Baking a cake is a labor of love but also just basic chemistry, you're mixing ingredients together and making it react into something delicious. But each ingredient is important! Leaving out eggs or baking powder or butter can change the cake dramatically. Here's what a cake looks like without one of those ingredients.
Fun and games aren't always fun and games — especially not if a kid gets ahold of the wrong toy. These 13 dolls, figures and role-play items, through bad manufacturing, oversight, and sometimes just plain incompetence, have hurt children in real life, and sometimes even killed them. Parental guidance suggested!
1) Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper
Ever wondered why every toy with a piece smaller than a baseball has a choking warning on the package? Thank this Mattel vehicle from the original Battlestar Galactica TV show. The Viper had a firing missile, a standard special feature of the time, but which a 4-year-old very unfortunately shot in his mouth and choked to death in 1978. The Viper was recalled, Mattel was sued, and toy packages gained the choking hazard warning forever.
2) CSI: Fingerprint Examination Kit and CSI: Investigation Forensics Lab Kit
It may seem like dangerous toys are things of the past, but this 2007 science kit based on the hit murder/crime/drama show that kids probably shouldn't be watching proves otherwise. As stated the kit allows kids to dust for fingerprints; the problem is that the powder used to dust for said fingerprints was chock full of asbestos. The Environmental Working Group reported that the powder contained up to 7% of tremolite, one of the most dangerous forms of asbestos, and more than enough to cause cancer later in life.
3) Bird of Paradise Slingshot
One of the earliest toys that the Consumer Product Safety Commission recommend be banned in 1969, this slingshot fired missiles that were "razor-sharp," according to the Wall Street Journal. A slingshot that fired razors seems obviously problematic, but prior to the CPSC only toys made out of dangerous substances were considered dangerous.
4) Sky Dancers
It's easy to understand the popularity of Sky Dancers. They were figures of faeries with soft foam wings; when they were attached to a hand-held base and a ripcord was pulled, the faeries would shoot into the air and twirl back to the ground. What's harder to understand is how it took six years for them to get recalled. See, when the cord was pulled, the Sky Dancers would rocket randomly from the base at great velocity, and while they may have twirled to the ground, they didn't float gently — they dropped, and then it became a game of "dodge the Sky Dancing Kamikaze." As the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported in 2000, when the Sky Dancers were finally recalled, "Galoob has received 170 reports of the dolls striking children and adults resulting in 150 reports of injuries. They include eye injuries, including scratched corneas and incidents of temporary blindness, broken teeth, a mild concussion, a broken rib, and facial lacerations that required stitches."
5) Super Blast Balls
Two balls. Smash them together, and boom — you get a loud, cap-like noise and a few sparks. That's it. That's the whole toy. It's amazing no one figured out a toy that was effectively "lets have children set off caps in their little hands" was going to be dangerous before they were mass produced, but after the first few injuries and fires the CPSC came to its senses and went ahead and banned them.
6) Creepy Crawlers
People often give the Easy-Bake Oven a hard time, basically because it had a lightbulb inside to heat and bake food, and it could get up to 350 degrees — certainly enough for kids to burn themselves if they weren't paying attention. But the Easy-Bake Oven was a beacon of safety compared to the original electric Creepy Crawlers oven of the '60s, which 1) got even hotter than the Easy Bake Oven, 2) produced not hot food but burning hot liquid plastic, which 3) was actually quite toxic. God knows how many kids burned and scarred themselves (or, more likely, their younger siblings) but because it was the '60s, adults decided the Creepy Crawlers sets weren't dangerous as much as they were "learning experiences."
7) Empire Little Lady Stove
In the same theme, while the Easy-Bake Oven had its problems — and Hasbro was forced to recall the toy in 2007 after a girl was forced to have her finger partially amputated after burning it in the oven's bulb — it was made of room-temperature Nerf compared to the Empire Little Lady Stove. This electric kids' stove from the '60s reached temperatures of 600 degrees — most real ovens now automatically shut off when they reach 550! What could a child possibly want to cook that would need 600 degrees of heat?!
8) Bat Masterson Derringer Belt Gun
This popular weapon of the '50s was the James Bond-iest device a cowboy could have. The gun was hidden in the belt buckle, and when a kid stuck out his tummy, the gun would swing out and fire on unsuspecting outlaws. Now, the gun fired small pellts, but that wasn't the problem; the problem was that it was also a cap gun for that realistic gun-firing experience. I shouldn't have to tell you the dangers of firing caps right next to your crotch, but suffice it to say any friction could accidentally set the caps off, so even just wearing it was as dangerous as any high noon stand-off.
9) Zulu Blow Gun
Any small toy can be dangerous if it's swallowed by someone young enough, and I've tried to keep from flooding this list with items that were banned after a toddler accidentally — although willingly — ate them. But the classic Zulu Blow Gun toy was different in that it was a tube whose entire play feature was making kids stick tubes containing very small, choke-inducing darts into their mouths. That's just asking for trouble.
10) Moon Shoes
Mini-trampolines for your feet? What could go wrong? A lot, actually. One errant jump in the Moon Shoes could easily lead to a broken ankle. More impressively, the Moon Shoes of the 1970s were made of many, many sharp pieces of metal, meaning kids were essentially wearing mini-trampolines made out of bear traps on their feet.
11) Sky Rangers Park Flyer Radio-Controlled Airplane
This 2007 remote-controlled airplane had a bad habit of, uh… blowing up. Seriously. Even more unfortunately, the planes were launched by hand, so when the planes blew up they often blew up next to kids' heads. They were unsurprisingly recalled.
12) Snacktime Cabbage Patch Kid
Many toy companies have held the Cabbage Patch Kids doll license over the years. In 1996 Mattel had the honor, and released the Snacktime CPK for the holiday season, a special doll that would "eat" "snacks" inserted into the doll's mouth thanks to a series of motorized metal roller. While the dolls soft, fleshy lips were already kind of disturbing on their own, the bigger issue is that the Snacktime Cabbage Patch Kid couldn't differentiate between the plastic snacks it was supposed to eat and, say, an actual child's fingers. In January of 1997, Mattel voluntarily recalled the dolls after several incidents of the Snacktime Cabbage Patch Kids snacking on their human playmates.
13) Lawn Darts
Also known as Jarts, Lawn Darts are possibly the most famous toys to be banned, and justly so. It's been determined they were responsible for sending over 6000 people to the hospital for injuries, most of them kids, many of them disabled for life. And this was after the Jarts manufacturer had skirted a previous ban by putting a "game for adults only" warning on their packaging, because of course kids were going to play with them — and they were still sold in kids' toys stores, too. By the end, Jarts had killed three children and one 11-year-old girl put into a coma.
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We just wrapped up our Halloween Scream Time Pinterest Contest and I have to say, it was a huge success. You guys pinned hundreds of Halloween costumes, recipes, decorations and more to our This Is Halloween board and it was amazing to see all the wonderful things you shared.
While it was easy enough to find out who had the most repins, picking an editor's choice winner from all those entries was hard, but we finally managed to slim it down to just one. That's why we thought it was only fair to not only share the two winning images with you, but also some of our the runenrs up. You can always visit the board to check out all of the amazing entries as well as new pins from our wonderful fans.
On a side note, if you are one of our two winners, please check your Pinterest notifications or email me directly at jill@neatorama.com to claim your prize.
This precious Despicable Me pumpkin won Angela Ramage first place for the most repins.
And this creepy, zombie Snow White won Keno Sproule first place in our editor's choice category. (For more awesome pics from this photo series don't miss this great Fashionably Geek post.)
Only one point behind the Snow White picture was this wonderful pumpkin creation posted by Halloween Freak AKA 80s Horror.
Halloween Freak also contributed this cool monster pumpkin.
We were also pretty charmed by this fun skill crane pumpkin display Halloween Freak shared with us.
And this lady Pinhead Horror Freak shared was also pretty popular.
Tru Efforte wowed us with this hilariously cute Silence of the Lambs dog costume featured on Pets Lady.
This terrible twosome posted by Heather was equal parts creepy and adorable in their Sweeny Todd costumes as photographed by The Sunny Side Blog.
Tru Efforte gave us chills by posting these horrific Halloween nails featured on InventorSpot.
Our mouths watered when we saw these tasty Jack-o-lantern chili bowlsHolli Hagan Rice pinned from Hell's Kitchen.
We couldn't help but laugh at this obscenely over-the-top pumpkin display Halloween Freak shared.
Keno Sproule made us bummed we didn't get to buy these amazing nesting dolls from Etsy seller Gravlax before they sold out.
We fell in love with this spider-laden porch display Holli Hagan Rice shared.
Thanks to Keno Sproule's pin from Instructables, we're ready to create crazy Halloween gore effects this year.
Once again, like to thank everyone who participated in this fun contest and if you're looking for a new contest to join, don't miss our Instagram costume contest where you can win 4 tees of your choice from the NeatoShop.
It's been said there's no such thing as an unpickable lock. That may be true – but this innovative lock assembly just bested one of the Internet's most famous lock-pickers, who calls it "the weirdest lock on Earth."
This is Tiger Log Cabin's £70,000 (~$113,000) Zombie Fortification Cabin (ZFC-1). That cost is just for the materials though, you have to assemble it yourself though or pay another £13,000 (~$21,000) for them to come do it for you. I suggest letting them do it though. You try putting it together yourself and that shit's probably gonna get stormed by zombies easier than the little pig that built his house out of cereal boxes.
The ZFC-1 comprises of three sections, all of which are independent from each other with two lockable doors securing each building. This means for a zombie to breach the main large section they would have to somehow breach three very securely locked doors - which even your most advance lock picker would struggle to compromise. One of the smaller buildings is a garage with secure roller shutter doors - still large enough to secure a military vehicle or getaway car. The other building comes with a built in storage unit for food to help you last the duration of the apocalypse. There is also a great place to store any other weapons you require to keep the undead at bay. The third larger building at the back has two floors (containing a bedroom, a kitchen, a living room and even a gym) as well as an upper deck to give you a 360 degree vantage point with smart slots in the decking wall to allow you to shoot at intruders in the surrounding area. In the middle of the three buildings protected by walls around the outside and a mesh roof is a small garden to allow you some outdoor time and to plant and grow vegetables.You know what the major flaw with this thing is? Actually, a couple things: 1) there are windows to break if zombies manage to infiltrate the garden, and windows are easier to break than walls. 2) there are doors. Zombies might not be that smart, but they do recognize something that looks different. Doors should blend in with the rest of exterior. 3) It's wood. Wood is flammable. It would only take one flaming zombie to come knocking to ruin your whole day. And trust me, zombies do catch fire -- I've killed enough in video games to know that. Speaking of, what percentage of people do you think have absolutely zero concept of zombie preparedness minus what they've picked up from video games and movies? My guess is at LEAST 85%. Those people aren't going to last long. Check it: you and a small group of survivors are running from a horde of zombies, what do you do? "Blow another survivor's leg off and leave them to the zombies to buy yourself enough time to escape." Exactly. You know, you might just survive a while after all. Just not in my group, because I don't want anybody else trying to use my own survival tactics against me. Keep going for a bunch more shots.
Have you had any nightmares, lately? Would you like some? Then you'll love the South American Goliath birdeater. This furry spider is the size of a puppy, and thanks to hard claws on the tips of its foot-long legs, it makes a horrifying clicking sound when it scampers through the forest.
D Gwould buy if not for the BBT crap
This could quite possibly be one of the most awesome t-shirts of all time… because knowing is half the battle.
Women at Microsoft in technical jobs are by-and-large making less money than men with the same job title, according to employees sharing salary information with Glassdoor.
Microsoft isn't alone here. Women at other prominent tech companies like Facebook and Google are in the same boat.
Job hunting site Glassdoor dug into the female/male pay discrepancy after Microsoft CEO Nadella opened his mouth last week and stuck his foot in it.
To recap: Nadella has apologized for remarks made at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing last week.
That's when he offered this career advice, "It’s not really about asking for a raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will give you the right raise." This is advice that he, himself, has adhered to, which is why he shared it, he said.
And we've heard it before from other successful men. The idea goes like this: Keep your head down and work hard and eventually someone will notice.
That's a noble sentiment and it should work for everyone. Currently, however, women are often not paid as well as men for the same work. Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg has been encouraging women to "lean in," step up and become more forceful in their own careers, including negotiating for pay.
Nadella said that he looked into whether Microsoft is paying women the same as men and is satisfied that it is. In a memo to employees, he said:
Although it fluctuates by a bit each year, the overall differences in base pay among genders and races (when we consider level and job title) is consistently within 0.5% at Microsoft. For example, last year women in the US at the same title and level earned 99.7% of what men earned at the same title and level. In any given year, any particular group may be slightly above or slightly below 100 percent."
So Glassdoor looked at 14 job titles at Microsoft and found that women reported earning less, on average, in 12 of them. Women earned less than men in four of out five job titles at Google, too.
Nadella has promised to make sure that Microsoft improves its track record with women on every level. Microsoft has a chance to really lead on this. Plus, CEOs at the other tech companies can look at their data and make necessary changes, too.
Here's the Glassdoor data.
He can adhere to his own philosophy. He can notice. He can declare his female employees being paid less than than their male counterparts will be getting a raise. Without having to ask for it.
Join the conversation about this story »
Kickstarter removed a fundraiser for a popular Tor-based router project on Friday afternoon.
The Anonabox, which was created by August Germar, of Chico, California, aimed to be an “open source embedded networking device designed specifically to run Tor.” Its fundraising goal was $7,500, and in five days, it raised $585,549 from nearly 9,000 backers—including three Ars editors.
Germar told Ars that he was not aware that it had been suspended until Ars forwarded him an e-mail from Kickstarter outlining the possible reasons why it could have been cancelled.
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Mr. C's car wash in downtown Detroit has a problem. When employees put a car equipped with a door keypad on the conveyor, the brushes are registered as button presses. After a few invalid codes, the doors lock up, and a driverless car is rolling out of the wash. Yes, the law of unintended consequences is alive and well.
Well, I know where my nightmare exists in real life: Cape Lookout National Seashore off the coast of North Carolina. Hundreds of sharks were seen right on the beach, swimming in and out of the waves and flapping and attacking around and hunting a school of blue fish. It's a terrifying sight to see.
this is for my costume… im going as a pizza hut delivery driver from the early 90s.
