Neatorama

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• Fast Food Flavors You Won’t Find In The US
• You Can Really Taste The Dark Side In This Vader Burger
• Coast Guard Discovers Body, Which Turns Out To Be E.T.
• Custom Made Portal Heel Springs
• Hamster-Powered Submarine
• Lion King Meets The Dark Knight Rises Trailer
• Strangers Have A Jam Session On The Subway
• FATESCAPES: Iconic Photographs Without People
• Twins Born 5 Years Apart
• Biopixels: Living “Neon Signs” Made From Bacteria
• Art Student Covertly Hangs Painting in Art Museum
• Amazing Packing Tape Portraits
• Can You Scare Kids Into Losing Weight?
• Battlestar Galactica, The Classic Video Game
• The Zoomable Van Gogh
• 2% of Americans Thought Mitt Romney’s First Name is “Mittens”
• Denture Bottle Opener
• “Beowulf” as Original Audiences Would Have Experienced It
• Airline Pilot Spots Flying Shark
• Stealth Mountain
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Convertible Beanie
• …But the Cat Came Back
• The Snow Monsters of Japan
• Felted Fantastic Four Cover
• iPad Accepted in Lieu of Passport
• The Pinnacle of Cake Evolution
• The Language of Stamps
• Fishing Under Ice

Fast Food Flavors You Won’t Find In The US Posted: 05 Jan 2012 05:16 AM PST I recently posted an article about discontinued snack foods, and many of our readers pointed out that some of the foods were still available in other countries. As it turns out, fast food companies operate in a similar manner, offering local favorites to other countries that they would never consider selling in America. Here are a few American fast food establishments and the dishes they don’t offer in America. Burger King In Canada, poutine, fries covered in cheese curds and gravy, is offered at almost every fast food restaurant, but BK offers their own varieties that fit in with the rest of their food –most notably, the Angry Poutine with fried onions and peppers on top. In Puerto Rico, mallorcas, sweet pastry buns, are a popular breakfast treat and Burger King takes full advantage of the popularity of these buns by offering the King Mallorca, filled with ham, eggs and three different cheeses. If you want something even more filling, you might want to try their Enormous Omelet, which isn't an omelet at all, but actually one of the restaurant's long hamburger buns filled with a hamburger patty, two eggs, bacon and cheese. Later in the day, you can always snack on some King Wings, which are buffalo wings marinated in honey –why aren't these sold in America yet? In many countries, including the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Columbia and Mexico, you can enjoy the deliciously fatty Cheesy Whopper, which features a deep fried disc of cheese on top of a standard Whopper. Personally, I want to try the Hawaiian BK Chicken available in New Zealand, which is like all the other chicken sandwiches Burger King sells, only it features bacon and pineapple. Sign me up! KFC The variety of KFC's international menus is simply astounding, as the American version exclusively limits itself to fried chicken and a few sides, while the international franchises seem to have no limits on what they serve. On the more standard side, there is the Fillet Tower Burger, which is available throughout Europe and other locations, which is essentially just a chicken sandwich topped with a hashbrown. On the other end of the spectrum is the menu from Thailand, which features stir fries, a tuna and corn salad, fish fingers (like chicken fingers, but fish) and a donut filled with shrimp meat. China offers a similarly strange menu compared to the standard KFC fare, as it includes corn salad, beef wraps, red bean porridge, shrimp burgers and an egg and vegetable soup. Some of the desserts featured in other countries sound downright delicious, particularly those available in France. Some French KFC dessert selections include a banana and passion fruit tart, panna cotta with raspberry sauce and tiramisu. As for unique dishes, the Cali Maki Twister, available in the Philippines sounds good but weird. It is a chicken wrap with mangos, cucumber and spicy mayo. Japan's shrimp bisque pot pie also sounds pretty tasty, although the picture looks a little strange. Pizza Hut Naturally, Pizza Hut's main offering around the globe remains pizza, but what does change is their topping selection. Depending on where you go, you can top your pizza with apricot sauce, asparagus, broccoli, calamari, capers, carbonara sauce, chicken fajita meat, chicken tikka, chorizo, clams, corn, crab, cranberry sauce, cream cheese, curry sauce, eggplant, goat cheese, hot dogs, kebab meat, mashed potatoes, mayonnaise, mint, mussels, potato chips, roast beef, salsa, satay sauce, seaweed, sour cream, shrimp, spicy Thai sauce, sweet corn, tandoori spices, teriyaki chicken, thousand island dressing, tuna or yogurt. And I bet some of you still think pineapple is a weird pizza topping. As if that weren't enough variations on your pizza, the restaurant also offers a variety of different stuffed crusts and cheesy bite fillings, including a stuffed crust with kebab meat inside and a cheesy bite crust with shrimp inside. If you really want to see some different menu items at a Pizza Hut though, head to Hong Kong, where the menu reads more like a five-star restaurant than a crummy American pizza chain. A few highlights: escargot with mashed potatoes, lobster soup with puffed pastry, paella, squid in risotto with shrimp in a lobster sauce and crème brule. It would sound great if the sign on the restaurant didn't still read "Pizza Hut." Image Via tangdersons [Flickr] Taco Bell Taco Bell's international menus are perhaps the most similar to the American version, with a few exceptions. Most notably, in Spain you can order tater tot nachos with sour cream (yummy), and a Chocodilla, which is exactly what it sounds like –a chocolate quesadilla. Also, in India, many of the traditional Taco Bell items can be served with potato in place of meat. McDonald's While McDonald's is certainly the largest fast food restaurant in the world, I did neglect to include them in this list only because I already wrote about many of their international treats in this McFacts About McDonald's article. Just in cast you're feeling too lazy to click over though, here is a highlight: Most Indian menus are largely different than those in America, as pig and cow products are not served outside of Southern India. The chicken and fish are also prepared in separate areas because or strict religious laws regarding the preparation of food for vegetarians. One of the area's specialties is the Maharaja Mac, which was originally made with lamb meat but now is made with chicken. They also serve a dish called the McCurry pan, which consists of a bowl made from flakey dough filled with chicken in a tomato-curry sauce. Naturally, there are plenty more international fast food menu options, but we'd be here for weeks if I actually described them all. If you do happen to live outside the U.S. and know of a local offering from a major chain restaurant, feel free to talk about them in the comments. Similarly, if you've tried any of the snacks included here, tell us what you thought about them. Sources: BK.com, KFC.com, PizzaHut.com, Taco Bell Spain, Taco Bell India

You Can Really Taste The Dark Side In This Vader Burger Posted: 04 Jan 2012 11:52 PM PST In what is sure to be the wackiest food marketing campaign yet, the French fast food chain Quick have released their Force burgers, to promote the release of The Phantom Menace in 3d. This bold, and absolutely disgusting looking, burger features a bun that is dyed black, ensuring that only a true Sith Lord will want to have anything to do with it! What do you think-would you eat a burger with a black bun, or is the color enough to put you off the Vader deluxe? Link

Coast Guard Discovers Body, Which Turns Out To Be E.T. Posted: 04 Jan 2012 11:44 PM PST The Coast Guard received a distress call about a body spotted floating off the coast of Old Portsmouth, Hants, and when they arrived they found that it was a creature from another planet! What they had actually discovered was a life-sized replica of everybody’s favorite turtle-esque alien E.T., which had been stolen from the home of Margaret Wells over a year ago. The replica was custom made by Margaret’s daughter, and what the person who stole E.T. intended to do with him is anybody’s guess. But since he washed up on the shore we can only assume that he owed money to some very bad people. Margaret’s response: "He has lost a finger and looks a bit roughed up. But he has a smile on his face," she said. "I always knew E.T. would come home." Link

Custom Made Portal Heel Springs Posted: 04 Jan 2012 11:31 PM PST These custom made heel springs, like the ones worn by the protagonist Chell in the Portal video game franchise, don’t seem like a very useful creation in real life, but who needs function when the form is so cool, and they’re an integral part of a wicked Chell costume? Scifi femme fatale prisoner cosplay FTW! If only they actually allowed you to survive a long fall, like they do in the game, the creator Harrison Krix would become a very rich man indeed! Link  –via Geekosystem

Hamster-Powered Submarine Posted: 04 Jan 2012 11:21 PM PST Don't worry, PETA! No hamsters were harmed in the making of this epic Hamster-powered Soda Bottle Submarine (Material cost of this awesomeness? $57!). Behold, HMS Hamstar! Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | HMS Hamstar's Official Website - via Geekologie

Lion King Meets The Dark Knight Rises Trailer Posted: 04 Jan 2012 11:18 PM PST (YouTube Link) Anticipation for the new Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises has spawned so many parodies and mashups that it seems like a new one is springing up every week. This one’s all about the Lion King, though, and that makes it stand out from the rest in my opinion. Watch as Simba’s fate takes a turn for the worse, and laugh as voices from the movie trailer are cleverly synced to the mouth shapes of animated animals! –via Topless Robot

Strangers Have A Jam Session On The Subway Posted: 04 Jan 2012 11:15 PM PST (YouTube Link) New York is the kind of place where anything can happen at any moment, and although that comes with plenty of bad, this video shows that there are also many instances of spontaneous goodness going down, even on public transit. These strangers on a train, who both happen to have their instruments with them, break out in a soulful song,  much to the delight of their fellow riders. Whether this chance meeting was truly by chance or not ceases to be an issue once you watch them play, and feel that energy that seems to be in the air that New Yorkers breathe. –via AnimalNY

FATESCAPES: Iconic Photographs Without People Posted: 04 Jan 2012 11:11 PM PST 1968 Saigon - FATESCAPES/Osudové krajiny If that photo above looks strangely familiar, that's because, chances are, you actually have seen it before visual artist Pavel Maria Smejkal artfully erased the people in Eddie Adam's General Nguyen Ngoc Loan Executing a Viet Cong Prisoner in Saigon. James Estrin wrote this interesting post for The New York Times's photography blog Lens: “Fatescapes” examines both the role and limitations of the photographic image as a historical document. “I remove the central motifs from historical documentary photographs,” Mr. Smejkal wrote in an e-mail. “I use images that have become our cultural heritage, that constitute memory of nations, serve as symbols or tools of propaganda and exemplify a specific approach to photography.” [...] Using a simple Photoshop tool, Mr. Smejkal has reshaped these images and challenged us to confront the relationship of photographer, image and history in a manner that is profoundly unsettling. Viewing “Fatescapes” encourages you to wonder if it even matters whether Mr. Adams’s general was misrepresented or if Mr. Capa’s photo was not what it purported to be. Who says Photoshopping ain't art? Link | Artist's gallery at Photo Art Centrum Previously on Neatorama: 13 Photographs That Changed The World

Twins Born 5 Years Apart Posted: 04 Jan 2012 06:39 PM PST Reuben has a twin sister Floren, but you probably wouldn't believe him until you read this story. See, Rueben is five-year-old and Floren is only seven-weeks old. Here's the story of twins born 5 years apart: Even at his young age Reuben is aware of the special relationship he has with his seven-week-old sister, although his parents said it would be a while before he fully understands. ''He knows that she's been in the freezer – he likes to say she has been in the freezer with the chips and the chicken – so he is sort of aware that she is his twin, but obviously he doesn't really understand how it's all worked really,'' his mother said. ''They do look very similar. Reuben was just a bigger version of Floren when he was born, so certainly there are similarities physically. ''She does look like a mini version of him really.'' The Telegraph has the story: Link (Photo: Ben Birchall)

Biopixels: Living “Neon Signs” Made From Bacteria Posted: 04 Jan 2012 04:38 PM PST [YouTube Clip] This one is pretty neat: biologists at UC San Diego created a living "neon signs" made from glowing bacteria that fluoresce in unison: In order to create the light they needed to attach a fluorescent protein to the biological clocks of bacteria and then synchronise the body clocks of the bacteria within the colony so that they glowed on and off in unison. The team created signs that spelled out "UC SD". Using the same technique they used to create these flashing signs, the team also created a simple bacterial sensor capable of detecting arsenic. This sensor would make the cells blink on and off more slowly, indicating the presence of the poison. Link - via Laughing Squid

Art Student Covertly Hangs Painting in Art Museum Posted: 04 Jan 2012 03:52 PM PST If you want something done right, you’re better off doing it yourself. In that spirit, Polish art student Andrzej Sobiepan decided that his work belonged in a museum, regardless of what museum officials wanted. So when a guard wasn’t looking, he discreetly hung it on a wall: Sobiepan, a Wroclaw Fine Arts Academy student whose last name means “his own master,” said he was inspired by the elusive British graffiti artist known only as Banksy. His own painting is small, white and green, and partly uses swine leather to show a drooping acacia leaf. On Dec. 10, Sobiepan put it up in a room with contemporary Polish art when a guard at the museum was looking the other way. Museum officials didn’t notice the new painting for three days. When museum staff discovered Sobiepan’s work, they decided to keep it. But they moved it to the museum cafe. You can see a full-size photo of the painting at the link. Link -via Stuff | Photo: AP/Bartlomiej Kudowicz

Amazing Packing Tape Portraits Posted: 04 Jan 2012 03:42 PM PST Max Zorn creates portraits consisting of backlit sheets of clear plastic with layers of brown masking tape carefully applied and trimmed with an X-Acto knife. He then hangs them on street lamps at night to place his scenes in their original dark, urban environments. Watch a time-lapse video of his creation process at the link. Link | Artist’s Website

Can You Scare Kids Into Losing Weight? Posted: 04 Jan 2012 02:34 PM PST [YouTube Clip] Well, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is trying. It's battling childhood obesity (Georgia is ranked second highest in the United States) with its new ad campaign, which has been labeled "grim" and "building a climate of hate" by critics. The ads, which appear on the campaign’s website, strong4life.com, are modeled after blunt — but effective — campaigns attacking methamphetamine use and smoking. In one spot, an overweight girl named Maritza says: “My doctors say I have something called hypertension. I’m really scared.” And in another, that ends with “Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid,” a child named Tina says she doesn’t like going to school because the other kids pick on her. Critics say the ads will further ostracize children such as Tina. In posts on the Strong4Life Facebook page, they accuse the campaign of building a “climate of hate.” What do you think? Will that be effective? Carrie Teegardin of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the story: Link | Strong4Life website

Battlestar Galactica, The Classic Video Game Posted: 04 Jan 2012 01:43 PM PST (Video Link) College Humor’s parody hits the mark hard and often in this presentation of a 16-bit video game that never was. What combo do I have to hit to perform the Deus ex Machina move? -via blastr | Previously: 11 Facts You Might Not Know about Battlestar Galactica

The Zoomable Van Gogh Posted: 04 Jan 2012 01:40 PM PST What's so special about this print of Vincent van Gogh by artist Phil Hansen? Just zoom in a bit ... ... a bit more and you'll start seeing some letters ... ... and finally, a story: Phil asked his viewers about an experience that shocked them, and wrote over 1,000 of such stories with sharpie to create the image of Van Gogh. The making of video clip is amazing: [YouTube Clip] - via Information Nation Previously on Neatorama: Artwork by Phil Hansen

2% of Americans Thought Mitt Romney’s First Name is “Mittens” Posted: 04 Jan 2012 12:33 PM PST Photo: Ethan Miller Are we any smarter in 2012? 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair decided to poll Americans to test their common knowledge and found some gems like this one above of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney ;) (His real first name is "Willard," despite what he told Wolf Blitzer) Check out the rest of the poll results here: Link

Denture Bottle Opener Posted: 04 Jan 2012 10:29 AM PST Denture Bottle Opener – $9.95 Do you know someone who has a penchant for opening things with their teeth? Encourage them to protect those precious choppers while still allowing them to be true to themselves with the Denture Bottle Opener from the NeatoShop.  Your friends will be chomping at the bit to know where you got such a cool gift. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more  jaw-dropping and bitingly funny Barware & Cocktail items. Link

“Beowulf” as Original Audiences Would Have Experienced It Posted: 04 Jan 2012 10:24 AM PST (Video Link) Most of us experience the medieval epic poem “Beowulf” primarily in written form. But it was originally intended as an auditory experience, declaimed by skilled performers who transported their listeners into a world of heroes and monsters. Benjamin Bagby has made a career of presenting “Beowulf” in this manner, following the medieval traditions, while using a reproduction of an Anglo-Saxon harp. Here’s a clip of him performing the opening lines to the poem. Bagby’s Website -via American Digest Previously: Beowulf Socks Are Written in Anglo-Saxon

Airline Pilot Spots Flying Shark Posted: 04 Jan 2012 09:23 AM PST It’s every pilot’s worst nightmare, yet most flight schools spend only two days on the topic: flying sharks. The pilot of a passenger jet flying into Christchurch, New Zealand spotted a flying shark Air Swimmer toy moving through the air. At least, we’re assuming — perhaps unreasonably — that it was just a toy. Anyway, the pilot radioed into local air traffic controllers to alert them: The fish out of water was identified as a remote-controlled, helium-filled shark that has topped must-have present lists this Christmas. The 1.44-metre-long Air Swimmer toy has a radio receiver attached to its underside and can be operated by remote control over a range of 15m. Designer-developer William Mark Corporation warns that the shark is for “strictly indoor use only”. A spokeswoman for air traffic control company Airways, Monica Davis, said a pilot had reported the shark and its location about nine kilometres from the airport at 2pm on December 26. Link -via Dave Barry

Stealth Mountain Posted: 04 Jan 2012 09:16 AM PST Are you sad because no one ever responds to your Tweets? Here’s a sure-fire way to get a reply. Stealth Mountain describes his account as follows (I may be wrong, but the muscles on the avatar look male): I alert twitter users that they typed sneak peak when they meant sneak peek. I live a sad life. So all you have to do is Tweet about a “sneak peak” and the Stealth Mountain will come after you! Link -via Everlasting Blort

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Convertible Beanie Posted: 04 Jan 2012 09:14 AM PST Etsy seller Pamela Joyce Tan-Javate has just what you need to keep warm in the sewer during winter. A true fan, she offers to make custom beanies to match the styles of different eras of the TMNT franchise. Link -via Fashionably Geek

…But the Cat Came Back Posted: 04 Jan 2012 09:13 AM PST Plucky Andrea the stray cat used up a couple of her nine lives, but would not succumb to the animal shelter’s attempts to euthanize her. Officials at West Valley City’s animal shelter in Utah say the cat named Andrea hadn’t been adopted for 30 days when shelter officials tried to put her to death in October. She survived, so they gassed her again. Shelter officials detected no vital signs and presumed she was dead after the second try, so they put her in a plastic bag in a cooler. But when they checked the bag, they saw she had vomited on herself and had hypothermia but was alive. The shelter then decided to stop trying to kill her. “It was just one of those things where they thought this cat obviously really wants to live,” West Valley City spokesman Aaron Crim told the Salt Lake Tribune (http://bit.ly/ylvSDw). “Let’s give it a chance to find a permanent home.” Andrea has since been adopted, and is settling well into her new home. Link -Thanks, Skully! (Image credit: Community Animal Welfare Society)

The Snow Monsters of Japan Posted: 04 Jan 2012 08:58 AM PST Think of them as snowy versions of the Weeping Angels. During the winter, you can find snow-covered trees in northern Japan. They are called juhyou and are known for a ghostly appearance. Link -via Oddity Central | Photo: Casa di Cina

Felted Fantastic Four Cover Posted: 04 Jan 2012 08:50 AM PST Felt knitting master D. Campbell MacKinlay reproduced a 1966 Jack Kirby cover right down to the details of the Comics Code logo. The best part is that Grimm’s mitts project out of the surface. Link -via Nerdcore | Crafter’s Website

iPad Accepted in Lieu of Passport Posted: 04 Jan 2012 08:03 AM PST A man entering the U.S. from Canada was able to cross the border without his passport by presenting a scan of it on his iPad. And no one even bothered to yell “Photoshop!” Martin Reisch said Tuesday a slightly annoyed U.S. border officer let him cross into the United States from Quebec after he presented a scanned copy of his passport on his Apple iPad. Reisch was a half hour from the border when he decided to try to gain entry rather than turn back and make a two-hour trek back home to Montreal to fetch his passport. He told the officer he was heading to the U.S. to drop off Christmas gifts for his friend’s kids. He said that true story, the scanned passport and his driver’s license helped him get through last week. He said the officer seemed mildly annoyed when he handed him the iPad. “I thought I’d at least give it a try,” Reisch said. “He took the iPad into the little border hut. He was in there a good five, six minutes. It seemed like an eternity. When he came back he took a good long pause before wishing me a Merry Christmas.” Reisch was able to re-enter Canada on his way home using the same method. Link -via Fark (Image credit: Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

The Pinnacle of Cake Evolution Posted: 04 Jan 2012 07:11 AM PST (image credit: U.S. Geological Survey) The history of the earth is illustrated by the geologic time spiral, which is a convenient way to put a long timeline into a manageable graphic. The Oxford Paleobiology Group decided to do this graphic in cake form to enter into a cake competition at the Earth Science department’s Christmas party.   (YouTube link) It turned out to be a mammoth undertaking. Leila Battison writes about the project at her blog. Link -via Nag on the Lake

The Language of Stamps Posted: 04 Jan 2012 07:06 AM PST Back when people sent a lot of letters and postcards through the mail, the position of a stamp could send a message of its own. The “code” became popular around 1890, after it was written up in a Hungarian newspaper. It was printed on postcards in several European languages so a correspondent could clue in a recipient for future reference. See a collection of these postcards explaining the meaning of your stamp at Poemas del río Wang. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

Fishing Under Ice Posted: 04 Jan 2012 06:08 AM PST (YouTube link) Have you figured out yet what’s weird about this video? Everything is upside down! The fishermen are standing on the underside of the ice, “weighed down” by buoyant suits that have air in them. Notice how their air bubbles “sink.” -via Geekosystem

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