What's for Dinner?

(via Buzzfeed)

Shoulder Angels

We've all seen this illustration in movies and cartoons when a character has to make a moral decision- a small devil on one shoulder, and an angel on the other, whispering in the character's ear to persuade him to do the right thing or the wrong thing. The devil represents temptation, and the angel represents the conscience. It's pretty much the perfect way to illustrate a moral dilemma, but where did it come from? You won't be surprised to learn it goes way back, a couple thousand years or so. But why are they small and standing on someone's shoulders? Duh, the easier to whisper in his ear, my dear. Everyone knows what it means, and it's certainly less boring than just using a disembodied voice to explain to the audience what the character is thinking. (via Laughing Squid)

Mazda

(via Bored Panda)

Tron 1 Looks Like a Robot from the Movies

One way to get everyday people involved with a robot is to make it less like a human, and therefore less creepy. LimX Dynamics introduces the TRON 1, a bipedal robot that looks relatively unthreatening. It resembles robots we are familiar with from the movies (Tron, Star Wars, Robocop, Battlestar Galactica, etc.). For a two-legged robot, it balances really well, and has three different "foot" modes that can be switched out. And boy, can it dance!

You can have your own Tron I for just $15,000. I'm sure it can do things besides walk upstairs and dance, but what it's supposed to be useful for isn't really explained. I can't see it pushing a lawnmower or washing dishes. I'm sure it would be easy to attached a machine gun or a flamethrower to it. (via Boing Boing)

Lordship

(via Fark)

Puppies in a Pumpkin Patch

Devin Supertramp takes a sideways turn from his usual extreme sports videos to play with delightful puppies! Here they are in their Halloween costumes, cavorting in a pumpkin patch at Cornbelly's farm in Lehi, Utah. There's no pop culture tie-in, no plot, and no voiceover, just a soothing adorable sequence to make your day better. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Tweet of the Day

I pay internet for this pic.twitter.com/Y3qCR6ik43

— NO CONTEXT HUMANS (@HumansNoContext) October 13, 2024

(Thanks, WTM!).

Name of the Year

(via Bad Newspaper)

A Memorable Way to Say It

Funny Nigerian sayings
byu/pIngo16 infunny

Nigerian comebacks are poetic, dramatic, and really funny. When the father said "What will kill me has not yet been born," we can take that to be really badass, or maybe he's saying another child will be the death of him. The one about wisdom is my favorite. (via reddit)

Halloween Special

(via reddit)

Soccer Balls in the Floor

I'm No Civil Engineer But....I Don't Think They Are Either
byu/ReesesNightmare inWTF

This looks really weird, but there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. Are they putting soccer balls between rebar to save on concrete? Yes, yes they are. This is common in concrete construction and it's called a biaxial voided slab. Notice that the balls are not near the walls or columns, but in the emptier areas. This not only saves on the amount of concrete used, but the ultimate weight of the floor. It also increases the floor's insulating qualities.

However, this particular project is more colorful than others. Builders more commonly use plastic boxes or styrofoam to make concrete voids. These are most likely not regulation soccer balls, but much cheaper plastic orbs. Still gets the job done. (via reddit) 

Halloween Cake

Goats? (via Buzzfeed)

The Most Gruesome Ways Pirates Killed People

In the movies, pirates are charming scalawags who operate outside of the normal limits of civilization. This might give you the wrong idea about the Golden Age of Piracy in the mid-17th century. Sure, some governments turned a blind eye to certain pirates, as long as they carried out capers that benefitted some nations in their competition over other governments. But most pirates were fine with violence, whether in war or in plundering coastal villages or even in competition with each other. They could be pretty brutal overall. Captains reinforced the pecking order and kept their crews in line with the threat of a painful death, and rivals were treated even worse. Short of death, permanent maiming was on the table, too, which explains the hooks and peg legs. Some pirates weren't above a bit of torture, either, to get what they wanted.

Miss Cellania's Links

Kurt Vonnegut’s Lost Board Game Is Finally for Sale. (via Nag on the Lake)

The “friendship divide” explained: How your education affects your ability to connect.

Attack of the Dead Men 1915: The Great War's Supernaturally Horrific Battle and History's First Weapon of Mass Destruction. (via Strange Company)

Santorio Santori And Insensible Perspiration. The scientists went through some crazy stuff to figure out how much water our bodies lose through evaporation and breathing.  

Hemingway, after the hurricane. The 1935 Labor Day hurricane killed 400, many of them veterans who should have been evacuated.  

Gruesome, macabre, and coveted Halloween-style home decor.

The short and horrid life of Russia's Emperor Ivan VI. More here. (via Messy Nessy Chic)

Is It Perimenopause or the Fascist Death Knell of Late-Stage Capitalism? Is my hair thinning, or am I ripping it out because a thirty-four-time convicted, sexually abusive steak salesman with a Hannibal Lecter fetish is five points ahead in Arizona? (via Kottke)

8 Fascinating Facts about Alchemy.

Inspiration

(via Fark)

25 Halloween Life Hacks

Everywhere you look on the ‘net, there are tips for making your Halloween celebrations easier or even more fun. As he does sometimes, John Green takes some of those ideas and tests them to see if they really work the way they are supposed to. He doesn’t take a lot of care, so your results may vary, but you get the idea. My contribution: use a large rubber glove, cut the glove off with scissors, including each finger. But his result is funnier, in the Halloween episode of the mental_floss List Show.

PS: I have never found a better way to carve a pumpkin than by using a hole-boring drill bit and a sawzall. Done in two minutes.

Tweet of the Day

The most Australian video I've ever seen pic.twitter.com/ve6h33hR3O

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) October 17, 2024

I believe the bird is a tawny frogmouth, not to be confused with the Australian boobook.

I Think So, Too

(via Bad Newspaper)

Albert and Frank

(via Fark)

The Oregon Zoo Rhinos Celebrate Autumn

During harvest season, we often see videos of zoo animals having fun playing with and eating pumpkins. At the Oregon Zoo, they have the annual "Squishing of the Squash" event for the elephants. Now we get to see the rhinos do it in an event that should be called the "Goring of the Gourds." The pumpkins are donated by local farmers with extra pumpkins and hobbyists who grow giant pumpkins for the fun of it.

The black rhinos showed us what those horns are good for -they are tools, used to open up a pumpkin by goring or even slicing it. They are also pretty good for tossing things or even carrying them around. Oh, yeah, the elephants have already had their Squishing of the Squash this year, too. A good time was had by all. (via Laughing Squid)