, it’s bring more money. 2. Distance is an illusion in Las Vegas. (Image credit: Flickr user Bill Rice) Friday night I wandered down the strip and checked out the other casinos. Distance is deceiving in Vegas. The hotel and casino buildings are massive compared to buildings in other cities. You look out the window and tell yourself, “The Luxor is just next door -and Excalibur is the next building. No problem to walk!” But each resort covers many acres and “two buildings down” can easily be a half-mile walk. I walked as far as the Bellagio and probably put five miles on my feet. I was rewarded with a fairly nice video of the Bellagio Fountains (nice except when that woman stuck her camera in front of mine) and blisters on my feet. My legs were sore for a week afterward. That didn’t stop me from doing the same walk in the sunlight on Saturday! When planning the particulars of your trip to Vegas, take your age and physical condition into consideration. 3. Las Vegas is built for tourists. The strip has lots of wonderful street performers: costumed characters posing for pictures, musicians and magicians, a woman with a snake, and one fellow who invited me to his Facebook page. It was like Times Square, except in New York there are some locals in the crowd. Here, you can tell the residents because they are working. 4. Jet lag is a killer. It took 12-13 hours to travel each way, but the three hour time difference meant I was ready for bed by 9PM and up 3AM. That’s not a problem if you’re there to gamble -the casinos are busy 24/7. I saved several dollars on a cup of coffee by trekking 15 minutes across the street to the fast food outlets, along with the other east coasters who couldn’t sleep until sunrise. The Europeans were already out jogging by then. Jet lag also meant I was dead tired when the other BlogWorld attendees were partying the night away. If you have a chance to visit Las Vegas, do it while you’re young enough to handle staying up late. 5. Bloggers never stop blogging. BlogWorld is what happens when you put four thousand internet geeks in one hotel. Sure, they look like they’re not paying attention, but what they are doing is blogging -in real time- as the speeches and seminars are going on. Many were sending messages to each other and to their readers via Twitter. Apparently most of the attendees have day jobs, because I seemed to be the only person there with neither a laptop nor a smart phone. In one seminar, the only way you could ask a question was by Twitter! Not that I had any burning questions, but they gave away some nice prizes to those who submitted. 6. World records can be broken anywhere. My room did NOT come with a coffeemaker, so I spent a lot of time in search of an affordable cup. Gourmet Gift Baskets had a very large cup in the exhibition hall. It held 2010 gallons of coffee, which broke the world record for the largest cup of coffee ever! A representative from Guinness was there to certify the record on video. They also gave away coffee, so you can bet I got my share. If the coffee runs out, Scotch will do nicely. Macallan Scotch was one of the sponsors of BlogWorld. Their booth was very popular. Because they gave us free samples of 12-year-old single-malt Scotch. 7. Drawing on cars is fun! Both Kodak and Ford were event sponsors. Ford had the 2012 Focus on display, but Kodak had a Focus they invited attendees to scribble on! I, of course, had to do some advertising. 8. Free stuff isn’t free if you have to pay luggage charges. I picked up a lot of swag -five t-shirts and a bunch of toys and stuff, and I won a drawing for a Yahoo stylebook. I carried two big tote bags (also giveaways) back to the room and wondered how I’d ever get that stuff home without buying a suitcase and paying for checked luggage. UPS was there to save the day, with an offer to ship swag home free! They gave out 100 luggage boxes. I filled the box with convention giveaways and souvenirs as well, 20 pounds total, and shipped it back. My souvenirs got home a week later than I did, but the price was right. 9. The internet is much bigger than you think. (Image by Flickr user Yann Ropars) BlogWorld gave me a taste of how vast the blogosphere is. There were people from all corners of the internet- cupcake bloggers, diabetes bloggers, railroad travel bloggers, corporate bloggers with big followings, and tons of tech bloggers, many of whom had never even heard of Neatorama. I felt like a fish jumping out of the small pond into the big ocean. And once I left the Expo and wandered into the casino, I chatted with people who were wondering where all those geeks at the convention center came from. Some said they don’t understand the internet at all. Of course, that’s not so different from my hometown, where only a small percentage of the people I know use the internet at all -and that’s mostly Facebook. Even if you surf for a living, there’s a vast universe waiting to be explored. 10. It’s good to be home. I appreciate the opportunity to travel and attend BlogWorld, and especially the opportunity to meet Neatorama’s social networking expert and BitLit curator David Israel. Still, no matter how much fun you have on a trip, there is relief is getting back to your family, your own bed, and your regular schedule (not to mention your personal coffeemaker). My daughters made cupcakes and decorated them with sprinkles that spelled out WELCOME HOME.

LED Matrix Jack-o-Lantern Posted: 27 Oct 2010 08:47 AM PDT Mike Szczys went all out this Halloween and installed a matrix of 70 LEDs in a pumpkin! The result is a way to scroll messages in the dark for visitors and trick-or-treaters. See a video of the Jack-o-Lantern in action, and the complete process of building it at Hack a Day. Link -Thanks, Mike!

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