Chill Dude Explains titled this video High-Paying Jobs Nobody Applies For, but that's contradicted by the very first job, which has a waiting list of applicants. But yes, these are unusual jobs that pay well because they are dangerous, difficult, very unpleasant, and/or require lots of talent and training. When you see the descriptions, you'll tell yourself that money isn't everything. And even the idea of "high-paying" is doing some heavy lifting here, since his threshold is about $50,000. That's only considered high-paying if you're not making that much already. Heck, you can go back to school for a few years or marry your boss's boss and make that much, without having to endanger your life. That said, these ten jobs are interesting as well as difficult. The people who do them deserve our respect.
Friday, August 21, 2026
Dangerous, Difficult, and Disgusting Jobs
Wavy Windows
Have you ever looked at a large city office building and noticed how wavy the windows are? Did you wonder if they looked that wavy from the inside? No, I can't say that I've wondered about that, mainly because there are no such buildings in my small town, although I have briefly noticed waviness on city trips. Once inside the building, the view is fine, yet I never connected those observations. Not only does MinutePhysics answer that exact conundrum, but they explain a lot of neat things about how light and glass works.
Miss Cellania's Links
A looming rock collapse threatens a Swiss village as thawing permafrost destabilizes the Alps. (via Damn Interesting)
Actual footage from the solar eclipse. (via Everlasting Blort)
The FCC's War Against Late-Night Is Getting Even Dumber.
Mohamed Bzeek: The Foster Father Who Only Takes the Children Nobody Else Will.
7 Common Misconceptions About the Manson Family Murders.
Three ways to make your own luck. You can't control everything, but you can optimize the way you react to it.
The MAGAs go back to when America was Great. The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
25 Famous Quotes in Pop Culture You've Been Getting Wrong Your Whole Life. I will argue about the Neil Armstrong quote, though.
Bear Looking for Hibernation Accommodations Checks Out the Stanley Hotel
The Stanley Hotel in in Estes Park, Colorado, is famous for inspiring Stephen King to write his novel The Shining. But the evil spirits from King's imagination are not the only intruders bringing notoriety to the hotel. A black bear wandered into the hotel lobby, possibly looking for a room, while 300 guests slept through the invasion. The bear climbed on the furniture while a desk clerk stayed very still and recorded part of the encounter. After a while, finding the service unacceptably slow, the bear left on its own. (via Boing Boing)
Lesser Superhero Movie Title Generator
Thursday, August 20, 2026
Micropachycephalosaurus
This is JJ Q, a 12-year-old rapper and member of the Q Brothers. He's got a vocabulary that won't quit and an interest in dinosaurs. But his rapping abilities go far beyond kid subjects. You can hear him freestyle at Lollapalooza at the Awesomer. (via Memo of the Air)
Love Bytes
In a post-apocalyptic world, a scavenger robot learns about human life from the detritus we left behind. What is required to be happy? A companion, of course. He finds one, but this is animation, so we have to suspend our disbelief about power requirements. Just go with it, because it's funny. He can move, and she can communicate, but are they really compatible? And does that matter when no one else is around? Yeah, it's a strange relationship in a strange world.
Then, just when you start to care about the robot, you are reminded that he isn't human, and that his search for happiness hinges on what this machine knows about happiness. It's possible to change your definitions to make reaching your goal easier. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
All The Food is Poison
A public service announcement from back in the day. Now, if they'd chanted foods that kids really eat, like Fruit Rollups! Cheetos! Mountain Dew! Pizza rolls! I'd be on board. This is from Adult Swim. (via Everlasting Blort)
The (Mostly) True Story of Hobo Graffiti
Hobos have been around since the railroad system made traveling across America possible. Itinerant workers rode the rails to where work was available, as best they could. Their numbers grew when unemployment did, and they developed a system leave messages for each other. Or did they? Historians know that the "hobo code" we've all read about is not what we've been told. (via Kottke)
Christmas Lights
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
The Strange World of Planet X
The 1958 British movie The Strange World of Planet X was retitled Cosmic Monsters in the US, in case it seems familiar to you. It was modeled after a TV series of the same name that ran in 1956. From Wikipedia:
A monomaniacal scientist creates ultra-sensitive, disruptive magnetic fields, which have unexpected side effects, while also attracting unidentified flying objects from outer space. Strange things begin to happen, including a freak storm, blasts of cosmic radiation that penetrates the Earth's normally protective magnetic shield, and insects and spiders mutating into giant flesh-eating monsters.The Strange World of Planet X was not a success, and is mostly remembered for its ridiculous and comically cheap special effects. (Thanks, WTM!)
If Star Wars had a $10 Budget
Secondhand Movie Co, the same people who did If Jurassic Park Had a $10 Budget did Star Wars, too. If you enjoyed the five minute clip above, you might want to see the entire Sweded film.
Yep, that's how we used to do it in junior high, although the film camera was much more expensive back then. (Thanks, WTM!)