10 Strange and Wonderful Soaps

Solid soap is, of course, a useful consumer product. It is also possibly the perfect multi-dimensional art medium. The shape, colors, design, and scent can all be manipulated to produce just about anything the mind can imagine. Then you can mass-produce them in sizes that many people can afford to buy and use. Here are ten wonderfully creative soaps that will impress your friends and family (or else have them scratching their heads in confusion) in this list I posted at mental_floss.

Fun and Funny Links

Allie at Hyperbole and a Half relates four tales of something she did that turned out completely different from what she expected. At her expense.

Animals on Drugs is just a blog of funny photos. They really don't give drugs to animals. (via Gorilla Mask)

If you followed the saga of the woman who put a cat in a garbage bin (she was found) you'll appreciate the cat's revenge.

History's Most Iconic Images (Ruined by Photobombers).

Up, Down, Ready. This is my kind of game: you only use two buttons. (via The Daily What)

Combine the Electric Light Orchestra, The Supremes, and Michael Jackson to get a really toe-tappin' retro mashup. You can call it Supreme Evil.

A dunk is no longer just a dunk, as you can see from the Midnight Madness 2010 Dunk contest. Putting the ball through the basket is almost an afterthought to the elaborate gymnastics these guys show off.

The Oatmeal has the lowdown on Why Working from Home is Both Awesome and Horrible. I can vouch for all of these things, but I wouldn't go back to punching a clock. (via Gorilla Mask)

Take Me to the River -Al Green

Good Reads and Info

What happens when you give a credit card to a panhandler? A reporter tried it and found the answer is: all kinds of different things. (via J-Walk Blog)

Is that my son wearing a dress? A father wrestles with conflicting emotions when his son wants to be Snow White on Halloween.

The News Merchant. News outlets say they don’t pay for interviews, but they can hire Larry Garrison to produce segments featuring newsmakers he can afford.

Top 7 insane homeowners association rules. HOAs can take control of your life down to the tiniest detail, if you’ve agreed to abide by their rules. (via Boing Boing)

If your brain and your body were separated but still working, which one would be YOU? http://www.newbanner.com/SecHumSCM/WhereAmI.html Since neither can function without the other, the theoretical question is set up with a hi-tech sci-fi story.

7 People Who Messed With Texas. In most cases, Texas messed right back. (via Interesting Pile)

A mass grave unearthed in Pennsylvania has opened a two-century-old murder case. The 57 Irish railroad workers were supposed to have died of cholera, but bullet holes and smashed skulls tell a different story.

Is IKEA the World’s Largest Charity? Maybe not the largest, but it’s certainly pulling in a lot of money for a company that pays no taxes.

Animals on Treadmills

People aren’t the only ones using treadmills to keep in shape. See everything from a turtle to a vampire bat using a treadmill in these videos I posted at mental_floss.



Harpo Marx on The Today Show

He appeared on the show in 1961 to promote his book Harpo Speaks, but he didn't.

Friday Fun Links

Watch me do the Ugly Dance! Click around at the bottom to make it look even sillier. (via the Presurfer)

Twitter meme: fake Star Wars figures.

The Tragic Death of Practically Everything. In case you didn’t know already, the technology you use every day has been dead for a long time… or maybe you didn’t care to know. (via Metafilter)

Crazy Things I Have Done While Partying With One-Year-Olds.

Pics from Star Wars Celebration V.

The most NSFW handbag ever designed.

The Evolution of the Bat Suit. (via Gorilla Mask)

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has unveiled the ten funniest jokes told this year -and some of the worst jokes as well. You have to be British to understand some of them. (via Metafilter)

What a duck’s bill really looks like. You’ll never look at them the same way after this revelation.

Toddler Think He Is Hula Hooping

(via Boing Boing)

9 Silly Venn Diagrams

Venn diagrams give a visual representation of sets and their logical relations and overlaps. The actual logic behind the nine diagrams in this list I posted at mental_floss varies according to the humor intended.

Good Reads and Informative Links

Over the Rainbow: The Technicolor Life of the Man Who Created Oz.

Kal is a Paramedic in Edinburgh. He writes about his adventures, some bloodier than others, at Trauma Queen. (via Breakfast links)

15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America. (via J-Walk Blog)

Summertime for George Gershwin. The creation of Porgy & Bess 75 years ago required some fieldwork off the coast of South Carolina.

The Senator, the Dog, and the Trial. A court case from 1869 established the concept of “A Man’s Best Friend is his Dog”. (Thanks, IrisInTheOzarks!)

Both George Orwell and Aldous Huxley had pessimistic views of the future. Which one was more correct about our modern world? (via 9GAG)

4 Things in Your House Dirtier Than A Toilet. Think about it: the toilet actually gets cleaned every once in a while.

The Eternal Value of Privacy. This classic article explains how the concept of privacy is way more than hiding some wrongdoing.

Russian Types is a set of portraits taken in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the 1860s. Is it my imagination, or do most of the men look like Rasputin? (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Stand Up Adolf

The Evolution of Fast Food Logos

International symbols for successful brands don’t change a lot, but they do change. The point of a fast food logo is to make a known brand recognizable at a distance for those who are new to the neighborhood. Here are the histories of some restaurant logos you’ll recognize anywhere in an article I wrote for Neatorama.

Fun Links

My new kitten's first LOLcat!

How to write a scientific paper. This guide goes beyond the scientific method and tells you what you really need to know.

Play the drums in an apartment complex and people will complain. It’s what they don’t complain about that will make you stop and think.

Pee-Wee Herman attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Deadwood, South Dakota. He got a tattoo, rode his bike, and swapped stories with veteran bikers.

The 5 Most Ridiculous Martial Arts Movies Ever. No that we go see martial arts movies for their literary plots, but these are tragic. NSFW text.

The two rules of being cool.

Great day: catching a foul ball at a baseball game. Greater day: casually catching a foul ball while carrying a tray of food and seeing it all caught on tape.

Michael Jackson and the Chinese Red Army perform “Beat It”. This editing masterpiece will make you scratch your head and then laugh. (via Neatorama)

Brian from Buzzfeed watched the new Insane Clown Posse video "Big Money Rustlas" so we don't have to. I'm pretty sure this recap is more enjoyable.

The Lost Boys Give Back

The Lost Boys of Sudan are a group of thousands of young men from Sudan who fled the violence of their villages and lived in refugee camps for years before they were relocated to the United States, Australia, and other nations. After the cease-fire in 2005, many of them are looking homeward, and using the education and skills they’ve learned to help those who remain in Sudan. Meet some who are doing just that in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Informative Links

As American combat troops leave Iraq, let's recap the last eight years.

Sweet Memories: How Jelly Belly Invents Flavors. You will agree that the exact aroma of your memories is a very important ingredient.

Danny & Annie is the latest animation from Story Corps. It's a heart-tugging interview with a couple who loved each other madly for 27 years.

Tales of Gilligan’s Island.

Scandals: why we can't live without them. Other people's transgressions and embarrassments make us feel good in several ways.

10 Tragic Athlete Deaths. Young, famous, and at the top of their games, their public deaths affected fans as well as family and friends.

In Praise of Toilets, which only seem important in their absence. But getting everyone to want them is no small problem. Warning: do not read while eating.

16 Unbelievable Shopping Disasters.

Debunking Grammar Myths. Defend your language from Grammar Nazis with the lowdown from a grammarian who knows.

Fun and Funny Links

Looking Beyond the SUV – Literally.

There's one thing you don't want to do in front of a studio audience, much less on tape for posterity. But at least she can laugh about it.

The life cycle of the majestic plastic bag is shown in its natural habitat. There's no danger of extinction in this species!

Simon Tofield's delightful animations make you laugh yourself silly over the most common normal occurrances. Especially when Simon's cat finds a box to play with.

The Best Duck Songs in the History of the Universe.

Three years later, The Infinite Oz promotion for a SyFy movie is still available to watch. You may become mesmerized or possibly bored.

A Text in the Night. An animated film noir for the Facebook generation.

The line to eat at McDonalds in Moscow was 30,000 people long -in 1990, when the first outlet in the city was opened. See the video.

8-Bit YouTube

If YouTube was around in 1985. (via b3ta)

Retro Star Wars

Star Wars holds up pretty well no matter what era you put it in. Oh yeah, I know "A long time ago..." but that's just the story. What if we were to set the movies into another period of Hollywood history? Find out in this collection of videos I posted at mental_floss.

Dancing with a Small Hat

A little girl in North Korea entertains the crowd. (via Everlasting Blort)

Good Reads and Information

You might be surprised to find that Vikings were cleaner than the people they conquered and even kept their hair neatly cut. See more photographic evidence here. (via Metafilter)

The Universal Translator. Hollywood has a variety of ways to depict foreign languages in film, from the clever to the ridiculous.

The TimelessBeauty of National Geographic. But this isn’t about the pictures; it’s about the design and layout of the magazine itself.

Six Causes of Online Disinhibition. Things we would never say face to face seem fine online -until we get busted for it.

The Secret Histories of Those @#$%ing Computer Symbols. They involves Swedish campgrounds, Danish blueberries, and Neptune’s trident. (via Bits and Pieces)

The 7 Most Horrifying Museums on Earth. The text is NSFW and the pictures are not for the sensitive, so now you really want to go read this, right? (via Gorilla Mask)

How to make pizza with a waffle iron. I think I'll skip the macaroni-and-cheese topping and go for the traditional flavors. (via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories)

Neatorama Facts: Sleeping Beauty Castle.