Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones are the Map Men, ready to explain geography to us and entertain us at the same time. This one is about Netherlands, which jutted out into the sea and resembled Swiss cheese for most of its history. The area of its land rose and fell with the whims of the ocean, and settling there was a problem when you could expect floods at any time. So the Dutch engineered dikes and dams to hold back the sea and create fertile farmland below sea level.
There's an epiphany that comes early in the video when I learned, for the first time, that Dutch windmills aren't there to grind grain. They aren't actually windmills at all, but pumps to control the water level! There' a 90-second skippable ad at 4:25. The last 90 seconds is promotional, too. (via Laughing Squid)
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Living Below Sea Level
The Green Children of Woolpit
In the early 12th century, two children, a boy and a girl, appeared in the village of Woolpit in England. According to the little documentation we have, they didn't speak English and had green skin. Strangely, they weren't burned at the stake, and the villagers seem to have accepted them. They just assumed the children were fairies, a perfectly logical explanation. But as we look back at the incident now, there are (at least) three possibilities.
1. They were aliens from outer space.
2. They suffered from a rare but real medical condition that made them look green.
3. In the many years between the incident and the surviving written accounts, the story could have changed a lot, growing like legends do.
One Night a Year
He doesn't go out very much because he has extensive scarring from burns. He looks forward to Halloween, the one night he can mingle with strangers and no one thinks he's different. No one is uncomfortable around him. No one whispers. They compliment his costume. But that's just one night a year.
The French organization Burns and Smiles produced this video to help us put ourselves in the place of someone who looks different. (via Metafilter)
Monday, October 20, 2025
Playing Postman
The Story Behind The Skeleton Dance
Everyone loves the 1929 cartoon The Skeleton Dance, because few things are funnier than grinning skeletons dancing as if they were alive. We see such things every Halloween, but if you were to put yourself into 1929, the vision of skeletons dancing to music was merely an idea evoked by artworks and silent film. Composer Carl Stalling had pondered the idea of skeletons dancing in time to a soundtrack for years, and presented the idea to Walt Disney. But a cartoon with no story was something that hadn't been done before. Stalling's idea was to have the music driving the animation instead of just filling in the background. Animator Ub Iwerks threw his heart into the idea, and The Skeleton Dance became the very first in a new series called Silly Symphonies.
Miss Cellania's Links
Trump's response to the No Kings protests. (via Metafilter)
The 2025 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Winners.
The cooler, elder sibling of the selfie turns 100: Celebrating the centenary of the photobooth. (via Nag on the Lake)
Heather Franzen's Halloween comic Scaredy Cat. (via Infidel753)
A feud between upstairs and downstairs neighbors goes completely bonkers.
'Giving him a makeover is like having a vegetarian Dracula': Why Jacob Elordi's hunky Frankenstein's monster is wrong.
Meet the Extinct Camels of North America, From Ice Age Giants to Sheep-Size Runners.
In the age of algorithms, one Irish town still does love the old-fashioned way. With a matchmaking festival.
The Tanuki – The Japanese Racoon Dog.
Jinx's Night Out
A lonely little ghost wants to go trick-or-treating on Halloween, but he doesn't know what to dress up as. If you don't remember this Google doodle, it's just plain cute.
Seven Million
No Kings Day was not completely without violence. A hit-and-run driver injured a protester, and police arrested a MAGA who pulled a gun on protesters. Meanwhile, one protester in Alabama was wrestled to the ground and arrested for wearing an inflatable penis suit.Thank you to everyone at the #NO_KINGS rallies for making your voices heard & being part of history. The massive crowds were joyful, passionate & spectacular! So were the signs...
— Mark Hamill (@markhamillofficial.bsky.social) October 19, 2025 at 12:49 PM
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Sunday, October 19, 2025
Danny Kaye vs. Basil Rathbone in The Court Jester
The 1955 movie The Court Jester is remembered for its tongue twister "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!" (see that here) but also for the climactic sword fight between Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye) and Lord Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone). Our hero (Kaye) is doing okay but is frightened until he gets hypnotized and the action gets even more chaotic. Basil Rathbone was a fencing champion from his army days, and taught swordmanship to Errol Flynn. He also taught Kaye to fence for this film. So why did he use a double for most of this fight scene? Who knows- maybe it's because he was in his 60s by then and didn't want to spend weeks fighting to film it. (Thanks, WTM!)
Cats in Halloween Costumes
Some extraordinarily patient cats show off the Halloween costumes their humans spent money on. I would never try this with my cats, because they would not put up with it, but I'm glad I got to see these.
