Neatorama

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• GIFs Based On Threadless T-Shirt Designs
• Disney Inspired Fashion Design Sketches
• The Dark Knight Scratches
• 10 Weird & Disgusting Milkshake Flavors
• Rocking Out With Your Droid Out
• They’re The Two Best Friends That Anyone Could Ever Have
• Shooting Gallery, 1936-2009
• NEED: An Automatic Pancake Maker
• Manicured Lawns
• MakerBot Mixtape
• Wonderland Sticky Notes
• Somari and Other Weird Video Game Hacks
• The Reversible Bonus: A Mean But Effective Way to Boost Teacher’s Performance?
• The Cambodian Lucky Log
• Cities: Then and Now as Seen Through Landsat Satellites
• Alien Invasion Movie Recipe
• The Supermarket “Man Aisle”
• The Van Gogh Cake
• Old Termites Blow Themselves Up to Save Colony
• The 21 Countries With One Olympic Medal
• Disney Says No To Santa
• Lighting the Olympic Cauldron
• The Olympic Banana
• The Jackson Family Feud
• JK Rowling’s Hogwarts Treehouse
• 13 Amazing Olympic Stories
• Mrs. Dear Leader
• Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #21
• A Glass of Red
• Plane Carrying Proposal Banner Crashes
• Have You Ever Wondered How Netflix Categorizes Their Films?
• Dispute Over Kittens Leads to Tomato Fight
• Short Film – The King & The Worst
• Anatomical Chart Paperweight
• Star Wars Villains As Cute Little Kids
• Oh My God! That Sweatshirt is Alive!

GIFs Based On Threadless T-Shirt Designs Posted: 28 Jul 2012 04:30 AM PDT Threadless t shirt designs are the perfect source material to make into animated GIFs- the designs are fun, colorful and admired by geeks and squares alike. Good thing Threadless is hosting a competition called ThreadGIF, where community members are urged to bring t shirt designs to life for fame and free shirts. Check out the rest of the lively designs at the links below, they’re GIF-tastic! Link  –via Laughing Squid

Disney Inspired Fashion Design Sketches Posted: 28 Jul 2012 03:30 AM PDT There have been a bunch of these Disney princess inspired fashion designs coming out lately, some fully realized most simply sketches, and I feel like each new set of designs is better than the last. This newest set of sketches are by DeviantARTist Sashii-Kami looks amazing, glamorous and, most importantly, wearable. Somebody needs to bring these designs to life, because they are going to look really cool as garments! You can see the rest of the designs in this series in a much larger format at the link below. Link   –via Geekologie

The Dark Knight Scratches Posted: 28 Jul 2012 02:37 AM PDT When Geeks Wed usually focuses on wedding topics, but every now and then, they have generally awesome geek fashions like these sweet Dark Knight nails. There are even more cool Batman nail designs over at the link. Link

10 Weird & Disgusting Milkshake Flavors Posted: 28 Jul 2012 01:32 AM PDT While a few of the flavors on this list actually sound alright although they are still certainly unique (avocado shakes are surprisingly heavenly) all I can think of when I see these buffalo wing shakes is “DO NOT WANT.” Link

Rocking Out With Your Droid Out Posted: 28 Jul 2012 12:19 AM PDT Any Star Wars fan who also happens to love music should be drooling over this amazing R2D2 guitar (aka GuitaR2D2) by Doug of Doug Draws Things. While I’m not a musician, I’d still love to see someone rocking out on this thing. Link Via Geekologie

They’re The Two Best Friends That Anyone Could Ever Have Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:14 PM PDT (Video Link) With a name like “Thomas O’Malley Flufferpants,” you’d darn well expect this kitten to be a cuddly guy, but it’s still pretty darn precious to see him annoy the heck out of the very patient Merkin the dog. Via I Can Has Cheezburger

Shooting Gallery, 1936-2009 Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:00 PM PDT When she was 16 years old, Ria van Dijk of Tillburg, the Netherlands, visited a shooting gallery at a fair in which she won a pictures of herself by  hitting the target, which tripped the camera. That was in 1936. Van Dijk returned year after year, and you can see that long series of photos at Retronaut. Here, she is shown in 1936 and 1997. Link -Thanks, Veronica Mittnacht!

NEED: An Automatic Pancake Maker Posted: 27 Jul 2012 10:13 PM PDT It might not seem like the most efficient use of money, but you have no idea how badly we need one of these in the Neatorama office. Alex and Zeon are always harassing John and  me to make them pancakes at least once a day. It’s amazing we are ever able to find time to actually write. Of course, there’s no relief in sight for Miss C and Tiffany, who are our go-to bacon and scrambled egg chefs. Link

Manicured Lawns Posted: 27 Jul 2012 10:00 PM PDT Alice Bartlett got her fingernails done in a suburban lawn theme. See more pictures at Laughing Squid. Link (Image credit: Flickr user Alice Bartlett)

MakerBot Mixtape Posted: 27 Jul 2012 09:00 PM PDT This one is pretty nifty: MakerBot is bringing back the magic of mixtapes (remember those? You know, from back when music comes in physical media?). The fun twist is that the MakerBot Mixtape is 3D printed! If you've got one of their Replicators, you can make 'em yourself. Ours just got delivered to the NeatoHQ, and we're gonna be playing jazz polka all day and all night ... Link - Thanks Andrew!

Wonderland Sticky Notes Posted: 27 Jul 2012 08:36 PM PDT Wonderland Sticky Notes – $6.45 Being late or missing an important date can be truly maddening.  Jot down notes to remind yourself of all sorts of things with the Wonderland Sticky Notes from the NeatoShop. This is the perfect note set for people who are often not all there. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more curiouser and curiouser Office & Desk items. Link

Somari and Other Weird Video Game Hacks Posted: 27 Jul 2012 08:00 PM PDT Love Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros.? Wish that there's a game that lets you play them both at the same time? Well, actually there is. Here's Somari, starring the world's fastest Italian plumber, which was released as a bootleg Famicom cartridge back in 1994. Check out the video clip of the game play, along with 6 other crazy ROM hacks in this article by Kieran Brown over at FDC: Link (Don't miss the Teenage Mammal Nice Chipmunks II) - Thanks Jack!

The Reversible Bonus: A Mean But Effective Way to Boost Teacher’s Performance? Posted: 27 Jul 2012 07:00 PM PDT Can we boost a teacher's academic performance by giving him or her more money? Efforts to reward teacher's performance with year-end bonuses have largely failed, but a new study by economists revealed that you can indeed motivate teachers to perform better: you just have to give them money up front, and threaten to take it away if they fail. Thanks to education reformers such as former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, many of us are now familiar with the idea of merit pay -- the notion that teachers' earnings should be tied to their students' success. Unions have pushed back hard against the idea. In terms of public policy, it often translates into handing out year-end bonuses to instructors who get the best results, with the hope that the promise of a larger paycheck will motivate them to work harder when they're up in front of the chalkboard. But Levitt, Fryer and Co. argue that there's a serious problem with merit pay. So far, they say, there's been scant evidence that it actually works. Studies of teacher incentive programs in Tennessee and New York City failed to find any signs that they improved student learning. In the New York experiment, which Harvard's Fryer conducted, the impact may have even been detrimental. Enter loss aversion. The authors theorized that instead of offering a lump-sum bonus to teachers come summertime, it might be more effective to give instructors money upfront, then warn them that they would have to pay it back if their students didn't hit the proper benchmarks. Rather than tap into teachers' ambition, they'd tap into their anxiety. Jordan Weissmann of The Atlantic explains: Link

The Cambodian Lucky Log Posted: 27 Jul 2012 06:00 PM PDT Thousands of Cambodians flocked to a 42-foot long log excavated from a pond because they believe it's magical: "They believe the log has magical powers," he said, adding that visitors were coming loaded with offerings such as pig heads and boiled whole chickens after some locals who touched the wood won money in the lottery. [Village chief Hun Nov] said some believers rubbed talcum powder onto the wood, hoping to see lucky lottery numbers, and others drank water from the pond and smeared nearby mud onto their bodies in a bid to cure their ailments. Link

Cities: Then and Now as Seen Through Landsat Satellites Posted: 27 Jul 2012 05:00 PM PDT In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Landsat satellite system, which has been taking photos of Earth from space since 1972, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey created an interactive website where you can see the growth of cities around the world over the past four decades. This one above is the Pearl River Delta in China: In 1979, China established two special economic zones around the Pearl River Delta, north of Hong Kong. This image, taken by Landsat 3 on October 19, 1979, shows that the region was rural when the zone was established. Plant-covered land, which is red in this false-color image, dominates the scene. Square grids are agriculture. By January 10, 2003, when Landsat 7 took this image, the Pearl River Delta was a densely populated urban corridor with several large cities. The urban areas are gray in this image. The region is a major manufacturing center with an economy the size of Taiwan's. As of 2010, the Pearl River Economic Zone had a population of 36 million people. Link - via The Atlantic Cities

Alien Invasion Movie Recipe Posted: 27 Jul 2012 04:00 PM PDT The New York International Latino Film Festival noticed that some movies follow cliched "recipes" and decided to exploit them in their ads. I particularly like this one, which is used for practically all alien invasion movies ever made: Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] Like that? Design You Trust has more movie recipes print ads.

The Supermarket “Man Aisle” Posted: 27 Jul 2012 03:00 PM PDT Men, do you hate grocery shopping? The Westside Market in New York City feels your pain, so it created something just for you: a "man aisle" where you can find all dude-related items in one place. “It’s your essentials,” explained Ian Joskowitz, 43, chief operating officer of Westside Market NYC. “It’s your water, alcohol, soaps, shampoos, deodorants, razors. “If you’re going to have some guys over to watch a game, you can pretty much stand here — not move two feet — and get your beer, barbecue sauce, chips, whatever. It’s all right here!” Pedro Oliveira, Jr. of the New York Post has the story: Link (Photo: Warzer Jaff)

The Van Gogh Cake Posted: 27 Jul 2012 02:00 PM PDT After her boyfriend wrote that he liked Van Gogh, redditor aniram078 made him this fantastic birthday cake modeled after the artist's Wheat Field with Cypresses: Link - via The Daily What

Old Termites Blow Themselves Up to Save Colony Posted: 27 Jul 2012 01:30 PM PDT Image: R. Hanus Beware the exploding termite. Scientists studying the Neocapritermes taracua discovered that some actually carry explosives and will blow themselves up to help save their colony: When trekking through a forest in French Guiana to study termites, a group of biologists noticed unique spots of blue on the backs of the insects in one nest. Curious, one scientist reached down to pick up one of these termites with a pair of forceps. It exploded. The blue spots, the team discovered, contain explosive crystals, and they're found only on the backs of the oldest termites in the colony. The aged termites carry out suicide missions on behalf of their nest mates. [...] Back in their labs, scientists led by biochemist Robert Hanus of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague went on to show that the blue termites always had shorter, worn-down mandibles than others from the same species, indicating that they were older. Link

The 21 Countries With One Olympic Medal Posted: 27 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT In some countries, if you win a bronze medal at the Olympics, you become a national hero -forever! Despite making appearances at 12 Olympic Games since 1936, Afghanistan has secured just one medal — a bronze in Taekwondo at the 2008 Games. Rohullah Nikpai, who won the medal, was given a house by president Hamid Karzai and told reporters that he hoped the medal would "send a message of peace to my country after 30 years of war." There are 21 countries that have one only one Olympic medal -but that list may change soon. Read up on all of them at mental_floss. Link (Image credit: OMAR SOBHANI/Reuters/Landov)

Disney Says No To Santa Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:30 PM PDT People usually get excited when Santa comes to visit, but not Disney "Bah Humbug" World! When Thomas Tolbert, who looks just like Santa, came to visit the theme park, Disney officials asked him to look less Santa-ish: "He said you can't be portraying Santa," said Tolbert, adding that Disney asked him to change into less "Santa-ish" clothing. Tolbert said changing clothes did not help. "I never had a red suit on. I never had a hat. I didn't have fur boots on, but that doesn't make Santa. The face and the persona is what makes Santa," Tolbert said. "They're looking at my face and they're looking at my features." Tolbert said Disney told him to continue to turn children away -- no matter how curious they were. "Disney had informed me that I must inform anybody who came up to me that 'I am not who you think I am, I am on vacation and please leave me alone,'" Tolbert said. Mickey's getting a lump of coal for Christmas this year! Link

Lighting the Olympic Cauldron Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) The opening ceremonies of the London Olympics are probably going on already, but we in the U.S. will have to wait until prime time to see them on TV. To hold you over until then, here’s a compilation of the lighting of the Olympic cauldron from previous Olympic opening ceremonies, from 1968 to 2010. Some are just lighting a cauldron, but if you recall, there were some awesome stunts, like the time they shot an arrow to light the cauldron, the time the Olympic Flame entered the stadium by ski-jump, and the one where the cauldron was lit by an athlete standing right there inside it. Don’t remember? Then you can see it here.

The Olympic Banana Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:30 AM PDT Omar has his moment in the spotlight. Incase you missed it, at about 6 o'clock last Friday, the streets outside our office in Guildford started filling up with crowds of people, as excitement grew for the arrival of the Olympic Torch. A few of us gathered around the windows because we had a prime view over the route, directly on the road below. At some point, Omar made his exit from the building, and just moments before the actual Olympic torch was due to come down the road with the procession to ignite the crowds – He burst from the crowd to run down the road holding his the "Olympic Banana". As you can see, the crowd enjoyed it. There’s also a video, featuring the shrieks of laughter from Omar’s co-workers -and more photos. Link -via The Daily What

The Jackson Family Feud Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT Katherine Jackson’s nine children have lived their whole lives in the public eye. Michael Jackson tried to shield his three children, Prince, Paris, and Blanket, from publicity, but two of them are teenagers now and have discovered the power of social media. In the past week, Katherine Jackson was gone for several days under mysterious circumstances, half her children were trying to get Michael’s will changed, and a judge transferred guardianship of Michael’s children from Katherine to Tito’s son, T.J. If this is all confusing to you, don’t expect the chart shown to be of any help. Buzzfeed has an illustrated timeline that should clear the story up for you …somewhat. Link

JK Rowling’s Hogwarts Treehouse Posted: 27 Jul 2012 10:34 AM PDT Harry Potter author JK Rowling is creating something magical for her children: an adventure treehouse that looks like Hogwarts: The Hogwarts-style towers - estimated to cost around £150,000 - are so big that they need planning permission. Each wooden tree house is to be built on stilts and boasts balconies, carvings and turrets that wouldn’t look out of place in a Potter adventure. The towers are linked by a rope bridge and can be approached by a secret tunnel hidden underneath a raised wooden walkway. Read more over at the Daily Mail: Link

13 Amazing Olympic Stories Posted: 27 Jul 2012 10:03 AM PDT If you aren’t already pumped up about the Olympics and need to be reminded of some of the amazing things that happen at the games, then you’ll definitely appreciate this collection of touching stories. My personal favorite: At the 1936 Berlin Games, Japanese pole vaulters Shuhei Nishida and Sueo Oe tied for second place. The teammates were offered the opportunity to have a jump-off for the silver medal, but the two friends declined out of mutual respect for one another. For the purposes of Olympic records, Oe agreed to the bronze while Nishida took the silver. Upon their return to Japan, the teammates came up with a different solution. The pair had a jeweler cut their medals in half and fuse them back together, creating half-silver, half-bronze pendants. The "Medals of Friendship," as they're now known in Japan, are enduring symbols of friendship and teamwork. It’s hard not to get excited about the games after reading these fantastic tales. Link

Mrs. Dear Leader Posted: 27 Jul 2012 09:31 AM PDT The “mystery woman” seen with Kim Jong-un recently was the source of international speculation, which all turned out to be wrong. The North Korean leader married “Comrade Ri Sol Ju” a few years ago, even before his father died. Ri Sol Ju is said to be a 27-year old graduate student at Kim Il-sung University, pursuing a Ph. D in science, and her family is from the political elite. Her mother reportedly heads a gynecology unit at a local hospital and her father is a university professor. Ri Sol Ju reportedly married Kim Jong-un in 2009 or 2010, and gave birth to a child the following year. Typical of the Kabuki theater that is North Korea—where everything is carefully scripted by state propagandists in the world's most closed and secretive state—still virtually nothing is known about the new leader of the nuclear state that boasts the fourth largest army in the world. And the same was true of the woman who has been accompanying him to recent events—until the new revelation. The secrecy is not all that shocking. Kim Jong-un’s father, the late Kim Jong-il had at least four wives, none of whom ever appeared in public. Link (Image credit: REUTERS/KCNA)

Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #21 Posted: 27 Jul 2012 09:16 AM PDT Woohoo! I'm excited to announce our latest Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt, in collaboration with the good folks of Tokyoflash and our pal Geeks Are Sexy blog. For those of you who haven't played before, the Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt is a quick online scavenger game, with very great prizes. You can win a Tokyoflash watch of your choice, as well as neat stuff from the NeatoShop. Here's how to play: We'll give you a set of clues, for example: 1. What's the name of Neatorama's baby blog? 2. What is 2+1? 3. What is the name of the top grill listed in our post Top 10 Coolest BBQ Grills? Put the answers together to form this link: http://www.neatorama.com/neatobambino-3-lynx Go ahead and copy and paste that to your browser to get to the answer page. Easy, right? Let's get started. Here are the clues for today's Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #21: 1. Visit Tokyoflash and check out the watch you see above. Fill in the blank: "A futuristic watch design with continuous _____ lines ..." 2. Visit Geeks Are Sexy and find the post about happy people. You may have to go back a few pages, but don't worry - you'll find it. Fill in the blank: "The '_____ index' recently released indicates what features in British people's lives ..." 3. Check out the NeatoShop's Cute Shop and find the car sticker that's perfect for your cryptid loving family. The name of the product is "My Cryptozoological _____" Visit Tokyoflash, Geeks Are Sexy, and the NeatoShop to find the clues. Then string them together to form the URL: http://www.neatorama.com/answer1-answer2-answer3 (all one-word lower case, separated by dash). Hurry! The Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt will be open for a limited time only. Good luck!

A Glass of Red Posted: 27 Jul 2012 09:00 AM PDT (YouTube link) How many times have you seen a wordless comedy routine about a hula hoop? Annabel Carberry of the Lost In Translation Circus pulls it off spectacularly. It’s not perfect, but it sure is entertaining! -via Metafilter

Plane Carrying Proposal Banner Crashes Posted: 27 Jul 2012 08:30 AM PDT Mike Flynn hired a plane to carry a banner saying "Will you marry me?" over the beach in Rhode Island where his girlfriend Michelle would see it. Ten minutes into the flight, pilot Mark Simmons noticed his engine was failing. The plane crashed, but Simmons was unhurt. Meanwhile, Flynn was waiting at the beach, not knowing what happened to his proposal. Simmons made a distress call to his 8-year-old son Ethan, who according to ABC News "heard his dad's Mayday call over the airport's radio transmission and initiated the rescue effort by alerting airport personnel and giving them information on his dad's whereabouts." Just a day after his plane crashed, Simmons took to the skies again, determined to do it right. This time, Michelle saw it, and said yes. Link (Image credit: Glass Giant)

Have You Ever Wondered How Netflix Categorizes Their Films? Posted: 27 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT I always thought that Netflix’s movies were categorized by the movie studios when they submit them, but as it turns out, there is an actual job where people get paid to watch movies and classify them. You can read more about the job over at the link, but personally, all I want to know is how I get a job as a movie tagger. Link Via The Consumerist

Dispute Over Kittens Leads to Tomato Fight Posted: 27 Jul 2012 07:30 AM PDT Walter and Norma Ricker of Chuckey, Tennessee, share a backyard garden with their neighbor, 28-year-old Rachel Price. But that cooperation came to an end when the Rickers started feeding some stray kittens, and the Prices wanted the cats gone. The disagreement escalated into a physical fight last Friday when Norma Ricker and Rachel Price began throwing green tomatoes at each other. "She reached down, got a big one and slapped me upside the jaw with it," said Ricker. According to the offense report, Ricker said Price hit her on the arm with a tobacco stick causing minor injuries. "She got a tomato vine, yanked it up and starting swinging it around, over her head as hard as she could," Ricker explained. "She had her face puckered up. I've never seen someone look so mad. I told her she looked like the devil." The neighbors put a fence up between their backyard to divide the garden. Link -via Arbroath

Short Film – The King & The Worst Posted: 27 Jul 2012 07:00 AM PDT (YouTube Link) The King & The Worst is a short film set during World War II, and centers around Jack Kirby and Ed Wood battling an even sorcerer. King & Worst is a strange little film, but I had fun watching it and I hope they’re setting up for a sequel! It’s subtitled in English, so I apologize in advance if you don’t enjoy light reading with your movie. (NSFW due to language) –via Comics Alliance

Anatomical Chart Paperweight Posted: 27 Jul 2012 06:55 AM PDT Anatomical Chart Paperweight – $16.95 (sold individually) Are you dead tired of the mess that is your desk? Make a precise and calculated move to take control of the situation with an Anatomical Chart Paperweight from the NeatoShop. These fantastic smooth glass paperweights feature retro anatomy drawings. They are perfect for subdividing and cutting clutter. The Anatomical Chart Paperweight comes in: Brain Heart Skeleton Skull – Front Skull – Side Upper Body Anatomical Chart Plates also available. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Office Supplies. Link

Star Wars Villains As Cute Little Kids Posted: 27 Jul 2012 06:30 AM PDT Even the galaxy’s most notorious villains started out as cute little kids, according to this series of adorable illustrations by Octopus Tree House which depict Star Wars villains in their most innocent form. It’s enough to warm your heart and make you want to holster your blaster pistol. Link  –via DesignTAXI (previously on Neatorama- LINK)

Oh My God! That Sweatshirt is Alive! Posted: 27 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT (Video Link) No, wait, it’s ok, it’s just a silly little puppy who wandered into the dirty clothes pile. Via Geekosystem

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