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2014/05/05

Neatorama

Neatorama

Study: Rude Salespeople Make You Want to Buy Fancy Things

Posted: 05 May 2014 04:00 AM PDT


(Photo: zoetnet)

The social dynamics of a luxury goods store can be weird. As we noted two months ago, dressing like a slob at a high-end shop impressed salespeople. That's because the employees assumed that only a rich person would have the confidence to dress that way in public without feeling ashamed.

Unfortunately, you did not wear your old sweatpants to the fancy clothing boutique. You wore simple slacks and a button-down shirt, so the you can feel the heavy eyes of the salespeople on you, judging you as riffraff that rolled in from the local Walmart. They're rude to you.

What is your response? According to a study that will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, you're more likely to buy expensive goods. That's because if the staff subtly tells you that you're not good enough, you may buy more in order to convince the staff that you really are high class. Dr. Darren Dahl of the University of British Columbia, the lead author of the article, explains:

"It appears that snobbiness might actually be a qualification worth considering for luxury brands like Louis Vuitton or Gucci," says Sauder Marketing Professor Darren Dahl. "Our research indicates they can end up having a similar effect to an 'in-group' in high school that others aspire to join."

For the study, participants imagined or had interactions with sales representatives – rude or not. They then rated their feelings about associated brands and their desire to own them. Participants who expressed an aspiration to be associated with high-end brands also reported an increased desire to own the luxury products after being treated poorly.

The effect only held true if the salesperson appeared to be an authentic representative of the brand. If they did not fit the part, the consumer was turned off. Further, researchers found that sales staff rudeness did not improve impressions of mass-market brands.

"Our study shows you've got to be the right kind of snob in the right kind of store for the effect to work," says Dahl.

-via Marginal Revolution

Japanese Spider-Man

Posted: 05 May 2014 03:00 AM PDT

(YouTube link)

Japan once had its own Spider-Man live action TV series. It debuted in 1978, and was a lot like the American version. With one particularly awesome difference.

The series revolved around Takuya Yamashiro, played by Shinji Todō, a motorcycle racer who is given spider-like powers after an injection of blood from the last surviving person of the Planet Spider.

Like any self-respecting Spider-Man, Yamashiro can shoot webs, but what separates him from his American counterpart is the fact that he gets his own giant robot. I repeat, he gets his own giant robot.

Well, it wouldn’t be a Japanese superhero epic without at least one giant robot, would it? -via Time Newsfeed

District 3 Electricians - A Tribute To The Games Of Hunger

Posted: 05 May 2014 02:00 AM PDT


District 3 Electricians by Frauholle

When the Electricians of District 3 chose their tribute for the games they went with a guy who wouldn't let them down, a mighty warrior with an electric charge flowing through his veins and a steely stare that strikes his opponents to the core like a lightning bolt.

Is your hunger for geeky clothing insatiable? Bring home this District 3 Electricians t-shirt by Frau Holle and show the world you're a fan of the games!

Visit Frau Holle's Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook page, then check out her NeatoShop for more cool designs:

Winchester Ghost ShellsSaving People Reading ThingsFuture OhanaHunters Union

View more designs by Frau Holle | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

The Yoga Farmer Is the Most Bizarre Video You'll See This Year

Posted: 05 May 2014 02:00 AM PDT


(Video Link)

That may seem like a boastful claim, but bear in mind that I watch bizarre videos for a living, so I know of what I speak. Watching this video will make you think that you've accidentally consumed a psychedelic drug--and a lot of it.

There is little information available about this video, presumably because everyone associated with it has attempted to destroy all evidence of it, then changed their identities, and disappeared. But I surmise that during the 1990s, there was a direct-to-video production company called Mystic Fire Video. According to co-founder Sheldon Rochlin, it was "very concerned with the transformation of consciousness, not only through spiritual teaching but through art, music, poetry and film."

That is, of course, why one produce a Hee Haw-like countrified introduction of yoga to children apparently called E-i E-i Yoga. It is also why you would have a cow puppet that teaches you how to breathe and a giant rooster with a Jamaican accent.

It makes complete sense to me--which should probably be worrying. I should have someone drive me to hospital.

-via Daily of the Day

Secret Libraries of New York City

Posted: 05 May 2014 01:00 AM PDT

The main branch of the New York Public Library is undergoing a debate about a possible renovation. If it happens, there will be plenty of other branches to visit during the construction, but there are also many lesser-known libraries in New York that are not part of the public system. Atlas Obscura found quite a few, and just the names are fascinating. There’s the Conjuring Arts Research Center in Manhattan, a treasure trove of magic.

With over 12,000 books and artifacts, the Conjuring Arts Research Center invites visitors to learn the tricks of the secret trade. Manuscripts of magic methods dating back to the 15th century are available in the small library on 30th Street, as are magic props and ephemera of illusions from around the world.

There’s also libraries from General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, the Hispanic Society of America, the American Kennel Club, and more, as well as private libraries not dedicated to single subjects that are open to the public. You might find a new hangout in this list!

(Image credit: The Conjuring Arts Research Center)

Photo: A Batarang Hot from the Blacksmith's Forge

Posted: 05 May 2014 12:00 AM PDT

As the Dark Knight was forged in the fires of suffering, so is a batarang forged through fire, force, and skill. Logan Pearce is a blacksmith of great talent and skill. We've previously shown a knife that he forged from a tire iron. Currently, he's making a batarang. Pearce promises to create a video tutorial showing you how to make your own.

Women And Children Who Look Like Michael Cera

Posted: 04 May 2014 11:00 PM PDT

(Image Via Imgur and Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

(Images Via Imgur and Jerod Harris)

(Image Via Imgur)

Comedic actor Michael Cera has a very familiar face, and he has stated in interviews that he gets mistaken for other people on the street all the time, but what is it about his face that seems so familiar? Is it those gentle eyes, that pert nose, or that soft, downy moustache he sometimes sports in public?

It’s hard to put your finger on why Michael Cera looks so familiar, that is until you see this collection of Women and Children That Look Like Michael Cera (and one entire Michael Cera looking family), put together by those fun-loving folks at BuzzFeed.

Study: Kissing Up to the Boss Works

Posted: 04 May 2014 10:00 PM PDT

(Image: Brainy Smurf and Papa Smurf/Warner Bros.)

It's easy when you work for such an intelligent CEO as Alex Santoso or a prudent and thoughtful editor like Miss Cellania. But even if you don't work in a company as well-led as Neatorama, you should put in an effort to suck up to the boss. According to a 1994 study by scholars at Cornell University, your career is more likely to thrive if you flatter your supervisors:

Supervisor-focused tactics...include: agree with your immediate supervisor’s ideas; praise your immediate supervisor on his or her accomplishments; agree with your supervisor’s major opinions outwardly even when you disagree inwardly. Job-focused tactics...include: make others aware of your accomplishments in your job; try to take responsibility for positive events even when you are not solely responsible; arrive at work early in order to look good in front of others.

So being a jerk really helps. Robin Hanson of Overcoming Bias lists other indicators of career satisfaction:

Other things that predicted job success: being married, being on the job many years, working more hours per week, and not having a PhD.

Yes, I can believe those--especially about being married. It makes me happier in general, as well as more settled and focused. It can also change the social dynamics of a workplace.

-via Super Punch

Unhappily Ever After

Posted: 04 May 2014 09:00 PM PDT

What if they didn’t live happily ever after? Nickelodeon storyboard animator Jeff Hong has a new Tumblr blog in which he illustrates the potential unhappy endings of Disney movies. It’s called Unhappily Ever After, and you don’t want to see the illustrations if you don’t have a sense of humor about fictional cartoons. But if you do, be ready to groan, laugh nervously, and have your childhood ruined. -via Buzzfeed

Stormtrooper Hobo Nickel

Posted: 04 May 2014 08:00 PM PDT

(Photo: Shaun Hughes)

Nickel carving is American tradition dating back to at least the Great Depression. Some homeless people of that era carved designs into nickels, then sold them for hopefully more than 5 cents. This is how they became known as "hobo nickels."

In recent years, the craft of nickel carving has revived in popularity. We've seen inventive designs here at Neatorama, such as aliens. For Star Wars day, British artist Shaun Hughes carved the image of a stormtrooper into a vintage nickel.

New Dog Center’s First Resident is a Cat

Posted: 04 May 2014 07:00 PM PDT

Dogs Trust, an animal rescue organization in England, is building a new dog shelter in Essex. It is expected to officially open for business in June and take in dogs who need homes. But a cat, who knows a good thing when she finds it, has already decided to make it a home. The staff calls her Dog the Mog.

Centre manager Maria Wickes said she was not surprised that Dog the Mog had decided the centre was "a good place to set up home".

"One morning this skinny kitty just arrived at the gates and she has made frequent visits ever since," she said.

"It is ironic that our first unofficial resident would be a cat, but we are all animal lovers and we adore her, even if she meows rather than barks at us each morning."

Wickes hopes that someone will recognize Dog and claim her, but if not, she will be welcome to stay when the dogs arrive. -via Arbroath

Even More <i>Star Wars</i> Pancakes

Posted: 04 May 2014 06:00 PM PDT

Happy Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you. Last week, pancake artist Nathan Shields wowed us with his pancakes that looked just like non-human creatures from Star Wars. His post was enticingly entitled "1," suggesting that there might be a part 2.

Here it is! For this edition, Shields made a space slug, a mynock, a sleen, a tauntaun, a trandoshan, an ugnaught, a wampa, and a bogwing.

Father-Son Bonding

Posted: 04 May 2014 05:00 PM PDT

Chris at Lunarbaboon couldn’t let Star Wars Day go by without posting his tribute to the franchise. When Lucas finally figured out what he was going to do with the story, it set a standard for passing the tale along from generation to generation. And provided a way for geeky dads to bond with their geeky children.  

Agents of the U.N.E.M.P.L.O.Y.E.D. - Jobless In Tahiti

Posted: 04 May 2014 04:00 PM PDT


Agents of the U.N.E.M.P.L.O.Y.E.D. by Jeremy Hawkins

As the shield crumbled, and the hydra wrapped its tentacles around the world, the agents were forced to go into hiding and fight super-tyranny from the shadows. So who came up with the bright idea to make t-shirts commemorating this dark day?

Superheroic TV fans are going to love this Agents of the U.N.E.M.P.L.O.Y.E.D. t-shirt by Jeremy Hawkins, it's timely, hilarious and shows the world you're on the right side of the battle between good and evil.

Visit Jeremy Hawkins' website and Retro-Z blog, then head on over to his NeatoShop page for more geeky designs:

Rooster CandyGhost with the MostTake Me To Your LeaderLOL vs WTF

View more designs by Jeremy Hawkins | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Norman Rockwell Inspired Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Art

Posted: 04 May 2014 03:00 PM PDT

The Ninja Turtles have become pop culture icons since they were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in the 1980s, and the various video game, movie, toy and comic book incarnations that have come out since cemented their place in pop culture history.

However, their geeky fame is nothing compared to the overall popularity of the iconic artworks created by Norman Rockwell, who is generally seen as one of America’s greatest painters.

Well, it was only a matter of time before someone brought the Rockwell look to TMNT, and that someone is illustrator Bryan Lee, who has created a geek-tastic series that captures the look and feel of Rockwell with mutant turtles as the stars of each piece. Classic Cowabunga!

-Via GeekTyrant

Classic Star Wars Parodies

Posted: 04 May 2014 02:00 PM PDT

(YouTube link)

As soon as the very first movie proved to be a hit in 1977, people have been working the comedic side of Star Wars. One of my favorites is Hardware Wars (above), which was first produced in 1978. The YouTube version is updated with newer “special defects” in the years since. But that’s just the beginning! Gamma Squad posted nine of the best classic Star Wars tributes and parodies for Star Wars Day. If you’ve seen them, it’s probably been quite some time since you've enjoyed them. If you haven’t seen them, you’re in for a real treat!

Student Poses As Teenager From Every Decade In The Last Hundred Years

Posted: 04 May 2014 01:00 PM PDT

There’s a common misconception that young folks don’t care much about the past these days, since they’re too caught up in tech gadgets and social media, but teenager Annalisa Hartlaub aims to change that misconception with a school photography project where she imagines herself as a teenager from every decade over the last hundred years.

Her era specific photos find her as a mainstream teen on the left and a counter-culture teen on the right, and in addition to being a project about self exploration the photos also do a great job of showing how little styles have changed over the last hundred years.

-Via 22 Words

Anti-cheating Posters Pulled Over Reddit Post

Posted: 04 May 2014 12:00 PM PDT

A redditor who has since deleted his/her account posted this picture and said, “Just took a maths final with this on the wall of the exam room. It has formulas on that were needed in the exam. This poster got me an extra ~10% on the paper.” The post made the front page, although there was no real evidence that the story was true. Commenters expressed disbelief, as the formulas were not related to each other, the poster was hard to see, and the submitter had managed to take a picture of it before, during, or after a test in which phones are banned. But no matter…

The story got back to Plymouth University, which had used the posters. School officials expressed skepticism of the story as well.

Nevertheless, they did admit that the picture, which was taken from stock photography website Shutterstock, did include genuine mathematical formulae and as a result the University has decided to remove them for the rest of the exam period.

They said: "The posters used to remind students of the dangers of cheating contained official stock imagery, which included genuine mathematical formulae.

Adding: "In light of the concerns raised, however, the University has replaced the posters."

The moral of the story is, before you post something that is either incriminating or untrue, you should take into account the fact that anyone else who is at all involved will ether see it or will be told about it. -via reddit

New Mickey Mouse Animated Short - Fire Escape

Posted: 04 May 2014 11:00 AM PDT

(Video Link)

The creative animators at DisneyShorts have done a really good job of bringing Mickey Mouse back for fans young and old, and trying to get us all to forget about that awful looking called Mickey’s Clubhouse, which features some downright terrible CGI.

Since the release of the Mickey short Runaway Brain in 1995 the DisneyShorts division has succeeded in getting fans of that most famous mouse back on board, and Get A Horse! (2013) began a new wave of Mickey shorts with a snazzy new look.

Their latest short is called Fire Escape, and it continues the new old school series while retaining a lot of the comedic charm people have come to expect from Disney animated shorts.

-Via Kotaku

Disney’s A113 Easter Egg

Posted: 04 May 2014 10:00 AM PDT



The next time you watch a Disney film, keep your eye out for the easter egg A113. Imgur user TheGhostWhoHatesSpills gathered 24 examples of how Disney and Pixar films constantly use A113 whenever they need a number. That number is everywhere! Have you ever noticed it before?

The explanation is kind of simple. It’s a classroom number at California Institute of the Arts, used by graphic arts and animation students. It is found in not only Disney films, but in many other movies and television shows in which CalArts graduates have a hand, as an homage to their alma mater -and a wink and nod to other animators. There’s a list of them at Wikipedia.

-via the Presurfer

If Life Was Like A Video Game It Would Look Exactly Like SUPER LIFE

Posted: 04 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

(Video Link)

Life is like a dream or a box of chocolates, life is hell, beautiful and golden, but if your life is like a video game then you probably have some pretty interesting stories to tell!

However, a video game based on real life has the potential to be quite boring, unless it’s something like the everyday found in SUPER LIFE, a video game inspired animated short by Eben McCue.

SUPER LIFE has all the ingredients of an average lifetime- a baby crawling out of the hospital, confusion and cooties on the playground, a football scholarship that leads to a job with a tech company, and finally a good old fashioned seaside burial.

-Via Gizmodo

Disneyland Then and Now

Posted: 04 May 2014 08:00 AM PDT

Disneyland opened in 1955 on the outskirts of Los Angeles, an island of fantasy in the middle of endless orange groves. Then the city grew up around it. Today it is a constrained island of fantasy in the middle of the city. The black and white image was taken on opening day, and the other is an aerial view from 2014. At Southland, you can read about the changes and see another gif comparing the park with a wider area around it from 1965 and 2014.

If someone did this with Walt Disney World in Florida, the difference between the two parks would be striking. Disney learned from his first park experience and bought a much larger tract of land to enable future expansion in Florida. -via Digg

(Images credit: Orange County Archives and Google Earth)

Meet Frane Selak, The Luckiest Unlucky Man To Ever Live

Posted: 04 May 2014 07:00 AM PDT

(Video Link)

Frane Celak has the dubious distinction of being the luckiest unlucky man in history, and he has survived so many vehicular disasters in his day they ought to sign him to the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration!

Frane's amazing string of lucky escapes culminated in him winning the lottery, and now his story is being told in animated form thanks to this colorful short by This & That Visuals, with voice-over by John Block.

Animation seems like the perfect medium for telling Frane's tale, since his many escapes make it seem like he's living in a cartoon!

-Via Cheezburger

Dark Side Impossible - A Rock N Roll Fantasy

Posted: 04 May 2014 06:00 AM PDT


Dark Side Impossible by Theduc

People tripped out on the original cover art for dark side, but boy are their minds going to be blown by this prismatic impossibility! Rock and roll and rainbows, when they're obscured by clouds you can't see all the colors, but when you set the controls for the heart of the sun no wall can contain the pulsing rhythm of those heavy psychedelic grooves.

Keep your wardrobe rockin' with this Dark Side Impossible t-shirt by Theduc, and if you take a selfie while wearing this shirt be sure to caption the pic "wish you were here."

Visit Theduc's Facebook fan page, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more far out designs:

Mr and Miss SWGrand Walking DeadMarvin PocketMini Magritte

View more designs by Theduc | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Star Wars ...ROCKS!

Posted: 04 May 2014 06:00 AM PDT

(YouTube link)

Here’s the perfect thing to get you going on Star Wars Day! A rocking’ medley of the various musical themes in Star Wars, courtesy of TheHumanTim (previously at Neatorama). Yes, he plays all those instruments; his next project is the Indiana Jones movies. You can use this for background music while you’re surfing the web, and be sure to show the kids. May the Fourth be with you! -Thanks, Tim!  
     
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