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2016/01/20

Neatorama

Neatorama

The Game Genie Generation

Posted: 20 Jan 2016 05:00 AM PST

Neatorama is proud to bring you a guest post from Ernie Smith, the editor of Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. In another life, he ran ShortFormBlog.

For manchildren of a certain age, the Game Genie opened up a new world of opportunity for boring games—and had a profound effect on copyright law.

(Image credit: Evan-Amos)

For kids of a certain age, the Game Genie was a life-changer. Literally. It could change the number of lives you had in whatever cartridge you put it on, as well as do a bunch of other crazy things to the game you were playing. It provided a thrill that we've kinda gotten away from as video games have grown more complex, but the device leaves behind a rich legacy. Today's Tedium looks at the riches of Game Genie, a quarter-century after it entered our lives.

How the Genie Came to Be

"We didn’t have a license to create Nintendo games so we found a way of bypassing Nintendo’s lock-out chip and released games that way. We had an idea of placing a switch on the cartridge to add extra lives, weapons and things like that. Then we made the mental leap of saying that if we could do this with our own games, then maybe we could build an interface for other people’s games too. It was a game that morphed into an industry."

— David Darling, one of the founders of Codemasters, the British gaming company that first created the Game Genie in the late 1980s, discussing how the device came to be. Darling, who produced dozens of games over the years—most notably the Fantastic Dizzy series—eventually licensed the idea to Galoob, a major American toy company that started selling the NES version of the device in mid-1990. They eventually turned the hacky device concept into a $140 million cottage industry. For creating the Game Genie and helping develop the British gaming industry, Darling and his brother Richard were made Commanders of the Order of the British Empire back in 2008. See, even the queen noticed!

Why the Game Genie mattered

For manchildren of a certain age, the Game Genie was an important bedrock of their cultural growth, playing a similar role for gamers that The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique did for vinyl-heads.

The reason? It suggested that that these things we experience didn't have to be used only one way. Mario didn't necessarily have to jump in one direction—in fact, he could jump backwards, live unlimited lives, and have all the firepower one could ever need. This was crazy talk, the stuff of fantasies!

In a lot of ways, the ability to type in codes to tinker with the way that a game worked was akin to being a grease monkey or HAM radio operator in an earlier generation. Once you figured out there were these codes that could change, and that the little booklet was only the starting point for what was possible, suddenly a ton of opportunities arose.

The fact that the Game Genie came along at this particular time, when the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis libraries mostly consisted of relatively simple games, was part of the appeal. It was the best possible evidence that the technology around us, like words and art before, is brittle and malleable. That other people's creativity can be changed.

When HTML, PHP, and JavaScript became the lingua franca of the internet a decade later, a lot of those coders probably cut their coding-mindset teeth not on BASIC, but on Game Genie codes. The Game Genie even helped inspire a fairly strong glitch-gaming culture that persists to this day.

If you don't believe me, just look at the many YouTube videos out there highlighting the crazy crap this device can do to the original Super Mario Bros.—a game whose simplicity makes for easy, fun hacks.

If this idea only came around at the time of the Sony Playstation, just imagine what we would have missed out on. (Sorry, GameShark fans.)

Five of the Game Genie's many unusual quirks



1. On the NES, the Game Genie gave an already quirky horizontal cartridge-loading mechanism a little extra trouble. The silicon on the device bent the console's pins, which eventually meant that if you used it too much, your console wouldn't work without it.

2. The Game Boy version of the device was freaking huge, with a ton of extra plastic. And because the device stopped being made around the mid-1990s, that meant no newer versions came out, making it downright impractical to use with any Game Boy besides the original.  

3. The Super Nintendo version didn't work with games that had built-in performance-enhancing chips inside the cartridges, at least at first. Sucks if you're a Starfox fan.

4. Unlike Nintendo, Sega backed the Game Genie, making Galoob an official licensee of the company. Sega, however, required the device not to be compatible with games that had built-in save functions, such as Shining Force

5.On the Sega Game Gear, if you typed in the code "DEAD," the screen would bounce. Because honestly, why not?

How the Game Genie set the stage for the internet's remix culture


Because the device allowed gamers to effectively change the code of the game, this meant that it was not the original product sold to consumers. And Nintendo didn't like that.

Galoob wanted to work with Nintendo and release the Game Genie as a licensee, but Nintendo being Nintendo, it was their rules of the road, or no road at all. Galoob, being a pretty sizable company outside of the video game space, wasn't really bothered by that, so they released the Game Genie anyway and gave it the kind of Saturday-morning advertising push they gave all their toys back then.

But this being Nintendo at the height of its success, Galoob soon found itself facing legal action over its product. For about a year, in fact, the company couldn't even sell the Game Genie in the U.S. It was contraband that was only available in Canada.

But like a quick-witted Micro Machines pitchman, Galoob ultimately got the last word in: The lawsuit proved not only a big mistake for Nintendo, but it ultimately made copyright more elastic than ever before. The reason can be found in the 1992 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In his ruling, Joseph Jerome Farris basically found that slight modifications of a derivative work were allowed, as long as the original form of copyright was kept intact.

"The Game Genie merely enhances the audiovisual displays (or underlying data bytes) that originate in Nintendo game cartridges," the legal decision states. "The altered displays do not incorporate a portion of a copyrighted work in some concrete or permanent form."

As you can imagine, this ruling was a pretty big deal, because it effectively allowed for non-destructive remixes of copyrighted items, making it easy for consumers to define their own experiences with the items they own. Nintendo not only lost, but lost big.

$15 Million

That's the amount Nintendo ended up having to pay Galoob for a year of lost sales due to their copyright infringement lawsuit against the company, according to a 1994 ruling on the case which found that the company lost this amount—or more—due to the fact that they couldn't sell the device at the height of the NES' success. "While it is true that Galoob did not likely lose exactly 1.6 million sales of the Game Genie, it is reasonably certain it lost at least that amount," the 1994 Ninth Circuit ruling stated.



(Image credit: Flickr user spooky dad) 

It's something of a great irony that Nintendo has earned so many good vibes from the Wii U game Super Mario Maker, which in some ways takes the great joy of modifying a game that everyone knows in unexpected ways.

Galoob and Codemasters may have been trying to give us infinite lives, but they instead gave us an idea of what it was like to play God with a game, to change its basic shape and how we interact with its basic elements. It was a thrill back then, and it's a thrill now.

If only Nintendo had figured this out a quarter-century ago when they could have used this to make their games even better.

A version of this post by Ernie Smith originally appeared in the Tedium newsletter, which tries in vain to make dull topics slightly more interesting. You can follow along on Twitter or Facebook.

Massive Ball of Deep Fried Nutella and Ice Cream Covered with Caramel

Posted: 20 Jan 2016 04:00 AM PST

(Photos: Piccolo Me)

First, pour salted caramel over the ball . . .

. . . then slice it open.

Piccolo Me, a cafe in Sydney, Australia, offers this extraordinary confection. It's made of ice cream, Nutella, and crushed Maltesers malt balls. This assembly is then deep fried and served with more malt balls, as well as a caramel sauce.

It's everything that a proper breakfast should be.

Piccolo Me co-founder Roy Hachem explained to the Daily Telegraph what he and his colleague Charlie Hachem were trying to accomplish when they invented this wonder:

“We thought let’s push a boundary for Sydney, let’s see if we can set a Sydney record for something and then we tested this out and it was a success,” said Roy.

“It’s a bit of a pain to make, it’s very time consuming so we’ve got a smaller version available at many of our stores already which are going like hot cakes. We actually sold 3000 in one week.”

-via That's Nerdalicious!

A Call from Future You

Posted: 20 Jan 2016 03:00 AM PST

Chris from Lunarbaboon has a multi-panel comic at Webtoons in which he hears from the future. The news is not good, but don’t worry -the call from the future produces a workaround. One that we all might try when it becomes necessary. You can follow Lunarbaboon at Webtoons as well as his own site.

Dad Builds Hyperrealistic <i>Star Trek</i> Playset for His Son

Posted: 20 Jan 2016 02:00 AM PST

You're looking at a photo of the bridge set from the original Star Trek, right?

Wrong. It's a playset that David Weiberg built for his 8-year old son. Everything is scaled perfectly with the original shapes and colors. Even the console controls are accurate.

It's an amazing build for a child who is fortunate enough to be raised in the classics. He's become a fan of the original series and enjoys using his playset--along with his father's original series action figures--for imaginative play. You can see more photos at Instructables.

-via Make

Death Star III - Why, BB-8, WHY?!

Posted: 20 Jan 2016 01:00 AM PST


Death Star III by DC Visual Arts

Fans can't get enough of that rolling droid named BB, but I've always suspected it was up to something sinister. As it turns out I was right to reject the cuteness and seeming innocence of that crafty machine, because the Empire has big plans for that little ball of lies. So what will the Rebels do when they discover BB's true purpose? They'll probably try to force it to spill its secrets, but the Sith make droids that aren't easily intimidated...

Share some silly war plans with your fellow fans by sporting this Death Star III t-shirt by DC Visual Arts, it'll turn you into a geeky fashion superstar!

Visit DC Visual Arts's Facebook fan page, official website, Tumblr and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more delightfully geeky designs:

Where's Luke?!Tardis WonderlandI Roll SoloDroid To The World

View more designs by DC Visual Arts | 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!

Cat Walks into Pet Store, Goes on a Catnip Bender

Posted: 20 Jan 2016 01:00 AM PST


YouTube Link

In the cat version of "a man walks into a bar..." this pretty kitty wandered into an unidentified pet store. The employees later found him, gettin' crazy with the catnip toys. Eventually, his owner was called to give his pet the feline version of a SafeRide. We all need a bit of an escape from time to time, don't we kitty? Via Arbroath
 


YouTube Link

McDonald's Will Offer Chocolate-Covered French Fries

Posted: 20 Jan 2016 12:00 AM PST


(Photo: Model Press)

Welp, it's time to pack and move to Japan. Actually, there's no need to pack because the only thing that you truly need is already there. Rocket News 24 reports that McDonald's restaurants in Japan will offer to customers French fries as Nature intended: covered with chocolate sauce.

They're called McChocolate Potatoes. Servings go on sale on January 26 for about $2.75 or your first born child. They come dripped with both regular chocolate, white chocolate, and love.

Photos Capture the Individuality Residents Infuse in Their Identical, One-Room Apartments

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 11:00 PM PST

Fourth Floor, Apartment #22: Don Lukas (An alias as he preferred anonymity), lives with his girlfriend.

Bogdan Gîrbovan is a Romanian photographer living in Bucharest. The Bucharest apartment building pictured here was built in 1966 during a communist regime, in which individual expression was discouraged. These identical, one-room boxes that comprise the homes in the building were built to emphasize that idea.

Gîrbovan, who lives on the 10th floor of the building, created this brilliant series that features residents of the building posing in their homes. His intent in part was to illustrate the differences that emerge in such a uniform environment. The photos are a testament to the creativity and unique nature of people, across all cultural and economic strata. 

See the full series by Gîrbovan and read some of his views on the project here. 

Sixth Floor, Apartment #32. This resident is a public figure who refused to give her name or to show her face in the photograph. She is a temporary tenant, as opposed to other residents who own their rooms. 


Fifth Floor, Apartment #27. Mrs. Suhariuc Ioana is retired. She has lived in this space since 1967, living by herself since 1982. She owns her room. 

How People in the 1960s Thought We'd Dance in the Future

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 10:00 PM PST


(Video Link)

1966 saw the premier and demise of Raumpatrouille--Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion. In English, that's Space Patrol--The Fantastic Adventures of the Spaceship Orion.

This short-lived science fiction TV show has been called the "German Star Trek." For that era, Space Patrol was a remarkably high production value series with richly developed characters.

One scene shows a group of people dancing. As you can see, the choreographers predicted how we would be dancing now in 2016 with amazingly precise prescience. It's like looking into any modern nightclub.

-via VA Viper

The Poe Toaster Returns

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 09:00 PM PST

The Poe Toaster was a mysterious man who came to Edgar Allan Poe’s grave at Westminster Hall in Baltimore on January 19th, Poe’s birthday, every year to leave a toast of cognac and three roses. The last year he showed up was in 2009, and by 2012 we’d given up on him ever appearing again. Many believe he died. But there’s a new Poe Toaster! The Maryland Historical Society held auditions and selected a new, still anonymous, person to carry on the tradition. He made his first appearance on Saturday for Baltimore’s Poe Appreciation Day ceremony. A crowd of about 100 people attended.

After saluting Poe with apple cider and the raffling off of a themed cake, the group headed outside to watch the arrival of the new toaster.

The bearded figure emerged from beneath the hall playing Camille Saint-Saëns' distinctive Danse Macabre on a violin. He marched up to the grave with a white scarf draped loosely across his shoulders.

Some things remain the same: The inheritor of the tradition toasted with cognac and left red roses. Some things are different: The violin was the new toaster's addition, and the ritual was performed in daylight rather than the dead of night.

The toaster rested the violin and bow on the stone monument and intoned a tribute in Latin. He yanked the cognac from his coat pocket and drank. He set down the roses, nodded to Poe and left.

Read more at The Baltimore Sun. -via mental_floss

The Greens Prepare Strange Recipes From The 50s

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 08:00 PM PST

You've probably heard about strange recipes from the 40s and 50s, dishes like lime cheese salad, lobster relish or ham and banana hollandaise that seem too repulsive to eat.

Well, not all retro recipes are repulsive, nor do they all call for Jell-O gelatin, because as Hank and Katherine Green from the vlogbrothers YouTube channel discovered some are just plain bland!

(YouTube Link)

Thankfully Hank and Katherine are adventurous eaters willing to make, and taste test, some of the strange recipes found in a neat old newspaper clipping cookbook Katherine inherited from her grandmother. 

I had Mexican chop suey once...at a Chinese restaurant in Tijuana!

-Via Laughing Squid

Seeing the World Through an Animal's Gaze

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 07:00 PM PST



Hungarian photographer Flora Borsi's (previously at Neatorama) series "Animeyed" features these captivating images of animal's eyes layered in place over the beautiful Borsi's face. The result is arresting animal/human hybrid photographs that evoke a feeling of fantastic mythological creatures. 

Shown here are two of the most conventional animals used in the series; see more exotic images featuring blowfish and other aquatic creatures, snakes and more at Borsi's Behance site. Via Laughing Squid

Bizarre <i>Jeopardy</i> Result: Everyone Loses

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 06:00 PM PST

In the final round of Jeopardy yesterday, the three contestants went in with winnings ranging from $13,800 to $6,000. In the category of state capitals, the answer was:

A 1957 event led to the creation of a national historic site in this city, signed into law by a president whose library is now there too.

The correct question was "What is Little Rock, Arkansas?" That's where the William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum is located.

All three contestants answered wrong. All three wagered all of their money. So all three lost.


(Video Link)

Alex Trebek handled the unusual result with perfect aplomb. He explained that the next day's show would begin with three new contestants.

-via Adam Baldwin

East Coast Snowstorm Coming

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 05:00 PM PST

Looks like winter is coming after all. After a rather warm December, weather models of all kinds are predicting a massive snowstorm on the US East Coast this Friday. The map above shows “this week’s snowfall potential, based on storms under similar conditions.”

Since early Saturday, nearly every single run of every major model has shown the potential for a foot or two of snowfall on a track to hit somewhere between Northern Virginia and Boston. What’s amazing—perhaps even more so than the impressive potential snow totals—is that all the major weather models are already locked in so far in advance. Simply put: There’s definitely a big storm coming, it’s just the details that are still being worked out.

Predictably, meteorologist message boards have erupted in squeals of giddy joy, ogling the storm’s potential. One leading meteorologist on Twitter has already dubbed the storm a “blockbuster blizzard for the ages.” The person who literally wrote the textbook on major Northeast winter storms, Paul Kocin, wrote on Tuesday that this week’s storm is “textbook.” Another meteorologist called the storm’s predicted evolution “perfection.”

Yes, meteorologists are strange. They are celebrating the fact that models are converging to make predictions more accurate, and a big weather event, which is their bread and butter. The rest of us have to consider the potential misery of being stuck at home with bored kids and how “essential” we are to our workplaces. Read more about the expected event at Slate. BRB, going to get bread and toilet paper.

(Image credit: St. Louis University)

Actor Jamie Foxx Rescues a Man from a Burning Car

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 04:16 PM PST

(Photo: Georges Baird)

He plays a hero on the screen and, now, in real life. Action star Jamie Foxx was on the scene when a man in Newbury Park, California crashed, rolling his truck several times before it came to a stop. It then caught on fire. The driver, who is named Brett Kyle, was unable to escape.

Foxx and another bystander called 911, then pulled Kyle from the burning vehicle and dragged him to safety.

After rescue workers arrived, Foxx left and went about the rest of his day. He didn't mention it on social media or to the press. The entire incident might have escaped widespread public attention if the Facebook group Safety for Citizens hadn't reported on it. NBC News quotes the police report:

"It struck a drainage pipe and concrete casing causing the vehicle to roll over multiple times," the report read. "The vehicle came to rest on its passenger side, and became engulfed in flames with Mr. Kyle trapped inside his vehicle."

That's when two men "ran to the burning, overturned truck in an attempt to free the driver," according to the report.

"One of the witnesses retrieved a rescue tool from his vehicle allowing the two citizens to break the window, cut the seat belt, and extricate the driver," the report stated.

-via Huffington Post

ONE PUNCH PEANUT - He's Got The Saitama Blues

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 04:00 PM PST


ONE PUNCH PEANUT by Skullpy

Charlie Brown found that life no longer had any meaning since he'd become the mightiest blockhead in the universe, and what does a kid do when he can defeat all foes with but a single punch? He sits and reflects upon his days of youthful innocence, that's what, and when he has come to peace with the fact that he can no longer hide in the peanut gallery he dubs himself Saitama and strikes hard against those who would pull a football away at the last second...

You'll be a total knockout when you wear this ONE PUNCH PEANUT t-shirt by Skullpy, it's one funny cartoon mashup that's sure to put a smile on your fellow fans faces!

Visit Skullpy's Facebook fan page, official website, Tumblr and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more delightfully geeky designs:

MERC BROS 2WE WANT A SHRUBBERY V2LE PETIT SINGETHE DARTHFATHER V2

View more designs by Skullpy | 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!

Irish People Taste Test American Beers

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 04:00 PM PST

American beer has a reputation in other countries as being subpar compared to the "home team," so to speak. In America, the Irish have a reputation as serious beer drinkers, second only to Germany. So what do Irish people think when they try different American beers in a taste test?   

(YouTube link)

Okay, everyone has their favorites, and there well may be plenty of brands that are better than what these guys were offered. But they went with the most well-known, or at least the most advertised, beer brands: Budweiser, Miller, Brooklyn, Coors Light, and Samuel Adams. Your mileage may vary. -via Tastefully Offensive

Derek Zoolander By Annie Leibovitz

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 03:00 PM PST

Ben Stiller created Derek Zoolander because he knew he was too good looking for Hollywood but didn't want to come off as a total d-bag by declaring himself gorgeous so he let Derek do the declaring for him.

Now we all know how striking Stiller looks when he's channeling Zoolander, and yet Ben hasn't spent nearly enough time in front of the camera to justify his top model status, so he called a devoted fan in to take his picture.

This rabid Zoolander fan is named Annie Leibovitz, maybe you've heard of her?

She's supposedly pretty famous in her own right, but her star power couldn't outshine Derek's as he began to strike striking poses and put his prettiest face forward.

Annie's photos of the fabulous Zoolander will be featured in the February 2016 issue of American Vogue, make sure you pick up a copy before the wicked Mugatu buys them all for his bonfire!

See more of Derek Zoolander by Annie Leibovitz here

<i>Masters of the Universe</i> as a Good Film

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 02:00 PM PST

The art of constructing a movie trailer has come a long way. This example shows how thoughtful editing and great music can make even the lousiest of flicks look like something you’d want to buy a ticket for. I present: the 1987 movie Masters of the Universe, with a trailer in the style of The Force Awakens.

(YouTube link)

The irony is that we didn’t even need a great trailer to be excited about The Force Awakens, yet its high quality assured us that the movie was in the hands of people who knew what they were doing. You can’t overstate the importance of editing, and moreover, a brilliant score. As a YouTube commenter said, “Wow, John Williams' music can really put lipstick on a pig.” -via Geeks Are Sexy

Way Too Realistic Ear Cellphone Case

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 01:00 PM PST

"Can you hear me now?"

Artist Sarah Sitkin of Los Angeles specializes in realistic and unsettling sculptures of human body parts. She recently made this cell phone case for Josh, an embroidery artist in Melbourne, Australia. It looks and feels just like a human ear, which is probably handy if you're trying to make a phone call without anyone seeing you.

-via Booooooom

How To Convert A Skateboard Into A Powerful Slingshot

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 12:00 PM PST

Skateboards make really good weapons, because you can slash with a curb sharpened edge, swing the board like a bat or leave a dent in a forehead with cast metal trucks.

But Joerg Sprave of The Slingshot Channel didn't do much skating when he was younger, because he was too busy cutting stuff up and turning it into weapons in his workshop.

(YouTube Link)

In this episode Joerg cuts up a skateboard to create a mighty powerful, pulley based slingshot that can shoot a 60mm lead ball straight through particle board, thereby making it the ultimate way to carck heads open with a skateboard.

-Via LikeCool

Gendered Consumer Products

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 11:00 AM PST

We all know that products marketed as “for women” are overpriced compared to the generic, or “men's” version. The pink color and the decent smell comes with a premium price. Maybe it’s a conspiracy to make us all hate the color pink. There is, of course, a remedy- always buy the men’s version. Marketing people know that there will still be plenty of women who pay the extra price for not smelling like you just stepped out of the men’s shower room. This is the latest from Pie Comic by John McNamee. 

Baby Elephant Literally Falls Asleep

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 10:00 AM PST

VTM News in Belgium caught this funny scene. The baby elephant decided to take a nap while he was still standing upright. He promptly went for a tumble.


(Video Link)

A heartwarming note comes immediately after the baby's fall: all of the grown-ups rush over to make sure that he's okay.

-via Tastefully Offensive

Escalator Etiquette vs. Escalator Efficiency

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 09:00 AM PST

The London Underground moves millions of passengers every day, and the numbers keep growing. Anything that can make the system more efficient is worth a look. But flouting convention on escalators makes those passengers see red. See, the convention in London (and most US cities) is that you stand still on the right side of an escalator, and leave the left side open for those who want to walk up or down. An official from Transport for London (TfL) went to Hong Kong and noticed that MTR passengers on escalators didn’t walk -they just stood shoulder to shoulder and rode the stairs. Calculations showed that this behavior led to more carrying capacity for the escalators as a whole, and increased safety. They arranged a trial at Holborn station, in which TfL employees asked passengers to stand on both sides of the escalators. Other commuters were outraged.  

We might be bad at dancing and expressing our feelings, but say this for the British: when we settle on a convention of public order, we bloody well stick to it. We wait in line. We leave the last biscuit. And when we take the escalator, we stand on the right. The left is reserved for people in a hurry. In Washington DC, those who block the way are known as “escalumps”; here, they can expect the public humiliation of a tutting sound just over their shoulder. “Passengers just don’t like having these things changed,” says Celia Harrison, a Transport for London (TfL) customer strategy analyst, and one of the key people responsible for this heretical deviation from the norm. “I’ve worked on stations for many years. So I was aware that whatever we did people weren’t going to be comfortable about having their routine disturbed.”

The results of the trial were as expected: the carrying capacity of the escalators was increased, producing more efficiency for the system. But the backlash was so severe that officials admit that even if and when the system is introduce to other locations, they will have to reserve at least one escalator for those who prefer to walk. People just don't like change. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Flickr user Ben Leto)

POLL: How should we use an escalator in a crowded subway system?

  • I stand, and think the new idea will be great for efficiency.
  • I stand, but we need to accommodate those who prefer to walk as well.
  • I walk, but would welcome a more efficient system.
  • I walk, and don’t want to be told to stand and wait.
  • I don't use escalators. Just show me the answers!

The Evolution of Swearing in Movies

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 08:00 AM PST


YouTube Link

Swearing in movies has come a long way since the days of "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn", baby. But how exactly has the evolution taken form? Get the history on swearing in movies in this video. NSFW SHOCKER: Contains practically every profane word in the history of mankind.

18 Funniest Wikipedia Edits of All Time

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 07:00 AM PST

Well, there go my plans for the weekend.

These Outkast pirates are ready for the party. Aren't you?

Now say that 5 times fast.

You can get away with a lot on Wikipedia if you make edits discreetly and quickly. Reality is something you can twist for your amusement. You can find 15 other hilarious Wikipedia edits at Pleated Jeans.

Lil Mac's Gym - He'll Transform You From A King Hippo To A Real Hero

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 06:00 AM PST


Lil Mac's Gym by Jango Snow

Most gyms don't offer much inspiration to little guys, and there's always some big meathead trying to teach you how to be tough when he's never been as scrawny as you are, but Lil Mac is different. He knows what it's like to be the underdog, understands how it feels to be picked on and called a weakling, and he'll show you how to defy the odds and take down the biggest boxers of them all. With the right combination of running, dodging and punching combos you'll be able to take down anybody who threatens to punch you out, even Mike Tyson if need be...

Get your geeky wardrobe into fighting form with this Lil Mac's Gym t-shirt by Jango Snow, it's one fun way to show off your fightin' spirit!

Visit Jango Snow's Facebook fan page, official website, Tumblr and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more mighty geeky designs:

BELIEVEThe Good YoshiPlumber's HolidayROBB-E

View more designs by Jango Snow | More Video Game 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 Science of Internet Trolls

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 06:00 AM PST

We’ve all heard of sadists, but few of us knew there were so many of them until we go online to interact with others. I’m talking about trolls, who don’t have to hide their psychopathic tendencies as they would in real life, because online they can be as anonymous as they want.

(YouTube link)

AsapSCIENCE tells us about some recent research into internet trolls. Many of them care so little about what we think of them that they even self-identified for the study. The upshot of it all is still "don’t feed the trolls." That said, the YouTube comments for this one are hilarious. 

I Made This <i>Macross II</i> Lamp

Posted: 19 Jan 2016 05:00 AM PST

For the past few years, I've been teaching myself carpentry and related crafts in order to prepare myself for the practical skills of home ownership, as well as be creative. Among less colorful pieces of usable furniture, I've made a My Little Pony cabinet, a Ninja High School lamp, and a One Week Friends light. My latest DIY project is a lamp inspired by Macross II: Lovers Again, one of my favorite animes.


(Video Link)

The lamp consists of 3 lights inside a box cabinet with a figure of Ishtar, one of the main characters of the series, rotating on a disco ball motor.

This was by far the most challenging crafting project I had ever undertaken. When I devise a project idea, I create goals that require that I learn previously unknown skills. For this lamp, my goal was to advance my knowledge of electrical wiring. You can see how by looking at the back of the lamp how much electrical complexity was involved.

That's 3 lights, 8 relays in sockets, 1 fuse in a fuse holder, 2 switches, and 1 electrical motor. My plan was to use a 4 position switch to offer these options:

Position 1: Light 1 on.
Position 2: Lights 1 and 2 on.
Position 3: Lights 1, 2, 3 on.
Position 4: Lights 1, 2, 3, and the rotational motor on.

This was a very bad idea--one that I realized only after I had invested too much time in the project. In truth, I was attempting to build something that, despite my best efforts, I couldn't understand. My father, an engineer, designed the circuit paths. I have tried to understand how it works, but I can't wrap my head around electrical circuitry of this complexity.

And it doesn't work--at least not completely. Some of the switch positions work, but some don't. I have no idea why. It should all work. But it doesn't. And after 3 months of testing and resoldering connections with no progress, I decided it was time to finish the lamp as is.

The carpentry design, at least, is quite sound. The electrical components are mounted on an interior board serving as a false wall. The wires feed through holes toward the front and sides. 1/4 inch plywood partitions separate the lighted sections.

I made the front and top panels as hinged doors and joined all the components with corner braces. This was in order to make it easier to access the interior for maintenance.

The front is all custom work--I cut the glass myself and fashioned window panes with decorative moulding and wood dowels. It's held in place with a magnetic clasp mounted on the top left side.

The Ishtar figurine is a Nendoroid brand figure imported from Japan. It's glued onto a routed wooden base, which its itself glued to a robotics part that grips the shaft of the disco ball motor. I can remove the base by turning a bolt with an Allen wrench.

Working with glass was fun. I'm already thinking about using it for my next project. My idea is to create a stained glass panel and set it in a wooden box frame that is backlit by LEDs. This would hang on the wall as a lamp. Although I overestimated my ability to grasp electrical wiring, I think that, with patience, stained glass is within my reach.

The image that I'm considering for the stained glass panel is the logo of the Exofleet from Exosquad, one of my favorite TV shows.
@

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