(via Bad Newspaper)
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Dress-Wearing Bunny Drinks Milk
What you will see is an adorable little bunny who hops around in her little pink dress and then gets a drink from a syringe. Squee! The really weird part is the title of the video at YouTube: “Rabbit Female Wearing Ladies Dress Walking And Jumping , Drinking Milk From Injection Nipple.” Those are obviously words strung together for search engine optimization, and the overall effect is downright industrial. (via Metafilter)
Flying Home via Germany
Jordon Cox considered taking a train from Sheffield to his home Essex, but then found out that he could fly home cheaper -although that cheap route went through Berlin! So you better believe he took the flight to germany. His layover in Berlin was long enough for him to see the downtown sights, and he still saved money over a train ticket. This is explained by the fact that he fly RyanAir, which is notoriously cheap. At one time, they were considering charging extra for use of the bathroom on the planes, but I don’t know if they ever instituted that. Still, it pays to check around for travel prices. (via Viral Viral Videos)
Saturday, January 30, 2016
What If You Only Drank Soda?
What if you drank soda every time you took a drink? This seems like a strange question, as I know quite a few people who drink nothing but soda pop. We know it’s not good, but how downright bad a lot of carbonated soft drinks are for you is scary.
AsapSCIENCE gives us the rundown of the bad things too much soda can do to you. Whether this kind of information will do any good is unclear, as people who drink too much soda have been told that it’s bad for them all their lives. What do you drink all day? (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Cat is Obsessed with Balloon
Evie has a balloon,and it’s her favorite thing ever! She carries it around with her all the time. Maybe it’s her security balloon! And like any small child with a balloon, she goes into a panic when it gets away from her. There’s a bit of tension in this story, but things work out in the end, and Evie gets her balloon back. (via Tastefully Offensive)
What is the Best Country in the World?
The staff of Jimmy Kimmel Live! went out on the streets to ask children which country is the best country in the world. Their answers show that U.S. schools have dropped patriotic indoctrination lessons, and they’ve apparently also dropped basic geography. Considering what they had to work with, the kids came up with some imaginative and amusing responses. What kid wouldn’t want to move someplace where they could have their own koala? (via Uproxx)
Friday, January 29, 2016
6 Star Wars Characters Meet Their New Equivalents
If you found The Force Awakens to be a bit familiar, you’re not the only one. There are a lot of elements that harken back to the original trilogy, and the various character types have many things in common with all adventure movies. Here they are, meeting each other, in this video that may contain spoilers for those who haven’t seen The Force Awakens. If you haven’t seen the original trilogy, this will spoil nothing. Although the “equivalent” characters are superficially similar, they aren’t all that impressed with each other. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Trump Debates Trump
The always-entertaining Donald Trump is doing his best to prove once and for all that there is something terribly wrong with the way we select our leaders. He skipped last night’s GOP debate, so Stephen Colbert staged a Trump only debate, with the Donald going up against his own worst enemy: himself. (via Uproxx)
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I Don’t Owe Anyone My Body. What happened when a date doesn’t understand “no.”
Ten of the Baddest Fictional Movie Weapons. There’s even an hour-long video of lightsaber battles for your enjoyment.
What do GOP voters want? “Testicular fortitude,” among other things.
Barbie’s Got A Brand New Bod. Shoppers will be able to select from Barbie dolls with four different body types: original, curvy, tall, and petite.
Whatever Happened to John Carpenter's Creature From The Black Lagoon? The story of the remake that was never remade.
Barnes & Noble challenged Twitter users to come up with the best literary food puns. See a collection of the best titles, some with illustrated covers.
Kitten Born With Worried Eyes Is On Instagram For The Best Reason Ever. He’s not really frightened; that’s just his distinctive look.
10 Ways to Survive a Snowstorm. Make your preparations before the weather turns bad.
How reality silenced the climate change deniers. Meanwhile, polar bears still have no place to go.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Slams Flat-Earth Theorist B.o.B
Flat-earth rapper B.o.B. insists the earth is flat. Larry Wilmore declared it a science emergency, and Neil deGrasse Tyson had to preach a little on The Nightly Show. It was awesome. (via Flavorwire)
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Simon's Cat Logic: Crazy Time
Simon Tofield, the animator behind Simon’s Cat, talks with Nicky Trevorrow, a cat behavior expert at Cats Protection about why our furballs do the odd things they do, specifically the sudden craziness. You’ve seen your cat switch off his senses and explode in a flurry of activity like a scalded haint. That’s crazy time.
Better yet, Trevorrow gives us tips on how to help cats release that energy in a more productive way. Tofield is beginning a new series of videos called Cat Logic. Future episodes will explore other cat behaviors that seem incomprehensible to we mere humans. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Taking a Phone Poll in Iowa
Because so many candidates announced their intentions very early for the 2016 presidential election, the run-up to the Iowa caucuses has taken a particularly long time. It’s got to be a hard, thankless job to call voters in Iowa to ask about their political opinions. Those folks have been bothered for months already. Seth Myers tried calling a few folks -probably a lot more than made it into the final mix- to see how they’re holding up under the onslaught.
He did find a few who were not only willing to talk, but were pretty funny. The funniest of all was his own mother. The Iowa caucus will be held on Monday, February first. Once that’s done, the time between other states’ primaries will be shorter and less scrutinized. (via Uproxx)
The Answers
The other day I posted The White Room, in which a guy died and immediately got the opportunity to ask questions about the unknowns in his life. That was a comedy, while this is anything but. The protagonist here was the victim of a traffic accident. Contains NSFW language.
The lesson here is somewhat ambiguous. Yeah, he knows now what he should have done differently, but he didn’t have the answers until it was too late to change anything. And would he have listened if he did? Or maybe it all comes back to the old adage, “Live each day as if it’s your last.” The Answers is an award-winning short film by Michael Goode and Daniel Lissing. (via Digg)
The 7 Challenger Astronauts
When the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986, there were seven astronauts on board whose lives were tragically cut short. On the 30th anniversary of that tragedy, get to know each of them in an article I wrote for mental_floss.
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How to Win at Monopoly and Lose All Your Friends. A ruthless strategy that resembles real life.
Ignored by the wedding industry, plus-size brides inspire each other online. A Scottish blogger bride is bringing their stories together in one place.
Marilyn Monroe and Her Pets. Eddie Deezen gives us the rundown.
The world’s richest people are moving their cash to the U.S. because it’s now a tax haven. America truly supports the .01%.
Venus flytraps count to avoid being tricked. There’s no use in snapping up and digesting a raindrop.
The Teen Who Trekked 1,800 Miles Through Canadian Wilderness Disguised as a Man. Because no matter how hard life was for a man, it was worse for a woman.
A penthouse in Chicago was built in 1972. The original owners lovingly decorated it in the style of the time, and never used it. What is left is a time capsule of the hippest 1972 decor. (via Metafilter)
The Present
Animation student Jacob Frey presents his thesis work from the Institute of Animation in Ludwigsburg, Germany. It's a tale of a video game-obsessed boy and the present his mother gives him, hoping to get him off the couch and maybe even outside for a change. You might recognize the story right off. Don’t look if you want to see the video first, but the animation is based on this 2012 comic by Fabio Coala at Mentirinhas. Read it in English here. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
100 More Amazing Bass Lines
Davie504 recorded 100 great bass lines a couple of years ago, and now he's got 100 more songs for us- all in one medley. The songs are all labeled, and cover about 50 years of tunes you know and love. Well, you might not know them all. I grooved along with the constant switch from familiar (over 20 years old) to the not-so-familiar (less than 20 years old). They’re all enjoyable, whether you know them by heart or not. (Thanks, Davide!)
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Who’s Afraid of Gender-Neutral Bathrooms?
There's A Massive, Icy Underworld Hiding INSIDE One Of Hawaii's Volcanoes. It’s not where you’d expect to find an ice cave.
Could We Handle Labyrinth in 2016? Even of there were to be a remake (which there isn’t), the story wouldn’t go over so well in this century.
A Celebration of Comics' 13 Greatest Devils and Demons. They make even the most flawed superheros look better in comparison.
The Wedding During a Blizzard. When you can’t change the date and a disaster strikes, all you can do is roll with it.
10 Horrific Deaths That Happened While Filming a Movie. The glamor of Hollywood comes with a steep price for a few unlucky actors.
51 TV shows to watch in 2016. That may take more than just one long weekend.
Move over, Sasquatch: Meet 8 Mysterious Ape Men from Around the World. And if that’s not enough, here are seven more.
This Looks Riskier Than It Is
Norwegian physicist Andreas Wahl goes way out of his way to demonstrate how physics work. Here he is, experimenting on himself for the TV program Life on the Line. I didn’t quite understand what he was doing when I first watched, and I must admit, it made my stomach drop a little when the stunt became clear. It didn't drop 14 meters, though, like he did! The point of his stunt is that “things rotate faster when they approach a central point.” It’s explained a little more in this article. (via Viral Viral Videos)
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Conan Goes to the Middle East
Conan O’Brien recently got an invitation to travel to Qatar with First Lady Michelle Obama to entertain U.S. troops at Al Udeid Air Base. That’s all well and good, but for security reasons, they wouldn’t let Conan take video of any sort while they were traveling. That had to be difficult for a TV guy. So he had the story of the trip recreated in animation. It was a blessing in disguise. The fact that there’s no actual video of the trip allowed Conan to embellish the tale just a little. As you’ll see, he took advantage of that opportunity, without blowing his budget. (via Tastefully Offensive)
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The Women Who Rose High in the Early Days of Hot Air Ballooning. Sophie Blanchard was only the most famous of several pioneering female aeronauts.
One amateur sleuth’s cross-country quest to prove his Making a Murderer theory. Daniel Luke says he understands those involved because he’s been there.
Out of the Shadow of Aunt Jemima: The Real Black Chefs Who Taught Americans to Cook. Southern cookbooks evolved in two curious parallel lines: separate but not equal.
I thought they smelled bad on the outside: 8 times characters hid inside animals. In this case, I’m pretty sure that eight is enough.
This is what it's like waking up with a new heart in your chest. Teenager Trevor Sullivan was overcome with happiness and relief.
How Intelligent Do You Have To Be To Raise A Child? Is a low IQ enough reason to sever parental rights? (via Digg)
23 Victorian and Edwardian portraits of twins. (via Everlasting Blort)
The Cat with Magic Eyes. And other heterochromic cats. (Thanks, hearsetrax!)
Which Came First: The Product or the Egg? The genius that went into L’eggs. (via Metafilter)
Monday, January 25, 2016
John Oliver’s Lost Graphics Vol. 2
The producers of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver don’t want us to forget them while they are off the air, so here’s a web exclusive video showing us some of the unused graphics they’d made up. Whether they really made them up for previous shows and cut them, or they just made them up for this video, is anyone’s guess.
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Mariya Karimjee writes movingly about her experience with female genital mutilation. Not overly graphic, but still disturbing.
The Illegitimacy of Aragorn’s Claim to the Throne.
He Built a Tree in His Daughter’s Room. (via Metafilter)
RIP Sarah, the World’s Fastest Land Animal. Cathryn Hilker, Sarah’s closest human, wrote a beautiful eulogy for the cheetah.
Your Disaster Movie Snowpocalypse Streaming Guide. If you’re stuck at home, enjoy some even worse situations from fiction.
The show Black Sails welcomes Blackbeard to season three. Let’s see how the historical pirate Blackbeard stacks up against the TV character.
When The Country Your Family Migrated From No Longer Exists. You can’t go back to your roots, so how will you learn about the culture?
This doctor helped the dying end their lives with dignity. Then he was diagnosed with cancer.
8 Stars and Their Surprising Second Careers. Many took a 90-degree turn to do something completely different.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Sarah Palin Endorses Trump (SNL Version)
Tina Fey and Darrell Hammond nailed it on Saturday Night Live last night. It’s almost as funny as the real thing, just not as scary.
The Mistake Waltz
This particular number will drive a perfectionist mad, but it’s all in fun. It’s an excerpt from The Concert (or The Perils of Everybody) by Jerome Robbins, performed by the Opéra national de Paris in 2008. You can see the entire production here. (via reddit)
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Stuck on This Highway With You
A foot of snow stranded hundreds of motorists on the interstate in Kentucky last night. Local churches opened their doors for those who could get off the highway, and state police and the National Guard reached out to travelers who couldn’t.
It was definitely winter for the Endless Summer Band, who are on their way from Indianapolis to Johnson City, Tennessee, but found themselves stuck overnight on I-75 near Mt. Vernon. They were at a standstill for 15 hours. To pass the time, they rewrote the lyrics to the song “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealer’s Wheel to reflect their situation.
You can see a couple other videos they recorded during the jam at Business Insider and follow their progress at Facebook. Oh, they’ve moved a little, but still haven’t made it to Tennessee. The band is on their second traffic jam in southeastern Kentucky. Yes, that’s where I live, but I’m at home. (Thanks, Brother Bill!)
Clear the Snow from Your Car, Please
Jeff Cote was just driving along in Massachusetts Wednesday with his dash cam on when a chunk of frozen snow blew off the vehicle in front of him, and bam! Shattered windshield. That’s frightening. He’s lucky he made it off the road without further carnage. There’s about a foot of snow piled up on all our cars. I don’t look forward to clearing it all off eventually, but we will clear it all off. (via Daily of the Day)
The Seesaw
Over a dozen elderly men are balancing on a log. What do think is going to happen? Yeah, they should have seen this coming, too. You’re going to feel terrible about laughing at this, but you will laugh. The description is in French, but let’s just assume that no one got hurt too badly that day. (via Digg)
11 Unforgettable Snowmen
By now, you’re probably either stuck at home thanks to snow, waiting for the snow to arrive, or wishing that you had snow. If you can’t make it to work or school, you might pass the time by making a snowman. Here’s some inspiration for your creations—or, if you live in a warmer climate, some pictures to cool off with, in a list I posted at mental_floss.
Friday, January 22, 2016
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We Ate KFC’s ‘Nashville Hot Chicken’ And We’ve Never Felt More Betrayed.
18 Rock and Rolling Facts About Led Zeppelin.
Why We Picture Bombs As Round Black Balls with a Burning Wick. You learned it from Looney Tunes, but the idea goes back much further.
2015 Was By Far The Hottest Year In Recorded History. The previous record holder was 2014.
Black Sails is a TV series that mixes fictional pirates with real historical figures. So let’s take A Look at Fictional and Historical Pirates.
10 Misconceptions About U.S. Immigration. Earlier immigrants tend to distrust those who come after.
10 Sundance 2016 Movies We Can’t Wait to See. The Sundance Film festival runs through the end of the month.
This is how the suburbs die. People decided they liked living in big cities, after all.
Our Adorable Relatives: 9 Tiny Primates. No, you can’t have one for a pet.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Jacob Tremblay’s Acceptance Speech
In the midst of awards season, you may have missed the Critics Choice Awards that were bestowed last weekend. No worries, here is the highlight of the evening. Jacob Tremblay was named Best Young Actor for his role in the movie Room. He is nine years old. Tremblay’s acceptance speech is more than adorable. He’s well-spoken, humble, and gracious, and there’s a few points that would only apply to such a young winner, like the microphone being too tall and his plans for the trophy. (via Viral Viral Videos)
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Rickman rescues: 9 movies the actor elevated just by showing up. Many times he ended up being the only great part of a film.
How Wile E. Coyote Explains The World. The legacy of animator Chuck Jones is pretty much the definition of a well-told joke
The Story of a F***-off Fund. Despite the title, it is an important article about how young women should live their lives.
Ordinary Beauty: How 'Folk Art' Challenged the Art World to Get Real.
Looks like winter is coming, after all. After a rather warm December, weather models of all kinds are predicting a massive snowstorm on the US East Coast this Friday.
How Lady Bible Hunters Made the Victorian Era's Most Stunning Scriptural Find.
How America’s Top Colleges Plan To Fix The Admissions Process. The plan is to give more weight to intangibles that can’t be professionally crafted.
This couple's intergalactic photo shoot is just part of living a Star Wars life. The Force is strong with these two self-proclaimed nerds.
Weird Camera Effects. A digital interpretation of the world is often an inaccurate reflection.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
10 Niche Blogs You Might Enjoy
About twice a year, I post a list of new blogs I've found that stand out because they are focused on one very narrow subject. This edition has blogs ranging from costumed cats to sad stories of loss to what embarrasses scientists. Meet them all in a list I posted at mental_floss.
An Honest Trailer for Labyrinth
Screen Junkies makes it clear that they would have never done an Honest Trailer for the 1986 film Labyrinth if it weren’t for their desire to pay tribute to David Bowie. As we shall see, he was the only memorable part of the film. As with many movies and TV shows, your memories are clouded by the fact that you were a child when you saw Labyrinth -if you ever did. I was already too old to be interested in a Muppet film, and we got plenty of Bowie through other channels. This Honest Trailer made it clear that the movie didn’t have much going for it outside of the sexy villain. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Scaling a Rock Face
here’s a picture of me scaling a rock face pic.twitter.com/lxd2LSBGeC
— Bec Shaw (@Brocklesnitch) April 16, 2015
(via Buzzfeed)
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In a thread about the price of healthcare in Mexico, a pharmaceutical manufacturer jumped in to tell us the story of drug prices from his side.
Republicans say Obama has been historically divisive. That's very, very revealing.
The Top 20 Coolest Spaceships in the Star Wars Universe. Some from the expanded universe you might have never seen before.
The midsection of Canada is going through quite a cold snap. How cold is it? So cold that Canadians can’t do anything but make jokes about it.
The 10 Worst Business Decisions Ever Made. Some were dumb; others were just an inability to see into the future accurately.
This Sweet Cat Is So Big, His Owner Earthquake-Proofs The House. Spock weighs 27 pounds, scares the neighbors, and knocks everything over without even trying to.
Brilliant, Under-Appreciated Books Lead This Year’s National Book Critics Circle Shortlist. Maybe now they’ll get some appreciation.
Escalator Etiquette vs. Escalator Efficiency. London commuters were outraged that a new plan goes against what they’ve always done. (via Metafilter)
Morality is a muscle you need to exercise to develop. Virtue ethics is a challenge to always keep working on being a better person.
Irish People Taste Test American Beers
American beer has a reputation in other countries as being subpar compared to the “home team,” so to speak. In America, the Irish have a reputation as serious beer-drinkers, second only to Germany. So what do Irish people think when they try different American beers for the first time?
Okay, everyone has their favorites, and there well may be plenty of brands that are better than what these guys were offered. But they went with the most well-known, or at least the most advertised, beer brands: Budweiser, Miller, Brooklyn, Coors Light, and Samuel Adams. Your mileage may vary. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Masters of the Universe as a Good Film
The art of constructing a movie trailer has come a long way. This example shows how thoughtful editing and great music can make even the lousiest of flicks look like something you’d want to buy a ticket for. I present: the 1987 movie Masters of the Universe, with a trailer in the style of The Force Awakens.
The irony is that we didn’t even need a great trailer to be excited about The Force Awakens, yet its high quality assured us that the movie was in the hands of people who knew what they were doing. You can’t overstate the importance of editing, and moreover, a brilliant score. As a YouTube commenter said, “Wow, John Williams' music can really put lipstick on a pig.” (via Geeks Are Sexy)
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7 Real Products From Dystopian Fiction. When name recognition trumps pleasant connotations.
How Thalidomide Went From Medical Disaster to Miraculous Cancer Treatment. Just don’t get pregnant while you’re taking it.
The 62 richest people have as much wealth as half the world. A new report from Oxfam describes how inequality continues to grow.
15 Gripping Facts About Hill Street Blues.
A message in a bottle finally found its way home.
Unearthing the Sea Witch. How Divine inspired Ursula in The Little Mermaid.
Hercules, George Washington’s Slave Chef.
The Blobfish Isn't as Ugly as You Think. It’s better than we’ll ever be at sustaining life at a depth of 3,000 feet.
10 Gorilla Guys. In the heyday of Hollywood monster movies, all you needed was the suit to get the role.
Monday, January 18, 2016
School Board
Admit it; you've had the desire to kill a school board before, haven't you? (via Bad Newspaper)
The Movies of 2015 in LEGO
Italian animator Antonio Toscano https://twitter.com/iftoscano put together a montage of the biggest movies of 2015 in stop-motion LEGO animation! Are we going to stand around all day, or are we going to fight?
See scenes from Fury Road, The Force Awakens, Age of Ultron, Furious 7, The Martian, Jurassic Park, Mockingjay Part 2, and a bunch of other movies I haven’t seen. Audio clips from the films are used for delivering iconic lines. May contain spoilers; I don’t know. (via Tastefully Offensive)
How Do the Oscars Choose Their Nominees?
A few years ago, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed the way that films were nominated for Oscars, and the way they win. The system they use now is particularly convoluted. This video gives a short overview of how the winner of the Best Picture award is chosen, but the formula for the nominations is explained at Vox. Good luck understanding it. The upshot is that there are fewer and fewer surprises in both the Oscar nominees and the winners.
If you are connected with one of the 305 films that came out in 2015 that were eligible for the process, the precise way that 6,291 Academy members fill out their nominations ballot can spell out how your career in Hollywood progresses. And when you think about exactly how many movies each member actually saw, how likely they are to bother voting, and how much influence their friends in the business have, it all becomes quite a stressful experience. (via Daily of the Day)
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The Most Amazing Lie in History. How a con man became a trusted double agent while BSing his way through World War II.
The story of the real Hugo Glass and how it was changed for The Revenant. But first, let’s look at why they ended the movie the way they did.
Poor James Smithson’s Restless Corpse. Oh, it’s all true. I checked around.
The Most Complex Pop Culture Villains. We may root for the hero, but we can identify with the bad guys when we know where they are coming from.
Why top scientists are so worried about intelligent machines. It takes more than intelligence to maintain a civilization.
Animals Kept In Deep Freeze For 30 Years Brought Back To Life. What’s more, the tough tardigrades were able to reproduce afterward.
The DIY Scientist, the Olympian, and the Mutated Gene. A particularly fascinating story. (via Digg)
10 Real Life MacGyver Moments That Saved Lives. (via the Presurfer)
50 things Donald Trump has said that simply aren't true.
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