(via Cracked)
Thursday, October 29, 2026
Pumpkins Should Have Gone Extinct
Plants that produce fruit want to be eaten, because that's how they disperse their seeds. Long, long ago, the ancient ancestor of pumpkins evolved to be eaten by megafauna like mastodons. They were too bitter and toxic for creatures like humans. Besides, they had a really hard rind. Only those large animals could open the fruit, tolerate the taste, and properly spread the undigested seeds around with some handy manure for fertilizer.
Then around 12,000 years ago, humans wiped out the mastodons, giant sloths, mammoths, giant bears, and other animals that ate those proto-pumpkins. Those bitter pumpkins weren't appealing to other mammals, so how did they survive to today? They are an evolutionary anachronism, a species that should no longer exist. You might not be surprised to learn that it was because of humans, who do weird things. PBS Eons explains how we got pumpkins even though they should have died out thousands of years ago. (via Laughing Squid)
Bert & Ernie's Pumpkin Painting Challenge
Bert and Ernie dip their toes (or would if they had any) into the world of internet DIY tutorials. Bert has started a series called Backyard with Bert, and the first episode is about painting pumpkins for Halloween. It may also be the last episode, as things got off to a rocky start. See, Ernie has some ideas of his own, and that complicates things immensely for Bert. I now wonder how well mineral spirits will remove paint from a pumpkin. (via Laughing Squid)
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
The Terror
1963. Directed by Roger Korman, starring Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff. From IMDB:
France, 18th century. Lieutenant Andre Duvalier has been accidentally separated from his regiment. He is wandering near the coast when he sees a young woman. He asks the road to Coldon, where he hopes to rejoin his regiment. But the woman doesn't answer, doesn't even greet him and walks away. Eventually she takes him to the sea, where she disappears in rough water. Andre loses conscience when he is trying to following her, and is attacked by a bird. He awakes in a house with an old woman and a numb man. She claims to never have seen the woman. After he leaves, he sees her again and when trying to follow her is saved by a man from certain death. He learns that to help the girl, he must go to castle of Baron Van Leppe. When he arrives, Andre sees the woman looking from a window. Baron Van Leppe is old and seems reluctant to let André in however. He claims there's no woman in the castle, but shows André a painting which does indeed portray her. Andre learns that she is the baroness, who died twenty years ago.
A Nuclear Bomb in the Mariana Trench
We've done underground nuclear tests, and we've done underwater nuclear tests. We found out that they work, and they did some nasty environmental damage. But what if we were to take those tests to an even deeper, more remote location, like, say, the Mariana Trench? And let's make it a big bomb, like the Tsar Bomba! That's the question in the latest episode of What If? from Randall Monroe and Henry Reich.
They take these questions seriously, so we find out what would happen. However, the world's largest nuclear bomb is no match for the deepest part of the ocean. That's not very fun, so our guys came up with a new scenario in which the bomb is equivalent to the Chicxulub impactor (which is fun to Google). That gives us results more in line with what we expect from the What If? series.
Chemotherapy
Kurzgesagt doesn't usually tell personal stories, but this one is different, and it's full of science anyway. Philipp Dettmer, the founder and head writer of Kurzgesagt, went through chemotherapy treatment for cancer in 2018. A few years later, he is ready to tell the story, narrated by Steve Taylor and illustrated in the neon minimalist Kurzgesagt style. The drug is called Cisplatin. Like most chemotherapy drugs, it is very toxic and does quite bit of damage to a human body. Cancer therapies were developed by calibrating how much was required to kill cancer without killing the patient. That's why chemotherapy is so debilitating, and only worth it at the end when you are deemed cancer-free.
Dettmer explains how Cisplatin was developed and how it works in the body. His body, in this case. It's particularly effective against testicular cancer because of the unique role those organs' cells are designed for. There's a lot of violence at the molecular level, with success at the end. And the cancer battle is directly related to why we have Kurzgesagt in the first place. The story is only 12:24; the rest is promotional.
Miss Cellania's Links
Just Eat Proves That Artificial Intelligence Still Needs Human Supervision.
In Alabama, an emergency room doesn't have to have a doctor on site. The solution is either a non-profit government health care system, or just don't live in Alabama.
Trump administration has pushed 5m Americans off food stamps. So far. (via Fark)
The bloody palette of the animal kingdom. Red isn’t the only color when it comes to blood — critters produce the vital fluid in a variety of hues. (via Damn Interesting)
Minnesotastan tells about the time he got polio. Here are some other polio survivors.
49 Real-Life Photos That Look Like Someone Accidentally Stepped Into A Horror Movie.
The Real Kevin Bacon. Other actors are more connected with all other Hollywood actors, and you won't be surprised at who is actually at the center. (via Nag on the Lake)
The rape allegations against Trump: what we know and what is still being hidden. (via Metafilter)
A Blast from the Past (2010): 8 of the Undead from Around the World.
Pee-Wee’s Big Halloween
The 2018 movie Halloween stars Jamie Lee Curtis in her never-ending role as a horror protagonist, and she's out to end the curse once and for all. You know what the movie needs? Pee-Wee Herman! This mashup from Funny or Die takes the edge off the horror, or maybe enhances it, depending on how you feel about Pee-Wee. (via Digg)
An Old Halloween Pun
— Papa Woof und Krampus und Bleaken (@papawoof.bsky.social) October 25, 2026 at 9:38 PM
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
They Didn't Mind
TikTokker 2Krispii tells the story of how we got here. In 2024, it was the price of eggs, never mind any of that other stuff. And here we are. (via a comment at Metafilter)
No One Loves You More Than Exxon
Woody Harrelson narrates this satirical ad from Exxon making sure you place the blame on anyone but them. Here's the link the ad directs you to. (via Metafilter)
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