(via Duck Soup)
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Cats Take to Abandoned Puppy
Irresponsible pet owners often dump kittens or puppies in random places when they can't find homes for all of them. The lucky ones will be found by people who care. This abandoned puppy has no idea what happened to him and where his mother went. The house cats, who might have a real problem accepting a grown dog or cat, recognized a baby in distress and are quick to comfort him. My cats are like this. They take months to accept a new adult cat, and they don't think much of dogs. But put a kitten in the mix, and my toms and queens, all fixed, run to dote on a new kitten. I bet they'd be the same with a puppy.
We Finally Know More About Humanity’s First Civilization
The scientific consensus is that human civilization started about 12,000 years ago. yeah, we don't really know for sure, but that's how far back the evidence we have goes. For the purpose of this video, Kurzgesagt assigns that point to be the year zero. This is when the first stone settlements were built, which left us traces of their history. From there, they progressed to religion, agriculture, trade, and war, in that order as these civilized people traveled to the ends of the earth. Then came climate change and the flood, causing many communities to relocate to survive. Those who did survive flourished, leading to larger cities, governments, and written language. Kurzgesagt only covers the time between the first human settlements and the first written evidence of history. This video is 15:40; the rest is an ad.
Bride of Resistor
Last week I posted Mr. Resistor, a 1994 animation by Mark Gustafson. Here is the sequel, Bride of Resistor, which Gustafson unveiled in 1997.
Spell Check is Important
Juice xkcd.com/3308/
— Randall Munroe (@xkcd.com) October 8, 2026 at 6:49 PM
[image or embed]
Saturday, October 10, 2026
The Crawling Hand
The 1963 science fiction horror film The Crawling Hand involves an astronaut infected with an alien microbe or something. The astronaut is blown to smithereens early, but his disembodied arm is found, and it's still controlled by alien life. Somehow, the space agency avoids any publicity about the astronaut's death, but his fingerprints are found at the scene of a murder. There are two teenagers in love, an unexpected pop song, and Alan Hale, Jr. (the Skipper) is the town sheriff. The Crawling Hand was later featured on MST3K. (Thanks, WTM!)
Prints of Darkness
Simon's Cat confronts his scariest nemesis yet, the infernal monster that is the household printer. It's a rare scene in which the loser isn't Simon himself, although his documents may be shredded by the time he finds them.
The Logistics of NYC Waste Management
New York City has 8.5 million people living within the city limits, which are in a relatively small area compared to other large cities. Manhattan has more than 70,000 people per square mile, stacked atop each other in tall buildings, all producing garbage everyday. Where does all that garbage go? Up until 2001, it was taken to a landfill on Staten Island, but Fresh Kills was never adequate or safe. And you can't just dump all that trash in the ocean.
New York City employees more than 9,000 people to deal with garbage, and there are thousands more working for private companies under city contracts. They collect trash every day, compact it, load it onto huge containers, and send it by train to far-flung parts of the country. Half as Interesting explains the complex logistics of dealing with trash in a system most New Yorkers know little about, and don't want to think about. The video is only 5:45, the rest is an ad.
A 5-Year-Old's Questions for Google Home
A father who is totally embracing modern technology discovers that Google Home had saved a year's worth of data, including his 5-year-old son's questions. He is charmed by his son's curiosity about the world, and appreciates the funny parts.
Rowan's questions are adorable. On the other hand, it's a bit creepy to think that all these commands to an app are recorded for someone else to find, and for Google to analyze and market.
My children came to me with incessant questions about the world throughout their childhoods, which I tried my best to answer, even if I had to look it up. As a result, they thought I was the repository of all the world's wisdom. They know better now, but I wouldn't trade that experience for all the chocolate. (via Laughing Squid)
Cheat Day
Like they say, nothing succeeds like excess. It's the American Way. This comic is from the Awkward Yeti.
Friday, October 09, 2026
The Biggest Ball of Twine
In 1989, Weird Al Yankovic included a song called "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" on his album UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff. The song was not in the movie, and was never released as a single. But it referenced a real story.
In 1950, Francis A. Johnson of Darwin, Minnesota, started collecting sisal twine from hay baling. He rolled it into a ball that became enormous, and made the papers. But then Frank Stoeber of Cawker City, Kansas, decided to give Johnson a run for his money, and the race to get into the Guinness Book of World Records was on. You might even call it a war.
Drunk History gave Patton Oswalt all the Scotch whisky he could drink and had him tell the story of the world's biggest ball of twine. It features special appearances by Colin Hanks, Seth Green, Steve Agee, and Weird Al Yankovic. Oswalt kept up pretty well considering, until he was asked to give us the moral of the story. At least he tried. This video contains NSFW language.
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