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2014/01/15

Neatorama

Neatorama

Neatolinks: You Just Might Be Able to Walk On Water

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 04:00 AM PST

Classical Sculptures Created With Cardboard And Packing Tape

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 03:00 AM PST

Classical sculptors generally used hard materials like marble and bronze to create their masterpieces, but artist Dylan Shields has shown us that it’s not about the material you use, it’s how you use it, in his new series of classically inspired works which are made out of cardboard and packing tape.

Dylan may have gotten his start when the Amazon and Ebay packaging materials started piling up in his garage, but whatever the backstory his corrugated sculptures are quite stylish despite the low cost of materials.

His goal is to reflect classical artistic ideals in his works while using modern materials, and while these papercraft works may not stand the test of time like their marble predecessors they are a fitting tribute to the art of sculpture.

Via Beautiful/Decay

LEGO Albums

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 02:00 AM PST

Harry Heaton digitally creates images that are famous album covers as if they were made of LEGO bricks for his Tumblr blog LEGO Albums. The effect is a low-res pixilation that you'll recognize if you have ever owned the album (squinting helps). He takes requests and submissions, too, if you want to make your own LEGO album cover! But look through the archive first, because there's a lot of album covers there, from many musical eras. -via Flavorwire

Science Fiction & Fantasy Upworthy

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 01:00 AM PST

Upworthy is a website that tries to inspire or shame readers to click on post titles ($) and read stories to which they can emotionally connect. The site has been tremendously successful financially, though its headline style is the subject of much internet mockery.

SFFworthy takes stories from science fiction and fantasy and summarizes them using Upworthy-style headlines. You won't believe what they do next.

-via Tor

And They Lived Happily Ever After

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:00 AM PST

(YouTube link)

The lead actors in the musical play Peter Pan: The Never Ending Story rewrote the ending right on stage Saturday night. Peter Pan, played by Dutch actor Sandor Sturbl, broke character long enough to propose to his leading lady, Lilly-Jane Young, who portrayed Wendy in the production, in front of an audience of 4,300 in Glasgow. The Daily Record has more details. -via Uproxx

The 15 Most Unintentionally Profound Quotes

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 11:00 PM PST

Inspired by a reddit thread and the blog Life Advice from Machines, Twisted Sifter created inspirational images using instructions from computer hardware, household cleansers and even a jar of mayonnaise.

I especially like the wisdom from MS Outlook. For desire--that is, attachment--leads to only disappointment. Disappointment leads to suffering. Therefore to reduce suffering, reduce your attachments.

Read the rest here at Twisted Sifter.

Crayums Ketchup & Mustard Dispensers

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 10:00 PM PST

Crayums Ketchup & Mustard Dispensers

Who says you are too old to play with your food? May mealtime fun time with the Crayums Ketchup & Mustard Dispensers from the NeatoShop. These playful containers are shaped like giant yellow and red crayons. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Mealtime fun. 

Link

25 Things You Didn’t Know About The Movie Titanic

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 10:00 PM PST

The movie Titanic premiered in 1997. In 2012, when we commemorated the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking, many of the movies' biggest fans were shocked to find out that it was real historical event. As knowledgable as Neatorama readers are, you knew about the real RMS Titanic, but how much do you know about the film? There's always more trivia behind the scenes that you'd never know just by watching the movie. For example, it was the first film James Cameron ever made that didn't mention nuclear weapons (and he'd already made ten films). And even though there was extraordinary attention to detail, the best lines and scenes in the movie were made up on the spot. Find out which ones they were and read the rest of the 25 things at Buzzfeed.  

The Unseen Visual Effects In Wolf Of Wall Street

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 09:00 PM PST

(Video Link)

People often complain that Hollywood uses too many CGI effects in their movies these days, finding a place for a CGI character in every genre from action to drama, but what audiences don’t know, or notice, is where the real CGI magic happens in a movie.

Take Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street, for example-I bet you didn’t know that many of the shots were filmed in front of a green screen then composited into the beautiful, scenic shots you see in the movie.

It’s amazing what digital compositing and creative use of a green screen can add to a motion picture, and it’s so subtle audiences will be amazed at what they didn’t see.

Via /Film

5 Winter Clothing Innovations We'd Actually Use

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:00 PM PST

Caldwell Tanner lives in New York City, where it's a bit nippy out right now. Just a few days ago it was even chillier. This inspired him to sketch out a few clothing inventions that would actually be helpful the next time a polar vortex visits your neighborhood. You can view them all here.

(Image: Universal Pictures)

I like the Liquid Heat Jacket. It's like a stillsuit from Dune, except that it's made for very cold rather than very hot and dry temperatures. Also you probably shouldn't excrete into it without first checking to make sure it's designed to handle that process.

-via Fashionably Geek

Reviving the Tradition of Hand-Painted Signs

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:00 PM PST

Once upon a time, every new business hired a professional artist to design their signs, decorate their windows, and even cover the sides of their buildings. The sign painter was not only an artist, but a designer, typographer, marketing director, editor, and contractor. The remnants of their work from decades ago are pleasing to the eye even today. What happened to sign painters? They were replaced by technology and the do-it-yourself culture. Print shops, then mass-produced sign companies, then home computers all made custom signs faster and cheaper -not necessarily better.

But artisanal sign painters aren't extinct, just rare. Collectors Weekly talked to filmmaker Faythe Levine, who, along with Sam Macon, produced a film and book about sign painters, their craft, and how it's experiencing a sort of modern revival.  

Collectors Weekly: Is the revival of hand-painted signs part of this larger trend for artisan, hand-crafted culture?

Levine: Personally, I would say yes. I think that today more people want to know where their eggs come from. People are interested in their jeans being manufactured within the same region as where they buy them. I think hand-painted signs are part of this larger change, but I also think that there’s another audience that’s into design-related things. I think when people like designers and typographers have access to the history of hand paint, they just eat it up.

They talk about the history of hand-painted signs, the craftsmanship involved, and the different kinds of artisanal signage in the interview at Collectors Weekly. 

(Image courtesy of Faythe Levine and Sam Macon)

Fake Demon Baby Terrorizes Folks In The Big City

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 06:00 PM PST

(Video Link)

If you happen to be strolling around New York City, and you come across an unattended baby stroller, chances are you're going to take a peek inside just to make sure all is well, but after you watch this video you may want to re-think your policy on stroller snooping!

A demon baby is taking the city by storm, terrorizing unsuspecting do-gooders in the name of pranky laughs and promotion for an upcoming movie called Devil's Due.

The group behind this pranky publicity stunt is Thinkmodo, and they previously pulled off a similar stunt starring a girl with superpowers who freaked out a bunch of people in a cafe. Is this the future of movie advertising? We certainly hope so!

Via Kotaku

Real Disney Character Faces

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 05:00 PM PST

DeviantART member Avalonis (Karen Graw) used photo manipulation to illustrate what Disney characters from their classic animated movies would look like in real life -that is, if they weren't animated. Can you guess who is who in the picture? You can see the original, larger version at DeviantART.

Okay, when you are finished guessing, click here to see a rundown of the characters.



Personally, I pictured some of these characters as much older. I'm looking at you, Ursula. And Cruella should look more like Joan Rivers. -via Laughing Squid 

Patrick Stewart Cutting a Pizza with an <i>Enterprise</i> Pizza Cutter

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 04:00 PM PST

Here's a video of Captain Picard cutting a pizza with a pizza slicer shaped like the Enterprise (the original, not models A-E) while humming theme music from classic Star Trek.

You're welcome.

It's a Chandelier and an Interactive Map

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 03:00 PM PST

The Global Data Chandelier is a permanent and functional art installation at the new headquarters of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. It’s the brainchild of several design firms working together: Sosolimited, Plebian Design, Hypersonic Engineering & Design and Chris Parlato.

The chandelier has 425 pendant lamps that turn on and off in order to reflect, globally, certain data types. These include renewable water resources, GDP growth and energy consumption.

Here’s a video showing the Global Data Chandelier in action:


(Video Link)

Linnaeus the Observant

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 02:00 PM PST

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.

The father of classification was a curious fellow
by Honoré Schoolcraft, Improbable Research staff

Carl Linnaeus paid attention to some surprising things.

Linneaus was the Swedish scientist who taught the world how to classify living things, and gave us the double-barreled way of naming them in Latin. This year, 2007, is the 300th anniversary of his birth. The science community celebrates most of his work, but tends to overlook some of his writings about Lapland. Of course, the world in general tends to overlook writings, or most anything else, about Lapland.

At the age of 25, Linnaeus traveled through that northern wild region for five months, noting down whatever caught his eye, ear or nose. His hodgepodge of jottings jumps from topic to unrelated topic. Some of his thoughts, appearing in print, may take modern readers unawares. Here are a few.

Linnaeus’s general Lapland notes were eventually published as a book called Iter Lapponicum 1732. An English language translation appeared in 1811. The following quotations are from a modern translation by Peter Graves, titled The Lapland Journey, published by Lockharton Press in Edinburgh in 1995. The page numbers given here are from that 1995 edition.



A Woman and Her Frogs
On page 67, Linnaeus mentions a parsonage, and a school that has eight pupils, and a “round Lappish snuffbox made of turned reindeer horn,” and a woman. He says of her:

There was a woman here who was dreadfully plagued by frogs she had drunk as spawn in water this past spring. She knew that there were 3 of them and both she and anyone who sat beside her could hear them croak. Salt did not kill them and she dulled her pain a little with schnaps. Someone else who had the same ailment some years before happened to take 3 Nux vomica and recovered, but this woman will not take the risk.

What Use is a Hole
On page 101 he writes:

I went up to the church in Old Lulea. Right by the door I was shown a hole that the old order of monks had made in the stone wall. Its diameter and its depth were of an equal size; it was quite round and its bottom was smoothed off in an egg shape. It was a test that the cathedral chapter used to use to judge the glans penis of men who had been rejected by their wives.

This and This and This
Page 105 includes three consecutive brief paragraphs that are, in most respects, unremarkable. But they are a good example of how Linnaeus would mention this, that and the other thing, putting them cheek by jowl by wattle:

There was Pingvicula [Common Butterwort] on the shore and Juncus bombycinus, minimus [cub-rush] everywhere.

A black sand containing iron had been washed up on the banks.

The vagina in women does not become more ample when they are fat, more likely narrower; the thinner they are, the larger the vagina.

That and That and That
Page 171 serves up an equally mundane threesome:

In winter, however, the sun does not go completely below the horizon and is still visible at the solstice. I wonder if it is visible at the pole?

Finnish girls have big breasts, Lapp girls have small ones of a sort a girl keeps unspoilt for her future husband.

The town of Tornea lies on a small island, on which the settlement itself is situated by the south-west shore.

Historians fawn at the wide range of creatures and whatnot that Linnaeus classified. Perhaps they don’t give him nearly enough credit.



A Modern Frog Note
Linnaeus’s mention of the woman who ate frogs has a modern, and almost opposite, counterpart. A June 5, 2007 report by the Reuters wire service says:

BEIJING—A man in southeast China says 40 years of swallowing tree frogs and rats live has helped him avoid intestinal complaints and made him strong.

Jiang Musheng, a 66-year-old resident of Jiangxi province, suffered from frequent abdominal pains and coughing 20 years ago, until an old man called Yang Dingcai suggested tree frogs as a remedy, the Beijing News said on Tuesday.

“At first, Jiang Musheng did not dare to eat a live, wriggling frog, but after seeing Yang Dingcai swallow one, he ate... two without a thought,” the paper said.

Acknowledgement
Thanks to Richard Friebe for bringing the book to our attention, and to Ron Josephson for alerting us to the Chinese frog man.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the July-August 2007 issue 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.

Amazing 3D Printed Geometric Sculptures By Deskriptiv

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST

Artists are currently using 3D printers to bring works to life that were previously nothing more than the stuff of imagination, shapes and forms generally thought of as too complicated, sharply angled and finely detailed to create by hand.

Now, unshackled artists free to play with form via printed plastic are about to get wild, and nobody comes up with crazier geometric designs than German art studio Deskriptiv. With styles ranging from hard edged and repetitive to softer edged, more organic pieces the artists behind Deskriptiv studio have forever changed the way people view 3D printing as it relates to art.

Via Hi-Fructose

Flexible Muscle-Based Locomotion for Bipedal Creatures

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST

(vimeo link)

This video shows 3-dimensional renderings of some serious computer graphics experimentation. From the video description:

We present a muscle-based control method for simulated bipeds in which both the muscle routing and control parameters are optimized. This yields a generic locomotion control method that supports a variety of bipedal creatures. All actuation forces are the result of 3D simulated muscles, and a model of neural delay is included for all feedback paths. As a result, our controllers generate torque patterns that incorporate biomechanical constraints. The synthesized controllers find different gaits based on target speed, can cope with uneven terrain and external perturbations, and can steer to target directions.

Yeah, whatever. What we see here resembles, in the best cases, a test of a Boston Dynamics robot, and in the worst cases, QWOP. The overall goofiness makes you wonder how we ever manage to walk anywhere. Oh yeah, don't miss the outtake at the end. -via Metafilter

How to Open a Wine Bottle with a Shoe

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST


(Video Link)

"Have you ever been in this position: really nice bottle of wine, no corkscrew?" A representative of Mirabeau Wine, a winemaker in southern France, asks this question. Then he shows an ingenious solution to the problem.

I took a different approach. When my corkscrew shredded the cork instead of gripping it, I used my electric drill and largest bit (1/4 inch) to drive a hole through the cork. Of course, this left a lot of cork bits in the wine. So I filtered the wine through the basket of my coffeemaker, thus removing the cork.

The wine tasted terrible anyway.

Richard Gray of the Daily Telegraph describes Mirabeau's technique as a "disarmingly simple way of taking the cork out of a bottle without a corkscrew that will become your new party trick this year." I predict many broken bottles and a lot of spilled wine.

How Long Would You Survive After the Apocalypse?

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 10:00 AM PST

A quiz by UsvsTh3m figures out how well you are prepared for the apocalypse. With just a little knowledge and hubris, I managed to live to the age of 105 (if the apocalypse happens soon). I don't think they take your current age into consideration. Gerard at the Presurfer lasted an entire six months, because he's a city boy. How long will you survive?

Derelict Gas Station In Ireland Converted Into Street Art Installation

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 09:30 AM PST

Since street art has become far more acceptable, and garnered a lot more fans due to media coverage of artists like Banksy, the pieces just keep getting bigger and bigger. The scene has gone from simple stencils painted on walls and sidewalks to full blown installations as big as a fueling station, like this incredibly colorful piece in Limerick City, Ireland.

An abandoned petrol station was turned into a public art installation, complete with candy striped mini cars, by street artist Maser entitled "No.27- A Nod To Ed Ruscha".

Here's the story behind this bold installation:

I converted a derelict petrol station in Limerick city into an interactive installation, as part of a transformative urban art project. My work often boldly juxtaposes old and new, past and present in the architectural elements, the visual grammar and choice of pallet. I hope to create work that surprises people and questions their relationship with the familiar and the norm and also how dissociated we are from the space around us. -Maser

Edward Joseph Ruscha is an American artist associated with the Pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, and film.

Via Street Art News

Writer's Block

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST

(vimeo link)

It's no Frankenstein, but the story behind the story is almost the same. When hurricane Sandy interrupted production on the film Cold Comes The Night in upstate New York, it left the assembled cast and crew with nothing to do for a while. Bryan Cranston had an idea for passing the time: a contest in which production assistants could submit a script, and he would star in a quick production of the best one.

Brandon Polanco's story was selected, and filming began immediately. The result is the short film Writer's Block. May be NSFW for language and implied sex. It features a lot of Cranston walking around frustrated, showing his thoughts on his face, which we know he's good at from watching Breaking Bad. -via Buzzfeed

Wonder Woman Computer Sitter

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:30 AM PST

Wonder Woman Computer Sitter

Work can be a lonely place. Invite a friend that stands for truth, justice, peace and sexual equality to hang out with you at the office. This super computer companion looks like your favorite warrior princess.  

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Wonder Woman items. 

Link

Beautiful Lamps Made from Classic <i>Star Wars</i> Toy Sets

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:30 AM PST

If you wanted to create a shrine to American childhood in the 1980s, these lamps should light it. Etsy seller Marty McFly (possibly not his real name) made theselamps by gluing together and painting Star Wars toys.

The top one, for example, is made from the Ewok Village Playset, a classic and cherished toy that came out with Return of the Jedi. The bottom lamp is made from pretty much everything else.

-via Nerd Approved

You Could Win A Great Geeky Tee Shirt From the NeatoShop

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Want to win a NeatoShop tee shirt like the Geek Power shirt above? Then head over to our Facebook page, specifically this post, and tell us your favorite bit of absolutely useless trivia. The winner, as selected by those of us here at Neatorama, will get their trivia posted on Neatorama and get a shirt of their choice.

A few rules apply: the trivia must be true, it must be absolutely useless and you also have to like the post to complete your entry. Entries must be submitted by Wednesday 11:59 PM PST and we will contact you through Facebook. If you win and don't get back to us within a week, we'll pick another winner instead.

House Calls to the Homeless

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:30 AM PST

(YouTube link)

Dr. Jim Withers goes out on the streets of Pittsburgh at night to serve the medical needs of homeless people. He's been doing it for 22 years now. Other people joined him, which led to the organization of Operation Safety Net. The program became a model for similar outreach programs in other cities. In this video, Dr. Withers explains how he began his mission. -via Viral Viral Videos

The Mangalitsa is a Sheep-Pig

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:00 AM PST

(Photo: Orycteropus)

The Mangalitsa is a rare breed of pig from Hungary. It’s the result of a Nineteenth Century experiment in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to breed a pig with very high fat content in order to produce large amounts of lard.

The breed faded in popularity and almost died out. The pigs take a full year to grow to 350 pounds—twice the time of more popular breeds. But in the 1990s, interest in the breed revived. There are now about 60,000 Mangalitsa pigs around the world, including some in the U.S.

(Photo: Derzi Elekes Andor)

The deep red meat consists of 50% fat, giving it a buttery flavor that is treasured by gourmands around the world. The lard is also prized by elite chefs who prefer to cook with it.

-via Makin’ology

11 Desserts That Changed the World

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 06:30 AM PST

Believe it or not, there have been many international incidents, alliances, and cultural shifts that revolved around cakes, pies, and other assorted sweet treats. Consider the case of Eamon de Valera, a caper that became a fiction trope.

In 1916, Eamon de Valera found himself incarcerated because of his role in the 1916 Easter Rising, an uprising in which people of Ireland tried to assert their independence from British rule. De Valera managed to make a copy of the hail chaplain's master key by stealing it and making a wax impression using melted-down church candles. He sent the impression to his friends on the outside, who fashioned a metal key and sent it to him, embedded in a cake. Unfortunately, the key didn't function. They tried again, however, and de Valera's second attempt at escape was successful.

How did that cake change the world? Eamon de Valera went on to found the political party Fianna Fáil, and over a 50-year political career served as the leader of Ireland under several titles as the country gained its independence. The other stories on this list at mental_floss will make you say, "Oh yeah, I remember that!" Dessert turns out to be pretty important in the grand scheme of things.    

(Image credit: Flickr user Christian Unbehaun)

The Invisible Flower Vase

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST

It looks like a vase and you can still keep your flowers watered, but you don't have to deal with storing a glass vase when you don't have flowers out. The Crown Vase, designed by Lambert Rainville, uses nothing more than a small plastic ring and the actual stems of flowers to hold up the bouquet, making the flowers really stand out as the center of attention.

If you want to make your vase match your bouquet or even your dinner plates, just switch out the color of plate you use to hold the water underneath.

If you like great decor ideas like this one, you really ought to visit Homes and Hues regularly.

Zach King's Magic Vines

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 05:30 AM PST

(YouTube link)

A 6-second vine video is the perfect place to show off some complicated special effects without the magic getting lost in exposition. When you put a lot of those great 6-second videos together, it's a non-stop barrage of delight that doesn't have to hang together or make sense. That's fine with me!  

Film student Zach King (previously at Neatorama) has been having a lot of fun making short clips at Vine to blow your mind with one "magic" effect in each. FarlyTeem compiled about 75 or so of them to make it easy for you to enjoy. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

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