Your Fourth of July picnic will surely have a watermelon, but what if a storm suddenly blows in? Greg Leyh of Lightning On Demand is an electrical engineer with a voice made for The Muppet Show. His talents do not extend to summoning lightning, but he has a 40 kilojoule high voltage capacitor bank that he wanted to test, and a watermelon is a visually interesting way to do it. In this video, he sends 160 megawatts of electricity through the melon just to see what happens.
If you just want to see the electrical strike, skip to the three-minute mark. The electrocution is shown in slow motion and then in a close-up so you can see how the interior of the melon lights up as the electricity hits. Then melon guts and water are gloriously flung to the horizon, or as Leyh says, "The melon has achieved a high state of division." In other words, he blew it up real good. -via Born in Space
Gustaf Westman is a home furnishings designer in Stockholm. Design Boom shares images of this highly specialized tool featured at his pop-up workshop and installation in Paris.
When visiting the local boulangerie for a baguette, it's essential to carry it in a way that is both stylish and protects the bread from unnecessary contact. Like much of his work, the baguette holder has bright pastel colors, curved forms, and an element of whimsy. And, if someone attempts to swipe the baguette, I suspect it serves as a handy bludgeon.
Fecal donation in the United States has been a thing for a while, as has banking your own poop for personal needs.
Sora News 24 reports that fecal donation happens in Japan, too. There's a facility in Yamagata Prefecture that pays people ¥5,000 ($34.50 USD) per load. Metagen, the pharmaceutical company that operates it, harvests intestinal bacteria. Only 5-10% of people pass the screening process to select the best poops, which they leave in private donation rooms.
The photos look amazing! The facility looks more like Starfleet Command than a mere toilet stall. Making a donation must give a person the feeling of traveling into a utopian future.
Instagram user Tutti Pazzi Per Marazzi (Google Translate renders this Italian title as "Everyone Loves Marazzi") makes customized cars.
One of his most recent projects is to modify a Fiat Panda, a ubiquitous Italian compact car, into an extremely narrow version. It's the ideal means of traveling through alleyways because it's only 20 inches wide. So the driver had better watch his diet lest he become unable to fit inside.
This longer video is in Italian, but the auto-translate function seems to work well. Marazzi provides a breakdown of how he cut up the Panda and re-assembled it so that it would be a fully functional vehicle, despite space restrictions.
-via The Awesomer
A new kind of early human known as Denisovan was discovered in 2010, and we only had a couple of finger bone fragments. Later on, more fossils were identified as Denisovan, but they were still meager pieces of bone. Most of what we know about them comes from genetic studies, which is how we know that they interbred with both Neanderthals and modern humans. But now, a mostly-complete skull unearthed in China 90 years ago has been identified as a Denisovan. Chinese researchers, who have only had the skull for three years now, called the species Homo longi, or Dragon man.
Recent tests on the remains of the inner ear bones and the plaque from the skull's teeth reveal proteins consistent with Denisovan DNA. It's hard to get complete DNA from a 146,000-year-old fossil. Experts who reviewed the science paper disagree on whether the evidence is enough proof, but if it is, the skull gives us a framework to determine what Denisovans looked like -or at least this one, who was a large man. Read more about the discovery of what another ancient human relative looked like at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: © N. Tamura)
The Toxic Avenger was an over-the-top horror comedy that came out in 1984. It's about a poor schlub who falls into a vat of toxic waste and becomes a horribly disfigured mutant with super strength. The movie was way too gross and violent for a mass audience, but those who enjoyed the comedy made it into a midnight movie staple. The original Toxic Avenger spawned five sequels and a TV series
Now the seventh movie in the series is ready to go as a remake of the 1984 original. The new version of The Toxic Avenger stars Peter Dinklage in the title role, plus Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon. It was first seen at a few film festivals in 2023, but could not find a distributor willing to take on the film for wide release. Cineverse took up the task earlier this year, and The Toxic Avenger will hit theaters on August 29th. This trailer is gross and violent and contains NSFW language.
At the turn of the 20th century, New York City was so crowded that there could be several elementary schools in one city block. The students were the children of poor immigrants, often malnourished and suffering from lack of medical care. An astonishing number of them had no ambition to progress to high school, since they were destined to get menial jobs as soon as they were big enough to work. Adeline E. Simpson, principal of Public School 110 Florence Nightingale in Manhattan, was determined to change the fate of her students. One of her quests was to improve their health so they could flourish in their studies. The Chief Inspector for the Schools, Dr. John J. Cronin, was all for better health care for students, but wanted to hone in on one medical procedure that could give the most bang for the buck, and prove to city authorities and parents that better medical care led to better student outcomes.
Although poorly understood at the time, adenoids are a part of the body's lymph system in the back of the throat that become inflamed during infection. This leads to clogged sinuses, poor breathing, and lack of sleep. On June 21, 1906, Cronin and a crew of doctors and nurses came to PS 110 and removed the adenoids of 83 students who had returned permission slips in a mass surgery session. Some of the children went home still bleeding from the procedure.
A few days later, the entire neighborhood was convinced that the school was slitting their student's throats. This news didn't seem all that improbable for the Jewish immigrant community, because such abuses were why many of them had come to the US. Enraged activists and some inaccurate journalism spurred thousands of parents to rush to the schools to demand their children. The schools went into defense mode as an angry mob raged outside. Read about the school riot of 1906 at Damn Interesting.
Is it hot wnough for you? This will only add fuel to the fire. As the US is experiencing a rare and dangerous June heatwave this week, master mixer Bill McClintock has been busy mixing songs. He calls this mashup "Hotter Than a Highway to Hell With the Devil." Most of it is a mix of "To Hell With the Devil" by Stryper, AC/DC's "Highway to Hell," and "Hotter Than Hell" by KISS. There are also appearances by Pantera, Mötley Crüe, Dokken, Def Leppard, Vixen, Blue Oyster Cult, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Van Halen, and another song ("Hell's Bells") from AC/DC. McClintock said he got carried away after someone requested two of the songs and couldn't stop adding more. There's a list of them at the YouTube page. You'll no doubt notice that all the songs reference fire, burning, hell, and/or the devil. And to think some folks say climate change isn't real.
Marvel Studios has unveiled a limited edition souvenir popcorn bucket available at theaters during the run of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. This one features Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, played by Pedro Pascal in the movie. Mr. Fantastic's super power is the ability to stretch his appendages to great lengths. Um, which appendage is he stretching here to wrap around the bucket?
His right arm, of course! I should have said, "limb" instead of "appendage," but your dirty mind would have gone there anyway. You have to wonder why they used this particular angle as a publicity photo. My bet is that they knew exactly what they were doing.
New look at the Reed Richards popcorn bucket for ‘THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS’
— Fantastic Four Updates (@F4Update) June 18, 2025
It will cost $39.99. pic.twitter.com/cqiKmMjPEs
The Reed Richards popcorn bucket will cost you almost $40, but it will include popcorn. Presumably enough so that you will have to stretch your tummy to consume it all. The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be released nationwide on July 25th. -via Geeks Are Sexy
See also: Other over-the-top souvenir popcorn buckets.
On May 22, 2025, a person using the screen name MetsNomad flew from Istanbul to New York City in the economy class of Turkish Airlines. They were served this robust and reportedly tasty meal that helpfully came with metal utensils.
I found it on Airline Meals, an online archive of food served on commercial airlines. It includes all classes, from first class to human cargo. There are also photos of meals from the 50s through the 80s, amenities kits, printed menus, and the meals served in airport lounges. Users can create accounts and share photos of their own on-board dining experiences.
-via Book of Joe
First We Feast tells us about the unique donuts available from I'm Donut, a Japanese gourmet donut chain. It's famous for its savory donuts, which include the pastries filled with freshly-cooked scrambled eggs and the ingredients of a BLT sandwich.
This video shows chef Karen Fodere introducing us to these nama-style donuts at a recent pop-up event in New York City.
Being lost at sea is not at all like Gilligan's Island. When you're out at sea on a boat, there's always the danger that the boat capsizes, crashes, or quits working. You might then be swimming, or if you're lucky, find yourself on a life raft. All you can see around you is sea, and even if you have navigational skills, you probably have no real means of propulsion. It's still happening today. Weird History has a dozen stories of people who were lost at sea relatively recently. Some made it to a desert island and others were rescued at sea. Some succumbed quickly, while others survived weeks or months before being found. Some were found dead, and some were never seen again. At least one is suspected of being a murder victim. Even if you are no longer afraid of sharks, these stories are enough to make you want to stay safely on dry land.
The first widely publicized case of alien abduction was that of Betty and Barney Hill in 1967. Their supposed memories of the incident were uncovered by hypnosis. It took a while for other cases to come forward, but in the 1980s and '90s, psychologists had their hands full of people seeking to explain their nagging anxieties by regressive hypnosis to retrieve experiences of alien abduction. However, the phenomena pretty much died out by the turn of the 21st century.
This was the period that also brought us the satanic ritual panic, which was also discovered through repressed memories brought out under hypnosis or other therapies, aided by the power of suggestion over vulnerable witnesses such as children. But the common alien abduction story was less stigmatizing and certainly more entertaining, giving us movies such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Communion (1989), not to mention the X-Files TV series. It also gave us one great lamp. Read about the rise and fall of alien abduction experiences at Aeon. -via Nag on the Lake
Everyone wants to be part of the Rebel Alliance, but not everyone can be an X-wing pilot or a Jedi warrior. There are plenty of other jobs for those without extraordinary talents. How would you like to be assigned as a tower guard on Yavin 4? If you don't make your way into the Rebellion, you might end up being Jabba the Hutt's masseuse. It's the same for those everyday guys who are caught in the employment of the Empire. Some jobs, even on the Death Star, are quite specialized and therefore boring.
In an animation made with Unreal Engine, we get a glimpse at what we might be doing in the Star Wars universe. AFK brings us this short as part of their For the Empire series (previously at Neatorama). You can see all the videos in this series in a playlist. This video is only 2:40 long, the rest is an ad. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Child film star and later United States Ambassador Shirley Temple Black (1928-2014) was a huge celebrity from the age of 3 and the release of her first film, Bright Eyes. She inspired the creation of the Shirley Temple mocktail (non-alcoholic cocktail) in the 1930s. To make one, you need ginger ale, grenadine syrup, and a maraschino cherry.
The Takeout reports that Black herself was not fond of the drink. Before her death a decade ago, she told an interviewer that she found it far too sweet. When, in 1988, a beverage company tried to market a drink with her name, she successfully sued to stop them.
Photos: 20th Century Fox, Jodie Wilson
