A controversy among linguists which has been raging for a long time is the concept of universal grammar. Is there a fundamental set of rules that people use, no matter what their language is? Anyone who has tried to learn a second or third language knows how different these languages can be. English speakers have a hard time wrapping their heads around gendered nouns. People who speak other languages don't understand why we put adjectives before nouns in English. But there are certain features that almost all languages have in common, such as subjects, verbs, and objects, although their order can vary. But is this universal grammar due to something innate in the human brain, or did it come about when written language developed, or does it point to how languages were all originally related? Dr. Erica Brozovsky (previously at Neatorama) explains how linguists have disagreed, or even fought each other, over this controversy.
When Peter Benchley wrote his novel Jaws, which made great white sharks into scary monsters forever, he drew inspiration from the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1916. It was a very hot summer, and throngs of tourists went to the beaches to cool off. It was also the summer that sharks killed four people and badly injured a fifth in New Jersey. Three of those attacks came on the same day! The carnage led to a panic, and people petition for the extermination of sharks. Sharks weren't considered much of a threat before 1916, but their reputation changed overnight.
Could the attacks have come from the same shark? Armed crews went out in boats to kill as many sharks as possible, of all species. One great white was found with human remains in its gut. Some experts thought that the killer shark(s) would more likely have been bull sharks, since they venture into freshwater, and two of the attacks occurred in an inland creek. Some thought that the activities of German U-boats was to blame, causing sharks to develop a taste for humans after devouring the war dead. Others thought that a sea turtle might be the actual culprit. Read about the summer that turned sharks into enemies at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: acapacio)
Once again, the comedy troupe Foil Arms and Hog throw a party and have a great time, more or less. This time they are impersonating the elements of the periodic table.
The elements all have their individual characteristics, and that comes out in the small talk. Some personality quirks have to do with the chemicals themselves, like oxygen, which is a breath of fresh air. Others have to do with their reputation among humans, like aluminum, which wears a foil hat and is a bit paranoid. And some are just puns, like how boron is so very boring. Some of them even dress the part, like neon wearing Day-Glo colors. Watch for some surprises, like when two nitrogens and one oxygen merge and get the giggles, because that makes nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. That's why it's so important to go over your guest list multiple times to make sure your guests won't clash and cause trouble, or in the worst case, explode. -via Laughing Squid
In 1888 and '89, Vincent van Gogh painted three versions of the bedroom where he slept in Arles, France. He titled them The Bedroom, but they have since been known as Bedroom in Arles. The Yellow House that contained the bedroom was bombed during World War II and no longer exists. But avid Van Gogh fans can still visit and even stay a night or two in the bedroom, because a recreation exists as an Airbnb in Charroux, France. Behold La Chambre de Van Gogh. The accommodation has a living room, kitchen, and bath, which are all nice and modern, but the bedroom is something to behold. Charroux artist François Lassere has transformed the bedroom into Van Gogh's vision as rendered in the paintings.
Compare the details. Lassere has even copied Van Gogh's brushstrokes to give the entire room the illusion of a painting, yet you can sleep in it. The bed is described as a double bed, but that might be part of the illusion, or else beds really are just smaller in France. See more pictures in the gallery.
-via Messy Nessy Chic
Surströmming is known around the world these days, mainly for YouTube videos of people retching when the get a whiff of it. Surströmming is canned, fermented herring from Sweden, where it is considered a delicacy. Elsewhere, it is considered the stinkiest food in the world. That may be enough to keep you from ever trying it yourself, but you have to wonder what it is about Surströmming that some Swedes love. To find out, Great Big Story went for a deep dive to explain how Surströmming was invented, how it's made, what makes it so smelly, and then what's good about it. Apparently the taste is much better than the smell, but it takes a talented eater to completely separate the two senses. Even the head of the Surströmming Association says to open the can outside.
That said, between people from all over the world wanting to try it, and environmental changes affecting the fish supply, it's now hard to get your hands on a can of Surströmming!
A dodecahedron is a 12-sided shape made with flat pentagons. More than a hundred of these objects have been found in excavations of Roman settlements around Europe, but curiously none have been found in Italy. These Roman dodecahedrons are made of a copper alloy, and have holes in their flat sides and knobs on their corners. The first was found in the 18th century, and there is no Roman documentation on them. What were they used for?
So far, there is no consensus. The places they were found give no clue. There are many theories, though: are they survey instruments, fortune telling devices, game pieces, coin measurers, spools, religious objects, children's toys, or weapons? They might just be something metal workers used to show off their skills, or even trophies. My first impression is that people thought the shape was pretty clever, like the "Cool S" that kids draw, and then everyone wanted one. Read what we know about Roman dodecahedrons at Daily Grail. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Kleon3)
Don't eat the sports gear! Amaury Guichon (previously at Neatorama) is an artist, and his medium is chocolate. You have to be a serious food artist to own a lathe and know how to use it. Here he makes chocolate bowling pins with molds, the lathe, and spray-on chocolate. Then he makes a bowling ball out of chocolate, with holes matched to his own fingers and a bright candy shell. Guichon even makes a smooth and glossy wood-grained alley out of chocolate, complete with gutters! No detail is overlooked. The alley itself is not regulation size, so bowling a strike is not that difficult. The difficult part would be to get this far without eating the equipment. -via Nag on the Lake
The design blog Core77 shares this clever invention. The set (single?) of eyeglasses has a single lens that flips back and forth on a hinge. This feature allows a person to put on eye makeup while seeing clearly through the opposite-side eye.
The cosmetics and accessories store Donna May London offers them in seven different magnifications. It's the sort of unique, single-purpose tool like one might see on the subreddit /r/specializedtools.
America, and the world, has fallen in love with guacamole, and its main ingredient, avocados. Avocados, or alligator pears, are native to the tropical areas of the Americas, and weren't documented in writing until Europeans conquered those regions. But we know that avocados were eaten for thousands of years. But how did we get guacamole? The first European reference to avocados was in 1519, the first reference to avocado mixed with lime juice and spices was in 1866 (to accommodate those who didn't like it plain), and the first instance of the word guacamole in text was in 1891. By the way, that was the year that avocado toast was first lauded in text. Along the way, avocado gained a reputation as an aphrodisiac, mainly because of its nutritional value. Learn how all that happened and how we got the delicious dish we call guacamole at Histories. -Thanks, WTM!
(Image credit: Nikodem Nijaki)
Toys 'R' Us rose to glory during the Baby Boom, spreading joy across the United States. As an 80s kid, I regarded it an almost supernaturally happy place. Many other Gen X kids did, too.
Alas, the company did not survive online retailing. It went bankrupt 2017, although the brand survives in some stores, tugging at lingering nostalgia.
It is that nostalgia that the film studio Story Kitchen, which has thrived with video game to film adaptations, wishes to exploit. Variety reports that a live-action film based on the toy store chain is in pre-production. It will be similar in tone to Night at the Museum, Big, and Back to the Future.
The American aircraft carrier Yorktown (CV-5, as distinguished from CV-10, which is now a museum ship) fought the Japanese at Coral Sea and Midway. It was in the latter engagement that she sank to the Pacific Ocean floor 18,000 feet below. Its location was discovered in 1998.
The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) recently conducted dives to its hangar deck and took photos of parts of the ship not seen since 1942. The finds include a well-preserved mural and Dauntless dive bombers. There is also a car.
Automotive historian David Burge identifies it as a 1941 or 1942 Ford Woody station wagon. It was most likely a staff car used by Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher during visits to ports, as that particular car model was commonly used for that purpose.
When Kristine met this fat cat, he was so big that he was named Biggie. Biggie weighed 43 pounds! For reference, the last time I took a cat to the vet, he weighed eight pounds, and I thought he was overweight. Biggie is a heckin' chonker, as they say. Kristine took him in and put him on a diet. Big orange cats are known to be very food-motivated, so Biggie was not happy with the amount of food. But he lost weight over time, and went from barely being able to move to playing with toys and walking all over the house. There was a period when he could walk downstairs, but not upstairs, which meant Kristine had to haul his behemoth butt back up. The family's success with Biggie led them to found The Big House Sanctuary and Rehab to help overweight cats get healthy. They've published an online guide called A Quick Guide to Dechonking. This video has a 30-second sponsor message at :30.
Advertisers in the 20th century brought our attention to shameful and scary conditions that sold a lot of products, like ring around the collar, dishpan hands, and halitosis. Dishpan hands was a real thing, a case of eczema caused by lengthy exposure to hot water and detergent, which you don't hear about anymore because we have smaller families and dishwashers. But in the 1930s and '40s, Lux dishwashing detergent had a campaign that shamed women for dishpan hands that embarrassed their husbands. The advertising reached further than Lux ever imagined.
In 1948, a Soviet delegate to the UN explained that the reason Soviet women were not allowed to leave the country with foreign husbands was because that in the West wives became kitchen slaves and developed dishpan hands.
Now, we shouldn't take anything a Soviet diplomat said at face value, but you have to wonder if this was a claim to give credence to a harsh policy while dissing the US, or whether the Soviets were just strangely influenced by American advertising. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: ladies Home Journal, 1945)
Australian twins Bridgette and Paula Powers spoke to a TV journalist after witnessing a carjacking incident in which their mother tried to help after the car crashed. But you probably don't need to catch every detail of the crime, because that's overshadowed by how they told the story. The sisters are so in tune with each other that whatever one says, the other is already saying!
This interview is not the first time that Bridgette and Paula have gone viral. They've been called "the world's most identical twins" since they were quite young. Yes, they always dress alike, and they do everything together. The Powers sisters say they have tried in the past to speak on their own and to wear different clothing because people thought they were weird, but it never felt right to them. The way they speak in unison makes us wonder whether they have some kind of telepathy, or if they long ago got into the habit of predicting the next word our of their sister's mouth. -Thanks, Brother Bill!
Movie mistakes happen all the time. The process of creating a feature film involves so many details that it's inevitable that something wrong will make it to the final print. Usually these mistakes are so small and flash by so fast that the vast majority of viewers will never notice. But in the age of home video with pause and rewind capabilities, movie buffs will find them. Filmmaker Todd Vaziri shows us a few of those details from movies like Aliens, Glory, and Goodfellas, but the one he investigated himself is the real story here.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith came out in 2005. It was ten years later that fans began discussing a strange artifact during the final battle on Mustafar between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in which a human figure, which came to be called a force ghost, appeared. It was a complicated scene, and no one at Lucasfilm was able to explain it. But in 2024, Vaziri, who works at Industrial Light & Magic, decided to put in whatever time it took to investigate the glitch. He unearthed the raw footage from the scene before it was composited and discovered who that mysterious figure was and how he got into the movie. You can read that story at FXRant. -via kottke
