How the Indy 500 Came About

Sunday, the annual Indianapolis 500 will be held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They've been doing it since 1911, after a pretty rough start. Read about how the Indianapolis Motor Speedway began and the very first 500-mile race in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Informative Links

5 Terrifying Ways Your Own Gadgets Can Be Used to Spy On You. If we ever get those flying cars we were promised, they would also probably find a way to make us paranoid and miserable. (via Gorilla Mask)

Doors to Hell: Real and Imagined. This post even contains a dare!

The Greatest Shakespeare Hoax. William-Henry Ireland forged some discoveries from Shakespeare to impress his father, but became surrounded by those who wanted to believe.

Stunning photographs give us a preview of an upcoming National Geographic special. The documentary covers the first 36 hours after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

A beautiful 1927 colonial-style waterfront home with 5 bedrooms, 3 and a half baths, and a ton of history behind it in Long Island can be yours for as little as $1,150,000. The home has had many owners, some more notorious than others. (via YesButNoButYes)

A man and his marbles. This is presented as a sad case of obsession, but you could also consider him a happy retiree with a cool hobby.

The longest bridge in Russia had to be shut down when it began to wobble. As you'll see in the video, "wobble" may be an understatement.

5 Leaders Who Spent Their Countries Into The Ground. Real cases of how an unlimited budget corrupts absolutely, since nobody was brave enough to tell them "no".

Born to Be Alive

By the Western Carolina University marching band called "Pride of the Mountains". From the list of 10 badass college marching bands on YouTube. (via Interesting Pile)

Getting Rich by Singing Badly

Every once in a great while, a singer comes along that is so untalented, yet willing to sing in public, that people buy records just to marvel at the awfulness. These “musicians” are actually selling laughs, and are even more effective if the audience isn’t quite sure if the artist is actually in on the joke. Find out about five such acts in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Good Reads and Information

The latest incident of how an online community can band together to help someone in the real world involves Metafilter members who kept two Russian girls from becoming sex slaves when they arrived in the US. The thread unfolds like a movie script. (via Boing Boing) Newsweek has more.

A piece of computer coding can take a hit song and turn it into a swing tune by adjusting the beat ever-so-slightly. So now we can cut a rug to the strains of Guns'N'Roses and Journey! (via Metafilter)

The female of the argonaut species of octopus produces a thin shell called a paper nautilus. Scientists have pondered the purpose of these shells for thousands of years, and now have a video of what they do with it.

What would happen if a tropical storm hit the oil floating in the Gulf? It depends on the storm, and exactly where it meets the oil.

Kim Jong Il, the director he kidnapped, and the awful Godzilla film they made together. This story is too weird to be fiction, so it must be true!

The Atlantic compares the wealth of all 43 men who have held the office of US president, adjusted to the current value of the dollar. You might be surprised how many in the past started out, or ended up, with nothing. (via TYWKIWDBI)

Yep, a little explosion of Kentucky sunshine in your nose. Walker Percy wrote about bourbon in a way that will make you take a new look at the whiskey and everything it represents. (via Metafilter)

Just like your mother told you, Discipline Outdoes IQ in the Long Run. Which is a great thing, because anyone who wants to can work hard.

Fun and Funny Links

Where babies come from, according to death metal band members.

Rick Reilly, a reporter for ESPN, entered the Sauna World Championship competition in Finland in 2007. Reilly describes how he soon realized he was in over his head.

Redundant but funny redundant photos.

Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes discuss the idea of a Star Trek sitcom plus their days as Commander Riker and Counselor Troi in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation in this video reunion at NeatoGeek.

Trying to live life like Grandpa did may not turn out as you planned.

The Sad Reality of Ronald McDonald.

Mario in Beads. Hama plastic beads are the medium in this stop-motion video starring everyone's favorite plumber.

How to make an extremely slow-rolling ball. Once you see what's inside, it will all make sense.

Links for Fun

Flashmob Surprise Party. This will make you feel good.

How Lost Will End. Spoiler ONLY if they use the Scooby-Doo ending.

When a Guy Does Something Wrong. It's not always this way, just often enough to make us believe it. (via Blame It On The Voices)

The Best and Worst Graduation Cakes. I had no idea there were this many ways to misspell "congratulations"!

More strangely misspelled graduation cakes.

19 Essential Talking Points for the Banana Enthusiast. And if there's one thing we have plenty of, it's banana enthusiasts!

Geeks Are Sexy presents the Geek Alphabet, illustrating each letter with Creative Commons photography. And when you read them all together, they make a really geeky poem!

9 Hilarious Wedding Bloopers. With video evidence. Some of these I've posted before, but not all of them! (via the Presurfer)

Informative Links

It's hard to believe that twenty years have passed since Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, passed away on May 16, 1990. A half-dozen authors at GeekDad got together to post remembrances and a tribute to the Muppetmaster. Also: A Look at Jim Henson’s Muppet Geeks.

Play a game, donate to your favorite charity, help Neatorama beat out Boing Boing and Treehugger, and win cool prizes.

Why does the Moon look so huge on the horizon? It's not the moon's fault, or even whoever you are mooning over -it's all in your head!

Sex, lies and splitting up. Ruining relationships can now be outsourced to professionals, at least in Japan. (via Metafilter)

Theories of Color Preference. Why do men like blue and women on average prefer red?

A mouse doesn’t have to have experience with a cat to be afraid, be very afraid. But they must have the nose to pick up the chemical signals of danger.

How children see racial bias. (via Holy Kaw!)

RARE: Portraits of America's Endangered Species by Joel Sartore. Plus the really neat stories of how he got the pictures.

The CBS Family

The network's 50th anniversary special, from 1978. (via Metafilter)

Red Skelton

Doing what he did best.

Information Links

4-year old Devan has a high-risk case of a rare form leukemia known as APL. His doctors have 11 weeks to find a bone marrow or cord blood match, so he can have a life-saving transplant. (via Gizmodo)

5 Strange Facts about Classic Kids’ Shows. The surprising big names associated with some shows would explain why they were so cool at the time.

Scientists have floated the theory that life may have arose on earth in more than one instance. A biochemist did the math and says if it happened more than once, there's no evidence surviving in our current genes.

Why It Costs Twice as Much to Fly Half as Far. The economics of air travel is somewhat akin to alchemy.

How to Save the News. Journalism won't die because the all-powerful Google is working to save it.

Why I Hate 3-D (and You Should Too). Roger Ebert explains the many reasons, which are summed up quickly in this poster. http://www.woosk.com/2010/05/if-you-cant-make-it-good-make-it-3d.html

10 Jobs You Didn’t Hear About on Career Day. Mainly because they are obsolete, but would it help our unemployment rate if we still used knocker-uppers?

The $45 Emergency Menu for 4 to 6 now costs over $70, but it's still a great resource for the challenge of feeding a family. For a few dollars more, you can use the $70 Low Cost Menu for 4 to 6, which now costs almost $90. (via Casaubon's Book)

Cupcake Cannon

(via Buzzfeed)

The NBC Story

The network's 60th anniversary celebration, in 1986.

Drinking

Comedian Jim Bruer explains how to avoid throwing up while drinking.

Friday Fun Links

"HearseCon is like a funeral at a rock concert, Sturgis for hearse owners, Burning Man for People who shower..." And if the ad is any indication, it will be the perfect party for hearse owners. (via Laughing Squid)

Paul Dateh plays top 40 music on his violin. When you check it out, you'll realize the previous statement was a huge understatement.

Animated Albums is a blog of moving .gifs made from record album covers. Look for your favorites, or even request some, but beware the distracting moving background image. (via Buzzfeed)

Iron Rocky Man IV. No, it doesn't have to make sense, see -it has all this action and fighting, and that's what counts! (via YesButNoButYes)

German Carousel Death Wish. It seemed like a good idea at... oh no, instant slo-mo replay!

Our 11 Favorite Bluegrass Covers on YouTube. You haven't lived until you've heard "Single Ladies" on banjo and jaw harp. (via Gorilla Mask)

You knew your flip flops went away for the winter, you just weren't exactly sure where. Don't worry, if they're not already back home, they will be soon.

You think kids are tired of school by this time of year? The faculty of Bloomingdale High School have had it up to here!

The Password

A classic routine from the 1932 movie Horse Feathers.

10 Funny Flowcharts

There are many ways to tell a joke, and the internet makes it all the easier to construct and disseminate humor in graphic form. The flowchart is one form that many online wits have embraced. Every six months to a year or so, I find I’ve collected quite a few to pass along to you. See ten in this list I posted at mental_floss.

Good Reads and Information

See the winning entries and the top ten finalists in the 2010 Illusion of the Year competition. I love that a handmade cardboard sculpture won over many computer-generated images.

Secret Cities of the Soviet Union. Over a million people in 57 secret settlements came out in the open at the end of the Cold War, but there may still be others!

Screw Happiness. Is a certain amount of contentment a necessary ingredient for a good life? Or does it just happen while you are seeking other goals? (via Metafilter)

Lena Horne died Sunday at age 92. Her awesome performances available on YouTube range from 1943 to 1997, including two songs she sang on Sesame Street.

6 Baby Names You Probably Shouldn’t Give Your Kid. But someone did, and someone's children might never forgive them.

A simulated mission to Mars will see six people locked up together for 520 days (a year and a half)! If they don't kill each other before its over, they'll deserve at least a reality TV show contract. (via Boing Boing)

Top 10 Grumpiest Andy Rooney Segments. He's 91 now, so get off his lawn.

Chatroulette really IS Russian Roulette, as it was created by an 18-year-old from Moscow. The New Yorker interviews Andrey Ternovskiy about the tool that let him meet people all over the world. (via Laughing Squid)

Indiana Jones in LEGO

Fun Links

Jeff Wysaski made pie charts to explain how much time wild animals devote to their daily activities. (via Neatorama)

Meowmania is a simple webpage that meows. Keep clicking and see what happens to the pets in your home. (via b3ta)

5 Cheap Magic Tricks Behind Every Psychic. This is not a magic manual, but an explanation of how charlatans convince people they are real.

Henry the snake is the latest addition to Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium. If you haven't been there for a while, the collection has grown immensely.

What kind of world is it where jelly beans hide in phones and pull each other's underpants off? The world of Japanese advertising, of course.

A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages. You don't have to be a programming geek to find this funny, but it's even funnier if you are. (via Boing Boing)

Isabella Rossellini has a new video series called Seduce Me, in which she acts out the bizarre mating rituals of different animal species. These are factual and funny with no nudity, but somehow ends up more NSFW than nature videos of animals doing the actual deed.

Stuck On You: Top 10 Uses Of Duct Tape. OK, well, maybe not the top ten, but the funniest ten, right?