Wednesday, October 31, 2018
A Stop by Windsor Castle
In this clip from the OWN TV series The Specials, Sam visits his younger brother Jack, who is on duty as one of the Queen's Guard at Windsor Castle. You can tell that they are both very proud. (via reddit)
Aura Update
Remember last spring, when I posted so much about the TinyKittens webcam? Then you'll recall the kitten Aura, who was born with a severe cleft palate and had to be tube-fed until she learned to eat solid dry food. Aura and all the other kittens have been adopted into permanent homes, and Aura was taken by Shelly Roche, the kittens main caretaker. Aura had her cleft palate repair surgery on October 17. Shelly calls it "surprise surgery," because she took Aura in for her first consultation at West Coast Veterinary Dental Services Ltd. and they said, "Do you want us to do the surgery today?" Surprise! See pictures of the surgery here. She was the recipient of a donated piece of bone from a dog.
The stitches held for the required ten days, and Aura can now eat canned cat food -and she's eating up a storm. You can follow her progress at her Facebook page.
Notorious RBG Halloween Costume
My daughter’s wheelchair made the PERFECT foundation for her Halloween costume. pic.twitter.com/EUjuVylIw3— Warriormom (@FightingForSB) October 27, 2018
Miss Cellania's Links
From Elizabeth Taylor to Adolph Hitler, Presenting History’s Greatest Decoys. Hitler's double was filmed for posterity, although he didn't live to see it, in a video that may be disturbing.
The Echoes of Kristallnacht. On November 9-10, 1938, 91 Jewish people died, 30,000 were arrested, and 7,000 Jewish businesses were attacked.
The Creepiest Thing That Ever Happened To You.
The Mountaintop Cemeteries Surrounded by Coal Mines. The process of mountaintop removal has no respect for the living or the dead.
When ‘Dumb Suppers’ Were a Halloween Love Ritual. Once upon a time, young women indulged in magical rites that would reveal who they were to marry.
The Nazi Werewolves Who Terrorized Allied Soldiers at the End of WWII.
The Bible says to welcome immigrants. So why don’t white evangelicals?
Here's a roundup of political links to get you up to speed.
A blast from the past (2008): America’s Most Haunted: Six Seriously Spooky Sites.
The Kenova Pumpkin House
I posted about the Kenova Pumpkin House 11 years ago, and wondered if it was still a thing in Kenova, West Virginia. Yes, it's up and running for Halloween 2018!
Tweet of the Day
Under Trump’s watch:— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) October 29, 2018
-Deadliest massacre of Jews in US history (today)
-Deadliest mass shooting in US history (las Vegas)
-Deadliest high school shooting in US history (Parkland)
-Biggest political assassination attempt in US history. (This week)
And what does the president want to talk about? Central American refugees, and how we must deploy the army to "defend" our country from them.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
I Got a Job!
It's true! I'm a part-time baker at a local grocery store. I'm in training right now, and it's terrifying. I don't know if I'll be good at this, or be able to keep up with everything. It's been more than thirty years since I've had a job requiring standing all day, and my legs are killing me. And I have to get up pretty early. But I'm excited about it, especially about the prospect of a regular paycheck. I now have several small income streams cobbled together, and although it's not as much as I used to make, it's enough for someone who lives alone and whose kids have full scholarships.
As a consequence, posting may be a little erratic here until I get my schedule straightened out and get used to it. Please bear with me; it's just temporary.
As a consequence, posting may be a little erratic here until I get my schedule straightened out and get used to it. Please bear with me; it's just temporary.
The Swords of Swap
Gettin' funny with the magic, eh? This comic is from Matthew J. Wills of the webcomic Swords. It's about swords. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Miss Cellania's Links
Tossing Salmon for Science. Twenty years of throwing dead fish onto a riverbank makes the trees grow faster. (via reddit)
The Psychology of Faking Your Own Death.
https://gizmodo.com/the-psychology-of-faking-your-own-death-1830022958
Why Is It So Hard For Native Americans To Vote In This Utah County?
Come along for a screening of The Rock Horror Picture Show deep underground in the Paris Catacombs. (Possibly NSFW content)
The religious right has infiltrated the office of Health and Human Services, and reproductive rights are the first target.
These Are The Forgotten Sex Workers Of The First World War Who Played An Important Role In Soldiers' Lives.
The Hidden History of African-American Burial Sites in the Antebellum South.
Billionaires Made More Money in 2017 Than Any Year in Recorded History.
A blast from the past (2007): Destination Cemeteries.
Tweet of the Day
Boom! Thanks again to everyone who contributed and to Sister Bar and @Boxingbearbrew. pic.twitter.com/Uqn2lgTXpz— Dukes Up! (@dukesuporg) October 22, 2018
Monday, October 29, 2018
Three-Year-Old Sings BoRhap
The 1975 Queen song "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the perfect tune to belt out in the car when you're by yourself, or when you have your preschooler in the back seat. Here, three-year-old Holly Lee sings the whole song, sans musical accompaniment, with just the minimum of help from her mom. (via Laughing Squid)
This….is a Thriller
I am proud and pleased to present a guest post from author and historian WTM, who has spent a lot of time watching classic TV this fall.
As a child of the 1960’s, I was fortunate enough at the tender age of eight to be present for a milestone in television history when, on September 13th, 1960, a new hour-long NBC anthology series premiered. Titled Thriller (aka Boris Karloff's Thriller), it was hosted by legendary horrormeister Boris Karloff.
In seventy years of commercial television history, no other program has ever so effectively realized the enormous potential of cinematic horror. That this black and white hour of weekly television so perfectly captured the unimagined terror and literacy of some of the greatest works in modern horror literature is an enduring testament to the power and legacy of Boris Karloff's Thriller. Sadly, the world of weekly commercial television has seen nothing approaching the quality and integrity of this nightmarish series either before or since its remarkable, gothic inception.
The above sentiments notwithstanding, Thriller originally presented little more than quite ordinary tales on crime and mystery, the content and format (including a host and his opening narration) being in apparent imitation of the popular contemporary program Alfred Hitchcock Presents. However, it soon became a showcase for gothic horror stories, many of which were based on works by authors who were the greatest writers in the genre, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Cornell Woolrich, Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard, Richard Matheson, and Charlotte Armstrong.
As would also occur later during the 1960’s with the gothic daytime television series Dark Shadows, Thriller’s producers quickly came to realize that television viewers of that era had a pronounced taste for horror and the supernatural, as opposed to mere mystery and crime drama, and there came a sea change in Thriller as a result. Suddenly, instead of mere mystery and ‘cops and robbers’ intrigue, there soon appeared a host of zombies, witches, demons, vampires, ghosts, ghouls, sorcerers, voodoo practitioners, and other unworldly beings and things, with a much greater thematic emphasis on supernatural horror.
The effect was astounding. Thriller quickly became one of the first, if not the first, ‘must-see TV’ programs of the 1960’s, and it has since garnered a cult following that is active to this day. Small wonder, with the arresting imagery seen on this television series, examples being:
* a dead man walking down stairs, brandishing the bloody hatchet that killed him
* the view from a moving child's swing that has just been used to kill a man
* a man morphing into a living skeleton with glowing eye sockets
* a possessed woman who has bitten the heads off of her pet birds
* the stark realization that one is, quite literally, a monster
* a melting wax statue revealing a skeleton within
* a sorcerer’s decomposing corpse being burned
* a laughing skeleton morphing into a corpse
* disembodied hands that move and kill
* a mirror swallowing a woman
* tormented zombies in a crypt
* Psycho-type human remains
* a genuine medusa's head
On the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), fan Ron Panarotti describes Thriller as follows:
The show obviously owed a lot to the legacy of E.C. Comics, and the better episodes include The Hungry Glass, Pigeons From Hell, The Cheaters, A Wig for Miss Devore, and The Incredible Doktor Markesan. The series often gave us intelligently written stories and, just as important, frequently succeeded in truly frightening its viewers.
Mr. Panarotti’s praise is well-placed; indeed, in his non-fiction book on horror, Danse Macabre, contemporary horror author Stephen King calls Thriller "the best horror series ever put on TV".
However, as with most television series, there are numerous episodes that do not measure up to the rest, including a few actual clunkers. These are generally those episodes that were produced at the beginning of Thriller’s first season. In Thriller’s defense, however, it must be said at once that the Hollywood writers' strike of 1960 was probably the main reason that the early scripts weren't living up to the name of the series. When compared with today's graphically gory productions such as HBO’s Tales From the Crypt (ironically, based upon the same E.C. comics that had in part inspired Thriller), Thriller might seem to be quite tame to modern audiences, but overall, the show has withstood the test of time and can, even today, still inspire chills and goose bumps, as we see here in a testimonial from another satisfied customer on the IMDb:
Recently I saw a Thriller episode on video entitled The Premature Burial and man, even at age 30 plus, it scared the pants off of me and made the goosebumps rise!
I used to watch Thriller regularly as a child and many of the episodes scared the bejesus out of me too. I distinctly remember watching one such episode, The Hungry Glass, from the safety of behind the couch. Yet, this was also solid Family Fare - “the family that was afraid together stayed together” - and my father liked the program as much as his adolescent son did.
The most memorable Thriller episode from my childhood would have to be Waxworks. This particular episode had it all for a young boy who found Thriller, well, thrilling: a spooky opening sequence that quickly becomes the stuff of nightmares, ear-piercing screams, a quite startling and dramatic introduction by Karloff (see above), a wax museum of horrors, bizarre and bloody murders, necromancy, implied necrophilia, exotic and beautiful women, altercations, guns, a fire, and a skeleton. What's not to like?
And it’s not just me, either; Ripperologist Magazine editor Eduardo Zinna offers the following, excerpted from a Thriller discussion that we once had on jtrforums.com:
“As sure as my name is Boris Karloff, this… is a THRILLER!- Boris Karloff, Thriller tagline
As a child of the 1960’s, I was fortunate enough at the tender age of eight to be present for a milestone in television history when, on September 13th, 1960, a new hour-long NBC anthology series premiered. Titled Thriller (aka Boris Karloff's Thriller), it was hosted by legendary horrormeister Boris Karloff.
In seventy years of commercial television history, no other program has ever so effectively realized the enormous potential of cinematic horror. That this black and white hour of weekly television so perfectly captured the unimagined terror and literacy of some of the greatest works in modern horror literature is an enduring testament to the power and legacy of Boris Karloff's Thriller. Sadly, the world of weekly commercial television has seen nothing approaching the quality and integrity of this nightmarish series either before or since its remarkable, gothic inception.
The above sentiments notwithstanding, Thriller originally presented little more than quite ordinary tales on crime and mystery, the content and format (including a host and his opening narration) being in apparent imitation of the popular contemporary program Alfred Hitchcock Presents. However, it soon became a showcase for gothic horror stories, many of which were based on works by authors who were the greatest writers in the genre, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Cornell Woolrich, Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard, Richard Matheson, and Charlotte Armstrong.
As would also occur later during the 1960’s with the gothic daytime television series Dark Shadows, Thriller’s producers quickly came to realize that television viewers of that era had a pronounced taste for horror and the supernatural, as opposed to mere mystery and crime drama, and there came a sea change in Thriller as a result. Suddenly, instead of mere mystery and ‘cops and robbers’ intrigue, there soon appeared a host of zombies, witches, demons, vampires, ghosts, ghouls, sorcerers, voodoo practitioners, and other unworldly beings and things, with a much greater thematic emphasis on supernatural horror.
The effect was astounding. Thriller quickly became one of the first, if not the first, ‘must-see TV’ programs of the 1960’s, and it has since garnered a cult following that is active to this day. Small wonder, with the arresting imagery seen on this television series, examples being:
* a dead man walking down stairs, brandishing the bloody hatchet that killed him* the view from a moving child's swing that has just been used to kill a man
* a man morphing into a living skeleton with glowing eye sockets
* a possessed woman who has bitten the heads off of her pet birds
* the stark realization that one is, quite literally, a monster
* a melting wax statue revealing a skeleton within
* a sorcerer’s decomposing corpse being burned
* a laughing skeleton morphing into a corpse
* disembodied hands that move and kill
* a mirror swallowing a woman
* tormented zombies in a crypt
* Psycho-type human remains
* a genuine medusa's head
On the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), fan Ron Panarotti describes Thriller as follows:
Thriller is simply the best horror program ever done on TV - better than The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, Night Gallery, Tales From the Darkside, Tales from the Crypt, etc. It's a shame this classic only ran two seasons; it deserved far better.The show took time to find its niche, and maybe this accounts for its premature demise. But once the show came into its own, nothing else could touch it.
The show obviously owed a lot to the legacy of E.C. Comics, and the better episodes include The Hungry Glass, Pigeons From Hell, The Cheaters, A Wig for Miss Devore, and The Incredible Doktor Markesan. The series often gave us intelligently written stories and, just as important, frequently succeeded in truly frightening its viewers.
Mr. Panarotti’s praise is well-placed; indeed, in his non-fiction book on horror, Danse Macabre, contemporary horror author Stephen King calls Thriller "the best horror series ever put on TV".
However, as with most television series, there are numerous episodes that do not measure up to the rest, including a few actual clunkers. These are generally those episodes that were produced at the beginning of Thriller’s first season. In Thriller’s defense, however, it must be said at once that the Hollywood writers' strike of 1960 was probably the main reason that the early scripts weren't living up to the name of the series. When compared with today's graphically gory productions such as HBO’s Tales From the Crypt (ironically, based upon the same E.C. comics that had in part inspired Thriller), Thriller might seem to be quite tame to modern audiences, but overall, the show has withstood the test of time and can, even today, still inspire chills and goose bumps, as we see here in a testimonial from another satisfied customer on the IMDb:
Recently I saw a Thriller episode on video entitled The Premature Burial and man, even at age 30 plus, it scared the pants off of me and made the goosebumps rise!
I used to watch Thriller regularly as a child and many of the episodes scared the bejesus out of me too. I distinctly remember watching one such episode, The Hungry Glass, from the safety of behind the couch. Yet, this was also solid Family Fare - “the family that was afraid together stayed together” - and my father liked the program as much as his adolescent son did.
And it’s not just me, either; Ripperologist Magazine editor Eduardo Zinna offers the following, excerpted from a Thriller discussion that we once had on jtrforums.com:
I remember Thriller from way back when. They were scary - no doubt about it. I still remember vividly Boris Karloff playing a doctor who brought his colleagues back from the dead to force them to apologise for not having recognised his genius; I remember John Carradine playing a hillbilly vampire; I remember a fat, bald character actor with a five o'clock shadow who played an executioner that has been poisoned trying to get across Paris in time to guillotine a condemned man; I remember Pigeons from Hell; I remember A Wig for Miss Devore; I remember Boris Karloff in The Premature Burial; I remember a dummy that came alive, and a host of others. I remember all right.Although Thriller’s forte had become supernatural horror, not all of the later episodes were of that bent. The producers covered practically all genres, and often covered several in parallel. Take humor, for instance; if you think that there can be nothing funny about someone being buried alive, then you haven’t ever seen Thriller. Categories of the genres explored, with exemplary episodes for each, are as follows:
Miss Cellania's Links
Trump’s Caravan Hysteria Led to This. The president and his supporters insisted that several thousand Honduran migrants were a looming menace—and the Pittsburgh gunman took that seriously.
The Tale of the Diabolical Teapot. (via Strange Company)
Halloween Pop-Up Stores, Explained.
What Would Ina Garten Serve Trump?
1774 Rebel Newspaper Donated to Goodwill. A representative of a New York auction house estimates the newspaper's value at between $6,000 and $16,000. (Thanks, WTM!)
14 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Haunted House Actors. It's a peculiar job with peculiar perks and challenges.
Look at who’s knocking on doors for Stacey Abrams and all the Democrats in Georgia!
A Brief Halloween History of Pets in Costumes.
The 15 most interesting House races of 2018.
A blast from the past (2011): Six Seriously Spooky Cemetery Stories.
Tweet of the Day
Trump: Mexico must stop the caravan!— Dara Lind (@DLind) October 25, 2018
Mexico: ::stops about half the caravan::
Trump: why don’t people apply for asylum in Mexico?
1700 people and counting: ::apply for asylum in Mexico::
Trump: TROOPS, BORDER, NOW https://t.co/yGMUOAqw8I
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Lip Balm
Funny, I find lip balm all over the house. I'm pretty sure there's one in each room, and I can always find them. None of them were bought by me, and some are probably ten years old. I don't ever remember using the last of one, ever. This comic is from Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble.
This Week in Voter Suppression
Iconic Dodge City moved its only polling place outside town. One polling place for 27,000 people, and this year it will be even harder to get to. Dodge City is one of the few minority majority cities in the state. Then county election officials sent notices to newly-registered voters and gave them the wrong polling location.
Georgia
Georgia Voting Begins Amid Accusations of Voter Suppression. Voting should not involve suffering from heat exhaustion. Using an absentee ballot isn't an alternative because Georgia Is Using Amateur Handwriting Analysis to Disenfranchise Minority Voters. Also, more than 4,700 vote-by-mail applications were missing in DeKalb County, one of Georgia’s most populous and liberal-leaning regions. And voters have reported that their votes for Abrams have been changed to votes for Kemp.
North Carolina
North Carolina's stated reason for shutting down Sunday voting was that counties with heavy Sunday voting were disproportionately African-American, and that African-Americans tended to be Democrats. https://t.co/sbvHZUqWKO pic.twitter.com/jwU3E5cJlx— Harold Pollack (@haroldpollack) October 15, 2018
Arkansas
Democrat says she felt 'sheer disbelief' after being left off ballot in one Arkansas county.
Texas
Student voting rights fight erupts at Texas State University.
New York, Missouri, and Ohio
Republicans facing close races in three states send voters incorrect ballot info.
Tweet of the Day
Baby fever AND puppy fever oh no no no pic.twitter.com/n4psUcsivG— Bree (@_breezzz) October 13, 2018
(via Buzzfeed)
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Pure Canine Joy
In case you don't see the caption, it says,
“Stella’s home! I can’t wait for my girl to run directly into my arms like she always do—oh, right... that.”A dog must have her priorities. This is Stella, Queen of the Sploot. She's a yellow Lab who lives in Maine. She's had knee replacements, but that hasn't slowed her down at all. Let's take another look at Stella in the leaf pile.
See more videos of Stella at Instagram. (via Metafilter, where you'll find more canine joy links.)
Internal Monologues
There are amazing things about every field of study that only experts ever think about. That's okay, because the rest of us have too much to wonder at and worry about already. This comic is from Randall Munroe at xkcd.
The 2018 Illusion of the Year
The winners of the 2018 Best Illusion of the Year contest have been announced. Once again, mathematician Kokichi Sugihara of Meiji University has taken the top honor, with his illusion called Triply Ambiguous Object. It's just a flat picture, with a 3D object drawn on it. But that object looks different in the two mirrors placed near it. You think you know what the object looks like, but when it is rotated, it looks ...different. Trying to suss out the individual shapes in the mirror images will tire you. So take a look at the second place illusion, from David Phillips, Priscilla Heard, and Christopher Tyler. It's called Movement Illusion with a Twist.
Cosmic! You can see all the top ten finalists from the contest here. -via Gizmodo
Light Goes On
Light painter Darren Pearson has a video that follows a skeleton as it skateboards and dances. The skeleton is made from over 700 light painting photographs taken over a year's time. (via Laughing Squid)
Friday, October 26, 2018
Watch a Dumbo Octopus in Action
Grimpoteuthis is a type of octopus that was nicknamed "Dumbo" because of the fins that resemble the large ears that the Disney elephant could use to fly. This little guy certainly looks like he's flying with those batwing fins in this deep-sea video taken by the ROV Hercules controlled by the EV Nautilus crew. Another nickname is the umbrella octopus, and you'll see why. This specimen was two feet long, and was recorded in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. He/she thoroughly charmed the scientists watching aboard the Nautilus. Don't miss the punch line at the end. (via Smithsonian)
Spooky Halloween Facts
Why do we get a thrill out of horror films? And what's the deal with poisoned trick-or-treat candy? Those are a couple of the subjects in the Halloween edition of the Mental Floss show Scatterbrained. You'll also hear about a scientist who did research on trick-or-treaters, the inspirations for Stephen King novels, and a 1992 British TV hoax that terrified the audience.
Travel Priorities
Brain might think he's in charge, but Tongue knows how it really is. My last big road trip took the family to Mt. Rushmore, the Devil's Tower, the Badlands, the St. Louis Arch, Yellowstone, and all the scenic places in between, but we felt most adventurous looking for a good place to eat. This is the latest from the Awkward Yeti.
Miss Cellania's Links
Here's always that one guy that the others guys are always tempted to pick on.
There's an AT-AT in the Front Yard!
The Most Haunted Places in All of Florida.
Sarasota Candidate Aims To Become First Florida State Legislator With A Disability.
How much do these chicken wings cost? Math nerds are going bananas trying to discern a pattern in the pricing structure.
Hurricanes destroy beachside homes, but not this one. The Sand Palace stood tall among the Mexico Beach homes flattened by Hurricane Michael.
A blast from the past (2010): The Scientists Behind the Movies.
Tweet of the Day
I STILL BELIEVE!!!!! #thelostboys 🦇🎷🦇🎷🦇🎷🦇🎷🦇🎷🦇🎷🦇🎷 @Winter @RealKiefer 🦇🎷🦇🎷 pic.twitter.com/gFmQ30rC1R— Truck Torrence ✨ 100% Soft ✨ (@100soft) October 24, 2018
Turn the sound up! Truck Torrence created this short animation of a clip from the movie The Lost Boys. He says,
“October is just a great excuse to draw all my favorite horror movies, so every year I try and do something that scratches that itch,” Torrence told io9 via email. “I eventually always go back to The Lost Boys because it’s one of my all time favorites and I basically just want someone to hire me to make a full length animated version of the movie.”
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Hispanic Halloween
Comedian David Lopez imagined the movie Halloween as if it happened in his house. Michael Meyers is no match for... well, just watch it. Bonus comedy if you are bilingual. This year, he produced the sequel.
There are other videos where Lopez (Juan) encounters Chucky, Pennywise, and Jigsaw. (via Metafilter)
The Flu
I've never worked any place where you could just put work off until later. You were expected to be there, and if you weren't, not only did you not get paid, but your co-workers had to work extra to cover for you, which made them more upset than bringing in a bug. This story is from Yanni Davros at Prolific Pen Comics. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Best of Michael Jackson Halloween Light Show 2018
Music teacher Tom BetGeorge of Tracy, California is known around the world for his computerized light shows for Halloween and Christmas. He has unveiled his 2018 Halloween show, set to a medley of music by Michael Jackson. Tom points out that the notes on the piano are accurate for the songs. I am glad that the ubiquitous geometric Jack O'Lantern faces we've seen for years have been replaced by new pumpkins. (via Boing Boing)
Miss Cellania's Links
Cape Town's Slave Ship Secret. The São José Paquete d’Africa foundered in 1794 off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, and has now been found. (via Digg)
Leonid & Friends are a Russian band that plays Chicago songs as they were meant to be.
How and Why Conservative Nonsense Dominates American Politics.
How to Make Chocolate Dead Man’s Toes from the movie Hocus Pocus.
The Parasite That Forces Bees to Dig Their Own Graves.
How Generous The Wealthiest Billionaires In The US Are, Charted.
Younger Americans are better than older Americans at telling factual news statements from opinions.
Trapped in a House with a Psychopath. Trump has invented a new twist in gaslighting.
A blast from the past (2014): 10 Halloween Costumes That Incorporate Amputations and Wheelchairs.
Tweet of the Day
generational decorating trends are wildly arbitrary like why would millennials be drawn to succulents which are basically just well-hydrated plants with good plant skin that manage to thrive in the face of unpredictable plant resources and all in tiny tiny pots it makes no sense— Kate Haunting (@takehenning) September 11, 2018
(via Buzzfeed)
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Why Beautiful Things Make us Happy
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it's fairly impossible to define. That doesn't mean we haven't tried. An easier question would be how we did come to value beauty as much as we have -and not just in people, but in everything around us. Kurzgesagt tries to answer that question. (via Boing Boing)
Crazy Old West Train
Steve Onotera (samuraiguitarist) has a new song for us: a spaghetti Western version of "Crazy Train." Enjoy! (via Laughing Squid)
Wolf, Man
I think I know why Anthony is missing. This guy would drive me up a wall. This comic is from Buttersafe.
Miss Cellania's Links
Why There’s a Columbo Statue in the Middle of Budapest.
Against a Federal Registry of Genitals. A report that the Trump administration plans to define gender based on the appearance of infants runs counter to developmental biology and individual privacy.
They Paved Paradise and Put Up a ...Forest? The story of Akron's Innerbelt National Forest. (via Metafilter)
27 Studies That Prove Scientists Are Weird, Weird People.
Stoning Our Neighbors to Death Makes the Corn Grow High, and Elitist Liberals Should Stop Attacking This Traditional Value.
Skullzones are calzones made in the shape of skulls, and you can make them with these instructions instructions. Do not miss the final image! (via Boing Boing)
15 Pumpkins That Were Clearly Carved By Hilariously Weird People.
Trump is now using the official White House website for partisan propaganda. This can't be legal.
World’s oldest shipwreck is discovered in Black Sea. The Greek ship dates back 2,400 years! (via TYWKIWDBI)
A blast from the past (2014): 8 Parasites that Create Zombie Animals.
The Little House
The 1952 Disney short The Little House is based on the 1942 children's book by Virginia Lee Burton. The story was inspired by her own childhood home. Burton said it was not a critique of urban sprawl, but a story designed to illustrate the passage of time to children. In the book, the house stays in the same family over generations.
Tweet of the Day
Megyn Kelly wonders what the big deal is about blackface pic.twitter.com/07yvYDuAYe— Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) October 23, 2018
Apparently, Meghan Kelly is still on TV. That was news to me. This completely tone-deaf exchange happened Tuesday morning. None of the four mentioned the particular history of blackface in America. But even so, why would she question the offensiveness of a costume that she knows darn well is used even today to mock people? Kelly later issued an apology.
"I realize now that such behavior is indeed wrong, and I am sorry. The history of blackface in our culture is abhorrent; the wounds too deep."That sentence tells us that Kelly got schooled about the history of blackface sometime between the broadcast and the apology. You'd think a journalist would try to be up on such things. (via The Root)
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
An Honest Trailer for Halloween (1978)
The number one movie at the box-office right now is Halloween, with the same characters as the 1978 movie of the same name. That original Halloween was a groundbreaking horror film that spawned sequel after sequel after sequel, so now they are just recycling the movie titles. But try to remember back when you first saw Halloween -the original- for the first time. You were probably so frightened that you didn't have the time or the energy to critique the film. Screen Junkies has the time, and they did it for us. Spoiler alert: If you only saw the first movie, you made the right choice.
Apollo 11’s Journey to the Moon
If you are of a certain age, you remember watching Apollo 11 land on the moon. Everyone in the world with access to TV was watching at the same time. Almost 50 years on, you might enjoy an explanation of how that happened. From the perspective of 2018, it seems like a miracle that we sent men to walk on the moon and brought them back to earth with less computer power than the average iPhone, when we now can't even hitch a ride to the space station.
Zombie
It would be good to know which of your friends has a "think first ask questions later" attitude. Especially on those days you don't bother looking in the mirror. This comic is from Sanesparza. (via Geeks are Sexy)
᚛ᚈᚑᚋ ᚄᚉᚑᚈᚈ᚜ and ᚛ᚑᚌᚐᚋ᚜
No, the title does not mean I am having a stroke. Tom Scott looks at an old written language called Ogham. It's a language carved into stone that fell out of use a thousand years ago. It turned out to be unique for as translating languages into unicode, so it could be used on the internet. As you can see by the title of this post, they managed to do it.
Miss Cellania's Links
Who Pays? The vast majority of state and local tax systems are inequitable and upside-down, taking a much greater share of income from low- and middle-income families than from wealthy families. (via Nag on the Lake)
Living off the Land in the Arctic Circle. In Lapland, chefs and residents hunt and gather to make bear soup, lingonberry syrup, and reindeer.
The Disgusting Food Museum, opening soon in Sweden, will highlight recipes from around the world that make some folks salivate and others feel a bit queasy. (via Nag on the Lake)
Trump is glorifying violence against journalists. This is a national disgrace.
How Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” Went From a Hit to a Punch Line to a Pop Culture Anthem.
The Holdouts: Dry Towns in Otherwise Wet States.
True Grit: From Weird Mascot to Eldritch Revolutionary. The Philadelphia Flyers new mascot Gritty has become a symbol of the Resistance. (via Metafilter)
He was a Confederate soldier. She was born into slavery. But they married in 1872 in South Carolina and eventually produced nine children.
When Crime Is a Family Affair. The case of the Bogle family illustrates how a penchant for crime is learned.
Tweet of the Day
Republicans: We're going to cut taxes for the rich next year and also cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.— Craig Harrington (@Craigipedia) October 22, 2018
Democrats: THEY'RE GOING TO CUT TAXES FOR THE RICH AND CUT MEDICARE, MEDICAID, AND SOCIAL SECURITY!
Trump: GUATAMALA IS ISIS!!
Nightly News: Is Guatemala ISIS?
Monday, October 22, 2018
Harriet the Singing Donkey
Martin Stanton lives in Ireland, and his neighbors down the road have a donkey named Harriet. Harriet never learned how to heehaw like other donkeys, but she's got an operatic soprano voice with occasional vibrato. I am not making this up. (via Laughing Squid)
Tyler Trent's Vision of the Future
Purdue student Tyler Trent has been battling bone cancer since he was 15. He kept up his classes as long as he could, and even now is an avid Purdue football fan. Trent made it to the Purdue-OSU game on Saturday, and predicted Purdue would win, when no one else thought it possible. Despite the fact that OSU was ranked #2 in the nation, the Boilermakers won 49-20. ESPN spoke to Trent after the game.
THIS is what sports are all about— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) October 21, 2018
Thank you for sharing your story with us, @theTylerTrent. pic.twitter.com/YNyrz9Ngen
(via Metafilter)
Miss Cellania's Links
She kept a smile on her face during the whole struggle.
A new study shows that violence spikes when Trump comes to town.
Every year (except 2017), aubra_cadabra and her friends do group costumes for Halloween, focusing on the roles of one versatile actor. This year, they chose Tom Hanks. (via reddit)
The American Economy Is Rigged. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz writes about economic inequality in Scientific American.
100 Websites That Shaped the Internet as We Know It.
The Chinese mountain cat is so elusive that the first photo ever taken of one in the wild was in 2007. But now we have video from a camera trap featuring a mother and two adorably rowdy cubs. (via Metafilter)
28 Whose Line Is It Jokes That Prove It's A National Treasure.
Jettatore: The Evil Eye of Casoli Paracrotti. He wasn't evil, just careless, but he left a trail of dead people wherever he went. (via Strange Company)
For Sale: The Entire Contents of a Colorado Theme Park. Heritage Square Amusement Park operated continuously from 1971 to 2018.
Tweet of the Day
Oh my god what would you name this cat...?? 😱😯🐱 pic.twitter.com/EKdBtrn9EU— 𝔑𝔞𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔫 𝔎𝔯𝔞𝔢𝔪𝔢𝔯 (@AnimalVibes1234) October 17, 2018
The responses to this Tweet (polls, images, gifs, and videos) are well worth a read. (via Metafilter)
Sunday, October 21, 2018
The 2018 Squishing of the Squash
As they do every year, the Oregon Zoo put on a show when they let their elephants loose on a truckload of giant pumpkins! The Squishing of the Squash took place Friday morning in front of an appreciative crowd. Champion giant pumpkin grower Larry Nelson of Albany, Oregon, supplied the pumpkins. The pachyderms had fun kicking, smashing, and eating the pumpkins, and one might imagine they were putting some extra mustard on for the spectators. A good time was had by all. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Tweet of the Day
This is why Republican lawmakers feared doing healthcare townhalls. pic.twitter.com/zmywZNXkl0— Adam (@Khanoisseur) October 20, 2018
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Tweet of the Day
You really have to be so uncertain of your own masculinity to concern yourself with how another man carries his child. Any man who wastes time quantifying masculinity is terrified on the inside. https://t.co/9jsHZ3WKRn— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) October 16, 2018
Actor Daniel Craig was photographed carrying his month-old daughter. Piers Morgan has a problem with that. I find a responsible and loving father to be more attractive than any James Bond.
Friday, October 19, 2018
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