Neatorama

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• The Robot Revolution Will Be Televised!
• Bang! Bang! Banana Gun Will Shoot You Down
• Baked Snow Cones? WTF?!?
• 10 Uninhabited Islands & Why No One Lives There
• The Cutest Little Cumberbatch Ever
• I Hate That Guy!!!
• 32 Innovations That Will Change the Way You Live
• Famous Album Covers Photographed in Their Original NYC Locations
• Beep Baseball: Softball for the Visually Impaired
• Ridiculously Awesome Revolver Has a Bipod and Sling Mounts
• The Coolest Absence Excuse Note Ever
• Do Dogs Feel Guilty?
• Marty McFly by Hanksy
• Homeless Student Got Accepted Into Harvard
• Visualizing the Dictionary with Google Images
• It Happens All the Time
• Science Proved that Gaydar Exists
• How Dirty Is Your Keyboard Exactly?
• Show Biz Ruined SpongeBob!
• Galaxia de Pasion: Star Wars as a Telenovela
• Speed of Light
• 25 years of HyperCard
• Putting Words in His Mouth
• The War Film Alphabet
• Cow Proposal
• Skateboard Tricks in Slow-Motion
• Pirate Clock
• Everybody Conga!!!!!
• I Would So Play Silent Moon

The Robot Revolution Will Be Televised! Posted: 04 Jun 2012 05:06 AM PDT The following article is from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Tunes Into TV. We try to write about robots in every Bathroom Reader so we’ll be in their good graces when they inevitably take  over the world. With that in mind, here are some notable TV robots. Robot: The Robot Series: Lost in Space (1965-68) Specs: His primary objective: to  keep the Robinson family, especially the youngest member, Will (Bill Mumy) safe as they bumble their way through space. Despite giving the robot that important task, the Robinsons never bothered to give it a name, though it’s technically a Class M-3 Model B9, General Utility Nontheorizing Environment Control Robot. Memorable quote: “Danger! Danger!” Robot: Rosie Series: The Jetsons (1962-63, 1985-87) Specs: Rosie, a Model XB-500 from U-RENT-A-MAID, diligently serves as everything from a housekeeper to a nanny for “Mr. J’s” futuristic family, and, for reasons, unknown, speaks with a Brooklyn accent. Sentient and caring, she even has a boyfriend, Mac, the robot assistant of the building superintendent Henry Orbit. Memorable quote: “I swear on my mother’s rechargeable batteries!” Robots: Vicki and Vanessa Series: Small Wonder (1985-89) Specs: In this sitcom, inventor Ted Lawson has created a Voice Input Child Identicant (code name “Vic(k)i”) robot, which he and his family pass off as a real human child. Even though Vicki (Tiffany Brissette) always wears the same red-and-white dress, speaks in a robotic monotone, and “eats” and “drinks” through the use of a coolant system, nobody ever catches on. The Lawsons send her to school, but also use her as a domestic servant and keep her in a cabinet at night. And Ted repeatedly attempts to replace Vicki with a newer model named Vanessa (also played by Brissette). Vanessa acts more human than Vicki, but has more independent thoughts- she gets mad at the Lawsons and tries to burn down their house, and, in the series finale, sabotages their trip to Hollywood. Memorable quote (Vanessa): “I’m smart, I’m talented, and I’ll step on anyone who gets in my way.” Robot: Twiki Series: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-81) Specs: Twiki, a cute Model 22-23-0T Ambuquad, serves as a sidekick for the human Buck Rogers. Despite being an advanced, fully-functioning humanoid robot during a time in which interstellar space travel is possible, Twiki suffers from (or is programmed with) a debilitating stutter, making him a source of comic relief. Memorable quote: “Bidi-bidi-bidi.” Robot: Data Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94) Specs: Perhaps because the series is set in the more enlightened 24th century, Data, a sentient android, is treated as a near-equal by the Enterprise’s crew. He serves as a lieutenant commander and chief of operations. His superiority over his carbon-based colleagues enables him to pull the ship out of numerous jams over seven seasons. Despite this, Data inexplicably strives to become “more and more human” as the series progresses. Memorable quote: “If you prick me, do I not …leak?” Robot: Bender Series: Futurama (1999-2003, 2010-present) Specs: Built by Mom’s Friendly Robot Company in a Mexican factory, Bender (his full name is “Bender Bending Rodriguez”) is the face of the huge robot population in “New New York,” circa the year 3000. Built to bend girders and powered by alcohol (he acts drunk if he ever stops drinking), Bender and millions of other robots live alongside humans, mocking them to their faces and entertaining them with robot-based soap operas like All My Circuits, while openly talking of overthrowing the planet. Memorable quote: “Bite my shiny metal a**!” ___________________ The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Tunes Into TV. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

Bang! Bang! Banana Gun Will Shoot You Down Posted: 04 Jun 2012 04:05 AM PDT Now that’s a fancy banana, it looks just like a .45 caliber with a gorgeous carved handle. It would be too beautiful to eat if it weren’t for the fact that the artwork will just rot away in a few hours anyway. Link Via BuzzFeed

Baked Snow Cones? WTF?!? Posted: 04 Jun 2012 03:08 AM PDT Ok, it’s not really that weird, they’re actually just cupcakes designed to look like snow cones -making them a perfect summertime treat for the kiddies (and the adults too). For even more fun you could always try making red, white and blue snow cones and playing snack roulette. Link Via Laughing Squid

10 Uninhabited Islands & Why No One Lives There Posted: 04 Jun 2012 01:54 AM PDT At one point or another, we’ve all fantasized about living on our own isolated island, but while there are plenty uninhabited islands around, you have to wonder why no one has moved in yet. Mental Floss has the scoop on ten uninhabited islands and why no one happens to live on each. For example, Palmyra Atoll can be seen in the picture above: The U.S. military built an airstrip there during World War II, which has fallen into ruin. The atoll now is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency, with the exception of Cooper Island, which is owned by the Nature Conservancy. Palmyra Atoll was the setting for a double murder in 1974 which became the basis for the novel and then miniseries called And the Sea Will Tell. Read ab0ut the rest at the link. Link

The Cutest Little Cumberbatch Ever Posted: 04 Jun 2012 12:44 AM PDT Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think there are nearly enough adorable crafts based on the BBC Sherlock series. For those who feel the same and want to help by creating more amigurumis of Benedict Cumberbatch, you can always make one of these cuties using the pattern at the link courtesy of DeviantArt user Retsnimel. Link Via Geek Crafts

I Hate That Guy!!! Posted: 03 Jun 2012 11:42 PM PDT (Video Link) He’s always looking at me, starting fights with me, hissing at me and just being a serious jerk. I don’t know what the heck his problem is, but I’m gonna kick his butt. Via I Can Has Cheezburger

32 Innovations That Will Change the Way You Live Posted: 03 Jun 2012 11:00 PM PDT Which clever inventions will shape life in the next few decades? The editors of the New York Times have 32 suggestions, including a monitor that reduces eye strain and improves your posture: If you slump down when you're typing on an ErgoSensor monitor by Philips, it'll suggest that you sit up straighter. To help office workers avoid achy backs and tired eyes, the device's built-in camera follows the position of your pupils to determine how you are sitting. Are you too close? Is your neck tilted too much? Algorithms crunch the raw data from the sensor and tell you how to adjust your body to achieve ergonomic correctness. The monitor can also inform you that it's time to stand up and take a break, and it will automatically power down when it senses that you've left. Read the rest at the link. Which one do you think will have the most impact on your life? Link -via @BrainPicker | Image: Philips

Famous Album Covers Photographed in Their Original NYC Locations Posted: 03 Jun 2012 10:00 PM PDT For real estate agent Bob Egan, it’s all about preserving history: Manhattan is constantly being torn down and rebuilt anew, and I’m trying to find these places while they are still around. That’s why he scours the streets of New York City to find the precise locations that album cover photos were made. The cover of Bob Dylan’s iconic 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited was shot at 4 Gramercy Park West. Egan didn’t just do a simple Google search to find that information, but engaged in careful detective work. You can read his research stories at the link. Link -via Flavorwire

Beep Baseball: Softball for the Visually Impaired Posted: 03 Jun 2012 09:00 PM PDT (Video Link) This is wonderful! Just because people can’t see doesn’t mean they can’t play a competitive sport. Beep Baseball uses beeping softballs and bases to tell players when to swing the bat and where to find the bases. The pitcher is on the offensive team and an announcer calls out the location of balls hit into the field. Otherwise, it’s almost identical to softball. -via TYWKIWDBI

Ridiculously Awesome Revolver Has a Bipod and Sling Mounts Posted: 03 Jun 2012 08:00 PM PDT In its smaller versions, the Smith & Wesson 500 revolver comes with a 4 inch barrel. But some models come with 14 inch barrels, muzzle brakes, rails for mounting scopes, and bipods. What I find so tickling is that some designs come with sling swivels. Does this .500 S&W caliber hand cannon go in a holster? No. Hook up a sling and hang it over your shoulder. Link -via MArooned | Photo: Jay Grazio

The Coolest Absence Excuse Note Ever Posted: 03 Jun 2012 07:00 PM PDT Fifth gader Tyler Sullivan has probably got the best absence excuse note ever: It's not every day you get a chance to see President Obama speak — and it's even rarer to watch him get introduced by your dad. That's why fifth grader Tyler Sullivan made the wise choice to skip school and head to the Honeywell factory where his dad, Ryan Sullivan, works. There, Tyler got to meet Obama, and received what may be the coolest absence note ever. I love the stationery that simply says "The President" on the bottom! Link - via Fark

Do Dogs Feel Guilty? Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:00 PM PDT Photo: Shutterstock Ask any dog owner and they'll tell you that dogs can feel guilty, but what does science say? Julie Hecht of Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest did the experiment to find out: Given that so many dog owners report that they believe that dogs who have broken a rule act guilty even before the dog’s transgression is discovered, and given that owners report that they are likely to scold their dogs less following the display of guilty behaviors, it stands to reason that dogs’ “guilty look” may just be a learned response. If scolded, a guilty look might simply serve to reduce the duration of the negative social interaction. Keeping this in mind, the researchers designed an experiment to answer two questions. First, would dogs who had misbehaved in their owners’ absences behave differently when greeting their owners than dogs who had not misbehaved? Second, would owners be able to determine, upon entering a room and relying solely on dog greeting behavior, whether or not their dogs had actually transgressed? Jason G. Goldman of Scientific American's The Thoughtful Animal blog has the results: Link

Marty McFly by Hanksy Posted: 03 Jun 2012 05:00 PM PDT Hello! Hello! Anybody home? Think McFly, think: who else but street artist Hanksy can make this graffiti of Marty McFly from Back to the Future? Via Nerd Approved and Bowery Boogie

Homeless Student Got Accepted Into Harvard Posted: 03 Jun 2012 04:00 PM PDT On the nights when David Boone had no where else to go, the high school senior slept on a bench at a local baseball park. Now, through perseverence and hard work, the homeless student has won a full scholarship to Harvard: There wasn't much the then-15-year-old could do about the hookers or drug deals around him when he slept in Artha Woods Park. And the spectator's bench at the park's baseball diamond wasn't much of a bed. But the aspiring engineer, now 18 and headed to Harvard University in the fall, had no regular home. Though friends, relatives and school employees often put him up, there were nights when David had no place to go, other than the park off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. So he says he made the best of those nights on the wooden bench. His book bag became his pillow, stuffed with textbooks first -- for height, he says -- and papers on top for padding. [...] "I'd do my homework in a rapid station, usually Tower City since they have heat, and I'd stay wherever I could find," he said. Patrick O'Donnell of The Plain Dealer has the inspiring story: Link (Photo: John Kuntz/The Plain Dealer) - via The Grio

Visualizing the Dictionary with Google Images Posted: 03 Jun 2012 03:00 PM PDT When London designers Ben West and Felix Heyes decided to create a visual dictionary of sorts, they knew exactly where to go: Google Images. The duo printed a 1,240-page dictionary using the first image that Google has for 21,000 words you'd normally find inside a common desk dictionary: “We used two PHP scripts my brother Sam wrote for us,” says Ben about the process in an email. “The first one takes a text list of dictionary words and downloads each image in sequence, and the second lays them out into columns and outputs a PDF.” The PDF was then printed into a beautiful book – handbound, thumb indexed pages held together in a marbled paper hardcover, the golden Google logo clearly indifferent to whatever internet horrors it may contain. “Conceptually it’s whatever you make of it,” writes Ben. The sad reality of shrinking attention spans, collective media fatigue or how an expert reference book is no match for the convenience of Google, for example. “It’s really an unfiltered, uncritical record of the state of human culture in 2012,” concludes Ben. So, how are we faring? “I would estimate about half of the book is revolting medical photos, porn, racism or bad cartoons.” Link  - via Technolog

It Happens All the Time Posted: 03 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT My cats know that the office chair at the computer is the best place in the house to sit. It must be, because I spend so much time in it! Sometimes there are two cats, which leaves little room for me. Yasmine at Cat vs Human knows exactly how it is. Link

Science Proved that Gaydar Exists Posted: 03 Jun 2012 01:00 PM PDT Does Gaydar - that preternatural ability to detect whether someone is gay - real? Researchers Joshua Tabak and Vivian Zayas actually did the scientific experiment to find whether gaydar exists: We conducted experiments in which participants viewed facial photographs of men and women and then categorized each face as gay or straight. The photographs were seen very briefly, for 50 milliseconds, which was long enough for participants to know they’d seen a face, but probably not long enough to feel they knew much more. In addition, the photos were mostly devoid of cultural cues: hairstyles were digitally removed, and no faces had makeup, piercings, eyeglasses or tattoos. Even when viewing such bare faces so briefly, participants demonstrated an ability to identify sexual orientation: overall, gaydar judgments were about 60 percent accurate. Since chance guessing would yield 50 percent accuracy, 60 percent might not seem impressive. But the effect is statistically significant — several times above the margin of error. Link

How Dirty Is Your Keyboard Exactly? Posted: 03 Jun 2012 12:00 PM PDT Photo: Shutterstock Say hello to the bacteria on your keyboard: all 500 types of them! In a new study, researchers took swabs of a variety of office equipment in New York, San Francisco, and Tucson. They found more than 500 types of bacteria, most of which normally live on our skin or in our nasal, oral, and intestinal cavities. Chairs and phones accumulated the most bacteria, followed by desktops, keyboards, and computer mice. In a few cases, hardy microbes commonly found in hot springs and volcanic islands also appeared in the mix, perhaps tracked into the office following a vacation to St. Lucia or Yellowstone. New York and San Francisco's bacterial diversity was virtually identical despite their nearly 4700-kilometer divide, while Tucson's microbes were more variable and tended to be heavy on desert soil bacteria in addition to the human-derived species. San Francisco offices were the least contaminated. Link | The study over at PLoS ONE

Show Biz Ruined SpongeBob! Posted: 03 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT Don'tcha know that SpongeBob was going to end up out from under the sea and onto the hard streets of Rome, Italy? Via Street Art Utopia and Cubiclebot Previously on Neatorama: 10 Neat Facts About SpongeBob SquarePants

Galaxia de Pasion: Star Wars as a Telenovela Posted: 03 Jun 2012 10:00 AM PDT You've never seen Star Wars like this before! Behold, Galaxia de Pasión: Star Wars reimagined as a telenovela (Harrison Ford es Armando, Carrie Fisher es Esmerelda, Mark Hamill y Pepe y Anthony Daniels es El Robot de Sexo) by YouTube user OneMinuteGalactica Watch and your loins will burn with passion: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Accordion Guy  Previously on Neatorama: If Star Wars Had Been Written by Jean-Paul Sartre

Speed of Light Posted: 03 Jun 2012 09:30 AM PDT (YouTube link) Subtitled “The World’s Tiniest Police Chase,” this video was made by projecting video onto various indoor surfaces with a handheld projector. Produced by Tom Jenkins and Simon Sharp, together known as The Theory. -Thanks, Tom!

25 years of HyperCard Posted: 03 Jun 2012 09:00 AM PDT Reading about HyperCard at Ars Technica brings back so many memories. I had used computers for a few years, but I never loved computers until I discovered HyperCard. That was in 1988, the same year the author places his experience: I opened the app and read the instructions. HyperCard allowed you to create “stacks” of cards, which were visual pages on a Macintosh screen. You could insert “fields” into these cards that showed text, tables, or even images. You could install “buttons” that linked individual cards within the stack to each other and that played various sounds as the user clicked them, mostly notably a “boing” clip that to this day I can’t get out of my mind. You could also turn your own pictures into buttons. Not only that, but HyperCard included a scripting language called “Hyper Talk” that a non-programmer like myself could easily learn. It allowed developers to insert commands like “go to” or “play sound” or “dissolve” into the components of a HyperCard array. Intrigued, I began composing stacks. None of them amounted to anything more than doodle-packed matrices of images, sounds, and aphorisms, but I eventually glanced at my wrist watch. It was 4:00 AM. Startled and quite tired, I turned in with visions of stack buttons dancing in my head. To understand what a breakthrough that was, you have to place yourself in a time without the internet world wide web, without Windows, and in which most programs required pretty decent typing skills, if not programming skills. The concept of doing something on a computer by just pushing a button was revolutionary, and the idea of designing your own buttons to do things was out-of-this-world awesome. So whatever happened to HyperCard? If things had gone a little differently, it might have been the internet’s first browser. Read the full article to get caught up on this program that influenced so much of what came after. Link -via Metafilter (Image credit: Flickr user Karl Baron)

Putting Words in His Mouth Posted: 03 Jun 2012 08:30 AM PDT (YouTube link) Ventriloquist Nina Conti shows us how to get a man to do exactly what you want. Her act usually involves a talking monkey puppet, but this twist brings something different to the art of throwing one’s voice. Meaning, this is funny. -via reddit

The War Film Alphabet Posted: 03 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT Steven Wildish has another alphabetic movie quiz for you in poster form! This one is all war movies, which should be easier for you if you watched TV over Memorial Day weekend. Can you name all the films A to Z? I recognized about half of them right off. Link -via Blame It On The Voices Previously: other Wildish works.

Cow Proposal Posted: 03 Jun 2012 07:30 AM PDT Yesterday we saw a proposal delivered by a kitten. Today, it’s a cow! Nathan Evans of Bracknell, England, wanted his ask Angela Olano for her hand in marriage in a way that would be meaningful to her. Olano really likes cows, so Evans contacted the organizers of the South England Show about borrowing a bovine. Catherine Elmes of Costow Farm clipped and bathed her show cow, Rosie, for the event. Then Rosie was fitted with a proposal banner and kept for Olano to find while on an outing with Evans. The proposal came as a complete surprise to Ms Olano, 21, who thought she was being driven to a pub in the county to celebrate a relative’s birthday. She said: “I like cows, if I could have a cow I would, so I just thought he was going to take me for a walk somewhere to look at cows. “So I was really amazed but it really means a lot to me. I know Nathan is the man I want to marry.” The wedding is planned for September. No, they will not serve beef at the reception. Link -via Fark

Skateboard Tricks in Slow-Motion Posted: 03 Jun 2012 07:30 AM PDT (YouTube link) You can look at these tricks and say, “How do they do those things? It must be magic!” Or you can look at them and say, “I wonder how many times they fell perfecting those tricks.” The footage was recorded at 1000 frames per second. At the YouTube link, you’ll find a list of the skaters and a short description of each trick -just in case you want to try it yourself. -via reddit

Pirate Clock Posted: 03 Jun 2012 07:18 AM PDT Pirate Clock – $39.95 Ahoy Matey! Father’s Day be June 17th. Be ye still lookin’ fer th’ perfect gift fer yer pirate lovin’ Dad? Ye need the Pirate Clock from th’ NeatoShop. This nautical gentelman o’ fortune themed mantel clock be handcrafted. Be sure t’ check ou’ th’ NeatoShop fer more great Father’s Day gift ideas an’ Pirate fun! Link

Everybody Conga!!!!! Posted: 03 Jun 2012 06:30 AM PDT (Video Link) Teddy bears might not actually have picnics, but apparently real bears love to dance. I don’t know about you, but I would sure jump in this line! Via Cute Overload

I Would So Play Silent Moon Posted: 03 Jun 2012 05:27 AM PDT Or maybe it’s Sailor Hill. Either way, the combination of adorable anime and terrifying survival horror sounds like a delightful idea. Link Via Kotaku

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