Neatorama |
- Mr. T Delivers the Stagecoach to Town Safely
- The Delicious Geekery of Nom*Ables
- Black Sabbath and A Flock of Seagulls Mix: Strangely Copacetic
- Heart-Shaped Shoes
- The Coin Paradox
- At Age 17, Stanley Kubrick Photographed the New York Subways
- Barbershop Quartet Breaks the Tension on a Delayed Airline Flight
- Deal With It - The Doctor Is In The House
- Roald Dahl’s Fight Against Measles
- How to Make a Reverse Boiled Egg
- Atchoum, the Cat with the Long Locks
- The Magical World of ChocolateFest
- How Valuable Is Your Home Address Street Name?
- Wanderers
- Brilliant Business Idea: Generalized Uber
- Saul Goodman's Best One-Liners From <i>Breaking Bad</i>
- That Healthy Glow
- Customized Pop Culture LEGO Friends Mini-Dolls
- Munchies I Have - Going Green I Am
- Watch a Dog Get Rescued from Drowning in a River
- Whodunit: The Vanishing Love Token
- This Gallon of Milk Has a Forcefield
- Woman Delivers Her Own Baby While Pulled Over on the Interstate
- The Simpsons in Pixel Art
- 30 Captivating Street Art Murals
- The History of the Snowmobile
| Mr. T Delivers the Stagecoach to Town Safely Posted: 03 Feb 2015 04:00 AM PST Brandon Bird has a knack for offbeat takes on pop culture, such as a prehistoric Dukes of Hazzard and Sylvester Stallone shooting squids out of his arms. In “A Hero Rides Forth,” he shows the great western character Mr. T driving a stagecoach at a furious pace. No one is riding shotgun with him. When you’re Mr. T, you don’t need it. Please please please please please Hollywood, make this picture into a movie. And since Mr. T himself is getting on in years, you are welcome to make it an animated feature in the style of that visionary 80s cartoon Mr. T. -via Geek Tyrant  | ||||||||
| The Delicious Geekery of Nom*Ables Posted: 03 Feb 2015 03:00 AM PST There are plenty of geeky foods out on the internet, but not many places where you can order them in the outside world. Thankfully for those in Portland, there's Nom*Ables. This bakery isn't just full of sweet treats, it's also packed with all kinds of great geek stuff. For example, the treats up top are called "S'mordor" and the one right above this is part of the Cornetto Trilogy Series called "You've Got Red On You." Nom*Ables even sets up shop at local conventions like the Wizard World Portland. They said they used to attend the ChocolateFest, which is at the same convention center on the same weekend every year, but the Wizard World better suits their demographic. On the upside, if you don't live in Portland, you can still get a hold of your own Combustable Lemon Curd and Pokenoms through their online store. | ||||||||
| Black Sabbath and A Flock of Seagulls Mix: Strangely Copacetic Posted: 03 Feb 2015 02:00 AM PST Los Angeles-based musician Andy Rehfeldt (previously at Neatorama) remixed Black Sabbath's “Paranoid” with the guitar from A Flock of Seagulls' “I Ran (So Far Away).” Rehfeldt arranged, performed and recorded the remix. The result is a union so pleasing that it's easy to imagine Ozzy's mischievious grin is a sign of his approval, instead of just some good drugs. -Via Laughing Squid | ||||||||
| Posted: 03 Feb 2015 01:00 AM PST Kobi Levi is fashion designer in Israel. He's noted for his shoes that look like other things, such as playground slides, bowing cats, Disney villains, and wads of gum annoyingly attached to sneakers. One of his recent creations is this pair of shoes with outsoles that form the outline of a heart. With a romantic shade of red, they'd be ideal for a Valentine's Day date. | ||||||||
| Posted: 03 Feb 2015 12:00 AM PST Futility Closet posted a puzzle that might make your eyes glaze over, or could spur some of you to compete over who has the best, clearest explanation.
I look forward to any explanation you may have, and later I’ll add some I found elsewhere. -via Boing Boing (Image credit: Lymantria) | ||||||||
| At Age 17, Stanley Kubrick Photographed the New York Subways Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:00 PM PST
See more pictures from Kubrick's subway series here. | ||||||||
| Barbershop Quartet Breaks the Tension on a Delayed Airline Flight Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:00 PM PST Last month, a US Airways flight from Indianapolis to New Orleans was delayed for maintenance after everyone had already boarded. Flight attendant Kari Mann learned that 4 of the passengers were a barbershop quartet called Port City Sound. She asked them to sing and they obliged. Mann writes that, “The mood changed and our passengers were awesome for the whole 5 hours they were on the plane!” -via Huffington Post | ||||||||
| Deal With It - The Doctor Is In The House Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:00 PM PST Victor was plotting to take over the planet way before it was cool, and his unique look and dominant personality have made him into a superstar in the world of supervillainy. Those who have come face to mask with the doctor of doom tend to remember the experience, and despite the fear felt while in his presence they all admitted to one thing afterwards- Victor is totally the coolest, and he's destined to be a star! Keep your geeky wardrobe totally radical with this Deal With It t-shirt by Rocky Davies, it's oozing with old school cool and serious supervillain attitude without all the destruction and subjugation! Visit Rocky Davies's Facebook fan page, official website, Tumblr and Instagram, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more delightfully geeky designs:
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! | ||||||||
| Roald Dahl’s Fight Against Measles Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:00 PM PST
British author Roald Dahl fathered five children with his wife, American actress Patricia Neal. The oldest, Olivia, was the apple of his eye. In 1962, 7-year-old Olivia contracted measles, which developed into measles encephalitis, and she died within hours. Dahl wrote about Olivia and his broken heart in a private diary that his family only found long after his death. In 1988, Dahl wrote an open letter to parents about the measles vaccine, published in a pamphlet from the Sandwell Health Authority. It tells about Olivia’s illness and then says,
Read the rest of Dahl’s letter at Buzzfeed. Measles may have been “virtually wiped out” in America in 1988, but the nation is still vulnerable to infection by travelers coming in from other nations, due to the decreasing ratio of vaccinated children in some areas. In fact, the U.S. is currently experiencing the worst outbreak of measles in decades. POLL: Quick: Do you know your own measles immunity status?
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| How to Make a Reverse Boiled Egg Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:00 PM PST Scientists have learned how to unboil an egg. But can they make a reverse boiled egg? Apparently with a few supplies and a delicate touch, yes! This video is in Japanese, but the step-by-step instructions make it easy enough to follow without a knowledge of that language. Wrap tape around an egg, which I assume is to help it maintain structural integrity. Then place it inside a stocking, tie off the egg in the middle, then spin the egg for a long, long time. After you then boil the egg, it should have the yolk on the outside and the white in the middle. -via Rocket News 24 | ||||||||
| Atchoum, the Cat with the Long Locks Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:00 PM PST
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| The Magical World of ChocolateFest Posted: 02 Feb 2015 06:00 PM PST Zeon and I recently went to Portland to check out the Wizard World there. What we didn't know is that the comic convention always lines up with the city's annual ChocolateFest -which seems appropriate since they no doubt bring plenty of attendees to one another's convention. As you may have guessed, the ChocolateFest is a convention based around chocolate -not just eating it, but the production, cooking and history of the delicious treat. But aside from celebrating one of nature's greatest gifts, the festival also celebrates nature itself in that it is sponsored by the World Forestry Center and all proceeds go to support the center. -So you not only get to sample tons of exquisite, gourmet chocolates, you also get to support a good cause at the same time. As a chocolate snob who has never been able to find anything quite as good as the chocolate I had in Switzerland, I was blown away when I discovered Cocotutti, which was one of the handful of companies that weren't local to Portland. The company made the best chocolates I've ever had. They were not only as rich and smooth as the Swiss chocolates, but they also had utterly amazing flavors like balsamic strawberry and lemon with lavender. I'm still kicking myself for not buying an assortment, but I was trying to save money since I was on vacation. The festival also offered alcohol tastings so you could do wine and chocolate samples. Here I once again made an amazing discovery -though not with wine, but vodka. That's because Portland company Wild Roots makes and incredible infused vodka with Oregon's favorite berry, the marrionberry. Unfortunately, you can't buy this stuff out of Oregon, so if you live in the state, grab a bottle and celebrate your location. As for ChocolateFest, the bottom line is that it's a great event for a great cause and if you make it, plan on getting drunk on chocolate before getting drunk on wine or booze because the delicious candy selection is certain to get your head spinning. | ||||||||
| How Valuable Is Your Home Address Street Name? Posted: 02 Feb 2015 05:00 PM PST In a cutthroat business like real estate, the name of a street can increase or decrease the value of a property. Although city planners might not put too much thought into it, these street names can make a difference. The New York Times has a fun interactive tool that lets you search for the name of a street and see the home value of that street relative to others. Strangely, living on Batman Road decreases rather than increases the value of a home. So something is wrong with the program or wrong with society. -via Flowing Data | ||||||||
| Posted: 02 Feb 2015 04:00 PM PST An ode to the spirit of exploration, Wanderers is a short film by Swedish artist Erik Wernquist with narration by Carl Sagan. You might recognize some of the places in this short film, although you’ve never been there.
This one is best seen in fullscreen mode. You can download stills from Wanderers at Wernquist’s website. -via Oregon Expat | ||||||||
| Brilliant Business Idea: Generalized Uber Posted: 02 Feb 2015 03:00 PM PST Zach Weinersmith is the artist who makes the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. He has widely varying interests and great intellectual depth in multiple fields, which is probably why he recently delivered an address to the American Economic Association.
In a recent tweet, he proposed a fascinating idea: creating a generalized Uber. I have not used this car service before, but I gather that it uses a smartphone app to link up drivers with people who need a ride. It's a decentralized taxi company that offers opportunities to people who have cars and want to earn some money with them. Weinersmith expands upon this idea, generalizing the Uber business model. What skills do you have that you would be willing to perform for a price? Place those skills and your pricing system on an app that tracks your location in real time. People can contact you as they need you for those skills. What do you think? Could a business like this one thrive? | ||||||||
| Saul Goodman's Best One-Liners From <i>Breaking Bad</i> Posted: 02 Feb 2015 02:00 PM PST The best criminal defense money can buy! This coming Sunday is the premiere date for the Breaking Bad spinoff series Better Call Saul. It revolves around Walter White’s cheesy, sleazy, yet competent attorney Saul Goodman, as portrayed by Bob Odenkirk. It’s been a couple of years since Breaking Bad ended, so let’s review what we know of the character’s persona with a supercut of some Saul’s best one-liners, courtesy of Robert Jones of Tastefully Offensive. Oh, and for the record, Saul Goodman is not even his real name. | ||||||||
| Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:00 PM PST
"Not every fruit or vegetable transmits the light properly and some need more, while others need a less powerful light source. Carving into the fruit needs to be done carefully and not more than necessary to place the light source somehow central. For harder vegetables a drill is ideal to carve a symmetrical channel of an ideal size." The resulting photographs make the foods look more appetizing. I've never seen a ripe strawberry that I didn't want to eat, but a shining strawberry is almost more temptation than one strawberry lover should have to bear. See more of Zaciu's series, plus interesting photos of the lighting process and the tools he used, at Design Boom. See much more of the photogrpher's work — including stunning wildlife photography — at his Flickr account, and follow him on Facebook. | ||||||||
| Customized Pop Culture LEGO Friends Mini-Dolls Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:00 PM PST
LEGO Friends Mini-Dolls are a different size and configuration from the minifigs we are used to. They were introduced a couple of years ago to appeal to girls. Jon Lazar began customizing these dolls last year with the LEGO Super Friends Project. He completed the first 31 superheroes in July, then added a new one every week -as he still does! Along the way, he’s expanded his range to include male and female characters from popular movies and TV shows. Lazar has created characters from Doctor Who, Indiana Jones, The Hunger Games, Ghostbusters, and more. They are available through his Etsy store.
Continue reading to see more of them.
Here's the completed LEGO Super Friends project that started it all. You can see the figures individually in Lazar's Flickr set.
Lazar says in 2015, he's working on creating Star Wars characters out of LEGO Friends dolls, a new one every week. Check back at his Flickr gallery to see them as they are made!
If you like these, look for your favorites at Lazar's Etsy shop. -via Laughing Squid | ||||||||
| Munchies I Have - Going Green I Am Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:00 AM PST Munchies I Have by Mike Jacobsen The little green master had just finished partaking of some particularly pungent herbs from the planet Cannabar-9, and his brain was beginning to feel a bit fuzzy. He started laughing at the stupidest things, like how funny those Dagobahian toadrats looked as they leapt from fungus to fungus or how the bubbling swamp sounded like it had a bad case of gas, and then a serious case of the munchies came to town. He was too "happy" to move, but luckily found that his force powers still worked quite well, so he used his far out brain waves to deliver the snacks straight to his mouth! This Munchies I Have t-shirt by Mike Jacobsen comes high-ly recommended by those who enjoy herbal remedies and movies about wars in the stars, and you don't need a prescription to buy one! Visit Mike Jacobsen's Facebook fan page, official website, Twitter and Tumblr, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more geek-tastic designs:
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! | ||||||||
| Watch a Dog Get Rescued from Drowning in a River Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:00 AM PST Heavy rains caused the Los Angeles River to swell. A dog fell into it in Burbank. He was too far into the middle of the river for people to reach him from the riverbank, so rescue workers with the Los Angeles Fire Department approached him by helicopter. In this video, a man is lowered in from a helicopter. He swims over to the dog and picks him up. The dog is a Corgi/Chihuahua mix. He has a collar, but no tag or microchip. He's now at the North Central Animal Shelter in Lincoln Heights. -via Nothing to Do with Aborath | ||||||||
| Whodunit: The Vanishing Love Token Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:00 AM PST The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad. These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution? The Valentine's Day party was a tradition. Each year Henry and Bitsy Vandercleef invited their friends into their Park Avenue home. After a sumptuous dinner, the couples retired to the drawing room. The men drank port, the women drank champagne, and each couple exchanged love tokens. This year George Epson outdid himself, presenting his wife with a ruby necklace. The women sighed enviously while the men mentally added up the cost and wondered how their wives would react to their own less extravagant gifts. When Henry's turn came, he told Bitsy to close her eyes and led her over to the windows. When Bitsy opened her eyes, she saw the billboard and gasped. "To Bitsy, the most beautiful woman in my world. Love, Henry." "You don't know how much trouble it was getting a billboard put up on Park Avenue," Henry said. The women sighed again while the men mentally added and wondered. George Epson was the first to notice the missing necklace. "Stolen," he gasped, holding up the empty jewel box. "Nobody leave the room." Everyone assured everyone else that there couldn't possibly be a thief among them. Not them. The necklace must have fallen out or been mislaid. Systematically, they searched the room. There was nothing in the empty champagne bottle. Nothing on the thick Persian carpet. The crystal decanter set was in place and all the containers filled to the top with whiskey, port, and bourbon. The glasses were examined, as were the folds of the red tied-back curtains flanking the locked windows. They even inspected the red crystal chandelier. "What about the dog and cat?" Henry asked. The butler quickly rounded up both pets, stuck his fingers down their throats and then checked out their favorite hiding places. In desperation, all the guests permitted themselves to be searched. Still nothing. Police Inspector Clyde, the poorest member of the gathering, finally spoke. "It does look like robbery," he said reluctantly. "And while I don't know who took the ruby necklace, I can tell you where it is now." Where is the necklace? And how did Inspector Clyde know?
In addition to his work in mystery and crime puzzles, Hy was also one of the original writers for the groundbreaking TV series Monk. Currently, Hy is working on mystery novel series "Abel Adventures" as well as the Monk series of novels, starting with Mr. Monk Helps Himself (published by Penguin, order from Amazon here Check out Hy's official website and Facebook page - and stay tuned for more whodunits puzzlers on Neatorama from the master of whodunit mysteries himself! | ||||||||
| This Gallon of Milk Has a Forcefield Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:00 AM PST The gallon jug of milk sits at the perfect spot beneath the water tap. As the water hits the cap, it flows over it in a perfect bowl shape, missing the rest of the jug completely. It's beautiful. I should spend the rest of the day trying to duplicate this feat in my own kitchen sink. -via That's Nerdalicious! | ||||||||
| Woman Delivers Her Own Baby While Pulled Over on the Interstate Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:00 AM PST
Once she felt the full force of her labor, Ostler dialed 911; her call was answered by operator Brittney Chugg. Ostler was traveling 75 miles per hour in the fast lane on Interstate 15 when she told Chugg that her water broke. According to the Associated Press, Ostler said, "I'm trying to get over into the other lane — I need to push! The baby is coming!" Ostler was able to pull over to the side of the interstate while Chugg talked her through the delivery procedure and Utah Highway Patrol trooper Josh Carr raced to the scene. Only a minute after the officer arrived, Ostler gave birth to a healthy, nearly 10-pound baby boy. Highway noise could be heard on the recording in the background as the newborn was swaddled in a sweatshirt. Officer Carr said of the incident,
Ostler said later at the hospital, "I knew the baby was coming and it doesn't help to panic. So, I just stayed calm and said, 'Well, if I deliver it on my own then I deliver it on my own. If somebody gets here, somebody gets here. The baby is here. There's not much more I can do about it.'" Congratulations to such a strong, level-headed lady! Visit this AP articleto read more on this story. | ||||||||
| Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:00 AM PST Paul Robertson and Ivan Dixon designed an opening sequence for The Simpsons that puts Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie into a retro video game world. All the basic elements are there, plus a trippy long scroll sequence and the appropriate chiptune music with video game accents by Jeremy Dower. It's billed as a "tribute" to The Simpsons, but Fox should snap this up for a real couch gag, don’t you think? -via Viral Viral Videos | ||||||||
| 30 Captivating Street Art Murals Posted: 02 Feb 2015 06:00 AM PST
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| Posted: 02 Feb 2015 05:00 AM PST The following is reprinted from the book Uncle John's Unsinkable Bathroom Reader. It’s easy to forget that until very recently in history, families who lived in cold-weather areas were snowbound on their land throughout the long winters. One man dedicated his life to changing that. Dad was impressed, but he had other plans for Joseph: As was the tradition with Catholic families in Quebec, the oldest boy was expected to become a priest. So Joseph went to seminary school. * In 1909 Russian inventor Igor Sikorsky invented the Aerosani, which also ran on skis and was powered by a propellor. If the snow was too deep, however, the prop couldn't pull the vehicle’s massive weight. (Sikorsky would later be integral to the invention of the helicopter.) * About the same time, a French military engineer named Adolphe Kégresse invented a system that converted a regular car or truck into a snow-worthy half-track vehicle (wheels on the front, “caterpillar” tracks in the back). All that resulted was a car that didn’t get stuck as easily -not even an all-snow vehicle.
And that’s the way it went for the next eight years …until tragedy struck. In the winter of 1934, Bombardier’s two-year-old son’s appendix burst. The boy would die if he didn’t get to the hospital, which was 30 miles away. But with the roads snowed in and no working prototype of his snowmobile in the garage, there was nothing that Joseph and Yvonne could do, and their son did die.
His first step: advertise. Driving his seven-passenger model -the B7- Bombardier easily made his way through the deep snows of the Quebec winter, always making sure he parked in front of newspaper offices. Sure enough, word of a working snow machine got out and initial sales enabled him to build a new production facility in 1940, when he introduced the 12-passenger B12. Unlike its predecessors, the wheels were solid instead of spoked, which stopped snow from accumulating and slowing down the vehicle. These early snowmobiles were used to deliver freight, take kids to school, and provide emergency services, giving people security and freedom in the winter months like they’d never had before.
Thanks in part to the fun name, people viewed the Ski-Doo in a way Bombardier hadn’t- as a recreational vehicle. But he was reluctant to market it as such, thinking a whimsical name might limit sales. Still, there was no denying it: A new winter sport had been born. Costing $900 each, 8,210 Ski-Doos were sold the first year. And although sales steadily increased, Bombardier didn’t push the Ski-Doos as hard as he could have, keeping the company’s focus on the all-terrain vehicles used by miners and the forestry service, two things for which he felt there would always be market. ____________________________
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute has published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute. |
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Fourteen-year-old Joseph-Armand Bombardier was driving his father crazy by constantly tinkering with everything around the house. Young Armand took apart and then rebuilt clocks, toy trains, and even the engine on the family car. It became so maddening that his father bought him a seemingly irreparable Ford Model-T engine just to keep him busy in the garage for a while. 
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Today, Bombardier is a national hero in Canada. His offspring have kept the company going. Under the name Bombardier Recreational Products, they branched out with Sea-Doos for the water and a whole array of other outdoor recreational machines. Snowmobiles are still used by the military, of course, as well by search-and-rescue teams and by indigenous hunters in Canada. But their biggest use by far is for fun, as evidenced by the 3,000 snowmobiling clubs that exist around the world. In the United States and Canada, enthusiasts spend more than $28 billion on snowmobiles and related equipment every year. And a recent focus on environmental concerns aims to make them greener, cleaner, and quieter than ever. 
The article above is reprinted with permission from 
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