Neatorama

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• The Slide in the Imperial Palace
• Ethiopian Kids Learn to Hack Laptops
• Studio Ghibli Characters In Real Life
• Medieval Snuff Drama
• Eighteenth Century Writing Kit/Makeup Kit
• Taco Cannon Makes Dinner Dangerous
• Confederate Army Officer Wearing Jaguar Skin Pants
• Improve Your Luck by Changing Your Name
• Old Gotye Song Gets Fun New Animated Video
• Superman Fleece Cozy
• "Cultured Youth": China's Hipster
• Coiled Snake Sword
• Things Jean-Claude van Damme Has Said
• The Most Indebted Man in the World
• Piano Fountain
• Four Men in Hats
• Sh%t Southern Women Say
• Could This Inflatable Plug Have Prevented New York City's Subways From Flooding?
• Who Wouldn't Wanna Snuggle With These Little Babes?
• An Airbag for Your Head
• Hello Kitty Geometric Knee Socks
• Cobb Salad in a Crouton Cone
• The Safest House on Earth
• Doctor Who Goes to Broadway
• First Ditch Effort
• These Dinos Are Made For Walking
• This Week at Neatorama

The Slide in the Imperial Palace Posted: 04 Nov 2012 04:00 AM PST Alexander Palace was a residence of the Tsars outside of St. Petersburg. One room known as the Mountain Hall became a playroom for children during the reign of Nicholas I (r. 1825-1855). Amidst the precious and fragile works of art, the Tsar built an enormous slide. Link -via The Oddment Emporium

Ethiopian Kids Learn to Hack Laptops Posted: 04 Nov 2012 03:00 AM PST The One Laptop Per Child project started several years ago with the idea that inexpensive, solar-powered computers could help bring children in Third World countries into the information age. So far it's worked really well. To push the limits of the project, volunteers tried an experiment: they gave laptops to two Ethiopian villages where the literacy rate is near zero, and there are no schools, no printed signs, and no books. They didn't show the kids how to use the tablets. They just delivered a box with enough for every child in each village.   "We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction, no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes! Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, but found the on/off switch. He'd never seen an on/off switch. He powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs [in English] in the village. And within five months, they had hacked Android. Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera! And they figured out it had a camera, and they hacked Android." What's more, the children were using the computers to teach their parents! The One Laptop Per Child program may eventually do an end run around the prohibitive expense of building schools and hiring teachers for some places. Link -via Not Exactly Rocket Science

Studio Ghibli Characters In Real Life Posted: 04 Nov 2012 02:00 AM PST The amazing animated features made by Studio Ghibli star characters so well crafted they could leap off the screen and nobody would ever know they're toons, except for those spooked by pilots sporting pig faces and cat-headed gentlemen. Re-imagining Studio Ghibli characters in real life makes perfect sense, and these digital images by Amgskate will leave you wishing these characters walked amongst us, adding a bit of imaginative color to our reality show world. Link  --via GeekTyrant

Medieval Snuff Drama Posted: 04 Nov 2012 01:00 AM PST Jody Enders wrote in 1998 about a 1878 French account of a play performed in 1549, in which the dramatic onstage execution was no special effect, but used a condemned prisoner whose head was cut off onstage. Considering how many times the story must have been told between those written accounts, it is probably an urban legend. Probably. Read Enders' full account or the short version at TYWKIWDBI. Link

Eighteenth Century Writing Kit/Makeup Kit Posted: 04 Nov 2012 01:00 AM PST This beautifully intricate item in the Cleveland Museum of Art is a portable writing kit and makeup compact. It was made in England between 1760 and 1770. Opening it reveals a mirror, pencils and a manicure set. Link -via OMG That Artifact! | Photo: Cleveland Museum of Art

Taco Cannon Makes Dinner Dangerous Posted: 04 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PDT (YouTube Link) Humanity has reached the point where we are no longer satisfied with eating dinner safely at home- we need excitement, and entertainment, with our meals, and that's where the Taco Cannon comes in. This launcher of tortilla shelled foodstuffs was created by Torchy's Tacos for the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas, launching tacos into the mouths of hungry Fest attendees with the power of CO2. Talk about serving up fast food! Link  --via Obvious Winner

Confederate Army Officer Wearing Jaguar Skin Pants Posted: 03 Nov 2012 11:00 PM PDT The stylin' Captain Samuel J. Richardson of the Second Texas Cavalry wore a standard issue hat and shirt. But his pants and his holsters were made of jaguar skin! Link -via Retronaut

Improve Your Luck by Changing Your Name Posted: 03 Nov 2012 10:00 PM PDT Psst! Got bad luck? Forget buying good luck charms ... change your name instead. Don't laugh. It seems to have worked for a lot of Thais: Baramee Thammabandan, 46 years old, had a run of misfortune a decade ago when he was still known as Teerapol Lilitjirawat. His business trading garments in Bangkok's mazelike markets slumped, his eyesight began to fail and he could no longer properly manage his affairs. Worse, he says his former wife left him. So, Mr. Baramee did what many Thais do when faced with a patch of bad luck: He changed his name. "I wanted to become a new person," says the slim, clean-shaven Mr. Baramee, whose new name means "Charisma" and which he chose to bring him wealth and fame. It seems to have worked. Though almost entirely blind, Mr. Baramee now is at the forefront of a booming new industry advising other Thais how to choose new names for themselves. A long list of Thai celebrities and business tycoons parade into his office in one of Bangkok's busiest shopping malls, asking for advice on new monikers, while his team fields more than 250 calls from anxious others wanting a consultation. In just five years, he says, his business has doubled ... James Hookway of The Wall Street Journal's The A-Head reports: Link

Old Gotye Song Gets Fun New Animated Video Posted: 03 Nov 2012 09:00 PM PDT (YouTube Link) Before Gotye got all weepy with his hit song Somebody That I Used To Know he had a dub sound without all that sappy singing in a song called Seven Hours With A Backseat Driver. The sound is so different that it's hard to see how Gotye got to where he is today, and when Ivan Dixon and Greg Sharp of Rubber House Studio heard it they imagined a town full of animals acting the fool, and a bowtie clad elephant who doesn't know what to do... --via AnimalNY

Superman Fleece Cozy Posted: 03 Nov 2012 08:00 PM PDT   Superman Fleece Cozy - $24.95 Are you looking for a super way to keep warm on those chilly fall nights? You need the Superman Fleece Cozy from the NeatoShop. This great wearable blanket with sleeves makes you look like Superman! Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Winterwear and fatnastic Superman items.  Link

"Cultured Youth": China's Hipster Posted: 03 Nov 2012 08:00 PM PDT Photo: Weibo.com Hipsters are everywhere! Even in China, where they're called "cultured youths" ... or "dumbass youths," depending on whom you ask: As the country’s middle class swells in number–and its people discover the pleasures and disappointments of a life spent pursuing material comfort–there comes the emergence of a distinct counter-culture. In Chinese, they are the wenyi qingnian, or wenqing for short, literally meaning “cultured youth.” It’s China’s closest equivalent to the alternatively beloved and reviled English word “hipster.” What does a typical “cultured youth” look like? Baidu Baike, China’s version of Wikipedia, contains an entry on the term that quotes writer and musician Guo Xiaohan: “I’m a very typical wenyi qingnian. I like poetry, novels, indie music, European cinema, taking pictures, writing blogs, cats, gardening, quilting, making dessert and designing environmentally friendly bags.” The photo above is of three cultured youths reading poetry aboard a Shanghai subway. Monica Tan of Tea Leaf Nation has the story: Link - via Metafilter

Coiled Snake Sword Posted: 03 Nov 2012 07:00 PM PDT Allegedly, these photos show a sword that fits into a coiled metal snake. It was made in Toledo, Spain in the Nineteenth Century to demonstrate the flexibility of the steel and the skill of the craftsmen who worked it. Link (Translation) -via Anachronistic Exploration

Things Jean-Claude van Damme Has Said Posted: 03 Nov 2012 06:00 PM PDT Apparently old JCVD has said some pretty funny things through the years. One commenter (reddit) suggested that Jean-Claude van Damme quotes used to be more popular than Chuck Norris jokes - in France at least. Check out this assortment of JCVD quotes. -Via Reddit user Bierrr

The Most Indebted Man in the World Posted: 03 Nov 2012 05:00 PM PDT Got a mortgage and credit card debt? Think you owe a lot of money? However much money you owe, that's peanuts compared to what Jérôme Kerviel owes. As Matthew O'Brien wrote in Quartz, Kerviel is the world's most indebted man, owing more than $6.3 billion to the French bank Société Générale: He can earn million-dollar gains without anybody knowing. He can execute make-believe trades by sending fake emails from hacked computers. He doesn’t always lose money. But when he does, he loses more than $6 billion. He is … the most indebted man in the world. Jérôme Kerviel is learning one of life’s harsher lessons: It stinks to be $6.3 billion in debt. That’s how much his fraudulent trades in 2007 and 2008 cost French bank Société Générale, and how much he has been ordered to pay in restitution—after he gets out of jail in three years. A judge recently upheld these terms on appeal. Stay risky, my friends? O'Brien explains the whole thing in this post: Link (Photo: Jacques Brinon/AP)

Piano Fountain Posted: 03 Nov 2012 04:00 PM PDT An employee of PianoWorks, a piano dealer in Atlanta, found a creative new use for a wrecked piano. It's now a planter and a fountain that pumps 2,000 gallons an hour. CORRECTION AND UPDATE 11/3/12: Zhoen writes in to inform us that our information about this fountain is incorrect. This is her own photo, taken in 2005 in Brookline, Massachussets. Thanks, Zhoen! -via Recyclart

Four Men in Hats Posted: 03 Nov 2012 03:00 PM PDT Before you look up the answer, see if you can figure out this puzzle: Shown above are four men buried up to their necks in the ground. They cannot move, so they can only look forward. Between A and B is a brick wall which cannot be seen through. They all know that between them they are wearing four hats--two black and two white--but they do not know what color they are wearing. Each of them know where the other three men are buried. In order to avoid being shot, one of them must call out to the executioner the color of their hat. If they get it wrong, everyone will be shot. They are not allowed to talk to each other and have 10 minutes to fathom it out. After one minute, one of them calls out. Question: Which one of them calls out? Why is he 100% certain of the color of his hat? There's no trick; just a logical answer -if you can put yourself into these guys' place. Which is, after all, a very bad place to be. Link -via Boing Boing

Sh%t Southern Women Say Posted: 03 Nov 2012 02:00 PM PDT Hey y'all! Julia Fowler wrote and directed this skit Sh%t Southern Women Say, featuring herself and three other southern belles from South Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi. We're fixin' to tell you how much we like the clip. You watch: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] (Yes, it has some curse words in it, but it's pronounced such that I just find it charming)

Could This Inflatable Plug Have Prevented New York City's Subways From Flooding? Posted: 03 Nov 2012 01:57 PM PDT The design of this inflatable object was commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security to be used in response to terrorist attacks against subways. But perhaps it could also be used to prevent future subway floods like those that happened recently in New York City: The plugs can be inflated in about three minutes. But once inflated, they are pressurized with either air or water. The existing test plug is roughly 32 feet by 16 feet and holds 35,000 gallons of water. The manufacturer, Dave Cadogan, speculated about their utility in New York City: If New York had had plugs, "I think they could have stopped a fair amount of incursion of water in the transit system," he said. Team members say the plugs are cheaper than the leading alternative -- floodgates. The prototype plug cost about $400,000, and costs could go down if the plugs are manufactured in quantities. Link -via DVICE | Photo: E.M. Sosa, West Virginia University/Department of Homeland Security

Who Wouldn't Wanna Snuggle With These Little Babes? Posted: 03 Nov 2012 01:00 PM PDT (Video Link) Nothing like bottle feeding and cuddling with orphaned babies who weigh more than you do. Someone sign me up for this job tomorrow -minimum wage seems like I'd be getting over paid. Via Discovery News

An Airbag for Your Head Posted: 03 Nov 2012 12:00 PM PDT The editor of the Eccentric Ideas column of an 1895 issue of The Strand Magazine was far too skeptical. I'd love to war a hat like this. And if you're playing headbrick, it'd be an essential piece of safety equipment. Full Text of the Original Magazine -via 5 Foot 12 Inches

Hello Kitty Geometric Knee Socks Posted: 03 Nov 2012 11:00 AM PDT Hello Kitty Geometric Knee Socks - $11.95 Attention Hello Kitty fans! You are anything but square. Are you looking for purr-fect way to show off your fashion forward style? You need the Hello Kitty Geometric Knee Socks from the NeatoShop. This great pair of knee-length socks features Hello Kitty with pink, red, grey, and blue geometric shapes. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Hello Kitty items.  Link

Cobb Salad in a Crouton Cone Posted: 03 Nov 2012 11:00 AM PDT Would you eat more salad if you could hold the whole thing in one hand? Nick at DudeFoods found a way to make salad as easy to eat as an ice cream cone! What you see here is a cone stuffed with Cobb salad. It isn’t just any cone however, it’s a cone made out of crushed up croutons! It actually took me a few tries to make my crouton cone and I considered throwing in the towel before my final attempt at it, but I decided to give it one more shot and it turned out wonderfully! Find out how to make one of these yourself -and you might end up making more than one. Link -via Daily of the Day

The Safest House on Earth Posted: 03 Nov 2012 10:00 AM PDT Photo: Michal Czerwonka for The Wall Street Journal Paranoid much? When you have as much money as the Corbi family (or enemies, I suppose), you too would have the world's safest home (complete with not one but four panic rooms, yo!): Al Corbi, the owner of the Hollywood Hills house and founder of a company called Strategically Armored and Fortified Environments, or SAFE, says he can outfit homes with underground bunkers up to 30 stories below ground. He has designed one bunker in the style of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, with ceilings painted with clouds to give the impression of being outside, as well as spas and movie theaters and enough provisions to keep families entertained for months of underground living. The cost can be upward of $10 million for the most elaborate facilities. Mr. Corbi built his own Los Angeles home both for his family and to show potential clients the latest in high-tech, high-end disaster protection and security. Constructed atop 60 steel-caged concrete caissons, each 30 feet deep and 30 inches in diameter, his house is designed to survive a high-magnitude earthquake. A facial-recognition system, including multiple cameras, has also been placed throughout his house. A James Bond-esque fog system can be activated with the blink of an eye as a way to shock intruders. The fog ranges from a harmless-but-disorienting haze to pepper spray to a noxious gas that can debilitate whoever inhales it for up to 24 hours. Pepper-spray fog system for your home? What could possibly go wrong? Candace Jackson of The Wall Street Journal has the post: Link - via digg

Doctor Who Goes to Broadway Posted: 03 Nov 2012 09:00 AM PDT (Video Link) I would definitely go see this musical -particularly because The Doctor seems to be based on David Tennant's version and he's my favorite. Via I Can Has Cheezburger

First Ditch Effort Posted: 03 Nov 2012 08:00 AM PDT Photo by Ciaran McCrickard/Connors Andrew Robertshaw of Charlwood, England decided he wanted to build a World War I era trench in his garden. Robertshaw, age 55, then enlisted the help of 30 volunteers and built the 60ft-long trench -moving 200 tones of earth in the process- in about a month. After completion he then lived in it (along with a group of reenactors) for 24 hours to relive what WWI soldiers went through. "It's all about learning"' said Mr Robertshaw, who explained that all of the participants wrote about their experiences of cooking, eating and cleaning in the trench. "I am an ex-history teacher and I just want people to know more about our history and the First World War is such a big part of that," said the historian, who has appeared on the television programme Time Team and worked behind the scenes on Who Do You Think You Are? "Particularly as Remembrance Day is coming up it is important to realise how those troops were living." He is working on a book titled 24 Hour Trench: A Day In The Life Of a Frontline Tommy. Check out all the amazing photographs and a video here. -Via Daily Mail UK

These Dinos Are Made For Walking Posted: 03 Nov 2012 07:00 AM PDT Just because dinosaurs are extinct doesn't mean they aren't fashionable -and you can be too, with the help of these amazing heels. Learn how to make your own over on Instructables. Link

This Week at Neatorama Posted: 03 Nov 2012 06:00 AM PDT Whew! What a week this has been! We started it out by watching hurricane Sandy move in and batter New York, New Jersey, and other heavily-populated coastal states. Those folks were left with broken and burned homes, flooded subways, power outages, and even worse, some who did not survive. Almost a week later, they are still in dire need of help because of disrupted transportation, making relief efforts all the more difficult. To donate or volunteer, see this list of websites for information.  Then there was all the gloriously fun stuff that circulates on the internet just before Halloween, plus the beginning of November, which brings us Christmas advertising, men growing mustaches, and the last big presidential campaign push before Election Day on Tuesday. We may be tired of the politicking, but when the time comes, I hope everyone goes to the polls to participate. Meanwhile, we had what may be a record number of original features here at Neatorama. Zeon Santos brought us some Halloween fun with A Worldwide Celebration Of Halloween and An Old Fashioned Halloween. With plenty of wonderful pictures! Also, our Halloween blog is still being updated with reports of amazing costumes from this year, so we can have a complete archive of Halloween 2012. David Israel treated us to Now That’s Rocket Science: An Interview with JPL’s Erisa Hines. Jill Harness contributed the post 7 Abandoned Amusement Parks. John Farrier gave us 10 Beautiful Tattoos Inspired by Watership Down. Literary ink, indeed! Eddie Deezen helped answer some of life's burning questions in the posts What is the "7" in 7UP? and Why Do They Put Umbrellas in Your Drink? There Once was a Man Who was a Dwarf and Later a Giant was a guest post from the blog Today I Found Out. We look forward to more guest articles from them! Uncle John's Bathroom Reader gave us The Curse of the Werewolf. Dracula’s Pellagra and Lois Lane’s Lungs: Further Gleanings From the Medical Literature came from the Annals of Improbable Research. And mental_floss magazine brought us 10 Moms Who Went the Extra Mile. In the What Is It? game this week, the object in question is a machine for making rope from binder twine or other cord. You can see a video of it being used at the What Is It? blog. The first commenter who knew that was Craig Clayton, who wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer came from Alan...yes THAT Alan, who said "After 4 years, the professor built this to keep Gilligan entertained. It doesn't do much, but it kept Gilligan occupied while the rest of the castaways simply fixed the hole in the boat." This intriguing idea deserves a t-shirt, too! Thanks to everyone who played this week, and thanks to the What Is It blog, too! The most-commented-on post was Potential Employer Critiques Applicant's Cover Letter. That was followed by Area Code, Bambi Chairs, and Is It Time to Ban Gangnam Style? (so far, ya'll say yes). Tonight: remember to set your clocks back, because Daylight Saving Time ends at 2AM Sunday in the US. Looking ahead to next week, we'll be giving away a whole bunch of the newest edition of Uncle John's Bathroom Readers, and if you are a registered American voter, don't miss your opportunity to go to the polls and cast your ballot!

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