“What happened last night?” — said by every single person reading this at least one time.

Here I am writing about all of this serious financial stuff (credit cards, paying off debt, and freelancing), when in real life I enjoy having a great time.

I’m an odd character. I can go months without drinking. Then I’ll hit Europe and drink every day for a month. I really enjoy making money, challenging myself, and having a blast. This is why I wanted to put together the financial stud’s guide to drinking without going totally broke.

If you don’t want to read this article, I put together a video post just for you…

It’s only fair that I put together something on drinking. We already looked at the economics of dating.

What’s the financial stud’s guide to drinking/partying like a rockstar without getting into debt?

The serious stuff first (I have to say it!).

"Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." — Ernest Hemingway

Getting drunk can be expensive. Having the time of your life with people that you’ll never forget is exciting.

Getting in trouble will screw you over for a long time. Fighting and driving while drunk are the two stupidest things in the world. You deserve everything that happens to you when you do either of these.

I drink to have fun and laugh. I got to the gym to pump and feel good. I take kickboxing classes for the workout and the thrill. I do NOT ever go looking for fights at bars. The problem is that alcohol changes you. The nicest guys can get rowdy after red bull and vodka shots.

Fighting at a bar is plain stupid. What do you think is going to happen? You’re either going to end up in jail or in the hospital. Pick your poison.

One time I was chatting with a young lady. This guy came up to me and started taking gibberish  I tried to brush him off. He tries to swing at me. He misses. Then the air almost knocked him over because he was so drunk. He could barely stand. Finally the bouncer who has been watching this exchange comes to kick the guy out. An hour later I go to thank the bouncer. He informs me that the guy left the club and got into a fight on the street. Good job stud!

Here are my rules for drinking in general:

1. Drink with good people. You’ll laugh and own the night.
2. Hit the gym when you’re pissed off about something. Don’t get drunk and go out. Trouble!
3. If you’re flat broke, use some creativity and leave the credit card at home. Never spend money that you don’t have on booze.
4. Always have a ride home. I better not find out that any of you have even thought about drinking and driving. It’s stupid. Always have a way home (or to the place that you’re crashing at). Keep some extra cash in your pocket for cab fare/the bus. Worst case scenario get on the bus for free and tell the driver you have no money left. They’re usually very understanding.

With the serious stuff out of the way, let’s have some fun.

How do you save money before the night even begins?

"A lady came up to me one day and said ‘Sir! You are drunk’, to which I replied ‘I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly." — Winston Churchill

Plan out where the night will begin, end, and where you’ll be doing the main drinking.

Okay that’s easier said than done. For us, the night usually begins at our place because I live with my cousins and everyone comes over. On vacation, the night begins who knows where.

It’s good to know where you’re crashing for obvious reasons.

Predrink.

Once you’ve decided where the night will begin, this is your predrink spot. I suggest that you guys all pitch in and bring some booze/snacks. This will help you save money later because we all know that prices are way too inflated at bars.

At the pre-location, you’ll also actually get a chance to catch up and joke around because the music won’t be at maximum volume and you won’t be that wasted yet.

Avoid holidays and big events.

Who cares about holidays? Seriously. I don’t need an excuse to get wasted and go out. I suggest that you avoid the big events because these are usually loaded with amateurs who barely go out, long lines, and highly marked-up prices. All things that annoy me.

Take money out in advance.

This is key! Actually these are my rules for spending money at the bar:

1. Never ever rely on your credit card for the bill. You’ll lose track of your spending.
2. Don’t use the bank machine at the bar. Have you seen what they charge?
3. Don’t put the bill on your credit card and then collect the cash from everyone. Bad things happen.

Take out cash for the night. That’s your limit. Nothing else. It’s time to recreate the hangover!

How do you not blow your checking account in one night?

"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria." — Benjamin Franklin

It happens. The drinks are flowing. You get excited. You lose control of your spending. You’re having so much damn fun. You don’t care about anything. You start buying everyone drinks. You get generous. Your checking account is now empty.

Boom, the next day it hits you! You spent your rent and food money on drinks.

How do you avoid this? The only way to financially survive a night out is to bring your spending money with you. Try to leave all of your cards at home. Just keep your ID, your cash, and maybe something else in your pocket.

Never ever rely on willpower when it comes to drinking. You have none. You’re wasted! You’re having too much fun to care about anything. This happens to me all of the time. The other night I broke my own rule. I went out with my debit card because I never went to the bank machine in advance. Guess what happened? I spent a ton of money!

Please, always take out money in advance. That’s your budget for the night.

Oh and there’s one more suggestion…

Go sober. In March I didn’t have one sip of alcohol. I went out sober at least three times a week. I saved tons of money this way. I wouldn’t suggest that you always this, but I would try at least once a week or once every third time you guys go out. It’s a totally different experience. It forces you to man up and not rely on alcohol for you to be able to speak with strangers. The only negative is that you don’t have any excuse for your poor judgment.

What about the next day?

Have you seen The Hangover? I’ve not only seen it but experienced similar mornings dozens of times. You wake up and don’t know where you are. It sucks. Where’s [name withheld] ? What happened to so and so?

The next day can be a huge issue if you’re not ready for it. A hangover is simply a productivity killer. I can barely squeeze out a solid writing session or a workout. It’s not easy though. It’s challenging.

How do you survive the next day? 

I wrote about how getting out of debt is like curing a hangover. This is true. Once you pass the point of no return and drink too much, it’s hard to get back. My best tips to survive the next day are:

1. Drink water all night. Drink even more water before bed.
2. Eat a meal before bed.
3. Take something for headache relief before bed.
4. Don’t mix.
5. Stick to one type of booze.

Are you ready to own the night? Go out and get wasted. Have the time of your life. You only have one chance to be young. Dress like the whole world is watching and dance like nobody is.

Are there any other tips for surviving a night out?

"Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy." — Frank Sinatra

Japanese latte artist Nowtoo Sugi uses syrup to add vibrant colors to his lattes pictures. I'm especially impressed by the detail in his depiction of Iron Man.

At the link, you can see more photos of his lattes as well as two videos showing Mr. Sugi at work.

Link

Superman

French animation designer Andry imagined comic book superheroes in the act of walking their sidekicks to school. Aren't they adorable? Link -via The Mary Sue

©Michael Abrahamson

Michael Abrahamson makes amazing balloon sculptures. Browse his gallery to see startlingly realistic motorcycles, cartoon characters and even a full-sized couch that can support the weight of three adults. My favorite, though, is this xenomorph chilling at a pub.

Link

(YouTube link)

The annual Dance Off with the Star Wars Stars is back as Disney's Hollywood Studios launch their Star Wars Weekends. This year's dances include "Bad," "Fight for Your Right to Party," "Hey Ya," and since this is the first Dance-off since Disney bought Lucasfilm, a special appearance by Jedi Mickey. You can see all the numbers on video at Inside the Magic. Link

Don't Make Me Release The Flying Monkeys Bangle

Face it, some days you feel like a kind and gentle Dorothy and some days you feel like the mean wicked witch. Now you can have an accessory that quietly expresses the darker side of your split personality with the Don't Make Me Release the Flying Monkeys Bangle from the NeatoShop. This beautiful bracelet is hand carved, inked, and polished. It is inscribed with the text "Don't make me release the flying monkeys." The bangle comes with a handsome embroidered gift pouch. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Jewelry and fantastic Wizard Of Oz items. 

Link

Faced with the daunting prospect of having to sit through hours of commencement speeches, Dominique Zamora of Foodbeast came up with the perfect solution: she put a flask in her graduation cap.

Luckily, the process for making this thing is painless enough. Just pop off the top button with a pair of pliers, Velcro in the bladder (I took mine out of the Wine Rack Bra, secure the whole mess with bobby pins and drink up.

Head on over to Foodbeast to see how you can make your own (we're not responsible if you get thrown out of your graduation ceremony, mmkay?): Link

Oh, alcohol. The cause of and solution to all of life's problems.

We already know that cats will steal anything that's not tied down. But what about the rest of the animal kingdom? The tendency to steal food is a beneficial adaptation for a species, and taking what another critter has is not really rare. For example: Flowers produce nectar to attract bees for pollination purposes, but bumblebees take nectar from flowers without pollinating the plants in exchange.

Bees who’ve evolved with short tongues and thus can’t reach for the sweet nectar have learned to carve holes into the side of a flower in order to reach their reward. This phenomenon, first observed by Charles Darwin, gets a bee nectar without the bee pollinating the plant. More cannily, there’s evidence suggesting that bees aren’t born behaving this way—they learn how to thieve from other bees, a sad sign that bee society is being overrun by hoodlums.

Read about seven thieving species at mental_floss. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Joe Penniston)

It's never occurred to me that tea could be a pie flavor, but it has to Sarah Baird, a writer and cook in New Orleans. Her pie filling recipe includes ground cloves, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and the contents of chai tea bags.

Link

(Photo: Sarah Baird)

Image: Igor Kolos/Shutterstock

For the fourteenth year in a row, Jacob is America's most popular baby boy name - but there are new entries in the list as compiled by the U.S. Social Security Administration. Here are the most popular baby names in 2012:

As we mentioned above, Jacob has been champ for 14 years since 1999 ("Michael" held that title from 1959 to 1998). This is the second year Sophia came at number one for girl names. Liam cracked the top 10 for the first time, perhaps because of recent movies starring Liam Neeson.

The US Social Security Administration also released the names that underwent the greatest change in popularity from 2011 to 2012:

From Social Security's press release:

Many pop-culture naming trends appear in a popular feature of Social Security’s baby names website--the “change in popularity” page.  This year’s winners for biggest jump in popularity in the Top 500 are Major and Arya.

The fastest riser on the girls’ list may have been influenced by the popular cable TV series “Game of Thrones.”  Arya is the daughter of a leader of one of the Seven Kingdoms.  She also is an expert sword fighter, so doubt her influence on the popular names list at your own risk.   

For the boys, parents may associate Major with the military title.  Acting Commissioner Colvin added “I have no doubt Major’s rising popularity as a boy’s name is in tribute to the brave members of the U.S. military, and maybe we’ll see more boys named General in the future.”  You also might trace Major’s increase in popularity to a cable TV show.  “Home by Novogratz” is a popular home design show featuring Major Novogratz, the youngest son of designers Robert and Cortney.

The second fastest riser for boys was Gael, and for girls, Perla.  Both names most likely are on the rise due to the increase in the Spanish-speaking population in the United States.  Perla is the Latinized version of Pearl and is popular among Hispanic-Americans.  Gael’s popularity could be tied to Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal.

(YouTube link)

One Minute Galactica made this using the audio from the 1949 educational film You're Driving 90 Horses and creatively-edited video from the 1971 made-for-TV movie Duel, starring Dennis Weaver and directed by 24-year-old Steven Spielberg. -Thanks, Nick!

Got a beard? Then you've got potential ad space to rent! Cornett-IMS, an ad agency in Kentucky, came up the idea. It has already leased billboard space to the restaurant company A&W:

At least, that’s what A&W was thinking when they signed up with a Kentucky-based agency to create “beardboards.” According to Biz Insider, the “half-joke, half genius” scheme involves paying men with beards $5 a day to walk around with a mini ad clipped to their facial hair.

“We’re getting a ton of emails from guys with epic beards that want to host beardboards and we’re actually in talks with some brands that want to be Beardvertisers. I think we’ll probably be seeing some beardboards in the wild before too long,” said agency Cornett-IMS’s Whit Hiler.

Link and Official Website -via Foodbeast

When aspiring rapper Baba Brinkman went to Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, he decided to mix a little rap into his studies in Medieval and Renaissance English Lit. In fact, he recreated Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in rap for his Master's thesis, thus making him the only peer-reviewed rapper in the world.

After graduating in 2003, Brinkman began his career as a rap troubadour and achieved great success with this clip above, The Rap Guide to Evolution.

View more of Brinkman's work over at this neat post by 'xim Sauriol over at Geeks Are Sexy: Link

Luo Gang was five years old when he was kidnapped from his home in Sichuan province, China, and taken to Fujian province. He was adopted by a family 1500 miles away.

“Everyday before I went to bed, I forced myself to re-live the life spent in my old home,” he said. “So I wouldn’t forget.”

But the only memory Luo had of his hometown was of two bridges.

He drew a rough map of his hometown from memory, before posting it on “Bring Lost Babies Home”, a Chinese website devoted to locating missing children through the help of volunteers.

Soon afterwards, a volunteer wrote back with valuable information - a couple from a small town in Sichuan’s Guangan city had lost a son 23 years ago. The time matched Luo’s abduction perfectly.

Luo searched for pictures of the Sichuan town and found they looked familiar to him. To confirm his suspicions, he turned to the satellite version Google Maps. The minute he zoomed in on an area called “Yaojiaba” near the Sichuan town, Luo recognised the two bridges.

“That’s it! That’s my home,” shouted Luo, in tears.

Luo was reunited with his parents soon after. Link -via Fark

Previously:Lost Boy Used Google Earth to Find His Mother

Many tunnels in Sydney, Australia aren't tall enough to permit tractor trailers to move through safely. This animated gif shows a warning system that informs truck drivers when they're about to crash into a tunnel entrance. When sensors detect a vehicle that is too tall, the system pours water across the entrance to the tunnel and projects a stop sign onto that water curtain.

Link

There's no KFC in the Gaza strip, a 140-square mile coastal strip 1.7 million Palestinians call home, but that doesn't mean that you can't get the Colonel's finger lickin' good chicken there.

Where there's a will, there's a way - and by way, we mean smuggling tunnels:

... after Mr. Efrangi brought some KFC back from El Arish for friends last month, he was flooded with requests. A new business was born. [...]

... whenever there is a critical mass of orders — usually 30 — he starts a complicated process of telephone calls, wire transfers and coordination with the Hamas government to get the chicken from there to here.

The other day, after Mr. Efrangi called in 15 orders and wired the payment to the restaurant in El Arish, an Egyptian taxi driver picked up the food. On the other side of the border, meanwhile, Ramzi al-Nabih, a Palestinian cabdriver, arrived at the Hamas checkpoint in Rafah, where the guards recognized him as “the Kentucky guy.”

From the checkpoint, Mr. Nabih, 26, called his Egyptian counterpart and told him which of the scores of tunnels the Hamas official had cleared for the food delivery. He first waited near the shaft of the tunnel, but after a while he was lowered on a lift about 30 feet underground and walked halfway down the 650-foot path to meet two Egyptian boys who were pushing the boxes and buckets of food, wrapped in plastic, on a cart.

Mr. Nabih gave the boys about $16.50, and argued with them for a few minutes over a tip. A half-hour later, the food was loaded into the trunk and on the back seat of his Hyundai taxi, bound for Gaza City.

Fares Akram explains how one smuggles KFC from Egypt into Gaza in this story over at The New York Times: Link (Image: Wissam Nassar for the NY Times)

Sombrero Booze Hat Bottle Stopper

Cinco de mayo may be over, but that doesn't mean the sombrero fun has to end. Now you can dress up your favorite liquid refreshment whenever you want with the Sombrero Booze Hat Bottler Stopper from the NeatoShop. This fantastic bottle stopper is reusable and dishwasher safe.    

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Bottle Stoppers. 

Link

(YouTube link)

Australian magician and comedian Nicholas Johnson invites you to a games party in which he cheats his way through every game. It won't take you long to figure out how it's done, but even afterward there's some weird stuff that will make you scratch your head. Not that scratching your head helps you think better. The title of this video is Can you name all the games and beat the cheat? but I think that is to distract you from the shenanigans going on. The Tetris song is by the group Flap! -via the Presurfer

Teens can sleep through anything. Well, almost anything. While a sleepy Napa, California teen was reaching for her alarm clock she was bitten on the hand by a large boa constrictor. The really strange part, neither she, nor her family, own a boa constrictor.

The teen had crossed paths with a cold-blooded killer: a three-foot long boa constrictor. Somehow the reptile slithered into the Ojeda’s apartment on the 300 block of Collier Boulevard and made itself at home. It was a specimen so large, Ojeda said that Napa County Animal Control was shocked.

“When they saw it, they were like ‘Oh crap it’s big,’ so they went and got a cage for it,” Ojeda said.

Emelyn Ojeda did have to seek medical treatment for the bite, but the incident isn't causing her to lose any sleep. Apparently she is still sleeping just fine. 

KPIX5 has more: Link

When we last saw master bladesmith Tony Swatton, he made a fully functional axe modeled after Gimli's from The Lord of the Rings. Most recently, he created a battle-ready version of the bat'leth, a sword from Star Trek. Qapla'! His tempered steel sword is ready to sever Jem'Hadar heads.

At the link, you can watch a video of Mr. Swatton making the sword. Be sure to watch until the end, which shows his assistants attacking targets with the bat'leth.

Link -via Technabob

An unnamed man in Cork, Ireland, stopped by a McDonalds outlet early Tuesday morning. For some reason, he sat in a high chair designed for infants and toddlers. When he couldn't get out, police were called. They managed to free the man from the high chair, and no charges were filed. However, witnesses, who say alcohol was involved, managed to snap a picture that went viral. A spokesman for McDonalds remarked that anyone using a high chair in their shops should always have adult supervision. Link -via Gawker

(Image credit: Maverickkat)

No, Doctor, I'm not going to lecture you on where to park your TARDIS. You can disregard my advice. But let's make sure that we lock the door when we leave.

-via Nerd Approved

(Photo: unknown)

(YouTube link)

Star Wars: Episiode VII is too important to mess up. J.J. Abrams went on Jimmy Kimmel Live and took suggestions from the audience. Which he would do well to ignore. -via Tastefully Offensive

The Chesapeake blue crab is a symbol of Maryland, so in 1984, Baltimore artist Jackie Leatherbury Douglass made this enormous sculpture of that creature. A Baltimore Sun article from 2000 describes it:

The county, wanting an eye-catching tourism display, commissioned the crab's creation more than 15 years ago, from Shadyside artist Jackie Leatherbury Douglass and her husband, John.

Originally, Jackie Douglass recalls, "they wanted a 30-foot crab, which was just impossible." The three-dimensional, 10-by-7-by-5 1/2 - foot blue crab they settled on took the Douglasses more than 5,500 hours to assemble, with John welding the steel frame and Jackie performing the stained-glass work.

The result was more than just a fitting icon for Anne Arundel County, with 550 miles of heavily crabbed waterfront, and a capital city known as Crabtowne, and a newspaper nicknamed the Crab- wrapper.

Link -via Twisted Sifter

(Photos: Elvert Barnes)

(Photo credit: Wolfgang Sauber)

1. Diego Rivera’s “Man at the Crossroads”

The Moral: Never hire a communist to do a capitalist’s job.

During the Great Depression, Mexican artist Diego Rivera was on a roll. In 1931, he painted a massive mural for San Francisco’s Pacific Stock Exchange. And by 1933, he’d completed two more enormous murals of Ford’s assembly line for the Detroit Institute of Arts. But there was a disconnect in Rivera’s work. Although the artist was a vocal and committed communist, his art was decidedly capitalist. After a few friends pointed out the hypocrisy, Rivera decided to put his paintbrush where his mouth was.

Opportunity knocked in 1932, when the Rockefeller family hired Rivera to create one of his signature paintings in the lobby of the new RCA Building in Rockefeller Center. Their suggested theme for the work was “Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future”—an allusion to the crossroads between industry and technology. Rivera’s final product depicted a crossroads, but hardly in the way the Rockefellers had intended. Instead, the sprawling 63-foot masterpiece illustrated two alternate futures: a communist heaven and a capitalist hell.

Rivera might have gotten away with his political statement if it hadn’t been for one detail—he painted his personal hero, Vladimir Lenin, into the piece. When building managers realized Rivera was filling their lobby with Red propaganda, they ordered him to cease and desist. To preserve the art, the Rockefellers asked Rivera to morph Lenin’s portrait into an unrecognizable worker. But when the artist refused (Rivera offered instead to balance the picture with a portrait of Lincoln), he was paid his full fee, then barred from the site. The mural was immediately covered, and months later, workers were ordered to destroy the piece altogether.

Photograph of the original mural before it was destroyed. (Image credit: Lucienne Bloch)

It wasn’t long before the artist got his revenge. Later that year, Rivera re-created the piece for the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Only this time, he added a portrait to the capitalist side; it was of Nelson Rockefeller, holding a martini glass, under a swarm of syphilitic bacteria.

2. Robert Arneson’s “Portrait of George”

The Moral: If you’re going to put the Mayor on a pedestal, don’t build that pedestal with Twinkies.

In 1978, after mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated, the city of San Francisco wanted to commemorate its fallen leaders. Officials set about building a new convention center in Moscone’s honor, and held a competition for a proper memorial sculpture to be displayed in the lobby. Artist Robert Arneson quickly won over the selection committee with his proposal for a grinning, oversize bust of the slain mayor.

But when the sculpture was unveiled in 1981, it was met with gasps of horror. The audience wasn’t shocked by Moscone’s smiling head, but by its nearly 5-foot-tall pedestal, which was imprinted with five bloody bullet holes and graffiti that read “BANG BANG BANG” and “HARVEY MILK TOO.” Arneson even included an image of a revolver and a Twinkie—a reference to the assassin, Dan White, who’d tried to exonerate himself in court by arguing that junk food binges were to blame for his violent mood swings.

Arneson claimed he was trying to portray the totality of the crime, but San Franciscans wouldn’t have it. Mayor Moscone’s successor, Dianne Feinstein, denounced the work, and the city demanded its money back. 

A handful of people did appreciate the sculpture, though. A private collector purchased the piece immediately, and in 1997, “Portrait of George” resold for $155,000. Today, even Feinstein agrees the work would be “appropriate for a museum.” Just don’t count on it showing up in the Moscone Center lobby anytime soon.

3. Horatio Greenough’s “George Washington”

(Photo credit: Wknight94)

The Moral: Founding Fathers look less distinguished in the nude.

In 1832, Congress commissioned a giant sculpture of George Washington for the 100th anniversary of the President’s birth. They tapped artist Horatio Greenough for the job, and he seemed like a perfect fit. Not only did the Boston native come with a great reputation, but he’d also trained in Rome with the best European artists. Considering Greenough’s background, Congress assumed that his work might be classically influenced. What they didn’t expect was to see the Founding Father on a pedestal, naked as the day he was born.

To be fair, Horatio Greenough had good intentions. Inspired by ancient depictions of Greek gods, the artist wanted to portray America’s first president with the strength of Zeus, bestowing power on the people. But when Greenough unveiled his work in the Capitol rotunda, the audience didn’t get it. Instead of greeting the statue with thunderous applause, onlookers simply gawked and snickered at the half-naked George Washington. Wrapped loosely in a toga, the president looked out of character with his nipples and belly button exposed. Worse still, Washington’s arm was extended outward in a grand gesture, and many in the crowd joked that the embarrassed president was trying to reach for his clothes.

Congress was outraged. They tried to relocate the piece, eventually sticking it on the east lawn of the Capitol. By 1908, however, politicians had acquired a sense of humor about the sculpture, and the statue was moved to the Smithsonian. Today, it can be seen in all its naked splendor at the National Museum of American History.

4. David Černý's “Entropa”

(Photo credit: Flickr user Cea.)

The Moral: Not everyone appreciates racist, nationalist humor.

On January 1, 2009, the Czech Republic took over the revolving presidency of the European Union, and to commemorate the event, the government turned to Czech artist David Černý. For his piece, Černý proposed working with 26 other artists, one from each EU member nation, to create a grand monument. But when “Entropa” was unveiled on January 12, the international community was scandalized. Rather than celebrating Europe, “Entropa” mocked each and every country.

“Entropa” is a huge map in which each nation is represented as a stereotype. Some are silly; others are blatantly offensive. Romania is depicted as a Dracula theme park; Germany is a network of motorways that resembles a swastika; Sweden is a large, IKEA-style box; Bulgaria is a collection of squat toilets. 

Upon seeing the work, the Bulgarian government immediately issued a formal complaint. The controversy grew when newspapers noticed that Černý's “team” of international artists was nowhere to be found. Černý soon admitted that they didn’t exist; his only collaborators were his two assistants. Outraged, Czech officials accused him of misappropriating state funds, but Černý insisted that he’d always intended to return the money. Three days later, when the work was ceremonially presented to the public, Černý formally apologized to the Czech government. He said his intention was “to see if Europe is able to laugh at itself.” Apparently, it can’t.

_______________________

The article above, written by Elizabeth Lunday, is reprinted with permission from the July-August 2010 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!

You've already enjoyed normal, healthy tacos. Now it's time to enjoy a heavy dessert. Christi Johnstone lightly baked chocolate shells and draped them over kitchen spoons to harden. Then she filled them with ice cream, chocolate sauce, M&Ms and sprinkles.

Link -via That's Nerdalicious!

Sara Rosso loves Nutella. In fact, she loved it so much that seven years ago, the hazelnut chocolate spread superfan founded World Nutella Day, a celebration of all things Nutella.

Over the years, the event grew from a few food bloggers posting recipes to thousands of participants Tweeting, pinning recipes on Pinterest, making songs, poems, and short films.

It's not surprising, because, as you know, yummy Nutella goes with everything. Well, almost everything. There's one thing that doesn't mix well with Nutella and its fans: lawyers.

Sara Rosso wrote on World Nutella Day's website:

On May 25, 2013, I’ll be darkening the World Nutella Day site, nutelladay.com, and all social media presence (Facebook, Twitter), in compliance with a cease-and-desist I received from lawyers representing Ferrero, SpA (makers of Nutella).

Seven years after the first World Nutella Day in 2007, I never thought the idea of dedicating a day to come together for the love of a certain hazelnut spread would be embraced by so many people! I’ve seen the event grow from a few hundred food bloggers posting recipes to thousands of people Tweeting about it, pinning recipes on Pinterest, and posting their own contributions on Facebook! There have been songs sung about it, short films created for it, poems written for it, recipes tested for it, and photos taken for it.

The cease-and-desist letter was a bit of a surprise and a disappointment, as over the years I’ve had contact and positive experiences with several employees of Ferrero, SpA., and with their public relations and brand strategy consultants, and I’ve always tried to collaborate and work together in the spirit and goodwill of a fan-run celebration of a spread I (to this day) still eat.

I have hope that this is not a goodbye to World Nutella Day forever, for the fans’ sake, and hopefully it will live on in one form or another in the future.

Nutella dissing its fans? Now that's just plain nuts: Link

Wild animals are not your friends. They would be quite content to kill and even eat you. How will you survive? Liam Gooley illustrated helpful guides that show you how to keep safe if you meet dangerous creatures, such as elephants, scorpions and aliens. You can read all of these guides at the link.

Link -via Pleated Jeans | Liam Gooley's Website

Photo: Miaow Miaow/Wikimedia

Love may just be a subway ride away. Ropid, Parague's public transport company, is planning to provide singles-only train cars:

The project's planners hope the single-only carriages will provide people with a rare opportunity to meet and form a relationship in an increasingly frantic world dominated by work.

"In the metro you can already read and learn, so why not find a partner?" said Filip Drapal, spokesman for Ropid, Prague's transport company. "We want to make life more pleasant. People today have no time to meet.

"We do not know yet whether the dating car will be the last carriage on each train and whether it will work day a week or one an hour," he added.
"We need to do some fine tuning."

Aneta Rehkova, spokeswoman for the metro system, said they were conducting surveys to find out what age groups would be interested in the special carriages and what times would be best to run them.

Link

(Video Link)

In 2010, doctors diagnosed Jen with a rare type of bone cancer. As part of her thankfully successful recovery, part of Jen's pelvis was surgically removed. Now she can bend her left leg much farther than ever before. In this video, she asks TV show host Ellen DeGeneres to let her show off this ability on television.

-via Yababoon

Tulsa, Oklahoma, is not the largest city around. It's not even the largest city in Oklahoma. But they are thinking about putting in a bid to host the 2024 Olympics.   

"I see this as a great opportunity, I really do,” said Tulsa’s mayor, who probably has a name like Dewey Bartlett. Oh. His name really is Dewey Bartlett. Anyway: "If we come off looking a little lighthearted on it, so much the better, but we are serious about putting our name out there."

Although Tulsa has almost 400,000 people, the Olympic Committee might consider it a small town. ESPN Playbook had a little fun with the idea, and made a template for small-town Olympic bids. All you have to do is fill in the name of your town. A sample:

Gym Sports Venue: High School Gym and the YMCA

Basketball, volleyball, wrestling, badminton, whatever handball is, gymnastics -- we can host them all. The main gym floors at our high school and our town’s YMCA have lines for basketball and volleyball. There is also a full-sized basketball court at the middle school, but the floor is pretty old and it is slippery even if it’s just been swept.

If these venues are not enough to accommodate all the gym sports, the badminton competition can be moved to any number of backyards in our town. Gymnastics have not been part of our gym curriculum since the late '80s -- again thanks to insurance issues. (People will sue you nowadays if their kid gets hurt falling off a pommel horse.) However, we probably have most of our gymnastics equipment still in some equipment closet somewhere.

The rest covers aquatic, equestrian, and other sports venues, athlete housing, transportation, and production for the opening and closing ceremonies. Link -via mental_floss

The Doctor, Amy Pond. and The Daleks Doctor Who Seatbelt Belt

Attention Doctor Who fans! Are you looking for an out world accessory worthy of adventurous Time Lord such as yourself? Behold The Doctor, Amy Pond, and The Daleks Doctor Who Seatbelt Belt from the NeatoShop. This fantastic belt is made of tough nylon webbing and features an authentic seatbelt clasp as the belt buckle. 

Be sure to check the NeatoShop for more great Apparel & Accessories. 

Link

Photos: Henrik Petersson

Add this to the list of amazing cityscape art we've featured on Neatorama before: Still Life by Petter Johansson of PJADAD, made as an advertisement for Atelier Food. Link - via Dezeen

What is J.J. Abrams going to do with Episode VII of Star Wars? Given the success of his rebooting of the Star Trek franchise, these cookies illustrate a likely option. Sarah Trefney made these cookies mashing up the two franchises. Darth Vader is now a Klingon, Princess Leia Uhura works the comm station and Chewbacca is a tribble. You can view more photos of them at the link.

Link -via Between the Pages

(YouTube link)

I put this new Windows 8 advertisement on my own site because, although it's funny, I didn't think it was quite "neat" enough for Neatorama. Then later, I found out something strange about it. No one seems to know what language the actors are speaking!

Native speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean declare that it is not any of those languages.  The first time I listened to them, the ads sounded as though they contained elements of some Wu topolect, a bit like mangled Shanghainese, but I could also definitely hear bits of Mandarin, albeit with unusual tonal contours and slurring.  What was most perplexing of all to me was that, although I was certain that the ads contained Chinese phrases and sentences, every Chinese person to whom I showed them emphatically maintained that they could not understand a single word!  In contrast, several non-native speakers of Mandarin said they could pick out a word of Chinese here and there.

Victor Mair of Language Log asked other people who speak different languages if they recognized the language, but still haven't found anyone who understands it. Link -via Metafilter

We're not in Kansas anymore, Neatoramanauts. We're now in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, which has the world's tallest indoor tornado.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] (via Techeblog) to see it in action:

For an advertisement for Anchor milk, Damon Duncan of New Zealand's creative studio Assembly created a herd of glass cows. Glass cows? Yes, you read that right. Hit play or go to Link [vimeo] to watch:

Here's how it was done:

Look at this: A historic brick temple raised up two stories high on scaffolding. Just imagine the strength and care that went into this feat of engineering! The Provo (Utah) Tabernacle burned in 2010, and although the interior is gone, the brick facade survived. To restore the building, it has been raised up so that a two-floor foundation basement can be built underneath it. Read about the project and see more pictures at Gizmodo. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Brian Hansen)

Brian G. reminds us that no matter where you are in the cycle, you're wrong. Keep running and worrying!

Link -via Joe Carter

It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's ... SKYWHALE! The flying cetacean is a wonderful hot air balloon by sculptor and artist Patricia Piccinini. View more over at the Sky Whale's official website: Link

(YouTube link)

Woe unto the man who comes between Korra and her ice cream cone! That man is Mike Reeves, who finally just gave up. Good move. Korra like potato chips, too. I see a weight problem in the future. -via Laughing Squid

Questioning your existence? Doubting the reality of transcendent meaning? Randy Sarafan has designed a phone for your needs:

The way that it works is that when you pick up the handset, the telephone makes a call using a custom cellular module to a list of predefined phone numbers. Whether the phone calls a list of people you know, a list of people you don't know, or randomly dials strangers in your area code, is really up to you. Alternately, the number can be distributed to people with existential emergencies and they can dial in for others to answer.

You can find building instructions and process photos at the link.

Link

Cat Sunglasses

Summer is almost here. Are you a cool cat in need of a new pair of shades? Feast your eyes on the Cat Sunglasses from the NeatoShop. This great pair of party glasses is really the cat's meow. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Eyewear. 

Link

A group of researchers from the CDC sampled water from 161 public and private pools and water parks in Atlanta and found that half of them were contaminated with e. coli, which comes from -you guessed it- poop.

The study, published in the latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, specifically looked at pools in Atlanta, but the researchers say such contamination is likely a widespread problem in U.S. pools, thanks to swimmers not washing themselves off before taking a dip. According to the scientists, each of us carries about 0.14 grams of fecal material into the pool — and that doesn’t include accidents or cases of diarrhea. Among municipal pools, the genetic testing for pathogens detected E. coli in 70% of the filters, while 66% of the water parks contained the bacteria and 49% of pools in private clubs showed evidence of the contamination.

“These findings indicate the need for swimmers to help prevent introduction of pathogens, e.g., taking a pre-swim shower and not swimming when ill with diarrhea, [for] aquatics staff to maintain disinfectant level and pH according to public health standards to inactivate pathogens, and state and local environmental health specialists to enforce such standards,” the authors write in their report.

Because of the way they did the tests, the researchers did not determine whether the bacteria was alive. If pools are properly chlorinated, they should be dead. Atlanta had no reported pool-borne illnesses last summer, when the samples were taken. But just to be sure, try not to swallow pool water. Link  -via Digg

(Image credit: Flickr user Vegas ER)

(vimeo link)

A child's personal project turned into a documentary Yuck: A 4th Grader's Short Documentary About School Lunch. The film is 19 minutes long and has won several film festival awards. The trailers here are just short clips, but you can find a schedule of screenings at the film site.

In the fall of 2011, fourth grader Zachary Maxwell began asking his parents if he could start packing and bringing his own lunch to school.  Unfortunately, they kept insisting that he take advantage of the hot lunch being served at the school.  After all, the online menu sounded delicious and the NYC Department of Education (DOE) website assured parents that the meals were nutritious.  Zachary wanted to convince his parents that the online menu did not accurately represent what was really being served at his school.

In an effort to prove his point, Zachary started sneaking a small HD camera into the lunchroom to show his parents the truth.  Over the next six months, Zachary would continue to gather "inside" footage and research the claims being made by the DOE and the media about the City's public school lunch program.

To the surprise of no one besides his parents, the published menus differed quite a bit from the actual lunches served in schools. To be fair, all the lunches at his elementary school are free, and I've seen much worse. But Zachary Maxwell has a wonderful career ahead of him in filmmaking, journalism, or whatever he decides to do.   

(vimeo link)

The film has a website. Link -via Boing Boing

By the way, Zachary now gets to bring lunch from home. Read more about his experience at the New York Times. Link

Cloning technology may permit scientists to revive extinct species. The writers of Mother Jones contemplated which species they'd like to bring back from the dead. Maddie Oatman proposes the saber-toothed tiger:

The saber-toothed tiger was a compact killing machine, chasing small mammoths, giant sloths, and bison all over North America until about 10,000 years ago when it and many other species mysteriously died out at the end of the last Ice Age. Its genus name, smilodon, comprises the Greek words for "chisel" and "tooth," though the modern lion's bite is probably three times as strong as old smilodon's.

Can we bring it back? About 2,000 saber-toothed fossils have emerged from the La Brea tar pits in Southern California—it's the state fossil—and, being around 10,000 years old, they likely contain recoverable DNA. But so far, no scientists have actually attempted to recreate it.

What species would you like to revive?

Link -via Althouse

Emily Spivack, who runs the Smithsonian blog Threaded, browses eBay for vintage clothing. She found herself especially drawn to clothing items that had stories behind them. Intrigued, she began buying those items with the best stories. It became a hobby.

“I was intrigued by the idea that this marketplace—which was supposed to serve one function, to be transactional—could also have a storytelling emphasis,” Spivack explains. “Interestingly, the time I spent on eBay became much more about looking for stories than things that I actually wanted to purchase.”

Of course, those stories feed right into her blog about historical clothing. Now, Spivak has an exhibition of some of those clothing items (and their stories) called “Sentimental Value” at the  Philadelphia Art Alliance.

Spivack’s favorite stories typically blur the line between historical, personal, and hearsay, like the description of the green silk gown belonging to a seller’s aunt in the 1920s. “Supposedly, her aunt wore the dress to a club one evening,” says Spivack. “She was a blonde, and moved fast, and her boyfriend was involved in the mob. And when they went out that night, someone next to her was shot and killed, and blood splattered on her dress. So they were selling this dress with blood splattered on it. I bid on it, and it’s in the show. To me, that story is absolutely incredible.”

Read about how the clothing items of eBay reached out and grabbed the historian at Collectors Weekly. Link

These cookies would be perfect for a graduation celebration! Beth Jackson Klosterboer molded these mortarboard caps around the undersides of a muffin pan. She stuffed them with M&Ms and made tassels with white modeling chocolate.

Link

Hey, looky up there at the menu bar. Do I see a new sub-blog? Yes! We want to give a big welcome to Twaggies, which is now under the Neatorama umbrella. As a matter of fact, we have the entire archive of Twaggies here with us! In case you're not familiar with Twaggies, they are cartoons illustrating funny Tweets from all kinds of people. And if you find a Twaggie that's particularly funny or meaningful to you, you can get any one of them printed on a t-shirt through the NeatoShop! Or you can look through the most popular Twaggies t-shirts already in the shop. Let's take a look back at other stuff that happened this week, so you can catch up.

John Farrier wrote 8 Ponies and Their Matching Civil War Generals. Bronies will understand, the rest of us can just enjoy it.

Eddie Deezen got to the bottom of a rumor with Did Groucho Really Say That?

Sex in Aladdin: Anatomy of a Rumor was another story about show-biz rumors, from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.

The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Apples and Oranges: A Comparison.

4 Public Works of Art Gone Terribly Wrong came from mental_floss magazine.

Over at NeatoBambino, Tiffany wrote Visiting the Autry and Learning about the American West.

Alex gave us a book feature, The Resurrectionist, which is an excerpt from The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E.B. Hudspeth.

We had a couple of personal posts this week, too. Tiffany wrote Happy Mother's Day about school-made gifts for mothers. Then David Israel gave us How to Introduce Your Child to the Symphony Orchestra. If you like those, we may have more coming.

Over at our sub-blog Lifestyles of the Cute and Cuddly, the featured pets this week were Lucy and Muffin, from Neatoramanaut Jane Lang, and Blaze, submitted by Neatoramanaut Miki Davis. If you have a photogenic pet, we'd like to feature yours, too! Send your pictures to tips@neatorama.com anytime.

We had two Brainteasers from the Bathroom Readers Institute this week: Touch This and Mouthy Abbreviation. I may have to find another source for puzzles, as the supply is getting thin.

The post with most comments this week was Internet is Destroying the Middle Class. In second place, there was a tie between How to Beat the Lines at Walt Disney World
and GeoGuessr. 

The comment of the week was a simple pun from Sham on the Venezuelan toilet paper crisis, but that simple pun was delivered with style:

I guess it's a...
(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
...crappy situation.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH

The most popular post was A Fast Food Purse, followed by Merida Reverts to Original Form and Sex in Aladdin: Anatomy of a Rumor.

The most ♥ed post was by far the graduation speech This is Water. The next most ♥s went to Portland Police Pursuit, and in third place we had a tie between Merida Reverts to Original Form and Curious Kitten and the Bearded Dragons.

The most emailed post was This is Water with Curious Kitten and the Bearded Dragons coming in second.

All of us here at Neatorama want to say a hearty CONGRATULATIONS! to all the 2013 graduates, whether you are graduating from preschool, trade school, boot camp, high school, college, or you're finally getting that PhD. Well done, y'all!

Artist Gris Grimly of Mad Creator Productions lived up to his name when he created the spookiest Mickey you've ever seen. Behold, Mickey the Conjurer, as inspired by the Sorcerer's Apprentice from Fantasia. Via Geektyrant.

In Croatia, unexploded mines dot the landscape and still kill people who find them. But a new animal is being trained to locate them for us: honeybees.

Nikola Kezic, an expert on the behavior of honeybees, sat quietly together with a group of young researchers on a recent day in a large net tent filled with the buzzing insects on a grass field lined with acacia trees. The professor at Zagreb University outlined the idea for the experiment: Bees have a perfect sense of smell that can quickly detect the scent of the explosives. They are being trained to identify their food with the scent of TNT.

“Our basic conclusion is that the bees can clearly detect this target, and we are very satisfied,” said Kezic, who leads a part of a larger multimillion-euro program, called “Tiramisu,” sponsored by the EU to detect land mines on the continent.

Several feeding points were set up on the ground around the tent, but only a few have TNT particles in them. The method of training the bees by authenticating the scent of explosives with the food they eat appears to work: bees gather mainly at the pots containing a sugar solution mixed with TNT, and not the ones that have a different smell.

It may be quite some time before the experiment reaches actual land mines. Training a few bees is completely different from training an entire colony. Link

Svolværgeita, a 490-foot pinnacle of Fløyfjellet mountain in Norway, was first climbed in 1910. You might think that's pretty late, but the summit is a near vertical ascent.

Because of its shape, the top is called the Goat's Horns. Climbers who reach the top sometimes try to leap between the two horns. Would you do it?

Link

(Photo: NFK)

(YouTube link)

This musical interlude was produced from the sounds made in a laboratory during chemistry experiments. There are links to the individual experiments at the YouTube page, in case any of them intrigues you. -via Everlasting Blort

For their project Baguette-Me-Nots, comedians Tim Bierbaum and John Miller asked fellow comedians to pose for photos with baguettes. The results are hilarious. Be sure to browse their Tumblr blog at the link.

Link and Article -via Lustik

This graph makes a lot of sense. You can spot the exact point in which puberty begins. This graph was created in a hurry by redditor rstarr13. The age axis is a little wonky, but in reality, the first ten years of your life take up a lot more brain space than the last several decades. Link -via Pleated Jeans

It's got to be the beard. Or perhaps the stovepipe hat (which may actually be a fake). Or his poetry. Or his vampire-fighting prowess. But there's no argument that Lincoln is hot (much to the consternation of the Lincoln haters), as this Bizarro comic from Dan Piraro illustrated.

Previously on Neatorama: A Few Things You Might Not Have Known About Abraham Lincoln

If you discovered a new species of prehistoric arthropod fossil with scissor-like appendages, what you you name it? Name it Kooteninchela deppi, in honor of the actor who played Edward Scissorhands!

“When I first saw the pair of isolated claws in the fossil records of this species I could not help but think of Edward Scissorhands,” says researcher David Legg, who conducted the research into the fossil as part of his PhD at Imperial College London, in a statement. “Even the genus name, Kootenichela, includes the reference to this film as ‘chela’ is Latin for claws or scissors. In truth, I am also a bit of a Depp fan and so what better way to honour the man than to immortalise him as an ancient creature that once roamed the sea?”

Kooteninchela deppi scoured the sea floor for other animals to eat. It is thought to be an ancestor of modern scorpions, centipedes, and crabs. Link

(Image credit: Imperial College London)

Whales Socks

Are you looking for a fun way to celebrate your favorite marine mammal? You need the Whales Socks from the NeatoShop. This delightful pair of socks with whale motif will go swimmingly with any outfit. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Footwear. 

Link

It's an emergency! Reach for a bottle of the good stuff! Studio Ferre's upcycled fire extinguisher holds a liquor bottle for truly desperate times.

Link -via Recyclart

Machinarium is a beautifully-designed game by Amanita Design (the folks who brought us Samorost). This cake is a faithful reproduction of the robots in the game, with details so fine that it appears the lights are glowing. They're not -that's just the artist's skill with edible paint. This delightful cake was made for a 6-year-old's birthday by Sweet Disposition Cakes in Australia. Link  -via Cake Wrecks 

Pancake artist Nathan Shields polled his Facebook friends, asking them to identify their favorite arthropods. Although my favorite is the spicy Cajun crawfish, I'll admit that the tongue-eating louse has a certain appeal.

Link

In a strange case of nominative determinism, a Worthington, Ohio, doctor was arrested for drunk driving. Elizabeth Unk was arrested after striking a bicyclist with her vehicle.

Unk, 38, is charged with one count of vehicular assault and two counts of driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, drugs or a combination of them.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol determined that Unk's blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

Unk's driver's license has been suspended.

The incident happened last September, and the grand jury returned an indictment against Dr. Unk this week. Link  -via Arbroath

It's the mustache Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.

Whom am I kidding? We all need the Batstache.

Link -via The Mary Sue

(Photo: unknown)

The Chinese have now surpassed Americans and Germans as the world's top international spenders and are becoming one of the most significant global tourism markets. As the throngs of Chinese tourists venture out into the big wide world, the Chinese government has some words of advice for them, " Be polite!" 

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang has called on his nation's tourists to improve their behavior, stressing it was important to project a "good image of Chinese tourists," official state media outlet Xinhua reported. 

The Internet is saddened by this command. Scuffles between Chinese tourists and the locals of the country they are visiting make for wonderful content.

Link 

Photo: We All Have Baggage Luggage Tag from the NeatoShop. 

The Interweb isn't all lolcats and fail memes, in fact it has given us a few new and very interesting words. Tom Chatfield wrote about them in his new book Netymology:

2. Hashtags

In 1920s America, the # sign served as a shorthand for weight in pounds (and they still call it the pound sign). It was first brought to a wider public thanks to its adoption by telephone engineers at Bell Labs in the 1960s as the generic function symbol on their new touch-tone phones – and if you're looking to sound clever, you could call it an "octothorpe", the tongue-in-cheek term coined at Bell to describe it. It's on Twitter, though, that hashtags have really come into their own, serving as a kind of function code for social interaction #ifyoulikethatkindofthing.

8. Meh

There's a special place in my heart for the supremely useful three letters of "meh", which express an almost infinitely flexible contemporary species of indifference. In its basic exclamatory form, it suggests something along the lines of "OK, whatever". As an adjective, it takes on a more ineffable flavour: "it was all very meh". You can even use it as a noun: "I stand by my meh." Apparently first recorded in a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, some theories trace meh back to the disdainful Yiddish term mnyeh. Its ascent towards canonical status, though, embodies a thoroughly digital breed of boredom.

9. Cupertinos

Also known as "auto-correct errors", a Cupertino error occurs when your computer thinks it knows what you're trying to say better than you do. The name comes from an early spell checker program, which knew the word Cupertino - the Californian city where Apple has its headquarters - but not the word "cooperation". All the cooperations in a document might thus be automatically "corrected" into Cupertinos. Courtesy of smartphones, Cupertinos today are a richer field than ever – a personal favourite being my last phone's determination to transform "Facebook" into "ravenous".

Tom has a few more examples over at The Guardian: Link

To celebrate the premier of Star Trek Into Darkness, the artists behind The Joy of Tech assembled their best Star Trek cartoons. At the link, you can find their slideshow hosted by a reasonable facsimile of J.J. Abrams.

Link

So this is what living in M.C. Escher's Relativity feels like! Play the Cardboard Box Assembler flash game by Fernando Ramallo and Miguel Ángel Perez Martínez: Link [Flash game] - via Look At This

(YouTube link)

Is it ballet or morning calisthenics? This juvenile bearded dragon is said to be "waving," which some say is a dragon sign of deference to a superior, but I think this critter's style puts him into the category of "performer." -via Tastefully Offensive

Pixel-8 Necktie

Are you looking for a fashion accessory that supports your geeky lifestyle? you need the Pixel-8 Necktie from the NeatoShop. This fantastic costume necktie looks like it is made from pixels. This makes a winning fashion statement. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Neckties. 

Link

With great flour comes great delectability. To welcome the Big Wow Comicfest in San Jose, California, which starts this Saturday, Psycho Donuts is offering Spider-Man donuts. How do you think a Spider-Man donut should be flavored?

Link

Famed Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet made a beautiful and complex watch for Marie Antoinette. The works were mostly gold, and its value is hard to estimate not only because of its history, but because of its workmanship. But Marie Antoinette never wore the watch that eventually became known as the Queen.  

The watch ultimately took 44 years to complete. In the interim, the French Revolution and the resulting European upheaval led to the death of both the man who likely commissioned the watch and its intended owner. (Marie Antoinette, of course, fell under the guillotine. Seventeen years after her death, an incensed crowd, convinced that von Fersen had conspired to assassinate Sweden’s would-be king, beat him to death in a Stockholm square.) Breguet died in September 1823. His son, a talented horologer in his own right, finished the masterpiece in 1827. It traveled in the coat pockets of a French nobleman and later ended up in the collection of Sir David Lionel Salomons, a British polymath who brought the first car shows to England and patented an idea for buoyant soap. Salomons left his watch collection to his daughter Vera, a globe-trotting nurse who settled in Jerusalem after World War I and later used her father’s money to build the museum—and to house his collection of watches.

What made Breguet’s work so significant was his skill as both a watchmaker and a designer. His creations have pristine faces, delicate hands that end in apple-shaped tips, and movements that appear as complex as a computer circuit. The Queen was at once immensely complicated—it had all the features of a cathedral clock in the space of a pocket watch—and beguilingly elegant. Breguet even made a clear crystal face that allowed the owner to see the movement of the gears underneath.

Skip ahead to 1983, and the watch is stolen from the museum, along with other valuable watches. The investigation led nowhere for 23 years. But then, it gets really interesting again. Read the saga of the watch Wired. Link

By Rodolfo Reyes

To celebrate the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, the art blog Blurppy invited fans to create their own movie posters. You can see the rest of the collection at the link.

Link -via Geek Art

By Matt Needle

By Adam Rabalais

By Erin Gallagher

(YouTube link)

When his favorite song, "Make You Feel My Love" comes on, Rev wakes up and has to sing along with Adele! This dog may not pronounce all the words correctly, but he sure has an emotive voice. -via Viral Viral Videos

Welcome to the Carnival of Personal Finance #410.

There was no carnival last week, so you’re likely to see more submissions today than usual. I must admit that I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the articles. What’s happening guys?

This is the summer plans edition!

I wanted to take a occasion to publicly out line some of my plans for this summer since it’s finally upon us (well, not according to the calendar).

Editor’s Picks…

Enter more races/challenges.

In May I entered a 5k and 10k run, with no experience or training. I just showed up. I wanted to see if I had it in me. It took me 27 minutes to complete the 5k in the heat, and 58 minutes to complete the 10k in the freezing cold the next week.

I want to enter more random challenges and races to see what I’m made of and for the fun. I have a mud run coming up soon. Any other suggestions?

Miss T. from Prairie Eco Thrifter presents How to Simplify Your Life to Make It Better, and says, “We are encouraged to buy this, go there, do that and the result is that many of us are living lives that just don't measure up to what we want. Here are some ideas to help you simplify your life to make it better.”

Big Cajun Man from THE Canadian Personal Finance Blog presents The Seduction of Spending, and says, “Why do we keep spending when we know we cannot afford the things we are buying?”

Lindsey from Cents & Sensibility presents Advertising Tricks: How being afraid is profitable, and says, “This article is more about our spending choices than any of the other categories mentioned above. It talks about how advertisers motivate us to buy their products to feel secure. Also highlights how advertisers learn how to short-circuit our brain’s higher functions so we can’t think clearly when we buy.”

Economy.

Release quality content/try new ideas.

Last week, I released an article with another video in it. I covered how to drink without going broke. I plan on trying out different ideas on here and my other sites over the summer. The warmer temperatures just motivated me to work harder.

Don from My Dollar Plan presents Is There a Student Loan Crisis?, and says, “For the first time ever, the total amount of student loan debt has surpassed the $100 billion mark. Does this mean a crisis is looming?”

Pete from Intelligent Speculator presents 21st Century Retirement Is Not What It Used To Be, and says, “What has changed with retirement.”

Neal Frankle from Wealth Pilgrim presents Should You Buy A Bigger House?, and says, “Even though many people are buying less expensive housing these days, you might be very tempted to buy a bigger house. I can understand that. Interest rates are ridiculously low and real estate prices seem to be just bottoming out. I recently wrote a post explaining that most people are far better off buying real estate rather than renting. I believe that with every cell of my body. If that is true, wouldn't it also be true that owning more real estate (in the form of a larger house) is better than owning less? The argument has merit.”

Darwin from Darwin’s Money presents What's a Stay at Home Mom Worth?, and says, “What is a stay at home mom worth? It’s a tough question to answer and this recent study thinks they have the answer. I beg to differ. Weigh in on how you’d value moms.”

Investing.

Go camping more.

Don’t ask me why but I enjoy camping. I know that we conquered nature, but it’s fun to go back to it. I only went camping once last year and regret not going more often.

Lenny from Best Money Saving Blog presents Top 5 Ways to Make Your Student House a Home, and says, “Cheap and easy ways to make your student home more friendly.”

Investor Junkie from Investor Junkie presents 9 Investment Advantages of Building Your Own Business, and says, “If you're in a higher income occupation, you can make good money from working at a job. But when it comes to making money for investment purposes, it's hard to beat the advantages that come from having your own business.”

PK from Don’t Quit Your Day Job… presents The Curse of Success(ful Investing), and says, “If you’re going to make an attempt to beat the market… don’t do it by emulating mutual funds. Here’s the case for reducing diversification in your quest for alpha.”

Pauline from Reach Financial Independence presents Cattle investment part III: they are all gone, and says, “I invested in livestock and for the past two years have held up to 110 heads of cattle at a time. Now that I just sold my last 56 heads, I go back on the investment and returns.”

Dividend Growth Investor from Dividend Growth Investor presents Why would I not sell dividend stocks even after a 1000% gain?, and says, “In a previous article I wrote on when to sell dividend stocks, many investors were absolutely furious that I would not even think about selling after a stock I own goes up 1000% in value. The reality is that this would depend on the circumstances, but since I am a long-term investor, I expect that at least some of the stocks I purchase today would become tenbaggers over the next 30 years or so.”

Investor Junkie from Investor Junkie presents 3 Ways Investing Is Like Riding a Bicycle, and says, “There are a lot of similarities between investing and riding a bike, and a few lessons you learn that can carry over to investing. Below are three ways investing is like riding a bike.”

Jon from Novel Investor presents The 5 Best Short Term Investments Right Now, and says, “When you invest money for a short term goal, taking extra risk is like playing with fire. The best short term investments preserve your money.”

Peter from Bible Money Matters presents Peer to Peer Lending: Loving Your Neighbor with Your IRA, and says, “Companies like Lending Club and Prosper are wonderful new platforms that connect people who need loans to people with money to lend, and the vast majority of these loans are for people trying to get out of debt.”

Hadley from Epic Finances presents 3 tips for the Beginner Investor, and says, “There really are only 3 rules that you need to follow when investing.”

Eric from Narrow Bridge Finance presents Should I Pay Off My Low Interest Loan?, and says, “I recently refinanced my loan from 4.25% to 2.875% and lowered my loan time from 29 years to 15 years. While my monthly payment went up a bit, I am saving thousands of dollars in interest over the life of the loan. With such a low interest rate, it makes me wonder if I should try to pay off the loan early or invest my extra funds?”

Matt from Budget SNOB presents Banking Tips to Help You Save Money at any Bank-Part 1, and says, “Don’t waste money at your bank. Read on for some great tips.”

Roger Wohlner from The Chicago Financial Planner presents Investing: Even Indexing Takes Work, and says, “The benefits of low-cost index mutual funds and ETFs are all over the news. They were front and center in the recent PBS Frontline Special The Retirement Gamble. Index funds are a great tool for investors of all ages; in many cases these passively managed funds beat the majority of their actively managed peers within the same investment style. However, investing in index funds takes work, especially with the proliferation of new index products that continue to hit the marketplace.”

Michael from Financial Ramblings presents Investing With a Three Fund Portfolio, and says, “Interested in maintaining a bit more control over your money and/or avoiding the fees associated with an investing service or financial professional? Here’s how to get started investing on your own.”

Debt/Credit.

Instant classic nights.

What’s the summer without some classic birthday parties and wild nights?

Philip from PT Money presents What Happens to Your Debt When You Die?, and says, “Handling a loved one’s debt after they die can be tricky. Make sure you know what to expect and that all the necessary preparations are made to keep things easy.”

Catherine Alford from Money Life and More presents What Does It Feel Like To Be Totally Debt Free?, and says, “I am the type of person who really loves having goals and something to look forward to. When I was in the process of paying off my credit card debt, I was so incredibly motivated. It was actually fun to throw money at it every month. I loved seeing the numbers dwindle and eventually go to zero. It was almost like a game, like the ultimate challenge to myself.”

Amy from Money Mishaps presents How to Save Money and Eat Healthy Part 1, and says, “There are affordable healthy foods available.”

Glen Craig from Free From Broke presents What is a Credit Score, and says, “What is a credit score, why it is important, how it is calculated, and some tips to improve your credit score. Your credit score is a crucial financial number to keep track of.

Career.

Make concrete plans for the fall.

My lease expires in September and I hope to have some concrete plans for the fall. Will I travel? Will I look for work? Who knows?

Rob from Dough Roller presents 25 Tips and Resources for New Grads on LinkedIn, and says, “25 tips for recent college graduates to get the most out of LinkedIn.”

Mike from The Financial Blogger presents 5 Little Known Factors That Are Killing Your Business, and says, “Are these factors bringing you down?”

Green Panda from Green Panda Treehouse presents Why You Should Attend a Professional Conference This Year, and says, “Why I go out of my way to attend conferences.”

Money Management.

Amanda from My Dollar Plan presents Financial Moves to Make As Newlyweds, and says, “There are several things you will need to do for a smooth financial transition after your honeymoon so make sure to read this!”

Danielle from Saving Without A Budget presents The Best Ways to Sell Your Stuff, and says, “Spring clean and make some money at the same time.”

Bob from Dwindling Debt presents Choosing the right Bank and Account for You, and says, “There are so many banks. How do you choose the right one?”

SB from One Cent at a Time presents 21 Income Ideas for Senior and Retired Persons, and says, “This is a list of 21 income ideas for retirees. Senior and elderly who do not have enough retirement savings may have to find jobs even during retirement, this is a guide for them. This is a research based article written by searching through internet forums, blogs, news articles and interviewing people I know.”

harry campbell from Your PF Pro presents 5 Ways to Save Money at Amusement Parks: Sea World San Diego, and says, “For some reason, the April showers haven't quite hit San Diego like they normally do and the weather has been fantastic lately. Warm days and a nice breeze are why I love living in Socal and this past weekend I decided it would be a good time to take my sister(age 5) to Sea World. Even though it wasn't too crowded, there was still a ton of people there and I couldn't help but think about how much money everyone was spending.”

Gen Y Finance Journey from Gen Y Finance Journey presents Why is it So Hard to Get Ahead?, and says, “We all know we should be saving money, but why do so many people have such a hard time doing it? This post examines some of the obstacles to saving and provides advice to get around those obstacles”

Miss T. from Prairie Eco Thrifter presents Which Is More Dangerous? Cash or Credit Cards?, and says, “I got in to a debate with my friend last week about whether cash or credit card encourages it's user to spend more money.

My stance is that cash does – definitely! I find that the second cash enters my pocket, it's gone in 60 seconds.”

Ray from Squirrelers presents Easy Steps and Obstacles to Building Wealth, and says, “Building wealth really involves just a few basic steps, and application of simple principles. Yet, it can be very challenging for many people. This post discusses some of the obstacles we should watch out for.”

TTMK from Tie the Money Knot presents Making a Financial Rebound, and says, “Nobody is perfect, and sometimes we make mistakes. Quite often we can rebound from financial mistakes, even though it can be tough. This post shares thoughts on how to help make it easier.”

Andrea Travillian from Take A Smart Step presents Debt Pay off or Retirement Savings: Are You on the Right Track?, and says, “What to do first: pay off debt or save”

Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey from My Personal Finance Journey presents Fedex, UPS, or USPS – Which is the Best Option for Mailing Packages?, and says, “This post discusses some details to the comparison of the three big players in today’s package-shipping market, Fedex, UPS (United Parcel Service), and the USPS (United States Postal Service), in an effort to determine which is the best option and which can get you the most bang for your buck.”

Emily from Evolving Personal Finance presents No Summer Plans Yet, and says, “By this point of the year we normally have some summer trips planned. However, due to the uncertainty surrounding my husband’s graduation date and next job, we don’t want to make plans and can’t justify spending on a vacation at this point.”

Dorethia Conner from The Money Chat presents Cash Advance Loans: It CAN Wait Until Pay Day!, and says, “Payday loans wreak havoc on your personal financial goals and money management. Here are some reasons to rethink before you get a payday loan. ”

Philip from PT Money presents 10 Ways to Meet Minimum Spending Requirements for Credit Card Bonuses, and says, “Do you have a new credit card that requires minimum spending in order to get a great rewards bonus? Here are 10 great ways to meet the requirement without wasting your money.”

Mrs PoP from Planting Our Pennies presents What To Do With A Car Accident Settlement?, and says, “The PoPs recently settled a car accident with the other party and are trying to figure out how best to invest the money to help take care of future health care costs.”

Other.

Oscar from Money is the Root presents 5 Travel Saving Secrets to Get you Through the Winter, and says, “I know you aren’t thinking about winter now, but if you are planning to vacation this winter you must read.”

Sean from One Smart Dollar presents Benefits of Growing A Vegetable Garden, and says, “By properly setting up an maintaining a vegetable garden you can help save money on your grocery bill.”

It’s your turn: what are you summer plans?

Taco Bell's line of taco shells made with Doritos flavors are, of course, awesome. That's why Taco Bell has been able to sell half a billion of them. Not everything in life (e.g. cars, houses, in-laws) comes in delicious Doritos flavors, but tacos do. There's just one problem with Doritos Locos Tacos: they're not the healthiest of foods.

Let's fix that. Inspired by a tweet by Robb Allen, I'll show you how to make these tacos into vegan smoothies.

I made two smoothies, one for each of the two flavors in which Taco Bell offers these culinary delights: nacho cheese and cool ranch. Both flavors used the same smoothie ingredients:

• 1 cup of organic soy milk
• 1 cup of diced pineapple
• 5 large strawberries
• 1/4 cup of frozen blueberries
• 1 whole banana
• 1 teaspoon of Chia seed

Chia seed or salvia hispanica is, yes, the same plant used to make Chia Pets. While it can be used for household decoration, chia seed is also an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acid, protein and fiber. It's a popular ingredient in vegan cuisine.

Is this a vegan dish? Well, let's say that the Taco Bell Doritos Taco Smoothie is veganish. Certainly a majority of the content of each smoothie consists of vegan products.

Your own smoothie ingredients may vary. Although I resorted to frozen blueberries, it's best to use, whenever possible, fresh fruit and entirely organic products. Remember that your goal is to eat healthily.

Okay, let's get started. Wait until your wife isn't home, swear your children to secrecy and then add the smoothie ingredients to a blender.

Next, add the taco and blend.

Pour the smoothie mixture into cups, add garnish and serve. The nacho cheese flavor, I found, nicely complements the soy milk.

Now let's try the cool ranch flavor.

The cool ranch flavor was even better than the nacho cheese! The ingredients seemed to match each other perfectly, as though this is why Doritos had been invented in 1964.

What's next? In order to get a truly fresh smoothie, I should take my blender and the ingredients to a Taco Bell and try to make one on-site.

Readers, what culinary monstrosity should I make next?

Photographer Nolan Conway was impressed by the wide variety of  people who visited his local McDonalds, which led to a photo project called Happy Meals. He's traveled the country, finding interesting people at McDonalds. Of course, you recognize this couple. That's Vance and Nancy Evans of Bakersfield, California. At least that's who they say they are. See more photos from the series at Wired. Link -via Laughing Squid

(YouTube link)

This guy's such a great gymnast, he appears to totally defy gravity! The popular Japanese TV show Masquerade is a talent contest. Look through their YouTube channel and you'll see many such physical illusions. -via Tastefully Offensive

PLEASE Hand Lettered Sticky Notes

Are you looking for a magical notepad that helps you get everything you want? You need the PLEASE Hand Lettered Sticky Notes from the NeatoShop. This polite notepad is inscribed with the magic word right across on the top.

The PLEASE Hand Lettered Sticky Notes pad comes with 100 sheets for your writing pleasure.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Stationery.

Link 

Tintype is an old photographic process that imprints images on sheets of iron. David Emitt Adams used this method to print landscape images of the American Southwest on metal cans. He writes:

For this body of work, I collect discarded cans from the desert floor, some over four decades old, which have earned a deep reddish-brown, rusty patina. This patina is the evidence of light and time, the two main components inherent in the very nature of photography. I use these objects to speak of human involvement with this landscape and create images on their surfaces through a labor-intensive 19th century photographic process known as wet-plate collodion. 

Link -via Junkculture

A truck carrying tons of grapes overturned and spilled on the 210 in the San Gabriel Valley in California. You don't get an opportunity to write a headline like that often. Link-Thanks, Michael Carney!

Respect The Chemistry by Baznet

The soul? There's nothing but chemistry here, and Walter wants YOU to respect the chemistry. You'll find this and many other neat T-shirt designs by Baznet over at his Tumblr. Check it out, then visit his NeatoShop page to buy some cool tees: Link

Your purchase helps support indie artists, as well as Neatorama.

Super Daft Bros	Adventure Cook	Night Watch Bros	Super Doctor Who

View more designs by Baznet | More Funny T-shirts over at the NeatoShop

 If you're a professional artist or T-shirt designer, let's talk! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn handsome royalties per shirt sold, and get your website/FB page featured on the blog to boot!

Artist James Hance mashed up Wizard of Oz and with a bit of Bouguereau to create this fantastic piece: The Adoration of Elphie. Flying monkeys have never looked so cute!

View more Wizard of Oz stuff from the NeatoShop.

(Video Link)

This is no teddy bear! Brad Josephs, a nature guide, left his GoPro camera out where a bear could find it. The bear wasn't able to eat it, but his attempt lets you see the inside of his mouth. Watch the video, then change your underwear.

-via Dave Barry

Cryptids are rarely seen, but when they are, their legends grow and grow with each retelling. That's because cryptids don't exist, except in legends. It's a good thing, too, because the Aloo has a ten-foot wingspan, the Kongamato robs human graves, and the Popobawa sodomizes its victims. Read about ten flying creatures of your nightmares at Environmental Graffiti. Link

(Image credit: Ramon FVelasquez)

Because there's no such thing as too much Nutella, Lisa Douglas invented the Nutella cocktail. First, soften Nutella in a microwave oven and dribble it along the inside of a glass. Then add 1.5 shots of Frangelico liqueur, 1 shot of Godiva chocolate liqueur and 4-5 shots of chocolate milk. Drink immediately and repeat the process as long as necessary.

Link -via Tasteologie

YouTube user Flippycat laughs at your puny attempt at domino. Watch this clip of him knocking down giant dominoes made from 30,000 individual domino bricks: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via FAIL Blog

But, in the Latin alphabet, Jehovah begins with--wait, no, that's not going to help us. And how do I type a tau on this keyboard?

Indiana Jones will never make it past Josh Mecouch's test.

Link -via Nerd Approved

(YouTube link)

AsapSCIENCE gives us a song with all the elements in order, including the recently-added ones. Those go pretty fast, so try to keep up! The tune is "Infernal Gallop" by Jacques Offenbach, which most folks call "the Can Can Song."  -via Blame It On The Voices

Twilight Pendant

The Twilight Pendant from the NeatoShop is a striking necklace. This piece is handcrafted in England and features bats flying around a glistening full moon. Nine Swarovski crystal stars light their way. It makes a wonderful gift for any vampire bat fan.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more unusual Jewelry. 

Link

Forget ball drops and champagnes. Thai people really know how to ring in the new year: with a water fight! During the Songkran festival (the last one was April 13 to 15, 2013), Thai people roamed the street with water buckets and water guns filled with ice cold water to drench friends and foes alike.

Ex-pat Willy Thuan of Phuket 101 has great photos of the festivities, including this one above where the policeman seemed to enjoy being the target, for once:

Everybody will join the Songkran festivities, kids, teens mostly, but also adults and tourists, divided in two camps: the 'Strategically Ambushed' by the road side with plenty of water ammunition, and the 'Mobile Units' in the back of pick up trucks. Shops and supermarket make fortunes selling all kinds of colorful and humongous water guns. But the best weapon remains the good old plastic bowl and a big tank of icy cold water! 

Cops doing traffic and security on the road are always the favourite targets for everyone, but they are used to this and keep a smile all day or even play along. 

Link

Who is the young fan in this 1935 photograph? You might be surprised to see 15-year-old Ray Bradbury. Seems he was quite a fan of movie stars when his family moved to California. Read about it at Dangerous Minds. Link

Last week, NASA astronomers monitoring the Moon saw an explosion larger than anything they've seen before. On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in the Mare Imbrium area at an astounding speed of 56,000 mph. The resulting explosion packed as much energy as 5 tons of TNT and left a crater that could be as wide as 65 feet.

NASA astronomer Bill Cooke said:

"On the night of March 17, NASA and University of Western Ontario all-sky cameras picked up an unusual number of deep-penetrating meteors right here on Earth," he says. "These fireballs were traveling along nearly identical orbits between Earth and the asteroid belt."

This means Earth and the Moon were pelted by meteoroids at about the same time.
“My working hypothesis is that the two events are related, and that this constitutes a short duration cluster of material encountered by the Earth-Moon system," says Cooke.

Why, NeatoShop artist Wirdou has the perfect T-shirt for you to commemorate this event:

The Bodyguard | View more Funny T-shirts over at the NeatoShop

Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut (already known as a very expensive neighborhood) is for sale for $190 million dollars. But if you know how real estate works, you might be able to talk them down a million or so.

Copper Beech Farm spans 50 prized acres that boast roughly a mile of water frontage on the Long Island Sound, thanks in part to two offshore islands included in the offering. The main house, a French-renaissance mansion, boasts 13,519 square feet of living space including 12 bedrooms, seven full baths and two half baths, a wood-paneled library, an ornate dining room with a tracery ceiling and oak columns, a solarium, a wine cellar, a third-floor staff wing, and a three-story, wood-paneled entry foyer. The original kitchen, equipped with a dumb waiter, sits in the basement, originally part of the staff quarters. Fireplaces adorn most rooms in the Victorian manse and sleeping porches, once used during summer months before the advent of air conditioning, extend off of bedrooms.

Oh, there's also several other buildings on the property, two pools and a spa, an orchard, gardens, and a big forest. See more pictures at Forbes. Link -via Digg

(Image credit: David Ogilvy & Associates, Christie's International Real Estate)

You're on the Net reading this, so you're familiar with email spammers who fill your inbox with junk. But have you heard of the song spammer? They infest streaming sites like Spotify. The Echo Nest senior software engineer Aaron Mandel explains the various categories of musical spammers:

The very best type of music spammers — the ones whose music elicits the best mix of hysterical laughter and retributive threats when you play them for friends — are the cloners. These groups record their own versions of popular songs, replicating the originals as closely as possible with whatever time and talent they have. (Spoiler: Often, that’s not very closely.)

These cloned songs are credited to “artists” such as The Hit Crew, Hip Hop’s Finest, #1 Hits Now, DJ New Release — names that could, and often do, pass for compilation titles. They might be named after the very song they’re cloning (“Call Me Maybe,” “Thrift Shop”) or a lyric from it (“Here’s My Number,” “Party Rock Is In The House Tonight”). The name doesn’t matter, so long as it’s close enough to fool people into clicking on the track without thinking twice. [...]

The most amazing one that I’ve found to date is Charts Hits 2013’s clone of Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.” It features a vocalist who makes no attempt to sound like Macklemore, and even so, he’s in way over his head. Clearly, the guy is reading from a lyric sheet. He says “mezzanine” like it rhymes with “nine” and says that he’s draped in a “Leonard mink.” The horn riff is also agonizingly squared off, with every note played at exactly the same volume.

This “Thrift Shop” clone is on  the Spotify playlist of musical spam we mentioned above, but really, it’s way too good to miss, so here’s a YouTube link too.

Read the rest over at Echo Nest: Link - via Nerdcore

Everyone has that one toy, right? You know what I'm talking about: the toy you've had since childhood that you just can't throw away, give away, or sell on eBay. For me, it's the above pictured Cat in the Hat talking doll. Mattel put a couple of these out in the '70s. They were different sizes and had different records in them with different voices that spoke slightly different catchphrases. 

Mine was famous for saying more often than not: "Does your mother know I'm here?" 

In the video below, I pull the string a bunch of times and you can hear all the phrases. And while the turntable speed is clearly off, I don't recall it ever sounding great. Even as a kid this cat always sounded a bit creepy. 

How about you, Neatoramanauts? What's the one toy YOU can't get rid of? Let us know in the comments below...

An unnamed 16-year-old boy was sentenced to a juvenile curfew for conspiracy to commit burglary in Gloucester,  England. He was fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet so his movements could be monitored. But when the security company set up with monitor -over the phone- he had an idea to get around the business of staying in his home.  

The teenager was asked over the phone by an official from G4S to walk around the perimeter of his home so they could map the curfew zone they had to monitor.

But the quick-thinking lad decided to give himself a lot more freedom – by running as fast as he could down the road and back.

His speedy dash meant that the G4S official inadvertently gave him a much bigger area to roam around during his curfew hours.

Normally a criminal who is electronically tagged has to stay indoors or in the immediate garden area of his home during curfew hours.

The 16 year-old's ploy meant he could still venture down the road without triggering the tag.

The scheme was only uncovered about five weeks later, when the delinquent's landlady reported him not in the home. The security company had not received any alarms from the anklet bracelet, so they investigated and found out what he'd done to increase his restricted area. Link -via Geekosystem

(Image credit: Rex Features)

The train might move in a different direction each time you look at it. Stare long enough and you can make the train change directions. There is no correct answer, because this .gif is only four frames long; the optical illusion is in your brain. However, there is that one guy who recognized the subway station and just knew which direction the train comes there. -via Geeks Are Sexy

An animal control officer in Anderson, South Carolina, responded to a call about a barking dog. When Michelle Smith went to investigate, she found a tiny Shih Tzu mix barking in a ravine. Smith climbed down the embankment, which she says the dog could have easily climbed out of herself, and found out why the dog was there. She was nursing a tiny kitten!

"I didn’t know what to think," she said. "I was shocked and surprised and then of course, awww."

The dog and kitten received the same reaction when Smith took them to the animal shelter. Volunteers marveled at the way the dog, which is at least 5 years old, looks out for the 5-week-old kitten.

Jessica Cwynar, director of the shelter, says such behavior is natural for mammals.

"It would be like one of us seeing a neglected or abandoned child and taking it under our wing," she said.

Neither the dog nor the kitten has a known name, so shelter volunteers call them "Girl."

Cwynar said the 5-year-old dog likely started producing milk because of a surge of hormones when she found the kitten. The dog is obviously a pet, and the shelter is hoping the owner will come forward and take the kitten, too. Link -via Arbroath, where you can see a video.  

(YouTube link)

Zero to 60 in three seconds! The "features" of a cheetah are presented in this video in the manner of new model of sports car. Everything that makes a cheetah different from other cats is about the acceleration. One fact that floored me: one stride of a cheetah can be 25 feet long. Imagine tracking a cat like that -you'd never know which way to look for the next paw print! -via Viral Viral Videos 

Mole Miner Key Ring (sold individually)

Do you have trouble finding that itty bitty key hole on your door? Enlist the help of the adorable Mole Miner Key Ring from the NeatoShop. This little mammal is used to finding his way around in the dark.

The Mole Miner Key Ring features a little mole dressed like a miner. When you press his tail hie miner's helmet light goes on. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Keychain and Key Covers. 

Link

The Ancients made this mysterious device and redditor getoffmypropartay painstakingly reassembled it. There's no Dial Home Device, so we must manually dial an address. To which world should we travel first?

Link

The following is an article from Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader.

(Image credit: Flickr user Ed Schipul)

What would Porter the Wonder Dog have eaten 200 years ago, before there was Alpo or Dog Chow? Here's the history of the multi-billion-dollar dog food industry.

CHOW DOWN

* More than 2,000 years ago, Roman poet and philosopher Marcus Terentius Varro wrote the first farming manual. In it he advised giving farm dogs barley bread soaked in milk, and bones from dead sheep.

* During the Middle Ages, it was common for European royalty to have kennels for their hounds. Kennel cooks would make huge stews, mostly grains and vegetables with some meat or meat byproducts -the hearts, livers, and lungs of various livestock.

* Dogs in common households had meager diets. They were fed only what their owners could spare. A normal domesticated dog's diet consisted of crusts of bread, bare bones, potatoes, cabbage, or whatever else they could scrounge on their own.

* In the 18th century, farm dogs, which had to be fairly healthy to do their jobs, were regularly fed mixes of grains and lard. In cities, you could make a living by searching the streets for dead horses, cutting them up, and selling the meat to wealthy dog owners.

* There were exceptions: The very wealthy, throughout history, have fed their pet dogs fare that was much better than what most humans ate. In the 1800s Empress Tzu Hsi of China was known to feed her Pekingese shark fins, quail breasts, and antelope milk. European nobility fed their dogs roast duck, cakes, candies, and even liquor.

LUXURY FOOD

The in the mid-1800s, the Industrial Revolution created a growing middle class with more luxury and more leisure time, pets began to be regarded as "luxury items" by everyday folk. Result: pet food became more closely scrutinized.

More pets and more money meant a new profession: veterinary medicine. It was officially founded in the United States in 1895, but many self-styled experts were already giving advice on dog diets. Many said that dogs needed to be "civilized," and since wild dogs ate raw meat, domesticated dogs shouldn't. (That advise influenced the pet food industry for decades after.)

In the late 1850s, a young electrician from Cincinnati named James Spratt went to London to sell lightning rods. When his ship arrived, crew members threw the leftover "ship's biscuits" onto the dock, where they were devoured by hordes of waiting dogs. That gave Spratt an idea. "Ship's biscuits," or hard tack, were the standard fare for sailors for centuries. Flour, water, and salt were mixed into a stiff dough, baked, and left to harden and dry. The biscuits were easily stored and had an extremely long shelf life, which was important in the days before refrigeration. And they looked a lot like today's dog biscuits.

Spratt had the idea that he could make cheap, easy-to-serve biscuits and then sell them to the growing number of urban dog owners. His recipe: a baked mixture of wheat, beet root, and vegetables bound together with beef blood. When Spratt's Patent Meal Fibrine Dog Cakes came on the market in 1860, the pet food industry was born. Spratt's Dog Cakes were a hit in England, so in 1870 he took the business to New York …and began the American pet food industry.

A GROWING TREND

Others followed in Spratt's footsteps:

* In the 1880s, a Boston veterinarian introduced A.C. Daniel's Medicated Dog Bread.

* The F.H. Benner Biscuit Company opened in 1908, making biscuits shaped like bones. Bennet also made the first puppy food, and was the first to package different-sized kibble for different breeds.

* In 1931 the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) bought Bennet's company and renamed the biscuits Milkbones. Then they hired 3,000 salesmen with the specific goal of getting Milkbones into food stores -and the national consciousness. For the first time, dog biscuits became a part of regular grocery shopping.

* In 1922 Chappel Brothers of Rockford, Illinois, introduced Ken-L-Ration, the first canned dog food in the United States. It was horse meat. In 1930 they started sponsoring a popular radio show, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. Ken-L-Ration became such a success that by the mid-30s they were breeding horses just for dog food and slaughtering 50,000 of them a year.

AW, DRY UP

By 1941, canned dog food had a 90% share of the market …until the United States entered World War II and the government started rationing tin and meat. Then dry dog food became popular again.

In 1950 the Ralston Purina Company started using a cooking extruder to make their Chex cereal. Here's how it worked: ingredients were pushed through a tube, cooked under high pressure, and puffed up with air. This allowed Chex to stay crisp when milk was added.

At about the same time, manufacturers were getting complaints about the appearance, texture, and digestibility of dry dog food. Purina's pet food division borrowed an extruder from the cereal division and experimented with it in secret for three years. The result: Purina Dog Chow. Dogs loved it, it digested well, and it quickly became the number one dog food in the nation -and still is today.

NO PEOPLE FOOD FOR YOU

In the early 1950s, Ken-L-Ration made the jump from radio to TV advertising, running commercials on wholesome show like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. ("This dog food uses only USDA, government-inspected horse meat!")

In 1964 the Pet Food Institute, a lobbying group for the now-gigantic pet food industry, began a campaign to get people to stop feeding their dogs anything but packaged dog food. They funded "reports" that appeared in magazines, detailing the benefits of processed dog food, and even produced a radio spot about "the dangers of table scraps."

The dog food industry was spending an incredible $50 million a year on advertising. Commercials centered around the "beef wars," with competing companies all claiming to have the most pure beef. (Bonanza star Lorne Greene did a TV commercial for Alpo …holding a sirloin steak.)

(YouTube link)

In the 1960s and 1970s, factors such as the increased number of breeds and rising crime rates made dog ownership skyrocket. By 1975 there were more than 1,500 dog foods on the market.

Today, more than 1,600 square miles of soybeans, 2,1000 square miles of corn, and 1.7 million tons of meat and poultry products are made into pet food every year. There are more than 65 million dogs in the U.S., and pet food as an $11 billion industry …and growing.

___________________

The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader.

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!

Who doesn’t enjoy a delicious meal? Nobody wants to eat tuna out of a can every single day just to save some money.

I love eating out. I also enjoy preparing food sometimes. It’s weird. I just love to eat and I’m always hungry.

I’ve been working on saving money on food for the longest time. I’m pretty transparent about this. I’ve confessed to you guys that I absolutely suck at saving money when it comes to food. The good news is that every problem can fixed — or at least worked on!

Last year I wrote about how you can stop spending all of your money on food. I’ve been working on it. I’m here to share my results and tips with you guys.

What are my top tips for saving money on food?

1. Always stay hydrated. Most of the time you feel hungry because you’re dehydrated and haven’t been taking care of yourself. I chug a bottle of water as soon as I wake up and I drink water throughout the entire day. Keep yourself hydrated and you won’t be running to grab fast food.
2. Keep snacks on you. I now always keep some snacks on me in case I get hungry while driving or running errands. I keep it simple with a bag of almonds. A handful of these and you’re good to do.
3. Shop on a full stomach. Never go shopping hungry. I did this the other day. What happened? I randomly bought a bag of Doritos and ate it on the way home. Very great for that summer body. Never go shopping when you’re hungry. You’ll come home with such random crap.
4. Buy a ton of groceries. When you have good food at home, you won’t be forced to always eat out. This applies even if you live with your parents. If you fill up your fridge/closets with good food, you won’t always feel stuck at lunch time.
5. Plan your meals out. Once again, you know that you need to eat a few times per day. Why not prepare it? Don’t act surprised when you get hungry at noon. What did you think was going to happen?
6. Freeze meats. I try to buy meat in bulk when it’s on sale and then I freeze it. Simple enough.
7. Set a budget for spending on food. I challenge myself by setting a budget for how much I’m allowed to spend on food. I do my best to stick to it. When I run low, I turn to the cans of tuna for a few days.
8. Buy in bulk. Blueberries were on sale the other day and I loaded up. Buying in bulk can be great for always having food on hand. The obvious issue is that you can get the munchies bad after a night of drinking and eat everything in one shot!
9. Drink black coffee in morning. I start my mornings off with black coffee, tunes on full blast, and blogging. The coffee suppresses my appetite and I get to work. I don’t think about food until after my workout.
10. Consume lots of protein. Protein usually fills you up nicely. It’s well-known that 30 grams of protein in the morning will fill you up nicely for the rest of the day. Maybe you can try this?
11. Try a challenge. Have you tried any challenges recently? The week that I typed this article was my vegan week challenge. I told myself that I would try to be a vegan for only one week. This saved me lots of money because I didn’t go out for random barbecue nights. Nuts and berries mmm.
12. Consider intermittent fasting. I’ve become a huge fan of intermittent fasting recently. The basic concept here is that you have an 8-hour feeding window and then you fast for the other 16-hours (sleep included). It’s difficult at first, but works great after a few weeks. As mentioned above, I start my days off by getting lots of work done (this article) and then eat in the afternoon.
13. Don’t eat when you’re not hungry.
14. Grab a drink if you’re not hungry.
15. Stay at home. When you leave home without a purpose, you’re bound to end up eating something. It’s just the way it works. I’ll go to pick someone up and I grab a burrito on the way there. How the hell does that happen?
16. Go for a workout. We often eat because we’re bored. There’s nothing else to do so we open up a bag of chips. I’ve tried to go for a walk or a workout instead. After a few minutes the supposed hunger goes away and you’re feeling great. Oh and you save money!

See, it’s totally possible to save money on food.

How can you start off with this?

You obviously can’t apply all 16 tips at once. So how do you start?

Pick one of them and stick to it. When that works or even if it fails, move on to the next tip. That’s all I can say. Those are 16 tips that have worked for me. Hopefully they work for you.

You ready to start saving money on food? Take it from me, you’re never going to be perfect at it. Don’t feel too guilty if you splurge once in a while.

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.

An analysis of the world’s rarest and most expensive coffee
by Massimo F. Marcone, Ph.D., C.Chem., Chimiste (PQ) Adjunct Professor, Department of Food Science University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

[EDITOR’SNOTE: Kopi Luwak (sometimes spelled Kopi Luak) is a rare and prized variety of coffee. It was the subject of the 1995 Ig Nobel Prize in the field of Nutrition. Professor Marcone’s work, described here, advances our understanding of Kopi Luwak. Title image by Praveenp.]

No coffee is perhaps in shorter supply and has a more distinct flavor and history than “Kopi Luwak” from Indonesia. With an annual production of less than 500 pounds and a price tag of 500-600 dollars (Canadian) per pound, it commands the undisputed reputation of being the rarest and most expensive coffee in the world. This is indeed a unique coffee, as it is processed through the digestive system of a palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). This three-to-ten pound arboreal animal uses its keen sense of eyesight during the night to smell and seek out only the ripest reddish coffee cherries to eat. The coffee cherry fruit is completely digested by the civet, whereas the actual coffee beans are excreted in their feces, being deposited in civetries. These are ultimately collected and washed by local coffee collectors. The internal fermentation and action by different digestive enzymes add a unique flavor to the beans. This flavor has been described as earthy, musty, syrupy, smooth, and rich with both jungle and chocolate undertones.

The author displays some coffee beans.

Curiously, Kopi Luwak is not the first nor the only food that-- prior to human consumption-- makes a passage through the entire, or partial, digestive tract of an animal.

In fact humanity’s oldest known sweetener, honey, is produced in part from nectar that bees have swallowed, transported,and regurgitated.

Bird’s-nest soup is another such food. Often referred to as the “Caviar from the East,” it is produced from the saliva of a swiftlet (a small bird native to Southeast Asia). Bird’s-nest soup is consumed in many parts of the world, with the United States being one of the biggest importers.

Yet another is Argan oil from Morocco, which is produced from the nuts eaten by goats that have climbed into acacia-like trees during their herding. The locals remove the pits from the feces, and grind these carefully harvested nuts to extract their oil. This unusual and expensive oil is used in cooking and also in massaging. It is reputed to be an aphrodisiac.

(Image credit: Flickr user michele molinari)

Recently, I published a study entitled “Composition and Properties of Indonesian Palm Civet Coffee (Kopi Luwak) and Ethiopian CivetCoffee.” (The study appears in the journal Food Research International, vol. 37, no. 9, 2004, pp. 901-12.) It describes an exploration in Eastern Africa-- specifically, Ethiopia-- which ultimately culminated in my finding a new potential source and type of Kopi Luwak. This particular African coffee has properties similar, but not identical, to those of the prized Kopi Luwak from Indonesia.

The paper also documents a series of newly developed analytical methods that can be used to determine the authenticity of this coffee, both for coffee beans that are green and for those that have been roasted.

Armed with these analytical methods, I tested a series of coffees purporting to be authentic Kopi Luwak (obtained in the United States and directly from Indonesia). The results of the preliminary test show that 41% of coffees tested either were not Kopi Luwak or were adulterated with other non-Kopi Luwak type coffee beans. My study, even though it is not extensive, is a first indication that further monitoring maybe need to protect individuals throughout the supply chain. Such monitoring is especially needed to protect the consumer who wishes to count him or herself among the elite few who have consumed the rarest and most expensive beverage in the world.

The author and an Ethiopian coffee plant.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the September-October 2005 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

In the Star Trek canon, the United Federation of Planets was formed in San Francisco, California. Starfleet maintains its headquarters there. Starfleet Academy lies within sight of the bay. Much of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home takes place in that city. More than any other city, San Francisco is the center of the Star Trek universe.

Why San Francisco as opposed to, say, Lubbock? Or Dallas, Brownsville, San Antonio, Longview or other excellent options? Ted Trautman of Wired examined why that city was important to Gene Roddenberry and a symbol of Star Trek. San Francisco was a Navy town, a site of technological innovation and a diverse, international city. Trautman writes:

Plenty of science fiction is city-specific: it’s impossible to imagine RoboCop anywhere but Detroit, or Blade Runner outside of Los Angeles. What sets Star Trek apart is the attention it pays to one little city, barely seven miles across, when the other points on its journey are not cities or countries, but planets and star systems. Many of Star Trek’s struggles take place not long ago in a galaxy far, far away, but in a city we have already built, just a couple centuries down the road. And it’s a city whose culture of curiosity, craftsmanship and tolerance have left an indelible mark on one of the world’s most successful sci-fi franchises.

What other cities on Earth do you think would represent Star Trek well?

Link

(Image: CBS)

Photo: Francisco Mignorance

Francisco Mingorance snapped this photo of a fennec fox walking against the wind in the Sahara Desert in Morocco, and submitted it to the 2013 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest. Link - via In Focus

Movie posters are pretty important to the overall success of a film. They go through different drafts of different visions before the final product is released. What didn't make the cut gives us a glimpse into the creative process. In this collection at Flavorwire, you will see that changing and refining the initial concept is usually a good idea. Link

Oliver Burton, 10, is fighting a form of bone cancer. He wanted to have tea with Queen Elizabeth II. Unfortunately, she was not available. But Helen Mirren, the actress who portrayed the Queen in a 2006 biopic and in an ongoing stage production, was. Tara Brady of The Daily Mail writes about Dame Mirren's in-character meeting with Oliver:

Catherine and father James were so delighted that their son actually thought the actress was the real Queen.

His father James Browne said: 'She stayed in character for the whole thing. Oliver thought she was the real Queen, and well, that's good enough for us.

'She was really lovely. She did the whole thing - had a butler there, was dressed in costume and did it all properly for him.

'She sat in Oliver's wheelchair and gave him her big chair. She had a glass of coke together and biscuits and little sandwiches and they even brought in her corgis from the show, Coco and Roco.

'She was wonderful and in some of the photos you do a double take because she really does look like the real Queen.

'She knighted him and told everyone that they had to call him Sir Oliver. He had a brilliant day.

He took his British flag and got her to sign it and just waved and waved it all day.'

At the link, you can see photos of their meeting.

Link -via The Mary Sue

(Image: Panthé Pictures)

To infinity, and beyond real life ... Dan Luvisi reimagined Buzz Lightyear as a real character in his series Popped Culture. Buzz looks like he belonged in Gears of War! Link - via The Fox is Black

Imagine that you bake so many pies that you need a special tool for crimping the top and bottom crust together -one that makes different patterns to keep things interesting. Then imagine that yours was custom-carved from whalebone or walrus tusk by someone who loves you. The New Bedford Whaling Museum has many, many scrimshaw pie crimpers.

The exhibit attributes this functional extravagance to many hours of boredom at sea, but also to the American diet in the nineteenth century. A typical New England meal of the era would involve not just pie, but pies, in both savoury and sweet form. Armed with a crimping multi-tool, a lucky whaler’s spouse or mother need never fear a moment’s confusion differentiating between her cherry and chicken pies.

Read more about these intricately-carved tools at Edible Geography. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

(Image credit: Nicola Twilley)

Mummy Plush

Sometimes you just need a hug from your mummy. For those tough days there is the Mummy Plush from the NeatoShop. This cuddly monster movie plush is shaped like The Mummy. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Plush Toys. 

Link

All you need is toothpicks, a sharp knife and a steady hand. In a few minutes, you'll have a healthy food item that still won't fool your kids one bit.

-via Obvious Winner

(Photo: unknown)

You hear stories about waiters being stiffed, which is inevitably followed by a storm in the comments about the entire system of tipping. But how about some really good tipping stories? Every so often, a very generous diner surprises the server with the tip of a lifetime.

Rhode Islander Kristen Ruggiero is a single mom of three who has had a tough time making ends meet by working the restaurant job she’s held for the last 15 years. One day last year, a couple came in and ordered a pizza, a salad and a pitcher of beer only to settle their $42 bill by leaving $500 on the table. At first, the waitress thought they made a mistake and accidentally left the five hundreds thinking they were ten dollar bills. So Kristen set the money aside until the pair returned to the restaurant and tried to return it to them. That’s when they assured her that the $458 tip was no mistake. "He said no it was absolutely not a mistake, you deserved it," Kristen said.

But that's far from the biggest tip in this roundup of stories at mental_floss. Link

DeviantART member Fox Blue made this sporty hat from an old toaster. It's probably hot in the summer, but handy for those frequent toast emergencies. He writes "it's a lot lighter then I thought it would be." The should be a dial for adjusting that.

Link

Polish photographer Joanna Jaskólska kicked it old school by combining breakdancing (or b-boying, if you're a purist) with light painting. Now that's what I call a powermove! Check out more over at her website: Link - via Khool

(YouTube link)

A juvenile fox takes advantage of a golf ball coming his way. This hazard wasn't explained back at the club house. Still, watching him play was probably more fun than the game. -via Daily of the Day

Image: Discovod/Shutterstock

So what are you waiting for? Eat up! The National Confectioners Association, a trade group representing candy manufacturers, have scientifically proven that eating candies is totally not bad for you and even won't make you fat:

Some findings from the study:

1.) "Frequency of candy consumption was not associated with the risk of obesity, overweight/obesity, elevated waist circumference, elevated skinfold thickness, blood pressure, low density lipoprotein (LDL) or high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, or insulin resistance."

2.) "Increased frequency of candy consumption among adults in the United States was not associated with objective measures of adiposity or select cardiovascular risk factors, despite associated dietary differences."

Sounds legit! Break out the M&Ms! Colin Lecher of PopSci explains: Link

Ben's engagement ring is awesome not only because it lights up, but because it lights up when he and his girlfriend hold hands:

Putting a battery of capacitor inside a ring is nigh impossible, so [Ben] decided to power the LEDs with an inductive charging circuit. A coil of wire wound around kapton tape serves as the inductor and a small SMD capacitor powers three very bright and very tiny LEDs.

The inductive charging unit itself is a masterpiece of hackery; [Ben] wanted the ring to light up whenever he and his ladyfriend were holding hands. To do this, [Ben]‘s inductive charger is also a wearable device: a large coil of wire is the charger’s transformer and was would to fit around [Ben]‘s wrist. The entire charging circuit can be easily hidden under a jacket sleeve, making for a nearly magical light-up ring.

You can watch a video of the ring at the link.

Link

My Spidey sense is tingling! The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield got a little bit of help from multiple Spider-Men (one even wore stylish sweatpants!) at the set of the latest series in the movie franchise. But don't worry - nobody cloned Spidey, those are just stunt doubles.

From The Daily Mail:

Andrew and his stunt doubles made it a triple threat as they were seen hanging around set on Sunday while they went through the motions and rehearsed some sequences in New York City.

Garfield, 29, was enjoying taking a break from his day job as filming was halted due to heavy rainfall.

With the wet ground making stunt work too dangerous the three red and blue suited men decided to get extra practice in as they ran around a large parked truck.

All three of them had loose fitting jogging bottoms on as they tried to keep warm in the damp weather while Paul Giamatti sat nice and dry inside the truck.

Paul always got the best gig. Now, next question: will this movie be another Spider-Man reboot? (I mean, geez, man - how many times can you reboot Spider-Man? He got bit by a radioactive spider and got superpowers, we got it already, Sony!)

View more over at The Daily Mail: Link - via Geektyrant and ComicBookMovie

Quick -how many nuclear accidents can you name? Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima …any more? There have been quite a few nuclear accidents of varying danger that you probably never heard of, including some fatal incidents. For example, in 1957, nuclear waste exploded at a reactor near the Soviet town of Ozyorsk.

One of the storage tanks contained around 70 to 80 tons of radioactive liquid waste, and its cooling mechanism stopped working and wasn’t fixed. The tank’s contents, made up mostly of ammonium nitrate and acetates, began to dry out as the liquid heated up and evaporated. Moreover, the temperature increase caused an explosion whose force was equivalent to 70 to 100 tons of TNT, and this sent huge amounts of radioactivity – roughly 20 MCi (800 PBq) – into the environment. The fallout cloud from the explosion contaminated an area of up to 7,722 square miles (20,000 square kilometers).

Over a period of nearly two years, about 10,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area. In terms of fatalities, the exact cost of the incident is not known, but immediately around the site of the explosion there were 66 diagnosed cases of chronic radiation syndrome.

Read more about the Ozyorsk incident and nine others in a list at Tech Graffiti. Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: Ecodefense, Heinrich Boell Stiftung Russia, Alla Slapovskaya, Alisa Nikulina)

Redditor Fidget08 snapped this photo of a tree with its bark blown off after it was hit by a lightning. Now who's gonna carve a baseball bat out of it? Via Laughing Squid

Chipmunk and Acorn Salt & Pepper Shakers

Are you nuts about cute salt and pepper shakers shaped like small furry rodents? Well, you are going to really love the Chipmunk and Acorn Salt and Pepper Shaker from the NeatoShop. This sweet set features an adorable chipmunk holding an acorn. The shakers are held together by love and magnets. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Salt & Pepper Shakers.

Link 

In defense of item #3, I would like to point out that the bathtub is the only place in the apartment long enough for an average sized adult to stretch out. No extra charge for the pillow.

Link

Gandalf and Saruman Salt & Pepper Shakers

You shall not pass ... the salt in any boring ol' salt and pepper shakers! Check out the NeatoShop's new arrival of Lord of the Rings Salt & Pepper Shakers. Perfect for breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper.

Gollum & Samwise - Salt & Pepper Shakers

Frodo Kiss - Salt & Pepper Shakers

Aragon & Arwen - Salt & Pepper Shakers

Lord of the Rings Horseback - Salt & Pepper Shakers

View all Lord of the Rings Salt and Pepper Shakers | More LOTR items from the NeatoShop

(YouTube link)

At first I thought this might be a sequel to the 2008 video Death Star Over San Francisco, but it's not. and it is, directed by Mike Horn. In this alternate reality, Earth is part of the Galactic Empire, but it's still okay to use the fake "amateur shaky cam" effect. And then the Enterprise shows up from the future to grab some more whales.  -via Buzzfeed

Georgina Hirst, a veterinarian, spotted these two friends in the Black Mountains of Wales:

"The lamb was obviously hungry and it's quite amazing that it learnt to suckle from the mare. It might have just copied the foal."

The vet, from Hay on the Wye, Powys, added: "Trying to get mares to adopt foals can be very challenging so it's incredible the mare was so receptive of the lamb.

"She would even stand guard while the foal and the lamb slept cuddled together." 

Link

(Photo: BNPS)

Congratulations! And welcome to the adult world of debt. Remember: A Lannister always pays his debts, even if it might takes a long time. Link -via Blame It On The Voices

How to get a woman mad in two easy steps: 1. Take a picture of her. 2. Don't show it to her.

— JD (@JohnDuffy21) April 24, 2013

~Illustrated by: Stefan Hey~

Get this on a T-shirt over at the Twaggies Shop: How to Get a Women Mad in Two Easy Steps

(YouTube link)

A David Attenborough soundalike delivers a anthropological piece poking fun at Sweden's equality, agnosticism, tolerance, and sexual liberation. Featuring the actual prime minister of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt, plus several famous Swedish actors. Contains NSFW language. -via reddit