Thank goodness for New Year's Eve parties, because for many of us, it's the only excuse all year to wear a sequined dress! Sequins have been catching eyes since as least the time of King Tut. The monarch's tomb held clothing with gold discs sewn right in! Not everyone could afford gold, but travelers sewed real money coins onto their clothing for security purposes while traveling, and sequins made of metal decorated clothing for fancy occasions long before the more lightweight sequins we know. The reproduction Plimoth Plantation women’s waistcoat shown here has over 10,000 hand-stitiched sequins to make it like the ones worn in the 17th century. Read the full story of sequins at Smithsonian's Threaded blog. Link
(Image credit: Ed Nute)
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How do journalists get into this mysterious group? They must sneak the phrase "It was as if an occult hand had..." past their editors and into published articles. The Order emerged sometime during the 1960s, perhaps when Paul Greenberg was writing for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. After an exposé in 2004, Greenberg was eventually forced to come public:
Of course I knew we'd get caught some day. Some investigative journalist with nothing more important to investigate was bound to turn his attention to us on a slow day. So when the inevitable e-mail arrived, as if delivered by an occult hand, I offered no resistance. ("It's been a terrible burden keeping the secret to myself all these years," said the suspect. "I knew I'd be caught sooner or later. Now I feel only relief.")
But I couldn't just let the Order die. It had become a tradition So at the next annual editorial writers' convention, I called an after-hours meeting of all those who might be interested in adopting a new secret phrase. It couldn't be just a simple piece of purple-as-a-bruise prose that would leap out of our copy as if written in neon. What we needed was some language bad enough to be spotted by the cognoscenti but likely to get past the casual copyreader. Call it lavender prose.
There were a number of nominations, and it wasn't easy picking a winner. Among the runners-up were "hanging over the scene like a shroud" and "like a soft, warm, weird breeze blowing aimlessly through the palms." Which did we pick? I'll never tell.
But I'm proud to report that the Order is in business again with, at last count, 11 certified members who've submitted proof that they've actually snuck the magic phrase into a reputable publication, 14 candidates who have yet to submit their documentation, and one honorary member who seems to spin out this kind of prose naturally.
I think that Neatorama authors need a similar secret society for getting an odd phrase past Alex and Miss Cellania. What should it be?
Link -via Super Punch | Image: Fox
Man's best friend, indeed! In 2012, dogs made the news -or at the least went viral in the 'net- by doing tricks, saving lives, or just by making us happy. Take a look back at some of the better dog stories from the past year. Shown here are the K-9 Parish Comfort dogs who visited the residents of Newtown, Connecticut. Even though there are six of them, they make up only one of the nine stories. Link
(Image credit: K9 Comfort)
Jean-François Oeben, a French cabinet maker, built this astonishingly complex and precisely crafted desk. It's filled with several hidden compartments that become accessible when a key turns interior gears.
If you think that politicians are all glamorous and such, you haven't met Jose Mujica, the president of Uruguay who lives in a ramshackle farm and donates almost all of his pay. He's the world's poorest president:
Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a yard, overgrown with weeds. Only two police officers and Manuela, a three-legged dog, keep watch outside.
This is the residence of the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, whose lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other world leaders.
President Mujica has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife's farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo.
The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.
This austere lifestyle - and the fact that Mujica donates about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000 (£7,500), to charity - has led him to be labelled the poorest president in the world.
Vladimir Hernandez of BBC Mundo/Montevideo has the story: Link
U.S. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney visited the Oval Office on Thursday, along with other members of the gold-medal-winning U.S. team. Here, Maroney shows the president how to do that face that made her a meme right after the 2012 Olympics. -via reddit
(Image credit: Pete Souza via Flickr user The White House)
"Should I munch on this one delicious piece of kibble or should I save it?" Poor little mango, she has so many hard choices in her life.
Via Cute Overload
Seventy-two year old Liu Xianping was just trying to help out his granddaughter and her clothing store, Yuekou. He posed wearing the shop's fashions, and has become an internet sensation in China. You have to admit he's got the legs for it!
"Why unacceptable (for someone like me to wear women’s clothes? Modelling for the store is helping my granddaughter and I have nothing to lose. We were very happy on the day of the shooting. I’m very old and all that I care about is to be happy."
People love seeing Liu. The store's business has increased fivefold since Liu's pictured appeared on its website. Link -via reddit
Some thrill seeking Halloweenies from Bogota, Colombia put together this two-person roller coaster costume and brought the thrill of the theme parks into their everyday lives.
Not only is this a clever costume capable of "simulating" all the banks and drops of a real coaster, it's the only ride I've ever seen without people waiting in line to get on!
--via Laughing Squid
The guy who gave Darth Vader his voice reads Edgar Allen Poe's classic poem The Raven, and his booming baritone has ruined all further readings of the poem forevermore.
When James Earl Jones reads something, it stays read!
--via Gizmodo
If this dog could talk I bet he would say "I hate growing up." I have to say I tend to agree. I was the same way as a kid except with pants, between the ages of 12 and 19 I probably went through 1,000 different pairs of pants. Let me back up, that was because of vertical challenges not horizontal ones. After a few months, every pair of pants became capris. Promise me you won't ever get men's capris. Promise me!
At least this pup got to look cute through it all.
-Via Tastefully Offensive
Take your time - read the sign. I feel bad for this little girl, her dad is a Reddit troll. Somehow I think this will end up as a traumatic event for this girl, she will never want to sign another contract again. Marriage? Forget about it! She has already made one 17 year commitment and that won't turn out well at all.
-Via Hypervocal
Remember Tard the Cat? Well she is back at it doing her best Jeremy Renner impressions. Somebody get this cat an agent! I can't stop laughing at this, it's all about the eyes. More Tard spoofs please, I can't get enough of this grouchy cat.
-Via Daily Picdump
From the director of Laziness and the producers of Procrastination, here come's Failure, The Movie. It comes to us from the Internet and the Tumblr blogger Stabla - via The Curious Brain
Four years ago, Mike Loura was struck by a car while riding his bike and became paralyzed. Today, he walked again for the first time thanks to a robotic exoskeleton:
"Ever since the accident all the doctors said you're never going to walk again," Loura said.
However, the husband and father of two girls is walking again. Thursday was day 15, the day Loura strapped on the wearable robot, a breakthrough technology, but it's the first time he's taking steps for others to see.
"Every time I take a step I kinda have to balance myself in a certain position for the machine to know that it's ready to take the next step," said Loura.
"It has an exoskeleton system with battery powered motor that allows someone who can't feel and can't move," said Dr. David Rosenblum, "who's paralyzed, the ability to go from sit to stand to actually taking steps."
WTNH News8 has the post and video clip: Link - via the Daily Mail
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