Miss Cellania's Blog Posts

The World's Most Frightening Blanket

You can get a photograph printed on pretty much anything these days. Redditor angelinthehallway posted this photo of her bed, graced with a blanket she received for Christmas. Her husband ordered it through Walmarts photo-printing kiosk. He is also a redditor, and had to jump in to claim that yes, it was his face on the blanket. And he posted a picture of Christmas Day at their home to prove it.



I think they should hang this in the windows as a curtain, facing out. The neighbors would freak out, as well as anyone passing by. And as a bonus, the people inside wouldn't have to look at it on the bed. 


Literacy Test is Unintentional Poetry

This test was given to World War I recruits at Fort Devens to assess their literacy. While the question are obviously designed to test reading comprehension and vocabulary, the rhythm and increasing difficulty as well as the philosophical quality of the barrage of questions make it sound poetic. I'm reminded of the song "Blowin' in the Wind," which is also a list of thought-provoking questions. There's more to the test, which you can find at Google Books. But I wonder how you score a question like "Are intervals of repose appreciated?" Knowing what "intervals" and "repose" mean doesn't mean it's appreciated. Found at Futility Closet. -via Nag on the Lake


Soft Is Hard: Full Bladders and Cult TV

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!

Further evidence why the “soft” sciences are the hardest to do well
compiled by Alice Shirrell Kaswell and Bissell Mango, Improbable Research staff

Interacting with Women Can Impair Men’s Cognitive Functioning
“Interacting with Women Can Impair Men’s Cognitive Functioning,” Johan C. Karremans, Thijs Verwijmeren, Tila M. Pronk, and Meyke Reitsma, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 45, no. 4, 2009. (Thanks to Joan Baugh and Vicki Hollett for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, report:

The present research tested the prediction that mixed-sex interactions may temporarily impair cognitive functioning. Two studies, in which participants interacted either with a same-sex or opposite-sex other, demonstrated that men’s (but not women’s) cognitive performance declined following a mixed-sex encounter. In line with our theoretical reasoning, this effect occurred more strongly to the extent that the opposite-sex other was perceived as more attractive (Study 1), and to the extent that participants reported higher levels of impression management motivation (Study 2). Implications for the general role of interpersonal processes in cognitive functioning, and some practical implications, are discussed.

The Sex Lives of Cult Television Characters
“The Sex Lives of Cult Television Characters,” Dr. Sara Gwenllian Jones, Screen, vol. 43 no. 1, Spring 2002, pp. 79–90.

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The Eiffel Tower and the 10-Ton Bullet

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!

by John F. Ptak
Ptak Science Books

Eiffel Jumble
This image [above] of the building of the foundation of the Eiffel Tower, which appeared in the Scientific American in 1888, appears both orderly and chaotic. There’s a fine, confusing quality to the jumble, with 90-degree angles everywhere.

The perspective, odd in places, gives the print a nearly Escher-like aura of impossibility. The observer’s point of view seems to vary.

The Eiffel Tower and A Nail

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Kay Nielsen, Disney, and the Sanitization of the Modern Fairy Tale

Folk tales about princesses and magical creatures were originally cautionary tales designed to scare children, with the aim of instilling contemporary social mores or protecting them from tempting dangers. Authors such as the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen took some of the edges off when they published those stories in books, and Disney changed them completely in order to give movie audiences a sunny, colorful experience with a happy ending. Into that transition came the well-regarded Danish illustrator Kay Nielsen, who moved to Hollywood in 1936, hoping to work in the movie industry. By then, Walt Disney was already thinking of how to bring the story of The Little Mermaid to the silver screen.

Kay Nielsen strode into this Disney-studio atmosphere in 1940 ready to embrace the uncanny, the odd, and the unnerving. According to Noel Daniel, a sort of internationalism followed in the wake of Romanticism, bringing a more cosmopolitan version of folk and fairy tales with it, and “took a seat at the same table of widespread interest in vernacular culture.” Nielsen, like many of his fellow artists, illustrated folk works for multiple nations and cultures, his source material as diverse as his artistic influences—a mix of Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Modernism, and Japanese woodcuts and watercolors. Before following his star to the animation studios, he had lived in Paris, London, and Copenhagen. But he arrived in Hollywood too late. Nielsen was hired to work on Fantasia, and he designed one of the most original sequences in all of Disney’s films, the “Night on Bald Mountain” piece. After that, he began work on conceptual art for an upcoming film version of “The Little Mermaid.” But by the end of World War II, a soft nationalism had firmly settled into the works of American animation, and in particular the work of Walt Disney. Nielsen’s multicultural, mythical designs for the film were too dark, too morally ambiguous. The artist’s slow, painstaking style was at odds with the assembly-line speed of Disney Studios, and even when other artists were brought in to take his concepts and develop them into animations, he was worn down by the pace of the work. Nielsen and Disney parted ways, and his concept drawings were shelved. He was brought back briefly to work on Sleeping Beauty—in my opinion, the most visually striking of all the Disney films, with a strong Gothic look inspired by the period—but was let go again in the fifties.

See some of Nielsen's illustrations of fairy tales, including concept art for The Little Mermaid, at The Paris Review. -via Digg


Tinklebury Bingo at the Crufts Dog Show

Last weekend at the annual Crufts Dog Show, a Papillion named Tinklebury Bingo had a memorable second round run in the agility course. The dog was suffering from either stage fright or a brain fart, but once the clock ensured that there was really no competition in the balance, the judge took things into his own hands, literally.

(YouTube link)

Honestly, this cute little doggo may have done this on purpose to get back at Melissa for naming him Tinklebury Bingo. A good time was had by all.   

Also, if you recall Olly, the Jack Russell rescue that stole the show last year, you'll want to see him perform at this year's competition. -via Metafilter


Why Can't Everyone Do the 'Asian Squat'?

The flat-footed squat is often called the "Asian squat" because it is common in Asia and essential for using a squat toilet. The position allows one to sit anywhere without getting snow or mud on one's pants. But people all over the world do it, as evidenced by Norwegian golfer Suzann Pettersen, pictured above. It's not common among adults in the US, although children can squat with their heels down easily. The squat requires flexibility of the hips, knees, and particularly the ankles, which we may lose by having chairs available all the time.      

Believe it or not, no one appears to have actually studied innate ability in deep squatting across ethnic groups. “You would have to take kids from the time they’re born in China and never let them do any squats to be a control group, and it’ll never happen,” says Matt Hudson, a physiologist at the University of Delaware, who kindly humored my questions. And ultimately, it may not matter. Practice and training make the bigger difference. (I suggested to my boyfriend that he could improve his squats, but he refused for reasons I cannot fathom.)

The good news is that, barring injuries, most people can work their way up to doing the flat-footed squat. Read about the physiology of the Asian squat at The Atlantic.

(Image credit: Wojciech Migda (Wmigda))


What's That Smell?

Have you ever come up with a really good line, but you ended up using it too many times? It was only funny the first time. Luke is going to end up wishing he'd been left frozen on Hoth if he has to hear that one time and time again. But in the latest comic from The Obscure Gentlemen, he ends up putting a curse on his best friend.


Finally, a Good use for Fidget Spinners

Kaplamino, a talented toy builder who has a slanted table and plenty of free time, harnessed the power of fidget spinners for his latest chain reaction marble run. Ten of them made the grade, and they do multiple clever tricks in this video.  

(YouTube link)

Yes I bought 50 fidget spinners just to do it, don't judge me :(

Hey, they're pretty cheap now, I hear. See more of Kaplamino's awesome chain reactions.   -via reddit


The World's Most Expensive Eggs

(Image credit: Stan Shebs)

The following article is from Uncle John’s Factastic Bathroom Reader.

Unless you happen to be a Russian history buff, you probably don’t know much about Czar Alexander III. But if you’re a fan of Fabergé eggs, you have him (and Carl Fabergé, of course) to thank for them.

HOW EGGS-CITING

In 1885 the emperor, or czar, of Russia, Alexander III, placed an order with his jeweler for a decorative Easter egg for his wife, the czarina Marie Feodorovna. Alexander had given his wife jeweled Easter eggs before: Easter was the most important holiday on the Russian Orthodox calendar, and eggs were traditionally given as gifts. But this year’s egg would be different, because Alexander placed his order with a new jeweler: 38-year-old Carl Fabergé.

Fabergé differed from other jewelers who served the Imperial court in that he was more interested in clever design and exquisite craftsmanship than in merely festooning his creations with gold and precious gems (though his eggs would have plenty of those) without showing much imagination. “Expensive things interest me little if the value is merely in so many diamonds and pearls,” he said.

NEST EGG

That first Imperial Easter egg was very plain indeed, but only on the surface: known today simply as the 1885 Hen Egg, it was 2½ inches long and made of gold but had a plain white enamel shell to give it the appearance of an ordinary duck egg. When the two halves of the egg were pulled apart, they revealed a golden yolk that in turn opened to reveal a golden hen “surprise” sitting on a nest of golden straw. The hen was hinged at its tail feathers and split open to reveal a small golden replica of the Imperial crown; hanging from the crown was a tiny ruby pendant that Marie Feodorovna could wear around her neck on a gold chain that came with the egg.

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A Different Kind of High School Yearbook

As far back as anyone can recall, American high schools have printed yearbooks to celebrate the accomplishments of their graduating seniors and other students, and to serve as a souvenir book with pictures of their carefree student days. This high school yearbook called '43 Ramblings chronicled the proud students of Topaz High School in Utah, which was the school for residents of Topaz Internment Camp. The students had been shipped in from their original schools up and down the West Coast, and continued their education at the school created for them. Topaz was several times the size of the better-known Manzanar Camp, with over 8,000 people at its peak.

Utah State University has archived the 1943 and 1944 editions of the Topaz High School Ramblings yearbook. With a cursory browse, the Topaz High Rams look just like any other 1940s high school students. They played sports, printed alma mater lyrics that probably nobody knew by heart, and produced a slick-looking literary magazine. Topaz High was a prison camp school for unjustly incarcerated Americans, but the yearbooks provide the perception of normalcy.

In the 1943 Ramblings, the beginning dedication reads, “This year finds us vastly different from our naive selves of previous years.” Alongside photos of students, the old high schools they attended, mostly in California and Washington, are listed directly above their Topaz High School activities.

Imagine showing your grandchildren that you were once "The Brainiest of the brainier girls," and then explaining why you graduated from a school in Utah. Read about Topaz High School at Atlas Obscura, and browse through the yearbooks at Utah State University's Digital Collections.


Lauren Ko's Geometric Pie Crusts

Just because Pi Day has come and gone, that doesn't mean you can't make a pie this weekend. Right now, I have inspiration and some blueberries in the house ready to go. Lauren Ko makes beautiful pies that have to taste as good as they look. Her pies get intricately-designed upper crusts and her tarts feature mosaics of cut fruit in geometric shapes.   



See more of Ko's lovely pies at Instagram, and read about them at Lokokitchen. If you'd like to see how she makes her pies, there's a video at Boing Boing.

(Image credit: Lauren Ko)


Candid Camera Pranks Mr. Rogers

An entire generation of American children know and love Fred Rogers from his TV show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Over the years, many were delighted to find out that Rogers was never playing a character, that he was exactly the same off camera. Even when Candid Camera tried to get a rise out of him. He didn't react the way they expected.

(YouTube link)

It seems like a lame prank, but this was recorded before smart phones and WiFi were everywhere, when many travelers would look forward to watching TV in their hotel rooms. But not Rogers! He let the small things go, and even when he was tired he never missed an opportunity to treat people kindly and make them feel good. -via reddit


Full Color Lightning Strike

Redditor captainford80 runs a towboat that pushes barges on the lower Mississippi River. He declined to give a more exact location where he took this picture of a storm about a mile away.

There was a storm with a lot of lightning so I stood on the deck and was using a burst shot didn’t realize I even caught the picture till I went back and looked

He says there was no editing and no filters used, those awesome colors were just there, although they appeared and disappeared so quickly that getting the shot was pure serendipity.


A March Madness Upset for the Record Books

The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament pits 64 college teams against each other to determine the national champion. Teams are ranked 1 through 16 for each grand division. The four best-ranked teams get an easy first game because they are playing #16 seeds. This is usually considered an elimination game. In the men's NCAA basketball history, there have been 135 matchups between #1 seeds and #16 seeds, and the #1 seed always wins. Until last night, when the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Retrievers beat the Virginia Cavaliers. And it wasn't even close. UMBC held it to a tie as halftime, and ended up with a score of 74-54. Jarius Lyles, who scored 28 points against the school both his parents graduated from, got the honor of filling in the bracket win.

The odds going into the game were so lopsided that one gambler won $16,800 by putting $800 down on UMBC.

While UMBC goes into the record books, fans across the country are mourning their wrecked tournament brackets. And it's only the first round. UMBC plays #9 seed Kansas State in the second round on Sunday.


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Profile for Miss Cellania

  • Member Since 2012/08/04


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