The Classic Video Badgers is Now 20 Years Old

Back in 2003, there was no YouTube, no social media, and no Neatorama (yet). But on September 2, we got a flash animation called Badgers that went so viral it could be used to identify who was on the internet and who wasn't. You could say "Badgers badgers badgers badgers," and if … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 7 months ago

Human-sparked Wildfires in Southern California Are Not a New Thing

The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles is a treasure trove of information about prehistoric California. Thousands of animals over time were trapped and then preserved in the pits, seemingly for us to study, but so far only one human has been found. Scientists are able to date these … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 7 months ago

You Won't Believe Where the Pumpkin Spice is Now

August is almost gone, which means that stores are loading their shelves with products of all kinds, flavored or scented with pumpkin spice. Now that wonderful scent comes to your butt, too! Dude Wipes, a company that caters to men pooping, has a website full of hilariously intim … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 7 months ago

Spotless Giraffe May Be the Only One in the World

Brights Zoo in Limestone, Tennessee, had a blessed event about a month ago when a reticulated giraffe gave birth to a healthy female calf. The six-foot-tall baby looks very different from her mother, though. She has no spots, just a coat of smooth brown fur. The last known giraff … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

A Retirement Home for Playground Animals

During the 1980s and '90s, New York City parks commissioner Henry Stern insisted that all new city playgrounds incorporate animals to climb on. But over the years, that playground equipment was replaced by more modern, accessible designs, and the concrete animals were discarded o … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg Observatory

Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (previously at Neatorama) catalogued more than a thousands stars before the telescope was invented. For his service, King Frederick II of Denmark gave him an island to use for his studies. There, Brahe had an observatory built, which he called Uranib … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

3100 Miles: The World's Longest Foot Race

The world's longest ultramarathon will begin on August 30 in Jamaica, Queens, New York. It will also end in Jamaica, Queens, New York. It's the annual Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, which will take place every day beginning at 6AM until midnight, for 52 days. The … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

A Wholesome Prank on Dad that Leaves Everyone Happy

Hoopfinesse and Musa are identical twins. Musa has been away for 18 months, and Hoopfinesse picked him up at the airport, but their father has no idea that Musa is coming to visit. So when they went to Dad's house, Musa dressed as Hoopfinesse and walked to the door with his broth … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

How an Apple a Day Might Keep the Doctor Away

The old adage "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" doesn't make sense anymore, because who wants to keep a doctor away? It's hard enough getting an appointment to see one as it is. The saying does make for some interesting graduation pictures at medical schools. But is an apple … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

The Origins of the Mathematical X

The letter X is altogether unnecessary in phonics, and rarely does a word begin with it. But we keep it around because we like it. We end a lot of words with X, and when it's "ex," we begin words with it all the time. It's used to indicate something is wrong in schoolwork. People … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

How Many Buildings Does the US Government Own?

The US government owns a lot of land, and a lot of buildings. Some are grand federal buildings that house offices and crucial services. Others are just there on federal land, some being used for government business, others not so much. And many are miscellaneous buildings that we … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

How Psychopathic Tendencies Can Lead to Success

Embed from Getty ImagesResearch on psychopathology mostly addresses criminal psychopaths and how we might identify such people. But that research is expanding, because it's very possible, even common, for a psychopath to be law-abiding and hide their psychopathic tendencies, poss … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

Visualizing the Scale of the Milky Way

You may have learned that the universe is expanding, or maybe it's not. Not that it really matters to people like you and me, because it's already bigger than our minds can comprehend, and may as well be infinite. Toby Lockerbie, also known as Epic Spaceman, is thinking about the … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

When a Portrait Was a Punishment

There's a reason we have a prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The past was full of cruelty, and unusual was only limited by one's imagination. Here's a punishment that wasn't all that cruel, as we would view it now, but it sure was unusual. In Florence, Italy, duri … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 8 months ago

Musician Turns Drums into a Keyboard

Eric Carr is a master percussionist. At his YouTube channel EMC Productions, he teaches the world how to play drums and not how to play drums, as well as inventively uses drums for unconventional purposes. In the latter category, Carr recently compiled a few dozen drums … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

The Last Sight of the Titanic as Portrayed on Film

The sinking of the Titanic was such a momentous disaster that movies are made about it over and over. CaptainJZH collected a dozen of those movies or TV shows and put together clips of the final plunge of the ship as it slipped underwater, out of sight. Theses movies span a hundr … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

How Many Brothers Can Work at a Restaurant

I decided today that I’m going to see if I can find the restaurant with the highest number of brothers. I am on strike and have nothing better to do with my time. Please join me. pic.twitter.com/BGY3r04PyX— Dan Amira (@DanAmira) July 17, 2023 Dan Amira, a humor writer … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

A Truly Embarrassing Tombstone

...Lychon—a member of my own family!—slaughtered me, still in my youth. He threw me from the heights like a discus. I was twenty years old, so full of beauty, when the Moirai spun my fate and sent me as a delight to Hades."RIP my dude (Louvre Ma 2867, trans. Chaniotis … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

Woman Sends Note To Plane Passenger, His Response Goes Viral

It’s like a scene from a rom-com movie. A woman onboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Nashville to San Diego shared her cute experience concerning a man on TikTok, which subsequently went viral. The lady, named Natalie, can be seen explaining the story in the vi … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

Is Twitter Suing Meta For Their Threads App?

Let’s be real for one second: Twitter is going through some things right now. After the turnover to Elon Musk, the application has been experiencing some downfalls. From errors to Musk trying to capitalize on every single thing that made the platform popular anyway, it&rsqu … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

California Grad Student Commutes Via Plane To Go To Classes

Apparently, he saves up more through this method!Bill, a graduate student from the University of California, has shared his story on a viral Reddit post claiming he <a href="https://philstarlife.com/news-and-views/874879-california-grad-student-commutes-via-plane?fbclid=I … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

Archaeologists Find Treasure That Was Buried 3,000 Years Ago

Archaeologists set out to a valley near Oberhalbstein, Switzerland to uncover ancient Roman ruins. Their aim was to find some evidence left behind by the Roman military, a once powerful force in the world. However, instead of what these people wanted, they got something much olde … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

Perhaps Household Cleansers Should Not Be Packaged in Drinking Cans

this is literally one of the dumbest places to keep undrinkable chemicals i’ve every seen in my life… pic.twitter.com/oXxtgACKsE— Brennasaid (@brennasaid) July 4, 2023 Twitter user @Brennasaid offers this series of photos of a household cleaning product. It's P … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

The Roundest and Most Rectangular Countries

Embed from Getty ImagesHey, geography nerds! Can you name the roundest country in the world? People who have really studied world maps might be able to. People who haven't might be able to find it in the map above. Yes, it's Sierra Leone. Yes, there have been people who study and … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

Iceland's Only Forensic Crime Technician Is Too Busy Answering Questions from Iceland's Multitudinous Crime Writers

Despite having a population of only 370,000 people, Iceland is known for his huge literary output. That nation has the highest per capita number of published writers, including those that specialize in crime fiction.Hildur Knútsdóttir is one those accomplished write … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

Winners of the 2023 Audubon Photography Awards

The National Audubon Society has crowned the winners of its annual photography competition. The Grand Prize went to the photo above by professional nature photographer Liron Gertsman of Vancouver. These are two rock pigeons engaged in allopreening, a new word I learned today that … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 9 months ago

What Did The Stonehenge Sound Like?

This set of mysterious stones has remained on the periphery of the modern age. It serves as a reminder that we had quite a colorful past, and also a shining beacon of light for scholars who wish to study more about our world history. Even if it has stood there for quite a long pe … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

Rethinking the Agricultural Revolution

The first thing we learn in World History class is that humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers until 10,000 years ago, when they discovered how to grow crops and then settled into permanent communities, which gave them time to develop civilization. But an archaeological dig called … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

Bear Hangs Out at Colorado Home

A bear in ColoradoSprings, Colorado, decided to pull a reverse Goldilocks and invaded a house, possibly looking for porridge. The bear entered through a broken window on the ground floor, and made his way upstairs. He apparently wanted to go back outside, but didn't realize that … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

The Midwife Who Uncovered the Secret of Milk Sickness

From 1809 to 1927, this strange disease killed thousands of settlers and farmers in the Midwest—including Abraham Lincoln’s mother. https://t.co/GODTnGUwJg— Smithsonian Magazine (@SmithsonianMag) June 20, 2023 When pioneers began settling in the Unites States mi … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

From Jungle Prison to Spaceport

The ESA spacecraft carrying the James Webb Space Telescope launched on Christmas morning 2021 from the Centre Spatial Guyanais in the city of Kourou in French Guiana. You may wonder what a European spaceport is doing in South America. The French space agency CNES was established … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

The First English Manual on Swimming Was Published in 1587

I should clarify that Everard Digby's book De Arte Natandi was English in the sense that it was published in England. Digby, a theologian at Cambridge University, wrote The Art of Swimming in Latin. A few years later, Christopher Middleton translated it into English, which you ca … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

The Lego Star Wars Fathers Day Special

Fathers Day would not be complete without Darth Vader jokes. Star Wars fans of a certain age still haven't gotten over the twist in The Empire Strikes Back, the one that turned a single space adventure into an epic family saga. Too bad that was the peak of the series. (Dragging L … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

This Is the World's Largest Kidney Stone

Have you ever wanted to be in the Guinness Book of World Records? Canistus Coonghe of Sri Lanka is. He's secured fame by growing the largest (by volume and weight) kidney stone in the world.Are you jealous of Mr. Coonghe?Doctors in Colombo sugically removed the kidney stone, whic … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

Sometimes I'm Alone; Sometimes I'm Not

What could be more heartbreaking than a cat left alone while his human is at work? An obviously lonely and talented cat named George Rufus sang a deep and profound song about his misery, and touched the heart of South African musician David Scott, known as The Kiffness (previousl … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

A Scale Model of Time Itself

When we think of time, we think of our daily schedules or maybe a lifetime. But the human mind has a hard time grasping the history of the universe, and the relative blink of an eye that humanity has existed. The 300,000 or so years that homo sapiens has been around is the main f … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 10 months ago

The Game Moderator Mayhem Reveals the Difficulty of Content Moderation

Anyone who has ever tried to moderate content on the internet knows how hard it is. When you allow strangers to post or comment on your website, you have to keep an eye on what they say. If it is your responsibility to encourage free and open exchange of ideas, while at the same … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

In Search of the Elusive Austrian Kangaroo

This video is framed with the joke that tourists go to Austria and want to see kangaroos. There are no kangaroos in Austria. However, as you zoom about Vienna in this video, you might catch a glimpse of one here or there. But pretty soon you forget all about kangaroos because thi … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

Rehabbing Route 66 for Its 100th Anniversary

Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles was long the main highway to the western United States. Approved in 1926 (and completed in 1938), Route 66 was the path Dust Bowl victims used to escape to California. It was the subject of many a college road trip, or the path to start a new … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

Chimpanzees Language Includes Words and Syntax

We humans once thought we were special because we had language, but animals of other species communicate with each other in many different ways. It may be that language that words and phrases  andsyntax isn't unique to humans, either. Chimpanzees talk to each other all the t … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

The Stolen "Traditions" of the Early Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan began in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee. The first members were young fiddle players starting a social club, eager to harness the trappings of ancient secret societies to draw intrigue and respect. They were also quite frustrated over the Confederacy's loss in the re … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

A Robot That Moves as Efficiently as a Seal on Land

Roboticists are always looking for new ways to make a robot move. Mimicking the kinetic abilities of animals has given us Atlas, designed like a human, Spot, designed like many quadruped animals such as dogs, and hexapod robots designed like six-legged insects, But why would anyo … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

The Wreck of the Valencia: the Titanic of the Pacific

The SS Valencia was a steamship that took off from San Francisco bound for Seattle in January of 1906 with tons of cargo and 108 passengers as well as a crew of 67 men. En route, the ship encountered bad weather and in the dark of night became lost. The crew didn't know the ship … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

Hundreds of Pounds of Pasta Mysteriously Dumped in New Jersey

Morning rose over the sleepy town of Old Bridge. It's a quiet community. But what happens in the dark of night will be revealed to all because there had been a dumping during the twilight hours.Near a creek in the woods, some unknown criminal representing shadowy forces that quie … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

Wizards of the Coast Sends Mercenaries To A YouTuber’s House

Wow, I didn’t expect them to sink even lower. We can’t believe that we will confirm the existence of this team of mercenaries thanks to Magic The Gathering. This was totally not on our 2023 bingo card.But what are we talking about? Well, a YouTuber showed off new and … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

$35,000 David Hockney Painting Found on This BBC Show

An anonymous owner brought a David Hockney painting in an episode of BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. This artwork was created during the early years of the artist’s career, so there was a lack of his iconic use of vibrant colors in his contemporary artworks. Instead, viewers … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

Wheel Of Fortune Dragged By Fans After Ridiculous Puzzle

Oh, dear. Wheel of Fortune was bashed online after a recent episode, where a contestant attempted to guess a bonus puzzle for the chance to get the grand bonus price of $45,000. The game show player, Angela, was asked to guess the letter "M, H, D, and O"  with the promp … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago

What’s A Vampire Straw?

It’s not a supernatural object, definitely. Apparently, this is a weapon.&nbsp;A vampire straw was found in a traveler’s bag when it passed through security at Boston’s Logan Airport. The unusual item was made of titanium, and while they function as straws, … | Continue reading


@neatorama.com | 11 months ago