(via Bad Newspaper)
Friday, February 28, 2025
Shredding Light
Light artist DARIUSTWIN, known to his friends as Darren Pearson, has perfected the art of drawing skeletons with a light pen in a hurry. He has to do an awful lot of them to make an animated sequence in this fashion. Here, his skeleton are skateboarders! (via Laughing Squid)
The Fresno Nightcrawlers
Often when you hear about a cryptid, like Bigfoot or the chupacabra or a jackalope, it's a story that's been around so long that people cannot pinpoint when the legend started. But the urban legend of the Fresno Nightcrawlers not only has an exact start date, but it's relatively recent and there is video footage! This cryptid had the advantage of the internet, which quickly adopted it after the original 2007 video went viral. A Fresno Nightcrawler looks like a pair of legs that walk around by themselves. In most fan art, there's a head attached, but the video it is based on is so blurry you have to use your imagination. Luckily, that's what so many people on the 'net are good at.
Is the Fresno Nightcrawler a hoax, a strange technical artifact, or something real that we just don't understand? Dr. Emily Zarka of Monstrum takes a good look at the video that make the Fresno Nightcrawler a thing.
Miss Cellania's Links
This page is under construction. A love letter to the personal website (via Boing Boing)
Everything will be fine. A collection of destruction gifs. (via Everlasting Blort)
Star Trek's William Shatner Confirms Discussions To Return As Captain Kirk. (via Geeks Are Sexy)\
When FDR denounced Poland for starting a war with Germany. The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
For years, the double feature was a dependable part of the movie-goer’s life. Where did it come from, and where did it go? (via Damn Interesting)
A new report shows that tech billionaire Elon Musk’s companies have sucked at least $38 billion out of the federal government’s coffers.
The ’90s Flop That Billed Itself as “the First Interactive Movie.” Mr. Payback might not have set the box office alight, but it did at least try to pioneer a new form of entertainment.
About Camels
Camels have been called "the ships of the desert" because they are so highly specialized in negotiating hot, dry, sandy territory. Every part of their bodies is optimized for such a journey, but it took a long time to develop all those specialized features. Who better to explain those body parts than Ze Frank? As part of his True Facts series, he goes over a camel's body piece by piece to show us how weird they are, and how they are perfect for living in, and carrying people through, the desert. For example, it's handy to have tough pads to protect your body in areas where it comes in contact with the earth. Camels have them on their feet, their knees, and even their chests so they can sit down on hot sand. But it's their internal physiology that's really weird, from their red blood cells to their sinuses that are all optimized desert living. There's a 70-second ad at 5:10.
Millennial Hoarders
Millennials know that hoarding is bad, and can lead to dangerous conditions in your home. But they live in a different world, and some suffer from a different kind of hoarding disorder. Do you know any digital hoarders? Yeah, I'm guilty of this myself. Not videos, but links and URLs. I have documents in folders within other folders going back to 2005, stuff I jotted down that I thought might be useful in my work someday. I might get around to abandoning that stuff sooner or later. After all, most of it is in a format I can no longer open, anyway. (via Boing Boing)
Late-term Levity
(Thanks, WTM!)How pregnant women have fun. 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/HS3fMVdqyi
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) February 14, 2025
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Nepal
Enjoy this lovely tilt-shift time-lapse video of the country of Nepal, where my newest son-in-law comes from. (via Nag on the Lake)
Luna
Luna is described as a "unique-looking dog." That's an understatement! Luna has huge ears that stand straight up, and markings that make her nose look like a pig's snout. Her mouth is outlined in black, which just highlights how crooked her smile is. Her skull deformities are the result of distemper when she was a puppy, which she was very lucky to have survived. There's really no explaining those ears! But Luna gets along fine, and has a great life with her human Danni, who is the daughter of Luna's original rescuer. Luna's bubbly personality (and her amusingly odd voice) endears her to everyone she meets. You can follow Luna and her adventures with her new canine sibling Milo at Instagram.
Bartenders Guess Who Is Underage
The legal drinking age in the U.S. is 21. The age is set by the states, but the federal government enacted "incentives," like highway funds, to get all states to 21 as the drinking age. In this video, bartenders, some more experienced than others, show how they can tell if someone is over 21 and legal to serve. Turns out they aren't as adept as they thought. That's why they ask for your ID, even if you are 35. To be honest, people between puberty and middle age can be any age if you don't know for sure. (via reddit)
Sleep Positions
(Thanks, WTM!)Cats are just different creatures 🤯 pic.twitter.com/WFCrsdd4Dt
— contents that ll heal your depression 🌻 (@catshealdeprsn) February 15, 2025
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Eternal Frustration
The best art will be relatable to many people, and will touch your emotions. That's exactly what the kinetic sculpture Eternal Frustration does. All of us have spent way too much of our precious time trying to find the end of transparent tape on a roll. Box tape is even worse than cellophane tape. The process is like Sisyphus rolling a stone up hill, knowing that the task is futile in the long run. If you are lucky enough to find the end, you find that getting your fingernail under a corner isn't the end of your problems, because the tape will split just to spite you. The sculpture is from Italian designer Amedeo Capelli of Stoccafisso design, who knows how to get a rise out of the viewer. Some of his more whimsical and pleasant automata are available at his Etsy shop. (via Boing Boing)
An Honest Trailer for the 2025 Oscars
The annual Oscars will be bestowed this coming Sunday, March 2, to deserving films as selected by the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And every year, Screen Junkies runs a mega-Honest Trailer for all the nominees for Best Picture. Why? Because these are the prestige films that the majority of us didn't see, including Screen Junkies, which means they don't already have Honest Trailers. This small group of producers had to sit down and watch all ten movies to get this video prepared in time for the awards, so you don't have to. But if you're like me and saw exactly none of the ten contenders for the top award, this Honest Trailer, however abbreviated for each movie, might serve as a guide to which of them you might want to check out after the awards, win or lose.
Miss Cellania's Links
Hubble completes the largest galactic mosaic of all-time. The full extent of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy to our own, has been entirely imaged with Hubble’s exquisite cameras.
The Shrouded, Sinister History Of The Bulldozer. From India to the Amazon to Israel, bulldozers have left a path of destruction that offers a cautionary tale for how technology without safeguards can be misused. (via Damn Interesting)
He Accidentally Set a World Record for a Marathon. (via Metafilter)
Why We Do the Research. Evidence does not support regulation of certain female track athletes (via Real Clear Science)
The Real Story Behind Nickel Boys and the Brutal Florida Reform School That Inspired the Film.
A Blast from the Past (2008): 7 People Who Might Have Inspired Dr. Frankenstein.
The Silence of the Lambs as a Romantic Comedy
Jody Foster and Anthony Hopkins star in the most romantic movie of the year! She's an ambitious young FBI agent, just trying to make it in a tough profession. Then she meets him, and everything changes. What's not to love about that? Cinefix once again shows us how selective editing and mood music can shape a film into anything you want it to be. (via Laughing Squid)
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Travel These Days
We are all familiar with the "What's the deal with airline food?" type of humor. It's just situational observation, but in the hands of a talented comedian, it goes over well.
After the Toronto plane crash, a TV station interviewed this guy about the trials of traveling. His stream-of-consciousness response was exactly what we are all thinking, but his honesty, sincerity, and comic timing are so spot on that you can't stop listening. He's not even trying to be funny, as far as I can tell. Kudos to the interviewer who just let him go on and on. (Thanks, Brother Bill!)
There Are "Rules" for LEGO Bricks
You've hear about "illegal" LEGO techniques or joins or methods. The LEGO company has no power of law over what you do with the LEGO pieces you have bought and paid for, so the term "illegal" should be taken with a grain of salt. But the company does have its own rules for users to follow. These rules are codified building techniques that try to ensure that whatever you build will be sturdy enough to stay where you put it and won't warp or break the bricks you used to make it. I think some of these rules might be for safety's sake, too. Beyond that, this video gives us a glimpse into the word of the LEGO company and how they produce so many building pieces of so many different kinds, resulting in glorious sets designed for every type of fandom. It's a little over seven minutes long; the rest is an ad.
A Ship's Graveyard in North Carolina
My parents took me to the Outer Banks of North Carolina almost every year as I was growing up. I also took my children, although not as often. Even as a kid, I was astonished at how details of the land changed from year to year. That's because the ocean currents are building up and tearing down these barriers islands all the time. These same currents have been bringing down ships for hundreds of years- ever since transatlantic travel began. Add to that the fact that these islands were once a very popular maritime destination for ships that did not want to be caught in a major port, and you start to see how this string of islands ended up with a reputation for destroying ships. But the sea around the Outer Banks isn't just swallowing ship these days- it's also taking down homes.
Metal Dancing Queen
Norwegian musician Leo Moracchioli performs a metal version of Abba's 1976 disco song "Dancing Queen." He plays all the instruments and sings, while a large bunny dances with his young daughter. Is that weird enough for you? The song works well, and he adds a killer solo. Despite the video length, the song is only four and a half minutes. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Monday, February 24, 2025
Killing Me Softly With His Song
"Killing Me Softly With His Song" was a #1 hit for Roberta Flack in 1973, but not her only hit. Flack passed away today at the age of 88. There will never be another like her. (via Metafilter)
Physical Graffiti
Today is the 50th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin's best album, Physical Graffiti. I recall it well- I was 16 and couldn't wait to hear it, so I was down at Fuson's Music Shop when they unpacked the carton. No bad songs on the whole album. You might remember the album for "Kashmir," "Houses of the Holy," or "In My Time of Dying," but I was also drawn to the song embedded here, "Night Flight," which never drew much attention. But then again, there are no bad songs on the album. Led Zeppelin has made the entire album available at YouTube in this playlist. (via Metafilter)
The Stoops of New York
People are very adaptable, and can make a culture out of a simple architectural feature. "Stoop" is a Dutch word for stairs, and they built grand homes and apartment buildings in New Amsterdam with them for flood control reasons. But those stairs also became a front yard, a status symbol for those who kept servants in the basement, a place to socialize, and even a private store for the people who lived there. The stoop was the reason you knew all your neighbors. In the 20th century, the social aspect of the stoop started to fade away as more apartments had air conditioning, television, and later internet. But then the pandemic came along in 2020, and New Yorkers again returned to the stoop to get some human contact. (via Nag on the Lake)
Miss Cellania's Links
Hostile Government Takeover. This clip has gone extremely viral.
The Lorne Michaels Book-Event Thread Is the Reply-All Disaster We Need. (via Metafilter)
Archaeologists Say They’ve Discovered the First Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh’s Tomb Since Tutankhamun’s in 1922.
These 7 anti-science myths threaten modern-day society.
James Tilly Matthews And The Air Loom. The detailed conspiracy theory from the first documented schizophrenic.
Quebec Comiccon Winter Edition: The Cosplay Gallery. Click on each image to bring up a full-size version.
The Aggressive Baby Name Trend Is 'Alarming' Experts.
Torn
David Armand (as his interpretive dance character Johann Lippowitz) went viral with his dance to the song "Torn." It was such a funny performance that Natalie Imbruglia joined him to perform "Torn" at the Secret Policeman's Ball in 2006. Armand then got a job on the BBC show called Fast and Loose, with a game segment called Interpretive Dance in which people who couldn't hear the song tried to guess what it was, while the audience had a great time watching him. He also occasionally appeared in the US knockoff show Trust Us with Your Life, in which he did the same thing. (via Metafilter)
Inspection
(Thanks, WTM!)Cat Vader and his Dogtroopers..🐈⬛🐶🤖😅 🔊⬆️ pic.twitter.com/RyCMzhACey
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) January 24, 2025
Sunday, February 23, 2025
25 or 6 to 4
Chicago recorded in Lennox, Massachusetts in 1970. Featuring the late guitarist Terry Kath.
What the Dodo Looked Like
The dodo was a flightless bird native to Mauritius, and was first described in 1598. It's been said that the dodo was so friendly that it would walk right up to people, making it easy to kill. These birds didn't have any natural predators besides man, and the last confirmed sighting was in 1662. That's barely a half-century that we knew about them, and afterward it wwa said that dodos were mythical all along. But they were real, and we have a few skeletons to prove it. But I just now learned that we really don't know what the dodo looked like! A few paintings were made, but these were often painted by artists who had never seen the actual bird.
Sir David Attenborough tells us what we know and what we don't know about the dodo, including some speculation on what they really looked like based on genetic testing. (via Born in Space)
Andrew Huang's Midi Unicorn
Andrew Huang synched a drawing of a unicorn with his midi program and made some pretty music! How did he do that? It's not an automatic program, just a lot of work and experimentation. He'll tell you about it. Huang was inspired by the work of musician Savant, who has midi art on his Facebook page. (via Laughing Squid)
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Ozzie Sings Country Roads
They were both hot artists in the 1970s, but you could never think of a real collaboration between John Denver and Black Sabbath. Yet here we are, all these years later, listening to Ozzie sing the words to "Take Me Home, Country Roads" to the tune of "War Pigs." You can thank There I Ruined It.
Rarely am I disappointed by a song from Dustin Ballard and company, and I'm not really disappointed with this one. When it began, I just wished it was the inverse, with Denver crooning the lyrics to "War Pigs." Lo and behold, we get a tiny snippet of such a song at the end. It's only 15 seconds worth, but you take what you can get.
Sitar Metal
Rob Scallon, who never met a musical instrument he didn't like, rocks the sitar. I found this extremely pleasant. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Friday, February 21, 2025
Aphantasia
Although it may be hard for most of us to imagine, there are people who don't experience mental imagery, or seeing pictures in your head. Most of us can conjure up images from memory, imagination, or an external description without much effort. About 4% of people cannot do that, although they think and navigate the world just fine. This condition is called aphantasia. It's not really a disability, and many folks who have it are completely unaware. How can you know that the way you think is any different from the way other people think? I can't imagine what it would be like to think without visualizing what I'm thinking, so why would people with aphantasia be able to imagine what those images in the "mind's eye" are like?
Scientists have been studying people with aphantasia, and have found some interesting things about people who have it. This TED-Ed lesson from Adam Zeman tries to explain what aphantasia is like. (via Laughing Squid)
Leopard Reunion
Here's a story that illustrates the problems that arise when civilization encroaches on wildlife. A leopard mother will often leave her babies someplace she thinks is safe while she hunts. But this one left three cubs in a field that was plowed for crops, which isn't safe at all. She might have retrieved them soon, but someone took the cubs in as abandoned. We don't find out from the video where this was, but it's from Wildlife SOS, which operates in India, mainly to save elephants, so that may be a clue. Anyway, the best place for leopard cubs is with their mother. Volunteers took the cubs to the place where the mother was last spotted. And here you have to consider the bravery of the person who is carrying a litter of leopard cubs in the dark where you know the mom is hiding. That's true dedication to the mission! Still, this story has a happy ending, and if anyone was injured, they would have told us about it.
Miss Cellania's Links
Star Wars – Welcome to the Resistance, 2025. The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
Steven Spielberg Is Making A New Sci-Fi Movie.
Foods And Drinks With Misleading Names. (via Fark)
Bro learned the hard way not to wake up a sleeping tigress.
Propaganda posters for our new fascist oligarchy.
My life as a prison officer: ‘It wasn’t just the smell that hit you. It was the noise.’ (via Damn Interesting)
If La La Land Were Directed by David Lynch
I watched La La Land in a theater, and only fell asleep twice. I didn't miss anything, though. I was surprised to later find out it was only two hours long. The dances were nice, but the characters were not likeable. Maybe I would have liked it better as a surreal horror film a la David Lynch. (via the A.V. Club)
Thursday, February 20, 2025
An Honest Trailer for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the first of the Harry Potter films, released in 2001. It was known as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone everywhere besides the US, India, and the Philippines. You would have thought that Screen Junkies would have already done an Honest Trailer for the movie, and they sort of did. But that was a quick overview of all the Harry Potter films, and didn't go into depth with any of them. However, the first four Harry Potter movies are being re-released in theaters this year, with The Sorcerer's Stone now playing in select theaters.
Oh, they find enough to criticize in the film, but your reaction will most likely be "Man! Those actors are young! And short!" After all, it was 24 years ago and they were little kids who all grew up to be famous adults long before their time at Hogwarts ended.
A Cat and Her Running Wheel
The consensus is that this cat isn't really trying to get one over on her human; she just likes having her participate. It's a family activity! (via Digg)
Keeping up with the Kattarshians
Four kittens live in a house together. It's scaled to be just their size. Three live webcams (and a night vision camera) follow their antics as they learn to get along with each other -or not. Is that a great premise for a show or what? That's Keeping up with the Kattarshians, an Icelandic production starring a litter of kittens who will eventually be up for adoption.
The overwhelmingly cute kittens are siblings and we call them the Catdashians (The Kattarshians in Icelandic, due to the spelling in our language) and we’re keeping up with them. They are unfortunately orphans and will stay in their wonderful house for 3-4 weeks until some nice people adopt them and other homeless kittens take their place.
Keeping Up With the Catdashians is a cooperation project with The Icelandic Cat Protection Society and with full knowledge and approval of the Icelandic Food And Veterinary Authority, the Animal Welfare Officer and the Expert Veterinarian and Animal Welfare Officer in Iceland.
Employees and volunteers from The Icelandic Cat Protection Society take care of the kittens and make sure they get a sufficient time with people which is very important. They also take care of housekeeping, cleaning the litter box and serving food. Meanwhile we take a break from the streaming. This happens 2-3 times a day.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
NASA's Quieter Supersonic Jet
NASA has released the results of its engine performance tests on the new X-59 research jet, which is not built for space, but has the potential to change air travel down here on earth. You might not know this, but civilian planes that travel faster than the speed of sound were banned in the US in 1973 because their sonic booms could shatter glass and frightened the daylights out of people on the ground. And that's why passenger jets cannot travel at 800 miles per hour. Even in Europe, the Concorde was phased out for being too expensive to operate.
But NASA intends to upgrade commercial flight with the X-59, bringing back airline travel at faster than the speed of sound. The X-59 not only has a quieter jet engine, it is mounted on top of the plane to reduce shock waves going to the ground. It also sports a slim fuselage that can slice through the air, again reducing shock waves. They would have done much better getting their point across if they showed us the jet with natural sound. Read up on the advantages of the supersonic X-59 jet at Gizmodo.
We Drink Too Much
A public service announcement from film directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. (via Nag on the Lake)
Miss Cellania's Links
What Lies Beneath the Gravestone of a Fictional It Girl? Here lies Charlotte Temple, who did not exist.
4 thoughts on Trump's new world order from foreign relations expert Richard Haass. (via Fark)
Intern Finds Only Known Surviving Copy of The Heart of Lincoln, a Silent Film Thought to Be Lost to History. (via Damn Interesting)
9 Books Banned for Incredibly Stupid Reasons.
Try this word bracket puzzle!
The Value of Dead and Rotting Trees, and how to make more of them.
Sis Boom Bah
Johnny Carson as Carnac the Magnificent delivers the funniest dad joke ever. I remember watching that night and I couldn't stop laughing. I missed the rest of the sketch, which was okay, as nothing could top that one joke.
Prescription
That's not how dyslexia works, but nice try. (Thanks, WTM!)😀😀😀😝😝😝😝 pic.twitter.com/ynDcyRc4gH
— steve (@bagshaw2112) February 14, 2025
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Blue Raspberry
We all know that blue is not a natural color for food. The exception that proves the rule is blueberries, which have a delicate flavor that belies their dramatic color and doesn't factor into junk food much at all. When we see blue candy or blue syrup, that's coded in our heads as raspberry flavor. Or more specifically, artificial raspberry flavor, which is actually pretty good even when it falls short of the real thing. Yeah, yeah, raspberries are red, except when they are black, or white, so how did that flavor become blue? I thought it was just an assignment because red was already in use for cherry flavoring, but it's a lot more complicated than that. Tom Blank of Weird History Food is glad to share the story of blue raspberry flavoring with us.
Is the Penny Finally Dead?
President Trump issued an executive order to cease minting pennies. Of all the things he's trying to do to our government, this seems like the most benign, but it's a big deal to CGP Grey, who has been advocating for the end of the copper penny for a long time. But does he even have the power to do that? It's a question that could be put to some of Trump's other executive orders, if the majority in Congress weren't so terrified of the president and his followers.
The Aliens Who Invented Crop Circles
It's obvious to any observer that super intelligent aliens have been keeping an eye on Earth for a long time, trying to come up with ways to communicate with us. So far they haven't come up with a clear method of letting us know they are there, much less that they are more intelligent than we are. But they are brainstorming. Now, the whole idea of brainstorming is to throw ideas out there, no matter how illogical, in the hopes that it may lead the group to come up with something feasible and effective. As Ryan George demonstrates, it wouldn't be logical to assume that super intelligent beings who could travel from distant galaxies to enslave Earthlings can't figure out a better way to tell us about their plans. This video is less than three minutes; the rest is an ad. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Driving the Same Car for 53 Years
Grace Braeger bought a Chevy in 1957. It was her first new car, and the last she's ever bought. She's still driving it! The car is still in great condition, even after 116,000 miles (which isn't much for a car that old). Cars were built to last back then, and you can even repair them yourself. But it would be good if she got it fitted with seat belts. (via Neatorama)
Cybertrucks
(via Everlasting Blort)Share THIS if you're glad the government is spending less on waste and more on a fleet of Cybertrucks you can see from space!
— The Daily Show (@thedailyshow.com) February 14, 2025 at 3:54 PM
[image or embed]
Monday, February 17, 2025
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