Spencer Porter's father worked for a startup company that sold computer hardware. It wasn't profitable, but the workers were enthusiastic. In 1985, when Porter was only a year old, his father took him to his workplace for the day. At the time, the company was considering a demonstration video to advertise their graphics capability.   

At some point during that day, my dad played with me with a tennis ball. John Lasseter, an artist who worked with him, watched us, and suddenly the short film he had been trying to figure out was right in front of him. Using my actions, proportions and personality as a model for his main character, Lasseter created the short film “Luxo Jr.”

The name may not mean anything to you, and you may have never seen the short film,  but you’d probably recognize the title character. He’s a little lamp with a short body and a big head.

The startup that my dad worked at was Pixar. John Lasseter went on to direct many of Pixar’s greatest hits: “Toy Story,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Cars.” And today, before every Pixar movie, that little lamp hops out, jumps onto the “I” in “PIXAR,” squashes it, and looks out to the audience.

In a way, that little lamp is me.

The 1986 demonstration short Luxo Jr. was so impressive that Pixar converted from selling hardware to using their capabilities to tell stories. Porter always thought of the animated short as a home movie, since it perfectly captured the way he and his father moved. Now a television writer, Porter tells how the short encapsulated his relationship with his father, and later on, his relationship with his son, at Salon. -via Metafilter

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

Okay, where exactly did the term "jump the shark" come from? According to Ron Howard, it came from his Happy Days co-star Donnie Most.

One day in 1977, they received the weekly script for the upcoming episode of the show. The episode was actually the third part of a season five three-part episode called "Hollywood." In the episode, the Happy Days gang takes a trip to Hollywood, where Henry Winkler, as Fonzie, clad in swim trunks along with his trademark leather jacket, water skis over a shark to prove how brave he is. The episode was intended to show off Winkler's water skiing abilities.

Most looked over the script and asked Howard, "What do you think of the script?"

Howard shrugged and replied, "People like the show. It's hard to argue with being number one."

Most replied, "He's jumping a shark now?"

Jon Hein claims the term was coined by his roommate, Sean Connolly, at the University of Michigan. According to Hein, "jumping the shark" came from a conversation the two were having regarding the above Happy Days episode, and other TV shows, that had a specific episode or a specific moment in time when they realized the show had peaked and after that moment they had started going downhill. (Image source: TV Tropes)

With the sequel Blade Runner 2049 coming to theaters this weekend, it's time for Screen Junkies to take a cockeyed look at the 1982 film Blade Runner in their Honest Trailer series.

(YouTube link)

This Honest Trailer is reassuring to folks like me, who saw Blade Runner in 1982 and don't recall much about it at all because it didn't make any sense. And yeah, I could've seen it again to understand it, but Blade Runner wasn't that pleasant to begin with. Or am I the only one who felt that way?

The following is an article from Uncle John's OLD FAITHFUL 30th Anniversary edition.

(Image credit: Flickr user brett jordan)

If you ever have occasion to visit a children’s school in Japan, use the third stall in the third-floor bathroom at your own risk. Better yet, just wait until you get back to your hotel.

KID STUFF

When you were growing up, did your parents ever scare you with stories about the boogeyman? Tales of a shadowy creature that punishes children for bad behavior is common to many cultures— Spain has El Coco, Slavic countries have Baba Yaga, India has Bihar, Mediterranean countries have Babau, and so on. Moms and dads in Japan have a similar tradition. But where the American boogeyman is usually described in vague and amorphous terms, the stories that Japanese parents tell about scary imaginary beings are more defined— and they’re frequently centered in the bathroom. Traditionally considered unclean even when kept perpetually immaculate by the most fastidious of housekeepers, bathrooms were often hidden away in a dark corner of the house. Ghosts were said to live in the toilet, and parents liked to tease children about a hairy hand rising up out of the water and pulling kids down into the sewage pipes.

SCHOOL SPIRIT

It stands to reason that with such a spooky start, some kids might come up with their own scary legends around the bathroom. And sure enough, they have.

Today we call it "poverty porn." A hundred years ago, the same activity was called "slumming" in Britain and "slum tourism" in the U.S. Wealthy folks would go to the city slums where the other half (actually the majority) lived and saw how they went about their lives. For visitors to New York's Chinatown, there was the added draw of an exotic culture they knew little about. And if they saw illegal and/or immoral activities, that was a bonus that not only gave the tourists a thrill, but also reinforced their sense of superiority. What they didn't know was how much money Chinatown was making off these visits, and how much of the "danger and depravity" they saw was faked.    

Affluent slummers often employed guides or joined organized groups. Industrious young men—independent “slumming guides”—capitalized on the crowds by introducing them to brothels or saloons that were accustomed to hosting slummers, or had sprung up specifically to do so. Usually white and working-class, these “lobbygows,” as they came to be known in Chinatown’s pidgin English, marketed themselves as critical cultural conduits to the exotic, unfamiliar Chinese. They even advertised in local papers and came to be seen as legitimate businesses. In Chicago, for instance, in 1905 a local resident sought police approval to establish “a guide system to escort slumming parties and show strangers the sights.”

Slummers saw strange sites such as opium dens filled with Chinese actors, Chinese restaurants owned by Italian families, and gunfights between gangs that happened right as a tour came through. Read how Chinatown accommodated slum tourists at Atlas Obscura.

Photographer Tim Newton saw a cat outside his home in Anchorage last week, and thought nothing of it, until he noticed it was a lynx. He started shooting photographs through his window, and found it wasn't alone. It was a litter of seven lynx kittens and their mother!

So for the next half-hour, Newton says he just went back and forth, from window to window, photographing them.

At one point, Newton decided to test his luck by going outside to continue photographing the kits. While the mother was cautious and alert, he says she was also very calm with him in her presence. Moreover, some of the kits were very intrigued by Newton.

"I actually had my bathrobe on," says Newton. "So I didn't have legs, as far as the kits could tell. And I didn't have eyes or a head. I just had this big round thing that went 'Click, click, click.' So I think the little kittens didn't have any clue what I might be."

The family stayed for about 40 minutes, then calmly left the yard. You can see the whole collection of photographs at Newton's site. -via Atlas Obscura

(Image credit: Tim Newton Photography)

Movie posters list the stars' names across the top, and then usually a picture of the main characters right in the middle. But unless you already recognize them, you'll never know who is who because the order of the names is never the same as the order of the faces in the picture. What causes this? You're a smart person; I'm sure you can come up with the correct answer before the intro to this video ends. But the video is more than just the answer to the question. There's a lot of Hollywood information and history here, and quite a few interesting anecdotes.

(YouTube link)

Austin McConnell asks if there is a better way to design movie posters. My suggestion is that we go back to using real artists and their work for the image on the posters, like the example of Chinatown in the video, instead of the stars' faces. But movie posters are advertising, and studios will go with what works according to box office returns. -via Digg

Yesterday, NPR published a post at Facebook that was seen, and then edited to erase its content.



But screenshots were made. The edited post has over 4800 comments. What was the controversy? What horrible, scandalous information was posted in error?  

The NPR errant Ramona Facebook post is the only good thing in the world right now pic.twitter.com/QchgLVqChO

— Ellen Stark (@ellenstark) October 3, 2017

Thousands of people had something to say about it, but they weren't complaining about the original post. They wanted it back! And they want to know more about Ramona. Some assumed that Ramona is a cat, but I believe Ramona is a toddler who loves cats. Anyway, the error was the kind of wholesome nonsense the world needs when other social media errors are not only embarrassing, but often erroneous news or incitement to rage. -via Mashable  

(Unrelated image credit: hageatama) 

UPDATE: We now know who Ramona is, and we even get to see a picture! -Thanks, Alex!

That title was strangely easy to type. The keyboard layout that we are familiar with, with QWERTY  at the top left, became the default pattern when typewriters became popular. But even then, learning to touch type was a specialized skill. Some people were professional typists, while the rest of us didn't type often enough to question a typewriter's design. Now that everyone types on a personal device, you might wonder why we stick with the same layout.      

(YouTube link)

Personally, it just seems like too much trouble to re-learn where the keys are. Vox gives us the history of the QWERTY keyboard layout, and why we still use it today. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The 1987 film Fatal Attraction was one of those movies that you saw once, and never had to see it again because it stuck with you. Unless you found out someone in your life hadn't seen it, then you screened it to see if it was as disturbing to them as it was to you. Thirty years later, you still recall the key points even if you're fuzzy on the details. It was disturbing for the cast, too, especially Glenn Close. Let's learn some details about Fatal Attraction.

8. The term “bunny boiler” is actually in the dictionary.

It’s amusing to think that this film actually coined a term that was put into the dictionary. It literally means a woman who acts vengefully when spurned by her lover.

7. In the original ending Close’s character kills herself and blames it on Douglas’ character.

This ending was determined to be just too low key and was scrapped in favor of the current ending. Close didn’t care for the new ending but went along with it and still regrets it to this day.

Read the rest of the trivia about Fatal Attraction, and how the movie is an artifact of its time, at TVOM.

In this scene from the 1921 movie Hard Luck, Buster Keaton misjudges a dive and crashes through the brickwork. It's a riff on the old joke about digging a hole so deep that you eventually reach China. Keaton said the gag got more laughs than any other in all his movies. However, the film was lost for many years until it was partially reconstructed in 1987- without the pool scene. That part was finally found in a Russian archive years later.

If you're scrolling the front page and find the gif is already halfway through when you get to it, click here to start it again.

But how did he do that dive into the brickwork? Silent Locations explains that the pool did extend to the left, and was covered for the scene. Keaton often did dangerous stunts for his movies, but he couldn't dive that far out, so the falling scene was enhanced with animation cels of his body falling. You can see the entire movie here. -via reddit

Musician Tom Petty suffered a cardiac arrest at his home Monday morning. Emergency responders were able to stimulate a pulse, and Petty was taken to a Los Angeles hospital in critical condition. However, he never regained consciousness, and after it was determined that brain activity had ceased, the decision was made to remove life support. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers had just concluded their 40th anniversary tour with a concert at the Hollywood Bowl last Monday. Petty had hinted that the tour would be his last.

"I'm thinking it may be the last trip around the country," says Petty. "It's very likely we'll keep playing, but will we take on 50 shows in one tour? I don't think so. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was thinking this might be the last big one. We're all on the backside of our sixties. I have a granddaughter now I'd like to see as much as I can. I don't want to spend my life on the road. This tour will take me away for four months. With a little kid, that's a lot of time."

After erroneous reports of Petty's death were published and retracted on Monday, CNN reported that Petty's death was confirmed by Tony Dimitriades, longtime manager of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Tom Petty was 66.

(Image credit: Takahiro Kyono)

Redditor Blueyeguy (standing in the red shirt) and a few friends beamed down from the Enterprise into a Renaissance Fair in Minnesota. They are blatantly violating the Prime Directive with their time travel shenanigans. What do Ren fair enthusiasts think of such party-crashing? According to the comments at reddit, many think it's fine as long as everyone has fun. Some dislike the invasion of the integrity of the fairs. Several said that any costume is better than no costume at all, because so many people at Ren fairs these days are just there to watch and take pictures. And a couple mentioned that the time travel joke has been overdone.

One commenter even mentioned a Ren fair that was invaded by an army of Doctor Who cosplayers. -via reddit

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!

(Image credit: Wellcome Images)

Research About Faces
compiled by Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Improbable Research staff

Faces fascinate. The range of research about faces is enormous. Here are some examples plucked from many fields.

Carrots vs. Tanning Beds
“Fruit over Sunbed: Carotenoid Skin Colouration is Found More Attractive Than Melanin Colouration,” Carmen E. Lefevre and David I. Perrett, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 68, no. 2, 2015, pp. 284-293. The authors, at Leeds University Business School and the University of St Andrews, Scotland, explain:

While both increased carotenoid colouration and increased melanin colouration enhance apparent health in Caucasian faces by increasing skin yellowness, it remains unclear, firstly, whether both pigments contribute to attractiveness judgements, secondly, whether one pigment is clearly preferred over the other, and thirdly, whether these effects depend on the sex of the face. Here, in three studies, we examine these questions.... We show, firstly, that both increased carotenoid colouration and increased melanin colouration are found attractive compared to lower levels of these pigments. Secondly, we show that carotenoid colouration is consistently preferred over melanin colouration when levels of colouration are matched.... Of the participants, 78% self-identified as white.

The last thing you want to hear from a ghost, even the "friendly kind," is that they have good news and bad news. The latest comic from Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble starts out as a horror story, switches to science fiction, and ends as a horror story once again. But now the real story can begin: What's he going to do between now and next Thursday? Whatever he does, it will set up a paradox in the space-time continuum, because if he knows what will happen, he will change it. But if he changes anything, he won't know what will happen.