National Geographic always has cool photo galleries, but I especially like this one. This guy is a cowfish, and although he’s transparent, he’s glowing purple because of the photographer’s strobe. He’s kind of cute. Link, photo by Chris Newbert...
Photo: Red Cross of Argentina This is a pretty clever guerilla marketing by the Argentinian Red Cross: a "melting" man passing out fliers urging spectators in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to fight global warming. Link | Photo via Comunicadores.info [in Portuguese] - Thanks Adam! Previously on Neatorama: Ice Sculptures of Melting Men by Nele Azevedo Melting Ice Cream Truck...
Randy Goodman of Sedalia, Missouri, thought that he had killed a deer with a well-placed shot to the neck. As he marvelled over his lucky catch, the deer came to life and exacted a little revenge: As the nine-point, 240-pound buck lay lifeless the unexpected happened. The buck stood up and knocked Goodman on his butt, attacking him with his antlers. “It was 15 seconds of hell,” Goodman said. Goodman thought the deer was trying to go through him as he fought it off the best he could. A few seconds later, the deer was off and running. “I felt...
Archaeologists digging at Zaraysk, Russia, unearthed a trove of Stone Age figurines and carvings, including something puzzling: a cone-shaped object whose function remains a mystery: Also among the finds was an object carved from mammoth ivory, shaped like a cone with its top removed. The cone is densely ornamented and has a hole running through its centre. The authors note that the object is unique among Palaeolithic artefacts. "The function of this decorated object remains a puzzle," they say. Since you guys are experts at guessing in our weekly What is it? game, let’s try this one for size:...
by Manoj Jasra One of the most interesting sessions at this upcoming Search Engine Strategies in Chicago is going to be Universal & Blended Search. Dr. Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search is one of the top experts in the world on this subject and is also a panelist at this session in SES Chicago. Last week I had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Cornett to get his insight on blended search and to get a better understanding of Yahoo's future in this area. [Manoj]: As with textual search, Universal search will continue to improve amongst the search...
Meet Sal Giangrande, the self-styled "Couch Doctor" of New York. Sal has a pretty unique business niche: he saws and re-assembles couches for people who couldn’t fit their old couch into their new apartments but don’t want to give up either one: ‘I can’t watch," said Andrew Clarke, shutting his eyes. "You shouldn’t," the doctor said calmly. The doctor’s assistant pulled out an electric saw. He started slicing. The ground was already strewn with staples that had been yanked out. After one, two, three . . . seven incisions, Clarke’s $4,000, perfectly worn-in, brown leather couch lay in pieces with...
Ever wonder what it would be like to be an oppressed citizen in the USSR in 1984? Here’s your chance. For a mere 220 American Dollars you can visit the newest, hippest theme park in Lithuania and be swept back into the glory days of Soviet Russia. A past bunker of the Soviet Union has now been converted to a historical reenactment site. “On entry, all belongings, including money, cameras and phones, are handed over and under the watchful eye of guards and alsatians, tourists change into threadbare Soviet coats and are herded through the bunker. Experiences include watching...
Stock market blues got you down? Well, take heart that you’re not losing as much money as Sheldon Adelson. The casino and hotel magnate had lost (at least on paper) $30 billion in investments in the past year! Put another way, his net worth declined by about $100 million a day, or $4.1 million an hour, or $69,000 a minute, or $1,157 a second. It is possible Mr. Adelson now may hold the title for the largest one-year paper loss in U.S. history. A graphic in Vanity Fair last month showing the biggest stock-market losers had Warren Buffett down about...
In these difficult times, manufacturers don’t want to raise prices but at the same time they face rising costs, so they elect to shrink the product. But they do so sneakily … behold the incredible shrinking peanut butter jar: … a careful look at the jars of Skippy on the shelves may reveal a surprise. The prices are about the same, but the jars are getting smaller. They don’t look different in size or shape. But recently, the jars developed a dimple in the bottom that slices the contents to 16.3 ounces from 18 ounces — about 10% less peanut...
Italian photographer Gianni Fasolini heard that the divorce rate is going up and got a brilliant idea. People take wedding photos, so why not offer them a divorce photo album as well? "People celebrate a marriage as a milestone in their lives, but a divorce is an important event too," he explained. The 45-year-old added: "I have been doing photos of weddings and marriage ceremonies for years, day in and day out, and people told me they like having a photo marking important events in their lives. "Then I got to thinking that maybe there would be some demand for...
Andy Latham, 33, has hyperekplexia, a weird genetic condition that makes him go rigid when startled. He’s literally scared stiff! "Some people might jump when a firework goes off, but I’m literally scared stiff," he said. "My whole body will seize and stiffen, causing me to fall over like a dead-weight. It can be very dangerous - one year I fell over and banged my head when a firework went off and had to go to hospital and have stitches." Mr Latham, of Great Harwood, near Accrington, Lancs, went on: "I have the major form of Hyperekplexia, which means I...
Afraid of being buried alive, Brazilian resort operator Freud de Melo (yes, I know …) built a vault complete with air, food, television and megaphones! Under the shade of ficus trees stands the stone burial chapel that 73-year-old Freud de Melo built. Wind chimes tinkle above the wrought-iron door. But it isn’t a conventional final resting place. Inside the crypt, there’s a TV, also a water pitcher and a fruit pantry. Fresh outdoor air flows in through four vents from the chapel roof. Within reach of the coffin are two makeshift megaphones — plastic cones attached to tubes running...
The worldwide economic woes aren’t just limited to humans so Claudia Hollm has opened the Berlin’s first soup kitchen … for dogs! A soup kitchen exclusively for dogs has opened its doors in Berlin providing pets of the homeless and unemployed with a free meal, the director of the establishment said on Friday. Despite the looming financial crisis, director Claudia Hollm dismissed criticism that it may be more sensible to collect money for humans than for dogs. "Nowadays people underestimate dogs. They are incredibly important for those who lack social contact with other humans," Hollm told Reuters. Link (Photo: VG...
In the sleepy suburb of Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England, there is a mystery brewing: 50 cats have been missing from the area dubbed "Purr-Muda," the Bermuda Triangle for cats! First to go was Tabatha, then Blackie, Lucky and Norman. Felix vanished, Star never came home and YumYum was never seen again. In all, at least 45 cats have gone missing in eight years from the quiet, tree-lined Meriden Avenue and its surrounding streets. Nobody knows what is behind the disappearances, and the only clues have been a few discarded collars - no bodies have ever been found. Link Photo: CATERS...
In today’s economic turmoil, won’t someone please think of all the Wall Street wives? There’s a little (okay a lot) of schadenfreude going on about Wall Street, but I still find this article by Geraldine Baum for the Los Angeles Times about dashed dreams of Wall Street wives very interesting: Fran Alvarez rarely spent lavishly, as she describes it, during the five years her husband, Carlos, 43, was making $250,000 writing software programs for Credit Suisse. He will be earning half that in his new job away from Wall Street. It was either that or sell the house with its...
Whatever you do - do not, I repeat, do not teach the cha-cha in Plano. You may just land in jail for that: Instead of dancing with the stars, Eric Rush is dancing behind bars. Teaching the cha-cha sent him to the slammer. Last week, a Collin County district judge ordered Mr. Rush to serve 30 days in the county jail for contempt of court after violating an order prohibiting him from teaching dance lessons within 25 miles of a Plano dance studio. The jail sentence is the latest step in a 10-month legal tango featuring a studio that says...
There’s a new diet fad sweeping through Japan: the Morning Banana Diet, where you eat only bananas for breakfast, then anything you want for lunch and dinner … and it’s making bananas a scarce commodity! Keiko Akai is very annoyed. The attractive 21-year-old university student has been planning to do a banana diet for some time now, but she can’t get started — and not for lack of trying. "I keep going to OK Store, my local supermarket every single day," she says. "In fact, I’ve just been there. There are no bananas on the shelves, and it’s been like...
Brian Hubbard, a 72-year-old man from Herefordshire, England, got into trouble with his city’s council because … his garden is too tidy! A dedicated gardener has been banned from trimming the grass outside his house - because it is TOO tidy. Brian Hubbard, 72, has been mowing, weeding and edging the verge outside his home for the past eight years. But now Herefordshire Council have ordered him to stop because he is encroaching on council-owned grass. The letter ordered the removal of garden tools and furnishings, path and bed covering material, and all vegetation not in keeping with the surrounding...
Jack Newton, 23, is one big fan of physicist Stephen Hawking. So much so that he decided to get his right leg tattooed with Hawking’s face after reading A Brief History of Time - even though he didn’t understand a word of it! The tattoo - complete with a Monty Python line from the classic Life of Brian film ‘He’s not the messiah. He’s a very naughty boy’ written underneath it - has already won two trophies at tattoo conventions. Mr Newton said: "I read A Brief History of Time, but to be honest I didn’t understand a word, but...
Paul Wachter wrote an interesting article for The New York Times on the curious customs of tipping: how it came to be and why we tip (even if the service is bad). Economists have struggled to explain tipping. Why tip at all, since the bill is presented at the end of a meal and can’t retroactively improve service? And certainly there’s no reason to tip at a restaurant you will never revisit. “Using a rational and selfish agent to explain tipping, one reaches the conclusion that the agent should never tip if he does not intend to visit the establishment...
