How average you are depends on how many different parameters you are looking at. If you look at more statistics, you'll find some category in which you are exceptional, and that, too, is quite normal. It turns out I am average in almost every way, except for how many children I have, and whether I am above or below the average depends on your definitions. Still, being above or below average does not mean you are abnormal.    

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Then again, you are probably more average than you think you are. All my life I've been told that I'm short, when I have always been the exact average for a woman my age. I knew that. Where people are particularly bad at knowing their own "averageness" is in their intelligence and competence. That's where the Dunning-Kruger Effect and Impostor Syndrome come in.

An interesting thing happens when like-minded people move in to the same building or on to the same street and form a symbiotic microcosm- the street or building comes alive with human energy.

This human energy explosion happened on Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco in the 60s, it was happening all over the place in NYC in the 70s, and it happened on a single street in East Berlin during the 80s.

Hufelandstrasse was an island of culture in the Soviet-controlled city, and photographer Harf Zimmermann immediately fell in love with the street and its residents when he moved there in 1981:  

“Everyone seemed to feel connected to the place and responsible for it, to be acting in tacit consensus and always working to save the diversity of their island from the sea of gray for as long as possible,” says Harf Zimmermann.

From the Steidl Books description of Zimmermann's book Hufelandstrasse, 1055 Berlin:

For over a year, Zimmermann photographed almost daily on the street with his large-format camera, patiently asking shop-owners and residents if he could take their picture. Hufelandstrasse was then home to a cross-section of citizens of the German Democratic Republic, as well as many family-run stores and workshops—from bakeries and cobblers, to a pet shop and even an atelier for repairing women’s stockings—an uncanny concentration of private business which had otherwise been fazed out by the communist state.

See more Beautiful 1980s Portraits Capture The Vibrant Residents Of A Single East Berlin Street here

Riding along interstate 90 in South Dakota, you expect to see roadside art. But a glorious new statue went up last year that dominates the landscape as she welcomes you. You'll find Dignity between exits 263 and 265 near Chamberlain.

She was created by artist Dale Lamphere, who has been South Dakota’s Artist Laureate since 2015. He received the commission from a local couple.  Eunabel and Norm McKie of Rapid City wanted to create something to commemorate the 125th anniversary of South Dakota’s statehood but they also wanted something which would celebrate the determination, wisdom and bravery of the state’s indigenous peoples, the cultural inheritance of the Lakota and Dakota.   The couple gave over a million dollars to support the project.

Dignity is 50 feet tall and constructed so that the wind flows through her blanket instead of pushing against it. Read all about this magnificent statue at Kuriositas. And look for her the next time you drive through South Dakota.

(Image credit: Amphibol)

Here's a dog with a unique job. He walks around the tourist district of Huangpu village in China, showing everyone a sign advertising his owner's hamburger shop!

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Take his word for it, the burgers are good. Want to take a picture? He'll pose, but only with his sign facing front so you can see it. That's a good dog. -via Tastefully Offensive

Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean 72 years ago, a Japanese torpedo tore through the hull of the USS Indianapolis. The ship sank 18,000 feet to the bottom of the sea, and wasn't seen again -until Friday.

The Indianapolis sank in 12 minutes, making it impossible for it to send a distress signal or deploy life-saving equipment. Before the attack, on July 30, 1945, it had just completed a secret mission delivering components of the atomic bomb used in Hiroshima that brought an end to the war in the Pacific, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington.

Most of the ship's 1,196 sailors and Marines survived the sinking only to succumb to exposure, dehydration, drowning and shark attacks. Only 316 survived, according to the US Navy. Of the survivors, 22 are alive today.

You might remember the story as it was told in the movie Jaws. A civilian expedition led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen spotted the wreckage of the ship using hi-tech equipment capable of diving miles underwater. Read the story of the Indianapolis at CNN. -via Metafilter

The State Fair of Texas opens September 29 and runs through October 22. But competition is already underway among concessionaires for the Big Tex Choice Awards for the best state fair foods. Winners will be crowned August 27. Texas Monthly runs down the ten finalists with a fictional tasting. Here's what they had to say about deep-fried chicken noodle soup on a stick.

“There’s been a mistake,” said the man. He hoped it was a mistake.

“What do you mean?”

“Says here this is soup. I don’t see no soup.”

“The soup’s in the little balls,” said the woman. “You can try it if you want. I won’t ask for payment. Not for you.”

The man wavered. It felt like an insult, but his curiosity was potent. He looked at the stick of fried dough encasing the soup like a funeral shroud and took his hand out of his duster. The woman took a step forward and gently offered him the stick. He took the stick, but he didn’t eat it.

Editor’s note: Please pay the State Fair vendors, and absolutely try the deep-fried chicken noodle soup on a stick.

See what they think of the Surfin’ Turfin’ Tator Boat, the Tamale Donut, the Funnel Cake Bacon Queso Burger, the Fried Texas Sheet Cake, the Gulf Coast Fish Bowl, Pinot Noir Popcorn, Texas Fajita Fries, Deep Fried Froot Loops®, and something called a Fat Smooth, all at Texas Monthly. -Thanks, Walter!   

According to reputable scientific sources there are no sea monsters in the sea, there are just a bunch of oversized squid, sharks, orca and the like that occasionally eat people and attack boats.

But those scientists seem to be hiding something, because these incredibly lifelike illustrations by Vladimir Stankovic are full of scary looking creatures that actually live under the sea, like the toothy Wolf Eel.

It's not hard to understand why land lubbers who've never seen such strange creatures would see the critters on Vladimir's prints as monsters, but these prints were created not to terrify but rather to educate:

Illustrator and graphic designer Vladimir Stankovic was commissioned to create a series of illustrations of some of the most bizarre and remarkable sea creatures for the Earth Touch / Smithsonian Channel documentary CRAZY MONSTER: SEA CREATURES.  The illustrations were later animated and used an an interlude before the introduction of each species.

-Via JazJaz

Confederate statues are being taken down in cities across the South. Where will they go? The United States is far from the first country to confront such a dilemma, and there are places all around the world that can be seen as "retirement homes" for statues and monuments that have been removed from public places.

Sometimes statues are collected in one place, where the immortalized fallen crowd together in awkward silence, historical repositories of different eras. Take the “Garden of the Generalissimos” in Cihu, Taiwan, where scores of Chiang Kai-shek statues sit together, regarding one another. The statues are some of the thousands on the island—a controversial legacy of the late leader of the Republic of China (not to be confused with the modern mainland People’s Republic of China).

There are places like this in Hungary and Lithuania, and even in Dallas, where there's a private collection of statues of erstwhile European rulers. Read about them at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Prince Roy)

The Joy of Revenge by Aaron Morales

Many things make Bob "Deadpool" Wilson happy- painting happy little trees, painting those trees with the blood of his enemies, painting the guts of his enemies glistening in the sun...You get the point, now don't you? DP likes to stay happy, but in order to maintain a positive 'tude he's gotta keep his house in order by keeping his painting studio clean- and getting revenge on enemies like that bastard Francis. And believe me folks- a happy DP does a lot more painting and a lot less head chopping!

Take your buddy Bob with you wherever you go by wearing this The Joy Of Revenge t-shirt by Aaron Morales, it's the hilarious way to showcase the many sides of the merc with a mouth.

Visit Aaron Morales's Facebook fan page, official website and Instagram, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more drop dead delightful designs:

Arachnid Rhapsody (Scarlet Spider Variant)	Notorious T'-Cha-lla	Siren Dreams	Hawkins Waffles

View more designs by Aaron Morales | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

You have to be at least eighteen years old to get a tattoo in most places, although in some areas you can be under 18 if you have your parents' permission, but you're never too young to think tattoos look cool.

And even though 12-year-old Ezrah Dormon from Panama City isn't old enough to get a tattoo he has already zapped some ink onto at least 20 different people- and his skills are growing stronger by the day.

Nicknamed "Tiburon" (shark), Ezrah has become the talk of the town while working as an apprentice at his mentor Ali Garcia's tattoo parlor Honolulu, where he helps Ali finish up tats on willing victims.

And even though he's just doing fills for now it's only a matter of time before Tiburon starts tattooing his own artwork on people, although Ezrah says he's going to wait a while before he gets a tattoo of his own.

Here he is practicing his line work on his dad's forearm:

I'm Ezrah and I'm apprenticing in Traditional Tattoos. This was my first attempt at black lines on my Dad and he was really happy which made me happy. He was my toughest client yet. Follow me please to see how I progress. Thanking my mentor @margaritamarzo @honolulutattoos #Honolulu

A post shared by Ezrah The Shark Dormon (@eztheshark) on Apr 20, 2017 at 7:12pm PDT

Read more about Ezrah Dormon at Daily Mail

No one likes a late night conference call from the boss when you're at home trying to relax, supposedly off-duty. But if you're going to lie about helping him, maybe it would be best to keep up the ruse until you are darn sure he is offline. Still, in this case Chet can figure out that fixing the problem himself is the correct thing to do. This comic is from Jeff Lovfers ay Don't Hit Save. -via Geeks Are Sexy

We've always known that silly old myth about digging a hole through the Earth straight to China couldn't possibly be true, especially considering all the Morlocks, dinosaurs and Lava Men living in the center of the Earth.

But if you're determined to dig your way through the world anyway you should first find out where you're going to end up once the digging is done, and here's a hint- you won't end up in China unless you live in South America. 

So are you ready to figure out where you'd end up if you dug a hole straight through the Earth? Then consult this Interactive Antipodes Map created by Romanian IT company Aniotek Solutions and see which antipodal city you'd wind up in.

Unfortunately for me there is no antipodal city for San Diego, so I'd end up in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar, good thing I wasn't planning on digging an impossibly long hole this weekend...

-Via Second Nexus

On August 19, 1977, Groucho Marx died at the age of 86. He spent more than 70 of those years entertaining those around him. Fifty years later, Marx Brothers movies are still entertaining generations who never knew them in life. To mark the milestone, you might enjoy some stories about Groucho and his brothers Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo.

1. A RUNAWAY MULE INSPIRED THEM TO TAKE A STAB AT COMEDY.

Julius, Milton, and Arthur Marx originally aspired to be professional singers. In 1907, the boys joined a group called “The Three Nightingales.” Managed by their mother, Minnie, the ensemble performed covers of popular songs in theaters all over the country. As Nightingales, the brothers enjoyed some moderate success, but they might never have found their true calling if it weren’t for an unruly equid. During a 1907 gig at the Nacogdoches Opera House in East Texas, someone interrupted the performance by barging in and shouting “Mule’s loose!” Immediately, the crowd raced out to watch the newly-liberated animal. Back inside, Julius seethed. Furious at having lost the spotlight, he skewered his audience upon their return. “The jackass is the finest flower of Tex-ass!” he shouted, among many other ad-libbed jabs. Rather than boo, the patrons roared with laughter. Word of his wit soon spread and demand for these Marx brothers grew.

Read more about the Marx Brothers at Mental Floss.

Most people who use rental cars just need them to get from place to place, but for some people, the rental car itself is a bit of an adventure in itself. Unfortunately for the guys who work at the rental agency, those types of people often forget to clean up after themselves and the results can be pretty scary. 

Thrillist recently collected horror stories from people who worked at car rental agencies and the results will make you glad you never had to look underneath the seat of a car hoping to not stumble upon a gun or a syringe.

So read the full list of car rental stories here.

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell cares for and exhibits historical clothing, and she loves her job. She has an appreciation not only for the textiles and the displays, but also for the people who once wore them, even if they lived hundreds of years ago. Preserving those clothes helps us to know those people and what their lives were like.   

Thanks to modern technology and the efforts of specialist textile scientists, curators can now appreciate historical garments in ways their original beholders and wearers could not. Polarizing microscopes and high-resolution digital images reveal textures, weaves, and threads invisible to the naked eye. Cutting-edge conservation treatments reinflate sleeves crushed by centuries of careless storage or restore shattered silk linings. X-rays reveal the complex interior boning of a Balenciaga evening gown, and military-grade chemical inhibitors remove aluminum corrosion on Neil Armstrong’s space suit.

But no amount of scientific analysis can capture the feel, sound, and smell of historic clothing—and that’s where costume curators and conservators (who are responsible for the technical examination and treatment of textiles) have a privileged perspective. We get to touch it. We enjoy intimate proximity with other people’s clothes, laid out on lab tables under lights and magnifying glasses like surgical patients, not in dimly illuminated public galleries where the objects are kept out of reach behind glass or velvet ropes. We find the hidden pockets; the discreet padding; the lingering whiff of perfume or tobacco. By the time they go on public display, we know them as well as the clothes on our own backs.

The article goes on to tell us about some of the nuts-and-bolts details of historic garment display. Read more about the work of a costume curator at The Atlantic. 

(Image credit:  Katie Posner)

You know that dark and broody little pessimist who lives inside you? He or she may seem like a real jerk but they exist to serve a vital function- to save us from ourselves.

More specifically to save us from the optimist inside us who sees joy in every sunrise and hope in every sunset, that guy or gal's sunny disposition is extremely annoying!

But don't worry because, as this comic from Jake Likes Onions shows, the pessimist inside you will take care of that little sunny side problem for you, although you may need to do some mopping...

-Via Geeks Are Sexy

Artist Frank Kunert makes beautiful miniature scenes, but they each have something weird going on. The doorway above opens up to a small but nice balcony for a little fresh air, and it's only when you look at the ground below that you see how deadly it is.The scene below is a little more obvious.

Every dumb thing we humans do in this modern-day ‘civilized’ world is laid out in excruciating detail in these miniature scenes by artist Frank Kunert – not to mention our fears and anxieties. A row of public toilets is placed on a stage so strangers can watch you poop. A bride and groom poise at the end of a diving platform far too high above a pool, their friends and family watching below. A children’s slide empties onto a highway, and a bassinet is equipped with a desk so the little one can get to work as soon as possible. Pipes funnel human waste straight from the toilet upstairs into a television set, and a balcony projects into the path of a train.

See a selection of Kunart's works at Web Urbanist.  -via Nag on the Lake

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It only makes sense for plants that live for hundreds of years to figure out ways to survive at all costs, especially when all they really need to survive is water and sunlight, but trees make the art of survival look easy.

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Their resilience and ability to thrive in otherwise inhospitable conditions have inspired people throughout history, but this little tree was apparently inspired by two humans named Paul Simon + Art Garfunkel.

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We must assume trees are going to be alive and thriving on Earth well after mankind has disappeared, because even though humans keep chopping them down trees refuse to lie down and die.

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See 10+ Badass Trees That Refuse To Die No Matter What here

WL Intelligent Technology Co, Ltd, in Guangzhou set up 1,069 Dobi robots and had them all dance in unison. This set a new world record. Well, they actually set up more robots than that, but the few that fell over while dancing were deducted from the total count by Guinness officials. They still looked good.

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The Dobi robots broke the previous record that was set only a couple of weeks ago by another Chinese company. This may be the beginning of a competitive back-and-forth that could eventually bring the robot apocalypse upon us. -via Boing Boing

Castles & Koopas by Creative Outpouring

It doesn't take much imagination to play a video game, so if you want to really let your fancies take flight you've gotta dive in to the world of roleplaying games- where anything can happen. Plumbers can become mighty heroes capable of flinging magic fireballs and growing to three times his original size, mushrooms can come to life and join the fight against the forces of darkness, and turtles can fly. In an RPG all things are possible with the roll of a die, and your adventures in plumbing can dig as deep as you want!

Add an imaginative mashup to your geeky wardrobe with this Castles & Koopas t-shirt by Creative Outpouring, it's sure to be a critical hit with your fellow gamers!

Visit Creative Outpouring's Facebook fan page, Twitter, Tumblr and official website, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more adventurous designs:

Up, Up and Away!	Hero of the Wild	The Great Mountain Warrior	It's Always High Noon

View more designs by Creative Outpouring | More Video Game T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Cats are experts at yoga. They can bend themselves into any position, because they are liquid, of course. Simon's Cat wordlessly demonstrates his abilities in this video.

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But do cats get the same benefits out of yoga that humans do? For them, it's just everyday posing, and they are already as limber as a stream of water.

Robert is ready. He's got his eclipse glasses, a GoPro headband, and an array of various types of cameras since he doesn't know what will work. Yeah, that's a flash attachment. You give a little pre-flash to reduce red-eye in the sun, or the moon as the case may be. His wife Heather is supposedly pretty chill about his obsession with getting the perfect eclipse photograph, as if there won't be millions of them taken by people who actually know what they're doing. Redditor robertandheather posted this picture last night. He's still got three days to hold that position.  

Most husbands will readily admit they don't know much about makeup, and many tell their wives they don't need makeup by default because that's what they think their wives want to hear.

But women who enjoy wearing makeup want to hear that it looks good on them, and if the wife in question is a beauty vlogger then she wants to hear specifics.

Beauty vlogger Kara of KLN Beauty recruited her husband to provide narration for an unique makeup video that focuses on what he thinks of her makeup, and his sweet and loving responses made the internet swoon. Yes, the entire internet.

-Via Shareably

Yellowstone National Park's many thermal mineral springs and geysers are features of the volcanic activity underneath the ground. Scientists at NASA are convinced that the threat of a supervolcano erupting from the magma chamber under Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho is greater than the threat of an asteroid or comet hitting the earth.

When Nasa scientists came to consider the problem, they found that the most logical solution could simply be to cool a supervolcano down. A volcano the size of Yellowstone is essentially a gigantic heat generator, equivalent to six industrial power plants. Yellowstone currently leaks about 60-70% of the heat coming up from below into the atmosphere, via water which seeps into the magma chamber through cracks. The remainder builds up inside the magma, enabling it to dissolve more and more volatile gases and surrounding rocks. Once this heat reaches a certain threshold, then an explosive eruption is inevitable.

The solution is to vent more heat from the ground. The side benefit would be that the energy released could be harvested for our use. Read about a plan to do just that, at BBC Future. -via Digg

Japanese artforms are often deceptively simple, since they involve activities that look like no big deal but actually take years to master, such as bonsai, sumi-e or the art of creating the perfect sushi roll.

Add to that list the art of hikaru dorodango, literally translated as "shiny mud dumpling"- they look like nothing but shiny balls of mud, but creating hikaru dorodango is a challenging yet enriching experience.

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This video is part of P2 Photography's series Buck The Cubicle, "featuring people who get out, get dirty and find inspiration in all manner of offbeat occupations."

And here's an instructional video from the Clyde and Avon Valley Landscape Partnership series Make Your Way showing how you can get started making your own hikaru dorodango.

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-Via Boing Boing

How often do you think this adjustable desk will be adjusted? She could've saved money by just using a pillow or a yoga mat, but this way she can refer to her "standing desk" when communicating with others on the 'net. This is the latest comic from Dami Lee at As Per Usual.

Most film productions go through a casting period that can take weeks, if not months, as the producers make sure they hire the right talent for the job by having multiple actors try out for the roles.

This is a pretty normal part of the movie making process, but some filmmakers don't want to deal with the whole casting call at all- because they already know exactly who they want to play the role.

As you'll see in this video by Looper the Hellboy movies were written with Ron Perlman in mind for the lead, and the role of Drax the Destroyer in Guardians Of The Galaxy was only offered to Dave Bautista.

But John Carpenter's casting of Rowdy Roddy Piper in They Live seemed strange to some at the time, and now we can't imagine anyone else kicking ass and chewing bubblegum quite like Rowdy Roddy!

(YouTube Link)

-Via Laughing Squid

The movie The Social Network came out in 2010 and was supposed to tell the story of how Mark Zuckerberg developed Facebook and then dealt with the many lawsuits that followed. Zuckerberg had no involvement in the film, nor in the book it was based on. If you saw the movie, you'll probably enjoy finding out some of the behind-the-scenes trivia about its production. For example:   

7. Jesse Eisenberg used fencing lessons to get into character.

It makes a good deal of sense. Fencing has a lot to do with strategy and trying to outmaneuver your opponent, much like business in a way.

6. The opening scene took 99 takes.

There’s no real explanation for why this took so long. Maybe the actors were having trouble getting into character or maybe the director wanted to see it from different angles.

Read the rest of the trivia list about The Social Network at TVOM.

Our lack of knowledge about the history of marriage traditions makes sense considering their roots can be traced back to multiple cultures and eras, each one adopting a piece of the ritual to pass down.

Take the tradition of wearing the wedding ring on the left hand for example- this tradition can be traced back to ancient Egypt, but may have become part of the modern marriage tradition thanks to the Romans:

The union between marriage and the now-standard ring placement can be traced back to second-century Egyptians who falsely believed that “a certain most delicate nerve” began in the fourth left finger and stretched directly to the heart, according to the Greek scholar Appian. Centuries later, the Romans came to a similar conclusion. In place of a nerve, they were convinced that a vena amoris—or “lover’s vein”—connected this digit with the blood-pumping organ.

During the Roman engagement process, a well-off suitor who could afford a ring would slip it over his bride-to-be’s fourth finger. Thus, he’d always have a symbolic grip around her lover’s vein. The modern world may have adopted that practice from the Romans.

Read Why Are Weddings Rings Worn On The Left Hand? at Mental Floss

In a segment from The Late Late Show with James Corden, Corden's Crosswalk ensemble got a little help from Lin-Manuel Miranda in performing selections from the musical Hair -at an intersection on Beverly Boulevard.

Both CBS and the state of California have told us we can't be nude in a crosswalk. Then again, people told me that Alexander Hamilton wasn't a Puerto Rican rapper with beautiful brown eyes.

So guess what happened.

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Of course, this was TV, so my guess is that there were flesh-tone Speedos underneath all that pixelation. Otherwise, there would be people bragging on Facebook about seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda in the altogether during their evening commute. -via Mashable