(via Bored Panda)
Saturday, May 30, 2026
The Real Crucial Scenes from Jurassic Park
There are now seven films in the Jurassic Park franchise, because people like adventure movies with dinosaurs. The first movie back in 1993 set the stage with amazing breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery that made the dinosaurs seem real, and every subsequent film upped the ante by making the dinosaurs bigger and more dangerous. But each iteration makes less and less sense overall because the characters constantly forgot the lesson of the first film.
In the first movie, the dinosaurs took up only about 15 minutes of the more than two-hour film. The actual story was a deep dive into the ethics and philosophy of messing with Mother Nature, which makes it a think piece compared with the many sequels. It is also the only one of the series directed by Steven Spielberg. In this video, InCinematic looks at the crucial conversations that unveil the true meaning of Jurassic Park, and how Spielberg frames them to emphasize the point. It's no wonder the only two quotes you recall are from Dr. Ian Malcolm.
Not in Kansas Anymore
Hungry
the hungry observatory
— House & Field Negro Quarterly (@morethanmud.bsky.social) May 23, 2026 at 4:56 PM
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Friday, May 29, 2026
Traffic Stop Ends in the Weirdest Way
A sheriff's deputy pulled Katie Thomas over and as he was approaching her stated that he saw her holding a cell phone in her right hand. The kicker is that Thomas does not have a right hand. A normal person would have laughed and sent her on her way, but this cop could not be wrong, so he checked her papers and issued her a citation. Thomas went to court, but the deputy asked the judge to dismiss the charge due to insufficient evidence just before court began. I guess he thought he could avoid a viral moment. No such luck. You can see an extended interview with Thomas if you like.
Something Different with Maple, Walnut, and Cherry
Ryan Hawkins of West Coast Boards shows us what he does. You won't be able to keep up, but it is mesmerizing. It was only the second time through that I realized that it's not paint, but glue he's slathering on the wood. The best comment:
I tried to do the same but I realized I was missing 23 of the 24 machines and tools required, so I just replayed the video with envy.Yeah, this is no how-to video. It's more like a wish-you-could video. I bet even his scrap pile is pretty.
Bisected
Is it possible to make a phone call across dimensions? A couple on a lonely highway see something strange in the sky. I couldn't see it at first, but it eventually looked to me like an incoming nuclear attack. But that turns out to be a MacGuffin, and director Danny Piñeros tells us he didn't even know what it would look like until the effect was added post production. What's important is that the couple becomes separated and we don't know how -and neither do they. They appear to be in the same space but not together. Or are they in a completely different place? Or maybe "place" isn't even the right word, as subsequent events bend even that idea.
Be sure to stay for the credits, because the voiceover adds more to the story. The scene sets up a premise that the producers hope to expand into a feature-length film. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Miss Cellania's Links
Jimmy Savile: How Britain's Most Prolific Sex Offender Hid in Plain Sight.
A Gallery of the Most Amusing Animal Faces To Make Your Day.
The lineup for Washington's Freedom 250 Festival is shrinking once the artists learned it's a Trump-linked event.
Bruce Springsteen calls out the White House and announces a protest festival. (via Fark)
Great Danes are as goofy as they are big.
Rechalking beloved Cerne Giant is a sticky process – and climate crisis is making it worse. (via TYWKIWDBI)
At Long Last, I Have Maxximized My Looks.
Could aliens ever visit Earth? An aerospace scientist unpacks the challenges of interstellar spaceflight. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Driving at Night
I'd rather not, thank you. Not that I go anywhere anyway. But now that it doesn't get dark until after nine, I don't even have to think about it until September or so. This chart is from Matt Shirley.
Thursday, May 28, 2026
True Facts: The Mystery Of How Bees Build
We know honeybees build wax honeycombs where they can efficiently work together to produce honey. How did they ever learn to do that? Ze Frank takes us through the behavioral evolution of insect architects. Honeybees descended from wasps, who went through many phases on the way to building geometrically efficient nests. Ants and termites build elaborate nests, too, harnessing a new word I just learned: stigmergy. Honeybees are the best at making lovely hexagonal cells to build their combs, but it's not because they are all that smart. Hexagons are just what happens when you cram cylinders together in the most efficient way. In fact, their combs are not made of perfect hexagons all the way through. Still, those imperfections are a way of coping with uneven surfaces, so maybe they are pretty smart. Instead of an ad, there's a mere 30-second promotional message at 4:20.
What If You Dropped a Bowling Ball Into the Mariana Trench?
The latest hypothetical question for the What If? series by Randall Munroe and Henry Reich asks how long it would take a bowling ball to fall from the ocean surface to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans, and the point called Challenger Deep is around 11,000 meters or 36,000 feet deep. A bowling ball would take quite a while to sink that far.
But wait- the real surprise here is that it might not sink at all. It might float! That depends on how heavy the ball is. Galileo told us that a hammer and a feather will drop at the same rate if you control for air resistance, like doing it on the moon or in a vacuum. Apparently, it doesn't work like that underwater, so we find out how objects of different weights fall in the ocean.
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