(via Bad Newspaper)
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Born In The USA
This is an acoustic demo version of "Born in the USA," from Bruce Springsteen. It is more melodic, sadder, and frankly, more memorable than the finished product. I suppose the word is "haunting." (via Boing Boing)
A Mime’s Silent Resistance Against Nazi Forces
The most famous mime ever was Marcel Marceau. Let's face it, he's the only mime you know by name. But the French performer had more on his resume than his stage act. During World War II, Marceau harnessed his acting talent to aid the French Resistance. Great Big Story lets us in on a bit of Marceau's wartime activities. (via Laughing Squid)
Hong Kong in 1949
In 1949, Hong Kong was a British colony, China was a newly communist nation, and all of Asia was recovering from World War II. Two million inhabitants were trying to accommodate floods of refugees from the mainland. Michael Rogge visited Hong Kong as a young man and took 16mm home movies of what he saw. He added commentary 60 years later. There are plenty more of these vintage personal movies at his YouTube channel. (via Digg)
Miss Cellania's Links
Star Wars Episode IX Predictions: What's Next for the Sequel Trilogy? A look at the possibilities posed by the casting announcement and character arcs.
This Billion-Dollar Industry Is Showing a Dark Side. Medical technology can transform, or even save, your life, but there are tradeoffs.
People Share the Biggest Mistakes They Made During the First Year of Parenthood. Most of them arose from guilt rather than incompetence.
How a Notorious Gangster Was Exposed by His Own Sister. Her life has been in danger ever since.
What Dog and Cat Years Really Mean. A veterinary professor explains the life stages of dogs and cats.
How Evil Happens. Humans evolved to be social and even altruistic, but certain conditions can lead to ‘Syndrome E.’
That Time Someone Actually Achieved the Alchemists’ Dream of Turning a Different Material Into Gold. However, the cost of the process was substantially more than any possible profit.
Birthday cake for a 21-year-old.
If something happens in political news and you need to get updated, check out PoppinKREAM's comments at reddit. She has a list of links for every topic.
A blast from the past (2013): Origins of 8 of the Strangest Place Names in Canada.
Dance of the Line Riders
We have a new animated music video from DoodleChaos, who brought us a Line Rider version of the classic Hall of the Mountain King and a Rube Goldberg version of Waltz of the Flowers. This time, he's got two (and sometimes three) riders on sleds illustrating Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Not only is it clever, it might cool you off a bit to hear a song that's traditionally associated with Christmastime. (via Metafilter)
Monday, July 30, 2018
Abduction As Romance
We might not realize how much of our pop culture stories involve taking women against their will. It's often dressed up as romance. It's an "old, a deeply troubling media convention." It's an outgrowth of the idea that women are passive participants in relationships, and the best ones are too virtuous to seek out sex, but men know best who belongs with who. We can be better than this. (via Boing Boing)
Life Looks Better on Super 8
Does life really look better in a movie shot on Super 8 film? I appears to. Maybe that's because it has an old, nostalgic look since Super 8 film ruled for several decades starting in 1965. I think it's more likely because when you shot motion pictures -or even still pictures- on film instead of a digital format, you only shot the good parts. It was way too expensive to film anything or everything like we can today. This short film is brought to you by the Royal Ocean Film Society. (via Digg)
Miss Cellania's Links
The Tiny "Spite Triangle" That Marks a Century-Old Grudge Against New York City. See an explanation of the maps that led to it in this Twitter thread.
American white people really hate being called “white people.” (via Fark)
27 Disturbing Things Your Boss Actually Made You Do.
How to Keep Your Wedding from Looking Like a Disaster on Instagram. Some advice on chilling out, whatever you choose to share.
How to Grow Crops on Mars. We may need to re-engineer plants before we make the trip.
The Shark Arm Murder Mystery. The holiday mood was ruined when a shark threw up a human arm in front of an aquarium crowd. (via Strange Company)
The Most Educated Cities in America. And the least, with all 150 in ranked order. (via Thrillist)
The Real Story of Gumbo, Okra, and Filé. The origins of Louisiana cuisine owe more to West Africa than to France. (via Metafilter)
Why Your City Government Should Buy Your Local Newspaper. Treating information as a necessary utility might save journalism.
Duck Plays Fetch
How do you train a duck to play fetch? He must enjoy it. The real question is, can he play Duck, Duck, Goose? (via Blame It On The Voices)
Tweet of the Day
i called the cops on my own party last night because i was ready to go to bed welcome to 22🙂— jaymie danyelle (@itsjustJayKay) July 8, 2018
(via Pleated-Jeans)
Sunday, July 29, 2018
NASA 60th: How It All Began
President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958. That act transferred the duties of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) from the military to a new civilian agency called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA came about as a response to the Soviet Sputnik program, and accelerated when President Kennedy challenged the US to go to the moon by the end of the '60s. NASA has accomplished a lot in 60 years! This video is one of a series celebrating big milestones in NASA's history. (via Digg)
Survival of the Fittest
A flying fish wins the Darwin award for bragging about years of evolution instead of generations of evolution. This is the latest from pleumier, a biologist who makes comics. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Paul McCartney at the Cavern Club
Sir Paul McCartney went back to his roots for a 28-song afternoon set Thursday at The Cavern Club in Liverpool. They gave out tickets free to the first 200 people, and managed to squeeze in about 250. Imagine playing the same gig over a 60-year span. Imagine being one of the people who got to see it! (via Nag on the Lake)
Tweet of the Day
About 6 minutes after the manhole cover was removed, out came the bear, estimated to be 3 to 4 years old and about 250 lb. An @COParksWildlife officer fired a non-lethal rubber slug at the bear as officers chased it into an open space behind this #ColoradoSprings neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/F4f6FEcFI9— CPW SE Region (@CPW_SE) July 26, 2018
(via Digg)
Saturday, July 28, 2018
The Two-Minute Wave
Pro surfer Koa Smith caught a wave off Namibia's Skeleton Bay that took him for a nearly a mile! He surfed a single wave for a distance of 1.5 kilometers for two minutes that took him through eight barrels. It was captured on video, both from a drone and from Smith's own GoPro POV. Both videos are mesmerizing.
My whole day surfing I try to InVision that one dream wave that I want to experience. I picture it clearly. What it will look like. How it will feel. The emotions pouring out of me when the wave is complete. Then this happen :)(via Laughing Squid)
A Shark Expert Reviews Shark Movies
We are coming to the end of another Shark Week, and once again we must confront the difference between real shark research and the exciting movies in which they play the villain. Jill McAndrew of the Long Island Aquarium knows sharks, and is happy to burst your bubble about the biggest shark films. (via Buzzfeed)
Things Fall Down in Istanbul
The shoddy engineering couldn't compete with the effect of heavy rains. First the retaining wall, then the four story home behind it.
(via reddit)
Tweet of the Day
Three years ago, I married the love of my life and my sister fell over pic.twitter.com/9jaSazmiir— Kevin Kennedy Ryan II🌹 (@K_47) July 25, 2018
Friday, July 27, 2018
What Made Darth Vader Visually Iconic
Darth Vader is at the top of many "greatest villain" lists, and near the top in the rest. Nerdwriter looks at the reasons why. (via Laughing Squid)
Road Diets
Yeah, America is big, so we developed four lane roads to get us from town to town faster. Then four-lane roads were extended into town to alleviate traffic. But do we really need four-lane roads in a city? City streets are safer with traffic going slower. To achieve that, some cities are putting their streets on a diet, making them smaller and slower. So far, that's making street use easier for pedestrians and cyclists, while still not causing worse traffic for drivers -in most places. Your mileage may vary, no pun intended. (via Laughing Squid)
The Biggest Plot Hole In the Star Wars Prequels
In which Jhall and Andrew Bridgman at Dorkly explain why Darth gave up his entire reason for turning to the dark side. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Cow Wins Horse Race
The annual St. Teresa's Charity Pantomime Horse Race pits teams of humans dressed as four-legged beasts against each other in a mercifully short race.
The St. Teresa’s Charity Pantomime Horse Race at the UK’s Catterick Racecourse raises funds for St. Teresa’s Hospice in Darlington. In its third annual running, the race welcomed four entrants: Heavy Brigade in the cow suit, racing for the Royal Dragoon Guards; Unicorn on the Cob in the unicorn suit, racing for marketing agency Purple Creative; #Professionals in the horse suit, a last-minute entry from Racing UK; and Wonky Donkey, racing for Lookers Volkswagen.Spectators will be forgiven for thinking that drinking may have been involved. (via Metafilter)
Miss Cellania's Links
Amazon’s Facial Recognition Matched 28 Members of Congress to Criminal Mugshots. In case you are wondering, those were false positives instead of hidden arrests among your representatives.
Woody Woodpecker vs. a Polish Animal Control officer.
27 Delicious Recipes to Try On Your Next Camping Trip. These are foods you really want to eat, adapted to primitive cooking methods.
A Person Can Instantly Blossom into a Savant-and No One Knows Why. The lucky few who experience sudden savant syndrome describe it as an epiphany of understanding.
Here's How Bad the Heat has Been Around the World. Records are being broken, and even the Arctic Circle has wildfires.
1,000-Year-Old Handprint From “Europe’s Lost People” Discovered In Scotland. A stone anvil contains a remnant of the Pictish coppersmith who used it.
Marine Biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez was Bitten and Dragged by a Crocodile ... and Lived to Tell Her Story. As terrifying as it was, she knew what to do and what not to do.
9 women to watch from this year’s midterms.
What's with all these Robin Hood movies? There are seven of them in the Hollywood pipeline right now!
A blast from the past (2014): A Lifetime of Friendship: Pets and Their People.
Tweet of the Day
Uh oh, Rudy just noticed the lower-third. pic.twitter.com/wZQM6gsZvC— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) July 27, 2018
Thursday, July 26, 2018
The Plant Queen
That's life, isn't it? Actually, that's life when you're young and just starting out. I've been growing plant for around 40 years, and there have been plenty of mass extinction events along the way, but you learn, you try again, and eventually you amass a decent garden, whether its houseplants, flowers, or vegetables -or all three! The real secret to convincing people you have a green thumb is to quickly get rid of the failures. Never speak of them. That way, all your friends and neighbors will see are your successes. This comic is from Sarah Andersen at Sarah's Scribbles.
French Restaurant
This is how I feel hearing Princess and her new husband speaking. The difference is that I don't pretend to understand. I know my limitations. The closed captions on this video have a lot of [speaking French], so I don't know if Keegan Michael-Key is actually speaking French or French-sounding gibberish. The auto-translate doesn't help, because it translates the English captions, not the spoken language. (via Digg)
Miss Cellania's Links
The Miles App Constantly Tracks Your Movement in Exchange for Discounts. It rewards you for green transportation, but invades your privacy to pay for it.
Unprofessional Office Supplies. Everybody wants them!
The Grim Conclusions of the Largest-Ever Study of Fake News. Falsehoods almost always beat out the truth on Twitter, penetrating further, faster, and deeper into the social network than accurate information.
New 'Amazing Dragon' Dinosaur Species Discovered in China. Lingwulong shenqi is a relatively short-necked sauropod that lived 174 million years ago.
For Centuries, People Took Chunks of Stonehenge Home as Souvenirs. They also carved their initials into the ancient stones.
The Fish That Gave Too Much. Overfishing of anchovies in the Mediterranean may alter the traditional Mediterranean diet.
How to Stay Married After Your Baby is Born, or, I’m not Divorced Yet. Laura June spells out the realities of that first year of parenthood.
A blast from the past (2014): 9 Silly Sharks.
Fire in Cardboard City
The New Yorker brings us an adventure set in a very flammable location -a city made completely of corrugated cardboard! When a vehicle ignites, it's panic time. Fighting this fire is a dangerous proposition, because even the fire hose is made of cardboard. The story is a mixture of funny, terrifying, and dumbfounding. What kind of dumbass opens a fireworks shop in a city made of cardboard? (via Metafilter)
Tweet of the Day
Newsweek cover, 45 years ago this week: pic.twitter.com/GoZY80n60s— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 25, 2018
My, time does fly. That seems like just yesterday.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Aura Cleans Grandpa Mason's Ears
If you've been around here a while, you know I've been following the progress of the new kittens at TinyKittens' livestream. The kittens are old enough to adopt now. Here you see Aura, the one with the cleft palate, showing her love for Grandpa Mason.
I actually think this is her equivalent of comfort nursing, as she only does it whilst making sleepy-happy biscuits and purring. I suspect that she never learned "normal" comfort nursing because it was too uncomfortable with her massive cleft palate for her to latch onto things like other kittens do. With ears, she can still slobber all over them without making it hard to breathe and without sending drool up into her nasal cavity.Aura was the smallest surviving kitten. She looks great now!
Consensus
It wouldn't be so bad if we could more easily recognize the bots when we encounter them. They're getting better all the time. This comic is from Zack Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
How Did Cereal Become a Staple Breakfast Item?
Cold cereal is a fairly American habit. The rest of the world eats a light meal of bread, fruit, and a couple of other normal foods, or maybe a hearty cooked meal if you do heavy labor. So why do we eat so much sugary cereal with milk? Yeah, it's tasty, but it's not good for us. Those cereals were born to be health foods, especially good for the suppression of sexual urges. Simon Whistler of Today I Found Out explains the evolution of breakfast itself first, and then the origins of the cereals we know.
Miss Cellania's Links
The Tragic Story of Soyuz 11. Three cosmonauts died in orbit in 1971, as they began their journey home from Russia's Salyut 1 Space Station.
In George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984, the “final, most essential command” of the ruling totalitarian regime is “to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.” On Tuesday, President Trump made that same request of his supporters.
Shaggy get philosophical. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Meet the People Who Grind Out the Best Movie Trailers in the World. Learn what they do to lure you into a theater.
Captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager volunteers for the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign. AOC is delighted.
6 Hilarious Ways Our Ancestors Solved Everyday Problems. They did the best they could with what they had.
37 Movies to Watch in the Second Half of 2018. There are some really good ones to look forward to.
Kitten needs his music to go to sleep.
A blast from the past (2010): 11 Ways We Used Radiation in Everyday Life.
Sweet Child o' Mine
Performed by the Capitol Children's Choir. This was produced ten years ago, so all these children are grown now.
Tweet of the Day
Fox & Friends had Daily Caller editor @VAKruta on to discuss the fear she felt attending @Ocasio2018 rally.— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 24, 2018
"They talk about things everybody wants, especially if you're a parent. They talk about education for your kids, health care... it was really uncomfortable." #BeyondParody pic.twitter.com/BULE0KFuPJ
It's just too bad that people wanting to improve the lives of other people makes you uncomfortable, but kudos for stepping outside your bubble for a minute. The comments on this Tweet are well worth a read. Stephen Colbert had fun with this one.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Groom's Cake Surprise
What happens when an Alabama fan marries an LSU fan? Shenanigans! Johnny is a dedicated 'Bama fan, and his bride Bekka roots for LSU. The wedding was lovely, and Bekka arranged for a nice groom's cake emblazoned with a big red A for Alabama. A lovely gesture, right? Except she was trolling him. Read the details and see his full reaction at Toprivalry. College rivalries are taken seriously in the South. (via reddit)
DNA Animation
WEHImovies made this sequence for an exhibit called "The Future Starts Here" 2018. It's amazing! All this stuff is going on inside everyone of our trillions of cells. (via Digg)
The Cantina Band Documentary
One of the biggest bands of the 1970s was Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, but since they didn't get the promotion they deserved, they became known as simply the Cantina band. That's being rectified somewhat with a behind-the-scenes documentary on their career, sort of, which is really just an elaborate Comic Con trailer from Conan O'Brien. A slew of celebrities make appearances. (via Laughing Squid)
Mama Cats Looking out for Their Kittens' Safety
A compilation of videos where mom protects kittens from heights, dogs, getting lost, and the dreaded vacuum cleaner.
Tweet of the Day
Protestors learning new instruments tonight pic.twitter.com/LNugPVJjfn— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) July 24, 2018
There have been various bands playing as loud as possible outside the White House for days. Everyone wants to get in on the act.
Monday, July 23, 2018
What Kittens Do To Your Brain
Cats are so devious, they've fooled humans into loving them. Neuroscience Ph.D. candidate Shannon Odell explains the mechanism in our brains that make us defenseless against cute little baby cats. (via Nag on the Lake)
Dog Know How to Cool Off
It's hot this summer in North Carolina, especially if you are a dog bred for cold climates. Mako the Husky has found a way around that, because he's found his place -inside the ice maker! He would have never been found if he'd pulled his tail in properly. Now the ice machine belongs to him.
Boing Boing has another video where they caught Mako in the act of climbing into the ice machine.
The Monster
Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble is doing something different: a continued story. This is the first panel, from about a week ago. Since then, this little monster has gone out on his own, and is trying to find a job, which isn't so easy. I don't know where the story is going, but I'm keen to follow along! You can start here, and hit the "next" button to pull up the panels in order.
Impromptu Fusion
A Croatian man married a Kenyan woman, and the wedding guests had a bit of fun as they were waiting for the bride to emerge from the house. The fusion music sounds like cumbia to those who are familiar with it. Here's a peek at the bride and groom. (via reddit)
Miss Cellania's Links
Wayne’s World: A Classic Comedy About Creativity and Commerce. In 1992, 'selling out' was a controversial decision.
More Voters Are Being Kicked Off the Rolls, Especially in States with a History of Discrimination.
Remembering Antarctica’s Nuclear Past. McMurdo Station was powered by a small nuclear reactor for a short time, but it will never happen again.
Don't Leave Your Parabolic Mirror in the Car. The results might be hard to explain to your insurance adjuster.
The Risky Thailand Cave Rescue Relied on Talent, Luck, and Sticking to the Rules. A professional diver explains the five rules of cave diving.
Europe's Scorching Weather has Revealed a Mysterious Henge. Parched vegetation in Ireland's Boyne Valley draws a distinct picture of the structures below ground.
The Allure of Small Towns for Big City Freelancers. Having started out in a small town, this freelancer feels ahead of the game.
Trump’s Tax Cut Hasn’t Done Anything for Workers. Wages were supposed to rise. Instead, they’ve fallen.
A blast from the past (2016): 9 Amazing Tiki Bars.
Miss Cellania's Links
Liberal Blind Spots Are Hiding the Truth About ‘Trump Country.’
Our homes don’t need formal spaces. (via Metafilter)
How to Stage Photos for a Real Estate Listing. A realtor trying to sell a two-bedroom house in Granbury, Texas, enlisted the help of a T-rex! (via Boing Boing)
Here’s What Happened When The Government Lost Control Of The Biggest Nuclear Cleanup In The US.
How the Mesmerizing ‘Sibiu Eyes’ Became a Protest Symbol in Romania. The traditional anthropomorphic windows are recognizable as someone keeping an eye on things.
Storsjöodjuret, Sweden's Legendary Lake Monster. Accounts of sightings go back over 300 years, of a creature that's estimated to be anywhere from 10 to 42 feet long. (via Strange Company)
Mosaic Vermin Invade New York City as Part of Jim Bachor’s Latest Pothole Interventions. (via Nag on the Lake)
Physicists are Preoccupied with Beauty. A hypotheses doesn't need to be aesthetically pleasing to be true and enlightening.
A blast from the past (2010): No Bull (well, one): 7 Historical Cow Tales.
Cats are Beatles Fans!
You might not have known that cats are big fans of the Beatles. Hit the "read more" button for more evidence.
A Girl and Her Cat Sing Starship
A little girl on her bicycle with a kitten in the basket sing a song that has nothing to do with anything while all kinds of weird things go on around them. It makes no sense at all, and my reaction was “This is silly!” (Which is exactly the kind of thing I love.) Then it turns out that was the whole point. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Tweet of the Day
This gets funnier and funnier the more I watch it pic.twitter.com/5WpD92WT3u— Eve Forster 👩🏼🔬🧠 (@EveForster) July 21, 2018
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Two New Peacock Spider Species
Jurgen Otto (Peacockspiderman) is known on the internet as for his spectacular photos and videos of peacock spiders. You might not have known that Otto, along with his colleague David Knowles, have discovered the majority of the 70 known species of peacock spider. Knowles spotted a spider with a peculiarly energetic dance he called the Hokey Pokey spider in 1994, but didn't bring back a specimen. He's been looking for it ever since. Knowles and Otto looked for the spider in 2015 and 2016, and almost gave up, but Otto went out into the Australian wild alone in 2017. That's when he found the Hokey Pokey spider, retrieved a specimen as well as pictures and video, and got to name the species Maratus tortus. On the same trip, he found yet another new species with spectacular markings that he named Maratus unicup. See more pictures and more complete videos of these new spiders at ABC News.
The Evolution of Science Fiction
Science fiction speculates about the march of science and technology. The best science fiction raises questions about how those things affect humans and the way we live. PBS Digital Studios looks at the development of science fiction from Frankenstein to Black Panther. (via the AV Club)
