Neatorama |
- Solarium Made of Caramelized Sugar
- Avocado Donuts
- Zoom iPhone 5 Case and Easel
- Teenagers Develop Specialized Brain Cells for Flirting
- What Happens if You Drop a Hot Charcoal into Liquid Oxygen?
- No Country For Old Muppets
- Mad Optimus 2: The Road Warrior
- Giant Message in a Bottle
- Watermelon Swiss Roll
- Metalheads Paint a Room by Headbanging
- Susanna Bauer's Embroidered Leaves
- Thor Prancercising
- Fantastic Crochet Blankets Featuring Retro Video Game Characters
- Manatea Tea Infuser
- Dialect Maps of the United States
- These Nerdlaces Are Geekdorable
- The Tiniest of the Tiniest Deer
- Fancy Kaylee, Meet Bearded Kaylee
- Do You Want Fried Chicken Or Pizza? How About Both?
- This Little Piggy Must Choose Between Love and Breakfast
- Are You Prepared for the Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe?
- The 25 Most Powerful Songs of the Past 25 Years
- Supergirl As A Classic Pin Up
| Solarium Made of Caramelized Sugar Posted: 08 Jun 2013 04:00 AM PDT William Lamson made this solarium out of 162 panes of caramelized sugar. Set on a remote hill, the translucent house is a place for quiet contemplation:
It would make a fine wedding chapel, don't you think?  |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2013 02:00 AM PDT Today is National Donut Day (peace be upon you), a holy day of great importance. To mark the occasion, Dominique Zamora rounded up some of the strangest, most inventive donut recipies around. This is Lori and Michelle's avocado donut. It's so healthy that I suspect that it's actually dangerous. Their recipe is gluten free, vegan, soyfree and low sugar. You might want to eat a glazed donut afterward just be on the safe side. |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2013 12:00 AM PDT Are you on the hunt for the perfect gift for your favorite photography buff? Check out the Zoom iPhone 5 Case and Easel from the NeatoShop. This fun and functional silicone case makes the phone look like a traditional camera. The collapsible lens extends out and doubles as an easel for the phone. The case also comes with a removable 28-1/2" silicone strap for toting your the phone around your neck. The Zoom iPhone Case and Easel is available in:
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Mobile Phone & Tablet Gadgets. |
| Teenagers Develop Specialized Brain Cells for Flirting Posted: 08 Jun 2013 12:00 AM PDT
As if developing secondary sexual characteristics ain't bad enough already, researchers from Michigan State University discovered that the teen brain may be developing brain cells that specialize in flirting:
The study was done in hamsters, but that's not much different than human teenagers from what we can tell: Link |
| What Happens if You Drop a Hot Charcoal into Liquid Oxygen? Posted: 07 Jun 2013 11:00 PM PDT Now you don't have to wonder any more. University of Nottingham chemistry professor Martyn "The Hair" Poliakoff of The Periodic Table of Videos explains why, sadly, there's no explosion involved: Hit Play or go to Link [YouTube] - via PopSci |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2013 10:00 PM PDT Gonzo must've called it wrong in the most important coin toss of his life. Dan LuVisi (previously on Neatorama) reimagined the 2007 Coen brothers movie No Country for Old Men with Muppets:
Link - via Laughing Squid |
| Mad Optimus 2: The Road Warrior Posted: 07 Jun 2013 09:00 PM PDT In April, AOL shut down Comics Alliance, one of the greatest geekery blogs in the world. But this week, it reopened for business and has been churning out great content about comic books, superheroes and more. One of my favorite features of Comics Alliance is the weekly roundup of great geek art. Marco D'Alfonso contributed this piece, a mashup of The Transformers and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Link -via Comics Alliance |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2013 08:00 PM PDT Vibeke Nørgaard Rønsbo has a big message to tell you, but we can't read it right now. Her sculpture entitled Remind floated off the shore of the Danish city of Aarhus as part of Sculpture by the Sea, a program that displays sculptures at selected coastal cities around the world. Link (Translation) -via Lustik | Artist's Website (Photo: TV2) |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2013 07:00 PM PDT By carefully layering her ingredients, Malaysian food blogger Hankerie was able to make a Swiss roll that looks like a ripe watermelon. She used a latte art method to create the rippled effect on the outside of the rind. You can find her recipe at the link. Link -via Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons |
| Metalheads Paint a Room by Headbanging Posted: 07 Jun 2013 06:00 PM PDT A smooth, uniform spread isn't right for every room. Sometimes you want a textured, rockin' appearance. These three heavy metal fans show you how it's done by dipping their long locks in paint and headbanging. -via Nerdcore |
| Susanna Bauer's Embroidered Leaves Posted: 07 Jun 2013 05:00 PM PDT I wouldn't think it possible to embroider something as delicate as a leaf, but Susanna Bauer, an artist in the UK, can do it. She carefully wraps and edges leaves and, even more impressively, splices and shapes them with thread. Link -via Knit Queer |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2013 04:00 PM PDT Everybody's prancercising. Even the son of Odin. Here's how Thor stays in supreme physical shape: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | Ryan Frye Thor's FB page - via Fashionably Geek |
| Fantastic Crochet Blankets Featuring Retro Video Game Characters Posted: 07 Jun 2013 03:00 PM PDT There's nothing quite like snuggling up under Mr. and Mrs. PacMan's love scene or an army of Space Invaders. That's why Etsy seller PenelopeandClyde sells fantastic crocheted throw blankets featuring classic scenes from some of the most iconic retro video games. I seriously want this one after all the quarters I've spent trying to get these two to make babies. Link Via Laughing Squid |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2013 02:00 PM PDT Life can be exhausting. For those days when you want to slow down the pace and gently glide through life there is the Manatea Tea Infuser from the NeatoShop. This fantastic tea infuser is shaped like your favorite marine mammal. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Manatee items and great Coffee & Tea stuff. |
| Dialect Maps of the United States Posted: 07 Jun 2013 02:00 PM PDT North Carolina State University grad student Joshua Katz has gone beyond the classic "do you say soda or pop" to map the dialects of American English. Katz took the data collected by Burt Vaux from a survey of American speech patterns and projected the results onto a map of the nation: Link | The Interactive Map See if you agree with the results: View more over at Katz' project page over at North Carolina State University: Link - via Business Insider |
| These Nerdlaces Are Geekdorable Posted: 07 Jun 2013 01:00 PM PDT Looking for a nerdy necklace that will go well with your sweet Iron Man shirt? Then why not grab one of these great Avengers necklaces from Etsy seller Nerd Fashions? If you aren't too into comics, Nerd Fashions also offers Doctor Who, Invader Zim, Ninja Turtle, Bioshock and other ecklace designs perfect for the fashionable geek lady. |
| The Tiniest of the Tiniest Deer Posted: 07 Jun 2013 12:00 PM PDT What's cuter than one of the world's smallest deer? A baby of one of the world's smallest deer. This adorable fellow here is a Southern Pudu recently born at Nordens Ark in Sweden. Even when he's full grown, he'll still only weigh around 25 pounds. |
| Fancy Kaylee, Meet Bearded Kaylee Posted: 07 Jun 2013 11:00 AM PDT These are the moments that make me truly love cosplay. When a character variant meets up with a gender-swapped version of the more traditional character, magic happens. If you don't recognize these two, then you probably aren't familiar with Firefly, which means you have much bigger problems than not recognizing two awesomely dressed people at a convention. |
| Do You Want Fried Chicken Or Pizza? How About Both? Posted: 07 Jun 2013 10:00 AM PDT Can't decide between having fried chicken or pizza for dinner? No problem, just try the Pa'Zing a pizza/chicken wings crossover by Atlanta-based restaurant Calypso Wings. Unfortunately, the restaurant isn't actually opening until late summer/early fall, but in the meanwhile, I'm sure these would be easy enough to figure out and make at home. |
| This Little Piggy Must Choose Between Love and Breakfast Posted: 07 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT Sometimes it doesn't matter whether the chicken or the egg came first. Sometimes it only matters which one we love the most. In this video, the chicken is certainly the most important choice. Via Laughing Squid |
| Are You Prepared for the Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe? Posted: 07 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT Every year, Chicken Charlies introduces a new heart attack on a plate at the San Diego Fair. Past creations have included deep fried Kool Aid, zucchini nachos, fried avocado and more. This year, the new additions include a fried bacon-wrapped pickle, deep fried cookie dough, a waffle dog and, most notably, a sloppy joe sandwich with a Krispy Kreme donut bun. I'd test out the monstrosity for you guys while I'm at the fair this Saturday, but unfortunately, I have a gluten intolerance and even a regular Krispy Kreme donut would leave me feeling like death for the next 24 hours. Of course, if you guys have any requests for things you'd like to see me check out at the fair (I'll even eat weird stuff as long as it won't make me sick), just let me know and I'll see if I can oblige while I'm there. Link Via Laughing Squid |
| The 25 Most Powerful Songs of the Past 25 Years Posted: 07 Jun 2013 07:00 AM PDT They’re not the most beautiful songs, or the most musically important. In fact, a few could literally drive you nuts. But the following tunes—some as old as Mozart, others as current as Beyonce?—have fundamentally altered the world we live in at some point in the last quarter century. They’ve saved lives, brought glory to America, and gotten teenagers to use deodorant. Somehow, they’ve made a difference. So, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the ultimate power playlist. Let the countdown begin! For all the chatter about how Mozart makes your kids smarter (false!) or how it helps with the SATs (possibly), the one thing that Mozart definitely seems to do is make sludge-eating microbes digest faster. A sewage treatment plant in Treuenbrietzen, Germany, has experimented with different operas, playing them at high volume through loudspeakers set up around the site. "The Magic Flute" seems to work best. Anton Stucki, the plant's chief operator, believes the reverberations quicken the pace for breaking down refuse. "We think the secret is in the vibrations of the music, which penetrate everything—including the water, the sewage, and the cells," he says. "It creates a certain resonance that stimulates the microbes and help them work better." Stucki doesn't even like opera; he's a rock 'n' roll fan. But he tolerates Mozart because it makes the microbes more efficient, saving the plant up to $1,250 a month. For nearly three decades, this single has been a gift to smashed college kids everywhere. Ever since the song was released in 1982, crank callers have been dialing 867-5309 and asking for “Jenny.” People who are unfortunate enough to be assigned the number can look forward to dozens of prank calls a day, depending on where they live. You might think winning elections is easy for dictators—after all, they aren’t running against anyone. But there’s still pageantry involved, which Saddam Hussein took seriously. To win the hearts and minds of Iraqis in 2002, Hussein boldly chose as his campaign anthem an Arabic cover of Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” (written by Dolly Parton). The song was played alongside footage of the dictator kissing babies, shooting guns, and striking heroic poses on Iraq’s three TV stations continuously during the election season. If that’s not proof Hussein tortured his own people, we don’t know what is. Kurt Cobain claimed he didn’t know Teen Spirit was a brand of deodorant when he wrote Nirvana’s 1991 grunge anthem. In fact, the name of the song came from his apartment wall, where a friend had spray-painted “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit.” But the song’s impact on the antiperspirant was undeniable. The product’s manufacturer, Mennen, came out with a new tagline: “Do you smell like Teen Spirit?” Sales of the deodorant skyrocketed, and Mennen quickly expanded its line of Teen Spirit products; six months after the song was released, Colgate-Palmolive bought the company for $670 million. Though grunge fans didn’t care so much about how they dressed, apparently they cared how they smelled. You may not realize it, but you know this tune all too well. Nokia introduced the 13-note piano phrase 20 years ago, creating the first ringtone. It’s estimated the passage is now heard 1.8 billion times around the world each day, about 20,000 times per second. The ringtone comes from “Gran Vals,” a 1902 guitar solo written by classical guitarist Francisco Tárrega. In 1993 the tune was hijacked by Nokia exec Anssi Vanjoki, who thought it would be the perfect default ring for the sleek, new half-pound Nokia 2110. Today, you’re not the only person tired of the tone. The search for alternate phone sounds has turned ringtones into a multi-billion dollar business. Sometimes music moves people. And sometimes it moves them out of hiding. In December 1989, the United States invaded Panama after dictator Manuel Noriega was publicly exposed as a drug czar. Noriega took refuge in the embassy of the Vatican on December 24, and American troops immediately surrounded the compound. To smoke him out without bombing the place, soldiers of the U.S. Southern Command Network Radio turned to Van Halen. Few people pay attention to public service announcements, but back in 1992, lots of people watched music videos on MTV. So on paper, it seemed like a great idea to combine the two. For Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train,” director Tony Kaye made a video featuring missing children, hoping to find them. And it worked; the video located so many runaways that Kaye made six versions—three for the United States and one each for the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany. Can a song drive you to suicide? In 1990, the heavy metal band Judas Priest was accused of prompting two drunk Reno, Nev., youths to shoot themselves after repeatedly listening to “Better By You, Better Than Me.” (One died instantly; the other survived after blowing half his face off.) Did the lyric “Do it,” allegedly hidden in the song, push them over the edge? Experts testified on both sides, but the judge dismissed the case, ruling, “The scientific research presented does not establish that subliminal stimuli, even if perceived, may precipitate conduct of this magnitude.” The precedent hasn’t been challenged since. As lead singer Rob Halford later noted, he had no reason to ask fans to commit suicide. If anything, he’d issue the command, “Buy more of our records.” The pirate way to handle a death sentence is simple: booze and Ricky Martin. After being convicted of hijacking a ship and slaughtering its crew, 13 pirates were condemned to death in China in 2000. The morning of their execution, the pirates were given 30 minutes to visit with relatives, eat their last meal, and drink all the rice wine they could stomach. As they were led through the streets of Shanwei, the gang started loudly singing the 1998 World Cup theme—Ricky Martin’s “The Cup of Life.” In their final moments of drunken revelry, the pirates chanted, “Go! Go! Go! allez! allez! allez!”—the song’s refrain— and jumped up and down in their shackles. It was the best reception a Ricky Martin song had been given in years. When compact discs were introduced in 1982, consumers marveled at the amount of information they could store. For every three-minute song, a CD uses about 32 megabytes of data. But that size proved to be unwieldy in the early, pokey days of the Internet. Using an old, dial-up modem, it might take eight hours to transfer or download a single song. So in the early 1990s, German engineer Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg pioneered digital compression techniques for the MP3, crunching the size of audio data by a factor of 11. While tweaking the format, Brandenburg used Suzanne Vega’s 1987 a cappella rendition of “Tom’s Diner” as the benchmark for sonic quality. He reasoned that if he could get her warm vocals to sound good on MP3, then the new platform would work with just about anything. So, if you love downloading music, thank Vega for having such a pretty voice. As the astronauts of Atlantis orbited the Earth during NASA’s final space shuttle mission, they experienced 15 sunrises and sunsets every day. Consequently, their circadian rhythms were thrown off a little. Since a regular alarm clock just wouldn’t cut it, on July 16, 2011, the crew received a special wake-up call from R&B diva Beyonce?. The superstar got the astronauts out of bed with her girl-power anthem “Run the World (Girls).” Then she gave a shout-out to the only woman on the four-person crew, Sandy Magnus: “This song is especially for my girl Sandy, and all the women who’ve taken us to space with them, and the girls who are our future explorers.” Was it is a cheesy publicity stunt to promote her new album? You bet! But it beats waking up to a buzzer. Right now, in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt, Germany, there’s an organ playing a song that has no end—in our lifetime, anyway. Even though the sheet music for minimalist composer John Cage’s “As Slow as Possible” is only eight pages long, the song will take 639 years to complete. It’s part of Cage’s larger exploration of how music exists in time and space; he wrote the piece for an organ because the pipes can last for thousands of years. A machine, called a blower, constantly supplies air, and a weight holds down the pedals. The first three-note chord, which was played in 2003, lasted for a year and a half. The church is committed to playing the song until it’s over. If you can’t wait for the full version, don’t worry: The club remix will drop any day now. In 1991, Natalie Cole decided to sing with her late father, Nat “King” Cole. The decision opened a virtual can of worms. New digital technology allowed her producers to electronically engineer the duet with the dead singer, basing it on Nat’s 1951 recording of “Unforgettable.” People argued that the production was unethical, and more than a little creepy—even Natalie’s mom publicly criticized her—but the controversy was eclipsed by the song’s success. The attendant album sold more than 7 million copies and swept the Grammys. Nowadays, everybody sings with dead people: Lisa Marie Presley croons with Elvis; Janet Jackson jams with Michael; and The Beatles reunited to record “Free as a Bird.” It turns out you don’t need a necromancer to communicate with the dead. You just need a decent producer. Back in 2008, Michael Phelps was the king of Beijing, setting the record for the most gold medals won at any Olympics. What was his secret? His 10,000-calorie-a-day diet? His flipperlike hands? Or perhaps ... Lil Wayne? Before each race, Phelps would tune out the world and tune into his music, removing his iPod earbuds seconds before diving in. One Israeli doctor even went so far as to accuse him of doping because music so enhanced his performance. On The Today Show, Phelps shared that Lil Wayne’s “I’m Me” had a special place in his Olympic playlist. It’s easy to see how the lyrics “There ain’t nothin’ gonna stop me, so just envy it” might resonate with a young man about to race his way into sports history. Rick Astley‘s huge 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” and its fantastically cheesy music video was meant to live and die in the 1980s, but that’s not what happened, thanks to an Internet prank dubbed “Rickrolling.” Say a coworker emails you a link to a news article or blog. You click on it, but—surprise!—you’re redirected to the video for “Never Gonna Give You Up.” One minute you think you’re about to read a story on health care, the next, a man lip-synching and wiggling in white jeans pops on your screen. The phenomenon began in 2008 on 4chan, but quickly spread across the Internet. Funny, right? Maybe the first dozen times it happens to you. In the last three years, the video has been viewed more than 50 million times. It’s one thing to write a sad song; it’s another thing to pen a song so sad that it teaches scientists the meaning of melancholy. The verve’s 1997 dirge “The Drugs Don’t Work” is about lead singer Richard Ashcroft’s dad as he lay dying in his hospital bed. It’s so depressing that it may affect people physically. In 2006, Harry Witchel, a physiologist at the University of Bristol in England, examined the body’s response to pop music. Of all the songs he studied, “The Drugs Don’t Work” had the most profound impact, slowing down heart rates and breathing. “It works like the emotional state of sadness,” says Witchel. Parodies are tricky in the eyes of the law. While the First Amendment protects free speech, it’s not exactly legal (or cool) to copy somebody else’s work. The 1985-86 season was a good one for Da Bears. The Chicago team not only dominated the National Football league but also kicked off a strange musical revolution. The team was filled with larger than life characters, including cuddly 350-pound rookie lineman William “The Refrigerator” Perry and spikey-haired punk quarterback Jim McMahon. So it stood to reason, why not let ‘em rap? On March 19, 1994, Snoop Dogg appeared on Saturday Night Live to perform his single “Gin and Juice.” Little did he know, he’d be starting a fashion frenzy. The next day, Manhattan stores sold out of the XXL-oversized red, white, and blue Tommy Hilfiger rugby shirt that Snoop wore on TV, and sales of Tommygear rose by $90 million that year. Although there were rumors that Hilfiger was displeased his preppy label had become an urban phenom, he actually courted the new demographic. Hilfiger tweaked his brand to give it a more hip-hop feel, adding brighter covers and giant logos. He even invited rappers Puffy and Coolio to walk the runway during fashion shows. Apparently, Snoop wasn’t the only one with his mind on his money and his money on his mind. About four centuries from now, Beatlemania may spread to a galaxy far, far away. In February 2008, for the first time ever, NASA beamed a song, The Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” directly into deep space through the transmitters of its communications network, with the hope that it will fall upon alien ears. The pop tune should reach the North Star, Polaris, in about 431 years. John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, characterized the song’s transmission as a significant event: “I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets,” she said. Let’s hope no aliens sample the tune—collecting royalties is going to be rough. Radiohead has been defying expectations and pioneering music trends for more than two decades, but in 2007, they became revolutionaries in the business world, too. With illegal downloading running rampant and CD sales on the decline, Radiohead decided to cut out the record companies, middlemen, and price tags altogether. They let consumers download their seventh studio album, In Rainbows (including their hit single “Jigsaw Falling into Place”), directly from their website, asking fans to pay whatever they wished. Although about one-third of the people who downloaded the album took it for free, buyers forked over an average of about $8. Within a year, the album had sold 3 million copies. And with virtually no distribution fees, it was a huge financial windfall for the band. In the years since, other groups have followed suit, and the power of the record companies has continued to dwindle. Giving it away might just prove to be the sales strategy that saves the music business. Blasting R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” at 5 a.m. might not seem like the best recipe for increased productivity, but it works for cows. Researchers in the United Kingdom have shown that playing slow, melodic songs can reduce bovine stress, prompting cows to produce nearly a half a pint more milk per day than they would without music. Of all the songs the scientists tested, R.E.M.’s ode to empathy led the list of songs that yielded the most milk, especially when played daily from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you are a lonely cow, living in a barn, with your udders constantly being tugged, maybe it helps to know that everybody cries, and everybody hurts, sometimes. In 1998, Cher created a monster—or rather, her producer did. Auto-Tune, an audio processing technology that fixes pitch and corrects mistakes in musical performances, had been around for years, but few artists used it to any effect. Producer Mark Taylor’s goal was to make a dance song that would appeal equally to club kids and older fans from Cher’s “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves” days. So he took the singer’s distinctive voice and amped it up with Auto-Tune, adding slip-sliding notes and robotic tones. Taylor was afraid Cher would hate the changes, but she dug them. “Believe” was released in 1998 and went on to become one of the most commercially successful singles of all time, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide and later winning a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Auto-Tune is now a ubiquitous part of pop culture; the diverse musical stylings of T-Pain, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Paris Hilton, and Rebecca Black simply couldn’t exist without it. And singers are just one step closer to being completely replaced by robots. Why is the opening theme from Barney the most powerful song of the last 25 years? Because it made sure the terrorists didn’t win. In the U.S. military detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, there’s a special spot, known as “the Disco,” where interrogators use music to get detainees to talk. Naturally, death metal is on the playlist, and so is Christina Aguilera. But according to The Guardian, the most used song in the military’s arsenal is Barney’s “I Love You.” Interrogators refer to it as “futility music,” which convinces prisoners that it’s pointless to keep their silence. After listening to the song over and over, detainees start to feel that life is meaningless, and that it’s time to give up. It really works—Just ask any parent. _______________________
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| Posted: 07 Jun 2013 06:00 AM PDT Sure female superheroes are usually drawn with idealized female figures, but they are still busy kicking butt. When they go home, that's when supergals really start looking sexy as DeviantArt user TorqueArtStudio shows with this great pin up version of Supergirl. I don't know about you guys, but I'd love to see this turn into a full series with a variety of heroes in a variety of classic pin up poses. |
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The article above, written by Jennifer Drapkin, Kevin O'Donnell, and Ky Henderson, is reprinted with permission from the 
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