Sometimes school yearbooks request baby photos from graduating students. It appears that one prankster decided to submit a photo of Adolf Hitler as a baby instead of him/herself.

The New York Post reports that East Brook Middle School in Paramus, New Jersey has recalled all copies of the yearbook and apologized for the oversight in a letter sent to parents of all the students. The principal then condemned both the prank and Adolf Hitler.

-via Wade Stotts, who quips, "The school apologized saying, 'If we could go back in time to prevent this from happening, we would.'"

Photos: Josef Franz Klinger/Google Street view

We've featured Ghanian movie posters a few times here at Neatorama. They are hand painted, have little to do with the movie, and are often quite lurid. There were born from a homegrown business of showing films in villages that had no electricity and hiring local artists to produce promotional posters. The posters became quite popular in the US for their imaginative depictions of films the artists had not seen. They commonly include guns and severed heads for dramatic purposes, no matter the movie's actual subject matter. 



Americans can buy prints of these posters, and even painted originals, through Deadly Prey Gallery, a Chicago-based business that works with ten artists in or near Accra, Ghana. All profits go to the artists. The gallery stages pop-up exhibitions in cities around the US; check Instagram for their current schedule. Oh yeah, they accept commissions, too, in case you've ever wanted your own face enshrined in a Ghanian movie poster. -via Everlasting Blort 

How old is the sport of sumo wrestling? It's ancient, depending on your definition of "ancient." It also depends on your definition of "sumo." Of course, "wrestling" has been everywhere since the dawn of mankind, probably. Anyway, historical records of sumo first appeared in the 8th century, but you wouldn't recognize it as sumo wrestling from the perspective of today. What makes sumo wrestling different from other types of wrestling came a little at a time, and the impetus for most of those changes was money. There had to be things that distinguished professional sumo wrestlers from wannabes. 

Therefore, many of the ancient traditions surrounding sumo were invented about 300 years ago. Sure, all traditions were "invented" at one time or another, and 300 years seems pretty ancient now. But these practices were called ancient traditions even when they were new. This TED-Ed lesson explains how and why sumo wrestling became what it is today. -via Laughing Squid 

On June 28, 1957, 69 years ago today, Sharyn Felder's parents got married. Her mother was actress Willi Burke and her singer/songwriter father went by the name Doc Pomus. He had written many hit songs, including "Young Blood," "This Magic Moment," "Viva Las Vegas," and "Save the Last Dance for Me." The Drifters recorded "Save the Last Dance for Me" in 1960 and it went to #1. For Pomus, who collaborated with Mort Shuman (shown above) on the song, it was just the beginning of a string of notable hits. Then over time "Dance" became his most lasting composition because it resonated with anyone who heard it, and has been recorded by dozens of artists. 

It was only in 1991, when Sharyn Felder was going through her father's things after his death, that the inspiration for the song was revealed. She found some unused invitations to her parents' wedding, one with a hand-scribbled note on the side that said "Save the last dance for me." Was it a communication between her parents, an idea for a song, or just a random thought scribbled in a hurry? There were more song lyrics on the back that had been added later. In any case, it was the genesis of a song that became a hit three years later. Read why that note was significant, and what made it bittersweet, at the Library of Congress.  -via Metafilter 

The Night Witches was a name given to the pilots of the Soviet Union's all-woman 588th Night Bomber Regiment. They flew multiple missions every night to bomb German units on the Eastern Front, in tiny obsolete planes that flew low and almost silently. The pilots were young, fearless, and patriotic, like the kamikazes Japan deployed in the Pacific. The difference is that the Night Witches often survived their dangerous raids, while understanding that the odds against them were serious. 

Their story, as brought to us by Weird History, begins as if the Soviet Union only joined the war in 1941. The part they left out was that the USSR had a pact with Germany to divide the nations of Eastern Europe between them, and the Soviets invaded some of those countries themselves. Once Germany double-crossed them, the Soviets joined the Allies, and only afterward did women aviators lobby to serve. 

The funniest part of this video is the machine-generated captions. The algorithm has no idea what to do with Russian names, and cannot cope at all with the airplanes called Po-2s. 

Mel Books, the great comic filmmaker, was born 100 years ago today as Melvin James Kiminsky to a poor family in Brooklyn. Brooks was a prodigious comedic talent even as a child. That early career was interrupted by the war, in which Brooks served as a combat engineer in the US Army at the Battle of the Bulge.

Brooks worked hard to develop his skills and entertainment appeal. In 1967, he won an Academy Award for The Producers--the first film that he directed. In the 70s and 80s, Brooks produced original masterpieces, including Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs.

He's worked continuously in filmmaking for several decades. His star on the Walk of Fame, notable for having a sixth finger, is well-earned. People magazine tells us more about Brooks's astonishing life and work.

Photo: Nehrams2020

A new attraction in Nantan City, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan is dedicated to the importance of stuffed animals, or what Americans would call "plush toys" as opposed to taxidermy. It is Nuigurumi Jinja, referred to as the Holy Land of Mofumofu, a term that means soft, fluffy, and cuddly. The shrine is an extensive park wrapping through a forest, opening this summer. A dedication ceremony was held on June 20, and the shrine will welcome visitors beginning on July 7.  

This shrine is a place to bring your beloved stuffed toys or to express gratitude and honor the memory of bygone plush animals. It is also a Shinto religious site, so the activities are grounded in a sense of communion with the sacred nature of the forest. Founded by a plush toy hospital, the shrine has its own plush toys mascots, which you can see at Instagram. Read more about this shrine at Sora News24. -via Nag on the Lake 

We once thought that black-footed ferrrets were extict, but when a few specimens were later found, the rush was on to bring them back from the brink, which included breeding them in captivity. Releasing these kitten snakes into the wild is dangerous, though, because they eat prairie dogs, which have fleas, which carry plague. The evolution of the plague bacteria went through some real changes in order to become as virulent as it is, involving flea anatomy, and then follows a disgusting chain of infection that can give us all bubonic plague. In this video, Ze Frank takes us from a Yersinia pestis bacterium named Patricia through a chain of critters that aren't named, up to a black-footed ferret named Kenny. There are ways that people are trying to protect the ferrets from the plague that may look silly, but are important. And we have adorable ferret footage to make it all seem less grim. 

(Image credit: Lake Mead NRA Public Affairs)

The small Nevada town of St. Thomas grew and lost it population twice, and is now uninhabited, although it will not stay buried. The Mormons who founded St. Thomas in18t65 weren't sure whether it was in Utah or Arizona, but when the lines were formally drawn, it was determined to be in Nevada. That's when everyone but one couple left because they didn't want to pay Nevada taxes.Eventually, St. Thomas drew new residents. That is, until construction began on the Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) in the 1930s, which placed St. Thomas underneath the new Lake Mead.

(Image credit: Andrew Cattoir (Lake Mead National Recreation Area)) 

Lake Mead is subject to periodic droughts, and St. Thomas rose from the water off and on over the decades, exposing the stone foundations of the ice cream parlor and the school, plus cement porches and stairs from what were once houses. The erstwhile town remained underwater from 1972 to 2002. But since then, the ghostly remains of St. Thomas have been exposed, and are now a tourist draw. Read about the ghost town that keeps emerging at Mental Floss. 

Through most of civilization, people have been getting the majority of their calories from whatever carbohydrates were available: bread, potatoes, rice, or yams depending on location. But in the last couple hundred years, food technology and culture has upended that. This video from Data is Beautiful tracks the source of caloric intake among Americans aged 20-39 from 1930 to 2026. Keep in mind this does not take into account the total amount of food consumed; just a comparison of the calorie source. That's why fruits and vegetables stay so low- you can eat an awful lot of those and still get few calories. 

Bread stays at the top during the Great Depression. Then when World War II vets came home, they continued to eat red meat every day like they did in the military, and their families did, too. Then the rise of fast food took over, and soda pop became an everyday drink. Chicken prices plunged with the rise of factory farming. Margarine fell out of favor in the '80s. Late in the 20th century, red meat became less popular and more expensive. You'll spot more trends on a second watch that can be linked to prices, trends, and health concerns. -via Born in Space 

Oddity Central tells us about a new and fresh take on ice cream from Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Honshu. It combines the Japanese love of seafood and creamy soft serve ice cream. Imagine the clamminess of, well, shellfish, the tang of soy sauce and the sweetness of the ice cream. Combinations of sweet and savory tend to do well, so I'd like to try it.

A few billion years ago, our earth was a blob of molten rock that eventually formed into a water-filled planet teeming with life. Where did the earth get that water? Scientists still don't know, but they are entertaining several possibilities. The first scientific theory, and the oldest, is that our water came from comets. Yeah, that would take a lot of comets, but it was the best theory up until recently, when actual comets could be analyzed. It was found that the water in comets is not like the water on earth. Unless there was something wrong with the analysis, which is a more recent possibility. 

Then scientists looked at asteroids, which are more common, but they don't have a lot of water. The third possibility is that the earth itself formed water, which would require massive amounts of hydrogen combining with the oxygen of molten rock under immense pressure. But exoplanets have been found with water, so it seemed like a possibility. The experiment to determine if that was possibile took five years to design, and was quite dangerous, but it produced a thousand times the expected amount of water! Read about that experiment and what it tells us at Quanta magazine. -via Strange Company 

(Image credit: NASA/Apollo 17 crew; taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans) 

Listen to this super nostalgic mashup, new from Bill McClintock! It's a medley of disco hits from the 1970s, set to the tune of Huey Lewis and the News' 1985 song "The Power of Love." The first disco song is "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps. I was a little disappointed there, because it's my favorite disco song mainly because of the lush instrumentation. But that's just the beginning- you'll also hear "Lady (You Bring Me Up)" by the Commodores, "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix, and "Serpentine Fire" by Earth, Wind & Fire. 

The five songs are accompanied by a video that incorporates the music videos from each song, plus the movie Back to the Future, which is where we got "The Power of Love." You'll want to get up and dance, but keep in mind the disco hits are all a little slower to match the tempo of "The Power of Love." But that's okay, because if you recall all these songs, you probably dance a little slower than you used to. 

There is a $5,000 reward offered for information leading to the capture of an escaped giraffe in Texas. Gracie is a 3- to 4-year-old reticulated giraffe who went missing from Cedar Hollow Ranch, an exotic animal facility in Real County, Texas. Gracie is described as 10 to 11 feet tall with a case of wanderlust. She managed to escape from an area of the ranch that had an eight-foot gate and a rock slab barrier, although no damage to the gate was reported. A search by helicopter covered a 7,500-acre area, but no sign of the giraffe was found.

Ranch manager Vick Jones is not too concerned with Gracie's wellbeing while on the lam. The surrounding area offers plenty of vegetation a giraffe could eat, and she is unlikely to be bothered by native wildlife. One would imagine that native wildlife would be terrified by an 11-foot animal. The question that remains is how she managed to remain free for this long. Read about the case of the escaped giraffe at Smithsonian.  

Update: Gracie was found and recovered today. 

(Image credit: Real County Sheriff's Office) 

The usual way to make classic cartoons is to record the voices first, and then draw the animation to match. When Robin Williams recorded lines for the Genie in the 1992 film Aladdin, the crew knew that letting him loose with the script would produce magic. Williams recorded hours and hours of sound, playing around with each joke, adding his own ad libs, and doing them all over and over with different recognizable character voices. It had to be a real trip to witness, and a real struggle not to ruin every take with uncontrollable laughing.  

Of course, they didn't use all those hours of voice recordings, but they were too funny to discard. They were well worth adding artwork to them anyway. In this video, two directors and the supervising animator from Aladdin remember Robin Williams and bring us the Genie treasures we didn't get to see in the movie.