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2012/08/03

Neatorama

Neatorama

Photographing The Yakuza Crime Family

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 04:30 AM PDT

Photographing the Yakuza crime family sounds like a dangerous task, but Anton Kusters seems to have no problem mingling with mobsters and getting some amazing shots.

He spent two years capturing images from within the Yakuza subculture, after ten months of negotiation which granted Anton access very few Westerners have ever received.

I’m surprised Anton made it out in one piece, but the images he came back with were worth the ordeal!

Link  –via Beautiful/Decay

 

Protect Your Identity And Look Creepy At The Same Time

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 03:30 AM PDT

This pixelated hood upgrades the creepy factor inherent in most ski masks, and makes anyone who wears one look like some sort of Minecraft killer.

It’s called The Pixelhead, and was created by Martin Backes to serve as “media camouflage, completely shielding the head to ensure that your face is not recognizable on photographs taken in public places without securing permission.”

It’ll set you back almost $200, but isn’t your anonymity worth a couple hundred bucks?

Link  –via Gizmodo

That’s Not A Baby…

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 02:49 AM PDT

(Video Link)

There is no description on this video, so I can’t tell you why Digger happens to be in a dipper, maybe you guys have some theories.

Via I Can Has Cheezburger

If The Doctors Were Time Ladies

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 01:39 AM PDT

Gladys of Rocket Surgery was inspired by all the talk of whether or not the next doctor should be female, so she imagined what all of the past Doctors would look like if they were female. The other six can be found at the link. Personally, I think Matt Smith looks just fine as a female, but Mr. Tennant certainly looks better as a Mr.

Link Via io9

If Adventure Time Was Actually A Retro Comic Book

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 12:17 AM PDT

Chilean illustrator Adolfo Torino Nuñez is quite the geek mash up artist. Aside from setting Adventure Time and Futurama in the Golden Age of Comics, he also has superhero mash ups like Hulkboy and The Fantastic Punishman. Don’t miss his DeviantArt gallery or you’ll be missing out.

Link Via io9

A K’Nex Skeeball Machine

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 11:10 PM PDT

Having a skeeball in your house is equal parts geeky and awesome, but when you make your own skeeball machine out of K’Nex, you’ve just doubled both your coolness and awesomeness.

Link Via Geekosystem

Print Postcards That Smell Like Your Favorite Foods

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 11:00 PM PDT

This odd yet clever little device prints out postcards imbued with the scent of your favorite foods.

Created by Zhu Jingxuan, a student at Donghua University’s Fashion & Art Design Institute, this device is tentatively called the Food Printer, and it’s a great way to show the dieters in your life what they’re missing!

Link  –via DesignTAXI

Hang Two, I Guess…

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 10:10 PM PDT

You’ve seen dog surfing before, but goat surfing takes this animal trend to a whole new level. Do goats swim? Because if not, this seems like a pretty dangerous situation.

Link Via Cute Overload

The Cat Tunnel Couch

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Well, we know who rules the roost in this house! The Cat Tunnel Couch by Korean designer Seungji Mun is perfect for people who want to design their living rooms around their pets. It looks like a toddler or two may fit in there as well. See pictures of the building of the couch at Mun’s site. Link -via The Daily What

Batman Meets Two-Face

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 09:00 PM PDT


(College Humor link)

Batman has a little trouble figuring out exactly what’s going on. Harvey Dent keeps disappearing and reappearing! So does the villain Two-Face!

Paint the Town with Cats!

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 08:00 PM PDT

The tiny town of Miami, Arizona, has street art on all is downtown buildings featuring cats. See lots of pictures of them at Buzzfeed. Link

(Image credit: @genericsoda)

Natural Curiosities Jar

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 07:08 PM PDT

Natural Curiosities Jar – $29.95 (sold individually)

Are you looking for the perfect place to store your most prized possessions? Don’t place your favorite Gummy Brains in any old container. Hide them away in a Natural Curiosities Jar from the NeatoShop. These ghoulishly fabulous vessels come in six unique animal designs:

  • Crow
  • Moth
  • Owl
  • Snake
  • Spider
  • Stag Beetle

Love this style? More Natural Curiosities items available.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more curious Storage & Organization items!

Link

Deep Sea Squid Detaches Tentacles to Attack

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 07:00 PM PDT

You've probably heard that lizards can lose their tail to escape from predators. Turns out, losing one's appendage is also a tactic employed by the deep sea squid Octopoteuthis deletron. Except that it's not just for a defensive measure:

The obvious interpretation is that the squid jettisons its body parts to confuse and distract a predator. But it can also use this ability offensively. When [scientists Stephanie Bush] threatened the animals with a bottle brush, several of them attacked it. Five of them broke off their arms while they were grabbing the brush. The arms flashed away while continuing to hold their grip, while the squids jetted off. It’s called “attack autotomy”. I imagine it would be quite off-putting if you were a fish or a bottle brush.

Read more and watch the video clip over at Ed Yong's Not Exactly Rocket Science blog: Link 

Immigrants: What Surprised You About America?

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 06:00 PM PDT

The (fantastic, btw) radio show This American Life recently featured a story about America looks to immigrants who recently moved to the United States. In that story, Mary Wiltenburg asked refugees about the image of America they had in mind and the rumor they heard before setting foot in the country, and how that image compared with reality.

In this follow up thread at Quora, immigrants and visitors are asked to relate facts about the United States they did not believe until they come to America.

The answers are fascinating, as Max Fisher of The Atlantic summarizes:

How do they get everyone to obey traffic laws?: Quoting cab drivers is sometimes considered the epitome of lazy journalism, but there is one trend I've found in talking to foreign-born cabbies working in the U.S. and to foreign-based taxi drivers who've visited the U.S.: amazement at how devoutly American drivers follow the rules of the road. Compared to the U.S., driving in many developing world cities can feel like organized chaos, with motorists ignoring not just stoplights and speed signs but lane markers and even the direction of traffic. If you go to Cairo and rent a car (side note: don't rent a car in Cairo), you're obligated to follow the standard every-man-for-himself style if you want to get anywhere; drive like you're back in the U.S. and you'll never leave the parking lot. The miracle of American roads, as outsiders have described it to me, is that it only really works if everyone follows the written rules and unwritten norms alike, and they do.

Nothing like what I saw on Friends: The U.S. is about as famous as a country can get. People around the world experience it through the American films and TV shows that dominate global entertainment. But those media portrayals can sometimes add more confusion than they dispel. A Chinese friend once insisted that of course 20-something Americans all get news boyfriends and girlfriends every single week: she'd seen it on Friends, and Seinfeld, and Sex and the City, and a half dozen other TV shows. They couldn't all be lying.

Read more over at The Atlantic: Link

What say you, Neatoramanauts? What strange facts about America surprised you?

Mother’s Curse: Why Females Live Longer Than Males

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT

Why do females usually live longer than males? Science may have the answer, dubbed the "Mother's Curse" hypothesis:

The loophole lies in the mitochondria, the energy-generating parts of our cells. The mitochondria have their own DNA, separate from the DNA that resides in the nucleus of the cell that we usually think of when we think of the genome. In almost all species, the mitochondria DNA is passed down solely from mother to child, without input from dad.

This direct line of inheritance may allow harmful mutations to accumulate, according to a new study detailed today (Aug. 2) in the journal Current Biology. Ordinarily, natural selection helps keep harmful mutations to a minimum by ensuring they're not passed down to offspring. But if a mitochondrial DNA mutation is dangerous only to males and doesn't harm females, there's nothing to stop mom from passing it to her daughters and sons.

"If a mitochondrial mutation pops up that is benign in females, or a mutation pops up that is beneficial to females, this mutation will slip through the gates of natural selection and go through to the next generation," said study researcher Damian Dowling, an evolutionary biologist at Monash Univeristy in Australia.

The result: a load of mutations that don't harm females, but add up to a shorter life span for males.

Link (Image: Shutterstock)

Cliodynamics: The Science of History?

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 04:00 PM PDT

If history repeats itself, you can blame cliodynamics. The so-called "science of history" is created by Peter Turchin, who specializes in population dynamics at the University of Connecticut in Storrs:

For the past 15 years, Turchin has been taking the mathematical techniques that once allowed him to track predator–prey cycles in forest ecosystems, and applying them to human history. He has analysed historical records on economic activity, demographic trends and outbursts of violence in the United States, and has come to the conclusion that a new wave of internal strife is already on its way1. The peak should occur in about 2020, he says, and will probably be at least as high as the one in around 1970. “I hope it won't be as bad as 1870,” he adds.

Turchin's approach — which he calls cliodynamics after Clio, the ancient Greek muse of history — is part of a groundswell of efforts to apply scientific methods to history by identifying and modelling the broad social forces that Turchin and his colleagues say shape all human societies. It is an attempt to show that “history is not 'just one damn thing after another'”, says Turchin, paraphrasing a saying often attributed to the late British historian Arnold Toynbee.

Historians, on the other hand, are not amused: Link

New Olympic Game of … Synchronized Tweeting

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:00 PM PDT

USA! USA! USA! Here's a new Olympic sports that Americans will surely dominate for years to come. From the fertile mind of Dan Piraro of Bizarro Comics, here's Synchronized Tweeting: Link - via Laughing Squid

Olympics Wi-Fi Police

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 02:00 PM PDT

@SadaoTurner posted this image of Olympics wi-fi police, who seek unauthorized wi-fi signals and shut them down. Why go through all that trouble? Because Olympic partner BT runs some 1,500 paid hotspots at the event. Via The Verge

The Curiosity Rover Landing

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 01:58 PM PDT

Remember Miss C’s post about the Curiosity Rover’s 7 Minutes of Terror? Well, it’s less than a week away now. Hank Green, over on The SciShow, just published this amazing, amazing, AMAZING narrated, animated look at the rover landing coming on the 5th. He’ll also be living tweeting it! So check out the vid, get excited, and follow the tweets over @SciShow. It’s the most exciting thing that’s happened up on the Red Planet since they discovered life! (Wait, they did discover life on Mars, right?)

How Hot Is It?

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT

It’s so hot, the streetlights are melting in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The forecast for the city today calls for a high of 114 degrees. Link

(Image credit: KFOR-TV)

Wait For Me!

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT


(YouTube link)

Just some elephant footage taken at Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. -via Arbroath

Naughty Korea and Nice Korea

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT

Australian newspaper The Mx printed a chart of Olympic medal standings by country. The countries of North Korea and South Korea were called “Naughty Korea” and “Nice Korea.” If you don’t know which is which, then you’ll need to find another source for medal standings. Link

Cupcake Thrones

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 10:55 AM PDT

Cupcake Thrones – $9.95

Are you looking for a deliciously fun way to display your favorite baked goods? Give your cupcakes the royal treatment with the Cupcake Thrones from the NeatoShop.  This fantastic set includes 4 cupcake stands shaped like British thrones.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more regal Kitchen Stuff.

Link

Breakfast Mascot Alphabet by Mike Boon

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 10:13 AM PDT

Every sugary sweet cold cereal comes with a character that kids will recognize when the TV ads show them. Artist Mike Boon created an alphabet out of cereal mascots that you’ll no doubt recognize. Which is your favorite? The set is available as a print or poster. Link  -via Laughing Squid

Previously: Mike Boon’s Dr. Seuss Alphabet

The Awkward Faces of Olympic Divers and Figure Skaters

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 09:36 AM PDT

Who makes the weirdest faces during their performance of a lifetime: Olympic divers or Olympic figure skaters? See the strangest of such photos together at Unreality and you decide! Link

Atomic Overlook

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 08:30 AM PDT

Clay Lipsky’s comic yet unsettling photo series Atomic Overlook places nuclear bomb testing in the present, in a world where tourists flock to witness the mushroom clouds.

Imagine if the advent of the atomic era occurred during today's information age. Tourists would gather to view bomb tests, at the “safe” distances used in the 1950s, and share the resulting cell phone photos online. Broadcast media would regurgitate such visual fodder ad nauseam, bringing new levels of desensitization. The threat of atomic weapons is as great as ever, bit it is a hidden specter.

See the series at Lipsky’s website. Link -via Flavorwire

Your Olympic Athlete Body Match

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Olympic athletes come in all shapes and sizes, from tall basketball players and hefty weightlifters to tiny gymnasts. The BBC has a widget that can match your height and weight to the nearest London 2012 athlete. Just enter your stats and find out who matches you. Since I don’t know my weight, the results pictured here are for Gerard Vlemmings of the Presurfer. Link -via the Presurfer

20 Incredible Coconut Crab Photos

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 07:30 AM PDT

The coconut crab is the world’s largest land arthropod. If you don’t believe me, see this pictorial evidence that may haunt your dreams or delight your eyes at Environmental Graffiti. Link

(Image credit: Angelo O’Connor Villagomez)

London Mayor Left Hanging From Zipline

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 07:00 AM PDT


(YouTube link)

London mayor Boris Johnson is enjoying his time in the spotlight and the opportunity to promote his city. However, there’s always the risk of something going wrong. One of those promotional opportunities was at Victoria Park, where Johnson took a ride on the zipline while carrying two British flags. But the wire sagged about 65 feet from the end of the line, and the mayor was left dangling in the wind. It was only a few minutes before help arrived, but the press was there to record the event. Johnson used the time to wave the flags and cheer on the British Olympic team. Link -via Arbroath

What Is It? game 236

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 06:30 AM PDT

Once again, it’s time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you tell us what this thing is? Or make a wild guess?

Give us your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you’d like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don’t include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For more pictures of this from different angles, check out the What Is It? Blog.

U.S. Olympic Team Tribute To Muhammad Ali

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 06:00 AM PDT


(YouTube link)

This video tribute to 1960 gold medalist Muhammad Ali was played at Team USA’s 2012 Benefit Gala held the night before the Olympics opened. Although there is some audio manipulation, it highlights how downright lyrical his boasts always were. Produced by Steve Porter. -via The Daily What

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