(via Bad Newspaper)
Friday, July 31, 2020
Trump Votes
Our current president seems to have had a bit of a problem casting his ballot in 2004. Ever the publicity hound, he allowed Access Hollywood to follow him around on election day. Was he not registered? Did he not know what precinct he was supposed to go to? He ended up with what he called an absentee ballot, but you couldn't get one on election day. It had to be a provisional ballot, which was only valid if they ever found his registration.
I Built a Trash Can That Hates Trash
Liam Thompson has way too much time on his hands. He had a dumb idea and all kinds of trouble making it work. Yet his earnest but wry Kiwi humor carries you through this less-than-informative tutorial for building a trash can that rejects your trash. (via Digg)
Good News and Bad News
Those vibrating creatures have a way of making their faults look like features. This comic is from Nathan Pyle's Strange Planet.
Star Wars Titles
The titles of the Star Wars movies work much better when you swap them around to the film they actually describe.
Episode I: The Rise of Skywalker
Episode II: Revenge of the Sith
Episode III: Attack of the Clones
Episode IV: Return of the Jedi
Episode V: The Force Awakens
Episode VI: The Last Jedi
Episode VII: The Empire Strikes Back
Episode VIII: A New Hope
Episode IX: The Phantom Menace
(via Metafilter)
Miss Cellania's Links
Seven seconds that illustrate 2020 perfectly.
That Weekly $600 Isn’t Just a Lifeline — It’s Lifting People Up.
They Came from Outer Space! The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
The 25 Best Movie Endings of All Time. Of course the list is subjective, but you'll probably agree with at least some of them.
Custom Face Mask Fails.
How Jared Kushner’s Secret Coronavirus Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air.” (via Jezebel)
The Kidnapping Foiled By The Titanic Sinking. Get more detailed information at Wikipedia.
What Women Voters Were Up Against in the 1920 Election. Not every state wanted them to cast a ballot.
A blast from the past (2016): 17 Species Named After Star Wars Characters.
Tweet of the Day
His girlfriend was struggling with her hair loss from alopecia.— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) July 29, 2020
Get out the tissues.
Humanity.🌎❤️ pic.twitter.com/EikwKnlACo
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Octopus Wants the Camera
A free diver was recording a small octopus in the ocean off Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France, when the cephalopod decided he wanted that camera. He reached out and took the GoPro for himself! That led to a chase and a tug-of-war between the diver and the octopus. Luckily, the diver had a second camera ready to capture the struggle. (via, appropriately, Laughing Squid)
Birdwatching
You know you've spent too much time in the virtual world when it starts to leak into the real world. Just don't do it in front of someone who will never let you live it down. This comic is from Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble.
Henriques the Contortionist
Have you ever noticed that male contortionists always bend forward, and female contortionists always bend backwards? This video is from 1944. (via I Am Bored)
Tweet of the Day
Witnessed this occult ceremony on my walk in the cemetary today pic.twitter.com/iatGTRuhxT— Sam Friedman (@sammyashermusic) May 2, 2020
(via Everlasting Blort)
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
The Little Shop of Horrors
The 1960 version, starring Jack Nicholson. From Wikipedia:
The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American horror comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood. The film's concept is thought to be based on "Green Thoughts," a 1932 story by John Collier about a man-eating plant.[6] Dennis McDougal suggests that Griffith may have been influenced by Arthur C. Clarke's 1956 sci-fi short story "The Reluctant Orchid"[7] (which was in turn inspired by the 1905 H. G. Wells story "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid").
The film stars Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, and Dick Miller, who had all worked for Corman on previous films. Produced under the title The Passionate People Eater,[8][9] the film employs an original style of humor, combining black comedy with farce[10] and incorporating Jewish humor and elements of spoof.[11] The Little Shop of Horrors was shot on a budget of $28,000 (about $240,000 in 2019),[12] with interiors being shot in two days utilizing sets that had been left standing from A Bucket of Blood.[13][14][15][16]
Joseph's Puzzle Machines
Joseph Herscher, of Joseph's Machines shows us how complicated it is to design Rube Goldberg contraptions by quizzing us on how different mechanisms will turn out. I got the first one right, but by taking the wrong path. These questions gradually get much harder. This turned out to be a lot of fun! (via Boing Boing)
Asterisk Correction
Of course we can figure out where they go. What is more likely: eating pizza on the couch at 3AM or riding a horse on the beach at dawn? This comic is from Randall Munroe at xkcd.
How Face Coverings and Masks Minimize The Spread of Coronavirus
This video compares teh activities of speaking, coughing, and sneezing while wearing a mask and while not wearing a mask. After seeing this, you will think about cooties, and why we should avoid spreading them. (via Boing Boing)
Miss Cellania's Links
How Scientists Encoded The Wizard of Oz Into DNA. (via Neatorama)
Read how the 3,300-year-old stone temples of Abu Simbel were cut, moved, and reassembled at their new home.
Coffee Kings of the Old West. (Thanks, WTM!)
Twitter Trends Are a Crime Against Me, the President, Tweets President.
How a Public Health Campaign in the Warsaw Ghetto Stemmed the Spread of Typhus.
Who Are 'America's Frontline Doctors', the Pro-Trump, Pro-Hydroxychloroquine Weirdos Banned From Social Media?
Setting for Van Gogh's Final Painting Found. (via Damn Interesting)
10 (Mostly) Bloodless Horror Movies, for When You Wanna Be Scared, Not Unconscious.
A blast from the past (2011): 11 Fictional Family Trees.
Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee
From Sister Act 2. Hymn adapted from Beethoven's Ode to Joy from his Ninth Symphony. This is the default song in my head for years now, but the version varies among many.
Tweet of the Day
he doesn't realize he can't scratch his ear while lying down pic.twitter.com/lR17ph2VM3— ياسمين (@minoovo) July 26, 2020
(via Neatorama)
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
An Honest Trailer for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
We were charmed by the 1982 Steven Spielberg movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It's such a universally-loved film that Screen Junkies had a bit of a problem coming up with enough snarky material for an Honest Trailer. So they did something different: they combined an Honest Trailer for E.T. with an Honest Trailer for another movie that tried to be E.T. The comparison is spot-on, while the contrast is the joke.
For 21 Years, No-One In Britain Knew How Long An Inch Was
Regarding the title, one could argue that no one in Britain knows what an inch is now, because they use meters and centimeters. But that's not what this is about. Any measurement must have standards. While measurements are now defined by physics and can be accurately recreated, those standards were once physical. So what happens when the standard prototype is destroyed? That happened when the British Parliament building burned down in 1834. Tom Scott tells the story, and a short history of measuring standards.
Miss Cellania's Links
How Dinosaurs Raised Their Young.
12 Words With Very Different Meanings in the US and the UK. This list doesn't explain why a man named Randy should go by Randall when visiting Britain, nor exactly which body part a fanny is.
Making a teddy bear out of a wash cloth or towel. (via Nag on the Lake)
Which Party is Really Trying to "Destroy the Suburbs"?
Taylor Ann's Painted Wedding Dresses.
Let’s Window Shop for French Fairytale Homes. See 18 historical French properties that are on the market now.
The Ghostly Radio Station that No One Claims to Run. (via Strange Company)
25 Years After Returning, Yellowstone’s Wolves Are the Most Studied but Misunderstood Good Boys.
A blast from the past (2016): 14 Rainbow Foods to Try.
Ivanovitch Tries to Reach the Sink
Ivanovitch’s favorite toy, a small rubber chicken, is in the sink. Normally, the cat would jump on the trash bin lid to get to the sink. Today, the bin does not have a lid. Ivanovitch could be forgiven for not knowing that …the first time. But in his desire to retrieve the toy, he forgets.
Who names a cat Ivanovitch? How would you call him? Oh yeah, it doesn’t matter what you call a cat, they are going to ignore you anyway. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)
Tweet of the Day
"Well son, it was July of 2020 that we really just gave up." pic.twitter.com/aQw6EFroES— Zach L. Wilson (@ThatZachWilson) July 19, 2020
(via Everlasting Blort)
Monday, July 27, 2020
Popcorn in Extreme Slow Motion
Get up close and detailed with a kernel of popcorn as it heats up. When the moisture inside turns to steam, the pressure it exerts causes the tough shell to violently burst open, so that the starch inside can freely expand. In this video, the process is seen slower and slower until you have a sequence filmed at 100,000 frames per second, which gives us a long view. We can see how the underside of the kernel is always where the rupture comes, because that's where the heat is. There's enough force to hurtle the kernel into the air as it does its thing. Oh yeah, the popcorn video is only two minutes long. (via Digg)
What the Toilet Paper Industry is Doing
Back in March, toilet paper suddenly disappeared from stores. The demand skyrocketed as the US locked down against the pandemic. Business Insider explains why that happened, and how TP companies responded to try to meet the demand. (via Damn Interesting)
An Offer He Can't Refuse
The laws of supply and demand still hold whether you are talking about grades or the most valuable thing any of us have: time. This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
Chanson Profonde
Sandra Boynton presents a delightful cat singing in French. The song is about singing in French ("Chanson Profonde" means "Profound Song"). You might enjoy it without reading the captions, but you will enjoy more if you do. The music is performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Ford, and Weird Al Yankovic. (via Metafilter)
Miss Cellania's Links
Vardan's family traumatized him with an elaborate prank.
Final Qantas 747 Departure Leaves a Special Message. As the last jet took off Wednesday with six pilots and no passengers, the flight path drew Qantas' distinctive kangaroo logo in the sky. (via BBC)
My Heritage is offering a free online photo enhancer that uses artificial intelligence to sharpen blurry photographs, and even add color if you like. (via Nag on the Lake)
Olivia Langdon Clemens, Mark Twain's Wife. (via Strange Company)
The Erfurt Latrine Disaster. (via reddit)
The Railway of the Dead. When London ran out of room for cemeteries, you took a train to the suburbs. (via Strange Company)
8 Big Reasons Election Day 2020 Could Be a Disaster.
The Universal Museum of Art grants us a virtual tour highlighting one of our favorite things -cats! Begin your virtual tour of Cats in Art History here. (via Nag on the Lake)
A blast from the past (2011): Rodent, or NOT a Rodent?
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Cursed Chair
Life is so much easier when you can just blame everything on an inanimate object, or supernatural forces, or both. This comic is from Randall Munroe at xkcd.
Monkey Farm Hand
This report from 1977 focuses on an Australian farmer and the former circus monkey he hired as a farm hand. (via Nag on the Lake)
Tweet of the Day
they've had enough pic.twitter.com/qK3wngDJnB— Pablo Rochat (@PabloRochat) July 21, 2020
(via Nag on the Lake)
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Colorful Politicians
Let me get this straight: Wright is Black, Black is white, and Blue is Black. (via Bad Newspaper)
Experience
Tell me about it. The one kid who will be stuck here with me until further notice has applied for several frontline jobs. She has a degree, and quite a bit of retail and service industry experience, yet will have to wait for a while as the businesses have thousands of applications to wade through for every open position. I may as well not even try. This graph is from Matt Shirley.
Tweet of the Day
Can you say… Person! Woman! Man! Camera! TV! #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/9dHIMedoIx— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) July 24, 2020
(via Boing Boing)
Friday, July 24, 2020
Classical Gas - 3000 Years of Art
This is one of the earliest "music videos," meaning an artful illustration of a song instead of a filmed performance. And I do mean art. Strangely, the music and the film existed separately before coming together in 1968. Mason Williams, who wrote and performed "Classical Gas," tells the story at the YouTube page.
During the time that CLASSICAL GAS was a hit I was also the head writer for THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR on CBS. I had seen a film titled "GOD IS DOG SPELLED BACKWARDS” at The Encore, an off beat movie house in L.A. The film was a collection of approximately 2500 classical works of art, mostly paintings, that flashed by in three minutes. Each image lasted only two film frames, or twelve images a second! At the end of the film the viewer was pronounced "cultural" since they had just covered "3000 years of art in 3 minutes!"You can read the rest of the story here. We can quibble with the "3000 years of art" because there are Lascaux cave paintings included that are around 17,000 years old. (via Nag on the Lake)
The film was the work of a UCLA film student named Dan McLaughlin. I contacted Dan and told him that I was interested in the idea of using his film as a visual for CLASSICAL GAS to air on THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR. (His original sound track had been Beethoven's 5th Symphony.) THE COMEDY HOUR offered him the money to finance a new film he wanted to make in exchange for the right to change the original soundtrack from Beethoven's 5th Symphony to CLASSICAL GAS and air it on the show. As a “music video" it was first shown on THE SUMMER BROTHERS SMOTHERS SHOW (Glen Campbell was the host) in the summer of 1968.
First PItch
Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch of the season for the Washington Nationals. Unfortunately, as an infectious disease expert, it's his job to keep people from catching anything. (via reddit)
The Sound of Silence
Naomi SV was recording her harp performance of "The Sound of Silence" when she was surprised by a videobomber the rest of us were watching since the beginning. She says,
My harp session turned into a Disney movie.She labeled this video a "blooper," since she didn't finish the song, but this outtake has six times as many views as the completed song. (via Metafilter)
Robot Breakthrough
Click to the right to advance the comic. When you set out to achieve a goal, be sure to define your aims specifically. This comic is from Inky Rickshaw. (via reddit)
Fun With the Chandelier
Kids will find ways to scare that you would never have thought of in a million years. Adults look at a light fixture and see illumination. This little girl saw an opportunity.
After converting my twins’ cribs to 'big girl beds', I quickly realized it was a mistake. I could hear a noise coming from the girls’ nursery during their nap time so I pulled up my Arlo Security app and realized one of my twins, Elise, was swinging from the chandelier. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt but the chandelier was immediately removed. This is just one, of many, reasons why I can’t have nice things anymore. My girls still ask for their chandelier but I’d be willing to bet their reason isn’t for utility.Were you waiting for that fixture to "untwist" and swing her around like a ceiling fan? I was. (via Digg)
Miss Cellania's Links
Dave Grohl writes In Defense of Our Teachers. What kind of country are we where teachers and their spouses are updating their wills for the fall? (via Metafilter)
Why Do Some Vermonters Display The Confederate Flag? (via Kottke)
When Did Humans Arrive in the Americas? Archaeological finds keep pushing the timeline back further.
The Art Deco Capital of Central Africa.
A new Trump campaign ad depicting a police officer being attacked by protesters is actually a 2014 photo of pro-democracy protests in Ukraine. (via reddit)
New Tetris Movie Will Not Be Like Other Game Films. It's going to be a drama based on a true story about doing business in the Cold War era, and not an adaptation of game play.
How Did the Earth Crack? (via Damn Interesting)
How Stupid Are Dogs, Really?
A blast from the past (2016): 6 Adorable Animals on Skateboards.
Marshmallow Escapes
The cat is named Chamallow, which is French for marshmallow, but his name should be Houdini. He managed to find his way out of two different cages at the veterinary clinic in Marseilles. I have a cat named Marshmallow who look just like this one, except mine is female. She is just as devious. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)
Thursday, July 23, 2020
A Timeline
This is why states are on their own, and everyone has their own ideas on how to deal the pandemic. And why my daughter has no idea when she'll ever see her husband again. And why I'm afraid to look for a job. And who knows how many more will die.
Cat Gets What Cat Wants
A cat can do anything if the motivation is right, but "pleasing one's human" is usually not all that important to them. However, Temptations cat treats motivate Lucas Farrar's cat to open the box, whatever it takes. (via Digg)
Nurturing
It's a funny story, and common for those who have one cat and one plant. I, however, am both a cat lady and a gardener, and I nurture both. Losing a cat through neglect is a real tragedy, but with hundreds of plants, I can lose ten or twelve and no one would ever know the difference, and even I wouldn't think much of it. In fact, the secret to gardening of any sort is to just get rid of your failures quickly, so all anyone ever sees are your successes. This comic is from Sarah Andersen at Sarah's Scribbles.
Miss Cellania's Links
Colorado Springs: A City Built Upon Tuberculosis.
Republicans Want to Reduce Pandemic Unemployment Benefit to $200 a Week.
10 Facts About George Orwell's Animal Farm.
29 Years on a Sustainable Floating Island. They built it themselves out of discarded materials. (via Digg)
Your Favorite Rock ‘n’ Roll, Country and R&B Legends as Marionettes.
Some doctors wear their photographs on top of their PPE so patients can recognize them. This doctor had a better idea.
Gee, Anthony Fauci! The latest song parody from Randy Rainbow.
Ridiculous Window Shutters. Here are examples of shutters that aren't the right size, aren't in the right place, and would never work if anyone ever tried to cover a window with them.
A blast from the past (2011): The Shared Lives of Unusually Close Twins.
Tweet of the Day
Btw your students know what's up. I've seen so many similar tiktoks over the last month pic.twitter.com/7JZzTl9xGq— dakoda smith (@feelinggorgias) July 19, 2020
(via Metafilter)
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Avoiding Bedtime
Some kids just know which buttons to push. This comic is from Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble.
The Canterbury Cathedral Cat
The vicar of Canterbury Cathedral is giving a morning meditation and prayer in a nice garden when Tiger the cat decides to join in. What really drew him was the container fo cream on the table. Champion videobombing ensues.
Miss Cellania's Links
American Death Cult. Why has the Republican response to the pandemic been so mind-bogglingly disastrous?
People Who Survived Completely Unsurvivable Situations.
KFC will be 3D Printing Lab-Grown Chicken Nuggets. (via Boing Boing)
Three Surgeons Dissect the Board Game Operation.
A definitive case against the Electoral College.
Colleges Are Getting Ready to Blame Their Students. As campuses reopen without adequate testing, universities fault young people for a lack of personal responsibility. (via Digg)
1904: Lady Gray, The Mother Cat Who Adopted 5 Pedigree Orphan Puppies in Brooklyn.
Scientists Accidentally Create 'Impossible' Hybrid Fish. (via Metafilter)
A blast from the past (2012): Math Food for Pi Approximation Day.
Tweet of the Day
Years later, at Goldilocks’ house. pic.twitter.com/PEa3WhhYZm— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) July 19, 2020
(via Nag on the Lake)
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
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