10 Classic Video Game Fashions

Playing video games is usually a solitary pursuit. You wear what you like as long as you’re comfortable. A t-shirt and pajama pants will do nicely, and you can find those printed with your favorite video game characters and icons at most clothing stores. For conventions and cosplay events you will want a full costume, which you can find online with no problem. Then there are those times you go out in public and would like to broadcast your interests, subtly or not-so-subtly, to break the ice with potential kindred spirits. The ten fashion articles in this list I posted at mental_floss are for just such an occasion.



Links for Fun

Ten-year-old Maria Aragon sang Lady Gaga’s new song and got 12 million YouTube views in one week. Listen and see why.

How to twirl your nipple tassels. NSFW.

Russian Wedding Photos: When bad taste and bad Photoshop meet eternal love.

The only thing sillier than making a 60-second version of The Exorcist would be to animate it in Claymation. Except for the doctor, who can be a doll since he has no important emotions to show anyway.

8 Forgotten Kids Shows Sure to Give You Nightmares. If that’s what you really want.

Allie Brosh at Hyperbole and a Half has a new post in which she relates her experiences with childhood nightmares. This, of course, affected everyone around her.

What happens when Antoine Dodson, Gary Brolsma, Paul Vasquez, and other instant internet stars collide in a feature film? An all-meme movie called The Chronicles of Rick Roll.

Incident in a Movie Theater.

I Don't Wanna Marry Until I Have a Job First! Life plans from a five-year-old.

You wouldn't guess it by looking at him, but close your eyes and this guy is Axl Rose. (via Buzzfeed)

Stephen Scott's Entrada

The Bowed Piano Ensemble: ten people play one piano, each in their own way.

Good Reads and Information

Focus is overrated and distraction has its benefits. What you lose in productivity with your terrible attention span, chances are you’ll probably make up in creativity. (via Wired Science)

The 100 Best Protest Signs At The Wisconsin Capitol. Back in the day, you were lucky to get 100 people to carry signs, much less that many with creative slogans worth reposting.

Restaurants to Die For. Guaranteed to impress a date -or scare him/her off forever.

Eight charts that explain everything that's wrong with America.
A simple solution to the budget crisis in Wisconsin.

Power of Decision is a 1958 Strategic Air Command film that illustrates how to start a nuclear war. In this scenario, the “success” of a nuclear war was defined as not having the will of the enemy imposed on the US, despite millions of citizens killed. (via Metafilter)

What Happens When You Stick Your Head Into a Particle Accelerator. Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski was extremely lucky; don’t try this at home. (via Boing Boing)

The 6 Most Epic Escapes Across Hostile Territory. When you’re desperate and have nothing left to lose, it’s time for a Hail Mary play. NSFW text. (via Gorilla Mask)

How far is the Moon from Earth? Knowing the numbers and visualizing the vast distances of space are very different things.

100 Years of world history in two minutes. Just think how much time this would have saved us in middle school!

Synchronized Kittens

Not original or groundbreaking, but they sure are cute! Warning: music. (via Buzzfeed)

The Art of Jello

Gelatin as a dessert has a fascinating history and there is plenty of jello trivia, but for pretty pictures, there’s nothing like edible art. Let’s take a look at how creative people are using gelatin as an art medium in this list I posted at mental_floss. Some of these are strictly professional; others you might want to try yourself!

Fun and Funny Links

Oh The Places You’ll Actually Go! Dr. Seuss gets the real world treatment in this parody video.

M. C. Escher’s Waterfall is an optical illusion, so how could this guy build one in his garage and get it to work? Personally, I prefer this version.

The Worst Gig. Music journalist Jon Niccum collected unforgettable stories from musicians about jobs gone horribly wrong. (via Metafilter)

What is best on the internet: Star Wars or cats? What if we combined them?

Do Your Own Adventure With Sue Teller. An elderly teachers learns to get her freak on.

Mike Cooper made a cake for his son’s 6th birthday on the theme of the Angry Birds video game. However, this cake was a game itself, complete with a working catapult, and was played before eating! (via Laughing Squid)

Pink Armadillo Attack. This is a real Japanese movie about a woman who swivels her hips and turns into a giant pink armadillo that can roll around in a ball and cause mayhem. While she giggles.

Japanese Shadow Swordplay On Stage. Who needs computer-generated effects when you have timing, choreography, and a clever idea?

This puppy knows he can’t walk through glass, but he doesn’t quite get what a mirror is. We’ll forgive him because he’s so cute!

Beanstalk Bunny

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck re-enact the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. From 1955.

Presidents Day Links

Abraham Lincoln: Portrait of a Crazy Badass. Among the hyperbole and NSFW text, this Cracked article has some very good reasons Lincoln is one of our favorite presidents. (via Gorilla Mask)

We’ve only had one president who won four elections, pulled us out of a depression, guided us through a world war, and did it while hiding the fact that he was confined to a wheelchair. But today, instead of hiding the chair, we celebrate it.

Theodore Roosevelt: Mojo in the Dojo. Teddy had a brown belt in judo and was just as tough when setting policy.

Badass of the Week: George Washington.

The First Ladies of the US, ranked by sexiness.

Bouvet Island is 1,700 miles from Antarctica and covered in ice. The few expeditions to explore it were many years apart, but in 1964, a South African expedition found an abandoned boat that is still a mystery. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

The U.S.A. Memory Championship pits mental athletes against each other to see who can recall long strings of information. Joshua Foer writes about how he trained to win the event.

Einstein's Twin Paradox Simplified.

Cat Bowling

A cat, a stack of lightweight containers, and an optional laser pointer. That's all you need for a round of cat bowling, as you'll see in this collection of funny videos I posted at mental_floss.

Good Reads and Information

Why You're Not Married. This comes across as harsh, but has a lot of wisdom behind it.

“Let me show you why you would not want to be shot by a 357 Magnum.” Not that I ever did, but this guy drove the point home convincingly.

What to Do (and Not Do) In A Fistfight. Asking for a three-step head start toward the door isn’t a bad idea, either.

The day when we will use microbots to perform surgery from the inside of the body is getting closer. Scientists have figured out how to steer them with electricity. (via Boing Boing)

You like fizzy drinks and pop rocks, don’t you? For a healthy alternative, you can carbonate your own fresh fruit.

Locked in a Vegas Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex. If someone handed you a video camera that recorded 2,564 frames per second, you’d stay up all night playing with it, too! (via Cynical-C)
5 Horrific Murders (and the TV Movies made from them). Read how close the movies are to the actual cases.

Tycho Brahe: The Drinking Man's Thinking Man.

“Wet Houses” are hospices for alcoholics, where they can drink themselves to death. If you don’t want to quit drinking, at least you’ll find a bed and safety from street violence. (via Metafilter)

It looks like the Robocop statue for Detroit is fully funded! The mayor may have to take a second look at the idea.

The Legend of Lincoln’s Fence Rail. He was honest, but still a politician who valued some spin on his best story.

A little car trouble, according to this email from a guy out camping. (via reddit)

The High and the Flighty

Foghorn Leghorn meets Daffy Duck in this 1956 cartoon.

10 Strange and Wonderful Plush Toys

There should probably be a rule #34 for toys: “If it exists, someone will make a plush doll of it.” In a couple of previous posts, we found roadkill, monsters, germs, food, and internet memes rendered in cuddly toy forms. We have yet to tax the supply of available plush, as you'll see in this list I posted at mental_floss.

Fun and Funny Links

The Pliocene Pussy Cat Theory.

Watch a 3D video mapping experiment called Living Room. A white room and furniture is assigned different colors and textures and sent through quick changes.

The Evolution of Ghosts. Weren’t they invented to scare us? What happened?

The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger. (via Metafilter)

How to properly hold a cat. (via reddit)

Ass-cam is the easiest way to find out how many people are checking yours out.

Baby Trashes Bar. Like one commenter said, we’ve all been there, but most of us didn’t have the sense to wear nappies.

Letters from the Muppets. A glimpse at correspondence from Jim Henson, Caroll Spinney, and the Swedish Chef, plus complaints about the Count.

Superman denies shaving your wife. But he will admit saving your life.

Informative Links

National Geographic has assembled their online archives on Egypt into one index. You can brush up on what ancient artifacts tell us about Egyptian history and how they have been impacted by the revolution.

Baba Yetu is the first song specifically written for a video to ever win a Grammy. But who needs the video game when you can just listen to the music?

15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has Or Will. It had to be hard to just select 15 things. (via The Daily What)

Boy Without a Cerebellum Baffles Doctors. Chase Britton has “the MRI of a vegetable,” but the 3-year-old is learning to walk and talk and use a computer. (via Metafilter)

Doctors removed the entire right half of Jody Miller’s cerebrum to stop constant seizures. She recovered from surgery, and the left half of her brain has taken over all functions.

The Pudú is the world’s smallest deer, and is exceptionally cute. The world’s largest deer is a moose, and they are quite strong.

Weird Wedding Laws Still on the Books. For each of these laws, you know there’s a great story that caused it to be enacted.

What’s the difference between animals we can domesticate and animals we can’t? It’s in the genes, and it turns out that when we selectively breed friendly animals, we also get cute and smart animals.

The Soviets always wanted to build ever bigger, better, and more modern buildings. Some of those projects look downright freakish to 21st century eyes. (via Metafilter)

Joanne Siegel was the real-life inspiration behind the character of Lois Lane. She auditioned for a modeling job as a teenager and ended up married to Superman’s co-creator.

The Extraordinary Life of Liviu Librescu

There are those who are remembered for their wisdom and caring during their lives, and others who are remembered for undergoing and surviving trials. Some are remembered for a life of accomplishments. And there are those who are remembered for heroic deeds. Every once in a while, there comes someone who is remembered for all of those things. If you don't know Liviu Librescu, you will after reading this article I posted at mental_floss.

Links for Fun and Enjoyment

You thought he would never have a girlfriend, but you see you were wrong. The Cereal Guy meme generates more laughs than you would expect.

A new version of Huckleberry Finn is coming out with the n-word replaced by the word “robot”! In fact, the entire character of Jim will be replaced by a robot to highlight how silly it is to edit a classic.

Concerned citizens are raising funds to erect a statue of Robocop in Detroit, with or without the city’s help. They’ve already got a place to put it and 10% of the funds they need.

Back to the Future. Argentine photographer Irina Werning went to great lengths to faithfully reproduce childhood photos with the same subjects as adults.

Lady Gaga’s new song “Born This Way” reminds of lot of people of Madonna’s 1989 hit “Express Yourself.” If you can’t tell, here are the two songs played together.

Dusty, the Klepto Cat, caught in the act. If you asked him, he’d say it wasn’t stealing, it was collecting things as a hobby.

Among many wonderful but sad comics at Pictures for Sad Chlidren, this particular one made my day.

Omer. L Baumgartner led an interesting life. (via Dangerous Minds)

Albert Einstein spent the summer of 1939 vacationing at the beach. His quest for a sundial led to the later notoriety of a picture taken that summer.

The game Cheese or Font? gives you a word, and you decide whether it’s a cheese or font. How hard could this be? Surprise! There are way more of both in the world than I realized.

A Sheep's Best Friend

A bouncy sheep and his dog playmate have a good time! (via Buzzfeed)

Valentines Day Links

Your Valentines Day playlist at YouTube, compiled by J-Walk and his readers. Let this go all day long, while you work in another window.

Romantic Gestures That Make Yours Look Pathetic.

Mashable's Top 5 Nerdy One-liners for Valentines Day.

Statistical Love Poems for Valentines Day. This is so far above my head, I’d be awfully impressed by anyone who understands it. (via Everlasting Blort)

The Secrets Behind Your Flowers. Did your valentine bouquet do its part to supplant the cocaine trade in South America?

The 8 Most Romantic Creatures In The Animal Kingdom.

14 Romantic Gestures Gone Terribly Wrong.

Tongue Wrestle Mania: The Art and Science of French Kissing. Don’t be one of the many kinds of kissers that could drive your kissee away!

10 Great Love Affairs in History. Maybe some inspiration for your Valentines Day plans?

More Valentine links.



Chocolate Salty Balls

Isaac Hayes performing the song he made famous as the character Chef in South Park.