Abetrujillo

A good sense of humor can get you through anything, even parenthood. Steven Crowley is a Dublin, Ireland-based designer who puts his particularly dark sensibility to use in a series of photos depicting his daughter in a variety of white-knuckle-inducing dangerous scenarios, like climbing a ladder or using kitchen knives. As he wrote on Reddit,  his goal is to depict “marginally dangerous” situations. “Nothing unbelievable, but enough to make people think ‘Wait, did he..?'”

Well, his Photoshop game is so strong, you’d be forgiven for thinking the photos are real. Check out the gallery below:

1. Fun with knives

2. Bannister climbing

3. Chilling out on the railing

4. A day at the lake

5. What’s in the attic?

6. Baby launcher

7. Bringing down the lights

The kitchen is the heart and center of the home, but it gets dirty fast. (Cleaning up is the downside to cooking at home!) If neglected, aside from basic washing up and wiping down, the kitchen can get out of hand very quickly. But forget weekend cleaning marathons — you can deep-clean the kitchen from top to bottom (and keep it clean!) in only 20 minutes a day.

Here is a 30-day plan that will help you clean your kitchen in manageable chunks of time — and keep it gleaming clean without those hours of toil on the weekend. (We even have a handy PDF you can print out and tack on the fridge to remind you!)

READ MORE »

Losing weight might be about when, not what, you eat.

Image: @Akiyoshi Kitaoka

We've featured Akiyoshi Kitaoka's optical illusions before on Neatorama (like this predecessor to today's image), but the Japanese psychology professor has a neat new one.

In this image above, Kitaoka noted "The right eye appears to be light blue and the left eye to be yellow, though they are the same gray."

Don't believe it?

Here are the eyes up close:

Let's compare them side-by-side (Enhance!!)

Pretty freaky, huh?

Even if your personal Miyazaki collection is comprehensive, I bet you have some friends and family members who would appreciate his films. Several of his best are down to $13 on Blu-ray on Amazon right now, which is just about as cheap as they ever get.

Read more...

Vanilla beans are a lot harder to grow than you'd think. Did you know that the vanilla vine only blooms one day a year? If a vanilla farmer isn't there on the spot to pollinate them by hand (a tricky process), he won't see any vanilla beans. And even if he does, there's a lot of processing to go through before the flavoring is usable. But vanilla is one of the most popular spices in the world, found in at least 18,000 different products. You might be surprised to learn that the majority of the vanilla we consume today doesn't even come from vanilla beans.

In the late 19th century, scientists figured out how to derive vanillin—the dominant compound that gives vanilla its signature aroma—from less expensive sources. These included eugenol (a chemical compound found in clove oil) and lignin, which is found in plants, wood pulp and even cow feces. Today, about 85 percent of vanillin comes from guaiacol that’s synthesized from petrochemicals. This isn’t something many of us realize, because labeling can be confusing.

In short, vanilla is the plant. Vanillin is one of up to 250 chemical compounds that make up the flavor we know as vanilla. The Food and Drug Administration broadly defines “natural flavors” as those derived from “a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material … whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.” Artificial flavoring, on the other hand, is defined as being derived from substances outside of those parameters—even if the chemical composition of the two products are similar.

So a product containing "natural" vanilla might come from something other than vanilla beans. However, producing vanilla beans is still a lucrative business. Read about the history and the process of producing vanilla at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: tirados joselito)

Image: Weibo via @Samchong

Last year, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding unveiled their latest batch of cuteness: 23 baby pandas making their public debut at the center. Workers tried to arrange the baby pandas according to their sizes on top of a large green podium, but that task proved to be futile.

One baby panda was particularly adventurous and decided to go off stage ...

Bloop!

But don't worry, folks. Fushun, the baby panda that fell off became quite famous. Apparently, he fell off the stage straight into the people's hearts.

There's a YouTube video clip by CCTV of the event:

And if you can't get enough of the Chengdu pandas, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding has a live cam.

Have you shopped at any of discount tool chain Harbor Freight’s 750 U.S. stores recently? A recent class action settlement over the chain’s understanding of how a “sale” works means that customers can get refunds that range from 10% to 30% of whatever they spent at the store, or a $10 gift card.

The lawsuit alleged that Harbor Freight slapped “Sale” and “Compare at” tags on items that weren’t actually sold at that price for long enough. For an item to be considered on sale, the item must have had that original price for at least 28 of the preceding 90 days.

While the lawsuit was filed at the Court of Common Pleas in Ohio, if the settlement is approved, it will apply to all Harbor Freight customers in the United States who bought items with alleged fake sale price tags between April 8, 2011 and Dec. 15, 2016.

The settlement has preliminary approval from the judge, and the hearing for final approval will be held in July. The deadline to file a claim if you’re eligible is Aug. 7, 2017.

There are three groups in this suit, depending on what type of documentation you have.

Customers who save their receipts: Customers with itemized receipts that have a “You Saved…” amount printed on them from the covered period will receive 20% of the amount they spent in cash, or 30% as a Harbor Freight gift card.

Customers who have credit or debit card statements: If you can at least prove that you shopped at Harbor Freight during the covered period because the store appears on your payment card statement, you can receive 10% in cash or 12% as a gift card.

Customers who can’t prove anything: If you declare on penalty of perjury that you really bought an item during the covered period with a fake sale price on it, you can receive a $10 Harbor Freight gift card.

Remember that class actions can take a while to make their way through the system: Just ask our readers who are still waiting for their tuna coupons.
.
[via KARE – auto-play video at that link]

Getting your dog to take pills can be tough since they’re often not so tasty, and while pill pockets help, the store-bought treats designed for such a purpose can get expensive fast. Make these three-ingredient pill pockets to cut down on costs and make medicating your dog easier.

Read more...

Knowing at least a few phrases in American Sign Language is always useful and there are few videos that are a more popular means of learning it than the Sign with Robert series. Giphy has teamed up with Sign with Robert to put together a ton of animated GIFs to help you learn a variety of phrases.

Read more...

It’s hard to improve on an onion ring, but I dare say the folks at Tastemade have done just that. Instead of dipping the allium loops in a batter and then frying them, they’ve gone low-carb (and high-taste) by wrapping them in strips of tasty bacon and baking them.

Read more...

Gas is still pretty expensive in most places, and air travel is full of ridiculous TSA delays, so train travel is starting to look pretty good to travelers who want to go places without hassles or headaches.

Riding the rails can be a relaxing and romantic way to see the country, as you travel down routes well over 100 years ago, and you can take an Amtrak train across the country for a mere $213.

Travel blogger Derek Low loves to travel by train, so he figured out a way to make the 3,400 mile long trip without breaking the bank via Amtrak's California Zephyr and Lake Shore Limited routes.

The trip takes 4 days without stopovers and takes you through Denver, Salt Lake City and Chicago, but if you want to see it all you can buy a 15 day pass for around $429 and stop all you like.

And if you can, Derek recommends riding in the Sightseer Lounge car, which features floor to ceiling windows and super comfy seating.

You could look through a small cabin window or sit in one of our observation cars. Your choice. #amtrak #adventure #500Destinations #travel @schoonmaker3

A post shared by Amtrak (@amtrak) on Nov 4, 2016 at 8:29pm PDT

-Via Popular Mechanics

Now this is a backyard firepit fit for Conan the Barbarian! Forget firelogs - keep yourself warm with fires fueled by burning the skulls of your enemies. But there's no need to vanquish Thulsa Doom and his armies - you can buy these skull "logs" over at Amazon - via The Awesomer and Valhalla's Chosen.

A group of quarreling dogs demonstrate how tough they really are.

We're all tough... until the gate is open.

via

Are you in the mood for some comfort food? Of course you are; it's February. But in the interest of lingering New Year's resolutions, you might, however, be leaning towards something with vegetables — perhaps even a vegetarian dish?

I have a proposal for you: fresh baby spinach and chickpeas, slow-cooked with ginger, garlic, and onion in a creamy coconut milk sauce, finished off with a healthy dash of lemon. But it doesn't stop there. No — this spicy, tangy dish of greens was designed to be served over a sweet potato. See? Both comforting and your daily dose of vegetables, all in one dish.

READ MORE »

I may own every cheese slicer ever made. I prefer a wire type cheese cutter so I can cut slices that melt easily and that work well on a piece of bread and sandwich.

This cheese slicer is great for both tasks. It even has adjustable tension on the two cutting wires. A point of information: I did break a wire cutting a very hard piece of pecorino cheese with cracked black pepper. Good news, the wire is replaceable, and I was able to purchase new wires to fix it. Maybe best to use on softer cheeses. Lessons learned. But, highly recommended for every other use except for those extremely hard cheeses.

-- Kent Barnes

WMF Profi Plus Stainless-Steel Cheese Slicer ($16)

International Amazon link

Available from Amazon

Overnight oats are the easiest breakfast ever. Just combine oats and water in a jar, then microwave the next day. Make a whole week of breakfast in about five minutes.

Continue reading "Easy Overnight Oats" »

A Danish study found that integrating physical activity into math lessons boosted kids’ test scores.

“Well, don’t say you want a Lego tower-building tournament if you can’t handle losing.”

(via source)

Bonus Panel

It may seem ridiculous to dry your own grapes in the oven, but doing so gives you much more control over the result and opens up a range of flavor and texture possibilities. The homemade kind can come out plumper and juicier, with a flavor that's truer to that of a fresh grape, only more intense. Toss them into baked goods like muffins, serve them on a cheese board at a party, or make them a regular addition to salads. Read More

When Lucy Scott, an illustrator based in Edinburgh, Scotland, gave birth to a son in 2012, she found the experience to be an unending source of creative inspiration. She began drawing cartoons that spoke honestly about how exhausting and challenging parenting is for the moms (and dads). She soon had so many that the collection was published in the 2015 book, Doodle Diary of a New Mom: An Illustrated Journey Through Mommy’s First Year. If you’ve got kids of any age, check out this gallery, preferably with the accompaniment of a stiff drink.

1. Just out of reach.

2. Victory!

3. Disaster area.

4. It’s starting already.

5. Separation anxiety

It doesn’t get much healthier than this vegan vegetable and chickpea stew!

Humble veggies like carrot, sweet potato, and parsnips shine when paired with the intoxicating Moroccan seasoning known as ras el hanout.

Have you ever tried this spice mix? The main components are cumin, coriander, ginger, and cinnamon — they make a warming blend that’s perfect for perking up a hearty vegetable stew and serving on a cold day.

Continue reading "Moroccan-Spiced Sweet Potato and Chickpea Stew" »

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Finally, someone brave enough to tell the truth about our hypocrisy as to the topic of formality in language.

New comic!
Today's News: