Neatorama

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• Cat Dreams
• Like & Dislike Stamps
• LEGO Alphabet Spaceships
• House with a Waterslide Directly from the Bedroom Closet
• Foley Artist Tools Of The Trade
• Star Wars Version of Footprints
• Giant Etch A Sketch
• Waiting in Lines
• Sunbeam Nap
• An Interactive Map of Where Americans are Moving
• Say What, Batman?
• Fugitive Busted by Lasagna
• Sweeping the Streets for Gold
• Dino Tails!
• Everything Important About London
• Catch of the Day
• Frog Tape Dispenser
• The Power of Little Habits
• Top 10 Dinosaurs That Aren’t What They Were
• Five Things You Didn’t Know About Alfred Hitchcock
• Universal Wrapping Paper
• This Week at Neatorama
• Doortop Stash

Cat Dreams Posted: 13 Mar 2011 03:24 AM PDT Theresa Knudson was inspired by Jan von Hollenben’s Dreams of Flying photographs and created dream photos of her cat by arranging various backgrounds. Fluffy is a trusting and patient cat! See more pictures at Pawesome. Link (Image credit: Flickr user Theresa Knudson)

Like & Dislike Stamps Posted: 12 Mar 2011 08:05 PM PST Like & Dislike Stamps – $12.95 You are opinionated and webs-savvy! That’s why we Dislike Like you!  The Like & Dislike Stamps from the NeatoShop were made for you! Your opinion matters.  Use the Like & Dislike Stamps to share that opinion with world. Now get out there and start stamping! Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Office Supplies you will Like!

LEGO Alphabet Spaceships Posted: 12 Mar 2011 08:00 PM PST Mark Anderson of Andertoons set out to make a Lego spaceship that resembled each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. It took two years to accomplish this goal, but he did it! Now all those spaceships are posted for your enjoyment. Link -Thanks, Mark!

House with a Waterslide Directly from the Bedroom Closet Posted: 12 Mar 2011 07:22 PM PST This is just the right way to start the day! Look at the top of the picture. The bedroom is on the other side of the glass. Roll out of bed, drop into the waterslide, and head into the pool. This luxury home (for sale!) in Bowdon, UK, has everything one could ask for. Link via Super Punch | Photo: Country Life

Foley Artist Tools Of The Trade Posted: 12 Mar 2011 07:06 PM PST Did you ever wonder how everyday sounds are recreated in film? Foley artists (named after Jack Foley of Universal Studios circa 1927) create the ambient sounds that make a film sound authentic. The image above is a toolkit for the artists that  helps them create the “everyday” sounds you hear in movies such as the swishing of clothing and footsteps. The kit was designed by Chiara Onida and the variety of the tools’ shapes, textures and dimensions ensures a rich range of sounds. Link - Via Gizmodo

Star Wars Version of Footprints Posted: 12 Mar 2011 05:01 PM PST Footprints is a classic short item American Christian prose and can be found framed in many homes. The theology of this Star Wars version is questionable, but awesome. I have no idea who created this most excellent variation. Link — Thanks, Jeff Acheson!

Giant Etch A Sketch Posted: 12 Mar 2011 04:34 PM PST HAC:Manchester, a hackerspace community in Manchester, UK, made a huge Etch A Sketch. The image is projected onto the screen from the rear. An arduino controller permits the knobs to be used in the traditional manner of the classic toy. Shaking the screen, as the user above is doing, gradually erases the screen — again, just like with an actual Etch A Sketch. Link and Video via Make

Waiting in Lines Posted: 12 Mar 2011 04:23 PM PST The ever-clever Dominic Wilcox (whose work we have featured extensively on Neatorama), has a few suggestions about how to improve the agony of waiting in line. This is great unless you’re the first in line, but that case, you’ve nothing to get upset about. Link via The Presurfer

Sunbeam Nap Posted: 12 Mar 2011 02:34 PM PST This delightful picture comes courtesy of redditor kimberleykitty. Save room for me, guys. Link via The Agitator

An Interactive Map of Where Americans are Moving Posted: 12 Mar 2011 12:42 PM PST Forbes presents an interactive county map of the United States that shows where people are moving. Just click on a county to view where new arrivals came from or people are going to. You can also select from nine major metropolitan areas. Link via Glenn Reynolds

Say What, Batman? Posted: 12 Mar 2011 11:58 AM PST So. What did Robin do that got him a scolding by the Dark Knight? Let’s have a little fun this weekend. Funniest answer (sly wit is appreciated, but keep it clean, OK?) wins you a T-shirt of your choice from the NeatoShop. (May we suggest looking at the Funny T-Shirts and Science T-Shirts sections?) Write your entry, along with your T-Shirt selection, in the comment section below. One entry per comment though you can enter as many times as you’d like. If you don’t make a shirt selection, you forfeit the prize, mmkay? via Ectoplasmosis!

Fugitive Busted by Lasagna Posted: 12 Mar 2011 11:56 AM PST I love lasagna, so I completely understand its power over lasagna-lovers. And so does the police, as they cleverly used it to catch a fugitive on the lam: He avoided Italian police for a decade on the run, but couldn’t resist his wife’s lasagna. Police say Giancarlo Sabatini went into hiding in 2000, shortly after being given a 3-year, 8-month prison sentence in a cocaine trafficking case. Acting on a tip, police staked out the homes of Sabatini’s wife and daughter Tuesday in Rocca Priora, a town near Rome. When they spied the daughter leaving her mother’s house and furtively dashing toward her home bearing a tray of lasagna, police, suspecting a secret guest, burst in and arrested Sabatini. Link

Sweeping the Streets for Gold Posted: 12 Mar 2011 11:55 AM PST Street sweeping isn’t a glamorous job anywhere, but in India’s ancient walled city of Ahmadabad, which is famous for its jewelry, it’s a golden job of sorts: Gohel isn’t a street cleaner. She’s a dhul dhoya, a dust washer. And not just any dirt. Although the streets in India aren’t exactly paved with gold, a few in Ahmadabad are at least flecked with it. Motivating her are the estimated 5,000 gold and silver shops in this western city. As the 40,000 workers from the shops come and go, flecks of gold fall from their hair and clothes, to be scooped up by Gohel and other dhul dhoyas. Some enterprising collectors even follow workers home, raiding their sewer pipes for the muck from their showers. [...] Once she and her mother separate the gold-specked dirt from the betel nut wrappers, cow manure, stained newspapers and other trash, it’s sold for about $8 per bag. Mark Magnier of the Los Angeles Times has the story: Link

Dino Tails! Posted: 12 Mar 2011 11:55 AM PST Don’t let my three-year-old see this, or we’ll never get out of the house today. Jessica of Running With Scissors created these awesome Dino Tails and was kind enough to provide a tutorial on how to make your own – via Craft

Everything Important About London Posted: 12 Mar 2011 11:54 AM PST What a wonderful design! Nick Patchitt of Nick Prints is offering everything important about London all rolled up into a big circle of icons. Can you name ‘em all? Via Londonist

Catch of the Day Posted: 12 Mar 2011 11:53 AM PST Photographer David Goldman snapped one of the most impressive photos you’ll see today. It took place at a spring-training baseball game last week in Florida, where a baseball player lost a bat to the stand. I won’t reveal the photo here (now that’s reflex!) – you’ll just have to see it in its full-sized glory for yourself at The Seattle Times: Link

Frog Tape Dispenser Posted: 12 Mar 2011 11:50 AM PST Frog Tape Dispenser – $11.95 Nothing says I am going spring into action and seize the day like the Frog Tape Dispenser from the NeatoShop. Yes, your friends and co-workers will be green with envy when they see this little number sitting on your desk.  Only those who are a leap ahead of the competition sport this type of tape dispenser. Be sure to hop on over to the NeatoShop for more jaw dropping and fabulous Office Supplies!

The Power of Little Habits Posted: 12 Mar 2011 10:04 AM PST Leo Babauta from the Zen Habits blog, who’ve also made a guest post titled How to Simplify Your Email in 4 Steps here at Neatorama, has posted some great tips about little habits and how to form them. It’s amazing how big a difference a little thing can make. Starting your day mindfully with some tea, for example, can change your entire day. Clearing your desk will make your work day amazing. A smile from a loved one can mean the world. And when these little things are repeated daily, and formed into habits, their benefits increase not just by multiples but by exponents. The little habits can be life-changing. Link (and if anyone from Sweden is reading this, here’s a Swedish translation)

Top 10 Dinosaurs That Aren’t What They Were Posted: 12 Mar 2011 09:31 AM PST If you haven’t studied dinosaurs since you were an elementary school student, you have some catching up to do! As paleontologists find more and different fossils, our body of knowledge about the prehistoric reptiles has changed. Take the Stegosaurus, for example. What we thought we knew just a few years ago is different from what we think we now know. Fossil footprints and detailed studies of its anatomy have proven that Stegosaurus didn't drag its tail on the mud, but actually walked erect, like an elephant, with its tail held horizontally, parallel to the ground. Its back wasn't as arched as they had us believe, and the neck was not carried horizontally as usually depicted, but upright, like a bird's. Also, the tail spike cluster (known among paleontologists as the "thagomizer") didn't actually point upwards, but sideways. This made the tail a much deadlier and more efficient weapon; to stab an attacking predator, Stegosaurus only had to swing its tail horizontally; punctures matching the Stegosaurus' tail spikes have been found in the bones of predatory dinosaurs from the same age and place, proving once and for all that Stegosaurus wasn't any less dangerous than the ankylosaurs that would evolve later. And that’s just the first of ten dinosaurs we once thought we knew. Link -via the Presurfer

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Alfred Hitchcock Posted: 12 Mar 2011 07:35 AM PST Happy Alfred Hitchcock Day! In honor of the great filmmaker, here are five things you may not know about the legendary director, courtesy of Stephen Rebello, the author of Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. 1.  Alfred Hitchcock never won a Best Director Oscar, yet sixteen of his films garnered fifty nominations, his 1940 classic Rebecca won Best Picture, and he was nominated as Best Director for Rebecca, Suspicion, Spellbound, Lifeboat, Rear Window and Psycho. "Always a bridesmaid," he philosophized, "never a bride." 2.  Although Hitchcock, who once called actors "cattle," was not considered an "actor's director," such stars as Cary Grant, James Stewart, Ingrid Bergman, Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Robert Walker, Grace Kelly, Doris Day, Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren gave some of their finest performances in his films. 3.  Hitchcock admired the work of fellow directors F. W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder, but he also repeatedlywatched guilty pleasures Smokey and the Bandit and Benji; the latter 1974 stray dog hit reportedly made the dog-loving Hitchcock cry. 4.  Hitchcock married his screenwriter-editor-assistant director wife Alma in 1926 and they remained constant companions and working partners until he died in 1980.  Their only child, actress Patricia Hitchcock appeared on Broadway and in her father's Stage Fright, Strangers On a Train and Psycho. 5.  Hitchcock was famed for his wry, very British sense of humor which often expressed itself in practical jokes: pretending to lose the key to the handcuffs that bound together for an entire day his The 39 Steps stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll; giving an elegant dinner party at which every course, from soup to dessert, was bright blue; and switching off the lights on the set of Strangers On a Train and stranding his daughter Patricia for three hours at the top of a Ferris wheel. Stephen Rebello is a screenwriter, journalist, and the author of Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, which has been bought by Paramount Pictures and The Montecito Picture Company for production as a dramatic feature film. Get more Hitchcock news from Rebello on Twitter at @HitchandPsycho.

Universal Wrapping Paper Posted: 12 Mar 2011 06:24 AM PST Do you ever find yourself rushing to wrap a wedding gift and all you have is Christmas gift wrap? This soon-to-be-for-sale wrapping paper designed by Fabio Milito and Francesca Guidotti will do for any occasion. Circle any one of many hidden word messages (happy birthday, with love, happy easter, etc.), slap a bow on it and your gift is ready to go. Link – Via Swissmiss

This Week at Neatorama Posted: 12 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PST Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan who have seen a triple disaster: earthquake, tsunami, and an explosion at a nuclear power plant. I don’t recall an earthquake as powerful as 8.9 in my lifetime -this week’s quake is reportedly the worst in Japan’s history. In between updates on the news from Asia, you might want to take breaks and catch up on Neatorama’s exclusive content from the past week. Jill brought us another post for National Craft Month called 30 Great Geeky Cross Stitches. And on Friday, she had another article in our series on Disney rides with Neatorama Facts: It's A Small World. The Balloon Man was all about the guy who invented latex balloons, from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. The Annals of Improbable Research asked the burning question Time for a Shave: Does Facial Hair Interfere With Visual Speech Intelligibility? From mental_floss magazine, we learned about The Hidden Meanings of Tattoos. In the What Is It? game this week, Abbey had the correct answer in the very first comment -this is a hand-forged key. Scroll down the answer page to find out more. Galen gets the award for the funniest answer: Chuck Norris' mustache comb! Both will get t-shirts from the NeatoShop. From the Museum of Possibilities, Steven Johnson gave us the Name That Weird Invention! contest. First prize went to Alexandru Popa for "The Hairmet." Second prize was won by Manticore for "The Mullmet." Both t-shirts from the NeatoShop! And we saw the return of Mal and Chad’s Fill in the Bubble Frenzy! from comic artist Stephen McCranie. Congratulations to winner Scott-O, who filled in the speech bubble with “Who would have thought picking a nose on Mt. Rushmore could be so rewarding?” He wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! There are more ways to get your Neatorama fix: If you aren’t checking our Facebook page every day, you’re missing out on extra content, contests, discussions, and links you won’t find here. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what’s going around the web in real time. Don’t forget to set your clocks forward one hour before going to bed tonight. Daylight Saving Time begins at 2AM Sunday for most of the United States. Oh, and today is Alfred Hitchcock Day, although I don’t know exactly why. Coming up next week: Pi Day on Monday and St. Patrick’s Day on Thursday!

Doortop Stash Posted: 12 Mar 2011 05:52 AM PST Stash your tiny valuables where roommates, family or thieves will never think to look. Here are step-by-step instructions from Sean Michael Ragan of Make on how to create a secret hiding place using a hollow-core interior door, a cigar tube and a few tools. Link - Via boingboing

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