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The San Diego Zoo's youngest panda just turned one a few days ago. To celebrate, his keepers made him a giant ice cake built around bamboo  and covered in carrot shavings. While the cake was about two feet taller than the panda, he didn't have a hard time climbing to the top to get all of his tasty treats.

Or maybe you could just call it an octopi. I can't find the baker or photographer, but I found a song about it. It looks dreadfully delicious.  -via Nag on the Lake

Penguin Pull Along Bag

Is your favorite preschooler headed back to school? Send them to class in style with the Penguin Pull along Bag from the NeatoShop. This adorable backpack looks like a sophisticated little penguin.

The Penguin Pull Along Bag comes with pull along wheels to make toting that much easier. The bag can be removed from the trolley so that is can be carried as a traditional backpack. The backpack is made of easy to clean vinyl and features adjustable shoulder straps.

Matching Penguin Insulated Lunch Bag also available. Buy both and make it a swimming set. 

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

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Peter Emmerich

Demi Vale

Dan Christofferson

Oliver Akuin

Nucleus, an art gallery in Alhambra, California, hosted a show the celebrated SpongeBob SquarePants. That cartoon launched in 1999 and has been awesome ever since.

At the link, you can view more images from the art show.

Link | Gallery Website

Did you hear about this one: Your dad constantly tell bad jokes in socially inappropriate situations. That's just dads being dads ... or is it? Maybe he's suffering from the Joking Disease.

No, it's not a joke: though rare, the Joking Disease or witzelsucht (derived from the German word witzeln meaning to joke and sucht meaning addiction) is quite real. The neurological disease is caused by damage to the frontal lobe of the brain. People with witzelsucht compulsively tell jokes and puns, but do not seem to "get" the humor - they don't laugh or smile, nor do they show any emotional reaction to jokes, either their own or other people's.

This incredibly detailed tattoo shows the eye of a crocodile that is too close for comfort. Dino Tomic, a Croatian artist living in Norway, made it.

Link | Artist's Website

(YouTube link)

This video takes the concept of Breaking Bad and stands it on its head. A notorious meth dealer confronts the fact that he has cancer and decides to make some changes in his life. Contains NSFW language. -via Unreality

Little Ayla (the Cowardly Lion on the left) was born near Halloween so to help her celebrate in style, her parents threw a Wizard of Oz party complete with a Yellow Brick Road and a full cast of characters. The results are adorable and certainly deserve a long look, if only for inspiration for your own youngster's birthday parties.

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(Photo: Chester Chronicle)

The UK is going crazy for Daleks as the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who approaches. Snugbury's, an ice cream shop in Cheshire, did its part for the cause by commissioning this enormous straw bale sculpture:

The Dalek standing out in the Hurleston field is not likely to exterminate passers-by, but is sure to delight young and old as the Doctor Who series celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Hundreds of visitors have already flocked to marvel at the 35ft creation, which weighs in at little over six tonnes.

Link -via io9

An unnamed fisherman in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, caught a really big shark. In order to have a trophy photo that would stand out from the others, he gutted the shark and crawled inside for the photo you see here. A friend put the picture on the wall of the Metung Hotel. John Burns talked about it on his 3AW radio show.

"This fellow has decided as a jape to climb inside the shark with a knife, put his hand through the gills of the shark and pretended to stab it between the eyes," Mr Burns said on 3AW this morning, before telling listeners about the reaction of an American couple who saw the picture at the Metung Hotel.

"An American couple have turned up at the Metung Hotel to see this photo and their immediate response from the wife was 'Did he survive!?'."

The fisherman was standing right behind her at the time. Presumably, his answer was "yes".

Link -via Boing Boing

Sebastien Millon has this problem. Try to avoid beating yourself up. It'll do you no good and other people are waiting for their turn.

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When a study in 2008 found that children, on average, do not like clowns, many people were surprised. The rest of us weren't because we never liked clowns, either. Sometime over the past 50 years, clowns in popular culture moved from funny to downright horrific, which is indicative of how an audience sees them. Smithsonian looks at the history of clowns, and finds that depressing, creepy, and/or frightening clowns are really nothing new. The happy children's clowns of the mid-20th century were somewhat of an anomaly, because clowns were never all sunshine and smiles, from court jesters to Grimaldi to Pagliacci to Emmett Kelly to John Wayne Gacy.

Even as Bozo was cavorting on sets across America, a more sinister clown was plying his craft across the Midwest. John Wayne Gacy’s public face was a friendly, hard-working guy; he was also a registered clown who entertained at community events under the name Pogo. But between 1972 and 1978, he sexually assaulted and killed more than 35 young men in the Chicago area. “You know… clowns can get away with murder,” he told investigating officers, before his arrest.

Gacy didn’t get away with it—he was found guilty of 33 counts of murder and was executed in 1994. But he’d become identified as the “Killer Clown,” a handy sobriquet for newspaper reports that hinged on the unexpectedness of his killing. And bizarrely, Gacy seemed to revel in his clown persona: While in prison, he began painting; many of his paintings were of clowns, some self-portraits of him as Pogo. What was particularly terrifying was that Gacy, a man who’d already been convicted of a sexual assault on a teenage boy in 1968, was given access to children in his guise as an innocuous clown. This fueled America’s already growing fears of “stranger danger” and sexual predation on children, and made clowns a real object of suspicion.

After a real life killer clown shocked America, representations of clowns took a decidedly terrifying turn.

Read a fascinating rundown of the history and psychology of scary clowns at Smithsonian. Link

Thankfully, that didn't happen. But it could have. In any case, the Queen was ready with a speech, drafted by the British government, to urge Britons to remain united and resolute against "the madness" of nuclear war:

The document, released by the government under the 30-year rule, was drawn up as part of a war-gaming exercise in the spring of 1983, which worked through potential scenarios. [...]

Although it was only a simulation, the text of the Queen's address - written as if broadcast at midday on Friday 4 March 1983 - seeks to prepare the country for the ordeal of World War III.

The script, which starts off by referring to the Queen's traditional Christmas address, reads: "The horrors of war could not have seemed more remote as my family and I shared our Christmas joy with the growing family of the Commonwealth.

"Now, this madness of war is once more spreading through the world and our brave country must again prepare itself to survive against great odds. [...]

"Not for a single moment did I imagine that this solemn and awful duty would one day fall to me.

"But whatever terrors lie in wait for us all, the qualities that have helped to keep our freedom intact twice already during this sad century will once more be our strength." [...]

"If families remain united and resolute, giving shelter to those living alone and unprotected, our country's will to survive cannot be broken."

The speech concludes by saying the Queen's message to the nation was "simple".

It adds: "As we strive together to fight off the new evil, let us pray for our country and men of goodwill wherever they may be. God Bless you all.

Read the entire speech over at the BBC: Link

Silver Animal Bottle Opener (sold individually)

Are you looking to add a wild side to your civilized soiree? Capture a Silver Animal Bottle Opener from the NeatoShop. These beautiful silver  colored animal shaped bottle openers are available in Crocodile, Frog, and Turtle. Buy them all and make it a fierce set. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Barware & Cocktail items. 

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Andrea of Cupookie made this impressive set of cookies inspired by the classic children's game. With a few modifications, this version might become playable.

Link -via Between the Pages

Need a cool seat to match your gummi bear chandelier, giant cupcake chair or other awesome furniture from Jellio? Don't worry, their newest addition, a giant ice cream sandwich bench is sure to provide you a sweet seat to keep you looking cool on hot summer days.

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Photo: D.T. John & T.B. Cole, Visuals Unlimited

The smiling face of the Naegleria fowleri amoeba above belies the havoc it can cause to your brain.

The naturally occuring organism normally feeds on bacteria and live in the mud layer of lakes and ponds, but under certain conditions it can swim around in the water. That's when an accidental encounter with a swimmer can turn deadly:

Under certain conditions, Naegleria fowleri can develop flagella—threadlike structures that enable it to rapidly move around and look for more favorable conditions. When people swim in warm freshwater during the summer, water contaminated with the moving amoeba can be forced up the nose and into the brain.

This causes headache, stiff neck, and vomiting, which progresses to more serious symptoms. Between exposure and onset, infection generally results in a coma and death after around five days.

That's what happened in primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare form of parasitic meningitis that was diagnosed in case of a 12-year-old Arkansas girl who has been hospitalized for over a week after being infected while swimming at Willow Springs Water Park in Little Rock.

(YouTube link)

Professional skateboarder Bob Burnquist named his backyard "Dreamland." In this video, you'll see why. The moves become more insane as the video progresses -especially at the 6:30 mark. Um, don't try this at home. -via Metafilter

Daria was one of the greatest cartoons of the turn of the millennium. Here is Jaimie Jenkin's very convincing paper mache costume of the title character. She made it for a 90s-themed party, where she was hopefully bitingly sarcastic.

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When you learn new words by reading and not so much by hearing them, it's easy to mispronounce them in your head. Then later, if you hear the word spoken, you might not even recognize it. It happens to everyone, or at least everyone who reads a lot when they are young. John Green sets the record straight on a long list of commonly mispronounced words. -via mental_floss

Say hello to your newest coffee friend. Japanese specialty shop Yawahada developed these adorable marshmallows that are sure to make any coffee, tea or hot chocolate infinately more joy-inducing. Just imagine grabbing your morning beverage of choice and having one of these little guys floating around, looking at you.

Link Via That's Nerdalicious

Brita Lee West was going to marry Willard Tinch at the Scott County Jail in Tennessee, where Tinch was incarcerated. Instead, she ended up in jail herself!  

According to a report filed by the Scott County Sheriff’s Department, West inquired about being able to kiss her groom during the marital ceremony as she was being searched prior to entering the facility. Corrections Sgt. Tiffany Byrge reportedly noticed that West’s “false teeth kept falling down while she was talking and noticed a package in her mouth,” according to the report. The package turned out to be a gum wrapper containing two strips of suboxone — an addictive pain relief narcotic — and an amount of crystal methamphetamine.

More drugs were found in West's vehicle, and she was charged with several drug violations. The wedding was cancelled. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Scott Co. Sheriff's Department)

Actually, I don't have a recipe, just the picture. But I'll try to reverse engineer the construction process and then report back to you with complete instructions.

-via That's Nerdalicious!

(Photo: unknown)

(YouTube link)

A Korean woman takes her first driving lesson. From the camera setup, this appears to be a professional teacher, who, in my opinion, is particularly restrained when he starts yelling just seconds into the lesson. This makes me feel much better about my teenage driving student, who has yet to fail this badly. Knock wood. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

Lippy Lipstick Markers

Do you have a hot date with higher education? Get yourself gussied up for Back to School with the Lippy Lipstick Markers from the NeatoShop. This fabulous set includes 4 permanent markers shaped like lipsticks. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fun Pens & Pencils. 

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Has your cat been letting you down lately? If he's gray, you can always try turning him into a much better friend with a few paper scraps arranged just so on your little guy's back. Bam, now you have a Totoro to hang out with!

Link Via Kotaku

No, that couldn't be right… This 100+ meter ship is really a river barge with its cargo stacked artfully on top! Wooden ships like this were built by stacking logs in the forests of Russia, and after they floated down the Volga and Vetluga rivers, they were disassembled. What craftsmanship to put into a ship for one trip! That's why photographs of the boats are few, but you can see more of them and read about these huge wooden river ships at Dark Roasted Blend. Link

Why did Netflix pull down Star Trek III: The Search for Spock? Well, you wouldn't want to accidentally say the wrong thing to a Klingon warrior. You could end up with a mek'leth through your skull. Radio Times reports:

Netflix US is to remove Star Trek III: The Search For Spock from its film listings until it is able to provide authentic subtitles for the Vulcan and Klingon diagloue.

The on-demand service thinks it can do the tranlsation work in about a week – and credit to them for trying. It seems most DVDs have simply injected a lot of English dubbing to overcome the problem, hiding behind the suggestion that people don’t like subtitles.

This is not a popular choice among fans – particularly those who’ve actually learnt the language (Netflix could do with finding these guys).

Link -via Flavorwire

(Image: Paramount)

It's time for the latest edition of our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what this thing is? If you don't know what it is, make up something funny!

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many guesses as you'd like in separate comments. Pease do not post URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

See more pictures of this mystery object at the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

You gotta love it when a highly skilled guitarist is simply on fire.

But probably not in this way. John Springer made a series of flame-shooting playable guitars, some of which can shoot fire up to 18 feet.

He also made this Guitar Hero controller that is playable and, appropriately, shoots fire. Because it should do that, right?

You can watch a video of his guitars at the link.

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