Thankfully, they now make remedial mac which requires no cooking at all. Oh, you can warm it in the microwave for 30 seconds. But that's more effort than I usually commit to.

Link

Los Angeles attorney David Chan is a third-generation Chinese-American who grew up not liking Chinese food. But in 1984, one tasty lunch changed him around. He started eating in Chinese restaurants as a way to connect with his heritage. Now, at age 64, Chan has eaten at 6,297 different Chinese restaurants, all documented on a spreadsheet. He's become the go-to guy for food critics and travelers. But he's not all that picky -and he still hasn't learned to use chopsticks.  

Chan had always wanted to travel to all 50 states, and Chinese food gave him an excuse. In places he would have never imagined, he found Chinese people with their own version of Chinese food.

In New England, he encountered a chow mein sandwich topped with gravy. In St. Paul, Minn., he found a burger with egg foo young for a patty. Throughout the South, he came across a sweet, stir-fry dish called Honey Chicken.

"It doesn't have to be authentic Chinese. If it's Chinese American, it's all the more interesting," Chan said.

Read about Chan's unique hobby at the Los Angeles Times. Link -via Digg

(Image credit: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times)

At last week's Milan Design Week, Pega unveiled its WindUp Chair. Turn the crank, plug in your cell phone, and the chair will charge it. Wind-up keys are cute and designers should include them in more objects, from cars to hamburgers.

Link

This is a notice of pure desperation. Imagine working on your thesis for five years and suddenly it's gone. University librarians and computer techs say it happens more than you might think. You can store it online, in the cloud, on external drives, or with a professional service. When data is this precious, more than one backup method would be a good idea. Link

Clown Socks

Do you suffer from coulrophobia? The Clown Socks from the NeatoShop are not for you. This disturbing pair of women's ankle socks features a friendly clown. Shudder.

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

Link 

Rave Crocker's very first car is a 1986 Ford Escort. That's not very impressive, so he dumped six ponies worth of awesomeness into it. Now the sides and hood are decorated with the main characters of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Suggestion: do this to a 1964 Ford Mustang--the original American pony car.

Link -via Equestria Daily

Jenna Krehbiel of Salina, Kansas walked into a restroom and came face-to-face with a tiger. She had just watched the big cat act at the Isis Shrine Circus at the Salina Bicentennial Centennial Center, but she didn't expect to meet one of the stars.

“I went in to use the bathroom, and a lady came in to get her daughter out and said there was a tiger loose,” Krehbiel, who was a first-time visitor to the circus,  told the Salina Journal. “I didn’t know it was in the bathroom, and I walked in the (open) door, which closed right after I had walked in. I saw the tiger; it was at most two feet in front of me, and I turned around calmly and walked back toward the door.”

The tiger had escaped at some point during the show, according to Center officials, prompting staffers to lock down the area, but the roughly 25-foot-long bathroom apparently had more than one entrance — Krehbiel came in from the other side, putting her “the closest [she'd] ever been to a tiger not in a cage.”

When she later told her 3-year-old daughter of the incident, the child wanted to know if the tiger washed its hands. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Denise Allen)

Want to have a unique memento of your child's infancy? There are crafters on Etsy who sell keepsakes made with dried breast milk. The Detroit Free Press reports:

A couple purveyors, both moms, said in interviews that they hit on the idea as they sought out unusual keepsakes of their special bonds with their babies during nursing.

The two would not reveal their recipes for processing the milk, which is covered with a glaze or clear resin after it is plasticized or dehydrated, forming a clay-like substance that hardens over time when at least one method is used. [...]

“What a wonderful way to preserve the ‘liquid gold’ that we are only able to make for a certain period of time,” reads the product description for the latter. “This can be passed down for generations and what a fantastic gift to give to your child, the root of their survival.”

Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: MommyMilk

(YouTube link)

Remember the criminal mastermind who didn't quite get into Kent's Meats and Groceries in Redding, California? The bumbling burglar brought the shop so much publicity, that store owner Kent Pfrimmer decided to use the security footage for a TV ad! Is that clever or what?  -via Daily of the Day

Naoki Ono's Canvas can be hung flat against a wall. Or, if you need a breather, you can sit in it:

A canvas shaped chair with a drawing of a chair. It can be used by leaning against a wall. A frame made of wood and aluminum is covered by an elastic fabric printed with texture of a canvas and a drawing of chair.

Link -via Colossal | Photos: Yasuko Furukawa

Here's a little riddle from Ray, Will and Raf from The Doghouse Diaries:

The answer after the jump:

View more at Doghouse Diaries

Redditor s_jove's tattoo is a beautiful affirmation of geek identity: the inscription of the One Ring from The Lord of the Rings, a Gallifreyean seal from Doctor Who and the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It could be improved only by adding a quote by Malcolm Reynolds written in Klingon.

An artist named Dave at Tattoos at the Red Room in Michigan inked this tattoo.

Link -via Fashionably Geek

What's so special about this image of Malian actor Sotigui Kouyate by French artist Bernard Pras? Yes, it's made from found items, but that's not all: check out the making of to see how the anamorphic portrait was done.

Christopher Jobson of Colossal has more: Link

(YouTube link)

European starlings bathe every day if they get the chance, but it happens too fast to get a good look. In this video, Earth Unplugged TV uses a high-speed camera to show the action in slow motion. First a dunk, then a flap, then water goes everywhere! -via Viral Viral Videos

Where does Chris Weir go to relax after a hard day's work? To the Batcave! His own Batcave, actually, which he spent 2 years and over $150,000 renovating. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Oddity Central

Diapers Large Recycled Shopper Tote

Mother's Day is coming. This year give your Earth conscious Mama a good laugh with the fun and functional Diapers Large Recycled Shopper Tote from the NeatoShop. This fantastic water-resistant tote features a Mom holding a baby and the caption, "Wow! I get to give birth AND change diapers!" 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Bags & Totes. 

Link

(Image credit: The French consulate of New York)

Two French diplomats who have never seen each other met at the French consulate in New York and decide to have a drink together in a nearby bar. Incidentally, one is the father of the other one's son. How is this possible?

Continue reading for the answer.

Highlight here for the answer: The French diplomats are husband and wife, both blind from birth.

_______________________________

The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader.

The 13th book in the series by the Bathroom Reader's Institute has 504 pages crammed with fun facts, including articles on the biggest movie bombs ever, the origin and unintended use of I.Q. test, and more.

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!

"If you return my PIZZA, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will ask nicely for my slices back."

At Disney's Haunted Mansion, there's a gallery called the Stretching Room, in which you see normal portraits that slowly reveal the "secret" things going on below the customary head and shoulders frame. If you're not familiar with the attraction, you can read about it here.

Abraham Lopez (DeviantART member ArtistAbe) took the concept of the stretching portraits and recreated them with characters from the Batman universe, complete with "secrets" in the lower two-thirds. Link -via Laughing Squid

Philadelphia Inquirer Newsroom, 2009

Newsroom, Day After The Move, 2012

We've heard about the ongoing slow demise of newspapers for a while now, but there's nothing that drives home the point stronger than images, like these ones of the Philadelphia Inquirer taken by photographer Will Steacy.

Steacy, whose father worked for that newspaper for nearly 30 years until he and many others were downsized, documented the decline of the newspaper industry through what happened to The Inquirer. His photos show the process of dismantling of the massive 526,000-square-foot headquarter The Inquirer in downtown Philadelphia, as the newspaper moved to a single floor of a former department store near Chinatown.

Call the decline of newspaper industry anything you want - obsolescence of the dead tree journalism, the failure to adapt to new technology and the rise of online news - but there's no argument that these poignant photos show the human cost of an industry in upheaval.

View the rest over at Steacy's website: Link - via Wired

(YouTube link)

The internet has been around just long enough for the Millennials who grew up with it to be currently in the midst of a nostalgia craze -for the '90s. This video from ADHD wallows in it, with references to pop culture touchstones that are meaningful to children of the time. And as an extra flourish, it's all presented in 8-bit graphics! -Thanks, Hillary!

Ammonium nitrate is a volatile compound, but very useful as a fetilizer for enriching soil with nitrogen. Its only other use is as an explosive. A factory fire at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, ignited a stockpile of ammonium nitrate and the resulting explosion killed 14 people and sent over a hundred to hospitals last Wednesday, but its only the latest of the many ammonium nitrate disasters. Oregon had a big one in 1959.

Truck driver George Rutherford parked his truck in front of the Garretsen Building Supply Company in downtown Roseburg, Oregon, on the night of August 6, 1959. He then retreated to the nearby Umpqua Hotel to get some rest before his morning delivery. The delivery never happened, because sometime between midnight and 1 a.m., the Garretsen Building Supply Company caught on fire. Shortly thereafter, the fire ignited the contents of Rutherford’s truck—two tons of dynamite and 4.5 tons of ammonium nitrate. All of the buildings in an eight-block radius were totally destroyed (pictured above) and 14 people died. Rutherford survived.

But that's just one explosion. There are plenty of other disasters caused by ammonium nitrate to read about at mental_floss. Link

(Image credit: Downtown Roseburg)

With a last name like Gallafraigh, this cute lil dude is destined to be the Doctor! Doctor Who Craft has the pic of a baby crib fit for a Time Lord: Link - via Nerd Approved

(YouTube link)

Exercising is so much more enjoyable when you get your cats involved! Granted, it's easier when the cats are a docile as Shorty and Kodi. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

The old Snickers commercials would end with a hand closing around peanuts, then opening with a Snickers bar. When I was five years old, I saw these commercials and became convinced that this event was real. If only I could get a supply of peanuts, I could magically turn them into candy bars. So I repeatedly asked my mom to buy me peanuts in order to generate Snickers bars. I don't recall the method ever working properly.

If I get a Snickers bar, could I use the same technique to turn it into one of Elizabeth LaBau's Snickers cupcakes?

Link -via Tasteologie

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

by Scott A. Sandford, Santa Clara, California
Jason P. Dworkin, Arnold, Maryland
Max P. Bernstein, Mountain View, California

Virtually everyone who works in a scientific field will ultimately have to deal, in one way or another, with the production of a Press Release. The importance of Press Releases cannot be over-estimated since it is by their distribution (and the distribution of the short science news articles that are generated from them by randomly scrambling their words) that the majority of the public learn of current scientific progress. Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy, time, and resources are spent each year in the production of these releases. Shortly after the start of a new year¹ it occurred to us that this important task could be greatly simplified. We noted in a comprehensive survey of articles from 1983-2001 that 87.3% of the Press Releases and science news articles could be faithfully reproduced through the straightforward application of a set of simple standardized rules.² These rules can be easily applied to generate a form containing a pre-written Press Release in which one need only fill in various blanks with items specific to the matter at hand in order to generate a full-blown Press Release.

In hopes that it can be used to increase scientific efficiency, stimulate the American economy, and serve the general public, we therefore present the Press Release Template.³

How To Use the Press Release Template
To generate a Press Release, simply fill in all the fields, giving the appropriate information. Each field is denoted by words in CAPITAL LETTERS.
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INSERT NEWSPAPER-LIKE TITLE HERE, PREFERABLY WITH A DOUBLE MEANING OR PUN⁴

Scientists today announced that they are the first to successfully demonstrate SCIENTIFIC FINDING.⁵ This has long been one of the holy grails of SCIENTIFIC FIELD. “This finding radically alters our understanding of the field, to say the least,” says FIRST AUTHOR, a SCIENTIFIC FIELDologist from INSTITUTION who led the research.

“We were stunned when we made the discovery. For a few minutes we just didn’t believe what we were seeing,” says FIRST AUTHOR, “then SECOND AUTHOR (a student of FIRST AUTHOR) yelled ‘We’ve done it!’ and we started dancing around the LAB/OBSERVATORY/FIELD SITE. It was very exciting.”

INSERT LIGHT-HEARTED QUIP FROM FIRST AUTHOR, PREFERABLY BASED ON A PUN OR TWIST ON A COMMON SAYING.⁶

News of the finding was greeted with universal surprise,⁷ except, that is, at FIRST AUTHORS INSTITUTION. “Privately, a few of us had long thought this might be the case,” said FIRST AUTHOR, “but we kept it quiet because we were afraid our colleagues would think we were crazy.”

Not everyone is convinced, however, and their report has been criticized as premature by some. “While FIRST AUTHOR’s interpretation of the data represents one possible explanation, their data do not necessary preclude the possibility of OPPOSITE EXPLANATION,” intoned A NON-AUTHOR PUNDIT IN THE SAME FIELD of ANOTHER INSTITUTION. “Further work will be necessary to fully prove that they are correct.”

“Ah, NON-AUTHOR PUNDIT IN THE FIELD,” chuckled FIRST AUTHOR in response, “He has been grinding the ALTERNATE EXPLANATION axe for ages. It has been growing steadily out of favor for years and our new results are the nail in its coffin. He is, of course, correct that more data is always desirable, but we are confident that future studies will only support our findings.”

The full extent of the importance of these findings will take years to fully appreciate, predicts THIRD AUTHOR. Nonetheless, it may well have implications that cross the boundaries of the discipline of SCIENTIFIC FIELD. INSERT MANDATORY QUOTE BY (A) Sagan, (B) Einstein, (C) Freud, (D) Darwin, or (E) folksy grandmother HERE. “Only time, and continued support, will tell,” intoned THIRD AUTHOR solemnly.

A better understanding of this effect may help scientists plan more successful strategies for SCIENTIFIC FIELD in the future. “This is just a step along the path,” said SECOND AUTHOR modestly, “but an important one.”

     --AUTHOR’S BYLINE

FIGURE. It is important to provide a figure that can be used with the press release. However, it is never a good idea to show any graphs, equations, or chemistry. We have provided sample images⁸ that are appropriate for almost any topic. It should be noted the same image can serve equally well in reports about any of several different branches of science.

Notes
1. The idea for the PR template occurred to us in January 2002, after we became supersaturated in short science articles. January is traditionally a good time for Press Releases and short science articles, as many science magazines pick this time to publish their “Top 10/20/50/100 Science Stories of the Past Year.”

2. Well, okay, one of us read a whole bunch of “Top 100 Science Stories of the Past Year” articles while laid up to recuperate from knee surgery, and it seemed like 87.3% was about the right number. The principal author’s inability to reach his calculator with the end of his back-scratcher abrogated his ability to do an in-depth statistical analysis. The secondary authors are simply lazy and shiftless people who leech off of the primary author’s hard work.

3. This template has been optimized for the physical sciences. It can easily be altered to accommodate discoveries in sociology, parapsychology, astrology, etc. by replacing all the words in the quotes with synonyms, preferably arcane ones, having three to four times as many syllables.

4. This is one of the few places in the form where a bit of creativity is needed. Just as examples:
• “I Came, I Sew, and I Conquered” -- PR about a new means of doing surgical stitches.
• “The Proof is in the Puddling” -- PR about rising sea levels due to global warming.
• “Charmed, I’m Sure” -- PR about quarks.
• “A New Twist on Molecular Shapes” -- PR about molecular structure of a protein.
• “Astronomers Piss Themselves” -- PR on the debate over radio telescope detection of urea in interstellar clouds.

5. This text should controlled by the nature of science and may require some creativity on the part of the writer of the PR. However, we would note that many Public Affairs offices require their PRs be written at about the sixth-grade level.9 As a result, it is generally impossible to fully describe the nature of the actual discovery, so the typical writer of PRs need not worry too much about the contents of this portion of the text.

6. Examples are:
(a) “It’s as if we were shown how to pull the finger of God.”
(b) “I feel as if I can now call Einstein a Special Relative.”
(c) “This proves that all oxidants are preventable.”
(d) “Superconductivity has shown that resistance is futile.”
(e) “It would be gneiss if it weren’t full of schist.”
(f) “We have demonstrated that clumsiness is not genetic, but a Freudian slip.”

7. It is mandatory that this comment be included, even though it is quite likely that everybody in the field has long been aware of the possibility.

8. Photo credits (left to right):
(a) TRACE 07-14-2000, Stanford-Lockheed ISR and NASA.
(b) Apollo 17, 12-07-1972, NASA.
(c) Ames Laboratory, Novel Materials and Ground States.
(d) Punuk Island, Bering Sea, Alaska, 07-1977, Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps.

9. It should be noted that the definition of “sixth-grade level” changes depending on the year and quality of elementary school education of the Public Affairs Officer.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the July-August 2004 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.