The YouTube series Forces of Destiny fills in the gaps between the Star Wars movies. They've posted a lot of animated vignettes since we showed you the first one, Sands of Jakku. In the latest episode, we find out how Leia first met Maz Kanata.
It happened long, long ago... well, you already knew that. It was between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. And now we know where Leia got the disguise she used to infiltrate Jabba's palace. -via The Daily Dot
Pegalion Washington by Hillary White
You don't have to be a history buff or school teacher to enjoy reading and talking about history, because there were so many cool characters and interesting events in mankind's past it's only natural to find it all endlessly fascinating.
And considering how awful things are in the present many more people young and old are about to become history fans too, so join the revolution with a historically themed NeatoShop t-shirt!
History books are full of kooky characters
Crazy epic battles that changed the world
Historical Mashup #4 by Bob Henley
And moments that made mankind matter
But more than anything else history books are full of stories that seem too awesome to be true!
This little girl has put some real thought into her spiel. If you can't fulfill a need for your customers, the next tactic is altruism and guilt. That's when you let them know that proceeds of your sale benefit the local school, charity, or in this case, the Gopher Guides. When that fails, you have to bring out the big guns. Always have another reason for them to buy. Avoiding future awkwardness must be worth at least five dollars. This is the latest comic from Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble.
And if you enjoy Hallbeck's comics, you'll want to read a personal message from the artist.
Boo Boo was always stuck playing second banana to that lovable glutton Yogi Bear even though Boo Boo was often the only one keeping Yogi from becoming a bear skin rug.
And yet poor little Boo Boo never got his day in the sun, nor did he get his fair share of the pickanick baskets he helped Yogi steal, so who can blame him for having a teensy weensy existential crisis?
Boo Boo Runs Wild is an awesome animated short created by John Kricfalusi of Ren & Stimpy fame that shows what it would be like if Boo Boo broke free of the bow tie and embraced his feral side. It's a real humdinger of a cartoon show!
The vernal equinox occurs today at 12:15 Eastern Daylight Time. That's when the earth reaches the spot in its revolution around the sun where the planet's tilt causes the direct line of the sun to cross the equator from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere. So we have reached the point where the Northern Hemisphere will have days longer than nights. But the important part is that today is when winter ends and spring begins! The equinox involves science, space, weather, history, folklore, and fun. Read about all these things as they pertain to the equinox at Vox.
(Image credit: Flickr user Ruslan)
Real ramen heads don't give a crap about slurping, and many Japanese ramen chefs consider slurping to be a compliment, but if you're forced to eat ramen around people who don't appreciate a good slurp you may need to eat quietly.
Or better yet grab one of these "Otohiko" noise canceling noodle forks and slurp away with impunity! The Otohiko noodle fork was created by Nissin to battle "noodle harassment" by drowning out the sound of slurping with music:
Do you know an international issue “Noodle Harassment”? People say that the slurping noise Japanese people make when they eat noodles makes people from abroad uncomfortable. …The moment that the high powered directional mic equipped on the fork detects the sound of noodles slurping, it transmits that signal to a dedicated app installed on a smartphone, using short wave radio communication. Sound is then emitted from the smartphone to camouflage the noodle slurping noise.
-Via Laughing Squid
In the 1930s, artist Grant Wood sketched a peculiar small house with a "pretentious" Gothic church window in the front. He later enshrined the house in his painting American Gothic. That house still stands in Eldon, Iowa, and is owned by the State Historical Society. From 2010 to 2014, Beth Howard lived in the house for $250 a month. The rent was cheap because the house is small, is in Eldon, Iowa, and 15,000 tourists visit it every year -which can be a hassle at times.
I eventually got used to being woken by laughter and high-beam headlights shining toward it in the middle of the night when travelers wanted a photo. Sometimes I would turn on the light and give them a scare — who would expect anyone to be living there?
By day, a steady stream of tourists came, posing for pictures (and peeking in the windows) dressed in the free costumes provided by the visitor center — calico smocks with cameos, overalls and black jackets, even the spectacles — and wielding pitchforks of all sizes. They brought their own props, which included a prized Harley Davidson, a fleet of Stanley steam cars, and a herd of llamas. It was the centerpiece of a Klingon calendar shoot, a bare-chested rock band’s album cover, a marriage proposal, a family reunion — a gamut of creativity daily.
Howard talks about the quirks of the preserved 1881 house, and the adventure of living there, at The New York Times. Yes, there are pictures of the inside. -via Boing Boing
(Image credit: Flickr user Carl Wycoff)
Unless you're a biologist or a bit of a freak you probably don't spare much thought to how animal genitalia has evolved over the centuries, but it turns out the private parts of animals are pretty interesting.
And as you can see in this animated short featuring a TED talk on the evolution of animal genitalia given by Dutch biologist/research scientist Menno Schilthuizen "genitals are the fastest-evolving organs in the animal kingdom" and they're all super duper strange.
The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!
Further evidence why the “soft” sciences are the hardest to do well
compiled by Alice Shirrell Kaswell and Bissell Mango, Improbable Research staff
Interacting with Women Can Impair Men’s Cognitive Functioning
“Interacting with Women Can Impair Men’s Cognitive Functioning,” Johan C. Karremans, Thijs Verwijmeren, Tila M. Pronk, and Meyke Reitsma, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 45, no. 4, 2009. (Thanks to Joan Baugh and Vicki Hollett for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, report:
The present research tested the prediction that mixed-sex interactions may temporarily impair cognitive functioning. Two studies, in which participants interacted either with a same-sex or opposite-sex other, demonstrated that men’s (but not women’s) cognitive performance declined following a mixed-sex encounter. In line with our theoretical reasoning, this effect occurred more strongly to the extent that the opposite-sex other was perceived as more attractive (Study 1), and to the extent that participants reported higher levels of impression management motivation (Study 2). Implications for the general role of interpersonal processes in cognitive functioning, and some practical implications, are discussed.
The Sex Lives of Cult Television Characters
“The Sex Lives of Cult Television Characters,” Dr. Sara Gwenllian Jones, Screen, vol. 43 no. 1, Spring 2002, pp. 79–90.
In a Twitter discussion about cooking and eating blood, Drew Magary got this reply:
My grandfather would get a pint of blood from the butcher and fry it up into chewy nuggets. Ate it heavily salted with beer.
— rural elite (@bookofruthless) March 18, 2018
That set off a string of stories about the weird things that people's grandpas would do. Some stories were about habits left over from different times. Some were about showing how hardcore they were. And some were pranks from old men who wanted to laugh at their grandchild's naivety.
My grandfather would eat heads of garlic like they were apples. One time, my father said, “Jesus, did you eat a whole head of garlic?” Charlie said, “Well, yeah, but I had a piece of gum afterward. You can still tell?”
— Vince Guerrieri (@vinceguerrieri) March 18, 2018
My grandpa ate onions like apples, and Friday night was Swanson Fried Chicken TV Dinner Night, no exceptions. If grandma wanted to go out for dinner, he would bring a tv dinner along and make the restaurant heat it up.
— James Korsmo (@TTSO_James) March 18, 2018
Once when we were hanging out with my Grandpa, my 4 y/o little sister asked if he had any gum. He looked around conspiratorially and then gave her Copenhagen. My mom was not happy.
— Josh Johnson (@double_j36) March 18, 2018
"Fried egg sandwich."
— Mitchel Durnell (@MitchelDurnell) March 18, 2018
"I'm sorry sir, we don't -"
"I know you have eggs, and bread. Fried egg sandwich."
There are a bunch of the best Tweets about grandpas and their weird ways at The Concourse. Found at Metafilter, where you'll find a lot more grandpa stories.
Books by ursulalopez
Every book contains one or more mysteries, something (or someone) fantastic, and a bunch of intriguing moments that keep readers turning those pages, which is why books are the most addictive thing on Earth. People have been reading books for centuries and aren't going to stop anytime soon, and even though the Digital Age was supposed to replace books with files and pages with bytes people still have a lotta love for the feel of a physical copy in their hands. That's why books are still the best food for a hungry mind!
Share some imagination with everyone you meet by wearing this Books t-shirt by Ursulalopez, it's a fantastic way to show love for your favorite pastime- reading a good book!
Visit ursulalopez's Facebook fan page, official website, Twitter and Instagram, then head on over to her NeatoShop for more captivating designs:
| Not in wonder mood | Many Bubbles | Super Hero Bob |
View more designs by ursulalopez | More Fantasy T-shirts | New T-Shirts
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
Bubble wrap is fun to pop and great for keeping delicate stuff safe in storage and during shipping, but it seems like a huge pain in the butt to make.
Knowing nothing about manufacturing one would assume each bubble is inflated individually, but that would take way too long even with the aid of inflating machines plus it seems like a bass ackwards way to make bubble wrap. I'd always assumed they trapped and sealed air between two sheets of plastic, one flat the other covered in little bubbles, but I was wrong too.
As you can see in this How It's Made video featuring a visit the SealedAir factory the bubble is actually formed when they "vacuum the film down then trap the air" using a metal cylinder that looks like a beehive.
-Via Geeks Are Sexy
Fay's Restaurant in New York City was the spot for a fight that made the papers in May of 1910. The eatery kept a container of lobsters on the sidewalk for diners to select for their dinner. A cat named Mattie lived at the restaurant for pest control, but she was always more fascinated with the lobsters. And Miss Rose Leland came in to eat with her bulldog Gus, who was allowed to stay as long as he behaved and his leash was wrapped about Leland's chair.
On this particular spring night, one of the lobsters fell on the sidewalk after the waiter had gone inside. Naturally, Mattie jumped at the opportunity. She had no idea what she was up against.
The lobster clamped its claw onto Mattie’s tail, sending her howling and scurrying through the front door and into the restaurant. Not about to be left out of the fun, Gus the bulldog pulled wildly at his leash–and Miss Leland’s chair–to join in the melee.
Down went Miss Leland, who screamed in horror and then reportedly fainted. Gus caught up with cat and lobster as they ran around the other diners. The lobster released its claw on Mattie and grabbed Gus by the hind leg.
The resulting melee and the punchline from the newspaper story can be found at The Hatching Cat, as well as the history of the Harlem neighborhood in which it took place.
With so many board games coming out every year, many of which have hefty price tags, it's hard to tell which ones are hits and which aren't worth the money- which is where Board Game Geek comes in handy.
The BGG community is made up of gamers with years of experience who are passionate about board games, so they won't pull punches with their reviews when they feel a game didn't live up to the hype.
Take Gloomhaven for example, the community's pick for Board Game of the Year- Gloomhaven has been well hyped since it was in the Kickstarter phase of development, and yet BGG community member Jvandereck believes it doesn't live up to the hype.
Personally, I still want to check out Gloomhaven even after reading Jvandereck's review, but I'll definitely wait until it's going for way less than $200 because that's way too much to play for a game IMO.
Here are the rest of BGG's picks for the Top Board Games of 2017:
Winner – Gloomhaven
Runner Up - Azul
Runner Up - The 7th Continent
Winner – Codenames Duet
Runner Up – Caverna: Cave vs. Cave
Runner Up – The Fox in the Forest
Winner – Photosynthesis
Runner Up – Azul
Runner Up – Sagrada
Winner – Century: Spice Road
Runner Up – Clank! In! Space!
Runner Up – Ethnos
Winner – Gloomhaven
Runner Up – The 7th Continent
Runner Up – Pandemic Legacy: Season 2
Winner – Scythe: The Wind Gambit
Runner Up – Terraforming Mars: Hellas & Elysium
Runner Up – Terraforming Mars: Venus Next
Winner – Azul
Runner Up – Sagrada
Runner Up – Century: Spice Road
Winner – Gloomhaven
Runner Up – The 7th Continent
Runner Up – Magic Maze
Winner – Werewords
Runner Up – Spyfall 2
Runner Up – Tortuga 1667
Winner — My Little Scythe
Runner Up – A4 Quest
Runner Up – Doctor Who: Solitaire Story Game (Second Edition)
Winner — Gloomhaven
Runner Up – The 7th Continent
Runner Up – Nemo’s War (Second Edition)
Winner – Gloomhaven
Runner Up – Clans of Caledonia
Runner Up – Azul
Winner – Gloomhaven
Runner Up – The 7th Continent
Runner Up – This War of Mine: The Board Game
Winner – 878 Vikings – The Invasion of England
Runner Up – Time of Crisis
Runner Up – Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain
-Via Polygon
Science has slang? You betcha! Just ask anyone who's ever referred to a thagomizer. In this video, Bill Nye, the Science Guy, lets us in on some of the shortcuts scientists and science writers use.
Yeah, we've covered quite a few of these over the years, but it's good to have a refresher course. Read more about the spherical cow here. It's obvious that scientists are the coolest nerds there are. -via Tastefully Offensive
