Neatorama

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• The Critters Are Coming!
• 60 Years Ago: The Last Packard Rolls off the Assembly Line
• Seinfeld Recreated in Doom
• The Texas Slave Who Conned Everyone As a Mexican Millionaire
• If They Take My Stapler - The Saddest Office Story Ever Told
• Uncle Plays with Baby, Pays the Price
• Lovingly-Detailed Outlander Birthday Cake
• Japan's <i>Ghostbusters</i>-Inspired Marshmallow Burger
• We Recreated The Moon Landing To See If It Really Happened
• The Strongest Sword in the Seven Kingdoms
• Modern Manga Art By Ilya Kuvshinov
• Exploding Spray Paint Cans in Slow-Motion
• What The Sharper Image Catalogs Say About Life In The 1980s
• The 6 Most Embarrassing Superhero Costume Updates

The Critters Are Coming! Posted: 27 Jun 2016 05:00 AM PDT The following article is from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Nature Calls. (Image credit: Joi Ito) What happens when the delicate balance of nature tips in such a way that a particular animal population spikes to unsustainable levels? Pretty much what you’d expect: chaos… famine… and critters out the wazoo. THE 48-YEAR CURSE The wild bamboo forests in northwest India and parts of Burma are home to an odd curse: Every 48 years, like clockwork, they produce an army of hungry rats that devour the local rice crop. The phenomenon is called mautam (which translates to “bamboo death”) and is caused by the life cycle of melocanna bamboo, the local variety. The plants live for exactly 48 years, at which point entire forests die off simultaneously. But before they die, they produce a tremendous amount of seed-filled fruit. The fruit will replant the next generation of bamboo, but in the meantime, it also provides a huge increase in the amount of food available to the local black rat community. (Image credit: Flickr user Matt Baume) The sudden food surplus sets off a population boom. For as long as the good times last, the rats breed continuously. It takes only about 11 weeks for the baby rats to reach maturity. That means, during the year that the forest fruits, the rat population jumps exponentially every couple of months— from as few as 100 rats per acre to as many as 12,000 per acre. And at just about the time that the rat population is hitting its peak, the bamboo fruit runs out. When that happens, millions of starving rats swarm the countryside, eating everything in their path… which spells disaster for the local rice farmers. In the past, without advance planning and no ability to bring in extra food from outside the region, the rat plague could lead to famine and political upheaval. As for the rats, once they’ve decimated the rice crop, they starve to death en masse. Their population numbers crash back down, but everyone knows they’ll be back… in 48 years. THE HOUSE MOUSE INVASION (Image credit: CSIRO) For more than a century, Australians have been at war against what they call the “mouse plague.” Once every four years on average, somewhere in Australia, vast stretches of farmland are devastated by millions of hungry mice. Why are Australian mice so hard to control? Probably because they aren’t natives— they’re an invasive species. The mice that cause such destruction Down Under actually belong to one of the most common mouse species in the world: the house mouse. Native to Asia, these mice abandoned foraging in the wild in favor of scavenging in human settlements nearly 10,000 years ago. And as human agriculture and civilization spread across the globe, the house mice spread too. They most likely arrived in Australia as stowaways aboard the first ships that brought settlers there in the 1780s. House mice are among the fastest breeders in the world. A female’s pregnancy lasts just 19 days and produces five to ten baby mice. Those baby mice start having their own babies when they’re only six weeks old. Oh, yeah— and females can get pregnant again just one to three days after giving birth. This means that one female mouse can produce 500 new mice in less than six months. THE ORIGINAL AND STILL THE WORST (Image credit: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) Desert locusts are the granddaddy of all animal plagues. Ancient Egyptians wrote about them 3,500 years ago, and they’ve been menacing much of North Africa and the Middle East ever since. For thousands of years, no one had any idea where they came from. Most years, there were no locusts at all. In a bad year, though, they showed up by the billions, in huge clouds dense enough to blot out the sun. The clouds swept across the countryside, eating every bit of vegetation in their path and leaving farm fields stripped bare. It wasn’t until the 1920s that scientists uncovered the secret of the locusts’ mysterious appearances. It turns out that locusts are just regular grasshoppers driven crazy by overcrowding. The desert is a harsh environment, and there’s usually not enough food to support a large grasshopper population. To ensure survival of the species, female grasshoppers lay as many as 150 eggs just under the surface of loose, sandy ground. Ordinarily, not all of the eggs hatch— and not all of the ones that hatch survive. But when a particularly wet winter comes along, two things happen: First, more of the eggs hatch. And second, the extra moisture means that extra vegetation grows, providing enough food to support the extra population… at first. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why, but overcrowded conditions cause grasshoppers to change both their appearance and their behavior. Their color morphs from green to a yellow-and-black pattern. More importantly, their personalities change— from solitary individuals to being clustered together in an organized mob that moves across the landscape as one giant, food-frenzied unit. Weird but true. (Image credit: Iwoelbern) Bonus: The swarm, American-style. For the first three or four decades of settlement on the Great Plains, American farmers regularly had their crops wiped out by the Rocky Mountain locust. In 1874, a swarm of locusts estimated at a size of 198,000 square miles— about twice the size of Colorado— swept through Nebraska. By the early 1900s, the Rocky Mountain locust had disappeared from the landscape, apparently gone extinct. The only explanation scientists have come up with for why this happened is that the settlers may have plowed up the locusts’ breeding grounds without even realizing it. _______________________________ The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Nature Calls. From hornywinks to Dracula orchids, from alluvium to zymogen, Uncle John is embarking on a back–country safari to track down the wackiest, weirdest, silliest, and most amazing stories about the natural world. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!

60 Years Ago: The Last Packard Rolls off the Assembly Line Posted: 27 Jun 2016 04:00 AM PDT (Photo: Greg Gjerdingen) Founded in 1899, Packard was one of the last independent car manufacturers in the US. The luxury brand survived the Great Depression and two world wars. It emerged in good financial shape after domestic car production picked up in 1946. But it couldn't keep up with changing markets and its larger competitors. In 1955, Packard merged with Studebaker--another company that would soon disappear. The following year, Packard unveiled the Patrician, an example of which is pictured above. On June 25, 1956, the last Packard came off the assembly line in Detroit. For a few more years, there would be Studebakers re-branded as Packards. But this would be the last true Packard. Blake Z. Rong writes mournfully at Road & Track: All the things that went wrong with Packard—a move downmarket, chasing volume instead of brand image, strange styling, intense cost-cutting, defects, recalls, pissed-off dealers, model lineup bloat, the dreaded scourge of "badge engineering," a desperate merger with a tarnished carmaker just to compete with bigger companies—are still happening today. Maserati comes to mind. The last Honda Civic. Every dead GM brand that didn't survive the bailout, plagued by lost identities and muddled marketing, surviving this far only by dint of pure nostalgia. Mercury. Plymouth. The Mercedes-Benz CLA. Is Volkswagen going to follow the same route? Or Fiat-Chrysler? It's always sad when a carmaker dies, and we never wish for that to happen. Not even for Mitsubishi. -via Glenn Reynolds

Seinfeld Recreated in Doom Posted: 27 Jun 2016 02:00 AM PDT Seinfeld is one of those beloved shows that even 20 years later, fans just won't just let it die. That being said, at least one fan of both Doom and Seinfeld found a way to make it die. Doomworld forum user Doug Keener wanted to combine two things he loves to make the ultimate Doom tribute to the show about nothing. (Video Link) Ultimately, the mod is really about nothing too -other than shooting all the characters from the show and listening to a few of their most famous lines before you plug them. If you're wondering why a fan of the show would want to shoot everyone on it, well, that's because it's also a tribute to Doom and you can't play the game without spilling some blood. Via Polygon

The Texas Slave Who Conned Everyone As a Mexican Millionaire Posted: 27 Jun 2016 12:00 AM PDT New York City in the late 19th century was spilling over with new immigrants as well as Americans who wanted to start over with a clean slate, whether to advance themselves or take advantage of others. William Henry Ellis was born into slavery on a cotton plantation in Victoria, Texas. But in New York, he became Guillermo Enrique Eliseo, a “fabulously rich” banker from Mexico. Columbia University history professor Karl Jacoby tells us about Ellis’ new identity in an account from his book The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire. Not only did Ellis convince people he was someone else, but he was surrounded by others who did the same.   To escape the Jim Crow South, the young William Henry Ellis relocated to Manhattan in the 1890s. Fluent in Spanish from his childhood along the Mexico border, he soon persuaded his new acquaintances that he was from a well-to-do Mexican family—an enticing pose to Wall Street investors at a time when almost every item in the U.S.’s burgeoning consumer economy owed its origins in one way or another to Mexican resources, from the Mexican copper used to electrify American cities to the Mexican rubber that went into making tires for the newly invented automobile. Ellis’s remarkable talent for reinvention made him arguably the first African American on Wall Street (his only known rival for the crown being Jeremiah G. Hamilton, a black man who made his fortune in the 1840s, when Wall Street was still in its formative stages). Yet as his experience in New York demonstrates, even an accomplished trickster like Ellis, who managed to evade the defining phenomenon of his age—the color line—could himself be tricked, especially when sex and scandal were added to the maelstrom of shifting identities that was Gilded Age New York. Read more about Ellis and the other impostors who both befriended and used him, at The Daily Beast. -via Digg

If They Take My Stapler - The Saddest Office Story Ever Told Posted: 26 Jun 2016 10:00 PM PDT If They Take My Stapler by ShasteenFrey Submitted for your approval the tale of Milton Waddams, a lonely office worker who has been pushed to his limit for the last time. The people in his office treat him like a jerk and don't respect his space, which he has been able to deal with for years, but recently someone stole his beloved Swingline stapler, an act of criminal disregard that made Milton madder than he's ever been before. He's about to blow his top, but first he'll pay a visit to the TPS Report Zone... Celebrate your favorite movie misfit the fun way- with this If They Take My Stapler t-shirt by ShasteenFrey, it's the best way to show Milton you support his search for the missing Swingline stapler! Visit ShasteenFrey's Facebook fan page, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more delightfully geeky designs: KHAAAAN! You Stay I Go I WANT YOU TO HIT ME The Big Tourist View more designs by ShasteenFrey | 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!

Uncle Plays with Baby, Pays the Price Posted: 26 Jun 2016 10:00 PM PDT (Video Link) A parent must always be aware of gravity. You will eventually get baby vomit and poop on your body and possibly even on your face. But you can reduce your vulnerability with proper positioning. Chris Swann, a new uncle, didn't know this when he played with 9-month old baby Alice. She threw up directly into his mouth. It's disgustorable. -via Nothing to Do with Aborath

Lovingly-Detailed Outlander Birthday Cake Posted: 26 Jun 2016 08:00 PM PDT Yan, from Geeks Are Sexy, wanted to surprise his wife for her birthday with a cake that spoke to her interests. She’s a big fan of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander book series, so she got this lovely custom cake made by Josianne St-Laurent from Simplement St-Laurent. It was part of a surprise party and Mrs. Yan was delighted! You can see more of the cake’s intricate details at Geeks Are Sexy.

Japan's <i>Ghostbusters</i>-Inspired Marshmallow Burger Posted: 26 Jun 2016 06:00 PM PDT I ain't afraid of no giant marshmallow -especially if it's served toasted with cookies and raspberry sauce. This messy-but-lovely "burger" monstrosity is available at Japan's J.S. Burger Cafe and is part of their new Ghostbusters-inspired line of snacks. Other strange treats include a black-bunned burger topped with anchovy and olive paste, black chili chips and a green kiwi smoothie with an appearance that might make Slimer cringe. Via Eater

We Recreated The Moon Landing To See If It Really Happened Posted: 26 Jun 2016 04:00 PM PDT Fifty years after Star Trek debuted on TV, Star Trek: Axanar was made by fans to much higher standards. So it only makes sense that everyday people could recreate the moon landing with the latest movie sets and video effects, right? Or maybe it’s not so easy. (YouTube link) Why do people still have doubts that the moon landing really happened? Mostly because it was such an amazing accomplishment. And because the people that populate the internet tend to be too young to remember it. That same internet feeds conspiracy theories about everything being either fake or controlled behind the scenes. The truth is that we had the technology to go to the moon in 1969, but we didn’t have the technology necessary to fake it. -Thanks, Ricky Sans!

The Strongest Sword in the Seven Kingdoms Posted: 26 Jun 2016 02:00 PM PDT Jon Snow’s sword, named Longclaw, is made of Valyrian steel and is five centuries old. It’s a wonder it has lasted this long, considering how it wobbles like rubber under just the pressure of Snow mounting a horse. Last week’s Game of Thrones was the most expensive episode to date, yet this made it into the final production. Well, to be fair, it took a really sharp-eyed imgur user to spot it and isolate it. The season finale of Game of Thrones is tonight.  -via Uproxx

Modern Manga Art By Ilya Kuvshinov Posted: 26 Jun 2016 12:00 PM PDT Manga is no longer a strictly Japanese form of pop art, and the term has come to describe any art drawn in a similar style. The big eyes, diminutive (and sometimes nonexistant) facial features, exaggerated helmet hair and perfectly chiseled head shapes- these are some of the elements we've come to expect from manga. And while Russian artist Ilya Kuvshinov isn't radically changing the genre, or reinventing it in any way, his manga portraits prove he has truly mastered the artform. Ilya's portraits are also just extremely pleasant to stare at, and many feature compelling story elements to draw the viewer into the tale and leave them wanting to know more about each character. See more Modern Manga By Ilya Kuvshinov here

Exploding Spray Paint Cans in Slow-Motion Posted: 26 Jun 2016 10:00 AM PDT Gavin Free and Dan Gruchy, also known as the Slow Mo Guys, explore ways to relieve a spray paint can of its contents other than the normal method. A gun works well. So does an axe and a sledgehammer.   (YouTube link) In the process, they make a much bigger mess than they expected. But that’s par for the course for them. The finished canvas is now on eBay, but you can’t afford it. -via Tastefully Offensive See more videos from the Slow Mo Guys.

What The Sharper Image Catalogs Say About Life In The 1980s Posted: 26 Jun 2016 08:00 AM PDT Back in the 1980s The Sharper Image was the most cutting edge store in the mall with a mail order catalog to match, the place to go when you wanted to impress people with your expensive and totally cool stuff. The Sharper Image sold some of the strangest gadgets, electronics, household goods and furniture the world has ever seen, like this bizarro mannequin named Gregory who “deters crime by his strong, masculine appearance”. Sharper Image shoppers wanted the newest and flashiest exercise machines in their homes, lots of spacey looking antennas on their cars, and a robotic scale that spoke of pounds lost and gained. The Sharper Image family had kids who reflected their wastefully wealthy yet totally modern to the max lifestyle, so walking was strictly forbidden. See What Old Sharper Image Catalogs Tell Us About American Life In The 1980s at mental_floss

The 6 Most Embarrassing Superhero Costume Updates Posted: 26 Jun 2016 06:00 AM PDT Comic book authors are constantly trying to change things up, to keeping long-time readers interested and to give a new generation a way to relate to superheroes who have been around for decades. The backstories change, the characters themselves change, and for visual effects, those iconic costumes get changed. Sometimes the change in costume is too drastic; sometimes it’s just dumb. Like the time Batman died and Commissioner Gordon took on the role, using a huge mecha-suit to give him the strength of a much younger and fitter hero. Yes, for some reason, old Commissioner Gordon thought that the best way to live up to Batman's legacy was to strap himself into a Japanese cartoon labeled with "GCPD" and pass it off as a Batsuit. It had police lights. It had a diaper. And for some reason, Ultra Super Sentai Mecha BatoMan also came with bunny ears. It's like they held a coloring contest and the top 50 children all got to include one stupid idea in the new Batman suit. That didn’t last long. There have been other extreme missteps with superhero costume changes, detailed at Cracked in the colorful language you’ve come to expect.

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