You think you recognize this picture when you really have never seen it before. Redditor vic8760 created it by accident while working with artificial intelligence (or at least he says it was an accident). Sure, it looks like Napoleon Crossing the Alps, except made up of smaller images from other familiar artworks. But it's not. Look closer, and every figure you thought you saw is only a drape of color, somewhat resembling fabric. You can enlarge the image here to see the details. The more you look, the less sense it makes. The program may have been "inspired" by other artworks, but it didn't exactly use them in creating this image.
Miss Cellania's Liked Blog Posts
Atlas Obscura is digging into historical and pop culture villains during their Villains Week. The first story is a look back at the damsel-in-distress trope of evil, mustachioed villains tying women to railroad tracks. We've all seen it in silent movies. Or did we? It never made sense that a murderer would go to that much trouble to cause a death delayed just long enough for the hero to arrive. Fritzi Kramer, who runs the blog Movies Silently, tells us how that familiar scenario began.
On her site Kramer identifies the first occurrence of this type of scene in an 1867 Victorian stage melodrama called Under The Gaslight. The play’s stage directions call for one of the characters (named Snorkey) to be tied to the train tracks by the villain. It’s close to the scene we’re familiar with save for the fact that the person on the tracks is a man, and he’s saved by the leading lady.
This sort of train-based peril became a regular element of the melodramas as a cheap and easy way to create suspense. Moving into the early-20th century, and the silent film era, many films took their cues from those same 19th-century stage dramas. One of the more famous examples of this type of story was the serial The Perils of Pauline, which saw the titular heroine encounter all kinds of scoundrels and villains each week, who would put her in life-threatening danger—although it is important to note that she was never tied to the railroad tracks. This sort of overblown adventure tale became a well-known story type in its time, but that melodramatic style also inspired some comedies, which spoofed some of the more overused elements of the genre.
In fact, the vision we have of the villain with the top hat and evil mustache tying a woman to a railroad track never actually happened in a serious drama! That trope was cemented in the parodies that made fun of it. Read about the standard plot and how it changed in our minds over the years at Atlas Obscura.
3 white Abruzzo sheepdog puppies who were trapped inside Hotel Rigopiano that was pulverised in an avalanche in Italy have been rescued pic.twitter.com/VavJRrAKjr
— kaveri (@ikaveri) January 23, 2017
Hotel Rigopiano in central Italy was crushed Wednesday when an avalanche of snow fell on it. Nine people have been rescued, seven have died, and 23 others are still missing. Rescue crews continue to dig around the clock. Two Abruzzo sheepdogs lived at the hotel, and were found wandering the streets after the disaster. But Nuvola and Lupo had puppies in December, which were still missing five days after the avalanche. On Monday, firefighters found all three puppies alive in an air pocket in the hotel's boiler room. The puppies were reunited with their parents. The rescue operation gave firefighters and other emergency workers hope that they may still find other survivors in the wreckage of the hotel.
The Golden Raspberry Awards, affectionately known as the Razzies, salute the worst movies of the year. The awards are bestowed the night before the Academy Awards. They usually nominate five movies in each category, but 2016 was particularly awful, so there are six each this year. Zoolander 2 leads with nine nominations, while Batman v Superman received eight nominations. And the nominees for worst picture are:
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Dirty Grandpa
Gods of Egypt
Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party
Independence Day: Resurgence
Zoolander No. 2
You can see the full list of nominations in each category here. Have you seen these movies? Who do you think should win? We will find out who wins the dishonors when the Razzies are awarded on February 25. -via Uproxx
Have you ever wondered why your Bluetooth is called that, and where that symbol came from? Me neither, even when mine stopped working this morning. But it's a fascinating story, as told here by Tom Scott.
You have to admit, Bluetooth sounds better than "lower power RF," which is what it could have been. And now, because they named the system Bluetooth, you know a little more about Scandinavian history. Commenters also added that in Sweden, your wireless communication is called Blåtand because that's how they spelled Harald's name. -via reddit
You wanna see something adorable? Mom got 9-year-old Marley a kitten! Marley is very happy about it. The emotional scene was so popular that Marley gave us a follow-up, where we see that Ella the kitten has grown in size, and seems very happy with Marley. -via Laughing Squid
The official name of the eighth episode of the Star Wars saga (which many are now calling 'the Skywalker saga') has been announced: Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We already figured that the movie would revolve around the aged Jedi master Luke Skywalker, and maybe we can assume that is who the title refers to. Or maybe not. No matter what happens in the film, we will all cry for Leia. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on December 15th, 2017. We'll have the first trailer as soon as it's available. -via Laughing Squid
For many of us, the Marvel movie Guardians of the Galaxy was the first time we encountered Star-Lord, the leader of the Guardians and an all-around relatable hero with a sense of humor. But the character has a history in Marvel Comics that you might be surprised to know. Character creator Steve Englehart had a long-term vision for Star-Lord that went by the wayside when he left the company. Then things got weird as other writers took over the comic book character, and Star-Lord moved to TV, video games, and movies.
Your understanding of Star-Lord might be changed by this video from Looper, but you can can look at him any way you want to. After all, it's fiction! -via TVOM
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum was responsible for the monument to four presidents carved into Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The project took 14 years to complete, but Borglum had another idea to ensure the history of his work: to carve an accessible museum into the rock, an archive to house all the information about the monument. He called it the Hall of Records.
After all, Borglum reasoned, what did we really know about Stonehenge? Or Egyptian pyramids? Civilizations could rise and fall while Rushmore stood, its origins getting more clouded with time.
To make sure people in the future knew the history of his project and the meaning behind it, Borglum announced an ambitious addition: a massive room situated just behind Abraham Lincoln’s hairline that would contain all the information anyone would ever need about the mountain. It would even house major historical artifacts like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
And there is a hall carved from the rock behind Mount Rushmore -but you can't go there. Read what happened to the Hall of Records at mental_floss.
(Image credit: National Park Service)
The following article is from the new book Uncle John’s Uncanny Bathroom Reader.
Looking for a theme for your next road trip? How about “Places Where My Favorite Horror Films Were Shot”? If that appeals to you, here are a few scary spots you’ll want to add to your agenda.
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
Creepy Place: The house where serial killer “Buffalo Bill” (Ted Levine) lived, where he kept kidnapped women in a pit in the basement, and where he is eventually confronted by FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster)
Real-Life Location: 8 Circle Street, Perryopolis, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Pittsburgh)
Story: In the movie, the house is located in the fictional town of Belvedere, Ohio, but most of the film was actually shot near Pittsburgh. This house was one of several picked by movie location scouts in 1989, two years before the film came out. “They were looking for a home in which you entered the front door and had a straight line through,” owner Barbara Lloyd told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “They wanted it to look like a spider web, with Buffalo Bill drawing Jodie Foster into the foyer, into the kitchen, then into the basement.” The home got the approval of director Jonathan Demme, and a film crew showed up to film inside the home for three days in early 1990.
(Image source: Realtor.com)
Extra: The home made the news in 2015, when the Lloyds put it up for sale. The Lloyds told reporters that the home has a full basement…but no creepy pit. (That part of the movie was filmed in a studio.)
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)
(Image credit: NOAA Photo Library)
Creepy Place: The woods where the young filmmakers disappear
The following article is from the new book Uncle John’s Uncanny Bathroom Reader.
(Image credit: Ken Curtis)
Did you know that there are 18,617 named islands in the U.S. and its territories? Neither did we! Here are some interesting stories behind the names of some of those islands.
STATEN ISLAND
In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson, sailing under a Dutch flag, sailed into New York Bay. (He wasn’t the first European to explore the region; that honor goes to Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who discovered it in 1524.) Hudson named the large island on the southwest side of the bay Staaten Eylandt, literally “States Island,” after the Dutch parliament, known as the Staaten-Generaal. When the English took over the region in 1667, and made it part of their New York Colony, the name was anglicized to Staten Island.
(Image credit: Dan Dugan Sound Design)
Bonus fact: Staten Island wasn’t its official name until 1975. In 1683, the British divided the New York Colony into ten counties, and designated Staten Island as Richmond County, after Charles Lennox, the son of England’s King Charles II, and first Duke of Richmond. When Staten Island was incorporated into New York City in 1898 as one of its five boroughs, its official name was the Borough of Richmond—and that remained its name until 1975, when the city council finally changed it to the Borough of Staten Island.
LONG ISLAND
Talk about getting away from it all! The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service is seeking a couple of new volunteer lighthouse keepers for Maatsuyker Island, ten kilometers of the coast of western Tasmania. The lighthouse is automated, so volunteers would spend six months monitoring a weather station, observing wildlife, and mowing the grass. Two people, all alone. And the conditions won't be what you're used to. There's a landline, but it doesn't always work well, and you'll have no internet. And Maatsuyker Island is notoriously colder than the rest of Australia. From the application form:
Volunteers are responsible for providing their own food, clothing, entertainment, bedding and other personal items. The Parks and Wildlife Service will provide transport by helicopter for these items between Hobart and Maatsuyker Island. Transport space is limited to 325 kg per person, (for 6 month stay).
The Parks and Wildlife Service will also provide one resupply helicopter visit at approximately 3 months in (i.e. one resupply in the standard 6 month stay), often to coincide with scheduled or unplanned maintenance. Space on the resupply flight will also be limited. Caretakers generally make their own arrangements for the preparation of food and other goods for resupply. Please note PWS prefer people take as many of the supplies as possible onto Maatsuyker in the beginning, so that the resupply can be primarily for fresh food and mail. There is a vegetable garden maintained by the caretakers for fresh food.
Electricity is supplied by a generating system incorporating solar and back up diesel. The high cost of transport dictates that gas and diesel consumption on the island be kept to a minimum.
Volunteers must go through a training program and be certified in First Aid and Marine Radio Operation, and demonstrate competency in other skills. The application is available through the Park Service. The application deadline is January 30th. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Jeff Jennings)
Makeup artist Stefania Atupe is a master of eyelid art. In fact, she channels the masters of art, like Van Gogh and Monet by recreating their famous paintings in miniature on eyelids! You certainly recognize Starry Night above. Also check out Atupe's version of Monet' s Water Lilies below.
"When I posted the peacock design onto twitter, a girl actually messaged me and said that it reminded her of a Van Gogh piece, and since I absolutely love Van Gogh I decided I would try out Starry Night," she continued.
"I then just sat down and spent a good hour and a half just recreating the look, slowly outlining it and developing the colours! It took really long as there's so many different colours, and I really wanted to try get all the same colours and patterns as in the original painting," Atupe continued.
Read more about Atupe at Mashable, and see more of her designs at Instagram. -via Everlasting Blort
Comic Sans was used so much in the 1990s that it became a joke itself. It was never meant as a joke, despite the name. Vincent Connare, who actually designed the font, will tell us about how it came about.
"It's all my fault." That may be what you watched the video to hear, but there's more to it than that, as you'll find out in this video from Great Big Story. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Geographers in ancient times may have guessed that the ocean is cold enough near the Poles to freeze, but they did not leave written records of witnessing it. That job fell to Irish monks who were searching for a wilderness of solitude. Christianity came to Ireland in the 5th century (remember St. Patrick), and monasteries filled with students of the faith over the next few hundred years. Crowded monasteries caused monks to reach out even further north for a peaceful place to commune with God.
There’s not much evidence left of the journeys of these monastic explorers, but in later years Norse stories had a name from them, the papar. Gaelic monks settled on empty northern islands—Orkney, Shetland—but it’s also possible that they found their way to Iceland, where manmade caves, decorated with crosses, have convinced some archaeologists that there were settlers here before the Vikings.
An early Irish geographer, Dicuil, also writes of “priests who stayed on that island from the first of February to the first of August.” The year would have been 795, and Dicuil briefly notes a journey they took north. “These priests then sailed hence and, in day’s sail, did reach the frozen sea to the north.”
But there's always the possibility of finding even earlier records. Any would useful to those documenting the natural history of the ebb and flow of Arctic ice. Read more about the history of frozen seas as we know it at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Pink floyd88 a)
Email This Post to a Friend