Neatorama

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• The World's Shortest Scheduled Airline Flight is Just 2 Minutes Long
• Fungus-Infected Toenail Cookies
• Dancing Cats
• Strange European Posters For American Movies
• A Documentary About The Real Life Dude
• Wind-Up Vampire Teeth
• Dalek Cupcakes
• Defending The Mushroom Kingdom In Mario Warfare
• TripAdvisor Review of Mars
• Disturbing Works From The History Of Art
• The Key-Copter
• Cheating Scandal in a Harvard Government Class
• Maru Gets a Job
• New Neatorama Feature: My Discussion
• This Boy Is Upset That He's Not A Single Lady
• Bear in the Woods Caption Contest Winners
• How To Speak Wookiee
• Living on Mars Time
• There Will Be Blood
• Weak and Feeble Robots Make The Best Teachers
• 12 College Courses We Wish Our Schools Had Offered
• Restaurants Add Mandatory Tipping for French Canadian Customers
• Darth Vader Attacked by Dog
• The Church on a Volcanic Plug
• More Cowbell!
• Augmented Reality Chestburster T-Shirt
• The Mites That Crawl, Eat, and Have Sex on Your Face
• Spider-Man vs. The Green Goblin Salt & Pepper Shakers
• Breaking Bad Remix
• Hilarious Reviews Of Bic Cristal For Her Pens

The World's Shortest Scheduled Airline Flight is Just 2 Minutes Long Posted: 01 Sep 2012 04:00 AM PDT (Video Link) The captain has turned off the fasten seatbelts light. You are now free to move about the cabin for the next five seconds. Then we'll begin our descent. Thank you for flying Loginair from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

Fungus-Infected Toenail Cookies Posted: 01 Sep 2012 03:00 AM PDT Why do these bloody toes taste so good? Because they're actually cookies! Natasha Collins made these cookies as well as severed ear cakepops. Good news, couples: she also does wedding cakes! Link -via Laughing Squid | Artist's Website

Dancing Cats Posted: 01 Sep 2012 02:00 AM PDT (YouTube link) Now, I have no idea what this song is about, but apparently it's ¥1,000 off. I still watched it through more than once. I'm embarrassed to say how many times. -via Everlasting Blort

Strange European Posters For American Movies Posted: 01 Sep 2012 01:00 AM PDT Sending a Hollywood movie overseas means simply adding subtitles, but advertising said movie means wacky new artwork created by someone who clearly hasn't even seen the movie! Take a gander at this gallery of posters for Hollywood blockbusters as seen through the eyes of European artists, and you'll see how a little artistic interpretation can make a popular movie nearly unrecognizable.  Link

A Documentary About The Real Life Dude Posted: 01 Sep 2012 12:00 AM PDT (Vimeo Link) The Dude abides in the classic Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski, but did you know that the character played by Jeff Bridges is based on a real life dude? Your response should be "whoa man, you just blew my mind!", because reacting to this earth- shattering news in any other way makes you a Nihilist.  Plant your peepers on this doc by Jeff Feuerzeig and do some abiding of your own... --via Boing Boing

Wind-Up Vampire Teeth Posted: 31 Aug 2012 11:00 PM PDT Wind-Up Vampire Teeth - $2.95 Attention vampire loving, cubicle dwelling workers! Halloween is right around the corner and that means lots of fun new stuff is clackety clacking its way into the NeatoShop. Now for a limited time you can get the lively and entertaining Wind-Up Vampire Teeth. This great little item is chomping at the bit to come home with you.    Love Halloween as much as we do? Don't forget to visit Neatorama's new Halloween blog. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Cubicle & Desk toys.  Link

Dalek Cupcakes Posted: 31 Aug 2012 11:00 PM PDT Won't you look at these wonderful cupcakes all dressed up as daleks! And there's a TARDIS, too! They were made by Flickr user seelensturm, who is willing to share. You can download the papercraft dalek wrappers and the TARDIS wrapper at DeviantART. See more pictures in the Flickr set. Link -via Nag on the Lake (Image credit: Flickr user seelensturm)

Defending The Mushroom Kingdom In Mario Warfare Posted: 31 Aug 2012 10:00 PM PDT (YouTube Link) There's battle a-brewin' in the Mushroom Kingdom, and only Special Forces agents Mario and Luigi can crush the evil dictator Koopa and save countless mushroom headed lives. It's Mario Warfare by production company Beat Down Boogie, a full length live action spoof of the Super Mario Bros. franchise that's been in the works for quite some time now. We finally have a trailer, and it looks pretty slick! Hopefully the entire film will hit our computer screens soon.... --via Geekosystem

TripAdvisor Review of Mars Posted: 31 Aug 2012 09:00 PM PDT HAL 9000 posted this TripAdvisor review of the planet Mars by a user named Curiosity. I don't think he's having a good time. Link-Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

Disturbing Works From The History Of Art Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:00 PM PDT Paintings are often viewed for their illustrative value, and the stories behind the images are either speculated about or left up to individual interpretation. But this list of disturbing works leaves nothing to the imagination, and the stories behind these paintings can be downright sick! Read for yourself what these paintings are really all about, you may be left with a better appreciation of fine art...or a bad taste in your mouth. Link

The Key-Copter Posted: 31 Aug 2012 07:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) Never lose your keys again! This invention from Michael Wallis, while taking up so much space on your key ring that you'll never want to carry it, will bring your keys back to you when you lose them. All you have to do is also keep up with your phone. And watch out for other people losing their keys! Link -via b3ta

Cheating Scandal in a Harvard Government Class Posted: 31 Aug 2012 06:00 PM PDT A cheating scandal has rocked the venerated Harvard University: Harvard University is investigating allegations that almost half the students in an undergraduate class last spring may have plagiarized or "inappropriately collaborated" on their final exams, the school announced Thursday. Following an initial investigation, Harvard's administrative board, which enforces academic regulations, undertook "a comprehensive review of the more than 250 take-home final exams" submitted at the end of a course, the school said in a statement. The Harvard Crimson, the school's flagship student-run newspaper, identified the class in which the cheating allegedly occurred as Government 1310: Introduction to Congress. Cheating in a Government class about Congress? Sounds like proper job training to me! Julia Talanova and Jason Kessler of CNN's Schools of Thought explain: Link

Maru Gets a Job Posted: 31 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) Yes, Maru has posed for plenty of pictures, and short clips of his YouTube videos have been used in ads, such as the one I recall for cat litter. But this time, he's actually made a commercial spot for Uniqlo. This looks like the beginning of a great career! -via Buzzfeed Previously: More Maru

New Neatorama Feature: My Discussion Posted: 31 Aug 2012 04:00 PM PDT Woohoo! As part of our continued improvement of the new Neatorama, I'm happy to announce that you'll find a new widget called "My Discussion" on the sidebar of the blog (if you're logged in). The widget will feature replies to your latest comments. Hover over the comment and you'll find options to reply, report abuse (spam or abusive language) and the ability to "unfollow" a conversation thread. Clicking the "My Discussion" link at the bottom will take you to a page in the Dashboard which lists your most recent conversations in one place. We hope this will make it convenient to follow multiple threads of conversations across different Neatorama posts: Thank you for reading the blog! We hope you continue to enjoy visiting Neatorama! If you have any feedback or suggestions on how to improve the blog, please leave us a comment!

This Boy Is Upset That He's Not A Single Lady Posted: 31 Aug 2012 03:00 PM PDT (YouTube Link) There are lots of things that kids have to figure out as they grow up, like the fact that a little boy will never qualify as a single lady! Watch this poor kid get his bubble burst by his dad, as he realizes that Beyonce is no longer singing directly to him. --via Tastefully Offensive

Bear in the Woods Caption Contest Winners Posted: 31 Aug 2012 02:00 PM PDT Earlier this week, we ran the Neatorama Caption Contest: Bear in the Woods and got tons of funny captions (thanks guys!) Congratulations to the winners: ACTING! - Scott G. "To maul or not to maul, that is the question" - Steve Mackin After winning the 100m forest dash, Ursine Bolt celebrates with his customary "Lightning" pose. - Ben Swift Seems like everyone liked Funny T-shirts designed by Mike Jacobsen: Exterminate Me Look Out Schroedinger's Cat, It's a Trap! Battle Damage Congratulations again to the winners and our thanks to everyone who played! Catch us next time!

How To Speak Wookiee Posted: 31 Aug 2012 01:30 PM PDT How To Speak Wookiee - $16.95 Are you looking for a way to get your kids excited about learning a new language? You need the How To Speak Wookiee board book from the NeatoShop. This fantastic full color book comes with a built-in audio player. It is the perfect way to introduce your child to 10 of the most fundamental Wookiee sound effects.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Star Wars items. Link

Living on Mars Time Posted: 31 Aug 2012 01:30 PM PDT They still live on Earth, but David Oh and hundreds of scientists and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have adopted such strange sleeping patterns that they might as well be living on Mars. You see, ever since the rover Curiosity landed on Mars, they've all switched to living on "Mars time." Here's what the Oh family learned from living as if they were on the Red Planet: A Mars day, called a sol, is 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than a 24-hour day on Earth. That small difference adds up fast, so that noon becomes midnight after 2 1/2 weeks. As scientists wind up sleeping during the day and working through the night, their lives pull away from those of their families. Not the Oh clan. For the first month, all five have stuck together, an idea championed by David's wife, Bryn. "This project for six years has been so much a part of his life," she said at the family's tidy two-story home in La Cañada Flintridge. "This was a way that I thought that we could be a part of it." Amina Khan of The Los Angeles Times has the story: Link

There Will Be Blood Posted: 31 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT At least there will be at my next Halloween party now that I know you can easily color white chocolate fondue to look like a fountain of blood. The best part? Squeemish people won't touch it -so there's tons more for you! Link

Weak and Feeble Robots Make The Best Teachers Posted: 31 Aug 2012 12:30 PM PDT The secret to learning from a robot, as discovered by two Japanese researchers, is to have it appear weak and feeble: Shizuko Matsuzoe and Fumihide Tanaka at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, set up an experiment to find out how different levels of competence in a robot teacher affected children's success in learning English words for shapes. They observed how 19 children aged between 4 and 8 interacted with a humanoid Nao robot in a learning game in which each child had to draw the shape that corresponded to an English word such as 'circle', 'square', 'crescent', or 'heart'. The researchers operated the robot from a room next to the classroom so that it appeared weak and feeble, and the children were encouraged to take on the role of carers. [...] When the robot got a shape wrong, the child could teach the robot how to draw it correctly by guiding its hand. The robot then either "learned" the English word for that shape or continued to make mistakes. Link

12 College Courses We Wish Our Schools Had Offered Posted: 31 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT Students looking through college class offerings are finding some strange but fascinating classes offered at American colleges and universities. There's probably some real education going on underneath the titles of these courses, but you've have to take them to know for sure. Political Ceramics? Tattoos in American Popular Culture? How to Win a Beauty Pageant? Nope, it’s not about putting Vaseline on your teeth and how to choose a good waterproof mascara. The course’s full title is “How to Win a Beauty Pageant: Race, Gender, Culture, and U.S. National Identity,” and it looks at the history of pageants from the 1920s through now to analyze them as “unique site[s] for the interplay of race, gender, class, sexuality, and nation.” And hey, field trip opportunity: the class actually gets to view a pageant in the flesh. Find out where these twelve classes will be taught, and read their descriptions at mental_floss. Link (Image source: Shorpy)

Restaurants Add Mandatory Tipping for French Canadian Customers Posted: 31 Aug 2012 11:30 AM PDT Are Québecois bad tippers? Canadians that visit restaurants in Burlington, Vermont, got a little surprise when they noticed that they were being charged automatic gratuities when servers guessed that they were Quebec: A few local servers even have a nickname for the surcharge: They call it the “Queeb tax.” [...] Owner Sandy Kong says that while the restaurant doesn’t have an official policy, she lets servers decide whether to add a gratuity. “If the Canadian customers were tipping at 15 percent, I wouldn’t let them do this,” Kong says of her waitstaff. But the Canadians are not, she alleges. On a single day last week, Kong says, one party left a $3 tip on an $80 bill; another left nothing for the server on a $90 tab. Kathryn Flagg of Vermont's Seven Days has the story: Link POLL: Is it wrong for restaurants to add mandatory tipping? Yes No

Darth Vader Attacked by Dog Posted: 31 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT (YouTube link) First, his light saber deployed the wrong way. Then, to add insult to injury, a dog wanted to get in on the act. If you're worried about watching this, the dog seems bent on smothering Lord Vader with playful love. -via Pleated Jeans

The Church on a Volcanic Plug Posted: 31 Aug 2012 10:30 AM PDT Volcanic forces created a rock formation 279 feet above the rest of Aiguihle, France. In the Tenth Century, local Christians built a church there -- the Chapel of Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe. Visitors can climb 268 steps carved into the rock and get a scenic view of the town below. You can find more pictures of this striking relic at the link. Link | Photo: nordique

More Cowbell! Posted: 31 Aug 2012 10:00 AM PDT Ryerson University in Toronto gathered students together during orientation week to gain a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records -as they have  don five times before, with different stunts featuring many people. This year it was cowbell. The new record is 1,003 students each ringing a cowbell at the same time. Toronto based folk-rock band SEAM lead the crowd through the 1976 Blue Oyster Cult hit “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” After two minutes, confetti erupted and cheers began as the record was unofficially broken. The record had involved just 640 people in Switzerland, in 2009. Link -via Breakfast Links (Image credit: Rick Madonik/Toronoto Star)

Augmented Reality Chestburster T-Shirt Posted: 31 Aug 2012 09:30 AM PDT (Video Link)  In the near future, you'll be able to terrify other people who are just a few years behind the technological curve. Case in point: a shirt developed by Fingerfunk that erupts with the chestburster from Alien. The future is going to be awesome. -via Nerdcore

The Mites That Crawl, Eat, and Have Sex on Your Face Posted: 31 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT Reading the linked post will make your face itch. You've been warned. Two species of the microscopic worm Demodex live on human skin and hair follicles. D.folliculorum and D.brevis, seen in the picture above, are very commonly found on faces. But it’s hard to say exactly how common they are. The first estimate came from a 1903 study, which found the critters in 49 out of 100 French cadavers. The next count, from 1908, found them in 97 out of 100 German cadavers. The nationalities are probably a red herring. What’s clearer is that age matters. The mites aren’t inherited at birth, so each generation picks them up anew, probably from direct contact with our parents. Thanks, parents! If you’re under 20, good news! A French study from 1972 says that you’ve only got a 4 percent chance of carrying Demodex. If you’re old, bad news! You’ve almost certainly got Demodex somewhere. Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science explains the activities and life cycle of these worms, in case you are interested. Link -via Boing Boing (Image credit: Nutting, 1976)

Spider-Man vs. The Green Goblin Salt & Pepper Shakers Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:30 AM PDT   Spider-Man vs. The Green Goblin Salt & Pepper Shakers - $13.95 Attention Spider-Man fans! With great cooking comes great responsibility. Don't put your salt and pepper in just any old shaker. House your favorite seasoning in the Spider-Man vs. The Green Goblin Salt & Pepper Shakers from the NeatoShop. Stop pretending and tell everyone who sits at your table who you really are. You are an amazing cook and a Spider-Man fan!   The Spider-Man vs. The Green Goblin Salt & Pepper Shakers are made of glazed ceramic. Magnets hold the two shakers together.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Salt & Pepper Shakers and fantastic Spider-Man items.  Link

Breaking Bad Remix Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:30 AM PDT (YouTube link) The TV series Breaking Bad gets the musical remix treatment from Chris Lohr. Warning: earworm. Contains NSFW language. If you are avoiding spoilers, this contains very short clips from seasons one and two. -via b3ta

Hilarious Reviews Of Bic Cristal For Her Pens Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT The Bic pen company really shot themselves in the foot when they decided to advertise their new line of "cristal" pens as being "for Her". The interwebs immediately took to typing up hilariously scathing reviews of the pens, making sure to include all the magic, wonder and sparkly ponies these feminine pens have brought into their lives. Here are some examples: "My drawings of kittens and ponies have improved, and now that I'm writing my last name hyphenated with the Robert Pattinson's last name, I really believe he may some day marry me! I'm positively giddy." "But the Bic Cristal for Her pens sparkle (like crystal!) and twinkle and dance on the page and even emit little squeaks and giggles when they're writing extra fun stuff. They chatter among themselves and have their own personalities" Read on and see why these pens are strictly for gals...no guys allowed! Link  --via Super Punch

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