The Joker is an iconic comic book character and it's not surprising that some actors with a geeky side long to play the villian. Most notably, Robin Williams almost got to play The Joker in the 1989 film, but Jack Nicoloson was originally offered the part and when they approached Williams with the role, Nicoloson changed his mind. Williams was also almost cast as The Riddler in the 1995 film, but Jim Carrey was picked over him. While it's sad that comic-book fan Robin Williams never got to act in one of the Batman films, it's probably best for his legacy that he wasn't cast in that trainwreck.

Learn about 9 other actors who almost played The Joker here.

The berserkers were a subset of Viking warriors who went into battle wearing wolf or bear skins instead of armor and fought with uncontrollable fury, which is where we get the phrase "going berserk." While in their battle state, they were a danger to even their own compatriots. The berserker fighting style has been attributed to a self-induced trance, drugs, or possibly mental illness. Life couldn’t have been easy for a berserker, especially when they had time to confront moral dilemmas. This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

This is a staircase with four different surfaces. These are radio drama stairs, which are used for sound effects. An actor or Foley artist would walk or run up and down the stairs to simulate, er, walking or running up and down stairs. The different surface would make different sounds, because you don't want every instance to sound like the same house, particularly in the same drama. Here’s a set made of wood, carpet, and concrete.   

Radio drama staircase, BBC Maida Vale. Wood, carpet, concrete: three acoustics. Been running up these half my life pic.twitter.com/LCQy6shgRK

— Samuel West (@exitthelemming) August 24, 2016

Both sets belong to the BBC, and both appear to be functional stairs that lead somewhere when they're not in use for sound effects. -Thanks, John Farrier!

(Image credit: Andrew Ho)

This Pokémon Go craze has even invaded the flower garden! Redditor space_wyrm found a zinnia in the garden that aspires to be a Pokeball. You know what they say, dress not for the job you have, but for the job you want.

Jason Wolfe set up a prank in which he pretended to be impaled by a staple gun. Well, just his finger. He needs help! Luckily, Tyler was there to lend a hand. Tyler didn’t scream or get grossed out, he was just willing to do what was needed.

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But honestly, would you depend on Tyler to be able to handle a real emergency? -via Tastefully Offensive

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Never let the haters in the world tell you SpongeBob SquarePants is not of historical importance, because those anti-Spongeicans are just jealous of SpongeBob's contributions to the world.

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Bikini Bottom seems to have a lot in common with the Bermuda Triangle, since both oceanic locations are full of strange occurrences and random encounters.

But the trials and tribulations encountered by SpongeBob and his buddies are like perfect parallels of the historical events we humans encountered on the surface.

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These parallel events must be why the memes shared on r/BikiniBottomTwitter are so spot on, revealing all the ways we've been underestimating SpongeBob and Patrick since the 90s.

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See 20 Spongebob Moments Hilariously Captioned With Historical Context here

Samsung Pay seems like magic to some extent -seeing as how you can use it almost anywhere with a wave of your phone. But there's something distinctively "meh" about using your phone to pay -especially when you could be using a magic wand instead. 

The Ollivander19 is a brilliant invention that claims to be (and probably is) the first contactless payment wand. And because magic can't be bought, but only inherited, the only way to get one of the eight wands in existence is to win one on the Card Cutters website. So if you think you've got what it takes to do magic, head to the site and try your luck today.

Via Nerd Approved 

William Ziegler of New Orleans died on July 29th at the age of 69. His obituary is humorously written, but still tells you a lot about the man, if you read between the lines. Here’s a portion of it.  

William volunteered for service in the United States Navy at the ripe old age of 17 and immediately realized he didn't much enjoy being bossed around. He only stuck it out for one war. Before his discharge, however, the government exchanged numerous ribbons and medals for various honorable acts. Upon his return to the City of New Orleans in 1971, thinking it best to keep an eye on him, government officials hired William as a fireman. After twenty-five years, he suddenly realized that running away from burning buildings made more sense than running toward them. He promptly retired. Looking back, William stated that there was no better group of morons and mental patients than those he had the privilege of serving with (except Bob, he never liked you, Bob).

The entire notice is a fitting tribute for a New Orleans firefighter with a sense of humor. You can read it all at the Times-Picayune. -via Fark

Mick Kalber is a pilot for a helicopter tour company in Hawaii. Nice job, huh? Recently, Kalber uncovered evidence that Tutu Pele, the fire goddess, is indeed pleased with the sacrifices made at Kilauea volcano. Or something like that.  

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Kalbur caught video of rifts in the dark crust of the lava bubbling in the volcano’s crater, revealing a huge smiley face. How many people can say they’ve been smiled at by a volcano? Outside of an animation, that is. Kilauea has been erupting constantly since 1983.  -Thanks, John Farrier!

It's hard to believe South Park is about to begin their twentieth season but it's true, and two decades on the air has definitely softened Trey Parker and Matt Stone up a bit...just kidding!

South Park Studios is just as hardcore as ever (see the video game The Stick Of Truth), but they're celebrating the show turning twenty with a sweet and sentimental look back at all the dirty places they've been. (NSFW)

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The 20th season of South Park will premiere on Comedy Central on September 14, 2016, and the show is set to run until at least 2019, so keep growing older and South Park will grey right along with you!

-Via SplitSider

We read about various conflicted communities in which the locals did not side with the rest of their state during the Civil War, but Town Line, New York, was a puzzling outlier. This town is nowhere near the South- it’s near the Canadian border, just east of Buffalo. There weren’t any slaves or slaveholders there. The citizenry was almost entirely German immigrants. But for some reason, they voted in 1861 to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.  

According to New York: A Guide to the Empire State (Federal Writers’ Project, 1940), the dissenting minority referred to the town as a “nest of Copperheads,” threatening them with arrest under charges of sedition and even lynching. Nonetheless, according to oral history, at least five members of newly-Confederate Town Line headed south to join the Army of Northern Virginia, even as twenty residents stayed put and fought for the Union Army.

There are few records about Town Line’s secession, and the names of those who voted for it were not recorded. Add to that the fact that the federal government dealt with Town Line mainly by ignoring it, and you’ve set up somewhat of a historical mystery. Read about the New York community that joined the Confederacy at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Chriskyddwr)

The oceans make up vast areas of the earth’s surface that are under no governmental control. That’s where maritime law comes into play. There are zones of the oceans that are controlled by the country on the nearest shore, but which laws they can enforce vary depending on how far away from the beach you are.

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In international waters, some things depend on what country your ship is registered in. Other matters are rules agreed on by various nations, but it’s rare to get all nations to agree on anything. It gets confusing, but Wendover Productions makes it as simple as they can as they explain maritime law to us. -via reddit

A true #American hero. #SDCC #ConanCon

A photo posted by CONAN (@teamcoco) on Jul 22, 2016 at 4:43pm PDT

Conan O'Brien has made it his mission to conquer Comic-Con ever since his show moved to L.A., so now we have show tapings and exclusive figures to look forward to at the event each year.

And when Conan hits the Con he hits it hard, bringing some of his patently unpredictable Coco magic with him, this time in the form of a super suit custom made for his bod by Ironhead Studio.

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Conan claims the suit is anatomically correct, but I think he stuffed his codpiece.

-Via Laughing Squid

Klingons are one of the most barbaric and less technologically advanced races in the Star Trek universe, and they typically prefer to solve problems with combat actions rather than words.

So how did a race who spends too much time yelling, fighting and feuding and not nearly enough time studying, experimenting or inventing manage to create a warp drive?

According to this comic from Sheldon Comics they got it from that one Klingon who was super into science, the one who has a pencil tucked behind his ear instead of a knife.

-Via Geeks Are Sexy

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I grew up around a bunch of latchkey kids who walked themselves home from school every day and often had to make their own dinner because their parent(s) were always working.

This seemed quite normal, and made it easy to find kids to play with after school, but nowadays most parents wouldn't dream of letting their kids live that latchkey life.

Which brings up the question- when is a kid old enough to be left home alone?

This chart created by Thirty Handmade Days attempts to answer that question, breaking it down by age group and showing which states have laws against leaving kids home alone.

It seems a bit ridiculous to worry about leaving a 16-17 year old home alone, but what do you think- do you agree with this chart?

-Via CountryLiving