A movie about weather forecasting doesn't sound all that exciting, until you realize that one forecast was the difference between life and death for an invading force, and even the course of the entire war. That's the premise of the movie Pressure that opened this weekend- the weather forecast for the D-Day Invasion of Normandy. Brendan Frasier plays General Dwight Eisenhower and Andrew Scott plays James Martin Stagg, the chief meteorologist of the Allied forces in Europe. The tension is between meteorologists who disagreed on what weather would greet the invading Allies, and whose advice Eisenhower would trust when he set the date. 

The movie, as you might expect, plays around with the timeline and emphasizes relationships between characters that probably didn't happen as portrayed. But the competing forecasts are real. Stagg was actually a geophysicist and was surprised at his assignment. He had a different philosophy of weather forecasting that was often at odds with meteorologists, especially US Army forecasters led by Irving P. Krick. These forecasting methods as used for the D-Day decision are explained at Smithsonian. It contains movie spoilers, if you aren't already aware of what date the Allies invaded Normandy. -via Strange Company   

The process of giving birth may be a shock and a new experience to modern people, but pre-civilization communities knew what they were doing. A new mother had already helped her own mother, her sisters, and her friends through it, under the supervision of older women who knew more than they did. Sure, men were excluded, which is why women became the experts in childbirth and by extension, other medical events. Giving birth was a team effort, and everyone did their part. 

We lost this type of communal childbirth in the modern world, when men took over medical science and women who practiced it were labeled as witches. Not that it ever really went away, especially in traditional cultures. I am glad to see that some of these practices are coming back. While my mother was completely knocked out for labor and delivery, my daughter had a doula, a midwife, and a woman obstetrician in a birthing center that was anything but medicalized. 

This image is not AI, nor is it Photoshopped. This is left-handed Estonian javelin thrower Magnus Kirt competing in the 2022 Estonian Athletics Championships. He appears to have a unique style that includes throwing a javelin further by running it through the back of his head as he launches. Shades of Phineas Gage! But Kirt was not hurt; in fact he is fine, and has since retired from the sport with the national record, and has happily became a father. This photograph is an optical illusion.

Can you figure out what happened before you learn the story behind the photo? You probably can, but in case you are stumped, it's all explained at PetaPixel. Although I doubt the effect was in any way intended by the photographer. The photograph is more likely a happy accident, and not the unhappy accident it first appears to be. -via Damn Interesting 

(Image credit: Stanislav Moshkov/Õhtuleht Photo) 

Key West is the southernmost part of the continental United States, but up until the early 20th century, it was hard to get to. Now there's a 113-mile highway that has 42 bridges (one is seven miles long) that will take you to all the Florida Keys. The Overseas Highway is an amazing feat of engineering, and you might be surprised to learn that it started out as a railroad. 

Henry Flagler was one of the founding partners of Standard Oil, a very wealthy man, who fell in love with Florida. In the 1880s, the biggest city in the state only had 10,000 people, but Flagler was about to change that. He bought hotels. And he needed railroads to bring in guests. Flagler became obsessed with transportation in Florida, and bought or built railroads all along the eastern coast. In 1905, he launched his biggest project yet- building a railroad through the Keys. He set up 83 work camps for 5,000 men at a time. He built floating concrete mixers. He shipped in millions of gallons of fresh water. And in 1912, his railroad was open all the way to Key West. It was nice while it lasted, but the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 caused so much damage that the state of Florida took over the railroad. And it became the foundation of the highway. 

That's only part of the story. Turning a railroad into the Overseas Highway took some imagination. Read how it all happened at The Autopian. 

(Image credit: Tinsley Advertising; Mercedes Streeter) 

There are now seven films in the Jurassic Park franchise, because people like adventure movies with dinosaurs. The first movie back in 1993 set the stage with amazing breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery that made the dinosaurs seem real, and every subsequent film upped the ante by making the dinosaurs bigger and more dangerous. But each iteration makes less and less sense overall because the characters constantly forgot the lesson of the first film. 

In the first movie, the dinosaurs took up only about 15 minutes of the more than two-hour film. The actual story was a deep dive into the ethics and philosophy of messing with Mother Nature, which makes it a think piece compared with the many sequels. It is also the only one of the series directed by Steven Spielberg. In this video, InCinematic looks at the crucial conversations that unveil the true meaning of the story, and how Spielberg frames them to emphasize the point. It's no wonder the only two quotes you recall from any of the Jurassic Park movies are from Jeff Goldblum's character Dr. Ian Malcolm. 

YouTuber Max Miller makes historic recipes and shares the results online. Recently, he posted a video about a cheesecake recipe in a book by Cato the Elder, a Roman statesman famous for ending all speeches in the Senate, regardless of the subject, by calling for the destruction of Carthage. Cato's recipe for savillum (cheesecake) can be found here.

Miller's video mentions other Roman recipes that I suspect you haven't tried yet. They're listed in Apicius, a Fifth Century AD cookbook that you can read in Latin or English.

There are three recipes for pig uterus: grilled, boiled, and, if I understand the text correctly, pickled.

Cook a pig uterus and slip it into the backpack of a friend.

The army of the Roman Republic wasn't much compared to that of the Roman Empire that came afterward. The size and fierce reputation of that army was in large part the work of Gaius Marius. Marius served as consul of the Roman Republic for seven terms. He came from a humble background, and worked his way up the political ladder, and therefore many of his reforms were in extending privileges to common people that were once reserved for the aristocracy and landed gentry. 

That included the Roman military. Previously restricted to land owners, the military was expanded to a professional force open to warriors from all over Italy. He took care of veterans, too. But one innovation you might never have heard of is that Marius ordered his men to carry backpacks. At first that seemed undignified to the soldiers, but it turned out to be crucial in the Battle of Aquae Sextiae which gave the Roman army a new reputation as a force to be feared. Read how backpacks gave them a battlefield advantage at Mental Floss. -via Strange Company 

(Image source: Francesco Saverio Altamura) 

In a trendy, upscale neighbhorhood of Pittsburgh close to the Allegheny River is the Pinksburgh House. It's an Airbnb that is marketed by the owners as the perfect place to stay for a girls' trip or a bachelorette party in the Steel City.

This eccentric two bedroom, one bathroom house is now listed for sale on Zillow.

It's appropriately called the Pinksburgh House because pink is the dominant color. There's plenty of space for entertaining in the large living room and two porches.

The decor shrieks with delight, as in Pinkie Pie delighting in a venue for all of her friends.

-via Zillow Gone Wild

The Walmart website is confused about whether this item they are selling is a book about Reconstruction in Arkansas or a bra.

It has an author and a cover photo but also comes in different bust sizes. pic.twitter.com/xNPVmHZGlB

Sadly, Walmart has already fixed the listing. Otherwise, it would have been possible to learn Reconstruction history in four different band sizes. Oddly, it appears that one cup size fits all for this highly specialized work.

Is it possible to make a phone call across dimensions? A couple on a lonely highway see something strange in the sky. I couldn't see it at first, but it eventually looked to me like an incoming nuclear attack. But the sky phenomena turns out to be a MacGuffin, and director Danny Piñeros tells us he didn't even know what it would look like until the effect was added post production. What's important is that the couple becomes separated and we don't know how -and neither do they. They appear to be in the same space but not together. Or are they in a completely different place? Or maybe "place" isn't even the right word, as subsequent events bend even that idea. 

Be sure to stay for the credits, because the voiceover adds more to the story. The scene sets up a premise that the producers hope to expand into a feature-length film. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

Crystal Schenk is a multimedia artist and art professor who lives in Portland, Oregon. One of her earlier works is this 2006 sculpture titled Have and Have Not. It's a work of commentary on wealth, consumerism, and material survival.

-via Contemporary 100

When the camera came out, redditor teedpop told his cat to smile, but honestly didn't expect that he actually would. That's a first-class grin, or else he's about to sneeze, or maybe it's a warning before an attack. I had a hard time selecting a cat photo, because it was between this one and one with "old man face" that cats get when they have teeth removed. My Tommy looks like that now, even though he's happier without the decayed teeth. But this list of animals making derpy faces isn't just cats. We also get to see iguanas, frogs, hamsters, horses, donkeys, goats, pigs, and all kinds of pets. Even dogs, like this guy who was told not to get dirty outdoors. He's not apologizing, he's just trying to explain that he couldn't help himself. I'm sure the camera around his neck will tell the whole story. 

(Image credit: DecentestMama)   

There are 96 such photos of funny-faced furry friends gleaned from reddit posted at Bored Panda. Better hurry and see them before they cut the list to 50. 

We know honeybees are amazing. They take flower juice and make honey, wax, royal jelly, and more bees. They also spread pollen from plant to plant, enabling us to raise fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Plus they build wax honeycombs where they can efficiently work together to do all that other stuff. How did they ever learn to do that?

Ze Frank takes us through the behavioral evolution of insect architects. Honeybees descended from wasps, who went through many phases on the way to building geometrically efficient nests. Ants and termites build elaborate nests, too, harnessing a new word I just learned: stigmergy. Honeybees are the best at making lovely hexagonal cells to build their combs, but it's not because they are all that smart. Hexagons are just what happens when you cram cylinders together in the most efficient way. In fact, their combs are not made of perfect hexagons all the way through. Still, those imperfections are a way of coping with uneven surfaces, so maybe they are pretty smart. Instead of an ad, there's a mere 30-second promotional message at 4:20. 

As the saying goes, any landing that you can walk away from is a good one. A couple weeks ago, pilot Mike Raicevic performed a good landing when the engine of his Republic RC-3 seaplane (last manufactured in 1947) went out over Phoenix.

NBC 12 News reports that Raicevic had about 10 seconds to decide what to do. He spent those seconds searching for a more or less empty stretch of road and ended on Seventh Street as he nimbly dodged power lines, roadside signs, and traffic lights.

The pilot and all passengers--as well as people on the ground--escaped injury as the plane landed.

This is the Duluth Mushroom House. Sometimes it's called The Flintstones house because of its resemblance to the architecture on The Flintstones. This 5-bedrooom, 3-bathroom architectural wonder is now for sale.

MPR News reports that champion Olympic skier George Hovland built it in 1970. The curved walls and domes reflect the hippest building designs of that era.

As you can see from the photos and floor diagram provided by Zillow, there are almost no straight lines--especially on the outside. To people of discerning taste, the house has a lot of appeal. Realtor Alicia Lokke says that viewings have been almost non-stop since it re-entered the market.

-via Zillow Gone Wild