People in Thailand are in an uproar online since they heard that an unnamed all-female school has banned their students from having bangs. The policy of the aforementioned school was first broadcasted online on December 10 by the Education for Liberation of Siam, a student activist group.

The non-profit academic reformation community posted an image of the school's "contract" that were meant to be signed by students and their parents to show they agree to the ban.

In the description of the post, it describes the body of the contract.

"I (parent name) am the parent of (student name) who has acted wrongly," the contract reads. "I consent to the school carrying out regulations according to the rules without any arguments or conditions."

Students who do have bangs are required to pin them back using black hairpins at all times. There were no reasons given for the no bangs rule other than it's supposedly to help students stay tidy.

Many Facebook users are commenting on how ridiculous the bangs ban is.

(Image Credit: Facebook)

Üziel Valles was a happy man, for he had a truck. It was a lovely and vigorous Chevrolet Silverado. Alas, it had one flaw: a yellow hood on an otherwise white body.

John Payan was also a happy man with a Silverado. He, too, loved his truck with the exception of one flaw: a white hood marring the appearance of the yellow body.

Valles posted on a private Facebook group called Denver Dropped Trucks. His cri de coeur was for a white hood. The Internet summoned his truck's soulmate, which was owned by Payan. Jalopnik describes their love story:

Enter: John Payan, who just so happens to have an all-yellow truck with a white hood. Is this destiny? Proof that soulmates do exist? I can’t say for sure, but whatever the case, it’s still a better plot arc than anything that made its way into the Twilight series. [...]

He and Payan even still appear to chat, which is the only thing I could have ever asked for from this story. I could not have accepted any other conclusion. These two fellas swapped hoods, and now they’re bros for life.

-via Core77

this video of cats reacting to cat face filter has me crying. pic.twitter.com/pNDmF8JQ8t

— M (@miaaselaa) December 9, 2019

My, how things have changed since we adopted flat screens. Now dogs and cats see and follow what's going on. When they see themselves on a monitor, it's like looking into a mirror. Yes, cats pass the mirror test, often even in the wild. Pet cats learn it early, since they know what their human looks like, and humans love to pick up cats and look in the mirror. But when something odd happens, like applying a cat face filter, they freak out just a little. Look at me, kitty, I'm still the same old can opener you know and love! -via reddit

The faithful dog in Ipeúna, São Paulo, Brazil, saw that his human packmate was injured. He desperately needed canine support, especially as other, possibly hostile humans were converging around him.

Eventually, he broke free from captivity and rushed to his packmate, placing himself between his friend and numerous enemies. If it came to a fight, he would fight.

You can see the moving full video here. May all humans be worthy of such dogs.

-via Marilyn Terrell

A stick was a unit of measurement in medieval England. 25 eels is a stick. 10 sticks is a bind.

Why is this important? Because that's how your landlord expects his rent to be paid.

Medieval scholar John Wyatt Greenlee has a lot to say about eels. Eels were a big deal back then, when they were plentiful and good eating. They could be used, to an extent, as a form of currency. Greenlee has found that during the 10th and 11th Centuries, there were 221 known eel rental agreements requiring the payment of 539,785 eels. He has an interactive map of eels rents for your convenience. So pack your hovercraft and pay up.

Michele Banks has a good question. I speculate that these digital eel services were available in more modern markets, such as London and York.

-via Marilyn Terrell | Photo: John Wyatt Greenlee

Oh, sure, a lot of you were skeptical of the duct-taped banana being a work of art. But it sold for $120,000 before a performance artist ate it.

Now that's art.

And so Dave Pollot is continuing the banana meme with this gorgeous landscape featuring a duct-taped banana attached to a mountain. He is selling at auction to benefit a charity. So far, the price is $4,500.

That's a far cry from $120,000. But let's admit it: taping a banana to a wall requires skill worth $120,000.

The red leviathan had risen from the abyss to consume the symbol of the glory of America.

Fortunately, these Canadians were on site to rescue it. John Ilett and his friends, salmon farmers, came upon the scene off the northern tip of Vancouver Island. They closed the distance, hooked the beast on a pole, and pulled it off. CNN quotes Illett:

Ilett said he's been working on the water for about 20 years and admits he's seen incredible things, but this encounter ranks as the coolest to date. "It's moments like this why I love my job and being out in the environment where I can work and live," he said. "It's just amazing."

Illett has been reading comments on social media discussing whether or not his team should have intervened and said it's a different feeling when you're watching the situation unfold in front of your own eyes.

"Am I at fault because I'm human and I felt compassion for the bird?" he said. "At the end of the day both animals are alive and well and they went their separate ways and we feel pretty good about what we did."

Thank you, Canada.

-via Richard Hernandez

British athlete and adventurer Kenneth Cecil Gandar-Dower imported a dozen cheetahs in 1936. He planned to stage races featuring both greyhounds and cheetahs and entice people to attend by challenging the dogs' reputation as the world's fastest animal. That would take time, as the cheetahs had to endure quarantine and then training. The idea was controversial, as various journalists and politicians were concerned about the treatment of the dogs, the cheetahs, and their prey. There were also concerns about the danger to the public, although Gandar-Dower assured everyone that cheetahs were both trainable and docile. This, despite a few attacks that led to two of cheetahs being put down.   

But the assertions of domesticity did hold mostly true, and onlookers generally described the behavior of the cheetahs as indifference with a crafty streak. The rabbit attached to the electric hare was always killed in advance, as Gandar-Dower had promised, but had to be extremely fresh to entice the cheetahs. If another cheetah looked likely to win, they gave up quickly, but if the bait went past a turn without a pursuer, the cheetahs were clever enough to cut across the middle of the track. In December of that year, the cheetahs raced for the first time against greyhounds in front of a packed crowd at Romford Stadium, and seemed completely unperturbed by dogs, humans, and even large camera flashbulbs, save for a few domineering swats at a greyhound who got too feisty. Pongo, the tamest of the cheetahs, even allowed children to reach down from the stands and pet him, though another named Helen reportedly spat at a race announcer who tried the same.

We know now that cheetahs are faster than greyhounds, although they have little endurance over long distances. The cheetahs continued racing for several years, while changing owners, trainers, and venues, up to the the beginning of World War II. Read about Gandar-Dower's racing cheetahs at Damn Interesting.

A Japanese robotics company has developed a robotic exoskeleton that turns the wearer into a terrifying 8-foot tall robot. The exoskeleton responds to human touch.

Users inside the robot’s huge frame can move their limbs to control the suit’s arms and legs, while buttons on the robot’s hand grips also allow control of the fingers.

The 'Arrive' suit has been designed and demonstrated by a Tokyo-based company called Skeletonics, which says its products are designed to make you ‘feel as if you were a giant’.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Skeletonics/ Daily Mail)

A Tesla valve has no moving parts, yet restricts the flow of gas in one direction, but not the other. Nikola Tesla was granted a patent for it in 1920.  NightHawkInLight demonstrates how the valve works in the most dangerous way he could think of. -via Boing Boing

The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+ in November 2019 and Internet users can’t seem to get enough of one of the characters known affectionately as “Baby Yoda” or also “The Child.”

Unsurprisingly, in true Twitterverse fashion, users have come up with a fresh set of viral memes. They took a screen capture of Baby Yoda sipping from a cup and inserted their own creative captions for the photo, with one Twitter user calling it “the new “tea” meme of 2020.” These posts have garnered hundreds of thousands of Twitter engagements in total. 

me looking over the new baby yoda memes every week despite not having seen the show and having no idea what’s going on pic.twitter.com/7TQzwGJIXz

— charlotte nicole davis (@cndwrites) November 30, 2019

This tweet perfectly sums up how I’m feeling. 

Head over to the original article at NME. 

(Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd via Twitter)

Okay, let’s face it, dogs are simple animals: they need food, water, shelter, (preferably) a mate and occasionally a bone to chase. Anything other than that may as well be a treat. But today, especially in the cities, we see that they’re one of the most domesticated and humanized animals in existence (on par with cats and other household pets). 

There’s really nothing wrong with showering your dog with care and attention, don’t get me wrong. Let’s just keep in mind that your doggo probably has no idea what Christmas is… other than what they gather from instinctive cues during changes in the season. But who am I to ruin the festive fun? Some people just enjoy setting up elaborate photoshoot sets or dressing up their dogs in (hopefully comfortable) costumes. The Internet sure is one place for pet owners to show off their efforts. 

Check out the original post complete with captions per photo.

Photo: Minnie Zhou / Unsplash

The Nikon Small World in Motion competition celebrates the art of microvideography, that is, bringing us the world of tiny unseen things as they move along, doing their everyday tiny things. The first place winner, shown above, was recorded by Dr. Philippe P. Laissue of the University of Essex School of Life Sciences. It shows an emerging staghorn coral polyp (Acropora muricata). The coral is green and the magenta stuff is algae. It appears to be a time-lapse video, although that isn't specified. I was also really impressed with the third-place winner, by Tommy Gunn and Jesse Gunn.



It shows the carnivorous stylonychia creating a water vortex with its cilia, presumably to draw in even smaller creatures to eat. See, even microscopic animals have fascinating ways to get what they need. You can see the top five videos and honorable mentions here.

When a boy, with her mother, found a 50-yen coin ($0.46) lying on the ground in the park, he insisted that he turn the coin into the police. What’s more, the police responded in a way that impressed the mother.

Japanese mother and Twitter user @amazakeiko learned first-hand how nice the Japanese police can be…

“My son found a 50-yen coin at the park. He said he wanted to turn it in to the police box, so I took him over to one. Multiple policemen came out and listened to his story, then recorded the place and time he found it on an official document. Then they handed him a pencil and said, ‘Can you write your name?’ My son eagerly took up the whole signature space with his big hiragana letters.”

She continued her story in another tweet:

“The oldest policeman said to my son, ‘I’m impressed by your actions today. I’ll always remember what you did.’ I felt really bad for all of the trouble they went through for just 50 yen, but I was really happy to see how seriously the adults listened to my son, and how proud my son looked to be able to write his name.”

I’m really amazed by how the Japanese can pass their values to their children.

(Image Credit: SoraNews24)

Can you spot the snake in the photo? Andrew’s Snake Removal, from Queensland, Australia, posted this photo on Facebook with the caption: 

Ok let's see who's got sharp eyes and who can spot the snake. Bonus bragging rights if you can name the species as well👍🐍fire away.

It took some commenters more than 10 minutes of staring at the photo before giving up, while others were quick to identify the camouflaged, eastern brown snake in the middle-right section. Honestly, the brown twigs lying around just make it all the more perplexing!

Surprise! The original poster uploaded this close-up photo of the snake peeping from the grass. Were you able to spot it in less than 5 minutes? 

Head over to Daily Mail for the full story. 

(Image credit: Andrew's Snake Removal / via Daily Mail)