This Modern World

The Latest Global Epidemic is 'Text Neck'â„¢

By Jen Doll Fri., Oct. 7 2011 at 6:09 PM
Categories: Technology, Things That Look Like Other Things, Things We Did, This Modern World, iPhone, iPod

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Remember Toasted Leg Syndrome? That was rough! Our thighs are still mottled! Or what about Blackberry Thumb, whatever that is? Our Blackberry thumb still hurts! Or even old-school problems like carpal tunnel and scurvy? Well, forget about all that. The global scourge on the rise is Text Neck (â„¢!), a truly horrifying deformity caused by bad posture over your computer and wireless devices. It may be happening to you! Right now! Ouch!

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Radvertising

Nazis Tricked by Wash-Off T-Shirts With Secretly Nice Message

By Jen Doll Wed., Aug. 10 2011 at 4:37 PM
Categories: Advertising, Good Ideas, Jen Doll, Nazis, Radvertising, Things That Look Like Other Things

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The shirt...and the undershirt.
Here's a good idea...if you give a Nazi a T-shirt, make it one the Nazi is prone to be attracted to, like a magpie to something shiny. Make it say, maybe, "Hardcore Rebels - National and Free," and give it a skull-and-crossbones to make it seem really edgy. They will go like hotcakes, as they did at a recent right-wing extremist rock festival in Germany. But! This is the part where things get crafty! Make the T-shirts secretly bear another message, one that undermines the entire "badass" Nazi message. Make it say, for instance, "If your T-shirt can do it, so can you. We'll help to free you from right-wing extremism."

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Real Estate

There Is a Steampunk, Submarine-Inspired Apartment for Sale in Chelsea

By Jen Doll Thu., Aug. 4 2011 at 5:59 PM
Categories: Jen Doll, Only in New York, Real Estate, Things That Look Like Other Things, Things You Didn't Know Existed

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Richard Caplan for Core
We love real estate. Especially WTF/How Is This Even Possible? real estate, like New York City apartments with indoor pools and swings and slides that one can use to travel from room to room. And apartments inspired by submarines! Such an apartment is currently for sale for $1.75 million. Its broker, Parul Brahmbhatt of Core, describes it as having "a Jules Verne meets Tim Burton sensibility." The apartment was created by screenwriter Jeremy Noritz out of a two-bedroom, two-bath co-op in Chelsea. While maybe you wouldn't, or maybe you would, want to live there, it is one of the most interesting pieces of real estate we have seen in New York City. For instance, there is what seems to be a mushroom stool in the shower. It also has mini-planes, antique pipes, stainless steel appliances, installations that look like gears and cogs, and a huge technicolored zeppelin across 32 feet of ceiling. In a word, trippy. But also, kinda awesome.

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Historical Shit

Cursive Is Dead, Long Live Typing With Our Keyboard-Pushers!

By Jen Doll Thu., Apr. 28 2011 at 4:22 PM
Categories: Historical Shit, Jen Doll, R.I.P., Things That Are Broken, Things That Look Like Other Things, This Modern World

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Cursive, which you might have heard about from someone who lived in the old days, was also known as "making squiggly things" with your writing implement, ideally a quill, upon some yellow-stained parchment. You might have described it colloquially as "big girl/boy writing." You probably learned how to do it around the time that you stopped wetting the bed and crying at recess and wearing a powdered wig, or at least, that's what we hear. There was special really big paper for it, with lines! But don't worry about that, because cursive is practically dead nowadays.

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History

Does This House Look Like Hitler to You?

By Jen Doll Tue., Mar. 29 2011 at 3:15 PM
Categories: History, Hitler, Jen Doll, Things That Look Like Other Things

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via
Hitler has a way of popping up in unexpected places, like in the history books, and in a variety of videos on the Internet, and sometimes in everyday objects like cats (a lot of cats) and bulldogs and lotion bottles and houses. Have you seen the house that looks like Hitler? As the Daily Mail explains rather breathlessly: "This unassuming house in a sleepy part of Swansea is set to become a global Internet sensation...for bearing a passing resemblance to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler."


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Beefs

East Side/West Side Dividing Line Wars Rage in Upper Manhattan

By Jen Doll Wed., Mar. 23 2011 at 11:04 AM
Categories: Beefs, Bureaucracy, Central Park, Jen Doll, Only in New York, Things That Look Like Other Things

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via NYT/Marilynn K. Yee
Where does the East Side of Manhattan end, and the West side begin? This is a question we thought we always knew the answer to (you know, where street numbers start all over again, or maybe, more vaguely, where Central Park cleaves Upper Manhattan in two?). And yet, perhaps it is not so. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has brought to our attention the supposedly incorrect bus stop signs marking the sidewalks at Fifth Avenue adjacent to Central Park.

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Nature

Tomorrow, the Moon and Sun and Earth Will Behave Unusually!

By Jen Doll Mon., Dec. 20 2010 at 1:52 PM
Categories: Jen Doll, Nature, Things That Look Like Other Things, This Is Not A Sponsored Post

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via NASA/Mr. Eclipse/Fred Espenak
Science nerds, astronomy fans, and people who like to look up at the sky and see things: There will be a total lunar eclipse Tuesday morning -- meaning that the sun, the Earth, and the moon will all align, with the moon entirely in the Earth's shadow. This is the first time it's happened in almost three years, and we New Yorkers will have a good vantage point for it, presuming we can stay up that late.

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Wedding Bells

Prince William/Kate Middleton Nuptials May Be Broadcast in 3-D

By Jen Doll Tue., Nov. 30 2010 at 4:06 PM
Categories: Jen Doll, Royalty, Technology, Things That Look Like Other Things, This Modern World, Wedding Bells

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Chelsea Clinton, eat your heart out. For the Royal Wedding of the century -- the just plain wedding of the century -- the media won't be camping out in any upstate New York hamlet and bullying shopkeepers into answering questions. No, the wedding of the century will be in on the joke. Like, with Rupert Murdoch's possible 3-D broadcast of the event on BSkyB. Because, why not?

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Hysteria

New York Has a Mystery "Missile," Too!

By Sergio Hernandez Thu., Nov. 11 2010 at 12:17 PM
Categories: Hysteria, Sergio Hernandez, Things That Look Like Other Things, WTF, We're Doomed

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Remember that mysterious vapor trail that appeared over L.A. on Monday? The one that set off speculation about UFOs or an enemy missile attack that nobody (not even the Pentagon) could immediately explain? Well, now New York has one too! (Of course we do.) The New York Post says a local photographer snapped a similar scene from Far Rockaway yesterday afternoon.

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Design

The Gap's Old Logo Has Returned, Outraged Design Nerds Rejoice

By Foster Kamer Mon., Oct. 11 2010 at 8:25 PM
Categories: Design, Fashion, Foster Kamer, Things That Look Like Other Things, Whatevs

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The Gap changed their logo to an uglier logo, and everyone freaked out. Now, the very large clothing corporation that has endeared itself to the sheep who shop there and other people who don't consider the way they cheer for massive billion-dollar corporations who contribute to the status quo of the global economy (not to harsh anyone's party, or anything) by changing the logo back.

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