Neatorama

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• Bad Vibes: Studying Emotional Residue
• Surreal Mascot Masks
• Star Wars and Scary Movie Mash-up
• Painting With Light Photographs
• Tintin Fights Back
• If Charles Schulz Worked With H.P. Lovecraft
• 32 Insanely Witty Comebacks
• Here's A Dedicated Group Of Costumers
• Top Gun Kids Costumes With Matching "Plane"
• Awesome Pictures of Exploding Objects
• Plots From Unaired 8th Season Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation
• The Mystery Art Patron of the Scottish Poetry Library
• Thanksgiving Gumballs
• Field of Dreams Sold
• A Gallery Of Re-Imagined Movie Posters
• Master Splinter, What Happened To The Ninja Turtles?
• Halloween Costume Gallery
• Swords Into Plowshares, Helmets Into Ladles
• 3D Sculpture by Yuki Matsueda
• PETMAN
• Dia De Los Muertos
• You're Never Bored with a Gourd!
• The Museum of Quackery and Medical Frauds
• How A Population Grows To 7 Billion
• Bacon Candy Cane
• NeatoShop Contest: Create a Neatorama Bingo Card!
• Breaking the Speed of Light

Bad Vibes: Studying Emotional Residue Posted: 02 Nov 2011 12:21 AM PDT There are people who claim to be very intuitive about the emotions of former occupants of a place based on the “vibes” they get from hanging out in a house or building. While most people would say aloud that they thought this was a bunch of nonsense, a study done recently to gauge the average person’s response to implied emotional residue shows that most people believe in some sort of emotional vibe… even after the person who left it there is gone. [Y]ou're choosing between two apartments. They are identical with one exception: you happen to know that the former tenant in one of the apartments was an extremely happy, joyful person. Would you be more inclined to choose that apartment, based on an expectation that you might experience some lingering good feelings? Your answers reflect how much you believe in "emotional residue," which is the idea that emotions can hang around a physical environment, long after their owners have left. New research suggests that at a gut level, most of us believe that emotional residue exists. However, the culture we've grown up in determines the extent to which we consciously and openly endorse those beliefs. He had participants from both countries read scenarios about David, a college freshman who moves into a new dorm room. The previous student who lived in the room was described as having spent a lot of time there feeling either very happy or depressed. Savani asked his participants to predict how David would feel a couple of weeks after living in his new room. Both Indians and Americans predicted that David would feel similarly to the student who had lived there before. In other words, he'd feel happy if the previous student had been happy and sad if the previous student had been sad. There were two other trials, detailed in the Scientific American post and the original study report, which gave similar results: People believe, even subconsciously, that how a person feels will leave lingering emotional markers in a room or building. So is that the case or is this, in fact, a bunch of nonsense? The question of whether emotional residue actually exists remains to be answered, but intriguing new research suggests that it may have biological underpinnings. A well-publicized study from earlier this year demonstrated that human tears emit a chemical that other people detect and respond to. Specifically, women's tears were shown to reduce testosterone and sexual arousal in men. Research by Wen Zhou and Denise Chen of Rice University have demonstrated that human sweat glands emit distinct chemicals when people experience different emotions. In addition, they showed evidence that other people can sense those chemicals at a later point in time. Taken together, these new findings suggest that our intuitive beliefs in emotional residue may be more than just superstition. What’s your opinion here, Neatorama? Are bad vibes just superstition or do you think we’ll find a scientific basis for our wariness of “sad” or “happy” places? Link | Image

Surreal Mascot Masks Posted: 01 Nov 2011 11:56 PM PDT These kooky mascot masks are the brainchild of Ian Langohr, who used skills learned while working for a mascot production company to channel his inner strange. Maybe these masks will inspire the wildest bunch of college mascots ever-California Nest Mouths anyone? Link

Star Wars and Scary Movie Mash-up Posted: 01 Nov 2011 11:47 PM PDT The Dark Side of the force meets the darker side of cinema in these Star Wars-horror movie mash-up artworks created for the Death Star Art Show in Baltimore. Of particular note is the painting of Yoda as Hannibal from Silence of the Lambs, what a cute little cannibal! Link

Painting With Light Photographs Posted: 01 Nov 2011 11:18 PM PDT Brian Hart creates these really cool light painting photographs by using exposure times up to 20 minutes long. Now that’s what I call bending light! These images are so detailed that I can’t help but wonder what sort of reference he uses while the shutter is open. Link

Tintin Fights Back Posted: 01 Nov 2011 11:06 PM PDT I guess size doesn’t matter when it comes to messing with Tintin. Illustrator Mike Holmes created this piece for an exhibit called Toronto Draws Tintin, running from November 2-27 at the Beguling. These guys must have been talking trash about Tintin’s mother! Link

If Charles Schulz Worked With H.P. Lovecraft Posted: 01 Nov 2011 11:05 PM PDT Artist artist Julien Bazinet found himself wondering what would happen if The Peanuts gang were mixed in with the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. The resulting comics are funny and cute, particularly little Snoopy posing as Cthulhu. Link Via Flavorwire

32 Insanely Witty Comebacks Posted: 01 Nov 2011 10:54 PM PDT If you’re like me, you tend to suck at comebacks (at least coming up with them fast enough for them to be useful), which makes BuzzFeed’s list of 32 wittiest comebacks even better. Link

Here's A Dedicated Group Of Costumers Posted: 01 Nov 2011 10:47 PM PDT Speaking of fashionable Halloween rides that only add to a costume, just check out this incredible Flintstones mobile that was actually driven through a drive through. Link Via BuzzFeed

Top Gun Kids Costumes With Matching "Plane" Posted: 01 Nov 2011 10:44 PM PDT (Video Link) Halloween may be over, but that doesn’t make these eight month old twins playing the role of Goose and Maverick any less cute. Of course, the jet stroller is an unbelievably cute accessory. Via Laughing Squid

Awesome Pictures of Exploding Objects Posted: 01 Nov 2011 10:39 PM PDT Artist Alan Sailer likes to fire air rifles into different objects in his garage, but unlike most shooting enthusiasts, he is able to make brilliant photos by using a laser that triggers the flash to go off at the perfect second. The resulting images are simply stunning. Link

Plots From Unaired 8th Season Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation Posted: 01 Nov 2011 08:00 PM PDT Did you miss Picard, Riker, Welsey and the rest of the ST:TNG gang? Feast on this: plots from the unaired eight season of the Star Trek: The Next Generation, courtesy of @TNG_S8: A pod of quantum dolphins are stuck by the starboard nacelle, Picard defends himself in the dolphin murder trial. Guinan learns hockey. Q's back: he's wearing a kimono and unleashes dinosaurs on The Enterprise. Worf refuses to enjoy the pleasure-planet Risa. The prime directive is completely ignored when Picard really wants to ride a Centaur. Geordie sleeps through the whole episode by accident. I swear I saw that last one already! Link - via Metafilter

The Mystery Art Patron of the Scottish Poetry Library Posted: 01 Nov 2011 06:57 PM PDT Image: chrisdonia/Flickr Last spring, a librarian saw a little paper sculpture of a tree sitting on a table in the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. It seems like the library had gotten itself a new anonymous patron ... and thus a wonderful mystery was born: Gorgeously crafted, it came with a gold-leafed eggshell broken in two, each half filled with little strips of paper with phrases on them. When reassembled properly, the strips became a poem about birds, "A Trace of Wings" by Edwin Morgan. What was this? "This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas..." said a note, addressed to the Library by its twitter name "@ByLeavesWeLive". There was no artist signature, no one to thank. The staff, totally nonplussed, asked on their blog if anybody knew who made it. They described the gift as a "poetree" and waited. Nobody claimed authorship. Then, it happened again. And again and again ... Who had been leaving these mysterious gifts in the library? When the Edinburgh Evening News announced that it had cracked the case, the reaction of the public was unimaginable (at least by American standards): people actually preferred that the mysterious patron remain mysterious! Read more about the fascinating case of this literary mystery over at Robert Krulwich's blog over at NPR: Link

Thanksgiving Gumballs Posted: 01 Nov 2011 06:31 PM PDT Thanksgiving Gumballs – $2.95 Thanksgiving Gumballs are back in stock at the NeatoShop. This fantastic seasonal item includes 22 delicious gumballs in the classic flavors of Thanksgiving: Turkey Cranberry and Pumpkin Pie Get your yummy Thanksgiving Gumballs before they run out. Be sure to check out the Neatoshop for more Thanksgiving fun and fantastic hostess gifts. Link

Field of Dreams Sold Posted: 01 Nov 2011 04:56 PM PDT If they build it, will they come? Mike and Denise Stillman are betting on it: the couple, longtime fans of the movie "Field of Dreams," have just bought the Iowa farm where movie was shot and plan to turn it into baseball fields. The Stillmans said they plan to preserve the iconic diamond while building about a dozen other fields and an indoor training dome on the 193-acre property, turning the land into a Midwestern hub for youth baseball and softball practice and tournaments. "It's the right time for this," said Denise Stillman, 39, a healthcare business consultant. "We just know that it's going to be a huge success." The Stillmans said about 65,000 people visit the site near Dyersville every year, playing catch or running the bases on the same field where the ghosts of past ballplayers emerged from the cornstalks to play ball in the movie, which starred Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. Link (Photo: Field of Dreams in Dubuque County, Iowa/Wikipedia)

A Gallery Of Re-Imagined Movie Posters Posted: 01 Nov 2011 03:51 PM PDT Adam Rabalais decided to try his hand at re-designing classic movie posters, with nation of origin appropriate spelling and style, and without all of the clutter present in the average lobby fare. Check the link out for a small gallery of the artist’s reworks, and see if you think simpler is better. Link –via ComicsAlliance

Master Splinter, What Happened To The Ninja Turtles? Posted: 01 Nov 2011 03:41 PM PDT Was a spell cast upon the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which turned them into trees, or is this tree just a really big fan of the series? This tree with a face would have fit in quite well on the set of the Dark Crystal. Link

Halloween Costume Gallery Posted: 01 Nov 2011 03:41 PM PDT Geeks Are Sexy asked readers to send in photos of their Halloween costumes to share, and they posted the responses in a gallery today. Here, Suzanne models her 2011 Nyan Cat Halloween costume. It’s not the only Nyan Cat costume in the gallery. Check out all the superheroes, TV and movie characters, monsters, zombies, memes, and puns at GAS. Link

Swords Into Plowshares, Helmets Into Ladles Posted: 01 Nov 2011 02:55 PM PDT John Foster of Accidental Mysteries blog came across this piece that crystallizes the words "swords into plowshares" into a real life object: I purchased this from my friend Joshua Lowenfels, who found it at a flea market in NYC. He purchased it from an old German fellow who was parting with a few things from his life. The handle is only about two feet long, so it appears to have been used as a sort of ladle for scooping and pouring wet concrete. I got weak-kneed when I saw it. If this isn’t the most perfect statement on the whole failed Nazi experiment, and of war in general, I don’t know of one. Link

3D Sculpture by Yuki Matsueda Posted: 01 Nov 2011 12:00 PM PDT Stop that exit sign man! Japanese artist Yuki Matsueda created some nifty 3D art sculptures, including this one above - easily my favorite in the series. Link - via The Inspiration Grid and Buzzfeed

PETMAN Posted: 01 Nov 2011 10:26 AM PDT (YouTube link) PETMAN is a robot from Boston Dynamics (the company that brought us BigDog). PETMAN was designed to test protective clothing for the U.S. military. Despite not having a real head, he can pretty much move like a real man. Link -via Metafilter Previously: PETMAN Prototype PS: Rob at the What Is It? blog suggested an appropriate soundtrack for this video.

Dia De Los Muertos Posted: 01 Nov 2011 09:38 AM PDT Today is Dia De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. It has nothing to do with Halloween, and very little to do with All Saints Day. Although the day is usually associated with Mexico, it is also celebrated in Guatemala, Brazil, Spain, and parts of the U.S. Day of the Dead is a time for friends and family to come together to honor those who have passed away. The holiday dates back to the time of the Aztecs who celebrated a festival dedicated to the “Lady of the Dead.” Rituals of celebrating the deaths of ancestors have been observed by these civilizations for at least 3,000 years. The festival that became the modern Day of the Dead fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, about the beginning of August, and was celebrated for an entire month. In modern times, the celebration occurs on November 1 and 2 in connection with the Catholic holidays All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2). Read about the meaning and traditions of this holiday at IBTraveler. Link -via The Daily What

You're Never Bored with a Gourd! Posted: 01 Nov 2011 09:34 AM PDT Every year, the Upton family of Slindon, West Sussex, England displays their crop of gourds by arranging them to make an artwork. It’s a tradition that started by accident in the late 1960s. This picture is from 2009. You can see this year’s creation and images from other seasons at Kuriositas. Link -via the Presurfer (Image credit: Flickr user Badly Drawn Dad)

The Museum of Quackery and Medical Frauds Posted: 01 Nov 2011 09:20 AM PDT The Science Museum of Minnesota obtained the collection of the Museum of Quackery and Medical Frauds and set it up as the “Questionable Medical Device” collection. This collection of dubious medical devices reminds us that sometimes, medicine is best left to the doctors. Exhibits on display include a phrenological machine that gauges personality by measuring the size of bumps on the head, a foot-powered breast enlarger, and glasses and soap products designed for weight-loss. You can still have your phrenology read by the fully functional machine today, and as the machine outlines the bumps on your skull, the phrenology reader “maps” intelligence, morality, and much more. Machines such as these were all the rage at State Fairs of the early 1900s, as were other questionable medical devices. The infomercials of their time, these snake oils and pseudoscience gadgets could cure impotence, tell how smart you were, and make you live forever. Read more about this strange museum within a museum at Atlas Obscura. Link (Image credit: Flickr user A.M. Kuchling)

How A Population Grows To 7 Billion Posted: 01 Nov 2011 07:31 AM PDT The world now has seven billion people. A video from NPR helps us to visualize how that happened so quickly. Yeah, you already know how it happens, but this video uses visual metaphors. Link -via I Am Bored

Bacon Candy Cane Posted: 01 Nov 2011 06:38 AM PDT Bacon Candy Cane – $4.45 Halloween was so yesterday. Are you ready for Christmas? What! You act like I skipped Thanksgiving or something. Okay I did skip Thanksgiving, but I did it for a good reason. I couldn’t wait a minute longer to bring you the Bacon Candy Canes now available at the NeatoShop. Bacon Candy Canes look like regular candy canes, but taste like bacon. Yum! Be sure to check out the Bacon Store for more bacon goodness. Link

NeatoShop Contest: Create a Neatorama Bingo Card! Posted: 01 Nov 2011 06:22 AM PDT The author of The Fluffpo loves to make fun of the variously loved or loathed Huffington Post, and so made this funny bingo card for readers to play as they read that blog. Presumably the winner gets one of those high-paying writing gigs at the Post. But winners of this contest will get t-shirts. We’re going to create a bingo card with twenty-four squares (they’ll be one free space in the center) that people can play while reading Neatorama. What should we write in the squares? You tell us! Place your submission in the comment section below. Write only one per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. In five days, we’ll choose twenty-four entries for our card and show you the results so that you can start playing right away. Among those twenty-four entries, we’ll randomly select two winners who will get t-shirts from the NeatoShop. Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? Now, off to the comments with you! Link -via Boing Boing

Breaking the Speed of Light Posted: 01 Nov 2011 06:00 AM PDT (YouTube link) One-Minute Physics explains how to break the speed of light by pointing a laser at the moon. I think this boils down to appearance vs. reality, but I may be mistaken. Anyway, it sounds fun to try! -via The Daily What Geek

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