Neatorama |
- 13 Secrets of Ice Cream Science
- Dog Plays Patty Cake
- Would You Eat At These Totally Insane Restaurants?
- Top 10 Cat Superpowers!
- Real Life Movie Locations: <i>No Country for Old Men</i>
- Jake, the Lamb with Five Legs
- The World’s Longest Beard Is One of the Smithsonian’s Strangest Artifacts
- Helicopter Parenting
- Fun Street Art That Only Appears When The Ground Is Wet
- Predator Hunting Club - Shoot First, Ask Questions Later
- The Cutest Foodie on Instagram
- Dogs in Taiwan Get Square Haircuts
- Redesigning the World's Most Remote Human Settlement
- These Chicks ROCK!
- Nightmare Fuel: Mama Spider Explodes into Horde of Crawling Baby Spiders
- At the First Rock Festival, Pianos Fell From the Sky
- 7 More Real-Life Muppets
- The First Blood Transfusion
- Don the Border Collie Takes off on Tractor Ride, Crosses Busy Highway
- I'm So Broke
- What Color Is This Cat? - A Rather Absurd Argument
- Confessions Of A Hollywood Movie Extra
- 101 (More) Amazing Facts
- Sushi Bazooka
- A Herd Of Cows Charmed By The Drone Of The Didgeridoo
- Elvis Presley, the Voracious Reader
| 13 Secrets of Ice Cream Science Posted: 24 Apr 2015 04:00 AM PDT
As a kid growing up in Waterbury, Vermont, Kirsten Schimoler was a regular on the Ben & Jerry’s factory tour. Now, after getting a food science degree from Cornell University, she’s moved back to her hometown and taken her dream job on Ben & Jerry’s research and development team, where she helps think up, develop, taste, and perfect every flavor that comes out of the company kitchen. 1. THERE’S A REASON BEN & JERRY’S FLAVORS ARE SO RICH It’s partly because co-founder Ben Cohen has anosmia, or almost no sense of smell. If he couldn’t taste a recipe, he just added more flavoring!
Schimoler is one of just three food scientists on staff. The remaining four members of the team come from culinary backgrounds. (One of them has the title “primal ice cream therapist.”) Together they launch about five flavors each year. 3. A FLAVOR CAN TAKE MORE THAN A YEAR TO DEVELOP The average development cycle of a basic pint is about 12 to 14 months, but there have been occasions where Schimoler nailed a flavor on the first try. “Other times,” she says, “you’re on iteration 10 and still wondering if it’s going to work.” Which is exactly what happened with Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yogurt, one of the few products where the name came before the flavor. “They knew they wanted to do a Liz Lemon flavor but didn’t know what they wanted it to be. We looked at so many different lemon flavors.” At the other end of the spectrum, Schweddy Balls, inspired by Alec Baldwin’s SNL skit, got to market in a record four months. 4. MOST FLAVORS START WITH THE SAME BASE A mix of milk, cream, liquid sugar, egg yolks, and water. But there are a couple of variations that have different fat and sugar levels. Choosing which to start with depends on what’s going to be added in. If a recipe calls for something high fat, like peanut butter, it starts with a lower fat base. “If you’re at too high a fat level, once you freeze it, you’re going to end up with concrete; it’s not going to come out of the machine,” Schimoler says. If they’re adding something sweet, like caramel, they use one with lower sugar. 5. EACH YEAR, THE TEAM MAKES A PILGRIMAGE TO A FORWARD-THINKING FOOD CITY In order to stay ahead of the flavor curve, they’ll spend 12 hours a day tasting offerings from food venues of all types, hitting as many as 10 spots a day. The inspiration for Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yogurt? A blueberry-lavender cocktail in San Francisco. This year, the team visited Portland, and Schimoler is forecasting a future full of caramel and burnt sugar. “We’re also seeing a lot of sour stuff,” she says. “You see that a lot in the cocktail world. Sour beers are coming back.” 6. BEN & JERR Each R&D team member is given a month’s worth of feedback to review for new ideas or recurring themes. Some of the company’s most iconic flavors were born from these, including Cherry Garcia, which was suggested by two Deadheads from Portland, Maine. (In December 2013, after spending more than a decade at the top of the customer favorite list, the 27-year-old flavor was dethroned by Half Baked, which, surprisingly, was not suggested by Deadheads.) 7. NOT EVERY FLAVOR CAN BE FOUND IN YOUR LOCAL GROCERY STORE Some are created exclusively for a single retailer. One of Schimoler’s favorites, Nutty Caramel Swirl, which she developed to taste like a Snickers bar, is only available at 7-Eleven. The very first flavor she worked on, Berry Voluntary, was made for Target. Walgreens sells a Truffle Trifecta, and Walmart hawks Cotton Candy. 8. THERE’S A FLAVOR GRAVEYARD At the company’s factory in Waterbury, Vermont, discontinued flavors are laid to rest with a headstone. Among the rows of dearly departed flavors are many of Cohen’s creations, including Miz Jelena’s Sweet Potato Pie (Epitaph: “One potato, two potato, Sweet Potato Pie. No one would could appreciate it. So we had to let it die.”) 9. BEING A FLAVOR DEVELOPER HAS CERTAIN PERKS Ben & Jerry’s has a take-home allowance of three pints—a day! Fortunately, the company’s corporate headquarters, in South Burlington, is equipped with a full gym. They also have a yoga instructor and an occasional massage therapist. (No wonder they also need a nap room.)
When Chunky Monkey first launched in Japan, there were questions about whether it contained monkey meat. 11. BACON WON’T HAPPEN It’s among one of the most requested items, but we won’t see it because Ben & Jerry’s plants are kosher. 12. DON’T WORRY, NEITHER WILL KALE The company has a long list of regular vendors for things like chocolates and caramel, but there’s an even longer list of snack peddlers hoping to sell their ingredients in a pint of ice cream, including one very persistent proponent of kale chips. Though a co-worker did a test batch, Schimoler says that, ultimately, “No one wants to sit down with a pint of Kale Ben & Jerry’s. So, Kale Guy, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry.” 13. BUFFALO WINGS, ON THE OTHER HAND? WELL, THEY JUST MIGHT “Everyone is so tuned to think that ice cream is sweet, creamy, and cold. But it doesn’t have to be,” Schimoler says. "Creamy and cold can be savory too." (Additional images from Ben & Jerry's) __________________________
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| Posted: 24 Apr 2015 03:00 AM PDT
This dog loves to play the children’s game of patty cake. Or she loves the treats that she gets after a game. But, hey, athletes deserve to be compensated, right? And this yellow lab plays to win. | ||||||||
| Would You Eat At These Totally Insane Restaurants? Posted: 24 Apr 2015 02:00 AM PDT You know what really stimulates the appetite? Prison -or at least it must be given that there are at least two different prison-themed restaurants, one in China and one in Italy. Not a big fan of prison food? How about a truly gourmet meal that just happens to be served as you dangle over 165 feet up in the air? And those are just a few of the ten totally crazy restaurants featured on this great RealityPod article. So would you guys dine at any of these weird eateries? | ||||||||
| Posted: 24 Apr 2015 01:00 AM PDT Chris Poole’s cats Cole and Marmalade illustrate how they are better than everyone. In fact, they have super powers! Of course; all cats do. | ||||||||
| Real Life Movie Locations: <i>No Country for Old Men</i> Posted: 24 Apr 2015 12:00 AM PDT The dark and gripping 2007 Coen brothers movie No Country for Old Men was an adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel with the same title. The blogger behind Then & Now Movie Locations visited the places where it was shot, including locations in Albuquerque and Las Vegas, New Mexico. Pictured above is the Regal Motel in Las Vegas, where Llewelyn Moss hid while fleeing the relentless hitman Anton Chigurth. You can see more comparison photos here (warning: auto-sound). | ||||||||
| Posted: 23 Apr 2015 11:00 PM PDT Photos: Caters News Agency / Caters News Facebook page A new lamb was born in Wales last week with five legs: two in the rear and three up front. It might be tempting to relish an extra “leg of lamb” from this lamb, but that won’t be happening.
I looked that up, it’a reference to a 1965 comedy song by Australian comedian Rolf Harris. Jake the lamb is a week old and his leg appears to be complete and functioning. He should do well with it. See more pictures at Caters News. | ||||||||
| The World’s Longest Beard Is One of the Smithsonian’s Strangest Artifacts Posted: 23 Apr 2015 10:00 PM PDT (Photo: North Dakota State University Archives) This is Hans Langseth (1846-1927) of North Dakota. He was one of the beardiest men who ever lived. When he died, his beard was the longest in the world at 17 feet and 6 inches.
Langseth began growing his beard at the age of 19 for a beard competition. He then kept it for the rest of his life. After his death, his beard eventually ended up in the Smithsonian Institution, where it remains to this day. With different colors from different stages of his life and wheat kernels from his days as a farmer, the beard is an organic record of Langseth’s life. If there's a facial hair equivalent of dendrochronology, then Langseth's beard provides the most remarkable sample. You can see more photos at Smithsonian magazine. -via Incredibeard | ||||||||
| Posted: 23 Apr 2015 09:00 PM PDT Chris Early of Knoxville, Tennessee, has made the term “helicopter parenting” quite literal, when he used his new video production drone to remotely watch his daughter walk to school without her knowledge.
Yeah, my kids were pretty surprised to find out that I was driving around the neighborhood the first time they walked home from school alone, but that was years after the fact. Now, if my parents had been able to see where I was going and what I was doing as a child, it might have driven them into an early grave. -via The Mary Sue | ||||||||
| Fun Street Art That Only Appears When The Ground Is Wet Posted: 23 Apr 2015 08:00 PM PDT Street art is no longer considered merely a public eyesore, and artists such as Banksy and Shepard Fairey have legitimized street art by making it profitable. However, there are still plenty of street art masterminds out there who are more concerned with making the urban environment more colorful than making millions of dollars. Peregrine Church is one of these humble proponents of urban art fun, and his innovative technique leaves the city sidewalks looking squeaky clean- until it rains. Church uses hydrophilic chemicals (activated by water) to create his whimsical pieces, and these chemicals last "anywhere from four months to a year", so his Rainworks won't stain the sidewalk forever. -Via Beautiful/Decay | ||||||||
| Predator Hunting Club - Shoot First, Ask Questions Later Posted: 23 Apr 2015 07:00 PM PDT Predator Hunting Club by Nemons Humans didn't reach the top of the food chain by accident, so when their position as apex predator was threatened by an extraterrestrial force the hunted banded together and become the hunters. The first official Predator Hunting Club chapter opened in 1987 after Dutch returned from Val Verde with troubling news about an imminent alien invasion and the battle damage to prove it. Since then contractors, mercs and veterans of all sorts have been gathering, gatling guns in hand, to take down those dreadlocked alien a-holes in hopes of mounting the ultimate trophy on their wall... Show the world you mean business with this Predator Hunting Club t-shirt by Nemons, it's the fun way to show love for your favorite fictional hobby- hunting aliens! Visit Nemons's Facebook fan page and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more merc-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! | ||||||||
| The Cutest Foodie on Instagram Posted: 23 Apr 2015 07:00 PM PDT Jiff is one of the cutest critters on Facebook and his adorability has attracted over one million followers, but this little pooch isn't just a pretty face -he's also a heck of a foodie. Don't believe me? Just check out this amazing collection of photos featured on Food Beast. How could anyone reist giving this little guy a Kit Kat. | ||||||||
| Dogs in Taiwan Get Square Haircuts Posted: 23 Apr 2015 06:00 PM PDT His head isn’t square. It’s nicely rounded, as is his fur. When he grows it out, it’s also rounded—just larger. But when he goes to a groomer, he’ll emerge with a boxy, roughly cubical head of hair. In the Republic of China, this is the latest trend in dog grooming: cubical haircuts. (Photos: Zhaizhai News) Also: spherical haircuts. You can see more photos at Rocket News 24. | ||||||||
| Redesigning the World's Most Remote Human Settlement Posted: 23 Apr 2015 05:00 PM PDT Tristan da Cunha, in the middle of the southern Atlantic Ocean, is the world’s most remote human settlement. The nearest big city is Cape Town, South Africa, which is 1750 miles away. The 270 inhabitants of the island live a slow-paced life without much of the modern connectivity the rest of us are used to. Ships bring scientists and tourist to the island, but not very many of them.
Do you have any great ideas for sustainable architecture and energy sources for the island? The particular needs for the people of Tristan da Cunha are explained in an article at Smithsonian. | ||||||||
| Posted: 23 Apr 2015 04:00 PM PDT There are some things created for holidays that are totally uninteresting within days of the date passing. This metal band of baby chicks that the Download Festival put together in celebration of Easter is not one of those things. It may have been made for Easter, but these Rock Chicks are enjoyable all year round. | ||||||||
| Nightmare Fuel: Mama Spider Explodes into Horde of Crawling Baby Spiders Posted: 23 Apr 2015 03:00 PM PDT Meanwhile, in Australia, humanity survived yet another day, despite facing natural predators too terrible to contemplate. Danny Ford found a wolf spider in his home. He whacked it with a broom. Instead of dying, the spider appeared to fall apart. It was actually a mother spider carrying a vast number of babies. When hit with by broom, the spiders went crawling everywhere, all over the floor and into every crevice of the home. Does your collar feel a bit itchy right now? Then you probably have a spider in your shirt. -via Ace of Spades HQ | ||||||||
| At the First Rock Festival, Pianos Fell From the Sky Posted: 23 Apr 2015 02:00 PM PDT In April of 1968, an outdoor rock concert by Country Joe and the Fish was punctuated by a helicopter dropping a piano from the sky. Talk about a special effect! Several thousand people were there in Duvall, Washington, to witness the event. Who came up with such an idea? That would be Gary Eagle and Larry Van Over. The alternative newspaper the Helix promoted it.
Collectors Weekly spoke to Country Joe McDonald, instigators Eagle and Van Over, and Helix editor Paul Dorpat about the spectacular stunt that made big outdoor outdoor rock concerts a thing. You can read the whole story there. | ||||||||
| Posted: 23 Apr 2015 01:00 PM PDT Earlier this week, the people of the internet were delighted to look at a real frog that looks like the famous Muppet, Kermit the Frog. He is not the only real Muppet that dwells among us. Joe Hanson, a biologist and science educator, has rounded up pictures of 7 other pairs of fabric and flesh. These include a very persuasive Gonzo as a tapir and a sloth that looks like Oscar the Grouch. You can view them all here. | ||||||||
| Posted: 23 Apr 2015 12:00 PM PDT Experiments in transferring blood between animals occurred as early as the 1660s, back when people really had no idea of what was in blood, or how it differed between individuals. In 1667, a transfusion of blood into a human was proposed, but since the donor usually died in the animal experiments, it was decided to use the blood of a sheep.
The procedure was carried out, but appeared to be a failure because 1. Coga’s mental health did not improve, and 2. the public ridiculed the experiment. There was even a play written that mocked those early experiments. These factors set the research back greatly (as did a murder in France), but the fact remains that Coga survived the procedure, which is astonishing in light of what we’ve learned about blood since that time. Read the story of the first transfusion at JSTOR Daily. -via Digg | ||||||||
| Don the Border Collie Takes off on Tractor Ride, Crosses Busy Highway Posted: 23 Apr 2015 11:00 AM PDT
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| Posted: 23 Apr 2015 10:00 AM PDT Well, just how broke are you? Sometimes it helps to put things in perspective if you want to see the big picture. Yeah, I know, the fact that other people have it worse -and there’s always someone who has it worse- doesn’t mean you don’t have a money problem. But not being able to afford a large frappuccino isn’t a problem, as College Humor points out in this video. -via Tastefully Offensive | ||||||||
| What Color Is This Cat? - A Rather Absurd Argument Posted: 23 Apr 2015 09:00 AM PDT What Color Is This Cat? by DeepFriedArt The Cheshire Cat was used to dealing with lunacy, and people who are mad as a hatter, but when the fine folks on the Wonderland wide web started arguing over the color of his fur he just about lost his head! Any creature with an eyeball or three can see that cat is clearly sporting purple colored fur with pink stripes, or is it pink with purple stripes? Ask a fan of the classic feature and they'll say he's glorious shades of psychedelic purple and pink, but when the Burtonites saw him as gray and blue a Wonderland web war began that even Alice couldn't comprehend! Start some absurd arguments with this What Color Is This Cat? t-shirt by DeepFriedArt, it's the clever way to dress for internet success! Visit DeepFriedArt's Facebook fan page and Twitter, 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! | ||||||||
| Confessions Of A Hollywood Movie Extra Posted: 23 Apr 2015 09:00 AM PDT Hollywood movie magic seems way more magical when you don't know all the behind-the-scenes secrets, but with all the DVD extras and leaked footage floating around that magic is starting to lose its sparkle. And yet, even with all that access to behind the scenes information, nobody can make movie magic fizzle quite like an extra. They’re the unknown faces who fill in the scene so the main talent doesn’t get lonely, the aspiring actors and average joes who see all kinds of stuff on film sets we don't get to see on the DVD. Extras get to see it all without the fame and fortune, so there's nothing stopping them from spilling the beans, but the revelations found in 21 Secrets Film Extras Will Never Tell You aren't scandalous. In fact, contributor "Emerald Jones" actually makes the whole movie extra gig seem way more mundane than you'd expect, albeit mundane with a side of Johnny Depp. | ||||||||
| Posted: 23 Apr 2015 08:00 AM PDT You’ve surely noticed how John Green runs through information as fast as he can in the mental_floss List Show -trying to cram as much knowledge into one video as possible. This week he kicks it into high gear with 101 bits of trivia on all kinds of subjects. You’ve been warned! That said, you can find out more about many of these fascinating facts in Neatorama posts, such as the Great Emu War, rabbit show jumping, and Norway’s knighted penguin. Just enter the topic into the search bar in the upper right of this page. | ||||||||
| Posted: 23 Apr 2015 07:00 AM PDT This is the Sushezi, or what the Internet has deemed the "Sushi Bazooka" for obvious reasons. It looks like something straight out of Japan, but it's actually a product of a New Zealand company. You open it up, put a bed of rice down, add your fillings, and then push it together to "load" the barrel. Rocketnews24 reports that the contraption doesn't "blast the sushi roll out of the barrel" but that "it’s more of a slow ooze, rather than an explosion." How disappointing. Still, it looks pretty cool. Watch the slow sushi ooze coming out of the barrel in this video by Seiken TV. It gets really good around the 2:48 mark: You can also use it to make chocolate salamis, ginger-nut logs, and similary-rolled foods. It's available on Amazon for $26. via Rocketnews24 | ||||||||
| A Herd Of Cows Charmed By The Drone Of The Didgeridoo Posted: 23 Apr 2015 06:00 AM PDT The didgeridoo is a unique and hard to play wind instrument that emits an entrancing drone sound when a skilled didgeridooer (unofficial term) is behind the tube. This totally tubular instrument was created (approximately) 1,500 years ago by Indigenous Australians, but the instrument's popularity inexplicably rose during the 1990s. That spike in popularity resulted in the didgeridoo becoming modernized in terms of what the drone pipe is made out of and how it's played. Andrea Furlan is a modern didgeridoo master who knows how to make some really cool sounds with that painted tube of his. The sound of his "Butterfly Landscape" is so cool, in fact, that it attracts a herd of cows, who find his unorthodox didgeridooing technique too fascinating to ignore. Looks like Andrea will be serving up steaks at the next didgeridoo jamboree! -Via Laughing Squid | ||||||||
| Elvis Presley, the Voracious Reader Posted: 23 Apr 2015 05:00 AM PDT
The old adage about never judging a book by its cover has no corollary about not judging a reader by his books. Love him or hate him, worship him or detract from him, we can all agree on one thing: Elvis Presley was a strange, unique, fascinating character, a one-in-a-lifetimer, and his choice of reading material mirrors his own fascinating persona. |
(Image credit: Jacob Thomas)
2. THE R&D DEPARTMENT IS ULTRA ELITE 
Y’S RECEIVES ABOUT 13,000 FLAVOR SUGGESTIONS A YEAR FROM CUSTOMERS
10. PUNNY FLAVOR NAMES DON’T ALWAYS WORK FOR INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
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The above article by Jennifer M. Wood is reprinted with permission from the May 2014 issue of mental_floss magazine.
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(Photo: Smithsonian Institutional Archives)
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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist 
Graceland archives include Elvis' library card from the Tupelo Public Library from when he was 13. This was despite the fact that the church to which his mother belonged, the First Assembly of God, taught that no other book than the Bible should be read.
bedside table in 1960 was The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and How to Live 365 Days a Year by Dr. John A. Schindler. Elvis often read medical texts and was so well-versed in The Physician's Desk Reference that he more than held his own when talking to medical professionals about prescription drugs.
In the mid to late sixties, Elvis read Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience and Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception. Elvis handed these books around to his entourage for reading and discussion. He also became a fan of Cheiro's Book of Numbers, which he often turned to for guidance. Elvis was a lifelong fan of Kahlil Gibran, and knew significant sections of The Prophet by heart.
Elvis was a devoted Bible reader. He would often invited anxious, nubile, young girls up to his private quarters, only to surprise (shock) the eager, compliant (and probably disappointed) ladies by reading to them aloud his favorite Bible passages. To relax from such weighty fare, Elvis read books by J. Edgar Hoover, including A Study of Communism and Masters of Deceit.| You are subscribed to email updates from Neatorama To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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