Neatorama

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• Street Art that Rocks
• Thailand Tried to Barter Chickens for Fighter Jets
• Dog Riding a Scooter
• Flight of the Bumblebee, with Beer Bottles
• The Last Breakfast
• Monolith by David Herbert
• Paper Ring
• Braille With Sign Language Alphabet Blocks
• You've Been Watching Too Many Horror Movies
• Motorized Ice Fishing Shack
• This Week at Neatorama

Street Art that Rocks Posted: 06 Mar 2011 05:01 AM PST Aaron Zenz took his family to see Banksy’s film Exit Through the Gift Shop, and his daughter Gracie was inspired to be a street artist -when she grows up. The family came up with a street art project that involves no vandalism. They painted rocks with bright colors and funny faces and left them in public places. See lots of pictures of these rocks in their new locations at Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty. Link -via The Daily What

Thailand Tried to Barter Chickens for Fighter Jets Posted: 05 Mar 2011 05:32 PM PST Not that there’s anything wrong with a lot of frozen chickens — even 80,000 tons of chicken. It’s just that Lockheed Martin wanted a more transferable currency for its F-16 fighter jets: For the embassy in Bangkok, winning achieved two goals: helping Lockheed and keeping the Russians from selling planes. There was, however, a small complication with the terms — the Thai government didn’t want to pay cash. Instead, it proposed trading 80,000 stockpiled tons of frozen chicken. “Embassy contacts said that until Lockheed Martin offered a proposal to sell F-16s that included countertrade, the (Thai government) could not seriously consider its offer. Contacts also suggested that an offer that included an agreement to buy Thai chicken would be especially welcome,” the embassy said in a March 2005 cable setting the scene for the competition. Link via Geekosystem | Photo: US Air Force

Dog Riding a Scooter Posted: 05 Mar 2011 05:26 PM PST (Video Link) This video shows Norman, a Briard, riding a 4-wheeled push scooter. via Ace of Spades HQ

Flight of the Bumblebee, with Beer Bottles Posted: 05 Mar 2011 10:45 AM PST Who says that beer and classical music can’t get together in musical harmony? Rimsky-Korsakov is surely smiling in heaven hearing this rendition of Flight of the Bumblebee, as played with beer bottles. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

The Last Breakfast Posted: 05 Mar 2011 10:44 AM PST Brian Stuckey spent 3 months drawing The Last Breakfast, where all your favorite breakfast mascots get together for one last breakfast: Pop from the Rice Krispies as Judas Iscariot? I shoulda known! Embiggen at Brian’s website: Link | Etsy Store

Monolith by David Herbert Posted: 05 Mar 2011 10:43 AM PST Clarke & Kubrik, VHS, and Monolith. Check, check, and check. David Herbert created this giant 8-foot tall VHS cassette tape of 2001: A Space Odyssey from foam, plexiglass and latex paint. Now, how many of you automatically think of "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE." – via Coudal Partners

Paper Ring Posted: 05 Mar 2011 10:06 AM PST Artist Elsa Mora made this ring — and it’s made entirely out of paper! Her website is filled with simply mesmerizing papercraft work. Link via Dude Craft | Artist’s Website

Braille With Sign Language Alphabet Blocks Posted: 05 Mar 2011 08:26 AM PST Braille With Sign Language Alphabet Blocks – $36.95 Are you always on the look out for unique educational toys for your budding genius? The Braille With Sign Language Alphabet Blocks from the NeatoShop are for you. Not only are these handmade Braille With Sign Language Alphabet Blocks beautiful, they are fun too. What toddler can resist knocking over a tower of  perfectly stacked blocks? Not mine.  Roar!!! Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Baby and Kids products.

You've Been Watching Too Many Horror Movies Posted: 05 Mar 2011 07:39 AM PST (Video Link) Because you’re freaking out over ordinary things. TV pranksters had a little girl in a nightgown stand in the middle of a hotel hallway. They placed hidden cameras nearby to test people’s reactions. When guests step off the elevator, they’re shocked at what they see. The best reaction is at 2:00. via Super Punch

Motorized Ice Fishing Shack Posted: 05 Mar 2011 07:32 AM PST I drove my Chevy to the levee because the levee was frozen over. The Bangor Daily News held a contest which invited people to build wacky and unusual ice fishing shacks. Pictured above is the winning entry by Al Conary, which is built out of a Chevrolet Cavalier: "I did a lot of head-scratching," Conary admitted. "I ran all the controls — the steering, the brakes, the shifter, the gas, the throttle — inside the shack. Of course, it had to have all the electronics, the instrument cluster and all that, because it controls the computer. So I had to mount all that in there. It was time-consuming to figure all that out." Link via Jalopnik | Photo: Al Conary and Robin Foskett

This Week at Neatorama Posted: 05 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PST This post is here to make it easy for you to take advantage of what Neatorama has to offer. Here are some of the highlights from last week you can catch up on over the weekend, in case you missed something during the busy work week. In honor of March being National Craft Month, Jill found 28 Delightfully Geeky Videogame Cross Stitches to share with us -and there are more geeky crafts coming next week! Switching over to the natural world, Jill also wrote Weird Connections: Beetles, Bees & Beets. We learned about The Physics of Breakfast Cereal, courtesy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. Cartozoology is a scientific discipline you might not have known about until we published the article from the Annals of Improbable Research. From mental_floss magazine, we had a roundup of arm stories called Up in Arms. Over at the Spotlight Blog, you can get a enlarged and up close look at a real-world optical illusion in The “Bias of Thought” Bookshelf. How does it work? I don’t know! And don’t miss out on all the new stuff up at NeatoBambino! In this week’s Name That Weird Invention! contest, first prize for naming the combination shoes and tool kit goes to Deo for Espadrills. The second place winner is amanderpanderer, who called them SKIL-lettos (the newest SKIL multi-tool). Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop! The What Is It? game on Thursday drew over 100 entries! Several of the over 100 guesses were correct, but Twist was the first to say it is a device used for making lots of holes before sowing seeds -it's called a "dibble board." See a couple more pictures here. The award for the funniest answer goes to artsnarf, who says this is Gojira's (Godzilla's) toothbrush! Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop. We haven’t mentioned it for a while, but Neatorama sponsors the recurring How Did You Know? contest at mental_floss. Several days of clues lead up to fabulous prizes, including daily prizes for those who follow along. Congratulations to Jennifer Smith, Wayne Schiff, Allison Stombaugh, Chelsea Tymms, Alexi Runnelsand, and all the other recent winners! Watch for the next contest and you could be one of those winners, too! We have a catalog of exclusive Neatorama articles going back years. You can peruse those that spark your interest by using the handy index we call The Best of Neatorama. Or you can find more great links from elsewhere on the ‘net at the NeatoHub!

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