Most people don't get asked that question very often, and it's a good thing. If we were to audit our thoughts, probably 90% of them would be things we'd never say out loud. Now that I think about it, that only goes for most of us. There's always that one person who never learned to think before speaking. Usually we can avoid folks like that, unless they are in a position of power. This is the latest from Sarah Andersen at Sarah's Scribbles.
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Your vacation should be a time to relax, unwind, and see something you don't see every day. If you're looking for a place to do all that, you might consider visiting one of America's more distinctive small towns. Smithsonian put together a list of 20 suggestions, all with populations under 20,000. In some cases, way under. Check out De Smet, South Dakota (pop. 1,090).
The quiet town’s legacy has been shaped in no small part by its most famous residents: the Ingalls. As this year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder, it’s a great time to pay this quirky town a visit.
Wilder first came to De Smet as an adolescent and set the final five books in the Little House series there. Today, the family’s 157-acre homestead, “By the Shores of Silver Lake” where they put down roots in 1879 is still intact, and you can go on a guided tour of it and all things Ingalls with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society year round. If you can, though, come to De Smet in the summertime to catch the beloved Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant, which this year will reenact “The Little Town on the Prairie,” picking up Wilder’s story following the winter of 1880-81. Coinciding with the festival, the town will also throw big, birthday bash for Wilder on July 14-16, which will feature a who’s who of “Little House on the Prairie” aficionados.
In Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (pop. 293), you can catch the sesquicentennial of the first integrated school in America in October. In Bell Buckle, Tennessee (pop 512), you can attend the RC and Moon Pie Festival in June. Or you can go surfing in isolated Hana, Hawaii (pop. 1235). See the entire list at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: South Dakota Department of Tourism)
Ah, Chris thought he was shutting himself off from all the demands and complaints. But there comes a time when even your own body has plenty to complain about! At my age, you have to keep track of how long you sit in one position (especially the position he is in) to keep your joints and muscles from locking up. This is the latest from Lunarbaboon.
Kids in the 1960s were fascinated with the Easy-Bake Oven. I know, I was one of them. What could be cooler than making tiny cakes with the power of a light bulb? Never mind that my mother already had me making tiny cakes and pies in tiny pans alongside hers in a full-size oven. Fifty-four years later, Easy-Bake Ovens are still popular, although they have changed.
1) The first Easy-Bake Oven was very expensive
Today’s versions of the toy oven can be purchased at major retail stores or online at a reasonable $45.00, but the original 1963 version was much more expensive. In fact, it cost a hefty $15.95.
That might not sound like a lot, but adjusting for inflation, it amounts to $127. Despite the price, the Easy-Bake Oven sold half a million units in its first year on the market.
2) Working toy ovens were around for decades before the Easy-Bake
It might sound like an impressive feat for Kenner to have created a mini oven back in the 1960s, but other companies had already released similar toys decades earlier. Model train manufacturer Lionel created a gorgeous porcelain electric stove and oven combo in 1930 that featured a cooking surface the perfect height for kids, aged 6 to 9. The appliance, which the company claimed was built “as substantially as the one Mother uses,” sold for $29.50 ($430.00 today), according to an ad in a 1930 Playthings magazine.
Whether you ever had one or not, you'll want to read the list that tells us more about the Easy-Bake Oven at the Daily Dot.
Among other tasks, forensic artists take a verbal description from a witness and render a sketch that may help identify a criminal. It's a particularly specific job. Mental Floss talked to three forensic artists (one we've featured here before) to get some insights into what they do. Here's a sample:
2. THEY NEED TO SUPPRESS THEIR CREATIVITY.
It's easy to imagine that forensic artists might remain hunched over a sketch for hours, trying to insert every last dimple and laugh line they could tease out of a witness. Wrong. According to Cooper, trying to create an exact likeness might make a sketch less likely to resonate with the public. “With a highly realistic portrait, someone might see it who knows the person, but if there’s one thing wrong, one detail, they’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s not my buddy,’” Cooper says. “When it’s more sketchy, more scribbled, you’re leaving more open to interpretation.”
7. BIRD NESTS CAN BE A BIG HELP.
For cases where artists are called to help reconstruct the likeness of a decomposed or otherwise de-featured body, Cooper says that a good reference source for bodies found in the woods can often be found in a very unlikely place. “When dealing with a decomposed body, we’d like to get the color of the hair, and a good place to find that is in a bird’s nest nearby,” she says. “Birds love hair.”
Read the other interesting tidbits from forensic artists at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Ryan Hodnett)
This is what happens when your clay sculpture rolls forward and onto the floor face-first. He looks plenty angry about it. No, they didn't do it on purpose. Tefallio tells the story.
So, full disclosure (because I know redditors have hawk eyes), the original sculpture and the flat face one are different. The original was mine, the flat face one was my classmate's (we had the same model).
When he was bringing his work to our teacher for grading, the face slipped for the wooden board and met the ground with a perfect "thud". The sight itself was quite funny, because it looked like a third of its face was in the ground, but the result upon detaching it from the ground was hilarious. Even our teacher shed a few tears of laugh.
To answer your question, the unlucky sculptor received a good grade on the project, because the teacher saw his work before the disaster. -via reddit
Five pirates found a treasure chest of gold! How do they divvy it up? It's up to the captain, but he has to have cooperation from the other pirates. Once you find out the circumstances here, you'll decide that no, you can't solve the pirate riddle. These pirates are too smart.
But if you decide you want to solve this on your own before the answer is explained to you, good luck and we'll see you much later. This is a TED-Ed lesson from Alex Gendler. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Sure, your cat loves any cardboard box, but wouldn't you rather see a TARDIS in your home? Or the Taj Mahal? Or a medieval castle? Or a Maya pyramid? A Bulgarian family makes these elaborate constructions from recycle cardboard and sells them through their Etsy store CacaoPets.
We are a small family of engineers which likes to think extraordinary. Ten years ago we got ourselves a cat – Shusha. Ever since, she has been a member of our family. Once while we were unpacking Shusha started playing in a cardboard box and thats when it came to us. Why not instead of throwing the cardboard, could we turn it into something much more useful. …The designs of the houses were thought in order to be liked not only by cats, but also by their owners. We have created beautiful designs that also match any kind of peoples interior.
They aren't cheap, especially when you have a cat that eats cardboard. But you'll never take the time to make one of these yourself, and they could make a great gift. -via Laughing Squid
My family did an audit once to find the wifi hot spots in our house. It became clear why one kid was always using the next door neighbor's wifi. The neighbor's signal was much stronger in her bedroom than it was anywhere in his house! Our signal was spotty, and completely dead where I put the family's shared computer only ten feet from the router. Wifi can be completely eccentric. Steve just went with the password that always comes to mind when these eccentricities are encountered, in the latest comic from Megacynics.
His odds are 30-1, but many horse racing fans are pulling for Patch to win the Kentucky Derby, even if they aren't putting money on him. The three-year-old developed an infection in his left eye last year, and despite treatment, his eye was ultimately removed. Patch is not the first one-eyed horse to run for the roses, but in the internet age, he's the most popular going into the race.
What's even stranger is that Patch drew post position 20. That means he'll start on the outside edge of the track, to the right of all the other horses. Since his left eye is missing, he won't see his competition. Whether that will help or hinder his performance remains to be seen, but his team is optimistic. You can keep up with Patch through his Twitter account.
Mazzy is two-and-a-half years old, but she is learning to cook. She even has a cooking show on YouTube! In this video, she helps her daddy make boba milk tea. It's a pretty straightforward recipe, but Mazzy makes it compelling. -via Digg
In case you need a little more nightmare fuel, scientists have been studying a fish eyeball parasite. Diplostomum pseudospathaceum infects a fish's eye as a larva. While the larva grows, it causes the fish to swim slower than usual, which protects both the fish and the parasite from predators. But when the larva is mature, it makes the fish swim faster and closer to the water's surface. That's so the fish will be eaten by a bird!
The eye fluke Diplostomum pseudospathaceum has a life cycle that takes place in three different types of animal. First, parasites mate in a bird’s digestive tract, shedding their eggs in its faeces. The eggs hatch in the water into larvae that seek out freshwater snails to infect. They grow and multiply inside the snails before being released into the water, ready to track down their next host, fish. The parasites then penetrate the skin of fish, and travel to the lens of the eye to hide out and grow. The fish then get eaten by a bird – and the cycle starts again.
The current research is about fish eyes that contain both mature and immature parasites. How do those fish act? Read about Diplostomum pseudospathaceum at New Scientist. -via reddit
(Image credit: winnu)
As someone who has worked third shift, and even now naps in the daylight hors, I consider blackout blinds a miracle. They sure beat taping aluminum foil over the windows (which I never did, but had to live with at one time). But look at how cool these blackout blinds are! Strategic small holes make them into a nighttime city skyline. The blinds are from a Ukrainian company named HoleRoll. A machine translation from the site says,
We are engaged in the development and production of exclusive roller blinds. The illusion of the night city or the night sky is created with holes in the fabric.
I believe that means they aren't ready for retail sales. There's no price yet, or information about whether they will be shipped overseas. So far, they show skylines of New York and London, and a blind with no skyline, but tiny stars showing through. -via Laughing Squid
The real estate market is ridiculous these days. Even a dump costs way more than it should. What can a young adult do if they want to buy their own home? Save, shop, and still be rejected. The choices are unaffordable or uninhabitable. No one is building starter homes anymore -there's not enough profit in it.
I hate to sound like a geezer, but the first house I bought was very much like the fixer-upper he was shown. I spent tons of time and money fixing it up little by little, and still lost my shirt trying to sell it after the housing bubble burst. And now I have a kid moving back in with me because her rent's too high, even with three roommates. -via Digg
The cast and crew of the upcoming movie Hard Powder is filming in New Westminster, British Columbia, not that far from Vancouver. The guys at Big Star Sandwich Co. took advantage of the shoot and put up a sandwich board saying Liam Neeson Eats Here for Free. Well, it doesn't take long for word to get around in a small town. They were quite surprised when Neeson showed up. Wonder what he said? According to m4jikthise,
I have a very particular set of dietary requirements. Dietary requirements I've developed over a very long career. Dietary requirements that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you serve me a gluten free vegan rye sandwich that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will get a refund.
Then tinglep added,
He walks in and says "This seat... is Taken" They guy says "What about that seat?" He replies "It's Taken 2."
The shop employees were so tickled they threw together a new sandwich.
Lot's of beef, a one-two-punch of bacon and hickory sticks, and spice that'll get revenge on you tomorrow!
-via reddit
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