Neatorama

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• Flowery Bits
• The Star Wars Alphabet Guessing Game
• Astonish Me
• Belgium's Abandoned Crypts
• Twitter Tales of Terrible Dates
• Dog Goes Insane Over Hedgehog
• Students Want Don Draper To Speak At Graduation
• 25 Signs You're A Child Of The '90s
• Cthulhu Bento Box Makes For A Scary Good Meal
• The Ninja Turtles Are Back From The Sewers
• Sausage Fest Is Over-The-Top Food Fun
• A Drawing For Every NES Game Released In 1988
• Darth Vapour, Dark Lord of the Steam
• Newest Indie Comic Reboot-Bone The Barbarian
• Fun Retro Dungeon Crawler Made In 48 Hours
• Prints from Pasts That Never Were
• Filmmaker Sent Rejection Notice from Film Festival She Never Even Submitted Work to
• Underwater Boxing
• In-flight "Tweet" from the 1940s
• Scented Laundry Products Emit Carcinogens
• Nick Helm: "I Needed a Password Eight Characters Long So I Picked ...."
• All About The Shoes Wizard of Oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle
• Post-It Notes Megaman
• Alien Planet Made of Diamond Discovered
• Do Animals Know an Earthquake is About to Hit?
• Subtitle Glasses for the Deaf
• Handroid – The Lightweight Robotic Limb You Can Remotely Control
• Portal-Themed Bedroom
• Liquify Your Dead Body – For The Earth!
• Plastic Surgery for Pets

Flowery Bits Posted: 26 Aug 2011 05:06 AM PDT NOTHING SAYS TECHNOLOGY LIKE FLOWERS The flower business might seem old-fashioned, but 1-800-FLOWERS is anything but behind the times. In the 1980s, it was one of the first businesses to operate a 1-800 number, taking calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And in 1991, during the Gulf War, the company made the risky move of ramping up its television ads on CNN. At the time, other businesses were pulling their ads from the channel, not wanting to be associated with the station’s non-stop war coverage. But Jim McCann, president of 1-800-FLOWERS, saw it as an opportunity. He bought 24 ads for the price of one. The Gulf War made CNN the biggest cable new network in the world, and 1-800-FLOWERS reaped the benefits. Then came the emergence of the internet. McCann launched 1-800-FLOWERS.com in 1995, and the company became the first merchant to sign a contract with AOL. By 1995, well before Google was conceived, 1-800-FLOWERS.com had deals in place with at least 13 other online service providers. And the innovation hasn’t stopped. In July 2009, 1-800-FLOWERS.com became the first company to complete an e-commerce transaction entirely on Facebook. WISTERIA HYSTERIA On October 3, 2004, Americans met the ladies of Wisteria Lane -the famously fictional street that’s home to TV’s Desperate Housewives. In a matter of months, the rest of the world had been introduced to them, too. According to a 2006 survey of 20 countries, the program was the third most-watched TV series in the world, with 120 million viewers. (That’s one of out every 55 people on the planet!) But not everyone watches the same cast members. In Latin America alone, there are five separate adaptations; each is a scene-for-scene remake using local actors. Yet, nothing compares to the impact the show has had in Saudi Arabia. In May 2009, Wikileaks unearthed a diplomatic cable about the program, which reported that it’s helped dissuade Saudi youth from radical Islam by giving them a favorable impression of the United States. According to the cable, “Saudis are now very interested in the outside world and everyone wants to study in the U.S. if they can. They are fascinated by U.S. culture in a way they never were before.” In a country where women can’t vote, drive, or walk outside without a male guardian, the ladies of Wisteria Lane are showing them that life has more to offer, particularly in the way of drama. FLOWER GIRLS There’s a reason why so many grandmas are named Rose and Daisy. During the first half of the 20th century, women were basically expected to name their pink bundle of joy after a flower. But as the nation entered the 1960s, the hippie generation became more interested in planting on vans than using them for baby names. Recently, however, floral names have begun cropping up again. Watch Modern Family and you’ll see Lily; read Us Weekly and you’ll hear about Violet Affleck and Iris Law. While Rose has yet to make a full comeback, other flower names are definitely in bloom. Just check out the graph below: A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME Just as people can be named after flowers, flowers can be named after people. Here are some of our favorite celebrity buds. Barbra Streisand Rose A notorious diva, Barbra Streisand once said that if a flower were ever named after her, she wanted it to smell good and be disease-resistant. Botanists bred this sweet, purple bloom with a hearty immune system just for her. Julia Child Rose If you’re wondering what sort of mouth-watering qualities land you the Child name, this one’s the color of butter and smells of licorice. Chihuly Rose This rose is fittingly named after Dale Chihuly, the master craftsman who’s created some of the world’s most colorful and elaborate glass sculptures. The petals of the Chihuly Rose change color with the light, turning from yellow to orange to red. Dolly Parton Rose This hybrid tea rose has big double blooms, just like its country-crooning namesake. George Burns Rose In honor of George Burns’ 100th birthday in 1996, botanists created a ruffled flower with streaks of red, yellow, pink, and orange. They also gave it a lemony scent, making it as colorful and zesty as the comedian himself. Jackson and Perkins, the iconic rose-peddling company, will allow anyone to name a new rose variety after themselves. All it requires is a small fee of $75,000. (Title image credit: Flickr user Bart Everson) _______________________ The article above, written by David Goldenberg and Adam K. Raymond, is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the July-August 2011 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue! Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ website and blog for more fun stuff!

The Star Wars Alphabet Guessing Game Posted: 26 Aug 2011 04:40 AM PDT Each letter of the alphabet is represented by a character from the Star Wars universe here. Can you name them all? You might notice some of the main characters are missing in action, because a puzzle should never be too easy. The answers are at Gamma Squad. Link -via Buzzfeed

Astonish Me Posted: 26 Aug 2011 04:20 AM PDT (YouTube link) Take a museum tour like none you’ve ever seen! Astonish Me is a short film about newly-discovered species created by writer Stephen Poliakoff and director Charles Sturridge to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). Link -Thanks, Danny Smits!

Belgium's Abandoned Crypts Posted: 26 Aug 2011 04:00 AM PDT Environmental Graffiti has a gallery of images from an underground crypt in Belgium. It was used for burials for decades, but maintenance was discontinued because of the expense. After years of decay, access to the crypt was closed for safety reasons. But you can see it still. Photographer and urban explorer Sven Fennema takes you on an underground tour with fascinating pictures from his book Anderswelten (Other Worlds). “The air was very cold and wet, and you could see your every breath – also an experience I will never forget. It was as if death was close beside you somehow. The crypt was full of those strange plastic flowers – still with their bright colors – but it was also full of spiders’ webs and other kinds of decay." Link (Image credit: Sven Fennema)

Twitter Tales of Terrible Dates Posted: 26 Aug 2011 02:50 AM PDT It’s often hard to tell an interesting story in 140 characters or less, but when it comes to bad dates, that’s often all you need. BuzzFeed has a great collection of hilariously depressing bad date stories that might just make you feel better about your own sour relationships. Link

Dog Goes Insane Over Hedgehog Posted: 26 Aug 2011 02:40 AM PDT (Video Link) I feel bad for the hedgehog, but at least that’s exactly what he has evolved to prevent himself from. Via Geekosystem

Students Want Don Draper To Speak At Graduation Posted: 26 Aug 2011 02:31 AM PDT Plenty of schools hire celebrities to speak at their commencement ceremonies, but it’s certainly rare for students to request an imaginary character to honor them with his presence. That’s exactly what a group of students from Creative Circus, a two-year advertising school in Atlanta, have requested. Remember, they don’t want Jon Hamm to speak at the ceremony, they’re requesting he show up at their graduation acting as Don Draper. What do you guys think? Is this a realistic request or just plain over dramatic? Link

25 Signs You're A Child Of The '90s Posted: 26 Aug 2011 02:12 AM PDT I know a lot of our readers were born a lot earlier than I was, but for those of you raised in the nineties, this BuzzFeed article has a lot of funny ways to prove it that you will find yourself nodding your head to in agreement. Link

Cthulhu Bento Box Makes For A Scary Good Meal Posted: 26 Aug 2011 02:05 AM PDT I love this delightfully clever H.P. Lovecraft bento box by The Nghbrhood complete with a green hot dog Cthulhu and terrified egg people. I’ d be so jealous if I was one of this kid’s school friends. Link Via BoingBoing

The Ninja Turtles Are Back From The Sewers Posted: 25 Aug 2011 10:29 PM PDT These aren’t the skateboard riding, pizza loving turtles from the animated series, but rather the original dark and moody mutant ninja’s from the comics that started it all. With help from Master Splinter, they’re battling an angry anthropomorphic cat man and his gang for control of the city, and it looks like things are going to get bloody. ComicsAlliance has an 8 page preview of the first issue at the link below, take a look and decide for yourself whether you’ll be celebrating the return of TMNT! Link

Sausage Fest Is Over-The-Top Food Fun Posted: 25 Aug 2011 08:38 PM PDT (YouTube Link) The guys from Epic Meal Time are blowing up YouTube with their crazy food-centric comedy videos, recipes seemingly created by Paula Dean while she was on acid, and devil may care attitudes that make them a big hit with the ladies. Every recipe these guys dream up starts with trays full of bacon, and become more and more insane as another ingredient is added. This edition, entitled Sausage Fest, shows you how to make sausage out of big macs and beef sandwiches, among other crazy combinations of (often fried) food which have never been stuffed in a sausage casing before. Let Epic Meal Time show you why things get strange in the kitchen when you’re cooking drunk.

A Drawing For Every NES Game Released In 1988 Posted: 25 Aug 2011 08:24 PM PDT Unless you are an ultimate Nintendo fan, and know every game that came out on the console in 1988, you’re going to have a hard time identifying all of these great games. But really, who’s keeping score? These awesomely adorable illustrations are by Campbell Whyte, and have a quirky cute style all their own. See if you can figure them all out, and be sure to follow the link over to Destructoid if you want to see all 65 of these adorable illustrations! Link -via Destructoid

Darth Vapour, Dark Lord of the Steam Posted: 25 Aug 2011 08:15 PM PDT You cannot resist the power of the Steamy Side. This steampunk mask made by Michael Salerno “represents the Imperial aspirations of the European powers in the 19th Century.” Link -via Bit Rebels | Previously: Steampunk Darth Vader Mask

Newest Indie Comic Reboot-Bone The Barbarian Posted: 25 Aug 2011 08:15 PM PDT Was Bone too cute and cuddly for you? Wishing he were a giant pile of muscles wielding a massive sword while saving bikini clad babes? ComicsAlliance has answered your prayers with their latest indie comic reboot-Bone the Barbarian! Here’s a taste of what Bone is like in a sword and sorcery setting: Exiled from his homeland of Boneboria, the warrior Fone Bonan sets out on a epic quest to find the mythical Crown of Horns, an artifact of great and terrible power that will grant a vast kingdom to any man who dares to claim it. Bad to the Bone! Follow the link to ComicsAlliance to read more about Bone’s reboot, and see the full cover in all it’s barbaric glory. Link

Fun Retro Dungeon Crawler Made In 48 Hours Posted: 25 Aug 2011 08:08 PM PDT If you like your games old school and pixelated, then you will love this surprisingly difficult dungeon crawler created in under 48 hours by Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson. It hearkens back to the days when games came without explanation, where you had to stumble around to figure out what’s going on, and the simple style masked a devilishly difficult puzzle element. It’s fun, quirky, and can be played for free if you follow the link. Now get busy punching some bats and eyeballs! Link -via Joystiq

Prints from Pasts That Never Were Posted: 25 Aug 2011 08:07 PM PDT In his Alternate Histories prints series, Etsy seller Matthew Buchholz imagines small, subtle changes in American history as reflected in iconic prints. Here, for example, is a picture of the massive statute Emperor Krgyyx Threatening the World. Of course, if you live in New York City, you can just look at the real thing, although the visitors’ center is currently closed for renovations. Link -via The Breda Fallacy

Filmmaker Sent Rejection Notice from Film Festival She Never Even Submitted Work to Posted: 25 Aug 2011 07:41 PM PDT It’s hard to work in the creative industries. You’ve got to have a thick skin because you’re going to get told ‘no’, a lot. You may even get rejected for things you’ve never asked, as Shawnee Barton discovered. Art San Diego rejected her non-existent submission to a film festival. Here’s a passage from her response: After all this, I (half-jokingly) wonder if Art San Diego is an organization made up of art supporters or artist soul crushers. I whole-heartedly wish the fair success and look forward to seeing the work you did not reject. That being said, I do not need your flogging. Link -via @Christopher Jobson | Photo by Flickr user comedy_nose used under Creative Commons license

Underwater Boxing Posted: 25 Aug 2011 07:31 PM PDT (Video Link) Sure, it’s a challenge, but it’s not underwater chess boxing. Now that would be a sight to see. This video shows a boxing match that allegedly took place in 1939 at Wembley Empire Pool in London. As YouTube user diagonaluk writes, “Can’t imagine why this never caught on.” Me neither. -via Doobybrain

In-flight "Tweet" from the 1940s Posted: 25 Aug 2011 03:55 PM PDT Neatoramanaut Minnesotastan was helping out his mom sort through some old memorabilia when he came across this gem: a pilot's note to communicate news to passengers in flight. Sort of like an inflight tweet from the 1940s. The note above, stating "Our naval base at Guam is destroyed" must've been a doozy! Link

Scented Laundry Products Emit Carcinogens Posted: 25 Aug 2011 02:54 PM PDT Love the fresh smell of clean laundry? Be careful - you may just be snorting up carcinogens: Analysis of the captured gases found more than 25 volatile organic compounds, including seven hazardous air pollutants, coming out of the vents. Of those, two chemicals -- acetaldehyde and benzene -- are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as carcinogens, for which the agency has established no safe exposure level. "These products can affect not only personal health, but also public and environmental health. The chemicals can go into the air, down the drain and into water bodies," Steinemann said. The researchers estimate that in the Seattle area, where the study was conducted, acetaldehyde emissions from this brand of laundry detergent would be equivalent to 3 percent of the total acetaldehyde emissions coming from automobiles. Emissions from the top five brands, they estimate, would constitute about 6 percent of automobiles' acetaldehyde emissions. Link

Nick Helm: "I Needed a Password Eight Characters Long So I Picked ...." Posted: 25 Aug 2011 01:53 PM PDT Every year, comedians compete to deliver the world's ... okay, okay, Scotland's funniest joke at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This year's winner is British comedian Nick Helm, who came up with this gem: "I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." After you stop laughing, take a gander at a few more of the funniest jokes from the Festival: 2) Tim Vine: "Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels." 3) Hannibal Buress: "People say 'I'm taking it one day at a time'. You know what? So is everybody. That's how time works." 4) Tim Key: "Drive-Thru McDonalds was more expensive than I thought... once you've hired the car..." 5) Matt Kirshen: "I was playing chess with my friend and he said, 'Let's make this interesting'. So we stopped playing chess." The BBC has jokes #6 to 10: Link

All About The Shoes Wizard of Oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle Posted: 25 Aug 2011 01:29 PM PDT All About The Shoes Wizard of Oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle - $11.95 On August 25, 1939 the US was introduced to a magical technicolor land known as Oz.  What have we learned from one of the best-known films of all time? It’s all about the shoes! Celebrate the Wizard of Oz with the All About The Shoes Wizard of Oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle from the NeatoShop. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Wizard of Oz collectibles! Link

Post-It Notes Megaman Posted: 25 Aug 2011 01:08 PM PDT Looks like someone had a lot of extra multicolored Post-It Notes and a love for Megaman. What other classic video game characters should he try making with Post-It Notes? Link

Alien Planet Made of Diamond Discovered Posted: 25 Aug 2011 12:53 PM PDT If you really want to impress that intergalactic princess you’ve been dating, this would make for one heck of an engagement ring. Scientists have discovered a planet 4,000 light years from Earth that is made of diamond. This illustration shows the alien planet PSR J1719-1438, where ultra-high pressures caused carbon to crystallize in the remnant of a dead star, forming the extrasolar world. The resulting planet is made of diamond and orbits a dense pulsing star with a radius smaller than that of our sun. Link

Do Animals Know an Earthquake is About to Hit? Posted: 25 Aug 2011 12:52 PM PDT Did animals know that the 5.8-magnitude earthquake was to hit the East Coast before it happened? Maybe so, according to zoo keepers: Behavior ranged from jumping into trees and "vocalizing," to banding together. Red ruffed lemurs sounded a distinct high-pitched barking about 15 minutes before the quake, and then again after the shaking stopped. Apes, including the orangutan Kyle and the Western lowland gorilla Kojo, abandoned feeding-time chow seconds before humans felt the quake and climbed to the top of a "tree-like structure." The easy-going pandas "did not appear to respond to the earthquake," zoo officials said. Also in the Great Ape House, the orangutan Iris began what zoo keepers describe as "belch vocalizing" before and after the quake. They describe the sound as an unhappy noise normally reserved for "extreme irritation." And just before the quake, the zoo's flock of 64 flamingoes gathered close together in a "tight, flocking behavior," Moore said. They looked, he said, "like a big pink ball." Link

Subtitle Glasses for the Deaf Posted: 25 Aug 2011 12:35 PM PDT Viewing movies in the movie theater is a problem for many deaf people as theaters just don’t offer that many subtitled screenings. Now however Sony is developing glasses that will provide subtitles to films within the glasses themselves. Sony has been working on subtitle glasses that should allow deaf viewers to have their own personal subtitles without other viewers having to be distracted by them. While it seems like a pretty simple concept, the real trick is ensuring that the viewer doesn't constantly have to switch focus from the glasses, to the screen, to the glasses, to the screen. These glasses manage to provide the subtitles in such a way that they appear to be projected on the screen, in the same field of view as the action of the movie. Link

Handroid – The Lightweight Robotic Limb You Can Remotely Control Posted: 25 Aug 2011 12:22 PM PDT Handroid is a new robotic hand that has many potential applications including handling dangerous materials and prosthetic limbs. Is it me or is this arm going to come back attached to an Austrian accented robot looking for John Connor? If you've never thought about describing a robotic limb as sleek and sexy then you've never met Handroid. The latest production of Japan-based ITK, Handroid is a five fingered robot hand that moves smoothly using cables attached to motors in the forearm rather than bulky servos embedded in each digit. That design allows Handroid to be lightweight (just 740g) as well as move in a decidedly human manner. Currently, Handroid is remotely operated using a glove, allowing you to flex each robot finger as easily as you do your own. Link

Portal-Themed Bedroom Posted: 25 Aug 2011 11:55 AM PDT Kids today no longer have to make do with princess or cowboy-themed bedrooms. At least not these kids - check out this Portal-themed room over at Unreality Magazine: Link - Thanks Nat Berman!

Liquify Your Dead Body – For The Earth! Posted: 25 Aug 2011 11:38 AM PDT While you may consider yourself a environmentalist while you are alive, have you considered being green while you are dead? People might make some great compost but one group is promoting the green way to go using a liquefying process called Resomation. Instead of an urn or a casket, consider being buried in a bottle. In order to be properly buried, a person is generally embalmed and put in a casket. Not only does this take up wood and floor space, but embalming fluids leak back into the earth after a person has been buried, creating an environmental hazard. Cremation is just another fire putting carbon into the atmosphere (and if the person has be embalmed, it releases toxins as well). A study looking at the ecologically best way to go on to your final reward showed that resomation is the winner. Resomation suspends the body (and sometimes the coffin) in a solution of water and alkali salts. An alkali is a basic solid known as an ‘ionic salt’. The best known one is lime, which breaks down organic solids. The process takes two to three hours. The body slowly dissolves into a powder, much the way it does during cremation. The liquid remaining is sterile, and is drained away, cleaned, and returned to the water cycle. Link

Plastic Surgery for Pets Posted: 25 Aug 2011 11:35 AM PDT There are lots of crazy products for the over-the-top pet owner, but one of the craziest (and saddest) has to be the new trend of pet plastic surgery. Droopy eyes and wrinkly coats are character attributes for most people owned by a dog, and your average family pet-owner wouldn’t dream of putting Bowser under the knife without a health reason to do so. Sure, sometimes a pet needs surgery to repair a medical condition, but the big money isn’t in procedures to keep your dog healthy: Botox for wrinkles, tummy tucks, nose jobs, braces, and eyelid lifts, which are common for breeds like the bloodhound and bulldog. There are also implants such as “Neuticles” — bean-shaped silicone implants to replace the testicles of neutered dogs. They have little to no health benefit for the dog, and vets aren’t too keen on the procedure. Still, more than 425,000 pets around the world now sport such implants. Proponents of the cosmetic pet surgeries say they allow pets to lead  ”healthier and more active lives.” Personally, I find the trend as cruel as suggesting your kid get a tummy tuck, but you can decide for yourself. There’s more from The Week: Link

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