If cats could talk, they'd be annoying. Always complaining, always wannting something, always judging you.Kind of like kids, except they can't talk, so we put up with them.
Saturday, October 03, 2026
A Closed Door
October Calendar
Matt Shirley's calendar for October is all about Halloween. I think he's based this on what happens every year, at least in his world. Halloween is a lot more enjoyable when you don't have kids, parties, decorations, and a house full of candy.
The History of the Witch Hat
When did a conical hat with a wide brim become associated with witches? The Hat Historian seems like a perfectly cromulent niche YouTube channel. Since it's October, he addresses the style of pop culture witches. Since you know witches aren't a real thing, and the many people who were executed on suspicion of being witches didn't wear such hats, it mainly comes down to a marker in art and movies to show us which one is a witch. But within that realm, there's a story to be told. Or several stories, actually, since there are various possible origins of the witch hat, which could have crossed over each other along the way.
How Knights in Shining Armor Really Fought
Norwegian history reenactor Ola Onsrud demonstrates how 14th-century knights battled while wearing full armor, or harness, as he calls it. It's nothing like the movies. A slashing motion will get you nowhere, so it doesn't even make sense to defend yourself like the sword fights we see in film. You can see more videos of armored hand-to-hand combat at Laughing Squid.
Orbital Inclination
That's it. When I hand anyone in my family a Christmas gift this year, I will announce that this is the box of unreasonable expectations. It's the latest from Tree Lobsters.
Friday, October 02, 2026
How They Made Casablamca
I love the movie Casablanca. I've always had a soft spot for movies that don't give us an all around happy ending. While Casablanca was a near perfect film, it was chaos while filming. No one knew how it was going to end, and the script was produced day to day as they shot footage. Even when it was finished, the ending was fiddled with, and they would have kept changing it if they could. You'll learn about that and more in this video. One part that really bothered me was when they were talking about actress Madeline Lebeau and kept showing images of Ingrid Bergman in her place, but overall I learned stuff.
Tom BetGeorge"s Halloween Light Show 2026
Tom BetGeorge has unveiled his annual Halloween light show at his home in California. It begins with his favorite movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. The opening segment of the show "This is Halloween" uses computer synchronized music, strings of lights, lasers, drones, fire, water fountains, and projections all at once. The Jack O'Lantern in the sky is 400 feet tall, and the aerial Jack Skellington is almost as big. The second song in the show is a '90s hip hop compilation called Giant Lowrider in the Sky.
A third segment with the song "Sabotage"by the Beastie Boys premiers tonight at 9 Eastern.
Plausible
Who do you trust the most for accurate reporting: Russian sources, the Daily Mail, or Twitter? (via Bits and Pieces)
Nikon Small World in Motion Winning Video May Be AI
Nikon announced the winners of their annual Small World in Motion competition last week. The winning video was from Dr. Ning Xu of Tsinghua University in Beijing. The video shows "abnormal beating of airway cilia from a child with Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD), a genetic disorder affecting respiratory function." The above video shows the top five videos from the competition.
However, as soon as the winner was announced, other scientists started crying foul. The cilia seem to be the wrong size, and some structures seem to disappear at times. One researcher ran the video through Google Gemini and found an invisible watermark that may indicate the video was generated by artificial intelligence. Dr. Xu responded to the criticism, but since then, his comments at LinkedIn and his entire profile have been deleted. Nikon says it is re-reviewing the video and supplemental information about it. Read about the kerfluffle in the Small World in Motion winner's seat at PetaPixel. (via Damn Interesting)
Miss Cellania's Links
We Found The Voter Fraud — It Was In The Moms For Liberty All Along. (via Fark)
30 Ridiculous Reasons People Got In Trouble At Work That Make No Sense.
What was the cause of the global armaggeddon? The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
The Cats of McSorley’s Old Ale House,
Rosie the Riveter Was the Wrong Woman for Thirty Years, and a Caption Glued to the Back of a Press Print Fixed It. The story of the guy who found the real Rosie. (Thanks, Jim!)
Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever. More at Metafilter.
Portraits Found in the Attic: Black Women in the Gilded Age.
What is going on with ceiling fans? Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell is shocked by "fandoliers" and other abominations.
Bus Pushes the Limits
We know in our heads that suspension bridges are flexible, but we don't normally see them put under so much stress that they have a visible bend. The weight limit on the one-lane Beaver Bridge in Beaver, Arkansas, is ten tons. The bus could easily be twice that, possibly several times that. You have to wonder what it feels like to ride that bus, and then you have to wonder what damage it's doing to the bridge over time. (via Digg)
A Talk with Buster
There's nothing more passive-aggressive than a conversation with a pet in earshot of your actual target. This is from Megacynics.
Thursday, October 01, 2026
Dancing In The Movies
Wanna see some real dancing, like the way they used to do it? You'll enjoy this supercut. (Thanks, gwdMaine!)
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