Guardians of the Galaxy in LEGO

Sean Willets and Forrest Whaley remade the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer completely in LEGO. From Gamma Squad:

From YouTuber Forrest Whaley, who has turned moving Legos around into a career, part of the fun is spotting all the fill-ins Whaley used for huge scenes. If you’re quick, for example, you’ll spot Mon Calamari, oddly silent on whether or not it’s a trap, in the background. Also, surprisingly, this is an official spot, according to First Showing; it appears Disney gave Whaley enthusiastic permission to put their upcoming hit into plastic.

Now I really want a Rocket Raccoon mini fig. Guardians of the Galaxy opens nationwide tomorrow, officially, but there are plenty of showings tonight.   

9 Silly Sharks to Prepare You for Shark Week

The Discovery Channel held their first Shark Week promotion in 1987. In the 27 years since then, the seemingly educational series of programming has “jumped the shark,” so to speak, and slid into entertainment, and even more recently, into cryptozoology. This year’s Shark Week will begin Sunday, August 10. To get you ready for this year's Shark Week, here are some of the silliest sharks in pop culture history, in a list I posted at mental_floss.

Kittens Learning to Walk Compilation

Their legs can barely hold their weight, and they can’t get no (dadaDAda) traction. These kittens are just discovering an new ability to get around on their own, and they are the cutest things ever! (via Tastefully Offensive)

Yoda's New Job

(via Daily Picks and Flicks)

The Easiest, Fastest Way To Cut A Watermelon

I’ve cut up two watermelons in the past week to pack in my kids’ lunches for band camp. I was using the “cut the rind away first” method, but since seedless watermelons became common, there are plenty of watermelon-chopping techniques that work well. I may have to try this one, but with a slight change. I would do his horizontal cutting (almost but not all the way through) before slicing the melon in half. That would eliminate having to cut towards your hand with a wobbly end down, and instead cut down toward the board with the wobbly (whole) melon down. Oh, and make sure you have a really sharp knife. (via Viral Viral Videos)

Miss Cellania's Links

26 Odd But True Comic Book Facts.

Market Basket grocery store paid its employees well, gave customers low prices, and still turned a tidy profit. But it wasn’t enough, so the CEO was fired.

33 Pictures Taken At The Right Moment.

'Purity' culture: bad for women, worse for survivors of sexual assault. You’ll find a lot more links at Metafilter. 

These People Love to Collect Radioactive Glass. Are They Nuts? Or are they just nuts about that greenish glow?

Startling Acts Of Mischief In Children's Literature. Not by the characters, but by the authors!

The New York Times as written by stoners. The irony is that these folks believe they are being profound -at the time.

The Top Ten Guilty Pleasure Songs, according to Spotify. Do you have a favorite you’re reluctant to admit?

The best places to find love — and lust — according to science. I met my husband at a yard sale, which is not mentioned, for some reason.

A Tribute to the Grilled Cheese Sandwich. You know you want one, because everyone does.

Should've Prayed Harder

(via Bits and Pieces)

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Monty Python has started releasing clips from the recent reunion show, Monty Python Live (Mostly) starting with “The Spanish Inquisition,” starring Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, with Carol Cleveland. They will release another clip every week, or you can preorder the entire show on home video. (via Laughing Squid)

That's a Stretch

(via Criggo)

Baby Raccoons

The Fabulous Mr. Pug put together a compilation of only the best parts of about a dozen videos featuring baby raccoons. The little bandits are so cute at that age! (via Tastefully Offensive)

How Old Are Your Eggs?

Eggs last about two days per dozen in my house. (via Bits and Pieces)

The Deal

From Married to the Sea.

The Day the Mountain of Fire Was Born

Eldfell is Icelandic for “mountain of fire.” The volcano named Eldfell came into being suddenly on January 23, 1973. It was a sight to see, but dangerous to be around. The people of Heimaey didn’t abandon their island home to the volcano, however. They made it work for them. Read all about the Eldfell volcano in an article I wrote at mental_floss.

Miss Cellania's Links

The Holy Grail Redux.

One-Third of Americans are struggling at less than 200% of the poverty level, yet they don’t identify themselves as “poor.” If they did, they might care more about economic policy. (via Metafilter)

The Banana Massacre.

Gentle Brain is an interactive web toy where you can play around with your brain. If you drop it, and you will, that’s okay, because there’s another one where that one came from, and it’s just as good. (via the Presurfer)

Detroit Shuts Off Water to Residents but Not to Businesses Who Owe Millions.

50 Words That Sound Rude But Actually Aren't.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/58036/50-words-sound-rude-actually-arent
The Most Ridiculous TV Show Concepts in Pop Culture. I must admit that I watched a few of these every week.

In England during World War II, clothing and fabric was rationed, woman had to register for wartime jobs, and money was scarce. To encourage women to keep their appearances up, the Beauty as Duty campaign was born.

Mike Rowe Is Running For County Judge In Lafayette, Arkansas. It’s a Dirty Job, but someone’s got to do it.

The 5 best and worst states for a well-lived life. States are ranked by statistical averages; your mileage may vary.

Cocoa Farmers Taste Chocolate

Small farmers in Ivory Coast find out what their cocoa beans are used for when they taste a chocolate bar for the first time. Chocolate is out of their reach economically, and cocoa beans aren’t much without the sugar, milk, and other ingredients. But how could it be possible that these farmers don’t even know about chocolate? A commenter explained that chocolate is not part of the tradition of West Africa.

I know its weird, but in West Africa a bunch of the stuff we produce is for export only. It wasn't part of the traditional food, thus people never cared to eat it, or even knew how to finish production of it. The raw materials are just sent off.

It's not just cocoa. We produce coffee but don't roast it or drink it. We produce mangos, but not mango shakes. Chicken, but the variety for export is considered 'too soft' for the local palette.

It’s touching that the first thing the farmer does is to gather his friends and show them what chocolate tastes like. However, the kids will only get to see the wrapper. The video is a clip from the Dutch show Metropolis. You can see the whole chocolate episode here. Oh, and if you begin listening to the video because you know French, be aware that most of it is in Dutch. You may still need subtitles.  (via reddit)

Master Chef

(via The Chive)

Nuclear Weapons

John Oliver tells it like it is regarding nuclear weapons. I remember when we used to think about them every day. So many of my generation grew up just assuming that we would all die from a nuclear bomb eventually. I know I did.

Miss Cellania's Links

Our Neighbor, Mr. Rogers. How Fred Rogers developed educational TV for young children.

The story of the only Lucas to win an Oscar for Star Wars: Marcia, George’s ex-wife.

In order to secure a three-year purchasing contract with the state of New York, office supplier Staples agreed to sell 291 common items for a penny. Hilarity ensues. (via Metafilter)

The Destabilizing Truth: Only The Wealthy Can Afford A Middle Class Lifestyle.

Why Are Cans Shaped That Way? (Thanks, Nick!)

A Game About Squares is exactly what it says on the tin, and despite the lack of instructions, it’s not that hard to figure out. (via Metafilter)

Here are the 6 celebrities who went undercover at Comic-Con. That Spider-Man you took a selfie with may have been someone you kind of know.

How 14 Things That Happened To You In Childhood Shape You As An Adult. These research findings are for populations and do not apply to all individuals.

Abandon Ship: 5 Maritime Disasters Lost to Time. Read these and then thank your lucky stars for those swimming lessons you took.

10 Heroic Battlefield Medics. They went to war to save lives, while risking their own.

Magic Numbers

Check out this amazing method for learning how to multiply! Well, it’s an amazing story for learning, specifically, what 4 x 9 is. Or maybe it’s not so much amazing as it is baffling.

Darren Michalczuk’s YouTube channel The Brick School has several videos along this line. They are a few years old, but Michalczuk continues to push his learning method at his website Brain Magic. You can even buy apps to teach your child this method! Michalczuk has written quite a few education articles about the magic of learning that are as incomprehensible as the Magic Numbers series.

Of course it’s satire, but it’s played so straight across the web for so many years that it’s a masterful feat. You have to wonder if anyone ever took it seriously. My guess is that it would be easy to take it seriously if you just read the ads for the apps. The articles, well, someone with less-than-stellar critical thinking skills might swallow them whole, but the videos area real WTF moment. (via Digg)

Star Wars Episode VII Jitters Song

In this little ditty from Adult Swim, a lonely geek contemplates Star Wars VII. What if it’s awful? So many things could go wrong! That’s what we call “managing expectations,” or “not getting our hopes up.” As with most of the big blockbuster movies these days, the anticipation is more enjoyable than the payoff. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Tree

From Married to the Sea.

3-year-old Drummer Plays with Orchestra

Russian drummer Lyonya Shilovsky is three years old, but he’s already a pro! Watch him play drums with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra. The song is Jacques Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld,” which most of just call “The Can-Can.” Lyonya only loses the beat twice: when he drops his sticks, and when his father interupts him to pose for a picture. How does that compare to your concentration when you were three years old? (via Daily Picks and Flicks)

Miss Cellania's Links

Johnny Cash’s Captive Audience. The Man in Black spent years performing for prison inmates.

NERDS!!! 15 Facts You Might Not Know About Revenge Of The Nerds.

11 Movie Titles That Became Part of the Lexicon.

How a Jewish Doctor Duped the Nazis.

Can You Identify These Hit Songs by Just Their First Second? There are links to each section from all the other sections, so you may as well start with recent music. (via Metafilter)

The GOP’s 20-Year War on Health Care.

Pie Man to the rescue: 13-plus one-off TV superheroes. Any weird superhero can be interesting for a single appearance.

Eight-year-old Noah Aldrich pushed, pulled, and towed his disabled brother through a youth triathlon because they do everything together. They are the living embodiment of a Hollies song.

Rebecca Ehalt returned home after a two-year absence and was greeted by her family’s Schnauzer. The dog was so overcome with joy that he fainted!

10 Poetic Tributes to Cats. They are, after all, the world’s most amusing muse.

A Beautiful Cat Sleeping

The most beautiful cat in the world? I don’t know, but he sure is fetching. And even more interesting when he’s asleep. These pictures were rearranged by redditor shayne9512 from a series posted by BitterRaven, but we don’t know who the original photographer is. This cat introduced me to a subreddit called Animals Being Derps, which I will have to visit again.

Jungle Wakudoki

The group World Order stars in a Toyota ad. I don’t know what wakudoki means, but I’ve been told that “doki” is Japanese for heartbeat. (via Neatorama)

Unobtrusive

(via Mostly Forbidden Zone)

Leaf Pile

(via Mostly Forbidden Zone)

Call Fat Eddy

(via Bad Newspaper)

The Walking dead Season 5 Preview

As happens every year at Comic Con, the first full-length preview of the new season of The Walking Dead was unveiled. Although we still have to wait until October to see Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and the zombies again, we can glean a few plot points to hang onto until then. (via Uproxx)

Use Finger

(via reddit)

Troll vs. Ant

Or maybe it's a chewing gum ad. (via Weird Vintage)

Annual Meeting

(via Daily Picks and Flicks)

Miss Cellania's Links

The Woman at the Wheel. Alice Huyler Ramsey drove across the country in 1909 to prove that a woman could do it.

The Obscure Legacy of Alice Coachman Davis.

If you need playlist for a class reunion or a theme party, or you just want a background playlist for your internet surfing, The Nostalgia Machine is here for you. (via Metafilter)

Naughty Nuns, Flatulent Monks, and Other Surprises of Sacred Medieval Manuscripts.

10 Weird Elevator Etiquette Rules. They wouldn’t be weird at all if everyone followed them correctly.

If all your favorite time travel movies existed in the same universe, where would they overlap? This timeline will make it clear.

The Most Expensive Domain Names Of All Time. I cannot see why a domain that’s just letters or numbers can be worth a million dollars.

The 30 Harshest Philosopher-on-Philosopher Insults in History. These infinitely-quotable minds made throwing shade into an art form.

Take a Look Inside a Baby Sloth Orphanage and Rescue Center. Yiscel Yángüez and Néstor Correa are devoted to saving sloths and returning them to the wild.

The Art of Micronations: Rebellion through Creative Land Conquests. These places you never heard of all wanted to be sovereign states at one time or another.

Toenail Polish

(via Fark)

Fish Fry

The perfect way to make a fish fry a success is to serve something besides fish. (via Bad Newspaper)

Mary Poppins Quits

Mary Poppins Quits with Kristen Bell from Funny Or Die

Mary Poppins sings, dances, performs magical feats, and keeps a smile on her face while raising a banker’s kids -for $7.25 an hour. Minimum wage means he’d mostly likely pay her even less if it weren’t illegal. That can get to you over time, but Mary still keeps a smile on her face as she explains why she is quitting her job. Kristen Bell stars in the video is the latest from Funny or Die. 

The New Faces of Rosie the Riveter

The poster we call Rosie the Riveter was originally an in-house motivational poster for Westinghouse factories in 1943. But since Norman Rockwell’s image of Rosie the Riveter is under copyright, the “We Can Do It!” poster became more famous, and has been used by people for all kinds of reasons since it became famous in association with the women’s movement in the 1980s. See some examples of what I’m talking about in an article I posted at mental_floss.

Go Somewhere Else

(via The Chive)

Supercats!: A Supercut of Cats in Movies

Ariel Belzit put together clips of cats from movies of all kinds: movies about cats and movies not about cats, going back over a century, featuring cats, kittens, animated cats, monster cats, people in cat costumes, and lots of villains stoking cats. All accompanied by “The Lovecats” by The Cure. (via Time)

Greater Enthusiasm

(via Mostly Forbidden Zone)

Dogs Re-enact a Movie

(via Daily of the Day)

27 Unbelievable Local Traditions

To the folks who live there, these rites seem normal. But to the rest of us, but staging a buffet for monkeys is just strange. In this week’s mental_floss video, John Green tells us about the weird local traditions that may even be worth traveling for. Most of these traditions have been on Neatorama at one time or another, but some have been a long time ago. You can use the search function at the top to look them up.

Miss Cellania's Links

John Lennon's Psychedelic Rolls-Royce.

How Turbans Helped Some Blacks Go Incognito In The Jim Crow Era.

America’s Favorite Star Wars Movies (And Least Favorite Characters).

Who Has the Best Facial Hair in Baseball History?

The 22 Most ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Cats Of All Time.

Ten times The Simpsons accurately predicted the future. Or does Matt Groenig actually control what happensin real life?

Here's the Kim Jong-un dance video North Korea is so upset about. He tried to get rid of it, but the genie is already out of the bottle.

Monty Python performed their final live performance together Sunday, and closed it out with a singalong. Followed by bonus footage of fans in costume.

Miss America Hypocrisy: The Vanessa Williams Nude Photo Shaming. We like our beauty queens to be chaste and virtuous and yet sexy at the same time.

Britain has basically decriminalized internet piracy. The U.S. should, too. Policing piracy is about as effective as policing marijuana use.

Refund

I am as confused as you are. (via Bad Newspaper)

Niles

(via reddit)

Representative Babies

Funny, they all look alike to me. (via Weird Vintage)

Naptime

From Married to the Sea.

Miss Cellania's Links

A Plea for Nostril Research.

Runaway Money. The strange story of Albert Clarke, who inherited all the royalties from Goodnight, Moon. (via Metafilter)

Desert Woodrats Use Gut Microbes for Detox. Ed Yong tells of a case in which a species leapfrogs generations of evolution by getting microbes to do it for them. 

The World's Largest Aquatic Insect May Have Been Found, And It Will Haunt Your Dreams. You can’t even hold it in your hand -as if you’d want to.

Make Fun Of The Mistakes Of Geniuses With These Classic Jeopardy! Bloopers. Yes, that one with Ken Jennings is included.

13 Insane Fair Foods You Need To Eat This Summer. Not all in the same day, of course; that could be fatal.

Living With Disability in the Dark Ages. The lack of documentation could mean it wasn’t considered so far out of the ordinary.

Life for Mick Jagger in his 20s must’ve been an amazing ride. Here are 30 photographs that prove it was so.

The 11 worst fast food restaurants in America. A survey of customers shows that bigger is not always better.

Scorpions

(via Fark)

Teddy Gray's Sweet Factory

Enjoy watching confectioners making candy the old-fashioned way at a family business in in Dudley in the West Midlands, England. (via Metafilter)

Bounty

(via The Chive)

Five Hobbies You Never Considered

Everyone has a hobby, whether it’s something traditional, like collecting stamps, or modern, such as playing online games. I grow flowers and vegetables and collect antiques, and when I retire I will return to quilting. But there’s no limit to the different activities that people love and spend their free time doing. Here are a few hobbies that you don’t hear about often -if ever- in an article I posted at mental_floss.

Kitten vs. Windshield Wipers

Man, I gotta get me a dashboard cat! It will make traffic jams so much easier to endure. (via Neatorama)

I Am Death

(via Mostly Forbidden Zone)

Locksmith

(via The Chive)

Visiting the Home of Safety

Chris Grava did a semester abroad at Cape Town University in South Africa. When his term was almost up, his brother Nick went there to spend two weeks. Nick ended up staying permanently to work at Home of Safety in Khayelitsha, a foster home for orphans and vulnerable children, where he is now managing director. Chris and his parents visit when they can, and when Chris recently went for a visit, he was wearing his GoPro camera. The joy on the kids’ faces at seeing their old friend is a treat, and pretty soon the kids had to try out the camera for themselves. Learn more about Nick Grava’s work in South Africa at Intsikelelo. (via reddit)

Miss Cellania's Links

The World’s Weirdest Plants.

The Terminator: An Oral History. (via Digg) 

Who Made That Scotch Tape?

Nathan Yau at Flowing Data takes a turn to the weird side for a list of 19 maps that will blow your mind. (via Metafilter)

Obamacare in Kentucky: The luxury of seeing a doctor. I haven’t seen a doctor yet, but I’ve paid my first premium!

The map project I Know Where Your Cat Lives plots cats’ locations from data their owners did not realize was online. It’s a slightly less creepy way of letting you know how easy people are to track from their online information.

The Scopes Monkey Trial 2.0. The battle between creation and evolution is rising again in Dayton, Tennessee’s Bryan College.

Here’s How Robin Williams Lost Parts In 4 Different Batman Movies (And 6 More Famous Roles He Nearly Had). Someone else was always there to snatch those roles away.

The World Science Festival has posted part two of their article on the atomic age. This one addresses the thorny ethics of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

Senior Living Communities came together to produce an 18-month calendar featuring residents illustrating their favorite movies, TV shows, and album covers. Grandpa looks good as a Ghostbuster!

Helidog

(via reddit)

Weird Al’s “Mission Statement”

The final of the eight music videos released in eight days from Weird Al Yankovic’s Mandatory Fun album is here. “Mission Statement” is every business meeting you’ve ever attended, full of gobbledygook that means nothing you can’t say in less than a minute. It’s all set to music reminiscent of Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s “Carry On” and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” Yes, yesterday was the eighth day for the eighth video, but the Wall Street Journal had an exclusive and embargoed it for 24 hours. You can read about the making of the video there. Oh, while, we’re at it, let’s go back and see the one that Pop Crush debuted and embargoed for a couple of days. Here’s “First World Problems.”



You can now see all eight videos anytime you like, and buy the album, at Weird Al Yankovic’s website.

Global Warming?

(via Criggo)

Long Way To The Top

Sebastian Simich leads a band that all look like they’re about sixteen years old. They’re pretty good, though …and then, here comes Cam McAzie, the Badpiper! This performance was in 2010 as a part of a charity event in Fremantle, West Australia.

Sadistic Street Name

(via NeatoPicto)

Dog Steals Baby’s Toy, Tries to Make Up For It

Charlie could not resist that dangling toy they were using to occupy the baby, so he took it. The baby cried, and Charlie felt bad. Charlie spent the rest of the day bringing toys for the baby to play with. That’s a good dog. Yeah, sure, it’s a produced story instead of a spontaneous act, but it’s cute anyway. See more of Charlie at Facebook. (via reddit)

John Oliver Tells It Like It Is

John Oliver addressed the U.S. prison system in his latest show. Yeah, he’s got some good jokes, but his total point is harrowing. Prisons should not be profit-making enterprises any more than education or healthcare should be. Do not miss the Muppet singalong. Contains HBO language and adult topics. (via Uproxx)

Punishment

From Married to the Sea.

Game of Thrones Theme at Buckingham Palace

YouTube member Omer Barnea caught the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace last week and was surprised to hear the Queen’s Guards playing the theme from Game of Thrones. They did a good job, although it would have probably been easier on the audience if the musicians had all been facing the same direction. (via Viral Viral Videos)

Miss Cellania's Links

Dodging the Avalanche. The story of Arlene Blum and the 1978 American Women's Himalayan Expedition.

A New Supply of Oddly Specific Niche Blogs.

Testing the Limits of TGI Friday’s Endless Appetizers. (via Neetzan Zimmerman)


We Took a Competitive Eater to TGI Fridays for Endless Appetizers—and They Ran Out. With a video to show how Eric “Badlands” Booker can eat.

Income Inequality Is Not Rising Globally. It's Falling.

Caftan Liberation: How an Ancient Fashion Set Modern Women Free.

The Japanese fart cannon is every bit as crazy as you’d expect. All it needs is a lighter to total destruction.

29 Incredibly Brave And Important First World Rebels. At least they are good for a laugh.

My Friend Thinks I Don't Work Because I'm a Writer. They’ve obviously read my work and cannot believe anyone would pay me for it.

By whom the bells toll. Eighty-three-year-old Dionisio Lind plays the magnificent carillon at the The Riverside Church in New York City.

Reading

(via Fark)

Don’t Talk in a Movie Theater

Filmmaker Richard Linklater appeared in a promotional video for Alamo Drafthouse, where they take disruptive behavior seriously. If you think he’s being hard on people who talk or text during a movie, put yourself in the shoes of the people around you who are trying to enjoy a movie. They paid just as much as you did to be there, and there’s a lot more of them. It would be to your great advantage to turn off the phone and put it away. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Slow News Day

(via Bad Newspaper)

“Lame Claim to Fame “ by Weird Al Yankovic

The seventh of eight new Weird Al Yankovic videos is here, from his new album Mandatory Fun. “Lame Claim to Fame” examines the everyday person’s brushes with celebrities, however tangental they are, that highlight the way we worship celebrity and the people we call celebrities. Everyone’s got at least one of those stories. But all that aside, the video itself is a work of art. Directed by Tim Thompson, it consists of a dizzying sequence of moving collages.

What's your lame claim to fame? My great-great-grandfather was married to Pocahonta's granddaughter. If that's not lame, I don't know what is. Can you top that story?

Flavoured Biscuits

(via The Chive)

Cat Drinks from Bottle

From my long experience with cats, I can assure you they will detect milk at a distance of about a half-mile. This young cat wants her share, and she doesn’t want to wait for it! Watch her drink like a human baby, and when it’s gone, she has a hard time believing there is no more. The commentary is in Portuguese, I think, so I don’t know if there is any NSFW language. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)

Territorial Cyclist

(via Bits and Pieces)

The Power of Love

You know how they make video ads in Thailand, so go ahead and get your hankies out. This one won’t tear your heart out over someone’s horrible plight, though -it’s a simple vignette featuring an adorable baby and his/her parents. And even though it’s from a mobile phone company, the tag line is killer. (via Boing Boing)

Cat Dance

(via reddit)

Schoolgirl Parkour

What at first appears to be a couple of Japanese schoolgirls horsing around quickly becomes something much more. A lot of this video of a free runner’s POV, so it may cause dizziness. The “punch line” reveals that it is an ad for soda pop. (via Viral Viral Videos)

Mr. Fish

A perfect name for this cat. (via Bad Newspaper)