Tropical storm Florence, formerly a hurricane, is busy lingering over North Carolina and South Carolina, dumping floodwater over a large portion of both states. People who live near the coast know that hurricanes happen, and that each one brings different problems. In South Carolina, they also know that hurricane forecasts will bring sightings of the Gray Man.
Over the last week, some South Carolinians were talking about a different, folkloric warning sign, a ghost known as the Gray Man, believed to appear in the small town of Pawleys Island as a harbinger of hurricanes. While there is disagreement surrounding details (common to many ghost stories)—like who the Gray Man is supposed to have been and when he first appeared—the tale’s basic contours are generally accepted. In sum, a man was returning to his beloved on Pawleys Island after a long time away, but died in quicksand before arriving. Since then, he has been said to appear shortly before hurricanes, as a signal that it’s time to leave the island. He is also believed to preserve the homes of those he meets.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk threw together a personal flamethrower and sold a ton of them through his Boring Company to raise some quick cash. The boxes were labeled "Not a Flamethrower," and that's what they came to be called. No one disputes that they are dangerous, but how do they stack up against professional and military grade flamethrowers? Watch and see as DriveTanks.com test three models. If you want to skip the unboxing, the flames begin at 2:00. -via Digg
A Ripperologist is one who is interested in (or obsessed with) the study of Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel Murders of 1888, but the field also includes emphasis on Victoriana of all sorts in general and the East End of London in particular. More books have been written on Jack the Ripper than on all US Presidents combined, and interest in Jack has never been higher.
The magazine Ripperologist is the foremost of several publications dedicated to promotion and discussion of Ripperology, and it is now a free e-zine, available through this link. Back issues are available as free downloads to the point at which Ripperologist was converted from a print magazine
Emphasis is also given to other serial killers and infamous Victorian criminals, and scarcely an issue is to be found that does not contain something profound concerning crimes and/or events that you most probably have heard of before. Prepared to be overwhelmed by detail and minutiae that you never expected to exist for such things.
And if that's not enough, be advised that I used to write for Ripperologist and my work can be found - somewhere - in its pages. See if you can find me.
Bill Holbrook, a cartoonist in Georgia, writes and draws two syndicated newspaper comic strips, these being On the Fastrack and Safe Havens. In an unusual twist for a cartoonist, he also writes and draws a third comic strip, this being the webcomic Kevin & Kell (an intended alliterative pun of Heaven and Hell). Following is a summary derived from the website.
Years ago, Kevin Kindle the rabbit and Kell Dewclaw the wolf met in an online chat room. After falling head over heels for each other, they decided to meet in person. It wasn't until then that they realized they were from separate ends of the food chain.
However, the relationship they'd developed online overcame Kevin's instinct for self-preservation, and Kell's heart melted from such a demonstration of trust. Kell was energetic and vivacious, qualities Kevin had found lacking in herbivores. Such a relationship between predator and prey seemed doomed to fail but these two opposites were determined to overcome the barriers that society placed in their path.
They eventually married, knowing good and well they would become outcasts. They settled in the suburb of Domain, which borders both a large metropolitan area and an uncharted region known simply as The Wild. A year later, Kell gave birth to Coney, a carnivorous female bunny who inherited Kevin's big ears and Kell's meaty appetite.
Other than their unconventional pairing, these woodland Bradys are not unlike a typical American family. Kevin and Kell live within a tree (at the corner of Tooth and Nail Streets) containing all the comforts of a suburban home: TV, indoor plumbing and neighbors with binoculars. Kell now works as CEO of a company that supplies meat to supermarkets through predation. Kevin owns and operates an Internet Service Provider called Hare-Link from the basement of their home. Family members and many other animals appear as regular characters, and in a running plot line, all marriages are almost always between different species, most often predator and prey.
Continuities vary from simple dailies to complex storylines that run for weeks on end. Plots typically involve some sort of high-tech but also run a gamut of topics such as friendship, relationships, family issues, workplace issues, and personal conflicts. Two things are certain - 1) you've never seen a comic strip like this before and 2) animals are every bit as neurotic as humans (who, by the way, make occasional appearances in the strip).
Kevin & Kell may be found at https://www.kevinandkell.com, embedded in which are links to Holbrook's other strips, and most surprisingly, to Hare-Link itself, which is a real ISP. Check it out and you may find, as I did, that it is a good daily read.
Banana artist (bananartist?) Stephan Brusche of isteef has recreated Marilyn Monroe's famous "Flying Skirt" scene from the 1954 film The Seven Year Itch with banana.
For some reason, news outlets send reporters into hurricane areas that have been evacuated. The reporters tell us that everyone should leave, yet they stay to give us visuals that we don't need. Are they risking their lives unnecessarily? Often, no. Today, people have been sharing a video from The Weather Channel in which a reporter is working hard to stand up against the wind, but it doesn't seem to affect the two guys walking in the background.
Adam Gordon and friends had a little time on their hands, and figured they could do their own report. -via reddit
Serbian duo Ivana Jelic and Pavle Petrovic created this real life version of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night for the 7th annual Amsterdam Light Festival.
This year's exhibition will feature 30 artwork with the theme "The Medium is the Message." Take a look at many more fantastic entries from past festival over at their website.
American graphic artist Aaron Kuehn created this amazing Skeleton Typogram depicting all the bones in the human body typographically using only their names.
Gold miners working in Canada's Yukon territory in 2016 discovered two mummified ice-age mammals - a wolf pup and a caribou - that were kept amazingly intact by the permafrost. Carbon-dating placed the specimens at over 50,000 years old.
"They're spectacular, they're world-class, and we're definitely really excited about them," said Yukon government paleontologist Grant Zazula.
Ice age bones and fossils are often found in Yukon, but mummified carcasses are extremely rare, according to Zazula.
"To our knowledge this is the only mummified ice age wolf ever found in the world."
Your first reaction might be to think that divorce lawyers will just tell you not to get married. That's not what happens at all. In fact, these people are married, and they value marriage as an institution. They have advice to give because they've seen what can go wrong when two people enter a marriage without being fully prepared. -via Tastefully Offensive
Sir Paul McCartney reads what Googles search's autocomplete shows are the most commonly asked questions about him. A lot of these things I already knew, but was surprised to learn that the most successful songwriter alive never really learned to read musical notation. Listening to him reminisce is quite pleasant, as the simplest questions lead to great stories. -via Tastefully Offensive
The 1980’s was a remarkable decade on many fronts, not the least of which was entertainment. There were noteworthy films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, and noteworthy TV series such as Dallas. And then there was Greater Tuna in theater.
The play Greater Tuna is a comedy about Texas' third smallest town (fictional), where the Lion's Club is too liberal and Patsy Cline never dies. The twenty characters seen or heard in the play are portrayed by only two performers (with a small army of behind-the-scenes helpers), making this satire on life in flyover America even more delightful as they depict all of the inhabitants of Tuna - men, women, children - and animals.
Greater Tuna began as a simple party skit based on a political cartoon seen in an Austin, Texas newspaper circa 1980. Creators Joe Sears and Jaston Williams (the original actors), and Ed Howard were the imaginative authors that parlayed the sketch into a critically acclaimed production which has entertained audiences across the country ever since.
Although one must purchase the DVD here to see the original actors, one can click below to view another production of Greater Tuna on YouTube. The play is still on tour nationwide although the original actors have since retired after almost forty years.
Be warned – the play in its original form is NOT politically correct.
The students at North Farmington High School in Michigan have a neat tradition: they can dress up as their favorite pop culture character for their student ID photos.
