This is cute and clever. Two lengths of a cardboard paper towel roller make a talking puppet. A little felt, a banjo, and a clever song and you've got real entertainment! (via Laughing Squid)
Monday, August 24, 2026
Paper Towel Roll
The Real Story Behind Gangs of New York
In 1979, the movie The Warriors depicted New York street gangs and was a hit, but it wasn't all that close to real life. Then the 2002 movie Gangs of New York did the same, but more than hundred years earlier. Was it at all accurate? Nobody from that period is around to tell us, but the fictionalized movie was based on a non-fiction book. If you saw the movie but didn't read the book, let's just say the story was longer and more complicated than what was shown on screen.
In the movie, the war was between Confederation of American Natives and the Dead Rabbits, reduced to Protestant vs. Catholic, or Anglo-Americans vs. Irish immigrants. in the historical events, it was more a war over control of a small slum neighborhood, where people with no social mobility, no hope, and few resources will fight to the death to keep the only thing they have, which is their identity with a group. But history is not just written by the winners, but by those with access to the press, so there are still questions about what really happened. We may never know the entire truth.
Miss Cellania's Links
When an American Airplane Crashed Into a School in 1944, an English Village Lost Almost All of Its Youngest Children. Why Has WWII’s Worst Civilian Aviation Accident Been Forgotten?
Cats being weird, awkward, and easily startled.
Jimmy Bond: In the first filmed version of James Bond, he was American.
He was waiting for his son to return from the USS Lincoln. Then Border Patrol arrested him. (via Fark)
91 Ridiculous DIY Fixes That Somehow Get The Job Done Perfectly.
Welcome to Volvo Island.
This bottle of Dijon mustard from Costco is crazy hot. A months-long investigation revealed the surprising reason why. (via Metafilter)
The Birmingham church bombing wasn’t an isolated act of terrorism – there were dozens of attacks on Black houses of worship during the Civil Rights Movement.
Creative Dog Plays Ball with Himself
There's no doubt this is a much-loved dog. But humans can't be there all the time, school and all. Bear has figured out how to harness the power of the trampoline to toss a ball for him to catch! Yes, Bear is pretty smart. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Solar
Science Sundays
— 𝖢𝖠𝖳 𝖡𝖴𝖳𝖫𝖤𝖱 𝖲𝗋. (@catbutlersr.bsky.social) August 23, 2026 at 4:16 PM
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Sunday, August 23, 2026
Pac-Man's Forbidden Love
There are four ghosts in the game Pac-Man, Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde. Surely I'm not the only one who said Stinky most of the time when naming them. They are all assumed to be guys except for Pinky, who often is assumed female because of the color. In this video, Pac-Man is confronted by Pinky, and he really notices her for the first time. He expresses admiration for her skills, and nothing gets a woman's attention like expressing admiration for her skills. You can see where this is going.
Or does it? What are the implications of a relationship between warring factions? In Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, these shenanigans led to tragedy. However, it can also lead to reconciliation between factions, especially when grandchildren come along. But these are video game characters, so anything can happen.
How to Name a Drug
If you ever watch regular TV anymore, you are exposed to drugs constantly, because pharmaceutical companies buy all the ad space. You don't know what they are for, but you hear the names constantly: Tremfya, Rinvoq, Cialis, Dupixent, Skyrizi, and you can't actually ask your doctor if any are right for you because she'd probably laugh. The best drug name I've heard is Flonase, which tells you exactly what it does, but most of them seem like gibberish. You might think that naming them is a matter of drawing Scrabble tiles out of a box, yet that's far from what happens. Drug names have to be approved by a lot of different boards or organizations, mainly to make sure yours is different enough from all the other drugs so that they won't be confused. And there are tons of guidelines to follow. Half as Interesting takes us through the arcane procedure of naming a new drug. Note: some countries do it differently, because the UK does call that drug NovoRapid, and Rogaine is known as Regaine in Australia.
Pinball Isn’t as Random as it Seems
People who grew up with video games look at a pinball machine and think that there's no strategy, it's just a matter of keeping the ball in play and listening to random noises. Those of us who grew up playing pinball know better. I was never the greatest pinball player, but I managed pretty well to keep the ball in play long enough to score points, but not nearly as well as someone who had studied a machine and maximized his/her strategy. Roger Sharpe knows how to do that, and gives us some tips on the intricacies of scoring big in pinball. (via Boing Boing)
Asynchronous Communication
A few years ago, I had an epiphany and shared it with my children. "You kids text instead of calling so you can just not respond. You really don't want to communicate with anyone." They just looked at me and said, "Duh, Mom." That's one of the reasons I don't text. I don't want to give my kids another opportunity to ignore me. This comic is from Jeff Lovfers at Don't Hit Save.
Saturday, August 22, 2026
Killers from Space
The 1954 movie Killers from Space stars Peter Graves as Dr. Douglas Martin, a nuclear scientist who is abducted and then possessed by aliens. The aliens want to steal power from earth for some reason or other, and there are giant insects. Dr. Martin supposedly died in a plane crash, but then he gradually starts to remember who he is, just in time to save the day. Killers from Space has all the elements you'd expect: aliens, atomic bombs, and mutant monsters, but that doesn't mean it was particularly good. (Thanks, WTM!)
A Sad, Sad Story
Milo lost his green ball. Poor Milo. I was bothered about this, so I looked up the channel, and there's an update!
I'm still hoping they find the original ball, but it looks like Milo is okay with how things worked out.
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