(via Bad Newspaper)
Friday, September 30, 2016
Monsters of Rock Moscow '91
Hard to believe now that the fall of the Soviet Union was 25 years ago. During that tumultuous process, on September 28, 1991, the Monsters of Rock show was staged in Moscow. A crowd of 1,600,000 people showed up to celebrate the freedom to enjoy Western rock music. Watch the full concert.
Salsa Tequila
Americans may get the impression that Europeans speak all European languages, mainly because they often learn several languages. That’s not the case, as demonstrated by Norwegian comedian Anders Nilsen. A couple of years ago, he produced a song in Spanish. Nilsen doesn’t speak Spanish, as is made clear in the song, which consists of random Spanish words, names, and phrases, relying heavily on menu items. Nilsen wanted to make the point that a song could become a hit even if the lyrics make no sense.
"Salsa Tequila" indeed became a hit in several northern European countries: Norway, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, and Sweden. The tune is certainly catchy, but was the song a hit because people got the joke, or in spite of it? In Spain, southern Europe, and the Americas, it’s obviously a nonsense song, but it still could have been popular.
Other versions of the song were produced by various folks in German, Dutch, Finnish, and a mishmash of Scandinavian languages. (via reddit)
13 More Punny Halloween Costumes
It's that time of year again. Prepare yourself for another round
of people dressed as visual gags among the vampires and witches. The
best pun costumes make people look at you, think for a moment, and then
laugh. Here are some that might make you laugh right now, in a list I compiled for mental_floss.
Miss Cellania's Links
Donald Trump Wants You To Believe He’s Smart, When It’s Really More Important That He’s Good.
Target Cashier Gets A Big Reward For His Viral Act Of Kindness.
The Man Who Almost Missed Puberty. He should have seen a doctor years earlier.
A Canadian Bride’s Broken Zipper Was Fixed By A Syrian Refugee Staying Next Door. The master tailor didn’t speak any English, but saved the wedding with his skills.
Horses Can Be Taught to Communicate With Us Using Symbols. Particularly if it gets them a nice warm blanket.
The Mystical Early Pennsylvania Settler Who Lived in a Cave. Johannes Kelpius was a devout Protestant who also practiced astrology, numerology, and alchemy.
How an L.A. Printer Kept the Art of the Album Cover Alive. Read about the history and the art of record jacket printing.
How the 'war on drugs' actually encourages drug addiction. And fills all our prisons.
The Doonesbury Trump retrospective proves that Garry Trudeau had Drumpf's number all along.
Which Restroom?
The international symbols for restrooms in the UK can be confusing. Should he use the restroom for people wearing pants, or the one for people with one leg? Maybe he should get a kilt to be sure! This Vine is from Josh Sundquist, who is a master of amputee humor, as well as soccer and Halloween costumes. (via reddit)
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Animated Indiana Jones Fan Film
Animator and lifelong Indiana Jones fan Patrick Schoenmaker produced an opening sequence for an Indiana Jones TV series. The only problem is that there is no animated Indiana Jones TV series. At least not yet.
Schoenmaker did some artwork for Lucasfilm to promote Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. This animated sequence has been a side project of his ever since, and it’s finally been unveiled. He talked to Inverse about it.
My main idea was not to make a trailer that would have just been an excuse to take some random scenes and edit them together to look cool. I wanted a story, but I didn’t have the time to make it a full short, so instead, I came up with something like the intro to the Batman animated series.Well, there he’s nailed the biggest flaw in the video: it’s too short. If Lucasfilm would just hire him, he could work on Indiana Jones full-time. (via Den of Geek)
It boiled down the feel and essence of any Batman story into a one-minute intro. It’s a great short film by itself because it makes you hungry for the episode, so I took that approach.
Miss Cellania's Links
These eye-tracking heat maps show what people really care about. In ads, it’s often not the product for sale.
How George Washington Used Vaccines to Help Win the Revolutionary War. He was fighting both the British and smallpox.
Identical twins share their most embarrassing mix-up stories. If you have a twin, you’re always hoping he or she behaves.
Here's All The Vines Worth Six Seconds Of Your Time This Week. Especially the French bulldog and the guy with the tree.
Here’s Your List Of The Last Day To Register To Vote In Every State. But don’t put it off until the last minute.
Chuck Tingle live-Tweeted the presidential debate and made it sound way more interesting. (via Metafilter)
Colma, The Town Of The Dead.
Do Women Have to Talk Like Men to Be Taken Seriously? And Should They?
Meet the Man Who Made Up the Klingon Language.
The Hillary Shimmy Song
Jonathan Mann enjoyed the presidential debate Monday night and was inspired to write a song about it. It’s pretty catchy! Well, if your opponent was hanging himself with his own rope, you’d feel like a little shimmy, too. (via Uproxx)
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
CCTV is Watching You
CCTV cameras are watching you. If you do something wrong, they will catch you, and it’s too late to hide your identity once the deed is done. This pickpocket realized he was on camera, pondered his options, and had to quickly change his plans. Sweet!
Rasheed Parakkal produced and starred in this short film called New God that was used for a TV ad promoting security cameras in Kerala, India. People shared an edit of the video with no indication that it was intentionally-produced, and Parakkal received plenty of grief when people assumed he was a real thief caught on camera.
“By using a CCTV angle to shoot the movie, we were trying to make it in all truthfulness and as close to reality. Little did I know that it will get picked up in this way,” he said. And Parakkal doesn’t know whether to be happy or sad about it. On one hand, he’s happy people thought it was an actual CCTV grab, because that would mean his acting and the whole set-up seemed original. “But I am obviously disappointed because it was my original work that someone tampered with for his short-term amusement,” he said over the phone from Wadakanchery.(via reddit)
Miss Cellania's Links
The Funniest Tweets About Monday Night’s Presidential Debate.
Why No One Calls Me Fat Anymore. Spoiler: because he’s a transman, and men don’t get fat-shamed like women do.
What Is Shakespeare’s Most Popular Play? You might be surprised.
President Obama Met Leonardo DiCaprio And It Turned Into A Meme.
A Health Benefit of Riding Roller Coasters. (Thanks, John Farrier!)
The 15 Worst Episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. Even when they were train wrecks, we couldn’t stop watching.
This is Banned Books Week. This year, LGBTQ and Other “Diverse” Books Lead the Banned Books List.
18 Tweets about physics that will make you laugh. There’s a little astronomy and chemistry in there, too.
The average American woman is now a size 16. Here’s what that really means. It’s just a number.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Backwards Thru Time with Sam Klemke
Sam Klemke recorded some footage of himself every year from 1977 through at least 2011 (and probably more since then). In this video, small clips are shown in reverse order. This project was made into a documentary. While we see him getting younger, he constantly talks about how old he is getting. I suppose that’s normal. Today is my birthday, and I can’t help but think about how I’ve never been this old. Yet I think the same thought every year. (via reddit)
Tweet of the Day
Let me summarize this night for you so far. #debates pic.twitter.com/Clti75SwsD— Justin (@JustinCentric) September 27, 2016
You can read more Tweets about last night's debate at Uproxx.
15 Amazing Animal Reunions
If these long-lost animals could talk, they’d have quite a story to tell. As it is, their adventures remain a mystery. Their missing years and glorious reunions highlight the importance of microchipping your pets, so they can be accurately identified in case something goes wrong. Read the stories of 15 lovely reunions in a list I posted at mental_floss.
Miss Cellania's Links
What Really Happened to the Grand Duchess Anastasia? Her fate was not fully revealed until 2007.
How Beige Took Over American Homes. It wasn’t for our pleasure; it was for the resale value.
What we know as “curry” has a long and curious history. The only place that doesn’t have a curry tradition is India.
What It Feels Like to Be the "Fat Person" Nobody Wants to Sit Next To. It’s particularly bad on airplanes.
An Oral History of ALF.
A rundown of historical New York City bombings.
Australia sits on the world’s fastest-moving tectonic plate, and manages to constantly drift relative to the world’s other land masses, about 2.7 inches a year. That doesn’t seem like much, but for GPS coordinates, it soon become a lot. (via Digg)
Barack Obama and Doris Kearns Goodwin: The Ultimate Exit Interview. (via Metafilter)
The Death-Defying Sport Known as Auto Polo. It was a 20th-century Thunderdome.
Horses Find This Funny
A man tries to back a horse trailer into a spot at the stable. He’s not very good at it. The horses find this hilarious. Their laughter is infectious! This ad is trying to sell us something hi-tech, but all I heard was laughing horses. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Monday, September 26, 2016
Pen Pineapple Apple Pen
Japanese comedian Kosaka Daimaou, whose real name is Kazuhiko Kosaka, has a character he does named Piko-Taro. Here, Piko-Taro sings a little ditty about pens and pineapples. It doesn’t make a bit of sense, but since he posted it one month ago, it’s been covered and remixed by dozens of YouTubers. Now if you see the abbreviation PPAP or see ✒️🍍 🍎 ✒️, you’ll known what it means. Well, good luck getting that tune out of your head the rest of the day. (via Metafilter)
Scandals
John Oliver is back, in fine form. On Last Week Tonight last night, he talked about the scandals that are attached to both presidential candidates. Only the latest are examined, thank goodness, or the video would be years long. Yeah, Trump is ethically compromised to a massive degree, but what worries me is how so many voters admire him for exactly that.
Miss Cellania's Links
You Have Less Than Two Weeks To Register To Vote In Some States. Get It Out Of The Way Now.
Roadside Curiosities: Things That Make You Go "What the Heck?"
The police blotter at The Flathead Beacon is always entertaining. Thursday’s was a real hoot. (via Dave Barry)
This is why Trump will win the election. more people see Tomi Lahren on Facebook than watch network news.
Why The Princess Bride is a Perfect Fantasy Movie. Because it’s got something for everyone.
Magical Life Advice from Muppets Creator Jim Henson. He was always looking at the bright side.
10 Secrets of Filming Reality TV Shows. Starring in one ca’t be worth the headaches and humiliation.
The Absurdist Theme Park Where Confederates Win and Dinosaurs Roam. Dinosaur Kingdom II is Mark Cline’s bizarre collection of attractions you can visit.
The rise of the 'bedless hospital.’ It’s cheaper, and probably safer, to recuperate at home.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Paralyzed Bulldog Gets Prosthetic Legs
This story is a couple of years old, but it’s so cute it’s worth sharing. Spencer’s back legs are paralyzed. You may wonder how prosthetic legs help a paralyzed dog, and it doesn’t appear that they amputated his legs. I believe (and I may be wrong) that the new legs are fitted over his existing legs, and act as a brace so that he can use his upper thigh muscles to control his lower leg movement. And the shoes she gave him are fabulous! (via Metafilter)
The Rifleman
However, looking from the vantage point of 2016, it strikes me how normal it was that being called girlish or anything to do with girls was a genuine insult and worth fighting over. No one in the 1950s and ‘60s questioned that. While delivering a morality tale on discrimination, the show blithely perpetuated another form of it with no thought at all. I well recall those days, and that’s the way things were. No wonder I spent a big part of my childhood wanting to be a boy -not necessarily because I felt like I should have been a boy, or because boys were inherently better, but because boys were held in higher esteem and regarded as normal humans, while girls were some other kind of thing. And that was rarely even questioned.
LA Gifathon
Last spring, animator James Curran gave us a month of gifs illustrating life in New York City. In July, he spent a month in Los Angeles and created a new gif every day for 30 days based on his activities. This video shows all of them strung together with music.
You can see each individual gif at his website. (via Viral Viral Videos)
Friday, September 23, 2016
Breaking Bad: An Episode Of Reactions
Three years later, and we are still talking about Breaking Bad. Maybe it’s because it’s been long enough that fans are going back to binge-watch the whole thing. Evan “The Nerdwriter” Puschak put together a closer look at the most memorable episode of the series, “Ozymandias.” While we are getting a discussion from a filmmaker’s point of view, remember that it was an emotionally draining episode. If you haven’t seen it, this contains spoilers, of course. (via Laughing Squid)
The End of the Open Door Policy
The cats made friends with a new Siamese cat in the neighborhood. Occasionally I would find the cat in the kitchen, eating cat food. I would chase it out, proclaiming “You don’t live here!” The cat got bolder. My daughter called me upstairs to help her with a “critter.” I’ve helped her chase birds and bats out, but she thought there was a possum under her bed. No, it was the Siamese cat. How did a cat who is afraid of us make it upstairs?
My daughter then left for college. I took a bag of garbage out one day and spotted a small possum in the garbage can. He did not want to come out. I had to dump the entire can on its head to get him out, while my cats gathered around to watch. Did they chase the possum off? No, they followed him under a vehicle to watch. Apparently, they made friends.
Not long afterward, I walked in the kitchen at night to find the possum eating cat food! I chased it out, and scolded the cats. I didn’t want four cats in the first place, so you’d think that at least one of them would try to make sure the house was vermin-free. That’s when we discontinued the open door policy. I started shutting the back door at night as well as the afternoon. I still left it open for a couple of hours during morning and evening.
However, there were two mornings when I discovered that the possum had sneaked in before dark and stayed in all night. “You don’t live here!” If you’ve ever dealt with a possum, you know that it would rather hide than run, so it was not easy to get him to go outside, even after being shut in overnight. From then on, the door was only opened when one of us humans was standing there. That was about a week ago. No one entered or left without us seeing.
The cats have always come and gone through the back door, because it’s glass and we can see them asking to come in. Twice during the past week, I saw the possum looking through the back door, as if I was going to let it in to eat, like the cats.
I got my husband to hold the back door open (lest a possum come in), and I chased the cat out from under a bed upstairs. The cat ran downstairs, into the living room. When I flushed it out, it ran back upstairs. I chased the cat down a second time, and then blocked off the stairwell with a piece of paneling. I yelled “You don’t live here!” I swear the cat meowed, “But I do!” The cat ran to the kitchen, but took a right turn into the pantry and hid behind a Dutch oven. There’s barely room to stand in there, much less chase something. I ended up throwing a towel over the cat and pulling her out, while she desperately clung to the shelf.
We managed to get the cat outside, so now we are down to four cats again. And no possum for the moment. But the laundry room smells like terrified cat pee.
I don’t think we are going to install a cat flap.
Hillbilly Recycling
Continuing the series of old mental_floss articles that I don't have in my archives, here's one I wrote back in the spring of 2008 about some of my personal home projects, meant to save money by reusing what I've got. I've since learned the difference between the terms "recycling" and "reusing." Enjoy Hillbilly Recycling.
Running the Seasons
FomBBK wore a GoPro camera for an entire year while he did his daily run around Bozeman, Montana. Then he strung together the best footage so you can see his entire run in different seasons and weather. Eventually he is joined by other runners. The finished product is hypnotic, and when it was done, I felt like I’d jogged several miles. Ha! How would I know what that feels like? (via reddit)
Miss Cellania's Links
How Cats Conquered the World (and a Few Viking Ships).
25 Facts About Lethal Weapon.
375 Top Scientists Warn Us Not To Vote For Trump.
The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. As compiled from the opinions of those who were there.
15 Delicious Ways To Take Your Apple Cider Obsession To The Next Level. Use cider to make your other treats more delicious.
A Photographer Captured The Multi-Colored Magic Of Hummingbirds. You rarely see them stand still long enough to admire the plumage.
Trevor Noah on the Terence Crutcher Shooting and America’s Scary Normalizing of Racial Division. It’s not comedy, but it hits the nail right on the head.
11 Web Toys and Generators to Waste Your Time. There’s always time for a little fun!
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Lawnmower vs. Apple-Thieving Moose
Somewhere in Norway, a møøse is helping himself to the apples on a backyard tree. The suburban homeowner, knowing that møøse can be dangerous, does not approach the møøse. Instead, he sends in his robotic lawnmower! Who will win in this epic standoff? The answer is a lesson in why you don’t chase a møøse out of the backyard yourself. Bonus: Oddly inappropriate music. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Miss Cellania's Links
After the Vietnam War, America Flew Planes Full of Babies to the U.S. Operation Babylift was dangerous, chaotic, and possibly unethical.
The best YouTube videos are 30 seconds or shorter—and here's the proof. And they rarely come with unstoppable pre-roll ads.
What I Pledge Allegiance To. (via Metafilter)
How 17 famous companies got their quirky names. We’re do used to them we forget how weird they once sounded.
Meet Kenya’s Only Ice Hockey Team. The don’t have a name, or the funds to attend competitions, but they have the only ice rink in the country.
Adapting Forrest Gump turned a caustic satire into a sentimental romance. And of the two, the movie made more sense.
Stop hiding things in your sock drawer! A less cliché spot would be better for your valuables.
Inside The “Alt-Right’s” White Nationalist, Pro-Trump Press Conference.
How To Keep Your Cat Happy
Chris Poole has a tutorial on keeping your cats happy, with the help of the world’s luckiest cats, Cole and Marmalade. Cats can’t help but be happy when they’ve got an outdoor enclosure, rooms full of toys, good food, fresh catnip, each other to play with, and loving owners to snuggle with. I’ll never have that much infrastructure, but I will think about planting some catnip next year. (via Tastefully Offensive)
That’s One Way to Play a Tune
Vitaly Kryuchin is the head of the Russian Federation of Practical Shooting. He also developed a musical instrument he calls the Metallophon. It consists of different-sized sheets of metal, which each deliver a different tone when you strike them. How does he strike them? By shooting at them, of course! Here Kryuchin plays three songs with the band Shooting Star. I would like to hear the Metallophon by itself, to see if his ear is as good as his aim. (via Digg)
Miss Cellania's Links
President Trump’s First Term.
Uncovering Thieves’ Cant, the Elizabethan Slang of the Underworld.
Roanoke: The Real History of the Lost Colony and How Its Legend Haunts Pop Culture. Read up on the real story before you see the American Horror Story version.
24 Delightful Beauty And The Beast Secrets. It’s hard to believe the film is already 25 years old.
This Bride’s 15-Year-Old Dog Made It To Her Wedding Just Before He Died. His was a life well-lived.
Who would you cast to play Andy Warhol in a movie about his life? And then see who got the role.
10 Bizarre Moments in Presidential Elections. None of them are as bizarre as the 2016 race.
How much does your vote count? While swing state votes count more than others, we’ll never know for sure until it’s all over.
Why are creepy clowns terrorizing America? Because there’s nothing more terrifying than clowns.
5 Delightful Science Experiments From 100 Years Ago. You could do these today, if you can find the materials.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
An Explainer on Birtherism
Seth Myers, of the TV show Late Night with Seth Meyers, displays the fortitude that most real TV journalists don’t. There comes a time when you have to admit that some things must be spelled out to voters in full, because hints and assumptions aren’t enough. Last night he explained “birtherism” concisely. (via Uproxx)
Miss Cellania's Links
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. There are five, which you may have already discovered on your own.
My Mom Grew Up in a Utopian Colony in Iowa. The Amana were a strict religious sect that gave us freezers and microwaves.
Watch Alistair Brownlee help his brother Jonny cross the finish line at the World Triathlon Series. He actually pushed his brother over the line to win second place.
How The Blair Witch Project Terrorized a Town. Burkittsville, Maryland, will never be the same.
As German Bombs Fell on Paris, Marie Curie Decided to Go to War. She brought x-ray machines to battlefield hospitals for the first time.
Mefite scaryblackdeath explains why the presidential race got closer last week. Then mmoncur explains how the media is feeding it.
10 Bars at the End of the World.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Tweet of the Day
I lived through all of this, only to see it rise again. When will we ever learn? pic.twitter.com/nGWNgpBNqi— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) September 18, 2016
Sad.
Negan’s Big Scene
Walking Dead fans have been waiting about half a year to see who the new villain Negan is going to kill. We’ve still got a month to go. I’ve pretty much just put it out of my mind instead of trying to guess, but think of the poor characters. They’ve had to sit and listen to Negan farting around for all that time! (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Miss Cellania's Links
To find Hillary Clinton likable, we must learn to view women as complex beings.
15 Curious Quack Remedies From the Age of Patent Medicine.
Clark admits his feelings to Lois. That could easily be followed by this possibly NSFW sequence. (via Metafilter)
Babies For Sale: The Secret Adoptions That Haunt One Georgia Town.
Unusual Suspects: Finding the Humanity in Vintage Mugshots. Vintage mugshot collector Mark Michaelson tells how mugshots came about and what those small images tell us about the people and the times they endured.
Here Are The Winners At The 2016 Emmys. The variety of winners will make you want to try some shows you’ve never seen.
Extremely Convincing Horror Movies People Thought Were Real. Relax, it’s just special effects …and often, marketing.
10 Obscure Supreme Court Rulings That Changed Your Life. They’ll make you think about what your rights would have been before them.
The 10 Best Resignations of All Time. Not that we would recommend that you use any of them.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Kitten Saved from Russian Highway
Warning: this footage is disturbing, on its way to a happy ending. It’s pretty nerve-wracking to see how many vehicles passed so close to a kitten that had fallen out of a vehicle, or even drove over it. Luckily none of them actually squashed the poor thing before a good Samaritan stopped to save it. Even he’s not sure at first whether the kitten is alive. It was obviously terrified stiff. This sequence of CCTV footage is from the town of Kaliningrad, Russia. The guy is our hero, even though he might not even know about the video. (via Uproxx)
Tweet of the Day
My therapist says I have a preoccupation with vengeance. We'll see about that.— Marti Lawrence (@Marti_L) September 16, 2016
:-)
If you see a great Tweet that should be shared outside of Twitter, send me an email!
Friday, September 16, 2016
Apple’s New AirPods
So Apple took the headphone jacks out of the their new iPhone 7 and instead are offering wireless earbuds. What could possibly go wrong? Team Coco shows us. This parody of the old iPod ads from about ten years ago shows us what Apple really has in mind. Now the iPhone generation is finding out why older folks want to Velcro the remote to the end table and keep their wireless landline phones on the charger all the time. (via Viral Viral Videos)
Working From Home
I can attest that working from home makes sticking to a schedule extremely difficult. Temptations are everywhere, especially right there on your computer. My job doesn’t involve office hours or checking in with the rest of the staff, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. I wish I had Jeff’s persistence, even though he’s working under a delusion. This comic is from Jeff Lofvers at Don’t Hit Save.