An Ignoble Experiment

After all the drama, the group was finally ready to sign a movie contract together and they were hired by MGM in 1933. They were all put in a variety of short films independently and as a group for the next year. A year later, the contract expired and the Stooges finally left Healy for good, largely due to his alcoholism and how much of a pain he was to work with. Healy went on to have a successful movie career for another three years before he passed away under mysterious circumstances. Even today, there is no real consensus about the cause of death, although theories range from head trauma related to a barroom brawl, to a heart attack, to kidney failure.

After breaking from Healy, the gang was officially named their now-famous moniker, "The Three Stooges." They signed on to appear in short films with Columbia Pictures, receiving $600 per week on a one-year contract. With their new-found freedom from Healy, the group quickly became immensely popular, so popular that Columbia soon started negotiating with theaters, refusing to send over shorts of The Three Stooges unless the theaters also agreed to show some of the company's mediocre B movies as well.

Despite the group's amazing popularity, the company did all it could to keep the boys in the dark about their success. They were constantly told that the demand for comedy shorts was dying out, despite the fact that The Stooges shorts were popular even after the format was pretty much abandoned. The group's contract was always left open for renewal at the end of every year and executives made sure to never renew the contract until last minute, leaving the group worried that their days in the business were numbered. This kept the group from ever requesting higher pay or a longer contract. Amazingly, the deception worked for all 23 years The Stooges were with Columbia Pictures and The Stooges never once received a salary increase during that period.

The contract was rough too, requiring the team to turn out eight short films per year and allowing them only three months off, which the group would usually spend with their families or on the road performing their live act. In the end, The Stooges made 190 shorts and five feature films while at Columbia. After leaving the studio, Moe, the group's manager, finally learned the truth and realized that their act could have earned millions more than they received.

Curly or Shemp?

While Shemp was actually one of the original Stooges, Curly is generally regarded as the most popular of the group. Funny enough, the same thing that allowed him to enter the comedy team was also the thing that made him feel most insecure –his shaved head. He soon took to excessive eating and drinking to soothe his insecurities and his weight and blood pressure both skyrocketed. By 1945, his bad lifestyle caught up with him and he became seriously ill, struggling to get through every scene. On May 6, 1946, Curly suffered a debilitating stroke that ended his career.

Moe immediately asked Shemp to rejoin the group, but he was hesitant since he already had a rather successful solo career going on. After realizing that Moe’s and Larry's careers would probably be over without The Stooges, he stepped up to help his brother and friend until Curly was able to return. Unfortunately, Curly's health was far too fragile and he never returned, save for a short cameo in Hold That Lion!, which ended up being the only film where all four of the original Stooges, and all three Howard brothers, appeared on screen together. Eventually, Curly passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1952.*

Shemp went on to appear in 76 more shorts and one feature film with The Stooges. While he was a funny guy and the films all did well, it was impossible for him to match the popularity of his younger brother.

Everything Must Come to an End

In 1949, the boys filmed a TV pilot for a show called Jerks of All Trades, but the show was never picked up. After 1952, the quality of the group's shorts dropped drastically, mostly due to Columbia's cost-cutting measures on their short films division. Four-day shoots were suddenly cut down to two- or three-day shoots and footage from previous films was increasingly recycled into new shorts. In 1955, only three years after Curly died, Shemp died from a heart attack. Even so, the show went on and four new shorts were made using recycled footage of Shemp mixed with Joe Palma standing in as his body double (he was only shot from the back).

In 1956, Shemp was officially replaced by comedian Joe Besser, who starred in 16 shorts with the group. Unlike Curly and Shemp, Besser was known as the only "third" stooge who hit Moe back and even though Larry occasionally fought back, it was always with serious repercussions.

The Besser films are generally considered the weakest of all The Stooges' films and they also came out at a time when TV comedies were starting to gain popularity, making shorts seem like an obsolete format. Finally, in 1957, Columbia declined to renew the group's contract and an era was over. While Moe and Larry discussed putting on a live tour, Besser's wife suffered a heart attack and he soon withdrew from the act.

Rising From the Ashes Only to Fall Again

Surprisingly, the same format that ended The Stooges career in shorts also helped boost them back into popularity. That's because Columbia started selling packages of the troupe's best shorts to TV stations, where they proved to be hits. Moe found his group to be in high demand again and quickly hired comic Joe DeRita to fill in as the third member of the act. DeRita shaved his head and soon started going by the nickname "Curly Joe," distinguishing himself from Joe Besser and connecting himself to Curly at the same time.

This new lineup went on to make a number of full-length films from 1959 to 1965, all aimed at the youth market. The group also continued to tour and throughout the sixties, they were one of the highest-paid live acts in America.

How Old Books Get That Distinctive Smell

The group also filmed 41 new shorts for a TV cartoon show called The New Three Stooges. They also tried making two more TV pilots, one called The Three Stooges Scrapbook and one called Kook's Tour. While The Three Stooges Scrapbook failed to sell, the reason Kook's Tour failed is much sadder. During filming of the pilot, Larry suffered from a stroke that ended his career and put an end to the show as well. Three years later, in 1975, he suffered two more strokes, the last one sending him into a coma that lead to his death.

There were plans to replace Larry, but they never went forward and later that year, Moe died due to lung cancer. The Stooges, amazingly, continued, despite lacking any original members, as DeRita continued to perform live shows as The New 3 Stooges with Mousie Garner and Frank Mitchell filling in for the other Stooges. Eventually, even this group stopped performing when DeRita retired in 1979.

In the end, the group ended up appearing in 220 films. In 2004, Larry's grandson-in-law opened a three-story museum dedicated to the group called the Stoogeum.

Bringing It To A New Generation

A lot of fans are pretty disgusted by the idea of the new movie, but what you might not know is that the film has actually been in the works for over 15 years. In fact, when the Farrelly brothers first started working on it, the Stooges were going to be played by Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, and Jim Carrey. Instead, the actors selected were Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes, and Will Sasso –relative no-names compared to the stars originally slated to star in the film.

So, how about you guys, do you like the original Three Stooges? If so, what's your favorite Three Stooges film? Also, are you going to see the new movie? And, would you be more excited about it if it starred Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Jim Carrey (I certainly would be)?

Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, Mental Floss

*Previously at Neatorama: Whatever Happened to Curly?

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 04:35 AM PDT

(YouTube Link)

This succinct yet informative video reveals how old books get that distinctive smell we bibliophiles know and love, and illustrates the tell tale signs of book deterioration.

Watching it immediately brought the smell to mind, and I had to take one of my oldest editions off the shelf for a quick sniff. Yay for reading stuff!

–via Gizmodo

The Invention Of The American Football Helmet

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 03:34 AM PDT

(YouTube Link)

Aaah the good old days, when a man was free to test his invention of the American football helmet in the manliest manner possible-by letting other men kick him and beat him about the head with a baseball bat.

Take a trip down memory lane and you’ll no longer wonder why brain damage was so prevalent in the early 20th century, but you will wonder how they ever played a game of football without wearing helmets!

–via Stuff I Stole From The Internet

Shopping Cart Art

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 02:50 AM PDT

Artists love to turn ordinary things into art, and what could be more ordinary than shopping carts (or shopping trolleys, if you're on the other side of the Atlantic)?

Here's a quickie Neatorama feature of 4 works of art that have one thing in common: they're all made from shopping carts.

Akquisition 33/77 (2008) by Eberhard Bosslet, featuring 110 carts

Applied Geometry (2004) by Robert Wechsler (This one you have to see the larger format to appreciate it fully)

Photo: Sparkyfaisca/Flickr (More photos)

Ptolemy Elrington, who created wonderfully whimsical creatures out of hubcaps, has also done a few sculptures created from discarded shopping carts rescued from the rivers and canals in England.

Source: Keep Britain Tidy / Photo: Drew Gardner

Yes, these are miniature shopping carts (like the ones you can get from the NeatoShop), but it's still very cool. Behold Trolling#1, by Matt McVeigh.

Got any more cool examples of shopping cart art? Please let us know in the comment!

Bringing A 400-Year-Old Painting To Life With 3D Software

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 02:33 AM PDT

(YouTube Link)

Rob and Nick Carter have found a rather interesting way to bring a Bosschaert still life painting from 1618 into the 21st century-by using the 3D software package Maya to make models of everything in the scene, then subtly animating the objects in order to bring them to life.

Here’s more about the scene:

Every aspect of Bosschaert's painting has been brought to life including each flower stem, insect and background scenery. The film…takes the painted scene from early morning darkness through to noon (where the film exactly resembles the original painting) into dusk and late night.

The idea of recreating a still life scene in 3D seems a bit odd, but I think the idea could be applied to other paintings and artworks with some rather spectacular results. Wouldn’t The Garden Of Earthly Delights by Heironymous Bosch make for an awesome animated scene?

Link –via Cartoon Brew

The Hunger Games Anti-Bullying Poster

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 01:24 AM PDT

If Katniss and Peeta support something then it has to be good, right? Well, if you believe that then you’d better check out these Hunger Games PSA posters that urge you to spay and neuter your pets, fight bullies and more.

Link Via io9

Would You Support A National Registry for Animal Abusers?

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 12:13 AM PDT

It might sound a little extreme to have a national registry for animal abusers -after all, they’re hardly as dangerous as sex offenders, but when you actually think about it, it does make a lot of sense. After all, no one wants animal abusers to be able to adopt poor little puppies and kittens do they?

New York's Suffolk County legislature on Wednesday signed off on a measure that would publicly name anyone convicted of animal abuse by having them report to a registry for five years after their conviction.

"Most serial killers began as animal abusers," Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Chief Roy Gross told the North Shore Sun. "It's a known fact: people who hurt animals hurt people too."

The Sun story says the convicted abusers would pay a $50 annual fee for upkeep of the registry, and those who fail to register would be charged $1,000 or face jail time. The legislature is also considering another bill that would require pet stores and animal shelters to check the registry before allowing anyone to adopt or buy an animal.

So what do you guys think? Would you support an animal abuse registry or do you think it goes too far?

Link Via Pets Lady

If Nintendo Made Kid’s Books

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:04 PM PDT

Have you ever wondered what would happen if your favorite children’s authors started working with Nintendo to make delightful books based on your favorite classic video games? Probably not, but it doesn’t make these awesome fake book covers by artist Caldwell Tanner any less cool.

Link Via Kotaku

Can’t Decide Between Your Favorite Junk Food

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 10:10 PM PDT

Because one good processed food deserves another Pizza Hut UK has decided to start offering pizza with hot dogs baked into the crust. It’s perfect for those who can’t decide between the two best options at the Costco food court…like me.

Link Via Geekologie

Video Game Planets

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 09:09 PM PDT

How to Get More “Likes” on Facebook

This video contains twenty little planets modeled after video game worlds. I can name two; how many can you identify? When you give up and want the answers, they are listed at the YouTube page. -via The Daily What Geek

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 08:06 PM PDT

Matthew Inman at The Oatmeal spells it out in plain language for those who couldn’t figure it out any other way. If you know someone like that, you can forward the link to them. Meanwhile, we will look forward to Inman’s love story about cage fighting nuns and tanks. Link

Glow Brightz and Bike Brightz

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 07:59 PM PDT

Glow Brightz – $17.95

Bike Brightz- $11.95

Are you looking for a way to turn your old two-wheeler into a cool futuristic ride? You need the Glow Brightz and Bike Brightz from the NeatoShop. Glow Brightz and Bike Brightz easily attach to any bike.

Glow Brightz and Bike Brightz are also great for pimping out strollers. Check out the Tron Baby Stroller post on NeatoBambino. Achieving a similiar look on your own stroller would be easy with some Glow Brightz.

The Glow Brightz consists of 6-1/2 fun feet of flexible light. It has two modes: flashing and constant on. Glow Brightz are available in: blue, green, pink, and red.

The Bike Brightz is a LED bike light that provides a bright, wide beams of colorful light. It has 4 modes: slow, medium, flashing, and constant on. Bike Brightz is available in: blue, green, pink, red, and yellow.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Bicycle fun!

Corgi Being Vacuumed

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 07:45 PM PDT

That a dog would tolerate this treatment so readily seems weird until you learn the dog’s name: Corbin Dallas Multipass.

That’s a Fifth Element reference. Two of them, in fact.

Anyone with a name that awesome would have such confidence that nothing could perturb him.

Link -via Super Punch

The Worst Job of 2012

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 07:34 PM PDT

Quick, what's the worst job in the United States today? CareerCast ranked 200 jobs from best to worst based on physical demands, work environment, income, stress, and hiring outlook to come up with this: lumberjack.

Staking claim to the top spot in this year’s Worst Jobs list is Lumberjack. These timber harvesters scored in the bottom 10% in all of our ranking categories except income, where they ranked in the bottom 25%. Unemployment for Lumberjacks is very high, and the demand for their services is expected to continue to fall through 2016. And while working outside all day may seem like a great job perk, being a lumberjack not only is considered the worst job, but also one of the world’s most dangerous.

“The second you lose respect for the trees or the tools, it can come back and bite you,” says Jake Rosa owner of Dry Brook Custom Sawmilling in Upstate New York. As for job prospects, Rosa says, "It's not that the demand for the job is declining. It's finding people who want to do it and work hard at it that is declining.” He adds, “We're still using paper and wood products all the time, but nowadays, kids would rather play video games instead of working hard and getting their hands dirty."

Krispy Kreme Donut S’Mores

Sock Portrait

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 07:31 PM PDT

Coffee, a basketball…and now socks! Hong Yi makes portraits using materials you’d never think of.

Her latest work is a rendering of Chinese filmmaker Yimou Zhang in socks. She was inspired by the most ordinary of sights in Shanghai: socks hanging out to dry on bamboo rods. “To me,” she writes, “that was incredibly beautiful.”

Link -via Oddity Central

Knife Typography

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 06:56 PM PDT

Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri gets right to the point: life is beautiful. He expressed this sentiment in 2009 by driving hundreds of knives into a gallery wall.

Link -via NotCot | Photos: Guillaume Ziccarelli

Hockey Stick Lamp

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 06:48 PM PDT

When Anthony Regole was a freshman in high school, he built an Adirondack chair out of old hockey sticks for a school project. This launched his woodworking career. He does more than just hockey stick projects, but these remain his signature pieces. This lamp would work well in a man cave, don’t you think?

Builder’s Website -via Ann Toler

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 06:39 PM PDT

Smart Argentina’s Clever ASCII Animation Twitter Ad

Ingredients: 2 Krispy Kreme donuts, 1 huge marshmallow, and 1 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Nate Smith compared the joyful experience of biting into this wonder with the birth of his own son:

I’m so happy!…This is similar to how it feels when I had my son…This is the greatest thing in the world.

He’s not modest. Nor should he be.

Link -via Geekosystem

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 06:33 PM PDT

Now that's smart advertising in 140 characters or less: smart Argentina created an ad with ASCII animation in its Twitter page. Each tweet is an animation frame (you can hit "J" on your keyboard to scroll down): Link - via Notcot

George Washington and Adolf Hitler Riding Dinosaurs: The Combat Game

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 05:55 PM PDT

Jurassic President. It’s a game that doesn’t exist yet, but let us hope that some prudent entertainment company takes Jude Buffum’s concept and brings it into existence. Other scenarios include Teddy Roosevelt vs. Joseph Stalin and Abraham Lincoln vs. Kaiser Wilhelm II. They’re Buffum’s contributions to the funny art show So You Created a Wormhole: The Time Traveler’s Guide to Time Travel.

Link -via The Uniblog | Exhibit Website

Are Octopuses Intelligent? It Depends on How You Define Intelligence

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 05:43 PM PDT

If you’re going to evaluate the intelligence of an animal, it’s not enough to measure the size of its brain. Researchers are convinced that octopuses have an intelligence so sophisticated that they can display emotions and individual personalities. But it’s a different sort of intelligence that has to be assessed in a different way:

Octopuses have the largest brains of any invertebrate. Athena’s is the size of a walnut — as big as the brain of the famous African gray parrot, Alex, who learned to use more than one hundred spoken words meaningfully. That’s proportionally bigger than the brains of most of the largest dinosaurs.

Another measure of intelligence: you can count neurons. The common octopus has about 130 million of them in its brain. A human has 100 billion. But this is where things get weird. Three-fifths of an octopus’s neurons are not in the brain; they’re in its arms.

“It is as if each arm has a mind of its own,” says Peter Godfrey-Smith, a diver, professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and an admirer of octopuses. For example, researchers who cut off an octopus’s arm (which the octopus can regrow) discovered that not only does the arm crawl away on its own, but if the arm meets a food item, it seizes it — and tries to pass it to where the mouth would be if the arm were still connected to its body.

“Meeting an octopus,” writes Godfrey-Smith, “is like meeting an intelligent alien.”

Link -via Kottke | Photo: maureen lunn

Fixing Potholes with Non-Newtonian Fluid

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 05:32 PM PDT

Got potholes? Forget waiting around for 5 road workers to stand around and watch while one guy fills the pothole with asphalt! Just grab a bit of non-Newtonian fluid and, there - you fixed it:

The students, undergraduates at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, devised the idea as part of an engineering contest sponsored by the French materials company Saint-Gobain—and took first prize last week. The objective was to use simple materials to create a novel product.

"So we were putzing around with different ideas and things we wanted to work with—and we were like, what's a common, everyday problem all around the world that everybody hates?" explains 21-year-old team member Curtis Obert. "And we landed on potholes." He and four other students decided on a non-Newtonian fluid as a solution because of its unusual physical properties. "When there's no force being applied to it, it flows like a liquid does and fills in the holes," says Obert, "but when it gets run over, it acts like a solid."

Four Feet of Hail in Texas

What? Don't believe us? Check out this video clip of people walking on water in a pool filled with non-Newtonian liquid.

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 04:31 PM PDT

Photo: Potter County Fire Department - via US National Weather Service Facebook Page

Everything is bigger in Texas, but this is ridiculous: 4 feet of hail blanketed an area north of Amarillo.

"That was 4 feet of ice" that was compacted by rain and floodwater across a wide area, [National Weather Service spokeswoman Krissy Scotten] added.

"It was actually the rain/water that caused the drifts," Scotten said. "Anytime you have hail accumulate 2 to 4 feet high and get over three inches of rain, no matter how it occurs, it's pretty incredible."

As for the darkish color, "we're very dusty around here" due to drought so the hail quickly darkened, Scotten said.

Come With a Story and Leave With Another

Doggerhosen

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 03:31 PM PDT

The bad news is that the dog isn't thrilled with its owner's latest lederhosen fashion obsession, but the good news is that it's now famous on the Interweb. Wait, that may not exactly be good news ...

Link - via Buzzfeed

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 03:00 PM PDT

"Come with a story and leave with another", says Colsubsidio Book Exchange of Colombia. To strike home the message, Lowe/SSP3 ad agency came up with these clever print ads.

The first one above mixes Snow White and Sherlock Holmes. Can you figure out these two below?

Via Ads of the World

What Does Your State Do Best?

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 02:29 PM PDT

Every state is number one at something, but what exactly is that, asks One Block Off the Grid blog. Well, the answers - good and bad - may just surprise you. For example:

California has the largest economy in the U.S. and 8th largest in the world. It also has the most UFO sightings every year (6,331).

Surprise! Illinois, not California, has the highest rate of gang membership in the country (8 - 11 members per 1,000 population)

Maryland households are currently the wealthiest in the country, with a 2009 median household income of $69,272.

In 2010, Mississippi had the #1 obesity rate for the 5th year in a row. It also ranked the most generous state based on charitable donations versus income.

Oklahoma has more man-made lakes (200) than any other state.

OKCupid recently outed Oregon as the most gay curious state in the country. It also has the most ghost towns.

Rhode Island has the highest rate of marijuana use in the country (10.3 percent) and alcohol use too (63.1 percent)

West Virginia is tops in toothlessness. It has the highest percentage of adults 65 and over who have had all of their natural teeth extracted (40.5%)

Find out the complete list at One Block Off Grid: Link

Things Could Be Worse

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 01:05 PM PDT

When you are having a bad day, here’s a thought that should make you at least smile a bit inside. This Twaggie was illustrated from a Tweet by @ProSexTips, a division of Funny or Die. See a new Twaggie every day at GoComics. Link

WTF Emoticon Hook Pillow

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 12:19 PM PDT

WTF Emoticon Hook Pillow – $39.95

Spring is here. Are you looking for a fun way to spruce up your humble abode? You need the WTF Emoticon Hook Pillow from the NeatoShop. This decorative pillow doubles as an awesome conversation starter. People will wonder WTF is up with your design style.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fun Home Decor.

Why You Shouldn’t Walk and Text: A Wild Bear Appeared!

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 12:17 PM PDT

If walking off a pier or into a fountain isn't enough of a deterrent to Walking While Texting, then perhaps this will: you may just walk into a bear roaming the neighborhood!

That's what La Crescenta, California, resident Vaz Terdandenyan found out the hard way while walking and texting one afternoon:

"I got up this morning from helicopter noise and I was trying to see what was going on," Terdandenyan told KTLA.

"I was texting my boss that I would be late for work because something is going on, and I'm coming down the stairs and I see the bear coming up the stairs toward me."

"I turned back and I ran for my life. I guess running for a marathon came in handy because I was in shape to run away!"

Geeks Are Sexy has the video clip: Link [Embedded YouTube video]

How an iPad is Made

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 12:03 PM PDT

American Public Media's "Marketplace" Shanghai Bureau Chief Rob Schmitz got an inside look at Foxconn, the Chinese company that manufactures the iPad for Apple. In this exclusive report, Rob takes a look at how the iPad is born:

The first misconception I had about Foxconn’s Longhua facility in the city of Shenzhen was that I’ve always called it a ‘factory’ -- technically, it is. But after you enter the gates and walk around, you quickly realize that it’s also a city -- 240,000 people work here. Nearly 50,000 of them live on campus in shared dorm rooms.

There’s a main drag lined on both sides with fast-food restaurants, banks, cafes, grocery stores, a wedding photo shop, and an automated library. There are basketball courts, tennis courts, a gym, two enormous swimming pools, and a bright green astroturf soccer stadium smack-dab in the middle of campus. There’s a radio station -- Voice of Foxconn -- and a television news station. Longhua even has its own fire department, located right on main street. This is not what comes to mind when you think “Chinese factory.”

Link

Kids These Days

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 12:02 PM PDT

This tweet from @DadBeard brought him hundreds of new Twitter followers. Is it because of the ridiculous mistake on the student’s part or because of the facetious response? Link

How to Make an R2D2 Cake

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:21 AM PDT

The Double-Slit Garage Experiment

Stacked Cakes made a huge custom R2D2 cake by request. It stands on artificial legs, but the rest is cake -and it even makes sounds like the little robot! If you live near Canberra, you can order one, but if not, they have posted the instructions so you can make your own. Link -via Boing Boing

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:14 AM PDT

by R.R. Bukrey
Physics Department
Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois

We are pleased to report that a classic atomic-scale physics experiment — the double-slit experiment — has now been carried out on a macroscopic scale. We have demonstrated the wave/particle duality of a familiar, “everyday scale” phenomenon — the stream of cars passing through the exit lanes of the Loyola University of Chicago parking garage.

Figure 1. The twin exit lanes of the parking garage.

Background: The Wave-Particle Duality

“Is it a wave or a particle?” For centuries, physicists have employed the “double-slit” experiment to answer this question about new and unexplained phenomena. Starting with Thomas Young's 1810 measurement of the wavelength of light, and continuing with similar studies of subatomic particles in the early 20th century, the double-slit experiments all confirmed Louis deBroglie's now-famous “wave-particle duality” hypothesis: that absolutely everything should show both kinds of properties — wave and particle — at one time or another.

The Auto-Slit Experiment

Until now, however, this wave/particle duality had been observed only for extremely tiny phenomena. It had not been demonstrated convincingly for large objects such as baseballs or bullets. Indeed, hardly anyone bothered trying until we came along.
Now, thanks to the foresight and insight of the campus sign painter at Loyola University of Chicago, we have direct evidence that automobiles also share this wondrous duality.

See Figure 1, which shows the twin exit lanes of the parking garage. The sign — “USE BOTH EXITS WHEN LEAVING THE PARKING STRUCTURE” — directs patrons of the campus parking ramp to exit via both lanes. We know from previous experiments that during this process the cars must travel as waves.

Observation shows that, without exception, the emerging vehicles are intact and have restored to their condition as particles.
This dual nature, this automotive wave/particle duality, is proof positive that nature continues to surprise and amaze us.

Acknowledgements

Some of the credit for this breakthrough must be given to my colleagues here in the Physics Department. The idea that the sign could be so interpreted (the so-called “Chicago Interpretation,” also known as the “Far-From-Copenhagen Interpretation”) came from C.M. Brodbeck. The photograph was taken by J.V. Mallow. The person pictured on the right is G.P. Ramsey (the author is on the left). We all of us owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the sign painter; however, as he did not grant us co-authorship on his sign, we feel it would be presumptuous to give him co-authorship on our paper.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the November-December 2001 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

Street Style 1906

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 10:48 AM PDT

Edward Linley Sambourne was a professional illustrator and cartoonist, but his hobby was photography. He took pictures of women on the streets of England to document their choice of dress, but rarely did the subject know he was snapping the pictures! Sambourne’s method would be a privacy issue today, but as the photographs are now over a hundred years old, they are a catalog of what women of the time looked like in their natural habitat. See more photographs at The Library Time Machine. Link -via Nag on the Lake

World Mosaic Made with App Logos

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 10:31 AM PDT

This world map is a pretty neat little feat of graphic art, as it is built of tiny images of app logos. But it is also interactive, so you can click on each logo at the linked site and be taken to the company that produces the particular application. I can’t say whether the apps are any count, since I don’t even have a smart phone. Link -via the Presurfer

Animal Cruelty in the Egg Industry

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 10:17 AM PDT

[YouTube Clip]

Did you have an egg with breakfast today? If so, perhaps you shouldn't watch the video clip above. It's truly horrifying.

The Humane Society of the United States went undercover to reveal the problems it found at an egg factory (well, I suppose you could call it a "farm" but it's operates more like an industrial factory, churning out millions of eggs every year) owned by Kreider Farms, a major egg producer in Pennsylvania.

The following problems, among others, were documented by the HSUS investigator.

- Birds were severely overcrowded in cages more cramped than the national average; each hen received only 54–58 square inches of space on which to spend her life.

- Injured and dead hens, including mummified bird carcasses, were found inside cages with living hens laying eggs for human consumption.

- Hens were left without water for days when a water source malfunctioned, causing many to die.

- Hens' legs, wings, and heads were found trapped in cage wires and automated feeding machinery.

- A thick layer of dead flies on the barn floors caused a crunching sound when walking on it.

The welfare of egg-laying chicken has been a battleground between the industry trade group United Egg Producers and The Humane Society for years, and recently, the two sides actually came together to support new rules [PDF] for egg farmers (A few months ago, NPR's Morning Edition ran an interesting story of how the two bitter adversaries actually came to work together - it all started with breakfast, of course).

The Kreider Farms opposed the proposed legislation. That got The Humane Society to start investigation as to why. Before you condemn the entire industry, you should know that it already has voluntary standards on how to raise chicken, but as you can see in the video clip above, Kreider's operation seems to fall well below that (the company denies this).

Yes, it's easy to say that egg producers - whether they be big companies or small farmers - should stick to using cage-free chicken, but that comes at an economic cost, as the Europeans are finding out when egg prices shot up about 250% in some regions.

Perhaps the best opinion is voiced by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times in his column "Is an Egg for Breakfast Worth This?" who wrote:

For those who are wavering, think for a moment about the arc of empathy. Centuries ago, we humans amused ourselves by seeing other people executed or tortured. Until modern times, we considered it sport to see animals die horrible deaths. Now our sensibilities have evolved so that there is an outcry when animals are abused — unless it happens out of sight on farms.

The police would stop wayward boys who were torturing a stray dog, so should we allow industrialists to abuse millions of hens? Shouldn’t we agree on minimum standards?

Link: Undercover at Kreider Farms [PDF]

Geronimo Jumps

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 09:58 AM PDT

Police Help Blind Writer Recover Work

Samantha Valle taught her German shepherd Geronimo to jump rope Double Dutch style and other neat tricks, too. See more dogs jumping rope at Mother Board. Link -via Laughing Squid

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 08:51 AM PDT

Trish Vickers of Charmouth, Dorset, England, lost her sight years ago, but continues to write in longhand with a system that keeps her lines straight. During a particularly creative streak, she wrote 26 pages of a novel. However, the ink in her pen had run out. Vickers only found that out when her son Simon came to check her work.

Ms Vickers, who used to run the Bridport gift shop Zoot Allures in South Street, said: "We battled with various ideas until we thought of the police.

"We rang them and asked to speak to their fingerprint section. They said if there was anything they could do they would be happy to help.

"I was gobsmacked and so happy."

Her son drove her and the blank pages to Dorset Police HQ at Winfrith and waited to see what would happen.

True to their word officers in the department worked in their spare time, during breaks to try and crack the puzzle and Mrs Vickers got her manuscript back last week.

She said: "I think they used a combination of various lights at different angles to see if they could get the impression made by my pen. I am so happy, pleased and grateful. It was really nice of them and I want to thank them for helping me out."

The police said they enjoyed the story as they deciphered it. Vickers usually writes only as a hobby, but may send this novel to a publisher when it is completed. Link -via Arbroath

Let Your Body Drive

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 08:33 AM PDT

Winner Gold Medal Bottle Opener

Enjoy another performance by surreal dancer Marquese Scott, known as Nonstop (previously at Neatorama). This was recorded in one take with no edits. They say there was no pre-planned choreography, but I suppose Nonstop knew what to do. Oh yeah, this is an ad for Peugeot, which explains how the car didn’t have to park next to other cars in an urban parking garage. -Thanks, Tiffany Maddox!

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 07:57 AM PDT

Winner Gold Medal Bottle Opener – $9.95

The Olympics are coming. Are you looking for the perfect bottle opener to get you through your favorite televised summer games? You need the Winner Gold Medal Bottle opener from the NeatoShop. This great bottle opener shaped like a medal and ribbon will have you feeling like a champion. This bottle opener is a real winner.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fun Bottle Openers.

Sleep Like A Stack Of Pancakes With A Side Of Bacon

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 07:11 AM PDT

This bedspread is a breakfast lover’s delight, and it will make you wake up hungry each and every morning.

The quilt is styled after a butter drenched stack of pancakes, complete with gobs of syrup and a rug shaped like a side of bacon.

If you’re starving for a bed that looks like breakfast in your house you may be disappointed, because this funky bedspread was made by Ros Cross back in 1973.

Time to hit the sewing machine crafty DIYers, I bet you can make an even tastier version of breakfast in bed if you put your mind to it!