(via Bad Newspaper)
Saturday, August 29, 2026
Journey to the Center of Time
Journey to the Center of Time is a 1967 movie about time travel (duh). A group of scientists take off in a time machine before it's perfected, lest they lose their grant money. First they go into the future, then the past, but they don't have control over where they will end up. That causes some strange twists in the story. Reviews of the movie say it's pretty badly made, but still a good time, and that's what counts. (Thanks, WTM!)
Cows Visit a McDonald's
A herd of cows escaped their corral in Queensland, Australia, and headed out together to visit their favorite place- the McDonald's drive-through! The bovines showed up just in time for supper, and caused quite a commotion among those waiting for their orders. Were they there looking for their missing friends? Maybe to protest the beefy Big Macs? Or did it cross their minds to engage in a little cannibalism? In any case, their orders were not filled, because the attendant couldn't understand anything beyond "moo." They were a little short on funds, anyway. The TV outlet 9 News Australia couldn't find where they went to next. Maybe Wendy's. (via Fark)
Sea Life
It's been two years since we've seen a new animation from Cyriak Harris. That dry spell has come to an end! He says he's been traveling, and while crossing the ocean, decided to record a short documentary. Okay, maybe not, but he says it is based on a true story, involving a whale. Not a story he's actually witnessed, but it could happen, right?
Fans expected some horrors from the depths of the deepest oceans or the depths of one's nightmares, but this is just a happy little whale to accompany a happy little song. Not what we'd normally expect from Cyriak, but we're just happy he's emerged from whatever he's been doing besides animations and gave us something to smile about.
Star Wars Episode 4 Remake
Ever since home video became a thing, kids have wanted to remake Star Wars. This group actually did it. Byron Ruf and friends remade the whole movie on their own, although they skipped a few scenes you really don't need, so it comes in at barely over an hour. The attention to detail meant even having a Stormtrooper knock his head on entrance. There are a few improvements, such as Luke NOT looking straight down into a lightsaber, Han shot first, and in the end, Chewie gets his medal. Incidentally, I love that the shortest kid played Chewbacca. It's awesome. (via reddit)
Friday, August 28, 2026
Dolly Parton on the Cas Walker Show
We only had two TV stations when I was a kid, both out of Knoxville, so I was very familiar with Cas Walker ads ("Shop and save at the sign of the shears, and the name Cas Walker!") and The Cas Walker Show. I never saw it in color, though. Dolly Parton was on the show several times when she was in school. The day after she graduated from high school, she went to Nashville to seek her fortune, and in 1967 landed a regular gig on The Porter Wagoner Show, which was broadcast nationwide! Sevierville was so proud they held a Dolly Parton Day when she was home. Dolly went back to The Cas Walker Show to promote it. She was 21 at the time.
A Surprising Train Crossing
The train shows up about half way through the video. It's a Brandt truck pulling four cars full of railroad ties and a tie lifter, but you'd never know that ahead of time by the train whistle. This is a road–rail vehicle, and it can drive on track or on roads, using different wheels. The unused wheels are lifted for each purpose. This one is super sturdy, since that's quite a load it's pulling. This video is from Ontario.
Bouncing Balls
Alexander Gustafsson has been playing with a physics simulator. In the video above, he starts with 100 balls in a straight line and each has a slightly different degree of surface restitution (bounciness) than the next. When they are all dropped at the same time from the same height, it takes a while for them to differ in their response. When they do, the effect is somewhat like the mercury wave, except that bouncing balls dispel their energy pretty fast and their bouncing eventually stops. The other difference is that this is a simulator. Then he does it again with 900 balls in a 30x30 grid. As the balls differ in bounciness, they also differ in color and the sound they make when they bounce. That was so much fun he went wild for his next video.
This version renders 999 balls arranged in a spiral. The surface restitution, color, and sound are barely distinguishable between individual balls, but vary greatly from first to last. This one rendered a bit strangely toward the center, with balls so close together they look like a continuous shape, like a snake. (via the Awesomer)
Miss Cellania's Links
A Society That Runs on Stimulants is Badly Broken. Around the world, people are pumping themselves full of caffeine, amphetamines, and other performance-enhancing drugs just to survive their working hours. This isn’t sustainable. (via Metafilter)
Trump’s war on Iran is rapidly draining US navy budget, documents and interviews reveal. (via Fark)
Cats have it all figured out.
The Prehistoric Paintings on the Walls of Caves Have Always Been Moving. But With the Right Kind of Light, Some Actually Seem to Move.
The Most Dangerous Diagnosis in a Heat Wave. People with schizophrenia face a perfect storm of dangers on a hotter planet. (via Damn Interesting)
21 Lesser Known Meanings and Backstories of 80s Pop and Rock Song Lyrics. I thought everyone knows these stories, but I'm probably wrong.
Breakthrough drug nearly doubles survival with advanced pancreatic cancer – an oncologist explains how daraxonrasib overcame an ‘undruggable’ disease.
Bowling Tricks and Pool Shots
Poolbowl must be some kind of combination of billiards and bowling. All I know for sure is that Jason Belmonte and Florian "Venom" Kohler have a lot of time on their hands, and have used it to perfect some glorious tricks. So what if they have terabytes of outtakes, this compilation video is cool! (via Metafilter)
The Gaia Hypothesis
We hurt the earth, so the proper response from the earth would be to get rid of us. Maybe we should stop hurting the earth. This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
The Weird, Scary Airspace Over Washington DC
Twenty-five years ago next month, a hijacked airliner crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Since then, restrictions for airplanes flying over our nation's capital have been seriously beefed up. Unauthorized flights are liable to lead to arrest, fines, and even the danger of being shot down. But right in the middle of that restricted zone, we have Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) with tons of flights arriving and departing every day. On a side note, who designs an airport with three runways in which only one can be used at a time?
Pilots who fly into Washington have a list of rules to follow, from registering identification to obtaining a password to staying in contact with control towers at all times. Older rules for DCA mandate that they follow DC's rivers to approach the airport. If you don't know all the rules, you have no business being there. Air traffic controllers have procedures that are just as strict and Byzantine. These rules are all in service of safety and for keeping the military from having to shoot down your plane. Half as Interesting gives us an overview of how complicated it all is. The video is only seven minutes long; the rest is promotional.
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