There's a hidden world beneath the surface, just waiting for us to explore it. Japanese street artist Jun Kitagawa installed zippers to show us the way. Johnny Strategy writes:
One of his most fascinating works are an ongoing series in which he installs 3-dimensional zippers in various public spaces around Japan, offering an intimate look – one that’s often left up to the imagination – into our world. “I like to surprise people with a light eroticism,”* explains Kitagawa in a statement.
Do you believe in God, or do you believe that there is no God*? Just how sure are you? Depending on your answer, you may be an atheist or a theist along the spectrum of surety with agnosticism on one end and gnosticism on the other.
(*Now, someone explain to me whether Zen Buddhists believe in God.)
Confused? You're not alone, but thanks to Pablo Stanley (previously on Neatorama), we now have a handy dandy guide to know what the hell you are:
Image: Dudarev Mikhail/Shutterstock
So, you're a vegan and you're mad that you can't drink Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte. Well, maybe you want to skip this post because your day ain't going to get much better. You see, almost *everything* in the world contains something made from animal parts and by-products.
Don't believe us? Here are 5 things in the world that you wouldn't believe are made from or contain animal by-products or use them in the manufacturing process:
Yes, tires are made of rubber, which are plant products but the wheel on the bus goes round and round with a little help from stearic acid.
Stearic acid is a fatty acid with many industrial applications - and when we say many, we mean a bajillion. This chemical compound is used as a surfactant and softening agent. It is found in soaps, cosmetics, detergents, lubricants, candles, food, and even fireworks. Car tires manufacturers use stearic acid as an additive to help "cure" the rubber in the tires and make them strong enough to hold their shape while under steady friction yet flexible enough to grip the road.
Oh, and that "stearic" in stearic acid is derived from the Greek word "stear" which means tallow, a rendered form of beef or mutton fat.
Unless you live in a brick or mud house, then chances are, your wall is made of drywall or sheetrock. These are gypsum plaster sheets used to make interior walls and ceilings. Then, unless you live in an unfinished garage, chances are your walls are painted. Well, both drywall and paint contain animal by-products.
Drywall is made by creating a slurry of gypsum with additives such as starch, paper pulp and fatty acids like stearic acid (ta-da!) and oleic acid (also made from animal fat) as emulsifier and thickener.
Many brands of paint (even latex-based paint) contain a binder called casein, a protein found in cow milk. Never heard of casein? You may not know it, but you are familiar with casein: in its coagulated form, casein is called cheese.
Good ol' white sugar isn't white to begin with. Rather, large sugar manufacturers use a filter made from bone char - basically charred ash of animal bones (mostly from cattle) - to decolorize sugar cane to the desired white form.
Well, how about if I just use brown sugar, you say. Turns out most brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses added as brown colorant.
Yes, that black stuff used to pave roads and parking lots contain glycerin, a release agent that prevents it from sticking to the containers, as well as other animal by-product based additives to help the ease of mixing and paving as well as control rutting and cracking.
ShocktoberFest is a spooky theme park operating in October (and parts of September and November) in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania. In addition to the various haunted house tours, they have hayrides, a midway, and a place to host parties. This year, they are offering a special haunted tour where you can go through naked!
Inspired by the hit show “Naked and Afraid” on the Discovery channel, Shocktoberfest has created The Naked and Scared Challenge to test your fears and phobias on a whole new level. For the first time ever you can now experience the Unknown Haunted House totally naked! See if you have Gymnophobia- the fear of being nude. Naked and Scared tickets are limited. Online ticket purchase recommended.
The naked tours will happen after all the other visitors have left, and it's only open to adults.
*Please note there is an additional cleaning charge if we scare the p*ss out of you!
Link -via Boing Boing
We've written about Pablo Stanley of Stanley Colors blog before on Neatorama, but the man is on a roll! Great job, Pablo! In this new panel, he illustrated one of the most iconic songs ever recorded, Imagine by John Lennon.
It's probably impossible not to read the cartoon and have the song not pop into your head. It's now probably going to get stuck in your head for the rest of the day, but hey, at least it's a catchy tune!
Sing it with me, "Imagine there's no heaven ..." (Love this song? Did you know that the lyric and concept came from Lennon's wife Yoko Ono? But Lennon said that, "in those days I was more selfish, more macho and omitted to mention her contribution." Read more about Imagine in this article by Eddie Deezen, "Imagine: John Lennon's Signature Song.")
If you wonder who the guy named "Milk" in the fourth from last panel, that's San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the United States in 1977. Milk was assassinated in 1978, just 11 months after taking office.
The woman named Anna in the third from last panel is Russian journalist, writer, and human rights activist named Anna Politkovskaya. She reported about the Chechen conflict and published several books critical of the current Russian government. In 2006, Politkovskaya was shot and killed in her apartment complex. Her murder remained unsolved until today.
The meaning of Imagine is a hotly debated topic, but Pablo noted in his blog, "This is NOT an anti-religion/atheist propaganda comic. The comic and the song (at least as I understand it) [try] to communicate that no matter your faith, we should all share the world in peace ... As silly as that sounds."
View the original comic over at Stanley's website.
MIT physics professor Edward Pickering was an early advocate of astrophotography and also had a relatively enlightened (for the time) attitude toward women in science. But he was an outlier in both fields.
In 1881, Edward Charles Pickering, director of the Harvard Observatory, had a problem: the volume of data coming into his observatory was exceeding his staff’s ability to analyze it. He also had doubts about his staff’s competence–especially that of his assistant, who Pickering dubbed inefficient at cataloging. So he did what any scientist of the latter 19th century would have done: he fired his male assistant and replaced him with his maid, Williamina Fleming. Fleming proved so adept at computing and copying that she would work at Harvard for 34 years–eventually managing a large staff of assistants.
So began an era in Harvard Observatory history where women—more than 80 during Pickering’s tenure, from 1877 to his death in 1919— worked for the director, computing and cataloging data. Some of these women would produce significant work on their own; some would even earn a certain level of fame among followers of female scientists. But the majority are remembered not individually but collectively, by the moniker Pickering’s Harem.
A slightly more respectable name for those women was the "Harvard Computers." Find out what they did and how they were rewarded at Smithsonian's Past Imperfect blog. Link
(Image source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Photographer Greg Anderson attended the National Beard and Mustache Championships in New Orleans to take portraits of the entrants. Those turned out so well, he's going to publish them in a book. Beard Team USA will be seen again at the World Beard and Mustache Championships in Germany. Anderson will also be there, as the official photographer of the event.
Link | Full Gallery -via Metafilter
Redditor anastasiabeverhousen writes, "So, I know a guy who makes 'Stumpkins.'" I love the idea! They look like fantasy movie monsters.
Two years ago, I mentioned that the Husky Jackal Theater in Nashville re-wrote the script for the movie Terminator 2 using only lines from the works of William Shakespeare. The creative team has completed the project. This video shows scenes from the glorious result.
Link (warning: auto-sound) -via Kuriositas
Terrible Real Estate Agent Photos is a Tumblr blog filled with hilariously ghastly examples of pictures of homes for sale.
If you're selling your own home, it may be worthwhile to hire a professional to take photos of the property. Or, at least, put on some pants before taking pictures of a room with mirrors in it.
Link -via David Thompson
Sir Stuffington is an adorable kitten who was attacked by a racoon when he was just a baby. While he lost an eye in the process, he hasn't lost his fighting spirit. In fact, now that he and his brothers have been adopted, Sir Stuffington enjoys dressing up as a pirate with his new daddy. You can keep up on the kitten's adventures over on his Facebook -at the link.
Link Via Death and Taxes
Neatoramanaut Steffan Gilbert sent this picture of himself and his wife. If you can't see him, it's because he is well-camouflaged.
The story behind the photo is simple: my lovely wife and I were attending a Witches (costume) Ball in Nashville some years ago. While figuring out what kind of costume I might wear, I noticed that a really nice wool suit of mine had become severely moth ridden, but rather than consign it to the scrap bin, I asked my lovely wife if she would make me, rather than a GreenMan suit, an AutumnMan suit, and she did so. We won a lovely statue of Kwan Yin as the prize for best costume, and all in all the evening was quite splendid.
They had such a good time, they didn't want to "leave." Ha! Thanks, Steffan!
Households are constantly falling apart because the cat knocks things off the table. Admittedly, some of these cats were tempted for the camera, but it's still natural behavior. Cats just like to watch things fall. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)
