For decades, the Scooby Doo franchise has been popular and well-received by people. Even now, the names Shaggy, Scooby, Velma, Fred, and Daphne still ring a bell for both the old and the young as the “meddling kids” who catch ghosts and monsters (who are revealed to be just people at the end of each episode). But what were they like before they became “meddling kids”? This is what the 2020 film SCOOB! explores.

With Will Forte as Shaggy and Frank Welker reprising his iconic role of Scooby-Doo, SCOOB! tells the story of how the two pals met, and how they started solving mysteries with Fred (Zac Efron), Daphne (Amanda Seyfried), and Velma (Gina Rodriguez). The full-length animated film also features Kiersey Clemons, Ken Jeong, and Tracy Morgan.

SCOOB! will debut in theaters on May 15, 2020.

Are you looking forward to this film?

(Video Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures/ YouTube)

In Colombia lives a family with the tragic legacy of forgetfulness.

UC Santa Barbara neuroscientist Kenneth S. Kosik states that the people in this family suffer from Alzheimer’s predictably at age 45-50.

Their aggressive, genetic form of the disease has been passed down from generation to generation, causing rapid cognitive and physical declines in both the men and the women of this family.

Many scientists have been studying this family from their brains to their genes for decades. They were even able to trace the specific gene mutation of the disease as far as the time of Spanish conquistadors.

During their studies, they were able to see firsthand the onset of the disease as the members of this particular family enter into their middle years. Sometimes the onset happens sooner, and sometimes it happens later. Nevertheless, all paths have led to one point.

One woman from the family, however, has defied the odds.

Now in her late 70s, she has the mutant gene — and the plaques of amyloid protein that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease — yet she has exhibited no signs of cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer’s.

“When you find an escapee, it’s extremely interesting,” said Kosik, co-author of a study that appears in the journal Nature Medicine. The woman, and others who are considered outliers in the normal trend of neurodegeneration of this family, may present hints at a new approach for therapy for and even prevention of the disease, he said.

Head over at The Current to know more about this interesting phenomenon.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Tumisu/ Pixabay)

This strange animation by cool3Dworld starts out weird with five green guys riding a tandem bike, then gets exciting when they anger a hot dog man, almost turns tragic, but then ends with a dose of friendship and cooperation. It's still pretty weird, though. -via Everlasting Blort

From the top of Huascarán, the highest mountain in Earth’s tropics, the western Andes valleys look peaceful and calming. From there, signs of climate change, such as the melting glaciers in the Andes, and the changes in the water supplies of the local villages, are not immediately evident. Scientists, however, are aware that these signs do exist, and they know that they are there.

It’s part of why they’ve traveled so far, from the United States, Mexico, Italy, Peru, France and Russia, and tackled this harrowing climb to more than 22,000 feet: to visit the glaciers at the top and to drill columns of glacier ice to send back to The Ohio State University for analysis. The ice holds many clues to what has happened in Earth’s atmosphere and in the climate of the region over the last 20,000 years. And, if Earth keeps warming, the glacier might not be there for much longer.

[...]

Huascarán is a peak in the Cordillera Blanca range in northern Peru. Thompson has been here before, in 1980, 1992, 1993, 2016, and in the summer of 2019 he led a group of scientists back to see how the glacier had changed and to collect new ice samples.

Because of its altitude, Huascarán is one of the more challenging and dangerous peaks on which Thompson and his crew have drilled. But that altitude also protects the ice. Currently glaciers at lower altitudes, where it is warmer, are melting rapidly and Huascarán’s glacier will eventually melt, too, but for now, it is likely one of the few remaining intact tropical glaciers in the world.

More details about this over at Ohio State News.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Ohio State News)

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Frans Hofmeester strung together video clips of his daughter Lotte’s face taken every week from birth to twelve years old. Yes, this kind of thing has been done before, but this is a little different. Using video instead of still pictures highlights how much little girls talk while getting their picture made. -via Buzzfeed

Keena Roberts had gone to school occasionally, but had spent most of her time with her parents researching the social life of baboons in Botswana. Then suddenly, when she was 14, she went to high school in Philadelphia. Does that remind you of a certain 2004 movie?

“So who do you like, Keena?” The girl asking me took a sip of her Diet Snapple and quirked up one side of her mouth. I had no idea what her name actually was, but I had been calling her “Crushy” in my head because that’s all she ever talked about — who had crushes on whom, and who knew about them. The other girls at the lunch table stared at me, and I clenched and unclenched my hands under the table, trying to think of the right thing to say. I looked past Crushy to the “cool” part of the cafeteria, where a bunch of senior girls from the varsity lacrosse team were eating. Truth is, I did have a crush on one of them, a paralyzing crush that made me almost pass out when she gave me a high five after practice one day. But I knew enough not to talk about it.

“Uh … Alex is nice?” I picked a boy from our class with floppy hair who wasn’t (A) an asshole or (B) an idiot. Seemed like a good enough choice for this conversation, right? Crushy burst out laughing.

“You can’t like Alex!” she shouted.

“Shut up,” I hissed, as heads at other tables turned toward us. “I didn’t even say that I did! Just that he was nice.”

“He’s way too cool for you,” Crushy went on. “And too hot. Only Meghan or Sam can like him. They’re both as cool and hot as he is.”

The difference between Roberts' story and Mean Girls is how Roberts used her knowledge of social hierarchies in baboon society to negotiate the world of an American high school. She wrote a book about her experience called Wild Life. Read -or listen to- an excerpt that lays out the scenario of her high school days at Narratively.

(Image credit: Brian Britigan)

On November 7, a group of about a dozen friends went on a leisurely bike ride of four miles, ending at a familiar cafe. Along the way, they broke through white tape strung across a footbridge. And that's when Russ Mantle became the first person from the UK to log a million miles on a bicycle. The 82-year-old Mantle has been cycling since 1951, and kept meticulous accounts of his rides, from his competition days to bike tours of the various continents.  

Russ, a former civil servant, said: “I’m completely overwhelmed by the interest in the amount of miles I’ve cycled.

“I haven’t really been going for it, the miles have just naturally piled up because I enjoy cycling so much that’s it’s just natural to be a mile-eater.

“This year is my lowest mileage year at 8,000 miles. Hitting a million miles is just another milestone. On to the next one. Maybe when I’m 100 I’ll make two million!”

Read more about Mantle's accomplishment and see a video at at Cycling UK.

(Image credit: Robert Spanring/Cycling UK)

Sora News 24 introduces us to Twitter user @kusabanaasobi, an origami master who specializes in leaves, acorns, and other fallen products of autumn. She can make fairies, butterflies, Santa Claus, crayons, and more appear from these natural materials. Best of all, her Twitter feed is filled with videos that show you how you can do it, too.

South African visitors brought a 2019 Rugby World Cup ball to Antarctic waters and tossed it back and forth with a beluga. Perhaps they are recruiting for some rival of the Springboks, who won the championship this year.

-via Twisted Sifter

When I saw our hero's Jayne Cobb hat and the Star Wars shirt, I had to start watching the video. It just kept getting better, especially the bit about what the would-be victim happened to be doing while alone in his apartment when the attack took place.

Ben Ball of Oshtemo Township, Michigan is a medieval combat reenactor. He knows how to swing a sword and an axe around and make it land where he wants it to. So the home invader stood no chance and fled. Police followed his trail of blood to his location and arrested him.

I keep arguing with my wife that we need swords at home for just this very reason. If a home invasion takes place, I won't have time to retrieve a gun. And in Texas, the open carry of swords is now legal. So are Jayne Cobb hats.

-via Dave Barry

Slytherin Harry Potter Knit Brim Hat

Looking for a winter hat that fits your sharp and slick style? Behold the Slytherin Harry Potter Knit Brim Hat from the NeatoShop. This devilishly fun headpiece is perfect for those cunning and ambitious people who aren't afraid to show of their Harry Potter Style. 

It doesn't take a degree in Dark Arts to recognize that this hat features a smart green and white design.  Notice the attractive brim and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Slytherin House logo on the side. This make the perfect gift for wizards, witches, or muggles who aren't afraid to be daring with their winterwear. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Apparel & Accessories. New items arriving all the time. 

Don't forget to stop by the store to see our large selection of customizable apparel and bags. We specialiize in curvy and Big and Tall sizes. We carry baby 6 mo. to adult 10 XL shirts. We know that fun, fabulous, and Harry Potter loving people come in every size. 

YouTuber My Microscopic World modified his microscope to harness polarized light, which illuminates tiny creatures in amazing ways. Larva that wear armor shimmer under polarized light as their segments change angle. In other creatures, you can see their internal organs: muscles, eggs, and even what they have recently eaten. Oh yeah, the footage was shot on an iPhone. -via Metafilter

In 1066, William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded England and defeated the Anglo-Saxon king. As William gradually asserted authority over England, some Anglo-Saxon nobles, unwilling to tolerate the new situation, decided to leave the country.

They packed their goods and most loyal men into ships and sailed for the Mediterranean. There, after some piratical adventures, they entered the service of the Byzantine emperor, as Constantinople was then under siege. As a reward for their service, the emperor gave them the right to settle in (and enforce his authority over) the Crimean peninsula.

The location of the Anglo-Saxon settlement is uncertain. One possibility is Arkhipo-Osipovka, east of Crimea. It is photographed above.

Dr. Caitlin Green, a medieval historian and archaeologist, details their adventures and the evidence for them here.

-via Aelfred the Great

Images: C. Green and Yuriy75, respectively.

Boba Fett was a minor character in the 1980 movie The Empire Strikes Back. He was killed off in Return of the Jedi in 1983. Years later, the world was connected by the internet and suddenly Boba Fett was an "iconic character." What? It turns out that the popularity of the mysterious bounty hunter hinged upon a certain age group of Star Wars fans who thought he looked really cool. It might have flown under your radar, but before The Empire Strikes Back, Fett was a cartoon character who appeared in The Star Wars Holiday Special. And he was already an action figure. Jason Fry tells of his Boba Fett experience.

The only thing he knew about the intergalactic bounty hunter, which made its brief debut in the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, was that he looked incredibly cool. With his identity hidden underneath a Stormtrooper-type mask, Boba Fett wore blue and yellow armor, a red cape, carried a jet pack and handgun, and roamed the galaxy without any affiliation. “He was the only good thing about it,” Fry remembers of the infamous cartoon. Once the 10-year-old had unboxed the mysterious mercenary, a year before the character’s official debut in The Empire Strikes Back, his imagination took over. “I probably thought up a hundred little Boba Fett stories using Kenner figures before I ever got to see Empire,” says Fry, who has since made a career writing dozens of Star Wars extended universe novels. “Everything about that figure was just so exciting.”

Fett's quick death didn't stop him. He got a backstory during the prequel trilogy in Attack of the Clones, plus a resurrection in the Expanded Universe. And now he's the inspiration behind the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. Read a history of Boba Fett, from his original design process to his rise as a fan favorite at the Ringer. -via Digg

Rod Dreher, an American writer, has recently been traveling in Russia. He brought home this unusual dessert: pine cones preserved in syrup. Dreher describes them:

Just tasted them. Not great. Tastes like ... eating a pine cone. . . . If you cook the little bitty ones down in syrup, they become soft. It's kind of like eating a caramel. A caramel made out of sugar and pine tar.

The blog Russia Beyond says that you can eat pine cones in other ways, too. These include pine cone tea, pine cone "honey", and pine cone booze. In the last case, the pine cone should be consumed as a digestif and not consumed in great quantities.