Neatorama

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• The Hubos Come Together
• Antique Photo GIFs Reveal The Dark Side Of History
• A Metal Sculpture That Plays The Breeze
• The Best Mama and Baby Rainbow Pegacorn Cake You’ll See All Day
• Dew-Soaked Dandelions
• Italian Mayor Bans Death
• The Happy Rizzi House
• Gumball Machine Dress Has Real Gumballs Inside
• Point & Swat Fly Swatter
• You Can Sleep When You’re Dead
• If Twitter Had Been Invented in the 1980s
• Beaker the Stormtrooper
• Fish Fingers and Custard Plushes
• Portrait of a Triggerfish
• The Ryugyong Hotel Gets a Makeover
• 7 Ridiculously Outdated Assumptions Every Movie Makes
• Pie Charts (A Baker’s Dozen)
• Draw a Bunny!
• Only Good Driver on the Planet Crashes
• Music Video Audition
• Dispute Over Winning Mega Millions Ticket
• Butterfly Measuring Cups
• One Sided Pokemon Battles
• The Weird, Wonderful & Risque World of 70′s Cosplay

The Hubos Come Together Posted: 04 Apr 2012 03:54 AM PDT (YouTube link) The Drexel University Music & Entertainment Technology Laboratory (MET-lab) took a quartet of HUBO robots and made them into The Beatles. From the YouTube page: The HUBOs are operating autonomously (not human-controlled). Their movements are directed by student-developed software to perform the gestures necessary to produce the appropriate notes and beats as dictated by a musical score. Every sound in the video was performed by the robots. The Drexel College of Engineering has seven of these robots, which cost between $300,000 and $400,000 each. Link -via Geekosystem

Antique Photo GIFs Reveal The Dark Side Of History Posted: 04 Apr 2012 01:09 AM PDT Things are not as they seem in these antique photo GIFs, and they confirm that the dark side is a silly place indeed. Clearly influenced by Monty Python‘s Terry Gilliam and old ghost stories, artist Kevin Weir has discovered a fun way to play with images from the Library of Congress’ Flickr account. Take a gander at the rest of these ghoulishly ridiculous animated delights at the links below, they’re like waiting for paint to dry…and reveal a ghostly visage on the wall. Link  –via i09

A Metal Sculpture That Plays The Breeze Posted: 04 Apr 2012 12:09 AM PDT This totally tubular work of public sculpture is called Aeolus, named after the god of the four winds in Greek mythology. Aeolus is designed to play a sweet sound every time the wind blows, because it’s made out of 310 polished steel tubes attached to an arch that helps channel the breeze into nature’s melody. Aeolus was made by artist Luke Jerram, who wanted to provide “both acoustic and optical sensations, with the pipes framing, inverting and magnifying the landscape” Aeolus is on display at the Canary Wharf in London until May 10th, so if you’re in the area you can give it a look and a listen and let us know what you think! Link  –via JazJaz

The Best Mama and Baby Rainbow Pegacorn Cake You’ll See All Day Posted: 03 Apr 2012 06:52 PM PDT Heather Sherman, a cake artist, asked her seven-year old daughter what she wanted for a birthday cake. The answer was “Rainbow Unicorn pegasus with a mama and a baby.” Challenge accepted. View more pictures at the link. Link -via Geekologie

Dew-Soaked Dandelions Posted: 03 Apr 2012 06:38 PM PDT When I see these photos by Sharon Johnstone, I imagine wondrous alien cities in the clouds. What do you see? You can find more at the link. Link -via Colossal

Italian Mayor Bans Death Posted: 03 Apr 2012 06:27 PM PDT Taxes, however, remain certain. Citing a lack of room in the local cemetery, Giulio Cesare Fava, mayor of the Italian town of Falciano del Massico, has banned death in his jurisdiction: …it is “Forbidden for residents to go beyond the boundaries of earthly life and to go into to the afterlife because the cemetery is running out of room.” An expansion had been planned but, to again quote the mayor, “There are no more riches available.” But he apparently lacks a willingness to enforce the edict: So far two residents have defied the order, to no legal consequence. Link -Thanks, Larry! | Photo: Flickr user Vector Portal

The Happy Rizzi House Posted: 03 Apr 2012 06:02 PM PDT This beautifully odd building in Brunswick, Germany was designed by Olaf Jäschke and the late American pop artist James Rizzi. The Happy Rizzi House was deeply controversial among residents of that city when it was built. But I want one in my town. Don’t you? Link | Photo: Flickr user temporalata

Gumball Machine Dress Has Real Gumballs Inside Posted: 03 Apr 2012 05:48 PM PDT But it’s not a functional gumball machine, which would be cool. Think of that as the future. Who needs flying cars and holodecks? We need gumball machine dresses, and Etsy seller Coyote Peyote has taken the first step toward making that dream a reality. Link -via Technabob

Point & Swat Fly Swatter Posted: 03 Apr 2012 05:36 PM PDT Point & Swat Fly Swatter – $2.95 Warmer weather means pesky flies are on their way. It’s time to arm yourself with the Point & Swat Fly Swatter from the NeatoShop. This great fly swatter, shaped like a hand cursor, also doubles as a handy-dandy pointer. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more crazy New items. Link

You Can Sleep When You’re Dead Posted: 03 Apr 2012 05:13 PM PDT Strong coffee and Miss Cellania’s cattle prod keep me going, post after post. So I endorse this sentiment by artist Stevie Scott of Wild at Heart Tattoo in Brisbane, Australia. Link -via That’s Nerdalicious!

If Twitter Had Been Invented in the 1980s Posted: 03 Apr 2012 05:07 PM PDT (Video Link) One thing that wouldn’t change is that people would still send out messages while drunk. Squirrel Monkey created this video showing Twitter though a DOS environment and painfully glaring colors. At his/her site, you can also find 80s versions of Google, Facebook and Angry Birds. Link -via Blame It on the Voices

Beaker the Stormtrooper Posted: 03 Apr 2012 04:43 PM PDT Meep! Those were the Muppets we were looking for! Anna Goellner of Comics Alliance spotted this excellent costume at the Emerald City Comicon 2012 in Seattle. Link -via Fashionably Geek | Photo: Anna Goellner

Fish Fingers and Custard Plushes Posted: 03 Apr 2012 04:30 PM PDT Today is Fish Fingers and Custard Day! What’s that? Well, the last time that the Doctor regenerated, he became ravenously hungry. But also finicky. He wouldn’t eat just anything. No, the Doctor insisted on haute cuisine: fish fingers dipped in custard. That episode, “The Eleventh Hour”, aired two years ago today. Our friends at The Mary Sue are celebrating with a roundup of fish finger and custard paraphernalia, including these plushes by Etsy seller Anne K. Link -via The Mary Sue

Portrait of a Triggerfish Posted: 03 Apr 2012 02:25 PM PDT This triggerfish may be the undersea equivalent of a butterface, but it charmed photographer and Pitcairn Islands Expedition leader Enric Sala. If you look closely, you’ll see a much smaller fish removing parasites from the triggerfish’s face, below the eye. Read more about this nature encounter at National Geographic News. Link -Thanks, Marilyn! (Image credit: Enric Sala)

The Ryugyong Hotel Gets a Makeover Posted: 03 Apr 2012 01:41 PM PDT It’s been years since we checked in on the Ryugyong Hotel, the monolithic concrete building in Pyongyang, North Korea, that was never completed. After work was abandoned in 1992, officials even denied its existence! But in 2008, the 105-floor structure got a second chance from the Orascom Group of Egypt. A new glass facade gives a less foreboding and more modern look. See more pictures and read about the history of the Ryugyong Hotel at Urban Ghosts. Link (Image credits: Wikpedia users Timon (left) and Pocketchef (right))

7 Ridiculously Outdated Assumptions Every Movie Makes Posted: 03 Apr 2012 12:05 PM PDT Movie producers and designers tend to use outdated ideas because it’s just easier to do things they way they’ve always been done -even if they make no sense in the modern world. For example, my daughters first saw nuns wearing habits in a restaurant when they were 8 and 9 years old and asked me about it. See, they had been going to a parochial school for years already! They knew plenty of nuns, but they hadn’t seen enough movies. Nuns, for their part, mostly stopped wearing habits in the ’60s, totally missing out on the whole nunsploitation genre. In fact, the number of habit-wearing nuns in the U.S. went from 180,000 in 1964 to a third of that in 2009, and today, the vast majority of religious women dress like … women. This means that there are probably more nun costumes in America right now than there are actual nun habits, begging the question: Who is dressing up as whom? But that’s just one of the seven outdated assumptions you see in movies. Read the rest at Cracked. Link

Pie Charts (A Baker’s Dozen) Posted: 03 Apr 2012 11:00 AM PDT A tasty, helpful, and colorful chart featuring pie charts of pie ingredients. This would look nice on a kitchen wall! This print is produced with vegetable-based inks by Pop Chart Lab. At the site, you can mouseover over the chart to see the listed ingredients. Link -via Laughing Squid

Draw a Bunny! Posted: 03 Apr 2012 10:00 AM PDT You can fool your family and co-workers into thinking you have serious artistic talent by doodling bunnies between now and Easter Sunday. How? Just follow the instructions in the latest tutorial from cartoonist Mark Anderson at Andertoons. Link

Only Good Driver on the Planet Crashes Posted: 03 Apr 2012 09:00 AM PDT Before you put a sticker on your car, consider the worst thing that could possibly happen -an auto accident. And then consider that if you make the news, people will read your bumper sticker. It happened in Manhattan. A driver who crashed and flipped on the FDR Drive yesterday might want to consider retiring his bumper sticker, which reads: "Why am I the only one on the planet who knows how to drive?" It was seen on the rear bumper of this Nissan Altima. which lost a high-speed battle with a guardrail in a northbound lane at East 71st Street at 9 a.m. No other cars were involved. The unnamed driver was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Link -via Arbroath

Music Video Audition Posted: 03 Apr 2012 08:18 AM PDT (YouTube link) Comedian Nathan Barnatt donned the identity of his geek character Keith Apicary to try out for a dance role in a Kimberly Cole music video. Let’s see what happens. Oh yes, you might recognize Barnatt as “Mr. hungry Eyes” from the M&Ms TV ad. Oh, and he passed the audition. -via reddit

Dispute Over Winning Mega Millions Ticket Posted: 03 Apr 2012 07:40 AM PDT Most groups purchasing lottery tickets know that you must share and record all the numbers for a group purchase and store the ticket(s) in a mutually accepted place. But the $640 million Mega Millions drawing last weekend enticed a lot of new players to participate. And Mirlande Wilson of Baltimore, Maryland, has a fight on her hands over who owns the winning ticket. Wilson, a single mother of seven children, admits that she did contribute to the McDonald's "office" pool, but swears that she purchased the winning ticket separately with her own cash. "We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The 'winning' ticket] wasn't on the group plan," Wilson told the New York Post, insisting she alone bought one of the three tickets that will split the record $656 million payout. Her co-workers disagree. Suleiman Osman Husein, a shift manager and one of 15 members in the pool told the Post, "We each paid $5. She took everybody's money!" Further corroborating Husein's version was a man identified by the Post only as Allen, who was also part of the pool. He said Wilson bought tickets for the group at the 7-Eleven in Milford Mill, which is where the winning ticket was sold. Further complicating the case is a security recording at the convenience store where the ticket was purchased, which may show that the winning ticket was purchased by a man. Link

Butterfly Measuring Cups Posted: 03 Apr 2012 07:02 AM PDT Butterfly Measuring Cups – $8.95 Spring is here and it’s time to come out of your cocoon and transform your kitchen into a baking wonderland. The Butterfly Measuring Cups from the NeatoShop are here to help. This colorful set of measuring cups includes: 1/4 cup 1/3 cup 1/2 cup And 1 cup Butterfly Measuring Spoons also available. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more inspiring Kitchen Stuff! Link

One Sided Pokemon Battles Posted: 03 Apr 2012 06:53 AM PDT As boring as the Pokemon cartoon is for grown folks, can you imagine how much worse it would have been if the battles that took place were like these fight cards by Dorkly? Seems like some races of Pokemon were just asking for extinction! And what exactly is the Vanillish’s Pokemon power-deliciousness, or perhaps going straight to an opponent’s thighs? Link  –via Nerd Approved

The Weird, Wonderful & Risque World of 70′s Cosplay Posted: 03 Apr 2012 05:21 AM PDT Let me put it out there right away: the link has a lot of NSFW photos. That being said, if you can handle seeing a few naked breasts, this fantastic collection of crazy cosplay costumes from the swinging seventies are all worth a long look. The pictures are all courtesy of io9 writer and long-term convention attendee Ron Miller. Link

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