Neatorama

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• Your Attention Please
• Ze Frank Explains the Super Bowl
• Will Marathon Viewing Become the TV Norm?
• A Brief History Of Nerds In Pop Culture
• How High Can a Tiger Jump?
• Fast Car, Hairy Dog
• In Praise of Shortened Attention Spans
• ZOMG! Shark in the Hallway!
• Ear Buddies Ear Buds
• StrawBEARy
• Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate Wedding
• Grilled Cheese Poutine Sandwich
• Thirsty Koala
• Stop That Zebra!
• Shoe Forms of the Stars
• Unintentionally Hilarious Vintage Valentine's Day Cards
• Kokeshi Blocks
• Brick Habitats That Fit into Walls
• Upside Downton Abbey
• Antique Pocket Watch Spy Camera
• The Pulp-O-Mizer
• Second Grade Class Learns Grammar by Correcting the Tweets of Pro Football Players
• Best Cat Toy Ever?
• Judge Ordered 12-Year-Old Boy to Get a Job
• Great Ideas Pocket Notes
• This Week at Neatorama

Your Attention Please Posted: 03 Feb 2013 04:00 AM PST Your Attention Please Do you feel like your notes are constantly being ignored? Make sure your jottings, musings, and requests stand out with the Your Attention Please Jumbo Sticky notepad from the NeatoShop. This fantastic pad features 60 large sheets for your writing pleasure.    Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Stationery.  Link

Ze Frank Explains the Super Bowl Posted: 03 Feb 2013 04:00 AM PST (YouTube link) Explaining the Super Bowl to a youngster who is unfamilar with it can be an opportunity for a world-class explanation -or world-class trolling, depending on your point of view. Just change the teams, and this video from 2006 is still fully functional. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)

Will Marathon Viewing Become the TV Norm? Posted: 03 Feb 2013 02:00 AM PST I used to watch new episodes of my favorite shows every week on television. Now I watch one show, episode by episode, in sequence and on a computer screen. Then the next show. According to New York Times reporter Brian Stelter, that's become normal: Binge-viewing, empowered by DVD box sets and Netflix subscriptions, has become such a popular way for Americans to watch TV that it is beginning to influence the ways the stories are told — particularly one-hour dramas — and how they are distributed. [...] On Friday, Netflix will release a drama expressly designed to be consumed in one sitting:“House of Cards,” a political thriller starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. Rather than introducing one episode a week, as distributors have done since the days of black-and-white TVs, all 13 episodes will be streamed at the same time. “Our goal is to shut down a portion of America for a whole day,” the producer Beau Willimon said with a laugh. “House of Cards,” which is the first show made specifically for Netflix, dispenses with some of the traditions that are so common on network TV, like flashbacks. There is less reason to remind viewers what happened in previous episodes, the producers say, because so many viewers will have just seen it. And if they don’t remember, Google is just a click away. The show “assumes you know what’s happening all the time, whereas television has to assume that a big chunk of the audience is always just tuning in,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer. Television producers now have to grapple with customers who won't even start watching a series until it's over: Some hoarders wait years: Mr. Mazzara, for instance, said he’s waiting to watch HBO’s “Girls” until the whole series is over, several years from now. This stockpiling phenomenon has become so common that some network executives worry that it is hurting new shows because they cancel the shows before would-be viewers get around to watching them. Economist Tyler Cowen reflects on this trend and notes where immediate sequentialization does and does not work: You can buy an entire book at once, as serialization — while not dead — has ceased to be the norm for long novels.  At MOMA they do not run an art exhibit by putting up one new van Gogh painting each day.  Coursera, you will note, still uses a kind of serialization model for its classes rather than putting up all the lectures at once; presumably it wishes to synchronize student participation plus it often delivers the content in real time.  Sushi is served sequentially, even though several cold courses presumably could be carried over at once.  Still, a plate in an omakase experience typically has more than one piece of fish. For TV I do not think upfront bingeing can become the norm.  The model of “I don’t really care about this, but I have nothing much to talk to you about, so let’s sit together and drop commentary on some semi-randomly chosen TV show” seems to work less well when the natural unit of the show is thirteen episodes and you are expected to show dedication. Link -via Marginal Revolution | Photo: ellenm1

A Brief History Of Nerds In Pop Culture Posted: 03 Feb 2013 12:00 AM PST Videogum hits the highlights of a timeline of nerds in pop culture, from the Dr. Seuss creature to the new game show King of the Nerds. Yes, Eddie Deezen is there, making an early appearance in nerd history. Notice how the popularity of the stereotypical character moves up and down, but gradually up since we all got on the internet. The penultimate entry: 2013: In the newest season of Portlandia, one episode opens with a sketch where a real nerd (clearly not an actor) pleads for people to stop saying they’re nerds when they’re not. Sure, it could have used a female nerd in there somewhere (instead of reinforcing the idea that fake nerds = girls and real nerds = boys), but more to the point, it’s the crowning jewel of the growing backlash against “fake nerds”. You know you’re mainstream when you start trying to exclude people for not being enough like you. The suggested soundtrack for this article: "Hip to be Square" by Huey Lewis. Link

How High Can a Tiger Jump? Posted: 02 Feb 2013 11:00 PM PST (Video Link) The answer is VERY high. Surprisingly high. Enough that you should really back away from the computer monitor before starting this video. -via TYWKIWDBI

Fast Car, Hairy Dog Posted: 02 Feb 2013 10:00 PM PST What is this strange and fierce creature? It's redditor gweebah's dog, sticking his head out the car window. In  case you are wondering (and of course you are), this is what the dog looks like at zero speed. Link  -via Dangerous Minds

In Praise of Shortened Attention Spans Posted: 02 Feb 2013 09:00 PM PST Popular wisdom holds that American attention spans have diminished over the past few decades. But cultural critic Terry Teachout thinks that's just fine: The latest alleged trend to set the world in a tizzy is the Crisis of Shorter Attention Spans, a dire development that has been brought about by the rise of the Internet. Or texting. Or iTunes. Or Twitter. Or whatever. I find it hard to get upset about this existential threat to Western civilization, though, perhaps because I'm part of the problem. My attention span is much shorter now than it was a decade ago—and that's just fine with me. Part of the "problem," after all, turns out to be that Americans have gotten smarter, or at least quicker on the uptake. Take a look at any TV sitcom of the 1950s and '60s and compare it to modern-day televised fare. It's startling to see how slow-moving those old shows were. The same thing is true of live theater. The leisurely expositions of yesteryear, it turns out, aren't necessary: You can count on contemporary audiences to get the point and see where you're headed, and they don't want to wait around for you to catch up with them. Does this mean that the discursive masterworks of the past are no longer accessible? Yes and no. A great work of art that is organically long, like "The Marriage of Figaro" or "Remembrance of Things Past," will never lack for audiences. But just as most of Shakespeare's plays can and should be cut in performance, so should today's artists always keep in mind that most of us are too busy to watch as they circle the airport, looking for a place to land. What is the benefit of a shortened attention span? It encourages people to (as I find myself often asking in business meetings) get to the point, please: Anyone who doubts the virtues of brevity should take a look at Oxford University Press's "Very Short Introduction" series, in which celebrated experts write with extreme concision about their areas of expertise. Each volume in the series is about 140 pages long and runs to roughly 35,000 words of text. (Most serious biographies, by contrast, run to between 150,000 and 200,000 words.) How much can you say about a big subject in 35,000 words? Plenty, if you're Harvey C. Mansfield writing about Alexis de Tocqueville or Kenneth Minogue writing about politics. These "Very Short Introductions" are models of their kind—crisp, clear and animated by a strong point of view. Teachout goes on at length about the series. But, honestly, I didn't read the whole article. Link -via Joe Carter | Photo: mrJasonWeaver POLL: Is it good that we have shorter attention spans? Yes, because, as Teachout argues, it encourages people to express themselves concisely. No, because it diminishes our ability to think about complex topics. tl;dr

ZOMG! Shark in the Hallway! Posted: 02 Feb 2013 08:00 PM PST Austrian photographer Klaus Pichler was walking home late one night when he passed by the Vienna Museum of Natural History and saw a light shining through the museum's basement window. He peeked and saw wonders inside: “It all started when I happened to catch a glimpse through a basement window of the museum one night: an office with a desk, a computer, shelves, and a stuffed antelope," writes the Austrian photographer. “The experience left me wondering: What does a museum look like behind the scenes?” He was granted access to photograph the museum and ended up spending far longer than he intended on the project, which is currently on view at the museum until February 3. “As a photographer with limited knowledge of scientific research methods, the museum’s back rooms presented to me a huge array of still life," he adds. "Full of life, but dead nonetheless.” So, how does the museum store all their fantastic specimen, like the life-size shark above? Pichler shows us in his project called Skeletons in the Closet: View more over at Klaus' official website: Link or if you're in the neighborhood, check out the show (going on till Feb 3, 2013) - via Co.DESIGN and PopSci

Ear Buddies Ear Buds Posted: 02 Feb 2013 07:00 PM PST Ear Buddies Ear Buds Are you all ears when it comes to exciting new products? Let us bend your ear a little bit and tell you about the amazing Ear Buddies Ear Buds from the NeatoShop. This great pair of ear buds looks like a tiny pair of ears and is compatible with any device with a 3.5 mm jack. They make a fantastic accessory. All eyes and ears will be on these cute as a bug's ear earphones. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Mobile Phone & Tablet Gadgets.  Link

StrawBEARy Posted: 02 Feb 2013 07:00 PM PST It's a strawberry that looks like a bear! Redditor Taybow found this fruit. Bear with me as I marvel at its beauty. Also: bacon Link -via Foodbeast

Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate Wedding Posted: 02 Feb 2013 06:00 PM PST (YouTube link) Film director Roman Polanski married movie star Sharon Tate in London on January 20, 1968. Sharon Tate would be murdered by the Manson Family a year and a half later. Polanski was arrested for statutory rape in 1977. He fled to Europe to avoid sentencing and hasn't been back to the U.S. since. Just for a moment though, let's put all that unpleasantness aside and marvel at the fact that we now know exactly who the character Austin Powers was based upon. -via Everlasting Blort

Grilled Cheese Poutine Sandwich Posted: 02 Feb 2013 05:00 PM PST Cheese curds, fries and sharp cheddar. Fry them between two slices of bread and dip the sandwich in beef gravy. Nick of DudeFoods may not be a trained chef, but he's mastered the craft. Link

Thirsty Koala Posted: 02 Feb 2013 04:00 PM PST It's midsummer in Australia, and a koala can get mighty thirsty. One of them followed a woman around for an hour because she had bottles of water! Woo-Hyang Sun and her husband were out for her morning walk in Athelstone, a suburb of Adelaide, when they saw a koala in a tree. They snapped its picture, and Sun gave the animal a drink of water from the palm of her hand. The koala wanted more, and started following the couple. The koala ended up drinking all three bottles that Sun carried! They eventually led her back to the original tree, and had to relinquish the final bottle before the koala was satisfied. Link -via Arbroath

Stop That Zebra! Posted: 02 Feb 2013 03:00 PM PST Photo: Toshufumi Kitamura Japan is earthquake country, so the staff at the Tama Zoo in Tokyo, Japan, are preparing for the contingency of animal escape after an earthquake. In this annual drill, one lucky staff member got to be the escapee zebra, while the rest of the zoo chased him down (complete with nets, tranquilizer guns and, as you can see above, a cute little zebra-painted van). Video clip below: More pics over at The Week: Link

Shoe Forms of the Stars Posted: 02 Feb 2013 02:00 PM PST This photo allegedly shows shoe forms made for celebrities of a bygone era. They were kept by Salvatore Ferragamo, the famous shoe designer. Why visit for a custom fitting when you can just leave your feet on-site? Link -via Explore | Photo: unknown

Unintentionally Hilarious Vintage Valentine's Day Cards Posted: 02 Feb 2013 01:00 PM PST Mitch O'Connell collect vintage ephemera from comic books, advertising, and other sources. He has assembled Valentines day cards of yore with outdated, badly punned, or unintelligible messages that make you go "Huh?" Subject matter includes anger issues, from punching, stabbing, shooting your loved one to running them over with your car. "A woman's place is in the home" themes with pots 'n pans, brooms and dust pans expressing how your heart beats for them. "Find the hidden penis" is a M.O'C Blog Valentine favorite with suggestively placed rulers, logs, bananas, balloons, rocket ships, and hot dogs showing how you really, REALLY feel! Yeah, a few of these are intentional. And you have to wonder how many were slipped in to see what the artist could get away with. Link -via Boing Boing

Kokeshi Blocks Posted: 02 Feb 2013 12:00 PM PST Kokeshi Blocks (multiple sets shown) Traditional Kokeshi dolls are a celebrated form of Japanese folk art that originated in northern Japan. They are typically handmade from wood. The wood is carved into a elementary shape featuring a large head and simple trunk. These beautiful art pieces are often painted in red and black and feature a floral design. They offer a kind of uncomplicated beauty.  The Kokeshi Blocks from the NeatoShop honor the exquisite craftsmanship of the traditional Japanese Kokeshi folk art. These House Industries designed blocks are handcrafted from sustainable Michigan basswood. Each set is printed by hand.  The Kokeshi blocks set includes four wood blocks. The blocks can be combined and recombined to create a visually versatile puzzle. This is proof that toys don't need to be guady and made out of plastic to be entertaining.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Educational & Science Toys.  Link

Brick Habitats That Fit into Walls Posted: 02 Feb 2013 12:00 PM PST Chooi-leng Tan wants "to help bring nature back to the places it has been unceremoniously pushed out of: residential neighborhoods." So she designed these bricks that can be added to walls during construction. When finished, the bricks provide housing for birds and plants. Link | Designer's Website

Upside Downton Abbey Posted: 02 Feb 2013 11:00 AM PST (YouTube link) A new skit from the Muppets of Sesame Street spoof the TV show Downton Abbey. Steak and kidney pie, anyone?  -via Tastefully Offensive

Antique Pocket Watch Spy Camera Posted: 02 Feb 2013 10:00 AM PST This marvel of precision craftsmanship from 1886 is the Lancaster & Son Watch Camera. The collapsable camera fits neatly into the case of an ordinary pocket watch. Lionel Hughes, a collector and expert on antique cameras, writes that "Such tiny cameras were the forerunners for the 'spy'camera." Link | Photos: Lionel Hughes Photographica

The Pulp-O-Mizer Posted: 02 Feb 2013 09:00 AM PST One of my favorite websites is Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual. As entertaining as the stories are, it is a tremendous time sink for a busy person (but a great way to spend a rainy day). Now, Thrilling Tales presents the Pulp-O-Mizer, with which you can generate your own vintage pulp magazine cover! There are many ways to customize yours -these were done in no time at all! Link -via Metafilter

Second Grade Class Learns Grammar by Correcting the Tweets of Pro Football Players Posted: 02 Feb 2013 08:00 AM PST NFL players are doing a service to students at the Elmwood Franklin School in Buffalo, New York simply by tweeting. They're providing great examples of bad grammar which second grade students are correcting. Perhaps we could recruit them to use Neatorama that way. Link -via Super Punch | Photo: Elmwood Franklin School

Best Cat Toy Ever? Posted: 02 Feb 2013 07:00 AM PST (YouTube link) My cats would have pounced immediately and made a real mess of this. Shammy is fascinated! Okay, be honest -were you watching the cat or the toy? This video is from domino artist Flippycat, whose work we have featured a few times.  -via the Presurfer

Judge Ordered 12-Year-Old Boy to Get a Job Posted: 02 Feb 2013 06:00 AM PST Parents have been telling their children to get a job for ages, but when a judge does it, that's definitely new. A Western Massachusetts boy who spray-painted graffiti onto his neighbor’s homes as an 11-year-old was ordered Wednesday to get a job so he can pay the victim’s $1,000 restitution – and learn a life lesson at the same time. The boy, who was identified in the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruling by the pseudonym of “Avram,” had previously had charges of juvenile delinquency put on hold for one year in return for his promise to make restitution to his Easthampton neighbors. After he failed to pay a single penny within that year, Juvenile Court Judge James G. Collins extended the now-12-year-old boy’s probation for four years and ordered him to get a job – an order defense attorney Craig R. Bartolomei said was contrary to juvenile law and to the reality of society today. Problem is, what kind of job can a 12-year-old boy legally do? The kid's defense attorney pondered: “The state itself limits what they [12-year-olds] can do,’’ Bartolomei said in a telephone interview. “They can be actors, with a permit. They can work a farm, and they can basically deliver newspapers. But kids don’t deliver newspapers any more.’’ John Ellement of the Boston Globe reports: Link

Great Ideas Pocket Notes Posted: 02 Feb 2013 05:00 AM PST Great Ideas Pocket Notes The New Year is here. Are you resolved to make this year the year you follow through on your brilliant (and some okay) ideas? You need the Great Ideas Pocket Notes from the NeatoShop. This fantastic pad of paper contains 50 sheets. Each sheet gives a space for the date, details, and those important next steps. It is a perfect way chronicle all your most precious thoughts.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Office & Desk items.  Link

This Week at Neatorama Posted: 02 Feb 2013 05:00 AM PST Today is the day, the annual day of prognostication celebrated as Groundhog Day. On the calendar, February 2nd is halfway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, and that means midwinter. But hope spring eternal, so we depend on a rodent to tell us what the weather might be for the next few weeks. Where I live, we are expecting several inches of snow today, so maybe the local groundhog won't see his shadow. With my luck, he won't come out of the ground at all! And tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, a day set aside in America to eat lots of fattening, spicy snacks, critique expensive TV ads, and oh yeah, watch football. I hope you have a marvelous weekend! Maybe you'll have time to catch up on what you may have missed on Neatorama while you were working through the week. To get you ready for this important holiday, we posted The Groundhog Oscillation: Evidence of Global Change, from The Annals of Improbable Research. Uncle John's Bathroom Reader brought us the story of Happy Days. Mothers Superior: Not Your Everyday Nuns came from mental_floss magazine. Over at the Spotlight Blog, where we can post bigger pictures for your viewing pleasure, Alex gave us Spot the Hidden LEGO: Gorgeous In Pieces Artwork by Dean West and Nathan Sawaya. Then there were a couple of "shorties" from the Bathroom Reader series: Kalashnikov Pat & the Helicopter Jailbreaks and Star Trek Wisdom. Contests! Boy, did we have contests this week. First off, we had a contest to Win a Personalized Robot Portrait by artist Ben Rollman. Congratulations to Jorg Weese who won with this comment: "If I were a robot, I'd 1000010101111010100111010110101100000101100011111…" Then we had a sudden contest to let you Win Funny T-Shirts from the NeatoShop! It was a sneaky way to let everyone know about the updated and expanded line of T-shirts available at the NeatoShop. Congratulations to the winners, April Wade, Muzition, and M.S.K. Brown. In this week's What Is It game, the object is a saw toothed fireplace trammel for hanging pots over a fireplace from various heights. Read more about it at the What Is It? blog. The first to guess correctly was Edward Krakowiak, who wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer was from stephensmg, who said: "While scissors may not have been the best choice for Edward, The Inventor’s first choice was much worse." That's also good for a t-shirt! Also, congratulation to the winners of the Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #23, triquetriquerolima. nirendollen, weneki, and Jay L. The most popular post of the week was Surf Forever in Kelly Slater's Donut Pool followed by The Whale Photobomb. The post with the most comments this week (besides the contests) was Game Theory and Leaving the Toilet Seat Down followed by 46 Reasons My Three Year Old Might be Freaking Out. The comment of the week came from Blake Helms. In the post about Zimbabwe having only a couple dollars left in their national treasury, he said, "That's what Zimbabwe gets for replying back to Nigeria's emails." Go to the NeatoShop and pick out something unique and memorable for your Valentine! We collaborate with independent artists Zach Manchester of Odd Art Fabrications, Mike Jacobsen, Adam Koford and more of your favorite artists to bring you exclusive items you'll only find there. And we have a special section of lover's gifts for the holiday.  I found this picture labeled "Alanis irony or actual irony?" at the Neatoramanauts Facebook page. You need to check that out regularly to see gems like this! Tell your friends to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, too! And mobile users: Flipboard makes it easy to keep up with Neatorama. Usability tip of the week: Did you know you can add pictures and videos to your comments now? When you click on the comment field, look to the upper right for buttons that will enable you to upload an image or enter a video address. A picture may take a minute or two to appear after you save, then reloading should make it appear (if it doesn't appear immediately). I love seeing other people's contributions to a post! W're always open for suggestions, requests, kudos, complaints, and questions. Let us know how we can make coming to Neatorama a more enlightening and enjoyable experience for you!

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