Neatorama

---

• Sad, Sad Jingle Bells
• 1,400-Year Old Board Game Discovered in Ancient Chinese Tomb
• Does It Pay to be Kind to Strangers?
• Robot Penguin Infiltrates Colony
• A Conversation Between Chris Hadfield and Randall Munroe
• Shut Up And CHIMICHANGAS! - An Alternate Futura-meme
• Watch This Woman Deliver an Impassioned Speech on Behalf of the McRib
• An Australian Christmas Tree
• The Orc Dance
• A 2016 Presidential Election Themed Set Of Magic: The Gathering Cards
• NeuralTalk and Walk
• What Items In Pokemon Would Look Like In Real Life
• Spitting Contest with a Dolphin
• The Only Atari Cartridge You'll Ever Need

Sad, Sad Jingle Bells Posted: 29 Nov 2015 04:00 AM PST Your winter wonderland of snow is cold, wet, and slippery. The sleigh skids off a cliff and everyone dies. Or else you get pneumonia and frostbite, too. That’s the mood of this version of "Jingle Bells." (YouTube link) The Gregory Brothers took a happy, upbeat little ditty usually associated with Christmas and put it into a minor key. The result is pretty grim. Creepy. Sad. It may as well be a funeral dirge. They have a whole playlist of sad songs if you’re in that kind of mood. -via Tastefully Offensive

1,400-Year Old Board Game Discovered in Ancient Chinese Tomb Posted: 29 Nov 2015 02:00 AM PST (Photos: Chinese Cultural Relics journal) In 1974, farmers in China uncovered the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Since then archaeologists at the site have found well-preserved grave goods dating back 1,400 years, including 8,000 terracotta human and animal figures known as the Terracotta Army. In 2004, archaeologists at the site uncovered the remains of a mysterious board game. They published on their findings in 2014. Their article was recently translated into English in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics. The gaming journalism site Killscreen describes the game, which appears to be a surviving set of the long-lost game of "Bo": The game’s pieces consist of a 14-sided die (carved out of an old animal tooth), 21 numbered rectangular game pieces, and a slab of broken tile, thought to be a piece of the game’s board. The reconstructed tile was decorated with two eyes, which were painted amongst stormy cloud and thunder sketches, as archaeologists reported in their findings. The game’s pieces are reported by archaeologists to potentially be of “liubo,” mostly called “bo” for short. “Bo” seemingly vanished from the history of ancient Chinese board games around 1,500 years ago, and researchers have remained at a loss as to how the game was played, as well as being unsure if the rules of the game even varied from generation to generation of players. The closest clue is that of a 2,200-year-old poem by Song Yu, which recounts a game with similar pieces to the ancient board game’s artifacts found over the years. The 14-faced die is where this ancient game gets particularly interesting. Twelve sides of the die are numbered one through six in the ancient Chinese calligraphy of zhuan-shu, or “seal script,” which existed as the formal script for all of China during the Qin dynasty. However, the remaining two sides are blank – entirely vacant of any marks. Even with this new discovery, “Bo” remains a mystery to all. -via Ace of Spades HQ

Does It Pay to be Kind to Strangers? Posted: 29 Nov 2015 12:00 AM PST Science has shown us that people who are generous and altruistic are happier and healthier than people who aren’t, no matter what economic class they belong to. But it’s not as easy to be kind to strangers as you’d think. Every people are often suspicious of acts of kindness, especially from someone they don’t know. Psychologist Sandi Mann, who is studying the “pay it forward” phenomenon, found this out firsthand when she tried to give away an extra coffee at the cafe when it came with her child’s breakfast. No one wanted to accept it!    It was only once she framed the act differently, so that it seemed more logical, and less altruistic, that their attitudes changed. “Suddenly it was a different story altogether – it made perfect sense that my kid won’t drink coffee.” They still refused, but “the suspicion vanished, and there were smiles, and thanks”. Eventually it was accepted by a lady named Rochel, who subsequently found an opportunity later in the week to treat someone else. That initial mistrust was a common theme for each of the following 13 days – in which she tried to offer strangers an umbrella on a rainy day, pay for someone’s parking ticket, and let fellow shoppers jump ahead of her in checkout queues. “Suspicion was the strongest reaction throughout,” she says. Each time, it was only when she offered a rational explanation – such as the fact she was waiting for someone at the checkout – that people would accept her offers. Looking back, Mann now explains it as “stranger danger”. “We’re brought up to expect strangers to put one over us,” she says. It’s true that we often mistrust strangers bearing gifts, because we don’t want to suffer the fate of the Trojans. And free gifts so often come with strings attached. But there may be other forces at work, like a feeling we don't deserve something free, or unwanted implied obligation to pay it back or forward. And research also tells us that spite and greed are more contagious than kindness- which only makes the effort of spreading kindness more crucial. Read more about the research on kindness and generosity at BBC Future. -via Digg (Image credit: Flickr user Heath Brandon)

Robot Penguin Infiltrates Colony Posted: 28 Nov 2015 10:00 PM PST Like the replicants on Blade Runner, it's hard to spot a fake Emperor Penguin. The task requires careful study by a specialist. But if you watch carefully, you'll notice that the second from the left in the group doesn't move like a normal penguin. (Video Link) For the BBC nature program Penguin--Spy in the Huddle, zoologists and, presumably, invasion planners, planted 50 cameras among a colony of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica. Many of these cameras were disguised as penguins themselves, thus gathering information and sowing distrust within the justifiably paranoid penguin community. -via Twisted Sifter

A Conversation Between Chris Hadfield and Randall Munroe Posted: 28 Nov 2015 08:00 PM PST Randall Munroe is a fan of the internet’s favorite astronaut, Colonel Chris Hadfield. Hadfield is a fan of Munroe’s webcomic xkcd. The astronaut and the former NASA physicist got a chance to meet and talk about their mutual interests: geography, exoplanets, technology, politics, communication, space, comics, and ideas. They started out by discussing the movie Gravity. Randall Munroe I spent the whole of that movie trying to recognise the Earth’s terrain in the background of scenes. I’ve always been a geography enthusiast and I kept wanting to identify where they were in their orbit. I’m curious whether, when you looked out the window on the International Space Station, did you always know where you were from a glance? What’s the longest you have to go thinking, “Well, that looks like Jamaica…”? Chris Hadfield North is never up, which is disorienting when you grew up with maps. You have to break that bias, and be able to recognise Madagascar upside down. If you ever see a coastline, you can immediately work out where you are. And you’re often in sight of some island; the Canaries might help you. The Sahara is obvious – it’s the Sahara. You always know the Outback, the Mongolian desert. Europe is harder, the borders are hazy – you’re looking for the big rivers, mountain ranges. After a while, after a thousand times around the Earth, you get to know the world pretty well. It becomes intuitive, and you can just glance: “Oh, there’s Vesuvius.” RM That’s so cool! What’s cool is being able to read an interesting conversation between two interesting people we feel we already know personally. The rest is at The Guardian. -via Fark  (Image credit: Randall Munroe at What If?)

Shut Up And CHIMICHANGAS! - An Alternate Futura-meme Posted: 28 Nov 2015 06:00 PM PST Shut Up And CHIMICHANGAS! by Daniel Sotomayor The best, and most delicious, way to break the fourth wall is to shove a chimichanga in the viewer's face and let their smell-o-vision grab their attention via their nose holes. Then you yell some kind of witty phrase like "Now that's what I call fresh!" or "Did somebody order a chihuahua?", something drawn from the pool of comedic catchphrases you call a brain ought to knock 'em dead. Soon the whole interwebs will marvel at that delivery boy with a mouth who had them LOLing so hard they almost went full Zoidberg! Comedic comic book mercs, futuristic cartoon folks and deep fried burritos collide on this Shut Up And CHIMICHANGAS! t-shirt by Daniel Sotomayor, it's the only way to Fry! Visit Daniel Sotomayor's Facebook fan page, Twitter and Tumblr, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more geek-tastic designs: Witness Me! Warning: Sarcasm Pliss Ken Kanedaaaa! Tetsuooo! View more designs by Daniel Sotomayor | 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!

Watch This Woman Deliver an Impassioned Speech on Behalf of the McRib Posted: 28 Nov 2015 06:00 PM PST It was time for the City Council of Santa Clarita, California to open the floor to public comments. No one expected anything of note to be said. Then this young Demosthenes stepped up and called for the restoration of civilization. Specifically, she wants the 10 McDonald's restaurants in Santa Clarita to bring back their famous McRib sandwich. (Video Link) The mysterious hero, who begins speaking at the 1:01 mark in the video, described the history of the McRib, provided statistics on its distribution, and explained why the McRib is central to having a meaningful life: To be honest, the removal of the McRib from the menu has affected my family because every Thanksgiving my family would order a 50 piece chicken nugget meal and 10 McRibs, and now my family’s holiday spirits are messed up and broken. I come to you in this matter. I tried calling the hotline and they don’t take me seriously. I can't quite make out the audio when she introduces herself to the council members, but her first name sounds like "Zanthy." Zanthy speaks for us all. -via First We Feast

An Australian Christmas Tree Posted: 28 Nov 2015 04:00 PM PST sexy_bum82 and Angeldemons of the educational website reddit reveal to us a cultural expression that those of us in North America and Europe may not be aware of. Yes, this is how Australians assemble a Christmas tree while in their homeland. Australia is well within the southern hemisphere. So science teaches us that December 25 is during Australia's summer, so a fan is useful. Also, everything is upside down. And there are venomous snakes and spiders everywhere--probably wrapped inside these presents.

The Orc Dance Posted: 28 Nov 2015 02:00 PM PST You never imagined the Orcs from Lord of the Rings to be the dancing type, did you? When an unexpected dinner appears, they do a victory dance. But you know how it is when you celebrate too early!   (YouTube link) Scott Winn brings us dancing Orcs with a special appearance by the Elf Legolas. The song is “Through the Flame” by Scott & Brendo. -via Geeks Are Sexy

A 2016 Presidential Election Themed Set Of Magic: The Gathering Cards Posted: 28 Nov 2015 12:00 PM PST The 2016 presidential election looks like it will have more in common with a three ring circus than a serious political event to determine the fate of our country, and that may be a bit troubling for some. For those dreading the electoral folly to come might I suggest thinking of the whole thing as a game of Magic: The Gathering, where hands are dealt, America's resources are tapped, and the creatures in play are the candidates themselves. Gaming card design wizard/political satirist Mighty God King created this spot on 2016 Election themed set of Magic:The Gathering cards so we can choose the fate of our country the fun way- in a battle to the death! See the entire 2016 Election themed Magic: The Gathering card set here -Via Cheezburger

NeuralTalk and Walk Posted: 28 Nov 2015 10:00 AM PST This video is captioned in the upper left completely by machine. It was generated in real time by a neural network programmed to describe images. Stanford Ph.D. student Andrej Karpathy developed the NeuralTalk system and Kyle McDonald adapted it to describe this laptop of Amsterdam on a laptop. (vimeo link) Yes, it changes pretty fast, so you might want to keep your finger ready to pause. The original program generated four captions per second! McDonald reduced that to only one caption per second so we have a chance of following it. The program isn’t completely accurate, but it’s close enough to give you an “uncanny valley” feeling. If you want a real laugh, a different neural network was used for an earlier experiment in captioning the intro to Star Trek: The Next Generation. That program definitely needs a bigger vocabulary. -via Metafilter

What Items In Pokemon Would Look Like In Real Life Posted: 28 Nov 2015 08:00 AM PST The cutesy look of the anime series Pokemon makes the strange items used by Trainers seem harmless, but when this gear is realistically rendered some of it starts to look a bit sinister. In fact, if you think about the Pokemon universe in realistic terms what they're doing to those poor little pocket monsters is messed up! The creators claim these items are imbued with a magical energy that gives them their powers, but there's nothing magical about pointing a loaded gun at another trainer's head and demanding extra prize money! And then there are those "items" that we normally called drugs in real life-they make the most sense, because how else are you going to get a Pokemon to sit around inside that ball all day? See What Pokemon Items Would Actually Look Like at Dorkly

Spitting Contest with a Dolphin Posted: 28 Nov 2015 07:00 AM PST John went to the Bahamas and took in one of those “swimming with dolphins” attractions in Nassau. There he met a dolphin who wants to be a comedian. Instead of a kiss, he spit water in John’s face! (YouTube link) Well, John reacted naturally, and spit right back. Things escalated from there until a trainer stepped in to break it up. The man and dolphin made up, and a good time was had by all. -via Viral Viral Videos

The Only Atari Cartridge You'll Ever Need Posted: 28 Nov 2015 06:00 AM PST Those who have been obsessed with console gaming their whole lives have most likely gone through an Atari phase, where they found themselves digging on the simple graphics, strange game mechanics and large library of titles. But now that we have emulators most gamers would rather have thousands of games sitting on their hard drive than a physical collection cluttering up their homes. But what if you want that console feel without all the clutter? You need the Harmony Cartridge, which is basically an SD card adapter for the Atari 2600 console that lets you play every game in the library via one cartridge. So you still get the old console feel you love without the clutter. -Via Boing Boing

You are subscribed to email updates from Neatorama. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States