Pop Culture

Adafruit, which posts the geekiest, most wonderful projects I'll never understand, tells you how to make your own "chameleon scarf," an accessory that changes color to match your clothing. The scarf itself is incidental, because what blew my mind is a sensor that detects the color of an object -a piece of fruit or the shirt you're wearing- and matches its RGB code. Then there are LEDs that change color depending on the code sent to them. The possibilities are endless, if you know a little about electronics. Find a video that shows how it works, and links to pages of information behind this project at Adafruit. Link -Thanks, Becky Stern!(Image credit: Johngineer!)

Redditor Hika-Tamari asked "Americans of Reddit, what surprised you when you visited Europe?" Here are some of the more interesting answers:Chippedcoffeemug:The Italian's way of driving. Never in anytime of my life was I more paranoid of being hit by a moped.RandomWomanNo2:I first went to Europe as a twelve-year-old kid, and I was shocked by how OLD everything was. Here, a church that's a hundred years old seems ancient, but in Europe you really do have ancient structures. The sense of centuries and millennia of well-recorded history having played out everywhere I went was sort of crazy. Obviously, we have ancient Native American history, but where I'm from that part of our culture isn't always evident.And nudity! It was often no big thing in advertisements and television. Not so in America, where a single stray nipple can practically bring down the whole television system.I also also surprised how much of the landscape reminded me of home. I'm from the American midwest and sections of Germany and Ireland looked just like I was driving through home. But then I'd see some small stone wall that had been around for centuries and I'd be reminded how different the landscape is!yunith:how everyone uses normal speaking voices, and how loud i am as an American._I_might_be_naked:People in Scotland (Specifically Glasgow) are the nicest I've ever met, seriously. People would have friendly conversations with you at bus stops, and one person even lent me £2 spare cash at a gas station for petrol. It seems to be 90% of people there are like that. Very unusual.Neatoramanauts, if you've traveled in Europe, what surprised you about it?Link(Photo: We All Have Baggage luggage tag, now on sale in the NeatoShop.)

Ingenious. From the website: ••••••••••••••••••••• Cubby is the ultimate anywhere hook with an inner surface that lets you store items like sunglasses, cellphones, wallets, spare change, gloves, etc. The outer surface allows purses and scarves to be hung and offers a wider, more collar-friendly support for coats. Attach them linearly or randomly. Cubbyies are great for entry-ways, mudrooms, pool rooms, garages, and kids' rooms. A single Cubby would look and work great on the wall in an office or dorm room, while a group of them is perfect for the whole family. Parents and kids each have their own storage space, and Cubby can even be hung at different heights to accommodate the little ones. Details: • 100% recycled polypropylene plastic • 6.5" x 6.5" x 6.5" ••••••••••••••••••••• Set of two: $39.

Discover the inspiration behind Trey Songz’s latest collaboration with the bold and seductive GREY GOOSE Cherry Noir Trey Noir. He breaks down his past and talks about what it’s like to defy expectations and find success, all with a GREY GOOSE cherry on top.

Tyler Perry is coming to OWN with two brand new shows! And there’s no better way to kick it off than with a new Oprah’s Next Chapter featuring Tyler Perry on Sunday May 26th 9/8c. Then on Tuesday May 28th 9/8c, it’s the premiere of Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots on OWN. From writer and director Tyler Perry, [...]

Children of the 80's, take a stroll down memory lane with this YouTube clip by thepeterson and see if you remember 1986.Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Neatorama's Facebook page (where you'll find tons more neat stuff)

http://vimeo.com/65576562 Here's a beautifully made video accompaniment to "This is Water," an excerpt from a David Foster Wallace commencement address to Kenyon College in 2005, in which Wallace exhorts his listeners to empathize with the people around them, using examples and languages so beautifully chosen that they just about break your heart. But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she's not usually like this. Maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down. Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're gonna try to see it. Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address - May 21, 2005 (via Lifehacker)

The RIAA has submitted its latest Form 990 tax filing to the IRS, which details the organization's precipitous shelving off in budget and employees (though the execs gave themselves fat raises): The drop in income can be solely attributed to lower membership dues from the major music labels. Over the past two years label contributions have dropped to $23.6 million, and over a three-year period the labels cut back a total of $30 million, which is more than the RIAA’s total income today. The cutbacks are not immediately apparent from the salaries paid to the top executives. RIAA Chairman and CEO Cary Sherman, for example, earned $1.46 million compared to $1.37 million the year before. Senior Executive Vice President Mitch Glazier also saw a modest rise in income from $618,946 to $642,591. ...The reduction in legal costs is even more significant, going from to $6.4 million to $1.2 million in two years. In part, this reduction was accomplished by no longer targeting individual file-sharers in copyright infringement lawsuits, which is a losing exercise for the group. Looking through other income we see that the RIAA received $196,378 in “anti-piracy restitution,” coming from the damages awarded in lawsuits against Limewire and such. RIAA Makes Drastic Employee Cuts as Revenue Plummets [Ernesto/TorrentFreak]

Detroit is finally getting a statue of its legendary hero, RoboCop. But according to Wolf Gnards, there are other great pop culture heroes worthy of their own statues. For example, San Dimas, California should erect a statue in honor of Bill and Ted of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Well, they will establish a great new civilization.You can read his other suggestions at the link.Link

The Atlantic's Hugo Schwyzer has a theory: that masturbation, as the most common sex act, is the heart of modernity's war between Christianity and secularismMany progressives were bewildered by Antonin Scalia's blistering 2003 dissent in Lawrence v Texas, in which he warned that state laws against evils such as "adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, and bestiality" might be invalidated as a result of the decision. Why, liberals wondered, was masturbation included on that list? The answer is simple: masturbation remains not only a grave sin in the eyes of the Catholic Church to which Scalia belongs, but its acceptance as benign and healthy is perhaps the foundational error of modern sexual culture.