Neatorama

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• Pot O' Gold So Lucky Salt & Pepper Shaker
• Hot Tub Boat
• Patrick Stewart in a Ball Pit
• A Pep Talk from Kid President to You
• The Beast Awakens
• Paragliding + Falconry = Parahawking
• Dollhouse Coffee Table
• Lincoln's Moods
• Here's To The Health Of Your Enemies' Enemies Flask
• Pop-Up Groundhog Day Cookies
• 5 Amazing Animal Navigators
• 17 Ways to Eat Beer
• Morals, Mammaries, and Medicine
• Gym for Fat People Only
• Father and Son
• Tiger Automaton Plays Music While Mauling a Man to Death
• Fantasia Symphony
• Giant Chainsaw Robot
• Enormous, High Resolution, Interactive Panoramic Photo of London at Dusk
• Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way to Navigate
• In Praise of Parking Meters
• What Time Is It? It's Pony Posting Time!
• This Week at Neatorama
• Shark Laundry Basket

Pot O' Gold So Lucky Salt & Pepper Shaker Posted: 27 Jan 2013 04:00 AM PST Pot O' Gold So Lucky Salt & Pepper Shaker  Are you in need of a little luck in the kitchen? You need the Pot O' Gold So Lucky Salt & Pepper Shaker from the NeatoShop. This enchanting set is stackable. The Pot O' Gold So Lucky Salt & Pepper Shaker set is perfect for those who seek a well seasoned meal at the end of their rainbow. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Salt & Pepper Shakers.  Link

Hot Tub Boat Posted: 27 Jan 2013 04:00 AM PST Photo: Cameron Zegers Swimming in the lake is so plebeian! As the one-percent saying goes, either go hot tubbing in the lake in a hot tub boat, or don't go hot tubbing in the lake at all. The Hot Tub Boat, which seats 6 people in a comfy 104°F water and boasts handcrafted teak deck, waterproof stereo system, and an electric motor to let you sail about the lake in style, costs a mere $42,000. But if you have to ask, then obviously you can't afford it. Link - via Technabob

Patrick Stewart in a Ball Pit Posted: 27 Jan 2013 02:00 AM PST How many lights do you see, Captain? Patrick Stewart's current Twitter profile picture shows him grinning in the face of Cardassian torture. Link -via reddit

A Pep Talk from Kid President to You Posted: 27 Jan 2013 12:00 AM PST (YouTube link) Soul Pancake has a video series featuring the delightful character Kid President. He has a pep talk to encourage you to become less boring and more awesome ("You're gooder than that."). Robert Frost may have taken the road less traveled, but this kid will take the one that leads to awesome! -via Viral Viral Videos

The Beast Awakens Posted: 26 Jan 2013 11:00 PM PST Nikita Nomerz has an ability that sets him out as a street artist: he can find the perfect setting to accentuate his paintings. These storage buildings in Tula, Russia, hide the entrance to a secret underground prison. Someone--something--is about to escape. Link | Artist's Website

Paragliding + Falconry = Parahawking Posted: 26 Jan 2013 10:00 PM PST Falconry is cool, but you know what's even better? Flying with the bird of prey, which is now a reality thanks to the sport of parahawking (previously on Neatorama). Check it out: YouTube Link YouTube Link Link: Parahawking official website

Dollhouse Coffee Table Posted: 26 Jan 2013 09:00 PM PST Your dolls are elegant, cultured and, most importantly, modern. They do not want some ranch house that looks like something set in a bourgeois suburb. No. They want the Qabis Haus, Amy Whitworth's stately home that doubles as a coffee table: The Qubis Haus draws inspiration from Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. When the kids are gone, it is a sophisticated multi-level coffee table of birch plywood. When the kids want to play, it transforms easily into a doll house with the addition of slide-in wood and perspex panels. You can view more pictures at the link. Link | Product Page

Lincoln's Moods Posted: 26 Jan 2013 08:00 PM PST Well waddaya know …if you fold Lincoln's portrait on a five dollar bill, you can see him looking like Henry Fonda with a Grumpy Cat frown. But look at the same Lincoln at a different angle, and he's smiling like a goofball. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

Here's To The Health Of Your Enemies' Enemies Flask Posted: 26 Jan 2013 07:00 PM PST Here's To The Health Of Your Enemies' Enemies Flask Are you gearing up to celebrate your favorite holiday. St. Patrick's Day will be here before you know it. Make sure you are prepared with the fantastic Here's To The Health Of Your Enemies' Enemies Flask from the NeatoShop. You truly don't have to be Irish to appreciate the wit and wisdom of a good Irish toast and blessing.  Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Barware & Cocktail items.  Link

Pop-Up Groundhog Day Cookies Posted: 26 Jan 2013 07:00 PM PST Groundhog Day is coming soon! What makes these cookies especially awesome for that holiday is that they're fully adjustable for Punxsutawney Phil's prediction about the weather. The cookie is a no-bake recipe centered around a hollow tube. Phil is a sculptued Tootsie Roll. Just push your finger through the hole to make Phil pop up. Link -via Tasteologie

5 Amazing Animal Navigators Posted: 26 Jan 2013 06:00 PM PST The story of Holly, the cat who came home from 200 miles away, is quite amazing. Scientists don't understand how she did it, although they have some ideas to explore. "Any animal that comes back to the right place after a long travel, or comes back to the same place again and again following a major movement, is amazing," said Martin Wikelski, a migration expert at the Max Planck Institute. (Read about great animal migrations in National Geographic magazine.) Many animals have a built-in magnetic system, "like a regular compass," said Wikelski, who is also a National Geographic emerging explorer. Wikelski tells us about five other animal species that are "super navigators" known to science, from eels to ants. Read about them at NatGeo News. Link  -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

17 Ways to Eat Beer Posted: 26 Jan 2013 05:00 PM PST Behold: beer-battered deep fried dill pickles. This marvel was made with horseradish, Dijon mustard, buttermilk and pilsner. It's one of seventeen delicious culinary works that use beer as a central ingredient. You can view the rest at the link. Link | Photo: Jesse Kimbal, Memphis Taproom

Morals, Mammaries, and Medicine Posted: 26 Jan 2013 04:00 PM PST A patient came to Dr. Laennec complaining of chest pains. The doctor knew he should listen to her heart, but that was difficult, as she was fat and had large breasts. After all, this was 1816. “Percussion and the application of the hand were of little avail,” Laennec wrote of the exam, “on account of the great degree of fatness.” Putting his ear right up to her chest was also “rendered inadmissible” by the Catholic bachelor’s social unease at putting his head that close to a young woman’s bosom. He later said of examining female patients that, “direct auscultation was as uncomfortable for the doctor as it was for the patient…It was hardly suitable where most women were concerned and, with some, the very size of their breasts was a physical obstacle to the employment of this method.” So what could he do? Invent the stethoscope, of course! Read the story of how he did it at mental_floss. Link

Gym for Fat People Only Posted: 26 Jan 2013 03:00 PM PST Photo: Downsize Fitness Want to lose weight but feel uncomfortable in a gym filled with fit people? Thirty-nine year old Francis Wisniewski of Downsize Fitness has the solution: a gym that's open only to fat people. ... the gym chain [...] only accepts clients who are at least 50lbs overweight. With branches in Chicago, Las Vegas and Dallas, the gym chain was inspired by the hit TV show The Biggest Loser, and aims to reduce the insecurities that larger people go through at regular gyms. So the only skinny people allowed at Downsize Fitness are the trainers. And it doesn’t stop just there. The gym has gone a great length to ensure that its clients do not feel bad about themselves and stay motivated to come back every day. The facility has no mirrors lining the walls, and the windows are frosted so that passers-by cannot look inside. The machines are also specifically designed to suit those who are chronically overweight and obese. Read more over at Oddity Central: Link

Father and Son Posted: 26 Jan 2013 02:00 PM PST The title of this picture is "I know a good dad when I see one." Redditor resgestae always has his camera with him, and caught this wonderful shot in a Home Depot store. Okay, now who's going to make a movie out of this one? Link

Tiger Automaton Plays Music While Mauling a Man to Death Posted: 26 Jan 2013 01:00 PM PST The Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore from 1782-1799, adopted the tiger as his royal symbol. He fought many battles against the British throughout his reign. So after a particularly painful defeat against the British: He ordered the walls of houses in Seringapatam to be painted with scenes of tigers mauling Europeans. Live tigers were kept in the city and there were stories of prisoners thrown into the tiger-pits. Tipu must have been intrigued by a news item widely reported in India and Britain in 1793, only months after he had been compelled to sign the hated Treaty of Seringapatam. A young Englishman out shooting near Calcutta had been carried off by 'an immense riyal tiger...four and a half feet high and nine long', sustaining fatal injuries. The victim was the only son of General Sir Hector Munro, who had been concerned in a crushing defeat inflicted on Haidar and Tipu in the second Mysore War. The death of young Munro delighted the Tipu Sultan, so he commissioned the creation of this macabre automaton. The Tipu Tiger, as it is known today, was damaged by a German air raid during World War II. But when it was fully functional, turning the crank would cause the tiger roar and the Munro's left arm to flail about. Link -via The Oddment Emporium | Photo: Victoria & Albert Museum

Fantasia Symphony Posted: 26 Jan 2013 12:00 PM PST Fantasia Symphony Are you a huge fan of the 1940's animated film Fantasia? You are going to love the Fantasia Symphony collectible figurine from the NeatoShop. This highly detailed and hand-painted sculpture is part of the Jim Shore's Disney Traditions collection. The piece includes characters representing many of the animated segments that make up this classic Disney film. Front and center is Mickey Mouse as The Sorcerer's Apprentice.   Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Disney items.  Link

Giant Chainsaw Robot Posted: 26 Jan 2013 12:00 PM PST (YouTube link) The nightmare combination of words would make a decent movie title: Giant Chainsaw Robot, coming soon to the SyFy channel! KUKA, a company that markets industrial robots, shows off the talents of its chainsaw robot by programming it to cut one section of a log into two complete stools at once. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords, because otherwise things could get dangerous. -via Geekosystem

Enormous, High Resolution, Interactive Panoramic Photo of London at Dusk Posted: 26 Jan 2013 11:00 AM PST Atop the 95-storey skyscraper known as The Shard, Will Pearson captured an amazing photo of all of London at dusk. At the link, you can manipulate the image by zooming and panning. Pearson writes: Technically this was a very difficult shoot, I was on the crane at the top of the Shard, and I had to wave at Andy the crane driver so he knew when he could rotate 45 degrees between the exposures. The temperatures were well below freezing and if you look in the distance behind Canary Wharf you will see the snow on the hills.  Link -via David Thompson

Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way to Navigate Posted: 26 Jan 2013 10:00 AM PST Ancient mariners aren't the only ones that used the stars to navigate. It turns out that the lowly dung beetle does as well when it rolls its ball of muck in a Moonless night: Dung beetles like to run in straight lines. When they find a pile of droppings, they shape a small ball and start pushing it away to a safe distance where they can eat it, usually underground. Getting a good bearing is important because unless the insect rolls a direct course, it risks turning back towards the dung pile where another beetle will almost certainly try to steal its prized ball. Dr Dacke had previously shown that dung beetles were able to keep a straight line by taking cues from the Sun, the Moon, and even the pattern of polarised light formed around these light sources. But it was the animals' capacity to maintain course even on clear Moonless nights that intrigued the researcher. Jonathan Amos of the BBC explains how beetles navigate using the stars: Link

In Praise of Parking Meters Posted: 26 Jan 2013 09:00 AM PST Americans are so dependent on cars compared with the rest of the world that parking meters are often seen (or remembered) as an annoyance -and good riddance when they go! But the more you know about them, the more interesting the story is. Parking meters were developed to aid traffic flow and actually make spaces easier to find. The original philosophy behind the meters went awry when businesses and city planners veered from the master plan with alternatives that gave rise to the driver's idea that parking, and later free parking, was a right instead of a privilege. Collector's Weekly traces the history of city parking with the help of Donald Shoup, author of The High Cost of Free Parking, and Jeff Speck, author of Walkable Cities. According to Speck, “people who walk, bike, or take transit are bankrolling those who drive. In so doing, they are making driving cheaper and thus more prevalent, which in turn undermines the quality of walking, biking, and taking transit.” Furthermore, our plethora of free parking resulted in a range of negative consequences still unaccounted for: “The social costs of not charging for curb parking—traffic congestion, air pollution, accidents, wasted time, and wasted fuel—are enormous,” writes Shoup. However, there is no longer any consistency in the use of meters. Many American cities that use them still have coin-fed machines that are so underpriced as to be useless, while others don't use them at all. Meanwhile, Europe is leading the way with hi-tech systems that actually work in the intended manner for reducing traffic congestion. Read all about the purpose and problems of metered parking at Collector's Weekly. Link (Image credit: John Vachon)

What Time Is It? It's Pony Posting Time! Posted: 26 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST This clock made by Deviantart member madcomputerscientist reminds us of an important life lesson: now is always the right time to post ponies. Or as the wise Jean-Luc Picard put it: Seize the time, Meribor. Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again. In the comments, post ponies. We have but a finite time in this life. Make now the time to post ponies. Link

This Week at Neatorama Posted: 26 Jan 2013 07:00 AM PST One of the weird things about working on the internet is that, while I know what's going on with the weather in Europe, I can be oblivious about what's happening outside my door. Thursday night I got an email from the school that classes were cancelled Friday. What? Friday morning, my town was covered in a sheet of ice. Outside of not having to pack lunches, it didn't affect me at all. Just another perk of stepping through a door from the bedroom to the office. I love this job. Let's recap what's happened this past week at Neatorama. The Big Top's Top Ten was a list of the most popular circus acts ever, courtesy of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Postal Experiments. How far can you go mailing "out of the box"? 10 Jobs You Didn't Hear About On Career Day came from mental_floss magazine. We've been experimenting with a few new things; one idea is to give you more exclusive Bathroom Reader articles in bite-size form. Last week, we had Survey Says and Musicians' Occupational Hazards, which didn't take but a minute to read. Look for more of those next week. The Tokyoflash Treasure Hunt #23 is still open for your entry -give it a shot to win a Tokyoflash watch or gifts from the NeatoShop! In the What Is It? game, the picture is of a a lantern shield, it was in use during the Italian Renaissance (15th and 16th century Italy). Its defining feature is a small circular shield with a hook on the back from which to hang a lantern, its light shining through the hole was intended to blind the opponent at night or in duels fought at dawn. The first one with the correct answer was Berhard, who wins a t-shirt for his efforts! The funniest answer of the week came from Blow and Dry LLC, who said, "It is a blame deflector, used by both houses of Congress, and by both political parties. The example shown is for a leftie." That's certainly worth a t-shirt! You really should go to the contest page and read all the funny guesses. See the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog. The liveliest comment thread of the week was Should We Stop Using the Singular "They"? That was followed by Subway's 11-inch Footlong®, The Citadel: Doomsday Prepper Paradise, and Can a Library be Bookless? You can still contribute to those conversations, or if you're in a hurry, just leave ♥s on the comments you like or agree with. The most-viewed posts of the past week were Brooklyn Toile by Beastie Boys' Mike D, followed by Postal Experiments and How a Key Works. And though it's hard to gauge from week to week, I love how people keep coming back to some of our old classics years later, like the 30 Strangest Animal Mating Habits and the 10 Most Magnificent Trees in the World. Over at Neatorama's Facebook page, it's like a parallel world, with extra stuff you won't find here and plenty of input from Neatoramanauts. This picture caught my attention, because I had considered writing an article about everyday objects my kids don't know at all, starting with a percolator. Plenty of people still use these …for camping trips. I recall my dad going over and over the necessary steps in the fine art of coffee making when I was young, neither of us having any clue that the knowledge would be obsolete by the time I grew up. Be sure to check out Facebook every day so you don't miss anything!   We have a bunch of interesting stuff at Pinterest, too. Of 14 boards, it's weird to look around and see how many times I've pinned something on the wrong board… it's a good thing I'm not the only one contributing!   We're entering February next week, the shortest month with the most holidays. Next weekend we have Groundhog Day and Super Bowl Sunday, then Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, and Valentines Day all happen in the same week, and then there's Presidents Day, because celebrating Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's birthday separately just put too much strain on an already-overwhelmed calendar. Still, it's nice to have lots of rituals and celebrations to get us through that last winter month. The only real gift-giving occasion is Valentine's Day, and you can make that easy on yourself by ordering your sweetheart something unique from the NeatoShop!

Shark Laundry Basket Posted: 26 Jan 2013 06:00 AM PST You're going to need a bigger washing machine. Jolanta Uczarczyk's laundry hamper will swallow every stitch of clothing you own. It's made of felt and hunger. Link -via Ian Brooks

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