Neatorama

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• How to Wipe Out a Disease
• Delightfully Funny Altered Street Signs
• 5 Insane Alternate Reality Games
• What Does Your Fridge Say About You?
• Awesome Snacks & Drinks For Enjoying Shark Week
• The Giant Rat with Poison-Filled Hair
• Famous People Who Disappeared
• The King of Hard Currency
• Oblivion Fan-made Sequence
• Four Neglected Wild West Figures
• Star Trek Enterprise Stainless Steel Water Bottle
• Calvin and Hobbes by OaKoAk
• Smoking Hot R2-D2 Terra Cotta Ash Tray
• Canned Air From Prague
• Literary Circles of Influence
• Films on Fridges
• The Scent of Lithuania
• Shoes That Grow Into Trees
• Mammals in Space
• The Catchiest Viral Internet Songs of All Time
• The Gnat-ogre
• Arfsolut Vodka Plush Dog Toy
• Stories About Animals Who Gain Human Intelligence
• Man Can Hear His Own Eyeballs Move
• This Page is No Longer Active
• Video Spy Glasses Raise Over 300K on Kickstarter
• Break Into a Building Using Lego
• 10 Creepiest Abandoned Morgues on Earth
• Fat Fish Weaned Off of Chocolate
• Person Pinball

How to Wipe Out a Disease Posted: 03 Aug 2011 03:30 AM PDT Smallpox was the first disease to be declared completely eradicated. Last year, we told you that rinderpest, a scourge of cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals, became the second disease completely wiped from the earth by human intervention. Now you can read the story of how it was done. The long but little-known campaign to conquer rinderpest is a tribute to the skill and bravery of "big animal" veterinarians, who fought the disease in remote and sometimes war-torn areas — across arid stretches of Africa bigger than Europe, in the Arabian desert and on the Mongolian steppes. "The role of veterinarians in protecting society is underappreciated," said Dr. Juan Lubroth, chief veterinary officer of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, at whose headquarters Tuesday's ceremony is being held. "We do more than just take care of fleas, bathe mascots and vaccinate Pooch." The victory is also proof that the conquest of smallpox was not just an unrepeatable fluke, a golden medical moment that will never be seen again. Since it was declared eradicated in 1980, several other diseases — like polio, Guinea worm, river blindness, elephantiasis, measles and iodine deficiency — have frustrated intensive, costly efforts to do the same to them. The eradication of rinderpest shows what can be done when field commanders combine scientific advances and new tactics. The New York Times has the saga of rinderpest, from its effects on ancient civilizations to the successful (but long) eradication process. Link -via reddit

Delightfully Funny Altered Street Signs Posted: 03 Aug 2011 02:29 AM PDT I know altering street signs is one of the more dangerous forms of graffiti, but in most cases the changes are minor enough that the sign’s effect is still obvious they’re just a lot more funny now. WebUrbanist has a great collection of some of the funniest altered signs around. Link

5 Insane Alternate Reality Games Posted: 03 Aug 2011 02:09 AM PDT If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of an Alternate Reality Game, essentially, it’s a viral marketing campaign mixed with a scavenger hunt. Users have to unlock clues to be able to move on to the next step of the puzzle, which almost always involves deciphering even more hints. Over at Cracked, you can learn about the 5 craziest alternate reality games ever played…and discover what Halo has to do with bees. Link

What Does Your Fridge Say About You? Posted: 03 Aug 2011 02:00 AM PDT Photographer Mark Menjivar traveled the states for 3 years for his “You Are What You Eat” project, meeting people and documenting their lives from a surprisingly interesting viewpoint -their refrigerators. Could you tell the picture above belonged to a bartender who goes to sleep at 8 AM and wakes up a 4 PM every day? The series is fascinating in what it says about the people involved and what it makes you think about your own fridge. Link Via Laughing Squid

Awesome Snacks & Drinks For Enjoying Shark Week Posted: 03 Aug 2011 01:46 AM PDT I know I urged you all to support a switch to Bear Week yesterday, but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy Shark Week. I particularly enjoy festivities of any kind when they are paired with delicious themed drinks and snacks. If you feel the same way, then be sure to enjoy these great food and drink recipes on BuzzFeed. Food and Drink Links

The Giant Rat with Poison-Filled Hair Posted: 02 Aug 2011 10:28 PM PDT At around 14 inches in length, the giant African crested rat is big, but not really dangerous-looking. Though researchers knew that the rodent was deadly, no one knew exactly how. But recently,  they’ve discovered the secret of the animal’s bizarre defense system — hollow hairs filled with poison. Using the bark of the Acokanthera schimperi, which humans use in poison darts, the rat makes use of its highly speciailized fur to ward off larger animals bent on eating it. To figure out the rat’s secret, [Oxford University study researcher Jonathan] Kingdon and his colleagues observed the rats in the wild and ran lab tests on a line of hairs that run along its back and seemed to have a unique structure. They also tested the chemicals in the hairs’ poisons alongside that of the bark of the Acokanthera schimperi, which the rats are known to chew. They found that to make its poison fur, the rat — which averages about 14 inches (36 cm) long — chews the bark of the A. schimperi and licks itself to store the resulting poisonous spit in specially adapted hairs. This behavior is hardwired into the animal’s brain, similar to nitpicking behavior of birds or self-bathing of cats, the researchers suspect. “What is quite clear in this animal is that it is hardwired to find the poison, it is hardwired to chew it and it is hardwired to apply it to the small area of hairs,” Kingdon said. The animals apply the poisonous spit only to the specialized hairs on a small strip along its back. When threatened, the rat arches its back and uses specially adapted muscles to slick back its hair and expose the strip of poison. Poison from this tree bark has been used by hunters to take down large prey, like elephants, for thousands of years. “Evolution has mimicked something that hunters do,” Kingdon said. “It [the crested rat] is borrowing from the plant just as the hunters are borrowing from the very same plant.” The hairs themselves are specially structured to absorb the poison, Kingdon found. Their outer layer is full of large holes, like a pasta strainer, and the inside is full of straight fibers that wick up liquids. “There is no other hair that is known to science that is remotely structured like these hairs,” Kingdon said. It is unknown why the rat doesn’t die from chewing the poison, though it could be resistant somehow. “The rats should drop dead every time they chew this stuff but they are not,” Kingdon said. “We don’t have the slightest idea how that could be done.” Learning more about how this poison works could even help human medicine, since it acts by inducing heart attacks. A related chemical, called digitoxin, has been used for decades as a treatment for heart failure. The study was published Aug. 2 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Link

Famous People Who Disappeared Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:58 PM PDT We all know about Jimmy Hoffa, who “vanished so quickly and so thoroughly that his vanishing would eventually become something of a punch line,” and Amelia Earhart, whose remains were maybe found, but there’s a longish list of famous people who have disappeared in a snap. LIFE has a great round up, from master Baroque painter Carravaggio to the crew of the USS Cyclops. Link Photo by Getty Images

The King of Hard Currency Posted: 02 Aug 2011 08:10 PM PDT Sea captain David O'Keefe spent 30 years on the islands of Yap in the western Pacific. In that time, he established a successful trading company, married two wives (with another waiting in America), introduced alcohol and firearms to the islanders, and gained a monopoly over the island’s currency of giant stones called fei. Fei was a rare commodity, as it was quarried and carved on the island of Palau, 250 miles from Yap. The Yapese may have been using fei as early as 1400, though the stones were so difficult to quarry with shell tools and then transport that they remained very rare as late as 1840. [Price p.76; Berg pp.151-4; Gillilland p.3]  Their existence was first detailed by one of O'Keefe's predecessors, the German trader Alfred Tetens, who in 1865 traveled to Yap on a large ship ferrying "ten natives… who wished to return home with the big stones they had cut on Palau." [Gillilland p.4]  It's clear from this that the Yapese were eager to find alternatives to transportation by canoe, and O'Keefe fulfilled this demand. By 1882, he had 400 Yapese quarrying fei on Palau—nearly 10 percent of the population. [Berg p.150] This trade had its disadvantages, not least the introduction of inflation, caused by the sudden increase in the stock of money. But it made huge sense for O'Keefe. The Yapese, after all, supplied the necessary labor, both to quarry the stones and to harvest coconuts on Yap. O'Keefe's expenses, in the days of sail, were minimal,  just some supplies and the wages of his crewmen. In return, he reaped the benefits of thousands of man-hours of labor, building a trading company worth—estimates differ—anywhere from $500,000 to $9.5 million. [Evening Bulletin; Hezel] Read O’Keefe’s story at Smithsonian’s Past Imperfect Blog. Link (Image credit: Eric Guinther)

Oblivion Fan-made Sequence Posted: 02 Aug 2011 08:08 PM PDT (YouTube link) Mr. Mochi is an Oblivion machinima (computer-generated production), but he isn’t your everyday, garden variety game character. To be honest, he is utterly ridiculous. But gaming doesn’t have to always be serious business! -via I Am Bored

Four Neglected Wild West Figures Posted: 02 Aug 2011 08:05 PM PDT You’ve heard of Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, and Wild Bill Hickok, but there were plenty of other colorful figures who left their mark on the Wild West. This list tells us about four that you may never had heard of, like Texas Ben Thompson. Texas Ben served in the Confederate States Army, then after the Civil War he headed south and served in Emperor Maximillian's army in Mexico. When Maximillian fell Ben crossed back over the border into Texas, and spent the remainder of his life hiring his gun out to anyone who would pay, regardless of which side of the law it placed him on. Texas Ben even pinned on a badge as a legitimate lawman at times and supposedly put in time as a Texas Ranger at one point in his career. Thompson was even involved in the infamous Railroad War between the Atchison, Topeka  & Santa Fe RR and the Denver & Rio Grande RR. In 1884 Texas Ben shot and killed San Antonio saloon and bawdy house owner Jack Harris. Later that year, passing back through San Antonio with fellow neglected  gunfighter John "King" Fisher, he and his traveling companion foolishly  entered Harris' former establishment and were riddled with bullets by several of the dead man's friends. Texas Ben's trademark tall silk hat was placed on his coffin. Also learn about Luke Short, Pearl Hart, and Long-haired Jim Courtright in this post at Balladeer’s Blog. Link

Star Trek Enterprise Stainless Steel Water Bottle Posted: 02 Aug 2011 05:24 PM PDT Star Trek Enterprise Stainless Steel Water Bottle – $11.95 Attention Star Trek fans! Behold the Star Trek Enterprise Stainless Steel Water Bottle from the NeatoShop.  Now it is time to boldly go to the gym. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Star Trek items! Link

Calvin and Hobbes by OaKoAk Posted: 02 Aug 2011 04:42 PM PDT We've posted about the clever street art of French artist OaKoAk before on Neatorama, but I couldn't resist this one of Calvin and Hobbes: Link - via My Modern Met

Smoking Hot R2-D2 Terra Cotta Ash Tray Posted: 02 Aug 2011 04:41 PM PDT Photo: Jason Schmidt This isn't the droid you're looking for ... unless you're a smoker looking for some really cool bootleg R2-D2 terra cotta ash tray! It's owned by French fashion and furniture designer Alexandre de Betak. Smokin' hot! Link - via Extreme Craft

Canned Air From Prague Posted: 02 Aug 2011 04:40 PM PDT Need something to go with your dehydrated bottle of water? Here's Canned Air from Prague! The design of the label is simple and clear, clear as the morning sky over the Charles Bridge on sunny summer morning. We carefully collect the air from the most popular places in the city. Air Contains: 20% - air from Wenceslas Square 20% - air from Charles Bridge 25% - air from Old Town Square 15% - air from Prague Castle 10% - air from Lesser Town 10% - air from Zlata Street. Link - via inspire me now

Literary Circles of Influence Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:48 PM PDT You could probably guess that Shakespeare had some sort of creative influence on Jane Austen, but this handy infographic from Longshot magazine carries it a bit further, linking Tolstoy to Jim Morrison and Lord Byron to JJ Abrams. I find the Tolstoy to Muhammad Ali connections especially interesting. Link via Flavorwire via Lapham’s Quarterly

Films on Fridges Posted: 02 Aug 2011 01:08 PM PDT To most people a 20-foot-high pile of discarded refrigerators in Hackney, London, is an eyesore. But to Lindsey Scannapieco, the so-called "Fridge Mountain" (which was so tall it was visible in Google Earth) was an inspiration to create Films on Fridges, "East London's newest temporary outdoor cinema built primarily out of discarded fridges." Link - via Core77 Psst, Neatoramanauts! We've got lots of refrigerator magnets over at the NeatoShop that would be awesome for the festival :)

The Scent of Lithuania Posted: 02 Aug 2011 01:07 PM PDT Quick, what comes to mind when we mention "Lithuania." Nothing (besides a mayor who destroys illegally parked car)? See, that's the problem that three businessmen from the country is trying to fix: "If I say chocolate and watches, what do you think? Switzerland. If I say Guinness and Leprechauns? Ireland. Fish and chips? England,” Mr Rutkauskas told The Guardian. “But here in Lithuania we don't have an internationally recognised symbol of our identity. Yet.” Their solution? A national scent: They claim the “national perfume" – which is more an air freshener – was a crude attempt to create the “scent of Lithuania”. The scent is a mix of bergamot, wild flowers, ginger, raspberry and grapefruit. It is added with base notes of amber, cedar, sandalwood, patchouli and "tree moss and tree smoke”. The £25 scent was released on the market earlier this year and more than 1,000 bottles have since been sold. What a great idea! New Jersey should jump at this opportunity: Link

Shoes That Grow Into Trees Posted: 02 Aug 2011 01:06 PM PDT After you're done with these sneakers from Dutch footwear maker OAT Shoes, don't throw 'em away. Bury 'em in the ground, instead. Don't worry - you're supposed to do that: The second-place winner at Amsterdam’s Green Fashion Awards last week, OAT’s “Virgin Collection” is the world’s first line of sneakers that, upon disposal, will biodegrade and sprout trees. The materials—some developed by OAT itself—are all easily broken down, and tree seeds packed in the lining will hopefully leave saplings where your sneakers once stood. Link

Mammals in Space Posted: 02 Aug 2011 10:58 AM PDT The Soviet Union launched fruit flies into space in 1947. I did not know that until today. Since then, we’ve sent many living species up into space for exploration and experimental purposes, and eight of those were mammals. Can you name them all in two minutes? You don’t have to know their personal names, just what kind of mammal they were, in today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I only missed one. Link

The Catchiest Viral Internet Songs of All Time Posted: 02 Aug 2011 10:42 AM PDT Spanning from over a decade ago to this summer’s memes, Ranker has gathered together 35 catchy viral musical videos that swept the internet. You can relive the good old days of “All Your Base” and “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” and also catch up with tunes you may have missed as well. Lyrics in some songs are NSFW. Link

The Gnat-ogre Posted: 02 Aug 2011 10:39 AM PDT The gnat-ogre, Holcocephalus fuscus, is a tiny insect that eats even tiner insects. You’ve got to look really close to ever see them, although they may be in your back yard. Aptly named, gnat-ogres are miniature robber flies, and every bit as carnivorous as their larger, more visible brethren. You’ve just got to look closely to see them. The gnat-ogre pictured above would be measured in millimeters. They are so small that a person would likely dismiss them as gnats or perhaps extremely tiny flower flies. With the naked eye, they are scarcely visible unless one happens to be closely studying the area in which gnat-ogres have staked out. To get these photos, I was using a heavy-duty macro lens, flash, and a tripod. Fortunately, gnat-ogres are fearless and will allow very close approach. Ohio naturalist Jim McCormac describes them as “neat,” so that’s good enough for me! Link -Thanks, Manticore!

Arfsolut Vodka Plush Dog Toy Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:51 AM PDT Arfsolut Vodka Plush Dog Toy – $11.95 Do you have a trendsetting dog who appreciates the finer things in life? Get him the Arfsolout Vodka Plush Toy from the NeatoShop.  Your sophisticated pooch will love this squeaky plush dog toy shaped like the iconic drink. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more wooftastic Pet Stuff! Link

Stories About Animals Who Gain Human Intelligence Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:40 AM PDT The Planet of the Apes franchise is rebooting this week and for most science fiction fans the original film is a classic. However there are many other great stories of animals who become "uplifted" to human level intelligences, such as "Lives of the Monster Dogs" about dogs who are given "upper class manners." If you could give any animal human intelligence what type of animal would you give it to? Link

Man Can Hear His Own Eyeballs Move Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:40 AM PDT A common experience is to hear faint beat of your own heart, normally after a vigorous workout. However for Stephen Mabbut, the noise of his own eyeballs moving in his head was so loud and audible it was driving him mad. This frightening experience was later attributed to a rare condition, superior canal dehiscence syndrome.   He added, “The first symptoms appeared around 2005. I found if I raised my voice, I’d get a vibration in my head. If I was eating a bag of crisps, the crunching noise drowned out people speaking. Then I found I would be hearing my heartbeat.” But this year, a CT scan showed a tiny hole in the temporal bone in Mr Mabbutt’s skull, which meant that fluid from the semicircular canals of the inner ear was leaking into his brain and conducting internal sounds. Link

This Page is No Longer Active Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:40 AM PDT (vimeo link) Here’s another contender for the title of coolest error page. The site Nosh is about food, but the video on its 404 page is about… a dead page, of course. Link -via reddit

Video Spy Glasses Raise Over 300K on Kickstarter Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:39 AM PDT If you're like me then you always wanted your own pair of covert spy glasses just like in a James Bond movie. Apparently a lot of people out there do as well because one company was able to raise over three hundred thousand dollars on Kickstarter.com to create glasses that record video from the perspective of the wearer. What would you use "spy glasses" for? ZionEyez, a Seattle startup recently offered to sell you a pair of their Eyez video recording glasses if you made a $150 donation to their KickStarter fund, and wow, did they get a good response. No wonder considering how awesome the promised specs are for Eyez. With their donation drive coming to an end, ZionEyez has raised $343,415 (more than six times their original goal of $55k) from 2106 donors. Link

Break Into a Building Using Lego Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:39 AM PDT This neat scene from a 1979 Danish film "The Olsen Gang Never Surrenders" shows an electronic Lego device that expertly sneaks into a building, making its way up a flight of stairs. I don't know who the Olsen Gang is, but they sure have some innovative Lego designers. Link

10 Creepiest Abandoned Morgues on Earth Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:38 AM PDT Abandoned places can be creepy. Morgues are always creepy to most people. Put them together, and you’ve got some really creepy places -and even more so when you know their history. Environmental Graffiti has a photo collection of abandoned morgues in hospitals, asylums, municipalities, military bases, and even this one from Ellis Island. Link (Image credit: Flickr user Vilseskogen)

Fat Fish Weaned Off of Chocolate Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:37 AM PDT Most people have trouble not stuffing their face and gaining a few extra pounds on chocolate. But have you ever heard of a fish with the same problem? Apparently the fish outgrew its tank, getting fed a daily diet of Kit Kat bars. Aquarium staff were baffled when the 8.8lb giant gourami called Gary rejected normal food after being donated to them. Then the previous owners of the exotic Asian freshwater fish admitted feeding it only with the chocolate-covered wafers. Experts at the Sea Life London Aquarium had to put crushed Kit Kat pieces inside grapes and banana slices to tempt the 15.7in-long fish on to a normal diet. Gary’s handler Rebecca Carter said: “I’ve never heard of a fish being fed chocolate, let alone brought up entirely on the stuff.” Link

Person Pinball Posted: 02 Aug 2011 08:08 AM PDT (YouTube link) Pinball gets a new twist when you play on the street, with people as the balls and bumpers! This stop-motion video is from the 2011 Animation Block Party Film Festival in New York City. -via The Daily What

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