Foxes re known for being cute and intelligent, so clever that it was easy to ascribe superpowers to them, which is exactly what happened in ancient Japan. The supernatural fox, called Kitsune, could be a mischievous prankster, a shapeshifter, a blessing, or a spirit that possessed humans, depending on the time and place. They are rarely 100% malevolent, but they can ruin your life in order to teach you a lesson. Kitsune can take a form of a beautiful woman, and in some cases even reproduce with humans to provide hybrids or some form of Kitsune ancestry.
Dr. Emily Zarka explain Kitsune, from ancient tales (with many tails) to modern depictions in pop culture, including a bizarre plan for weaponing Kitsune against the Japanese during World War II.
Friday, July 17, 2026
Kitsune
Where Time Doesn't Act Right
We think of time as a constant, sometimes the only constant, in our lives. It's true that time seems to pass much more quickly as we get older, but that's just a matter of human perception. The way we measure time varies from place to place and from culture to culture, so we manage to confuse ourselves about it. Human perception of time can't always be trusted. But objective time isn't always constant, either. Ot's mind boggling how time itself can vary once you get away from the earth, whether it's merely on a mountaintop or in outer space. Chill Dude Explains gives us a list of ten anomalies in time, from the mundane and easily understood to the cosmic. There are no time machines here, just real examples of time distortion, or at least distortions in the way we understand time. The mispronounced word in the this video is Byzantine.
Miss Cellania's Links
What happened in middle school today.
The forgotten story of abolition in revolutionary France – the first emancipation.
What Was Sewer Socialism? Milwaukee mayor Daniel Hoan believed the best argument for socialism was a city government that worked. (via Damn Interesting)
Life Inside Icelandic Turf Houses. Grass roofs may look enchanting today, but living beneath them was another story.
The MAGAs do their own scientific research. The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
‘When she turns eight they will take her’: rising number of Afghan girls being sold into child marriage. (via TYWKIWDBI)
Nameneko Cats From the 1980s, The 1980s fad for dressing cats up as tough guys and girls. (Thanks, WTM!)
A Blast from the Past (2016): The Real Story Behind "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll."
The Frog
An experimental film from 1908 shows what Spanish surrealist filmmaker Segundo De Chomon could do with a playground carousel, a frog costume, and the patience to play with special effects. Imagine the effort it took to color each film frame by hand! The result is truly bizarre. (via Boing Boing)
Thursday, July 16, 2026
The History of Passports
Passports as we know them are a relatively recent invention. But travel documents have been around since ancient times. Whether those documents got you into a different country was often a crapshoot. Like many other systems, the birth point of the passport boils down to how you define one. And how you define borders, visas, and rules of passage. The journey to the standardized passport was a long and crooked one, since nations don't like to be told what to do, yet most still want their citizens to have freedom of travel. Even today, passport rules are different depending on who you are and where you are going. Not only that, but the rules can change suddenly. Let's hope you are not in an international airport lounge when that happens.
The Trailer for Digger
The new movie Digger is the story of Digger Rockwell, a wealthy and powerful oil tycoon whose previous actions have set the world on a course of total environmental destruction. Facing old age and possibly death, he decides he now has to save the world. The real kicker is that it's a satirical comedy. This trailer contains NSFW language.
You might not recognize Tom Cruise at all in the title role. The actor is 64 years old, and has taken some criticism in the past few years for continuing to portray much younger characters. He seems to have finally come to terms about playing someone his age, or older in this case. The movie also stars Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, and John Goodman as the president of the United States. But we can tell right now that the real star of the movie is Digger's beloved cat. Digger is scheduled to open nationwide on October 2.
Philosophy Feuds: Freud vs Jung
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were immediate friends when they met in 1907. They had plenty to talk about, as they were both groundbreaking psychoanalysts in their time. Their intense relationship was doomed to burn out eventually, the ostensible reason being their divergent philosophies about what influences the mind. Or maybe they were just tired of listening to each other. (via Everlasting Blort)
New Bed
We got the dog a new bed.
— Echo (@echo262.bsky.social) July 13, 2026 at 6:52 PM
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Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Destination Moon
Destination Moon is a George Pal movie from 1950. It was the first science fiction film to address the practical challenges of space flight. The US government space agency (NASA wasn't a thing until 1958) couldn't get the job done, so private industry was called in to fund and build a rocket to the moon. Along the way, astronauts had to complete a dangerous space walk. After visiting the moon, they find they don't have enough fuel to escape lunar gravity. Will someone have to be left behind?
Destination Moon was a hit, making $5 million at the box office on a (enormous for its time) $500,000 budget. The film won an Academy Award for Best Special Effects and was nominated for Best Art Direction. It seems hopelessly dated now, but 76 years ago, it thrilled audiences. (Thanks, WTM!)
