Neatorama

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• The Tell-Tale Heart Pendant Chocker
• Sonic Water
• Teen Built DIY Submarine out of Drainage Pipe
• Spider Silk Dress
• Meet The Latest Thing That Can Kill Humanity: MERS-CoV
• The Last Bagel
• Zombie Motivation: Don't Think of It as Cardio, Think of it as Zombie Survival Training
• Plane Car (or is it Car Plane?)
• A (Literally) Balanced Diet
• Son Born in Prison Bailed Out Mom After 19 Years
• London Comic Con Music Video by Sneaky Zebra
• Who Are You Calling An Old Bag? Luggage Tag
• The Color of Bach
• Global Flight Paths
• Floor Charts: Ridiculously Funny Visual Aids from US Congress
• Burger King Employee Hid Robbers' Getaway Car
• The Happiest Nation on Earth
• Why Has Engineering Fallen From Grace?
• Animal Sneezing
• Surviving the World
• What Happened When the Warden Forgot to Lock the Cell Doors in a Swedish Prison
• 8 Bizarre Candies Spotted at the 99 Cents Store
• Moustachionery Notecards
• Guinness Book Tape Measure [no. 989 - @Aspersioncast]
• Brainteaser: Kinship
• Edward D. Cope, Heads Above the Rest, the First Electronic Publisher in Science
• Propane Tank Benches

The Tell-Tale Heart Pendant Chocker Posted: 29 May 2013 04:00 AM PDT The Tell-Tale Heart Pendant Choker Are you looking for the perfect gift for your favorite Edgar Allan Poe fan? Get her The Tell-Tale Heart Pendant Choker from the NeatoShop. The beautiful anatomical heart shaped pendant is affixed to a soft piece of velvet.  A striking lobster claw clasp secures the necklace to the wearer. The heart pendant opens to reveal a quote from Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. The inscription reads, " It is the beating of his hideous heart!" Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more devilishly fun Jewelry.  Link

Sonic Water Posted: 29 May 2013 04:00 AM PDT This is mesmerizing: For their art installation Sonic Water, Sven Meyer of Elfenmaschine and Kim Pörksen of Piece of Cake, put a cap of water on a vibrating plate on top of a loudspeaker. The result is a gorgeous music visualization based on cymatics (or the study of visible sound and vibrations). [http://vimeo.com/65428138] Link - via designboom (Photos: Diephotodesigner.de and Kim Pörksen)

Teen Built DIY Submarine out of Drainage Pipe Posted: 29 May 2013 03:00 AM PDT Give me a ping, Beckerman. One ping only, please. Many high school students are planning to lounge around the lake this summer, but not Mendham High School, New Jersey, student Justin Beckerman. The 18-year old teen will be doing the final testing of his one-man DIY submarine, made from drainage pipe: Co-existing with Jet Skis and fishing boats in the picturesque West Jersey lake is Justin’s latest invention — complete with lights, paddles, ballasts, air compressors, 2,000 feet of wire and a Plexiglas dome top that looks like the head of Star Wars robot R2-D2. Justin, who turned 18 last weekend, spent a month designing and five months building his 9-foot-long submarine, into which he can fit. Mike Frassinelli of The Star-Ledger has the story: Link - via Gizmodo (Photos: Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger)

Spider Silk Dress Posted: 29 May 2013 02:00 AM PDT Stylish and bullet proof! What's not to like? This new blue dress by Japanese company Spiber is woven from synthetic spider silk, which is five times stronger than steel, more flexible than nylon, and is extremely lightweight. The electric-blue dress was created from a material Spiber calls Qmonos (from kumonosu, or "spider web," in Japanese). [...] The high-collared cocktail dress, on display at the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo, was created to demonstrate the technology behind Qmonos. The territorial nature of spiders makes them difficult to farm like silkworms. So instead, Spiber developed a technology that uses synthesized genes and coaxes bacteria to produce fibroin, the structural protein in spider silk. Spiber then uses technology it developed to culture the microbes efficiently and weave the fibroin into fabric. Apart from clothing, Qmonos could potentially be be used to make film, gels, sponges, artificial blood vessels, and nanofibers. Tim Hornyak of CNET has the scoop: Link

Meet The Latest Thing That Can Kill Humanity: MERS-CoV Posted: 29 May 2013 01:00 AM PDT Time to panic! A new SARS-like virus found in human has all the potential to cause a global pandemic. Meet the novel Coronavirus (nCOV or MERS-CoV) - and yes, it's transmissible from human to human: A new SARS-like virus recently found in humans is "a threat to the entire world," according to the director-general of the United Nations' World Health Organization. The so-called novel coronavirus "is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself," Margaret Chan said Monday in her closing remarks at the 66th World Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. "We do not know where the virus hides in nature. We do not know how people are getting infected. Until we answer these questions, we are empty-handed when it comes to prevention. These are alarm bells. And we must respond," she said. CNN has the post: Link Like Madagascar said, SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING!

The Last Bagel Posted: 29 May 2013 12:00 AM PDT This place has got lots of donuts and croissants, but it's a fight to the DEATH for that one bagel! Via Neatorama Facebook page, where you'll find even more neat stuff daily!

Zombie Motivation: Don't Think of It as Cardio, Think of it as Zombie Survival Training Posted: 28 May 2013 11:00 PM PDT Motivate by Alan Bao Need a little motivation to get some exercise? How about a horde of zombies? As T-shirt designer Alan Bao said, don't think of it as "cardio." Think of it as "survival training for the inevitable zombie apocalypse." Take a look at Alan's website and Tumblr, the head on over to his NeatoShop page and buy: Link Queen of Hearts King of Clubs Contemporary Avian Discourse The Joker View more T-shirt designs by Alan Bao | Zombie T-Shirts and more Zombie items Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Plane Car (or is it Car Plane?) Posted: 28 May 2013 10:00 PM PDT It's 2013 and our flying car isn't here yet, but Jeff "Speedy Cop" Bloch has the next best thing. The 40-year-old Washington, D.C. police officer combined an old Cessna aircraft with a Toyota fan to create this plane car. Or is it car plane? Find out more over at Jeff's website: Link

A (Literally) Balanced Diet Posted: 28 May 2013 09:00 PM PDT Pizza Margherita Talk about a balanced diet! Italian stylist Elena Mora and photographer Karsten Wegenerto created this photography series titled Ricettario: A Balanced Diet, featuring the ingredients of your favorite food. Link - via My Modern Met Apple Cake Minestrone Salmon

Son Born in Prison Bailed Out Mom After 19 Years Posted: 28 May 2013 08:00 PM PDT Vijay Kumari was granted bail, but the poor Indian woman couldn't pay the $180 needed to secure her release, so she sat in jail, forgotten by the system and everybody else. For 19 long years. But someone remembered her. She thought she was going to die in jail, but then one day, her son who was born while in jail, managed to scrape enough money working as a seamstress to get her out. Sanjoy Mujamder reports from Kanpur, India, for the BBC about the state of the Indian justice system in the 21st century: Link

London Comic Con Music Video by Sneaky Zebra Posted: 28 May 2013 07:00 PM PDT Sneaky Zebra (previously on Neatorama) went to MCM London Comic Con 2013 and came back with this music video (with music from Can't Stop Won't Stop): London Comic Con landed in May 2013 and blessed with the rare event of a sunny weekend in the UK the crowds piles in for 3 days worth of cosplay, games, comics and film so we took our Flycam along to capture some of the amazing costumes and atmosphere to show off just how the awesome the UK cosplay scene is!  Most Excellent! Watch it over at Geeks Are Sexy: Link - Thanks Yan!

Who Are You Calling An Old Bag? Luggage Tag Posted: 28 May 2013 06:00 PM PDT Who Are You Calling An Old Bag? Luggage Tag (sold individually) The summer travel season is almost here. Defend your well loved luggage against loss and theft with the Who Are You Calling An Old Bag? Luggage Tag from the NeatoShop. This eye-catching tag, with sturdy strap and ID card insert, features a cheeky retro design. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Travel Accessories. Link

The Color of Bach Posted: 28 May 2013 06:00 PM PDT Play a Bach concerto, close your eyes, then envision a color. What color do you see? Stephen Palmer, a vision scientists from UC Berkeley, can predict what sort of colors you'd pick from the music you're listening to: “We can predict with 95 percent accuracy how happy or sad the colors people pick will be, based on how happy or sad the music is that they’re listening to,” said Stephen Palmer, a University of California, Berkeley vision scientist, in a statement. Palmer and a team of researchers at Berkeley asked nearly 100 people to listen to 18 pieces of classical music that varied in key and tempo. The participants —half from San Francisco and half from Guadalajara, Mexico—were then asked to choose five colors that they most associated with each piece, selecting from a 37-color palette. The results, published May 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that people in both countries picked bright, warmer colors when they heard faster, more upbeat music and darker, cooler colors for pieces in minor keys. Those connections, he says, are largely based on emotional connections our brains make. In other words, if a classical music piece is happy and lively, people are more likely to pick colors that are also happy and lively because they feel happy and lively when listening to the music.  Melody Kramer of National Geographic's Pop Omnivore has the post: Link - Thanks Anna Kukelhaus!

Global Flight Paths Posted: 28 May 2013 05:00 PM PDT Man, that's a lot of frequent flyer miles! Canadian transportation planner Michael Markieta who works at engineering firm Arup in Toronto as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) consultant, crunched the data of more than 58,000 global flight paths and visualized them in these fantastic images:

Floor Charts: Ridiculously Funny Visual Aids from US Congress Posted: 28 May 2013 04:00 PM PDT Hidden in countless hours of C-SPAN footage of Senators and Congress members droning on and on are these snapshots of their visual aids. Thankfully, a C-SPAN producer named Bill Gray has compiled the most ridiculous ones on his Tumblr blog Floor Charts. Your tax dollars at work: Link - via Co.DESIGN View more over at Floor Charts

Burger King Employee Hid Robbers' Getaway Car Posted: 28 May 2013 03:00 PM PDT Dude, where's the getaway car? After two criminals robbed a local Burger King last week, they ran out of the fast food joint to realize that their getaway car was missing: As the men allegedly forced two employees to hand over money from the cash register and safe, a third employee ran outside—where he found their running car and drove it around the block and out of sight, reports the Record. "I haven't heard of any employee actually leaving a business, getting inside the suspect vehicle, and trying to hide it," says a Stockton officer. Link

The Happiest Nation on Earth Posted: 28 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT Photo: Michal Kowalski/Shutterstock With cute animals like koalas and rockin' economy, it's no wonder that Australia is a happy place. In fact, it has just been ranked as the world's happiest nation three years running by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): Australia has been named the world's happiest industrialized nation for the third year running, based on criteria including satisfaction, work-life balance, income and housing, a survey released Tuesday has found. The so-called "lucky country" beat Sweden and Canada to take the top spot in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Better Life Index. Australia has remained largely immune from the global financial crisis, with its economy growing on average 3.5% over the last 20 years to 2012, according to the CIA Factbook. CNN's Irene Chapple reports: Link

Why Has Engineering Fallen From Grace? Posted: 28 May 2013 01:00 PM PDT You don't see many engineers in movies, said structural engineer Tristram Carfrae, and when you do, they're often "portrayed as socially inadequate mechanics, supporting the vision and ideas of others." That, according to Carfrae, is how a lot of people see engineers (case in point: do you see Iron Man's Tony Stark as a genius entrepreneur or a brilliant engineer?) But why? Why has the engineering profession fallen from grace? How did we get to this position? The panel discussion started by considering whether the Second World War was a turning point in the perception of engineers. It asked if seeing engineers put their skills to such destructive effect changed people’s opinions of them. I had to agree, particularly in regards to the dropping of the H-bomb at the end of the war. Compare this with the perception of engineers during the industrial revolution. We think of engineers from that time as part of a great leap forward – distinctive heroes with distinctive personas like Isambard Kingdom Brunel doing great things. I suspect this has a lot to do with the fact that characters like Brunel were public relations-savvy entrepreneurs as well as being brilliant engineers. [...] In building engineering, the Western world currently has around ten times more engineers than it does architects. But I’d be willing to bet you can find at least ten times more comments and opinions in the media from architects than from engineers. We have to close this gap. Another related issue is our background in mathematics. We’re examined by questions that ask us to find the single, definitive answer – all other answers being wrong. Being trained to solve puzzles means we’re less comfortable dealing with more subjective areas where one solution may be as good as another; where it comes down to our opinion.  Read the rest over at Carfrae's blog post: Link

Animal Sneezing Posted: 28 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT Ah, aaahh, aaaaahhh LOVE this video clip compilation of sneezing animals over at VideoSift. Who knew that turtles can sneeze? Link

Surviving the World Posted: 28 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT I wonder how blogger would fare in Dante Shepherd's Surviving the World series, a nifty webcomic "lessons" he started back in 2008 (and has been going strong ever since! I can't believe we haven't featured him before here on Neatorama). Take a look at the whole series, starting from the first lesson: Link (Be prepared to lose hours hitting the "random" button) View more over at Dante's official website: Link

What Happened When the Warden Forgot to Lock the Cell Doors in a Swedish Prison Posted: 28 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT Did you forget to lock your front door? Take heart, at least you didn't forget to lock the cell doors of prison inmates, like what happened to the warden of Norrätlje prison in Sweden: Via Criggo and Miss Cellania

8 Bizarre Candies Spotted at the 99 Cents Store Posted: 28 May 2013 09:00 AM PDT The 99¢ Only Stores are great places to pick up cheap stuff, but also the best for spotting the funniest, strangest brands. Here are 8 candies that I'd never heard of before this past weekend. Anyone every try any of these? Leave a comment below and let us know! 1. Big Hunk On the back, it reads "Bust it. Smack it." Um?? 2. Belly Flops Look what it says on the back! Basically, you're buying their rejects. Om no-thanks-m. 3. Warheads Chewy cubes in a new bigger size! Wait, I think I missed the original size. Darn? 4. Super Cucharazo Not sure what that is in the spoon, but I'm not buying it. 5. Texas Hold'Em Almost bought these just for the tagline: Winner eats all! 6. Graffiti Taffy At the bottom of the bag it says: "Different flavors every time!" Yeah, more reject candy... I don't think so. 7. 8 Chocolatey Covered Marshmallows This candy is so sorry looking, it doesn't even have a real name! 8. Sweet'N Low Don't like it in my coffee, so I'm probably not going to enjoy the "candy" version either. Oh, and surprise-surprise, it's "sugar free."

Moustachionery Notecards Posted: 28 May 2013 08:00 AM PDT Moustachionery Notecards Are you looking for a stationery set that speaks of your undying love of mustaches? You need the Moustachionery Notecards from the NeatoShop. This fantastic collection includes 12 photographic notecards of animals and funny food. Also enclosed are 2 sheets of hilarious mustache stickers for your notecard decorating pleasure.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Stationery.  Link

Guinness Book Tape Measure [no. 989 - @Aspersioncast] Posted: 28 May 2013 08:00 AM PDT What sort of tape measure does the guy from The Guinness Book of Records use to measure the worlds longest tape measure? — Aspersioncast (@Aspersioncast) May 3, 2013

Brainteaser: Kinship Posted: 28 May 2013 07:00 AM PDT What's the closest relation the son of your father's brother's sister-in-law could be to you? Continue reading for the answer. Show Answer You or your brother. ___________________ This brainteaser was reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!

Edward D. Cope, Heads Above the Rest, the First Electronic Publisher in Science Posted: 28 May 2013 06:00 AM PDT The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research. by Earle E. Spamer, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia This is an abridged version, ruined specially for the web. To read the full original article in all its glory or lack thereof, see the print magazine. When Edward Drinker Cope died in Philadelphia in 1897, he was one of the most famous men of ichthyology, herpetology, and vertebrate paleontology. One would think that with such acclaim he would have his head on straight. Demonstrably, such was not the case. Cope and Marsh Cope was a fiery antagonist when it came to publishing. He is the Cope of the infamous "Cope-Marsh War" that pitted him against arch-scientific-rival Othniel Marsh of Yale University, about which numerous articles and at least two books have been written. Going for the Old Cope spent summers in the freshly exposed wilds of the American West, spending hugely (mostly from government funds) to hunt for and haul equally huge volumes of bones back to Philadelphia. He had used to get fossils for free from marl pit workers in New Jersey, when the source dried up without apparent cause. Marsh, made wealthy by an indulgent uncle, George Peabody, who bought him the Yale Peabody Museum, had been introduced by Cope to the pit bosses in New Jersey. And now Othniel had begun to pay them for the very fossils they used to give away to Cope. Edward had inherited a considerable amount of money from the Philadelphia mercantile business of grandfather and father Cope. But he managed to lose quite of bit of that in bad mining deals out West, and he didn't hold nicely to the idea of having to pay for earthly treasures. So he took the show on the road. Rival Ravagers Cope connected up with one of the predecessors of the U.S. Geological Survey. With his field crew he ravaged the West for bigger and newer extinct animals to discover and describe. Unfortunately, Marsh also hit the dusty trail. Sometimes the two camps resorted to spies and skullduggery -- even firepower -- to take over prime fossil-collecting areas and to way-lay crated shipments intended for the other. From here on it was a bitter rivalry in field and print, lasting all their lives. In the world of scientific names of biological organisms, whoever first validly publishes a new description "wins." Good science or bad, the date of publication is the arbitrating factor. So, what's a paleontologist to do if he knows he has found a previously undescribed fossil, but he's way out on the frontier? Call home! The Birth and Torment of Electronic Publishing The telegraph was one of the new contraptions of the civilized 19th century. All Cope had to do was to saunter 10 or 20 miles to the telegraph office, scurry off a few messages in his awful handwriting, and have them sent to the Academy or to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, who dutifully published the descriptions in the next monthly installment of their respective scientific publications -- the 19th-century version of instant gratification. Head of Steam As if sneaky priority and misappropriated names weren't already enough to inflame an archrivalry like theirs, Marsh one day not so privately pointed out to Cope that the Philadelphian had placed the head of an extinct reptile on the wrong end. Cope had named Elasmosaurus based on bones sent to him from Kansas. At first he gave two different names to the bones, thinking them to be from different creatures, then discovered they were but one. Drawing a reconstruction of the skeleton, he showed a giant ocean-swimming reptile with a short neck and a very long tail. So pleased was Cope that he distributed offprints of the article before the whole issue of the journal was published. Except (as Marsh was quick to point out) that he had failed to notice a key anatomical indication of "front" and "back" in the reptile vertebrae. In fact the long, flexible tail was a long, flexible neck.  Reconstruction of Cope's Elasmosaurus Mortified, Cope attempted to recall and destroy all the copies he had sent out. (He missed a few, so we know about the mistake today.) He redrew the skeleton and rewrote parts of the description, which already had been typeset and laid in galleys at the print shop; but he grammatically connected the pieces badly, and it shows. He tried to cover the whole thing up by redistributing new offprints with the same date of publication as the first (of course with no mention of Marsh's assistance). Sadly, perhaps, the "good old days" of scientific rivalry, pitting vanity against wealth without the impediment of peer review, are gone. In any case, name-calling precludes a level head in the tactical war of words. Reference The Bone Sharp -- The Life of Edward Drinker Cope, Jane Pierce Davidson, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadephia, 1997. _____________________ This article is republished with permission from the November-December 2000issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift! Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

Propane Tank Benches Posted: 28 May 2013 05:00 AM PDT Propane--it's what American philosopher Hank Hill calls "God's gas." Sculptor Colin Selig takes the tanks that gas is stored in and turns them into benches. Some are conventional and still look like propane tanks. Others are, you can see, delightfully eccentric. Link -via NotCot

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