Neatorama |
- What Are Fighting Games Missing? Pac-Man And Mega Man Of Course!
- Misty Mountains Cold Never Sounded So Good
- Remixing Alien Theme Song On A Commodore 64
- Could This Be The New Keyboard Cat?
- The Oatmeal’s Delightful Valentine’s Day Cards
- When Star Wars Meets Tank Girl
- 5 Doctor Who Episodes Based On Real Events
- 10 Science Holidays To Brighten Up Your Year
- 10 Absolutely Adorable Bugs
- Pillow That Lets You Feel Your Sweetheart’s Heartbeat through a Pillow
- Latin Just Got Deader: Botanists Turn Away from Latin Plant Names
- Battlefield 3 Case Mod
- Scratch-n-Sniff Jeans
- Home TARDIS Construction for Fun and Profit
- Chinese Soldiers Play a Game of Hot Potato … with a Real Bomb
- 5 Crazy Ways People Amused Themselves Before Television
- The Salad Towers of China
- Swap-o-matic
- 2012 Best Picture Nominees Recast with Dogs
- The Best Place to Scratch on the Human Body
- Zombie Head Decanter
- Why We Chicken Out At The Last Minute
- Life Size Buster Sword
- 7 Great Movies That Take Place in Freezing Weather
- The Oldest Rainforest on Earth
- Woman Stayed in Car for a Week
- Save the Date Photobomb
- A Cat’s Eye View of Alien
- One Minute Fly
- 10 Secrets of the Vatican Exposed
| What Are Fighting Games Missing? Pac-Man And Mega Man Of Course! Posted: 28 Jan 2012 01:58 AM PST It’s a crazy concept, but Pac-Man and Mega Man are now part of fighting game history thanks to the upcoming release Street Fighter X Tekken! And, while Mega Man is fat and old in this game, and Pac-Man is piloting some clunky robotic body armor instead of simply chomping down on the opposition, I think they still make a colorful addition to the fighting game genre. Combining a crazy assortment of characters into a fighting game worked for Super Smash Bros., so this doesn’t seem so far fetched to me. What does seem like a stretch, however, is the idea of a Pac person battling through a tournament full of fierce opponents without the aid of Power Pellets! –via Destructoid  |
| Misty Mountains Cold Never Sounded So Good Posted: 28 Jan 2012 01:47 AM PST It’s impressive enough that ShadowCa7 decided to perform a musical version of J.R.R. Tolkiens “Over The Misty Mountains Cold/The Dwarven Song Of Old Wealth” and committed to doing all 27 verses, but the fact that she does all the harmonies by herself while playing acoustic guitar makes this a beautiful performance to behold. It takes a bit of a commitment just to sit through the entire video, but it is so good from beginning to end, so throw up your –via Topless Robot |
| Remixing Alien Theme Song On A Commodore 64 Posted: 28 Jan 2012 01:26 AM PST This is a crazy cool remix of the Alien video game theme song, a game which was released on the Commodore 64, appropriately being played on a Commodore 64, laptop and some other musical doohickeys. Add Southern Comfort as inspiration and a creepy green goblin looking mask and you’ve got old school awesome sauce. Makes me wish I still had my C64! –via Obvious Winner |
| Could This Be The New Keyboard Cat? Posted: 28 Jan 2012 01:04 AM PST No, this is definitely not the next keyboard cat, but Pancake could be part of KC’s band, like in the kitteh keyboard band of my dreams! In Pancake’s Meowsic Video, we see this tie clad little kitteh getting into some seriously heavy grooves, channeling Thelonius Monk on a kitteh shaped keyboard. It’s a meowsical delight! –via BuzzFeed |
| The Oatmeal’s Delightful Valentine’s Day Cards Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:58 PM PST The Oatmeal is certainly the first site I think of for cards when I want to slide a note over to my secret crush at the Neatorama office. That’s why the site’s Valentine’s Day cards are just so darn wonderful… of course, that might also be why Zeon has a restraining order against me. |
| When Star Wars Meets Tank Girl Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:54 PM PST Falcon Girl is artist James Hance’s wonderful mash up of Princess Leia and Tank Girl. I don’t know about you guys, but I kind of want to see this become a whole comic book instead of just a cool poster. Link Via BoingBoing |
| 5 Doctor Who Episodes Based On Real Events Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:48 PM PST Did you know that the Daleks originated from Doctor Who’s take on the Cuban Missile Crisis?
For more interesting Doctor Who plots that originated from real events, don’t miss this great article on Mental Floss. |
| 10 Science Holidays To Brighten Up Your Year Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:41 PM PST Let’s face it, most holidays already marked on your calendar are pretty boring -Valentine’s Day, Easter, Father’s Day…yawn. If you really want to geek up your wall calendar and ensure you celebrate holidays more appropriate to your specific interests, don’t miss io9′s round up of great science holiday including Pi approximation day (July 22) and Hagfish Day (October 17). Of course, since they’re all science related, certain other geek holidays are left out -after all, you can’t miss out on Towel Day. |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:33 PM PST We tend to think of insects as creepy and crawly, but not so much cute. But there are some bugs that are simply precious…maybe not as much as a puppy or kitty, but definitely cute nonetheless. If you dig on six-legged cutie pies, then don’t miss this great article featuring some of the most photogenic invertebrates around. |
| Pillow That Lets You Feel Your Sweetheart’s Heartbeat through a Pillow Posted: 27 Jan 2012 08:04 PM PST (Video Link) Joanna Montgomery invented Pillow Talk, a system for lovers who are far apart. Each person wears a chest belt that measures his/her heartbeat. A transmitter sends that rhythm to a pillow. Just hold it close to feel, in a small way, together. Link -via The Mary Sue |
| Latin Just Got Deader: Botanists Turn Away from Latin Plant Names Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:31 PM PST
But it’s payback time. In July, The International Botanical Congress voted to relax the rules that required that all new plant species be named in Latin. This move breaks with a tradition that botanists had maintained since the Renaissance. James Miller, a botanist at the New York Botanical Garden, explained why this change makes sense:
Link -via @brainpicker | Image of the Roman poet Virgil via QuartierLatin1968 |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:07 PM PST Master case modder Brian Carter made this amazing case. It includes rollbars, a USB-powered beverage cooler disguised as a first aid kit, and a spinning imitation minigun. Yes, that is a fake minigun. But we’ll probably see real ones on the next generation of super case mods. Look at more pictures and a video at the link. |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:52 PM PST Remember the experiment in which people didn’t wash their jeans for three months? Just think about how long you could prolong washing if you wore jeans that released a perfume when scratched. Shoot, why even bother taking a shower? You’re wearing sweet-smelling jeans. Let them do their magic. Link -via DVICE | Photo: Naked & Famous Denim Previously: Scratch & Sniff Business Suit |
| Home TARDIS Construction for Fun and Profit Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:42 PM PST (Video Link) The awesomest viral video of the day is this gem hosted by YouTube user sillysparrowness. She built a (nonfunctional model of a) TARDIS. Why? “A woman isn’t complete without her own TARDIS.” The construction is good, but her hilarious presentation and video editing make this the best home TARDIS construction project ever. She’d be a great companion for the Doctor. -via Boing Boing |
| Chinese Soldiers Play a Game of Hot Potato … with a Real Bomb Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:59 PM PST
Think you're tough? Probably not as tough as these Chinese soldiers, who played a lethal game of Hot Potato ... with live bombs!
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| 5 Crazy Ways People Amused Themselves Before Television Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:11 PM PST Before television entered our homes, entertainment wasn’t an everyday thing -in fact, it was hard to come by. And people would go to see anything that was out of the ordinary for a little respite from the daily grind. Mental_floss dug up some rather obscure events that drew crowds desperate for amusement, like the Dionne Quintuplets. The five girls born in 1934 were put on display by the Canadian government in a special facility in which they could be observed through glass. Three million people filed through to see them over a ten-year period! Read the rest at mental_floss. Link |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 04:57 PM PST
Attention cheapskates! How should you maximize the amount of food you can get from a single trip to the salad bar? By building the ultimate salad tower, of course: Link - via The Consumerist |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 04:29 PM PST Swap-o-matic is a vending machine that doesn’t use money. Instead, you swap something you have for something you want! It’s also an art project that makes a statement about consumption and recycling, designed by Lina Fenequito with Rick Cassidy and Ray Mancini. It’s a cool idea, but where I live, it would either stay empty or would become filled with old tires and obsolete electronics -things you have to pay to get rid of. Link -via Laughing Squid |
| 2012 Best Picture Nominees Recast with Dogs Posted: 27 Jan 2012 01:58 PM PST
How do you make the 2012 Best Picture Nominees even better? Recast them That’s exactly what Next Movie did, and we’re not the least bit disappointed:
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| The Best Place to Scratch on the Human Body Posted: 27 Jan 2012 12:12 PM PST
Behold, the magic of science:
I think they purposely didn't test a few other spots on the human body: Link Photo: Backscratcher Pen from the NeatoShop |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 11:45 AM PST Zombie Head Decanter – $19.95 Are you looking for the perfect bottle to store your favorite post apocalyptic elixir? You need the Zombie Head Decanter from the NeatoShop. This fantastic glass bottle with a cork top will make sure you are a hit with all your new living dead neighbors. Be sure to check out the Neatoshop for much more Zombie fun.
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| Why We Chicken Out At The Last Minute Posted: 27 Jan 2012 11:12 AM PST
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| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 10:02 AM PST Zeon posted a full-size Berserk sword earlier today, and then mentioned he wanted to see a full-size Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword. Mike Schropp at Total Geekdom made exactly that, Zeon! He also posted the illustrated process of making it. AND Schropp has a picture of himself and the completed sword in costume (for Halloween) with special Final Fantasy effects. If I posted that picture here, you wouldn’t think it was really him. So I selected this picture instead. You can go see the rest. Link |
| 7 Great Movies That Take Place in Freezing Weather Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:07 AM PST
Plus Omar Sharif was really easy on the eyes. Link |
| The Oldest Rainforest on Earth Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:05 AM PST Taman Negara in Malaysia is the world’s oldest rainforest. It has flourished since the land rose from the sea during the Jurassic era, around 130 million years ago. Even ice ages haven’t affected the forest.
Read more about Taman Negara at Environmental Graffiti. Link (Image credit: Flickr user taylorandayumi) |
| Woman Stayed in Car for a Week Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:49 AM PST
On the 22nd, the water began rising and Keelser went to a nearby house for help. Paramedics checked her out, but she refused a trip to the hospital. Link -via Arbroath (Image credit: video from Fox News) |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:45 AM PST It looks like redditor adepssimius is getting married! Ben made a little change to their “save the date” announcements, and didn’t reveal it until after they were mailed. When Amy found out, she thought it was hilarious. If you can’t see the addition he made, you can click to enlarge the photo or see an exploded version at Imgur. Link -via reddit |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:39 AM PST
Later, Jonesey confronts the alien and tries to share the secrets of charming the “can-openers.” From the delightful blog Cats on Film. Link -via Maximum Verbosity |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:37 AM PST His species only lives for a minute, but he has a long bucket list. (via the Presurfer) |
| 10 Secrets of the Vatican Exposed Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:30 AM PST
1. Regular Exorcise! Baudelaire once said that "the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist." But in modern-day Vatican City, the devil is considered alive and well. The former Pope John Paul II personally performed three exorcisms during his reign, and the current Pope Benedict XVI is expanding the ranks of Catholic-sponsored exorcists throughout the world. In fact, Father Gabriele Amorth, the Church's chief exorcist, claims to expel more than 300 demons a year from the confines of his Vatican office, and there are more than 350 exorcists operating on behalf of the Catholic Church in Italy alone. Amorth also teaches bishops how to tell the difference between satanic possession and psychiatric illness, noting that those who suffer from the former seem to be particularly repulsed by the sight of holy water and the cross. 2. Where Thieves Go to Prey
3. The Worst Confessions
Three of the five sins they contemplate can only be committed by the clergy. If you're a priest who breaks the seal of confession, a priest who offers confession to his own sexual partners, or a man who has directly participated in an abortion and wants to become a priest, then your case must go before the tribunal to receive absolution. The other two sins can be committed by anyone. The first, desecrating the Eucharist, is particularly bad because Catholics believe that the bread and wine transubstantiate into the body and blood of Christ. Messing with them is like messing with Jesus. And then, there's the sin of attempting to assassinate the Pope. That one's pretty self-explanatory. The meetings of the Apostolic Penitentiary are kept confidential because they're a different form of confession. The sinner is referred to by a pseudonym, and only the Major Penitentiary, Cardinal James Francis Stafford, decides how the sin shall be dealt with. Presumably, a bunch of Hail Marys doesn't cut it. 4. Read the Pope's Mail
The Vatican's secret archives haven't been truly secret since Pope Leo XIII first allowed scholars to visit in 1881. Today, it's even more accessible. Outsiders are free to examine the correspondences of every pope for the past 1,000 years, although there is one catch: Guests have to know exactly what they're looking for. With 52 miles of shelves in the archives, the librarians prohibit browsing. The most famous letter there is probably Henry VIII's request that his marriage to Catherine of Aragon be annulled, which Pope Clement VII denied. Henry divorced Catherine anyway and married Anne Boleyn (and four other women), leading to Rome's break with the Church of England. The archives also contain an abundance of red ribbons, which were used to bind 85 petitions from English clergyman and aristocrats. 5. The Pope Likes to Text Message Pope Benedict XVI routinely sends text messages of his homilies to mobile subscribers around the world, and in 2009, the Vatican opened up an official YouTube channel to show various Papal addresses and ceremonies. The Vatican even released an iPhone application that contains multilingual versions of the Breviary prayer book and the prayers of daily mass. But the Pope's enthusiasm for technology isn't limited to cell phones and the Internet. The Vatican has also added solar panels to the roof of the Pope Paul VI auditorium as part of its commitment to fight climate change. 6. They Have the Finest Swiss Bodyguards
Nowadays, the Swiss have a reputation for pacifism, but back in the 1500s, they were considered an unstoppable military force. Swiss armies were renowned for the their mastery of a weapon called the halberd, a deadly combination of a spear and an axe, and their ground troops were famous for routinely demolishing legions of enemies on horseback. After Pope Julius II witnessed their ferocity in battle 500 years ago, he recruited a few soldiers to become his personal bodyguards. Ever since, Swiss Guards have pledged fidelity to the Pope, sometimes dying for the cause. During the sacking of Rome in 1527, for instance, three quarters of them were killed while providing cover for Pope Clement VII to escape. Today, the hundred or so members of the Swiss Guard spend most of their time bedecked in Renaissance garb, twirling their halberds in ceremonies or manning checkpoints around the Vatican. When the Guards are actually protecting the Pope, they wear plain clothes and carry distinctly modern weapons. 7. The Mafia Dipped into the Collection Plate
8. There's No Vice-Pope Once a cardinal becomes the Pope, he's the designated leader of the Catholic Church and God's representative on Earth for the rest of his life. As with Supreme Court justices, he can resign before his death, but that's unlikely. (It's been more than 500 years since the last papal resignation.) Further, as modern medicine improves, even seriously ill people tend to stick around longer, meaning that a Pope could be alive but unable to perform his duties for years, as was the case with John Paul II. What happens then? Well, no one is really sure. A cardinal can take over the Pope's responsibilities as the Vatican's head of state, but no one else is allowed to carry out his ceremonial duties. In the end, many masses and benedictions simply go unperformed until the Pope either passes away or recovers. 9. Faith-Based Economics
But that's not always enough. By the end of 2007, the city-state was $13.5 million in the hole. Part of the problem was the weakened American dollar, which translated into less purchasing power. Another contributing factor was the lackluster performance of the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. To boost subscriptions, the Pope has asked the editor to spice up the layout with more photos and allowed him to cover world news stories in addition to the traditional religious fare. 10. Even the ATMs Are in Latin
The Vatican Bank is the only bank in the world that allows ATM users to select Latin to perform transactions. That's just one symbol of the Holy See's continued devotion to the language. Pope Benedict XVI has been particularly passionate about reviving the language and purportedly holds many informal conversations in Latin. (Pope John Paul II generally spoke Polish.) The Vatican's Latin Foundation tries to keep the language relevant by translating modern phrases into the ancient tongue. In 2003, they released an updated dictionary that included the terms "rush hour" (tempus maximae frequentiae) and "dishwasher" (escariorum lavatory). Interestingly, the translations can have serious consequences. A recent U.S. lawsuit was brought against the Vatican for conspiring to protect a child-molesting priest, and it was held up for months as the Church's experts rejected the prosecuting team's Latin translations of terms such as "conspiracy to commit fraud." (Title image credit: Flickr user David Paul Ohmer) __________________________
Don’t forget to feed your brain by subscribing to the magazine and visiting mental_floss‘ extremely entertaining website and blog today for more! |
Latin is a dead language, as dead as it can be. It killed the ancient Romans,and now it’s killing me!
Why do we say we're going to do brave and risky things only to chicken out at the last minute? Researchers have found the answer:
One way to make yourself feel warmer this winter is to watch a movie in which people are even colder than you are. Unreality magazine has some suggestion you may not have considered, like the 1965 film Dr. Zhivago.
Lynn S. Keesler of Houston, Texas, became stuck in mud January 15th in her rental car and survived on candy for a week, despite the fact that she was not injured.
In the 1979 film Alien, there are two survivors. The hero Ripley, of course, and her cat Jonesey. Anne Billson knows that Jonesy is much more important to the film than most viewers realize. So she wrote the story of the spaceship Nostromo and its crew from Jonesey’s point of view. Here’s a small excerpt:
Vatican City may have fewer than 1,000 citizens and span only 110 acres, but it also has a multimillion-dollar budget and an unbelievably complex history. Understanding how it all works requires parsing through centuries of religious texts. Is the Vatican confusing and mysterious? Is the Pope Catholic? Here's a look behind the scenes.
With 1.5 crimes per citizen, Vatican City has the highest crime rate in the world. It's not that the cardinals are donning masks and repeatedly robbing the bank, it's just that the massive crowds of tourists make Vatican City a pickpocket's paradise. The situation is complicated by the fact that the Vatican has no working prison and only one judge. So most criminals are simply marched across the border into Italy, as part of a pact between the two countries. (The Vatican's legal code is based on Italy's, with some modifications regarding abortion and divorce.) Crimes that the Vatican sees fit to try itself—mainly shoplifting in its duty-free stores—are usually punished by temporarily revoking the troublemaker's access to those areas. But not every crime involves theft. In 2007, the Vatican issued its first drug conviction after an employee was found with a few ounces of cocaine in his desk.
Some sins are simply too much for a local bishop to forgive. While priests can absolve a sin as serious as murder (according to the Church), there are five specific sins that require absolution from the Apostolic Penitentiary. This secretive tribunal has met off and on for the past 830 years, but in January of 2009, for the first time ever, its members held a press conference to discuss their work.
The Vatican Library. (Image credit: Flickr user 
(Image credit: Flickr user 
In The Godfather: Part III, a shady deal between the mafia and the Vatican leads to the murder of the Pope. Was this based on a true story? Possibly. On the morning of September 29, 1978, Pope John Paul I was found dead, sitting up in his bed, after only 33 days in office. Although Vatican officials claimed the 65-year-old pope died of a heart attack, there was never an autopsy, and at the time, the Vatican definitely had ties to organized crime. Sure enough, in 1982, Vatican Bank president Father Paul Marcinkus resigned from his post after a series of scandals exposed the bank's ties to the mafia. Eventually, the bank had to repay more than $200 million to its creditors. But Marcinkus was never indicted of a crime. And though he was suspected of being involved in several mysterious deaths, including Pope John Paul I's, Marcinkus successfully claimed diplomatic immunity in the United States and retired to Arizona in 1990.
The Vatican needs several hundred million dollars per year to operate. Its many financial responsibilities include running international embassies, paying for the Pope's travels around the world, maintaining ancient cathedrals, and donating considerable resources to schools, churches, and health care centers. So where does that money come from? Catholics pay tithes to their local parishes and donate about $100 million every year to the Vatican itself. But collection plates aren't the Vatican's only source of money. The city-state also gets cash from books, museums, stamps, and souvenir shops. (Get your limited-edition Vatican euros here!)
(Image credit: Flickr user 
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