Monday, September 21, 2026
The Search for Green
We are surrounded by green because it's the color of an entire kingdom of life. The green in plants comes from chlorophyll, but chlorophyll has to be constantly produced. When a plant dies, production stops and the green breaks down pretty quickly. But the color is important to artists, who want to recreate the real world. To make green pigment for paint, you have to go to other chemicals, and that's been a difficult journey for a couple of thousand years. Natural ingredients that made green pigment all had something wrong- the paint faded, reacted badly with other pigments, or was downright poisonous. Or it could just be prohibitively expensive. This video from the Getty Museum goes through the many minerals and other materials used for green pigment over the centuries.
You don't have to be afraid of green paint now. What you'll find at an art supply store is synthetic- the product of modern chemistry and safety standards. (via The Kid Should See This)
Miss Cellania's Links
Dementia Donnie runs a demented campaign. The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
The Most Extraordinary Defense Mechanisms in the Animal Kingdom: A Visual Guide. (via Nag on the Lake)
This dog is an angel. https://bsky.app/profile/keeprising.bsky.social/post/3mvrvjbs4rc25
The Mystery of Hildegard von Bingen’s Secret Language. (via Strange Company)
The Jeopardy! in-jokes are getting weirder. (via Fark)
A MAGA heckler gets obliterated at a Polish comedy club.
The Blind Birdwatcher. Juan Pablo Culasso could be the reason we call them birders now.
Agios Neophytos: The Hermit People Couldn't Manage to Leave Alone.
LEGO Wheelchair for Turtle
An employee of the Maryland Zoo found an injured box turtle that couldn't walk, and brought it to the zoo's hospital to see if anything could be zone. His fractured under-side shell was glued together with splints, but how to keep him up off the ground while he heals? The solution was a frame built of LEGO pieces! It could be a year before the frame can be completely removed, but meanwhile, he's getting around just fine. (via Mental Floss)
Vote
VOTE !!!!!!!
— Pissed-Off Scientist (@rockney.bsky.social) September 18, 2026 at 12:12 AM
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Sunday, September 20, 2026
Normal People vs Americans
Ben Reid is a young British man who finds Americans very strange. Here he contrasts the way British people do things with the way Americans do them. But it becomes apparent that he's been observing young American males only. We older Americans have our own way of eating Oreos, and while it is different, it's not frying them. Or maybe he hasn't really been paying attention, because younger Americans don't drink tap water at all, which is why Mom refills your bottles for you. His notions are still humorous.
The World's Oldest Recorded Song
The Seikilos epitaph is a marble tombstone from the first century that has a song recorded in its stone inscription. The large letters, in Koine Greek, contain a poem about grief.They are accompanied by marks above each word that indicate the musical notation. The stone was discovered in 1893 in the town of Ayden, Turkey, and followed a circuitous route to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, where it resides today.
We have documentary evidence of older songs, but those are in fragments, while this stone contains a complete song. The musical notation on the Seikilos epitaph is not so old that it couldn't be translated, and that's why we are able to hear the song as it was meant to heard. The lyrics are appropriate to a tombstone, about the fleetingness of life and the futility of grief. Instead, we are encouraged to enjoy life while we have it.
Pips and Nubs
Some human technologies are so ancient and ubiquitous that we don't notice them at all anymore. Yet they are still so useful that we should appreciate the minds (whoever they were) that came up with them. YouTuber Craighill explains some of these design details and how they are found everywhere. The first are pips, which are concave dots. The second are nubs, which are convex dots. These two things are more useful than you ever realized, and they make life easier in so many ways. Then there's the basic mechanics of putting the two together. Pips and nubs combine properties to fill a lot of different needs. It's where we got what we know as the familiar "click." You'll know it when you see it in action. (via kottke)
The Chimp Who Believed She Was Human
A chimpanzee was taken from her mother and adopted by a human couple in 1964. They raised Lucy like a human child as an experiment. As you can probably guess, she became a problem for them as she approached adulthood, but Lucy was not equipped to live with other chimps, either. So they sent her back to Africa, to a wildlife refuge in The Gambia. Lucy was accompanied by grad student Janis Carter, who they paid to transition Lucy to live in the wild -for three weeks. Carter ended up staying for years. This film by Elisa Chee tells the story in beautiful animation. Read more of the story at the Atlantic. (via Laughing Squid)
Seasons Change, Temp Stays
PS: Autumn begins Tuesday.If you know me, you know I love NASA. I'm glad that this can be posted at all. I'm sad that they can't say "climate change" science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-...
— Peter Griffith (@carboncyclist.org) September 17, 2026 at 8:18 PM
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Saturday, September 19, 2026
The Best Meth
They should have been kind enough to label this Meth Not Even Once Poster Contest, or even just anti-meth, but that would take too much headline space. (via Bad Newspaper)
The Ship of Monsters
The Ship of Monsters is a Mexican science fiction musical comedy from 1960. It follows the ridiculous trope of women from Venus looking for males to mate with that has been used so many times. The two glamorous space travelers from Venus collect males of all shapes, sizes, and species from various planets (hence the title) before they land in Mexico and both fall for a singing cowboy. Oh yeah, they have a robot, too. The Ship of Monsters was regarded as refreshing and enjoyable despite its very low budget and worn-out science fiction plot. I really enjoyed it! (Thanks, WTM!)
Hambush
Every cat owner has something they find hard to eat because it drives the cats crazy. For me, it's anything with tuna in it. I don't eat canned food all that often, so anytime my cats hear the can opener, they assume it's tuna and gather to make ridiculous noises. Eating cold cereal with milk means that Marshmallow will be all up in my face. Here, Simon Tofield wants to make himself a ham sandwich, but the cat has other plans.
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