Seventeen years separated the release of The Phantom Menace and Rogue One. George Rottkamp and Jake Young noticed some similarities and some vast differences between the two Star Wars prequels. Discounting the fact that The Phantom Menace was awful and Rogue One was very good, they came up with super-specific things to compare. But you can't discount the difference in the quality of the movies, because the mistakes of the past were lessons that the producers of the new movie took to heart. This comic is from Dorkly. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Jen Yates has several posts that highlight the best of 2016 at Cake Wrecks. This cake with "sprinkels" came from the post The Best Literal LOLs of 2016. Other best-of lists include cakes featuring the Best Misunderstandings of 2016, in which the decorator just took their best guess at what was wanted, and the Best NSFW Wrecks of 2016, some of which were on purpose.
It's a movie mashup to welcome in 2017 from Darth Blender! We have the countdown, the fireworks, the kisses, and even the 1812 Overture. Happy New Year, everyone! -via Tastefully Offensive
The religious pilgrimage, whether a medieval hike to a site of a miracle, service in the Crusades, or a required journey to Mecca, is a life-changing, transformative experience. The trouble and expense of such a journey makes it a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many. Does this sound a bit familiar? People say that every family should take their kids to Walt Disney World in Orlando at least once, even if you must save for years to do it. Scholarly studies have been done in 1980 and again in 1989 about how WDW resembles medieval pilgrimage sites, whether that was planned or not.
Pilgrims to Disney World do not have to spend months trekking to Orlando, but the approach to Disney sets the park apart from the space of normal life. To reach the Magic Kingdom requires a journey of many stages. Travelers must pass through private land, on highways owned by Disney, where all signs of the normal world are replaced by signs from Disney World. After parking, visitors make their way, perhaps by tram, across the vast expanse of asphalt to the ticket gates, where they gain entrance to the park. Even after that, though, their journey has one more step: they must take a special form of transportation, either ferry boat or monorail, to the entrance of the Magic Kingdom.
I have a large tomcat who sleeps on my side of the bed. When I have to move him to get some sleep myself, he's warmed a fairly large spot. Filmed with a thermal camera, you can see how much heat a cat generates. These two cats, Lekki and Leo, even leave a little heat behind when they touch something. They also love to play with warm water. One has a cold nose.
Lauri and Anni Vuohensilta from Tampere, Finland, launched a new YouTube channel called Thermal Guys. They are asking for suggestions on what would look good filmed through a thermal camera. They are also the couple behind the very popular the Hydraulic Press Channel. -via Metafilter
While we may be glad to say goodbye to the old and hello to the new, keep in mind that the new is a complete unknown that might be even worse. But hey, any new year is a new opportunity. The year 2017 will be what we make of it. And you can eventually toilet train a baby. This is the latest comic from John McNamee at Pie Comic.
Bricklayers in Teralba, New South Wales, Australia, capped a wall with perfectly-laid bricks, using a domino fall. I understand the first fall, although I couldn't understand why they did it. Then the second fall comes back around, and whoa! How did they do that? On Twitter, @neconocc gave us a graphic that helps to make it clear.
It's pretty darn cool to watch, but I don't see any advantage over laying bricks the old-fashioned way. Still, if the purpose was to make a viral video, they did well. -via Metafilter
In 2016, as in every other year, dogs were ready to bring us joy. The folks at We Rate Dogs put together a compilation of the most adorable dog videos of the year.
The Industrial Revolution ushered in an avalanche of inventions, of machines and gadgets that sometimes made our lives better, but often were as useless as snake oil. There was no shortage of people who rushed in to capitalize on a public that wanted the latest miracle device, no matter how outlandish. Maurice Collins collects those weird failed products, and has written a book called Bizarre & Outlandish Gadgets & Doohickeys. It chronicles the weirdest gadgets sold between 1851 and 1951. One example not in the book is the bygone memoranda clock.
“Let’s say you had an appointment with your solicitor,” Collins says, using the U.K. term for attorney. “You would go into his office and write your name on small piece of imitation ivory, probably bone. You’d place this time card in a slot, and at the end of your hour, the card would pop out the other end and a bell would ring. People say these were also used in houses of ill repute,” he adds. “Either way, at the end of your hour, you would have gotten screwed.”
Ba-da-bump.
The Memorandum Clock is not an especially disruptive piece of technology, unless, of course, you’re a customer in one of those houses of ill repute. It’s just a timepiece, you might say, whose time was up. For a better example of attempted disruption, as well as good old-fashioned charlatanism, Collins directs my attention to the “Anita” Nose Shaper, which, he tells me, was “the ultimate in nasal quackery.” The Memorandum Clock, he notes with some pride, is an English item. “This is American,” Collins says of the Nose Shaper, with just a trace of judgment in his voice.
According to an advertisement for the device, the cure for “nasal irregularity” is as easy as strapping on the nose adjuster before bed—“No need for costly, painful operations,” promises the advertising copy. In a few short weeks, your ugly nose will be as cute as a button. “What a con,” Collins huffs, “quackery to the Nth degree.”
Many of the doohickeys were produced not because there was a need, but because the technology used to produce them was available. See more weird and variably useful gadgets and gizmos from the era at Collectors Weekly.
When your golf ball lands in a lake, it's usually gone for good. But when it lands on a frozen lake, you are confronted with taking the risk, or taking a mulligan. This guy should have taken a mulligan.
I saw this video a few days ago, but it had been deleted from the source. Now it's on YouTube, where it can readily be shared. Oh, by the way, the guy is alright. They rushed him inside before his wet clothing caused hypothermia. -via HuffPo
Dave Barry has posted his annual Year in Review at the Miami Herald. It's usually out a little earlier, but 2016 gave him -and everyone- a lot to digest. he starts out by explaining that this is the weirdest of all the years he has written about.
Over the past few decades, we here at the Year in Review have reviewed some pretty disturbing years. For example, there was 2000, when the outcome of a presidential election was decided by a tiny group of deeply confused Florida residents who had apparently attempted to vote by chewing on their ballots.
Then there was 2003, when a person named “Paris Hilton” suddenly became a major international superstar, despite possessing a level of discernible talent so low as to make the Kardashians look like the Jackson 5.
There was 2006, when the vice president of the United States — who claimed he was attempting to bring down a suspected quail — shot a 78-year-old man in the face, only to be exonerated after an investigation revealed that the victim was an attorney.
And — perhaps most inexplicable of all — there was 2007, when millions of people voluntarily installed Windows Vista.
Yes, we’ve seen some weird years. But we’ve never seen one as weird as 2016. This was the Al Yankovic of years. If years were movies, 2016 would be “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” If years were relatives, 2016 would be the uncle who shows up at your Thanksgiving dinner wearing his underpants on the outside.
If an engagement to marry falls apart, who gets custody of the diamond ring? The original Dear Abby or Emily Post would have a definite protocol, but in the modern world where the principles disagree and the ring cost $26,000, you go to court. State laws vary, and some do not address this specific issue. It comes down to the purpose of an engagement ring. Does the ring signify an implied contract, or is it a gift, given freely without condition?
Most courts have not adopted this approach, however. They have opted for a “conditional gift” approach. An engagement is a gift subject to a condition—that marriage between the parties occurs. The gift only “vests”, or becomes complete, when the condition is satisfied by a marriage. Conversely, when the condition fails and the marriage doesn’t happen, the ring must be returned.
The concept of a conditional gift in this context is relatively simple. But courts in different jurisdictions have added yet another wrinkle to this approach by asking why the condition failed. If it was the fault of the donee, then she has to return the ring—she caused the condition to fail and would be unjustly enriched by keeping the ring. But if the broken engagement was the fault of the donor, then he can’t seek a remedy for the failed condition. But more recent cases—and the better reasoned ones—tend to apply a no-fault rule. If the condition fails, the ring goes back because the donor did not intend it to be kept under those circumstances. But a strict count of states would reveal that a substantial number, maybe even a majority, still look at fault.
In the Virginia case of McGrath v. Dockendorf, the man bought the ring, and also broke off the engagement. The court considered the ring an implied contract, which she countered by accusing him of breach of contract. Read how that case was decided at Verdict Justia. Your mileage may vary. The best advice is to not spend $26,000 on an engagement ring. You could buy a car, or make a good down payment on a house with that. Houses and cars come with written contracts. -via Fark
Grigori Rasputin, the mad monk of Russia, was assassinated 100 years ago, in the early morning of December 30, 1916. The police investigation never led to a court case, and those who are suspected of being involved gave conflicting reports. The legend goes that after surviving several earlier assassination attempts, on December 30, Rasputin was poisoned, which had no effect; shot in the chest, but he got back up; beaten, to no avail; and then shot in the head, when he finally succumbed to death. Sometimes an attempted drowning is included in the story, but Rasputin was dead when his body was thrown in the Neva River, where it was found two days later under ice.
A hundred years later, we are still fascinated by the story of the mystic who wielded a huge influence over the last Tsar's family. Darmon Richter and Diana Naneva of the webcomic Rasputina tell the short version of Rasputin's life and death graphically at Atlas Obscura.
The 1910 World Almanac was only 25 cents, although was probably pricy for the time. Looking back from 2016, the many ads it contained are quite amusing. There was no attempt to tread lightly on the customer's feelings: you are fat, and you should buy this product to fix it! And forget an explanation of how it was supposed to work, just take our word for it. It's also possible that readers actually tried to guess which drawing of these men was supposed to be 50 and which was 30. Read about electric corsets, electric hairbrushes, how to become stout, a reducing "treatment" with no clue whether it's a pill or salve or machine, the burglar-proof grave vault, a newspaper that touts "the largest amount of advertising" as a selling point, and more at Vintage Everyday. -via the Presurfer
