(via Bad Newspaper)
Thursday, June 30, 2022
The Future of Humanity
The last human born will be something we never know about, because that means the human race will die out. Kurzgesagt doesn't have all the answers, but presents some important ideas in a thought experiment. There are a lot of variables in even speculating about a species dying out, especially the one species doing the speculating. We are currently doing our best to destroy our earth, but we are also exploring the idea of living on other worlds. We may slowly (or quickly) evolve into something a bit different, but more likely to survive. While it may be depressing to think about the end of humanity, the best case scenarios are unimaginably far into the future. Kurzgesagt is actually quite optimistic about our future, if we can make it through the next couple hundred years. The subject is only ten and a half minutes long, the rest is promotional.
If I Fits...
A sweet cat named Boo takes a dive head first into an impossibly-shaped glass container and manages to rearrange herself in a manner that pleases her. Her human says this is typical for Boo, as this is her favorite resting place. We are assured she manages to get herself out fairly easily, and has no clue that an audience is on the edge of their seats when she does this. The question is: is she fully grown? If she gets much bigger, that glass jar may have to be upgraded. (via Laughing Squid)
Retail Karen
I'm sure this happens now more than it ever has, but it happened when I was working retail, too, both in the '80s and just a couple of years ago. There are always a few people who just love to throw their weight around, and even sometimes let you know how they are better than you, because you are "serving" them. Everyone should have to work retail and/or food service for at least of year of their lives. This comic is from Stephen at stbeals. (via reddit)
Is the Moon a Planet or a Star?
Not that anyone is going to QVC for a science education, but this is ridiculous. The moon is a moon. Stars burn, and planets revolve around a star. Moons revolve around a planet. On the other hand, working as a presenter on QVC mainly involves filling time with talk, so it would be a great job for me. (via reddit)
Miss Cellania's Links
Male Emu Adopts Chicken, Goose, and Duck Eggs. And hatches them! (via Metafilter)
What You Need to Know About Monkeypox.
Behind the Scenes at a Cat Show. (via Fark)
How Disney Screwed Up the Merchandizing of Toy Story.
5 Myths About Death We Believe Because Of Movies.
When Robert Plant Turned Down a Role on Game of Thrones.
We Are an Anti-Abortion Couple, and Don’t Worry, We Will Adopt Your Baby.
The 50 Greatest Superhero Movies. I have actually seen four of the top ten. And where is Tim Burton's Batman? (via Digg)
America’s Most Obscure Regional Pizza Styles.
Dueling Banjos
The Dillards, performing in Denmark. You might recall them as The Darlings on the TV series The Andy Griffith Show.
Tweet of the Day
A dog invaded a Spanish soccer field during a match between Chile and Venezuela. What did the dog want? Belly rubs! And he got plenty of them before he was escorted off the field. (via Laughing Squid)36' Un invitado muy especial en La Granja ๐ถ@LaRoja 0 - 0 @FemeninoFVF #LaRojaFEMxTNTSports pic.twitter.com/P7ZHhln6A3
— TNT Sports Chile (@TNTSportsCL) June 25, 2022
Building a Giant Bicycle Bell
Cody Hovland was inspired when he noticed his backyard grill was exactly the same shape as a bicycle bell. So he made up a problem in order to solve it. His bicycle bell needed to be bigger! You know, for safety's sake. So he converted the grill into a bell. Fun, huh? Hovland gives us a step-by-step build video, but it's not what you expect, because who cares about the actual process? We just want to see more nonsense. If making our own stuff at home were this easy (and entertaining), we'd all be doing it. (via Metafilter)
An Honest Trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi
Disney+ just finished airing the Star Wars miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's the story of some of the events that occurred in the years that Luke was growing up on Tatooine, bridging the gap where the original trilogy painted him as a completely random Star Wars character who rose to greatness, but then the prequels set him up as crucial. Screen Junkies has plenty of plot holes to point out, which is pretty much par for the course when you are trying to bridge the existing movies in the story that took 40 years to tell- and was made up as it went along anyway. There are also tropes that have been overdone, and gaps in logic in a few places. But altogether, I think they liked Obi-Wan Kenobi.
True Facts About the Beaver
Considering this True Facts video is about beavers, Ze Frank plows through it with an astonishing lack of sexual innuendo. It's still got jokes, and it's still quite interesting. Beavers are rodents, but you'd never know it by their behavior. They swim, eat trees, and build dams. Here we find out why and how they do those things, which includes taking a deep dive into the structure and composition of teeth. I now know more about horses' teeth because I watched a video about beavers.
The Wolf Of Gilligan's Island
Thurston Howell III, tycoon, billionaire, stock market player, cocktail aficionado, yacht club member, and castaway. Who better to play The Wolf of Gilligan’s Island? You know, if it were up to him, the place would be named Howell’s Island. This parody of The Wolf of Wall Street trailer is brought to you by vkmtvstudios. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Tweet of the Day
(Thanks, WTM!)It wasn’t me.. ๐ pic.twitter.com/AvQT512l0n
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) June 23, 2022
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
The Horror of War in LEGO
Jordan Durrenberger brings us an epic LEGO stop-motion animation illustrating the Battle of Verdun. That battle between the French and the Germans lasted for almost ten months in 1916, and was the longest of World War I. The LEGO fight is about 6:40 long, then we get a recap of the historical battle. The animation is spectacular in its scope and action, from the opening artillery shelling to the hand-to-hand combat in the trenches. While the fight itself is brutal, the stop-motion recreation is a masterpiece. (via Boing Boing)
About Talking Parrots
Why do parrots talk, but dogs and cats and cows do not? The answer lies in their anatomy and their natural inclinations. This TED-Ed lessons goes over the different aspects of parrots that give them the gift of human speech. The bigger question is whether they understand the speech or not. Some parrots are pretty good at using language in context, but is that a totally learned response or an understanding of how language works? Or is there really a line between those two possibilities? (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Loan Shark
Yeah, how about we quit allowing the real world to intrude upon our escapist fantaies, okay? This comic is from Meg at itsmegcomics. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
The Story of a House
This house in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston has quite a history, as related by Anne Magee Coughlin. It was home to four generations of her family, over a period of more than one hundred years. The house itself is just a structure, but it endured as a connection between generations, a cupboard of memories, a place to feel safe, and a reflection of the people who called it home. You don't have to know the family to understand their ups and downs, and why this house, as personal as it is, is worthy of a tribute. Warning: you might need a hankie for parts of this story.
Miss Cellania's Links
A Step-by-Step Guide to Decluttering.
A Gun Tale. The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
What Was the First Dinosaur? And what makes a dinosaur, anyway?
Five Tigers Born in New Jersey. Tigers usually bear two to four cubs at a time. (via Fark)
Mystery of Orkney bird tag tracked to London is solved. (via Strange Company)
Cakes That Make You Facepalm.
A four-year study of people over age 65 shows that those who had a flu shot were 40% less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease in that time period. (via Damn Interesting)
Redneck Titanic.
The World’s Oldest Amusement Park.
The World's First Solar Powered Car Available to Consumers. It will cost you an arm and a leg. (via Damn Interesting)
Whole Lotta Love on Mountain Dulcimer
Sam Edelston plays led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” on a three-string dulcimer. Yeah, it’s electrified -and electrifying! I have one of these instruments, made by my father, but my repertoire is limited to “Wildwood Flower” and a few Christmas carols. I think I may have to pull it out and practice a little. (via Boing Boing)
Animation 100 Years Ago
Cartoonist Winsor McCay creates an early movie animation in this 1911 film, originally entitled Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics but often just called Little Nemo, after McCay's comic strip. Most of the video is a dramatization of how the animation came about. The actual animation happens about eight minutes in. McCay later went on to produce Gertie the Dinosaur, which many of us learned was the "first" animated movie. (via Buzzfeed)
Tweet of the Day
(via Everlasting Blort)What the f- though ?
— Usha Jey (@Usha_Jey) May 22, 2022
Where the love go ? ๐งจ@LilTunechi @THEREALSWIZZZ pic.twitter.com/H7kTfQXMO4
Monday, June 27, 2022
The Frasier Reboot is Pretty Dark
Frasier done broke bad! But no, this is a brilliantly-crafted deepfake. They are planning to do a Frasier remake or sequel or something, so you may be forgiven for falling for it at first. (via Pop Culturista)
The Internet Ruined This Famous Clock
Remember reading about tulip mania? The Netherlands is still a hub for flower sales hundreds of years later, and the biggest flower market is the Royal FloraHolland auction in Aalsmeer. The auction still happens, at an insanely large scale. Tom Scott visits the flower auction to explain what happened to the famous clock, which once drew so many tourists, and is now defunct. The story takes only six minutes; the rest is an ad.
An Embarrassing Find from 1985
While decluttering my mother's house, we found a bunch of old cookbooks. Princess took some, but this one was left behind for a reason. Microwaves are for thawing frozen food and heating up leftovers. Princess would never cook a meal in a microwave, and Gothgrrl would never use a cookbook. But someone opened it. While I don't recall it at all, I apparently bought it for Mom, and mailed it to her with this custom poem.
That was pretty awful. Misspellings, typos, and I misused the word "their." But I wasn't a writer then; just an audio performer of sorts. And I was using a real typewriter. But I was pretty good with a set of colored Sharpies!
I must have been bored at work.
Whatever Happened to the Bee Apocalypse?
Remember Colony Collapse Disorder? For years, we worried about honeybees dying off and how it would affect crop pollination. You don't hear much about it anymore. Oh, it hasn't gone away, and scientists still don't know what causes it, but the extent of the problem all depends on how you look at it. Honeybees seem to be doing okay, but honeybees are just one species of many kinds of bee. And each species has their place in the modern ecosystem. (via Digg)
Miss Cellania's Links
Teenager Visits 35 Countries in Under 24 Hours. Yeah, he sued a loophole. (via Fark)
The 2022 World's Ugliest Dog. He may be ugly, but Mr. Happy Face is very much loved by his human. (via Boing Boing)
Are Joe Manchin and Susan Collins Stupid—or Do They Just Think We Are?
Owners of Jumbo Floating Restaurant backtrack on sinking claims as authorities investigate. Okay then, never mind. (via Digg)
When Cats Chew Catnip, It Works as a Bug Spray.
Separation of Church and State Is Crumbling Before Our Eyes.
How the Wedding Dress Story Ends.
Nice Ice: Valerie Hammond on the Genteel Charm of Vintage Canadian Costume Jewelry.
15 Neat Facts About Robin Williams.
The Greatest Act Of Deception in WWII
Operation Mincemeat was a elaborately engineered plan to deceive the Axis about the Allied Mediterranean invasion. You won’t believe the lengths the British went to in order to make it work, despite the possibility that it might not work. Warning: contains one picture of a dead body. (via Buzzfeed)
Tweet of the Day
(via Everlasting Blort)Infinite monkeys type Shakespeare pic.twitter.com/j1MQM1Tzf0
— Adrian Bliss (@adrianbliss) June 18, 2022
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Dad
Dad jokes begin when your kids are just old enough to understand words. Without much life experience, they will laugh at anything, which reinforces Dad's mistaken opinion that he is funny. The problem comes when Dad's jokes don't grow and mature as his children do. "What's wrong? You laughed at that twenty years ago!" I have to admit that I tend to tell the same stories more than once, and my kids complain about it. That comes from twenty years of having to tell them important things at least ten times to get them to listen. They've trained me well, and now they must pay the price. This comic is from Psycho Suzanne. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Horse and Goats
You know horses love cats, but folks who live in rural areas know horses love goats even more. I know several people who got a goat to keep their horse company, even if there are other horses around, because a goat keeps them calm. Here, Mr. G is either babysitting, or kid-sitting, or just sitting, actually, and enjoying a nice goat massage. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)
Tweet of the Day
(via Everlasting Blort)|||||||
— Joe Pease (@JoePease22) May 31, 2022
Iteration pic.twitter.com/81JjAVO0yH
Saturday, June 25, 2022
The Elephant in the Room
Carol Burnett had just lectured the cast of The Carol Burnett Show about going off script and making the rest of the cast break character. That's why Tim Conway went way off script about an elephant that had the cast and the audience in stitches. Even Tim Conway! How this happened is explained here. Of course, they had to do the scene again and again. Vicky Lawrence has more. (via Metafilter)
Avoiding the Lava
Playing the game "the floor is lava" is a real hoot when you're a kid, because you either achieve a sense of accomplishment or a good laugh when you fail. The stakes are higher when you're an adult made of 200 pounds of muscle, and you paid for the furniture. Daniel LaBelle shows off his parkour skills in his house playing the game for the YouTube audience. He can have his sense of accomplishment; we get the laughs when he fails! (via Digg)
Astronomer Hotline
Okay, this is the kind of job you can get right out of college with an astronomy degree. Talk about paying your dues! I bet they have a list of the hundred or so most common explanations for lights in the sky, and have to run them down with every caller. This comic is from Randall Munroe at xkcd.
UFC Game Glitch Commentary
Tommy Toe Hold brings us a video in which two guys provide commentary on MMA video game glitches. Game glitches are always fun, how they break the laws of physics, but seeing two people fighting without even touching and limbs bending the wrong way is just glorious. (via The Chive)
Friday, June 24, 2022
Batter Up!
A garage in Marblehead, Massachusetts, has a shop dog, a blue heeler named Pepper. And what better way to fill time between vehicles than to play baseball with your dog? Pepper doesn't just play catch, though. She's in a league of her own, as a pro with a bat! You might wonder how on earth you train a dog to wield a bat and connect so well. Think about it... if you were a dog and figured out a way to play with both a stick and a ball at the same time, you wouldn't want to do anything else but practice! (via Laughing Squid)
Spielberg's Least Favorite Scene in Jurassic Park
You have to admit it, this scene from the 1993 movie Jurassic Park stands out from the others. It doesn't make any sense, and even Steven Spielberg couldn't explain it in a manner we could all understand. The weirdest part is the music. Has it aged as well as it should? This is all the responsibility of YouTuber There I Ruined It. (via Digg)
Miss Cellania's Links
Consequences are Good, Actually. Making a perpetrator out to be a victim doesn't solve the problem. (via Digg)
Your Terrible Boss Is Also Ruining Your Personal Life.
The surprising benefits of fingers that wrinkle in water. (via Damn Interesting)
Remember when Elvis Presley's white jumpsuits changed how men dressed forever?
Threatening Goose Turns Out to be Adoptive Father. (via Fark)
Merrick Garland, A.G., and the Slippery Defendant.
The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
Wildlife Vets Trek Through Mud and Mist to Care for Rwanda's Gorillas.
How to Beat the Cracker Barrel Peg Game.
What’s on Your Mind?
Have you ever looked at your friends’ Facebook posts and marveled at how their lives were so much more exciting, successful, and blissful than yours? That’s when you have to remind yourself that things on the internet aren’t always what they seem. You don’t know how many of those statuses are a case of looking on the bright side, or possibly downright fabrications. You may even feel tempted to fudge a bit on your own posts. Call it "virtual enhancement," if you will.
Shaun Higton’s short film What’s on Your Mind follows a guy who feels the need to present his life as somewhat more than it really is. That’s the way to become an internet star! (via Daily Picks and Flicks)
Tweet of the Day
Boxing practice. (via Everlasting Blort)ใญใใใฏใตใผใฎ ใใฌใผใใณใฐ้ขจๆฏใซใ๏ฝ๏ฝ๐ฅ๐ผpic.twitter.com/XxqGQNdBQm
— ใญใใญใๅ็ป (@nekonekovideo) June 18, 2022
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Alternate Video Shot for "Eat It"
In 1984, Weird Al Yankovic released "Eat It," a parody of Michael Jackson's mega-hit "Beat It." The official video for "Eat It" was a shot-for-shot remaking of Jackson's video, only funnier. But it wasn't the only version recorded. Recently, a friend of Yankovic's came across a "B-roll" as he was digitizing footage of the video shoot. He said:
Basically this is a take where the director just points the camera at the star of the video, who just does anything they feel like doing for the duration of the song. It's insurance, in case for some reason the production runs out of time and doesn't get all the shots they were hoping to get. I'm pretty sure NOTHING from this take got used in the final video, but I still thought it was stupid/amusing enough to share.Indeed it is. (via Digg)
Goat has Long Ears
Nubian goats are known for their long floppy ears, but this little Nubian goat was born in Pakistan with ears that are 19 inches long! The kid's owner, Muhammad Hassan Narejo, missed a golden opportunity when he named him Simba instead of Dumbo. We are hoping that he normally ties the ears back, because he looks dangerously close to stepping on them in this video. (via Boing Boing)
Eat Your Greens
If that's the best reason you can think of to eat this stuff, it's pretty lame. How about serving them raw with ranch dressing and tomatoes? Even as a child, I felt no need to experience unpleasant sensations just for the sake of experiencing unpleasantness. This comic is from Nathan Pyle's Strange Planet.
Jovi Sings Bug
Trey Anastasio, guitarist, singer, and songwriter with Phish, performed a solo show in Grand rapids, Michigan, on Monday. In the audience was a little barefoot girl with a sign that said, "Can I sing Bug with you?" Anastasio called her up on stage and let her perform, and the crowd loved it. So will you. You don't have to be familiar with the song or even with Phish to enjoy the sweet interaction between Anastasio, 7-year-old Jovi, and the crowd. (via Metafilter)
Nafurahi
Pharrell Williams made his song "Happy" freely available to use and encouraged people all over the world to make their own videos for the song. Hundreds of groups took him up on the offer, but most are lip-dubs or dancing to the original recording. This one is a full cover version in Swahili, liberally sprinkled with French, from the city of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The performers, from KivuYouth Entertainment, are awesome. While you listen, keep i mind that “Nafurahi” translates to “Happy.” (via Metafilter)
Tweet of the Day
Loading a ferry isn't all that hard, see? (Thanks, WTM!)Very good! ๐๐๐pic.twitter.com/WSpO1IBeTz
— Figen (@TheFigen) June 15, 2022
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
The Blue Bird
Released in 1940, The Blue Bird was 20th Century Fox's attempt to cash in on the success of MGM's The Wizard of Oz's success the year before. Shirley Temple plays a brat who undergoes a transformation after a magical journey in her dreams. The production was notable because the 12-year-old Temple suffered an assassination attempt while doing publicity for The Blue Bird. The film was a box office flop but was nominated for two Academy Awards. People recall it as either beloved or bizarre, depending on whether they first saw the movie as a child or as an adult. (Thanks, WTM!)
Can You Drive a Car While Facing Backward?
This seems like a really weird question, but Tom Scott had it in the back of his mind since childhood. The idea of driving while facing backwards was just a weird idea from an old TV show, but can it be done in real life? Sure, as anyone who ever used a backup camera in a modern car will tell you. But Tom does it the hard way, by having a sponsor build him a vehicle in which all driving would be done by watching a video camera instead of the road. What could possibly go wrong?
Growth Spurt
Yep, you must have shrunk over the past year. This is kind of like my adult daughters finding that they have shrunk according to the doorpost where we marked their height growing up. It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that the floor was rebuilt in the intervening years. Take my advice and record your kids' heights on something that is both portable and immutable, like a yardstick. Or for William Rocket, a "metre stick." This story is from Round Dog Comics.(via Geeks Are Sexy)Growth Spurt pic.twitter.com/2jNlAmqSLd
— Round Dog (@rounddogcomics) June 16, 2022
LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation Trailer
If you like your Star Wars with a bit of humor, get ready for the new LEGO Star Wars special. Finn, Rose, Ahsoka Tano, Darth Vader, Palpatine, and other Star Wars characters all end up at the same beach resort.
“LEGO® Star Wars Summer Vacation,” which is set shortly after the events of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” features the voices of “Weird Al” Yankovic, Yvette Nicole Brown, Kelly Marie Tran, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and returning cast members from previous “LEGO Star Wars” specials, and includes “Weird Al’s” new original song, Scarif Beach Party.No, it doesn't make any sense. Half the characters are dead at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, but only some of them are ghosts in this special. But since when did Star Wars make sense, anyway? (via Boing Boing)
Miss Cellania's Links
You Won't Believe What Happened to the Wedding Dress.
Surprise Surprise, a Medieval Feminist Movement Left Out of the History Books.
The Weirdo Reason Elvis Couldn't Tour Outside The U.S.
Australia’s Deadliest Animals. A catchy tune with some NSFW lyrics. (Thanks, Scott!)
The Mysterious Floating Coffin of Pinner. (via Nag on the Lake)
How to Make Dia de Los Muertos Sugar Skulls.
The Last Old West Train Robbery. With a twist ending.
Katmai National Park's Fat Bear Cams are Back!
ะบะฐะถะตััั
It’s a Russian music video to a song by Ilya Lagutenko with animation by Mikhail Kalinin & Flakonkishochki. As far as I can tell. All I know is that once I started watching, I couldn’t stop until I made it through the train. (via Everlasting Blort)
Tweet of the Day
(via Everlasting Blort)This documentary by Eugenio Monesma illustrates how traditional pitchforks were made. It took 6 years starting from when the hackberry sprouts began to be oriented until it was ready for field work [video (ES), EN subtitles: https://t.co/4bzKiTn29C] pic.twitter.com/3qcGB2TYf6
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 15, 2022
