Neatorama

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• Surreal Sculptures By Alex Chinneck
• That Is One Happy Little Goose
• Space Age Hair Fashions Of Yore
• How Images Were Manipulated Before Photoshop
• Basically a Death Star
• 10 Unusual Spas for Alternative Tranquility
• Meet Savanna
• Australian Couple Charged under Environmental Protection Act for ... Noisy Sex
• Drawn To Facts - No. 001
• <i>Game of Thrones</i> Theme Sung by a Dog
• Spider-Man at 50
• How to Properly Extract a Single Tic Tac
• Tokyo Rail System as Designed by Slime Mold
• Sleeping Beauty: Art Performance with a Legal Catch
• Bunny Krueger Will Give You Adorable Nightmares
• The Best Book Review Money Can Buy
• Microsonic Landscapes
• Air Guitar World Championships
• Could Identical Twins Get Away With Murder?
• Let's Meat the Presidential Candidates!
• "Anternet": What Ants and the Internet Have In Common
• <i>Star Wars</i> LEGO Clock
• A Journey Around the World in Dominoes
• Empty
• A History of the Exclamation Point!
• The Modern Wardrobes of Your Favorite Disney Princesses
• Deep-sea Squid has Spiked Tentacles
• Look Super Sexy In These Superhero Bras and Panties

Surreal Sculptures By Alex Chinneck Posted: 27 Aug 2012 04:00 AM PDT Brick chimneys are not typically thought of as flexible structures, and slicing through them isn't anything like slicing through a piece of paper. Well, sculptor Alex Chinneck must have missed the memo on what you can and can't do with bricks, and his whimsical sculptures blur the boundary between art and home renovation. It's like shopping at a home improvement store designed by a madman! Link  --via Booooooom!

That Is One Happy Little Goose Posted: 27 Aug 2012 03:00 AM PDT (Video Link) That's the same thing I do when I get a tiny bite of my favorite food. Everybody do the happy dance!!! Via Cute Overload

Space Age Hair Fashions Of Yore Posted: 27 Aug 2012 02:00 AM PDT (YouTube Link) Enter the futuristic world promised to us by such hit shows as The Jetsons and Lost In Space, without having to board a space ship or battle pesky aliens. All it takes is a snazzy new space age hairdo and an attitude, at least according to this kooky video from the 1960s that shows how modern women should wear their hair. Talk about your space age hairdos!  --via BoingBoing

How Images Were Manipulated Before Photoshop Posted: 27 Aug 2012 01:00 AM PDT The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting an exhibition made up of 200 photos which were altered or manipulated in some way between 1840 and 1900, well before the advent of digital image manipulation via programs like Photoshop. They should have called the exhibition Ye Olde Way To Shoppe A Photo! Link

Basically a Death Star Posted: 26 Aug 2012 11:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) That's no moon, but it's no Death Star, either. When you invest in a Death Star, make sure it's the real McCoy. This ad parodies the Mac Genius ads in the flavor of Star Wars. -via The Daily What Geek

10 Unusual Spas for Alternative Tranquility Posted: 26 Aug 2012 10:00 PM PDT Flavorwire has compiled a collection of wonderful places to relax, unwind, and take in the scenery while you release the stress of your life. There are spas set up in boats, mountaintops, islands, jungles, and other neat spots all over the world -even under the ocean! Me, I'd want to try out this hot springs spa called The Blue Lagoon in the lava fields of Grindavik in Iceland. How about you? Link

Meet Savanna Posted: 26 Aug 2012 09:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) Savanna is a hand-raised seven-week-old cheetah cub with an awesome punk hairdo at the Cincinnati Zoo. The zoo is documenting her life from all angles as she grows up to be one of the fastest animals on earth. See more of Savanna at Buzzfeed. Link

Australian Couple Charged under Environmental Protection Act for ... Noisy Sex Posted: 26 Aug 2012 08:00 PM PDT With the complaint that listed "screaming, loud moaning, swearing and raised voices," Colin MacKenzie and Jessica Angel became the first couple charged with offenses under Australia's Environmental Protection Act for ... noisy sex: Police patrols have been to the couple's unit 20 times since April. The latest callouts - last Sunday night and twice early Tuesday morning - resulted in the couple being charged with disturbing the public peace and hindering an environmental protection officer. "We exceeded the noise pollution to the point we were arrested and taken out of our own house and told we couldn't have sex," a stunned Ms Angel said. Mr MacKenzie said: "It is completely over the top. I have been fined for having sex in my own house." [...] "It is mostly Jessie," he said. "Our average sex goes anywhere from four, six, seven hours, basically five nights a week. Adelaide Now has the story, complete with photo of the amorous couple: Link - via Fark

Drawn To Facts - No. 001 Posted: 26 Aug 2012 07:25 PM PDT We're launching a brand new feature tonight! Drawn To Facts will be published every Sunday night, featuring some of the best up-and-coming illustrators from around the world. Tonight's illustrated fact comes courtesy of artist Margo Murphy. Let us know what you think in the comments below! Fact:More than 35 lives were lost between 1878 and 1890 during the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud, which stemmed from a dispute over the ownership of a pig.

<i>Game of Thrones</i> Theme Sung by a Dog Posted: 26 Aug 2012 07:00 PM PDT (Video Link) Will you take all of the risks that come with playing the Game of Bones? If so, then pay the kibble price. You may eventually lay upon the Iron Couch. -via Geekosystem

Spider-Man at 50 Posted: 26 Aug 2012 06:00 PM PDT The Amazing Spider-Man #692 is the 50th anniversary issue of the Spider-Man comic books. To honor the occasion, Spider-Man, whose alter ego Peter Parker is now a scientist in his 30's, gets a teenage sidekick. It' a big step that shows how far the character has grown from his roots as a shy teenager that readers could identify with. Peter was a nerdy loner who was nervous around girls and hid his insecurities not only with a real mask, but also by cracking jokes. For angst-ridden and self-centered boys who often feel as though the cosmos align just to make their lives suck, it was an easy sell. The campaign slogan for Spider-Man, “With great power comes great responsibility,” is heavy, but also what moms tell their kids about taking out the trash. Spider-Man has always been young. The core myth of a teen geek with superhuman abilities, learning to sacrifice for the greater good while wearing the best costume in comics, has endured. He’s been amazing, spectacular, astonishing, sensational, and whatever other superlative you tack on. But he’s never really been middle age. Now he is. Spidey might not have a unitard-stretching gut or arthritic knees, but he hit the half-century mark this month. And in Marvel Comics’ anniversary issue, he gets a sidekick. Can we still enjoy Peter’s coming-of-age struggles with responsibility when we know he’s been through it for decades? The webhead may finally have met his ultimate foe: age. Read an analysis of what reaching 50 years might mean for Spidey at The Daily Beast. Link

How to Properly Extract a Single Tic Tac Posted: 26 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT You know the problem: getting Tic Tacs out of their container is devilishly difficult. You either get no candy at all or an avalanche of dozens of Tic Tacs. But fret not. There is a way to get exactly one Tic Tac every time. Here's the secret: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via MSN Now

Tokyo Rail System as Designed by Slime Mold Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:00 PM PDT How do you design an efficient rail system? Of course you can hire a team of dedicated engineers ... or you can simply ask a slime mold: When presented with oat flakes arranged in the pattern of Japanese cities around Tokyo, brainless, single-celled slime molds construct networks of nutrient-channeling tubes that are strikingly similar to the layout of the Japanese rail system, researchers from Japan and England report Jan. 22 in Science. A new model based on the simple rules of the slime mold’s behavior may lead to the design of more efficient, adaptable networks, the team contends. Every day, the rail network around Tokyo has to meet the demands of mass transport, ferrying millions of people between distant points quickly and reliably, notes study coauthor Mark Fricker of the University of Oxford. “In contrast, the slime mold has no central brain or indeed any awareness of the overall problem it is trying to solve, but manages to produce a structure with similar properties to the real rail network.” Link

Sleeping Beauty: Art Performance with a Legal Catch Posted: 26 Aug 2012 03:00 PM PDT Ukrainian-Canadian artist Taras Polataiko reimagined the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty as performance art: a young maiden sleeps in the National Museum of Ukraine, until a kiss from a museum patron wakes her up. But there's a catch ... To participate in the exhibit, potential princes have to sign a contract that states, "If I kiss the Beauty and she opens her eyes, I agree to marry her." The female performers have also entered into an agreement that reads, "If I open my eyes while being kissed, I agree to marry the kisser." So unlike the chivalrous charmers of yore, these contemporary heroes are contractually bound to live happily ever after if their princess so chooses. The Huffington Post has more: Link - via Metafilter

Bunny Krueger Will Give You Adorable Nightmares Posted: 26 Aug 2012 02:00 PM PDT One two bunny's coming for you. Three, four better lock his door. Five, six grab some carrot sticks. Seven, Eight better stay up late. Nine, Ten never hop again. Michelle Coffee made this plush that will hopefully inspire the creation of a children's version of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Link -via Super Punch

The Best Book Review Money Can Buy Posted: 26 Aug 2012 01:30 PM PDT "Five Star!" the book review gushes, but deep down, you wonder whether it's real. Welcome to the world of fake book review service, where enthusiastic reviews are bought and sold like any other two-bit market commodity. The New York Times has the story of the rise and fall of one such service: [Todd Rutherford] was part of the marketing department of a company that provided services to self-published writers — services that included persuading traditional media and blogs to review the books. It was uphill work. He could churn out press releases all day long, trying to be noticed, but there is only so much space for the umpteenth vampire novel or yet another self-improvement manifesto or one more homespun recollection of times gone by. There were not enough reviewers to go around. Suddenly it hit him. Instead of trying to cajole others to review a client’s work, why not cut out the middleman and write the review himself? Then it would say exactly what the client wanted — that it was a terrific book. A shattering novel. A classic memoir. Will change your life. Lyrical and gripping, Stunning and compelling. Or words to that effect. In the fall of 2010, Mr. Rutherford started a Web site, GettingBookReviews.com. At first, he advertised that he would review a book for $99. But some clients wanted a chorus proclaiming their excellence. So, for $499, Mr. Rutherford would do 20 online reviews. A few people needed a whole orchestra. For $999, he would do 50. Link (Photo: Nick Oxford for The New York Times)

Microsonic Landscapes Posted: 26 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT We usually ask what a song sounds like, but Juan Manuel de J. Escalante of Realität asks what it looks like. In his project Microsonic Landscapes, he turns the soundwaves of albums into 3D sculptures. Here's Jewels by German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten: Take a look at more examples at Microsonic Landscapes: Link - via Flavorwire

Air Guitar World Championships Posted: 26 Aug 2012 12:30 PM PDT Now that we're done with the Olympic Games, we can finally focus on the important thing: the 2012 Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu, Finland. American (USA! USA!) Justin "Nordic Thunder" Howard won gold, edging out fellow countryman Matt "Airistotle" Burns who won silver. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] to admire his skillz.

Could Identical Twins Get Away With Murder? Posted: 26 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT What happens when a crime is committed and the suspect blames it on an identical twin? The fact that they look alike throws a monkey wrench into eyewitness accounts, and their DNA is identical, too. Often such cases -and there are plenty of real-life cases- end up with no one convicted. But that might change with new advanced chemical tests that delve even further into a twins genetic makeup. A new kind of genetic evidence may come to play a role in these cases. Epigenetics refers to chemical modifications to DNA that may change how genes are expressed. A study released earlier this year showed that the epigenetic profiles of identical twins differ at birth, presumably because of small differences in the twins’ uterine environments. While no prosecutor has yet used epigenetic evidence to distinguish a guilty twin from his innocent sibling, the findings should put would-be criminal twins on notice. Being an identical twin was never a "get out of jail free card," anyway. Don't do the crime, because science will eventually catch up with you. Link -via Smithsonian (Image credit: Flickr user Angela Vincent)

Let's Meat the Presidential Candidates! Posted: 26 Aug 2012 11:30 AM PDT Let's meat the candidates, Barack Obameat and Meat Romney! In his project, Meat the Meatheads, Jason Mecier portrayed the two candidates for the 2012 Presidential Election with various flavors of Jack Link's Beef Jerky. Brittany High of Incredible Things has the story and video clip: Link

"Anternet": What Ants and the Internet Have In Common Posted: 26 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT Quick: what do ants and the Internet have in common? A Stanford ant biologist and a computer scientist came up with the answer: On the surface, ants and the Internet don't seem to have much in common. But two Stanford researchers have discovered that a species of harvester ants determine how many foragers to send out of the nest in much the same way that Internet protocols discover how much bandwidth is available for the transfer of data. The researchers are calling it the "anternet." Deborah Gordon, a biology professor at Stanford, has been studying ants for more than 20 years. When she figured out how the harvester ant colonies she had been observing in Arizona decided when to send out more ants to get food, she called across campus to Balaji Prabhakar, a professor of computer science at Stanford and an expert on how files are transferred on a computer network. At first he didn't see any overlap between his and Gordon's work, but inspiration would soon strike. "The next day it occurred to me, 'Oh wait, this is almost the same as how [Internet] protocols discover how much bandwidth is available for transferring a file!'" Prabhakar said. "The algorithm the ants were using to discover how much food there is available is essentially the same as that used in the Transmission Control Protocol." Link - via Futurity

<i>Star Wars</i> LEGO Clock Posted: 26 Aug 2012 10:00 AM PDT That's no moon. It's a clock built by Instructables member YOUgNeek. He used a stencil to mark out the Death Star pattern. Then he pressed white LEGO pieces into the clay to provide backing for the interchangeable minfigs. So although it's currently a quarter till Boba Fett, he can swap the minifigs to reflect different time measurement systems. Link -via Geek Crafts

A Journey Around the World in Dominoes Posted: 26 Aug 2012 10:00 AM PDT (YouTube link) This domino event visits every corner of the world, recreating flags, landmarks, and icons of different nations. It looks like a pretty impressiv but standard topple you see at world-class domino events, until you get to about 90 seconds in, and see the huge wall of dominoes slowly falling. You have to think about the care and effort that went into it. It set a world record. The longest domino wall was 30 m (98 ft 5 in) long and consisted of 31,405 dominoes. It was erected and toppled by Sinners Domino Production (Germany) at the Wilhelm-Lückert-Gymnasium in Büdingen, Germany, on 6 July 2012.   The big pyramid set a world record, too. This installation contained 127,141 dominies. You will be mesmerized by the destruction. -via I Am Bored

Empty Posted: 26 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT They say an optimist looks at a glass and says it's half full, while a pessimist would say it's half empty. So how would you classify the person who labeled this? A super-pessimist! -via Arbroath

A History of the Exclamation Point! Posted: 26 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT Exclamation points are useful for communicating emphasis! But where did this punctuation mark come from?! The current running theory is that it comes from Latin. In Latin, the exclamation of joy was io, where the i was written above the o. And, since all their letters were written as capitals, an I with an o below it looks a lot like an exclamation point. But it wasn’t until 1970 that the exclamation point had its own key on the keyboard. Before that, you had to type a period, and then use the backspace to go back and stick an apostrophe above it. When people dictated things to secretaries they would say “bang” to mark the exclamation point. Hence the interobang (?!) – a combination of a question (?) and an exclamation point (!).  Link -via VA Viper | Image: Gregory Morris

The Modern Wardrobes of Your Favorite Disney Princesses Posted: 26 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT What would Disney princesses wear if they were cast in modern times? Sydney Emerson of Polyvore has some pretty good ideas and her selections are simply perfect -especially for Snow White. Link

Deep-sea Squid has Spiked Tentacles Posted: 26 Aug 2012 07:00 AM PDT The squid named Galiteuthis armata isn't particularly big, but it has a feature that gives it star billing in your nightmares. There are rows of sharp hooks on the ends of its tentacles. This is one squid you don't want to anger! See more pictures, including a close-up of those spikes, at Deep Sea News. Link -via Ed Yong (Image credit: Miriam Goldstein)

Look Super Sexy In These Superhero Bras and Panties Posted: 26 Aug 2012 06:00 AM PDT Who doesn't love sexy lingerie? Of course, if you're trying to impress a geek then it always helps if you incorporate some comic books into your unmentionables and Etsy seller Megan Elizabeth has you covered with her delightful array of sexy bras and panties. Link Via Fashionably Geek

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