When people saw this viral video on TikTok, they at first thought this animal was a llama, a dog, or a bobcat. Other, more amusing guesses include Chewbacca, a horse, or a toddler in a Halloween costume. This is Zeus, a Maine coon cat from Moldova that stands a meter tall (39 inches) on his back feet! Measured horizontally on four legs, he's 1.2 meters (47 inches) from his nose to the tip of his tail. You can get a better sense of this cat's size when his feline housemate is in the picture, because she's a normal sized cat. Zeus towered over her even when he was just a kitten. The number of videos of Zeus will tell you that this isn't a matter of forced perspective like other internet Maine coon cats, -he's just a big boy. You can keep up with Zeus's life at TikTok and at Instagram. -via Boing Boing
What if your favorite Looney Tunes cartoons happened in the Star Wars universe? Or more specifically, what if Wile E. Coyote and the roadrunner were droids on a ship of the Empire? AFK presents this short as a part of their series For the Empire (previously at Neatorama) They refer to it as a "cartoon," even though it's quite realistically animated by artificial intelligence, namely Unreal Engine. But the music, the sound effects, the action, the camera angles, and the familiar elements from the roadrunner cartoons are all there. An Astromech resembling a mechanical Darth Vader is bedeviled by a quick-moving Mouse Droid. What can he do but order a miniature death star from ACME? Keep your eye out for the printed signs everywhere that make up for the lack of dialogue. One that is rendered in binary actually says "Help!" As entertaining as this cartoon is, it's only 4:30; the rest is an ad. -via Geeks Are Sexy
The most common pop culture depiction of a ghost is a floating apparition that appears to be covered in a white sheet. That is a lasting image from Britain over the past few centuries, when poor people were often buried in a bedsheet, wrapped up as they were laying on their deathbed, instead of being buried in a coffin. It only made sense that they'd be wearing that sheet when they reappeared to haunt us. But it was also cemented in the popular image because of those who put bedsheets over their heads to impersonate ghosts and cause their own mischief, ranging from pranks to serious crimes, such a rape and murder. These "bedsheet ghosts" frightened the more superstitious, and even those who weren't superstitious knew the fellows in the bedsheets were up to no good.
In 1804, a spate of ghost sightings in Hammersmith, on the west end of London, had everyone on edge. Was it a real supernatural ghost, or an impersonator in a bedsheet meaning to cause harm? The only real difference was how much fear each identity would cause in the potential victims. When Francis Smith took his gun out in the night to look for the Hammersmith ghost, he was on edge, but did not expect to shoot a man who was merely trying to protect his wife from the same ghost. The strange part of the case was that there was neither a ghost nor a criminal wearing a bedsheet involved in that night's crime, but merely the fear of those things. Read about the case of the Hammersmith ghost and the consequences of Smith's trial, at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Phiz)
Identical twins are formed when one fertilized egg results in two babies, who are then genetically identical. But are they really identical? The person we are is a factor of both genetics and environmental factors. Studies of identical twins separated at birth amaze us with the similarities that two people can have after being raised in different families. Genetics can be very strong- but they aren't everything. You might expect identical twins who were raised together to be, well, identical. But even when they share everything, including their mother's womb, there are environmental differences that leave a lasting mark. Did one fetus have a larger placenta? Did one twin spend more time sick as a child? Did they prefer different foods with different nutritional values? Or did either undergo a cell mutation at any point in their lives? Jaida Elcock of SciShow gives us a lot of different reasons why identical twins may not be quite identical. Knowing all this is pretty neat, but it's still not going to help you tell those two apart. There's a 50-second skippable ad at 3:30. -via Laughing Squid
David Kunst was a restless 30-year-old with dreams in 1970. We don't know all the factors that went into his decision to walk around the world, but it was a big, brash project that appealed to him, and to his brothers. Now, the world is mostly ocean, and David didn't walk across those, but crossed continent after continent on foot. He and his younger brother John secured a financial sponsor and letters of introduction from Minnesota senators Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale. They had a wagon of supplies pulled by a mule, or actually several wonderfully-named mules, but only one at time. They walked from Minnesota to the east coast, then from Spain across Eurasia. Despite diplomatic efforts, they couldn't get permission to cross through the Soviet Union or China, so they took more dangerous routes. That led to John's death when he was shot by bandits. But David walked on, with his other brother Pete joining him. In Australia, David met his second wife. He finally made it all the way around the world when he walked back into Minnesota four years after walking out. Read the story of David Kunst's impossible quest at Smithsonian.
Between 1942 and 1981, Billy Wilder co-wrote and directed 25 movies that included Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Double Indemnity, The Spirit of St. Louis, Sabrina, Sunset Boulevard, and The Seven Year Itch. All of these are quality films, but what made them that way? Wilder was a storyteller, a collaborator, and as a director, he intimately knew how he wanted the story to be told. Wilder was a master of the double entendre, or verbal irony. His characters always had underlying motives that the audience could understand because of the way he directed the actors. Nothing was what it seemed, but the viewer was always in on the act. Wilder managed to make everyday characters rich with depth no matter what kind of people they are. Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting (previously at Neatorama) explains what makes each Billy Wilder film the unmistakable treasure it is while maintaining a uniqueness at the same time.
Vogue reports on a fashion show that took place on October 1 in front of Cinderella's Castle at the Paris location of Disneyland. Kylie Jenner snatched audience attention with a surprise appearance, but I don't think that she was wearing these gorgeous shoes.
Rin Tin Tin was a German shepherd who became the star of a series of Hollywood movies in the 1920s, playing himself as a hero of all sorts. His movies were so successful that the dog has been credited for saving Warner Bros. from bankruptcy. You probably already knew that. But you might not know Rin Tin Tin's origins. He was born in France in the midst of World War I.
When the Allies took over a section of northern France from German occupation, American soldier Lee Duncan was among those tasked with searching through what the Germans left behind. In an abandoned military kennel, Duncan found a starving mother dog with five puppies less than a week old. After their rescue, Duncan kept two of the puppies, and snuck them aboard a ship when he returned after the war. One was Rin Tin Tin. Back in California, Duncan entered his dog in shows, but more importantly, showed him to friends involved in the movie business. Rin Tin Tin got his start in film by playing wolves, then worked his way up to top billing. Read the biography of the biggest dog in Hollywood at Vintage Everyday. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
If the earth had no predators, then the rest of the animals would live without fear, and flourish in their own ways, right? The lion laying down with the lamb, so to speak. But in the real world, nature tries to balance all animals, plants, and even microbes into their own ecological niche. We can speculate as to the effects of a predator-less world, but it's already happened in real life, with an accidental experiment in Venezuela. Lost predators mess with every layer of the ecosystem underneath them, including plants and insects, in what is called a "trophic cascade." Minute Earth tells that story.
Venezuela is not the only place where this lesson has been learned. Another real-world experiment revealed the massive effects only after predators were re-introduced, when wolves were re-introduced to Yellowstone National Park. The effects become more notable the longer the experiment continues. Sooner or later, we will learn to stop messing with Mother Nature. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Source: CandyStore.com.
The Candy Store has been surveying and tabulating the USA's best-loved Halloween candies for years, and many of those years, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups has reigned at the top of the list. But not this year. They've crunched the numbers to find out what kind of candy is being purchased the most for Halloween. The interactive map above will tell you the top three candies in each state. Strangely, candy corn made the top ten, even though people often cite it as the worst Halloween candy. But that list is based on sales. We are all familiar with the concept of buying much cheaper candy to give away to trick-or-treaters than if we were eating it ourselves.
If you want to know what people think, there's also the list of the ten worst and ten best Halloween candies by popular opinion. As expected, candy corn made the "worst" list, even though people buy it like crazy. It strikes me that most of the candies on the "worst" list are relatively hard to find, but Baby Boomers buy them out of nostalgia, and young trick-or-treaters are not impressed. As you might guess, the top ten favorites lean heavily toward more expensive chocolate. -via Fark
The colossal sculpture of four presidents on the side of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota is actually titled Shrine of Democracy. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum designed the 60-foot-tall heads and supervised their construction from 1927 to 1941. Everyone who sees it asks "How'd they do that?" Let's take a look at the process of pulling those president's faces out of the sheer rock cliff face. It was far from easy. There was the problem of access, meaning they had to build roads to the site, and even harder, get power to the hydraulic tools used to carve the faces. And imagine the guys who had to spend eight hours a day hanging over the side of a cliff using jackhammers. An ingenious system had to be designed to tell the workers where and how deep to carve. The sculpture on Rushmore was never completely finished, but what was accomplished was a marvel of old-fashioned (meaning non-computer) know-how. There's a 60-second skippable ad at 4:00, and the last half-minute is promotional. -via Laughing Squid
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde can be just a scary yarn about a monster or a deep philosophical exploration. Robert Louis Stevenson's tale looks at the duality of the psyche, the good and evil that reside together in one man. In the story, they came out at different times of the day, the kind and respectable Jekyll in daylight, and the murderous Hyde at night. A true case of murder may have been the inspiration for the story.
Stevenson had an acquaintance in Edinburgh, Scotland, that was a French teacher at an exclusive school. Eugène Chantrelle was a friendly fellow to those around, and obviously loved his children. But he abused his wife for years until she died under mysterious circumstances. The cause of her death was hard to determine as there were so many suspicious circumstances- was it the gas Chantrelle left on, the opiates found in his home, or the poison he hoarded? Read about Eugène Chantrelle and the split personality he displayed at CrimeReads. -via Damn Interesting
My 6-year-old asked where the music goes after we listen to it. I didn’t know whether to go into how sound waves travel, or explain that music isn’t tangible in the way he might think. Maybe this is just a philosophical question. Where DOES the music go?
— Kiss my Fat Ash🍑 (@Tobi_Is_Fab) October 1, 2024
On X, writer @Tobi_Is_Fab, offers up to the world a weighty question posed by her young son.
Some crimes, and the criminals that made them happen, become globally famous, like Charles Manson, the Menendez Brothers, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Jeffrey Dahmer. But even if you follow true crime novels, movies, and websites, there are plenty of other big crimes that didn't get such publicity.
It's true that those who commit horrific crimes do not deserve to be famous, which is why you can't name any of the mass shooters from the past couple of decades (besides there being too many to keep up with). But you might want to learn about some of the lesser-publicized crimes from the historical record in this video from Weird History. They include not only murder, but fraud, counterfeiting, arms dealing, sexual abuse, and more. If you'd rather read them than listen to Tom Blank tell us these stories, you can do that at Ranker. In fact, that list contains more stories.
Did you know Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay for John Huston's 1956 film, Moby Dick? Here, they're discussing pages of the script. #RayBradbury #BradburyInHollywood #FunFact #FunFactFriday pic.twitter.com/UV0R3XVPIJ
— Ray Bradbury Official (@raybradbury) June 28, 2024
Even as he became a literary icon in science fiction, Ray Bradbury was an avid fan of John Huston movies. At an opportunity to meet Huston, Bradbury expressed his admiration and gave Huston a few of his books. After reading them, Huston called Bradbury and proposed making a movie out of one of Bradbury's books, but it was not to be. Instead, Huston eventually hired Bradbury to write a screenplay for Moby Dick -a book Bradbury hadn't even read.
That's how Bradbury ended up spending six months in Ireland rewriting the notoriously difficult Moby Dick for the big screen. He made more money than he ever had before, but was treated horribly by Huston. Maggie Bradbury considered conditions so bad that she took their children and went to Italy. The experience was so taxing that Bradbury turned down all the screenwriting offers that poured in afterward. The moral of the story is to never meet your heroes. Read about the screenwriter behind Moby Dick and the ordeal that project turned out to be at the Los Angeles Review of Books. -via Strange Company
