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2014/02/09

Neatorama

Neatorama

Watch a Master Truck Driver Slide His Trailer into a Parking Spot

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 04:00 AM PST


(Video Link)

At the elite level, truck drivers are like the Top Gun fighter pilots of the highways. They can quickly move enormous, complex vehicles into tight spots and make it look effortless. Watch this driver move his 53-foot trailer into a parking spot like he's going for a casual trip.

-via The Presurfer

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Wedding Cake

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 02:00 AM PST

Jessica Pan decided to celebrate the 147th anniversary of author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s birth by making an authentic birthday cake from her life. She decided to use her wedding cake recipe from the Little House Cookbook, because it seemed the most edible of the cake recipes. She did not reckon on having to beat ten egg whites by hand.

That afternoon the finished black cashmere was carefully pressed, and then Ma made a big, white cake. Laura helped her by beating the egg whites on a platter with a fork, until Ma said they were stiff enough.

“My arm is stiffer,” Laura ruefully laughed, rubbing her aching right arm.

“This cake must be just right,” Ma insisted. – These Happy Golden Years, 1943

*
That afternoon, Jess began separating 10 eggs as she attempted to make a traditional white cake from the pioneer years. Rachel helped her by watching.

“It says you have to beat the egg whites by hand to make it authentic,” Rachel said. Jess beat the eggs for 15 minutes and then rubbed her aching right arm.

“This is bullshit. I’m getting the electric mixer,” Jess said, heading towards the cupboard. – What actually happened, 2014

Trying to recreate a cake recipe from over 100 years ago is not as easy as you might think. I would have used an egg beater. In fact, I would bet that the Ingalls did as well, but that detail didn't make it into the Little House books. Read the rest of the ordeal at The Hairpin. The recipe is included. -via Metafilter

Photos Of Ridiculously Overloaded Vehicles In China

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 12:00 AM PST

Vehicles piled so high they look like they might tip over at any time are the subject of this odd photo collection by China Foto Press. These vehicles carry goods and waste all over cities in China in an incredible balancing act, crawling from one side of town to the other like insects carrying loads five times their size.

Why are these vehicles piled up so high? Cui Zhongfu, secretary-general of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing explains:

“Highway and bridge tolls in China are too high for transportation companies. Sometimes, they can account for as much as 20 percent of the total expense. Therefore, many companies carry too much freight to try to make trips more profitable and compete with rivals.”

These overloaded trucks are responsible for causing bridges to collapse, roads to crack and often get into accidents on the roads, and they're becoming a huge problem for local governments who are calling out for stronger regulations. Plus, whenever they drive around people think the circus is in town!

-Via Beautiful/Decay

Croissant Earrings

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 11:00 PM PST

Etsy seller Stephanie Kilgast makes hyper-realistic miniature sculptures of food. They look good enough to eat and small enough to stay within in a diet! But they're actually made of polymer clay, so I wouldn't recommend eating them.

These rolls will remind you of a pleasant brunch on a lazy weekend. All they need is a coffee cup nose ring and a fresh fruit belly button ring to form a complete continental breakfast.

-via Huffington Post

Victorian House with Spaceship

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 10:00 PM PST

This lovely old house for sale near London has almost 7,000 square feet of interior space. That holds eight bedrooms, four bathrooms, plus two separate apartments in the basement. But what’s really neat is what’s up in the attic.


An attic loft has been transformed into a spaceship interior for children. Look at all the details! I bet at least a few of the computers work. The way it looks, you wouldn’t be surprised if you started floating as soon as you stepped into it. Okay, that’s the detail that makes this listing different, but there are 36 breathtaking pictures of this property at the listing at rightmove. The whole thing can be yours for just £3,250,000. That’s $5.3 million US. -via Nag on the Lake

Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde Salt & Pepper Shakers

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 09:00 PM PST

Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde Salt & Pepper Shakers (sold individually)

Are you planning a sociable gathering of highly respectable friends? Keep the conversation and the food seasoned with the Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde Salt & Pepper Shakers from the NeatoShop. This striking, yet strange, shaker set is made of glazed ceramic. The removable head shaker features Dr. Jeckyll on one side and Mr. Hyde on the other. The well dressed torso and the head are held together by magnets.

The Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde Salt & Pepper Shaker is a wonderful way to make sure you never run low on that ever important ingredient, salt. It would surely be a crime to leave your guests with uncharacteristically bland food.   

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Kitchen Stuff. 

Link

Good News! Shivering Is a Form of Exercise

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 09:00 PM PST

(Photo: Orin Zebest)

Enjoying the brutal winter weather? It may count as your daily workout. According to the results of a study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, being cold accelerates the metabolization of fat.

This is because of the way that brown fat reacts to cold temperatures. Brown fat is adipose tissue that can burn and create heat. When a person exercises, s/he produces the hormone irisin, which converts white fat to brown fat.

Until a few years ago, scientists thought that humans have brown fat only in infancy. As they age, they lose their brown fat and shiver as a substitute means of staying warm. Now we know that adults retain brown fat.

The researchers for this study had test subjects either exercise vigorously, exercise leisurely or lie on a bed in a cold room. They found that the people who exercised vigorously and those that lay shivering in bed produced high levels of irisin. Thus they both metabolized brown fat.

-via Althouse

The World of Raw Denim Fandom

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 08:00 PM PST

Jeremy Wilson went seven months before washing a pair of new jeans. It wasn’t to prove that you don’t have to wash jeans, but because of a very specific aim -to make them one-of-a-kind. Wilson explored the internet niche community of raw denim. Serious blue jean aficionados skip pre-washed jeans and distressed jeans because the wear marks have nothing to do with the person who wears them every day. Instead, they customize unwashed denim.  

Raw denim is sometimes known as dry denim because the washing process has been skipped, leaving them stiff with starch and dark with dye. That’s why the first wash is so important. With pre-washed denim, the dye comes off uniformly during the first wash because the jeans haven’t been worn. But the longer you wait to wash a pair of raw denim jeans, the longer they can’t absorb the wear and creases of everyday life. When they are finally washed the dye will come off unevenly; more will come off the worn bits of denim, revealing “fades.”

This process has obvious aesthetic values that are impossible to replicate with pre-washed denim. No matter how hard designer labels try to get sandblasters to replicate the look of a worn pair of jeans, it will never look as natural as the fading causing by by months of hard wear.

I’m not sure how necessary this is- I always managed to get a personal fade on non-prewashed denim in a few months by wearing them and washing them every week or so. But that’s just the beginning of the finer points of raw denim. There’s also the quest for finding and identifying the rare artisanal fabric, getting the hem right, and showing off your rawness by flashing the selvage. Read move about the raw denim community at The Daily Dot.

(Image credit: Jeremy Wilson)

This Cake Is Made of 24 Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 07:00 PM PST

(Photo: Tamara Palmer/Zagat)

When I was 5, I decided to make a cake by myself. A cake is a sweet-tasting bread. So I reasoned that I could make a cake by pouring pancake syrup all over a pile of sliced bread. It was terrible.

In the same sense, this is a cake. It is bread and roughly cylindrical. The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen, a restaurant in San Francisco, made it. The restaurant specializes in--you guessed it--grilled cheese sandwiches. This marvel is made with cheddar and Monterrey jack on sourdough bread with cheese frosting.

The good news is that the restaurant delivers.
The bad news is that the restaurant requires 48 hours notice to make one. 

That's a shame. Just imagine a world living in a world where you could just order of these delivered to you within minutes.

-via Foodbeast

This Russian Daredevil Looks Like He's Ready For Hollywood

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 06:00 PM PST

Russian daredevils have been taking to dizzying heights to shoot selfies which they've been sharing with the world via the internet for a few years now, and if you can handle looking at these jaw dropping pics you’ll be left wondering how these guys haven’t killed themselves yet.

They call themselves city climbers, and one of the most daring of these fearless daredevils is named Kirill Oreshkin, and he should consider moving to Hollywood and becoming a stuntman before he slips up and falls to his death.

Kirill likes to hang around by his fingertips from incredible heights, posing like it’s all no big deal despite the obviously fatal distance that lies between where he's hanging and the ground below.

-Via 22 Words

3D Printed Popeye

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 05:00 PM PST

Well, blow me down! It's our favorite sailor, just . . . really aged. Well, Popeye is now over 85 years old, so that makes sense. Rick Baker, the accomplished Hollywood makeup special effects artist, used a 3D printer to duplicate his sculpture of Popeye. Everything you see here, except for the collar and pipe stem, is 3D printed.

-via Nerdcore

Lotsa Salsa Dogs

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 04:00 PM PST

(YouTube link)

What’s the most popular dance among our canine friends? The salsa! How did these dogs ever get so good at it? Not that it matters; what matters is that people had their cameras ready to capture them for our entertainment. yeah, you may have seen some of these before, but you haven’t seen ALL of them!  -via Daily of the Day

Brooks Wheelan Shares His 2013 One Second At A Time

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 03:00 PM PST

(Video Link)

Comedian Brooks Wheelan had an exciting year that he’d like to share with everyone, one second at a time.

His path from engineer living in Los Angeles to cast member on Saturday Night Live in New York took place over many seconds and minutes and hours during 2013, but he figured people wouldn’t want to watch a hundred plus hour long video.

So he edited the highlights of his year together into a seven and a half minute long short, much easier to watch in one sitting.

You’ll see the true power of that tiniest of time increments, and how much living a man can do in one amazingly busy year. Plus, it's funny!

-Via Laughing Squid

How to Keep Train Tracks Free of Ice: Set Them on Fire

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 02:08 PM PST

Patrick Cashin of New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority snapped this photo east of the Jamaica Station. A track switch is the last place where you'd want to get ice on a railway. To prevent that from happening, the MTA uses gas-powered warmers.

This is only one of the MTA's special tools for harsh winter weather. Last year, we showed you photos of one of its snow removal locomotives.

-via Jalopnik

Pretty in Pink

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 02:00 PM PST

Holly’s favorite color is obviously pink, and that’s the one color she did not get on her birthday cake. Wait -she DID get pink, only it’s the word -written in, um, lavender. The text is clearly taken directly from the instructions. Cake Wrecks has a post with ten cakes, almost all of which have the color instructions written out in icing. A couple actually had the word iced in the correct color. 

Artist Shares His Ideas For Cosplaying On A Budget

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 01:00 PM PST

Lots of artists and designers sketch ideas for future projects when they’re not busy working on their main projects, but not many of them would refer to their ideas as “half assed”, nor would they be willing to share these one cheeked wonders with the internet in hopes that they might be of use to somebody.

But Patrick Dean isn’t like other artists, and through his Tumblr site My Half Assed Cosplay Ideas he’s encouraging others to give his simple costume on a budget ideas a try. And to be honest his ideas aren’t half bad, especially the first appearance Daredevil costume idea, which resembles what Matt Murdock might have worn during his first night out on the streets showing the bad guys that justice is blind.

-Via Geeks Are Sexy

S'More Calzones

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 12:00 PM PST

(Photo: Brendan Spiegel)

Calzones are handy foods for busy people on the go. Just bake a pizza and fold it over. If you're in a hurry to stuff yourself with chocolate and marshmallows, then this s'more calzone is ideal for your active lifestyle.

Matthew and Emily Hyland own Emily, a pizzeria in Brooklyn. They specialize in Neapolitan style pizza. Brendan Spiel of Brooklyn Based visited and reviewed their offerings, including this sweet calzone made like a s'more.

-via Endless Simmer

The National Anthem Tradition

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 11:00 AM PST

(YouTube link)

The Kentucky All State Choir performs at the Kentucky Music Educators Association conference in Louisville every year, and hundreds of the best high school singers from across the state stay in the same hotel. Last year they were at the Hyatt, which has an 18-story atrium. It is a tradition during the conference that at 11PM (curfew time), everyone comes out of their rooms to sing "The Star Spangled Banner." The performance was captured in its entirety on video. This tradition has been going on for at least twenty years, maybe longer. The 2014 conference ends today. You can see a clip of one of this year's anthems at Facebook. -via reddit

Want Revenge? Hire Nefarious Jobs To Seek Vengeance For You

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 10:00 AM PST

They say that revenge is a dish best served cold, but all that cliché really means is take some time to cool off before you jump into any hare brained attempt at getting your revenge.

But if you still find yourself burning with the fires of vengeance after you've had time to cool down, and you don’t want to get your own hands dirty, then San Francisco based company Nefarious Jobs will help you get revenge at rates ranging from about 1800 dollars up to ten thousand dollars for what they call "Total Annihilation".

Nefarious Jobs is a shadowy organization, who offers shadowy services you have to email them about for any sort of details, but their website does take Discover so they can't be that shady now can they? *wink*

-Via Geekosystem

This Week At Neatorama

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 09:00 AM PST

Were you able to watch the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics last night? It was as beautiful as it was incomprehensible. The next two weeks of competitions will be much easier to follow: we like to see someone slip and fall every once in a while, but we don’t want anyone to break their neck. Enjoy the Games, but don’t let that distract you from another important event coming up this week: Valentines Day! Yeah, I know, it’s an overly-commercialized Hallmark holiday, but there’s never a bad time to express your true feelings to someone you love. And forgetting the occasion can be a mark against you. Right now, let’s get you caught up on what’s been going on this past week at Neatorama.
 
John Farrier brought us An Exclusive Interview with Erik Kwakkel, Medieval Book Historian.

He also showed us 11 Strange and Fancy 20-Sided Dice.

Eddie Deezen marked 50 years of The Beatles in America with the post The Beatles' American Television Debut (Or Was It?)

Over at our Spotlight blog, we told you the tale of Horace and Agnes: A Love Story.

The Tallest Man in the World came from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.

The Annals of Improbable Research gave us A German Military Chest-Slapping Hazard, and American Pottery.

10 Shocking Stories About America's First Ladies was from mental_floss magazine.

The Whodunit this week from Hy Conrad was called The Vampire on the Balcony.

In the What Is It? game this week, the mystery object is an ice cleat for attaching to the heel of a shoe. A handy item, no doubt, but we were looking for funny guesses. One of the best answers came from Berhard, who said,

This is obviously a tool-less mountable „space saver“ spare horseshoe... just enough to get you and your mustang to the next farrier... without the need to carry a forge and an anvil..
The wild west ancestor of the „limited use donut tyre“...

That’s good for a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! But how does he make those upside-down quotes? The other great guess came from Randall:

Don't be put off by the seemingly crude appearence of this device, for without it the astronauts would have never reached the moon! This an artificial orange squeezer that was used to make Tang, the delicous vitamin packed space drink you can enjoy right here on earth, if you have a taste for watery sickly sweet orange colored sand. I can't describe exacltly how it worked, because thats still so classified, even Snowden won't tell us. I think it was fitted to a space boot, and the artificial orange was stomped on like they do grapes when they make wine.

Congratulations to both on such clever ideas! We’ll do it again next week. See the answer to all the mystery objects of the week at the What Is It? blog.

The post with the most comments this week was the Coca-Cola Super Bowl Ad and Punxsutawney Phil Has Been Right Only 39% of the Time. The latter gave us our comment of the week, from Joseph Francis:



Yeah, it's a movie quote, but it's also one of the nicest things said all week. John would have picked another bon mot by the same commenter.

The most popular of last week's posts was How Fast Can You Read? In second place was Goat Simulator, and The Tallest Man in the World came in third.

The posts that received the most hearts were Lil' Drac, the Cutest Baby Bat You'll See Today and Magic Eye Music Video.

The most-emailed post was Antique Rocking Bath Tub, followed by Snacktime and The Ultimate Wake-up Prank.

The Neatorama post of the week that was the most-liked on Facebook was Star Trek: The Next Generation Valentine's Day Cookies. The most Tweeted was World Traveler Gets a Fill-in Tattoo of Every Nation He's Visited. The post Crocheted My Little Daleks was the most shared on Google+, and the most-pinned was Yoga Skepticism. It's easy to share our posts with your social media buddies: just look for these icons —> at the end of every post. Click on the post title and you'll have even more options at the bottom!



The joke above was the most-pinned image at the Neatorama Pinterest boards this week. But you would have already known that if you had suscribed to NeatoMail! Sign up at the top right sidebar. THe most popular post on our Facebook page was the comic Snacktime. The Neatoramanauts Facebook page also has plenty of content that doesn't appear here on the main page.

Valentines Day is six days away, and you can still get some great gifts for the occasion from the NeatoShop, although you might want to consider an expedited shipping option at this point. If you're good to go with your Valentine, you'll want to check out our extensive line of St. Patricks Day t-shirts and accessories!

Have a great week!

Creepy Typeface With Human Skin And Features

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

Why, for the love of all that is good in this world, did someone make a series of typeface creatures sporting realistic human skin, hair and eyes, and where, oh where, are their mouths?!

These creeped out fleshen font monsters were created by JC Debroize, creative director of graphic design firm Kerozen, who used modeling clay to form the structure of each letter before digitally applying the humanistic features in Photoshop.

The result is a bunch of letters that look like they just escaped from the radioactive section of Sesame Street nobody talks about, and when they stare into your very soul you will know what it’s like to be too scared to read!

-Via DesignTAXI

Zombie Body Parts Tote Bag

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 07:00 AM PST

Zombie Body Parts Tote Bag

Are you dying to find  for a large, versatile bag capable of carrying groceries, books, or the limbs of your reanimated friends and neighbors? You need the Zombie Body Parts Tote Bag from the NeatoShop. This infectiously fun bag is jumbo-sized and features a spirited Zombie Body Parts design. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for all your Zombie needs. 

Link

Breakout Moment in Sochi

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 07:00 AM PST

U.S. Olympic bobsledder Johnny Quinn tweeted his latest adventure in Sochi. He took a shower and the bathroom door became jammed. There was no one near, and he didn’t have his phone in the bathroom. So he did what any self-respecting world-class athlete would do, and took matters into his own hands. Or shoulder, I presume. Heeere’s Johnny! -via Buzzfeed

Neatolinks: Fear, Depression, Isolation and Adventure Time

Posted: 08 Feb 2014 06:00 AM PST
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