The things you talk to your children about are the things they will come to think of as important. But the current thinking on what's important keeps changing. We were told at one time that we should compliment our kids to build up their confidence. But then we realized that concentrating on how pretty a girl is tends to reinforce the importance of looks, which can set a little girl up for a lifetime of grief, when she compares herself to others. So we compliment her intelligence, hoping she will come to value thinking skills over appearance. But then we learned that telling a child they are smart can lead to assumptions of their intelligence at the expense of effort and ambition. Now we are trying to reward work and perseverance, which can lead to lifelong success in whatever direction they take. Raising kids is hard. At least Chris is taking a step up from focusing on looks. This is the latest from Lunarbaboon.
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
A big-eared feral kitten was brought to Vet Ranch in poor shape. He couldn't use his back legs! Dr. Matt Carriker suspected the paralysis was due to a cat bite that had grown into an infected abscess. He treated the infection and hoped for the best. They named the little guy Sunshine. This video contains minor surgery, and may be disturbing for the squeamish.
Over a few week's time, Sunshine began walking again, and is now ready to be adopted. And then there's this:
You'll find more rescue stories from Vet Ranch at their Facebook page. -via Laughing Squid
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: David Prasad)
A quick comb through the literature
compiled by Bertha Vanatian, Improbable Research staff
Perceptions of Bearded Men
“Perception of Men’s Personal Qualities and Prospect of Employment As a Function of Facial Hair,” Altay Alves Lino de Souza, Vera B.U. Baiao, and Emma Otta, Psychological Reports, vol. 92, no. 1, February 2003, pp. 201–8. (Thanks to John Bell for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at University of São Paulo, Brazil, explain:
Participants evaluated photographs of one of four versions of a man—clean shaven, mustached, goateed, or bearded—on a 7-point scale. In Study 1, participants were 106 Brazilian under-graduates (68 men and 38 women). Beardedness was associated with older age, greater responsibility, and leftist political ideas. In Study 2, respondents were 50 Brazilian personnel managers (28 men and 22 women) who made hiring decisions at different companies in the city of Sao Paulo. Personnel managers clearly preferred clean shaven over bearded, mustached, or goateed men as prospective employees.
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!
Explorations of medical mysteries
compiled by Marina Tsipis, Improbable Research staff
The Danger of Suppressed Sneezing
“Suppressed Sneezing as a Cause of Hearing Loss and Vertigo,” Harold F. Schuknecht and Robert L. Witt, American Journal of Otolaryngology, vol. 6, no. 6, November- December 1985, pp. 468-470. The authors, at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, report:
Two cases of inner ear injury caused by suppressed sneezing are described....
CASE 1: This 23-year-old man, while suppressing a sneeze by clamping his nostrils, heard a “pop” in his right ear followed by severe vertigo, nausea, and vomiting that lasted for 15 to 20 minutes.... During the subsequent two years, he noticed intermittent unsteadiness precipitated by rapid head movements and physical exertion....
Wanna shoot fireballs from your fists like Ryu in Street Fighter? These motion-activated gloves will do the job. You'll need an an Arduino Pro Mini, an Adafruit Accelerometer, and some butane. Allen Pan (previously at Neatorama) built these Punch Activated Arm Flamethrowers, inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.
If you're ready to make your own, the instructions are at Hackster. The project is labeled "advanced," and if you don't know what you're doing, you could burn yourself. -via Sploid
The easiest way to improve a movie is to stick a cat in it. Filmmakers know this works, even in movies where a cat is not at all necessary. Everyone remembers Jones from Alien and Mr. Bigglesworth from Austin Powers, and then there are movies about cats, like The Aristocats and The Cat From Outer Space.
There are also big cats, costumed cats, and cartoon cats in this supercut by Burger Fiction. They admit that there are many movies that didn't make the cut, and promise a volume two sometime in the future. -via Tastefully Offensive
There's nothing like planning a vacation that can highlight the difference between two people. However, relationships in which one person is practical while the other is anything but often work out just fine. At least someone is there to make sure everything goes smoothly, while the other provides novelty and entertainment. Now, when both sides of a couple are wacky and irresponsible, you might not get anywhere. This is the latest comic from Megacynics.
Have you ever wondered why school buses stop and open their doors at railroad crossings? It's to get a better look at whether a train is coming. But as a universal regulation, that action has a tragic story behind it.
On the morning of December 1, 1938, in Salt Lake City, Utah, a tremendous blizzard wracked the countryside. That's when a school bus carrying 39 kids between the ages of 12 and 18 to Jordan High School stopped at a railroad crossing, just as the law required. However, the zero-visibility conditions and fogged-up bus windows ensured that driver Farrold Silcox never saw the hurtling cow-catcher of the Flying Ute, a 50-car freight train, barreling down on him. We'd tell you to close your eyes at this point, but that would be irresponsible since we have no way of knowing if you're currently approaching a railroad crossing.
It was the worst railroad crossing accident in U.S. history -- the Flying Ute plowed into the bus at 60 miles per hour, dragging it for nearly half a mile before it could come to a stop. In all, 25 students, plus the driver, perished in the tragedy.
That accident directly led to the regulation that school bus drivers open the door at railroad crossings to get an unobstructed view of the tracks. You'll also learn why natural gas has that smell, revolving doors have normal companion doors, mail is delivered to homes, and historical movies have a disclaimer, all in a list full of colorful language at Cracked.
Finland is home of such lofty tournaments as the World Hobbyhorsing Championship, the Mosquito Killing World Championships, the Wife Carrying World Championship, the Air Guitar World Championships, the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships, the World Berry Picking Championship, and Swamp Soccer World Championships.
The genesis of swamp soccer was in 1998, when creative town officials in Hyrynsalmi cooked up a festival-like event that would make use of the area’s vast swamplands. Thirteen teams showed up for the first tournament. Since then, the competitive field has grown to about 200 teams.
The recent matches — six-on-six, with 10-minute halves — were played on 20 fields of varying squishiness, spread out over 50 acres of swamp. Finnish rock echoed through the woods.
People striding on seemingly firm ground would disappear suddenly into the soft earth, as if descending a stairway. Some tottered on their hands and knees, like babies. Others stood still, until they were waist-deep in muck. The scores were generally low. Many of the players were drunk.
Finland hosts the various championships because these sports were born in Finland. An article at the New York Times focuses mostly on swamp soccer, but also asks why Finland does sports the way they do. It appears to be a longing for something to do, a culture that values fun over winning, and alcohol. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Flickr user joan!ta)
It's a mark of brilliant writing or casting or maybe promotion when a sequel can stand on its own, and draw an audience that's unaware of the story's previous episode. Or it could be because so much time has elapsed between them that a new generation hasn't even seen the first part. Or it could be because the first movie wasn't much to remember, in which case it's a miracle the sequel ever got made. But all these things have happened to cause a disconnect between two films. If one of your favorite movies is on this list of sequels that stand on their own, you might want to check out the first movies as well. That is, if you weren't aware of it already.
The following article is from the book Uncle John’s Uncanny Bathroom Reader.
Every family has members that stand out: the sports-star brother with a shelf full of trophies, the mouthy niece who became a big-shot lawyer, the crooner cousin who made it onto American Idol. It’s enough to make you scream “Uncle!” Here are a few also-rans who, despite their own accomplishments, were overshadowed by a close relative.
IRÈNE JOLIOT-CURIE
When your mother, Marie Curie, becomes the first woman in history to win a Nobel Prize (in physics)…and then wins a second Nobel Prize (in chemistry)…well, don’t expect anyone to remember your name. As a girl, the shy Irène found it difficult to get her own parents’ attention. In the Curie household, the focus was science, science, science. Her grandfather, Eugène, was there for her, though. He adored the child and instilled in her a love of science that led her to follow in her parents’ radioactive footsteps. Irène’s 1925 thesis on the alpha rays of polonium (don’t worry—we don’t know what that is either) earned her a PhD. Ten years later, she won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Like her mom before her, Irène shared the prize with her husband, nuclear chemist Frédéric Joliot. Irène and Frédéric won the Nobel for synthesizing the first radioactive elements in a laboratory, turning stable aluminum atoms into radioactive atoms. Tens of millions of medical procedures every year rely on that discovery. Result: millions of lives have been saved through Irène Joliot-Curie’s genius.
MARIA ANNA MOZART
Maria (nicknamed Nannerl) got top billing when she and her little brother Wolfgang performed as wunderkinder in courts across 18th-century Europe. Their father, Leopold, described his daughter as “one of the most skillful players in Europe.” Nannerl’s proud papa noted her “perfect insight into harmony and modulations.” Called a “genius” by many who heard her, Nannerl wowed audiences in 88 cities, performing with her brother before thousands as they traveled to Vienna, Paris, and London. And then she turned 18. A marriageable young woman of the day could not possibly be a traveling musician. From that point forward, Leopold left Nannerl at home in Salzburg while he and Wolfgang traveled. Left to her own devices, Maria Anna…composed. Was she good? According to her genius brother, yes. “My dear sister!” Wolfgang wrote in a letter from Rome dated 1770, “I am in awe that you can compose so well. In a word, the song you wrote is beautiful.” Too bad no one will ever hear Maria Anna Mozart’s music. As far as scholars can tell, none of it was preserved.
These guys aren't in a zeppelin; that's a photo prop, possibly at a fair or amusement park. But they are real German soldiers, training at Nuehammer Military Camp between 1910 and 1912. The silliness of the photo is a stark contrast to the horror of the war to come.
These military portraits collected by Christopher B. Steiner, a professor of art history and anthropology at Connecticut College, capture moments of both folly and formality. The juxtaposition of faux props and real people is often curious and visually confounding. Some images appear to be staged to accentuate silliness; while others are posed with almost comical self-seriousness.
The photographs range in time from the beginning of World War I to the close of World War II. While the majority are German, the collection also includes some images from France, Holland, the United States, and the Baltics. Removed, momentarily, from the madness and brutality of war, these souvenir portraits capture moments of camaraderie and humanity.
See a gallery of these vintage military prop photos at Mashable.
When two authors start a little back-and-forth on Twitter, strange and wonderful things can result. Sam Sykes asked Chuck Wendig for some advice, and they got into a conversation that went where you wouldn't quite expect.
Wendig had some insight into the situation, but it wasn't very reassuring, as you can probably guess. You can read the entire Twitter exchange at Terrible Minds. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Lar DeSouza)
Jordan Dinsmore, a college student in Columbia, South Carolina, was the victim of armed robbery and kidnapping Wednesday, and may have been a rape and/or murder victim, too, except for the fact that the perpetrators couldn't drive a stick shift. So they made her drive her car under gun point. After Dinsmore withdrew money from an ATM, she decided she had to escape somehow. She unfastened her seat belt.
“I was thinking somehow I have to get out of this,” Dinsmore said. “Can I crash the car? No, because it might knock me out and not them. Can I pull over or something? I have to get away from them.”
One of the men told Dinsmore to take a right onto Blair Road.
But, with three cars coming from the opposite direction, Dinsmore saw an opportunity. She rolled her car through the intersection, ignoring orders to pull over, throwing the car in neutral and jumping out at roughly 35 miles an hour.
Dinsmore says she did not see what happened to her attackers. But she thinks they fled on foot, unable to drive the car away after it veered off the road and into the brush.
Dinsmore suffered scratches from hitting the pavement. She is cooperating with police to find the men who kidnapped her. The car suffered "minimal damage." -via Jalopnik
It's hard to imagine New York City filled with farm animals, but we've already read about the horses that provided transportation, and the cows that provided milk. Nineteenth-century Manhattan was also home to pigs that roamed the streets while the human population of the city exploded. Charles Dickens described seeing them during his 1842 visit.
Stepping onto Broadway, New York’s biggest commercial thoroughfare, Dickens encountered “two portly sows” and “a select party of half-a-dozen gentlemen hogs” among the brightly dressed ladies and a bustle of coaches. Even more than this strange sight of pigs roaming the city’s streets, Dickens was captivated by the free and easy swine lifestyle—a “roving, gentlemanly, vagabond kind of life.” Scavenging curbside trash in droves, New York’s wandering pigs were on “equal, if not superior footing” with humans—a model of self-sufficiency.
“They are never attended upon, or fed, or driven, or caught, but are thrown upon their own resources in early life, and become preternaturally knowing in consequence,” remarked Dickens in American Notes. “Every pig knows where he lives, much better than anybody could tell him. At this hour, just as evening is closing in, you will see them roaming towards bed by scores, eating their way to the last.”
Not everyone was as charmed by pigs in the streets of Manhattan. While they provided a buffer against poverty and hunger for their owners, and garbage disposal in a city that did not provide it, wealthier New Yorkers found them disgusting, which affected property values. The battles against the hogs became an early example of gentrification, which you can read about at Quartz. -via Metafilter