Three-time Heavyweight Champion boxer Muhammad Ali has passed away. Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942, he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali at the age of 22 when he joined the Nation of Islam. He won heavyweight titles in 1964, 1974, and in 1978. In 1967, he was arrested for refusing to be drafted, and was stripped of his boxing title. His conviction was later overturned. He was later named “Sportsman of the Century” by Sports Illustrated. Ali retired from the ring in 1979.    

"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman, told NBC News.

Ali had suffered for three decades from Parkinson's Disease, a progressive neurological condition that slowly robbed him of both his legendary verbal grace and his physical dexterity. A funeral service is planned in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

Muhammad Ali, “The Greatest,” was 74.

America’s Got Talent is going through the audition round for their new season. This guy comes out with tape over his face, so they can’t talk to him. He’s a mime. There’s not a lot of market for mimes these days, but he puts a clever twist to what he does, and he does it well.

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It’s a real hoot, but it's one of those acts that delight you when you see it -once. You have to wonder how he’s going to step it up to remain competitive over time. -via Viral Viral Videos

When Vancouver police shot a man weilding a knife at them, they probably thought the strangest part of the ordeal was over -but that was before a crow flew down and stole the knife from the crime scene. Police had to chase the bird 20 feet before it dropped the knife, only for it to return to the crime scene where it attempted to steal glasses and equipment of a news crew trying to cover the story.

It's believed the crow is the legendary Canuck of Vancouver, as he not only wears the same red identifcaton band, but is famous in the city for exactly this kind of pesty behavoir, as well as taking rides on the city's Sky Train. In fact, he's even stolen knives before as evidenced by the image above (the non-meme version can be found on the bird's Facebook here).

On a side note, Canuck is not the only bird to steal knives as i09 demonstrated back in 2012, which leaves me with a new phobia -being stabbed by a knife dropped by a bird flying above me. It could happen.

I think I found the new host for Master Chef Junior. 

Claire Dempster posted this adorable picture of her mini-chef on her Twitter account asking Gordon Ramsay if he happened to have been in Wales within the last ten months or so. Best of all, Ramsay himself replied stating that yes, he was actually there about 11 months ago.

Yes about 11 months ago https://t.co/srAtXfFJa9

— Gordon Ramsay (@GordonRamsay) May 26, 2016

Sure, it could just be a coincidence, but with an uncanny resemblance like that, I smell a conspiracy.

Via Thrillist

At 96, Dr. Heimlich finally gets to use the life-saving maneuver he invented: https://t.co/JSB4bU4og7 pic.twitter.com/vKO4kfU9mG

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) May 27, 2016

Dr. Henry Heimlich, the inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver that has saved countless choking victims, is 96 years old and lives at a senior living facility in Cincinnati. The staff are all trained in the Heimlich Maneuver, but on Monday, when 87-year-old Patty Ris got a piece of hamburger stuck in her airway, they deferred to Heimlich. The doctor immediately performed as he had practiced for decades, and the obstruction was dislodged. Ris was okay! The real kicker is that this is the first time Heimlich had ever used his maneuver to save someone's life.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Heimlich recounted what happened. He said Ris had been sitting next to him at his table.

“When I used it, and she recovered quickly,” he said, “it made me appreciate how wonderful it has been to be able to save all those lives.”

His son, Phil Heimlich, said his father regularly meets people who were either saved or saved somebody else.

“Just the fact that a 96-year-old man could perform that, is impressive,” he said.

Heimlich has lived at the facility for six years, but still stays active and in shape. -via Metafilter

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

The Andy Griffith Show ran for 8 seasons on CBS (1960-1968). It remains with us, not only in our hearts, but in reruns, the world over. Perhaps more so than in any other familiar "classic" television show, Sheriff Andy, Deputy Barney Fife, Opie, Aunt Bee, Goober, Gomer, Floyd the barber et. al. seem more like friends to us than fictional characters. And although Mayberry may be a fictional town, I think, in times of stress, angst, and overwhelm in our own world, we all like to close our eyes and wish it were a real place.

Let's take a look at a few facts behind the beloved classic The Andy Griffith Show.

1. The characters were introduce on another show.

Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) and his son Opie (Ronnie Howard) were first seen in a February 1960 episode of Make Room for Daddy. Aunt Bee (Francis Bavier) was also featured in this episode, but was introduced as Harriet Perkins.

2. The opening theme song was called  "The Fishin' Hole."

It was composed by Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer. That's Earle you hear whistling the song himself on the show's opening and closing credits. Everett Sloane composed the lyrics to the song, which were never used on the series. Andy Griffith actually made a record of the words to the song. You can hear it on YouTube.

3. Andy's homage to his dad.

At the beginning of the show, where you see Andy and Opie walking down the road together, you will see Opie throwing a rock and Andy nodding or shaking his head in acknowledgement. This was Andy's personal tribute to his own father, who he said would shake his head in the same manner to tell him "nice work" or "good job."

The fourth feature film of the Star Trek franchise, The Voyage Home, was released in 1988. It immediately stood apart from the first three films, and its magic has never been duplicated. Conceived and directed by Leonard Nimoy, it highlighted each main character from the Original Series and used plenty of humor to contrast the 23rd century with 1980s San Francisco. And what little violence it contained turned out to be counterproductive. Who was responsible for straying from the formula? Well, three writers got credit for the screenplay.

So it was a team effort, in front of the camera and behind the scenes. But it was a team effort with a leader. And the leader wanted to make a different kind of film. Nimoy later explained the core concept: “No dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy.” His previous Star Trek film had all those things, and outer space, and aliens, and sets. Nimoy wanted to make a movie about Earth, right now, shot on location, with human people.

Now that the franchise is celebrating its 50th anniversary and the 13th film is coming, it’s nice to look back at the one film that even non-Trekkies can quote. Entertainment Weekly tells the story of how Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home came about, and gives us some great behind-the-scenes stories, too.  -via Metafilter

The concept of political correctness is something that should be used in moderation, but these days people are so worried about saying the wrong things or offending people they think PC is the only way to go.

However, the old expression “you can't please everyone” rings true (despite what the PC police say), so trying to be PC by turning Dennis the Menace into a polite young man is a plan destined for failure.

It's even more ridiculous to ban the Punch & Judy puppet show because it contains an "abusive relationship" and "inappropriate hitting"...

Yeah, we know, Punch & Judy have been beating up on each other for at least 350 years. Leave those puppets alone PC police!

But when the PC conformists set their minds to doing something stupid they do it, like changing the term “brainstorming” to “thought showers” so as not to offend epileptics, or calling a Spotted Dick a Spotted Richard to stop the lewd jokes. What a bunch of Richards!

Read 10 Hilarious Examples Of Political Correctness Gone Mad here

It’s a familiar tale, with a coda that may leave you a bit sad over the "happy ending." Sometimes one person’s great fortune is a tragedy for the next person. This comic is from Pedro Arizpe of the webcomic Port Sherry. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Everything was going just fine until the realization hit him. Just a cog in a machine. His usefulness as a cog was instantly over. Once they get to yearning for something better, you can’t keep them well-oiled and running the way you used to. This is the latest from John McNamee at Pie Comic.

Need some ideas to write your crimefighting buddy story? Try out the generator They Fight Crime. You can select the names and genders of your duo (or not), and the generator picks the relevant characteristics from columns A, B, and C. Many hit TV series have been built with this kind of  method. When yours is picked up by a network, let them know you heard about the sure-fire formula right here! See other examples at Twitter. -via Metafilter

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Twitterers in their teens and twenties get all the attention these days, which is totally unfair to those hard-working guys who gave those kids their smartphones and can take them away if the kids don't behave- the dear old dads.

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Fathers have some really funny things to say about life with kids, and Twitter is now the platform of choice for dads with too little time on their hands for long form posting.

Besides, sometimes 140 characters is more than enough to paint a pretty picture.

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With Father's Day right around the corner it's time to let dear old dad have the social media spotlight for a while, so we can celebrate the guy who wants to help us make our dreams come true.

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See 20+ Of The Funniest Fatherhood Tweets Ever here

A goose came up to a police car in Cincinnati, Ohio, and started tapping at the door with her beak. Sergeant James Givens and Specialist Cecilia Charron got out and saw the goose walking away, but the goose turned to look at them, so they followed her. The goose led them to a gosling that had become tangled in a string that was tied to a Mothers Day balloon among the litter. The officers called the SPCA, but it would be a while before they could come. So Charon took matters into her own hands and untangled the baby bird while Givens recorded the incident on his phone. The mother goose stood by patiently until the gosling was freed. That was unusual, as Canada geese are normally aggressive around humans, even when they don’t have goslings to protect.  -via Arbroath

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Penmanship is a dying artform, as fonts installed in our computers easily fake fine handwriting, but there are still lots of writers out there who choose to take up a brush, marker or pen and create beautiful letters.

But computers also help keep the love of hand lettering alive, because we're able to share our passion for the written word with people who appreciate how hard it is to render fancy looking letters by hand.

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Reddit is home to the handwritten subreddit penmanshipporn, where scribblers go to show off their skills and revel in the glory of handsome handwriting!

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See 15+ Perfect Handwriting Examples That'll Give You An Eyegasm here

How far can we go? If humans were to develop technologies way beyond what we have now, there are still limits on how far we can travel, which is just a tiny fraction of the size of the universe. A very tiny fraction.

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Add to that the rate at which the universe is expanding, and you can see how it will always exceed our range. Kurzgesagt explains some things about the universe that limit the way we use time and distance, which is all a bit much to absorb, but the accompanying graphics help, and are cute, too. As you can see at the top, John Farrier represents the intelligence of the future.  -via reddit