(via Bad Newspaper)
Sunday, August 31, 2025
Multiple SIDosis
In this short film from 1970, Sid gets a tape recorder for Christmas and explores what it can do. From the YouTube description:
Sid Laverents, a retired Convair engineer, has long been a legend in the amateur film community. Multiple SIDosis is a kind of latter-day trick film, in which Sid reprises the one-man band act he performed as a traveling vaudevillian in the '20s and '30s. This self-reflexive masterpiece features Sid--or rather many, many Sids--hysterically performing the song Nola, recorded with Sid's ingenious sound-on-sound looping technique and filmed with the use of his handmade in-camera mattes.(via Metafilter)
The Value of Boredom
When my kids were young and complaining about being bored, I would always tell them that it was their own fault and they needed to figure it out themselves. The complaining eventually stopped. The truth is that we've all managed to eliminate boredom with a device in our pockets that can fill even the smallest amount of downtime with information or entertainment.
We hear a lot about the epidemics of depression and loneliness in the modern world, and that could be explained by the lack of real-life social interaction, or maybe it's the lack of introspection. When the dishwasher was invented, housewives didn't want them because washing the dishes was the only time of the day they could be alone with their thoughts. Being alone with your thoughts has value, so why do we find ourselves avoiding it? Some of it is FOMO, the fear of missing out, and some of it is the fear of wasting time. We are lucky to have the time to be bored. Professor Arthur C. Brooks explains why we should let ourselves be bored sometimes, and how we can do it.
Pandas Falling Down
Pandas are cute, but they've never been known for their grace. If you give them an enrichment activity or a toy to play with, they will get so excited they forget how to stand up. So enjoy a supercut of adorable but clumsy giant pandas falling down, from the Chengdu Panda Research Center in China. It's a good thing these critters are round and fluffy. And they seem to bounce fairly well. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Galactus
Today's superheroes could learn a thing or two from the ancient ones. This comic is from SpaceboyCantLol. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Saturday, August 30, 2025
The Forgotten Plague That Almost Destroyed America
In 1793 when mercury and bloodletting were used to treat diseases, and we didn't even have germ theory, it would have been a lot to expect people to understand acquired immunity. Or that diseases could be spread from contaminated water or by mosquitos instead of by other sick people. When yellow fever struck Philadelphia that year, at least 5,000 people died, which was 10% of the city's population. PBS tells us how that played out.
We still don't have a cure for yellow fever, but we have better supportive treatment, and a vaccine that is recommended before you travel to a region where the disease is endemic.
Helping a Stranded Beluga
Mateo Niclas was kayaking off the coast of Alaska when he spotted a beluga whale mired in the mud. He called over his buddies to see what they could do. It was big for a beluga- they estimated that the whale was about 3,500 pounds. That's way more than a kayak could pull. But there eight guys and a rope, and the mud was just slick enough to allow them to pull together and free the whale. That beluga is going to have a real story to tell his beluga buddies, although they will not believe him.
A situation like this could be dangerous for amateur rescuers. If you see a stranded marine animal, call the professionals. NOAA has a website that lists the closest organizations equipped to help. (via Born in Space)
Robot Learns Gymnastics
Spot can do a lot of things, and now he can do backflips. I don't think Simone Biles has anything to worry about just yet, but it's a breakthrough in robotics.
Why would a robot dog need to do gymnastics? Their clients don't need it. People who watch videos on the internet do, but that's not profitable. Robotics engineer Arun Kumar explains why this project is useful. The eeriest part is how practice makes perfect for a robot. They didn't have to tweak the hardware or software after every unsuccessful attempt. Instead, the artificial intelligence inside Spot learned by positive reinforcement, meaning it gets a reward when it performs well. Just like training a real dog. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Animated Tattoo
Phil Berge is an artist at the Tattoo Shack in Quebec. He inked 19 different people with Bart Simpson on his skateboard, each one slightly different. When he put all 19 tattoos together, it's an animation of Bart doing a kick flip! While the project is pretty cool, you have to wonder about all those people who thought, "Yeah, whatever you want to permanently embed on my arm, that's fine." Berge has done several of these tattoo animations; you can check them out at his YouTube page. One is NSFW. (via Boing Boing)
Movie Sequels
When a movie turns out to be good, you can bet that it will be milked for every last dollar beyond all reason. This graph is from Matt Shirley.
Friday, August 29, 2025
The Ballad of Big Balls
Folk singer Jesse Wells croons about the news from this summer. It's quite poetic, and his pseudonyms for everyone are quite clever, although it might take you a second to figure out some of them. I thought the Nostradamus of Austin would be Greg Abbott, then I saw in the comments that it's supposed to be either Joe Rogan or Alex Jones. I didn't know where either of them were based. In another line, the caption says "we can still in the bed," but he's singing "we can still win the bet." The song is barely about Big Balls, but that was the catchiest term for a title.
Testing Firecrackers
A guy in China is testing the power of different levels of firecrackers by placing them under a cooking pot. He starts with the least powerful firecracker he has, which is still enough to lift the pot off the ground. As they increasingly get bigger, the pot flies to amazing heights. Do not try this at home! It appears quite dangerous, although if you're not in China, you probably can't get this variety of firecrackers.
He's purportedly testing the firecrackers, but I'm most impressed with the pot. How heavy is that thing? What is it made of? It goes to ridiculous heights before showing even the slightest dent. Up until the last explosion, it's only slightly damaged by falling, not from the fireworks. (via Laughing Squid)
Miss Cellania's Links
Twenty Years After Hurricane Katrina, Many of Us Are Still Missing All That We Lost—and Grappling With One of the Country’s Worst Disasters.
Candle Flame Oscillations as a Clock. This project is an entry into HackaDay's One Hertz Challenge, in which entrants design a device that measures time in 1 Hz increments. (via Metafilter)
Women Share The Infuriating Final Straws That Convinced Them To Dump Their Man-Child Partners.
I'd Prefer to Live in THIS Fantasy World, Thank You Very Much.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 – the best pictures so far. (via Damn Interesting)
Good luck getting a COVID-19 vaccine this year. (via Fark)
Here’s Why Ron Howard Wasn’t Allowed to Watch The Andy Griffith Show. Oh, he's seen it in reruns.
Love among the coffins. The perfect cover for an affair wasn't all that perfect.
Homes Still Aren’t Designed for a Body Like Mine. Why is it so hard for disabled people to find safe, accessible places to live? (via Metafilter)
Can You Solve the Fish Riddle?
Here's another TED-Ed brain bender that can ruin your evening. I actually tried for a little while to solve the puzzle on my own, but I got bogged down and went for the answer. Yeah, there's math involved, as well as logic, which is why I got bogged down. Even if you don't try to figure it out by yourself, the story turns out to be kinda cute, with endangered species, sharks, and a submarine. (via Laughing Squid)
Threats
Two reasons people might homeschool their children. Another would be the disappearance of schools altogether due to lack of funding. At this point, Princess is planning to home school my grandchildren for several reasons, but you can be assured that they will get plenty of woke ideology. This comic is from Pizza Cake.
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Cherry Explosion
There are no surprises here, but it's serene and satisfying to watch people who know what they are doing. (via Everlasting Blort)
Kitten Has Emotional Support Chickens
Charley was a feral kitten who was quite hungry, but very much afraid of people. She wouldn't let Johanna touch her, but she was quite okay with being fed. Charley still didn't want to be lonely, so she hung out with the chickens in the backyard coop. The meals and the chickens kept her going long enough to develop a trust in Johanna, but even after she was socialized, Charley goes back to visit her emotional support chickens. (via Laughing Squid)
How Ants Make Lions Eat More Beef
Healthy ecosystems maintain a delicate balance of resources, plants, and animals. Remove one part of the food chain, and you get cascading effects that throw the balance off. Bringing in an invasive species can have the same devastating effect. That scenario is playing out now in the savannas of Kenya. The arrival of the big-headed ant some twenty years ago has changed the diet of the lions who live there- they are eating more water buffalo and fewer zebras. It's a chain reaction that involves several other species along the way, and as the story is still playing out, we don't know how it will end, or how other species will be affected.
Funny Birds
There are some great little scenes here. I wish I had the time or the incentive to give them all voiceovers, because I've got some great dialogue lines in my head.
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
A Home Computer in 1967
Rex Mallik of London was part of an experiment in putting computers in homes. Well, sort of. What he had was a terminal that worked as a teletype machine, connected to a computer a couple of miles away. No screen, just lots and lots of paper, and it cost £30 a week! They didn't mention whether it tied up the home's phone line. But it provided fairly instant answers to questions. (via Damn Interesting)
How to Make a Video Go Viral
The guy behind The Raglan Surf Report is a good surfer, but doesn't stand out among the many surfers posting videos on the internet. How to boost those view counts? Add a few elements, starting with an original song about what we are seeing in the video. I'm not going to tell you the other elements, you just have to watch.
Did it work? Not yet. This video was posted a month ago and only has 11,000 views so far. (via Everlasting Blort)
Bait
The duck chow vending machines in my neighborhood say "Don't feed bread to ducks." They should add "because they will just use it as bait." (via TYWKIWDBI)@foodporn In a moment worthy of a nature documentary, a group of friends caught an unusual scene. An ingenious bird was recorded throwing a piece of bread on the shore of a lake with a surprising objective — to try to catch a fish! 🤯 Is the bird a better fisherman than you?! 🤷🏽♂️ With @gusta_hsc #fyp #foryou #fishing #foodporn #food ♬ original sound - Foodporn
An Honest Trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth
The question is: how many sequels can a franchise have before it runs out of steam? The answer: not this many. Jurassic World Rebirth is the seventh movie in the Jurassic Park franchise. It made a ton of money, but at this point, going to a Jurassic movie is a habit. The 1993 movie, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on a book by Michael Crichton, was a wonderfully fresh idea, but you'd think by now this fictional world would have learned its lesson about dinosaurs. But no, they make the same mistakes over and over. Screen Junkies has fun tearing Jurassic World Rebirth apart.
Miss Cellania's Links
America Tips Into Fascism. Today is different than before. This is getting very, very serious.
The Four Players That Span the Entire History of the NBA.
Life in Norway. (via Everlasting Blort)
The Cracker Barrel Hype(rreality). "Now, most well-adjusted adults would probably look at this and say, “This is all totally ridiculous,” but the United States is not made up of well-adjusted adults; it’s made up of Americans." (via Metafilter)
Ford Once Made A Mile-Long Factory To Build Bombers Faster Than Anyone Thought Possible.
He Just Can't Wait to Be King! Randy Rainbow's latest song parody comes from The Lion King.
E-mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone. Think about how you'd do it. (via kottke)
8 Strange Dark Days Throughout History. What caused some of these ominous events still remains a total mystery.
The next day for nationwide protests is September first, Labor Day. The theme: Workers Over Billionaires. (via Fark)
Kitten Plays with Dog's Tail
The dog's just wagging his tail because he's happy and that's what dogs do. The kitten sees a dragon that needs to be slayed. (via reddit)
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Amphetamines
If you only watch the first five minutes of this video from Kurzgesagt, you might start to think that we should all be taking some form of amphetamine all the time. What could be better than taking a drug that helps us focus, be more productive, and deal with the mind-numbing drudgery and boredom of the modern world? Those qualities are exactly why so many people take some form of speed, both legally and illegally. Amphetamines have legitimate medical uses, like getting kids with ADHD through school. They have fueled armies in war. But there are enormous costs associated with such drugs. If we were all using them, we wouldn't be able to get along with each other, and they eventually lead to disability and death. Besides that, productivity shouldn't be the biggest goal in our lives, because society is about more than winners and losers. The video is 9:45; the rest is ads.
Swimming Lessons for a Cat
Vita and Mauro take in foster cats with special needs. Sebastian came to them as a kitten through the Little Lion Foundation. He had an injury that left him walking all wrong, so wrong that he wore holes in his skin. They thought he would have to have his leg amputated, but veterinary care, therapy, and patience did a lot for Sebastian. Sebastian started his swimming lessons and learned to dog paddle, because the backstroke would be asking too much of him. The kitten took to water sports better than you wold expect. Swimming allowed him to get a lot of exercise and leg movement without having to bear weight on his paws, and that kind of therapy paid off big time. You can keep up with Sebastian and Vita and Mauro's other foster cats at Instagram.
Robot Deals with Work Frustrations
I saw the latest update video on Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot and found it a bit underwhelming. We've followed Atlas for years, and he's learned how to tidy up around the factory. I wasn't the only one who found it a bit ho-hum. YouTuber dhant122 saw that what the video lacked was an inner monologue, or an exterior monologue, for that matter. So he fixed it. Now Atlas is the factory worker facing constant drudgery that's made worse by his nemesis Tom, who is quite the work bully. (via Laughing Squid)
The Courtship Dance of the Hooded Grebe
The hooded grebe is a critically endangered species of bird that lives in South America. They are known for their spectacular mating dance, which is even more stylized than the human tango. Yeah, it's funny-looking, but it works for them. This footage is from the documentary Tango in the Wind. (via reddit)
Homework
Yes, school has started, at least across the South, and it's time to get back to the usual routine. Including not doing your homework. Pick one from each column to get your excuse ready. This chart is from Matt Shirley.
Monday, August 25, 2025
If She Married...
A semi-regular segment on the TV show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was about people changing their surname after marriage. It wasn't necessarily limited to women taking their husbands' names, as long as the punchline was funny. There are more such puns in the comments at YouTube.
The Story of Taz
The cat distribution system works in mysterious ways. This guy was hiking and making a video when he was attacked by a very hungry kitten. He made the mistake of giving the kitten several cat treats that he carries (along with dog treats) in his hiking gear. Feeding the hungry is a natural response, but it sealed his fate. That bit of food powered heroic persistence and a world class purr. The upshot is that the guy, who had a YouTube channel devoted to hiking videos, changed it to a cat channel named after Taz. Yes, they go hiking together. (Thanks, Newton!)
A Terrifying Bike Ride
Some people leave the impression that they either have a death wish, or will do anything for an adrenaline fix. In this case, it's Norwegian athlete Brage Vestavik on a bike. This gnarly line in British Columbia is obviously designed for maximum terror. The first thing Vestavik does is fall off of it, but somehow doesn't break every bone in his body. He just gets back up and tries it again. Be warned that he is wearing the camera and you may experience vertigo and spill your drink, so put it down before takeoff. Afterward, you can go see pictures of Vestavik and friends building this line. (via the Awesomer)
Miss Cellania's Links
Lady brought her kids to a date and wants the man to pay. Is she a gold digger?
Smashed Skulls and Severed Limbs Suggest Stone Age Armies Brutalized Their Victims. (via Strange Company)
The Bewitched Theme Song Was a Deep Cut for… Peggy Lee? Hear her version, with the original lyrics.
An inner-speech decoder reveals some mental privacy issues. Words you'll never speak still cause activity in the brain's speech centers.
Orcas sharing prey with humans may be trying to learn 'who we are,' researcher says. (via TYWKIWDBI)
How 5-year-old Mel Brooks stopped being afraid of Frankenstein's monster. (via Boing Boing)
Nerd! How the word popularized by Dr. Seuss went from geeky insult to mainstream. (via Damn Interesting)
'The cemetery of living men.' Trump deportees tell of abuse in secretive mega-jail (via Nag on the Lake)
How to Put a Kid to Bed
Children do not want to go to sleep at 8 PM, or whenever you've decided bedtime is. They're not sleepy, and they want to play. But their parents was been waiting all day for a chance to catch their breath, and they'd love to have a few minutes of calm before they fall into their own exhausted sleep. New Zealand dad Jordan Watson shares some of his wisdom about putting children to bed. It's a losing battle. You cannot make a child fall asleep. You can only hope to outlast them so you can have a few minutes to yourself. Good luck. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Istanbul Not Constantinople
While I sometimes complain that my brain is full and can't hold any more and it's 90% song lyrics, sometimes those songs come in handy, like when I need to know what year the battle of New Orleans was fought, or what city is the capital of Kansas. Here's another one that ensures I never forget what Istanbul used to be called. Dan Veaner recreates the 1953 song made famous by The Four Lads all by himself, or all eight of him. (via Metafilter)
Cat Subway
We were amazed at the tiny but expansive apartment that engineer Xing Zhilei built for different sized pets. He didn't stop there. The challenges get bigger, and he keeps building. Now he has a working miniature subway train for his cats!
The subway is quite large, although not large enough for human comfort, as you can see from the clips of the family working on it. It travels smoothly at a safe speed, has doors with motion sensors that automatically open, and even a working escalator. Notice both the train and the station have doors, aligned so the cats cannot get underneath the train. The cats, who are used to unique new experiences, were quite game to take a ride. See more miniature pet sized projects at the YouTube channel. (via Boing Boing)
Mayberry Money
Yeah, you know things were much cheaper back then, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Wages were lower, too, but that still doesn't tell the whole story. It's the proportionality of income vs. prices. That said, Andy Taylor was pretty well off compared to his neighbors. You know the sheriff made more than minimum wage, and he didn't have six kids to feed like more intact households of the time. And I understand that the grocery list was constructed from the available signs, but my family would never have bought that much meat. My guess is that most of Mayberry's residents were eating beans and cornbread.
Daddy's Home!
You know how kids get so excited when a family member comes home after being gone all day at work? It's enough to make the stay-at-home parent feel jealous. Omni the umbrella cockatoo knows what time to expect his human to come home, and becomes quite happy to welcome him into the house. There's plenty of evidence that Omni loves his "mom," Rebecca Stout, too, and the entire family as you can see in their videos. You can also follow Omni at his Instagram feed. (via Laughing Squid)
Saturday, August 23, 2025
Solomon Gemorah
In the 1940 census, we find that Mr. and Mrs. Gemorah were cheeky enough to name their son Solomon. (via Undine)
Fake Houses
In the US, we would assume that these unoccupied buildings were some secret government facilities, probably designed to spy on us. This explanation is more benign, and rather clever.
Blahaj Goes to Waffle House
Blahaj wakes up in the middle of the night because he's hungry, and his snacks are all gone. What to do? Waffle House is open 24/7, so he gathers his toys and goes for a waffle. But he's there at 3 AM for the "bad time," and you know what that means. Or maybe you don't. The exact time varies by location, but that's when the bars must legally close, and patrons who don't want to go home gravitate to the only business still open. And that's when the real action starts.
YouTuber Atoga, used Creative Commons and animated them with Blender software, and created the music himself. In case you are wondering why the shark is named Blahaj, here's your answer. (via Metafilter)
Silly Robots
YLLW is an animation, Illustration, and motion Studio in London. Their first project to be made public is an exercise in designing robots to be silly, yet attractive.
We wanted each ‘Silly Robot’ to be different from one another, either in movement or conceptually so we created a set or rules; a strict colour palette, one texture and no more than 4 hours to create each one from start to finish (which we broke only a few times).You can see each of the 50 individual robots as gifs in this gallery. (via The Kid Should See This)
Each robot started as a sketch, we then worked directly wthin After Effects where we used shape layers and a few plugins to help speed up the design and animation process. We didn’t want to be too precious over every little movement and whatever we had at the end of a few hours usually went up to social media and we moved onto the next robot.
The Witch's Curse
Click to the right to follow the story. This is a clever twist on a tale you've heard before, from But a Jape. Read the commentary here.
Friday, August 22, 2025
Amazing Illusion
If you stare at this circle for ten seconds, your brain will begin to perceive that it is a red dot. Go ahead, try it! Crinchy posted this at reddit, and SEILogistics gave a simple explanation.
It's caused by a prefrontal imbalance of the auxiliary nerve on the eye retina created by the spheroid object being stared it. It confuses the obsidian prenatal synapses in the brain.
If you'll notice on your peripheral vision you can see the prenatal synapse snapping on the right of your field of view before it turns red.
As your prefrontal cortex adjust you can see the neuropathic synapse being repaired in your eye and the circle centre returns to its normal colour.
Well, that makes perfect sense.
Yodeling
Yodeling has a long tradition in Switzerland, where a yodel can be heard from one Alpine mountain top to another. Great Big Story went to the Alps to learn about yodeling. In this video we will learn of its origins, continued popularity, and the nuts and bolts of how to yodel from Melanie of the famous Swiss band Oesch die Dritten. They also take us to Jodlerfest Altstätten, a yodeling festival that draws world-class yodelers. It was difficult, but our host finally found some yodelers and fans who speak English. (via Laughing Squid)
Folk Etymology
What do the words woodchuck, cockroach, hangnail, and catty corner have in common? They are examples of folk etymology. You might think that these words have some origin story that has to do with the meaning of their segments, but no. They are all derived from non-English languages, and got renamed because of the way the original words sounded instead of having any common meaning. It's a matter of "I can't pronounce your name, so I will call you something I can pronounce." Linguist Dr. Erica Brozovsky explains what happened to create these English words and more.
Twenty Years of Blogging
Twenty years now
Where'd they go?
Twenty years
I don't know
I sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they've gone
-Bob Seger, "Like a Rock"
When I finally decided to start writing this post, these lyrics came to mind even though I don't care for the song. I know what's happened in the last twenty years- I spent half of that raising my kids, and the other half watching them make their way in the world successfully, each in their own style. I got a house, got married, got stepchildren and grandchildren, expanded the house, became widowed again, and then saw everyone move out, and I started to really confront old age. And the blog remained.
Starting a blog was supposed to be a hobby, but it turned out to be the second time in my life that a hobby became a career, and so I had to find another hobby. But 20 years later, my professional blogging career has diminished so that I look at Miss Cellania as a fun thing to do again. I've written for more blogs than I care to list here, sometimes for a short time, sometimes for years, and then lost those positions for a variety of reasons. I'm still at Neatorama, but I've gone from a fairly full-time salaried position to just a couple of posts a day, since I'm at full retirement age and am no longer desperate for the money. I prioritize my time differently now, doing real-life stuff first and then fitting online stuff around it.
I've told the origin story of this blog ad nauseam in several other blogiversary posts, so I don't need to go over it again (however, I almost always link to the first post). As I write this, Miss Cellania has 45,155 published posts, and that doesn't even count a few years worth from the time I was posting on Squarespace. Those were supposed to be exportable, but it didn't work. There are also 29,700+ comments. I appreciate each and every one.
By now, this blog is second nature, and seems to write itself. I've learned how to get it done without beating myself up over it. Oh, that doesn't mean I don't care- I very much do. I don't care about hits, or SEO, or revenue, or going viral. I care about sharing entertaining, interesting, and/or informative stuff with people who care to visit. I also love how you guys add extra layers of humor or understanding to the posts with your comments. And the stories you tell! Some of you have become good friends, and all of you seem like sort of a community, peeps if you will, and I love that. So this is as good a time as any to THANK YOU for coming around here all these years, and let's do a few more!
Miss Cellania's Links
The Stegosaurus of Ta Prohm. How did a dinosaur get carved into an ancient temple?
White House’s New TikTok Push Epically Backfires.
Nectar Soda. This pretty pink drink is a Cincinnati specialty.
An "American Horror Story" in Chagrin Falls, USA. The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
32 Hilariously Incorrect Things People Were Taught in School.
How to select a proper baby name. You 'll be yelling it for a long time.
Russia's far east is pretty much empty. (via Nag on the Lake)
Refusing to Choose Is a Choice.
Barnaby Dixon's Bug Puppet
Barnaby Dixon, who made some unbelievable puppet designs before, is back with an impressive finger puppet of a glow-in-the -dark insect! One the one hand, it's cute and the fluorescent effects are neat. But the real magic here is Dixon's skills as a puppeteer and the way he makes the bug move so naturally with just his fingers. (via Boing Boing)
Thursday, August 21, 2025
For You and I the Crazy Baby Bell Tolls
Bill McClintock has returned to form, giving us a mashup of disco and metal. This one is mainly Metallica lyrics over a Rick James tune, with Ozzy Osbourne in the bridge. The complete list of contributors:
Rick James "You and I"
Metallica"For Whom the Bell Tolls"
Ozzy Osbourne"Crazy Babies"
KISS "I Was Made for Lovin' You"
Thin Lizzy "Bad Reputation"
The best part is how McClintock just makes it work.
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