Saturday, June 30, 2018

Real Chicken

(via Bad Menu)

The Jedi Were Wrong About the Chosen One



EC Henry gets all geeky about the religion of the Star Wars universe. The weirdest fan theory about the Force is still better than Midi-chlorians. 

Is the Gallery Open?

(via reddit)

A Report Of Connected Events



A Report of Unconnected Events is a video that connects those events in a surprising way. It's more than a mashup or a supercut. Iconic moments from your favorite films are blended together, often in the same shot, under an essay about the power of storytelling. Metafilter has a list of the movies used in the comments.


Rock

Looking at someone, or something, outside your own consciousness gives you a really different perspective on time and space. Cosmic. This is the latest comic from Randall Munroe at XKCD. Now back to your regular life.

Souffle

Canadian Bonnie and Clyde



Two people seemed suspicious to the Reddi Mart store owners in Spruce Grove, Alberta, on Monday. One RCMP officer showed up to question the couple, and then all hell broke loose. The one constable and the store owner were busy with the guy, so the woman tried to escape the building, but security cameras are everywhere, and more police arrived. They were both eventually charged with using a stolen credit card plus multiple crimes caught in this video. You can read the news story here.  (via Slate)   

Summer

(via Fark)

Simon's Cat in The Snip



The kitten just got back from the vet, still under the influence just a bit. He's just been neutered! What's even worse, he tells the cat what happened. No doubt the cat has forgotten all about when it happened to him long ago.

Tweet of the Day



(via Metafilter)

Friday, June 29, 2018

Swim Diaper Care

(via reddit)

Destino



Salvador Dali and Walt Disney collaborated on an animation project called Destino in 1945, but it wasn't released, or even finished. Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew, unearthed the project in 1999 and released it in 2003.
The seven-minute short follows the story of Chronos and his ill-fated love for a mortal woman named Dahlia.[1] The story continues as Dahlia dances through surreal scenery inspired by Dalí's paintings. There is no dialogue, but the soundtrack includes music by the Mexican composer Armando Dominguez. The 17-second original footage that is included in the finished product is the segment with the two tortoises (this original footage is referred to in Bette Midler's host sequence for The Steadfast Tin Soldier in Fantasia 2000, as an "idea that featured baseball as a metaphor for life").    
(via Nag on the Lake)




Holiday Plans

How Avengers: Infinity War Should Have Ended



This video contains spoilers, but it won't make much sense anyway if you haven't seen Avengers: Infinity War. How It Should Have Ended came up with multiple ways the plot could have been resolved without all that fighting and stuff. Of course, that would have left us with much less of a movie, and we wouldn't all be wondering about and waiting for the next installment. The real fun of this video begins afterward, when it spreads beyond the Marvel Cinematic Universe into other pop culture worlds. (via Geeks Are Sexy

Miss Cellania's Links

How to Avoid July 4th Traffic. Start early, stay late, or maybe even stay at home.

10 Tiny Towns with Big Tourism Dreams. A stop at one on your summer vacation trip could become a great memory.

What Happened to the Winner of McDonald's $1 Million Flexi-Disc Contest? Scotty Landreth's life changed 30 years ago, but not for the better.

The Biggest Driving Mistakes and Bad Habits. You might be doing these and not even realize you're bugging the drivers around you.

The Mysterious Life and Death of ‘Madame X.’ Kate Jackson's murder was never solved, but her web of lies and deceit make for a fascinating story. 

This French Town Has Welcomed Refugees for 400 Years. The 2700 residents of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in south-central France are proud of their tradition of giving asylum to those who need it.

The Space Between Stars Is Full of Greasy, Possibly Toxic Carbon. That might mean trouble for interstellar spaceships.

America needs more people. Immigrants are good for the economy, the crime rate, and the future of our country.

 A blast from the past (2013): Rosalind Franklin and the Search for DNA.

Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitten

(via Fark)

Disney's Autonomous Robot Stunt Doubles



Disney imagineers have been woking on animatronic stunt men. Watch them progress from a simple stick figure to full-on robotic acrobats. Disney doesn't need artificial stunt men when we already have real stunt men and CGI in movies, but these are for the theme parks. They are called Stuntronics. Principal R&D Imagineer Tony Dohi spoke about them.
“So what this is about is the realization we came to after seeing where our characters are going on screen,” says Dohi, “whether they be Star Wars characters, or Pixar characters, or Marvel characters or our own animation characters, is that they’re doing all these things that are really, really active. And so that becomes the expectation our park guests have that our characters are doing all these things on screen — but when it comes to our attractions, what are our animatronic figures doing? We realized we have kind of a disconnect here.”

So they came up with the concept of a stunt double for the ‘hero’ animatronic figures that could take their place within a show or scene to perform more aggressive maneuvering, much in the same way a double replaces a valuable and delicate actor in a dangerous scene.
Read more about the Stuntronics robots at TechCrunch.  (via reddit)

Tweet of the Day


Thursday, June 28, 2018

Bribe

Game Changer



A little girl at an arcade wants to take a toy wrestler home. He does not want to go live with a mere girl. Can he stop her from earning enough points to win him? This short film is from Aviv Mano of the Ringling College of Art and Design. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Men's Room

(via reddit)

White Women Watching Me



Amber Ruffin of Late Night with Seth Meyers channels Rockwell for a parody of his song "Somebody's Watching Me." She's good at it, too. (via The Mary Sue)

Update: This one is not so much of a joke as a commentary on the news. Like this, and this. More here and here.




Challenge

The Biggest Driving Mistakes and Bad Habits



So many annoying habits are things that drivers complain about, but do themselves and aren't even aware. Then there are some habits that you might not even realize are bothering all the drivers around you. When driving, you should always be aware of your surroundings, that's a given, but you should also be aware of the problems you are causing for other drivers. The one that drives me up the wall the most id that one where someone pulls out in front of you and drives slowly, even when there was no one at all behind you. Why couldn't they wait a second and a half for you to pass? (via Digg)

Miss Cellania's Links

Why Sam Houston, Texas Hero, Opposed the Civil War. That opposition was the end of his amazing political career.
North America Will Not Be Able to See the Longest Lunar Eclipse of the Century, Sorry. Most of the world will see it on July 27.

'Cadillac Frank,' 'Ice Pick Willie,' And the Nicknames Of American Mobsters. The had some interesting origin stories.

The Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture. Called hnefatafl, it was significantly more important than other games of the time.

Interviews with people caught in the new policy of Zero Tolerance.

How Chocolate is Made in Guatemala. See both an old, traditional method and a modern process.

How The NFL's New Helmet Rule Could Change Football As We Know It. If players can't use their helmets as weapons, where will the violence and injuries come from?

The progressive liberal agenda isn’t about being nice. It’s about confronting evil, violence, trauma, and death.

Astonishing Staircase Art From All Over The World. (via Metafilter)

One weird-looking moonset. It's an illusion created by filming from miles away. (via TYWKIWDBI)

A blast from the past (2015): 10 Myers-Briggs Type Charts for Pop Culture Characters.

Revenge

(via Bored Panda)

Cat Freaks out After Owner Disappears



The disappearing trick blew this cat's mind. She's not going to give up until she figures out where that hooman went. Meanwhile, these dogs don't care at all. (via Digg)


Tweet of the Day

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Surgeon

Evidence

(via reddit)

A Lemon-Powered Supercar



Former NASA engineer Mark Rober was asked to charge a very powerful battery for an electric Volkswagen. He decided to make lemonade- a really serious lemon-powered battery, using 1232 lemons. After having as much fun with that many lemons as they could think of, he and William Osman got down to business. Lemons were not the only creative idea he had for charging the huge car battery. The Volkswagen supercar ended up winning the Pike's Peak Challenge, and set a world record, too! (via The Kid Should See This)

Office Perks

It doesn't have to be a tech company, and the perk doesn't have to be ping pong. The general concept applies to every workplace. This comic is from Jeff Lovfers at Don't Hit Save.

Items You Have Lost

Six-Year-Old Spends $1,000 on the Best Day Ever



Huck is pretty good at counting by twenties, for a 6-year-old. Still, he has some innocent ideas of what to do with a thousand dollars. He has to spend it in one day, so he hires a limousine the very first thing. After a trip to the toy store, he runs out of ideas, but the guys from Yes Theory give him some ideas. Then he remembers the candy store! You'll love the way this video ends. (via reddit)

Miss Cellania's Links

We Have a Good Chance of Curing the Common Cold. There are more than 160 strains of rhinovirus, but scientists around the world are fighting them.

The World’s First Robot-Cooked Hamburger is Upon Us. This machine does everything from grinding the meat to placing the pickle.

What are the Odds That You'll Ever be Hit by a Meteor? Pretty darn small, but we have accounts of people who were.

The Obsessive Search for the Tasmanian Tiger. Supposedly extinct since 1936, there have been thousands of sightings of the thylacine, with no hard evidence.

The Sonic Pickle Juice Slush was Created by People Who Hate Pickles. If you order one, expect the same amount of sugar usually found in a fruit slush.

Why the Skeleton of the “Irish Giant” Could Be Buried at Sea. Charles Byrne never wanted his remains to be on display, as they have been for 235 years.

How Rich People Buy Their Way Out Of Jail.

4 Famous Movie Cliches (And The Weird Reasons They Exist).

An Interview With the Woman Who Sold Me Her Wedding Dress.


A blast from the past (2015): The Adventurous Life of Jane Dieulafoy, Pioneering Archaeologist, Artist, and Feminist.

Roomba

(via Fark)

Batman Dance Party



In this video from Monster Truck Ninja, digitally-animated Batman and Robin dance to the Batman theme. Then they are joined by all the other characters, including villains that Adam West never encountered! It takes a real bat fan to recognize them all. Just wait until you see Alfred twerking!  (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Surprise!

Hero Gets a Guinness World Record



Hero, the border collie who was trained by Sara Carson, did 49 tricks in one minute to achieve a world record! We've seen Hero doing canine freestyle dance competitions, but since Blogger's search engine doesn't work for me anymore, I can't find them.

Your Opinion is Overruled

(via reddit)

My Lap

This was the situation with my cats, if you recall from an update I did a while back. They've come around now. If you've not been following Megacynics, Bradley got a new job in a different town, but their dream apartment won't be available for a couple of months. So Ash is holding down the fort by herself during the week, as you can see in this comic.

Carpet Art

A guy spilled wine on the carpet at the office. It won't come out, so a co-worker made it into art





And we named it Sir Barnaby Catley Splatley.

(via Buzzfeed)


How the Geography of the US is Weirder Than You Think



We all know the United States is strange, but there are some geographic oddities in this video that you might not have already known. RealLifeLore picked out some interesting facts that just don't seem like they make any sense, unless you live in the area they're talking about. Or if you learned geography from a globe instead of a Mercator map -which is the way geography should be learned, but it doesn't happen much. (via Digg

Miss Cellania's Links

The Hiker's Guide to Trail Etiquette. Respect your fellow outdoor enthusiasts.

How the Secret of Saving Private Ryan’s Power Lies in its Portrayal of the Enemy. Putting the viewer in place of a U.S. soldier meant making Germans into inhuman caricatures.

How Medicare for all could save the American health-care system.

How to tell if a baby is Canadian

The Tragic Roots of America’s Favorite Cherry. The Bing cherry was named for a 6-foot Chinese horticulturist named Ah Bing.

How a Behavioral Scientist Influenced City Design All Over the World. For too long, city design centered on buildings and roads, instead of the people who live and work there. (via Metafilter)

A History of Modern Capitalism from the Perspective of the Straw. Designed for sanitary use, they've become a sanitation problem. (via Kottke)

An Ode to the Ladies Pant Suit of Zanzibar. See a collection of images of the Swahili women's fashions of yore.

Chef Ben Churchill Specializes in Food that Looks Like Other Things. He can serve you a dessert that resembles cleaning supplies, potted plants, or a full ashtray.

Political Links

Generations from now will mark this week as the moment Americans realized we were losing our country as we have known it.

Buyers tied to Russia, former Soviet republics paid $109 million cash for Trump properties. (via reddit)

A Physician in South Texas on an Unnerving Encounter with an Eight-Year-Old Boy in Immigration Detention.

The Absurdity of Trump Officials Eating at Mexican Restaurants During an Immigration Crisis.


And Finally

A blast from the past (2016): 4 Legendary Plant-Animal Hybrids.

Rat

(via Fark)

Using GPS in Brazil



Warning: infectious laughter. These guys were trying to find their way around what I think might be the city of Fortaleza in Brazil. Commenters believe the trouble may be because they didn't switch the language of their app to Portuguese. They have stories of using map apps in languages that don't work well in the location they are driving through. At any rate, what came out was not only the road they should turn on, but all the other roads and shopping plazas it leads to. InappropriateSurname jotted them all down.
Turn left onto Avenida Almirante Barroso / Avenida Antonio Justa / Avenida da Abolição / Avenida Desembargador Moreira / Rua Frei Mansueto / Avenida Pessoa Anta / Rua Ana Bilhar / Rua Barbalha / Rua Barbosa de Freitas / Rua José Napoleão / Rua Juazeiro do Norte / Rua Júlio Ibiapina / Av. Senador Virgílio Távora

Then turn right onto Rua José Napoleão
The video was uploaded yesterday. You have to wonder if they're still driving around, trying to find their destination. (via reddit)

Monday, June 25, 2018

Answers to April

The World's Cutest Cable Guys



Who ever heard of a ferret with a job? That's exactly what's happening here. James Mckay runs the National Ferret School in Chesterfield, England, where they train ferrets to lay cable. If you've ever seen a pet ferret run through a piece of flexipipe for fun, you know they'd be good at this. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Can't Wait Until Today is Over

It sounds like his life needs a reboot. Too bad that's something he dreads, too. This comic is from Alex Culang and Raynato Castro of Buttersafe.

Senegal has the Best Dance Moves of World Cup 2018



The team from Senegal has been charming World Cup crowds and spectators around the world with their dancing skills. Their joyful dance is part of their training, and no doubt is a great team building exercise. Although the video above was taken in an empty stadium, the Senegalese got the crowd involved when they danced to celebrate their win over Poland last week. 



Their next game will be against Colombia on Thursday. (via Mashable)


Miss Cellania's Links

In two comics, cartoonist Gail Galligan turns Jon Arbuckle of Garfield into a character that's not so much depressed, but introverted in a way we can all understand. Part one is about a dinner party in which he meets his significant other Liz's college friends, and part two is where he goes to a comic convention for the first time in years. (via Metafilter)

Greetings from the UFO Zealots Who Say Aliens Created Life on Earth. Learn the origin and beliefs of Raëlism.

Simon Jansen's ASCIImation Version of Star Wars. He worked on the project for 18 years.

Books Where the Dog Dies, Rewritten So the Dog Doesn’t Die. They range from heartwarming to hilarious.

How Jurassic Park Changed the Way Movies Looked at Dinosaurs. Before that, they came in only two flavors: murderous or cute.

13 Movie and TV Jokes that Took Years to Deliver. They are callbacks, running gags, internal references, brick jokes, slow burns, or Chekhov's gags.

Newly Unearthed Civil War Bones Speak Silently to the Grim Aftermath of Battle. Archaeologists pieced together the story of a medical waste pit.

A 1770 poem about a cat and the greatest peril that may befall him. (via Strange Company


Political Links

Kids in exchange for deportation: Detained migrants say they were told they could get kids back on way out of U.S. The ransom offer has been made.

Don't confuse trumphotels.org with trumphotels.com. Keep in mind trumphotels.org is a legit site, trumphotels.com is run by Russian scammers. Beware. (via Metafilter)

DOJ: Trump's immigration crackdown diverting resources from drug cases.

Trump administration rule could stop public reporting of hospital infections despite death toll.

Trump Reaffirms North Korean Nuclear Threat After Saying It Was Gone.

And Finally

A blast from the past (2016): The Worst Industrial Disaster in U.S. History.

Cats and Fish



Cats and fish go together like ...well, the cats like it, the fish probably could do without cats. But the combination can be pretty funny! Click the "read more" button for a big collection of funny cats and fish.

Scientist Man's Plan to Save Star Wars



The mediocre box office for Solo shows that movie tickets are too expensive, and people won't go to a movie just because it has some loose connection to Star Wars. It's a numbers game, according to Scientist Man. The solution: raise the ticket prices! (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Tweet of the Day


(via Buzzfeed)

Sunday, June 24, 2018

It's Complicated

Disaster in the Pantry

How would you handle this disaster? Redditor nerdy_J said a friend's kid did this to all the cans in the pantry. They were lucky that the labels were still there at all. Do you know what's in your cabinets well enough to figure out what's in the cans? Tomato paste, tomato sauce, corned beef, and tuna are pretty easy. I hope you store the cat food in a different place. Some folks at the post shared what they did back when they got unlabeled canned food free.
When I was a kid we were really poor and would volunteer to take food from local grocery stores to the local food pantry. Legally, the food pantry could not accept cans without labels, so rather than throwing them out we would take them home. We all got pretty good at guessing what was in a can by how it sounded when you shook it. We would also make “mystery can soup”. Basically get a cheap chunk of roast and then start opening cans: vegetables went in the soup, fruit went into a bowl for fruit salad and cat/dog food/mystery meat would go to the cats.
That plan gets a wrench thrown in when you open a can of tamales or chow mein, but those can be refrigerated for a while. I am reminded of a Girl Scout camp out where we all brought a can of our favorite soup and threw them all in a pot together. The real problem with your canned goods shelf is that you keep too much stuff around that you really don't want to eat. I once bought one can of French onion soup because I like it, but the hassle of preparing a couple of slices of French bread and melted cheese meant I never prepared it. Yesterday I checked and found the can expired four years ago!

Can Loneliness Kill You?



There's a big difference between being alone and being lonely. If you are alone because you enjoy solitude, that shouldn't be a problem. But if you feel alone and don't want to be, that is real loneliness. The feeling of loneliness and social isolation can do serious damage, but that doesn't mean you are doomed. For many people, feelings of loneliness come and go as life progresses, and smart folks learn how to change their life situation to meet their required spacial connections. AsapSCIENCE lets us in on the science of loneliness and its effects. (via Laughing Squid)

Windows to the Soul

Expect more of the same, and you won't be disappointed. This comic is from The Obscure Gentleman.

Mosquitoes

Casually Explained: Moving Out



James from Casually Explained gives young people a honest and detailed rundown on what it's like to move out of their parents' home. You'll only want to share this with your kids if they've already moved out, because it's pretty discouraging. When Baby Boomers moved out on their own, it was for the purpose of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, which kids these days don't do so much of. Also, we could find a place to live where the rent was only a week's income or less, if you weren't picky. Now the rental units are owned by Baby Boomers, and they demand exorbitant security deposits because they fear young tenants will act like they did at that age.  (via Tastefully Offensive)

Offering

(via Fark)

Never Bet Against a Raccoon



Think you're going to outsmart a hungry raccoon with your silly technology? Watch this trash panda foil a critter-proof bird feeder! You get the idea that it's not the first time he's seen this kind of setup. While the folks inside admit defeat, they are impressed with both the raccoon's intelligence and his dexterity. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Tweet of the Day


(via Mark Hamill)


Saturday, June 23, 2018

To See Better

It's only logical. They have health insurance, but who's going to pay the electric bill? (via Bad Newspaper)

The Dinosaur and the Missing Link



The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy was created by Willis O'Brien in 1915, released by Edison Studios in 1917. The stop-motion animated tale concerns a courtship among prehistoric cave people, an ape-creature (the missing link), and a dinosaur. The real comedy comes in the intertitles, which would be quite at home in an Edwardian romantic comedy. I found this in an interesting article about the evolution of dinosaurs in movies at Vulture. 

We Should All Care



Art by Justin Teodoro.



Cucumber



My garden us growing well, and it won't be long til I can enjoy my regular summer meal of tomato and cucumber salad -sometimes with bacon. From the looks of the cucumber patch covered in blossoms, I will have bumper crop. If you are looking forward to a lot of fresh cucumbers, here's something that will get you in the right mood. Macka B sings the praises of the cucumber, from its refreshing taste to its many nutritional benefits. (via reddit)

Talking to the Counselor

Is it satill paranoia when everyone really is watching you? This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Go to the comic link to read the hover text, and push the red button for a bonus punchline.

Mind Blown

Cassette Navigation 1971



Imagine a GPS (or SatNav, if you're British) in 1971. There was such an idea, but it came on pre-recorded cassette tapes that gave you directions as you played it. Watch how it works in this clip from the erstwhile TV show Tomorrow's World. Of course it could never work as advertised. If you ever made a wrong turn, the whole system would suddenly turn useless. Or if you were caught in a traffic jam, didn't drive the speed the cassette expected, or the machine ate the tape- which was a common occurrence with cassettes. You would need to buy a new cassette for every new route, and once you drove there, you wouldn't need that tape again. I'm sure there are more reasons not to buy into this system. In 1971, it was easier to learn to read signs and maps, develop a sense of direction, and ask someone as a last resort. (via Nag on the Lake)

Cinnamon

(via Fark)

Kitten on the Freeway



Hope for Paws got a notification of a kitten on the freeway in Los Angeles, on a fast lane with no shoulder. Eldad Hagar and Loreta Frankonyte were out transporting a dog with puppies, and did a detour to make a scary rescue. The kitten was scared, hungry, flea-ridden, and had infected eyes. There's no telling how long he was out there on the road by himself. But Napoleon was fed, bathed, treated, and named, and now has a bright future. (via Laughing Squid)

Tweet of the Day


(via Mark Hamill)

Friday, June 22, 2018

Conflict Resolution

Did Mary Poppins go to Hogwarts?



Was Mary Poppins trained in the magic arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? It makes so much sense! The various clues are explained in this video from Uproxx.

The Introvert's Attempt

(via reddit)

Doors



Go ahead and watch this without thinking about it being a campaign ad. MJ Hegar is a badass even without running for Congress in Texas' 31st district. If you can't vote in Texas, you can still donate to her campaign. Hegar's autobiography is called Shoot Like a Girl, eventually to be a movie.  (via Metafilter)

The Terrible Aerodynamics of Star Wars Ships



Extreme nerdery incoming! EC Henry used a virtual wind tunnel to test the aerodynamics of the ships seen in the Star Wars movies. It becomes clear that they were designed to look cool, and not to work in a real atmosphere. But when you compare them to each other, the Rebels with their ugly ships were more realistic and might have even worked. (via io9)

That Scam Has Expired

(Thanks, Lorrie!)

Embrace Your Truth



An excerpt from Justice League: War finds Wonder Woman the subject of a protest crowd. She needs to get to the bottom of things. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Miss Cellania's Links

How Jupiter May Have Gifted Early Earth With Water. Young gas giants throw debris toward inward planets, including hydrogen-rich materials.

These parents hoped to raise $1,500 for separated migrant families. Pledges now total $15 million. 

How to Decorate Like a Viking. Archaeologists have built a palette of the paint colors used on Viking homes and buildings. (via Metafilter

The Science of Hearing. Our ability to detect and interpret sounds is due to an amazing and complicated biological system.

Lucasfilm Might be Putting Future Star Wars Spin-offs on Hold. Solo's disappointing box office was a surprise glitch in the moneymaking machine.

Why Women Say Nothing Is Wrong When Something Is Clearly Wrong. She has plenty of reasons not to share it with you right now.

The Breastfeeding Zealots of the Neonatal Ward. Maternal lactation is pushed to the point of shaming mothers with hungry babies.

Religious leaders want Trump hotel's liquor license revoked because he's 'not a person of good character.' That's a requirement in the District of Columbia.

Terminator 6 Provides a First Look at the Return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor.

Poems about peeing off a cliff. (via Metafilter)

Sweet Talk

(via Fark)

June 1998



What were you doing 20 years ago? YouTuber thepeterson put together a nostalgic look at the pop culture that accompanies our memories of that time. Honestly, much of this passed me by, because I spent most of June 1998 in China, and then trying to recover from the trip and learning how to be a mommy to Princess. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Tweet of the Day



Thursday, June 21, 2018

Who's Going to Believe Him?

Hello Sexy Pants



Bill Wurtz, the master of nonsense music, gives us a song that makes more sense than most of his other creations. (via Digg)

Gentlemen

(via reddit)

Bottle of Wine

To your health. This comic is from John Atkinson at Wrong Hands. (via Nag on the Lake)

Brazil's Geography Problem



Brazil is a big country, with a lot of people, so why isn't it a world power? The answers lie in the very things that make Brazil unique. The land that it covers is very different from smaller nations. Wendover productions looks at Brazil and its geography. (via Digg)

Violence

Miss Cellania's Links

5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Summer Solstice. While the days will only get shorter from here, temperatures will still go up.

The Forgotten Chefs Who Made Chili Con Carne a Tex-Mex Standard. Women running their own businesses gave us an entirely new cuisine.

You Would Never Expect Killer Whales to Appear Here. Arctic Ocean prey that once fed polar bears is fair game for orcas.

Brooklyn's Defunct Domino Sugar Plant Opens as Domino Park. Pictures show how an old factory can become a community park and still retain its history.

First Impressions. Tom Comitta took the first sentence from 268 New Yorker short stories, sorted them, and combined them into one surprisingly cohesive tale.

Sneaky Ways Restaurants Are Hacking Your Brain. Check out 25 subtle tricks that make you spend more.

Economist Austan Goolsbee explains tariffs with a story about plumbing gone wrong. I recommend listening to it instead of reading the transcript.

Political Section

Trump's executive order doesn't mean the end of zero tolerance arrests, and it might not even keep families together. It doesn't do a thing for kids already taken.

Here’s How You Can Help Fight Family Separation at the Border. A list of resources and organizations that need your skills, time, or money. 

Trump’s catch-and-detain policy snares many who have long called U.S. home.

Here's how asylum seekers at the border were treated before this summer.

An Immigration Attorney on What It’s Like to Represent Small Children Taken from Their Parents.

Top Ten Reasons We Take Kids From Their Parents At The Border.

And Finally

A blast from the past (2014): The Day the Mountain of Fire Was Born.