Neatorama

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• Great Costumes By The Readers of The Mary Sue
• Raccoon Eating Grapes
• Lucy Skywalker Has One Heck of a Father
• Cats Wearing Tights
• Diving Equipment Designs, c. 1459
• 10 Real Life Female Role Models as Disney Princesses
• Interacting with Babies
• Chocolate-covered Potato Chips
• Turkey Salt & Pepper Shakers
• Argument: The US Should Have Just 2 Time Zones
• Cat Loves the Pet Shop
• Rob the Balloon Guy
• Bear Fights 80-Year Old Man in Hand-to-Paw Combat, Survives
• Clever Anti-Theft Locks for Bike Components
• Bodybuilder's Dance
• Maple Pumpkin Brulee Cheesecake
• Which is the Real Khal Drogo?
• How Romance Wrecked Traditional Marriage
• Sherlock, Starring Benedict Kittybatch
• Robot Tape Measure
• When Did Two-Strapping Get Cooler Than One-Strapping?
• Pregnant Belly Paintings
• This Week at Neatorama

Great Costumes By The Readers of The Mary Sue Posted: 03 Nov 2013 04:00 AM PST While The Mary Sue didn't post up pictures of their readers' costumes throughout October like we did, they did still do a round up at the end of the month. While there are plenty of great ones in their collection, this take on Microsoft's dreaded "blue screen of death" is a great example of how to turn a concept into a tangible costume. I particularly love Rachel's use of Perler beads as the Windows logo hair piece -and her blue hair only helps sell the costume. Beth's Totoro dress is also quite cute and something that she could wear throughout the year, if she's nerdy enough.

Raccoon Eating Grapes Posted: 03 Nov 2013 02:00 AM PST (YouTube link) Don't you just get a good feeling all over when you serve food to someone at your table and they obviously like it? This Russian raccoon is enjoying a bunch of grapes like it's the best thing he's ever tasted! I wonder if he's the one who washed them. -via Viral Viral Videos

Lucy Skywalker Has One Heck of a Father Posted: 03 Nov 2013 12:00 AM PDT Say hello to Lucy Skywalker and her trusty tauntaun that will hopefully not be converted into a frozen rebel incubator. This adorable little Jedi owes her impressive costume to her pop, Paco Allen, who has apparently not joined the Dark Side as he is still lovingly slaving away to be a great daddy. Make talked to Paco about what he needed to do to create this masterful costume, and you can find out everything you need if you have any intent to attempt to recreate his brilliant design for your own aspiring Jedi nect year.

Cats Wearing Tights Posted: 02 Nov 2013 11:00 PM PDT You might remember the strange Chinese meme of dogs wearing pantyhose. Cats were jealous, and decided to get in on the act -but a cat wearing human clothing doesn't have quite the same effect. After all, the average cat is way too short to wear our tights. Which is actually a good thing, because most cats don't care for tight-fitting clothes. This may not be as sexy as the dogs, but still funny! See lots more pictures at the blog meowtfit of the day. Yeah, it's all the same cat. The other cats of the household are presumably not into this sort of thing. -via Joanne Casey

Diving Equipment Designs, c. 1459 Posted: 02 Nov 2013 10:00 PM PDT According to Retronaut, these images show diving suit designs from Hans Talhoffer’s 1459 book Alte Armatur und Ringkunst. I can’t confirm that, but I can confirm that Talhoffer’s classic text on the European martial arts contained images of diving suits. Talhoffer was a German fencing master. His book, which survives to this day, is a marvel of martial arts instruction in an age of longswords and heavy armor. It continues to inspire martial artists to this day. The book contained images of various war machines, both real and imagined by Tolhoffer. Do you need to attack an enemy by stealth through the water? Then you need a diving suit like one of these.

10 Real Life Female Role Models as Disney Princesses Posted: 02 Nov 2013 09:00 PM PDT You probably recognize the women pictured even in their "Disneyfied" versions. But would your children know them? Artist David Trumble responded the same way many of us did when we saw the "Disneyfication" of Princess Merida from the movie Brave earlier this year. To show how ridiculous it is to shoehorn all kinds of women into the Disney look, he did the same with prominent females from real-life. As he tells in an article at Women You Should Know, some people got the joke, while others wanted to buy the dolls. “Fiction is the lens through which young children first perceive role models, so we have a responsibility to provide them with a diverse and eclectic selection of female archetypes. Now, I’m not even saying that girls shouldn’t have princesses in their lives, the archetype in and of itself is not innately wrong, but there should be more options to choose from. So that was my intent, to demonstrate how ridiculous it is to paint an entire gender of heroes with one superficial brush. “But that’s just me.” – David Trumble On the one hand, I can understand the point he is making, and that women should not have to be princesses to make them palatable or attractive to kids. After all, heroes come in all shapes, sizes, colors, sexes, and ages. But on the other hand, if art like this could get a little girl interested in learning more about the real women behind the pictures, they might serve a purpose greater than parody. What do you think? See all ten "princesses," with their real-life counterparts, at Women You Should Know. -via Flavorwire

Interacting with Babies Posted: 02 Nov 2013 08:00 PM PDT Add a diaper failure and spit ups then you've nailed it, Sarah! Cartoonist Sarah Andersen of Doodle Time (previously on Neatorama) illustrates in five panels what most single adults think or feel interacting with babies would be like. There is, of course, a perfectly reasonable explanation to why babies cry when some grownups hold them.

Chocolate-covered Potato Chips Posted: 02 Nov 2013 07:00 PM PDT A flavor combination you never craved before will soon be a reality. Coming any day to a Target store near you: Lay's Wavy Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate. I am not making this up. The salty-sweet snack is a limited edition holiday offering, scheduled only through the new year, but if it were to sell well, Lay's would consider adding it to their regular lineup. The company cites the rising popularity of salty-sweet snacks as its inspiration, such as pretzels dipped in chocolate. The combination of sweet and salty is understandable -after all, that's the magic behind Reece's Cups. But in this case, the combination is not just sugar and salt. It's chocolate and potato! -via Uproxx (Image credit: Frito-Lay)

Turkey Salt & Pepper Shakers Posted: 02 Nov 2013 06:00 PM PDT Turkey Salt & Pepper Shakers Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Dress your table with the Turkey Salt & Pepper Shakers from the NeatoShop. This deliciously fun set is made of glazed ceramic. Get your Turkey Salt & Pepper Shakers before they are all gobbled up.  Don't forget to check out the NeatoShop for more great Salt & Pepper Shakers.  Like

Argument: The US Should Have Just 2 Time Zones Posted: 02 Nov 2013 06:00 PM PDT At Quartz, economist Allison Schrager argues that it’s time for the United States to ditch daylight saving time. For all of the reasons that CGP Grey provides in the video below, I agree: it’s pointless and needlessly complex. (Video Link) But Ms. Schrager goes beyond this (I would hope) obvious point. She argues that the United States, which has 4 time zones in the contiguous 48 states, should cut back to just 2. Before the United States created 4 standard time zones for the 48 states in 1883, there were about 300 time zones as individual localities set their own standards. This made train scheduling impossible. 4 time zones, however, was manageable. Ms. Schrager writes: I spent the last three years commuting between New York and Austin, living on both Eastern and Central time. I found that in Austin, everyone did things at the same times they do them in New York, despite the difference in time zone. People got to work at 8am instead of 9am, restaurants were packed at 6pm instead of 7pm, and even the TV schedule was an hour earlier. But for the last three years I lived in a state of constant confusion, I rarely knew the time and was perpetually an hour late or early. And for what purpose? If everyone functions an hour earlier anyway, in part to coordinate with other parts of the country, the different time zones lose meaning and are reduced to an arbitrary inconvenience. Research based on time use surveys found Americans’ schedules are determined by television more than daylight. That suggests in effect, Americans already live on two time zones. -via Marginal Revolution POLL: Should the United States establish just 2 time zones for the 48 contiguous states? Yes No Just show me the answers!

Cat Loves the Pet Shop Posted: 02 Nov 2013 05:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) Graham is a cat who hangs out at the Pets at Home store in Boston, Lincolnshire, UK. He doesn't belong to anyone who works there, but he's not a stray, either. Graham comes and waits for the store to open every day, then wanders the aisles, playing with cat toys and occasionally chewing open a packet of treats. “He first showed up around three months ago and he’s here most days,” said staff member George Tarbox. “Initially we discouraged him from coming in, but he kept coming back. We thought it wouldn’t be very good to keep shooing him out as pets are always welcome at Pets at Home, it’s just that they usually come in on a lead with their owners!” Staff decided to give him the odd cat treat to discourage him from stealing, and occasionally play with him using toys that aren’t for sale. Can you blame him, really? The store has everything a cat could want, including fish and small animals to covet! Graham has proven to be good for business, as customers love to see him. -via Arbroath

Rob the Balloon Guy Posted: 02 Nov 2013 04:00 PM PDT "Bad jokes. Awkward dancing. Amazing balloons," Rob the Balloon Guy's website promises. But please, no robbery - that'll just make him feel deflated. Rob the Balloon Guy has got the best tagline in the long and twisted history of entertaining people with balloons. Redditor matlockga shares his clever business card, which astute Neatoramanauts will notice can be greatly improved with an Oxford comma. Or not. Because, you know, humor trumps clarity any day, especially when it comes to balloons and eating grandpa. So don't pop Rob the Balloon Guy's lack of punctuation, mmkay?

Bear Fights 80-Year Old Man in Hand-to-Paw Combat, Survives Posted: 02 Nov 2013 03:00 PM PDT (Photo: longhorndave) Yusuf Alchagirov, 80, is a shepherd in Kabardino-Balkaria, a region of Russia near the Georgian border. A bear attacked him in a raspberry field last week. Mr. Alchagirov took it in good Russian humor and repaid the favor with a barrage and kicks and headbutts, knocking it off balance. But the bear came back for more treatment: The bear, apparently irritated by the feisty shepherd, tossed him off a cliff and sauntered away, said Alchagirov in an interview with local television. He was hospitalised with bruises, bite wounds and four broken ribs, but was spared a mauling, and released within a few days. It is not known whether the bear suffered any lasting injuries. Mercifully, Mr. Alchagirov decided not to pursue the bear as it fled the scene. Local residents aren’t doing so either. After all, the bear was just playing: In the most recent case, locals believed the bear was probably only playing with Alchagirov, Russian media said, and thus were not planning to track down the animal. -via Ace of Spades HQ

Clever Anti-Theft Locks for Bike Components Posted: 02 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PDT (Photo: Sphyke) When I was a freshman in college, there was a rash of bicycle seat thefts. Not whole bikes--those could be secured to racks--just the seats. Thieves would take them and…well, I’m not sure what they’d do next. Maybe they acted out of sheer malice rather than in pursuit of some resale scheme. This lock design is one of several that might prevent the theft of bike components. Sphyke, a company in Berlin, offers locks for front and rear wheels, handlebars and seats. They’re simple combination locks, but they may make theft hard enough to encourage criminals to seek easier prey elsewhere.

Bodybuilder's Dance Posted: 02 Nov 2013 01:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) At the Open Cup in St. Petersburg, Russian bodybuilder Vadim Skornyakov spiced up his pose routine with a funny lip-sync and dance. His body says, "Muscles!" while his face says, "Let's have fun!" The crowd loved it! -via Daily Picks and Flicks

Maple Pumpkin Brulee Cheesecake Posted: 02 Nov 2013 12:00 PM PDT If you actually cook up your pumpkins after Halloween rather than just carving them and then throwing in them in the trash, it's time to get baking. If you're tired of the same old pumpkin pie recipe, why not try your hand at something a little different...like, say, cheesecake. And this isn't just any cheesecake, it's maple pumpkin brulee cheesecake, which means it's pretty much heaven.  The base of the recipe comes from this Better Homes and Gardens maple pumpkin cheesecake recipe, but the brulee topping instructions (arguably the most important) is a special addition to the basic recipe and the directions for that step can be found here. Via Bakers Royale

Which is the Real Khal Drogo? Posted: 02 Nov 2013 11:00 AM PDT Image: (Left) HBO; (Right) Kenneth Pfeifer Photography Will the real Khal Drogo stand up? Blizzard Entertainment employee René Koiter dressed up as Khal Drogo from HBO's hit series Game of Thrones - he looks just as good as the real Khal Drogo (played by actor Jason Momoa). Can you tell who is who? A wrong answer will unleash the bloodriders and spill your blood. View more of Koiter's Khal Drogo cosplay over at Geeks Are Sexy (who has a video clip of his performance)

How Romance Wrecked Traditional Marriage Posted: 02 Nov 2013 10:00 AM PDT What is often called "traditional marriage" today is not so much traditional as it is a modern concept of people linking up in some ritual manner to make a family because they love each other. It may be a good idea, but it's not the way marriage was done before the last couple of hundred years. In some places, marriages are still arranged for convenience or some other reason besides love.   For most of recorded human history, marriage was an arrangement designed to maximize financial stability. Elizabeth Abbott, the author of “A History of Marriage” explains that in ancient times, marriage was intended to unite various parts of a community, cementing beneficial economic relationships. “Because it was a financial arrangement, it was conceived of and operated as such. It was a contract between families. For example, let’s say I’m a printer and you make paper, we might want a marriage between our children because that will improve our businesses.” Even the honeymoon, often called the “bridal tour,” was a communal affair, with parents, siblings, and other close relatives traveling together to reinforce their new familial relationships. Of course, there were other benefits to marriage. Women needed financial security. Men needed someone to keep house and raise the children. In consideration of those needs, love wasn't a requirement -but an exchange of money often was. Still, long past the age of universal arranged marriages, those factors in selecting a marriage partner lingered on. Then somewhere along the line we got this newfangled idea that "love" should be the main reason to marry a particular person. Read about the history of the institution of marriage at Collectors Weekly.

Sherlock, Starring Benedict Kittybatch Posted: 02 Nov 2013 09:00 AM PDT Halloween may be over, but it's never too late to appreciate a cute critter in a costume -especially when that costume happens to be super dorky like this kitty in the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock ensemble. The best part is that her grumpy, serious face really works for the costume, as though Lilly is ready to go solve crimes the rest of us could never hope to unravel. For those who need to see a little comparison between Lilly and Benedict: Last year, Lilly was a My Little Pony, which we featured in our non-dog costumes roundup earlier last month. Via The Mary Sue

Robot Tape Measure Posted: 02 Nov 2013 08:00 AM PDT Robot Tape Measure Make measuring child's play with the Robot Tape Measure from the NeatoShop. This great little tape measure is retractable and designed to look like a toy robot.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Office & Desk Stuff.  Link

When Did Two-Strapping Get Cooler Than One-Strapping? Posted: 02 Nov 2013 08:00 AM PDT The headline confused me -I had no idea what it meant. It's about backpacks and how to wear them. Those who write and comment on the internet fall heavily between the ages of 18 and 40, and they all carried backpacks to school. For some, wearing only one backpack strap was the cool thing to do, and for others it was two straps. And they all have an opinion. The "investigation" at Slate has almost 300 comments, and the link at Metafilter has over a hundred. The question was sparked by the movie 21 Jump Street, in which the cool cop advised one-strapping to blend in as undercover agents at a high school, but found that the style had changed to two-strapping when they arrived at school.   When I first watched this scene, I thought: Funny bit, but is it right? I, like everyone cool (or trying to be cool) in my high school, one-strapped all the way. It was a foundational tenet of cool—you might argue about what kind of music was cool, or what clothes, or what hairstyles, but it was a given that one-strapping was the only way to wear a backpack. Is one-strapping really not cool anymore? And if so, how could something once so cool become so not? My search for the answer sent me on a quest in which I’d consult pediatric orthopedic surgeons, re-examine decades of pop culture, and track down the one consummately cool high-schooler from East Amherst, N.Y., who might have the answer. What follows is an overly in-depth look at a trend, complete with pie charts, a survey of movies, and theories on why backpack-wearing styles change. This is a Very Important Thing. The article and discussion is an instance of witnessing Generation X and Y coming to the realization that they are not in school anymore, and might never be the trendiest, coolest kids ever again. This is sort of funny to someone who never wore a backpack to school at all (no one at my school did -they were for hikers and campers) and whose kids gave up backpacks in sixth grade. -via Metafilter So, did wear your backpack with two straps or just one in high school? Tell us what year you graduated, too, if you don't mind. I'll start: Class of '76. No backpack, even in college.

Pregnant Belly Paintings Posted: 02 Nov 2013 07:00 AM PDT Where the Wild Things Are Steam Punk African Scene Carmine Bee-Eaters Autumn Megumi Artists can do a lot with pregnant women’s bellies. We’ve previously seen them used as a Death Star costume, a prenatal zombie costume and as molds for plaster casts. Andrea Hows is an artist in New Zealand. She works in many different media, but professionally, she’s a makeup special effects artist. She made these lovely paintings, putting the rounded forms to effective use.

This Week at Neatorama Posted: 02 Nov 2013 06:00 AM PDT You may have noticed how dark it is in the morning when you get up lately. We're going to fix that, as Daylight Saving Time ends and we go back to Standard Time. Set your clocks back one hour before you go to bed tonight, or at 2AM Sunday. Enjoy that extra hour of sleep you missed back in the spring, but be aware that sunset will be much earlier after the time change. We are proud to introduce an entirely new website called Homes and Hues! Alex rolled out the welcome mat while the rest of us were busy with Halloween costumes and the like. At Homes and Hues, you'll find wonderful ways to make your home the perfect place to call your own. Some of the featured articles already there are 10 Staircases That Really Take It To The Next Level and 18 Gorgeous Steampunk Machine Age Lamps, but there's plenty more to see at Homes and Hues. Tell your friends about it and don't forget to add the site to your social circles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and G+! Meanwhile, let's look at some of what Neatorama had this past week that you don't want to miss out on. We had an excerpt from cartoonist Stephen McCranie's new graphic novel Brick by Brick in Fun Gets Stuff Done. Another book excerpt was Death Warmed Over: Funeral Food, Rituals, and Customs From Around the World, from Lisa Rogak. Jill Harness showed us 13 Great Pieces of Haunted Mansion Fan Art. Eddie Deezen told us about The Death of Harry Houdini. The Legend of Lincoln's Ghost was from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Highly Efficient and Effective Removal of Fat from Fried Chicken via Centrifugation. 10 Celebrities Who Spied on the Side came from mental_floss magazine. On the Spotlight blog, we got to see the Pop Surrealist Intervention Art of Robert Brandenburg and Microscopic Things or Space Aliens? Enjoy the photographs in a bigger, easier-to-see format. Our Great Pics of The Week column was themed Let's Just Be Cool Here. We got to see all of Your Most Memorable Halloween Costumes that readers submitted. That was a lot of fun! Thanks to everyone who sent in a picture. We also had lots of readers sent in pictures of their pets in Halloween costumes, which you can see on the blog Lifestyles of the Cute and Cuddly.  Did you solve the Pzzlr this week? It was titled Brother and Sister. The Conceptis puzzle was Color Link-a-Pix. Hy Conrad's Whodunit this week was appropriately called A Halloween Homicide. In the What Is It? game, the pictured item is a J. M. Fox Iron Works valve grinder, used to ensure that automotive valves are properly seated. A perfectly respectable task, but we were looking for more imaginative uses for this object. Death Dodgers wins a t-shirt for his explanation: A prototype Newton Meter - you know, the weight meters that you put an object on, and it drags it down a certain number of Newtons? First, you take off the (removable) side sticking out, and put the thing you're measuring on a rope/string that is hooked in, replacing the part you took off to clamp it in place. Then, you drag the wheel like part to the zipper-end, and grab the zipper, and lift it up, so that gravity pulls down the wheel a certain number of grooves. That's the weight. That's going around the world just to say it's a scale! The other winner is Zarf, who declared it to be "an 1873 Zip tie. bit of a bugger to get the end back through the eye but dammit men were men in those days." That's worth a t-shirt, too! Jill had a down-and-dirty quick t-shirt giveaway at the Neatoramanauts Facebook page. Congratulations to Josh Scotto, who will be receiving a free Supersized shirt in no time. The (non-giveaway) post with the most comments this week was American Ethnic Foods Section, with US States as Labeled by an Australian Who Knew Nothing of Its Geography second. The comment of the week was from C.J. Casey, who told us his story of learning to sew: When I was 12 and in Boy Scouts, my Mom taught me to hand-sew so I could sew on my patches. I hated it, with a passion I now reserve for grammatical errors and Star Wars sequels. It didn't help that my Mom was a perfectionist and she would rip out my work if it was just a little bit crooked. But I persevered and got my patches on my uniform. 9 years later, I made about $500 in a week or so sewing patches on my fellow sailor's uniforms before a huge inspection, a requirement for us to go on liberty. Once I went on liberty myself, I bought my Mom a really nice present. (Oh, and I still do some sewing but I now help run a knitting shop. Yay threadwork.) The most popular post by far was US States as Labeled by an Australian Who Knew Nothing of Its Geography. That was followed by The Street Art of Mark Jenkins and Death Warmed Over: Funeral Food, Rituals, and Customs From Around the World in third place. The post that people ♥ed most was Heroic Bus Driver Saves Woman from Jumping off Bridge, with Kidney Transplant Patient Marries His Organ Donor in second place, and Pope Francis and the Little Child tied with Sea Lion Snatches Fish out Fisherman's Hands for third. The most emailed post was the great travel video Adventure Is Calling. Our biggest post of the week on Facebook wasUS States as Labeled by an Australian Who Knew Nothing of Its Geography (A Suspended Bicycle Roundabout over a Highway did well, too). The post that was shared most on Google+ was 8 Easy Last-Minute Halloween Decorations. It was also the most Tweeted post. The Scariest Jack-o-Lantern of Them All was the most pinned post this week on Pinterest. Thanks to everyone who shared our stuff on social media! Consider yourself part of the team that keeps Neatorama going. We have our own social media sites, too: the Neatoramanauts Facebook page, our Twitter feed, our Pinterest boards, and a G+ site, too! There's extra goodies on those sites that you won't find here on the main page. Now that Halloween is over, you can save big on Halloween costumes, accessories, and decorations from the NeatoShop. Stock up for next year with our clearance sale items. After all, we gotta make room for new Christmas goodies! Have a great week, and don't forget to set your clocks back tonight!

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