Neatorama

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• Geography Puzzle
• Moose Hat
• The Frowning Royal Wedding Flower Girl: What Was She Thinking About?
• Good Advice Costs Nothing and It's Worth the Price
• Darth Vader Urinal
• The Economics of Death Star Planet Destruction
• Vincent Bousserez's Tiny People
• Road Net Brings Heavy, Speeding Trucks to an Immediate Halt
• Teddy Roosevelt-Bear Riding a Laser Eye-Firing Abe Lincoln
• Man Says That Mudflap Girl Is His Mom
• Thor Box Contest Winners
• Man on Hawaiian Vacation Accidentally Meets Brother
• The Extra Hand
• The Eyes Have It
• Doctor Who's 11th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (Actual Screwdriver)
• Fat Cat Works Out
• Camera Obscura
• Royal Wedding Hats
• Suspect Asks Victim to Install Stolen Stereo

Geography Puzzle Posted: 29 Apr 2011 07:17 PM PDT Computer scientist Haym Hirsh wrote this puzzle. See if you can figure it out: I am in one of the great capitals of Europe. I just learned that Bob, Carl, and I are in countries that share physical borders with each other. The official language of Bob's country is Dutch, and Carl's is Portuguese. It is 9:00am local time for both Bob and Carl. Now: What is Hirsh’s local time? You can view eight other good puzzles by Hirsh at the link. Link | Hirsh’s Website | Photo by Flickr user pobre.ch used under Creative Commons license

Moose Hat Posted: 29 Apr 2011 05:40 PM PDT Moose Hat – $16.95 Wedding bells have rung for Will and Kate, but that doesn’t mean the hat craze has to end.  Head on over to the NeatoShop and get yourself a fantastic Moose Hat.  The Moose Hat is no where near as fabulous as Princess Beatrice’s hat, but it is still pretty darn cool! Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fit for royalty Headwear!

The Frowning Royal Wedding Flower Girl: What Was She Thinking About? Posted: 29 Apr 2011 05:38 PM PDT Aah, the Royal Wedding. A grand occassion where joy was had by all. Well, almost all. Grace van Cutsem, age 3, was the daughter of Lady Rose Astor and Hugh van Cutsem, a close friend of William and Harry. She was the cute flower girl that stole the show by tellin’ it like it was in this photo that went viral ’round the Web (apparently, she hates loud noises!) Boing Boing has the large pic: Link (Photo: Darren Staples/Reuters) What do you think she was thinking about? Enter your caption in the comment below along with your selection of Funny T-shirt (don’t forget the size and color) from the NeatoShop. Funniest 3 will win the T-shirts. One caption per comment, though you can enter as many as you’d like. If you don’t enter the T-shirt selection, you forfeit the prize, mmkay?

Good Advice Costs Nothing and It's Worth the Price Posted: 29 Apr 2011 05:37 PM PDT (Video Link) Until today, I’d never heard of the comedian and songwriter Allan Sherman (1924-1973). He was the Weird Al Yankovic of the 50s and 60s, composing and performing parody songs to millions of television viewers. This song, “Good Advice”, is a real hoot. It turns out that Sherman was responsible for the great inventions and discoveries of the modern age. Who knew? More Information via TigerHawk

Darth Vader Urinal Posted: 29 Apr 2011 05:23 PM PDT Well, this is one way to get Force Choked in a hurry. The R2D2 toilet is probably safer. via Walyou | Photo: Flickr user Zartimus

The Economics of Death Star Planet Destruction Posted: 29 Apr 2011 04:37 PM PDT Questions of logic don’t apply to Hollywood movies, but science fiction fans like their stories to make some kind of sense. So the discussion turned to the logic of using a Death Star to blow up a planet. What's the economic calculus behind the Empire's tactic of A) building a Death Star, B) intimidating planets into submission with the threat of destruction, and C) actually carrying through with said destruction if the planet doesn't comply? Doesn't the Empire take a huge economic loss from the lost productivity of an entire planet? They were presumably paying taxes and providing resources to the rest of the Empire. Presumably the loss of that planet's output would have to be made up by increased output from other planets that were either slacking in productivity due to rebellion or threatening to rebel and withdraw from the Empire altogether. It doesn't seem to make good economic sense. What follows is a cost-benefit analysis from various members of the Think Tank. Read the rest at (where else?) Overthinking It. Link -via Metafilter

Vincent Bousserez's Tiny People Posted: 29 Apr 2011 04:33 PM PDT We’ve previously featured some of Vincent Bousserez’s photographs before, but this one in particular made me laugh. In my home, we joke about pacifier gnomes stealing and hiding pacifiers, but maybe — just maybe — they’re actually real. You can view a slideshow of Bousserez’s work at the link and make up your own mind. Link | Artist’s Website

Road Net Brings Heavy, Speeding Trucks to an Immediate Halt Posted: 29 Apr 2011 03:58 PM PDT (Video Link) Barrier1 Systems is a defense contractor that has developed a number of amazing retractable road blocking systems. The above video shows several of them, starting with a net that can be kept below the surface of the road, then deployed in an emergency. Hitting one of them is like slamming into a brick wall. Company Website via Geekologie

Teddy Roosevelt-Bear Riding a Laser Eye-Firing Abe Lincoln Posted: 29 Apr 2011 03:40 PM PDT Don’t you recognize the scene? It’s the Battle of San Juan Hill — July 1, 1898. Criminy, they don’t teach kids anything in school these days! It was this battle, among others in Cuba, that led to the development of the 1903 Springfield rifle, as the Krag-Jørgensen proved (as you can see in the picture) to have an inadequate rate of fire compared to the Spaniards’ Mausers. This excellent true to life image from history has been attributed to deviantART user Matthew McKeown. Gallery Link via Geekosystem

Man Says That Mudflap Girl Is His Mom Posted: 29 Apr 2011 03:28 PM PDT The iconic “Mudflap Girl”, long seen on America’s highways, finally has an identity. Ed Allen of Washington, D.C. says that it’s his mother. Allen’s father, a trucker, kept a photo of his wife wearing a swimsuit in his rig: Dad kept the photo in the cab of his truck, which always bore his wife's name on the hood. When a new corporate owner forbade Stewart from decorating a company-owned vehicle, Stewart put his wife's silhouette on his trailer's mudflaps so his boss couldn't see her when the truck was backed up to a loading dock. In 1967, Ed Allen said that a local truck-accessories manufacturer named Bill Zinda saw the design. He liked it and, with dad's permission, started selling it. No one ever trademarked the image, and Mudflap Girl got around a lot during the freewheeling '70s. Link via Jalopnik | Photo by Flickr user Brandon Doran used under Creative Commons license Previously: Dating Mudflap Girl Wyoming Library’s Mudflap Girl

Thor Box Contest Winners Posted: 29 Apr 2011 11:20 AM PDT Hello Neatoramanauts! Earlier this week we asked you to guess What's Inside The Thor Box and to take a look at the NeatoShop's wide selection of Funny T-shirts. We've opened the box and found cool Thor swag inside. Here are the winners: cameron got the Thor Hammer Klyde got one of the Thor action figure sanderson81 got another Thor action figure TheBurke got the last Thor action figure tubacca123 got the Thor Helmet Funny T-shirts winners, picked at random: Sasquatch got the Big Wiener Blitzanger got the ROFLCOPTER Pilot Congrats, guys!

Man on Hawaiian Vacation Accidentally Meets Brother Posted: 29 Apr 2011 11:16 AM PDT Rick Hill of Lunenburg, Massachusetts went on vacation to Hawaii and took an unplanned visit to Waikiki Beach. There he met resident Joe Parker, who went on an unplanned errand to the beach as part of his job. Parker recognized Hill’s accent and made an offhand remark that led them to a discussion about how they both grew up in the same area of Massachusetts. And then the name game began. Parker threw out several, including Dickie Halligan. Hill responded, "That's my father!'' Standing in the glistening white sand, Parker lowered his sunglasses, squinted at Hill, and declared, "That's my dad, too!'' A flood of emotion hit everyone like the high-arching waves crashing nearby, they said. Tears flowed down Howe's cheeks as the two men studied each other's face and hugged. "I can't really put it into words,'' Parker said yesterday in a telephone interview from Hawaii, describing the feeling of meeting his half brother for the first time, some 6,000 miles from where they grew up. "If I had to, I would say it was chilling, paralyzing, and an out-of-body experience all at once.'' The two men spent a week becoming acquainted. Link -via reddit

The Extra Hand Posted: 29 Apr 2011 10:23 AM PDT Possibly you’ve seen this strange picture of President Obama and his wife Michelle holding hands -with an extra hand. Many people assumed the picture was the victim of Photoshop, but Chicago Tribune photojournalist Alex Garcia has posted an explanation and the rest of the photo sequence. Link -via The Daily What (Image credit: Alex Garcia)

The Eyes Have It Posted: 29 Apr 2011 08:26 AM PDT As amazing as human eyes are, other species have developed ways of seeing that will astound you. Scientists are discovering new structures and adaptations all the time. There are eyes with mirrors, eyes with optical fibres, and eyes with bifocal lenses. There are eyes that see in the dark, move around heads, or go into sleep mode. There are even eyes made of rock. This slideshow will take you on a tour of some of these recent eye-opening discoveries. Pictured is a box jellyfish, which has 24 eyes of two different types. Link

Doctor Who's 11th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (Actual Screwdriver) Posted: 29 Apr 2011 07:42 AM PDT Doctor Who’s 11th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (Actual Screwdriver) - $38.95 Attention Doctor Who fans! Doctor Who’s 11th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver (Actual Screwdriver) is back in stock at the NeatoShop! This nifty gadget is a fully-functioning screwdriver. The Doctor Who’s 11th Sonic Screwdriver (Actual Screwdriver) comes with 3 different sized (S,M,L) interchangeable and reversible Philips and flat-head tips.  Home repair has never been so cool! Be sure to check out all the fabulous Doctor Who items available at the NeatoShop!

Fat Cat Works Out Posted: 29 Apr 2011 07:25 AM PDT A fat cat in Japan complies with doctor’s orders by starting an exercise routine. I don’t know if it’s the cat’s facial expression, his considerable size, or the appropriate music, but I could not stop watching this video. Link -via Metafilter

Camera Obscura Posted: 29 Apr 2011 07:06 AM PDT Cuban-born photographer Abelardo Morell demonstrated the concept of camera obscura to college students in 1988 by turning the entire classroom into a camera. On a sunny day, he covered the classroom windows with black plastic, making the space as dark as a cave, cut a dime-size hole in the material, and told his students to watch. Almost instantly the back wall came alive like a movie screen, its surface covered with a fuzzy image of people and cars moving along Huntington Avenue outside. Then the double take: The image was upside down, sky on floor, ground on ceiling, the laws of gravity seemingly gone haywire. Morell had turned his classroom into a camera obscura, a dark chamber, the Latin name for perhaps the earliest known imaging device and the ancestor of the photographic camera. Explaining the optical principle behind the device is probably the most complicated thing about it. A camera obscura receives images just like the human eye—through a small opening and upside down. Light from outside enters the hole at an angle, the rays reflected from tops of objects, like trees, coursing downward, and those from the lower plane, say flowers, traveling upward, the rays crossing inside the dark space and forming an inverted image. Morell developed a way to photograph the images made with his homemade cameras obscura, whether they were created with a box, a room, or even a tent. Link to story. Link to photo gallery. -Thanks, Marilyn! (Image credit: Abelardo Morell)

Royal Wedding Hats Posted: 29 Apr 2011 06:38 AM PDT Since Law & Order was nowhere to be found at 5AM, I watched the guests arrive for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The women’s hats reminded me of the Kentucky Derby crowd, only more so! The one that is destined to become an internet meme was worn by Princess Beatrice, shown here on the right. Buzzfeed compiled a list of the most notable hats worn at the royal wedding. Link

Suspect Asks Victim to Install Stolen Stereo Posted: 29 Apr 2011 06:18 AM PDT Tuesday morning, Eric Ford's girlfriend found that a window had been broken and her multimedia system had been stolen from her vehicle. Several iPods and some money were also taken. Ford then went to his job installing car stereos at Mobile Audio Designs in Lincoln, Nebraska. From there, the story goes where one might expect it to go. Anthony Trang, 21, 2912 Beacon Hills Circle, asked Ford to install some cables to a DVD player in his car. “Yeah, man, just bring the DVD player in here,” Ford said he told him. Trang did, and there was the Clarion NX501 deck Ford had told police was stolen Tuesday morning. Ford’s reaction: “You gotta be kidding me.” Ford called police, who arrested Trang on suspicion of theft. Link (Image credit: Clarion)

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