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2012/07/10

Neatorama

Neatorama

The Wisdom of Kim Kardashian and Søren Kierkegaard Mashed Together

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 05:05 AM PDT


The words of Nineteenth Century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard flow seamlessly into the tweets of model Kim Kardashian in this joke Twitter account. Can you tell where one drops off and another begins?

Link -via Paul Overton

Why I Will Never Have a Girlfriend

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 05:04 AM PDT

by Tristan Miller
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto

Informal empirical and anecdotal evidence from the (male) scientific community has long pointed to the difficulty in securing decent, long-term female companionship. To date, however, no one has published a rigorous study of the matter. In this essay, the author investigates himself as a case study and presents a proof, using simple statistical calculus, of why it is impossible to find a girlfriend.

Figure 1. A representative sample of individuals who will never be the author's girlfriend. Photo: Library of Congress

Why Don't I Have a Girlfriend?
This is a question that practically every male has asked himself at one point or another in his life. Unfortunately, there is rarely a hard and fast answer to the query. Many men try to reason their way through the dilemma nonetheless, often reaching a series of ridiculous explanations, each more self-deprecating than the last: "Is it because I'm too shy, and not aggressive enough? Is it my opening lines? Am I a boring person? Am I too fat or too thin? Or am I simply ugly and completely unattractive to women?" When all other plausible explanations have been discounted, most fall back on the time-honoured conclusion that "there must be Something Wrong™ with me" before resigning themselves to lives of perpetual chastity.1

Not the author, though. I, for one, refuse to spend my life brooding over my lack of luck with women. While I'll be the first to admit that my chances of ever entering into a meaningful relationship with someone special are practically non-existent, I staunchly refuse to admit that it has anything to do with some inherent problem with me. Instead, I am convinced that the situation can be readily explained in purely scientific terms, using nothing more than demographics and some elementary statistical calculus.

Lest anyone suspect that my standards for women are too high, let me allay those fears by enumerating in advance my three criteria for the match. First, the potential girlfriend must be approximately my age — let's say 21 plus or minus three or four years. Second, the girl must be beautiful (and I use that term allencompassingly to refer to both inner and outer beauty). Third, she must also be reasonably intelligent —she doesn't have to be Mensa material, but the ability to carry on a witty, insightful argument would be nice. So there they are — three simple demands, which I'm sure everyone will agree are anything but unreasonable.

That said, I now present my demonstration of why the probability of finding a suitable candidate fulfilling the three above-noted requirements is so small as to be practically impossible — in other words, why I will never have a girlfriend. I shall endeavour to make this proof as rigorous as the available data permits. And I should note, too, that there will be no statistical trickery involved here; I have cited all my sources and provided all relevant calculations2 in case anyone wishes to conduct their own independent review. Let's now take a look at the figures.

Number of people on Earth (in 1998): 5,592,830,000
[CB99, Table A–3]
We start with the largest demographic in which I am interested — namely, the population of this planet. That is not to say I'm against the idea of interstellar romance, of course; I just don't assess the prospect of finding myself a nice Altairian girl as statistically significant. Now anyway, the latest halfway-reliable figures we have for Earth's population come from the United States Census Bureau's 1999 World Population Profile [CB99]. Due presumably to the time involved in compiling and processing census statistics, said report's data is valid only as of 1998, so later on we'll be making some impromptu adjustments to bring the numbers up to date.

…who are female: 2,941,118,000
[CB99, Table A–7]
I'd've thought that, given the title of this essay, this criterion goes without saying. In case anyone missed it, though, I am looking for exclusively female companionship. Accordingly, roughly half of the Earth's population must be discounted. Sorry, guys.

…in "developed" countries: 605,601,000
[CB99, Table A–7]
We now further restrict the geographical area of interest to so-called "first-world countries". My reasons for doing so are not motivated out of contempt for those who are economically disadvantaged, but rather by simple probability. My chances of meeting a babe from Bhutan or a goddess from Ghana, either in person or on the Internet, are understandably low. In fact, I will most likely spend nearly my entire life living and working in North America, Europe, and Australia, so it is to these types of regions that the numbers have been narrowed.

Figure 2. Another representative sample of individuals who will never be the author's girlfriend. Photo: Library of Congress.

…currently (in 2000) aged 18 to 25: 65,399,083
[CB99, Tables A–3, A–7]

Being neither a pedophile nor a geriatrophile, I would like to restrict my search for love to those whose age is approximately equal to my own. This is where things get a bit tricky, for two reasons: first, the census data is nearly two years old, and second, the "population by age" tables in WP/98 are not separated into individual ages but are instead quantized into "15–19" (of whom there are 39,560,000) and "20–44" (population 215,073,000). Women aged 15 to 19 in 1998 will be aged 17 to 21 in 2000; in this group, I'm interested in dating those 18 or older, so, assuming the "15–19" girls' ages are uniformly distributed, we have


Similarly, of 1998's "20–44" category, there are now


females within my chosen age limit. The sum, 66 059 680, represents the total number of females aged 18 to 25 in developed countries in 2000. Unfortunately, roughly 1% of these girls will have died since the census was taken.3 Thus, the true number of so-far eligible bachelorettes is 65 399 083.

…who are beautiful: 1,487,838
Personal attraction, both physically and personality-wise, is an important instigator of any relationship. Of course, beauty is a purely subjective trait whose interpretation may vary from person to person. Luckily it is not necessary for me to define beauty in this essay except to state that for any given beholder, it will probably be normally distributed amongst the population.4 Without going into the specifics of precisely which traits I admire, I will say that for a girl to be considered really beautiful to me, she should fall at least two standard deviations above the norm. From basic statistics theory, the area to the left of the normal curve at z = 2 is

and so it is this number with which we multiply our current population pool.

…and intelligent: 236,053
Again, intelligence can mean different things to different people, yet I am once more relieved of making any explanation by noting that it, like most other characteristics, has a notionally normal distribution across the population. Let's assume that I will settle for someone a mere one standard deviation above the normal; in that case, a further

of the population must be discounted.

…and not already committed: 118,027
I could find no hard statistics on the number of above-noted girls who are already married, engaged, or otherwise committed to a significant other, but informal observation and anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that the proportion is somewhere around 50%. (Fellow unattached males will no doubt have also noticed a preponderance of girls legitimately offering, "Sorry, I already have a boyfriend" as an excuse not to go on a date.) For reasons of morality (and perhaps too self-preservation), I'm not about to start hitting on girls who have husbands and boyfriends. Accordingly, that portion of the female population must also be considered off-limits.

…and also might like me: 18,726
Naturally, finding a suitable girl who I really like is no guarantee that she'll like me back. Assuming, as previously mentioned, that personal attractiveness is normally distributed, there is a mere 50% chance that any given female will consider me even marginally attractive. In practice, however, people are unlikely to consider pursuing a relationship with someone whose looks and personality just barely suffice. Let's make the rather conservative assumption, then, that a girl would go out with someone if and only if they were at least one standard deviation above her idea of average. In that case, referring to our previous calculation, only 15.8655% of females would consider someone with my physical characteristics and personality acceptable as a potential romantic partner.

Figure 3. A third representative sample of individuals who will never be the author's girlfriend. Photo: Library of Congress.

Conclusion
It is here, at a pool of 18,726 acceptable females, that we end our statistical analysis. At first glance, a datable population of 18,726 may not seem like such a low number, but consider this: assuming I were to go on a blind date with a new girl about my age every week, I would have to date for 3,493 weeks before I found one of the 18,726. That's very nearly 67 years. As a North American male born in the late 1970s, my life expectancy is probably little more than 70 years, so we can safely say that I will be quite dead before I find the proverbial girl of my dreams. Come to think of it, she'll probably be dead too.

Reference
[CB99] U.S. Bureau of the Census. Report WP/98, World Population Profile: 1998. U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, DC, 1999.

Notes
1. After a short period of brooding, of course, these males will eventually come to the realization that the real reason they were never able to get a girlfriend is that they were too discriminating with their attentions. They will consequently return to the dating scene, entering a sequence of blasé relationships with mediocre girls for whom they don't really care, until they finally marry one out of fear of spending the rest of their lives alone. I am convinced that this behaviour is the real reason for today's alarmingly high divorce rate.

2. Due to rounding, figures cited may not add up exactly.

3. [CB99] gives the annual death rate for developed countries as 10 per 1000, but does not list death rates per age group. Presumably, the death rate graphs as a bathtub curve, but in the absence of any numbers supporting this hypothesis, and for the sake of simplicity, I will conservatively estimate the death rate among this age group to be 1% biennially.

4. Despite my efforts to research the matter, I could find no data on the distribution of beauty, either outer or inner, amongst the population. Perhaps attractiveness, being a largely subjective trait, does not lend itself to quantification. It is not unreasonable, however, to assume that like most other traits, it has a normal distribution. Indeed, this assumption seems to be backed up by informal observation and judgment — in any reasonably large group of people, most of them will be average-looking, and a tiny minority either exceedingly beautiful or exceedingly ugly.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the May-June 2002 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.

Skateboard Deck Ceiling Fan

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 04:34 AM PDT

Here’s a fun idea in home improvement that would actually make a pretty cool DIY project for the skateboard obsessed in your life.

The folks at Notcot’s Experimental Studio came up with this great idea- with just a few drilled holes, and maybe a coat of paint, your fan can McTwist the day away on skateboard blades and still provide a good breeze.

Link  –via Gizmodo

FLIP, The Ocean Vessel That Can Stay Afloat Vertically

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 03:33 AM PDT

This is FLIP, an ocean vessel that can actually flip on its side and keep on a-floatin’.  FLIP even has two sets of interior furnishings for long term floating in either position.

The Floating Instrument Platform is celebrating 50 years of staying afloat no matter what the high seas throws at it.

Hit the Laughing Squid link below if you’re interested in reading more about this amazing vehicle and FLIP ON!

Link  –via Laughing Squid

The Trololo Kid

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 02:28 AM PDT

(YouTube Link)

Remember the Trololo guy, aka Mr. Trololo?

He entertained us all with his unique vocal stylings and theatrical performance before he sadly passed away at age 77.

Well, the kid in this video may be the chosen one who will carry on his legacy, if he ever learns how to sing…

Watch him ham it up in a uniquely Trololo fashion, it sure squeezed the chuckles outta me!

Original Video LINK

–via Stuff I Stole From The Internet

Bizarre Nylon Sculptures By Rosa Verloop

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 01:33 AM PDT

These bizarre nylon sculptures are created by using a fairly simple technique which has some rather spectacular results.

Artist Rosa Verloop uses regular old stockings and turns them into bizarre caricatures by squishing, molding, shaping and straight pinning the nylons into place.

I want to yell at the work pictured above so it’ll stop LOOKING AT ME like that! *shakes fist*

Link  –via Juxtapoz

Gloves That Translate Sign Language into Speech

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 01:00 AM PDT

Photo: EnableTalk

Among the finalists at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, a student technology competition, is EnableTalk. These gloves, built by students in Ukraine, assess what the wearer is expressing in sign language and then communicates it through sound:

The few existing projects that come close to what EnableTalk is proposing generally cost around $1,200 and usually have fewer sensors, use wired connections and don't come with an integrated software solution. EnableTalk, on the other hand, says that the hardware for its prototypes costs somewhere around $75 per device.

Besides the cost, though, another feature that makes this project so interesting is that users can teach the system new gestures and modify those that the team plans to ship in a library of standard gestures.

Link -via io9

Awesome Maleficent Wall Mount

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 12:22 AM PDT

This is one of the coolest wall mount sculptures I’ve ever seen, and the artist has really captured the spirit of Disney villain Maleficent in her fiery dragon form.

It was created by Dan Reeder of Paper Mache blog, and yes that means this amazing piece is made out of paper!

Add some LED lights for a cool glowing mouth and eyes effect and you have a dragon wall mount worthy of display in a brave warrior’s abode.

Link  –via i09

Famous Movies in the Ottoman Miniature Style

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 12:00 AM PDT

The sultan will give you an offer that you can’t refuse. Murat Palta, an artist in Instanbul, made illustrations of famous movies in the classical Ottoman miniature style. Among those featured are The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange, Terminator 2, Alien and Kill Bill.

Link -via Flavorwire

Surreal Short Film – Sarah

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 11:20 PM PDT

(Vimeo Link)

This dark little mini flick seems like an ad for a short film rather than a film in its own right.

That being said, Sarah is moody, compelling and combines audio and video to maximum effect.

And if you can’t spare a minute of your life to watch a weird short film then stop being so busy all the time!

–via AnimalNY

Clark Kent, Crook

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 11:00 PM PDT

Is Clark Kent, AKA Superman, a nice guy? Not if you’re his employer. Ed Yong argues that Kent has serious ethical problems:

When it comes to journalistic ethics, Mr Kent is not so super after all. He regularly reports about himself without disclosing as much. He deceives his employers by moonlighting during working hours as a doer of derring, leaping his contractual obligations in a single bound. Worst of all, he uses the privileged inside information that he gleans as a journalist for his own personal gain during his extracurricular activities. Here is a man who is faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a locomotive, and about as transparent as either of those.

And that’s just the beginning. Read about the nefarious activities of Lois Lane, Peter Parker and other alleged “heroes” at the link.

Link -via VA Viper | Image: Warner Bros.

Basketball Backpack

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 10:42 PM PDT

Basketball Backpack – $24.95

Are you looking for the perfect backpack for the pint-sized sports fanatic in your family? You need the Basketball Backpack from the NeatoShop. This great little backpack has a built-in hoop and comes with a 3″ ball so that he can turn free time into playtime. This backpack got game.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Back To School items!

Link

Physics Students: Batman Would Die If He Tried to Glide

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Image: University of Leicester

It would be Knightfall for Batman to actually try to glide using his cape. Physics students at the University of Leicester have calculated that he wouldn’t be able to survive the aerial maneuvers displayed in the movie Batman Begins:

Due to the high speeds he would be travelling, his impact with the ground would be equivalent to him being struck by a car travelling at 50 miles per hour.

David Marshall, Tom Hands, Ian Griffiths and Gareth Douglas found that the wingspan of Batman’s cape — at 4.7 metres — is around half that used by a hang glider.

If Batman jumped from a building 150 metres high, he could glide a distance of around 350 metres — but the problem arises as Batman’s velocity increases during his descent.

His velocity would initially rise to around 68 miles per hour, before reaching a steady 50 miles per hour as he gets down to ground level — a speed too fast for him to land safely.

Link -via Popular Science

Omnicorp Product Line

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 10:00 PM PDT


(YouTube link)

“We’ve got the future under control.” Omnicorp is the world’s leading security corporation -in the futuristic world of Robocop! The movie won’t be in theaters for another year, but the fictional Omnicorp has a website in which it shows off its products: security robots, like the ultra-scary ED-209. Link -via The Week

Classic Star Trek Gear in LEGO

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 09:00 PM PDT

With this medical tricorder, Type 2 hand phaser and communicator by LEGO artist Tommy Williamson, you’re ready for the landing party. Also, put on this red shirt. Yes, I know that you work in navigation. But for just this mission, put it on.

Link -via Nerdcore

Previously by Tommy Williamson:
Cheeseburger & Fries LEGO Podracers
Monty Python and the Holy Grail in LEGO

Overly Attached Girlfriend

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 08:00 PM PDT

Christopher Jobson sums it up well:

It's amazing how a few perfectly placed gestures, about 20 lines of black spray paint in this case, can completely transform two mundane boxes into something so fun.

This piece in Olsztyn, Poland is by Adam Lokuciejewski and Szymon Czarnowski. It’s right outside your window at night.

Link -via Colossal

Tigger Finally Apprehended

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 07:00 PM PDT

Photo: China Smack

Oh, bouncing is indeed what Tiggers do best. But you can bounce only so many times before the law catches up with you. This Tigger was caught while playing an escaped tiger at a zoo in China during an emergency drill:

June 2nd, Sichuan Chengdu Zoo, a tranquilized "tiger" being carried away by workers, as a caged Chinese tiger watches through the glass. That day, the Chengdu Zoo conducted a escaped dangerous animal training drill/exercise. The training exercise simulated 2 Siberian Tigers escaping from their cages, with zoo workers working together with forestry police conducting an emergency response.

Note the guard’s good trigger discipline.

Link -via The Firearms Blog

Previously on Neatorama: Paper Mâché Rhino Escapes from Zoo

Panorama of Mars

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:00 PM PDT


Image: NASA/JPL Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.

Opportunity rover spent the Martian winter perched on the northern slope of Greeley Haven on the Red Planet, and snapped hundreds of images that NASA scientists stitched together to form this fantastic panorama.

Astronomy Picture of the Day has the larger version: Link

 

Instaglasses

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 05:00 PM PDT

We've told you about the Instagram camera concept, but what if you need something even more immediate to filter your visual input? Markus Gerke to the rescue! He created the conceptual Instaglasses: Link - via Photojojo

Red Sunburn is RNA Damage

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 04:00 PM PDT

Did you get a sunburn this summer? Know this: that redness you got is actually RNA damage to skin cells.

Using both human skin cells and a mouse model, Gallo, first author Jamie J. Bernard, a post-doctoral researcher, and colleagues found that UVB radiation fractures and tangles elements of non-coding micro-RNA -- a special type of RNA inside the cell that does not directly make proteins. Irradiated cells release this altered RNA, provoking healthy, neighboring cells to start a process that results in an inflammatory response intended to remove sun-damaged cells.

We see and feel the process as sunburn.

"The inflammatory response is important to start the process of healing after cell death," said Gallo. "We also believe the inflammatory process may clean up cells with genetic damage before they can become cancer. Of course, this process is imperfect and with more UV exposure, there is more chance of cells becoming cancerous."

Link (Image: Thomas Deerinck/National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, UC San Diego)

Insect Smaller than an Amoeba

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 03:00 PM PDT

How tiny can tiny insects be? Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science, told us of the wasp Megaphragma mymaripenne, which is actually smaller than an amoeba!

Thrips are tiny insects, typically just a millimetre in length. Some are barely half that size. If that’s how big the adults are, imagine how small a thrips’ egg must be. Now, consider that there are insects that lay their eggs inside the egg of a thrips.

That’s one of them in the image above – the wasp, Megaphragma mymaripenne. It’s pictured next to a Paramecium and an amoeba at the same scale. Even though both these creatures are made up of a single cell, the wasp – complete with eyes, brain, wings, muscles, guts and genitals – is actually smaller. At just 200 micrometres (a fifth of a millimetre), this wasp is the third smallest insect alive* and a miracle of miniaturisation.

Link 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s The Four Seasons Sculptures by Philip Haas

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 01:30 PM PDT


Photo: ppaces/Flickr

Artist and filmmaker Philip Haas was inspired by 16th century Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo to create fantastic 15-foot tall fiberglass sculptures based on the Renaissance artist's The Four Seasons.

Check out the rest over at Juxtapoz Magazine: Link 

Hippo Attack Mug

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 01:18 PM PDT

Hippo Attack Mug – $10.95

Is your office a real jungle?  Combat cup thievery with the dangerously adorable Hippo Attack Mug from the NeatoShop. This deliciously fantastic mug features a delightfully hostile hippopotamus at the bottom. It is perfect for warning would be poachers of your aggressive tendencies.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more amazing Mugs!

Link

Le Miroir

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT

Where did the time go. Antoine Tinguely and Laurent Fauchère (credited as Ramon and Pedro in the film) created this short film Le Miroir (The Mirror) that depicts the poignant story of life, as told in front of a bathroom mirror.

Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo]  | The Making Of

Dress Made Out of 50,000 Gummy Bears

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 12:30 PM PDT

For its debut, Twelv Magazine commissioned this Alexander McQueen-inspired dress made out of 50,000 gummy bears:

To build the design, stylists Hissa Igarashi and Sayuri Marakumi twisted steel wire into the shape of a dress and covered it with vinyl. They then spent three weeks gluing on 50,000 pieces of the gummy candy in a rainbow gradient pattern. The final 220 pound ensemble was fitted exactly for model Jessica Pitti and required three people to move! I can only imagine the temptation to snack on the sweet treats as they dressed the model. Below you can also see the original Alexander McQueen dress that inspired the delicious design.

Yum! My Modern Met has more pics: Link 

Game of Thrones in Minecraft

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT

Now this is fantastic: WesterosCraft is building the entire world of Game of Thrones in Minecraft. The level of details is astounding! Link - via Kotaku

The Chap Olympiad

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 11:30 AM PDT


Photo: Matthew Lloyd

Forget the Olympics! The fun is at the annual Chap Olympiad [self-starting video clip], which celebrates "eccentricity and athletic ineptitude with the emphasis on panache and style over sporting prowess."

Events include cucumber sandwich discus, ironing board surfing, and umbrella jousting. The Guardian has the pics: Link

 

A Cautionary Tale for the News Industry

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 10:56 AM PDT

On June 28, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Both CNN and Fox News, in an effort to break the news quickly, announced the plan had been struck down by the court -which was wrong. Ten days later, enough information about the news errors had been unearthed and validated that a timeline of events could be constructed to explain how and why they happened. SCOTUSblog presents it all in a long but fascinating account.

The Court's own technical staff prepares to load the opinion on to the Court's website.  In years past, the Court would have emailed copies of the decision to the Solicitor General and the parties' lawyers once it was announced.  But now it relies only on its website, where opinions are released approximately two minutes later.  The week before, the Court declined our request that it distribute this opinion to the press by email; it has complete faith in the exceptional effort it has made to ensure that the website will not fail.

But it does.  At this moment, the website is the subject of perhaps greater demand than any other site on the Internet – ever.  It is the one and only place where anyone in the country not at the building – including not just the public, but press editors and the White House – can get the ruling.  And millions of people are now on the site anxiously looking for the decision.  They multiply the burden of their individual visits many times over – hitting refresh again, and again, and again.  In the face of the crushing demand, the Court cannot publish its own decision.

The opinion will not appear on the website for a half-hour.  So everyone in the country not personally at 1 First St., NE in Washington, DC is completely dependent on the press to get the decision right.

That explains a lot, but it’s only a small part of the events leading to a major SNAFU in the broadcast news industry. As technical as the story is, I can see how it might be made into a movie someday. Link -via Jason Kottke

(Image credit: Gary He)

Predictors of 3-D Breast Kinematics during Bare-Breasted Running

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 10:24 AM PDT

When you have a science graph labeled “Breast velocity” on one axis and “Cup size” on the other, you can bet that the underlying research is covered by our friends at Improbable Research. Link -via Ed Yong

Otzi

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 09:30 AM PDT


(vimeo link)

You know about Otzi the Iceman, a naturally preserved mummy found frozen in the Alps. Now the full story of Otzi comes out, thanks to this animated video from Evan Red Borja. Read more about the idea behind the film at Cartoon Brew. Link -via Geekosystem

The Furby is Back

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 09:06 AM PDT

If you were a child in the late 1990s, you may have owned a Furby. If you were older, you probably wondered why anyone would ever want one. Nostalgia is reason enough the second time around! Hasbro is bringing the Furby back, with modern hi-tech electronics like apps and LCD eyes. They will respond to human voices and other Furbys, and like the originals, you can only turn them off by removing the batteries. Look for them in stores around Christmas time, or in a video at Mashable. Link -via the Presurfer

The Coca-Cola Bag

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 08:30 AM PDT


(YouTube link)

Coca-Cola, aware that its signature product was being poured into plastic bags in Central America, will now provide biodegradable Coke bottle-shaped bags from which to sip. Who knows? Maybe Coke-in-a-bag will catch on in the U.S. too! -via Gizmodo

World Heritage Sites in Danger

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT

UNESCO has a list of 38 World Heritage Sites that are endangered. The reasons vary, from political to environmental to financial. National Geographic News shows us five sites that have been recently added to the list, and two that have been removed as their condition and security has improved. Two of the newly-listed sites are in Mali.

The World Heritage Committee’s decision to add Timbuktu to the danger list reflects growing international concerns about the looting and destruction of its historical sites after the city was taken over earlier this year by the armed groups MLNA and Ansar Dine.

According to Voice of America, Ansar Dine said the shrines at Timbuktu are idolatrous and un-Islamic.

In June, UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova expressed dismay over reports that three sacred tombs at Timbuktu had been destroyed.

Shown here is the 500-year-old Tomb of Askia in Mali. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Florin Iorganda, Reuters)

Zombie Clock

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 07:32 AM PDT

Zombie Clock – $39.95

Hey Neatoramanauts, what time is it? It’s zombie time!

The zombie apocalypse is right around the corner. Are you dying for a fantastic way to keep track of how much time you have left? You need the Zombie Clock from the NeatoShop. This deliciously fun clock features a zombie gnawing on a brain. The Zombie clock makes the perfect gift for zombie lovers, undead and alive.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Zombie items!

Link

 

Kitten Reacts to Sneeze

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 07:30 AM PDT


(YouTube link)

A videographer’s involuntary actions will sometimes affect the outcome of the video project in a major way. In this case, Wilbur was thrown for a loop, resulting in a viral kitten video. -via Say OMG

On Being Obvious

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 07:00 AM PDT

This post contains an illustrated alphabet about being obvious. If you don’t understand why, well, dangit, it should be obvious to you! Link -via Everlasting Blort

Army’s Pixel Camouflage Gets the Boot

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:35 AM PDT

After eight years and $5 billion, the U.S. Army admits its pixelated Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) was a “colossal mistake.” It may have been hip, but it didn’t hide soldiers in any environment -except on the living room sofa.

"Essentially, the Army designed a universal uniform that universally failed in every environment," said an Army specialist who served two tours in Iraq, wearing UCP in Baghdad and the deserts outside Basra.  "The only time I have ever seen it work well was in a gravel pit."

The specialist asked that his name be withheld because he wasn't authorized to speak to the press.

"As a cavalry scout, it is my job to stay hidden. Wearing a uniform that stands out this badly makes it hard to do our job effectively," he said. "If we can see our own guys across a distance because of it, then so can our enemy."

The fact that the government spent $5 billion on a camouflage design that actually made its soldiers more visible — and then took eight years to correct the problem — has also left people in the camouflage industry incensed. The total cost comes from the Army itself and includes the price of developing the pattern and producing it for the entire service branch.

The Daily has the story of how the UCP came about and what the Army is doing about it now. Link -via Metafilter, where you’ll find more camouflage links.

Neatorama Caption Contest: Snoozin’ Cat

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT

W00t! It's time for our weekly Neatorama Caption Contest. Today's image comes via one of the neatest blogs on the Web, Cute Overload, who wrote:

Jake T. fills in the backstory: “This is Mint-kun. He lives in Shimokitazawa in Tokyo. He likes dinosaurs but finds reading about them makes him very sleepy.”

Love it! Now, on to the caption contest. The rules are simple:

1. Write your caption in the comment section below. Make it funny! One caption per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like (in separate comments). Need an inspiration? How about the title of the book? Or what the cat is dreaming?

2. Include your selection of an item from NeatoShop's Back to School or Funny T-Shirts category. You can pick any item in stock, $25 or less. (I know it's early yet, but we're already seeing a lot of prepared parents buy Bags & Backpacks as well as Lunch Boxes from the store. Quantities are limited, so if you want to get the web's neatest selection of Back to School items, hop on to it!).

3. Incomplete entries forfeit the prize, OK?

May the funniest captions win! We'll pick 3 winners soon. Good luck ... and please visit the NeatoShop. Your purchase helps support the blog.
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