The Buttered Cat Paradox

Some things we all know are true appear to contradict each other, and even though we are aware of the facts, we cannot always know what will happen when these concepts come together. One such concept is that of the buttered cat. In most cases of scientific conundrums, experiments are used to find the answer. When there is a cat involved, getting the required cooperation from the test subject makes this all but impossible. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, let’s understand the paradox of the buttered cat, which is explained in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Queen's Coronation

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, on June 2, 1953.

Links for Fun

A jumping spider’s mating dance only needs the proper music to make it perfect! You can find out more about the spider at NPR.

Enter your location and destination into the Google Earth Driving Simulator, and take a virtual trip to anywhere! Now, slow down and enjoy the scenery. (via Metafilter)

The Six Stages of Movie Geek Evolution. It’s a long journey from watching cartoons as a kid to honestly enjoying films for what they are -and some stages in between can be difficult. (via Blame It On The Voices)

Kitten vs. Something Really Scary. A study in how Hollywood tricks, such as a musical score, can make all the difference in a movie.

Little brother learned his dance moves well. Considering he’s only four years old, he’s got a great career ahead of him.

Shit My Students Write.

The video Meltdown explores what happens inside a refrigerator when the thermostat malfunctions. Believe it or not, it’s a horror story.

What Are You Doing After Graduation? If you’re not sure, this flowchart can guide you.

New Jewish Vocabulary.

A mariachi band in South Carolina performs “Another Brick in the Wall.” It was, without a doubt, the best party EVER!

Valse Irritation d'après Nokia

From the YouTube page:

Marc-André Hamelin plays his composition "Valse Irritation". He transcribed the Nokia ringtone. He is known to play it in concerts when he hears a cellphone go off.

10 Crocheted Science Fiction Figures

You wouldn't have known it before the age of the internet, but yarn crafts can be very geeky. Knitting and crocheting are examples of digital art, so to speak, as the patterns are strings of information rendered in bits. Some craftsters are science fiction fans as well, which gives us some great crochet projects to enjoy, as you'll see in this list I posted at mental_floss.

Interesting Links

When We Tested Nuclear Bombs. See a series of photographs from the 2,000 nuclear tests performed since 1945. (via Metafilter)

Take America Back!

Horitada Ototake threw out the first pitch as a baseball game in Japan Friday, which is remarkable because Ototake was born without arms or legs. He has a remarkable talent for doing exactly what you think he can’t.

7 Things You Might Not Know About The Golden Girls. Meaning the show, the characters, and the wonderful actresses who portrayed them.

Joe Stalin vs. John Wayne is a very strange story that might not be all it seems.

This Town Hall Meeting business might not be a bad idea after all. (via Nag on the Lake)

The 5 Lamest Things People Have Actually Rioted Over.

Stacy's Beatles Cake Pops.

America’s Most Isolated Federal Prisoner Describes 10,220 Days in Extreme Solitary Confinement. Can’t we find a way to protect prisoners from an extremely dangerous inmate without resorting to such tactics?

Morgellons: A hidden epidemic or mass hysteria? Explanations range from extraterrestrials to a disorder of the itch response.

Hamster Wants a Kia

An ad for a car with hamsters. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Funny Links

The Situation Room Meme: The Shortest Route From Bin Laden to Lulz. See what clever Photoshoppers have done to a tense moment at the White House during the bin Laden raid.

IKEA manuals for various science fiction universes. Even Doctor Who likes flat-pack furniture with handy but incomprehensible graphic instructions.

The 25 Best Fictional Sports Villains of All Time. (via Gorilla Mask)

If this summer's movie posters told the truth.

Could a statue of Alan Turning pass a Turing Test? Don’t laugh, well, OK, laugh if you must at this dog who just wants to play fetch.

Watch Star Wars episodes one, two, and three the way they should be seen: condensed into less than three minutes altogether and rendered in Lego. A massive improvement over the Hollywood films.

You’ll get lost in watching these pendulum waves. You don’t have to understand what’s happening to enjoy its pure entertainment value.

Ping Pongo

Performed by Winnie Lightner in 1929.

Mousetrap Chain Reactions

Disney produced a documentary promoting nuclear power in 1957 called Our Friend the Atom. It has been shown in countless high school science classes since then. The 53-minute film is available in segments on YouTube, if you’d like to watch the whole thing. One part that stuck with us is the demonstration of a chain reaction using ping pong balls on mousetraps. After seeing it, many budding scientists worked to recreate it. Not because it was educational, but because it was so cool. See seven of those experiments in a video collection I posted at mental_floss.

Math Food

Food is often used to illustrate shapes, and recipes are used to introduce children to measurement and proportions. But if you really care about your mathematics -and your food- there are ways to take the marriage of math and food it to the next level, as you'll see in this article I posted at mental_floss.

Interesting Links

A Mother’s Prayer for Her Child by Tina Fey. Amen.

10 Famous Stage Mothers, in case you need a reason to appreciate the mom you have. Read it, then buy yours a nice Mothers Day gift.

There were 79 commandos involved in the bin Laden raid -and one dog. While the dog’s identity is as secret as the SEALS, you can see and read about how dogs fit in with elite Special Forces teams. (via The Daily What)

Take a quiz to see how your beliefs are labeled on the political spectrum. Then see how you compare to the rest of the country.

9 Absurd Movie Premises That Actually Happened. You’d think maybe they could’ve made these movies more believable by explaining that, because we all know truth is stranger than fiction. NSFW text.

The Science of Statistics Applied to Serial Killers. And you thought Nmb3rs was an absurd premise. (via Metafilter)

How Ex-Presidents and Prime Ministers Make their Money. Respect can turn into cash in retirement.

What kind of animal was a thylacine, anyway? It’s hard to study an animal we drove to extinction less than 100 years ago, but scientists are giving it a try.

The Art of the American Fire Helmet. Safety comes first, but tradition dictates the helmet’s shape, the significance of its color, and how it is personalized. (via Boing Boing)

The rise of reality TV. We’ve gone from documentary to cheap game shows, but what does that say about the audience? (via Jason Kottke)

6 Unforgettable Movie Mothers and the Real Moms They Depicted. In case you didn’t know, this is to remind you that Mothers Day is this Sunday.

Fun and Funny Links

I know… the last thing that someone emotionally ranting on Facebook needs is someone to call them out on spelling errors, but sometimes the opportunity to make a joke is just too tempting. Text is NSFW, especially the tragically hilarious last one. (via Metafilter)

The Situation Room Meme: The Shortest Route From Bin Laden to Lulz. See what clever Photoshoppers have done to a tense moment at the White House during the bin Laden raid.

Chad Vader tries to learn the secrets of viral video success by teaming up with the laughing bubbles baby. If one meme won’t work, maybe another will!

Pomppufiilis is a Finnish term meaning "bouncy feeling," which is what you get when you watch this bizarre music video. Warning: earworm.

They’ve figured out why skunks are striped like that. It’s camouflage for the modern world.

A real man can hold a child tenderly in one arm while using the other to catch a foul ball. Ladies and gentlemen, here is that man.

How Smart Are You? This quick and totally accurate IQ test has only one question. I scored 164.

A Defense Against Cat Urine. This guy hooked up motion sensors, cameras, and a chain of gadgets with the aim of either deterring cats or producing a memorable video.

Paula Dean's English Peas recipe. You don't want to skip the many awesome reviews. (via a comment at Cynical-C)

7 Foods That Will Make Your Poop Change Colors. (via Gorilla Mask)

The Jungle Book Version

It wasn’t long before the Cadbury Gorilla ad was remixed with other songs. YesButNoButYes posted four new versions. I like this one the best, featuring Louis Prima doing “I Wanna Be Like You” from Disney’s The Jungle Book.

Good Reads and Interesting Links

The winners of the Webby Awards have been announced. In rather few categories did the award and the people’s choice go to the same website, which is a double honor.

The Fall of the Wall.

100-year-old Pavel Galitsky is one of the few remaining survivors of the Stalinist labor camps. He tells his story, uses Skype, and delights in outlasting all his oppressors. (via Metafilter)

Read about the Secret Team That Killed bin Laden. (via Breakfast Links) However, you’ll never find out who Team Six really is. (via Fark)

Sohaib Athar moved to Abbotabad for some peace and quiet. Yesterday he Tweeted about a raid with helicopters in his little town ...and became the unwitting live reporter of bin Laden's death raid.

Important Questions: Why do I shiver when I pee? That’s the name of the article; personally, I’ve never suffered from post-micturition convulsion syndrome.

Wouldn’t you love to have one of these working steampunk cell phones? They might be a little uncomfortable in your back pocket, but who cares? (via Dark Roasted Blend)

10 Creepy Plants That Shouldn't Exist.

Gourds Gone Wild!

The secret life of libraries. If someone proposed the idea of a library as a new thing in this modern age, they would be laughed at, but we have them and don’t want to lose them. (via Metafilter)

No More Questions! is a new StoryCorps animation featuring the memories of a feisty 87-year-old Chinese grandma and former store detective. This should inspire you to enjoy your mother as much as you can if you still have her.

Meet Evita

Evita the ocelot was born in January at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. She was introduced to zoo visitors April 19th. More pictures here.

Niche Blogs: Something for Everyone

After posting several lists of niche blogs, I found out that “niche blog” is a term used by web publishers to refer to a blog that is created to market advertising to a specific audience. That’s not what I was thinking at all! The blogs I love to pass on to you are those with a very specific subject matter, so specific that you have to be impressed at the bounty of content they provide. There might be one in this list I posted at mental_floss that you’ll fall in love with and want to follow.



Links for Fun

More internet reactions to bin Laden's death.

No sooner than Osama bin Laden's hiding place in Abbotabad, Pakistan was labeled on Google Maps, reviews began to crop up about the accommodations.

Who Had the Best Civil War Facial Hair? Smithsonian wants your vote for the most amazing mustache, beard, muttonchops, sideburns, or goatee among 24 military candidates.

Oh no! This place is infested with coins! This short stop-motion animation was produced by Olly Newport.

Guys at a party try out an electric anti-bark dog collar. A dog has enough sense to stop barking, but these guys keep pushing the envelope -possibly due to alcohol.

A fat cat in Japan complies with doctor's orders by starting an exercise routine. I don't know if it's the cat's facial expression, his considerable size, or the appropriate music, but I could not stop watching this video. (via Metafilter)

The Late Movies: Lego Battles.

Johnny and Marissa, sitting in a tree...

A classic site everyone should know: Molecules with Silly Names. Erotic Acid, Traumatic Acid, and Moronic Acid are some of the tamer terms.

The World’s Deepest Garbage Can. Cities should do this to random trash bins; people would bring litter all day long.

If you didn’t catch the royal wedding on Friday (or even if you did), you can watch the abridged version with just the fun stuff going really fast. And of course, the voices had to be dubbed back in with more amusing dialog.

7 Geeky Flowcharts you can use to avoid work this week. Hey, it’s a better excuse than “spring fever”!

First Human Space Flight

Footage shot on April 12th, ,1961, as Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. (via Boing Boing)

Interesting Links

What is Beneath the Temple Mount? An archaeologist shares the wonder of digging under the crossroad of three world religions.

Rick Hill went on a Hawaiian vacation and met a resident named Joe Parker. A joke about their similar accents led them to discover they are half-brothers, separated by a few decades and a continent. (via Metafilter)

Using common sense isn’t always the best decision-making strategy. That “common sense” may not be universal, and it always colored by your unique experiences. (via Lifehacker)

The Worst Case of Mistaken Identity. It’s just a pebble, take it, she said as she gave away a 21-carat diamond in the rough.

A real sign of economic trouble: It's getting harder to extract money from the poor, because they don't have any.

You Know It's Good When the Boys Want In.

The Economics of Death Star Planet Destruction.

Why it’s good to be a high school loser. Not only does it get better, but freaks, geeks, and bully-bait turn out to be the folks who run the world.

The 6 Most Terrifying Historical Car Races. The concept of safety and survivability came very gradually to the sport of auto racing.

The lengths to which authors will go to get publicity for their books. (NYT link) “Self marketing” takes many forms, from bribery to deception to embarrassment. (via Boing Boing)

How Heavy Metal Is Keeping Us Sane. I can tell you from experience that it can also make you fairly deaf.