(via Bad Newspaper)
Saturday, August 31, 2024
How the American Flag Has Changed Over Time
Americans are pretty unique among the countries of the world in the way we love to display our country's flag. They are everywhere! And we are so familiar with the sight that when we see a different version of it, we immediately notice that something is off. The truth is that while our flag has had a constant design since 1960, it was changed a lot before then. In the early days of the United States, quite a few very different flags were tried out, and colonies and local regiments all made their own flags. The stars have had five, six, seven, or eight points and various stripe placements. Some looked nothing at all like the flag we fly today. But the basic design was set in 1777, and only the number of stars has changed since then. Weird History shows us some of the many flags that were tried out on the way to the stars and stripes.
Canelo
Canelo the dog lived on the streets of Cadiz, Spain, with the man who loved him. Canelo didn't regularly have a roof over his head, but he loved his human more than anything. The man went to the hospital for dialysis treatment every week, where Canelo wasn't allowed inside. But he would patiently wait by the door for hours, which seemed like forever to the dog, because he knew his human would eventually come back outside. Until the day he didn't.
You might have to grab another hankie when you learn that this is a true story. It happened about thirty years ago, and people from Andalusia are very familiar with it. Canelo spent years waiting outside the hospital, escaped from the pound twice, and refused to stay with families who wanted to adopt him. After his death, the street that ran in front of he hospital was renamed in the dog's honor. (via Nag on the Lake)
Marvel's 85th Anniversary
On August 31, 1939, the first issue of Timely Comics was published. The company changed its name to Marvel and became a beloved source of stories about Captain America, Iron Man, The Mighty Thor, and a pantheon of other superheroes. To celebrate Marvel's 85th anniversary, the company has released a tribute video featuring its biggest superheroes over the years, with a special emphasis on Marvel's most beloved character ever, Stan Lee. But that's not all you'll see here. The tribute video also looks to the future, with scenes from upcoming projects you can read about at Entertainment Weekly.
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Iron Butterfly’s 1968 opus is considered one of the first prototypes for heavy metal music. I knew it as psychedelic rock as I grew up listening to it. What really impressed me was that the guitarist was only 17 when it was recorded -I remember that fact all these years later, so I looked him up. His name was Erik Brann. Here’s more about the recording of the song.
The band members, including Ingle, recollect that they were barely, if at all, aware they were being recorded. According to Bushy, 'the engineer just ran the tape and said, "Why don't you run through something and we'll get the balance here on the stuff. Run it through one time." I didn't want to think about it. When those red lights are on, a lot of times it will screw me up. I couldn't see them from where I was.' As the band stormed through the song, Ingle started wondering what was going on: 'We were like, 'Is this guy dense? How much time does he need?' So after we finished, he said 'come on in guys, I'd like you to hear this.' [The engineer] Don Casale... had captured the song on the first take. They immediately overdubbed the vocal and the guitar solo, and the song was complete.And they didn’t think much of their guitarist at the time.
They ran through the songs, and I said, 'This is terrible, I mean the new guitarist.' And Doug said to me, 'Well, of course, he's only been playing three months.' I said, 'You mean he's been with the band for three months?' He said, 'No, he's only been playing the guitar for three months.' And I thought, 'Jesus!'... But I tell you, this record came out, and, man, it seemed like every college student, like the whole country went out and bought it. It became the biggest record that we'd ever had up to that time - with a band that was just learning their instruments.Enjoy the music.
Tweet of the Day
(via Nag on the Lake)This skateboarding enthusiast has a modified frame to give children who wouldn't normally have the chance to skate the opportunity to try it for the first timepic.twitter.com/ApEs1WKPX2
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 26, 2024
Friday, August 30, 2024
Muddy Hill
The muddy slope of despair, slayer of trucks.
byu/ultraplusstretch inBossfight
The hill is bit muddy, but everyone wants to go there. The fact that no one else has accomplished it yet doesn't deter truck drivers from trying. Surely, they are better than all those others attempting it!
Space is Hard on the Human Body
We already know that the human body cannot survive being ejected into the vacuum of space. We've seen it in the movies. But that's where this TED-Ed lesson starts, because they want to cover all the scenarios. With a spacesuit, a body is much safer, but still not safe because we are exposed to conditions that don't occur on earth, like unshielded radiation. So astronauts travel in spaceships, to a space station that's built to keep them safe. But is it really safe? Even with struct environmental controls, astronauts must deal with microgravity in bodies that evolved to work properly in earth's gravity. It takes a while, but even that will damage the human body. Just ask Scott Kelly. These findings might put a damper on your desire to volunteer for interplanetary travel. (via reddit)
Is It Cheese?
American cheese is loved for its role in delicious macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches, but it's also been dragged through the mud for not being cheese. So what is it, then? It's a food product that contains cheese and other ingredients. While there are regulations on how it can be labeled, calling it "not cheese" is like saying sparkling water is not water because it has carbon bubbles added to it.
The video gives us the science of how cheese melts or doesn't, and explains how to make your own melty cheese out of a variety of cheeses by using sodium citrate. I recently came across a recipe that does this using Alka-Seltzer, which is made of sodium bicarbonate and anhydrous citric acid plus aspirin, so you have to find the kind that doesn't contain aspirin. It may be easier to just order some sodium citrate. Or buy some Velveeta.
Miss Cellania's Links
When Female Sexuality Was Discovered 100 Years Ago.
Things you grow to appreciate more as you age.
Moon Time Is a Thing Now—Here’s Why It Matters. Physicists recently created Coordinated Lunar Time, a time zone for our Moon.
Trump Calls Out Arlington National Cemetery For Hazard-Filled Fairways. Yes, it's The Onion.
Disney Princess Cakes For Grown-Ups.
How One Japanese Company Has Survived For 1,400 Years. (via Damn Interesting)
Paper types ranked by likelihood of paper cuts. (via Boing Boing)
The insane battlefield myth of a teenager getting pregnant from a Civil War bullet. (Thanks, WTM!)
Two Goats and a Couch
This is why we can’t have nice things. Someone let the goats in the house. They found the green velvet couch. Now, goats, especially young goats, are curious. These two had to jump on it, climb over it, climb under it, and ultimately they decided to eat it.
Tweet of the Day
Related article here. (Thanks, WTM!)When my wife asks me why I need thermal goggles I send her this: pic.twitter.com/bExxJIiwTC
— Giga Based Dad (@GigaBasedDad) August 22, 2024
Tweet of the Day
— Alex Telman (@AlexTelman) April 20, 2024Rather Hitchcockian, isn't it? (Thanks, WTM!)
Thursday, August 29, 2024
An Honest Trailer for Twisters
Twisters is the sequel to the 1996 movie Twister. The only thing people recall from the earlier movie is the flying cow, and the new one doesn't have that. Twisters was released last month and received generally favorable reviews, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have all kinds of weirdness that Screen Junkies can pick apart in an Honest Trailer. But what about the science? Scientists who were consulted for the film have politely distanced themselves from it, or else tell us that the solution in the movie is not at all feasible at the scale it's portrayed. You might enjoy Twisters. Then again, you might feel you've seen the whole thing after you've watched this. (via Geeks are Sexy)
Tooth
Warning: this video is bloody and can be traumatic until it get really silly in the second half.
Have you ever been doing something normal like flossing your teeth and a tooth, or part of a tooth, just falls out? It's happened to me. Or maybe you've had nightmares like that. At any rate, that's what happens in the award-winning horror short Tooth. Director Jillian Corsie was inspired to make it by the weird feeling she got when her mother gave her the baby teeth she had saved. (via Nag on the Lake)
The Unitree G1 Robot
Unitree Robotics has announced that its G1 robot is going into mass production for consumer sales. You can buy one for only $16,000! Let's see what this little (4' 4") robot can do. I see he can dance. It can walk on uneven terrain. But why would I spent $16K for a robot to do that? Can it reliably load my dishwasher? Can it drive? We see from the video that it can manipulate things with its hands, because it gives us the example of crushing nuts. If that's supposed to be a metaphor, it's not going to sell robots. Besides, if you look at that scene slowly in full-screen mode, you'll see that the nuts are already cracked. CNET mainly compares the price of the G1 to other much more expensive robots. I don't believe they will sell a lot of humanoid robots until they can be seen doing something we need them to do. (via Born in Space)
Miss Cellania's Links
Our National Symbol: Too Fat to Fly.
The zoo director tries to convince Sami the chimpanzee to return home after he escaped, 1988. (via Nag on the Lake)
Star Wars TV Is Dead. Five years into its streaming experiment, Lucasfilm has seemingly given up hope.
Where the atomic nuclei are: Maurice Sendak, physics illustrator. His first paying art job was for a book his physic teacher wrote about nuclear science. (via Ars Technica)
How do we know what our Milky Way galaxy looks like when we're inside it? (via Damn Interesting)
The Remarkable Giraffe Weevil of Madagascar.
The Difficulty of Calculating a Substantial Raise.
Archaeologists Uncover the Real Story of How England Became England. New research is revealing how the Sceptered Isle transformed from a Roman backwater to a mighty country of its own.
Animals Sing Drowning Pool
In this weird remix, various animals on YouTube sing the song “Bodies” by Drowning Pool. Most of it is not in English (although some of it is), but they’ve got the tune down. The source videos for this remix by Insane Cherry are linked at the YouTube page, although you’ve seen quite a few of them here already. (via Pleated-Jeans)
Tweet of the Day
Baby laughter is the best sound in the world. (via Neatorama)So cute 😂
— The Best (@ThebestFigen) August 24, 2024
pic.twitter.com/uiyNuF76ue
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Dog Saves Lost Elderly Woman
An 80-year-old woman with dementia left her home in rural Utah to walk her dog. She was unaware of the passage of time, and her family enlisted the help of authorities to find her. It was three days before they located, but that might not have happened at all if it weren't for a search and rescue dog named Kip, and for the woman's loyal pet who stayed with her all that time, fending off wildlife and keeping her warm at night. His barks weren't just for protection, they also acted as a beacon for those searching for the woman.
The woman was really happy to see the rescuers. Not because they found her, because she didn't recall being lost. Rather, she was excited about taking a ride in a helicopter. I would imagine her canine companion got steak that night. That's a good dog.
The Short-Lived Genre of Beach Movies
For about five years in the mid-1960s, beach movies flooded the market. It started as Hollywood discovered that teenagers will go to the movie theater, and that marketing directly to them will sell a lot of tickets. It all started with Beach Party in 1963. The movie was a romance starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello that featured a lot of dancing, surfing, fighting, and cool teenagers thumbing their noses at adults. While critically panned, the film was a financial success for American International Pictures (AIP) and led to six sequels which more or less recycled the same plot. Other studios jumped o the beach movie bandwagon, and around 30 such films were produced in the next five years. The beach movie fell out of favor due to over-saturation, but it started Hollywood on a mission to capture the lucrative teen audience, which continues to this day. The video is only 8:06 long; the rest is an ad. (via Messy Nessy Chic)
The Single-celled Organism That Almost Wiped Out Life on Earth
Two-and-a-half billion years ago, the earth was a very different place, but it already had life. Not anything you’d recognize, or could even see, but life of a sort anyway. While those archaic life forms reproduced by splitting, they also managed to mutate like crazy, at least on an evolutionary scale. And some of them caused a mass extinction event. It’s kind of strange to think that oxygen could have ever been considered a pollutant in the air. But it was, and that affected everything that came after. You have to wonder what kind of life forms will evolve in the greenhouse gas-rich atmosphere that will remain after we become extinct after the climate change apocalypse. (via Digg)
Tweet of the Day
(Thanks, WTM!)Squirrel wanted to show her rescuer her newborn babies..🐿️😊
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) August 20, 2024
📹rhamadashuri pic.twitter.com/WTd1yf9ZOL
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Step-Grandma
This is supposedly a music video by Salvatore Ganacci. But who cares about the music? The video story is what really makes this. (via reddit)
A Gift From the Heavens
It was a beautiful sunny day in Athens, Alabama, when Little Johnny wrote to Santa Claus asking for a trampoline. Santa, wanting to get ahead on his Christmas chores, immediately complied. Then after a minute decided the trampoline didn't look all that good in the front yard; the driveway would be better. Johnny, who is old enough to write a letter on his own and therefore too old to believe in Santa Claus, thanked his puzzled parents profusely.
This actually happened last Thursday, and the bizarre incident was captured on Brooke and Zachary Stagg's doorbell camera from across the street. There doesn't appear to be any heavy weather brewing, but it was a bit windy. (via Laughing Squid)
The Sustained Two-Shot
Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting has been missing in action for years, and we've missed his insightful look at the details of filmmaking. We are glad to see he is back, in what he calls a limited edition of his series on filmmaking. with a look at a classic type of scene called the sustained two-shot.
The sustained two-shot was common back in the days when film was more expensive than an actor's time. Now, the actors don't have to get minutes of dialogue perfect all the way through, because there are multiple camera angles and the opportunity to edit. But that's only the beginning of how filmmaking has changed over time, and why the sustained two-shot isn't seen much anymore. One simple film technique carries a rich history, and Zhou makes it way more interesting than you would imagine.
Miss Cellania's Links
World's first lung cancer vaccine trials launched across seven countries. (via Damn Interesting)
Why Does Time Move Faster as We Get Older? (via Real Clear Science)
Why toilet paper keeps getting smaller and smaller. (via Nag on the Lake)
During World War II, the Liberation of Paris Saved the French Capital From Destruction. Hitler had ordered the city to be burned.
Carvings at Göbekli Tepe may be world’s oldest calendar. Around 12,000 year old. (via My Modern Met)
Major League catcher Danny Jansen went into the record books permanently yesterday as the first MLB player to play for both sides in a single game. Even in the same at-bat! (via Metafilter)
30 Funny Times Teachers Wondered ‘How Are My Students So Dumb?’
Mosquitoes sense infrared from body heat to help track humans down, study shows. (via Damn Interesting)
Hollywood or Bus!
Movie stars fill up a bus. Sandra Bullock is driving, Dustin Hoffman takes both the back seat and another seat, and John Candy leads the singing. While the editing is seamless in this short video by Steve Ramsden, it does not end well. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Monday, August 26, 2024
Life in Medieval Europe was Fueled by Alcohol
You've heard that people in olden times drank wine all the time because their water wasn't safe. While the water supply wasn't quite as safe as what we drink now, people always drank water, but only when they couldn't afford beer. In Medieval Europe, beer, wine, and/or cider were always available. Hard liquor wasn't a thing, and the beer and wine weren't as strong as it is today, but that just meant you had to drink more of it. Beer was used to hire workers, feed them through the day, and to to pay them for their labor. It was used to hydrate, celebrate, and medicate. Alcohol was even used for church fundraisers! Yes, people sometimes got very drunk, but mostly it was a case of getting through a difficult life with a constant light buzz.
Mansion For Sale in Manhattan
For sale: a 10,000-square-foot mansion on the Hudson River in Manhattan's West Side. Built in 1902, the Gilded Age building has five stories, five bedrooms, seven baths, two kitchens, and a separate full basement apartment. The landmark is named River Mansion. I was excited to see a tour, but then... oh my eyes! The decor is so ugly! Each room seems to be more of an abomination than the previous one. Apparently it was used as an art project, with a couple of dozen modern designers taking on a room each. The architectural details are nice, but the cost of getting these rooms back to a sensible and maybe even somewhat period-accurate look would be considerable. The good news is that the price has dropped from the $24 million this guy mentions to just under $10 million. That's only $63K a month. You could rent out the rooms to a dozen or so desperate New Yorkers and make that back in no time. (via Nag on the Lake)
How Historic Figures Ruined Their Reputations
Today, we look at Abraham Lincoln as a heroic figure, usually ranked as the second best president ever, just behind FDR. But a big chunk of the nation hated him when he barely squeaked into the White House in 1861, and seven states were so mad they decided to leave the US! While Lincoln's reputation was rehabilitated over time, other historical figures did not fare so well. Some of the most successful heroes of the past were eventually discovered to have been ruthless and cruel, opportunistic, or greedy, which can be an advantage in getting ahead. Yeah, no one is perfect, but those who left a really big mark on history are judged by the long-term consequences of their decisions.
The static image for this video is of Christopher Columbus, who changed the world by "discovering" the Western Hemisphere. He isn't included in the six people this video tells us about, because we already know how his actions were judged over time, from "it depends on what side you were on" to "imperialism sucks, no matter who you are."
Miss Cellania's Links
Scientists Uncovered a Blow From the Past: 17th Century Brains Contained Cocaine. (via Damn Interesting)
What Is This Weird Cubbyhole For?
50 Years Later: Remembering How the Future Looked in 1974. (via Kottke)
Star Trek is turning its greatest villain into a hero. A podcast series will explore what happened to Khan on Ceti Alpha V.
The Unlikely Popularity of Grape-Nuts Ice Cream.
The Best Movies Based on Real Crimes. They go back as far as 1931, but most are readily available to watch.
They all say they’ve got the Holy Grail. So who’s right? (via Strange Company)
A Blast from the Past (2016): 10 Amazing Dog Parks.
Why Olympians Bite Their Medals
You’ve probably seen the pictures of winners at Olympic medal ceremonies biting their gold medals. In this video, Simon Whistler of Today I Found Out explains why they do it. Yes, they only do it because the photographer tells them to, but why does the photographer tell them to?
If you are of a certain age, this will make you feel ancient. Many of the Olympic gold medal winners don’t themselves know why they are supposed to bite their medals. But if you’ve watched enough silent films, Warner Bros. cartoons, and Laurel and Hardy movies, you’re familiar with this old trope left over from the days when some coins were actually made of gold. (via Laughing Squid)
Tweet of the Day
Sometimes it take way too long. Grab a hankie.Beautiful
— Diana price (@Dianapr77393912) August 21, 2024
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Organ
A reminder that autocorrect isn't going to correct a wrong word as long as it's spelled right. (via Bad Newspaper)
Volunteers
Tom Hanks is a spoiled college student who goes to Thailand with the Peace Corps to escape a gambling debt. John Candy is there for the right reasons. And they get in trouble with communist forces. Volunteers wasn't a huge hit in 1985, but with Hanks and candy, it's worth a watch.
Fish Knight
This is an intriguing picture. I did a reverse image search, and all the information that comes up is in German. The picture is labeled Wachsmut von Künzingen, and it is supposedly from the 13th-century Codex Manesse. Turning on the English version of the entry at Wikipedia did not help much. But Codex Manesse renders in English. It's a book of poetry, and the 137 illustrations are portraits of the 135 different poets represented. Some of the poets' images were drawn with motifs that illustrate the lyrics they wrote, while others have their actual heraldry. I just want to know what the fish are for!
Discount Stores on a Cooking Show
The folks at It's a Southern Thing have a video in which discount stores compete on a cooking show. That sounds pretty random, but putting a personality on inanimate objects based on their reputation can be funny. It turns out this is an experiment, called a sketch cobbler. Viewers sent in random elements, they pulled a few out of a hat, and made a comedy sketch out of it. Can they incorporate all the elements and still make it funny? Yes, but they could have left the smaller details out. All they really needed was "discount stores" and "cooking show." Anyone who has shopped all all these stores will understand. And now you know the reason I keep a stash of quarters in my car; it's not for emergency car washes.
Sheets
I thought this was a little silly, since it only takes a second to figure out after placing one corner. But then I recalled my mother teaching me that you always place the opposite corners first or the bottom sheet will be hard to fit. Eventually I figured out that was nonsense. Then much later, I realized it was because my parents always bought the very cheapest sheets available. I taught my daughters to go with cheap dishes when you need to, but always spend as much as you can on quality bed linens. Good sleep is worth the expense. (Thanks, WTM!)
7 Ways UK and US Elections Are Very Different
In the US, we have a presidential election every four years, plus elections for senators every six years and congressional elections every two years. The time between is spent campaigning, and there's nothing we can do about it. In the UK, they decide to have an election at random times for one reason or another, and a couple of weeks later, they vote. They don't even have political TV ads! And that's before even getting into the subject of campaign financing.
Laurence Brown grew up with the UK system, but has lived in the US for 16 years now. Having obtained his citizenship, this year will be his first vote in a presidential election. Therefore, without giving a hint as to his political leanings, he tries to explain the difference between the way elections work in the UK and in the US. The upshot is that US elections are exhausting, and UK elections are not. But you already knew that. There's a 90-second skippable ad at 1:55.
At The Codfish Ball
Of course you recognize Shirley Temple in this number from the 1936 movie Captain January. But did you recognize the guy dancing with her? That’s Buddy Ebsen, at the age of 28, many years before we all knew him as Jed Clampett. (via Metafilter)
Tweet of the Day
Cosmic.AI is replacing LSD dealers pic.twitter.com/m9urpbFTy3
— Justine Moore (@venturetwins) August 21, 2024
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Diabolical Ironclad Beetle
It's a real bug and really called that. You can run over it with a car and it will just walk away. (via Pleated-Jeans)
Gracie Finds a Home
The cat distribution system pays no mind to whether the targeted individual is a cat person or not. You can and will be converted.
Bees
The kicker is that the bees benefit from the flowers they pollinate. Now, if we could only harvest something beneficial from STDs... but that ain't gonna happen. We all are interconnected in this great world. That's not always a good thing. This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
Generation War
People who try to explain history, culture, and economics like to compare people born in different eras as stereotypes, but it's really hard to pigeonhole millions at a time. In this game, or tournament, it's the Boomers vs. the Millennials vs. Gen Z. What about Generation X? You know. Foil Arms and Hog do the play-by-play with every stereotype possible making a play. The thing is, we are too busy trying to catch all the jokes to comprehend that we don't even know what sport this is. I assumed it was a ball game, with each side taking territory on the field, but the reference to "battle royale" at the beginning and "weapons" at some point implies that it's a down and out fight. A good time was had by all.
Rub My Roast
When I posted the picture Vincent Price Carves Meat, Scooter pointed out that a remix of the audio from the show Cooking Price-Wise was available. Here it is, as creepy and weird as can be! (Thanks, Scooter!)
Tweet of the Day
The fun side of melting glaciers. (Thanks, WTM!)This is the coolest and scariest thing I've seen today!! 😯🥶 pic.twitter.com/dcnoz7fMKl
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 19, 2024
Friday, August 23, 2024
Typsetting Errors
Newspaper errors have been making us laugh a long time. This clip is from 1898. Found at Second Glance History. (via Strange Company)
Why Is English Awash in Sailors' Jargon?
When we say that someone talks like a sailor, that usually refers to their swearing. But in reality, we all do it. The English we use today is awash with jargon originally used by sailors, and we can't fathom why. It likely had to do with large crews on long sea voyages who got used to all those nautical terms, and when anchored on land they kept using them. Their children learned the ropes and by and large continued until these terms infiltrated English permanently, the way they infiltrated the first half of this sentence. Okay, but that's true of all careers. Linguist Dr. Erica Brozovsky of Otherwords tells us about the seafaring origins of a bunch of words, including, strangely, "blog." I like the cut of her jib. From her, we learn that all this came about because of that one thing we blame everything on: the British Empire.
Elephant Chained For 31 Years
Joy was 31 years old, and had spent her life as a logging elephant. But now she was too old and had health concerns, so they chained her to a tree. Planting Peace sent Aaron to get her, and he led Joy out of the logging area to her new home at Mandalao Elephant Conservation, a retirement home for elephants in Laos. This shelter welcomes tourists because they pay for the elephants' upkeep, but they never offer elephant rides or train the elephants to do stunts. I'm sure you noticed the lump on Joy's shoulder. Elephants rarely get cancer, so it is probably an abscess. The shelter has a veterinarian, so Joy will get the care she needs.
Dragon's Lair
Well, that explains that. It gives me flashbacks to when Princess went to SCAD. She was a tween when she told me she wanted to grow up to be an artist. I said you can't make a living doing that. She replied, "Uncle Bill does!" And indeed he has supported a family as a graphic artist for decades, which pulled the rug out from under my argument. Still, Princess changed her mind about a career many times and has collected quite a few skills by now. And Brother Bill has contributed greatly to this site with his art. This comic is from Toonhole. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Redbox After Death
Redbox arrives in video store heaven! But the afterlife isn't all that great when Redbox meets its predecessors. Could this be video store hell? Matt Mitchell single-handedly illustrates how the cycle of video rental businesses works when one company after another leapfrogs to the top with a better idea and then dies. The truth comes out when they all meet in video store heaven.
Miss Cellania's Links
Young people getting history wrong in front of old people who were there.
Russia's Communist Revolution – Could it happen here? The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
From Alien to Star Wars: The Problem with Bringing Back Dead Actors. Note: the article contains spoilers for Alien: Romulus, and possibly other films you haven't yet seen.
Gift card scams generate billions for fraudsters and industry as regulators fail to protect consumers − and how one 83-year-old fell into the ‘fear bubble.’
Discover the Hidden History of Tomb Robbing in Ancient Egypt.
Most GOP-devastating statistic in Bill Clinton's DNC speech confirmed by fact checker.
15 Times Cats Were Total Drama Queens.
When you think of television programming for Halloween, of course you think of The Food Network. No, really.
Sun City
Steve Van Zandt got several dozen of his closest musician friends together to sing a protest song about the Sun City boycott in 1985. South Africa was a much different place back then, and Sun City was a symbol of the decadence that the ruling class of whites enjoyed. The group went by the name Artists United Against Apartheid. From the YouTube page:
Sun City is a large casino resort in the north-west of South Africa. During the apartheid years it was located in 'independent' state of Bophuthatswana, a phoney political entity that enabled white South Africans to visit a casino, gamble and attend strip shows, even though these activities were illegal within South Africa itself. The United Nations placed a cultural ban on artists touring or performing in South Africa - however many notable American and European acts ignored this and received large sums to perform at Sun City's massive auditorium. Amongst those to defy the ban included Linda Ronstadt, Queen, Laura Branigan, Rod Stewart, Julio Iglesias - and, ironically, black singers like Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick and Boney M. As a result, Van Zandt's song continually insists that "I ain't gonna play Sun City"Although Americans were well aware of apartheid, most of us didn’t know much about Sun City or the cultural boycott until this song was released. The radio station I worked for at the time refused to play it, because of the line about Ronald Reagan. It’s a killer song, though, and now it’s a historical document. I had the album, which is full of awesome songs about South Africa and its struggle against apartheid.
Tweet of the Day
The 1870 census listed "Served Fish" and his son, "Preserved Fish."
— Undine (@HorribleSanity) August 21, 2024
Just thought you'd like to know. pic.twitter.com/OIJWSZVFLA
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Enraged Corgi!
His sense of justice has been breached. He responds like a child, but hey, he's just a puppy! At least he has the sense to go pout in his own room instead of lashing out at his humans.Test haha pic.twitter.com/9d1yUifC7R
— Enez Özen (@Enezator) August 22, 2024
Adulthood
Nailed it. By the time you have the opportunity to catch a few zzzs during the day, you will be very aware that you're an adult. You'll also be happy about it, since we elderly folks lack both the incompetence of childhood and the intense responsibility of a working/parenting adult. Sure, we have health concerns, but we are also mature enough to deal with them. This comic is from a defunct webcomic called Go Borgo. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
German Warship on the Thames
All Star Wars fans know what inspired George Lucas' imagery in designing the bad guys. This week, that seeped into the real world in a strange little episode in London. The German navy corvette Braunschweig was in Britain, not doing its normal stealth operations, but on a training operation. While transiting upriver on the Thames, the crew stood on deck as the ship passed through London, with the most appropriate (or inappropriate) music playing on its loudspeakers.
A spokesman from the German navy told the BBC that there was no message implied in the music, and that the boat's commander has free rein to select the music. This shows that the reputation of Germans having no sense of humor isn't true- they just don't laugh at jokes. But they were able to poke fun at themselves being towed backward upriver. (via Ars Technica)
19 Years
Can you believe that Miss Cellania has been a thing for 19 years? Most years, when this anniversary comes around (if I don't forget it, which I have quite a few times), I tend to go through a history of the site, or else reminisce about the beginning of the blog. I think I'll forego all that this year and save it for the 20th anniversary. By then I hope to be fully retired and able to put a real effort into it.
Instead, let's look at where we've come. You know that the advent of social media caused an explosion in numbers of people who use the internet, yet most of those new users never venture into the wider world wide web. It's also sucked a lot of users away from traditional blogs because it's just easier to rely on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram to feed people what they want to see, based on algorithms that know what they've read previously. Therefore, traffic for traditional blogs is down everywhere.
In the last few years, maximizing profit has gotten so out of hand that half of what you see is padded word count for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes and filled with ads where illustrations should be. A lot of the information is straight copied from other sites or rendered by artificial intelligence. I can't say that I produce quality or original content because I'm a link blogger, but at least I steer people to other sites and credit the source of the things I share, without the unnecessary padding. And I try to avoid using junk sites. Old school, ya know. But surfing the 'net to find quality things to link to is getting harder all the time.
Meanwhile, so many of the bloggers that I admired at the beginning have given up, moved on to other things, or are stuck in a loop of chasing dollars to support their habit. Some have died. Yes, there are still some old school hobby blogs around; you can see some in the "Recommended Blogs" section in the sidebar here. But there are fewer of them every day. I've been lucky in that I never invested anything in Miss Cellania. I've never had to depend on this site for a living. It's my hobby. Therefore, no desperation.
Lest you think this post is a downer, let me get to the point. Blog traffic is down everywhere, but I've noticed over the last couple of years that Miss Cellania is doing relatively well, with more people coming here than some surprising and profitable legacy blogs. And I can vouch for the quality of the readers. Many of you I consider friends! I guess people settle down to stick with what they like, and I can attribute the longevity of this blog to the readers who keep coming back to see the stuff I like, because you like it, too.
And that's why I do this. Miss Cellania is basically a place for me to share things that I find funny, informative, or at least interesting with friends. And I am exceedingly grateful to my friends who come here to see those things. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Pat yourself on the back, for keeping Miss Cellania around for 19 years!
Top image from Married to the Sea.
Instead, let's look at where we've come. You know that the advent of social media caused an explosion in numbers of people who use the internet, yet most of those new users never venture into the wider world wide web. It's also sucked a lot of users away from traditional blogs because it's just easier to rely on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram to feed people what they want to see, based on algorithms that know what they've read previously. Therefore, traffic for traditional blogs is down everywhere.
In the last few years, maximizing profit has gotten so out of hand that half of what you see is padded word count for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes and filled with ads where illustrations should be. A lot of the information is straight copied from other sites or rendered by artificial intelligence. I can't say that I produce quality or original content because I'm a link blogger, but at least I steer people to other sites and credit the source of the things I share, without the unnecessary padding. And I try to avoid using junk sites. Old school, ya know. But surfing the 'net to find quality things to link to is getting harder all the time.
Meanwhile, so many of the bloggers that I admired at the beginning have given up, moved on to other things, or are stuck in a loop of chasing dollars to support their habit. Some have died. Yes, there are still some old school hobby blogs around; you can see some in the "Recommended Blogs" section in the sidebar here. But there are fewer of them every day. I've been lucky in that I never invested anything in Miss Cellania. I've never had to depend on this site for a living. It's my hobby. Therefore, no desperation.
And that's why I do this. Miss Cellania is basically a place for me to share things that I find funny, informative, or at least interesting with friends. And I am exceedingly grateful to my friends who come here to see those things. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Pat yourself on the back, for keeping Miss Cellania around for 19 years!
Top image from Married to the Sea.
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