Simon Tofield's annual Valentine cartoon is out. This year, Simon's Cat is once again trying to woo the fair feline maiden Chloe, but none of it goes right. She certainly is charming chasing a butterfly, but then she eats it, which might turn off some suitors. Not Simon's Cat! This cartoon makes me glad that Valentine's Day comes way too early for allergy season.
Thursday, February 02, 2023
Love is in the Air
Poker Face: 1940s Western Swing Edition
If you ever wondered what Lady Gaga would sound like performing in Texas in the early 20th century, what's wrong with you? Dustin Ballard, better known as YouTuber There I Ruined It, wondered exactly that, and we know how looney he is. He remixed Lady Gaga's song "Poker Face" as Western swing. Whether it sounds good to you depends on your taste in music, but you can't argue with a video featuring vintage movie poker games where everyone is cheating. (via Laughing Squid)
The Special Day
"Of course I do," he indignantly answered, going out the door to the office. At 10 AM, the doorbell rang and when the woman opened the door, she was handed a box containing a dozen long stemmed red roses. At 1 PM, a foil wrapped two pound box of her favorite chocolates arrived. Later, a boutique delivered a designer dress. The woman couldn't wait for her husband to come home.
"First the flowers, then the chocolates and then the dress!" she exclaimed. "I've never had a more wonderful Groundhog Day in my life!"
Why LEGO Won
Believe it or not, LEGO blocks weren't the first toy that consisted of small interlocking plastic building blocks. That was Kiddicraft blocks in 1947. Danish toymaker Ole Kirk Christiansen started making similar bricks in 1949. However, the most important part of the story is the patent that Christiansen's son Godtfred filed in January of 1958 that made LEGO blocks the better product. In the video above, Phil Edwards explains the crucial design innovation that made LEGO the better toy, followed by the marketing juggernaut that brought LEGO bricks to the world. (via Digg)
Miss Cellania's Links
The Stink A. Glitchy macrons do the Māori language a disservice, as their real purpose is so very useful. (via Metafilter)
New Batman and Robin Movie, Green Lantern TV Show, and More Announced for Revamped DCU.
An Honest Trailer for M3GAN.
A Brief Compendium of Preserved Pieces of Cake.
Science Finds How Video Games Can Be Good for Us.
This Hilarious Twitter Thread Has Cats Asking If They’re Being Unreasonable. Duh, cats don't do that.
The website Wonders of Street View is a collection of the best images in Google Street View, whether they are funny, surprising, odd, beautiful, or superlative. (via Metafilter)
Celebrate Valentines Day with a Halloween Touch.
Toilet Paper
My kitten Sundae (who looks a lot like this cat) has decided that toilet paper is her favorite toy. She wants to intercept it as I take it, which has resulted in some injuries. To me. There are workarounds, but I tend to forget the danger until she launches from some hiding place. She would unroll it on her own if I hadn't blocked her access with a large waste basket. (via Fark)
The Opposing Desires of Two Cats
Sebastian appears to be addicted to the computer. You can’t blame him for enjoying the fish swimming across the screen. Hamlet, however, can take it or leave it. The two cats illustrate the conflict that occurs when one of a couple can’t stop playing video games, while the other feels neglected. “Honey, you’ve been on that computer for hours. Why don’t you come play with me for a while?”
The videographer described the action as Hamlet trying to prevent Sebastian from scratching the screen. Although they are both cases of anthropomorphism, I prefer my interpretation. Who knows what really goes on in the minds of cats? (via Daily Picks and Flicks)
Tweet of the Day
(Thanks, WTM!)Someone has done this before.. pic.twitter.com/VUBsjyG6Mh
— H0W_THlNGS_W0RK (@HowThingsWork_) January 24, 2023
Wednesday, February 01, 2023
Key to the Future
In 1956, GM showed us what the future of traveling would be -in the far off year of 1976! Jet-powered cars would follow a magnetic strip to their destination on single-lane superhighways, all going about 30 miles an hour, guided by men in control towers, while the family sang songs. For some reason, they thought that a superhighway could have a "scenic route." The guy in the tower would even find them a motel room where you could get pre-digested food cooked by infrared! Yum!
Instead, by 1976, we had interstate highways in most places, but the speed limit was 55 mph, way below what the highways were designed for. After the oil embargo, gas was up to 60 cents a gallon! Then in 1981, President Reagan fired all the guys in the control towers. Now 67 years after this film was produced, we are starting to get self-driving cars, but they are controlled by computers and have yet to learn not to hit things. Route mapping by GPS is routine, but an ice cream freezer in the glove box was never something we were willing to pay for. (via reddit)
3 Weird Quirks of My American House
British immigrant and new American citizen Laurence Brown, who recently bought his first house, shows us some features of his 1942 home that are not seen in houses built today. These include a basement toilet, a coal chute, and a phone nook. But they need some further explanation.
A basement toilet is often accompanied by a sink or a shower or both, but rarely this much privacy. Sure, these were used by workmen who wanted to get clean before entering the living area, but that's not what they were originally built for. These are often called Pittsburgh toilets. An extra toilet in the basement was handy because when the municipal sewer system backed up, which was often, sewage would flow into the concrete basement, where it could be washed down the floor drain with lots of water once the sewer was functional again. Without that release, the backup would occur upstairs, flooding the living area where it would ruin wood floors, carpets, and your family dinner enjoyment. Once the plumbing was available in the basement, sinks and showers could be easily added for cleaning up after work.
The "coal chute" he pointed out looks a lot more like a septic tank cover to me. But this is an urban area, and many commenters pointed out that it is a sewer access point called a cleanout. Coal chutes were built into the foundation of the house, and had much lighter covers of wood or metal for easy access.
The Curse of the Classified Documents
The horror never stops! If you talk about them, the curse falls on you! (via Boing Boing)
Ze Frank Has the Lowdown on Slime Molds
Slime molds are exceedingly weird. They are even weirder when explained by Ze Frank in a True Facts video. They can harness a lot of simple abilities to act like they are have brains, which they don't. But they can get around better than some animals that have brains. For some reason I had never learned that they are a single cell. How do they grow so big? Well, according to Ze, they may be one cell, but they have many nuclei, which is another way slime molds are exceedingly weird. This video has plenty of jokes without being as prurient as some of his other recent videos. It also has a skippable one-minute ad in the middle.
Extreme Pogo Artists are Insane
You could call them insanely good. This combination sport and art form is called Xpogo, and it looks terrifying. At least these guys are wearing helmets. That only makes sense, as the best practitioners are well aware of how many falls it takes to achieve this level of competence. This compilation is brought to you by the folks who do the People Are Awesome series. (Thanks, Dan!)
Tweet of the Day
(via Everlasting Blort)street fighter ken and ryu pic.twitter.com/ZMdZWXXKPr
— Great Videos (@Enezator) January 18, 2023
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