Neatorama

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• Domo Playing Cards
• Chess Set Improvised by Marine in Afghanistan
• Coin
• Kissing Transmitter Is Romantic in a Somewhat Awkward Way
• The Many Different Faces of Lolita
• Mad Max Electric Bicycle
• Fashion Statement: Wrapped up in King Kong's Hand
• A Day in the Life of a Goomba
• Jam Jar Mystery
• Augmented Reality Tattoo
• Josh Hadar's Curvy Bikes
• 17 Most Extreme Scar Tattoos
• Your Age on Other Planets
• Stop Insulting Your Companion Animals by Calling Them "Pets"!
• Sausage Magnets
• Leaky House Called 911
• Julian Assange: Facebook is a Spy Machine
• Smile!
• The Tale of Two Summers
• What to Do if You’re The First Person to Make Alien Contact
• Star Wars Graffiti
• 50 Worst Fails in Technology History
• Crocheted Gun Store
• Who Had the Best Civil War Facial Hair?
• Poor Doggy
• Inflatable Tongue
• Dog Hides in Bathtub to Survive Fire
• Homemade Angler Fish

Domo Playing Cards Posted: 02 May 2011 09:27 PM PDT Domo Playing Cards – $5.95 Attention Domo fans. Be hold the adorable Domo Playing Cards from the NeatoShop.  These cards probably won’t make you a better poker player, but they will help you get in touch with your inner Domo. A WARNING TO THOSE WHO HAVE HARNESSED THEIR INNER DOMO:  Please avoid nervously passing gas during the card game.  None of us want to smell you releasing your inner Domo. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more unusual Playing Cards!

Chess Set Improvised by Marine in Afghanistan Posted: 02 May 2011 08:10 PM PDT A reader at Everyday, No Days Off sent in this picture of a chess set made by a US Marine deployed in Afghanistan. The kings and queens are .50 caliber cartridges and the rooks are 40 mm grenade cases. Link | Previously: Cartridge Chess Set

Coin Posted: 02 May 2011 07:22 PM PDT (vimeo link) Oh no! This place is infested with coins! This short stop-motion animation was produced by Olly Newport. -via Laughing Squid

Kissing Transmitter Is Romantic in a Somewhat Awkward Way Posted: 02 May 2011 06:15 PM PDT No, not a simulator, but a transmitter. There’s a real person on the other end of the wire (presumably a girl) sending the kiss, which is in turn replicated by the mouth piece built by researchers at Kajimoto Laboratory. They explained: “This device is for communications within the mouth, in other words, the goal is to obtain the feeling of kissing.” “If you take one device in your mouth and turn it with your tongue, the other device turns in the same way. If you turn it back the other way, then your partner’s turns back the same way, so your partner’s device turns whichever way your own device turns.” “It is achieved only by motor rotations, and you control the rotation positions via PC. It is called a bilateral control, and the turn angle information is sent reciprocally by both devices to maintain the same position. Right now the values are handled by one PC, but if a system is put together to handle the values over a network, then it would be easy for this operation to be conducted remotely.” Link via Geekologie | Photo: DigiInfo

The Many Different Faces of Lolita Posted: 02 May 2011 06:14 PM PDT “Covering Lolita” is Dieter Zimmer’s rather fascinating look at how Nabokov’s classic novel has been depicted on more than 150 different covers from 33 countries over a period of 50 years. It’s interesting to see what each country thinks a Lolita would look like. Some avoid the image entirely by using an abstract image or simply printing the cover of the book, and some even choose to depict Humbert Humbert instead. The cover at left is a Swedish edition from 1965. Link via Flavorwire

Mad Max Electric Bicycle Posted: 02 May 2011 06:06 PM PDT Just awesome. Nathaniel Akin found this train of wheels parked by the side of a road. The drive is powered by an electric drill, which is fed electricity by two car batteries held in place with duct tape. The human driver is presumably fueled by beer in the cooler. Link via DVICE

Fashion Statement: Wrapped up in King Kong's Hand Posted: 02 May 2011 05:50 PM PDT Korean fashion designer Kathleen Kye made a jacket that looks like the wearer is wrapped up in King Kong’s hand. This piece, inspired by a dream that she had of being squeezed by a giant hand, was one of several that Kye made for her graduate portfolio entitled “The Body Collection.” Link via Copyranter | Photo: Kathleen Kye

A Day in the Life of a Goomba Posted: 02 May 2011 05:49 PM PDT You’re just walking along with one of your friends, enjoying the lovely day and the grass between your non-existent toes – then a plumber comes out of nowhere and… the terror! The terror! You can probably guess what happens next. Link

Jam Jar Mystery Posted: 02 May 2011 05:33 PM PDT Boing Boing reader Tyler Bartlett has been trying to understand the odd air pocket in this jar of raspberry jam: I know this looks like we turned this jam jar upside-down and popped in in the fridge. But we didn’t. My roommate brought this to my attention yesterday, and we have no idea how or why the jam is doing this. It did the floating thing yesterday, and when we had it at room temperature for a minute or so, the jam started to fall to the bottom again. We took it out of the fridge today, and again it floats. How would you explain this event? Link

Augmented Reality Tattoo Posted: 02 May 2011 05:09 PM PDT cranberryzero of I Heart Chaos just got inked, and his tattoo has a special feature. It can be scanned by augmented reality readers to produce an image from a Nintendo 3DS game. You can see a video of it rendering at the link. Link via CrunchGear | Photos: I Heart Chaos Previously: Augmented Reality Cookies

Josh Hadar's Curvy Bikes Posted: 02 May 2011 03:44 PM PDT Four years ago, we featured Josh Hardar’s curvaceous bike designs. He’s greatly developed and refined that theme since that time. This particular one, named “Teardrop”, comes with a 80cc engine and hand-spun aluminum wheels. Link via Dude Craft

17 Most Extreme Scar Tattoos Posted: 02 May 2011 03:42 PM PDT If you thought face tattoos were intense and are frightened of the guy who turned himself into The Lizard Man, then you are really going to be squeamish when it comes to the Scar Tattoos featured in this gallery. My favorite is the guy who got his dog tattooed on his arm. Link

Your Age on Other Planets Posted: 02 May 2011 02:52 PM PDT If I lived on Neptune I would be less than a Neptune year old, how old would you be?  This nifty calculator allows you to figure out your "age" on different planets (including dwarf planet Pluto). Every grade school student knows we measure years by how long it takes the Earth to travel around the Sun. However it's interesting to think how time measurement would be different if we lived on a world like Mercury that takes only 88 Earth days to travel around the sun. Link

Stop Insulting Your Companion Animals by Calling Them "Pets"! Posted: 02 May 2011 12:03 PM PDT And you call yourself an "animal lover". How could you demean your "companion animals" by continuing to call them "pets". I mean really. Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as “companion animals” while owners should be known as “human carers”, they insist. Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned – who should instead be known as “free-living”, the academics including an Oxford professor suggest. The call comes from the editors of then Journal of Animal Ethics, a new academic publication devoted to the issue. The editors, Professors Andrew Linzey and Priscilla Cohn of Penn State University, added more offensive phrases of the English language that need to be stamped out: Phrases such as “sly as a fox, “eat like a pig” or “drunk as a skunk” are all unfair to animals, they claim. “We shall not be able to think clearly unless we discipline ourselves to use less than partial adjectives in our exploration of animals and our moral relations with them," they say. Link

Sausage Magnets Posted: 02 May 2011 12:02 PM PDT Nothing makes your memos and to-do list more delicious than the string of Sausage Magnets ($9.95) from the NeatoShop. You can cut out the individual sausages to share or use separately, too: Link | More fun Office and Desk items

Leaky House Called 911 Posted: 02 May 2011 11:46 AM PDT Kids do it, dogs do it. And now, a house has called 911. Here’s the strange case of how an empty house that has sprung a leak called emergency services: A house that endured a leaking pipe for many months dialed 911 on Wednesday, finally bringing town officials to the rescue. The homeowner gone — no one yet knows where — the house likely sprang a leak during a past freeze and began spraying water all over. "Water came down inside the walls and through the ceiling," said Health Director Wayne Attridge. "The (wood) floors have buckled. The ceilings are sagging. It filled the basement with (5 feet of) water." Worse yet, potentially toxic mold is everywhere. "It’s a horrific mess," said Attridge, who said the inside of the structure may have to be gutted. The 911 call went out to police, apparently, when water short-circuited the phone system. Police recorded it as a 911 hang-up, and when they tried to return the call they got only static. Officers were sent to the location, 31 Rockaway Ave. According to the police log, they determined that something inside was leaking before they requested permission from higher-ups to make a forced entry through the back door. Link – via Arbroath

Julian Assange: Facebook is a Spy Machine Posted: 02 May 2011 11:45 AM PDT Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has leved an accusation that Facebook is "the most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented." Assange said he believes Facebook is a giant database of names and records about people, maintained voluntarily by its users but developed for U.S. intelligence to use. “Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies, and building this database for them,” Assange said. While Assange doesn’t claim that Facebook is actually run by U.S. intelligence agencies, the fact that they have access to its records is — in his view — dangerous enough. “Now, is the case that Facebook is run by U.S. intelligence? No, it’s not like that. It’s simply that U.S. intelligence is able to bring to bear legal and political pressure to them,” he said. Link

Smile! Posted: 02 May 2011 11:32 AM PDT Having a bad Monday? Take a look at this smiling dog and tell me it doesn’t just made your day a bit better! (Photo provenance unknown, let me know if you know the original source, please!) Edit 5/2/11: It’s Neatoramanaut’s SemJay’s dog Qoppa! Thanks SemJay!

The Tale of Two Summers Posted: 02 May 2011 11:31 AM PDT Summer is coming, and for some students this means the long days of vacation, filled with fun and creative activities, whereas for others, it means long days of studying at summer school. Which ones make for better students? Teresa Watanabe explores the tale of two students – both successful students – with two very different summer plans: Summers for eighth-grader Jade Larriva-Latt are filled with soccer and backpacking, art galleries and museums, library volunteer work and sleep-away camp. There is no summer school, no tutoring. "They need their childhood," says Jade’s father, Cesar Larriva, an associate professor of education at Cal Poly Pomona. "It’s a huge concern of mine, the lack of balance from pushing them too hard." For 10th-grader Derek Lee, summer is the time to sprint ahead in the ferocious race to the academic top. He polishes off geometry, algebra and calculus ahead of schedule and masters SAT content (he earned a perfect 800 on the math portion last fall). This year, he plans to take college-level courses, maybe at UCLA or Stanford. "You give your kids pressure so they can learn to handle it," says Derek’s mother, Meiling Lee, smacking her fist into her hand. "Because finally they have to go out into the real world, and the real world is tough." What do you think? Which is the better summer plan? Link (Photo: Anne Cusack / LA Times)

What to Do if You’re The First Person to Make Alien Contact Posted: 02 May 2011 11:00 AM PDT At one point or another we've all thought about how exciting or terrifying it might be to actually encounter intelligent alien beings from another world. What would you do if you were the FIRST human to make contact with the aliens? This helpful guide outlines a few simple things to remember when you encounter E.T. (Such as don't call them E.T.).  Link

Star Wars Graffiti Posted: 02 May 2011 10:57 AM PDT Driving around Los Angeles, New York or any city you may be dismayed by all the graffiti that covers buildings and over passes with unintelligible scribbling. If you're going to make graffiti make it a work of art, like these awesome creations celebrating Star Wars.  Link

50 Worst Fails in Technology History Posted: 02 May 2011 10:54 AM PDT From to Google Wave to the Microsoft KIN, we have seen lots of failed technology  in recent years. However nothing seems as doomed to fail as "The Wearable Computer." Check out this list of the 50 Worst Fails in Technology History  Link

Crocheted Gun Store Posted: 02 May 2011 10:08 AM PDT Neatoramanaut Senor Mysterioso (featured previously) did something neat that you would never have thought of in a million years. He crocheted an entire gun store! The pistols in the display case, the ammo boxes, the weapons hanging on the walls -all made of yarn! This was his Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis project. See details in his Flickr set for the installation. Link (Image credit: Flickr user SenorMysterioso)

Who Had the Best Civil War Facial Hair? Posted: 02 May 2011 09:38 AM PDT Ah, the 19th century, when men wore their manliness right on their faces -or maybe they were just afraid of the barber. Luckily, cameras were around during the US Civil War so that we may still admire the mustaches, beards, muttonchops, goatees, and sideburns of brave battlefield soldiers. Smithsonian presents 24 of these faces, and asks you to vote for the best. Ambrose Burnside actually had a style named after him. John McAllister Schofield made up for being bald on top with a foot-long beard. And I believe Alpheus Williams could hurt someone with his waxed whiskers. Pick your favorite! Link

Poor Doggy Posted: 02 May 2011 09:14 AM PDT (YouTube link) It’s just cruel to tease a dog like this. I’m glad Clark doesn’t really understand English that well. -via reddit

Inflatable Tongue Posted: 02 May 2011 07:55 AM PDT Inflatable Tongue –  $3.95 Are you looking for a fun way to ease office tension and gross out coworkers?  You need the Inflatable Tongue from the NeatoShop.  This realistic, soft, and stretchy tongue inflates to 3 times it’s original size! Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fun-tastic Gag Gifts & Pranks! Happy Monday!

Dog Hides in Bathtub to Survive Fire Posted: 02 May 2011 07:39 AM PDT A home in Greenville County, South Carolina burned for hours as firefighters battled the blaze. The family was away from home, but Mia the one-year-old Belgian Malinois was inside. The dog saved herself by hiding in a bathtub in the basement! Mia’s owner, Chris Brumby, was amazed at how the dog survived, but said he knew she was smart. “She acts like a human for most things,” Brumby said. “And that kind of showed it. She knew where to go and hide.” He said Mia was able to get to a bathtub on the lowest level of the house, where she waited as firefighters doused the home with water. As the water ran down into the basement, it filled the bathtub and soaked Mia, keeping her safe from flames, Brock said. Brumby said the dog has learned how to open doors throughout the house, and that she had to open four doors to get to the bathtub where she was found. Six hours after firefighters arrived, they found Mia, wet and sooty, but well. The cause of the fire has is not yet determined. Link -via Arbroath

Homemade Angler Fish Posted: 02 May 2011 07:37 AM PDT Craftster member blupony808 made this awesome plush angler fish out of fabric, garden hose, a night light, paint, and imagination. Yes, it lights up, too! This project won the monthly challenge at Craftster. See more pictures of how she built it. Link -via Rue The Day

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