(via Bad Newspaper)
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Dogs Protecting Babies
Don't you dare raise a hand to that child! Dogs all over the world will go to bat for their little human friends. None of these children are in real danger. The "threats" are either everyday play or a test of the dogs' responses. That's a bunch of good dogs.
Miss Cellania's Links
9 Fascinating Facts About Nickelodeon's Green Slime. It's been making a mess since 1979.
The Women's Hockey Star Fighting to Grow the Game. Kaliya Johnson went the distance to play the sport she loves.
Here's the Timeline You Need For Assembling Your Kids' Christmas Toys. You don't want to spend Christmas Day figuring out how to do it.
Are Laptops in Class Hindering the Learning Process? Experiments show that taking notes by hand is better.
Build Sand Castles Online With the Web Toy Sandcastles. But hurry, because the ocean waves are coming to get them!
The 19th-Century Swill Milk Scandal that Poisoned Infants with Whiskey Runoff. Because real milk from healthy cows didn't bring in enough profit.
Have you ever seen how a sea cucumber eats? Terrifying, isn't it?
12 Secrets of FedEx Delivery Drivers.
12 Secrets of FedEx Delivery Drivers.
Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader
Adult Swim gave us quite a few hilarious Star Wars sketches using action figures. In this compilation, we get a supercut of the interactions between Luke Skywalker and his infamous father. If you've ever seen Adult Swim, you can figure that there are some strange but funny father-son bonding moments here. And you'd be right. They dance quite well, for action figures. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Making Liquid Out of Sand and Air
Mark Rober builds a contraption in his backyard to play with sand. It's more than a sandbox- it's a hot tub full of sand, which can be made liquid with the injection of air. But you better keep that air flowing, because without it, you're trapped! Watch him try all kinds of weird tricks to show how sand and air acts like water. Oh yeah, if you're going to dive into liquid sand headfirst, you might want to pinch your nose shut. It's still sand. He eventually gets around to explaining the science of how it works, but most of the video is the fun stuff. (via Digg)
Training a Baby Fennec Fox to Sit
I would never recommend keeping a wild animal as a pet, but oh this Fennec fox kit is adorable! Evie is young, but she will always be tiny- Fennec foxes are only two to four pounds full grown. Read more about foxes at Foxes and Friends. (via Neatorama)
Tweet of the Day
If home sales & stock markets are booming and unemployment is down why add $1.5T to the debt for future generations to pay when the main beneficiaries of the tax plan - big corporations & the mega-rich - are already prospering? @realDonaldTrump @GOP @SpeakerRyan @SenateMajLdr pic.twitter.com/KXHtxgpzf3— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) November 28, 2017
The answer is that rich political donors demand it. Meanwhile, the public is against the tax bill. Incumbent republicans believe that voters will forget what they've done to us and listen to expensive campaign advertising instead.
The Last Jedi Trailer Supercut
We don't like to post too many trailers for the same movie, and there have been a boatload of trailers for The Last Jedi, from theatrical previews to 30-second TV ads. Now, with the movie less than three weeks away, Science vs Cinema has compiled the best clips from all the trailers into a somewhat coherent order in this supercut. This is probably the most you're going to see of The Last Jedi before the premiere. My favorite part? Chewbacca knocking a porg out of his way. The Last Jedi opens December 15. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Miss Cellania's Links
10 Things You Didn’t Know about Lois Lane.
The White House's Christmas Decor Looks Straight Out of a Horror Film.
How Apollo 11's Crew Reacted to Lunar Conspiracy Theories. People called the moon landing a hoax as far back as 1969, and there are more skeptics now than ever.
Clearing Up Some Myths About Victorian Post-Mortem Photographs. If they don't look dead, that's because they aren't.
How Charlie Brown Destroyed Aluminum Christmas Trees. The metal trees were all the rage before the Peanuts character bought an ugly pine. (via Digg)
The Martians Claim Canada. Margaret Atwood wrote a short story about a mushroom who explains the concept of "countries" to aliens from outer space. (via Metafilter)
Google Has Figured Out a Way to Detect When Strangers Are Sneaking a Peek at Your Phone. Because privacy threats are not limited to hackers.
This Cat And Dog Love Traveling Together, And Their Pictures Are Absolutely Epic. Henry and Baloo love each other as much as they love the great outdoors.
The Case for Federal Universities. For a tuition-free education, starting a new system would be easier than changing what what we have now.
What Do Cats Want for Christmas?
Cats want ribbon, boxes, shiny toys, crinkly wrapping paper, and turkey for Christmas! But those things aren't always good for them. In this episode of Simon's Cat Logic, Simon Tofield and veterinarian Nicky Treverrow give us a guide to cats and Christmas. The first part is about Christmas hazards to watch out for. Cats can get tangled in lights, swallow ribbons, choke on bones, and eat poisonous greenery. The second part is Tofield explaining the inspiration for his Christmas cartoons. Then there are some classic Simon's Cat videos. So don't let the length of this video deter you from watching- the new content is only five minutes long.
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
An Honest Trailer for The Room
Hey, do you think that Screen Junkies can find anything bad to say about The Room? Tommy Wiseau's 2003 magnus opus has already achieved cult classic status for being thoroughly terrible. But now that we have an Honest Trailer, we can "watch" the movie without watching the movie. Of course, this is designed to get us up to speed for The Disaster Artist, which is about the making of The Room. However, James Franco assures us that it is not necessary to see The Room before we see The Disaster Artist.
Tea Party?
Tea party? No, we have more important things to discuss, like crafting a perfect Nobel acceptance speech. Or a post-election victory speech. Or practicing your college applicant interview. Or re-enacting history with an eye to the future. Heck, if you're going to stage a make-believe party, you may as well make it an Oscar party or a gallery reception. There are so many things you can do with dolls, or even action figures! This is the latest comic from Lunarbaboon.
Miss Cellania's Links
A Woman Tried To Sting The Washington Post With A False Roy Moore Accusation, And The Paper Turned The Tables.
The Little Drummer Boy Challenge is the Ultimate Test of Your Christmas Music Avoidance Skills. The last one left without hearing the song wins.
Who Owns the Fish? Good luck figuring this logic puzzle that has a lot of moving parts. (via Nag on the Lake)
Mikayla Holmgren Just Became the First Person with Down Syndrome to Compete in a Miss USA State Pageant. She won two awards at the Miss Minnesota USA pageant.
13 Questions to Ask Before Getting Married. (via Swiss Miss)
10 Heartwarming Facts About Miracle on 34th Street.
10 Heartwarming Facts About Miracle on 34th Street.
To fight for my son, I have to argue that he should never have been born.
Climbing Cats
This compilation of climbing cats is brought to you by the Pet Collective. That's what they do. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Tweet of the Day
Tell me again how I unloaded the dishwasher too loudly when you were watching golf. Detectives will want to know exactly how this went down.— Annie Hatfield (@HatfieldAnne) June 3, 2015
(via 22 Words)
Monday, November 27, 2017
The Moment of Truth
A survivalist has been getting ready for the end of civilization for a long time. Finally, the sirens start to blare, and he knows what is coming. Time to head for his reinforced and well-stocked bunker for protection to ride out the storm. That's when his true nature emerges. This short film is called simply H.B. That may stand for "Home Bunker," or maybe not, since it is in French. Anyway, Gaspar Palacio made it for the Film Riot and Filmstro One Minute Short Film Challenge. It was shot in just a few hours and edited over two days. (via Digg)
Happiness
A rat caught up in the rat race searches for happiness. But what is happiness? A new TV? A sports car? Cash? Altered states? Advertisers will be glad to tell you where to find happiness- in whatever they are selling. How far would you be willing to go for such happiness? The animated short Happiness by Steve Cutts is beautifully illustrated. Maybe watching it will make you happy, or at least make you think. (via Nag on the Lake)
Elton John Talks About Tiny Dancer
In this clip from 1970, Elton John explains how he composed the tune of "Tiny Dancer" to Bernie Taupin's lyrics. He was only 23 years old at the time. He makes it look easy, but you know that only applies to musical geniuses. (via reddit)
Miss Cellania's Links
Trump is still botching the Puerto Rico crisis. Will a quarter-million refugees be able to swing the Florida vote?
The Full 2017 Schedule of Christmas Movies and TV Specials. It's a long list, and constantly being updated.
What If Consciousness Doesn't Drive the Mind? Our thoughts and feelings might be completely separate from our self-awareness.
A Cake That Demands an Oven of Its Own. The delicious German cake called baumkuchen comes in the shape of a cross-cut slice of a tree trunk. (via Digg)
The Last of the Iron Lungs. Three people who may be the very last to depend on the devices are having trouble getting them serviced. (via TYWKIWDBI)
The 10 Most Expensive Movie Flops of All Time. Financial failures are so big these days that neither Ishtar nor Heaven's Gate made the list.
Dog Folklore: Companion Dogs as Seers, Healers, and Fairy Steeds. Our pets are so special, they must be magic! (via Strange Company)
25 Sexual Harassment Horror Stories That Happened To Girls And Women At Work. There's more in the comments, because every woman has these stories.
The Crime that Inspired the 1984 Robert Redford Movie The Natural.
Sharing Things: Sesame Street Does Stranger Things
The Muppets are trick-or-treating in the Snackside Down and confront the Cookiegorgon in this Sesame Street parody video of Stranger Things. "That's not strange, that's just an octopus trick-or-treating." As usual, the object lesson here is sharing. But don't let that stop you from laughing at Cookie Monster's lame costume, the growing worm, and the grand entrance of Eleven. (via Digg)
Tweet of the Day
I love #SW fruits & vegetables-We ALL should try to eat healthier-But Yoda & Vader lucked out (who doesn't love grapes & apples?) Luke has it tougher (pushing salads) & poor R2-D2! No matter how adorable he is on package: IT'S STILL CAULIFLOWER! #EpisodeAte😩 pic.twitter.com/4VQzMgQFNW— @HamillHimself (@HamillHimself) November 26, 2017
(via Uproxx)
Sunday, November 26, 2017
New Zealand Police Recruitment Video
A video from New Zealand aims to recruit new people for its police force and ends up entertaining us all. The video features 70 volunteer police officers, Police Commissioner Mike Bush, a police pipe band, dogs and cats, and Kiwi celebrity William Waiirua. They illustrate the many different things police work can involve. And they're funny, too.
The outtakes at the end and the beginning of the credits are pretty good, too. If this has inspired you to apply for the job, be warned that you must be a New Zealand or Australian citizen or NZ permanent resident. (via reddit)
Turning a Car Crash into a Song
DreamCastle_629 crashed his car, and the horn alarm became stuck. In the spirit of making the best of a bad situation, he fashioned a song to accompany the rhythm. He's a songwriter, and says if he makes any revenue froths video, it will go toward replacing the car. Another guy made an extended remix, in case you really like the tune. (via Digg)
Brazen Bird Theft
Here's one of those stories you wouldn't believe if we didn't have the security footage. A woman in a shop lays her cash out on the scale while she waits for her purchase to be rung up. A bird lands right in front of her. Then things get weird. Talk about feathering your nest egg! This happened just last Tuesday in Brazil. From the scant information at YouTube, I don't think she ever recovered her money. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Synchronized Swimming Sketch
Who says guys can't do a synchronized swimming routine? Of course, it helps that they don't have all that pesky water to deal with. Stay with it, this gets funnier at 1:45. (via Everlasting Blort)
This Wrestling Match is an Illusion
This wrestling match between two puppets on a Chinese TV show is not as it appears. It's an old Manchurian folk dance called Er Gui Shuai Jiao (二贵摔跤), which translates to "Too Expensive Wrestling." This type of performance goes back to at least the 17th century. Here's a clip of the same type of performance filmed in Shanghai in 1927.
(via reddit)
Tweet of the Day
Best business card ever. pic.twitter.com/QFacwNy8co— Academia Obscura (@AcademiaObscura) November 24, 2017
How To Make A Gift Box Out Of Paper
This is pretty neat. Amanda Moor shows us how to make a pretty gift box out of a sheet of paper. You'll need paper, a dish, a straight edge, a pencil, and a protractor. And it will help to have some ribbon to tie it shut with.
Since I have forty years' worth of nice boxes of all sizes saved from previous gift-giving occasions, there is zero chance that I will ever need to do this. Still, I found the process interesting and clever. This would be a neat project to do with kids. (via Boing Boing)
L’homme à la Tête de Caoutchouc
Georges Méliès created this film in 1901, which translates to English as The Man with the Rubber Head. It just goes to show that special effects were part of the filmmaking process almost from the beginning. (via The Kid Should See This)
Friday, November 24, 2017
The Sound of Violence
Batman sings, if you can call that hoarse growl singing, in a song parody set to the tune of "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. The song tells an almost-coherent story of the Caped Crusader fighting against crime and villainy in the streets of Gotham City. As usual. Batman is played by a variety of actors: Ben Affleck, Christian Bale, Adam West, Michael Keaton, and a few others. The villains? There's a whole fleet of them making appearances in this video from How It Should Have Ended.
The Man in the Husky Mask
At first glance, you'd think that these dogs recognize one of their own. Boy, will they be disappointed when he takes that mask off! But no, in this video from Sakon Nakhon, Thailand, the dogs recognize the man underneath. It's their owner, and they are giving him their customary enthusiastic greeting as he returns home from work. It's very possibly, though, that they appreciate his attempts at fitting in with them. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Miss Cellania's Links
Here’s a Path to Medicare for (Almost) All That Isn’t Doomed to Fail.
Crew members Danielle and Graeme of the Queensland Ambulance Service in Australia reported a detour they took on the way to deliver a patient to hospice care. Get your hankie ready. (via Buzzfeed)
The Story Behind The Disaster Artist. (via Digg)
Pictures of Weird Stuff in Your Parents' House. (via Metafilter)
College is indentured servitude. Absolutely nothing about the way we pay for higher education in this country makes sense.
7 Airports More Interesting Than the One You’re Stuck In.
OK Go Dancing with 567 Printers
OK Go has a new song. For this group, the song itself is pretty much an extraneous detail just a reason to put together an innovative video that will make people say, "How'd they do that?" The gimmick of this one is printers, which they use for intricately-programmed background choreography. The video comes with a warning for those susceptible to seizures due to flashing lights, and a recommendation to watch it in high def.
Watch this, and think about all the trouble you've have with printers in your life. It's a miracle the paper feeds worked as well as they did. Oh, yeah, the name of the song is "Obsession." It's a pretty good song, but like their other songs, overwhelmed by the visuals. (via reddit)
Thursday, November 23, 2017
The Muppets Join Dick Cavett for Thanksgiving
The Thanksgiving episode of The Dick Cavett Show in 1971 featured Jim Henson and his Muppets through the whole show. This segment has Cavett's monologue, some ads from 1971, a musical number, and an interview with Henson at nine minutes in. You can watch the entire special at Laughing Squid.
Simon's Cat in Fast Food (A Thanksgiving Special)
In this holiday cartoon from Simon Tofield, the cat and the kitten double-team Simon when he's merely trying to enjoy his Thanksgiving meal. They've adapted the methods of a gang of common street thieves: distract and swipe the goods. You might think it sad that he's eating alone with just his cats, but it's not based on a real Thanksgiving meal- Tofield is British, after all. But an aromatic savory bird is attractive to cats all over the world. I hope he cooked enough for all of them!
Expiration Dates Don't Mean What You Think
Foods you buy at the grocery store has sell-by dates, which does not mean that the food expires on that date. What the date really does mean can vary depending on the food, the state, and exactly how it's worded. Stores use sell-by dates so they can make sure they're rotating their stock properly -to sell the oldest stuff first so nothing is wasted. Speaking of waste, you may be wasting food if you are convinced it goes bad by the date on the package. Adam Conover of Adam Ruins Everything has the lowdown on how expiration dates work in the real world. And spoiled milk, which is a little icky. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Miss Cellania's Links
14 Moving Facts About Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Punch Lines for Book Titles. Snide Octopus is an Instagram account that takes book titles right out of the library and subtitles them to make you laugh. (via Nag on the Lake)
The Cranberry's Bitter History.
I have a feeling tax cuts for the rich aren't in Kansas anymore.
Why My Parents Eat Paprika On Cottage Cheese. By the end, all I could think of was how sad that people can actually grow up in America without spices.
Non-Americans Label the US States.
A Brief History of “Alice’s Restaurant.”
Thankful
Honestly, 2017 has sucked. I'll be thankful when it's over. Well, if I look hard enough, I can find a few things to be thankful for. Altogether, it's hard to think about this year without turning fatalistic. But I'm afraid to say, "Hey, things could be worse!" because you know what happens then.
Come One, Come All
Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner, by Thomas Nast, 1869. There's room at the table for everyone. Happy Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Tweet of the Day
Let me explain net neutrality in the most horrific way:— Tom Nikl 🤔 (@Tom_Nikl) November 21, 2017
if FCC dismantles it, and you get internet from Verizon, they may force you to use YAHOO as your search engine (because they own it), but PAY to use GOOGLE.
Would you like that? If not, you SUPPORT #NetNeutrality.
The FCC is about to kill net neutrality and make the internet work like TV cable companies. Want HBO? Another $10. Want to get AMC? Pay for a bundle that includes channels you don't care about -which includes a surcharge for sports. But on an even bigger scale for the internet. Want access a small website you like? Sorry, that one doesn't appear on any of our bundles currently, as they haven't paid the company to be considered. Want Hulu? We don't offer that, watch our company-run streaming service instead. But you'll have a limited monthly bandwidth. And it's not like you have a choice of another ISP in your area- the big telecoms have already taken care of that. Oh, yeah, that small website that couldn't afford to get on any bundles? They'll be out of business soon, and we who run them will be out of a job.
The FCC is determined to do this. They will vote December 14. Call your congressman and ask him/her to stop this, or send a message somehow. And be sure to explain this to everyone you see during the Thanksgiving weekend.
Miss Cellania's Links
Your Reckoning. And Mine. As stories about abuse, assault, and complicity come flooding out, how do we think about the culprits in our lives? Including, sometimes, ourselves.
The True Story Behind Plymouth Rock.
They were once Olympic rivals- one the captain of the U.S. women's hockey team, the other the captain of Canada's women's hockey team. But now Julie Chu and Caroline Ouellette are celebrating the birth of their daughter, and they're melting hockey fans' hearts. (via Metafilter)
The Savvy Marketing That Put Marshmallows on Your Sweet Potato Casserole.
America Rediscovers Its Love of the Front Porch.
12 Pieces of 100-Year-Old Advice for Dealing With Your In-Laws. Some of those tips will make you cringe.
The Silver Trail: How An Italian Immigrant Made His Mark on Southwestern Jewelry.
The Long Ethical Arc of Displaying Human Remains. (via Metafilter)
Russian Traffic Ice Ballet
Residents of Vladivostok, in far eastern Russia, woke Friday morning to snow-covered roads. The snow hid a layer of ice, which drivers soon discovered. Oh, you could go places, as long as those places were downhill. Police received reports of 350 accidents in one day, some involving up to twenty vehicles.
The Russian news site VL.ru has 19 videos taken of traffic problems due to the snowstorm. You can vote on which is best in a poll at the bottom. I particularly like #19, in which a camera was focused on a hill across the street.
(via Boing Boing)
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
How Job Surveillance is Transforming Trucking in America
Truck drivers are under scrutiny by technology from their employers. First, there were governors to prevent trucks from exceeding the speed limit. Then came satellite tracking, and then onboard computers to monitor everything a trucker does, to make sure they stay within federal regulations as to how many hours they drive, how fast, and where they go. All decisions have been taken out of the trucker's hands.
This is not new; in fact it's one of the reasons my husband quit long-haul trucking. He didn't mind staying within regulations, but some trucking companies crunch the numbers and plot out an exact schedule for deliveries, which doesn't allow for any emergencies, commonsense route changes, or even personal care, like pit stops. And although it's technically illegal, some companies will dock a truckers pay for not delivering by the computer-generated schedule.
Tweet of the Day
According to Trump a black guy who shoplifts should be locked up in a Chinese prison for 10 years, a black guy who sits during the anthem should be fired, and a white guy who rapes a 14 year old should be in the US Senate.— Brian Krassenstein🐬 (@krassenstein) November 21, 2017
When tax cuts for the rich becomes the price of your soul.
The German Town That's Literally Breaking Apart
Tom Scott has ended his tour of America and is back in Europe, finding places with interesting stories to tell us about. The picturesque town of Staufen, Germany, is one such place. A geothermal drilling operation in 2007 has caused the ground to swell up under the downtown area, and the buildings are cracking. When the foundation underneath has moved, there's not a lot you can do for the buildings on top. Those buildings stood firm for hundreds of years, but in the last ten, they are crumbling. The problem is explained in depth in this article from the journal Geothermal Energy. (via reddit)
Miss Cellania's Links
Rare Photograph of Billy the Kid Found at a Flea Market. This is not a repeat of the 2015 story.
How many holes does a straw have?
America's private health-care is rationed, but socialized medicine is luxury medicine.
Colin J. Carlson is a biologist, but he's not an expert on foxes. Still, he decided to make a list of foxes and rate them with letter grades for their "weirdness" in a Twitter thread. (via Metafilter)
Things People Should, But Don't, Tell You About Having Kids.
Strange and Curious Wills of the Georgian Era in the Canterbury Court. Many contain final and lasting insults. (via Strange Company)
Stray Cats Captured in Martial Arts Poses by Hiroyuki Hisakata. (via Swiss Miss)
The Twisting History of Blood on Film. (via Digg)
Meet Doug Jones, One Of The Biggest Movie Stars You’ve Probably Never Seen. That's because he's almost always buried under a layer of latex and prosthetics as an alien, a monster, or a ghost. (via Metafilter)
Builder has Truss Issues
Ken is going to show us how to set a truss roof when you are by yourself. What could possibly go wrong? Well, first off, he's setting trusses alone. If there was any day to call your idiot brother-in-law, this would be the day, if just to have someone available to call the paramedics. Also, he's not wearing a hard hat, and he turned his back on the unsecured truss.
Luckily, the paramedics were not needed in this incident -or else the video would not have been uploaded. And the garage was eventually completed, and not by one man alone. (via Boing Boing)
Monday, November 20, 2017
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