Thursday, October 31, 2013
9 Wild and Wonderful Jack-o-Lanterns
Simpsons Couch Gag Spoofs The Hobbit
The Simpsons continues its series of elaborate opening couch gags that spoof pop culture phenomena. This time, it's The Hobbit. Yeah, the video says this is part one of six, but don't believe it -that's a Peter Jackson thing. The family's quest is scheduled to open the episode "4 Regrettings and A Funeral," which will air November 3rd. The highly-publicized episode will reveal which Springfield resident dies, and the funeral causes the Simpsons and other regular characters to re-evaluate their lives. (via Tastefully Offensive)
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A spacesuit must protect the person inside from a variety of conditions that are incompatible with life, yet allow the person inside to move and work. NASA held competitions to decide who would make the Apollo spacesuits, and the winner was Playtex. (via Metafilter)
Halloween Directions for Every Stage of Life.
The 50 Greatest Horror Movie Posters of All Time. (via mental_floss)
Unfortunate Vintage Candy Wrappers. What were they thinking?
10 mind-bending YouTube makeup tutorials that could save your Halloween. Don't say you can't pull off these awesome looks because …you can!
Life-Sized Dinosaurs Made Out Of Jack-O-Lanterns. The Great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze this year has the ultimate creative Halloween light show.
All this tow truck driver wanted to do was turn a flipped car upright. It didn't turn out the way he planned.
What caused the syndrome diagnosed as Beatlemania? A new book examines the confluence of history and social forces that created the craziness.
How birth control became everybody's business. Birth control information was banned because it was considered obscene!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
The Blancheville Monster
The Blancheville Monster (1963) got about two stars. From the Rotten Tomatoes page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blancheville_monster/
Gerard Tichy plays a somewhat round-the-bend European count. His face is horribly disfigured, which in a film like this is a reflection of his warped personality. Tichy's daughter Joan Hills fears that dad will do her harm, in order to fulfill an ancient family ritual. She's right: Hills wakes up one day to find that Tichy has buried her alive.
The Panda Twins First 100 Days
Mei Lun and Mei Huan are twin pandas born on July 15 at the Atlanta Zoo. In this video from the zoo, we see them grow from tiny pink newborns into adorable round balls of fluff. Watch as they gradually develop their iconic panda markings and snuggle up with each other. Read more about Mei Lun and Mei Huan (until recently, they were just Panda A and Panda B) and watch them anytime on the Panda Cam at Zoo Atlanta's website. (via Laughing Squid)
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California officials uncovered a scheme in which the "Koch Brothers Network" funneled $15 million in illegal campaign donations secretly through non-profit organizations. (via Boing Boing)
Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half has a story for us about Halloween in her latest post. At age 4, her dinosaur costume gave her power, and she became the dinosaur.
The Strange and Mysterious History of the Ouija Board.
Your Most Memorable Halloween Costumes. It's the Neatoramanauts costume parade!
The House of Shock started off as a backyard party in New Orleans. In the 21 years since, its battled controversy and protest, and kept on truckin'.
Controversial Teen Dance Crazes That Pissed Off Parents Throughout History. Which was exactly what they were meant to do.
Some of the earliest known photos of 12 major US cities. Besides the difference in traffic, some haven't changed all that much in 150 years.
10 Hilarious Southern Expressions. I never thought of them as hilarious, and I also never realized that people elsewhere might not know them.
10 Ghosts Lurking at the White House. As if our heads of state didn't have enough reasons to stay awake at night.
The Corpse Vanishes
The Corpse Vanishes (1942) stars Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist who experiments on his wife. It later made a great MST3K episode.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
12 Wordplay Halloween Costumes
Iivari the Otter
A man in Finland made friends with a wild otter, using the one thing the otter really wants -food! The otter will even come into the house long enough to grab a fish, although he prefers to eat it outside, alone. The guy's lovely deep voice summons the otter from the water even when it's covered with ice. By the end of the video, Iiveri is even talking back to him! If you can pull your eyes away from the otter, notice this guy's awesome furniture. (via Tastefully Offensive)
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What Does Sexual Harassment Look Like? You won't be surprised at how other women's experiences mirror your own.
The Cost of Living (just a little longer). Is extending the life of a terminal patient for six weeks of bedridden illness worth bankrupting the family -or our health care system? (via Metafilter)
The Scariest Jack-o-Lantern of Them All.
Fun Gets Stuff Done. A book excerpt from Stephen McCranie's new graphic novel Brick by Brick.
What kind of reaction would you have if you read about a serial killer and realized he was the guy who picked you up one day thirty years ago?
Halloween costumes and Photoshop give this family awesome memories of superheroes and magic. SpamDog_of_War stages these pictures every year.
Why are millions of YouTubers obsessed with the proper way to eat a pomegranate? Maybe it's an excuse to go buy and eat another pomegranate.
What if Wes Anderson made a horror film? Watch the trailer for The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders.
8 Sesame Street parodies of adult-oriented TV shows. Their latest is Homelamb, but I am partial to Sons of Poetry.
Cannibal! the Musical
Cannibal! the Musical is a 1996 film about Alferd Parker, the only person ever convicted of cannibalism in the U.S. It was produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park. A Troma film. The movie starts about three minutes into the video.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Big Cat Rescue's Growloween
Halloween at Big Cat Rescue in Florida means giving pumpkins and other gourds to the cats to play with (and nom). This year, they've spiced things up by giving the lions, tigers, leopards, and other cats pinatas, hanging bats, and wooden tombstones to play with as well. As usual, what we get is powerful and adorable destruction on a grand scale. (via Tastefully Offensive)
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A Final Toast to Fallen Comrades. (via Metafilter)
Math Proves Bacon Is a Miracle Food.
We should be grateful for snot, the nasal mucous that works overtime to combat the nasty bugs we inhale when we breathe. But why is it Green? (via Not Exactly Rocket Science)
Ten Real-Life Haunted Houses Around the World. Only three of them are in the U.S.
Read the 8 Creepiest Zombie Stories For Halloween. It's easy, because they'll all available free online
Chelsea Clair agreed to donate a kidney to a man she just met. Three years after the successful operation, the two became man and wife.
Behind the scenes of City Slickers. Billy Crystal gives us the real story excerpted from his new book Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys?
38 Facts on Frankenstein (Including the Aerosmith song it inspired and the reason the Munsters never got sued). A post so big that it had a coda.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Marching Band Illustrates Hollywood Blockbusters
After doing the Michael Jackson tribute last weekend, the Ohio State University marching band put together an entirely different show in a week's time, and it's a bygone! In this show, they show you formations that recreate scenes from Superman, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and Pirates of the Caribbean. -via Metafilter
How to Be a Disney Character
If you were a Disney "cast member" in 1976 and got the opportunity to play a character in one of the theme parks, this video helped you learn the rules. Thanks to Everything is Terrible, we get a glimpse into the not-so-glamorous world of catering to children the Disney way. (via Metafilter)
Great Moments In Mustache History
Nick Offerman of the TV series Parks and Recreation takes you through the history of mustaches, or at least the highlights, in a new video. The whole point is to draw attention to Movember, the annual observance of the growing of facial among those who can do it, to raise awareness of prostate cancer and other men's health issues. The Movember website will help you both prepare and participate. Get ready to grow yours for Movember! (via Uproxx)
Andy and Amy's Haunted House
Ellen Degeneres sent her easily-frightened assistant Amy through a haunted house, like she does every year, but this year she didn't go alone. Executuve producer Andy Lassiter accompanied her through the Walking Dead Maze at Universal Studios Hollywood. Despite the camera lights (or maybe because of them) they were properly horrified by the horde of zombies popping out at them.
Why are you making me go first?
I'm not! I'm protecting you!
A good time was had by all -especially Ellen. (via Viral Viral Videos)
Miss Cellania's Links
Reasons for Admission to an Insane Asylum.
He thought he was American until the day he was deported.
Rob Cockerham goes all out for Halloween costumes, and his homemade creations tend to win contests left and right. This year, he is Disneyland!
The Mummy's Curse.
The Most Popular Boys' Names, State by State, from 1960 to the Present. (via Daily of the Day)
Finding the One Percent of 1916. (via Carl Zimmer)
Robert De Niro selling cars in 1970.
The Would-Be Assassin and the Camera.
The Skeleton Horse. More pictures here. (via Everlasting Blort)
38 Sweet Facts About Candy
Have you purchased candy to give to trick-or-treaters for Halloween yet? Of course you have, because you know Halloween tends to come at the end of the month, when you're out of money. But how much do you know about candy? Probably a lot, but you'll know a lot more after John Green brings you 38 sweet facts about candy. I'm somewhat chagrined to find out he considers me one of the 17 "old people" watching. (via mental_floss)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
This 1920 film was directed by Robert Wiene. The original German production was called Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Fixing Breaking Bad
Edmond Hawkins has created a series centered on the character of Joe Hawkins, the VFX Artist for Breaking Bad. "Joe" has a video series called Fixing Breaking Bad in which he "improves" the show by adding more special effects, or otherwise changing it for the weirder. There are already six full episodes, plus extras as he thinks of them. Yes, they do contain spoilers if you plan to watch the series for the first time in the future. This is episode five, which deals with a plot hole many have already discussed. You can find the rest of the series at Hawkins' YouTube page. (via Boing Boing)
Friday, October 25, 2013
Breaking Bad on Ice
Breaking Bad assistant editor Sharidan Williams-Sotelo produced a figure-skating homage to the show. Really. May contain spoilers, but probably not. You will see Walt ice skating in his tight whities, a chorus line of drug dealers, and even Hank the DEA agent doing spins in this show. (via Slate)
12 Haunted Tours Worth Traveling For
Miss Cellania's Links
Our Ancestors’ Name Starts With Homo, but Then What? Scarcity of fossils leaves us not knowing if early humans were one species or many.
The Difference Between Hiroshima and Chernobyl. It also tells us the short version of what happened at Chernobyl to cause such a reaction, and why.
The Story of Shrek. Poor puppy.
Married Kama Sutra: The World’s Least Erotic Sex Manual.
Disney Imagineers Tested the Haunted Mansion Special Effects on the Unsuspecting Night Time Cleaning Crew.
17 Brilliant Art History-Inspired Halloween Costumes. If you have to explain them, you know you're at the wrong party.
Rather than pay interns, Conde Nast is doing away with the internship program altogether. If other companies follow suit, it will level the playing field for entry-level workers.
Watch a little dancer steal the show by improvising at her preschool dance recital. She has the audience eating out of her hand.
Who Was Dr. Frankenstein? There were plenty of scientists, mad or not, who may have inspired Mary Shelley's character.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Andy and Amy's Haunted House
Ellen Degeneres sent her easily-frightened assistant Amy through a haunted house, like she does every year, but this year she didn't go alone. Executuve producer Andy Lassiter accompanied her through the Walking Dead Maze at Universal Studios Hollywood. Despite the camera lights (or maybe because of them) they were properly horrified by the horde of zombies popping out at them.
Why are you making me go first?
I'm not! I'm protecting you!
A good time was had by all -especially Ellen. (via Viral Viral Videos)
Miss Cellania's Links
The Most and Least Lucrative College Majors. (via Digg)
Words That Are Different in British English and American English.
http://bigstockblog.squarespace.com/blog/20-british-words-that-mean-something-totally-different-in-the-us (via the Presurfer)
The question in simple terms. The Difference Between Killing and Letting Die.
When people in Poland throw an "American-themed" party, they watch Pocahontas for entertainment. Otherwise, it's beer bongs, plaid flannel, baseball hats, and popcorn.
A well-known YouTuber complained about his car getting towed. But the guy who called the tow company is also on YouTube, and has a devastatingly hilarious video response.
‘You said we’d be greeted as liberators!’: 10 anxiety-reflecting Simpsons Halloween segments. Your opportunity to overanalyze the cartoon while remembering how much you enjoyed watching these episodes.
Mike Landsberry reenlisted with the Marines and served in Afghanistan. He survived that, but was killed by one of his middle school students as he tried to disarm the 12-year-old.
Nick Offerman Presents: Great Moments In Mustache History. Get ready to grow yours for Movember!
Aaah! Real Monsters: The Science Behind the Legends. What could have caused real people to act like something from a horror film?
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Miss Cellania's Links
The Faces Behind Disney's 11 Princesses.
Was Jack the Ripper an American?
24 Extraordinary Photos Of The Making Of The Atomic Bomb. The brain power, teamwork, and secrecy of the Manhattan Project is still impressive 70 years later.
A curious cat decides to investigate a moving set of windshield wipers. And then it gets weird.
A Brief History of Fake Blood.
Why Do Our Favorite Horror Fiction Monsters Still Frighten Us? Because if they didn't have a connection with our deepest fears, they wouldn't be our favorites.
Horrific Tales of Potato Poisoning.
Photographer Carli Davidson caught wet dogs in mid-shake in goofy photos and in slow-motion video. She calls the distortion the "moment dogs turn into monsters."
Historic Werewolves. The legends were formed to explain horrific real events in which people acted like animals.
Louisville in Motion
I don't get to Louisville often, but I've been there enough that a lot of these places are very familiar. And they look so bright and beautiful shot in moving time-lapse! It can't be an easy way to film, and get such great results. This would be a good video to see in full-screen mode. Video by Eric Stemen. (Thanks, Steve Hurst!)
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!
IF YOU ARE WONDERING WHY THERE IS SO MUCH SHOUTING GOING ON IN SOCIAL MEDIA TODAY, IT IS BECAUSE OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY! YOU CAN'T WRITE IN ALL CAPS UNLESS YOU ALSO HAVE AN EXCLAMATION POINT! IT ONLY SEEMS NATURAL!
Read about the holiday, and why you should celebrate it, in an article I posted at mental_floss.
Read about the holiday, and why you should celebrate it, in an article I posted at mental_floss.
Tips For Surviving, Monsters!
The comma truly is the game-changer of the punctuation world.
Glove and Boots presents some good advice for monsters on how to survive those horrible humans they encounter in movies. The logic they employ comes from some alternate universe, but like in the movies, it's so crazy it just might work! The video ends with a lovely musical selection. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Miss Cellania's Links
That Researcher With a Nematode in His Mouth. (via Not Exactly Rocket Science)
Anne Coulter's reddit AMA was a train wreck, as expected. She didn't have a good time, either.
The Interactive Period Table of Swearing.
How to Escape a Monster Using Calculus.
50 Thanksgiving Foods Full Of Bacon. Plan your menu around them -it's the American way.
Does The New $100 Bill Predict A Nuclear Attack On New York City? Only if you are conspiracy theorist who like to connect dots that aren't on the same page.
Wikipedia banned 250 users who were getting paid to promote certain products. They are also working on ferreting gout editors who don't know what they are doing.
15 Photos of Spiders Battling Dangerous Foes. Tiny epic battles to the death are going on right under our noses.
Historic Vampires. Well, the legends had to have come from somewhere!
The Walking Dead Sing-Along
Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Andrea, and many other characters from The Walking Dead sing "The Monster Mash" without even knowing it, because it's an edit. Who knows better about what monsters really do? I don't think this contains any spoilers, but it certainly has a lot of gore, just like the show itself. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Monday, October 21, 2013
Miss Cellania's Links
Apocalypse Now’s “Ride of the Valkyries” Attack: The Anatomy of a Classic Scene.
Phenakistoscope Images as Gifs.
Medical students' first experience dissecting a human body. Gross anatomy class is an experience that cannot be replicated by text, MRIs, or computer modeling. (via Digg)
Mechanical Engineers Discovered How the Arapaima Becomes Piranha-Proof.
32 Family Halloween Costumes That Will Make You Want To Have Kids. Trust me, it's easier to just borrow them for a day, or long enough to pose in costume.
Every once in a while, you really need a big truck. But if you don't have one, you have to make do with the vehicle you have.
Patty Dłutkiewicz appeared on morning TV in Poland with two models posing with musical instruments, as if they were playing them. “It is better to look at beautiful models pretending to play the guitar than ugly musicians who actually play the guitar.”
A bovine Bonnie and Clyde escaped from their trip to the slaughterhouse in Montvale, New Jersey. They were rounded up and rewarded with a life sentence in a petting zoo.
Read about zombies and vampires from different cultures in 8 of the Undead from Around the World. And then more in 9 of the Undead from Around the World.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Which Came First - The Rain or the Rainforest?
Here's a question I'd never thought to ponder before: which came first, the rainforest or the rain? One would suppose there was rain before the rainforest appeared, but was it as much as a rainforest normally gets? MinuteEarth explains the cycle of water moving through a tropical forest, and what happened to kick start this cycle long ago. However, they also describe the damage mankind is doing to the rainforest and the weather cycle it supports. (via Viral Viral Videos)
Cups Tap Dance
Broadway hoofers perform "The Cups Song," led by Christopher Rice of The Book of Mormon. It's an accomplishment when you learn how to perform the cup routine made famous by Lulu and the Lampshades, but try doing it with your feet -and then try doing it exactly the same as the the rest of the chorus line! (via Viral Viral Videos)
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