Thursday, June 30, 2011

8 Prehistoric Creatures from Your Nightmares

We see fossil reconstructions or illustrations of species that have come and gone and we sometimes say, “Come on now, that can’t be real!” Or maybe you don’t, but I have, because these creatures look like they came from a horror film or a child’s most frightening nightmares. Meet eight of them in this list I posted at mental_floss.

Good Reads

Georgia's new law HB-87 has driven so many illegal immigrants out of the state that no one is left willing to pick the crops. Millions of dollars in fruit and vegetables may rot as the farmers cannot afford to offer decent wages. (via Boing Boing)

To celebrate the summer solstice, the citizens of Poznan, Poland traditionally release floating lanterns into the sky. This year, they launched a record 8,000 of them.

Anyone for Tennis? 7 Wimbledon Questions Answered. And then you’ll enjoy the games all that much more.

40 Inspiring Images From New York City’s Gay Pride Parade.

In 1956, Ed Sullivan broadcast the animated film A Short Vision on his prime time variety show. The controversial film illustrated a nuclear attack and was never forgotten by those who saw it that night. (via Metafilter)

The Giant Squid: Dragon of the Deep. Once considered legendary sea monsters, they are now considered, well, sea monsters.

When ‘Hair’ Came To Memphis. In 1970, staging the counterculture musical in the South was a life-changing event, as you’ll see in the hour-long documentary.

Louis Gonzalez III was arrested for raping, beating, and burning his ex-girlfriend over a child custody battle. Despite proof that he didn’t do it, he spent 83 days in solitary and $55,000 in legal costs, and his accuser stands by her story. (via Metafilter)

A Brief History of the Plastic Pink Flamingo.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Fun and Funny Links

The Hauntening: Some poltergeists are more competent than others.

Can you believe it’s been 20 years since Disney released The Rocketeer? In honor of the occasion, here’s a fanfilm version that resembles a Pixar animation. (via io9)

I don't know what these guys were trying to accomplish here, but it apparently did not go the way they planned. May be painful for males to watch. (via Breakfast links)

In which J-Walk only meant to pass along a classic old joke but then the comment section became a long string of barber, sardine, and banjo jokes.

Mellow Brick Road is Pogo’s remix of the sounds from The Wizard of Oz. The sweet silhouette animation by Reed Gauthier won a contest to illustrate the song.

Improv Everywhere went to Bryant Park and staged a horse race on the carousel. The eventual winner was pleased, as he wasn’t even competing!

If you make your own slip-n-slide, you may as well go all out. Get yourself a mountainside and a firefighting crew!

Last week, we heard the Miss USA Pageant contestants grapple with the question of whether evolution should be taught in schools. In a new video, they contemplate whether math should be taught in schools.

A Cirque du Soleil performer shows us how the first pitch at a baseball game should be thrown. Not that anyone else can do it like this…

Just when I thought I was getting tired of supercuts, Harry Hanrahan strung together the greatest exploding bridge scenes in cinema history. The satisfyingly appropriate soundtrack, synched just right, was the cherry on top.

19-Century New York City


Herald Square, to be exact, recorded by the Edison Company in 1896.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

7 Curious Cases of Criminal Cats

Animals who steal are referred to as kleptomaniacs, or in the case of cats, “cat burglars,” but they most likely just think of themselves as collectors -they find something they like and take it, with no consideration of the ethics involved. Cats are particularly successful collectors, as they have the combination of curiosity, stealth, and agility necessary for a successful career in petty larceny. Meet seven of these feline felons in an article I posted at mental_floss.

Zombie Giveaway!









It's time to give away some neat stuff from the NeatoShop! We've introduced a new line of zombie items, hand-crafted by an artist in Santa Clarita, California. I'm going to give one of each of them to Miss Cellania visitors! Go check out the Crawling Zombie Doorstop and the Sitting Zombie Doorstop and the Zombie Magnets.

Then leave a comment at Miss Cellania telling me which zombie you want to win. I'll divide the comments among the preferred prizes, and randomly select a winner for each -so yes, your chances are better if you pick a zombie product that fewer other people pick, but we're going to have three winners anyway, so pick what you like! Leave a comment (with a valid email address, please), and I'll announce the winners sometime Wednesday.

And don't say I never gave you anything.

Interesting Links

Harrowing, Heartbreaking Tales of Overworked Americans. Is it worth it to work faster, harder, and longer for a paycheck just because there are fewer jobs? (via Metafilter)

Rape in Libya: The Crime That Dare Not Speak Its Name. It ruins women’s lives and affects their entire families, so it’s a common revenge crime and weapon of war. (via Boing Boing)

17 Fascinating Facts You Might Not Know about the TV Series Bonanza.

The last book and movies are not the end of Harry Potter after all. The last book and movies are not the end of Harry Potter after all. J.K. Rowling is launching Pottermore, an interactive publishing and social media site for all things Potter. (via Metafilter)

Jean Pierre Dutilleux’s expedition meets the Toulambi tribe of Papua New Guinea, captured on video. Fear and wonder eventually turns to laughter and acceptance. Contains a little nudity.

A Brief History of the Corporation: 1600 to 2100. Trust me, this is a lot more interesting and easier to read than you’d think at first glance.

A Global Warming Video … from 1958?! Experts have been warning us for over 50 years, and we still aren’t taking them seriously enough.

The responsibility of research: the dual use dilemma. That’s the possibility that your greatest accomplishment could eventually be used for nefarious purposes. (via Not Exactly Rocket Science)

Dozer the dog joined a groups of marathon runners who passed his house and crossed the finish line seven miles later. Since then, he’s raised thousands for charity and has a Facebook fan page. (via Metafilter)

If you had access to the menus and recipes used during different periods in history, would you try them out or just be thankful you live today? Find out with the History Cookbook.

Toby the Tree Climbing Jack Russell


(via Arbroath)

Monday, June 27, 2011

Funny Links

"Chicken in Black" by Johnny Cash.

The Oomphalapompatronium is a musical instrument developed by Leonard Solomon. It looks kinda like the plumbing system underneath my house.

How to please the Queen. (via reddit)

An Honest Facebook Political Argument. Are you a troublemaker, bait-taker, lazy activist, or peacemaker? (via Neatorama)

Polar Bears Play Hide-n-Seek.

Girlie Glasses: A Peep Show With Your Beer.

"Best. 15th anniversary. ever."

Kid Talk. Kids don't care, they'll say anything.

Great Aunt Kathleen was a robot named Radiana. The audience never saw her, but hey- it’s show business! (via Boing Boing)

Horses Collars


A 1935 short by the Three Stooges.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Rhythmus 21


An experimental 1921 film by German artist Hans Richter. Read more about it here.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Interesting Links

Why your city’s signature food is dumb. In all honesty, you don’t have to eat and enjoy the made-up local dish just because you love the city.

Amazing Composite Street Photographs of New York City. Photographer Peter Funch put relevant parts of different photographs together to get passers-by on the same page in the finished photos.

Upending Anonymity, These Days the Web Unmasks Everyone. (NYT link) The cell phone sees you, the internet exposes you, and your neighbors will identify you. (via Breakfast Links)

The Top Ten Deadliest Animals of Our Evolutionary Past. Until fairly recently, survival of the fittest meant those who could outrun or outsmart the critters trying to eat us.

Zero is a stop-motion animation about a word in which everyone is stamped with the number of their supposed potential. But it only takes a little inspiration to turn nothing into something.

5 Athletes Who Struggled as Politicians. We love to watch them play, but leadership takes a whole new skill set.

The 100 Longest Entries On Wikipedia. Follow these links down the rabbit hole and kiss your summer goodbye.

Do people sneeze in their sleep without waking up? I thought this was a dumb question -until I read the answer.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

10 Funny and Fabulous Flowcharts

Flow charts are wonderful for mapping processes for machines, as they lay out a sequence of binary decisions, meaning yes or no. When you think about it, most of what we do in life is also based on yes/no decisions -you just have to break the problem down into small pieces to see that clearly. In these ten flow charts I posted at mental_floss, we see how life choices can be broken down into a set of binary decisions taken to a ridiculous degree.

Links for Fun

How did your pet fish die? He was hit by a car!

78 Photography Rules For Complete Idiots. Latvian photographer Ivars Gravlejs put them all in one place because he’s seen every one of these rules broken too many times. (via the Presurfer)

There's something under the bed! It's Sock Babies!

The camera records a view from the inside of a funny car going over 200 miles per hour. Then it gets really weird.

The Sound-ness of Tree Falls. An example of what graduate students go through for science.

Bachelorvision. Its all about perspective.

Everything is a Remix, Part Three.

Freddie Wong's Cereal Killer. This video contains gratuitous violence and grossness.

When two motorcycles decide they’d rather dance than race, there’s nothing a rider can do. Except watch in amazement.

Something strange, or maybe just funny, is going on when you are a National Geographic photographer and your 12-year-old son’s pictures are better than yours. That’s because the boy is a bear whisperer.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Good Reads and Info

The Search for Cleopatra. She was the world’s first celebrity, but we still don’t know where she was buried.

Imagine a 200-foot tall clock designed to tick once every year and last for 10,000 years. You don’t have to imagine it, since they are building it under a mountain in Texas. (via Laughing Squid)

10 Notable Staircases. They are all so different, yet you would kill to have any of them in your home.

The Man in the Mask. How professional wrestling (as we know it) got its start.

“We Would Appreciate It If Future ‘Peanut’ Strips Did Not Have This Type Of Content

AOL Hell: An AOL Content Slave Speaks Out. (via Metafilter)

Why Seeing (The Unexpected) Is Often Not Believing. An ongoing experiment in inattentional blindness sheds light on a case of police brutality. (via Boing Boing)

5 Soldiers Whose Horrific Injuries Only Made Them Angry. Although true, these stories all sound like Monty Python’s Black Knight sketch. NSFW text.

Your Body, Your Choice. You can apply that philosophy to a number of activities, many of which will draw an argument.

The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. And not just the first time, either.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

10 Gorilla Guys

Hollywood loves gorillas. They are mysterious and scary, yet close enough to human for an actor to play one. Many actors and special effects pros have portrayed gorillas at one time or another in movies such as Gorillas in the Mist or the Planet of the Apes series, but some became particularly known for being “the guy in the gorilla suit.” At first, the only requirement for a star gorilla was that one own a gorilla suit. As the competition heated up, these guys had to bring something special to their roles. Read about ten of them in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Funny and Entertaining Links

Summer Solstice Celebrations. What are you going to do to mark this first day of summer?

I’m Such A Nerd (with Katrina Bowden). Yeah, every boy nerd wants to find a nerdy girl until she reminds him exactly why nerds are hard to deal with.

International road signs explained. Looks like we’re only getting part of the picture. (via Breakfast Links)

How to make a Spam sandwich Japanese-style. I wonder if they’d taste the same without the yelling?

Extreme Game Show Eliminations. Japanese game shows are different because 1. focus on entertainment more than victory, and 2. there is a real danger of injury or extreme embarrassment.

Freddie Wong's Cereal Killer.

Let Jell-O help use up your leftovers. (via Boing Boing)

Best headline of the entire sordid saga. (via reddit)

A parade through Belgium raises more questions than it answers. At least I think we’ve found the origin of the goose step.

Zola, a gorilla at the Calgary Zoo has some smooth breakdance moves. He’s got grace, he’s got rhythm, and he’s got a nice wet floor to slide on.

Uncivil Warriors


A 1935 short by the Three Stooges.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Useful Links and Interesting Reading

The Surprisingly Cool History of Ice.

Life After Zionist Summer Camp. Life ain't gonna be like any childhood indoctrination. (via Breakfast Links)

12 Events that will Change Everything. Scientific American explores possibilities ranging from contact with extraterrestrials to global warming, and asks for your input.

The True Cost of Tomatoes. If you don’t grow them yourself, you might be surprised at the process of getting them to your table. (via Metafilter)

How pasta became the world’s favourite food. Maybe because it goes so well with tomatoes. (via Breakfast Links)

How To Travel With Your Friends (And Remain Friends Afterwards). Making the trip short and sweet is all I would add. (via Lifehacker)

What Groucho Ate. Interesting because it's Groucho, with lessons about how memories affect our dietary choices.

The 6 (Wrong) Questions Men Love to Ask About Women. A confusing title, but an honest and real (and SFW) essay about women in the real world. (via Bits and Pieces)

Creepy, Crusty, Crumbling: Illegal Tour of Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans. The theme park never reopened after Katrina, and what’s left is heartbreaking and eerie. (via J-Walk Blog)

I Don't Know How to Love Him


Played by World Musical Saw Champion Petr Dopita. I have no idea what year this clip is from, but I think the TV show is Polish.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

New York Police Parade


Filmed by the Edison Company on June first, 1899.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Friday Fun Links

Horton Sees a Pluto. It's like Dr. Seuss meets Dr. Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer).

8 Delightfully Geeky Wedding Proposals.

A Fathers Day Story, from Justin Halpern, author of Sh%@ My Dad Says. If you can handle the NSFW text without laughing too much, you’ll find an odd but strangely touching story.

An insect running around on a touch screen is a real computer bug.

My Daguerreotype Boyfriend features pictures of hot men from history. Too bad they've been dead for decades.

A Semi-Secret History of MAD Magazine. A gallery of 34 pictures and text, just to introduce the magazine’s new blog.

Dick Shaefer Turns Rusty Old Cars Into Glorious Monsters. Ironically, he turned a VW Beetle bug not into an insect, but a spider!

See how skydivers practice for those choreographed ballets they do in free fall. This is much more affordable than jumping out of a plane hundreds of times -and we get to watch!

How the World Celebrates Dad. Different cultures have their own holidays and traditions, but here in the US, Fathers Day is this Sunday!

Simon’s Cat loses a toy underneath the refrigerator. What happens afterward will be familiar to any cat owner.

Geordi Fetching


That's a good dog, Geordi!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Nominative Determinism: Yes, That’s His Real Name

Nominative determinism is the theory that a person’s name has some influence over what they do with their life. Keep that in mind as you read this story. A young red-tailed hawk fell out of a nest that was being monitored by a webcam in Portland. A police officer was able to put the bird in a box and take it to the Audubon Society. His name? Officer McCageor “Cage” Byrd. This is not quite an example of nominative determinism, but it’s the perfect name for this particular story. Now, if Cage Bird were to become an ornithologist or a pet shop owner, that would be nominative determinism. Other terms for the same phenomenon are aptonyms or aptronyms, although those words do not necessarily connote a career path. Meet a whole bunch of folks whose names describe what they do, in an article I wrote for mental_floss.

Pictured is meteorologist Amy Freeze.



Interesting Links

How to Screw with Car Salesmen (and Get a Better Deal). It’s nothing personal between you two, just a tug-of-war over your money.

Keith Moon, Bathroom Bomber. He had a thing for toilets and cherry bombs.

There are pictures we are all familiar with, but who are the people in the pictures? Read about 6 People Who Had No Clue Their Faces Were World-Famous.

The File Inside the Cake: True Tales of Prison Escapes. The most successful of these were tales where the inmate thought outside the cake box.

Science Not Fiction tackles the burning question that has puzzled bloggers and internet surfers alike: Why are there so many top ten lists?

6 Cases of Shamelessly False Advertising. Shameless, because it worked and made lots of money.

10 awesome unmade Star Trek projects we wish we could've seen. (via @johncfarrier)

10 Peanuts Characters You’ve Probably Forgotten.

People have been working for about 100 years on adding scent to our entertainment experiences. The latest development: odor-generating television. (via J-Walk Blog)

From North Carolina to the Galactic Center. A lovely time-lapse video shows the Milky Way as seen from the Outer Banks.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Links for Fun

Curious Cat Meet Musical Mouse. Only it’s all in his fuzzy little head.  

Everything Great About YouTube is a huge compilation of classic clips you know and love. Oh yeah, and it’s all edited to illustrate the song “Bohemian Rhapsody.” 

 5 City Council Crazies! Local politics is always good for a laugh -if you live elsewhere.  

“Jubilation Day” by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. You might miss a well-done song with funny lyrics if you are distracted by an awesomely animated video.  

Kitten Plays Invisible Harp. Hold onto your stocking or you might melt from the avalanche of cuteness.  

Bus Stop Boogie Boy. This is how he waits for the bus, every day. 

How would you like to have a doll, er, action figure with your own face? 

Danny Choo goes through the process at Clone Factory in Japan to show you how it’s done, from the photography to the 3D printing to the finished doll. (via Metafilter

 A kitten climbs into a hamster ball and finds it a pleasant place to be. Which you must admit works out just dandy for a video on the internet. (via Buzzfeed)  

A Tribute To Swordfights In Cinema. This compilation is like one long fight scene, so get the popcorn ready!

Laurel and Hardy Home Movie 1956


This footage was shot at the home of Stan Laurel's daughter Lois. It's silent, but a treasure. (via Dangerous Minds)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

10 Stories of Lifesaving Dogs

He's unbelievable! He's some dog! He's a lifesaver! That's what l'll call him, too! Ol' Lifesaver! That will be your name! -Navin R. Johnson in The Jerk

Dogs are wonderful. They are goofy and fun and smart and dedicated. Most of the time, they are just fun to be around, but when the situation calls for it, some dogs go above and beyond the call of duty. Out of many, many heroic dog tales, here are ten dogs who recently saved someone’s life in a list I posted at mental_floss. That’s a good dog.



Good Reads and Info

6 Stripes for Flag Day. That is, six stories about American flags you’ll be glad to know about.

5 Musicians Who Had to Relearn Their Craft.

What happens when a "right-wing website in the US" notices you. Here's the original post.

In 1958, authors Raymond Chandler and Ian Fleming sat down for a conversation recorded by the BBC. It’s 25 minutes long, but a treasure for literary thriller fans. (via Metafilter)

An update on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ recovery has the first pictures published of her since she was shot in January. Despite how good she looks, doctors say she still has far to go.

The strange and wonderful world of ancient trees. They’ve seen thousands of years of history pass while they stand silent and just survive.

Researchers Build a Living Laser. Human kidney cells with green fluorescent protein made the light which was amplified by mirrors -but of course it wasn’t that easy.

The Unsung Heroes of Biscuit Embossing. In American, that means cookies, like Oreos, and a lot more interesting backstory than you’d think. (via Metafilter)

How to be a good GREAT teacher. Some basic encouragement to those of the class of 2011 who are charged with educating future classes.

Men in Black


A 1934 short by the Three Stooges.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Funny Links

Snap, Crackle, and Pop!

A street in Stockholm is painted with an illusion. You know in your head it’s an illusion, but you still freak a little when people calmly step into the abyss.

Remote cameras controlled by the traffic management center caught a family of Canada geese walking down I-90 near Seattle. Following them was a retinue of Washington State Troopers ensuring their safety.

Some guys that superficially resemble The Delta Rhythm Boys sing about Dem Phones. Twitter is not mentioned, but hey, it’s an old song.

Real estate agents with funny names.

The Yip-Yips discover dubstep.

Chris Brown and Busta Rhymes are into a new groove: Polka Music!

Watch as an adorable two-year-old boy tells a story. He doesn’t pronounce words perfectly yet, but he’s got the emotions, the gestures, and the joy of storytelling down!

If we acted the way we act on the internet, we’d probably be arrested. See how creepy it really is to friend, poke, or follow strangers offline.

Eat This and Fall Apart


A strange ad from Hong Kong (via The Daily What)

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sesame Street International

All over the world, little children learn their letters, numbers, and bad jokes watching the Muppets on their local version of Sesame Street. See a sample of the shows from the far corners of the earth, in a video collection I posted at mental_floss.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Interesting and Informative Links

Germans obsessively listing all their possessions for hundreds of years may sound like the set-up for a joke. Except they really did it, and now computers are crunching those lists to get a picture of the history of consumerism and commerce.

Plesiosaurs, the Beautiful Bottom-Feeders. New evidence tells us about the diet of this prehistoric sea monster with a record 35 neck vertebrae.

The Anatomy of a Hard Drive. Bill Hammock, the Engineer Guy, years up a hard drive and explains how it works in a way even I can understand.

10 Candidates for the World’s First Pop Song. “Popular” music isn’t just top 40; it’s what people like.

The 7 Greatest (True) Johnny Depp Stories Ever Told. It’s not that he does cool things, but whatever he does becomes defined as “cool.” (via Buzzfeed)

10 Ways Our Minds Warp Time. All I can say for sure is that time flies the fastest when you are watching children grow up.

A gallery of incredible spiders. They are talented, resourceful, and able to reduce a large human to a quivering ball of jelly by just being seen.

The Strange Politics of Street Renaming. It may be a controversial way to hand out paybacks, but it’s cheaper than granting contracts or erecting buildings.

Thursday, June 09, 2011

Science Fiction Home Furnishings

Earlier this week I was working on a list of science fiction-inspired furniture when I became distracted by a number of creative science fiction quilts. When I returned to the matter at hand, I found quite a few ways to take your home “out of this world.” See a dozen science fiction-inspired beds, chairs, and tables in this list I posted at mental_floss.


Fun and Funny Links

An environmental group in Quebec set a bottle out on a walkway, close by a recycling bin. How long will they wait before someone bothers to pick it up?

Dating Dos and Don’ts, from 1949. There was so much to learn about impressing the opposite sex, and most of it was totally useless.

A puppy has a dream. And he talks in his sleep, too, which is oh-so adorable.

7 Website Mashups. They’ve managed to cross websites I read with websites I don’t read, to humorous ends.

If you don’t ride your bike in the designated bike lane in New York City, you could get a $50 ticket. But if you DO ride your bike in the bike lane, terrible things can happen to you.

The formula for a successful movie. You can keep using it over and over because it works; always has, always will.

Vegan Black Metal Chef Is Still Cooking With Hellfire. Come for the metal, stay for the recipes (or vice-versa).

Hey We Will Rock You


A mashup of Queen and Outkast.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Good Reads and Interesting Links

The movie Saving Private Ryan was based on the true story of Sergeant Fritz Niland, who stumbled upon his brother’s French graves in 1944. But Niland’s story has a bit of a surprise ending.

In excerpts from the book Beating Back the Devil, we learn how doctors and scientists discovered AIDS. Part one, part two, and part three. (via Boing Boing)

“Girls wanted to be her, boys wanted to date her, and old people thought she was a sign of the apocalypse, which obviously meant she was star material.” The scandalous life and career of Clara Bow.

Schwarzenegger Beetles (and other celebrity species). You know you’ve really arrived when they name a creepy-crawly after you.

A history professor takes issue with the romanticized way Ken Burns presented the Civil War in TV. However, he welcomes all the new interest in learning about history that documentary sparked.

What Are Little Boys Made Of? A case study made famous in the world of anti-homosexual therapy had a real boy and an entirely more complicated story behind it. (via Metafilter)

The Illustrated Police News was a lurid crime tabloid in 19th-century London. When they ran low on sensational crime stories, supernatural urban legends would do just fine. (via Boing Boing)

A history professor takes issue with the romanticized way Ken Burns presented the Civil War in TV. However, he welcomes all the new interest in learning about history that documentary sparked.

Snowclones. They may sound delicious, but it’s a grammar term for a type of phrase you probably use all the time.

The 6 Most WTF Moments From Shakespeare Plays. Some of his dramas resemble today’s soap operas and slasher films.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

12 Impressive Sci-Fi Quilts

Science fiction fans are a creative bunch, which only makes sense if you think about it. And nothing makes a more personal gift than a handmade quilt that someone you love has poured their time and creativity into in order to display your geeky interests. Here are a dozen such projects, in a list I posted at mental_floss.

Links for Fun

A bride rocks the house at her wedding reception. Drummer Annette Ortiz-Diaz is currently the bass player for Random Ninjas. Her new husband is Dennis Diaz, seen here on guitar and vocals. More here.

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema ejected a woman for using a phone during a movie, which is against their rules. When she responded with and angry voice mail, they made it into a public service announcement.

Fun with Shakespeare.

During the past year, the school bus drove by Rain Price’s house after picking him up at the bus stop. And every day, his dad would be there in front of the house, waving, in a different costume every day. (via Metafilter)

One way to make a trombone cool is to have it shoot flames. It sounds like a joke, but here is the Frankenhorn!

Batman has a conversation with Bruce Wayne. It’s a great gag, and took more acting skills than we normally give Adam West credit for. (via Breakfast Links)

“You Just Don’t Get It, Do You?”

Where is the strangest place you can affix a tiny camera to get a radical POV video? You won’t come up with anything as awesome as inside a hula hoop.

30 and Pregnant. This article is a satire piece that parodies the TV show 16 and Pregnant, but it is subtle and hits close to home for many internet citizens. (via Metafilter)

Ambigrams and Upside-down Heads.

The Hat Gag


A classic Harpo Marx routine from the 1933 film Duck Soup.

Monday, June 06, 2011

Interesting Links

4 Little Creatures That Pack a Big Scientific Punch.

The Mystery of the Canadian Whiskey Fungus. This detective story will keep you at the edge of your seat, even as you keep reminding yourself that it’s about fungus.

How does a man go on with his life after his wife and daughters are brutally murdered? Bill Petit’s story will make you cry and consider the value of the death penalty. (via Metafilter)

6 Personality Quirks You Didn’t Know Were Medical Conditions. Complete with hard-to-pronounce and impossible-to-spell names. (NSFW text)

Can Math Help You Find Mr. or Miss Right? Maybe, but only unselfishness and commitment will help you keep him/her.

The Republican's 2012 budget proposal contains provisions for limiting, or in some cases eliminating, food stamps. Take that, hungry kids!

What's the scariest, weirdest, most mysterious web site you ever visited? Reddit answers with a big thread.

A History of Ultraviolence in Film. You might laugh at the things that could get a movie banned back in the day, but they caused me nightmares. (via Gorilla Mask)

6 Presidential Siblings and the Headaches They Caused. You can pick your friends, your nose, and your political appointments, but you have no choice of brothers and sisters.

Where Prisoners Can Do Anything, Except Leave. (NYT link) The San Antonio prison in Venezuela is run by inmates for inmates.

In 1900, a new dress could cost a couple month’s wages. The History of a Cheap Dress explains how clothing used to be, and what is has become. (via Boing Boing)

Dry Bones


Performed by Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster on the TV series The Munsters. (via J-Walk Blog)

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Shaw & Lee


Some classic clips from the vaudeville duo Al Shaw and Sam Lee. Filmed circa 1949.

Friday, June 03, 2011

Friday Fun Links

Cyriak Harris has a weird new animation about how sheep multiply. If you know Cyriak, you can guess what it’s like.

This wakeboarder tried to tell us he planned this stunt to turn out that way all along. But he couldn’t do it again in a million years! (Warning: maniacal cackling)

In America, the faucet gives you water. But in Soviet Russia…. you get a visual pun that needs no translation whatsoever.

More Than Just a Toaster. That friendly little appliance can be a lifeline!

Adam Ruben, PhD. wrote about what kind of parents scientists turn out to be -mainly geeky. The article is both funny and accurate, as I was raised by a scientist father. (via Boing Boing)

Bunk’s Perfect Birthday. What could you give a two-year old dog that can make him this happy?

Is your father/husband/grandpa a geek, or does he occasionally display geek-like tendencies? Then you need the Fathers Day Gift Guide for Geeks!

20 Hilarious Boat Names
.

Ambigrams
and Upside-down Heads.

Amazing Grace on Saws


From the YouTube page:
Even though Uncle Eldon and Uncle Harold protested that this instrument does not lend itself well to duets, we convinced them to try it. I mean, how often do you have two people in the same room who play the saw?
Well, the odds are good that it will happen more often if they are brothers. (via Arbroath)

Thursday, June 02, 2011

The Shared Lives of Unusually Close Twins

Most of us, at one time or another, imagine what it would be like if there were another person just like us. Twins already know what this is like. They have the same family, the same childhood experiences, and in the case of identical twins, the same DNA, yet they are separate people who eventually build their individual lives. But some twins share more than others. Read about twins who share things the rest of us cannot understand in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Good Reads and Information

Our Scandalous Vice Presidents. These men obviously had too much free time on their hands.

The wisdom of crowds is incredibly fragile. Altogether, we are pretty smart, but when we start adjusting our attitudes to match those of others, we can become sheep.

Housework Is Bad for Both Sexes. And that’s why we need children to do it for us!

There’s no such thing as a jellyfish. However, there are an awful lot of animals we call jellyfish, and they are quite interesting.

When Good Science Goes Bad: 3 Ideas that Went Really Wrong. Two of these are obvious with hindsight, but the third might surprise you.

4 “Facts” That Have Changed Since You Were In School.

The Sex Trafficking of American Girls. New victims are younger than ever, controlled by violence and drugs, and worth their weight in gold.

How Far Do Cats Roam? Pet and feral cats were fitted with electronics to trace their movements over two years, with a map to show how far they went. (via Pawesome)

The real life Band of Brothers kept their heroism to themselves until their World War II experiences were made into a book and then a miniseries. The Art of Manliness took some of their quotes and made them into a series of awesome motivational posters. (via Gorilla Mask)

The 10 Worst Ads. For various reasons.

A Short History of the Campsite. We’ve gone from roughing it in a pup tent to renting a space for an RV, and developed traditions and rituals for the process along the way.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Miss Cellania T-shirts

MissCellania t-shirt

Finally, after six years of blogging, there's a Miss Cellania t-shirt! This lovely design by Chris Murphy is based on the masthead art by Brother Bill. Now you can wear Groucho glasses without compromising your field of vision or scaring the children! Just $14.95. The shirt is also available as a hoodie or sweatshirt if you prefer. Three different shirt colors to choose from. The Miss Cellania T-shirt is the first item in the new Miss Cellania Shop at Neatorama!

Miss Cellania shop banner

It's like a store within a store at the NeatoShop. Besides the t-shirt, you'll find other items I personally recommend (and there will be more added as we go along). The best part is that I get a cut of any purchase you make -without affecting the everyday price. Get your Miss Cellania t-shirt today, and check out the other items at the Miss Cellania Shop!

Funny Links

Things I've Learned from Law & Order. And more things.

The Playing for Change project recorded people all over the world performing Gimme Shelter. It’s a global jam session!

Cats, when given the opportunity, will engage in gambling or other games of chance. This German cat is pretty good at it.

A long reddit pun comment thread based on one word. I love these.

A Danish football league for 14-year-olds got a boost a group converged on a game unbeknownst to the players and made it feel like a championship final! They brought spectators, fervent fans, cheerleaders, a marching band, vendors, sports journalists, and soccer stars. A good time was had by all.

The Grand Rapids LipDub. A masterpiece of civic participation and timing.

Anatomy of the Centaur. This is what happens when mythology meets anatomy.

A socially awkward student has a unique method for making friends. I Steal Pets by Rachel Bloom is weird, funny, and disturbing …and has cute animals!

One Crime, Two Suspects. Will they ever figure out who trashed the trash?