Here's a beauty tip from Uncle John: If your great-great-great-grandma is still living, don't ask her for beauty tips. If what we found in these old books is any guide, you'll probably get some pretty odd advice.

To lose weight: "New York society women usually go upon the milk diet during Lent, as being the most convenient time, and for a week they will take nothing into the system but milk. The dose for the milk diet is: Take a glass of milk upon rising, then follow it with a glass every hour all day. Add a pinch of salt if you prefer. The milk will wash all impurities out of the system, and milk taken thusly is not fattening."

-The Household Physician (1905)
 

Another way to lose weight: "Keep on bearing children as long and often as possible."

-Creative and Sexual Science (1876)
 

For wrinkles: "A wrinkle is like a crinkle in a piece of tissue paper. It is there, but is easily smoothed out. The plaster treatment has been tried with good results: The wrinkle is stretched flat, and slender strips of plaster are applied. When taken off, the wrinkle will be much lighter."

-The Household Physician (1905)
 

Bathing: "The vigorous and strong may bathe early in the morning on an empty stomach. The young and weak had better bathe three hours after a meal."

-Cassell's Household Guide (1880)
 

"Bags under the eyes destroy the beauty of the face. To get rid of these bags, massage persistently, and also reform the diet. It is good to swat apples, cooked and raw; correct the liver and the eye sacs will disappear."

-The Household Physician (1905)
 

"Every intelligent dentist knows that the whiter the teeth are, the sooner and more certainly they will decay. He also knows that those teeth last the longest and are the most useful, which have a yellowish tint."

-Fun Better Than Physic (1877)
 

"To enlarge the bust: An efficacious, yet safe method to enlarge the bust is a persistent massage with some bland oil, of which coconut or olive are good examples."

-The Household Physician (1905)
 

"To cure pimples: Take a fairly full breath and hold it momentarily while contracting the abdominal muscles and straining lightly. This brings a flush to the cheeks and fills the capillaries of the skin, insuring a better skin circulation. Standing on the head will have the same effect as the exercise given, and is worth a try."

-Home Health Manual (1930)
 

"Freckled hands in the summer are caused by letting the sun touch the hands immediately after they have been washed. The freckles can be removed with lemon juice followed by cold cream."

-The Household Physician (1905)
 

"The very best way of making the hair grow is to rub paraffin into the roots, but of course you must be very careful afterwards not to go near a fire or light of any kind."

-The Girl's Own Annual (1903)
 

"Fat faced women always have small eyes. As the fat increases, the cheeks puff up and the eyes dwindle. Eyes can be made larger if one massages the cheeks until the fat is less noticeable."

-The Household Physician (1905)

To freshen the breath: "A lump of charcoal held in the mouth two or three times a week and slowly chewed, has a power to preserve the teeth and purify the breath. Those who are troubled with an offensive breath might chew it very often and swallow it but seldom."

-Polite Manual for Young Ladies (1847)

The article above is reprinted with permission 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!

Are you the rightful heir to the Seven Geekdoms? Then you'll need to be ready to fight your way through the Game of Nerds in the hopes that one day you can ascend to the Keyboard Throne as created by artist Mike DeWolfe.

Link

Rainbow Blast Socks

What? You thought rainbows were made with sunlight and raindrops? Nah, that's just the story they tell you keep you from the real truth. 

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

Link

This "impossible" jigsaw puzzle is borderline criminal genius! Now, if they only make it in all white:

(YouTube link)

Oh, there's a lot of good ones here …and they get funnier as they go along. The sequence that starts at 7:30 had me rolling on the floor (figuratively). -via Laughing Squid

Some authors on this list died before publishing their final works. But others, such as E.M. Forster, hid their work from public view:

Purposely kept under wraps during his lifetime, E.M. Forster's tale of same-sex love was written in 1913 and kept secret for nearly 60 years. Maurice’s manuscript famously bears the author’s note to himself: “Publishable, but worth it?”

At the link, you can learn about 9 other novels that emerged only after their authors died.

Link -via Katherine Miller | Image: W.W. Norton

Rebel Rider by Dann Matthews

You don't wanna get mixed up with a rebel like him. He's a loner, Dottie. A Rebel that can walk in both worlds.

Well, you may not be able to buy that bike for all the money in the world. Not for a hundred million, trillion, billion dollars, but you can buy the T-shirt* by Dann Matthews from the NeatoShop for just a few shekels.

*No, the shirt won't be animated like this nifty animated GIF that Dann whipped up. But we promise it'll be just as hot!

Visit Dann at his official website and Facebook page, then check out his NeatoShop page for more cool T-shirts!

X-Ray Bill	Soft Lucky Kitty	Banana Nana	Maneki Nekobasu

View more designs by Dann Matthews | 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!

(YouTube link)

Slackstory explores another movie trope by making it into a supercut. How many times have you seen two people almost kiss but don't quite make it? In real life: never. In movies: all the time! -via Tastefully Offensive

What time is it? Does it matter? We're all dead already. There can't be only one of those things on board. Artist Eddie Escher surely made more:

This stunning sculpture/clock was created by Rockstar Games artist Chris 'Eddie Escher' Edwards using polymer clay, wire, plastic and oodles of skill. Hand painted and laquered, the Facehugger looks a little too alive to completely relax around but with this item comes our promise that it won't impregnate you with an unstoppable killing machine while you sleep, he will, however, keep good time with its Quartz movement, glow in the dark hands and free battery!

I won't believe that promise about not impregnating me with an alien killing machine unless it comes with a money-back guarantee.

Link -via Technabob

Just when you thought you'd memorized the periodic table of the elements, along comes a new one. The atomic weight is 115, and ununpentium is its temporary name (it just means 115).

The heaviest element in nature is uranium, which has 92 protons. But heavier elements-which have more protons in their nucleus-can be created through nuclear fusion. (Related: Learn how to make an element.)

The man-made 115 was first created by Russian scientists in Dubna about ten years ago. This week, chemists at Lund University in Sweden announced that they had replicated the Russian study at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Germany.

Element 115 will join its neighbors 114 and 116-flerovium and livermorium, respectively-on the periodic table just as soon as a committee from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) decides on an official name for 115.

Don't think for a minute they will name it by internet poll. Chemistry professor Paul Hooker talked to National Geographic News about the process for discovering and confirming this new element. Link

(Image credit: Albedo.ukr)

For his project entitled "V12 Laraki," artist Eric van Hove enlisted the aid of 35 craftsmen to help him duplicate a Mercedes car engine using materials not commonly used in the construction of car engines:

Nine months in the making,V12 Laraki began when van Hove dismantled a mercedes engine and then set about creating faithful reproductions of every single component, some 465 parts and 660 bolts made of casted copper. Contracting with artists around Morocco the engine was made with white cedar wood, high Atlas red cedar wood, walnut wood, lemon wood, orange wood, ebony wood of Macassar, mahogany wood, thuya wood, Moroccan beech wood, pink apricot wood, mother of pearl, yellow copper, nickel plated copper, red copper, forged iron, recycled aluminum, nickel silver, silver, tin, cow bone, goat bone, malachite of Midelt, agate, green onyx, tigers eye, Taroudant stone, sand stone, red marble of Agadir, black marble of Ouarzazate, white marble of Béni Mellal, pink granite of Tafraoute, goatskin, cowskin, lambskin, resin, cow horn, rams horn, ammonite fossils of the Paleozoic from Erfoud, Ourika clay, geometric terra cotta with vitreous enamel (zellige), green enamel of Tamgrout, paint, cotton, argan oil, cork, henna, rumex. In case you were interested.

Link | Artist's Website

Earlier this year, the world was introduced to the wonderful spectacle of a cat riding a Roomba dressed in a shark costume while chasing a duck. The whole thing was so crazy that it was bound to end up immortalized across the web. Now we can enjoy the beauty of this magnificent weirdness through LEGO thanks to Flickr user Ochre Jelly.

Link Via Laughing Squid

(Photo: Canada Tourism)

This requires a bit of explanation.

There's a bar in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada that has--or had--a preserved human toe. Since 1973, for a fee, drinkers could sip their whiskey with the toe inside. Because Canada.

Then, last week, one bar-goer swallowed the toe:

Terry Lee, the bar’s “Toe Captain,” said that on Saturday night, an American patron, who had drunk the cocktail before, decided to ingest it this time.

Mr. Lee said the customer was a card-carrying member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club, a distinction given to each person who tries the drink. To gain full membership, people agree to abide by the club rules, including a $500 fine if the toe is ingested. He said the patron drank the cocktail, swallowed the toe, put the money on the table and left. “He just wanted bragging rights, that’s what he wanted,” Mr. Lee said, adding the patron deliberately swallowed the toe.

To be fair, he abided by the rules. Anyway, there's no need to worry because the bar has a large supply of severed human toes. Terry Lee, the owner, explained:

He said the bar receives toes through donations: either people who have lost toes in accidents or through illness, or have stipulated in their wills that they want a toe or toes donated to the bar.

Link -via Nag on the Lake

Pixel-8 Hair Bows

Are you hunting for a fun way to reboot your style? Capture the Pixel-8 Hair Bows from the NeatoShop. Each pack includes 2 fun hair clips that look like pixel shaped bows. 

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

Link

Great dubstep musicians aren't born, they're MADE great by going to dubstep school like this one where rhythm and beat are pounded in their head at a young age.

YouTube user named Licker set this Russian clip of school children doing what children do to the appropriate music, a track called I'm in Need by Savoy.

A few years ago we told you about Männerspielplatz, a theme park in Germany where visitors can operate heavy equipment and use power tools. Now you can do that here in America! Dig This is a "heavy equipment playground" in Las Vagas, where you can control a full-size bulldozer or excavator.

No experience necessary. All you have to do is be 14 years or older, and not drunk. A 90 minute session runs for $249, a group session for up to 10 people runs for $1100. The company also offers a Dig & Destroy package which combines the excitement of operating construction equipment in an adult-sized sandbox with the exhilaration of firing semi-automatic and fully-automatic weapons.

Link -via the Presurfer

Jeremy Kaye expresses this wisdom: wisdom is overrated. Boosting your stat by 10 points will do nothing but show you your failures in life. Go for increased strength, dexterity or just plain gold pieces.

Link

Peter Hillary, Sir Edmund Hillary, Mike Dunn, and Neil Armstrong.

Remember that time Sir Edmund Hillary and Neil Armstrong went to the North Pole? No? It sure sounds like a tall tale, but it happened in 1985. Professional expedition leader Mike Dunn offered to take them both out -and who'd pass up that kind of opportunity? Certainly not men who's already showed the world they were ready for anything!

Hillary, legendary for being the first to scale Mount Everest with teammate Tenzing Norgay, was on board, and Armstrong was, too, saying he was curious to see what the North Pole looked like from ground level, as he'd only seen it from the moon. Astronaut problems.

The party also included Steve Fosset — the first man to fly a balloon around the world — and Patrick Morrow — the first person to climb the highest peaks of all seven continents.

But after they stood at the pole, they were caught by bad weather on the way back and had to camp for three days. That's when several of the most accomplished men in the world had a chance to really tell some stories. Read more about the expedition at Atlas Obscura. Link

Some of us are content to live in our plain white rooms, but others know just how important it is to personalize their space. When those people are gamers, the decor can turn out truly fantastic in the geekiest way possible. Our own Miss C did a great round up of rooms with decor inspired by video games -including the Mario nursery above.

Link

Anyone Can Cook by Alberto Arni

Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great. The famous saying by Chef Auguste Gusteau is surprisingly applicable to a variety of "cooking" methods, like this T-shirt by Alberto Arni shows.

Visit Alberto's official website and Facebook page, then visit his NeatoShop page for more neat shirts. Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog!

Practical Milk Joke	Piano Night	Panda in My FILLings	Pixel Sculptor

View more designs by Alberto Arni | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts

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

(YouTube link)

This week's mental_floss video is hosted by Grace Helbig of DailyGrace. She runs down some celebrity arrests that you might not have heard of because they happened long ago or before the perpetrator reached stardom, were swept under the rug, or you just forgot. Many are embarrassing because they are just plain weird.

It's hard to beat the Bacon Taco Shell that John posted here on Neatorama last year, but Nick of Dude Foods has improved upon that timeless design, by weaving the strips of bacon together (what simple yet genius improvement in structural stability!) and making it a breakfast food: Link

Like that? More Bacon-y goodness at the NeatoShop

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad featuring Sherman Oliver Holmes, a mysterious crime solver and great-great-grandson of Sherlock Holmes. Can you solve the crime?

(Image credit: Flickr user Michael Schmit)

Sherman Holmes and Sergeant Wilson stood side by side. They were staring at a bloody corpse sprawled face up in the living room of a suburban tract house.

Sherman spoke first. "A premeditated crime, what ho?"

Wilson frowned. "What makes you say that?"

"Choice of weapon." The round little man pointed at the fireplace poker. It had been used like a sword, stabbing its victim several times in the chest and stomach. "When we were walking up the drive, I didn't see any chimney."

Wilson looked around. "You're right. So, the killer brought the poker from another location, which indicates a planned murder. Very observant."

Holmes and Wilson had been in the midst of one of their occasional lunches when the call came in on the sergeant's cell phone. A mail carrier, making his rounds in a quiet neighborhood, had happened to glance through a living room window. He saw pretty much what they were seeing now, a large, elderly man who had died trying to fend off a brutal attack.

The responding patrolmen interviewed the next-door neighbor, a nearly deaf woman who claimed not to have heard or seen a thing.

"Harold Kipling." The sergeant was reading from the patrolman's notes. "A widower living alone. Three children, none of whom seemed fond of him. A life insurance policy was split among the kids, plus some savings. There had been lights about a nursing home and money."

"The children all live locally?" asked Sherman.

As if to answer the question, a patrolman eased open the door. "The victim's kids are here, Sarge. I told them he was dead. I hope that's okay."

The sergeant and his civilian partner walked out onto the lawn to face two middle-aged men and a woman. Wilson adopted his best corpse-side manner.

"Your father was murdered," he told them. "We don't know much more than that. The murder weapon was a fireplace poker."

"Fireplace poker? Dad doesn't have a fireplace," the older son said.

"We know that."

"So, what happened? Someone broke in with a poker and stabbed him to death?"

"There were no signs of forced entry," Wilson explained.

"Did your father get into many fights with people?"

The younger son found this amusing. "Just with us. He wanted to move into a nursing home. We didn't feel it was necessary."

"He wanted to go?" asked Wilson. This was certainly a switch.

"It's an expensive nursing home," volunteered the daughter. "He wanted to cash in his life insurance and use up his savings. It was a very selfish idea."

"I dropped over this morning," said Gary, the younger son. "Dad had already signed the papers. We argued about it, then I left. I called Jason and Jennifer."

"Right," said Jennifer. "Jason, Gary, and I decided we would come over as a group and try one last time. We got here just a few minutes ago."

"Can we see him?" Jason asked. There was a nervous timidity in his voice.

Sherman had been silent throughout the interview, but now he spoke up. "I think it would be fine for two of you to see the body. But one of you needs to answer a few more questions."

WHICH SUSPECT DOES SHERMAN WANT TO QUESTION?

WHAT CLUE MADE SHERMAN SUSPICIOUS?

Show Answer

The whodunit above was provided by American mystery fiction author Hy Conrad.

In addition to his work in mystery and crime puzzles, Hy was also one of the original writers for the groundbreaking TV series Monk.

Currently, Hy is working on mystery novel series "Abel Adventures" as well as the Monk series of novels, starting with Mr. Monk Helps Himself (published by Penguin, order from Amazon here)

Check out Hy's official website and Facebook page - and stay tuned for more whodunits puzzlers on Neatorama from the master of whodunit mysteries himself!

Poor little Buttons was an orphan, but fortunately, Farasyn Farm’s Wildlife Rescue in Oregon rescued the little gal and will be taking care of her until she is old enough to return to the wild on her own. In the meanwhile, that means we get all kinds of great photos of this adorable little babe.

Link

Mickey & Minnie's Wedding Salt & Pepper Shakers

Attention Disney fans! No you can celebrate the everlasting love of Mickey and Minnie Mouse with the Mickey & Minnie's Wedding Salt & Pepper shakers from the NeatoShop. This heart warming set is made of glazed ceramic and held together by magnets.

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

Link

This unnamed man was arrested for an undisclosed crime in Idaho. His appearance earned him a spot on The Smoking Gun's weekly mugshot roundup. Now you know, some guys get face tattoos to make a statement. Others consider it art. This guy, well, I think he just likes getting tattooed. Link -via Arbroath

Ukrainian designer Andrey Privalov made nothing but net with this shot. It's a lamp that he calls "Light Ball." Make sure that your friends don't try to dunk it.

Link -via NotCot

If the name didn't give it away, the Megaburgerpizza is a burger with two cheese pizzas subbing in for the boring old bun. The fast food monstrosity weighs in at an impressive 2.65 pounds and the Japanese treat will run you $26.

Link Via Food Beast

One of my favorite adages is "An uncluttered desk is the sign of an uncluttered mind." It appears to be true that a messy desk fosters creativity. Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota cites three experiments in which a neat or messy setting influenced a person's thinking process. In one experiment, 48 subjects were placed in either a neat or a messy room, and told to come up with creative uses for ping pong balls.

Two assistants rated each idea on a one-to-three scale (from not at all creative to very creative). After adding the scores, the researchers found that those who worked in the messy room were more creative overall, and came up with more highly creative ideas, than those who performed the same task in the neat room. On average, those working in the pristine environment came up with as many suggestions as those in the messy one; their ideas just weren’t as innovative.

“Being creative is aided by breaking away from tradition, order and convention,” Vohs and her colleagues conclude, “and a disorderly environment seems to help people do just that.”

An interesting observation here is that the subjects did not select whether their experimental environment was neat or messy, so a person's natural messiness or creativity did not come into play. And a neat desk has its advantages, too. Vohs tells us of other experiments in which people working in a neater environment tended to be more generous and to select more nutritious foods afterward. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Ali West)

(Image: University of Wisconsin-Platte)

Ask the Past is a delightful blog that conveys medieval advice to modern readers. For example, would you like to haze college freshmen? According to a Leipzig University statute promulgated in 1495, it is forbidden:

Statute Forbidding Any One to Annoy or Unduly Injure the Freshmen. Each and every one attached to this university is forbidden to offend with insult, torment, harass, drench with water or urine, throw on or defile with dust or any filth, mock by whistling, cry at them with a terrifying voice, or dare to molest in any way whatsoever physically or severely, any, who are called freshmen, in the market, streets, courts, colleges and living houses, or any place whatsoever, and particularly in the present college, when they have entered in order to matriculate or are leaving after matriculation.

Behave yourselves.

Link -via Marginal Revolution