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2015/02/06

Neatorama

Neatorama

Homo Novus Evolution - Knock Knock Neanderthal!

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 05:00 AM PST


Homo Novus Evolution by Wirdou

His mother had him tested and soon discovered that he wasn't like any other human man. He was the physical embodiment of Bazinga, an overly evolved genius whose mind worked in such mysterious ways that the scientific community didn't know what to do with him, so they tossed him in a lab and locked the door. After he got over the initial hissyfit stage he discovered that he liked being locked in a lab, and as his Homo Novus intellect went to work the world started to become a much nerdier place...

Get more bang for your buck, bring home this Homo Novus Evolution t-shirt by Wirdou and bring some big smiles to the faces of your fellow fans!

Visit Wirdou's Facebook fan page and official website, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more ridiculously cool designs:

Killer BunnyDark Side of the ShellNeverballDW The Extraterrestrial 4th

View more designs by Wirdou | 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!

11 Things You Didn’t Know About Weddings

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 05:00 AM PST

It’s not all fondant and games. Jen Doll, author of Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest, reveals what today’s traditions owe to evil spirits, dental hygiene, and Queen Victoria.

1. The Egyptians were probably the first to exchange wedding rings. By Medieval times, it was believed that a vein ran from the fourth finger of the left hand to the heart, so this became the trendy place to show off your rock.

2. But engagement rings didn’t take off until the Middle Ages. In 1215, Pope Innocent III declared that there should be a longer waiting period between betrothal and marriage, spiking th wring’s popularity.

3. And diamonds came even later. Though the first recorded exchange of a diamond engagement ring was in 1477, when Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha proposed to Mary of Burgundy, they weren’t the standard until 1947, when Frances Gerety, who never herself married, coined “A Diamond Is Forever” for De Beers.

4. White Wedding dresses weren’t de rigueur until Queen Victoria wore one to marry Albert of Saxe-Coburg in 1840.



5. In ancient times, brides carried bunches of aromatic herbs, like garlic, dill, and rosemary, to ward off evil spirits; this irradiation continued into the 1800s. (Guests, it’s said, might also nibble on the herbs for fresh breath.) Queen Victoria, who carried a bouquet of snowdrops, also gets credit for starting the modern floral trend.

6. Throwing the bouquets wasn’t always about calling out single ladies- it started because guests used to tear off pieces of the bride’s dress in an attempt to take some of her back home. The tossed flowers were intended to distract the crowd do she could get away unscathed.

7. Early bridesmaids were dressed exactly like the bride to confuse evil spirits, who might otherwise target the happy couple. It wasn’t until the trend-setting Victorian era that bridesmaids began wearing white dresses with short veils, setting them a bit apart from the bride.

8. The bride stands to the groom's left at the alter because in the old days of “marriage by capture” the groom needed his right hand free to fight off other suitors.

9. The phrase “tying the knot” comes from an old Irish custom called hand fasting, which involved tying the bride and groom’s hands together at the ceremony to symbolize their commitment.

10. During the Roman Empire, wedding cakes were actually bread, and they were broken over the head of the bride by the groom to symbolize fertility. Today’s tradition of smearing cake on each other’s faces is a little sweeter.  

11. The honeymoon comes from a Norse tradition, wherein newlyweds would go into hiding for a month, drinking a cup of honey wine each day.

_______________________

The article above, written by Jen Doll, is reprinted with permission from the May 2014 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!

Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff!

Pac-Man Clock

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 04:00 AM PST

It's time to rise and shine and chase after those food pellets. Eat and don't get caught by the ghosts. That's your job every single day. For eternity.


(Video Link)

If you need a reminder of that, Bob of Making Stuff has a great clock design for you. Bob built this clock showing Pac-Man chasing his undead enemies. This time-lapse video shows the construction process from start to finish. It's run with an Arduino-compatible controller and a servo mounted in a 3D printed bracket.

The body pieces are made very skillfully with a scroll saw. Bob's well-equipped workshop makes me jealous. I need a scroll saw, as cutting off my fingers with my jigsaw takes too much effort.

-via Hack A Day

Artists Transform Children's Hospital With Murals

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 03:00 AM PST

A British arts collective called Vital Arts, for a project in which the goal is to bring art to Britain's hospitals, has transformed London Royal Children’s Hospital into a visual feast for little eyes. Mural after mural, some embellished with parts affixed to give them dimension and life, meets the eyes of patients and their guests. What was once a grim, institutional paint job is now full of vibrant color. If the designs put one smile on the face of a sick child or parent in distress, the artists have made a positive impact. 

See many additional pictures, each more charming than the last, in this post. Visit Vital Arts' website to learn more about the artists and their admirable mission. 

This Pile of Snow Looks Just Like a Cat

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 02:00 AM PST

Twitter user @samurai_ball snapped this photo of a snow formation a couple years ago. This cat is far more into winter than even Rudiger the snow cat. Bring him in from the cold!

-via Rocket News 24

The Ultimate Walking Dead Recap

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 01:00 AM PST

(YouTube link)

This recap takes you through four-and-a-half seasons of The Walking Dead to get you ready for the show’s return this Sunday. Does it contain spoilers? It should, since its a recap, but I’ll have to say no, because any details you actually pick up from this video will be -how do I say this- wrong. Fans of the show will definitely find more laughs than someone who might try to follow the logic here. Just like The Walking Dead series itself, there is no logic in this video. You can thank College Humor for that. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Fleeting Gaze

Posted: 06 Feb 2015 12:00 AM PST



Photographer Brad Wilson spent patient, painstaking hours photographing these owls housed at the World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis and The Wildlife Centernear Española, New Mexico. Wilson described the difficulty in photographing such creatures,

“It’s hard to get animals to look at you like humans do,” he says. “That shot became my holy grail.”

These shots are part of Wilson's series “Affinity,” which features 65 species, including a white rhino, a white tiger, an Arctic fox, and an Egyptian Vulture. Yet Wilson said that of all his animal subjects, the owls were the most challenging. 

Read more about Wilson's experience photographing the owls at Audubon,and visit his websiteto see the stunning images from Affinityand Affinity II. 

 
 

The Depressing Epilogues To Four Reality Shows

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 11:00 PM PST

Reality shows are depressing enough to watch as it is, but they become way more depressing when you learn a bit of the cast's backstory, or if you look into what happened to those “stars” after their show was cancelled.

TV networks love to run those reunion specials and get the reality crews back together, but what about those after stories the networks don’t want you to know about?

Remember when a little lady named Tila Tequila had her own gimmicky dating show on MTV?

I don’t blame you for wanting to forget, but Tila isn’t done grossing out the world with her tackiness just yet, and she came back into the spotlight for a second when she wrote a blog post called "Why I Sympathize With Hitler". The old sympathize with Hitler tactic, eh Tila? And I bet you thought she couldn't go any lower than her dating show!

Read the rest of the 4 Depressing Epilogues To Popular Reality Shows here (Contains NSFW language)

Aircraft Carrier Passes through a Rainbow

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 10:00 PM PST

The mighty USS John C. Stennis, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier based in Bremerton, Washington, passed through a rainbow in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday morning. For the photographer, Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ignacio D. Perez, it was a perfect moment. He described the event to CNN:

"As a photographer I am used to documenting operational events like aircraft launches and recoveries," Perez, a 21-year-old mass communications specialist third class, said in an email. "But when I saw the rainbow I was excited because it was different. I knew the odds of the ship passing near another rainbow were pretty slim."

Perez was fortunate he was on the ship's flight deck on another assignment when things began to fall into place.

"I was actually covering the end of a 5K run on the flight deck at the time, but I noticed the rainbow as a fog cloud was breaking and quickly changed my location to ensure I had a better view of the ship passing underneath it," Perez said.

-via Jalopnik

Action Women

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 09:00 PM PST

(vimeo link)

ClaraDarko put together a montage of female action heroes from movies you know and love. Take out all the dialogue, all the exposition, and all the sex, and what’s left is pure badassery. Oh, and it’s extremely violent. She deliberately excluded any characters with super powers, but that left 61 films of women fighting their way in and out of trouble, with swords, guns, and martial arts. If you don’t recognize them all, there’s a list of film used at the vimeo page. -via Uproxx

This Barber Will Shame Your Misbehaving Kid by Giving Him an Old Man's Haircut

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 08:00 PM PST


(Photo: A-1 Kutz Barber Shop & Salon)

Russell Fredrick is a barber and the owner of A-1 Kutz Barber Shop & Salon in Snellville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. If your child is misbehaving, you can threaten to take him to Fredrick's shop for a "Benjamin Button Special." That's a haircut that will make him look like a balding man. Fredrick offers this service free of charge.

The haircut is named for the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a story about a man who ages in reverse. Fredrick says that giving his own son a Benjamin Button was highly effective, so he kindly offers it to other parents. The Washington Post reports:

Fredrick, the A-1 Kutz co-owner and a 34-year-old father of three, said he decided to advertise the cut after he used the unique disciplinary measure on his 12-year-old son, Rushawn, last fall — and saw immediate results. Rushawn’s grades, which had fallen, “dramatically skyrocketed” after he got his old-man haircut, Frederick said.

The boss barber said he has already had one parent take him up on the offer. And there has been a surge of interest from other parents, especially after Fredrick posted before, during and after photos of his second “Benjamin Button” subject on social media last week.

-via The Geek Twins

Gotham Knight - When It Comes To Being A Detective He's Aces

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 07:00 PM PST


Gotham Knight by Harantula

There are two sides to that dark and shadowy knight- the billionaire playboy who pretends not to care about the fate of the world and the man in the bat suit who singlehandedly brings justice to the streets of Gotham. There's a method to his madness, and he's playing both sides of the city so that all bets pay off when it's time to show his hand, but there's a wild card Joker out there calling his bluff and keeping him from going all in...

Play the most heroic hand possible with this Gotham Knight t-shirt by Harantula, and watch your fellow Batfans turn flush with delight at the sight of this superheroic design.

Visit Harantula's Facebook fan page, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more mighty geeky designs:

ZombiEVAKrypton KnightInside The WoodsInside Wonderland

View more designs by Harantula | More Video Games | 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 Surreal Provocateur Who Forever Altered Fashion

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 07:00 PM PST

Fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli made a big splash in the 1920s and ’30s by marrying art and fashion. But she also developed practical, modern wearables like culottes and swimsuits with bras inside. Her avant-garde side grabbed attention from celebrities and the press, while her innovations were mass-produced for everyday consumers. And even the strangest of her designs seem tame today compared with the runway collections that make the press but and then never worn by anyone you know.

Some of Schiaparelli’s best ideas came out of collaborations with established artists like Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. Elements that appeared in Dali’s paintings were translated to her garments, like a dress with drawer-like pockets along its front or the dress featuring a bright-red lobster print. In 1937, they created the Shoe Hat, whose crown pointed upward like the heel of an overturned pump. The following year, Dali and Schiaparelli designed the Skeleton Dress, a black crepe gown with cotton wadding used to imitate protruding bones.

Designs like these were intentionally subversive, using elements normally deemed unattractive and elevating them to the pinnacle of style. One of the duo’s most startling illusions was executed for the Tear Dress, a bluish-purple sheath printed with a pattern of torn fabric pieces falling open to reveal a rich, pink lining underneath. The trompe-l’oeil design was punctuated by a matching veil with pieces of cut fabric hanging loosely to resemble the tears printed onto the dress. Inspired by the ripped clothing and decomposing flesh in paintings like Dali’s “Nechrophiliac Springtime” from 1936, Schiaparelli’s finished garment playfully balanced the extremes of perfected couture and its inevitable disintegration.

Read about Schiaparelli’s work, and see those innovations, including the shoe hat and the skeleton dress, at Collectors Weekly.

(Image credit: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

Orphaned Lamb Thinks That She's a Dog

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 06:00 PM PST


(Video Link)

Jemma McKenzie's collies adopted Pet, an orphaned lamb. Like Tarzan, she's taken up the ways of her new family. She wags her tail and plays like a dog. You can watch another video of them playing here.

-via Tastefully Offensive

Snow Star Wars

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 05:00 PM PST

This colossal snow sculpture is the centerpiece of the Sapporo Snow Festival, which opens today in Japan. The Star Wars-themed sculpture was sponsored by Disney, approved by Lucasfilm, and built by the 11th Brigade of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force based in Hokkaido. You can get a look at the process of building it in a series of pictures at Quartz.  -via Digg

(Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.)

The Greatest BuzzFeed Listicle Ever Written

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 04:00 PM PST

It is the dream of every writer to compose a listicle that will stand the test of time as a seminal work of literature. Not every person to pick up a pen has the intuition, skill, and perseverance to master this subtle literary form. Mere inspiration and a familiarity with poetics is not sufficient for the task. What precise philological alchemy results in a masterpiece remains a mystery.

But, occasionally, a listicle of true genius appears. Today, that accomplishment comes from BuzzFeed author David Rattigan. His 20 Things Only Heirs to the Martian Throne Will Understand masterfully parodies the genre by perfectly matching pithy summations of the human experience and reaction .gifs.

Observe that the Pulitzer Prize does not have a category for listicles. This is a serious oversight.

More Than Warts

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 02:00 PM PST

(YouTube link)

This video contains frank medical and anatomy terms that may not be appropriate for your workplace. ZDoggMD (previously at Neatorama) has a new public health song about preventing cancer caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) by having your children vaccinated.  

Some parents are worried about vaccinating their sons and daughters against a sexually-transmitted disease at the recommended ages of 11-12 because they think it may send the wrong message. The recommended age for vaccination is important because you have to wait months between the three shots in the series (at least for Gardasil), and it’s best to get the series finished before your child grows up and leaves home. And that happens in the blink of an eye. Besides, HPV is so endemic that it’s very possible to contract it from one’s eventual spouse. I mean, you do want grandchildren someday, don’t you? And, God forbid, even an abstinent person can be sexually assaulted.

ZDoggMD has more information about HPV and vaccines at his website. The song is performed by ZDoggMD and Devin Moore to the tune of “More Than Words” by Extreme.

Corn on the Cob Pillow

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 01:00 PM PST

A warm ear of corn smothered in butter just feels good, right? So slip one under your head as you go to bed. Designer Weng Jie made that fantasy a reality with this pillow design called the Sweetcorn Pillow. Each kernel is attached with the core with Velcro, which is a mat that can be unrolled. This pillow won a Red Dot Design Award in 2010.

-via Rusty Blazenhoff

Word Problems

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 12:00 PM PST

Grant Snider has a knack for taking something that was once considered a liability or weakness and finding new and creative ways of harnessing or focusing that very liabillity. At the same time, he reminds us that we are all in the same boat, and there's always a new way of looking at the world and our place in it. This is his latest illustration at Incidental Comics. Like all of his web comics, this one is available as a print.

Golden Retriever Puppy Compilation

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 11:00 AM PST

YouTube Link

This Pet Collective compilation of golden retriever puppies being roly poly, inquisitive and playful is fun to watch, but these pups have a lot to learn about life. There's far more to being a puppy than just looking absolutely adorable... oh, wait... -Via Tastefully Offensive

For the Best-Dressed at Mardi Gras

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 10:00 AM PST

OppoSuits, the company that brought us the hilarious Ugly Christmas Sweater Suits, is ready to dress you up for Mardi Gras! This suit is called Harleking. In it, you’ll be king of the harlequins.

If we could make a suit from ‘party', it would probably look like this. Back in the days a harlequin was the life of the party and that is exactly what the Harleking will do for you.

Perfect for a parade, a party, or a drunken revelry. Who knows- if you are the right type of guy, you may even want to wear this to work! Beads not included. -Thanks, Michel!

Fan Gets Radical Facial Surgery To Look Like Red Skull

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 09:00 AM PST

Comic book fans express their love of the medium in many different ways, but these expressions are generally quite simple, like a bit of cosplay or a tattoo of their favorite character(s). One guy went a bit further and subjected his face to over a dozen surgeries to look more like Superman, but he looks like the Clark Kent of comic book fandom compared to this guy:

View image | gettyimages.com

His name is Henry Damon of Caracas, Venezuela, and he voluntarily took his face from perfectly normal to extraordinarily ugly to look more like Captain America's arch nemesis, the Red Skull.

He had the front end of his nose removed, bumps and a coil implanted in his forehead, his brow ridge enhanced and his skin tattooed dark red to complete his vision of the Red Skull look in real life. 

I'm not sure I see the Red Skull in his new look as much as Etrigan the Demon, maybe he would've had more success capturing that authentic Red Skull look if he'd dipped his face into a vat of acid?

-Via CBR

Mystery Mech - Powered By Jinkies

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 08:00 AM PST


Mystery Mech by Captain RibMan

The Mystery Machine gang was tired of chasing down criminals on foot, and since they'd come up against a fifty foot tall ape that wasn't an old man in a mask they decided to bring in some more firepower. They took Fred's old van to a man named Takara, who was highly adept at creating transformable robot vehicles, and in a flash the Mystery Machine became a massive mech equipped with monster busting weaponry and groovy flower accents. The gang didn't know how to spell kaiju, or what the term meant, but now they were prepared for any giant monster invasions that might threaten to harsh their mellow.

Bring your favorite cartoon franchise from the past into the mighty geeky future with this Mystery Mech t-shirt by Captain RibMan, and watch your fellow Scooby fans light up when they see you wearing this sweet shirt!

Visit Captain RibMan's Facebook fan page, official website and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more like wow inducing designs:

Twin Sun Battle- WaxPack Series 5GreeD'OH!Friendly Droid- WaxPack Series 3Resolution Evolution

View more designs by Captain RibMan | 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!

Fixing a Hole

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 08:00 AM PST

(YouTube link)

A culvert in Brazil became clogged, leading to water flooding over the road. Neighborhood men gathered to unclog the drain. When the key piece of debris was removed, the power of gravity sucked a boy and his father right under! They emerged on the other side of the road, alive and apparently unhurt, but their reactions are quite different. The young boy feels he’s been through a thrill ride, and would probably do that again. The older man takes a moment to ponder his mortality. An earlier video left us wondering if they were okay. Another video speculates on the kid’s experience of the drain. -via reddit

Kinetic Insect Lamp Glows and Flutters

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 06:00 AM PST

U-Ram Choe, a Korean artist, is noted for his moving mechanical sculptures that are inspired by living creatures. His latest two works, Silver Insecta Lamp and Gold Insecta Lamp, take the form of insects. When activated, gears flap the wings gently and warm lights glow.


(Photo: Gallery Hyundai)

Each sculpture is made with resin, magnets, electric motors, CPU boards, and LEDs.


(Video Link)

-via Colossal

A Few Facts You May Not Know About Richard Nixon

Posted: 05 Feb 2015 05:00 AM PST

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

Richard Milhous Nixon. Just the name still sends vibrations of hate and malice in countless Americans. Our 37th U.S. president, as well as being our only president to voluntarily resign in disgrace, Richard Nixon was a bundle of oddities and eccentricities.

Nixon made an appearance on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and he once played host to Elvis Presley in the Oval Office. These are two of the more well-known facts of Nixon's life and career. Let's take a look at a few other facts you may not have known about Richard M. Nixon.

* The Watergate break-in is not the only break-in to which Richard Nixon is connected. When he was a student at Duke law school, he and two accomplices broke into the dean's office to check their grades before they were posted.



* His favorite TV show was Gilligan's Island and his favorite movie was Patton.

* One of teenaged Nixon's jobs was as a barker at the wheel of fortune booth at the Slippery Gulch Carnival in Prescott, Arizona.

* A Secret Service agent once saw Nixon taste one of his dog biscuits.

* Nixon originally wanted to be an FBI agent. He was rejected by the bureau.

* Nixon always wore a suit and dress shoes when he walked on the beach.

* He had motion sickness and hay fever his entire life. One cannot help but wonder how he dealt with the multitude of vehicles and traveling he had to do as president.

* Nixon meditated, although he probably would not have described his practice as such. He greatly enjoyed long periods of silence during which he would simply sit still and not speak. This almost certainly would qualify as a form of meditation.

* Nixon's nicknames included Gloomy Gus, the Iron Butt, the Mad Monk, the New Nixon, and Tricky Dicky.

* He was so paranoid he once ordered the Secret Service to tap his brother Donald's phone.

* Nixon holds the record for most times appearing on the cover of Time magazine, with 55.

* A student protester once gave Nixon the finger. The president gave him one back.

* He was the first president to visit all 50 states. No president before Nixon had taken the time to travel to every state.

* Nixon refused to shake hands with anybody from San Francisco.

* Nixon claimed to never have had a headache his entire life.

* He is responsible for having the words s**t and f**k published in the pages of the New York Times. During the Watergate scandal, it was discovered that some of the secret tape recordings Nixon made in the Oval Office included him uttering those four-letter words, and others. The New York Times actually printed verbatim transcripts of the tapes, with the obscene words included.
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