Neatorama

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• Astronomical Clocks – Literally and Metaphorically
• Virtual Cow Butt
• 6 People Who Faked Their Own Death (For Ridiculous Reasons)
• Anthropomorphic Foods
• Explore the Victoria and Albert Museum Online
• The Secret of Eating Chicken Wings
• Martian Landscape
• Scheming Homeless, Parking Mafia, and Meter Fairy: Just Another Day in Miami's Parking Hell
• Paranormal Goat
• The Golden Age of Video
• Invisible Lion Cages

Astronomical Clocks – Literally and Metaphorically Posted: 07 Nov 2009 09:04 PM PST Astronomical clocks – amazing works of engineering that are sometimes six hundred years old – can be found throughout the world.  Europe, however, has the lion’s share.  Here are some of the more remarkable examples of the form. To say that this clock is astronomical is, perhaps, stating the obvious. Another word that might describe the Prague Orloj is exquisite. The first and perhaps most astonishing fact about this astronomical clock is that it was finished and in place in 1410, over eighty years before Columbus made his voyage of discovery to the Americas. The first thing that draws the eye is the dial at the center of the clock which shows the positions of the moon and the sun. What makes the Orloj a magnet for visitors to the Czech city is the clockwork show of the figures of the apostles, which on the hour parade themselves. There are other moving sculptures too – plus a dial which pitted with medallions which represent the months of the years. Link From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.

Virtual Cow Butt Posted: 07 Nov 2009 09:02 PM PST Veterinarians have no choice when they need to check a cow for pregnancy or infection. The standard procedure is to stick your arm up the cow’s rectum. The technique is difficult to teach to veterinary students because, well, it’s dark in there. That's why veterinarian and computer scientist Sarah Baillie has created the "Haptic Cow," a virtual, touch-feedback device that mimics the feeling of real bovine anatomy, placed inside a fiberglass model of a cow's rear end. "With this technology, students can feel something that feels like the inside of a real cow, but I or another instructor can be following their movements on a monitor," said Baillie, who teaches at the Royal Veterinary College in London. "This means we can say, 'Come back a bit or go left a bit.' It actually means you can direct them." Not only can professors follow a student's exact movements and critique the technique, but they can also keep track of how much force is being applied. If a fledgling vet gets too rough and exceeds the number of Newtons considered safe by experienced vets, virtual Bessie will belt out a cautionary "Moo-oo!" Link (image credit: Sarah Baillie/Royal Veterinary College)

6 People Who Faked Their Own Death (For Ridiculous Reasons) Posted: 07 Nov 2009 08:58 PM PST Faking your death is not simple or to be taken lightly. A few people thought it was the easy way out of a difficult situation, or just a cool stunt to pull off. Read about the woman who faked her death because she found it too hard to break up with her boyfriend, or the guy who wanted to see how many people would come to the funeral, or the one who disappeared for years because of a mistaken idea. Link -via Gorilla Mask

Anthropomorphic Foods Posted: 07 Nov 2009 08:56 PM PST (YouTube link) Which is better, a fresh apricot or a dried apricot? The way they argue, nothing will be settled. This is just one example of a series of talking food ads to promote the Supercooks program from the British Food Standards Agency. See sausages, potatoes, nuts, and more discuss their virtues at Eat Me Daily. Link -via Everlasting Blort

Explore the Victoria and Albert Museum Online Posted: 07 Nov 2009 04:07 PM PST The V&A is, of course, one of the world’s premier museums of design and decorative arts.  They have recently announced that over a million items from their collections are now accessible online. People using Search the Collections… will find images of more than 100,000 objects… The online records vary from detailed studies written by curators to more basic inventory information which might include the maker, provenance, production technique and style… Users explore the site by clicking on images that scroll across the screen or by accessing the powerful search engine that identifies objects by type, maker, date, material or location in the V&A. Google maps show places of origin. Text mining technologies also allow searching of all the text associated with an object so for the first time researchers are able to move from one theme to another. The example shown above is a board game from 1804 – “The New Game of Emulation Designed for The Amusement of Youth of both Sexes and calculated to inspire their Minds with an abhorrence of vice and a love of virtue.”  It was marketed as a morality game designed to lead children “to admire and adopt the virtues of Obedience, Truth, Honesty, Gentleness, Industry, Frugality, Forgiveness, Carefulness, Mercy, and Humility; and to view in their real colours the opposite vices of Obstinacy, Falsehood, Robbery, Passion, Sloth, Intemperance, Malice, Neglect, Cruelty and Pride.”  It is one of hundreds of games in the “games” category of the online collection. Link, via.

The Secret of Eating Chicken Wings Posted: 07 Nov 2009 09:35 AM PST After all these years of eating chicken wings, it turns out that I’ve been doing it all wrong! Chef John of Food Wishes reveals the secret of eating a flat wing: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube clip]

Martian Landscape Posted: 07 Nov 2009 09:34 AM PST Photo: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Alan Taylor’s excellent photoblog The Big Picture over at Boston.com has a really nifty collection of images of the Martian landscape: Since 2006, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been orbiting Mars, currently circling approximately 300 km (187 mi) above the Martian surface. On board the MRO is HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which has been photographing the planet for several years now at resolutions as fine as mere inches per pixel. Collected here is a group of images from HiRISE over the past few years, in either false color or grayscale, showing intricate details of landscapes both familiar and alien, from the surface of our neighboring planet, Mars. I invite you to take your time looking through these, imagining the settings – very cold, dry and distant, yet real. Link

Scheming Homeless, Parking Mafia, and Meter Fairy: Just Another Day in Miami's Parking Hell Posted: 07 Nov 2009 09:33 AM PST One thing I like about living (and working) in the ‘burbs is that not having to fight for cheap parking or pay through the nose for expensive spots. Not so for people in Miami. Apparently, the scarcity of parking there has created much violence, a cottage industry involving the homeless, parking mafia and even a "magical meter fairy." Gus Garcia-Roberts from the Miami New Times explains: In 2004, Kendall native Xavier Cortes was a 37-year-old out-of-work actor in desperate need of a gig. Opportunity came in the classified pages of this newspaper, where an advertisement sought "an extroverted, fun individual, male or female, who knows how to ride rollerblades and isn’t afraid to wear a tutu." Cortes immediately answered the ad. He was hired by the Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce. He donned a hot-pink wig and matching tutu, carried a wand, and began each shift with $40 in dimes. For his wage of ten dollars an hour, paid each day by a different Grove business, Cortes skated through the neighborhood putting coins in meters that were about to expire. He left a calling card tucked under windshield wipers. "You’ve just been saved by the Coconut Grove parking-meter fairy," it read, and included a coupon to the business that had donated the dimes. Cortes’s new occupation was the counterattack strategy employed by Grove business owners who felt under siege by MPA enforcement officers scaring away customers. [...] Cortes was catcalled by construction workers and berated by teenagers, but to the Grovites who understood his purpose, he was a hero worthy of tips, cigarettes, and free meals. Soon though, he says, a cold war developed between him and MPA officers. "They would try to intimidate me, telling me it was illegal to feed another person’s meter," he recalls. "They’d try to figure out my routes and shifts. I’d see them hiding behind walls spying on me. It got ugly, and it went all the way to the top of the MPA." Link (Photo: C. Stiles)

Paranormal Goat Posted: 07 Nov 2009 09:32 AM PST How do you improve the runaway sleeper hit Paranormal Activity, which was made on a budget of $15,000 and has grossed nearly $90 million so far? Add goats. Yahoo’s Buzz Log has the clever mash-up of the movie’s ads with a few ungulates, which is a spoof trailer for The Men Who Stare At Goats: Link [embedded YouTube clip]

The Golden Age of Video Posted: 07 Nov 2009 09:30 AM PST [YouTube Video Clip] - via reddit If you only saw one YouTube clip today, make it this one. Here's The Golden Age of Video by Ricardo Autobahn, made from movie clips (which ones? David Glover got them all figured out). We Came, We Saw, We Kicked Its Ass. Indeed. Lyrics, from YouTube submitter slipknotskate1: 1,2,1,2,3,4 We accept her, one of us, we accept her, one of us! Gooble gobble gooble gobble! We accept her, we accept her! We accept her, one of us, we accept her, one of us! Gooble gobble gooble gobble! We accept her, we accept her! (We-we) we came, we saw, we kicked it's ass, I was testing you - and you passed, Dental plan! Lisa needs braces, Be required to fart on a regular basis, I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse, Channel 13 - Eyewitness news! Robocop, who is he? Dead or alive you're coming with me. In a hurry to be fed, beady eyes and big blue head. I'm telling the truth Doc, you gotta believe me, Why does everything I whip leave me? My beautiful chocolate! Candy is dandy, Fava beans and a nice Chianti, You can count on Slippery Pete, Suicide will be nice and neat! I didn't build the Panama canal, Open the pod bay doors please, HAL, These aren't the droids you're looking for, These aren't the droids we're looking for, I am not a number I am a free man! Rosebud. To The Idiotmobile! Right away Michael, I-I-I-I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass, You don't understand I coulda had class, Round and tasty on a bun, Ooh Zippy look what you've done! Finally! Cast off those lines! No, I've been nervous lots of times, Red Rum! What's the matter honey? Just robbed Boss Hogg all of his money! We came, saw, we kicked it's ass, Writing checks your body can't cash, I was elected to lead, not read, I feel the need - the need for speed, Watch out for snakes, a good man's loafer, HQ - my hat looks like a muffin - over, My god it's full of stars, There was no driver in the car.. In the car (repeat) Well you see I'm in hot pursuit! There are only two things I love in this world - everybody and television! #The Simpsons #Run With Us! Ugh - you must be shrooming, Wait for me Moomin! Cross live to meet the host of that show, Meat Boy, I want to go to there. We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass, An oil tycoon - like a.. moustache, Nice beaver! I just had it stuffed, I don't give a shit, close enough, Where's me washboard? I'll get me coat, Y-y-y-you're gonna need a bigger boat, What'd she say? I think she bought it, Suck it monkeys! I'm goin' corporate! C'mon let's take a drive! A drive? Number 5 is alive! It's only a laugh, no harm done, Pickles, french fries, yum yum yum, Bueller, Bueller, Bueller, It's 2 degrees cooler, The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, Six words in the whole song. We-we-we accept her, one of us, we accept her, one of us! Gooble gobble gooble gobble! We accept her, we accept her! You are number 6 5 4 3 2 I am not a number, I am a free man We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass, Give me my 20,000 in cash, We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass, I think you woke up the dead with that blast We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass, I think fast, I talk fast, We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass, Lois, this is not my Batman glass.

Invisible Lion Cages Posted: 07 Nov 2009 08:20 AM PST It looks like a lioins has jumped up on the hood of an open vehicle! Look closely, though -it’s an illusion, as the front of the car and the passenger area are separated by a sheet of glass. Invisible lion cages are the mane attraction Werribee Open Range Zoo, in Melbourne, Australia. VERY strong glass is used in place of other enclosure types more familiar in zoos – the result is stunning shots of the lions and a unique visitor experience. This incredible Lions on the Edge exhibit, which puts you just inches from a lion's jaws, is one of the biggest attractions at the zoo. Kings of the jungle Tombo and Tonyi are joined by two lionesses in the exhibit. Though it has been open since 2006, the male lions were added just last month – leading to some startling photo opportunities. Link – via cakeheadlovesevil From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by cakehead loves evil.

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