Walk in style into the nail salon to get your pedicure. Bravest Studios in New York City and footwear designer @canyaon offer these slides that look like giant human toes. They're optimal for attracting attention of both the wanted and unwanted categories.
If you prefer body parts other than toes for shoe design, consider these brain-like mules by the same company or cross species with these shoes that look like bear claws.
-via Ugly Design
In the natural order of things, Chinook salmon swim from the Pacific ocean up into freshwater rivers for hundreds of miles, back to their birthplaces to spawn the next generation. But a dam was built on the Klamath River in Oregon in 1912, and three more followed, leaving the salmon unable to complete their biological imperative. The salmon population declined, and the pooled water along the river became infected with algae and diseases. You might recall the salmon cannon that was supposed to help the fish get upriver, but that wouldn't help the newly-hatched salmon get down to the ocean, nor would it restore the river quality. Native American tribes advocated for dam removal for decades, and that finally happened beginning in 2023. The last dam was removed in August of this year.
Lo and behold, the salmon are coming back! Despite being blocked for more than a century, they know where to go to spawn, and it took the fish less than two months to get to the Upper Klamath and its tributaries. The dam removal was a major project, but the free-flowing water is showing signs of recovery. Read about the saga of the Chinook salmon on the Klamath at Smithsonian. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: USFWS Fish and Aquatic Conservation)
The Alice Cooper song "Feed My Frankenstein" so silly, but is always a go-to song for Halloween. This year, it gets a lively dance beat when music mixer DJ Cummerbund (previously at Neatorama) mixes it with "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. This masterful mashup is called "Uptown Frank," and it's not only a smooth mashup, it's a lot of fun. You'll see video clips of Wayne and Garth not be worthy of Cooper's attention, since he sang the song in the 1992 movie Wayne's World. The mashup gets all Halloween-y with the cast of the 1974 film Young Frankenstein and that movie's musical interlude, which is just the perfect touch. You'll also see Randy “Macho Man” Savage, but that's no surprise at all because he's in every DJ Cummerbund mashup. Make sure this one's on your Halloween party playlist, when it's time to get everyone up and dancing! -via Laughing Squid
X user @OxKruzr is, for this Halloween, dressing as the most famous character created by Stan Kelly of the satirical newspaper The Onion. Note the right side of this cartoon:
Kelly's 2015 comic about a future with legalized drugs imagines degenerates labeled as "sickos" enjoying the downfall of society while cackling "Yes...ha ha ha...yes." It's become a meme. We Sicko-Americans try to take it in stride as a joke from a less culturally sensitive time.
Montgomery McPhee, a cosplayer in Seattle, is known for his flamboyantly extravagant and visually loud cosplays as the Mandalorian from the Star Wars television series of the same name. Sequins, LEDs, and fans help him develop glam rock versions of favorite characters, such as the Glam-dalorian pictured here at the Emeral City Comic Con last year.
-via @atotalposer
Dysentery is a condition caused by the Shigella bacteria. Sufferers become dehydrated by diarrhea, and 70,000 people, mostly in poor countries, die of it each year. It's treatable, but Shigella is becoming antibiotic-resistant. It's difficult to study this phenomena in the US because dysentery is rare here, but in a challenge trial, volunteers are given the bacteria in order to study the disease.
Georgia Ray volunteered for a challenge trial at the University of Maryland because they were testing a bacteriophage treatment regimen, which she had studied, and because it paid well. Sixteen volunteers were isolated in a university building ad given the bacteria Shigella flexneri. Half were also dosed with the bacteriophage, but the subjects did not know whether they were given the treatment or a placebo. Soon, they suffered joint pain, chills, projectile vomiting, and diarrhea. Ray spent nine days in the facility before she was cleared to go home. She was never in danger of dying, as there were medical personnel monitoring the subjects constantly, but it was no picnic, either. Read the account of her experience and learn a lot about dysentery and bacteriophages at Eukaryote Writes Blog. -via Nag on the Lake
Vultures have never been considered cute birds, and no one keeps them as pets. But Bernard and Twinkle, endangered Eurasian black vultures who live at Horstmann Vulture Trust, will win your heart because they are so devoted to each other. The pair previously produced the first Eurasian black vulture chick hatched in the UK. Bernard is 28 years old now, and has arthritis, which limited his activities. Then he became a groundbreaker as the first vulture to undergo experimental stem cell therapy. A veterinary team extracted some of Bernard's stem cells and cultured them until they grew to more than seven million cells! These were re-introduced into the bird, and they replaced the tissue in Bernard's worn-out knees. The Trust hopes that a rejuvenated Bernard will be able to produce more chicks with Twinkle. We wish them luck. Vulture populations are declining around the world, and while their feeding habits may seem disgusting, they are a vital part of our ecosystem.
We haven't heard much about Kylo Ren since The Rise of Skywalker, but you have to admit that the saga did him dirty. Adam Driver was awesome as the Big Bad in the Star Wars sequel trilogy until they unnecessarily flipped him into a "good guy" just like they did with Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi -and then killed him off to escape consequences. But the character is coming back in comic book form as his former evil self. A new series called The Legacy of Vader places Ren at the point where he was most dangerous: after killing Snoke and becoming the Supreme Leader of the First Order, but before the events of the disappointing last movie.
The comic series will focus on Ren's obsession with Darth Vader as he explores the places Vader obtained and used his powers, looking for guidance, and the series will also reveal some insights into Vader's psyche. Avid Star Wars fans are looking forward to the series, as they know that the franchise is rich in satisfying stories outside of the films, which tended to try to please everyone. The first comic will be released in February, and you can read more at Gizmodo.
(Image credit: Lucasfilm/Marvel Comics)
You will always run into people who remember that McDonald's hamburgers were once 15 cents. They were also ready when you got there, because that's all they served, unless you wanted a cheeseburger, which were ready as well. The slowness of fast food is due to the variety of options available, but what happened to the price? You can go to a sit-down restaurant and get a plate of hamburger and fries and a drink brought to your table for $10, and it may cost you the same to get one at a window to eat in your car, and you won't know what a mess it is until you unwrap it a half-mile away. I wrote that before I watched the video, but the sentiment is widely observed. McDonald's isn't the only outlet where prices have risen dramatically. Weird History explains what happened, beginning with the history of fast food.
Some companies struggle to accommodate employees who really want to work from home. I'll bet that The Great Exhibition, a creative studio in Stockholm with the most painfully designed website that I've seen in years, doesn't have to convince workers to work at the office. The new facility has a fully functional 200-foot long roller coaster inside.
Fast Company tells us about this new working environment that I hope will attract the attention of Neatorama CEO Alex Santoso, who will no doubt leap at the opportunity to put our firm at the forefront of entrepreneurial innovation. An in-office roller coaster enhances drone productivity by providing a form of rapid transit through an office complex.
Petter Kakracka, the founder of The Great Exhibition, says that he overcame naysayers who told him that "it’s not only impossible, it’s impractical, dangerous, and too expensive" to construct a creativity-generating tool appropriately named "The Frontal Lobe."
If you were to ask a longtime Neatorama reader which city has the most haunted hotels, they might guess Savannah, Georgia. And they would be right. Vio crunched the numbers, and Savannah came up with a "horror score" of 75.41. I'm not sure what that means, but it landed Savannah at the top of the list of cities with haunted hotels. I'm surprised that New Orleans came in as low as fifth -behind Orlando, for goodness sake! Baltimore, San Antonio, and Charleston also ranked high in hotel spookiness.
The factors they considered include the number and percentage of hotel guests who report paranormal activities during their stay, and the number and percentage of hotels in each city that guests reported to be haunted. However, one would think that a hotel's reputation might color a guest's expectations. You can't visit Savannah without hearing about the many ghosts who call that town home. The good news is that haunted hotels are slightly cheaper than non-haunted hotels. The bad news is that all these cities have very expensive hotel rates. See the complete list at Vio, plus the breakdowns of cities by either haunted mentions or paranormal mentions. I'm not sure how the difference between the two terms was determined. -via Digg
(Image credit: Steve Langguth)
Drones can be a lot of fun and give us great visuals from an aerial point of view, but their most impactive use is for jobs that are difficult and dangerous. What we hear about most is their use in war, but while that's safer for the aggressor, it's still killing people. Check out what drones are doing for power grids, such as clearing ice from power lines. Temperatures in these conditions can make human work even more dangerous when fingers get stiff and helicopter motors fail. Drones are also used for inspection, line photography, and troubleshooting, and some can even recharge themselves on the electrical towers without returning to home base. The drones used for this kind of work are above your budget or your needs, but for infrastructure maintenance, they are not only cost-effective (compared to a pilot plus workers in a helicopter), and much safer than sending people to do certain jobs. -via Nag on the Lake
In 1948, E. B. White wrote an essay about his experience in raising a pig. The plan was to buy a spring piglet, feed it all summer, and then have it slaughtered for ham and bacon in the fall. It was a common custom, but this pig changed White's perception completely when it became sick. He confronted feeling like a failure in the simple task of feeding a pig for a few months, but more importantly, explored the connection he felt for an animal who was completely dependent on him. The ailing pig became less a unit of livestock and more like a pet.
A few years later, White published the children's novel Charlotte's Web, which became one of the most beloved stories of all time. In that book we see White's motivation to save the pig from slaughter, except this time he succeeds. As The Atlantic is celebrating its 160th anniversary, it has reprinted that original 1948 essay called Death of a Pig. This time, it won't be a spider you'll cry over, but the pig that became neither pet nor bacon. -via Kottke
There are plenty of ways to gauge how well you are aging. One test is how much difficulty you have getting to a standing position after sitting on the floor. Or whether you can put your pants on without sitting down. I was pretty proud to think that not many people my age can still wash their feet in the sink (one at a time, of course), but why would I brag about that? However, a new study from researchers at the Mayo Clinic suggests an even simpler test.
How long can you stand on one leg and keep your balance? People under 50 can usually hold the “unipedal stance” for 30 seconds or more with no trouble. Just bend one leg up like a flamingo and hold your arms by your sides. The amount of time you can retain your balance indicates the health of your neuromuscular connections, and that time naturally decreases as we age. If you cannot hold your balance on one leg for ten seconds, it may be time to do something about it. There are ways to improve our strength and balance, which you can read about at ZME Science.
Of course, you can test your continuing sense of balance by riding a bike or using roller skates, but with age comes wisdom, and we who are wise don't want to take the risk. -via Real Clear Science
(Image credit: Deepak Sundar)
Nathan Wyburn is a British artist noted for his portraits of celebrities using food products. To celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the debut of the Pop-Tart, he composed this image of Marilyn Monroe that is clearly inspired by those of Andy Warhol.
