Neatorama

---

• English v3.31 Released
• Hand Soap
• Protective Suit Improvised to Remove Nest of Yellowjackets
• NYC Cabbie also Works as a King in Africa
• Grizzly Bear Destroys R2-D2
• Liquid Picnic Table
• Here's a Megaphone. Say Something Nice to New York City.
• Stephen Colbert's "PAC Is More Than a Gag"
• First Look at The Zombies From World War Z
• Stay At a Real-Life Hobbit House For $245 a Night
• 12 NASA Blueprints For Building Your Own Spaceship
• Astronaut Suicide Photos in Response to End of Shuttle Program
• Stylish Mummies Use Hair Gel
• Woot! OED Added New Tech Words
• Rules of Finding a Roommate
• Silent Disco: That's The Way (I Like It)
• Zombie Teeth
• Heaven's Welcome Basket
• Shiro vs. the Chair
• Dinosaur Breeders
• $300 Toothpaste Squeezer
• How to Decorate a Man Room
• Spock Touque
• Ghost Riding a Combine
• Bob Marley's Poster Wall
• Man Repays Beer Bet after a Five Year Search
• Meet Omar Shamshoon

English v3.31 Released Posted: 23 Aug 2011 02:55 AM PDT If you’ve been using heavily patched, older versions of the English language, you’ll be pleased to know that a completely updated and revised edition just entered beta testing. One reviewer at The Register thinks that it’s great: Just downloaded the beta version of English V3.31, and I have to say I am very excited about it. This is definitely going to be a feather in the cap of Anglophones everywhere, and way better than the notorious V2.99 release of French (or the ‘deux point neufty-neuf’ as it has become known). There’s a ton of new features to talk about, so let me dive in right away with some toothsome details.[...] By the way, an alternative spelling proposal, which aimed to differentiate better between so-called ‘British’ English and its assorted inferior knock-offs, has been resoundingly rejected to the disappointment of many. The idea, backed by the Tourist Board among others, was to boost the general kookynicity of British spellings in general and word endings in particular. In short, to take the ball introduced by such pairings as analogue/analog, colour/color and programme/program and run it out of the gridiron and over the try line. For example, the noun ‘dog’ was to be respelled ‘dogue’, giving it a 66% boost in angliosity, and the days of the weeke were to be reworked with an ‘arts and crafts’ feel with carefully-designed, synthetically yet sympathetically retro-blended syllables: Thursnobdaye. Link -via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo by Flickr user crdotx used under Creative Commons license

Hand Soap Posted: 22 Aug 2011 05:39 PM PDT Hand Soap – $7.95 Are you looking for a punny gift that provides hours upon hours of good clean fun? You need the hand-shaped Hand Soap from the NeatoShop.  This silly and sanitary gift is delightfully musk scented. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Bath & Body items! Link

Protective Suit Improvised to Remove Nest of Yellowjackets Posted: 22 Aug 2011 05:25 PM PDT The girlfriend of redditor TroyPDX got stung by a yellowjacket, so “it was on like Donkey Kong.” He prepared for his attack on their nest by getting drunk and improvising a beekeeping suit out of duct tape, rubber boots, a flashlight, and computer parts. Troy then armed himself with a vacuum cleaner and marched off into battle. It did not go well, and his story is worth reading in full. Link | Photo Gallery

NYC Cabbie also Works as a King in Africa Posted: 22 Aug 2011 05:13 PM PDT Isaac Osei started out driving a taxi in New York City when he immigrated to the US about thirty years ago. He has built up that business into a fleet of fifty cars operating day and night. But that’s not his only occupation. When his older brother in Ghana died, Osei took his place as king over a region of that country. Now Osei divides his time between US and his royal realm: As chief, his days are 20 hours long, and his duties are anything but ceremonial. Osei, during his “vacation,” becomes the one-man judicial system, arbitrating familial disputes and other legal questions, resolving as many as possible before returning to New York. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has duties as the chief’s wife, including throwing a feast for 1,000 guests commemorating the annual yam festival — a party at which guests sit, waiting to eat until Isaac does his priest-like duty of blessing the yam harvest. But unlike Akeem in Coming to America, the Osei’s trips to Ghana are not permanent relocations. They return to the U.S. after fulfilling their official Ghanian duties, where it is back to the taxi business. Link| Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user ceiling used under Creative Commons license Previously: American Woman Becomes African King

Grizzly Bear Destroys R2-D2 Posted: 22 Aug 2011 05:01 PM PDT (Video Link) Don’t worry, it’s not the real R2-D2! It’s just a model. The staff at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado stuffed a cardboard R2 unit with treats and let Emmett, a grizzly bear, have his way with it. Because…. Well, they don’t actually say why. -via Nerd Bastards

Liquid Picnic Table Posted: 22 Aug 2011 04:54 PM PDT No, reality isn’t losing coherence — at least any more than it is normally. This surreal picnic table does indeed flow toward and over a railing. It’s an art installation by Michael Beitz at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Nebraska. Link | Video | Artist’s Website | Photos: Bemis Center Previously by Michael Beitz: The Walls Have Ears

Here's a Megaphone. Say Something Nice to New York City. Posted: 22 Aug 2011 03:43 PM PDT (Video Link) For their latest stunt, the people of Improv Everywhere left a megaphone on a lectern in several spots around New York City. A sign on the lectern invited people to “say something nice.” New Yorkers proved to be up to the task. Link -via Gizmodo

Stephen Colbert's "PAC Is More Than a Gag" Posted: 22 Aug 2011 01:52 PM PDT You may be aware that comedian Stephen Colbert has formed his own political action committee in order to mock the system. Now however some people are taking him very seriously. The Colbert Super PAC may be a stunt, but it has the imprimatur of the Federal Elections Commission: "Mr. Colbert may establish and operate the committee. The committee may solicit and accept unlimited contributions from individuals, political committees, corporations, and labor organizations," its ruling in June read. Just in case people didn't get the joke about the razor-thin line between parody and politics, Salvatore Purpura, the treasurer of Mr. Colbert's Super PAC, quit last week to take a job — as treasurer of Mr. Perry's campaign. Link

First Look at The Zombies From World War Z Posted: 22 Aug 2011 01:35 PM PDT New images  have been released of the zombies in the film based on the book World War Z. Is it me or do they kind of look like mummies? Link

Stay At a Real-Life Hobbit House For $245 a Night Posted: 22 Aug 2011 12:55 PM PDT We have featured some posts on real life hobbit houses in the past but now you can rent hobbit house for only $245 a night in Montana.While the exterior is an “authentic” looking replica of the hobbit dwelling, the inside boasts modern human amenities including HD TV and Wi-Fi.  What other houses based on literature and film should be created? What would you stay in? Link

12 NASA Blueprints For Building Your Own Spaceship Posted: 22 Aug 2011 12:32 PM PDT Have you ever wanted to build your own space ship or space station but didn’t know how? Well now you can with these helpful blueprints from NASA. Perhaps someone will be able to make a very accurate scale replica of some of these space vehicles, that should make for an interesting trip to Home Depot. Link

Astronaut Suicide Photos in Response to End of Shuttle Program Posted: 22 Aug 2011 11:52 AM PDT In what could be considered a mock protest to the end of the Space Shuttle program photographer Neil DaCosta and art director Sara Philips have posted a gallery of astronauts suicide photos. Apparently this is the only thing an astronaut has to look forward to these days.   Dubbed the Dark Comedy Project the photos depict a person in a full astronaut suit posing in different positions as if they have just committed suicide . Some of these photos some people may find grotesque,  inappropriate and offensive,  and some people may find them darkly humorous. You be the judge. Link

Stylish Mummies Use Hair Gel Posted: 22 Aug 2011 09:24 AM PDT Love your hair gel? How very ancient Egyptian of you! That's right: researchers have discovered that ancient Egyptians use hair products in life and in death. Microscopy using light and electrons revealed that nine of the mummies had hair coated in a mysterious fat-like substance. The researchers used gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to separate out the different molecules in the samples, and found that the coating contained biological long-chain fatty acids including palmitic acid and stearic acid. The results are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science1. McCreesh thinks that the fatty coating is a styling product that was used to set hair in place. It was found on both natural and artificial mummies, so she believes that it was a beauty product during life as well as a key part of the mummification process. Link

Woot! OED Added New Tech Words Posted: 22 Aug 2011 09:22 AM PDT Last week, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED to you logophiles) added a new entries into its venerable dictionary. I'm pretty sure you've heard of some of the new entries: Retweet verb: (on a social networking service Twitter) repost or forward (a message posted by another user) Sexting noun: the sending of sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phone Cyberbullying noun: the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature Woot exclamation: (especially in electronic communication) used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph Textspeak noun: language regarded as characteristic of text messages, consisting of abbreviations, acronyms, initials, emoticons, etc... Link | OED Blog Previously on Neatorama: OMG and LOL Added to OED

Rules of Finding a Roommate Posted: 22 Aug 2011 09:22 AM PDT Looking for a roommate? Christie Young of Good Magazine has a few rules you should follow. (Oh, how times have changed from when I was looking for a roommate back in college)

Silent Disco: That's The Way (I Like It) Posted: 22 Aug 2011 09:21 AM PDT The reports of the death of disco are greatly exagerrated. Disco, that funkadelic music of the 70s, didn't die ... it just went silent. In a hip way, of course. Witness the new happenin' music scene: Silent Disco. On a Saturday evening in June, the dance floor at Santa Monica's Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club was packed with patrons enthusiastically dancing, singing and doing call-and-response with the DJ. It's a scene that could have been unfolding on umpteen dance floors across the city, but in this case, something very different was going on. The cool-kid crowd was moving and grooving to silence. Or so it seemed. Actually, the revelers were taking part in a phenomenon known as "silent disco," a dance party where the booming music is both private and shared. Instead of getting their audio fix from the massive speakers found at most dance clubs, partygoers donned custom wireless headphones to tune in to a live DJ broadcast. Rachel B. Levin lets us in on the groove in this LA Times article: Link (Photo: Adam Warzawa/EPA)

Zombie Teeth Posted: 22 Aug 2011 08:08 AM PDT Zombie Teeth – $8.95 Are you on the hunt for a way to look like a Zombie without having to go to the trouble of becoming a member of the undead? You need Zombie Teeth from the NeatoShop? This great set of reusable rotten teeth will have you blending in with your Zombie friends in no time. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Halloween and Zombie fun! Link

Heaven's Welcome Basket Posted: 22 Aug 2011 07:57 AM PDT What’s your idea of the items waiting for you in the perfect place? For many internet surfers, this collection from Jeff Wysaski at Pleated Jeans would fill the bill. It’s a lot more encouraging than his (previously featured) Map of Hell. Link -via @johncfarrier

Shiro vs. the Chair Posted: 22 Aug 2011 07:54 AM PDT (YouTube link) Little Shiro is learning to climb, but he doesn’t quite get the hang of it -yet. He’s little, but he has his own blog. Link -via Say OMG

Dinosaur Breeders Posted: 22 Aug 2011 07:26 AM PDT Their motto is “Bringing the past into the future, one egg at a time.” Dinosaur Breeders may remind you of a certain film series from Steven Spielberg, except this company will allow you to take a dinosaur of your own home with you -if you have the proper environment for it and the cash. They offer: • Physically and temperamentally sound babies, regardless of species • Proven show-quality specimens • Fully-licensed and registered documentation of champion bloodlines • All-inclusive obedience training and care lessons provided on-site It looks almost serious, until you see the photo gallery and read the customer testimonials. Link -via the Presurfer

$300 Toothpaste Squeezer Posted: 22 Aug 2011 07:18 AM PDT This Italian-made toothpaste squeezer is hand-crafted with chrome plating, non-slip silicone feet, and has an engraved logo. Don’t waste toothpaste. If you use it for 200 years, it will pay for itself! Link -via Boing Boing

How to Decorate a Man Room Posted: 22 Aug 2011 07:16 AM PDT When you get your first place of your own, upgrade to a bigger house, or when the kids move out, you may get your first totally personal man room. The man room or "man cave" can be defined as any place a man sets aside to pursue his interests, whether with friends, family, or by himself. It can be an office, a study, the basement, or a shed out back. For the purposes of this post, the man room is not a shop or workspace, but rather a place for a man to relax and enjoy himself. To best fix it up, follow the advice of men who have gone before you and follow the three rules: quality, comfortable, and personal. The Art of Manliness has tips on all these plus pictures of the manly rooms of manly men. Pictured here is Mark Twain’s billiard room. Link -via Nag on the Lake

Spock Touque Posted: 22 Aug 2011 07:10 AM PDT Knitted Princess Leia buns are so yesteryear. What you need is this nice, ear-warming Knit Vulcan Hat, or “Spock Touque.” Live long and keep warm! These caps are hand-made by Etsy seller Becca Stundel, who runs FiveCornersDesign. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

Ghost Riding a Combine Posted: 22 Aug 2011 07:08 AM PDT (YouTube link) A couple in Montana show off with their mid-’80s John Deere 6620 Turbo combine. Do not try this at home. -via The Daily What

Bob Marley's Poster Wall Posted: 22 Aug 2011 07:06 AM PDT This Twaggie, inspired by a Tweet from @vonbunnie, made me giggle and then feel old. Do you realize Bob Marley died thirty years ago? Link

Man Repays Beer Bet after a Five Year Search Posted: 22 Aug 2011 05:12 AM PDT Five years ago, Sebastian Steinzen, a schoolteacher in Germany, lost a bet on a game of golf to a British man that he knew only as “Pat”. They had wagered a pint of beer on the game, but Steinzen did not have the opportunity to repay it because he lost track of Pat. Steinzen felt obligated to find and pay him, and so searched for the Briton for five years. It was only after a newspaper reported on his story that Steinzen was able to find his golfing buddy, Patrick Burns: However the burden of guilt became too much and last month, Mr Steinzer spent £1,000 travelling to England to try to find Pat and buy him that pint. He went to Portishead, north Somerset, where Patrick told him he was from, and spent a week traipsing around the streets, pubs and golf courses, with a picture of his holiday friend. But he had to return home without tracking down Pat, who was holidaying with his partner Pam when they met. Before he went home, his quest was highlighted in the Daily Telegraph and when Mr Burns, 73, a retired advertising executive, read it in the paper he made contact with his German friend. Link | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user sridgway used under Creative Commons license

Meet Omar Shamshoon Posted: 22 Aug 2011 05:07 AM PDT The following is an article from Uncle John’s Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader. If you’ve ever visited the Middle East, you know that when American TV programs are shown on Arab TV, culturally sensitive content is often altered or removed. Turns out some hows aren’t so easy to “Arabize.” MUST-SEE TV In late 1991, the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) went on the air for the first time. It was the Arab world’s first privately owned, independent satellite TV network, and the first to offer 24 hours of Arabic language television programming free of charge to anyone with a satellite dish. Other networks soon sprung up, creating a huge demand for content to fill the airwaves. In the years that followed, countless American TV shows -everything from Friends to The Late Show with David Letterman to Two and a Half Man to McGyver to Dr. Phil and Oprah- found their way onto these channels, either dubbed into Arabic or broadcast with Arabic subtitles, and with culturally offensive subject matter toned down or removed entirely. Shows that appealed to younger audiences were especially popular. In some countries as much as 60 percent of the population was under 20 years of age, and the numbers remain high today. So it was probably inevitable that sooner or later, one of the Arab networks would set its sights on The Simpsons, one of the most successful shows in American TV history, and try to bring it to the Middle East. In 2005, MBC did just that. HOMER OF ARABIA No expense was spared to prepare The Simpsons for the Arab market. The Arab world’s best TV writers were hired to translate episodes into Arabic, and A-list actors and actresses were hired to provide new voices for the characters. To make the show seem less “foreign,” Homer Simpson was renamed Omar Shamshoon, and the show itself was renamed Al Shamshoon -”The Shamshoons.” (Marge Simpson became Mona Shamshoon, Bart became Badr, and Lisa became Beesa.) Each episode that was selected for translation into Arabic was carefully reviewed to remove anything that might be offensive to Muslims. For example, where Homer Simpson drinks Duff beer (Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol), Omar Shamshoon drinks Duff fruit juice. Homer eats hot dogs (which commonly contain pork, also forbidden) and donuts (which are unfamiliar to most Arabs), but Omar eats Egyptian beef sausage links and khak cookies, which, like donuts, are often made with a hole in the middle. Not every episode made the cut: Those with strong religious themes were out, as were the ones where the characters spent lots of time drinking beer in Moe’s Tavern. In episodes featuring shorter church and tavern scenes, they’re referred to as a “mosque” and a “coffeehouse.” And Ned Flanders? He became just an annoyingly perfect neighbor, not an annoyingly perfect Christian neighbor. As for all the Simpsons-centric dialog, like “Don’t have a cow, man!” and “Hi-diddley-ho, neighbors!” …well, the writers just translated as best they could. (“D’oh!” was translated as “D’oh!”) NEITHER HERE NOR THERE The final product was a confusing mishmash of cultural references, something not really American, not really Arab (Marge Simpson and the other female characters don’t wear veils, for example) …and definitely not The Simpsons. It wasn’t very funny, either, and with all the translations, revisions, and deletions, the storylines could be maddeningly difficult to follow. The premier episode of Al Shamshoon aired in October 2005, on the first night of the holy month of Ramadan -the biggest TV viewing night of the year. Muslims fast from sunup to sundown during Ramadan, and after the fast is broken with an evening meal, millions of the faithful settle in for a night of watching TV. Though 52 episodes were scheduled to air that month,  -with MBC looking forward to “Arabizing” all 17 seasons of The Simpsons in years to come- the series was pulled after only 34 shows. Why? Because not many people tuned in to watch it. Al Shamshoon turned out to be just too strange a show for many viewers, especially in a part of the world where cartoons were still seen as entertainment for children. But what really killed Al Shamshoon may have been the very thing that brought it into being in the first place: Satellite TV channels. Arabs with satellite TV dishes can pull in non-Arab stations, and some of those broadcast The Simpsons in all its original, unadulterated glory. (The show is also available on DVD.) Many of the people who tuned in to watch Al Shamshoon were fans of The Simpsons who just wanted to see how badly MBC would botch the job, and after having a few laughs at the network’s expense, they went back to watching the real thing. HOME GROWN For Arab critics of Al Shamshoon, one of the most frustrating things about the show was knowing that if MBC had just taken a fraction of the money it spent on Al Shamshoon and hired Arab animators to create an entirely new, entirely Arab show from scratch, they might have come up with something funny and engaging that Arabs could understand and call their own. Even as Al Shamshoon was falling flat on its face in 2005, work had already begun on just such a show. Freej (“Neighborhood”), a comedy about four grandmothers living in a quiet neighborhood of Dubai, a booming metropolis in the United Arab Emirates, was already in production. Freej was the brainchild of a twenty-something UAE national named Mohammed Saeed Harib, whose first exposure to animated shows came in the late 1990s when he was a student at Boston’s Northeastern University and his dormmates downloaded bootleg episodes of South Park and other shows to watch on their computers. Harib came up with Um Saeed, the first of his four grandmother characters, while he was still living in the dorm. By 2003, he’d developed a concept for an entire show, which he sold to the satellite channel Sama Dubai. FULL CIRCLE One year after Al Shashoon bit the dust, the first episode of Freej aired in the same coveted time slot -the first night of Ramadan. Unlike Al Shamshoon, Freej, the Arab world’s first 3D animated series, was a hit from the very start. By the time the second season of Freej aired the following year, half of all television viewers in the UAE were tuning in to watch the show. Stay tuned; you may be watching one of these days, too. In 2009, Harib entered into talks with American media companies to bring his show to the United States. (Until then, you can look for clips on YouTube.) ___________________ The article above was reprinted with permission from the Bathroom Institute’s newest book, Uncle John’s Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute has published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

You are subscribed to email updates from Neatorama To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610