Ew. Fresh blood is fairly clean, yet you don't know where that hand has been. But that's nothing compared to the world of bacteria crawling inside the mouth of someone with such weak gums. This comic is from Jake Likes Onions. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Saturday, June 06, 2026
Friday, June 05, 2026
Tiny Grandma
Tiny Grandma is a stop-motion Korean woman who's about six inches tall. She's usually cooking full-size food in her videos, but here she takes a break to enjoy cookies and coffee with her cat. In this video, Tiny Grandma gathers dandelions to make kimchi. And we meet her family.
See all of Tiny Grandma's video at YouTube. You can also learn more about her inspiration and creators, and check out her recipes. (via Boing Boing)
Ole Meme
The distracted boyfriend meme has no doubt been a thing long before film, too. Charlie Chaplin just knew a good visual. (via reddit)
Pit: A Short Film About Human Nature
This video is supposed to be about human nature, but where are the humans? Instead, we get fantastical monsters fighting to the death over a piece of food. But are they really fantastical monsters? It doesn't matter; you're too caught up in the violence and creative animation. But then it takes a sharp left. You're wondering if this is really a comedy. Okay, maybe, or maybe it's just a story with some funny parts. But which part is about human nature? Actually, all of it, but you'll need to stay through the credits because there's a whole new scene afterward. I guess you could call it a punch line. (via Memo of the Air)
School Parking Permits
It's another case of giving more to those who already have. If you have to skip studying to make it to your fast food job on time, be prepared to work some extra hours for a parking permit, too. (via Buzzfeed)
How Stores Make Produce Look Better
Grocery stores sell fruit in mesh bags because it's to their advantage for you to buy twelve oranges when you only need two. If the last few oranges go bad before you finish the bag, then you'll go buy more. You might even find a couple have gone bad as soon as you open the bag, because you can't inspect each orange in a five-pound bag before you buy them. They looked so good when you picked them up, and some of that is an optical illusion. The video is only six minutes long; the rest is a sponsor message. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Miss Cellania's Links
What Is Happening at CBS and 60 Minutes?
The sitting room. (via Messy Nessy Chic)
Before-and-after pictures of what Israel has done to Gaza. (via TYWKIWDBI)
A thoughtful and comprehensive comment thread for anyone wanting to know what the US Civil War was all about.
George Washington Recorded a Recipe for Beer While Leading a Militia. Thanks to the New York Public Library, You Can Imbibe That History This Summer.
‘The face doesn’t move’: Hollywood’s obsession with cosmetic surgeries has led to stiffer looks – and performances. (via Damn Interesting)
James Talarico explains what a real man is. (via Fark)
All of Steven Spielberg’s movies, ranked. (via Metafilter)
Frontier Psychiatrist
The video for the 2000 song "Frontier Psychiatrist" by the Avalanches is exceedingly strange. Which is appropriate. (via Metafilter)
Customer Loyalty Rewards
I honestly think all the local grocery is getting from me are my grocery-buying habits, which is obvious. I don't use a smart phone, and my store account is set up without email, much less social media. They still manage to send me coupons for what I'm going to buy. However, I'm sure there are plenty of hyper-connected people that make all that information accessible to them without even thinking about it. This comic is from Randall Munroe at xkcd.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
"Thunderstruck" on Acoustic Guitars
The Italian acoustic guitar quartet 40 Fingers (who I have featured here before) had a great idea for their latest music video. They are playing for a medieval king, who has previously ordered the death of musicians who do not please him. It's no surprise when they do, with their instrumental rendition of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck."
This new performance reminds me of this one from 2CELLOS, due to the vintage classical setting and the effect on the audience. (via Laughing Squid)
The Big Revue
This vaudeville-style revue was filmed in 1929. The act is The Gumm Sisters, and they aren't showstoppers yet, but they were cute. What makes this a historical document is that the tiniest sister, on the left, is seven-year-old Frances Gumm, who later became known as Judy Garland. The Big Revue was their first filmed performance.
How Two Teenagers Became The Most Feared Killers In America
Some serial killers commit murder in the furtherance of other crimes, like bank robbery. Some do it for a sexual thrill. Some are lashing out at a world that did them wrong. But it takes a truly terrifying personality to kill over and over for no discernible reason at all. Experts go back and forth about psychopaths- are they a product of an awful childhood or are they born that way, and is that condition even real?
The 20th century blueprint for psychopathy are the crimes of 19-year-old Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. Starkweather committed his first murder in November of 1957. Then on January 21, 1958, he killed Fugate's parents and two-year-old sister. Over the next eight days, the two traveled around Nebraska and Wyoming, killing almost everyone they encountered. Weird History brings us the story of Starkweather and Fugate and the trail of dead bodies they left behind them.
Freezing 200,000 Tons of Lethal Arsenic Dust
Giant Mine near Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories, extracted a lot of gold in its time. Then the gold ran out, and the company went bankrupt in 2004. They left behind 237,000 metric tons of arsenic trioxide as a side effect of the mining operation, although that amount does not include the arsenic that has escaped into the environment. You can read more about Giant Mine's history here. The Canadian government was left to deal with the arsenic. Tom Scott introduces us to the technology that won't destroy the arsenic, but will keep the dust from seeping into the air and water. Read more about the Giant Mine Remediation Project at its website. (via Digg)
Mom!
Transitioning from normal English to '90s slang isn't making you cool, not by a long shot. Teen slang evolves specifically to be different from what their parents say. Better to not say anything at all about a 15-year-old. Take it from me, your relationship will change drastically when they want driving lessons and advice in choosing a college. This comic is from Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble.
Wednesday, June 03, 2026
Closing the Fridge
Renzo rage demonstrates the many ways of closing a refrigerator door, using different styles of martial arts. Showing this to your children may encourage them to actually do it, but you might pay in damages. A description of each style can be found at Metafilter.
We've Only Just Begun
You know this song, "We've Only Just Begun" by The Carpenters. It was heard at every wedding you went to for about twenty years -and a lot of graduations, too. You might think it pretty clever for a bank to use it in an ad inviting young couples to establish their accounts. But couldn't they afford to use the hit version?
But that's backwards. "We've Only Just Begun" was written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols specifically to advertise a bank in Mendocino, California. Richard Carpenter heard the ad, liked the song, and reached out to the ad agency for the music rights. The Carpenters recorded an expanded version that proved to be a hit and helped them win the Best New Artist Grammy in 1971. It's not the only advertising jingle that was so catchy it became a song, as you will learn in a list of nine such stories at Mental Floss.
Salami vs. Pepperoni
What's the difference between salami and pepperoni? That's easy- salami is for sandwiches, along with cheese and mustard, on rye bread. Pepperoni is for pizzas. Although my dad used to put salami and cheese on a single slice of bread, top it with ketchup, salt, and pepper and put it in the toaster oven. He called it "pizza toast." The only pizza I'd ever had at that time came from a Chef Boyardee kit, so I accepted it.
But in the real world, salami and pepperoni are both spicy sausages, but that's where the resemblance ends. One has a history that goes back to the Roman Empire, while the other is an 20th century American invention! They are made differently, have different ingredients, and have their own best uses, as I have explained above. The YouTube channel Simple Things - Surprising Histories explains it all, plus an important tip for ordering a pizza in Italy. (via Laughing Squid)
Miss Cellania's Links
‘They take you out of life, out of time’: a journey into Spain’s astonishing cave paintings. (via Damn Interesting)
Gjøa: The Little Ship That Conquered the Arctic. How Roald Amundsen found and survived the Northwest passage.
How Fox News viewership increases belief in the anti‑immigrant great replacement theory.
Multi-medium art. (via Everlasting Blort)
That Time Hollywood Tried To Turn Jim Carrey Into A Fish And Created A Nightmare.
Cats causing trouble.
Most Americans oppose ICE’s presence at stadiums during the World Cup, according to poll. (via Fark)
A Blast from the Past (2007): The Haunted Hospital.
Worlds Worst Sheepdog
Nelson, a terrier mix, is not rounding up the sheep. It's more like the sheep are rounding him up! Or maybe he's a born leader, as they do follow him. But he's not leading them anywhere but in circles. From the sound of his voice, owner James Bell does not expect any more of him. There are more videos of the world's worst sheepdog at YouTube. (via Tastefully Offensive)
The Wizard's Dream
The grass is always greener, you know. This comic is from James P. Sandoval at But a Jape. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Tuesday, June 02, 2026
Caltiki – The Immortal Monster
Caltiki – The Immortal Monster is a 1959 Italian monster movie that starts out with an archaeological expedition stumbling on the Maya goddess Caltiki, who accepts human sacrifices. The danger is real, but it turns out to be a bacteria that grows and divides due to radiation, and it eats people. The monster has been compared the one in The Blob. Caltiki – The Immortal Monster was lauded as laughably bad even in its time, although some critics admitted that if you overlook the bad acting, the bad effects, and the bad English dubbing, the story is pretty exciting. (Thanks, WTM!)
Creepy Dave Bumblebee
In case you can't understand Ze Frank's accent, he's telling us about bumblebees. Once upon a time, a bumblebee was caught peeing in a flower, and the flower fairies cursed the species to forever after spend their days cleaning flowers.
Rockanoid
It's a good day when Bill McClintock comes out with a new music mashup. It's a great day when he mashes up two songs that are this familiar to me, like two old friends that I never knew were friends with each other. Here we have Queen's "We Will Rock You" mixed with "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. This required some messing the tempo, but if anyone can make it work, it's McClintock. He calls this song "Rockanoid."
Oh, but that's just the beginning. There are nine, count 'em, nine other rock-themed songs included in this mashup: "Sad But True" by Metallica, "Rock of Ages" from Def Leppard, "We Rock" by Dio, "Let There Be Rock" and "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" both by AC/DC, "Rock Hard Ride Free" from Judas Priest, "Rock 'n' Roll Rebel" by Ozzy Osbourne, Pat Benetar's "Heartbreaker," and "Rock You" by Helix. Good luck identifying them all in this fast-moving video. The only real drawback I find is that it could be much longer.
French Bulldog Fosters Kittens for the ASPCA
You know how you name a dog, and then he ends up answering to "No! No!" because that's what he hears most? We don't know whether that applies to the French bulldog Nono, or if they just skipped the first part to make things easier. But his name is Nono, and he's a Very Good Dog. Nono's human Megan Noes (which seriously makes his name Nono Noes) works at the New York City ASPCA’s Kitten Nursery, and brings home kittens to foster. Nono provides the kittens with warm, fluffy love and supervision, and helps them get used to dogs before they are adopted. Read more about Nono at Gothamist. (via Metafilter)
Monday, June 01, 2026
11 Biopic Actors Who Look Exactly Like the Real People
Casting a biopic is tricky. You want the best actor you can find, of course, but they've also got to pull off looking like a real person, often a person familiar to the audience with existing photos or even videotape. Natural resemblance is a stroke of luck, but in many of these cases, it takes more than hair and makeup- it takes real acting skills. In my opinion, casting Stephen Frye as Oscar Wilde is the best of this group, with Robert Downey, Jr. as Charlie Chaplin in second place. That said, Gary Oldman and Daniel Day-Lewis can play anyone anytime.
Cirque du Soufflé
What else would you expect from a joint named Le Maison Pretentieuse? That doesn't even make sense in French. This comic is from Tree Lobsters.
6 Ways Brits and Americans Clean Very Differently
Laurence Brown goes through the differences between housecleaning in the US and Britain. The US has air conditioning, which means cleaning AC filters as well as filters for the heating, the dryer, the dishwasher, the vacuum cleaner, the car, the lawn mower, and the fish tank. Meanwhile in Britain, dishes are washed by hand and some people don't rinse the soap off of them! Does this mean they get a lot of soap buildup in their drying towels, or are you just eating detergent with your next meal?
Personally, I am glad that wall-to-wall carpet is declining in the US. You can clean carpets all day, every day, and they are still nasty, especially if you have children or pets or a spouse or a garden. Note: Fairy washing up liquid is made by Proctor and Gamble, and it's the same formula as Dawn dish washing liquid in the US. This video has a one-minute skippable ad at 3:30.
Russia’s Weird, Bad Alternative Internet
The internet began as "a complicate, global interconnected system almost entirely made up of people who do not want to be told what to do." This was fine for free countries, mostly, although anyone could see how scammy and toxic the system could become. But what about totalitarian nations who were used to controlling what information their citizens were exposed to? China saw the danger early, and locked down what kind of access they would allow. Russia was busy going through a lot of changes in the 1990s, and confronted the danger to government oppression relatively late in the game. But when they did, it was like holding back a flood with a bucket. One method of controlling the World Wide Web they use is to block sources from outside of Russia, both directly and indirectly by making the whole internet slow and wonky. At the same time, they created their own internet services, from providers to websites to social media platforms, that seem like just weird, ersatz alternatives in order to censor what Russians see. Half as Interesting takes us on a tour of the odd Russian internet.
Miss Cellania's Links
90 Years Ago, Florida Converted A Railroad Into One Of America’s Greatest Highways, And It Spanned 113 Miles And 42 Bridges Across An Ocean.
‘I don’t have anybody’: Adoptive teen son of a KY governor talks about life on his own. After rescue from abusive facility, Jonah Bevin wants accountability. (via Fark)
Please Use AI. A lovely poem by a real-life poet. (via Metafilter)
This Javelin Thrower Looks Like He is Impaling Himself in Crazy Optical Illusion Photo. (via Damn Interesting)
The rise in plastic surgeons asked to create ‘AI face.’ It's expensive, dangerous, unnecessary, and often impossible. (via Nag on the Lake)
This Girl with a Pearl Earring Miffy Toy Is Officially an Internet Celebrity. (via Everlasting Blort)
One Weather Forecast Changed the Course of WWII. Here’s the Real Story Behind Pressure, a Drama About the Meteorologist Who Convinced the Allies to Delay D-Day. (via Strange Company)
A Blast from the Past (2013): Who flew before the Wright Brothers?
All Cats Go to Heaven
Bruce and Terry Jenkins have led an interesting life. Now that they are retired, they spend their time running a private shelter called Cat's Cradle. They have 30 cats, all of them rescues, elderly cats who have outlived their original owner, and spend their sunset years being loved and fussed over by the Jenkins. They are awesome people. Stay for the credits, where we get to see the finished butterfly garden. (via The Atlantic)
When the temperature is going up one degree at a time. This comic is from Tommy Siegel. (via Pleated-Jeans)
Sunday, May 31, 2026
An Old Fashioned Love Song
Three Dog Night released "An Old Fashioned Love Song" in 1971. This video appears to use the original audio recording, laid over their 1975 performance on the TV series Soundstage.
Northern African Lion Cubs
Northern African lions, also called Barbary lions, are a threatened subspecies that are close to or maybe even identical to Asiatic lions. They are functionally extinct in their traditional range of northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt. Whipsnade Zoo, the largest zoo in the UK, welcomed a new litter of four Northern African lions last year. They are just as cute as you'd expect. (via Zooborns)
How Pre-Civilization Societies Dealt with Pregnancy
The process of giving birth may be a shock and a new experience to modern people, but ancient communities knew what they were doing. A new mother had already helped her own mother, her sisters, and her friends through it, under the supervision of older women who knew more than they did. Sure, men were excluded, which is why women became the experts in childbirth and by extension, other medical events. Giving birth was a team event, and everyone did their part.
We lost this type of communal childbirth in the modern world, when men took over medical science and women who practiced it were labeled as witches. Not that it ever really went away, especially in traditional cultures. I am glad to see that some of these practices are coming back. While my mother was completely knocked out for labor and delivery, my daughter had a doula, a midwife, and a woman obstetrician in a birthing center that was anything but medicalized.
Magnet Collisions
This is a very "attractive" video. Let's see what happens when a large magnet meets a group of smaller magnets -in slow motion. It's fascinating to see the different reactions depending on the size and configurations of the magnets. And the slow motion is crucial, because in real time it happens in the blink of an eye, which is no fun. We get a glimpse of that at the end. (via Laughing Squid)
The Carpeted Bathroom
When I bought my house in 2008, both bathrooms had wall-to-wall carpet. It looked fairly new. It was the first thing to go, at least in the main bathroom (and the smaller one eventually). Sure, it looked good, and you did not slip on it, but the potential for mold and worse gave me the heebie-jeebies. Besides, you can avoid slipping with a small bath mat that you can throw in the washer. As soon as the last kid left for college, we got rid of all the carpet. (via Boing Boing)
Saturday, May 30, 2026
Creature From The Haunted Sea
Creature From The Haunted Sea is a 1961 horror comedy directed by Roger Corman. He meant it as a parody of Bond films, heist movies, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon all rolled into one. It was a spectacularly bad movie, which is why it developed a cult following many years later. (Thanks, WTM!)
Winston
This stray cat had everything stacked against him, but he finally found a family who would take him in and make his last days as comfortable and loving as they could. They had him for a couple of years, then Winston passed on May 3, 2026. You can see more of him at his Instagram page. (via Laughing Squid)
The Real Crucial Scenes from Jurassic Park
There are now seven films in the Jurassic Park franchise, because people like adventure movies with dinosaurs. The first movie back in 1993 set the stage with amazing breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery that made the dinosaurs seem real, and every subsequent film upped the ante by making the dinosaurs bigger and more dangerous. But each iteration makes less and less sense overall because the characters constantly forgot the lesson of the first film.
In the first movie, the dinosaurs took up only about 15 minutes of the more than two-hour film. The actual story was a deep dive into the ethics and philosophy of messing with Mother Nature, which makes it a think piece compared with the many sequels. It is also the only one of the series directed by Steven Spielberg. In this video, InCinematic looks at the crucial conversations that unveil the true meaning of Jurassic Park, and how Spielberg frames them to emphasize the point. It's no wonder the only two quotes you recall are from Dr. Ian Malcolm.
Not in Kansas Anymore
Hungry
the hungry observatory
— House & Field Negro Quarterly (@morethanmud.bsky.social) May 23, 2026 at 4:56 PM
[image or embed]
Friday, May 29, 2026
Traffic Stop Ends in the Weirdest Way
A sheriff's deputy pulled Katie Thomas over and as he was approaching her stated that he saw her holding a cell phone in her right hand. The kicker is that Thomas does not have a right hand. A normal person would have laughed and sent her on her way, but this cop could not be wrong, so he checked her papers and issued her a citation. Thomas went to court, but the deputy asked the judge to dismiss the charge due to insufficient evidence just before court began. I guess he thought he could avoid a viral moment. No such luck. You can see an extended interview with Thomas if you like.
Something Different with Maple, Walnut, and Cherry
Ryan Hawkins of West Coast Boards shows us what he does. You won't be able to keep up, but it is mesmerizing. It was only the second time through that I realized that it's not paint, but glue he's slathering on the wood. The best comment:
I tried to do the same but I realized I was missing 23 of the 24 machines and tools required, so I just replayed the video with envy.Yeah, this is no how-to video. It's more like a wish-you-could video. I bet even his scrap pile is pretty.
Bisected
Is it possible to make a phone call across dimensions? A couple on a lonely highway see something strange in the sky. I couldn't see it at first, but it eventually looked to me like an incoming nuclear attack. But that turns out to be a MacGuffin, and director Danny Piñeros tells us he didn't even know what it would look like until the effect was added post production. What's important is that the couple becomes separated and we don't know how -and neither do they. They appear to be in the same space but not together. Or are they in a completely different place? Or maybe "place" isn't even the right word, as subsequent events bend even that idea.
Be sure to stay for the credits, because the voiceover adds more to the story. The scene sets up a premise that the producers hope to expand into a feature-length film. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Miss Cellania's Links
Jimmy Savile: How Britain's Most Prolific Sex Offender Hid in Plain Sight.
A Gallery of the Most Amusing Animal Faces To Make Your Day.
The lineup for Washington's Freedom 250 Festival is shrinking once the artists learned it's a Trump-linked event.
Bruce Springsteen calls out the White House and announces a protest festival. (via Fark)
Great Danes are as goofy as they are big.
Rechalking beloved Cerne Giant is a sticky process – and climate crisis is making it worse. (via TYWKIWDBI)
At Long Last, I Have Maxximized My Looks.
Could aliens ever visit Earth? An aerospace scientist unpacks the challenges of interstellar spaceflight. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Driving at Night
I'd rather not, thank you. Not that I go anywhere anyway. But now that it doesn't get dark until after nine, I don't even have to think about it until September or so. This chart is from Matt Shirley.
Thursday, May 28, 2026
True Facts: The Mystery Of How Bees Build
We know honeybees build wax honeycombs where they can efficiently work together to produce honey. How did they ever learn to do that? Ze Frank takes us through the behavioral evolution of insect architects. Honeybees descended from wasps, who went through many phases on the way to building geometrically efficient nests. Ants and termites build elaborate nests, too, harnessing a new word I just learned: stigmergy. Honeybees are the best at making lovely hexagonal cells to build their combs, but it's not because they are all that smart. Hexagons are just what happens when you cram cylinders together in the most efficient way. In fact, their combs are not made of perfect hexagons all the way through. Still, those imperfections are a way of coping with uneven surfaces, so maybe they are pretty smart. Instead of an ad, there's a mere 30-second promotional message at 4:20.
What If You Dropped a Bowling Ball Into the Mariana Trench?
The latest hypothetical question for the What If? series by Randall Munroe and Henry Reich asks how long it would take a bowling ball to fall from the ocean surface to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans, and the point called Challenger Deep is around 11,000 meters or 36,000 feet deep. A bowling ball would take quite a while to sink that far.
But wait- the real surprise here is that it might not sink at all. It might float! That depends on how heavy the ball is. Galileo told us that a hammer and a feather will drop at the same rate if you control for air resistance, like doing it on the moon or in a vacuum. Apparently, it doesn't work like that underwater, so we find out how objects of different weights fall in the ocean.
Brainstorm or Green Needle?
The question in the title sounds like we are going to name a new superhero. No, this is another audio illusion that might freak you out a bit. A toy says "brainstorm." Or maybe it says "green needle." You need to decide which one it is before you play the video. Then play it again, thinking about the other option. Keep your finger on the replay button (bottom left on the video), and you'll find that this toy says what you expect it to say, even if you change your mind between plays. Some people hear "green storm" or "brain needle," but that's because they chose to hear it. For some science behind the phenomena, and the actual answer to what this toy is saying, go to HuffPo. (via Geekologie)
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
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