Neatorama

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• Harpa: Iceland’s Opera House
• Study: To Improve Your Social Skills, Read Complex Fiction
• Luke vs Vader Light Switch Wall Plate
• Sculpture: Clint Eastwood as Wolverine
• Cat Haunts House
• Spider-Man & Black Cat Salt & Pepper Shakers
• Hot Dog in a Hot Dog
• Amputee Survives Four Days in Outback
• Woman Pulled over by Police for Breastfeeding While Riding a Moped
• Artist Paints by Squirting Paint out of His Eye
• (Spoiler Alert) in Albuquerque Newspaper
• Mommy's Little Dreamer Is Full of Imagination
• Top 10 Giant Movie Monsters
• Woman is the REAL Siri
• The Master of Japanese Textbook Doodles
• Meet The 4 Trillion Dollar Man
• Skeleton Feet Sandals
• UFO Crashes at Elementary School
• Vote For the Best Monster In TV or Movies
• Epic Rap Battle: Nerd vs. Geek
• Cabinet Made from an Old Aircraft Door
• The Crazy Street Art of Mister Thoms
• Narcolepsy Affects Kittens Too
• Franklin D. Roosevelt's Baby Pictures
• Man Gives Birth, Scores 6 Points
• Kayaking Down a Drainage Ditch
• The Iconic Footwear of Famous Fictional Characters

Harpa: Iceland’s Opera House Posted: 05 Oct 2013 04:00 AM PDT This asymmetrical glass building on the oceanfront in Reykjavík, Iceland, is the Harpa. Mike Powell of For 91 Days likens it to a shimmering iceberg on the shore. The huge opera house was built with funds from private investors -that is, until 2008, when the financial crisis halted all construction. Then the government took over the project and completed it in 2010. Now the opera house is open free to the public every day, and the views from inside all that glass are stunning. Read more about it and see a collection of pictures of the The Harpa at Iceland For 91 Days.

Study: To Improve Your Social Skills, Read Complex Fiction Posted: 05 Oct 2013 02:00 AM PDT (Photo: Jemimus) Spending time in the works of Milton, Faulkner or other great fiction writers doesn't just make you more knowledgeable of literature. It may actually improve your social skills. David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano, social scientists at the New School for Social Research in New York City, evaluated how well people performed on tests of empathy and emotional and social intelligence. Subjects did better on these tests after reading literary fiction, rather than serious nonfiction or popular fiction. Pam Belluck describes the experiment in the New York Times: People ranging in age from 18 to 75 were recruited for each of five experiments. They were paid $2 or $3 each to read for a few minutes. Some were given excerpts from award-winning literary fiction (Don DeLillo, Wendell Berry). Others were given best sellers like Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl,” a Rosamunde Pilcher romance or a Robert Heinlein science fiction tale. In one experiment, some participants were given nonfiction excerpts, but we’re not talking “All the President’s Men.” To maximize the contrast, the researchers — looking for nonfiction that was well-written, but not literary or about people — turned to Smithsonian Magazine. “How the Potato Changed the World” was one selection. “Bamboo Steps Up” was another. After reading — or in some cases reading nothing — the participants took computerized tests that measure people’s ability to decode emotions or predict a person’s expectations or beliefs in a particular scenario. In one test, called “Reading the Mind in the Eyes,” subjects did just that: they studied 36 photographs of pairs of eyes and chose which of four adjectives best described the emotion each showed. Is the woman with the smoky eyes aghast or doubtful? Is the man whose gaze has slivered to a squint suspicious or indecisive? Is she interested or irritated, flirtatious or hostile? Is he fantasizing or guilty, dominant or horrified? Or annoyed that his tech stock dropped half a percent on the Nasdaq in a round of late trading after news from the Middle East? (Just kidding — that last one isn’t on the test.) Why does literature have this effect? Kidd and Castano conclude that the complexity of literary fiction compels readers to search for subtleties of meaning and nuance--skills that are essential for gauging the emotional responses and depth of real people. Kidd explains: In literary fiction, like Dostoyevsky, “there is no single, overarching authorial voice,” he said. “Each character presents a different version of reality, and they aren’t necessarily reliable. You have to participate as a reader in this dialectic, which is really something you have to do in real life.” -via Adrienne Crezo

Luke vs Vader Light Switch Wall Plate Posted: 05 Oct 2013 12:00 AM PDT Luke, I'm your father ... now join the dark side, turn off the light and go to bed! Etsy seller KeepCalmandTurnItOn has this custom Star Wars light switch plate that is perfect in any wretched hive of scum and villainy. Via Incredible Things and Technabob

Sculpture: Clint Eastwood as Wolverine Posted: 04 Oct 2013 11:00 PM PDT DeviantART member sup3rd3ds creates impressive sculptures of superheroes. He's made a few of the Hulk, both Lou Ferrigno's TV portrayal and that of comic book artist Dale Keown, as well as sculptures of Magneto and Juggernaut. This Wolverine head is made of castilene, a synthetic sculpting material. I'm totally convinced. Clint Eastwood is 83 and he'd still be an awesome Wolverine. As you can see, Eastwood could just reuse his old lines: (Video Link)

Cat Haunts House Posted: 04 Oct 2013 10:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) A strange black cat with glowing green eyes comes into your kitchen and speaks in English. It says, "Go away." What do you do? You pull out the camera, of course! I don't know who's cat it is but I want it. This cat does not like to be told what to do. It left shortly after the incident was recorded. (via b3ta)

Spider-Man & Black Cat Salt & Pepper Shakers Posted: 04 Oct 2013 09:00 PM PDT Spider-Man & Black Cat Salt & Pepper Shakers Are you looking for a way to add a little drama and suspense to your kitchen table? Invite the Spider-Man & Black Cat Salt & Pepper Shakers to dinner. This fantastic set features Spider-Man and the sexy anti-heroine, Black Cat. The shakers feature amazing hand painted details and are held together by magnets.   Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Salt & Pepper Shakers.  Link

Hot Dog in a Hot Dog Posted: 04 Oct 2013 09:00 PM PDT (Photo: Rhodes International) Here's a fun food craft. If you've ever seen a wiener dog and thought to yourself, "I could eat that," then here's your chance. The company that makes Rhodes Dinner Rolls created this hot dog dish. As you can see from the instructional video below, you can make one by wrapping unbaked dinner roll dough around a hot dog. Bake it for 15-20 minutes, then add facial features with a bean, cheese and tiny pieces of olive. (Video Link) -via Cutest Food

Amputee Survives Four Days in Outback Posted: 04 Oct 2013 08:00 PM PDT Raymond "Butch" Beattie of Irvinebank, Queensland, Australia, lost an arm almost forty years ago. He lost a leg in another traffic accident several years later. Now the 55-year-old has cheated death once again, by surviving four days alone in the Outback. Beattie was riding his quad bike with a friend when they became separated. Trying to find his way back to the trail, Beattie wrecked his bike, which went down a cliff. That was last Saturday. Beattie stayed in the same place, waiting for rescue until Wednesday when a Queensland Emergency Service helicopter rescue crew spotted him.  "The bike was way down and I couldn't walk to it. I started trying to walk down and I was digging my way with my pick," he said. "I only had about 100ml of water and I didn't think I could walk out on that much water. I didn't have enough energy to walk out. "It was flaming hot. I had to keep moving because there's not much shade. "The girth of the tree was all I had." His small water bottle lasted almost three days, and when that ran out Mr Beattie said he realised he was in "deep s**t". Beattie is in a hospital recovering from exposure and dehydration. -via Arbroath

Woman Pulled over by Police for Breastfeeding While Riding a Moped Posted: 04 Oct 2013 07:00 PM PDT (Photo: Europics) I'm completely comfortable with people breastfeeding in public. It bothers me not at all. Oh, maybe doing it while trying to teach a class or drive a car is a bad idea, but only because it creates a distraction from what should be the focus of attention. So this lady in China probably should have pulled over before offering her toddler a snack: Witnesses reported that the woman was weaving in and out of traffic along a busy street in the city of Yuzhou when her 18-month-old son started to cry, according to Orange News. They said she started breastfeeding the infant while keeping one hand on the handlebar. Officers undoubtedly worried the woman was one bad baby bump away from causing an accident. They pulled her over and gave her a warning, Orange News reported. “She was risking her life, her son’s life and the lives of all the other road users,” a police spokesman told Orange News. Her enthusiasm for breastfeeding is not widely shared in China. Compared to the United States, the practice is uncommon in that nation: Yet The World Health Organization reports that breastfeeding rates in China remain quite low. Only 58 percent of newborn infants were exclusively breastfed and that number falls to 13.6 percent for babies between the ages of 5 and 6 months. By comparison, more than 76 percent of women in the U.S. breastfeed their newborns, and nearly half of American babies are still breastfeeding at 6  months old. -via Rocketnews24

Artist Paints by Squirting Paint out of His Eye Posted: 04 Oct 2013 06:00 PM PDT (Photo: Leando Granato) Leandro Granato, an artist in Argentina, doesn't need a brush. He snorts paint up his nose and then squirts it out of his eye. (Brief question: how does a person learn that he has this talent?) Granato was inspired by Jackson Pollock, the American abstract painter famous for dripping and pouring paint directly over canvases in seemingly random patterns. You can see Pollock's influence in this painting by Granato entitled "Belo." Granato calls his technique "eye painting." He uses a non-toxic paint that he claims is safe for his eyes. Some people think that he's crazy, but Granato sees himself as an artistic trailblazer: ‘I believe crazy people are often the ones that build the roads that the wise ones will then travel across. -via Weird Universe

(Spoiler Alert) in Albuquerque Newspaper Posted: 04 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT Show Image An Albuquerque fan club has placed a paid obituary in the newspaper The Albuquerque Journal for Walter White. The ad was bought by the Facebook group “Unofficial Breaking Bad Fan Tour.” Albuquerque high school science teacher David Layman placed the ad. Layman is a big fan of Breaking Bad and was on the set during the first episode. It is on page A4 of Friday's edition. -via Uproxx

Mommy's Little Dreamer Is Full of Imagination Posted: 04 Oct 2013 04:00 PM PDT What happens when a mom imagines all the fun adventures her son can have after he grows up? You get an absolutely adorable set of photos like the ones taken by new mother Amber Wheeler. The artist takes pictures of her baby on a white background and then photoshops in simple paint lines and other effects to create all kinds of elaborate scenes showing him as a ninja, rock star, riding a bike and more. Via Bored Panda

Top 10 Giant Movie Monsters Posted: 04 Oct 2013 03:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) WatchMojo compiled a list of the top ten giants monsters in movies. It's a subjective list that just begs for disagreement, but they are all fun to watch. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Woman is the REAL Siri Posted: 04 Oct 2013 02:00 PM PDT Ever wonder what Siri, Apple's voice-activated virtual assistant, looks like? Wonder no more! Meet Susan Bennett, the real woman behind Siri, who broke her silence in this CNN Red Chair interview with Jessica Ravitz and Jarrett Bellini: For four hours a day, every day, in July 2005, Bennett holed up in her home recording booth. Hour after hour, she read nonsensical phrases and sentences so that the "ubergeeks" -- as she affectionately calls them; they leave her awestruck -- could work their magic by pulling out vowels, consonants, syllables and diphthongs, and playing with her pitch and speed. These snippets were then synthesized in a process called concatenation that builds words, sentences, paragraphs. And that is how voices like hers find their way into GPS and telephone systems. "There are some people that just can read hour upon hour upon hour, and it's not a problem. For me, I get extremely bored ... So I just take breaks. That's one of the reasons why Siri might sometimes sound like she has a bit of an attitude," Bennett said with a laugh. "Those sounds might have been recorded the last 15 minutes of those four hours." Apple, as expected, won't comment, but professionals who have worked with her vouched for her claim and an audio forensics expert who studied her voice is "100%" certain that she's Siri. Bennet said that she decided to come clean after The Verge posted an article that identified a different woman as the real voice behind Siri. Read the rest of the article and view the video clip over at CNN.

The Master of Japanese Textbook Doodles Posted: 04 Oct 2013 01:00 PM PDT Bored students have always found time to alter the lame illustrations and photographs in school textbooks, but one is intent on raising the bar on the entertainment value of such vandalism. A Japanese high school student named Chanta is gaining fame for his creative textbook doodles. It helps to have a little white-out on hand. See plenty more of his creations, some with before pictures accompanying them, at Rocket News 24. -via Metafilter

Meet The 4 Trillion Dollar Man Posted: 04 Oct 2013 12:00 PM PDT Screen capture: KLTV When Reggie Theus of East Texas checked his bank account online, he was pleasantly surprised to find himself the world's first trillionaire - well, at least for a few hours. Yes, trillionaire - that's a number with 12 zeroes. Man, that's a lot of zeroes. Theus handily beat Carlos Slim of Mexico (net worth $73 billion) and Bill Gates ($67 billion). Jamey Boyum of KLTV interviewed Theus, an area director for Newk's restaurant in East Texas, who still went to work after discovering his, uh, imagined windfall. "I obviously wished it would have been real but it was great to see. I logged out and logged back in eight times just to see if it wsa still there, and every time it was still there." And what would the four trillion dollar man do with all that money? Theus said that he'd spend 3 trillion to pay off the national debt. Read the rest over at KLTV - via Daily Mail

Skeleton Feet Sandals Posted: 04 Oct 2013 11:00 AM PDT Skeleton Feet Sandals Halloween is right around the corner. Are you dead tired of wearing sandals that lack spirit? Slip your bone tired feet into a pair of Skeleton Feet Sandals from the NeatoShop. This Frightfully fun pair of sandals features a skeleton feet design.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Footwear.  Link

UFO Crashes at Elementary School Posted: 04 Oct 2013 11:00 AM PDT Students at North Harringay primary school in Geater London, England, were surprised to find that a flying saucer had crash-landed in the school's pavement. It had apparently landed so hard that it was half-buried in the asphalt! A forensic officer was spotted inspecting the UFO while police closely guarded the scene, which was roped off while investigations took place. The whole event was just the inspiration pupils needed for a creative writing day at the school, and was orchestrated by Emma Hassan, its literacy leader, with the help of one very creative parent and a local PC. A parent had built the spacecraft for the school and also showed up dressed as a forensic detective. A police constable was also recruited to lend authenticity to the stunt. Many examples of creative writing were accomplished that day and a good time was had by all. -via Fortean Times

Vote For the Best Monster In TV or Movies Posted: 04 Oct 2013 10:00 AM PDT Forget March Madness, the real fun is in the Monster Madness bracket over on Famous Monsters of Film Land and you don't even have to wait until spring to enjoy the fun. In fact, you can help nominate the top monsters and monster killers for the bracket on the site right now. After the seventh, be sure to return to see the official brackets and even see which monster (or hero though I suspect it will be a monster) wins.

Epic Rap Battle: Nerd vs. Geek Posted: 04 Oct 2013 09:30 AM PDT (YouTube link) Rhett and Link play the dozens to convince you that a geek is better than a nerd and vice-versa. Not that it matters, but the putdowns they employ are hilarious! If the characters they play were real, they'd probably be friends of sorts, but you know how men like to establish status, dominance, and hierarchy. Then again, these characters would probably argue with you about status, dominance, and hierarchy. -via Viral Viral Videos

Cabinet Made from an Old Aircraft Door Posted: 04 Oct 2013 09:00 AM PDT AERO-1946 is a studio in Cologne, Germany. For six years, its two craftsmen have made household and workshop furniture pieces inspired by 1940s-era aviation. It often incorporates vintage remains of planes into the work. The craftsmen made this lovely upright cabinet using the door of a Siebel Si 204, a German military and civilian transport in production from during World War II. The door sat in the basement of a home in eastern Germany for 70 years. AERO-1946 rebuilt it and fixed it into a shiny new cabinet body. The entire project took about 600 hours of work. -via Recyclart

The Crazy Street Art of Mister Thoms Posted: 04 Oct 2013 08:30 AM PDT Mister Thoms is a multimedia artist in Rome who creates awesome street art. He often designs his work around architectural details, as you can see. Coming across any of these on your travels will make you forget your troubles! Mister Thoms is also a sculptor, illustrator, painter, and digital graphic artist. -via Laughing Squid

Narcolepsy Affects Kittens Too Posted: 04 Oct 2013 08:00 AM PDT (Video Link) For many people, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was the first time they ever heard of narcolepsy as it is a fairly rare condition. Nowadays though, most people have heard of narcolepsy, but you might not know that even little critters can suffer from it. This little kitty suffers from a sleep disorder and while it could be sad in certain circumstances, it's just plain cute in a safe situation like this. Via Pets Lady

Franklin D. Roosevelt's Baby Pictures Posted: 04 Oct 2013 07:30 AM PDT Most children in the 1880s had few, if any, portraits taken before they grew up. Franklin Roosevelt, being a child of privilege, had many. Just look at him here with his lovely baby curls and feathered bonnet, in a wicker side-saddle for two with his dog! By the time he was five, he lost his long curls. He eventually got to start wearing pants, too, although his mother put him in a kilt for his 5-year-old portrait. No one knew then that he'd eventually become the best president ever. Buzzfeed culled several pictures of Roosevelt's childhood for your enjoyment.

Man Gives Birth, Scores 6 Points Posted: 04 Oct 2013 07:00 AM PDT While my wife was in labor with our first child, one of the nurses, clearly mistaking us for being far wealthier than we were, asked my dear bride in what style we had decorated the nursery. Without hesitation and while keeping a straight face, my wife replied, "Early Garage Sale." If I ever had to give birth, I'd want to be as calm and sassy as that. But, yeah, a play-by-play announcer would be nice. And maybe a color commentator for the downtime moments. Now here's my question for Dan Piraro, the cartoonist who drew this comic: what's the stick of dynamite for?

Kayaking Down a Drainage Ditch Posted: 04 Oct 2013 06:30 AM PDT Kayaker Ben Marr took a trip down a drainage ditch, albeit a well-known sluice called Lions Bay Slide in British Columbia. I'm sure he was familiar with the route before filming this, but when seeing the POV version, I kept thinking about how suddenly a drainage ditch can turn into a culvert! Marr's entire ride is shown from a couple of different vantage points. He got up to 35 miles per hour! -via Daily Picks and Flicks

The Iconic Footwear of Famous Fictional Characters Posted: 04 Oct 2013 06:00 AM PDT I'm not all that fashionable and I know some of you readers are the same. That being said, there are certainly some fashions that every geek recognizes without a second thought -like Marty McFly or Luke Skywalker. That's why these posters by Fredrico Mauro and Nicolas Bannister are so wonderfully brilliant.  Personally though, I love John McClane's footwear -or lack there of, because how else are you going to make fists with the toes? Via Design Taxi

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