The Haunted Prison

The West Virginia State Penitentiary is an imposing place. The building is on the historic register, and the prison itself, closed for years, is on every ghost hunter's list as one of the most haunted places in America. Learn why in an article I wrote for mental_floss.

Boy Scout Leaders Topple Ancient Rock Formation

Three men face potential felony charges after they filmed themselves turning over a rock formation in Utah's Goblin Valley State Park. http://www.stateparks.utah.gov/park/goblin-valley-state-park They posted a video of the incident on Facebook, in which they rock is pushed off its pedestal, and the men high-five each other. The men are unnamed in the story, but are tagged on Facebook as  Dave Hall, Glenn Taylor and Dylan Taylor.  They talk about how they saved some child from potentially being hurt by the precariously-balanced rock. Utah state park officials say there will be consequences for their actions. A criminal investigation is underway. (via Viral Viral Videos)

Miss Cellania's Links

The Paperback Revolution.

The weirdest news stories of the week.

Read about the history of "dark rides" and relive that time you took your high school sweetheart on one, at Collectors Weekly.

The Invasion of the Jellyfish. (via the Presurfer)

Kraken Autopsy Proves the Monster is Delicious.

The Painful Story Behind Modern Anesthesia. (via Digg)

No You Can’t Just Go to the Emergency Room—Unless You Want to Go Broke.

The 29 Stages Of A Twitterstorm. Poor William Price-Hound.

Rich People Love Diversity, Until They Have Kids. Rich and poor have been self-segregating for 40 years, but only the rich do it on purpose.

Shrinking Women

From the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. Lily Myers of Wesleyan University performs her poem Shrinking Women. The entire text is available at the YouTube page. This is what poetry is really about: explaining or illustrating a complicated concept in as few words as possible by painting a picture of the experience. (via Metafilter)

You Don't Say

(via Bad Newspaper)

Living With Jigsaw

Jigsaw, from the Saw movie series, was a terrifying villain, but what kind of roommate would he make? He'd probably stay in his room all the time, but then there's his awful puppet Billy that never stops talking. And he has no consideration for his roommates, either. If this were  me, he'd be out looking for another place in no time! But that might have repercussions… I still haven't seen the movies. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Baby Chick Snuggles with Cat

A little chick finds a soft place to cuddle up and sleep, right under Oscar's chin. Oscar doesn't seem to mind. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Miss Cellania's Links

The First African-American Major League Baseball Player. It wasn't Jackie Robinson.

Behold, the Fried Thanksgiving Dinner! The dish won the Most Creative award at the Texas State Fair.

The 25 Most Suspenseful Movies Ever Made. 

Sure, alcohol leads to campus rape, but whose fault is that?

Kentucky is leading the way in making Obamacare work. 

The Panda Cam Is Back, And Happiness Returns To The Universe. The new cub has grown and gained two pounds since the government shutdown darkened the feed.

You might be sick of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," but that's only because you've never heard it sung completely in Klingon. We can fix that.

Is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame obsolete? Inducting artists from 25 years ago means that many up for inclusion this year are not rock and rollers at all.

11 Lessons That Jane Eyre Can Teach Every 21st Century Woman About How To Live Well. The underlying feminist philosophy was way ahead of its time.

The 5 Scariest Buildings in America. Knowing what happened inside can give you nightmares.

Cat Math

(via Fark)

Unicorn at the Zoo

The unicorn exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo is brought to you by Jeff Wysaski of Pleated-Jeans. In this video, you'll learn some important facts about unicorns with the resident specimen, Randy! However, unicorns have a habit of escaping their enclosures to roam about the zoo.

Old Bags

(via Bad Newspaper)

Big Ass Spider

Anytime someone who suffers from arachnophobia sees a spider, it's always "Huge! The biggest spider in the world!" Those folks should not see this movie. Big Ass Spider is a comedy monster movie hitting theaters on October 18th. Directed by Mike Melendez, the film follows an exterminator and a security guard as they battle a giant alien that escaped from a military laboratory. Yes, you have to wonder why they called an exterminator when the military should be responsible but hey, this is comedy! (via Laughing Squid)

23 Unusual Animals

Emily Graslie of The Brain Scoop, who also works at the Field Museum in Chicago, hosts this week's mental_floss video. When she talks about unusual animals, they're not all scary or weird -some are just as cute as can be! Meet the gerenuk, the pika, the binturong, and the shoebill, among others.

I Go Outside

From Married to the Sea.

A Bad Lip-reading of Game of Thrones

A bad lip-reading of Game of Thrones turns it into a comedy! Supposedly a trailer for the upcoming Medieval-land Fun-time World, it actually has a plot -sort of. From the YouTube page:

Theme park manager Eddie Stark has one week to whip his lackluster group of employees into shape before the park's grand opening.

Good luck with that -they entire cast is distractible, incompetent, and downright weird. Well, that last part is something this has in common with Game of Thrones. No spoilers, because 1. no one gets killed, and 2. it doesn't make a bit of sense. But that's not all: see another video with more clips from the project. (via Buzzfeed)

Miss Cellania's Links

A Simple and Convenient Synthesis of Pseudoephedrine From N-Methylamphetamine. In other words, how to make Sudafed out of meth.

Another Sexual Harassment Case in Science illustrates how power grants immunity for the harasser. Just another awful side effect of the employment crunch.

The Church of St. James the Greater in Prague has a mummified human arm hanging from the ceiling! How did it get there?

A Pumpkin Grower is Ready to Change the World. Read the story of how a difficult hobby led to a business at Modern Farmer.

A Tea Party candidate for Idaho's House of Representatives opposes Medicaid, but has his entire family insured through Medicaid.

The Down & Dirty Guide to the Best Colleges 2013. Schools are ranked on price, return on investment, and graduation rates, among other factors.

Before you read about crime, corruption, or bad news today, watch this compilation of people who will restore your faith in humanity.

10 Vintage Photos Of Halloween At The White House. With photographic proof that Jackie Kennedy could look stylish in a garbage bag.

The Adult Wednesday Addams YouTube channel follows the further adventures of the goth girl. Four episodes are up already, and will continue until Halloween.

You're Never Too Old for Halloween. Senior citizens still know how to do the Monster Mash.

Your Appetite?

(via Bad Newspaper)

How Unicorns Work

(via reddit)

Rosalind Franklin and the Search for DNA

In 1962, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was a awarded jointly to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins for their discovery of the structure of DNA. Physicist Maurice Wilkins was one of several scientists working on DNA at Kings College in London. And so was Rosalind Franklin, but her pivotal work on DNA was not mentioned by any of the Nobel laureates. Read how that happened in an article I wrote for mental_floss. 

Firemen

(via Fark)