Neatorama |
- Neatorama Facts: The Jungle Cruise
- Yoda Talking Plush
- The Brutal Truth Behind Boxing Kangaroos
- Pit Bull Parkour
- How Many Bloopers Can a News Crew Stuff into a Single Minute?
- Gun-Shaped Remote Control for a Lamp
- Toilet Colors over Time
- Political Machines
- Mixing and Unmixing Colors in Fluids
- Giant Clothespin Sculpture
- Helicopter Ghost Chases Trick-or-Treaters
- University Offers Class on Lady Gaga
- Bicycle Wheels on Fire
- Perpetually Capsizing Boat Sculpture
- Old Coot Salt & Pepper Shakers
- Talk Show Flops
- Movie Trivia: Back to the Future
- Swiss Family Robinson Tree Found
- So You Want To Get a PhD In The Humanities
- 12 Impressive Chopsticks
- Cruise Ship Squeezes under Bridge with 20 Inches to Spare
- Don't Waste That Pumpkin!
- Miniature Chemistry Lab
- Taikhar Chuluu
- Airport Camping
- Human Oil (and Other Hoaxes)
| Neatorama Facts: The Jungle Cruise Posted: 02 Nov 2010 04:45 AM PDT I don't know about you, but the Jungle Cruise is one of my favorite Disneyland rides because the silly spiels from the skippers ensure it is different every time you ride. But what else do you know about the ride that takes you through four of the best known exotic rivers in the world? Get to know the ride behind the scenes with another edition of Disneyland related Neatorama Facts. Creating A ClassicWalt originally envisioned the attraction as an educational adventure where boats would travel by live animals from around the world. He soon realized live animals would be too much of a challenge because they would frequently be sleeping and hiding in the back of enclosures like zoo animals tend to do. Even worse, they'd have to go poo at some point, which would look gross and could be pretty stinky given the small area of space the animals would have to live in. So instead he opted to use animatronic animals, but he worked to have the creatures look as lifelike as possible and participating in realistic behavior, like the lions eating the zebra. Silly scenes like the rhino attacking the men on the pole and the gorillas ransacking the camp weren't added until later. The Imagineers based much of the ride on the movie The African Queen and the vessels used to ferry guests through the attraction are even based on the steamer seen in the film. Another inspiration for the ride was the footage used for the fifties Disney documentary series called True Life Stories. One of the most difficult challenges of building the attraction was finding plants that looked exotic and getting them to grow. Imagineer Bill Evans chose to use both native and exotic plants in order to save money, but he ensured the local flora still looked in character by performing little landscaping tricks. For example, he grew orange trees in a way where their roots were exposed and then he grew vines on the roots, creating a very junglesque feel to the plants. The Jungle Cruise was one of the first rides still around that were actually in operation when the park was first opened to the public. In fact, it was one of the first rides built because Walt wanted to give the foliage time to grow before the park opened, even so, it was still pretty sparse on opening day. Because this specific ride was covered by the press so much during the construction process, it was always a popular attraction and was an E ticket ride. Tracing Your VoyageThe Jungle Cruise starts out with a simulation of the Irrawaddy and Mekong Rivers, taking visitors through the South East Asian forest. The boat passes a Cambodian temple adorned with crocodiles, giant spiders, king cobras and a Bengal tiger. Next they enter a sacred Indian elephant bathing pool where Indian elephants play in the fountains and spray water at the guests. The boat then travels through the rivers of Africa, specifically the Nile and passes by two African bull elephants before approaching an African Veldt where giraffes, zebras, wildebeest all watch a group of lions munching on a zebra. A little past this area, there is an angry rhino trying to attack a group of safariers who are hiding up a tree. Next, the boat is surrounded by angry hippos who are only chased away by a gun shot fired by the skipper. Interestingly, the gun is real; it's a nickel plated Smith and Wesson .38 Special that has been altered so it can't shoot live ammo. The skippers carry two types of ammo, the regular blanks used to scare the hippos and extra loud ones in case of emergency. Interestingly, the operators at the Magic Kingdom only carry inoperable prop guns these days, so I wonder what they do when there is an emergency. Guests then pass under the backside of Schweitzer Falls, named after Doctor Albert Schweitzer, and then enter the South America and traverse the Amazon River. Drums and chanting signal that the boat is now in headhunter country. Soon enough the headhunters are wielding spears at the visitors, who are suddenly attacked by piranhas in the water. Just before the boat returns to the dock, it passes Trader Sam, the shrunken head dealer, who offers visitors a two for one special –two of his heads for one of theirs. Sillying Things UpWhen the ride first opened, it was supposed to be serious, but within a few years, Walt realized that it would be greatly improved with a little humor to liven it up. So he decided to have animator Marc David write a script that incorporated some humorous gags. The funny bits started to be incorporated into the action in 1962. These days, the skippers are always hired with their sense of comedic timing in mind. In fact, there has been a long-running comedy show in Fullerton, California since 2006 that features only Jungle Cruise skippers. EvolutionVideo link Disney believed in constantly updating rides to ensure they were always interesting for guests. While most people don't notice the changes, the attraction has gone through quite a few stages to be at its current state. If you have visited the park in the last few decades, you may notice a few differences from the modern version and the one seen in the video. The first change happened in 1962, when the elephant bathing pool was added. Two years later the safari camp was installed. When the Indiana Jones Adventure was built in 1994, the Jungle Cruise queue area was redesigned and the river was slightly rerouted. The new attraction fit in well with the setting, but the throngs of tourists that could be seen from the ride itself were a little distracting. Fortunately, the skipper script was adapted to make fun of the tourists. Another refurbishment took place in 2004, when the piranhas were added along with an explosion effect where the gorillas have taken over the camp. Even the boats on the ride were changed, as they were originally clean and beautiful replicas of the African Queen, but the 1994 refurbishments allowed the imagineers to give the boats a grungy look so they better fit in with their surroundings and the Indiana Jones Adventure next door. Differences Between The ParksLike most classic Disneyland rides, the attraction is also featured at other Disney parks, but each has their own tiny variations. Disneyland Paris is actually the only one to not feature the ride. This is because Imagineers worried about trying to find appropriate jungle plants that could handle the cold temperature of the area and because other theme parks in France have already adapted the ride, so it would not be a unique experience to European visitors. At the Magic Kingdom, the biggest differences are the order of the scenes and the inclusion of a downed airplane near the hippo pool. This is the back half of a Lockheed Model 12 Electrica Junior that was purchased for the Casablanca scene in the Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The other scene only required the front half of the plane, so the back half was added in the jungle setting. Other than the plane, the Tokyo version of the ride is pretty much identical to the Magic Kingdom version, except the narration is in Japanese and the ride runs clockwise instead of counterclockwise. The biggest changes can be seen at Hong Kong Disneyland though. At this park, the river goes around Tarzan's Treehouse and the ending has been completely redone to include a grand finale with a battle between the gods of fire and water. This park has handled language problems by having three separate lines, one of English, one for Cantonese and one for Mandarin. Steering The StreamsThe skippers on the boat do control the speed and direction you are going, but the underwater railing prevents them from having to steer. They generally use the steering wheel prop throughout the journey, but only for fun. On the other hand, this does mean they can put you in the line of fire for the elephant sprays by adjusting their speed appropriately –as my sister learned the hard way when she was throwing a tantrum on the ride when we were kids. If you've ever wondered what would happen in case of a breakdown, you can relax even if you are a bad swimmer. While the canal reaches depths of up to eight feet, it is is no more than three feet deep in most areas. The water is died brown to help prevent guests from being able to see the "river" bottom. Do you guys like the ride? What's your favorite terrible Jungle Cruise pun, or do you prefer to leave the jokes to professionals and avoid the ride? Sources: Themed Attraction, Wikipedia, Disney Reporter, Jim Hill Media, Disneyland, Mouse Planet, Little Known Facts About Well-Known Places: Disneyland  |
| Posted: 02 Nov 2010 12:42 AM PDT
Judge him by cuteness, do you? Why, actually, if you do, you’ll find that the Yoda talking plush from the NeatoShop is incredibly cute. Push his belly and hear his pearls of wisdoms, you will: Link | More fun Star Wars stuff | More Plush Toys |
| The Brutal Truth Behind Boxing Kangaroos Posted: 01 Nov 2010 11:38 PM PDT
The term “Boxing kangaroo” brought to my mind a cartoon image of a kangaroo with boxing gloves, but in the wild, these roo fights are less like boxing and more like brutal knife fights. Photographer Julian Robinson (aaardvaark on Flickr) observed:
Environmental Graffiti has more: Link |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 05:55 PM PDT |
| How Many Bloopers Can a News Crew Stuff into a Single Minute? Posted: 01 Nov 2010 05:41 PM PDT (YouTube Link) There are at least five distinct and substantial mistakes in the opening minute of this newscast by the ABC affiliate in San Diego. It was time for them to call “Do over!” and start over again. via Deadspin |
| Gun-Shaped Remote Control for a Lamp Posted: 01 Nov 2010 05:33 PM PDT Bitplay is a Japanese design firm that tries to make ordinary household objects into fun games. Pictured above is “Bang!”, a lamp turns on and off by pressing the trigger on its gun-shaped remote control. When you pull the trigger, the lampshade tilts. Link via CrunchGear |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 05:28 PM PDT
Link via J-Walk Blog | Photo by Flickr user TheGiantVermin used under Creative Commons license |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 05:01 PM PDT Surely you remember the useless machine, which did nothing but turn itself off (previously and previously). Here is a variation that made me laugh, from Saskview. -Thanks, Brett! |
| Mixing and Unmixing Colors in Fluids Posted: 01 Nov 2010 02:10 PM PDT (Video Link) Popular science educator Steve Spangler made this video to demonstrate laminar flow, which the Larousse Dictionary of Science and Technology defines as:
Spangler did so by injecting a container of transparent corn syrup with portions of colored corn syrup. He then rotated the container to mix it up. Next, Spanger rotated the container in the other direction, and colors separated almost completely. via Geekosystem | Spangler’s Website Previously: Smiling, Frowning President on Dollar Bills |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 01:51 PM PDT Mehmet Ali Uysal, a professor of art at Middle East Technical University created this giant clothespin sculpture. It was built for the Festival of the Five Seasons in Chaudfontaine Park, which appears to be in a town on the outskirts of Liège, Belgium. Link via Make | Artist’s Website | Exhibition Website | Photo by the artist |
| Helicopter Ghost Chases Trick-or-Treaters Posted: 01 Nov 2010 01:43 PM PDT (Video Link) YouTube user UtahAerials attached a ghost-like object to a remote controlled helicopter and used it to chase trick-or-treaters that came to his house. A camera mounted on the helicopter captured the scene. via Geekologie |
| University Offers Class on Lady Gaga Posted: 01 Nov 2010 01:36 PM PDT
Link | Professor’s Website | Photo: Flickr user kate_xo used under Creative Commons license Previously: The 15 Strangest College Courses in America |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 01:28 PM PDT (Video Link) This video appears to be viral advertising for Neil Pryde, a bicycle manufacturer in Germany. It shows people riding bicycles in a parking garage while their tires are on fire. via Nerdcore | Company Website |
| Perpetually Capsizing Boat Sculpture Posted: 01 Nov 2010 01:19 PM PDT Artist Julian Berthier made this sculpture. It looks like a capsizing boat, but there’s no hull beneath the waterline:
At the link, you can view several more photos and a video. Link via DVICE | Artist’s Website | Photo: Design Boom |
| Old Coot Salt & Pepper Shakers Posted: 01 Nov 2010 11:47 AM PDT
Got a loveable old coot in the family? Here’s the perfect little gift for those Over-the-Hill birthday parties: Coot & Toilet and Coot & Beer salt and pepper shakers from the NeatoShop. Now, get off his lawn. See also: our newly expanded neat and unusual Salt & Pepper Shakers category |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 09:08 AM PDT TV has seen a lot of talk shows come and go -some going faster than others. That can really hurt if it’s one of your favorite celebrities trying out the talk show format. If you remember those less-than-successful series, you’ll do well in today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I scored 75% -beat that if you can! Link |
| Movie Trivia: Back to the Future Posted: 01 Nov 2010 08:05 AM PDT Can you believe it’s been 25 years since we first went back in time? Well, maybe you can if you’ve seen all of the press coverage recently. With the trilogy just released on Blu-Ray, we thought it was a good time to do a little time-traveling back to 1985 ourselves to do a little trivia research. Here’s what we found. CastingIn an alternate universe, perhaps one where Calvin Klein plays Johnny B. Goode at a school dance, John Lithgow is Doc Brown and Eric Stoltz or C. Thomas Howell is Marty McFly with Melora Hardin from The Office as a girlfriend. It’s a totally different movie, isn’t it? But that’s the way it could have gone. John Lithgow was unavailable and Christopher Lloyd was, so the role of Emmett Brown went to Lloyd.
Claudia Wells was the original Jennifer Parker in the first Back to the Future, but it easily could have been Melora Hardin, Jan on The Office. Wells was cast when Eric Stoltz was Marty McFly, but then a sitcom pilot she had shot got picked up and the powers that be refused to let her do the movie simultaneously. Hardin was recast in the role. Then Eric Stoltz was replaced and Michael J. Fox’s small stature became a problem: they didn’t want his girlfriend to be taller than him, so Hardin had to be replaced. By this time, Wells’ T.V. show had fallen through and she was available for the part again. By the time Back to the Future II was being cast, Wells’ mother had cancer and Wells turned the part down. It went to Elisabeth Shue instead. InspirationI used to love looking at my parents’ old yearbooks, so I can relate to this inspiration: writer Bob Gale was going through his dad’s yearbook and found out his father was president of his class. “I'm looking at this picture of my dad and I'm thinking about the president of my graduating class who was one of these ’school spirit’ guys I would never have anything to do with … then I'm thinking, ‘Gee, was my dad a jerk like the president of my class?’” Gale said. When he mentioned the idea to Robert Zemeckis, Zemeckis thought about that old stereotype of mothers who become prim and proper once they have kids but got around quite a bit when they were high schoolers themselves. The two ideas were merged to create the basis of the story – but don’t think that the writers banged out a script overnight. The story went through 40 rejections before it was finally approved. Finding Hill ValleyIf you’ve ever wanted to visit Hill Valley, well, you can – at least parts of it. Hill Valley High School is actually Whittier High School in Whittier, California. Richard Nixon once roamed the halls there. But the dance scene wasn’t filmed there – it was filmed at Hollywood United Methodist Church, which is famous for the 20-foot-tall AIDS ribbon affixed to the exterior of the church. Twin Pines Mall is really Puente Hills Mall in Rowland Heights, California… but we’d advise against trying to hit 88 mph in the parking lot like Marty did. The house used for Doc Brown’s house is quite famous – it’s the Gamble House in Pasadena, as in David B. Gamble of Proctor and Gamble. Today, it’s a National Historic Landmark that’s open for tours, so if you should feel the need to live out a personal dream of pretending to be Doc Brown, the opportunity is available. But no experiments on the premises, please. Other Future FactsThe Internet hoax that was so hotly forwarded earlier this year may have been inaccurate, but here’s something to look forward to: in Back to the Future II, Doc and Marty look at a 2015 USA Today newspaper with the following headlines: Bob Gale isn’t concerned about any of these headlines coming true, but he does think they probably got the entire concept of the newspaper wrong: “In 5 years, will we still have paper newspapers? I don’t know!”
Remember how Reese’s Pieces made such a splash after E.T.? California Raisins was looking to do the same with Back to the Future. They suggested having the raisins prominently featured as a snack at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, but Bob Gale told them that a bowl of raisins simply wouldn’t read on camera and would resemble a big bowl of dirt. To appease them, he did throw in a shot of Marty jumping over a bench with a big California Raisins ad plastered on it. Tony Hawk was originally hired to be a stunt double for Marty’s skateboarding scenes. When Eric Stoltz was replaced, however, so was Hawk: he was far too tall to be Fox’s stunt double, and Fox was actually pretty adept at skateboarding and didn’t need as much help. |
| Swiss Family Robinson Tree Found Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:42 AM PDT Illustrator Kevin Kidney once reminisced about the wonderful tree that was the center of the Disney film The Swiss Family Robinson. One of his readers responded by not only tracking down the location of the tree, but taking several pictures of it as well!
Link -via Metafilter |
| So You Want To Get a PhD In The Humanities Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:40 AM PDT
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| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:37 AM PDT Chopsticks can be just two plain sticks, or they could be works of art, clever conversation pieces, or engineered to make eating simpler. You’ll find some of each (except for the plain sticks) in a roundup by our own Jill Harness at Oddee. The chopsticks shown make learning to use them easy and fun for kids! Link |
| Cruise Ship Squeezes under Bridge with 20 Inches to Spare Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:35 AM PDT
At the link, you can view several large photographs of the ship. Link via Gawker | Photo: AFP/Getty |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:35 AM PDT
I normally just paint ours for Halloween, so I can cook it later. Link -via Buzzfeed |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:32 AM PDT The tallest piece in this set is only three inches tall! Kiva Ford makes hand-blown miniatures of many types of glassware and jewelry. Personally, I am a sucker for the cobalt blue glass creations. See more at the Etsy shop. Link -via Evil Mad Linkblog |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:29 AM PDT
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| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:26 AM PDT Allie Brosch, the mastermind behind Hyperbole and a Half, sends out entertaining but infrequent Tweets. This one was illustrated as a Twaggie, which (like all Twaggies) can be made into a t-shirt if you like. Link |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 05:04 AM PDT These hoaxes are so absurd, it’s hard to believe that anyone was fooled …but lots of people were.
The Story: In early 1990, the Trinity Broadcasting Network reported that Russian geologists on Siberia’s Kola Peninsula had discovered Hell. They were using a giant drill, said TBN, to test how deep into the Earth they could reach. In November 1989, nine miles into the ground, the drill suddenly stopped spinning -it had hit air. The team lowered a thermometer into the hole. The temperature inside was 2,200°F -five times as hot as it should have been at that depth. They lowered a microphone down to record the sounds of shifting plates, and heard human screams. Then a black, spectral figure in the shape of a bat screeched and flew out of the hole. The Hoax: TBN claimed (on the air) that the source for the story was Ammennusatia, “Finland’s Most Respected Newspaper.” They’d gotten the article from a Texas minister who sent it in, claiming it was from Finland’s top scientific journal. Actually, Ammennusatia is a paranormal newsletter (it is from Finland). They got the story from a staffer who wrote it from memory after having read it in Etela Soumen, another Finnish newspaper, which ran the piece in a section where readers were invited to publish anything they liked -including fiction. Someone had sent the story to Etela Soumen after reading it an another weird Finnish newsletter called Vaeltajat. That paper got it from an obscure American religious newsletter called Jewels of Jericho, which had completely made it up. TBN reported the story without bothering to find out if it was true. A few months later, they announced that because of the story, 3,000 people had converted to Christianity. Ironically, the story was rooted in fact: from 1970 to 1989, Soviet scientists were involved in a project called the Kola Superdeep Borehole. The point was to drill as deep into the Earth as possible. They got about 7.6 miles in, but never encountered any fiery air holes, human scream, or ghostly bats.
The Story: At the 2007 Gas and Oil Exhibition, Canada’s largest annual oil-industry convention, a National Petroleum Council representative named Shepard Wolff and an Exxon Mobile executive, Florian Osenberg, unveiled “Vivoleum” -a revolutionary process that turned human flesh into gasoline (very handy, should oil reserves ever dry up). The executives then played a film about a deceased Exxon janitor who had volunteered to be turned into Vivoleum, and passed out candles to be lit in the janitor’s memory. That’s when they announced that the candles were the janitor- transformed by Vivoleum. The Hoax: After the two men passed out the “human candles,” the event’s organizers realized that “Wolff” and “Osenberg” were phonies.They were really Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, two members of the Yes Men, an anti-consumerism group that stages high-profiles stunts to embarrass corporations with poor environmental or human rights records. Bichlbaum and Bonanno had set up a fake Exxon website (vivoluem.com), through which they got themselves invited to the Oil Exposition. Convention organizers threw them out and threatened to have them arrested. A few days later, Exxon demanded they shut down the Vivoleum site. They declined, saying it was a parody and thus protected under the First Amendment. (The web site has since shut down.) MOSTLY CLOUDY The Story: On a Sunday morning in June 2007, CT2, a television station in the Czech Republic, was airing a weather update. As weather stats scrolled along the bottom of the screen, a camera panned the country’s scenic Krkonose Mountains. Suddenly, off in the distance, a fiery mushroom cloud filled the sky. The screen went black -the Czech Republic had just been nuked. The Hoax: A Czech performance art group called Initiative Ztohoven had hacked into CT2’s feed and replaced it with its own footage -undetectably similar …up until the bomb part. The mushroom cloud was just simple video editing done on a computer. After the initial blackout, CT2 came back on the air to reassure viewers they they weren’t under attack. Members of Initiative Ztohoven are under investigation by the Czech government and may face terrorism charges. ____________________
Proving that some things do get better with age, the 20th anniversary Bathroom Reader is jam-packed with 600 pages of fascinating trivia, forgotten history, strange lawsuits and other neat articles. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out! |
Ed Del Grande, a plumber, has an advice column in The Seattle Times. He responded to one query about home toilets by describing how the color of a toilet may indicate its vintage:
Mathieu Deflem, a professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina, is offering a class on Lady Gaga:
Michael J. Fox is Marty McFly. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the part – but he couldn’t do it because of his Family Ties commitments. The bigwigs behind the show really didn’t want Fox to focus his attentions elsewhere, so Robert Zemeckis started looking at his next two choices: C. Thomas Howell and Eric Stoltz. Stoltz won and actually started filming scenes before he and the producers mutually decided that the part was a bad fit for him. With nothing to lose, the Back to the Future people approached Michael J. Fox again. This time, he was allowed to do the film as long as it in no way interfered with his filming schedule with them. That meant that after Fox was done with Meredith Baxter, Justine Bateman and Michael Gross during the day, he spent his evenings and the wee hours of the morning with Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover, filming until 2:30 a.m.
How would you advise a student who decides she wants to go for a PhD in English literature? Not that it matters; the student doesn’t really want advice, just a written recommendation. Despite the computer generated audio, this animation made me laugh. Warning: it might hit disturbingly close to home. 
The Allure of the Seas, a new $1 billion cruise liner built in Finland, passed under a bridge in Denmark with only 20 inches of clearance:
Pure Organic has an infographic with several ideas for what to do with your Jack-o-Lantern after Halloween. How about giving it to the birds?
A large rock stands out in the middle of a plain in Mongolia. The Taikhar chuluu is covered with inscriptions dating back as far as Turkic rule in Mongolia. Those inscriptions were followed by more in the Mongol language, then Tibetan, and even more modern graffiti.
WHAT A HELLHOLE
VIVOLEUM FOR EVERYONE!
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