(Thanks, Tracey!)
Friday, September 25, 2026
The Coming El Niño Will Be the Most Powerful Ever
Don't panic just yet, but meteorologists and climate scientists are predicting that the upcoming El Niño weather pattern will be the biggest and most powerful ever recorded. That could mean storms, wildfires, mudslides, heat waves, drought, and the list goes on and on, depending on what part of the world you're focusing on. Such weather disasters used to cause millions of deaths, but we have a couple of things going for us, such as more accurate forecasting, easier travel, and better infrastructure. Still, when something is bigger and more powerful than ever, we can't really know how bad it will be until it happens.
El Niño happens when the ocean surface temperature is at least .5°C higher than normal. That's roughly 1°F. The Pacific already at 3.8°C higher than normal, and El Niño is just getting started. AsapSCIENCE explains what it all means.
Why a Language Map of the World is Impossible
The world has 193 countries, but around 7,000 languages. And these languages are less and less restricted to their region of origin, thanks to war and travel. For example, when my family gathers around the dinner table, the languages they can speak are English, Spanish, French, Norwegian, Nepali, Hindi, Urdu, Quechua, and Swahili. And those are only among four adults! But they speak English because we all know that one. So how would you assign languages to a place on a map? Going by a nation's "official" language is no help, because that often means nothing. Many nations have several, some nations have none, and some are a compromise. Things get really complicated when speakers of the same language use different dialects and cannot understand each other, and when different languages are so similar that you don't need to learn them. I once knew a Canadian woman who spoke Polish, and was surprised when she went to Ukraine and understood people speaking Russian.
The Map Men, Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, humorously take us on a tour of the world's languages, how they came about, and how they became so mixed up. Their conclusion? You can't put them on a map, for many reasons. There's a skippable ad from 4:18 to 5:52, but at least they make it obvious. (via Damn Interesting)
Miss Cellania's Links
Sordid revelations about the white-nationalist-themed Office of Remigration should galvanize Democrats: If they win power, they must try to shut it down. This is a real thing. See also. (via Fark)
Lamentations of a Dog Owner, Chapter 7: "The Taking of Thine Medicine." (via Everlasting Blort)
Georgia Tann Was Supposed to Help Orphans Find Homes. Instead, She Abducted Children Who Already Had Families and Sold Them for Profit.
Ah, nostalgia time. All these songs take me back to graduating from high school and settling in at college.
Soldiers can refuse to commit war crimes. Can AI? (via Damn Interesting)
The Only Navy Warship Authorized to Fly a Pirate Flag at Sea. (via Bits and Pieces)
Have you ever heard of Tobor the 8 Man? You can see the series at YouTube. (Thanks, Lars!)
This little girl is so good at chess that she has to do other things at the same time to keep the boredom down. Checkmate! (via kottke)
Falling Asleep
Yep, that's how it goes, except for me, there's waking up at least once an hour until the clock says I can get up and turn on the coffee. This graph is from Matt Shirley.
Thursday, September 24, 2026
The US-Canada Border Is 5,500 Miles of Pure Nonsense
The long border between the US and Canada is not as straightforward -or as straight- as you might think. Not that there's anything wrong with that. (via Bits and Pieces)
Numbers
Dr. Dolittle asked me how old I am. I said, "You know how old I am, I'm 40 years older than you."
She said, but how old are you?
I said, "I'll be 68 in a couple of weeks."
Exasperated, she asked how old I am today.
"67."
She started laughing like a jackal. 6-7! 6-7! Her husband and I both looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "You're pushing 30, kid. Stop acting like a middle schooler. If you were a middle schooler, you would have done that a year ago."
(Thanks, Karen!)
Dive Into the Ghent Altarpiece
Hubert and Jan Van Eyck painted the Ghent Altarpiece in the 1430s. Oil paint was new, and the painting marks the transition from medieval to Renaissance art. The details are fascinating, as this video shows us. (via TYWKIWDBI)
Family Coffee
This morning I was perusing my Kroger digital coupon choices, and was struck by the range of coffee on sale. Not only are the prices staggering, but they seem to be catering to different lifestyles. The coffee above would be for Papa Bear. Of course, they also have a brand for Mama Bear. I'm thinking Green Mountain, but Donut Shop will do.
And one for the older daughter.
And another for the rebellious teenage son.
Notice than none of them list the actual price, just how much you can save with a coupon. Yeah, I can almost imagine the cost of separate coffee brands for everyone. I just buy the house brand, stocking up when it's on sale. It's not going to get any cheaper.
2,000 Musical Marbles
Jelle Bakker of Jelle's Marble Runs spent 278 hours building a huge contraption he titled "Cacophony" that is a musical marble run. It uses 2,000 marbles at once! There are two dumpsters, or reservoirs, that hold 1,000 and 200 marbles until they are full and then are dumped into the run. That's a maximum of 1200 marbles waiting, so there are always at least 800 in motion. Once dumped, they are randomly sorted into different courses. Along the way, they hit combinations of 128 bells and chimes, plus drums, xylophones, springs, funnels, and other percussion musical instruments. Still, that music is mostly overshadowed by the clickety-clack of thousands of marbles on the run. Keep your eyes out for the rare blue and green marbles. (via Laughing Squid)
Robot Chicken Star Wars
Adult Swim picked out their favorite Robot Chicken Star Wars skits. They're pretty good. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Thunderstorm
A little too close for comfort, eh? This comic is from Steven Dengler and Ash Vickers of Megacynics.
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Tobor the Great
In the 1954 film Tobor the Great, a scientist builds a robot (named Tobor) to replace human space travelers as a safety measure. This seems silly now, since we can make unmanned spacecraft that can be controlled by radio from earth. But foreign spies want to take Tobor for themselves! Anyway, Tobor is the hero here, and becomes friends with an 11-year-old boy, leading some critics to call Tobor the Great a kid's film. This version is colorized, but that doesn't help the acting or production values. (Thanks, WTM!)
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