(via Bits and Pieces)
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
If You Drop A Lightsaber Vertically
When a cool science fiction weapon sticks around for half a century and gathers more and more fans and more fiction, there will be people who put way too much thought into it. The lightsabers from Star Wars were born out of a cool special effect, but now everyone wants one, or at least wants to understand them.
What happens if you drop a lightsaber? Specifically, what happens if you drop one vertically, business end first, into the ground. Would it keep burning its way through the earth indefinitely? In the Star Wars universe, no, because there's a safety feature that disables the blade when it's not held. But there have been depictions of Jedi throwing lightsabers, so this feature apparently can be disabled. So what would happen in the real world? Rocket Riley goes through all the ways a lightsaber would act on earth, if it was real. (via Laughing Squid)
Miss Cellania's Links
Huge Psilocybin Dose Has Incredible Effect on Elderly Dementia Patient. (via Damn Interesting)
College students who cannot read.
An infertility scandal 30 years ago led to children who had more parents than the law could contend with. (via Strange Company)
The slippery slope of justifying cruelty.
When a Photographer Turned His Focus on Social Injustice, It Helped Usher in the First Child Labor Laws. Lewis Hine didn’t consider his job as taking pictures; it was “detective work.”
‘Soccer’ is a fine term for the beautiful game – don’t let any ‘football’ snob or president tell you otherwise this World Cup.
My day job is at a rural branch of a public library, and we have a Pride display. Yesterday I was at the desk when a man came in. Fifties, maybe, or sixties. Plaid shirt, mesh trucker cap, suspenders. He went up to the display and just stood there for a long moment. Then he came up to the desk. (via Metafilter)
Snow leopards at play.
How to Film a Canada Lynx in the Wild
The Wild Canadian Year is a five-part TV series about Canadian wildlife. Sam Ellis' assignment for the show was to film a Canada lynx in its natural habitat. Not an easy task, as remaining invisible is a big part of a lynx's lifestyle. But over time, Sam tracked and got to know a cat he called Mad Max. He spent 76 days trying to get some good footage of Max hunting. So here we have a videographer following a cameraman following a lynx following rabbits for more than two months, so let's appreciate the result.
Taxes
We have to get rid of all the loopholes.
— Resist Trump 🤬 🤦🏽♂️🇺🇸 💜💙💪🏽 (@resist-trumps-rule.bsky.social) June 9, 2026 at 1:54 PM
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Tuesday, June 09, 2026
The Joy of Lunch
This guy must work hard, because his wife packs him an enormous lunch every day. He gets excited showing us what's in there, and everything is his favorite. His happiness is contagious! Best comment: "She tells you don’t talk to strangers because someone may want to take you home and keep you for being so adorable!"
What We've Learned From Twin Studies
When you think about how your life turned out, you might wonder how it happened. How much can you attribute to, or maybe blame on, your family? An awful lot of it. You probably resemble your siblings in appearance, health, temperament, and psychological well-being. But is that because you carry the same genes, or because the same parents raised you? The question of nature vs. nurture has been around for a long time. That's why scientists are so interested in twin studies. Identical twins have the same genes, so there's a factor you can control for. But most twins also have the same environment, too.
However, throughout the 20th century, scientists have been able to study the phenomena of twins raised separately, which opened a new door to answering the question of nature vs. nurture. From these studies, it turns out that genetics has more say in some factors, while environment is more important for other facets of life. This video from AsapSCIENCE shares some of the findings of those studies, but it doesn't address the disturbing scenario that made them possible. Why have there been so many identical twins raised apart? It's already a tragedy when a child cannot be raised by their biological parents, but being separated from your identical twin only adds more unnecessary trauma. How does finding that out later in life affect the studies?
There's a skippable ad from 7:49 to 9:36. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Once In A Lifetime: Isolated Vocals
"Once in a Lifetime" by The Talking Heads with just David Byrne and the chorus, without any musical instruments, sounds like the depraved rantings of a lunatic mind. (via Dangerous Minds)
Monday, June 08, 2026
Six Ways America Feels Like a Movie
Most Americans assume that the way things are in America is normal. Yeah, it's normal to us. Every country has its own customs and flavors, but what makes America different is that the rest of the world gets to see the way we do things in the movies. Sure, there are foreign films, but the majority of what the world sees is cinematic America, which is different from any other place. And that's what made Laurence Brown dream of visiting America when he was a child. Now he's an American citizen who's lived here for 18 years. And he still has those moments when the movies of his childhood come alive for him here. This video has a skippable ad from 3:30 to 5:02.
US Military Food
Today's US military is an all-volunteer force, and they spend most of their time on military bases. These young, strong people eat a lot of food. To attract and retain them, base food is plentiful and pretty good. There are plenty of options, and experts are always trying to improve both nutrition and quality.
The story is different for wartime. From the beginning, the nation grappled with the difficulties of procuring, paying for, and delivering food to its troops in the field. There was no refrigeration, and preservation was hit-or-miss. but behind the scenes, there were those trying to solve the problem, because an army travels on its stomach. They developed C-rations, K-rations, and ultimately MREs. All of those work under the idea that hunger makes everything taste better. Weird History Food takes us through the evolution of military food in the United States.
Rolling in the Deep Fried
Taco Bell food has a reputation, deserved or not, for running right through you. It's never happened to me, but then again I have never been able to eat a whole bag of their food. But that's what happens in this parody version of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep." Not that Taco Bell deep fries their food, no, they rely on mini-ovens to melt that cheese. But it works with the title.
This is the first offering from Dustin Ballard of There I Ruined It in three months, since YouTube put him in a time-out over some copyright kerfluffle. The song isn't AI-generated. He wrote and sang it, then ran it through an AI filter to make him sound like Adele. His band is working on a way to present it live at their Austin and Houston shows this summer.
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