Neatorama

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• Frog Fuzzy Friends Slippers
• Fish Sticks & Custard That Everyone Can Enjoy
• How to Ship Cookies and Other Treats for the Holidays
• This Galek Must Really Hate Doctor Nermal
• Elephant Custody Dispute
• The Season's Upon Us
• Tony Stark is Tin Man
• Motopia
• You've Never Seen A Fart This Cute Before
• Unboxing the Cat
• Honda Toaster
• Surrender Dorothy Waterball - Wizard of Oz
• The Best Literary Quotes Ever Tattooed
• Egg Cooked Inside a Potato
• Sky Stack
• Amazing Mosaics Made from Sand and Seashells
• Literal Cake Instructions
• The Technical Challenges of Planting a US Flag on the Moon
• Norman Rockwell's Batman
• Real Life Cookie Monster Want Cookie!
• Santa Rides a Christmas Bike
• Bacon Lovers Gift Guide
• Extreme Chores Prank Gift Box
• Dogwalker Stops for Play Break
• A Small Ghost Annoys The Narrator
• Neatorama 'Pin To Win' Contest - Holiday Edition
• Smokin' Auto
• Museum of American Packaging

Frog Fuzzy Friends Slippers Posted: 10 Dec 2012 04:00 AM PST Frog Fuzzy Friends Slippers Haven't started your holiday shopping yet? You better hop to it! Time is running out to get your favorite amphibian lover their very own pair of Frog Fuzzy Slippers from the NeatoShop. This great gift will have them jumping for joy.   Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Footwear! Link

Fish Sticks & Custard That Everyone Can Enjoy Posted: 10 Dec 2012 04:00 AM PST It takes a special kind of time traveler to enjoy fish sticks and custard together, but when you make cookies that look like fish sticks, it's a whole different story. Link

How to Ship Cookies and Other Treats for the Holidays Posted: 10 Dec 2012 03:00 AM PST If you've ever received a box of Christmas treats that were stale or reduced to crumbs, then you know how disappointing it can be. If you're mailing homemade cookies, cake, or other treats across the country, do it right! Chow tells you how to package and ship goodies, but first, make sure you've selected the right cookies. Unless you are spending big bucks to ship with an overnight service, plan to mail baked goods that will taste fresh and stay crisp for about a week. "When you bake at home, you don't think about shelf life," says Jenna Park, co-owner of Whimsy & Spice bakery in Brooklyn, New York. "But definitely for shipping you have to." You don't want to ship any cookie or baked good that won't hold up for three to five days sitting around your house in the container you plan to ship in. Not sure? Do a test batch and see what happens.   And there's a bonus: shipping deadlines for various carriers. Link -via Metafilter

This Galek Must Really Hate Doctor Nermal Posted: 10 Dec 2012 02:00 AM PST I don't know about you guys, but I want to see this turned into a regular strip. Best of all, iI think everyone can relate to wanting to exterminate Mondays. Link

Elephant Custody Dispute Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:00 AM PST A new baby elephant was born Friday at the Oregon Zoo. The calf, a female, is doing fine so far. But animal rights activists discovered that although the mother belongs to the zoo, the actual owner of the yet-unnamed baby is  the private elephant ranch Have Trunk Will Travel. That discovery sparked such an outcry that the zoo felt compelled to call a press conference. Why the outcry? Coincidentally or not, the Seattle Times published an investigative series the same weekend the yet-to-be-named calf took her first bites of hay. The series’ thesis: pachyderms in captivity die way too often. And one of those stories was about this particular baby, the offspring of Rose-Tu (mom) and Tusko (dad.) About how that baby might be yanked away from her big gray loving mom at some point and shipped off to do tricks for Have Trunk Will Travel, which animal-rights activists accuse of abusing elephants. Turns out, Have Trunk Will Travel actually owns that little baby elephant, Rumpelstiltskin style. The company also owns Rose-Tu’s fourth offspring, and her sixth. And that means the company has the right to take her away. The agreement came about because Have Trunk Will Travel owns the baby's father, Tusko, which was loaned to the zoo for its breeding program. The show may never claim her, but activists don't want to take any chances. Read more about the complicated deal at The Daily Beast. Link (Image credit: (Michael Durham/Oregon Zoo)

The Season's Upon Us Posted: 10 Dec 2012 12:00 AM PST (YouTube link) Family is family, no matter how nutty they are. Christmas family togetherness is accurately described  in "The Season's Upon Us," the first single from the new Dropkick Murphys album SIGNED and SEALED in BLOOD. The album will be released January 8th. -via Daily of the Day

Tony Stark is Tin Man Posted: 09 Dec 2012 11:00 PM PST Tin Man has an arc reactor for a heart. And an axe. Watch him chop a path to the Wicked Witch of the West so that Dorothy can melt her. This Quiddlebee comic imagines the greatest possible reboot of the Oz story: Dorothy and crew as the Avengers. Link -via Comics Alliance

Motopia Posted: 09 Dec 2012 10:00 PM PST In 1960, British architect Geoffrey Alan Jellicoe proposed the city of the future for suburban London. Motopia was to be a residential town with all roadways elevated to the tops of the buildings. The ground was to be reserved for pedestrians -with moving sidewalks. He even had plans to insulate the overhead roadways to stifle traffic noise! Planned for construction about 17 miles west of London with an estimated cost of about $170 million, Motopia was a bold—if somewhat impractical plan—for a city built from the ground up. The town was envisioned as being able to have a population of 30,000, all living in a grid-pattern of buildings with an expanse of rooftop motorways in the sky. There would be schools, shops, restaurants, churches and theaters all resting on a total footprint of about 1,000 acres. The biggest draw of the plan was that people never had to worry about being hit by a car. However, we all know that some drivers don't stay on the roadway, and being squashed by a falling car is even more terrifying than being hit by one. Motopia was never built, but you can read more about what could have been at Paleofuture. Link

You've Never Seen A Fart This Cute Before Posted: 09 Dec 2012 09:26 PM PST (Video Link) Toot! Toot! Here's the iguana fart train. The best part is that it actually seems to push the little guy up in the air a little. Via Pets Lady

Unboxing the Cat Posted: 09 Dec 2012 09:00 PM PST (YouTube link) That's a nice gift to open, but the cat did not want to be unboxed! -via Buzzfeed

Honda Toaster Posted: 09 Dec 2012 08:00 PM PST The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum in Madison, Georgia is the world's largest collection of tiny cars. It's auctioning off its collection of microcars and microcar memorabilia, including this adorable Honda toaster. Unlike other items, this one is full size. It just won't move under its own power. Link -via Nag on the Lake

Surrender Dorothy Waterball - Wizard of Oz Posted: 09 Dec 2012 07:00 PM PST Surrender Dorothy Waterball - The Wizard of Oz The holidays are almost here. Have you got a gift for Auntie Em, Dorothy, and that little dog too? Not to worry. The NeatoShop has you covered. Scratch that Wizard of Oz fan off your list with the enchanting The Wizard of Oz Surrender Dorothy Waterball. The Wizard of Oz Surrender Dorothy Waterball is a highly detailed collectible figurine featuring the Wicked Witch of the West gazing into her crystal ball. Her trusted flying monkey is perched eagerly on the side. Inside the ball are the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Dorothy, and the Cowardly Lion. The piece is a Jim Shore design.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Wizard of Oz items.  Link

The Best Literary Quotes Ever Tattooed Posted: 09 Dec 2012 07:00 PM PST One can assume these quotes must really have a deep meaning, as least for the one person who decided to keep each one forever. The tat shown is from Catcher in the Rye. I hope she recalls the meaning behind it long enough to explain it to her grandchildren. See more literary quotes as tattoos at Flavorwire. Link

Egg Cooked Inside a Potato Posted: 09 Dec 2012 06:00 PM PST Sara Wells has a great way to make eggs and potatoes elegant. First, bake the potatoes. Then hollow them out, add eggs, bacon bits and cheese. Then bake them again to have delicious eggs cooked right inside. Link -via Justine Kaempfer

Sky Stack Posted: 09 Dec 2012 05:00 PM PST The German design studio asdfg architekten wrapped reflective bands around a smokestack in Kassel, Germany. The five bands reflect the sky around it, creating the illusion that the upper sections of the chimney are floating. See more pictures at designboom. Link -via The Daily What

Amazing Mosaics Made from Sand and Seashells Posted: 09 Dec 2012 04:00 PM PST Svetlana Ivanchenko, an artist from Ukraine, composes her mosaics from items that she can find on the beach. Her use of sand and shells to make seascapes is particularly striking. Link -via Amusing Planet | Artist's Website

Literal Cake Instructions Posted: 09 Dec 2012 03:00 PM PST When you tell the bakery what you want on the cake, there's always the possibility that they will jot down every word you say. It's always best to write it down yourself, which is difficult over the phone, or even by text. Cake Wrecks has nine such literal cakes in the latest collection. Yes, these are just the latest submissions, because this sort of thing happens all the time. Link

The Technical Challenges of Planting a US Flag on the Moon Posted: 09 Dec 2012 02:00 PM PST American flag on the moon. Like everything else in the Apollo 11 program, the construction, transportation and raising of the American flag on the moon was carefully thought out and planned. In 1992, Anne M. Platoff presented a paper to the annual conference of the American Vexillological Association on the topic. She covered in detail how NASA engineers ensured that the flag planting went smoothly: Work on the lunar flag assembly began about three months prior to the Apollo 11 mission. Robert Gilruth, Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) (footnote 8) and a member of the Committee on Symbolic Activities, asked Jack Kinzler, Chief of Technical Services Division at MSC, for ideas regarding the EVA. Kinzler suggested that a full-size U.S. flag could be deployed using a specially designed flagpole. He drew up a preliminary sketch (Fig. 2) and the idea was presented to the committee. Working with Deputy Division Chief Dave McCraw, he worked out the details of the lunar flag assembly over several days. The design was based on a number of engineering constraints. For example, to compensate for the lack of an atmosphere on the lunar surface, the flag assembly included a horizontal crossbar to give the illusion of a flag flying in the breeze. (footnote 9)  Two other major constraints were the weight of the assembly and the stowage space required. The team designed the entire assembly to be as lightweight as possible -- when completed it weighed only 9 pounds and 7 ounces. They reduced the size of the package by developing a two-part telescoping pole apparatus with a telescoping crossbar. It was also necessary to design a flagpole that could be easily assembled and deployed by astronauts wearing space suits. Space suits used for the lunar surface EVA were pressurized to approximately 3.7 pounds per square inch and, as a result, the amount of force that the astronauts could apply with their gloved hands was limited and their range of movement was restricted (Fig. 3).  Link -via Ace of Spades HQ | Photos: NASA

Norman Rockwell's Batman Posted: 09 Dec 2012 01:00 PM PST Mark Dos Santos created a series of prints evoking the style of Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers, except this is the Gotham Evening Post and the subjects are Batman characters! Some are available at for sale, and you can see large versions at Buzzfeed. Link

Real Life Cookie Monster Want Cookie! Posted: 09 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST Cookie Monster got tired of waiting for cookies to mysteriously appear on his table, so he hit the nearest grocery store and scored enough to tide him over for a few hours. Chips Ahoy wouldn't have been my first choice but Cookie was probably going for quantity and not quality... Link

Santa Rides a Christmas Bike Posted: 09 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST Dr. Peter Terren of Bunbury, Australia, went all out for Christmas a couple of years ago with a Christmas bike with the "world's most powerful bicycle lights." At around the same brightness as 10 standard car headlights, it is far too bright to be allowed on the road. Peter explains that he has used the latest modern light emitting diode technology. These LEDs are a huge 100 watts each and he uses 18 of them, each with it's own cooling fan. The resulting 100,000 lumens of light power is many times more powerful than any other bike light and is being considered by Guinness World Records. Put another way, it is like having 5000 small LED flashlights on your bike. But hey, there's more! Peter has included coloured LEDs to enable any combination of colours from the front or rear lights. Not exactly what Santa needs to stealthily sneak into your home on Christmas Eve, but it will for sure spread Christmas cheer -and wake the neighbors! See more pictures at Tesla Down Under. Link-Thanks, Peter!

Bacon Lovers Gift Guide Posted: 09 Dec 2012 10:00 AM PST The holiday season is here. Are you craving unique and unusual gift ideas? Below are some deliciously satisfying suggestions for your favorite Bacon lover.  1. Bacon Candy Cane These might look like ordinary candy canes, but they are actually bacon flavored candy canes. That's right! Forget Peppermint! The flavor of the season is bacon, bacon, and more bacon. Yum! Buy it here: Bacon Candy Cane 2. Jumbo Bacon Candy Cane That bacon candy cane above not big enough for you? Don't worry, we've got you covered with this next one: Jumbo Bacon Candy Cane. Same great bacon flavor in super jumbo size! Available over at the NeatoShop here: Jumbo Bacon Candy Cane 3. Bacon Wallet This smok'in hot wallet is designed to look like deliciuos strips of uncooked bacon. We know how great bacon and lettuce go together, this wallet has lots of storage for cold hard cash.  Get it here: Bacon Wallet 4. Bacon Socks Forget wearing your heart on your sleeve. Wear your heart on your feet with the delectable Bacon Socks. This fun pair of knee-high socks fits both men and women.  Get it here: Bacon Socks 5. Bacon and Eggs Scarf Keep away that winter chill with a scrumptious Bacon and Eggs Scarf. Who knew bacon could be such a tasteful accessory? Get it here: Bacon and Eggs Scarf 6. Pig Animails Forget Christmas cards. Send out Pig Animals to the favorite people on your holiday card list. The little pig comes blank. Write message, address him, and throw on some stamps. No box necessary. Whoever gets this little piggy will be squealing with happiness.    Get it here: Pig Animails 7. Pig Fuzzy Friends Slippers Is a little relaxation in order after a hard day of brining home the bacon? Slip those tired tootsies into a pair of super comfy Pig Fuzzy Friends slippers.  Get it here:  Pig Fuzzy Friends Slippers 8. Bacon Candy Cane Necklace Can't afford to adorn your beloved in jewels? Give her the next best thing with the Bacon Candy Necklace. This eible necklace is fit for a queen. Your baconista will love it!  Buy is here: Bacon Candy Cane Necklace Still not quite sure what to get your bacon lover? Be sure to check out the NeatoShop's Bacon Store for even more great Bacon stuff.

Extreme Chores Prank Gift Box Posted: 09 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST Extreme Chores Prank Gift Box - $7.95 The holiday season is here. That means it's time to toy with the emotions of the people you love by hiding fabulous gifts in prank gift boxes like the Extreme Chores Prank Gift Box from the NeatoShop. With this fantastic empty box you can make everyone think you actually bought a video game about doing household chores.   Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Gag Gifts & Pranks.  Link

Dogwalker Stops for Play Break Posted: 09 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST (YouTube link) At first it appears that young Arthur is walking the dog, but then it becomes clear that Watson is babysitting. That's a good dog. And the music for this video is perfect. -via Arbroath

A Small Ghost Annoys The Narrator Posted: 09 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST Don't you hate it when a ghost gets in your house and starts messing with your stuff?! It's even worse when you're trying to tell a story and that little ectoplasmic nuisance keeps blocking your view! So annoying... Link  --via Tastefully Offensive

Neatorama 'Pin To Win' Contest - Holiday Edition Posted: 09 Dec 2012 07:40 AM PST This is going to be FUN for Pinterest members (established and new)! -- Something we tried before with some success, so thought another was in order, only with a Holiday slant. So here's how it works: 1) Put together a wishlist board of items from the Neatoshop - stuff you really want, badly (minimum 5 items, but no max) 2) Be as creative as possible when coming up with a name for your board, or a theme for your wishlist - just try to tie it back to the Holiday season in some way shape or form. 3) Add the hashtag #NeatoPinToWinHOLIDAYS to each and every item you pin to that board 4) Follow us on Pintererst! 5) Close your eyes and wish really hard for something on your wishlist! The Neatorama editors will get together a week from today and pick a few items from a few boards and put them in the mail to you. Bonus points for funny or otherwise well-thought-out themes and creative board titles that make us smile.  Here's a sample board we put together, just in case you're new to Pinterest and have no idea what we're talking about. Note that the Elmo backpack is pinned correctly, with #NeatoPinToWin, while the zombie foot dog toy is not. Oh, and in case you missed it, here are the winners from the last Pin To Win contest.

Smokin' Auto Posted: 09 Dec 2012 07:00 AM PST This vehicle was spotted in the Walmart parking lot in Norman, Oklahoma. Although you would be forgiven if you assumed it was in Toon Town. Link

Museum of American Packaging Posted: 09 Dec 2012 06:00 AM PST Allen, who goes by the Flickr name Roadsidepictures, has quite a collection of photographs of vintage product packaging from most of the 20th century. Looking through these will surprise you (with items before your time) and bring back memories (with items you recall vividly). Surely I'm not the only one who remembers back when Tang came in metal cans! Link -via Metafilter (Image credit: Flickr user Roadsidepictures)

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