Tuesday, May 31, 2016

What's Wrong with the PIcture?

Hint: two things. (via Bad Newspaper)

Tinder: The Superhero Movie



A new superhero has arrived! Tinder has the ability to destroy others with a left swipe! Watch him as he battles an army of evil bots set to take over the world -the world of internet dating! Tinder is joined by other superheroes as he pursues his archnemesis eHarmony in a war of wits and superpowers. Too bad Tinder has more power than wit. This movie trailer parody is brought to you by Rooster Teeth. (via Tastefully Offensive)


Drawing the Line

(via reddit)

15 Pop Culture-Themed Graduation Caps

Decorating one’s graduation cap, or mortarboard, is an opportunity to illustrate a degree, share a quote, make a joke, or communicate what’s important to the graduate. Some use movies, TV shows, and internet memes to make a statement. See 15 of them in a list I posted at mental_floss.

Public Facilities

(via Buzzfeed)

Miss Cellania's Links

Why Are Flowers Placed on Graves? Eddie Deezen has the story.

What Questions the 50 States Ask Google. (via the A.V. Club)

The Commute Map is an interactive graph that shows the flow of commuters in your area. Mark Evans explains more about this visualization at I Like Big Bytes. (via Metafilter)

What The Mark Of The Beast Taught Me About The Future Of Money.

Ranking the best that McDonald's has to offer around the world. April Siese tried them all so you don’t have to.

America’s First Female President (Sort of). Edith Wilson stepped up to run things when her husband suffered a stroke.

Two versions of Good News set the tone for decades of campus comedies. The 1930 version was a victim of the Hays Code; the 1947 remake was cleaned up.

10 Ridiculous Headline/Picture Combinations (That Should Have Led To Major Firings). No one sees the big picture until it’s already gone to print.

The Surprising Upside of Herpes. Not that you’d want it, but there may be a silver lining.

Why This Professor Leaked Standardized Test Questions. You can’t protest what you don’t know about.

Tango

(via Fark)

Voltige



Léo Brunel’s student animation project Voltage is a nightmare of physics for the characters, but a laugh for us! Two hapless mechanics attempt to protect a customer’s vehicle from disaster when the garage gets a little out of hand. There is no deep message here. It’s just fun. Brunel says this sequence was inspired by Laurel and Hardy. (via Everlasting Blort)  

Monday, May 30, 2016

Healthy Options

Bad Menu

)

Player Two



When you’re the younger brother, you’re always player two. That’s the way it is growing up playing video games with your older sibling. But there comes a time when “the way it is” suddenly is no more. Older brothers grow up, leave home, and suddenly the younger is player one. While it’s nice to be number one, it’s a bittersweet victory.  

Zachary Antell captures that feeling that so much of the video game generation can relate to, in this story that’s making the rounds of various film festivals. If you ever bonded with a sibling over The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario, you might need to have a hankie ready. (via Geeks Are Sexy)  

Milk

(via reddit)

Chipmunk Caught Red-Handed



This little chipmunk thought he had stumbled on a perfect treasure trove when he found a full bird feeder. Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling he was doing something wrong by taking all those seeds. When confronted by the guy who loaded the feeder, he did the only thing a thief with a conscience would do. He gave it all back.  Under enough pressure, a thief will cough up the goods. Of course, it’s probably just a fear response, but look at how much he had stuffed in those cheeks! (via Arbroath)


The 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster

Coal miners in the early 20th century risked their lives just to go to work every day. In the first decade of the 20th century, around a half-dozen miners died on the job every month in the coal mines of northern Illinois. Nationwide, more than 2000 coal miners died on the job every year between 1905 and 1930. But the workers at Cherry Mine in Cherry, Illinois, which included some underage workers as young as 10, never expected a disaster on the scale of the 1909 fire that killed 259 miners. Read the whole story in an article I wrote for mental_floss.

How Is This Not A Thing?



Last Week Tonight wasn’t on TV last night, but John Oliver managed to bring us a video anyway. I think he’s trying to initiate some memes. 

Miss Cellania's Links

The Smelly Past. Be thankful for modern sanitation!

Rosie the Riveter is Alive and Living in California. (Thanks, Dr. Kimble!)

20 Movies About Real Estate. Also about homeowners, home buyers, home sellers, renters, roommates, and the homeless.

Rapper's amazing new music video about Asians in the film industry. NSFWF lyrics.

The Confusion of Papal Numbering. All in all, it’s a mess in the historical records.
 

Roots is a Stunning, Unflinching Portrait of American Slavery and Ancestral Pride. The eight-hour miniseries will run tonight through Thursday.

These Women Helped Prevent A Date Rape At A Restaurant. You don’t have to wear a uniform to be a hero.

The federal prison system has a big problem with a little number. For 1 percent of inmates, their release date comes and goes and they’re still in prison.

Corporations have a 1 percent problem, too. Only the outliers keep getting richer, while most go into debt.

Why Graduates Dress the Way They Do. Besides it being a requirement to participate in the ceremony.

Don't Mind Me

(via Fark)

Nathan Dances to the Beer Barrel Polka



Nathan the Hairless Chinese Crested dog dances along to Grandma Tillie’s rendition of "Beer Barrel Polka." That should be enough to make you giggle just a little. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Correction

The Best of Spock



Vulcans might be completely logical, and Spock is super smart, but he still had trouble with metaphors. Here are some clips from Star Trek: the Original Series that made us love him so. (via Metafilter)

Reasonable Answer

(via reddit)

Ten Examples of Cat Logic



Chris Poole (not Moot) has observed quite a few things about cats while caring for Cole and Marmalade. Here he shares the logic cats us, which is a bit different from human logic. You knew that. But you’ll enjoy this anyway. (via Neatorama)

I'm Not Paid to Move TVs

(via Buzzfeed)

Un-Melting Things



Let’s Melt This is a YouTube channel that shows various things melting. This one a switch-up, where they show the videos in reverse. It’s neat because instead of being destructive, it looks constructive. Also, some of the things are completely unidentifiable melted, so we get to guess what they are as the video rolls. The only part I don’t like is that the music is backwards, too. If that  bugs you, turn the volume down, or mute it. (via Laughing Squid)

Opinions

(via Fark)

Lift Off



Donovan Livingston is getting a masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in this clip. During the graduation ceremony, he spoke about American education using a spoken word poem. You’ll find the transcript here. (via Uproxx

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Bank Customer

Tap Roots



This 1948 film is a fictionalized version of the story of Newton Knight, who led of group of Southerners who seceded from the Confederacy. Tap Roots was described as "Gone With The Wind for abolitionists," and isn’t all that historically accurate. Knight’s story will be retold again in the new movie Free State of Jones this summer. (via Metafilter)

Advice

O believe something was lost in translation. (via reddit)

Cheetah with a GoPro



The folks at the Cincinnati Zoo outfitted Savanna the cheetah with a GoPro camera on her back. She probably wouldn’t have liked one on her head, and you really can’t force a wild cat to do something they don’t want to. Watching her zoom around the compound with this point of view is kind of scary, like riding in the car with your 16-year-old driving.   

Even when they go to slow-motion, you really get a sense of how fast they run. I couldn’t even keep up with a cheetah in slow motion! But then again, if a wild predator were chasing me, I might surprise myself. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Funny Little Bunnies



Saturday morning cartoons! Here's a Silly Symphony from 1934.

The Ocean

(via Fark)

Next-Level Finger Puppet



Barnaby Dixon shows off his new puppet design, and it’s quite clever. It combines the articulation of a marionette with the direct action of a hand puppet. Of course, the skill of the operator is key to making it move realistically, and he’s pretty good at that, too.

The only drawback I see is that necessarily long loincloth, which could create design problems in making a specific puppet, but I’m sure that can be worked around. Dixon did another video, in which you can see how he assembles the puppet, and then it dances to music. Imagine this with a pair of black gloves underneath for live performance, or green gloves for videos. (via Viral Viral Videos)

Friday, May 27, 2016

Crime Duo

When Carmakers Taunted Horses



A hundred years ago, automobiles were a new idea, so why would someone buy a car when they had a perfectly good horse, which was safer? Enter the marketing department. While the poor horses got slandered, there were definite advantages to driving cars, especially in cities. Car manufacturers didn’t have to be so nasty about it, but even when they’re right, business trumps the common good. The campaign against the horse wasn’t nearly as bad as the battle against pedestrians or the campaign to design American infrastructure around the automobile. (Thanks, Phil Edwards!)

Gordo's

(via reddit)

Mega Sticky Trap



A group of scientists are testing a new kind of sticky trap. To get accurate information on its effectiveness, they sent various types of humans across a 20-foot section of the material. First, a scientist as a baseline, then a sprinter, then a sumo wrestler. I was hoping the sumo wrestler wouldn’t get his loincloth caught in the sticky stuff. He does. Of course, this is an ad, for a Japanese cockroach trap. For such products, we’d hope they do their testing on actual cockroaches. (via Tastefully Offensive)

12 Ways to Repurpose a Phone Booth

Once upon a time, you could find a phone booth on any city corner. But the rise in mobile phones means they're not used much anymore, and many are likely to be taken out of commission to save on maintenance costs. That might sound like a problem, but for some people, it's an opportunity. Here are some of the most creative ways phone booths have been transformed, in a list I posted at mental_floss.

Can’t Find His Fork



He wants his fork, but he can’t find it! It’s right there! Where? Right there! (via Neatorama)

Miss Cellania's Links

15 Things You May Not Know About The Andy Griffith Show. Eddie Deezen has the lowdown.

Jonathan Lawrence was the third director hired to shoot the film Empires of the Deep, but the first of three to direct the actual shooting. The story of what went on behind the scenes at Atavist magazine is a fascinating look at how culture clash can suck millions of dollars down the drain. (via Digg)     

The Inevitable, Intergalactic Awkwardness of Time Capsules.

Volunteers are fueling the growth of orphanages in Uganda. They need to stop. (via Metafilter)

All-Night French Fries with T-Rex: Seattle's Trippiest Rock-Poster Artist Tells All. 

Ranking the Romances of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some are meant to be, while others are just phones in.

I Tried To Follow 8 Different High School Dress Codes And It Was Frustrating. Believe  it or not, uniforms are easier.

New Zealand Has A Cave Full Of Glowworms, And It’s Wholly Surreal. It fits in well with the Middle-Earth esthetic.

15 Unrepentantly Trashy Beach Reads for Summer 2016. You might even enjoy them stuck in a flyover state.

The scientific case for being super busy. Your hurried schedule says good things about you.

The Realization

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Discriminating Criminal

Du Hast (Polka Version)



Rammstein appeals to everyone!

Tearable

(via reddit)

Welcome To A Supercut



Burger Fiction’s latest supercut is a welcome change. It’s nice to be welcomed. I think you’ll recognize the majority of these films, not least because many of them have the title in the clip. The word “welcome” will sound really silly by the time this is through. You’re welcome. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Drunk Australians Answer American Trivia Questions



Okay, this premise is guaranteed to be funny. There’s really no reason that Australians should know these things about the United States, but they have a few drinks and give it their best shot anyway. Need I say this contains NSFW language? It does. Anyway, some of these folks know more about America, even drunk, than Americans know about Australia. Honestly, can you name the capital of Australia without looking it up? (via Buzzfeed)

Puppy Training

MIss Cellania's Links

Sound Blaster: The Sound Card that Enabled Multimedia. A bit of geek nostalgia.

Why Are There Violent Rabbits In The Margins Of Medieval Manuscripts? (via Metafilter)

What Not to Wear After Age 50: The Final Say in Very Adult Language. (Thanks, Dawn!)

Beatrix Potter Based Peter Rabbit On Her Pothead Bunny. Benjamin Bouncer was her beloved Belgian hare from 1885 to 1892.

Massachusetts McDonald’s Is Waging Sign War With Liquor Store. (via Neatorama)

“You stupid darkness!” and 29 other Peanuts quotes for everyday use. With context and explanations for each.

I've eaten on $2 a day and tried living on an $8.15-an-hour salary in NYC — here is my single best tip for saving money. You probably already do it.

A pop-up Himeji Castle made with LEGO. A LEGO construction you can unfold like a book!

What it’s like to look for love on a clown dating site. Turns out that niche dating sites can be short on niche people.

We Love Who They Aren't: 7 Famous Impostors. A fake identity could land you in jail, or in a movie.

Movie Night

(via Fark)

Calvin & Hobbes: Art Before Commerce



Everyone loved Calvin and Hobbes, and they still do, even though the comic ceased over twenty years ago. What is it that made the strip so special? Bill Watterson never phoned it in. He held his comic to the highest standard until he ran out of things to say …and then he quit. The strips never had a chance to become repetitive or cliched. But that’s not all there was to it. Even all these years later, seeing a Calvin and Hobbes strip is a delight. Little boys with vivid imaginations will always be with us, as well as the philosophical questions they have about our confusing world.   

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Mare

Get in the Boat!


When the captain tell you to get in the boat, you better not waste any time! A playground at Munson Park in Monroe, Michigan, is the setting for an epic high seas adventure. When you’re James Hashimoto, the Action Movie Kid, you can go with the flow, because you know that sooner or later, the stories in your adventure will come to life on video. But even if you aren’t, your parents can learn to do this from the tutorials his dad shares. You can see how this particular video was made here. (via Metafilter)

Nobody's Perfect

(via reddit)

Syncopated Ladies Salute Prince



Today is National Tap Dance Day! You might think tap is an obsolete form of dance, but the troupe Syncopated Ladies puts a modern twist to their routines.
Here they dance to Prince’s song “When Doves Cry.” They dance in perfect rhythm with very little repetition in the routine. This had to take some real work to learn.

Want to see more tap? Check out these 12 famous tap dance routines.

He Stole the Show



It’s the senior talent show. The entire student body has already sat through singers, musicians, and drama students with amazing talent that they’ve seen dozens of times before. Then this guy steps up. He has one talent, and he wrings all the drama he can out of it. Well, to be honest, he probably has other talents. Like showmanship, and making a lot of friends. How else would you draw a standing ovation for tossing a water bottle? The other question is, how long did he train to master this maneuver? (via Viral Viral Videos)

16 Hours

Pulptastic

)

Miss Cellania's Links

Victor Gabriel Rocine and His Heads. Judging character by the shape of one’s head and face.

Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens. JJ Abrams recycles elements in all his movies, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

How 4chan trolls plan to help Donald Trump win the White House. Some people just want to see the world burn.

These Rescued Baby Beavers Will Melt Your Heart. The four kits were taken in as newborns and raised by hand.

Time Trap: How Escape From the Planet of The Apes Was Ahead of Its Time. It was a “sequel, prequel, and reboot” that had to be made due to the demand for more sequels.

10 Lost Islands. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and changing sea levels make them appear and disappear again.

This Comic Sums up Why All Women Need Feminism for Different Reasons.

Sick Dog Who Was To Be Euthanized Gets Diagnosed Just In Time. And he’s recovering nicely.

Why America is about to start freaking out about babies. With the birth rate so low, our demographics may change forever.

Finals Week in Graphs and Charts. Aren’t you glad that’s over for another semester! 

Mew

(via Fark)

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Suspicious

Hamlet Is Back



Shakespeare gets the action movie treatment he deserves in this sequel to Hamlet, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. With a special appearance by Alan Rickman. It's an internet classic from long ago.

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

This is just a picture of two people hugging. It has a nice beach background. But wait, something is a little off about their legs. The more you look, the stranger it gets. How did her legs end up on the other side of his body? 

They didn’t. And it hasn’t been Photoshopped. It’s just an accidental optical illusion. If you can’t figure it out, this outline will clue you in. See, she’s not wearing capris at all! She’s probably wearing a dress. (via reddit)

Trapped in a Bathroom Stall



She went into the ladies’ room and used the handicap stall, which has a door that opens out. While she was in there, someone used the diaper-changing table on the wall and didn’t fold it back up. The table prevented the stall door from opening wide enough for her to exit. A comedy of errors.

This is not so much a tragedy but an illustration of poor design. Poor design, in this case, resulting from retrofitting a small bathroom with 1. a handicap stall, and 2. a diaper changing table. She wasn’t all that worried about getting out. It wasn’t too long before someone else came in, and even if it were, she had a phone. (via Digg)

Vegetable Harvest

Game of Molds



Slime molds grow just like the buildings and towns in the opening credits to Game of Thrones. If that's not a stretch, I don't know what is. (via Neatorama)

Miss Cellania's Links

It’s a Bad Idea Charlie Brown! The Peanuts specials you remember are just a fraction of the ones that were made.

6 genetic experiments happening now that sound like science fiction. Bringing back extinct species, gender switching, and designer animals are becoming real.


A Look Back at Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The one film that even non-Trekkies can quote. (via Metafilter)

The Fake Disease That Plagued Darwin, and Other Illnesses That Never Actually Existed. Status Lymphaticus, anyone?

Combat juggling exists, and it is damn entertaining. Can you keep three pins in the air and mess your opponent up at the same time?

Why the First Cremation in the U.S. Was So Controversial. Strange that it didn’t happen until 1876.

Why the Big, Bad Kaiser of World War I Grew Up to Be Such a Jerk. Kaiser Wilhelm II had a tragically strange relationship with his mother.

The Gospel of Supply-Side Jesus.

The Cathedral Floor Made of Tombstones.  (via the Presurfer)
 

Mad Hatter

(via Fark)

The Universe in 4 Minutes



The explanation of the universe starts with the very basics and grows from there. You probably won’t understand any more about the universe once it’s done, but you will enjoy a few laughs. Well, an explanation of the universe is quite complicated, so exurb1a must jump from one type of explanation to another, which is only more opportunities for puns. Who says physics can’t be funny? Or astronomy, biology, geology, etc. (via reddit

Monday, May 23, 2016

Chef's Surprise?

Bad Menu

)

The Starrkeisha Cheer Squad



Rah-rah! There’s not much to say about this, it’s just odd. (via Everlasting Blort)

19 Authors and Their Typewriters

In the more than 100 years between the widespread introduction of the typewriter and the rise of the word processor, a great many masterpieces have been produced on the handy office machines. Some of those machines are still around, and some are still in use. Find out what kind of typewriter your favorite author used in a list I wrote for metal_floss.

A Sidewalk in Albania

(via reddit)

Blind Cat Plays Fetch



Rey was born eight months ago with no eyes. Alexander Speweik adopted Rey and her sister Leia, and Rey now gets around the apartment just fine. She even plays fetch!

Wadded up aluminum makes a great ball to roll around on a wood floor, and Rey follows it almost perfectly just by the sound. She also plays with boxes, climbs her cat tower, and wrestles with her sister. She doesn’t chase a laser light, but likes to play with the chain attached to the laser pen! You can follow Rey at her Facebook page or at Instagram. (via Digg)


9 Unusual Prom Dates

Most students take their significant others or a friend to the prom. But sometimes circumstances, luck, or imagination intervene to pair a promgoer with someone—or something—very unexpected for that special occasion. Check out nine such prom dates in a list I prepared for mental_floss.

Primaries and Caucuses



Why do we hold caucuses and primary elections? You might think it’s to select party candidates, but the party really controls what happens behind the scenes. And that goes for all political parties. John Oliver explains on Last Week Tonight.

She Can Finally Breath


Janeen recently attended her daughter's college graduation ceremonies (congratulations, Janeen's daughter!) and took many pictures. Another graduate at the school showed off her decorated mortarboard. She majored in respiratory therapy, not English. Still, you'd think that the one word a respiratory therapist would be expected to spell properly would be "breathe." (Thanks, Janeen!)

How to Barbecue an Eggplant



How do you make an eggplant tasty? Some would say you barbecue it, while I think the sauce of garlic, onions, oil, and spices will do the job. Others would say you can’t make an eggplant tasty, but this demonstration from Guangzhou makes it look delicious. She’s demonstrating how to cook while her Australian husband provides the dry wit in his English translation. Their YouTube channel sarcasmo57 has quite a few other cooking videos with comparable translations. (via reddit)

Miss Cellania's Links

That Other Superhero. Meet a few of the more ridiculous comic book heroes you may have forgotten.

George O’Donnell died last week, after a glorious life of drinking, gambling, and womanizing. His family wrote wrote his obituary, which runs ten paragraphs and tells quite a tale. (via reddit)

11 Fascinating Facts About Mad Max.

 These Frenchmen Are Building an Epic Medieval Castle. They use authentic techniques from the 13th century for the 25-year project.

10 Cult Films That Found Fame as VHS Bootlegs. The greatest allure is the unavailability of those film through normal. NSFW titles.

One Woman Opens Up About Her Experience With Domestic Violence. When it happens so gradually, it’s hard to know where to draw the line.

Rare Photos Show Mount St. Helens Erupting From View Of Passing Plane. They have only been made public 36 years later.

How to rig elections, the legal way. A primer on gerrymandering.

Grandpa Winner and Other Pro Wrestlers. 

Photos of Veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. (via reddit

Hamster

(via Fark)

Dry Ice in a Swimming Pool



Frankly, considering how many videos we’ve seen under the topic of “fun with dry ice,” I’m surprised you can’t find it at more grocery stores. The Crazy Russian Hacker bought thirty pounds of dry ice just to throw it in the pool. Which, of course, makes it wet ice. It looks pretty cool, but what is surprising is how long it lasted. (via Viral Viral Videos)

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Highway to Hell (Ukrainian Folk version)



By the band Vopli Vidoplyasova. I bet these guys can party like nobody’s business.

Food Pyramids

(via Fark)

The New West



A gang of outlaws discusses the lack of diversity in their group while awaiting to rob a train. Contains NSFW language. 

It turns out that the group is already way more diverse than you would expect in a historical era in which such gangs were usually quite homogeneous -all criminals and all kind of dumb. Well, they got that part right. (via Digg

Tattoo Addition

Dances With Goats



You’ve seen dogs dance with humans in canine freestyle competitions, but have you ever seen a goat dance with a human like that? Or a chicken? These goats do, and more besides. They run agility courses, and have learned to, uh, help Marie take her clothes off.

Marie Verbouw trained her goats Roosje and Kato and the chicken Milca to do all kinds of incredible things. Wait until the dogs get s load of a goat in their agility competitions! (via reddit

LIes

(via Fark)

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Disney Songs Mashup



Grant Woolard, who gave us that awesome Classical Music Mashup a few months ago, is back to give the same treatment to Disney songs. he mixed 49 different songs into a pleasing mashup that highlights how similar some of them are, illustrated by musical notes made from icons of the movie, to make it easy for you to follow along. Some tunes stand out above the others, while some stay in the background, and others just blend well. I think you’ll like this! (Thanks, Marissa Bush!)

Temperature Scales

(via reddit)

How to Move a City



18,000 people live in Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost city. It’s a mining town in the Arctic Circle. There’s a lot of interesting things to learn about Kiruna and its charming people, but the big move is the most interesting. Mining has turned the ground under the city to Swiss cheese, so to speak. To avoid the entire downtown falling into a sinkhole when it collapses, they are moving the town square and the surrounding buildings two miles away. Although the move is still a couple of years away, preparations have been going on for quite some time. It won’t be easy, but there’s really no alternative. The mine is too profitable to close down, the huge operation needs the town to sustain it, and the people who live there love their town. (via Digg

Treat Queue