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2010/12/19

Neatorama

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Speed Fly

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 04:38 AM PST


(vimeo link)

Go skiing with a parasail down Mt. Superior in Utah! A helmetcam puts you in the action. I watched with my thoughts bouncing between “This is awesome!” and “This is where I get caught on a tree and crack my head open.” -via reddit

A Brand New Form of Matter?

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:15 AM PST

Just when you think that things can’t get any weirder, quantum physics threw us (yet another) curve ball: there may be a brand new form of matter governed by an entirely new branch of physics.

Back in 1970, a young physicist working in the Soviet Union made a counterintutive prediction. Vitaly Efimov, now at the University of Washington in the US, showed that quantum objects that cannot form into pairs could nevertheless form into triplets.

In 2006, a group in Austria found the first example of such a so-called Efimov state in a cold gas of cesium atoms.

That’s puzzling. Surely the bonds that hold triplets together are the same as those that bind pairs. Actually, no! It turns out that there is a subtle but important difference that makes these bonds completely different.

Today, Nils Baas at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology makes another startling prediction. He says that the strange, unworldly bonds that allow cesium atoms to stick together in triplets should allow much more complex objects to form too. In fact, he says we’re on the verge of discovering a brand new form of matter governed by an entirely new branch of physics.

Link

Logos of The Great Gatsby

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:08 AM PST

The Heads of State created a poster of imagined logos of companies by the characters listed as attending Gatsby’s party in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel:

Chapter four of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby reads like a VIP guest list of the Jazz Age. Taking inspiration from those pages, this poster is comprised of the business cards and personal stationery of the movers and shakers that attended Gatsby’s parties in the summer of 1922.

The design comes complete with professions, story-specific addresses, old-time telephone exchanges, and a cameo card from a main character.

Link – via swissmiss

Christmas Tree Made From Books

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:07 AM PST

We’ve posted about the World’s Most Unusual Christmas Trees before on Neatorama, but this one made by the folks over at Juniper Books is my current favorite:

Our estimate is that there close to 800 books that make up the Christmas Tree! You can't really see it from the photos, but we lit the tree from the inside, so it was glowing nicely through the spaces in the books.

Link – via NOTCOT

Star Trek Fashion

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:06 AM PST


Image: Annie Wu [Flickr]

Who says that fashion on board of a Starfleet ship has to be boring uniforms? Well, Annie Wu boldly goes where no man has gone before and designed Star Trek uniforms that are very chic. Set phasers to stunning: Link – via Drawn (newly powered by Tumblr – worth a visit)

The Woman Who Knows No Fear

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:05 AM PST

Imagine living without fear – and I mean any fear. That’s what happened to a woman called S.M. whose amygdala was damaged by a disease.

She’s the fascinating subject of a medical investigation on the brain’s response to fearful stimuli:

S.M. also had exposure to fearful situations in her past. She was held up at gunpoint and at knifepoint and was almost killed during a domestic incident. S.M. told researchers she did not feel fear during these life-threatening situations. She was also aware that her inability to react to fearful stimuli was not normal.

"It’s very striking that she has only a rational response, not a physiological one," said Dr. Jon Shaw, professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine. "The body is not prepared for a physiological response because the amygdala has been taken out of the loop."

Link

Holiday Bounty Hunter

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 07:08 PM PST

Look! Even Bobba Fett is in the Christmas spirit, with a wrapped gift ready for Jabba the Hutt! This strange Christmas figurine also comes in a snow globe version. It’s part of a collection of 20 Geeky Christmas Decorations To Nerd Up Your Holidays at Oddee. Link

Let It Dough!

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 06:32 PM PST

Illustrator Christoph Neimann made a holiday post out of what appears to be cookie dough! There’s plenty of whimsy, sprinkles, and visual puns in the many panels at his New York Times blog. Link -via reddit

Gifts for Cubicle Dwellers

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 09:23 AM PST


Stickman Action Figure - $11.95

Need a last minute Christmas gift for your fellow cubicle dwellers? Fret not! The NeatoShop has got you covered with these neat Office and Desk stuff:

Link: Neat Office and Desk Stuff

Last day to order for USA Christmas Delivery: Dec 20, 2010 3PM PST

World Record Collection of Santa Claus Memorabilia

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 09:22 AM PST


Photo: Jonathan Clark/Guinness World Records

Somewhere in that photo above is Jean-Guy Laquerre, who holds the Guinness World Records for having the world’s largest collection of Santa Claus memorabilia.

Laquerre, a 74-year-old retired geography teacher from outside Montreal, has devoted all his time to his Santa collection, which he proudly displays between Dec. 15 and Jan. 15 as an invitation-only exhibit in his house.

"I’ve been collecting since 1988," he said. "Various people give me these items as gifts. I purchase them here and there, and then friends will give them to me."

If you want to beat Jean-Guy, you’ve got your work cut out for you: he’s got 25,189 items! Lee Speigel of Aol News has the story: Link

Ohio Lighthouse Covered in Ice

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 09:21 AM PST

[YouTube Link]

Brrr! Is it cold where you are? Well, probably not as cold as inside this Ohio Lighthouse on Lake Erie, which is covered in ice.

Melissa Bell of The Washington Post’s blogPOST has more: Link

Ghost Cities of China

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 09:20 AM PST


Photo: Michael Christopher Brown/TIME Magazine

If you build it, they will come – or so the famous saying goes … but what if you build it in the middle of nowhere, Inner Mongolia? Michael Christopher Brown visited the famous ghost city of Ordos, Inner Mongolia for TIME Magazine:

The Kangbashi district began as a public-works project in Ordos, a wealthy coal-mining town in Inner Mongolia. The area is filled with office towers, administrative centers, government buildings, museums, theaters and sports fields—not to mention acre on acre of subdivisions overflowing with middle-class duplexes and bungalows. The only problem: the district was originally designed to house, support and entertain 1 million people, yet hardly anyone lives there.

Link

Similarly, Business Insider has the satellite photos of Ordos and other ghost cities of China:


There are no cars in the city, except for a few dozen parked at the glamorous government center.

Trollquotes

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 07:53 AM PST

A recent meme is to mix up science fiction universes to provoke an indignant response from science fiction geeks. A quote from a movie, TV show, book, or video game will do, but make sure it’s mis-attributed and laid over a picture that has nothing to do with the quote or the attribution! See 32 examples at Geekosystem. Link

$11 Million Christmas Tree

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 07:45 AM PST

They do things differently in Abu Dhabi. The Christmas tree gracing the atrium at the Emirates Palace Hotel is decked with real gold and precious gems.

The hotel’s general manager, Hans Olbertz, was quoted in local newspapers Thursday as saying the 43-foot (13-meter) faux fir has 131 ornaments that include gold and precious stones such as diamonds and sapphires.

Olbertz told Dubai’s Gulf News that he worked with one of the jewelers in the hotel to create a “unique tree and experience for our guests this year.” The hotel may later contact Guinness World Records for a possible bid as the world’s most expensive Christmas tree.

No, most people in Abu Dhabi do not celebrate Christmas, but why let that little detail get in the way of going for a Guinness record? Link -via J-Walk Blog

This Week at Neatorama

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 06:03 AM PST

All of us at Neatorama are excited about the New Car Giveaway this Tuesday in collaboration with mental_floss and resila.com. To help you prepare, David Israel posted a series of tutorials on QR codes which will be used in the contest: QR Codes, More About QR Codes, and QR Codes as Art. Even those who can’t be in New York City for the giveaway will learn a lot about the new technology. David will have more information about the giveaway coming up Monday!

We started off the week with a real treat last Sunday. A successful viral video turned out to be a side effect of a holiday greeting Brian Kidd made for Neatorama! The result was Merry Christmas from the Unipiper!

Other holiday offerings included The Santa Chronicles from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.

And Jill Harness took us on a holiday tour with Christmas Celebrations Around the World.

From the Museum of Possibilities, we got a look at different incarnations of The Yucksack.

Does the color red make a bull angry? The Annals of Improbable Research did some mythbusting in the article Red: Bull.

Does Rubbing a Boo-Boo Really Make It Better? (and Other Questions about Pain in the Brain) were answered by our friends at mental_floss magazine.

Over at NeatoBambino, this week’s subjects included sex education, statistics on due dates, and an update on Erik Martin, aka Electron Boy!

We kept you busy with Neato-Puzzle #10, which you can still work on this weekend.

We had a great response to the Name That Weird Invention! contest. Ultimately Foosnark rose to the top with the name arBra, a clever palindrome. old_joe came in second with the Dance Enhancer. Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!

Mal and Chad’s Fill in the Bubble Frenzy came around on Wednesday. The winning line is “The overworked elfs on strike holding Santa will never suspect we attack with a Christmas trebuchet!” Congratulations, drewp, who wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!

In the What Is It? game this week, the object is an old gambling die. shin knew what it is, and Sonnuvah had the funniest answer: a 35-pound dumbbell buried up to its neck! Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop.

If you ever get caught up on everything here at Neatorama, you’ll find lots more links to keep you busy and to share with others at the NeatoHub!
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