New Words to Describe Kids

Check out some clever words to describe the way kids exasperate their parents. My kids have outgrown most of these phases, but I remember them well!

Friday Fun Links

Baby Got Back is Back, and Sir Mix-a-Lot's got a way for you to achieve that big butt.

David Israel wants a Spirograph so much he started a Facebook page to gather support and convince some manufacturer to start making them again. Yep, we do things differently in the 21st century.

They've found out about my grand scheme. (via Monkeyfilter)

Hey, I wonder if an car airbag could power an ejector seat! This is what your mechanic does in his spare time, which he's charging you for anyway.

If Chatroulette had been around in medieval times, what would it have been like? Wonder no more! (via The Daily What)

Battle of the Album Covers. Classic LPs seem to have an awful lot of violence in them, especially when animated (slightly NSFW).

Humorous units of measurement. Let's all make an effort to use MegaWarhols, MilliHelens, and Beard-seconds in conversation today. (via J-Walk Blog)

Big Mouth performs the song "Banal Na Aso Santong Kabayo" on the TV show Pilipinas Got Talent. I hope this doesn't give you night-mares.

Toxic Towns: 6 Cases of Polluted Places

Every once in a while, an environmental disaster makes big news, but the effects remain years after the headlines have faded. Here are six stories of what human activity did to mess up Mother Nature, in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Good Reads

The Thing Without A Name. A figurative look at movie monsters that are like nothing anyone has seen before -and lived to tell about it.

So someone leaves a phone on a bar, someone else picks it up and plays with it, and the next thing you know Gizmodo is taking it apart and declaring this this disguised iPhone is a test model of the not-yet-released iPhone 4G.

4 Common Scams And How To Avoid Them. (via Consumerist)

What looks like a little old root cellar opens up into a first-class bunker to ride out the apocalypse in style. Or maybe they just want some privacy.

"Gainers" are individuals who fantasize about becoming fat. I suppose everyone must have dreams and goals. (via Obesity Panacea)

Next month will mark the 30th anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption that buried the area in ash. 25,000 acres was set aside as a research area in 1982, so scientists could see how nature alone would reclaim the blast site.

The 18th amendment to the US constitution which prohibited alcoholic beverages was largely the work of one man: Wayne B. Wheeler. He manipulated the politics of so many cities and states that the federal government was no match for him.

Why America's new baby boom bodes well for our future. Those born now will fuel economic growth and productivity that countries with declining birthrates can't compete with.

Tonto vs. His Tail

This cat needs some real toys ...or maybe a real mouse! (via Arbroath)

Links for Fun

How to make the handle of a ceramic mug. Interesting, I should say!

The process of enjoying a sandwich has never been spelled out so clearly and entertainingly.

The Muppets are a lot more than Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.

An octopus snatches a video camera from a diver and takes off. The camera is still running while the photographer gives chase and recovers his property.

Fictional sports can be awesome, because they don't have to follow real-world safety and physics rules. This list is full of sports that would be awesome if they were possible and (in some cases) survivable.

Get ready for an overload of awww. Twin pygmy loris babies born at Moody gardens in Texas have their first portraits published. (via Fark)

How do you pronounce the name of that volcano, Eyjafjallajökull? Apparently, no one outside of Iceland knows for sure.

The game called Obey goes so fast that I didn't even know whether I was doing well or not. Despite constant confusion, I performed extremely well!

Highway to Hell

Performed by Tiny Tim. (via Cynical-C)

8 Marvelous Miniatures

If you’ve ever owned a dollhouse, you know how fascinating tiny little recreations can be. However, the world is more than a family home! There are artists and craftspeople all over who take a slice of a different kind of life and recreate it in miniature. Take a look at a prison cell, a brothel, an Apple store, and more all in miniature in this article I posted at mental_floss.

Informative Links

The Day Jobs of 10 Mobsters. They had to have something to tell the mother-in-law and the IRS for appearances, you know.

The 7 Worst Things That Can (And Did) Happen at a Funeral. This is one business where there are no do-overs.

5 Things We Bet You Didn’t Know About The Lottery. What you really want to know are next week's winning numbers, and those aren't here.

10 Things Every Woman Should Know About a Man's Brain.

9 Worst Coal Mine Catastrophes. Explosions, avalanches, collapses, floods, they come in all manner of disasters.

The 5 Creepiest Serial Killers (Who Were Animals). http://www.cracked.com/article_18483_the-5-creepiest-serial-killers-who-were-animals.html

Breeding the Perfect Bull. The quality of your steaks begins as a combination of genetic science and a cowboy's hard work on the ranch.

Future Force Warrior: A Look At The Soldier Of Tomorrow. I know he's just human with hi-tech equipment, but he kind of reminds me of Robocop.

The Painting Otter

Watch as Oliver the otter creates a masterpiece to be auctioned off for the Pretoria Zoo in South Africa. (via Unique Daily)

Fun and Funny Links

The iPad was apparently developed for the convenience of cats, since the touch screen doesn't require typing, or even opposable thumbs! Watch Iggy the cat use a couple of programs, and even manipulate the desktop on an iPad.

One mistake many people make is to make the words "a lot" into one word. But Allie takes this mistake in stride, because each incident makes her think of an imaginary creature called the Alot. (via Buzzfeed)

There’s a Brownstone in Brooklyn With a Secret Passage to the Subway. It would be so cool to live there, except for the fact that it belongs to the police. (via YesButNoButYes)

The Pac-man ghosts discuss their favorite TV shows. Things can get ugly when you dis someone's taste in entertainment.

Cool Guys on Motorcycles. When the dorkiest guy in a collection of pictures is Mick Jagger, you know you're in for a treat. (via Everlasting Blort)

Bathroom Rules ... and Wisdom. Nothing drives an important message home like kicking them where it hurts.

The Most Awesomest Thing Ever may change from day to day as the tournament continues. You can take part by ranking the more awesome of two things at a time. (warning: sound)

Cats and Pizza.

Standing Cat

I suspect they can all do this; they just don't want us to know. (via Buzzfeed)

A Firefighter Sets Himself on Fire

Musical Puppies

(via Arbroath)

Informative Links

The 2010 Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded. The winning stories, features, and photographs are linked if they are available online.

Carl Sagan's classic speech known as "Pale Blue Dot" has been illustrated with movie clips for your enjoyment. Some days, it's very relaxing to feel your insignificance.

Scans of New Hominid’s Skull Find Possible Chunk of Brain—and Bugs. Well, it's no wonder they went extinct, having to deal with zombie insects!

How do you study an extinct virus? They don't leave fossils behind! But some of them have left their DNA in other living things, including humans. (via Boing Boing)

In Defense of Public School Teachers in a Time of Crisis. The best teachers give our kids gifts that can't be measured or tested, but will serve them well for life. (via Metafilter)

Six Psychological Reasons Consumer Culture is Unsatisfying. People worry about how to spend their money, but enjoy how they spend their time.

Photographer Troy Paiva tells us how urban exploration is done, and why abandoned structures have their own special kind of beauty.

Horton Hatches the Egg

From 1942.

Niche Blogs: Awesome Animals Edition

In the continuing series on highly-specific blogs, there are many that deal with animals. Cute Overload and I Can Has Cheezburger? are the “big dogs”, so to speak, but the public’s appetite for cute and/or funny animal pictures, stories, and information is so great that more focused animals subjects have their place, as you'll see in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Fun Links

The Coen Brothers Meet Quentin Tarantino. A mashup made in movie heaven. (NSFW language)

I'm always telling my kids to read the directions before cooking. Sometimes those directions don't make all that much sense.

Remember the Star Wars Uncut project to make a collaborative shot-by-shot remake of Star Wars? They've released a few minutes minutes of it, made by about twenty different directors.

A lovely duet of hang drums. Only the thought of how a beginner would sound keeps me from buying one.

The Justice League of Appalachia.

Jazmine Sullivan sings "Home" in her school's production of The Wiz. Sure, it's good, but then you should know she was eleven years old at the time, and this was an elementary school production.

Put your shoes on, we've got company! Does Hollywood really not realize how cliched a phrase is before someone makes a silly compilation?

This is a really uncool method of rejecting a job applicant. Check out the reply to see why.

Karnival Kid

The movie in which we first hear Mickey Mouse speak, from 1929. (via Boing Boing)

Good Reads and Info

7 Disruptive Foods Changing the Way We Eat. Foods of the future are so different they might not even be food at all!

How far does diplomatic immunity go? What was designed to safeguard foreign representatives from harassment has become a license for mayhem.

Talk about a feelgood story, this women went from homeless and addicted to drugs to grad school with a fellowship grant!

How to make a Dalek out of an egg.

The Illinois Poison Control Center posted stories of the 282 calls they took in one day. The calls range from requests for information to emergency room consultations. (via Metafilter)

Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School? An experiment in rewarding performance sparks both criticism and enthusiasm.

Teenage girls can be very sensitive and very cruel. Now there's an online forum that makes both a lot easier, which is the last thing we need.

The Top Ten College Intern Scandals. This is not to say that interns are more scandal-prone than anyone else; they are probably just tempting targets.