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2012/03/05

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15 Weird and Cool Beds

Posted: 05 Mar 2012 01:00 AM PST

I don’t know about you guys, but I would love this bed. After all, it not only looks cool, it also looks incredibly comfortable in that it can rock you to sleep. In fact, it might just be the most comfortable of all the 15 strange beds at the link.

Link

Delightfully Fun Matchbook Art

Posted: 05 Mar 2012 12:56 AM PST

You probably knew that many people collect matchbooks, but you might not know just how impressive the artwork can be on some of the boxes. While the one above might not be the most impressive piece of art, it’s certainly entertaining and you can find plenty more fun ones over at Dark Roasted Blend.

Link

The Wonderfully Weird Muppet Show Pilot

Posted: 05 Mar 2012 12:51 AM PST

(Video Link)

Like most television shows, The Muppet Show’s pilot was quite different than the show itself ended up being. In this case, the original didn’t feature Kermit as the host and did feature a lot more adult humor. Don’t miss the other three parts of the pilot over at Laughing Squid.

Via Laughing Squid

Because Everyone Needs More Baby Sloths In Their Lives

Posted: 05 Mar 2012 12:45 AM PST

(Video Link)

You might think that baby sloths are born knowing how to crawl, but it’s actually a skill they must be taught. When it comes to abandoned babies though, it takes a jungle gym and a dedicated staff. Fortunately, all that work pays off when you get an absolutely precious video like this!

Via Jezebel

Nestle Crunch Thin Mints? Yes Please!

Posted: 05 Mar 2012 12:38 AM PST

I know we post a lot of weird food products here on Neatorama, but usually they’re more “ick” than “yum.” Here’s a notable exception: Thin Mint Nestle Crunch wafer bars. Of course, if Thin Mints aren’t your thing, there are also Samoas and Tagalongs ones as well. Unfortunately, the treats won’t be available for a few more months, so don’t start salivating on your keyboard just yet.

Link Via The Mary Sue

Magic Angle Sculptures

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 05:23 PM PST


(YouTube link)

J. V. Muntean makes solid 3D sculptures that are hard to figure out by looking directly at them, but the shadows they throw depict three different images, depending on the angle! This one is called Dancers; you can see quite a few others at his site. And they are for sale, too! Link -Thanks, Brian Hoffer!

Rémi Gaillard’s Elevator Prank

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 04:23 PM PST


(Video Link)

Although this video starts out like a typical one by professional prankster Rémi Gaillard, it ends up being sidetracked a woman who tries to walk into another person’s house uninvited. How rude!

-via Colossal | Gaillard’s Website

Previous pranks by Gaillard:
Pac-Man Runs Amok
Mario Kart in Real Life
Party Crashes Store
Ska-Loving Kangaroo

Too Dumb To Know It

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 03:36 PM PST

Are dumb people too dumb to know that they're dumb? Apparently so, according to research. From Life's Little Mysteries:

With more than a decade's worth of research, David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, has demonstrated that humans find it "intrinsically difficult to get a sense of what we don't know." Whether an individual lacks competence in logical reasoning, emotional intelligence, humor or even chess abilities, the person still tends to rate his or her skills in that area as being above average.

Dunning and his colleague, Justin Kruger, formerly of Cornell and now at New York University, "have done a number of studies where we will give people a test of some area of knowledge like logical reasoning, knowledge about STDs and how to avoid them, emotional intelligence, etcetera. Then we determine their scores, and basically just ask them how well they think they've done," Dunning said. "We ask, 'what percentile will your performance fall in?'"

The results are uniform across all the knowledge domains: People who actually did well on the test tend to feel more confident about their performance than people who didn't do well, but only slightly. Almost everyone thinks they did better than average. "For people at the bottom who are really doing badly — those in the bottom 10th or 15th percentile — they think their work falls in the 60th or 55th percentile, so, above average," Dunning told Life's Little Mysteries. The same pattern emerges in tests of people's ability to rate the funniness of jokes, the correctness of grammar, or even their own performance in a game of chess. "People at the bottom still think they're outperforming other people."

Link (Photo: Shutterstock) | Learn more about the Dunning-Krueger Effect on Wikipedia

Bead Sprite Presidents

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 03:26 PM PST

As a gift to his girlfriend the history teacher, redditor omnes took Andy Rash’s pixel presidents pattern and made each Commander-in-Chief out of bead sprites! Click the Imgur image to super-enlarge it if you want to get a close look. Link

French Bulldog Adopts Orphaned Baby Boars

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 01:35 PM PST

After an animal sanctuary in Lehnitz, Germany, received six orphaned wild baby boars, a cute little French bulldog that lived there rose to the challenge and adopted the litter:

A little French bulldog called Baby has become a mother to six wild pigs who faced death in a freezing forest after their mother was shot and killed by a hunter.

Baby, eight, thought her breeding days were behind her when she suddenly was presented with the half-dozen boars at the Lehnitz animal sanctuary near Berlin.

Baby lives at the refuge as a pet and in her time has been a surrogate mum to abandoned bunnies, kittens and a racoon.

See the cute pics over at The Daily Mail: Link (Photo: EPA)

Trike Drifting

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 12:34 PM PST

This ain't your childhood Big Wheel! Behold Trike Drifting, a new extreme-sport video from Devin Graham. Think of it as the Fast and the Furious ... on trikes!

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

Wizard Synchronizes Metronomes

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 12:29 PM PST


(Video Link)

The mage has five metronomes moving at the same speed, but not synchronized because he started them at different times. Then he places them on a rolling surface. Within a few seconds, they sync up. How? redditor Rangourthaman_ offers an explanation, which you can read by clicking on “more…”

First let’s see what forces there are on a lone metronome:

As the arm swings, it exerts an equal force pushing the casing to the opposite side. It does this with every swing so the metronome itself is constantly trying to go from left to right. Comparable to doing this

So if the metronome is placed on a plank and two cans it will exert force on the plank and move it from left to right.

If we add another metronome, it too,will exert its force on the plank. If it is in sync with the other metronome (Both going left & right at the some time) the force it is exerting on the plank (and thus; the other metronome) will match up as well. (comparable to this)

If the other metronome is in sync but going right when the other is going left they will cancel each other out and reduce the net force on the plank to zero.

When the two are not in sync there can be two possible situations:

One: The two arms are moving in the same direction

Two: The arms are moving in opposite directions.

So what basicaly happens is whenever the arms are not moving in the same direction they are reducing the net energy on the plank to zero thus slowing the plank down. (Because it has friction from the cans.)

When they are moving in the same direction both their energy is transferred to the plank in full, thus giving it more speed and momentum. This momentum is transferred to the first arm that starts to swing back again, giving it the bulk of the energy in the plank and slowing the arm down in the processs. This makes the gap in time between their sync smaller. It does this with every tick, eventually syncing the two up.

Add more metronomes and the same things happens, exept with more indivdual forces, making the proces go smoother.

TLDR: They are forced to the path of least resistance.

Link

Police to Drug Dealers: Hey, Stop That!

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 11:32 AM PST

The police watched a drug deal in Newport News, Virginia, and built strong evidence against the drug dealers ... then did something unusual: instead of arresting and prosecuring the criminals, the police invited them for a talk instead.

Welcome to the brave new world of drug-market intervention:

POLICE watched seven people sell drugs in Marshall Courts and Seven Oaks, two districts in south-eastern Newport News, in Virginia. They built strong cases against them. They shared that information with prosecutors. But then the police did something unusual: they sent the seven letters inviting them to police headquarters for a talk, promising that if they came they would not be arrested. Three came, and when they did they met not only police and prosecutors, but also family members, people from their communities, pastors from local churches and representatives from social-service agencies. Their neighbours and relatives told them that dealing drugs was hurting their families and communities. The police showed them the information they had gathered, and they offered the seven a choice: deal again, and we will prosecute you. Stop, and these people will help you turn your lives around.

Is it working? Time will tell, but one thing's for sure: the current way of fighting drugs isn't working.

Traditional drugs policing targets both users and dealers. This poses three main problems. First, low-level dealers are eminently replaceable: arrest two and another two will quickly take their places, with little if any interruption to sales. Second, it tends to promote antagonism between the police and the mostly poor communities where drug markets are found. Arrests can seem random: only one in every 15,000 cocaine transactions, for instance, results in prison time, but those other 14,999 sales are just as illegal as that one. In some neighbourhoods, prison is the norm, or at least common, for young men. Police come to be seen as people who take sons, brothers and fathers away while the neighbourhood remains unchanged. Third, prison as a deterrent does not work. If it did, America would be the safest country on earth.

The Economist has the story: Link (Photo: The Wire/HBO via Wikipedia)

Falling Bookends

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 10:44 AM PST

The Falling Bookends series by the Art Ori design studio shows books falling on tiny people. It’s perfect for people who are always overwhelmed with reading material.

Studio Website -via T.

If Three Little Pigs Were Covered by Modern Media

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 10:30 AM PST

How would the fairy tale Three Little Pigs play out if it were covered by modern media? The Guardian's fanciful advertisement for open journalism lets you "follow the story from the paper's front page headline, through a social media discussion, and finally to an unexpected conclusion." I didn't see that one coming.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via notcot

Elegantly Carved Fruits and Vegetables

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 10:18 AM PST

Ilian, a professional food and drink photographer in Manchester, UK captured the images of carefully carved fruits and vegetables. This one makes eggplant look almost palatable.

Link -via Nag on the Lake

A Zamboni on the Freeway?

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 10:11 AM PST


(Video Link)

It looks like an ice resurfacer, but this is actually Daniel Bourgeois’s heavily modified 1984 Chevrolet truck. This street legal vehicle can ferry you and eleven of your friends in style in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. Think: prom date.

Photo Gallery -via Jalopnik

Penguin Paparazzi

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 08:01 AM PST

Photographer David C. Shultz attracted the attention of the Emperor penguins he was shooting in Antarctica. The curious birds had to check out the equipment, which led to some funny photo opportunities! See more pictures at Buzzfeed. Link

(Image credit: David C. Shultz)

Bacon Poet Magnetic Poetry

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 07:48 AM PST

Bacon Poet Magnetic Poetry – $11.95

Dont’ have the words to describe your undying love for a smoking hot piece of strippy bacon? You need the Bacon Poet Magnetic Poetry kit from the NeatoShop. This sizzling set includes over 200 word magnets perfect for expressing your smoldering desires for your favorite bypass in a skillet.

Be sure to check out the Bacon Store for more deliciously funny bacon products.

Link

Big Cats with Mirrors

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 07:38 AM PST


(YouTube link)

Every once in a while, Big Cat Rescue produces a video to show us how much big cats and wild cats are like the house cats we are familiar with. We’ve seen them play with balls and laser pointers and we’ve seen them get high on catnip. Now we see the cats getting their first look at a mirror. -via The Daily What

7 Children’s Books Written in Response to Other Books

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 07:01 AM PST

A very popular children’s book can inspire others to write their own books, whether it’s an homage, parody, or even out of spite. Consider Dr. Seuss’s book The Lorax. When it was published in 1971, the logging industry was not happy with the book’s environmental message.

To defend themselves against the unjust Lorax, the timber industry provided funding to Terri Birkett, a member of the National Wood Flooring Association, to write a rebuttal book. In it, an irrational, irate "protector of trees" named Guardbark berates a lumberjack who patiently explains that he replaces the trees he cuts down, that they've set land aside to serve as Nature Preserves, and that no one really cares about some of the species that go extinct because of logging anyway.

Read about The Truax and six other books written in response to children’s books at mental_floss. Link

This Week at Neatorama

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PST

What a week this has been! March came in like a lion, alright. Tornadoes and strong thunderstorms both Wednesday and Friday left a trail of death and destruction across the Midwest. The Friday storms left me without internet access, so the weekend roundup is a day late. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that March will keep the other end of the old saying as well, and go out like a lamb. Meanwhile, let’s look back at what happened at Neatorama this past week.

Jill Harness wrote up Five Common Misconceptions About the Middle Ages.

She also wrote a feature for NeatoBambino called The Eight Toughest Babies in the World. Be sure to check out NeatoBambino every day!

The Annals of Improbable Research noticed the improbable number of research papers done on The Lazy Bureaucrat Problem.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the record-breaking basketball game, Eddie Deezen wrote The Night Wilt "The Stilt" Scored 100.

Mental_floss magazine gave us Putting Animals in Their Place.

The Unluckiest Train Ride came from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.

In the What Is It? game this week,the pictured object is an M15 Grenade Launcher Sight. The first commenter in with the correct answer was Berhard, who wins a t-shirt for his efforts! The t-shirt for the funniest answer goes to villaridge, who said it was "one of the many scale models that Gene Rodenberry had made whilst he was fine tuning what the Enterprise space ship would look like." See additional pictures of the grenade launcher sight and the answers to the other mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog!

The most commented-on post of the week was a tie between Father Jailed Because Daughter Drew a Picture of a Gun and Annoying People Talking on Their Cell Phones? Jam 'Em! Coming in third was Disney Closes New Habit Heroes Exhibit.

Want more? Be sure to check our Facebook page every day for extra content, contests, discussions, videos, and links you won’t find here. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what’s going around the web in real time. Thanks for spending time with us at Neatorama!
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