It's been more than a year now since astronaut Scott Kelly returned to earth after spending a year on the International Space Station. He and his identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, are the subject of a unique twin study comparing the changes in Scott's health while using Mark as a control. NASA is still preparing a report on the long-term findings, but have released some information on the effects of a year in space.

Scott's telomeres — or the ends of chromosomes that shorten as people get older — got a lot longer in space. This finding was known in 2017, but investigators confirmed it and also discovered that most of the telomeres got shorter again within two days of Scott's landing.

About 7 percent of Scott's genes may have longer-term changes in expression after spaceflight, in areas such as DNA repair, the immune system, how bones are formed, hypoxia (an oxygen deficiency in the tissues) and hypercapnia (excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream). The other 93 percent of his genes quickly returned to normal.

Scott had no significant cognitive performance decline in space after one year, compared with Mark or with typical astronauts who fly a six-month mission. Investigators did, however, see pronounced decreases in Scott's cognitive speed and accuracy after he landed. This might have happened because of "re-exposure and adjustment to Earth’s gravity, and the busy schedule that enveloped Scott after his mission," NASA officials said.

The researchers also saw that spaceflight is linked with nutrient shifts, oxygen deprivation stress and more inflammation. They gathered the evidence after looking at "large numbers" of proteins (chains of amino acids), cytokines (substances secreted by cells in the immune system) and metabolites (substances related to metabolism) in Scott's body.

If these effects turn out to be permanent, it could have implications for long space journeys, such as travel to Mars. Remember how Ray Bradbury's Mars colonists changed into Martians in more than name. And a more theoretical question arises: if one twin's DNA changes, are Mark and Scott still identical? Read more about the astronaut twin research at Space.com. -via Metafilter

There are so many bizarre video games out there that the top ten lists kinda just make themselves, and strange games are constantly being made so these top ten lists will keep rolling out FOREVER.

In this video by WatchMojo we see Octodad-a game about an octopus pretending to be a human dad, Bad Mojo- a game where you play a guy who was turned into a cockroach, and the weirdest game of all I Am Bread, where you play a slice of bread. 'Nuff said!

(YouTube Link)

THE PSYCHO BUNCH by Skullpy

When eight horror movie slashers find themselves without a movie deal or a home they come together like never before- in prime time! One day Freddy came upon the house of his dreams and as luck would have it the place was empty. It had been the site of a double homicide but Freddy really didn't mind- and it even had a large tool shed out back for his buddies Jason and Leatherface to live in. Freddy got a phone call from Ghostface and told him to sheath his knife and move on in, which the It clown heard through the toilet and got totally jealous about. But in the end they all moved in, with little Chucky occupying a dresser drawer in Freddy's room, and that's how they became the Psycho Bunch!

Add eight slashers to your wardrobe for the price of one with this THE PSYCHO BUNCH t-shirt by Skullpy, it's a full house of horror fun!

Visit Skullpy's Facebook fan page, official website and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more horribly good designs:

View more designs by Skullpy | More Horror 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!

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg turns 85 years old today. She will probably celebrate by doing pushups. In honor of her birthday, Mental Floss has a list of 15 things you should know about the Notorious RBG, which give an overview of her life story. It's fascinating.

1. THE INJUSTICE HER MOTHER FACED LEFT A LASTING IMPRESSION.

Celia Bader, née Amster, died the day before Ginsburg’s high school graduation. But in their short time together, Celia managed to instill in her daughter that an education was not something to be taken for granted. Celia herself—whom Ginsburg regularly, according to Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik’s Notorious RBG, called the most intelligent person she’d ever known—went to work at age 15 in order to help put her brother through college.

At the 1993 White House press conference announcing her nomination to the Supreme Court, Ginsburg wrapped up her remarks with an emotional tribute to the woman who was never allowed to reach her full potential. “I have a last thank-you,” she told the crowd assembled. “It’s to my mother. My mother was the bravest, strongest person I have ever known, who was taken from me much too soon. I pray that I may be all that she would have been had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve and daughters are cherished as much as sons.”

2. IT WASN’T EXACTLY SMOOTH SAILING FOR GINSBURG, EITHER.

As newlyweds, Ginsburg and her husband, Marty, relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where Marty was expected to fulfill his Army Reserve duties for the next two years. Ruth took the civil service exam and qualified to be a claims adjustor—but then made the mistake of mentioning that she was three months pregnant with their daughter, Jane. Suddenly, RBG’s civil service ranking was reduced, and with it, her title and pay. (She learned a valuable lesson from the experience, and during her second pregnancy—which coincided with her first year as a professor at Rutgers University—she did everything she could to conceal the fact that she was expecting.)

In 1956, Ginsburg was one of just nine female students matriculating at Harvard Law School. The dean of the Law School at the time, Erwin Griswold, hosted a dinner for the women—and at the end of the meal, asked each of them to go around and share how it was they justified taking a spot that would otherwise have gone to a man. Years later—when word got back to Griswold that his former student enjoyed recounting this tale on the lecture circuit—he insisted that it had all been in good fun.

Read more of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's story, told in list form, at Mental Floss.

The pirates of olde were from all different countries, social classes and walks of life, but the ones we see in popular media tend to be either British, Spanish or Dutch thanks to books like Treasure Island and Captain Blood.

But despite their lack of representation in popular media the pirates who hailed from Germany were among the most dastardly and deadly buccaneers on the high seas.

Germany's most famous pirate was Kapitän Klaus Störtebeker, who was dubbed Störtebeker because he could down four litres of beer in one gulp. But drinking beer wasn't Klaus' only skill:

Born in Wismar in 1360, Kapitän Störtebeker was originally a legitimate privateer, engaging in daring exploits as commander of a privateer group known as the Victual brothers, or “Vitalienbrüder.” Following the removal of the Victual Brothers from the Island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea where their base was located in the port town of Visby, Störtebeker and several other prominent privateers went rogue, capturing and plundering Hanseatic ships of trade and defense plying the Baltic and North Sea willy-nilly.

Inflicting great damage to shipping and embedding himself as legend, the rogue captor of ships was himself captured after a standoff gone wrong with a Hamburgian Fleet under the command of Simon of Utrecht, a German privateer and Hamburg city council member. Sentenced to death in Hamburg, Kapitän Störtebeker was executed by sword in 1401 (as depicted above). According to legend, his headless corpse walked past some of the bodies of his men after making a deal that any of his men whom his corpse could pass while walking after decapitation would themselves be spared. His life and accomplishments are now immortalized through a statue placed in Hamburg, the city where he was executed. In modern times, a statue of Störtebeker stands in Hamburg, the city of his demise, to commemorate the pirate and his exploits as a key interest point in German culture and history.

Where Klaus was seen as a rather heroic figure his 14th century contemporary Hennig Wichmans was seen as a real brutal and savage bastard, the type of guy that made people live in fear of pirates:

A brutal sea raider, German Pirate Hennig Wichmann was known for having survivors thrown overboard amongst his exploits in North Sea shipping raids and Baltic Sea attacks in the late 1300s. Originally a privateer serving the Dukes of Mecklenberg as part of the Victual Brothers privateer group tasked with interrupting enemy shipping runs by the Danish, Wichmann and other remaining crew members formed the illegitimate organization of pirates known as the “Likedeelers,” a word meaning “equal sharers.”

Equally they may have shared, but their treatment of crew captured was less than reasonable in the majority of cases. Set on plundering the ships of the Hanseatic league in the North and Baltic seas long after an end to official hostilities, Wichmann was focused on the plunder of vulnerable ships, ignoring official policy, states of hostility or peace, and the well-being of those captured. Hated in his time for having gone rogue, little mercy remained for Wichmann once he was captured by the authorities at hand. Along with 73 members of his crew, he was executed in Hamburg in 1402, showing that those who live by the sword indeed may die by the sword.

Read 10 Dastardly German Pirates at TopTenz

Firearms are understandably a hot button issue in America these days, and while everyone is shooting their mouths off about guns the guns themselves are sitting around waiting to kill again.

Oh wait, I had that backwards, the saying goes "guns don't kill people, people kill people". And yet this saying gets us no closer to figuring out what to do about guns, so maybe this animated short by ItsAlexClark will solve the entire problem and squash the debate forever! *wink*

(YouTube Link)

Mark Hamill posted a Tweet that illustrates how much Luke Skywalker action figures have changed over the years. Of course they have. The character has aged, and the tech involved in making the dolls has also changed. There were different action figures produced for every movie, and at different price points. Some are officially lisenced and others are knockoffs.  

Luke How Far I've Come:
A) Generic Lemon-Haired Ken Doll Luke
B) Black-Haired Semi-Conscious Adult-Diaper Luke
C) Pumped-Up Roid-Rage With Balcony You Could Do Shakespeare From Luke
D) Senior Citizen Jedi Pension-Plan Future Force-Ghost Luke#CollectEmAll pic.twitter.com/5q820fjTv5

— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) March 14, 2018

But then you have to stop and think -is there any other person on earth who's had that many dolls made in their likeness? Ever? To get a breathtaking glimpse of how many there have been, check out the GIS. And that's just action figures; there are also the LEGO minifigs, the Funko dolls, and the tiny Lukes that fit into spaceships.



(via Uproxx)

With great knowledge comes great wisdom, with great vision comes great foresight, with great power comes greater responsibility, and with a great many number of things to watch this wizard ends up watching porn.

Eh, sounds about right. (Comic by Slack Wyrm Comics)

-Via Geeks Are Sexy

The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Perpetually Pleasing Bathroom Reader.

Like us, you probably can’t remember a world without highways—a time before there were gas stations, fast-food places, or shopping centers. Well, it all had to start somewhere…and this is where.

WHERE’S THE HORSE?

The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago was in full swing when a gentleman walked up to a contraption that looked like a metal carriage and wound the crank on its front end. The machine rumbled and grumbled and coughed out black smoke. Then the man got into the thing and -to the amazement of onlookers- started driving it around the fair grounds. What was so strange about that? The metal carriage didn’t have a horse to pull it. It was a horseless carriage, one with an internal-combustion engine that ran on gasoline. The public’s response: They were dumbfounded, but most people loved it. Suddenly the country had a new toy, and despite the naysayers who protested against the new “devil wagon,” the car was here to stay.

STALLED CARS

Auto manufacturers and investors cropped up almost overnight. In just the first four months of 1899, investors poured $388 million (about $11 billion today) into new automobile companies; by the turn of the century, more than 8,000 cars were puttering around the United States. But there was still nothing in the way of the necessary infrastructure: no gas stations, traffic lights, mechanic’s shops, or -most importantly- roads. The existing throughways were deeply rutted wagon trails that meandered into the countryside from the centers of towns and often simply ended. During the winter months, these “roads” became so unusable that most early auto owners drained their radiators and put the machines in their barns until spring.

Something had to be done about America’s roads, but public funds weren’t forthcoming. The federal government saw the car as a novelty and refused to allocate funds for road building. By 1905, when the first modern gasoline filling station appeared, there still wasn’t a single mile of paved rural road in the entire country. And, as Henry Ford’s assembly line process drove down manufacturing costs, the cars kept coming. Within five years, more than half a million cars were sputtering around with nary a real road to drive on.

Netflix has become a powerhouse in the entertainment industry, and the original shows and movies they're making nowadays are so beloved people have forgotten Netflix started out as a small DVD by mail service.

But in their quest to grow more powerful by creating original content that will crush the competition they released some serious flops- like when they gave Ashton Kutcher his own sitcom called The Ranch.

With overly predictable storylines and stereotypical country characters The Ranch is an homage to the classic American sitcom that fell flat with both viewers and critics alike, and yet Netflix still hasn't cancelled the show for some reason. Maybe they think the third season's the charm?

(YouTube Link)

This WatchMojo compilation focuses on the failures of streaming media powerhouse Netflix, showing us that even giants stumble once in a while but Netflix doesn't look like it's going to fall flat anytime soon!

A few days ago, zoos and aquariums began giving their animals Amazon-style ratings on Twitter. As more and more reviews came in, biologists, science labs, and universities got involved. Everyday people started rating their pets and favorite species, too.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ YOU WONT BE DISAPPOINTED
This stylish little unit is amazing. Sound quality A+. No distortion at full volume but bass is a little weak. Top rotates which is a plus. #rateaspecies pic.twitter.com/OYaWOfzosA

— Oregon Zoo (@OregonZoo) March 9, 2018

⭐️NOT WHAT I ORDERED
I ordered a duck, otter, and beaver bundle apparently there was some kind of freak accident in shipping or something. Contacted shipper, they claim no error. Bad seller. NEVER BUYING AGAIN!#rateaspecies pic.twitter.com/e13u4K657F

— Tyger (@TygerWDR) March 9, 2018

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ PRAYING THEY KEEP MAKING THESE
As seen on @Oatmeal. Full set is the ultimate seafood multi-tool: tenderizes, slices and serves in milliseconds! Comes in all colors plus some you can’t see.#rateaspecies pic.twitter.com/vm2YhrBihR

— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) March 9, 2018

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 Great product!
Speedy deliver. Makes a weird chirping sound instead of the roar as advertised, but not a deal breaker. Runs efficiently - would recommend. #rateaspecies pic.twitter.com/9uAvnKw4AX

— National Zoo & Aqua (@national_zoo) March 14, 2018

⭐ very unsatisfied with the shipping. I ordered a frog and what I got was this big melted pile. #rateaspecies pic.twitter.com/6pj9D2HcED

— Slartibartfast (@shtoopy) March 9, 2018

You can see a ton of these as they come in with the Twitter hashtag #rateaspecies or see a roundup of some really funny examples at Buzzfeed.

New York City played host to many bourgeoning music scenes in the 1970s, from Glam to Disco to Hip Hop, but the Punk scene definitely rocked NYC the hardest- and made the biggest impact on the city.

Punks like Ramones, Billy Idol, Blondie, New York Dolls and Richard Hell were all trendsetters in both music and fashion, and unlike the politically charged UK scene the NYC punk scene was equal parts artsy fartsy and party party party.

A post shared by Julia_gorton_nowave (@julia_gorton_nowave) on Nov 1, 2017 at 5:55am PDT

These rare candid shots shared by photographer Julia Gorton on her Instagram feed give us an intimate look at a young NYC punk scene, showing what it was like for her to hang at CBGB's in the 70s as a young transplant from Delaware:

Gorton saved up her money and bought the best Polaroid camera she could afford; after relocating to the city, shed used no other camera for that first year, she capturing the likes of Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, and David Byrne. “When you had a large unusual camera that made instant prints, it was easy to approach people,” she said, though she admits she was quite shy at first. “It was very dark at CBGBs. Sometimes the photos didn’t come out the first time. Since the film was expensive, I only shot a few frames of each subject.”

In recent years, Gorton began looking through her archive of prints, and realized she could use more modern technologies to find the hidden figures in the darker images. “One print I kept was an underexposed shot of Tom Verlaine, almost completely black, with just the slightest shadow of him visible. With Photoshop, I was able to scan and finally pull him out of the shadows of decades past,” she said, musing that the image is reminiscent of an Edward Steichen portrait.

See A 70s Photographer Unveils The Ultimate New York PUnk Archive On Instagram at GARAGE

It's completely counterintuitive to take a hilarious comedy and strip all the funniness out of it. But that's exactly what Testudo Aubreii did with Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

(YouTube link)

It works for several reasons. First off, it was only the Pythons' droll, deadpan delivery that made this project possible. The incongruity of the original film recut with the pompous hyperbole of the modern trailer format is just ridiculous. Then, for the many of us who are very familiar with the movie, each clip reminds us of the scene it's from, so we have to laugh anyway. -via Digg

Mutant Babies by Harebrained Design

When you're an odd looking, anthropomorphic and orphaned animal you get used to humans treating you like an outcast, and when you start to develop mutant powers at an early age you expect humans to be less than friendly to you when you try to live peacefully among them. But Professor Nanny taught the Mutant Babies tolerance instead of prejudice, happiness instead of fear, and she showed them how the power of cute can be used like a psychic power on unsuspecting humans, making them putty in your little furry hands!

Add some fleecy mashup fun to your geeky wardrobe with this Mutant Babies t-shirt by Harebrained Design, it's the mup-tastic way to show love for the mutants of X and those cute little puppet kids too!

Visit Harebrained Design's NeatoShop for more delightfully geeky designs:

View more designs by Harebrained Design | More Funny 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!

As a general rule comics that become really big and really famous refrain from including material that would be considered controversial, offensive or too adult to be enjoyed by a wide audience.

And the bigger the title the less challenging the material, so Mickey Mouse comic strips and the action packed panels of Wonder Woman are the last place you'd expect to find controversy.

But back in the day both comics included material that is seen as controversial these days but was always seen as totally bonkers- like hide inside a dead elephant bonkers.

When Wonder Woman learns that the elephants at a circus keep dropping like flies she suspects foul play is afoot, so she hides inside a taxidermied baby elephant to find out what's up and foil the bad guy's evil plan. And that's when things get really weird:

Ed King talks with Wonder Woman and Steve and expresses his fears that the dying elephants will ruin his show. Wonder Woman and Etta Candy dress up as a baby elephant to try to find out who is poisoning the elephants. They find themselves in the midst of a Burmese worship ritual, in which the Burmese say that they will use the elephants to trample the "foreign devils." Suddenly a large elephant appears and inadvertently blows Wonder Woman and Etta's cover. The Burmese take them prisoner and plan to sacrifice them to the Elephant Gods.

Meanwhile, the thugs return and take two of the Burmese men hostage. Steve Trevor follows them. Back at the circus, Dom Carney meets up with Elva, but Uncle Ed King also appears and fires Dom from the show under suspicion of being the person poisoning the elephants. An elephant, following orders from some of the other Burmese men, snatches Elva and makes off with her. Ed and Dom chase after them on horseback.

Elva is brought to the same Elephant Temple that the Burmese have brought Wonder Woman and Etta to. The three of them are to be sacrificed for the Elephant Spirits. San Yan admits that his people have been killing the elephants to set their spirits free. Wonder Woman notices that San Yan speaks with a Japanese accent, so she breaks free of her bonds. Steve, Ed, and Dom all arrive, and as a group they defeat the Burmese men who are actually Japanese spies. Now free of suspicions, Dom gets Ed's permission to be with Elva.

On the other hand the controversy found in the pages of the old Mickey Mouse comic strip can be summed up by these three panels:

Mickey kicking a character in the kiester who is clearly gay wasn't seen as that big of a deal when the strip came out in the 1930s, but Disney knew the part where he calls the character a "cream puff" was wrong- so they edited that bit to make it more PC:

See 5 Famous Comics That Got Totally Insane Out Of The Blue at Cracked (NSFW language)