Neatorama

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• Wedding Cakes with Hidden Spider-Men
• Oscar The Grouch Sesame Street Furry Laplander Hat
• The Lamp That Opens Like a Book
• Hotel Het Arresthuis: Jail Turned Into Luxury Hotel
• Handy Racks Help Passengers Sleep on Trains
• Ice Parkour
• The Car Wash Shower
• A Coin Rolling on a Treadmill for an Hour
• Turkish Man Cured of Vampirism
• R2-D2 Bottle Stopper
• Rowing Machine Armchair
• Thrifty Jabba and Leia Costumes
• How the War on Drugs Took Off
• The Cathedral of the Northern Light
• Anti-Piracy Website Pirates The Pirate Bay
• The Happy Baker Making Bread
• Luxurious Bathroom on a Jetliner
• Cocoa Bunny Carrysome Chocolate Scented Purse
• How the Kessel Run Turns Han Solo Into a Time-Traveler
• Subtle: Cigar That Ashes Gold
• My Strange Grandfather
• The Hula Hoop Purse
• This Week at Neatorama
• The Formula for Love

Wedding Cakes with Hidden Spider-Men Posted: 17 Feb 2013 04:00 AM PST This wedding cake looks really nice! But what's that at the bottom? Spider-Man! This photo was posted by redditor PoliticalMilkman, from the wedding of his cousin. Link But wait! It's not the first time Spider-man has sneaked in and crashed a wedding cake. Almost a year ago, When Geeks Wed showed us this cake, also featuring a "hidden" Spider-Man. A hidden Spider-Man makes an appearance at this wedding on StyleMePretty. Photography by Jennifer Skog and Cake by Studio Cake. And then there was this wedding cake made by Laura at Corner House. It has over 400 edible hand-made flowers on it! And a little Spider-Man, too! Is this becoming a thing?

Oscar The Grouch Sesame Street Furry Laplander Hat Posted: 17 Feb 2013 02:00 AM PST Oscar The Grouch Sesame Street Furry Laplander Hat Has the cold winter weather left you feeling a wee bit grouchy? Wear your mood on your head with the Oscar The Grouch Sesame Street Furry Laplander Hat from the NeatoShop. This great hat is shaped like Oscar the Grouch's head. One size fits most.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Winterwear.  Link

The Lamp That Opens Like a Book Posted: 17 Feb 2013 02:00 AM PST Max Gunawan has designed the perfect reading light to accompany your e-reader. The Lumio is a battery-powered lamp that opens and closes like a book. It has built-in magnets so that the Lumio can be attached to ferrous surfaces. Link -via Colossal

Hotel Het Arresthuis: Jail Turned Into Luxury Hotel Posted: 17 Feb 2013 12:00 AM PST Most hotels have bars, but you're probably not thinking of these ones on the window. The Hotel Het Arresthuis in the Netherlands was actually a jail that was converted into a luxury hotel. Now this is one jailhouse we don't mind checking into! Take a look.

Handy Racks Help Passengers Sleep on Trains Posted: 16 Feb 2013 11:00 PM PST How do you sleep on a crowded train car with hard seats? In China, this problem has inspired an ingenious solution called the "body supporter": One top seller is the "body supporter", a metal stick with small platforms to support a weary passenger's head and chest. "This device is just like sleeping on your front in your actual bed," the online sales pitch promises. [...] Other travel solutions include underwear with secret pockets for valuables and portable urine bags that allow passengers to relieve themselves without visiting the train's toilets. Link -via Bit Rebels | Images: iZouZi

Ice Parkour Posted: 16 Feb 2013 10:00 PM PST (YouTube link) Don't try this at home or anywhere! Professional free runner Ronnie Shalvis knows what he is doing -I think. I can't help but suspect there are painful outtakes and hospital bills involved in the production of this video. -Thanks, Dallin Smith!

The Car Wash Shower Posted: 16 Feb 2013 09:00 PM PST Cue the Car Wash disco song by Rose Royce when you take a shower in the "Loop" shower by Italian designer Diego Granese for Idiha Design. Stylish and functional! Links: Diego Granese Studio | Idiha Design - via That's Like Whoa

A Coin Rolling on a Treadmill for an Hour Posted: 16 Feb 2013 08:00 PM PST (Video Link) Can you stand the excitement?! YouTube member Parker Reed created this thrilling video. Click on Continue reading for spoilers. Courtesy of YouTube member pirouli rouli: 06:09 to 08:50 attempts with another coin, all failing10:12 an almost successfull attempt 10:50 failed attempts 15:13 a hand 15:24 a Parker20:44 other attempts 24:08 a black ball 27:04 a white ball 38:48 Parker 39:09 a red straw41:26 a laptop 41:50 camera moves 42:01 A CAT!! 52:47 camera moves, showing a window53:08 fingers 57:12 coin falls off 57:47 threadmill stops 58:27 Parker draws conclusion and lesson about life. Thanks for this action-packed adventure, Parker! -via Nerdcore

Turkish Man Cured of Vampirism Posted: 16 Feb 2013 07:00 PM PST An unnamed man in Turkey was diagnosed two years ago with vampirism, dissociative identity disorder, major depressive disorder, alcohol abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The PTSD, and possibly the alcohol abuse, were attributed to the crimes he committed due to the vampirism. A 23-year-old married male (3rd of 6 siblings) presented with a 2-year history of ‘addiction’ to drinking blood. He used to cut his arms, chest, and abdomen with razor blades to collect the blood in a cup and to drink it. The initial interest in drinking his own blood had subsequently turned to that of others’. These ‘crises’ were characterized by a strong urge to drink blood immediately, ‘as urgent as breathing’. He enjoyed the smell and taste of blood despite finding this ‘foolish’. He also enjoyed biting wounds of others to taste flesh. He was arrested several times after attacking people by stabbing and biting them with the intention of collecting and drinking their blood. He forced his father to obtain blood from blood banks. The man had suffered from several traumatic incidents before turning to blood. Doctors believe he has now been cured of his "blood addiction." Read the rest of the story at Smithsonian. Link (Unrelated image credit: Flickr user creepyhalloweenimages)

R2-D2 Bottle Stopper Posted: 16 Feb 2013 06:00 PM PST R2-D2 Bottle Stopper  Has the announcement of a new Star Wars movie got you in a celebratory mood? Before you pop the top on your favorite bottle of bubbly make sure you have the R2-D2 Bottle Stopper from the NeatoShop. This great bottle stopper is wonderful way to dress-up your favorite bottle of wine.    Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Barware & Cocktail items and fantastic Star Wars stuff.   Link

Rowing Machine Armchair Posted: 16 Feb 2013 06:00 PM PST Prof. Eckehard Fozzy Moritz demonstrates the armchair rowing machine. Photo: Innovationsmanufaktur GmbH Oar you a couch potato in need of some exercise? No need to get off the comfy couch - let the exercise come to you instead. Behold, the GEWOS ("Gesund wohnen mit Stil" or Healthy Living in Style) rowing armchair Developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany, the rowing armchair has all sorts of sensors and microcircuitry built into the seat cushions, backrest and armrest to measure the correct rowing posture. A tablet PC transmit data to the TV so the user can view pulse rate and blood oxygen level as well as progress metrics. Before you laugh, the armchair has been proven a success. When tested at the Ambient Assisted Living conference in Berlin last year, 100 senior citizens tried it out and ranked it first over 14 other assistance products. Sven Feilner of the IIS added that the researchers are looking to add gamification components to the rowing armchair, so that senior citizens with limited mobility as well as couch potatoes worldwide can compete against each other. Evolution of the rowing armchair The rowing arms fit snugly under the armrest when not in use Link: Official website

Thrifty Jabba and Leia Costumes Posted: 16 Feb 2013 05:00 PM PST Got a brown comforter? A bikini? You can dress up as Jabba the Hutt and Princess Leia without spending another penny. These unknown but frugal cosplayers are totally convincing. Especially Jabba's face. That's just perfect. -via Fashionably Geek | Photo: unknown

How the War on Drugs Took Off Posted: 16 Feb 2013 04:00 PM PST In 1973, the U.S. prison population was 330,000. Today, we have well over two million people locked up. What happened? NPR traces the beginning of the War on Drug to Nelson Rockefeller's decision to get tough on drug pushers, addicts, and users 40 years ago to combat a heroin epidemic in New York City.   Rockefeller, New York's Republican governor, had backed drug rehabilitation, job training and housing. He saw drugs as a social problem, not a criminal one. But the political mood was hardening. President Richard Nixon declared a national war on drugs, and movies like The French Connection and Panic in Needle Park helped spread the sense that America's cities were unraveling. Late in 1972, one of Rockefeller's closest aides, Joseph Persico, was in a meeting with the governor. He says Rockefeller suddenly did a dramatic about-face. "Finally he turned and said, 'For drug pushing, life sentence, no parole, no probation," says Persico. That was the moment when one of the seeds of the modern prison system was planted. In January of 1973, Rockefeller proposed mandatory sentences of 15 years to life for drugs charges, even for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The "get tough" laws spread across the country, and so did new prisons. Forty years later, almost half a million people are employed by the prison industry and private corporations make profits by running them. Read the whole story at NPR. Link Find more statistics on incarceration at Wikipedia. Link

The Cathedral of the Northern Light Posted: 16 Feb 2013 03:00 PM PST On the nothern edge of Norway, far above the Arctic Circle, sits the Cathedral of the Northern Light. This new church building in the town of Alta features a 47-meter tall belfry clad in titanium sheeting that reflects the aurora borealis. You can view more photos at the link. Link | Photos: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

Anti-Piracy Website Pirates The Pirate Bay Posted: 16 Feb 2013 02:00 PM PST (L) The infamous The Pirate Bay (R) Finnish anti-piracy group CIAPC's website Grab some popcorn, it's about to get good: To show the torrent site The Pirate Bay that piracy is wrong, Finnish anti-piracy group CIAPC set up a website that pirated The Pirate Bay website's iconic look and feel. When The Pirate Bay got mad and threatened a lawsuit, millions of irony detectors were set off and the CIAPC reveled in the attention and welcomed the lawsuit as a way to identify the people behind the torrent site: The Pirate Bay, generally quite supportive of copy-pasting, is not happy with CIAPC’s apparent infringement and plans to take legal steps against the anti-piracy group. “We are outraged by this behavior. People must understand what is right and wrong. Stealing material like this on the internet is a threat to economies worldwide,” a Pirate Bay spokesman told TorrentFreak. “We feel that we must make a statement and therefore we will sue them for copyright infringement,” the spokesman adds. TorrentFreak has the story: Link

The Happy Baker Making Bread Posted: 16 Feb 2013 01:00 PM PST (YouTube link) The baker knows what he is doing, and he really enjoys it, baking the bread that makes up so much of what we eat every day. Starter, mix, knead, rise, knead, rise, shape, bake, dance! Once you've seen the video, tell us which do you want now: a piece of fresh-baked bread, or a job in a bakery? -via reddit

Luxurious Bathroom on a Jetliner Posted: 16 Feb 2013 12:00 PM PST Photo: Nick Gleis No cramped rows of uncomfortable airplane seats, please. The ultra-rich have a very different set of requirements in mind, as illustrated in this blog post of luxurious private jets. This one above is a bathroom - yes, a bathroom - on an Boeing 787-8i airplane as photographed by Nick Gleis. View the rest here: Link - Thanks David!

Cocoa Bunny Carrysome Chocolate Scented Purse Posted: 16 Feb 2013 11:00 AM PST Cocoa Bunny Carrysome  Hippity. Hoppity. Easter is on the way. Are you looking for a sweet holiday treat? You need the Cocoa Bunny Carrysome from the Neatoshop. This cute chocolate bunny shaped bag smells like chocolate. It makes a deliciously fun fashion accessory for a little girl or someone who is just young at heart.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Bags & Totes.  Link

How the Kessel Run Turns Han Solo Into a Time-Traveler Posted: 16 Feb 2013 11:00 AM PST The blogs under Wired's umbrella are apparently trying to out-geek each other on Star Wars. First we saw an analysis of the Battle of Hoth at Danger Room, then Dot Physics determined that Darth Vader weighs at least 520 pounds. Now, Underwire shows how Han Solo is a time-traveler. This is determined by his famous line about how the Millennium Falcon “made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.” According to Star Wars: The Essential Atlas, the Kessel Run was an 18-parsec (59 light-year) route used by smugglers to get around Imperial blockades. So why would Solo describe how quickly he traveled it using a word that described distance? It turns out that the expanded universe of the Star Wars franchise — the additional books and content created within the Star Wars universe but outside of the films — contains an answer to that question. The Essential Atlas maps a Kessel Run whose path travels around “The Maw,” a cluster of black holes. To cut down on the distance traveled, pilots could dangerously skirt the edges of the black holes, while trying to avoid spaghettification. If Solo was a skilled enough — or crazy enough — pilot to deviate from the typical route and fly close enough to the black holes to cut nearly 20 light-years off his space odometer, then his ship was fast indeed — the power required to stay out of the gape of an event horizon is something worth bragging about. So by being able to dance around singularities, the Millennium Falcon establishes itself as a fast ship — and Solo’s famous brag makes sense. But this brings up a bigger, more inherent problem: The Kessel Run that Solo completed covered nearly 40 light-years of cosmos. If the blasters and speeders and starships of Star Wars more or less follow the laws of physics, taking that famous run even once would change the entire chronology of Han Solo’s life. And then author Kyle Hill goes on to explain exactly how this anomaly would have affected the timeline of Solo's life prior top the events of Star Wars: A New Hope. Link -via mental_floss

Subtle: Cigar That Ashes Gold Posted: 16 Feb 2013 10:00 AM PST Millionaires may light their cigars with hundred dollar bills, but billionaires prefer to separate themselves from such hoi polloi. That's where the London Cut Black Tie cigar comes in. For $500, you can smoke a (that's one) cigar that has been wrapped in gold foil. Link -via Born Rich

My Strange Grandfather Posted: 16 Feb 2013 09:00 AM PST (vimeo link) This delightful animation is from Dina Velikovskaya of the Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK). A child can't understand why her weird grandfather spends so much time picking up trash from the beach. Then his secret is revealed! It's lovely when children finally realize how wonderful it is to have strange grandparents. -via Metafilter

The Hula Hoop Purse Posted: 16 Feb 2013 08:00 AM PST Ugh, finally! I am so done with purses that are easy to carry and store. The Chanel Hula Hoop Purse, which just debuted at New York Fashion Week, gets immediate attention from passersby and gives them a definite impression of you and your sense of style. Link -via American Digest | Photo: Kyle Anderson

This Week at Neatorama Posted: 16 Feb 2013 07:00 AM PST So now we are halfway through February and we've got the majority of its holidays behind us. Still, coming up Monday is President's Day, which is a big one, because banks will be closed and the mail won't run. President's Day used to be Washington's Birthday (which is actually the 22nd), but since Abraham Lincoln was born in the same month, that created some sort of competition between the two president's legacies until they were combined into President's Day, which since then has become a day to celebrate even more of the former leaders of our country. I'm all for that -there was even some discussion of how we need a movie about James K. Polk: we've already got a theme song for it. Some other neat stuff happened this past week at Neatorama, too! John Farrier rounded up the ways people try to make the sport of kings even more challenging in 12 Bizarre Chess Variants. We learned some video game history in Mr. Game Boy, courtesy of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. The Annals of Improbable Research gave us a formula for a hit movie in Script an Astronomer, Then Reach for the Stars. And 10 Ruthless Rock Managers came from mental_floss magazine. Our exclusive "short subjects" from Uncle John's Bathroom reader this week were Ol' Jay's Brainteasers and Flubbed Headlines. In this week's What Is It? game, the complicated-looking tool is is a bonde cutter - the bonde is the tapered wooden plug (often a soft hardwood such as poplar) that fits into the filling hole of a wine barrel. You can read more about it at the What Is It? blog. Finally, ladybugs came up with the answer, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer was by ColShorts, who said, "It looks like that thing that I made in shop class, to get out of making things in shop…" He wins a t-shirt for that! Thanks to everyone who participated, and look for another What Is It? game coming soon! This week's posts with the most comments was Should Bookstores Charge You to Browse? followed by Stuck at 125mph for an Hour. But if we look back the previous week, the post about Coffee Enemas racked up a much bigger discussion since last week's update. The most-viewed post of the week was 10 Candidates for the Next Pope, which was exactly was people were searching for Tuesday. That was followed by Ol' Jay's Brainteasers, What Nemo Did, and 12 Bizarre Chess Variants, in that order. Usability tip of the week: If you're a registered user, you can use your profile page for all kinds of things. You can display something about yourself by going to "edit account," and add whatever you like to your bio field. And you can leave comments under your profile, or someone else's profile. When you open the comment field, you have the option of making your message private. Just click on a user's name to go to their profile page (see mine as an example). The same rules of civility apply to profiles as they do to the main page. It's a neat way to ask questions, hold off-topic discussions, and get to know your fellow Neatoramanauts. At the NeatoShop, we've got something to make graduation, showers, and occasions like Mother's Day extra special: pageant sashes! Anyone can be a beauty queen with the proper sash -this one is my personal favorite. When you get caught up on what's here at Neatorama, go see what's happening at our Pinterest board, Facebook page, and Twitter feed, where we put extra stuff for those who care to follow.

The Formula for Love Posted: 16 Feb 2013 06:00 AM PST What is love? It's 5 + (-sqrt(1-x^2-(y-abs(x))^2))*cos(30*((1-x^2-(y-abs(x))^2))), x is from -1 to 1, y is from -1 to 1.5, z is from 1 to 6. No, really. It is. -via It's Okay to Be Smart

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