Neatorama

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• Hipster Kids Eyeglasses
• The Super Mario Bathroom
• Living The Minivan Dream Memo Pad
• Baby Leopard Loves Cuddles
• Smart Floor Knows When You’ve Fallen And You Can’t Get Up
• Extreme Alarm Clock Simply Will Not Permit You to Snooze
• Close Encounter with a Baby Sea Lion
• Prom: The Ever Escalating Cost of the Social Arms Race
• Roach, R.I.P.
• Saggy Pants Land Man in Jail
• Mike and Ike Split Up
• We’re all Hens: Sweden Introduces Gender-Neutral Pronoun
• Man Beat Traffic Ticket … with Math!
• Auroras Seen on Uranus
• Draw a Stickman
• Quiz: There’s An App For THAT?!
• McCartney Video in ASL
• The Chef From Burger Time Gets A New Job
• There are two kinds of people in the world…
• The Frasier Theme Song Mystery Explained
• Muppets Miss Piggy And Kermit Salt & Pepper Shakers
• The Best Tattoo Cover Up Ever
• This Week at Neatorama

Hipster Kids Eyeglasses Posted: 15 Apr 2012 03:28 AM PDT Let's face the god-awful truth: you will never ever be as hip as these hipster kids, especially when they wear those oh-so-cool Very French Gangsters prescription eyeglasses. Whodathunk that being four-eyes is now the new hotness? Link - via Notcot

The Super Mario Bathroom Posted: 15 Apr 2012 12:11 AM PDT Nerds are the same as all of us - I mean, we all have similar bodily functions - except that they've got cooler bathrooms. Way cooler. Nerd Approved has the round up of The World's Nerdiest Bathrooms - and the list doesn't disappoint. Take this one above, for instance: Super Mario bathroom Mario and Luigi were plumbers, so it ‘s only fitting that they would get their own themed bathroom. Reddit user Kueeny is responsible for this masterpiece, though we agree with him that it would be perfect if the toilet was painted green and made the warp pipe sound whenever it was flushed. Check out the top 10 Nerdiest Bathrooms here: Link

Living The Minivan Dream Memo Pad Posted: 14 Apr 2012 09:57 PM PDT Living The Minivan Dream Memo Pad – $6.95 Are you living the dream? The minivan dream? You need the Living The Minivan Dream Memo Pad from the NeatoShop. This great 70 sheet memo pad makes a great Mother’s Day gift for your favorite minivan driving Mommy. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Stationary fun and great Mother’s Day ideas. Link

Baby Leopard Loves Cuddles Posted: 14 Apr 2012 06:00 PM PDT (Video Link) A caretaker found just the right scratching spot to induce bliss in a baby leopard. This little one lives at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington. -via The Uniblog

Smart Floor Knows When You’ve Fallen And You Can’t Get Up Posted: 14 Apr 2012 05:32 PM PDT Have you fallen and you can't get up? Move over LifeCall medical alarm ... and tell Mrs. Fletcher that IBM has patented a "smart floor" that can detect if someone in the room has fallen (or if there's an intruder): The patent describes a floor containing sensors that can determine who is in the house and what they are doing. It senses the shapes, weight and number of feet on the ground so it can distinguish between adults, children, infants and pets, as well as identifying unauthorised visitors. "Electronic multi-touch floor covering is a surface computing platform that responds to objects and senses users' movements above the surface," the patent says. The system could be programmed to sound an alarm, activate emergency lights or call the emergency services if it identifies someone lying prone on the floor or the presence of an unknown individual. Link (Image: Stickman Action Figure from the NeatoShop)

Extreme Alarm Clock Simply Will Not Permit You to Snooze Posted: 14 Apr 2012 05:00 PM PDT You have to get out of bed. Oh, no, this clock isn’t going to lure you out with freshly-cooked bacon. Nor will it slap you in the face or toss you on to the floor. But you will have to leave your bedroom and show some basic cognition: There is no snooze button. If you unplug it, a battery takes over. As wake-up time approaches, you cannot reset the alarm time. It could be the world’s most exasperating alarm clock. Once it goes off, to stop it you must get out of bed, go into the kitchen or bathroom, and punch the day’s date into a telephone-style keypad. That’s the only way to stop the loud ‘ding-ding,’ designed to sound like a customer angrily banging on a concierge bell at a hotel. My suggestion for a heavy-duty version: the user must solve a basic algebra problem before the alarm turns off. Link -via Marginal Revolution | Official Website | Photo: AP

Close Encounter with a Baby Sea Lion Posted: 14 Apr 2012 04:45 PM PDT (YouTube link) Imagine sitting on a beach and an adorable baby sea lion comes right up to you! This happened at Gardner Bay, in the Galapagos Islands. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

Prom: The Ever Escalating Cost of the Social Arms Race Posted: 14 Apr 2012 04:31 PM PDT If you've got a teen who's been bugging you about going to prom, then you probably already know this: prom is much more expensive nowadays than when you went oh so many years ago. USA Today business reporter Hadley Malcolm (right, above), who still looks good in her original senior year high school prom dress, reports that the average prom spending is - sit down moms and dads - over $1,000: Prom is the new wedding, and spending on the springtime high school dance is climbing within reach of celebrations of holy matrimony. Mary Stirsman says she couldn't imagine buying her 17-year-old daughter Madison the $500 dress she found at an Indianapolis boutique on one recent shopping trip, because Stirsman only spent $800 on her own wedding dress. But a higher price tag is the new norm for an increasingly lavish event for which teens and their families are dropping loads of cash on one-of-a-kind dresses and tuxes, limos or party buses, hair, makeup, jewelry, flowers, dinner and dance tickets. This year, families with teens are expected to spend an average of $1,078 on prom, up from $807 last year, according to data from a survey released today by Visa that includes results based on a thousand telephone interviews conducted at the end of last month. "This is social-arms-race spending. It's extreme," says Jason Alderman, director of Visa's financial education programs. Read the rest of the report over at USA Today: Link

Roach, R.I.P. Posted: 14 Apr 2012 03:47 PM PDT He was a fine bug: a devoted family man with over two hundred children. His loss was a shock to us all. The Carmichael Collective in Minneapolis marked the passing of this roach by setting up a little memorial to him where they found his body on the sidewalk. It’s one of several bug memorials that they made. You can find more photos at the link. Link -via Bit Rebels

Saggy Pants Land Man in Jail Posted: 14 Apr 2012 03:31 PM PDT Saggy pants may be a fashion crime, but can they land you in real jail? The answer is yes: Meet Lamarcus Ramsey. The 19-year-old Alabama man was sentenced yesterday to three days in jail after he appeared in court with jeans that were hanging so low that an irate judge cited him for contempt. The crime? "showing your butt in court": The jurist added, “You can spend three days in jail. When you get out you can buy pants that fit, or at least get a belt to hold up your pants so your underwear doesn’t show.” Link

Mike and Ike Split Up Posted: 14 Apr 2012 02:30 PM PDT Say it ain't so! Mike and Ike (of the chewy fruit-flavored candy) are splitting up and fans are devastated. Devastated! WHEN beloved pairings split, fans may grow distraught, at the prospect of Simon without Garfunkel, Lennon without McCartney, or Martin without Lewis. Now Mike and Ike, the brand of chewy fruit-flavored candies, is announcing its pair is separating, and hoping the development captures the interest of younger consumers. Packaging that began appearing in stores recently has logos with either “Ike” or “Mike” scribbled out, as if by a felt-tip marker. On the back of packages with Mike’s name crossed out, a handwritten message from Ike faults Mike for “spending way too much time on his music.” Packages with Ike’s name crossed out have a message from Mike faulting Ike for “spending way too much time on his graffiti art.” Chew over this report by Andrew Adam Newman over at The New York Times: Link

We’re all Hens: Sweden Introduces Gender-Neutral Pronoun Posted: 14 Apr 2012 01:28 PM PDT How can you raise a child in an environment free of gender bias when the very language you speak distinguishes boys from girls? Well, Sweden is fixing that obvious linguistic flaw by introducing a new gender-neutral pronoun: Just days after International Women's Day a new pronoun, hen (pronounced like the bird in English), was added to the online version of the country’s National Encyclopedia. The entry defines hen as a "proposed gender-neutral personal pronoun instead of he [han in Swedish] and she [hon]."The National Encyclopedia announcement came amid a heated debate about gender neutrality that has been raging in Swedish newspaper columns and TV studios and on parenting blogs and feminist websites. It was sparked by the publication of Sweden's first ever gender-neutral children's book, Kivi och Monsterhund (Kivi and Monsterdog). It tells the story of Kivi, who wants a dog for "hen's" birthday. Nathalie Rothschild explains in Slate's DoubleX blog: Link View more over at our Kids & Baby Blog NeatoBambino

Man Beat Traffic Ticket … with Math! Posted: 14 Apr 2012 12:27 PM PDT I didn't do it, officer, and I can prove it ... with math! UC San Diego physicist Dmitri Kriokov fought his $400 traffic ticket (for runing a stop sign) and won, with this physics paper titled "The Proof of Innocence [pdf]," which he posted to arXiv: After thinking Krioukov ran through a stop sign, a nearby police officer pulled him over and issued him a citation. According to Krioukov's paper, however, three physical phenomena combined at just the right time and misled the officer. When Krioukov drove toward the stop sign the police officer was approximating Krioukov's angular velocity instead of his linear velocity. This happens when we try to estimate the speed of a passing object, and the effect is more pronounced for faster objects. Trains, for instance, appear to be moving very slowly when they are far away, but they speed past when they finally reach us. Despite these two different observations at different distances, the train maintains a roughly constant velocity throughout its trip. In Krioukov's case, the police cruiser was situated about 100 feet away from a perpendicular intersection with a stop sign. Consequently, a car approaching the intersection with constant linear velocity will rapidly increase in angular velocity from the police officer's perspective. Physics - Is there anything it can't do? Link

Auroras Seen on Uranus Posted: 14 Apr 2012 11:06 AM PDT Yes, really. The Hubble telescope captured the images last November, but as with all things astronomical, the data had to be properly crunched and an analysis made before the news is released to the public. The two aurorae observed were as large as the Earth, although they look small against the gas giant Uranus. Read all about them at National Geographic News. Link (Image credit: Laurent Lamy)

Draw a Stickman Posted: 14 Apr 2012 10:04 AM PDT Draw your stickman and watch him go on adventures! But you’ll have to draw things to help him out along the way. Link -via reddit

Quiz: There’s An App For THAT?! Posted: 14 Apr 2012 09:17 AM PDT Here’s a fun quiz I posted over on BoingBoing but you can take it right here, right now by clicking the arrow button above. Let us know how you did in the comments below!

McCartney Video in ASL Posted: 14 Apr 2012 09:13 AM PDT (video link) In the video for Sir Paul McCartney’s new song “My Valentine,” Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp present the lyrics in American Sign Language (more or less). Read more about it at The Huffinton Post. Link -via Metafilter

The Chef From Burger Time Gets A New Job Posted: 14 Apr 2012 08:40 AM PDT (YouTube Link) The latest pixel animation video from Dorkly answers the age old question-What if the Burger Time chef had to get a new job, at a restaurant that doesn’t even make hamburgers? The answer is, of course, rather ridiculous, but I guarantee it will make you want to play some Burger Time! Ow, I got pepper in my eye! –via Dorkly

There are two kinds of people in the world… Posted: 14 Apr 2012 08:29 AM PDT Dr. Phil Plait has them all figured out. But you know, this could be made into a flowchart, with people being born flowing into the right circle, a trickle of people flowing from the right to the left, and because of the death rate, there would be outflow from both circles. Read plenty more geeky jokes in the comments of the post at Bad Astronomy. Link

The Frasier Theme Song Mystery Explained Posted: 14 Apr 2012 07:38 AM PDT Have you ever sat down to watch an episode of the sitcom Frasier and found yourself wondering “Gee, I wonder what the heck they mean by tossed salad and scrambled eggs in the theme song?” Well, wonder no longer because the mystery has been solved! Apparently when the composer Bruce Miller sat down to write the song, he couldn’t find a nice way to describe the nutjobs that call in to Frasier’s show, so he vented his frustration to a friend who quickly came up with “tossed salad and scrambled eggs, because they’re all mixed up!” And the award for pure brilliance in sitcom theme song writing goes to….that guy! Link

Muppets Miss Piggy And Kermit Salt & Pepper Shakers Posted: 14 Apr 2012 06:38 AM PDT Muppets Miss Piggy And Kermit Salt & Pepper Shakers – $13.95 Is your Mom a big Muppets fan? This Mother’s Day get her something she will really love. Get her the Muppets Miss Piggy And Kermit Salt & Pepper Shakers from the NeatoShop. This fantastic glazed ceramic salt and pepper shaker set, with hand painted details,  really captures the love between Miss Piggy and Kermit. Magnets hold the two shakers together. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Muppet items and fabulous Salt & Pepper Shakers! Link

The Best Tattoo Cover Up Ever Posted: 14 Apr 2012 06:34 AM PDT A reader of Geekologie sent in this great story of how a terrible Edward tattoo obtained during a bet eventually became an awesome Rufio tattoo in what is arguably the greatest tattoo portrait cover up ever. “OK, so this guy I used to know recently made a deal with his friend that they would choose each other’s tattoos and they would each get theirs while being blindfolded. He took his blindfold off to see this — Edward, from Twilight! Yikes! So later he had it covered up with RUFIOOOO!” OH HELL YES. I asked my little lady to turn the pictures into an animated gif, but the angles make it look like there’s a colored part in Edward that doesn’t appear in Rufio. Like I said, that’s just the angle. I know many of you don’t like tattoos to start with, but you have to admit, if you’re going to get a tattoo on a bet, this cover up is probably one of the best outcomes you could hope for. Link

This Week at Neatorama Posted: 14 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT Man, this has been a busy week around here! We’ve had what must be a record number of giveaways, features, and discussions -at least it might be some kind of record when you put them all together. I hope this kind of thing continues -we really enjoy bringing you more of what you come here for! As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, Eddie Deezen told us about The Laroche Family on the Titanic. Jill Harness brought us Order Now!: The Short History of Paid Programing. With video evidence! As the new movie opens, Jill took a look back at the originals in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuks From History: Remembering The Three Stooges. David Israel posted An Interview (and book giveaway) with Maggie Koerth-Baker. Maggie told us about her new book Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before it Conquers Us. Congratulations to commenters george segré and Lyricsninja, who won the books! The Insane Experiment gave us a look into the diagnosis of mental illness, courtesy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. The Annals of Improbable Research found an extraordinary physics challenge in The Double-Slit Garage Experiment. Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love came from mental_floss magazine. In the What Is It? game this week, the mystery item is a surveyor's cross (explained here). It was used to align right angles and stuff when surveying land. Anker was the first to know that, and so wins a t-shirt! The funniest answer comes from Carey, who said, "Known as a "slotted and wired hollow brass wooden handled cylinder," this ingenious hand-tool was used in the early 1900s to illicit inquiries regarding its function and purpose. It fell out of use due to rising production costs and decreasing levels of curiosity." That is a long-winded way of saying it's an "idiot attractor," but it's good for a t-shirt! See what all this week's mystery objects are at the What Is It? blog. And there’s yet another way you can win from Neatorama: The Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt is still open for entries, so get going! At NeatoBambino this week, we had videos about heroic kids, talented kids, and creative and industrious kids, plus a book review that will make you either laugh or cringe. The biggest post of the week was Every Jump of the General Lee, Seasons 1-6. Apparently, everyone knew someone who would appreciate it, and shared the link accordingly. A kitten from our Facebook page. The post with the most comments was What The Duggars Eat in a Day. In second place was Animal Cruelty in the Egg Industry, and Should Hospitals Ban Fat Employees? was third. No surprises. The only subject guaranteed to get more comments than these would be tipping. Do you know anyone who’s really into Pinterest? You ought to tell them about Neatorama’s pinboard! That’s fairly new, but we also have extra stuff you won’t find here on the main site going up every day at Google+, Twitter, and Facebook, too. But if you ever run of out new stuff to read, you can always find something interesting at The Best of Neatorama, where we’ve archived years of feature articles. Now remember, we couldn’t do all this if it weren’t for you, so THANK YOU for coming here, for sharing our posts, for commenting, for your tips and suggestions, and for all that you do. Give yourself a pat on the back!

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