Over on the Neatorama Twitter account, we try hard to follow people back and actually respond to Tweets, but if you're on Twitter, you know how overwhelming that can be. If you ask me, it's also overwhelming trying to figure out new people to follow and, most importantly, unfollowing people who aren't following you.
But we're tackling the chaos with a new amazing tool called ManageFlitter, which helps you handle all the issues I just mentioned. You can plug in a Twitter handle, like @neatorama, and follow all the people we follow in just a few clicks. You can also see who follows us and, of course, unfollow all the people who aren't following you - again, in a few clicks.
And by the way, if you're not following us, don't you think it's high time you did? Don't you want to be in the same company as this guy below?
Brilliant, genius film here that will help you get your smile on today. Promise! It was created by Auckland's Media Design School. The comedy is a nod towards the early films of directors Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats) and Richard Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused). Directed by James Cunningham with visual effects by eleven Media Design School students.
Would you pay $159 a pound for ham? Oink! In the above video, Philadelphia food and wine writer Brian Freedman takes us on a tour of some pretty fancy spots in the City of Brotherly Love that are serving up more than just cheesesteaks. The fancy ham comes from the Iberian pig and is aged for 5 years. It's so fancy, the guy selling it needs a special certificate of authenticity to serve it up.
[update! Don't forget that our Pin to Win contest is till LIVE! So what are you waiting for? Get pinning and start winning!]
This is going to be FUN for Pinterest members (established and new)! -- Something we tried before with some success, so thought another was in order, only with a Holiday slant. So here's how it works:
1) Put together a wishlist board of items from the Neatoshop - stuff you really want, badly (minimum 5 items, but no max)
2) Be as creative as possible when coming up with a name for your board, or a theme for your wishlist - just try to tie it back to the Holiday season in some way shape or form.
3) Add the hashtag #NeatoPinToWinHOLIDAYS to each and every item you pin to that board and paste the URL address of your board into the comments below!
5) Close your eyes and wish really hard for something on your wishlist! The Neatorama editors will get together a week from today and pick a few items from a few boards and put them in the mail to you. Bonus points for funny or otherwise well-thought-out themes and creative board titles that make us smile.
Here's a sample board we put together, just in case you're new to Pinterest and have no idea what we're talking about. Note that the Elmo backpack is pinned correctly, with #NeatoPinToWin, while the zombie foot dog toy is not.
Oh, and in case you missed it, here are the winners from the last Pin To Win contest.
This is going to be FUN for Pinterest members (established and new)! -- Something we tried before with some success, so thought another was in order, only with a Holiday slant. So here's how it works:
1) Put together a wishlist board of items from the Neatoshop - stuff you really want, badly (minimum 5 items, but no max)
2) Be as creative as possible when coming up with a name for your board, or a theme for your wishlist - just try to tie it back to the Holiday season in some way shape or form.
3) Add the hashtag #NeatoPinToWinHOLIDAYS to each and every item you pin to that board
5) Close your eyes and wish really hard for something on your wishlist! The Neatorama editors will get together a week from today and pick a few items from a few boards and put them in the mail to you. Bonus points for funny or otherwise well-thought-out themes and creative board titles that make us smile.
Here's a sample board we put together, just in case you're new to Pinterest and have no idea what we're talking about. Note that the Elmo backpack is pinned correctly, with #NeatoPinToWin, while the zombie foot dog toy is not.
Oh, and in case you missed it, here are the winners from the last Pin To Win contest.
Professional foodie (what a GREAT job, eh?) Josh Ozersky takes us on a guided tour here of NYC's East Village pizza parlors. I never knew there was a term for it: but wait til you learn about "tip sag" - which is the ratio of sagginess to crust when you hold a slice of pizza in one hand.
If we may commit the sin of pride for a moment: Pee-wee Herman, who has more than 1.3 million followers on Twitter and only follows 275 people back, follows neatorama. Don't you think YOU should be, too? So go do it, now. Otherwise, when we tweet something bad about you, how will you know it? (That was so funny I almost forgot to laugh!)
It's official, Neatorama's Facebook page has gained its 25,000 fan! Thanks to all of you over the years who have come along for the ride, and for all the amazing comments. I, personally, read every single one of them! We really love our neatoramanaut community and love how much you share our content over there. Below is an example of something you'd find over there if you LIKE our page (and then set your preferences to ADD TO INTEREST LIST (otherwise Facebook won't show you too much of our content, based on their new sorta-lame algorithm.)
And while on the subject of our social media channels, don't forget we recently started an Instagram account (@neatorama) and we're of course on Twitter and Pinterest, too!
Last month, after publishing my interview with NASA's Steve Collins, I promised a second interview with another member of the JPL Curiosity Rover team. Today, we finally get that interview with Erisa Hines, a key member of the JPL team that landed the rover on Mars.
If you’ve been living under a rock the past couple months, here’s the quick recap: Late last November, Curiosity was set off on an 8 1/2-month, 354 million-mile journey to Mars. She’s the largest rover ever sent to the Red Planet, about the size of a Mini Cooper, plutonium powered and packed with all kinds of goodies to perform science experiments once landing safely on the surface of Mars.
On August 5th (Pacific Time), she successfully landed after completing the dangerous 7-minute entry, descent and landing which involved busting through the Mars atmosphere at about 13,000 MPH, a ginormous parachute to help slow it down and some down-firing booster rockets to bring the rover finally to a soft, safe landing.
Erisa Hines was integral member of the team that flew the spacecraft to Mars and was super generous with her time as she gave the following interview over the course of about an hour when I visited JPL a couple months ago.
Name: Erisa Hines Born and raised: Northeast of Kansas City, MO Grew up: On a farm with ponds to fish in and a horse Collected: She-Ra: Princess of Power dolls Self-confessed: Tomboy Passion growing up: Dancing (tap, jazz, ballet mix) At an early age: Taken with NASA shuttle program and wanted to be an astronaut, but also a veterinarian High School: Valedictorian of graduating class Undergrad: University of Miami (College of Engineering) Grad: MIT (Dual Master in Aerospace & Technology and Policy Program)
DI: While doing your grad studies, were you more interested in building and flying rockets or the science involved?
EH: At the time, definitely building and flying rockets. I didn’t yet have an appreciation for the science. I think it’s been this project (Curiosity rover) and being here through a landing, and seeing the science come back within seconds, whether it’s a picture or starting to hear some of the scientific conversations that are going on about the place we’re in and where the rover is headed, I am now interested in the science.
DI: When you started at JPL, what was your first project?
EH:Dawn, which is the asteroid mission and I appreciate the science they’re doing, which is this really hot, dry rock and this really cold, icy rock, but we think they came from the same place in history, and have evolved very differently. So let’s go study them with the same instruments, get comparative data, and try and learn from that. The science is much more real to me. I worked on this mission for about a year and a half, where I was heavily supporting the flight director at the time. So I was helping to get all the launch products ready. And I was running launch scenarios in the test bed.
DI: So after Dawn, what was next for you on your personal journey to Mars?
EH: I next worked on Altair, the lunar landers missions. So in the ‘60s, those lunar modules held two men and took them to the surface of the moon. With Altair, we were designing the spacecraft to hold 4-6 people, so it was a much larger lander than what had been done before. Had we continued with the program (it was shelved), it would have been the largest spacecraft manned by humans to another planet, or another body. It was based out of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, so I was going to Houston twice a month.
DI: So how’d you get to be part of MSL (Mars Science Lab)?
Oink! Check out Josh Ozersky as he takes you on a walking tour of the best pork BBQ in NYC's Chinatown. I'm definately adding these restaurants to my to-do list next time I get to the Big Apple.
And if you're still in the mode for pork after watching the video, be sure to take a stroll over to our Bacon Store. There's plenty there for the pork enthusiast.
That's right, neatorama has created an IG account! So if you're in the mood for neato images each day, be sure to follow us! We promise to follow back. That's a good deal, right?
Hey, maybe we'll even ask you if we can put some of YOUR images on our blog one day. If, of course, we like one and you give us permission. Neat?
