Neatorama

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• 9 Things Lost or Found on Trains
• Hamburger with a Pizza Bun
• 5 Weird Facts About Leap Years
• Meet Corduroy, The World's Oldest Cat
• How a Baby Staked Argentina's Claim on Antarctica
• One of the Strangest Ways to Support a Presidential Candidate
• Ghostbusters Key Lime Slime Twinkies
• Jacques Duval-Brasseur's Monstrous Tables
• Sun City - Frank Reynolds Versus The Dayman
• The Coen Brothers Use Shot/Reverse Shot
• Alternate Realities, Alternate Versions of You
• Eight Movie Premieres That Were Picketed and Why
• The World's First Supermarket for Expired Food
• 11 Memorable Disfigured or Deformed Movie Protagonists
• This Woman Says She's A Cat Trapped In The Wrong Body
• A Burger with $80 Worth of Extra Pickles
• 14 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Plumbers
• How to Make Modern Art
• Images From That Magical World Known As Japan
• Kaiju Kai - They'll Teach You How To Devour Your Competition Whole!
• Gorilla on the ISS
• Cake for a Computer Programmer
• Hot Pockets
• Impossible Dogs
• BB-8 is Donkey
• Japanese Split Racing

9 Things Lost or Found on Trains Posted: 26 Feb 2016 05:00 AM PST (Image credit: Joey Parlett) 1. LOST: Rare Buddhist scripture A Tibetan scholar was so excited to see London mayor Boris Johnson riding the Tube that he accidentally left his laptop on the train. The computer contained the lama’s life’s work: two unfinished books and nearly 1000 pages of rare 17th- century Buddhist scripture. 2. FOUND: A boa constrictor named Penelope In 2011, a woman wearing a three-foot-long snake around her neck realized the pet serpent had slithered away. Since nobody could find it, authorities confidently declared that “the trains are absolutely snake-free.” Turns out, they were wrong. Penelope hid out in an adjacent car for an entire month. 3. LOST: One of only two copies of The Boy Castaways J.M. Barrie, the creator of the character Peter Pan, published just two copies of his story The Boy Castaways. One is protected inside Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The other is still missing after being lost on a train in 1901. 4. FOUND: Paintings by Gauguin In the 1970s, a Gauguin still life was found on an Italian train—but nobody knew it was by Gauguin. An art-loving auto worker bought the painting at an auction and it hung on his wall for more than 40 years, oblivious of its origin. Police later determined that the painting, worth $48 million, had been stolen from a London home. 5. LOST: A violin concerto British composer Havergal Brian spent a whole year writing his first violin concerto. He finished the draft in June 1934, stuffed it in a briefcase, and promptly lost the bag containing it at London’s Victoria Station. Starting from scratch, Brian took another whole year to finish his Violin Concerto No. 2. 6. FOUND: A 300-year-old Stradivarius violin Each worth millions, about 600 Stradivarius violins still exist. In 2012, a musician lent his rare instrument to a friend so he could play it at a birthday party. But the real surprise came when his buddy accidentally left it on a train in Bern, Switzerland. Thankfully, a good Samaritan turned it in. 7. LOST: Early Ernest Hemingway In 1922, Hemingway’s wife Hadley was planning to visit her husband in Switzerland. So she packed up all of his papers in a suitcase and boarded a train in Paris. But while the locomotive sat at a station, Hadley decided to grab a bottle of Evian water and left the suitcase on the train. When she returned, the suitcase was gone. It had contained all of Hemingway’s early fiction. Then unpublished as a novelist, Papa griped to Ezra Pound, “All that remains of my complete works are three pencil drafts of a bum poem...” 8. FOUND: Pete Seeger’s banjo The folksinger knew a thing about trains. Living as a vagabond in the 1930s, Seeger rode freighters across the country. But in 2000, the singer reportedly forgot his famed banjo while riding from New York City to Poughkeepsie. The instrument was faithfully taken to a lost and found, where it was reunited with Seeger. 9. LOST: T.E. Lawrence’s original Seven Pillars of Wisdom Following the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918, “Lawrence of Arabia” decided to put his experiences abroad on paper. But after nearly one year of work, he accidentally misplaced the suitcase containing the 250,000-word draft at Reading Station. Lawrence started all over again, calling the second version we read today “hopelessly bad.” _______________________ The article above is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the January-February 2015 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!

Hamburger with a Pizza Bun Posted: 26 Feb 2016 04:00 AM PST (Photo: Chuck Cook Photography) Add a scoop of ice cream on top and you've got all 3 food groups covered! Anthony Calleo operates the Pi Pizza Truck, a food truck in Houston, Texas that serves gourmet pizzas. He's now offering a fresh take on his most popular dish, which is a pizza with soppressata salami. He wraps it around a hamburger, then adds olive tapenade. There's no need for further condiments because the pizza bun itself has them inside. Calleo calls it the Jumping the Shark Burger. Each one costs $16 because, well, it is a gourmet pizza. -via reddit

5 Weird Facts About Leap Years Posted: 26 Feb 2016 03:00 AM PST Monday is a day that only comes around every four years: February 29th, or Leap Day. You know that we have Leap Day to sync up the number of days in a year, because the earth revolves around the sun every 365.25 days. We add an extra day every four years to make up that .25 of a day. The ancient Romans figured it out, and revamped the calendar a few times to get it right. Other weird things went into those calendar-making days. And have you ever wondered why February is shorter than every other month? That's also because of Augustus. The Roman Senate, to honor him, renamed the month of Sextilis as Augustus (August). But originally August was only 30 days long, and this was a problem because Julius Caesar's month (July) was 31 days long. It wouldn't do for Augustus to have a shorter month than Caesar! To make August as long as July they borrowed a day from February, reducing it from 30 days during a leap year to only 29, and 28 days every other year. This permanently left February as the odd, shortened month that it is. Learn more weird tidbits about our calendar and the extra day at About Entertainment. -via Boing Boing   (Image credit: One Day Calendar Generator)

Meet Corduroy, The World's Oldest Cat Posted: 26 Feb 2016 02:00 AM PST This handsome, half Maine Coon cat is Corduroy, who at age 26 holds the Guinness World Record as the oldest living cat. Adopted from an Oregon shelter in 1989, when his owner Reed Okura was only 7 years old, Corduroy sets the bar high for aging cats by living an active life that includes jumping on and off counters and "gliding up" stairs. At this point Corduroy is in excellent health, and his owner keeps him on a low-protein diet to protect his kidney function. Okura shares what she feels is Corduroy's secret to health in old age: “I strongly believe the key to his longevity is the fact we did not declaw him and allowed him to go outside. He was able to defend himself and exercise his body and mind by hunting. Corduroy still catches critters but is not as good as he once was, thankfully. It is an honor to have Corduroy in our life, I honestly don’t remember much of my life without him. He is a wonderful companion and I hope to give him a happy and healthy life for many more years.” The longest lived cat in history was Creme Puff, who lived to be 38. Go for the record, Corduroy! See tons of adorable pictures and videos of this photogenic feline on Instagram. Via Bored Panda | Images: Reed Okura

How a Baby Staked Argentina's Claim on Antarctica Posted: 26 Feb 2016 01:00 AM PST Antarctica is a strange place. It has no native population, but many countries have communities there, all with floating populations of people who don’t stay very long. Several countries have staked claims on the land, but no nation officially owns the continent. How does one stake a claim on an uninhabited land in this modern age? Argentina airlifted a pregnant women to its Esperanzo Base on the Arctic Penninsula in 1978 so she could give birth to the first baby born in Antarctica. Chile responded by registering over a dozen births at their Antarctic station in the ensuing years. If this seems like a particularly childish way to claim territory, it’s just par for the course.    The decades of territorial tiffs have a juvenile air about them. Instances of placing and stealing and replacing flags have been common. For example, in November 1942, an Argentine expedition left a flag in a cylinder to mark its takeover of Antarctica’s Deception Island. Two months later, a British ship’s staff destroyed the evidence, planted their own flag, and notified Argentina of the act. Within another two months, an Argentine vessel had already removed it. Argentina, Chile, and the UK, as well as France and New Zealand, have even designed special flags for their respective Antarctic territories, all within the last few decades. There’s also been lots of naming and renaming and conflicting names; the Antarctic Peninsula, for example, is known by Argentina as Tierra de San Martin, by Chile as O’Higgins Land, and by the British as Graham Land, while another part of the peninsula “belonging” to the United States is named Palmer Land. Reminder: none of these countries actually own the land in question. The territorial claims by various countries makes for a confusing history, which you can read about at Atlas Obscura. (Image credit: Andrew Shiva)

One of the Strangest Ways to Support a Presidential Candidate Posted: 26 Feb 2016 12:00 AM PST There are a lot of strange political fundraisers during presidential races, but this year might be the first time you can purchase a weed pipe to support a potential candidate. Bernie Sanders supporter Ariel Zimman has started selling ceramic pipes (and not the kind you use for tobacco) to raise money for her presidential runner of choice -who is likely the most pro-marijuana candidate out there. The pipes go for $30-60 and 10% of all proceeds go to the Sanders campaign. It brings an all new meaning to the slogan "Feel the Bern." Via The Daily Dot

Ghostbusters Key Lime Slime Twinkies Posted: 25 Feb 2016 11:00 PM PST Hostess Key Lime Slime! Limited Edition #HostessSnacks#hostess#ghostbusters#Twinkies#goldenspongecakepic.twitter.com/H7ekTgzbCM — ENM SALES & SERVICES (@ENMSALES) February 19, 2016 If you thought that the worst thing that could happen to Twinkies was that Hostess went out of business, the relaunched company would like to prove you wrong. To promote the upcoming Ghostbusters movie, a limited edition run of Key Lime Slime Twinkies has been spotted. Slime wasn't too appetizing when Slimer used it in the first movie. Knowing it is lime-flavored isn't helping. One of the comments under the above Tweet said, "something strange and it don't look good, who you gonna call." One thing is right- it don't look good. -via Uproxx

Jacques Duval-Brasseur's Monstrous Tables Posted: 25 Feb 2016 10:00 PM PST In the 1970s, French artist Jacques Duval-Brasseur produced a series of brass and glass tables that look like animals. Pleasant birds were among them. But for the super classy look, I would have gone straight for his scorpion table. There's a light in the tail to illuminate the surface of the table. It would be a perfect accompaniment for the scorpion office chair! Other incredibly neat designs that are, oddly, no longer in production include tables that look like a frilled-neck lizard and a giant crab: (Photos: 1st Dibs) -via My Modern Met

Sun City - Frank Reynolds Versus The Dayman Posted: 25 Feb 2016 09:00 PM PST Sun City by LavaLamp Dennis and Mac are always playing roles, and Dee fancies herself some kind of actress, but the only real actor in the bunch is Frank Reynolds- secret scumbag. He has lived a life of sin and debauchery, and doesn't regret any one of the hundred bad decisions he makes every day, but nobody really knows what kind of creature he is because they've been taken in by his act. However, it's only a matter of time before the rest of the gang from Paddy's Pub figure out that Frank is the crime lord of Philadelphia they keep talking about on the nightly news... Keep your wardrobe sunny with this Sun City t-shirt by LavaLamp, it's the stylish way to show love for your favorite TV show! Visit LavaLamp's Facebook fan page, official website, Tumblr and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more delightfully geeky designs: Farts Are Liberty Super Meseeks Bros. Shiny Metal Ass JUST DO IT! View more designs by LavaLamp | 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!

The Coen Brothers Use Shot/Reverse Shot Posted: 25 Feb 2016 09:00 PM PST Joel and Ethan Coen have a particular style that you’ll recognize even if you haven’t seen the movie or don’t know who did it. One of the facets of this style is the way they film conversations between two people, using shot/reverse shot in a way few other filmmakers ever would. You probably can’t articulate what is different about their cinematography, but Tony Zhou can. (vimeo link) Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting makes the mundane parts of filmmaking into a fascinating exploration of how masterpieces are created. -via Metafilter

Alternate Realities, Alternate Versions of You Posted: 25 Feb 2016 08:00 PM PST (Pie Comic/John McNamee) Somewhere in the multiverse, there is a version of you that did not eat that entire box of cookies. But there's only one because that's a surprisingly uncommon choice for you to make. It's almost like you were fated to get this big.

Eight Movie Premieres That Were Picketed and Why Posted: 25 Feb 2016 07:00 PM PST These days it seems like there's at least a fringe organization that is offended by practically every media message or presentation. Given that the public is bombarded with so many media presentations per day, it's hard to keep track of who is mad at what.  Film portrayals are often singled out and labeled as objectionable by one activist group or another. If they are lucky, the principals who stand to profit from the film sales are able to withstand any protest without any financial repercussions. If they aren't so lucky, they stand to lose a lot. The article linked below lists eight films that had their premieres picketed. The following example is one in which the protesters, though strident in their threats, were not sucessful in creating negative financial consequences for the film: "The Hateful Eight Following Quentin Tarantino lending his support to the increasingly high-profile anti-police brutality movement in the US, several police organisations (The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, and the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police), all called for a boycott of The Hateful Eight. The Fraternal Order of Police executive director Jim Pasco promised there would be a 'surprise' for Tarantino 'any time between now and [the premiere].' Although having to explicitly rule out violence in retaliation to Tarantino's anti-police brutality statements, he did threaten to hurt him 'economically.' The biggest shock about the so-called 'surprise' was that literally nothing happened. Whether it was decided that using police officers to intimidate or harass a high-profile anti-police brutality campaigner was a bad tactical decision, or whether a lot of cops really, really wanted to see The Hateful Eight, this was one protest that ended with a fizzle, not a bang." Read about more films that had their premieres attended by protesters here.  Image: Double Feature Films

The World's First Supermarket for Expired Food Posted: 25 Feb 2016 06:00 PM PST (Photo: WeFood) Every year, people across the world throw out 1.3 billion metric tons of food. Safe, well-grown food is simply wasted. People in Denmark responded to this problem by setting up WeFood, a new non-profit grocery store that uses only food that has been thrown out by other grocery stores for having damaged packaging or being past its expiration date. As a result, food at WeFood is about 50% cheaper than at most stores. The project has been part of a generally successful effort to reduce food waste in Denmark and other European nations. Amy X. Wang writes for Quartz: Denmark as a whole has been doing a good job of cleaning up its act. The country throws away 25% less food than it did five years ago and many of its supermarkets sell food that is near its expiration date at reduced prices. Elsewhere in Europe, France has banned supermarkets from throwing away unsold food and is asking restaurants to provide take-out containers. -via Nerdcore

11 Memorable Disfigured or Deformed Movie Protagonists Posted: 25 Feb 2016 05:00 PM PST Movie stars are usually quite attractive, but occasionally a story calls for those looks to be obscured somewhat, or even completely obscured. The thing about physical deformities is that once you get used to seeing them, you tend to not see them at all. When we saw Mask or The Elephant Man, we were surprised, or even shocked, by the protagonist’s face. But by the end of the movie, it was no big deal at all. TVOM identified eleven movies that feature main characters with serious physical anomalies that figured into the story, but didn’t put us off at all once we got to know the character.

This Woman Says She's A Cat Trapped In The Wrong Body Posted: 25 Feb 2016 04:00 PM PST There will always be people who don't feel comfortable in their own skin, convinced they were born the wrong sex, wrong ethnicity or, in a few extreme cases, wrong species. It's easy to dismiss them as crazy or disturbed, but the truth is our identities define who we are, and if we don't feel comfortable in the skin we're in there are plenty of surgical ways to make our skin more suiting. But in the case of Nano from Norway doctors have yet to invent a surgical procedure to solve her identity problem- because she believes she is a cat trapped in a human body. Nano now prefers to speak in meows, hisses at dogs because her "instinct automatically reacts by hissing", and always wears ears and a tail in order to feel more feline. (YouTube Link) Nano seems like a kitty trapped in a human body, but does she use a human sized litter box, or is she one of those fancy "toilet trained" kitties? Read more about the Woman Who Says She Is A Cat Trapped In The Wrong Body here

A Burger with $80 Worth of Extra Pickles Posted: 25 Feb 2016 03:00 PM PST (Photo: PK Sanjun) Why? The answer is simple. As Rocket News 24 explains, "anything worth doing is worth overdoing to a ridiculous and dangerous extreme." In the past, the Rocket News 24 crew has asked its local Burger King outlet to serve burgers with 1,000 slices of cheese, 1,000 slices of bacon, or 100 onion slices (sadly, not on the same burger). Now they asked for as many pickles on their Whopper as 10,000 yen would buy, which is about $89 USD at the moment. This beautiful, vinegary monument is the result of the labors of the burger artists at the restaurant. It weighs 3.7 pounds. You can see more photos of this majestic burger at Rocket News 24.

14 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Plumbers Posted: 25 Feb 2016 02:00 PM PST Embed from Getty Images   A skilled, reliable plumber is a valuable commodity in any location. That fact is particularly true if one has serious damage leading to leakage or is doing home renovation requiring complicated connections. As a result, plumbers can be quite expensive; just another reason why having one who does a job right the first time is key. But such an observation is obviously from the perspective of a homeowner, not a plumber. What is it like to practice this important trade? The article linked below gives readers an idea. For example,  6. YES, THEY GET HIT ON... Tradesmen have a short-hand for flirtatious customer encounters: “near-sex experiences,” or NSEs. “It’s not like I flirt with customers, like, ‘Hi, help me take off this shirt,’” says Mike, who is happily married. “But female customers can flirt. I’ve been hit on.” Yet the above is hard to reconcile with the following: UNLESS THEY’RE COVERED IN POOP. WHICH HAPPENS A LOT. Cleaning out drains means getting rid of waste clogs backing up the line, and they have to go somewhere. If a plumber is stationed at a point of poop access, odds are he’s going to get hit. On one of Mike’s first jobs, he was accompanying his supervisor while they were snaking a second-story drain above them. “He wasn’t paying attention, but he heard it,” Mike recalls. “30 to 40 gallons of raw sewage. His face was six inches from the pipe.” Yikes! Read more behind-the-scenes facts about plumbers at mental_floss.

How to Make Modern Art Posted: 25 Feb 2016 01:00 PM PST (Video Link) How do you make modern art? Ethan Klein went to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to find out. He examined how seemingly ordinary objects are actually thoughtful expressions of meaning for which you should pay the artists large amounts of money. Then Klein, though not a trained artist himself, set about the task of creating his own modern art. He placed his red beanie cap in a frame and put it on eBay for sale. He is willing to part with it in exchange for $1,000,000.  Klein's framed knit cap is a work of genius. No, really, it is! Here's how you can tell: the bidding on eBay stands at $2,000,100. Okay, so maybe the framed beanie is not itself brilliant. But if Klein can actually sell it for that amount, then he is a genius. -via Tastefully Offensive Content warning: foul language, pelvic thrusting.

Images From That Magical World Known As Japan Posted: 25 Feb 2016 12:00 PM PST (Image Link) Japanese weirdness is like a visual drug for otakus, weeaboos and japanophiles who love to eat it all up one crazy colored image at a time, while everybody else either gets a kick out of the Japanese sense of strange or finds it mildly disturbing. (Image Link) But BuzzFeed's 29 Pictures That Prove Japan Is The Most WTF Country On Earth is a fun feast for every eyeball...as long as you can get past the (NSFW) pink "parade float" at the top of the post. (Image Link) Venture forth and you'll be treated to sumo wrestlers holding crying babies, dinosaur receptionists, women wearing cicadas like fashion accessories, and this real life superhero who helps moms carry their strollers down the stairs. (Image Link) See 29 Pictures That Prove Japan Is The Most WTF Country On Earth here (barely NSFW due to language)

Kaiju Kai - They'll Teach You How To Devour Your Competition Whole! Posted: 25 Feb 2016 11:00 AM PST Kaiju Kai by Stationjack Those jerks from the Cobra Kai gym have always considered themselves to be the top dogs, and all because they picked on some kid who does karate and got away with it. But there's a strange new gym in town, one that's only open to a certain kind of student, and they're not taking any prisoners. The members of Kaiju Kai are monsters on the sparring mat, and they don't hold back when it comes to showing the uninitiated what true martial arts power looks like... Wear your monster pride on your chest with this Kaiju Kai t-shirt by Stationjack, it's the horrifyingly fun way to declare your allegiance to those killer kaiju! Visit Stationjack's Facebook fan page, official website, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more mighty geeky designs: Shut Your Trap Jaeger Do Duffhead Remember Alderaan View more designs by Stationjack | 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!

Gorilla on the ISS Posted: 25 Feb 2016 11:00 AM PST Astronaut Scott Kelly has been on the International Space Station for nearly a year now, and may be getting just a little buggy. He posted a video about a new cargo shipment for the ISS, which astronaut Time Peake is preparing to open. You can see the entire video with context at Facebook. Here’s the highlight. (YouTube link) It appears that someone has imported an unauthorized species of wildlife! Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are scheduled to come back to earth Tuesday, March first, after their record-breaking year in space. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Cake for a Computer Programmer Posted: 25 Feb 2016 10:00 AM PST Jake the computer programmer is leaving for a new job. His co-workers, including redditor DerpyDruid, had this cake made for them to share. Jake will be back, though: many other programmers in the comment thread say that this code won't compile properly. -via Blame It on the Voices

Hot Pockets Posted: 25 Feb 2016 09:00 AM PST Josh Hamilton was making a purchase at a gas station on Owensboro, Kentucky, last weekend when his pants burst into flames! He ran outside and dropped his pants, and a store employee put out the flames with a fire extinguisher. The fire is attributed to a spare lithium battery he had in his pocket, which probably reacted with keys or coins. Never carry loose batteries without a cover. Hamilton was taken to a hospital with second-degree burns. -via reddit

Impossible Dogs Posted: 25 Feb 2016 08:00 AM PST Comic artist Grant Snider of Incidental Comics presents a purebred dog category of which even the most enthusiastic of canine enthusiasts were not aware. Hopefully the species in this breed group aren't actually impossible; I'd love to get an invisibeagle and train him to walk off-leash and attack on command. That would be a great way to ward off undesirables! Via Laughing Squid Poster prints of this comic and other Grant Snider works are available here.

BB-8 is Donkey Posted: 25 Feb 2016 07:00 AM PST Every cinema hero must have a sidekick. In The Force Awakens, Ren met BB-8 early in the film, and he became her loyal assistant. Marylet Datuin (Thyoungwolf) noticed the resemblance between that scene with one in another movie, and decided that the only way to improve BB-8 would be to give him Eddie Murphy’s voice. I cannot embed the video, so you’ll have to go to No Rest for the Wicked to see, but you’ll be glad you did. -via Digg

Japanese Split Racing Posted: 25 Feb 2016 06:00 AM PST Step 1: get into a split position. We'll get back to you once you've accomplished that task. Now, step 2: move to the finish line 10 meters away before anyone else does. (Video Link) Kazumi Kawahara, who I think is the victor in the contest above, is also the Guinness World Record holder for the fastest 10-meter split mover. She completed it in 16.90 seconds and, as you can see in the video, does so with a bold swagger. I'd like to think that in a better future, international disputes would be settled through split contests like this one. -via Atlas Obscura

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