(via Fark)
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Public Restrooms Around the World
Imagine being sent on a round-the-world trip just to document public toilets. Cut Video sent Blaine on such a trip, although I have a feeling he had plenty of other assignments as well. That said, he indeed documented public toilets in major cities all over. They may not be representative of all the city’s, or country’s toilets, of course. This video contains images that might be NSFW, because it’s about toilets, but no penises. (via Viral Viral Videos)
Tweet of the Day
(Thanks, WTM!)Engineered designs pic.twitter.com/9BWB6mnwbe
— Enezator (@Enezator) August 17, 2023
Monday, August 21, 2023
The History of Jägermeister
I don't recall when it happened, but when I heard that young people were drinking a lot of Jägermeister, I thought it might be because the green bottle and the spicy medicinal taste came across as an available substitute for absinthe. Silly me, those young people didn't know what absinthe was. Maybe it's the taste of cough syrup that makes one feel like they are drinking something illicit, especially when cut with ultra-caffeinated Red Bull. But Jägermeister has been around a long time. Long before it was available in the US, German people with using the liqueur as a digestif, which led to using it as cure-all. After all, if it taste like medicine, it might work as medicine. It might surprise you to learn that Jägermeister is a direct descendant of vinegar, although through business, not chemistry. Weird History Food takes us through the story of how Jägermeister was developed, marketed, and imported.
The Allergy Chef
Kathlena has severe food allergies, and only eats once a day to minimize the reactions she might have. So of course she became a chef. Not being able to sample the food she prepares hasn't stopped her, because she always wanted to impress people in a good way. But she's found her mission in life in preparing food and developing recipes to bring joy (and nutrition) into the lives of others with food allergies. She is now known as the Allergy Chef. Her website is full of recipes, tips, and advice for people who are sensitive to one food or another -or even a bunch of them, like she is. Kathlena even has to wear a respirator when she cooks or even shops for food, but that's not stopping her at all from helping others work around their allergies or intolerances. (via Damn Interesting)
Bone's Pizza
Stop-motion animator Tomosteen gave us legions of dancing cats a while back. But have you seen his skeleton chef? At Bone's Pizza, Mr. Bone scurries around putting pizzas together for his customers. That scurrying is pretty noisy, because he doesn't have the bottom half of his body. He's helped out by a cat, an owl, and a duck. Mr. Bone is pretty busy. This is Tomosteen's third video featuring his culinary skills. Watch him run the popcorn factory, and work inside the hamburger vending machine. (via Laughing Squid)
Miss Cellania's Links
And the Oscar goes to… (via Everlasting Blort)
Meteorologist Names Heatwaves After Fuel Companies. He explained his criteria at his blog, Guy on Climate. (via Kottke)
Towser, the World Record Mouser.
The Beauty and Brilliance of Germany’s ‘Cow Chapels.’
That Time When Hartlepool Hanged a Monkey.
The Ocoee Massacre of 1920 happened, but it doesn't fit in with Florida's new education standards.
Thomas Hildebrand Preston, 1886-1976: The British Diplomat who tried to Save the Romanovs. He saved plenty of others in World War II. (via Strange Company)
The 25 Coolest Cars of the Past 50 Years. The coolest car I have ever owned was a '66 model, which wouldn't qualify.
Mythbusters Recreates Walter White’s Final Booby Trap
Stop reading now if you are still avoiding spoilers for the final episode of the TV show Breaking Bad. The rest of us well remember Walter White’s remote-control oscillating machine gun hidden in the trunk of his car. If you want to refresh your memory, it’s on YouTube.
Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman wondered if they could recreate that trick in real life. So they recruited Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan for advice and tackled the project on an episode of Mythbusters. (via Laughing Squid)
Tweet of the Day
(via Buzzfeed)This is what I would swear on if I were ever elected President pic.twitter.com/P935QtIMgo
— Derrick Holt (@TheDerrickHolt) August 2, 2023
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Surprising Overlaps in Historical Events
We tend to learn history in segments, often separated geographically. We learn European history separately from Asian history or American history. But if you pick a year, things were happening in all those places and more. Another thing that warps our sense of time is that many of the things we think of as "modern" are much older than we realize. They just weren't part of our everyday lives until they became affordable. When we link these disparate items and events together, it can mess with our sense of time. Who knew that Mohandas Gandhi was lurking around London during the killing spree of Jack the Ripper? Not that he was a suspect... at least until now. Casual Lectures has a list of historical confluences that show us how our perception of history can be confused by compartmentalization.
Sally Lightfoot Crabs Go Out to Eat
The Sally Lightfoot crab (Graspus graspus) can only eat during low tide, when seaweed is exposed on the rocks offshore. That means every day they need to travel out to those rocks. They are really light-footed, leaping from rock to rock to get to the feeding grounds. Why don't they just swim? Because moray eels and octopuses are waiting for the daily pilgrimage. These predators will even leave the water to chase down a tasty crab dinner! Nature is brutal.
It's a treat any time we can watch a nature documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough. This segment is from the BBC TV series Blue Planet II. It's not only beautiful and informative, but quite dramatic as we follow a crab on the dangerous route to his daily feast. (via Born in Space)
What Happens If You Destroy A Black Hole?
Mankind doesn't have anything big enough to destroy a black hole, even if we could reach one, so the idea of destroying one is purely theoretical. But theories are fun! In this video, Kurzgesagt takes us through a series of experiments in "what ifs" that show us what might happen, considering what we know today about black holes.
As they go through every scenario, we get the idea that whatever destructive force we send, a black hole will only eat it and grow. Then at about six minutes, the discussion of time and space will convince you that you will never understand physics. But we have all kinds of respect for the people who figured out these things. The video is nine minutes long; the rest is an ad. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
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