(via Buzzfeed)
Monday, February 09, 2026
A Letter from a Bank Customer
Benedict Cumberbatch has become a favorite reader for Shaun Usher's Letters Live series because he reads letters with such dramatic flair. In this performance at the Southbank Centre in London last month, he delivers a pitch-perfect reading of a letter written to a bank in 2009.
The writer has been a customer of the unnamed bank for thirty years, yet they still managed to screw him over with their new automatic systems designed to take every bit of humanity out of the business of banking. No doubt you will feel exactly what this customer is feeling, because we've all experienced the same type of horror. In response, he decides to give them a taste of their own medicine, in excruciating detail. (via Laughing Squid)
Miss Cellania's Links
More Than a Game: The Harlem Globetrotters Turn 100. (via Strange Company)
Protests in Minneapolis are taking many forms. Here are the drummers. (via Everlasting Blort)
Ingersoll Lockwood: the novelist who predicted the terrifying Donald Trump dynasty.
What Olympic athletes see that viewers don’t: Machine-made snow makes ski racing faster and riskier – and it’s everywhere.
Who was the real Coppertone baby?
Jewish seniors are offering to hide their Haitian caregivers as Trump’s TPS end looms. “That reminds me of Anne Frank,” said the CEO of one Jewish senior residence reeling as Temporary Protected Status for Haitians is set to end. (via kottke)
10 Olympic Rules That Sound Fake but Are Actually Real. One of them, however, needs an update- backflips are now okay in figure skating.
What Democrats Need to Know to Truly Reform ICE. The misconduct and corruption run far deeper than even the deadly surges have shown. (via Fark)
Bruce Lee with Lightsabers
Bruce Lee was the most badass martial arts movie star ever. How could you possibly make his moves any cooler? Maybe with a lightsaber! Inspired by a digital artwork by DeviantART member Ameeeeba, Patrick Nan altered a scene from the 1972 movie Fist of Fury to include lasers in dangerous places- like nunchucks. Yeah, that could leave you with some serious armpit burns, but it looks good. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Sunday, February 08, 2026
Welcome to Zero-migration America
First, we spend 400 years bringing in people from around the world to build America. Then we go to war against anyone who wasn't born here. Talk about pulling up the ladder behind you! First, they made legal immigration so time-consuming and expensive that the process becomes useless for most people. Then they incarcerate those who went around the process. Finally, make sure no one wants to come here anymore. It will take generations to recover from this insanity, even if we get started now.
Synchronized Skating
It never occurred to me that synchronized skating wold be a thing, but it only makes sense. We already have synchronized swimming and synchronized gymnastics. This sport isn't an Olympic event (yet), and if it was, I wouldn't be able to embed a video. This video is from the U.S. Synchronized Skating International Classic, which (surprise) the U.S. dominated. The team shown here, Teams Elite Junior, won a gold medal. These skaters may have a future with Holiday On Ice or Disney On Ice. Or in accounting.
Forevergreen
The premise of the short film Forevergreen is simple: a pine tree adopts a baby bear. Yes, there's a lot more to it, but that synopsis was all I needed. The tree makes a surprisingly good parent, but things go sideways when the bear reaches adolescence and is lured off by the temptations of the outside world. Then you start to see that it's a version of Yogi Bear. No, it's Smokey Bear. No, really, it's The Giving Tree. Or maybe it's the story of Groot. It's a bit of every story about trees or bears, but mainly it's about love.
Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears spent five years making Forevergreen in their free time with no budget, and now it's nominated for an Academy Award. We'll find out who wins on March 15th. (via Kuriositas)
Caught Red-handed
This three-year-old has read the manual: Deny, deny, deny, even when confronted with overwhelming evidence, deny again. Who are you gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes? His mom says:
After I filmed it we had a VERY long talk about the difference between telling the truth and not telling the truth. He has an amazing imagination and loves to tell us stories. I saw this as a sweet moment, something that every child goes through...where they try to push the boundaries to see how far they can go. And I thought I'd share it with my friends and family. And apparently, the world seems to enjoy it, too. We are currently working on the difference, and he is doing really well. :)(via Tastefully Offensive)
Best Day Ever!
(via Everlasting Blort)Best day ever!
— Chip bitney (@fragboner.bsky.social) January 18, 2026 at 4:33 PM
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Saturday, February 07, 2026
The Secret Of N.I.M.H.
The Secret Of N.I.M.H. came out in 1982, but it was years later when I saw it on TV. I had no clue for half the movie that N.I.M.H was the National Institute of Mental Health. You just don't expect that in a children's animated film. In fact, adults liked The Secret Of N.I.M.H. more than children did, because it was a pretty complicated story.
POV World Record Motocross Jump
Ride along with freestyle motocross star Colby Raha as he breaks a world record. But that's only half the ride, and he does it twice. The frightening course was set up at the Record Breakers event in Mesa, Arizona on January 31st. First, he has to get up to speed. Then he jumps 275 feet over a pool with no margin for error. Then he zips up a quarter pipe, straight up, and lands in one piece. I'm impressed, but it's not quite a world record, so he tries it a second time.
The part where Raha has to go quite a ways to get back where he started is kind of cute, with fans waving him on. So he does the whole run again, this time reaching 90 feet above ground on the quarter pipe for a big air world record. I would recommend watching this GoPro video in full screen mode for maximum terror. (via Born in Space)
New Chiton Species Named
Ze Frank made a True Facts video asking for input on a species name for a new chiton mollusk identified by Juila Sigwart of the Senkenberg Ocean Species Alliance. A panel of expert judges which fortunately excluded Ze Frank came to a consensus and selected a name. Yesterday, a new paper was published in the Biodiversity Data Journal announcing the naming of Ferreiraella populi.
More than 8,000 comments came in under the original video, so Ze Frank figured that some of the more humorous suggestions should be highlighted here since they did not make it into the science journal. Points for creativity, so to speak.
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