Ultimate Spider-Man Insulated Lunch Kit

Is your spider sense telling you that it's time to invest in a new lunch bag? Swing on over to the NeatoShop for the Ultimate Spider-Man Insulated Lunch Kit from the NeatoShop. This great lunch bag is shaped like Spider-Mans face.  

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Mealtime fun and fantastic Spider-Man items. 

Link

We've featured Alien-egg treats before, but those were actual eggs with cucumbers. These Xenomorph eggs are made with figs, candied orange peel and almond paste, so they're more of a dessert. Just try to resist this tasty invasion!

Link

Wait, your guinea pig won't walk the dog? The guinea pig is the star of a Twitter account called Where is My Guinea Pig? that features pictures of the pig mowing the lawn, lifting weights, cooking, washing the car, and other activities. See a selection of the best pictures at Buzzfeed. Link

Sometimes the coolness of a full handlebar mustache, like a utilikilt, causes more problems than it is worth. Back it off a little for your own safety.

Link -via Daily of the Day

Steve Lovelace created this map, titled "The Corporate States of America," using brands that best represent each one of the 50 states. He said:

I created this map after writing an article about corporate feudalism. My hypothesis is that, as corporations and non-governmental organizations grow in power, the power of nation states will become increasingly irrelevant. We’re already seeing this on a small scale, as people turn to the Internet to make friends, instead of befriending their neighbors. I think that, as corporations become the dominant organizations on Earth, people will start thinking of themselves as citizens of Apple or partisans of Starbucks.

One thing I discovered while writing this article is that corporations are not evenly distributed across the country. Some states, such New Mexico, Alaska, Montana and West Virginia, simply do not host many big corporations. Others host so many that choosing one was difficult. In these cases, I went with the company that I though best represented the state, rather than the biggest or most notorious. Hence, I used Dr Pepperfor Texas instead of ExxonMobil.

Link - via Design TAXI and Maps of the Web

Do you agree with his choices?

Starlight by yanmostees

That's no star! Wait, wasn't that how the quote goes? Well, anyhow - let Starlight by T-shirt designer yanmostees, hailing all the way from Thessaloniki, Greece - guide you.

Visit Yanmostees' official website and Twitter then head on over to his NeatoShop page for more awesome T-shirts: Link

Thanks for taking a look! Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog.

Low Profile	Rocking AT-AT	Dark Shadow	Space Ice

View more designs by yanmostees | More Funny T-shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Not everyone on the internet appreciates the genius of this gentleman's beard. It's not patchy, but carefully cultivated. If his style seems odd, just remember that he's clearly an old school gamer.

-via Fashionably Geek

(Photo: unknown)

Marble Brewery of Albuquerque will soon unveil a new brew called "Heisenberg's Dark," a tribute to the final season of the AMC TV show Breaking Bad. It will be an India Black Ale. No word yet on whether it will be available nationwide in time for the season premiere on August 11th. We can only hope! Link -via Warming Glow

Ladies, do you like a man with a fully developed pelt? Then you'll love this coat designed for Arla, a British dairy company.

Wait, what?

Dairy firm Arla commissioned the coat to coincide with the launch of a new milk drink, Wing-co, aimed at men.

Despite promotional material featuring a model with a clean-shaven chest, the company said the coat represents a protest against the ‘manning-down’ of British men, particularly via emasculating fashion.

The coat can be yours for just £2,499.

Thanks, but I'll just grow my own.

Link -via Oddity Central

(Photo: Arla)

Artist Kelly Jaworski has a few different 8-bit game quilts, but this Zelda one is particularly fantastic -plus, it comes in both throw size and queen size.

Link Via Technabob

The eighth and final season of Dexter will premier on Sunday. To mark the return of America's favorite serial killer, Bacon & Legs made and then murdered donuts. There's jelly everywhere, but the shrink wrap should keep the room clean.

In the comments, make your predictions about how the series will end.

Link -via Tasteologie

Pipe Wrench Foam Prop

Does someone keep throwing a wrench in your best laid plans? Don't let the stress of life get your down. Wrench yourself free negativity and grasp the fun in life with the Pipe Wrench Foam Prop from the NeatoShop. This life-size, soft, and squeezable prop is made to look like a pipe wrench. It makes a wonderful over-sized stress ball to squeeze and toss around.  

The Pipe Wrench Foam Prop is not a toy. The Pipe Wrench Foam Prop is handcrafted by local artisans. No two are exactly alike.  

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Gag Gifts & Pranks and fantastic Foam Props. 

Link

(YouTube link)

Without using words, Awkward Spaceship recreates a conversation that happens every evening somewhere. But it's not always the gender roles portrayed -I've been through this ordeal with various family members too many times, and generally just get myself a sandwich if no one else wants to cook or make a decision about dinner. Then the most clueless kid will come to me about 10PM and ask what's for dinner! -Thanks, Sam Kashe!

Let's super-size this meal! A turducken may feed a few Americans, but if you're going to feed everyone in attendance at a Bedouin wedding feast, then you need a stuffed camel. According to Guinness World Records, it's the largest single food item on any menu.

Link -via Foodbeast

(Photo: unknown)

Innovations during the Korean War such as MASH units and helicopter ambulance service, along with improved medical techniques, reduced the rate of death from injuries by 50% compared to World War II. Nurses played a vital part in treating the wounded in Korea, like these shown at the newly-opened 8055th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital  in 1950.  

Some MASH units received up to 1,000 casualties a day, and although the surgery was crude at times, 95 percent of the casualties admitted to the hospitals left alive. Dr. Dexter Ball, who served in two different MASH units between 1950 and 1951, says that his unit was constantly moving with the frontline – amounting to 12 location changes in a single year. MASH units (at least in the beginning) only accepted patients who needed emergency surgery.

Read more about nursing during the Korean War with a list of pictures. Link -via the Presurfer

Now this is a nifty optical illusion trick: You'd think that the photo above is stitched together in Photoshop, but it's actually just one shot. Photographer Bela Borsodi carefully positioned objects of different colors to create this nifty optical illusion for an album cover by the band VLP: Link - via Daily Mail

See how it was done:

Here's the behind the scenes clip:

(Video Link)

Service with a smile? How about service with a cute, instead? With a bartender this cute, would you even mind if he grabbed you the wrong drink?

Via Cute Overload

Boba Neon Fett by DarkChoocoolat

Need a cool T-shirt fit for a Mandalorian intergalactic bounty hunter? As you wish: DarkChoocoolat has created this sweet Boba Neon Fett T-shirt, available at the NeatoShop.

Visit DarkChoocoolat's official website and Facebook page (give 'im a Like, wontcha?), then visit his NeatoShop's page for more neat-o tees: Link. Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog!

Storm Neon Candy Trooper	Storm Candy Trooper	Darth Neon Vader	Let's Cook

View more designs by DarkChoocoolat | More Funny T-shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

(Image credit: Flickr user Earl)

I do not breath, yet I run.
I do not eat, yet I sleep.
I do not drink, yet I swim.
I do not think, yet I grow.
I cannot see you, but you see me every day.
What am I?

Think you know what it is?
Show Answer

The brainteaser above is reprinted  from Uncle John's Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader, a fantastic book by the Bathroom Readers' Institute. The 19th book in this fan-favorite series contain such gems like The Greatest Plane that Never Was, Forgotten Robot Milestones, Ancient Beauty Secrets, 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!

French astrophotographer Thierry Legault had perfect timing. He captured an image of the Chinese space station Tiangong-1 crossing the path of the sun. At Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait writes:

In this picture, you can see the station silhouetted against the Sun’s face; it’s the H-shaped object between the sunspots. Right now, the Shenzou-10 spacecraft is docked to Tiangong-1; each is one half of the H.

Perspective is funny; the two spacecraft together are about 20 meters across but don’t look much smaller than the sunspots … which are as large as our entire planet! But, of course, they’re a wee bit farther away. Like, 500,000 times farther.

Link -via Bad Astronomy

(YouTube link)

The Key of Awesome parodies videos in which one person performs all the parts of a fully-produced song. People who do those projects are talented and impressive, but the technique on YouTube has become hackneyed by now. Contains a little NSFW language. -via Viral Viral Videos

News of the new Singapore Durian Crunch McFlurry have been around the net for the last week or so, but that's not the onlly interesting flavor of McFlurry you can't get here. From bubblegum with mini marshmallows to Cadbury Creme eggs, some of these sound incredible, rainsing the question, "where are ours?"

Link

Panic Button Chill Baby Pacifier

Don't panic! Baby accessories do not have to be boring. Stop overreacting and get the Panic Button Chill Baby Pacifier from the NeatoShop. This hilarious silicone pacifier features a "Panic Button" design. It is a great way to add a little humor to your diaper bag. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Baby & Tot items. 

Link

A 64-year-old man in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, was arrested soon after his carjacking victim called police. He couldn't make a fast getaway because it took him too much time to load his walker into the stolen car!

Police allege the senior from Queensland had bought a knife from the shopping centre's Kmart store and approached a 22-year-old female as she prepared to drive out of the carpark.

Geelong Senior-Constable Paul Mitchell said the victim wound down her window and the man held the knife to her throat, demanding she give him the vehicle. After putting his walker in the car, the man drove a short distance before getting out to load in other bags.

The unnamed suspect is charged with one count of armed robbery. Link  -via Arbroath

Not much luck on Match.com or eHarmony? Try out the dating scene in Game of Thrones. Daenerys Targaryen, Hodor, Jamie Lannister and The Wall have profiles. Get involved. What's the worst that could happen?

Link

(Image: Team Pwnicorn)

(YouTube link)

This little boy talks a good game. He is caught red-handed looking for a early morning popsicle. When confronted, he tries changing the subject, distraction, lying, flattery, and all the tricks in the book -even after he's out of trouble! In Farsi with subtitles. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

You may not have heard of Snoova, but he is a wookiee bounty hunter from the Galactic Civil War. He is also seriously awesome-looking, which makes for some impressive cosplay when attempted by Flickr user mcm1015.

Link Via Obvious Winner

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

by Max U. Sage, MD, MBA, Elias A. J. Alsabti, MD, Andrew A. Skolnick, MS
Livermore Transplantation Unit
Canker Treatment Center of America, Omaha, Nebraska

A conventional organ donor. (Image credit: Flickr user Kenneth J Gill)

Organ transplants save many human lives, and are vital to the health of many transplantation centers. However, there is a shortage of donor organs.

We have developed a procedure that will provide a safe and virtually unlimited supply of one kind of transplantable human organ. We believe that introducing this procedure into medical practice will protect the fiscal health of transplantation centers, especially small ones like ours.

Accordingly, we report here the first successful human appendix transplant.

The General Shortage

The shortage of donor organs has led some to suggest that underutilized transplantation centers should be shut down.[1] The consolidation of resources would make transplantation more economical. Perhaps most important, it would improve patient outcomes by increasing the level of experience of the remaining transplantation teams, thereby increasing their competence.

We argue that transplantation centers should not be shut down.

There are good reasons for finding a way to keep underused transplantation facilities economically viable. Space limitations here limit us to mentioning the most important reason. Closing down smaller transplantation centers would decrease access for the poor. Many patients and their families would be compelled to travel to distant facilities and be forced to incur the expense of finding alternative housing, often for long periods while a donor organ is found and while the patient recovers following transplantation.[1]

Down With Animals, Up With People

A good solution to this problem is to find new sources of transplantable organs.[2 ]

While xenotransplantation looks promising, several difficulties stand in the way of using animal organs for transplants. The most notable is the danger of launching pandemics of new diseases derived from animal viruses, some of them perhaps as deadly as ebola and human immunodeficiency viruses.[3,4]

Donated appendices would eliminate this hazard, because they come from donor human beings rather than from gorillas, pigs, or other non-human donors.

Case Report

Here are the details of the first successful human appendix transplant.

The subject was a white, 30-year-old female, who underwent an appendectomy when she was 14 years of age. More recently, she has been treated at our center for breast, ovarian, and colon cancers, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, asthma, ulcers, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, migraine headaches, multiple chemical sensitivities, and suspected Munchausen syndrome.

After being counseled regarding the experimental nature of the procedure, the subject gave informed consent and underwent surgery as soon as a matched donor patient could be found who presented with unexplained abdominal pains and insurance. The subject was prepped while the donor patient underwent a standard appendectomy. The three-hour surgical transplant procedure was uneventful and the subject fully recovered, as did the donor.

The subject was followed up for 12 months with monthly CT and MRI scans. After a short period of mild rejection which was controlled by an increase in cyclosporin therapy, the transplant appeared to be healthy and presumably functioning normally, whatever the function of an appendix may be. It is important to note the center partially recovered transplantation costs with revenues from the donor’s appendectomy and extensive follow-up care.

A Copious Supply

As acknowledged by many authorities (perhaps most notably in a New England Journal of Medicine editorial5), from 15% to 40% of all appendixes removed in emergency appendectomies are healthy organs. At least 250,000 new cases of appendicitis are surgically treated each year in the United States[6]. This means that as many as 100,000 healthy appendixes are removed unnecessarily and then discarded. Such a waste is hard to justify considering the difficulty transplantation centers have in finding viable donor organs for transplantation.

A Demand to Be Cultivated

Although obvious challenges remain to making the procedure commonplace, appendix transplantation appears to provide a welcome opportunity for transplantation centers. Unlike the situations with other organs, for which demand far exceeds supply, the supply of donor appendixes greatly exceeds current or even foreseeable demand. It is not scarcity of organs that limits the growth of this transplantation field, but scarcity of patients. At this time, the only patients likely to consider appendix transplantation are those with Munchausen syndrome. The prevalence of patients with this syndrome is unknown.

A Purpose

The problem of inadequate demand results largely from the widespread belief that the human appendix is a vestigial organ. However, not all authorities accept that view. Creation scientists argue that man is not some haphazard product of evolution, but the culminating work of an intelligent Creator. Because man was made in this Creator’s image, the human appendix cannot be the vestige of an organ once useful to his primitive ancestors. It therefore must have a purpose.

It may be possible to obtain funding from the Institute for Creation Research or similar antievolution foundation to conduct research aimed at establishing a function for this much maligned organ. Elucidation of that purpose would go a long way toward justifying insurance coverage of appendix transplants. However, until that purpose can be found, who is to say that the Creator did not give man an appendix solely to ease the growing donor organ supply problem? If so, to waste this opportunity and not transplant these organs would truly be a sin.

References

1. "Are There Too Many US Transplantation Centers? Some Experts Suggest Fewer, Cheaper, and Better," A.A. Skolnick, Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 271, 1994, pp. 1062-4.
2. "Alternative Ways of Meeting Demand," Nature, vol. 391, 1998, p. 325.
3. "Call for Moratorium on Xenotransplants," F.H. Bach and H.V. Fineberg, Nature, vol. 391, 1998, p. 326.
4. "Last Chance to Stop and Think of Risks of Xenotransplants," Nature, vol. 391, 1998, pp. 320-4
5. "More Precision in Diagnosing Appendicitis," I. McColl, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 338, 1998, pp. 190-1.
6. "Effect of Computed Tomography of the Appendix on Treatment of Patients and Use of Hospital Resources," P.M. Rao, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 338, 1998, pp. 141-6.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the May-June 2000 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.

Although it wasn't to 1:1 scale, this train cake was huge. 15 cooks made it on site at Heathrow Airport in London to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the opening of the Heathrow Express, a rail link between London's main airport and train station:

The huge cake – measuring a 1.5m x 2m – consisted of 15 ingredients including 80 large sheets Madeira sponge.

These were sandwiched together using 60kg of traditional buttercream icing, 3kg of royal icing and more than 200kgof smooth fondant icing.

The exterior was held together using a litre of confectioners glue and decorated using half a dozen litres of airbrush paint and 5 litres of liquid chocolate.

The giant cake took the team more than 30 hours to build and install on the platform at London’s Paddington station.

Link -via Eat Your Heart Out

(Photo: BBC News)