I can’t verify these claims, but according to various tumblr blogs, this photo shows a strongbox made in Nuremberg in around 1540. It’s made of sheets of forged iron riveted together. In addition to the three top locks, there are two concealed ones that must be turned to open the box. One is located in a hidden keyhole in the front and one disguised rivet must be rotated.

It’s similar to this strongbox pictured above, about which I can be more certain. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City owns this strongbox, also from Nuremberg, which dates back late Sixteenth or early Seventeenth Centuries. The locking mechanism on the top of the lid is not only complex, but beautifully decorated.

If you were an American living on the other side of the pond, these are the foods you might start to miss. Redditor AxleTheDog posted a picture of the American section in the ethnic food aisle at the Tesco store in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. I see an overabundance of peanut butter and chocolate. There are two flavors of Goober, marshmallow creme, Pop Tarts, mac and cheese, and of course plenty opt candy. Canned pumpkin? A commenter explained that they do have pumpkin pie in Europe, but to make it you have to cook a pumpkin yourself, so the canned version makes things easier -the American way. See the full-side picture at imgur. 

(YouTube link)

Halloween at Big Cat Rescue in Florida means giving pumpkins and other gourds to the cats to play with (and nom). This year, they've spiced things up by giving the lions, tigers, leopards, servals, cougars, and other cats piñatas, hanging bats, and wooden tombstones to play with as well. As usual, what we get is powerful and adorable destruction on a grand scale. -via Tastefully Offensive

See also: Last year's Halloween celebration at Big Cat Rescue, and other videos of big cats doing fun stuff.

(Photos: Murphy's Paw Design)

Here’s a clever way to provide a bed for your pet that’s out of the way during the day, when you’re awake but your dog or cat would like a nap.

Or something like that.

This model, called the Leo, is good for large dogs or, I suppose, dangerously large cats. It conveniently folds away compactly against a wall.

For my dog, designating anything as the dog bed ensures that he will want to sleep elsewhere.

-via Nag on the Lake

Redditor Pontdepierre offered this Halloween costume idea, recreating the painting of Saint Sebastian by Peter Paul Rubens. A pretty decent likeness, huh? It's part of the list 17 Brilliant Art History-Inspired Halloween Costumes at Buzzfeed. See costumes by Warhol, Khalo, dali, and more. If you have to explain them, you know you're at the wrong party.

No, that's not the Tea Partiers throwing a temper tantrum.

Kathy Sterner was getting fed up that her 6-year-old daughter was throwing a tantrum in her room. Thankfully, dad was there to provide a bit of comic relief: he lip-synched the kid's tantrum and mom captured the whole thing on video.

Oh, and for the record, Sterner said that her daughter is "not typically a beast child - she's actually a pretty awesome little kid who was having a rough day." Make that an Internet-famous little kid who just had her tantrum broadcast for the entire world to see.

View the video clip over at YouTube - via Tastefully Offensive and Laughing Squid.

Neatoramanaut Nicole sent in a picture of a Halloween that traumatized her as a youngster.

this was at an annual school halloween party.  i think i was around 8 in that picture, in 3rd grade.  my mom, bless her heart, doesn't have much artistic talent so our face-paintings were rudimentary.  obviously i was not pleased about this year's attempt :P

We've all had Halloweens that didn't turn out as we had hoped. It makes for a great story later on in life! Thanks, Nicole!

If there's a picture of you in a Halloween costume, or maybe one that you made for a family member, we'd love to feature it on our Halloween blog. Whether it's awesome, embarrassing, funny, or just plain memorable, whether it was last year or 50 years ago, send it to tips@neatorama.com and and then look for it on the Halloween blog. Remember, the the top pictures will win the submitters t-shirts from the NeatoShop!

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Once again, YouTube member Ignoramusky masterfully edits music into a cat video to enhance its inherent comedy. From the moment you see those eyes glowing in the dark, you know this is going to be a cartoon, even if it is a real cat. He thinks he's going to grow up to be a fierce warrior, but he will more likely grow up to be Sylvester, or Top Cat, or Snagglepuss. -via Tastefully Offensive

~Illustrated by: Mark Winter~

People make me sick, unless you cook them properly.

— PonyBoy™ (@Colt_Seethers) March 5, 2013

Photo: Charles Marville/Musee Carnavalet/Roger-Viollet

Well, in 1876 when the photo above was taken by photographer Charles Marville, Paris certainly was the most modern city in the world.

In the early 1850s, Napoleon III commissioned urban planner Baron Georges-Eugene Haussman with the task of making Paris the most modern city in the world. Back then, the city was just as it was during Medieval times. It didn't have a sewer system, so people would simply throw waste out onto the street.

As part of the modernization effort, Haussman installed outdoor facilities including pissoirs or public urinals for men shown above. These crude structures don't look like much today, but it got the job done. It had no roof, but it provided privacy where it was needed, and it was certainly better than urinating on the streets.

Charles Marville, the photographer who snapped the photo above, was commissioned to document Haussman's transformation of Paris. His photographs are currently on display National Gallery of Art. Curator Sarah Kennel talked to Susan Stamberg of NPR about the photos that Marville took - read and listen to the story over at NPR's The Picture Show.

Richard Balzer collects optical treasures of the past. He recently started a Tumblr blog to display Phenakistoscope images as gifs, so that we can see the animation as people in the 19th century saw them -without having to find the antique device to play them on.

The Phenakistoscope is a device invented by Joseph Plateau in 1841 to take advantage of the persistence of vision to give the viewer a moving picture. Spinning discs were viewed through a series of radiating slits to animate the pictures.  

See the collection of images at the The Richard Balzer Collection, with new gifs added every week. -via Buzzfeed

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Matt Hirst couldn't figure out how his pets Dexter and Gizmo were escaping the kitchen while he was at work, so he set up a camera to spy on them. If you are in a hurry, skip to about 1:30. There, you'll see the cat use both paws to turn the doorknob!

When this breakthrough spreads to other cats, we're all in trouble. It will certainly mean my winter heating bill will soar, because cats only care about opening doors. They couldn't care less about being able to close one! Note to self: never position the cat tree near a doorknob.  -via Arbroath

This year, it seems just about everyone will be Miley Cyrus or Walter White. For those inclined to do the later, you might want to just give up on your Breaking Bad costume now because you're never going to compete with the awesomeness of these two cute drug dealers who are not only too young to ever have seen the show, but too young to even know what drugs are. 

If you still aren't convinved that these are the ultimate in Breaking Bad costumes, consider that Aaron Paul (aka Jesse Pinkman) himself posted this picture on his Instagram.

Via BoingBoing

Did you know you can get a butter beer from Starbucks? Unfortunately, while they offer them, most employees are unfamiliar with the concoction and will give you a blank stare when you order it. If you don't mind being one of those overly-specific drink orderers though, just remember the following combination and you'll be able to get them to brew you up an authentic butter beer every time.

Just request a creme Frappuccino base with whole milk, 3 pumps caramel syrup, 3 pumps toffee nut syrup and a caramel drizzle on top. If you don't want to bother ordering it from Starbucks though, Blessed Elements, who revealed the Starbucks combination, also has an easy recipe to make your own at home.

The best pizzeria ever must be this restaurant in Vienna. Lukas Galehr, an Austrian architect, designed the interior of the Disco Volante. The huge disco ball inside immediately draws the customers' attention. It’s a rotating pizza oven with a mirrored surface. At night, colored lights projected on the surface illuminate the entire restaurant in an ever-changing cascade of color. You can see more photos here.

-via Nerdcore