It's important for everyone to learn some life saving techniques such as CPR, first aid and the Heimlich maneuver so they can be of service to a someone in need and hopefully save their life.

But able-bodied individuals may be called upon to do more in an emergency situation- like carrying a wounded person to safety.

This may seem like a tall order, especially if you're not very strong or physically fit, but as former Army Ranger Wil Willis shows us in this video picking up a person and carrying them to safety is fairly easy once you've mastered the Ranger Roll.

(YouTube Link)

-Via Laughing Squid

I've heard about parents using a spray bottle of "Monster Repellent" to protect their young children from fear of the dark, but this guy has a completely novel scheme: bore the monster to death! Or at least piss him off enough to make him leave. Next, the second problem, getting the child to sleep, might be accomplished in the same way. The monster was infinitely more interesting. Yet, some children may lose sleep just thinking about how meaningless all our prepositions are. This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

Jetpack Cat is a concept character from the video game Overwatch that was never a part of Overwatch. However, as a concept, he was quite popular. Game director Jeff Kaplan talked about why Jetpack Cat never got off the ground during a panel at BlizzCon.

“We tried a robot monkey. We tried a crocodile!” said Tsang. That led to Jetpack Cat, who—despite being one of the most popular early hero designs at Blizzard—was scrapped because, Kaplan explained, it was “not Overwatch at this point.” A gorilla scientist from the moon, however, was fine.

But Jetpack Cat was not forgotten. YouTuber To Binge gives him an origin story in this fan film.

(YouTube link)

Hey, if Jetpack Cat doesn't fit into the Overwatch world, maybe he can have his own cartoon series. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks that could work. -via Metafilter

Washington, DC, has plenty of ghost stories. The most well-known is that of Lincoln's ghost, but close behind is the Demon Cat, known as DC for short. For most than 100 years, tales of the Demon Cat have been told, especially when people see the cat's paw prints in concrete in the Small Senate Rotunda of the Capitol Building. It's too good of a story to not pass along.   

“The story probably goes back to the post–Civil War era. The main thing is that the people who would see it particularly were the night watchmen,” says Livengood. The most common version of the legend goes that a guard was on patrol one night when he saw a black cat approaching. In those days, cats were not an uncommon sight in the building, introduced to control the rodent population. However as the cat came closer, it grew in size until it was as large as a tiger. The monster cat pounced on the guard, who fell down and tried to protect himself, but the creature vanished in mid-air.

Like most ghost stories, tales of the Demon Cat have a number of variations. Later sightings are said to have scared people to death. The cat’s appearances have also been linked to national tragedies and presidential transitions.

Steve Livengood is the chief tour guide of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. He talked to Atlas Obscura about the Demon Cat and how the legend got started.

(Image credit: Flickr user Nacho Facello)

One of the more attractive alien species featured in The Last Jedi were the vulptex, foxlike creatures with crystal fur on the salt planet Crait. The finished products were the result of puppetry, animatronics, and CGI. To develop the vulptex, animators wanted to see how such a creature would move, so they put a crystal critter costume on a dog. A very patient dog.

(YouTube link)

You have to admit, that's a good dog. -via The Daily Dot

Spirit Derp by Hillary White

Whether you live deep in the urban jungle, amidst the suburban lawns or way out in the country you know life can get a bit hairy at times, and you need smarts and the proper gear to survive in this wild world of ours.

But there's one survival trick that people don't value highly enough- the eye dazzle. Whether you want to wear a shirt that allows you to blend in, sport something visually appealing that captures the eye or don a design that blows people's minds the NeatoShop's got the shirt you need to survive in the wilds of human society and beyond!

There are all kinds of savage beasties out there disguised as ordinary people

Ven-Ommm by Harebrained Design

And killer critters just waiting to gobble us up

Hear Me RAWR by machmigo

So if you want to survive you've gotta learn to fit in

Straight Outta Locash by PennyTees

And if you can't beat 'em join 'em!

Dangerous panda by Bomdesignz

Andy Candy (Andy Karandzieff) runs Crown Candy Kitchen in St. Louis, as his family has for 100 years. Easter is a busy time for molded chocolates, and when one of his chocolate bunnies or chicks or human figures breaks, he keeps the parts and puts them together in odd formations, resulting in mutant sculptures he calls "misfit chocolates."

(YouTube link)

It's close to impossible to do this with hollow chocolate from the discount store, because it tends to shatter. Since Easter is on April Fool's Day this year, a solid chocolate mutant is perfect for anyone's Easter basket. -via Boing Boing

Wild animals don't think of their fellow critters as much more than noisy neighbors, predators or prey, but to humans who adore animals these wonderful creatures are seen as superstars.

We love looking at pictures of them, view videos of them doing their thing in the wild with wonder, and we see them as some of the most beautiful residents of planet Earth.

So when former landscape photographer Joachim Munter decided to start shooting the critters that inhabited each natural scene instead of the scene as a whole he felt it only right to shoot them like you'd shoot a super model.

Joachim's fabulous portraits of the critters who live in the forests around Helsinki, Finland almost seem staged, but that's because Joachim takes the time to make his wild models feel comfortable around him:

Upon first glance, these animals look like they were trained. From a curious fox to a hungry squirrel, Munter builds such a strong bond with the creatures, they look perfectly comfortable while in front of his lens. "Wildlife photography is all about gaining the trust of the animals," Munter said. "The most important thing - in my opinion - is not to chase the animals. You just need time and patience; let the animal become comfortable around you."

See more at Bored Panda

British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author Stephen Hawking died peacefully at his home Wednesday morning. Hawking had suffered from a rare form of ALS from the age of 22, and had not been expected to survive more than a few years. But he not only survived, he went on to propose a unified theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Hawking also studied black holes, and theorized they emit radiation, which is called Hawking radiation. His 1988 book A Brief History of Time set a record at the top of the British Sunday Times bestseller list for 237 weeks. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, Hawking worked at the University of Cambridge since 1975, rising to the position of  Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology. Since 1985, Hawking communicated with the use of a computer-generated voice. He continued to teach and lecture throughout his life. Hawking also wrote numerous books, including children's book, and made many appearance in movies and TV.        

In his 2013 memoir he described how he felt when first diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

"I felt it was very unfair - why should this happen to me," he wrote.

"At the time, I thought my life was over and that I would never realise the potential I felt I had. But now, 50 years later, I can be quietly satisfied with my life."

Stephen Hawking was 76.

Spice test by AsyramDesign

Some people have very strict rules about the people they're willing to date, which limits the pool of daters available to them, but for the Girls it's as simple as getting on board that friendship train. Those dynamic divas have guys lining up to ask them out on a date, but they don't want no scrubs, scary weirdos or scumbags- they want someone who places importance on friendship and has something to offer besides the old wham bam thank you baby. Dating someone with spice is like taking a multiple choice test, only the answer is always D) all of the above!

Add retro girl group flavor to your geeky wardrobe with this Spice Test t-shirt by AsyramDesign, it's a fun way to weed out all the rotten daters out there who wanna waste your time.

Visit AsyramDesign's NeatoShop for more sporty and posh approved designs:

View more designs by AsyramDesign | 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!

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

In January of 1964, the Beatles were in Paris, staying at the five-star hotel, the famous Georges V. They were staying there during the 18 days of concerts they were giving at Paris' Olympia Theater. This was to be the last concert residency of the Beatles before they made their legendary first trip to America to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in early February.

John and Paul had an upright piano sent up to their room for them compose new songs on. In these early days of Beatlemania, John and Paul still pretty much composed together. "Eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose"-type composing, as John would later call it.

But the new song the two composers came up with was not to be the usual Lennon-McCartney collaboration. This was no joint effort, this song was Paul's baby. It would also become one of the first McCartney "classics." It was to be very rare in the early canon of Beatle records, in that it is completely sung by just one person- none of the legendary "Beatle harmonies" or any background vocals whatsoever. No, this one was Paul's and Paul's alone.

The "Corpse Flower" is one of the most unusual and beautiful plants in the world, and even though you've heard the name you've probably never seen one in person.

This tropical plant with the gross yet familiar name is known for both its rare beauty and its disgusting smell, but there's a whole lot more to the rare Titan Arum plant than a bad stench and a beautiful appearance.

And, as you'll see in this episode of the KQED series "Deep Look" the Corpse Flower isn't a flower at all, and it uses both its bad stench and flowery appearance to help it survive:

A corpse flower’s whole survival strategy is based on deception. It’s not a flower and it’s not a rotting dead animal, but it mimics both. Pollination remains out of sight, deep within the plant. KQED’s Deep Look staff was able to film inside a corpse flower, revealing the rarely-seen moment when the plant’s male flowers release glistening strings of pollen.

(YouTube Link)

-Via Laughing Squid

Angel Giuffria attended SXSW going on now in Austin. At a tech conference, you'll always see people charging up their phones, but Giuffria needed to charge up her bionic arm.  

People at this SXSW panel refused to give up charging their phones so I could charge my arm.

But I found an outlet in the back of the room so CHARGE ME UP.

She told us more about the arm at Twitter.

Y’all I’m not mad at them! I thought it was funny (bc there was another plug nearby.) For all I know, they were confused by the entire situation since everyone here at #SXSW seems to think my arm is a video game fashion statement or fancy lit up glove not a prosthesis ¯\_(ツ)_,

It takes about two hours to get a full charge. Giuffria's arm does not use an external battery, but at home she removes the arm and charges it overnight. Her Twitter feed is full of great posts and links about robotic prostheses.

Movies typically stay in theaters anywhere from one to two months, and even bad movies last two or three weeks in theaters to try and recoup as much of the budget as possible.

But some movies are so horrendously awful it's a wonder they ever got made at all, much less made it into theaters, and they are pulled so fast most people aren't even aware of their existence.

Johnny Depp has been in some massive blockbusters, but his campy comedy Mordecai was so epically bad it was pulled from 90% of theaters carrying it during its third week, the third biggest theater drop of all time.

On the flipside there's Max Steel, a movie based on a toy line and cartoon that had no big names, zero audience reception and a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Oh, and it came nowhere near recouping its $10 million budget.

(YouTube Link)

This WatchMojo compilation counts down some of Hollywood's biggest flops, from the aforementioned Mordecai to the less-than-super Blackhat starring Chris Hemsworth.

While hackers from Russia used social media to create havoc for the US elections, they aren't limited to politics. Russians and their bots took some time to influence Rian Johnson's plot of The Last Jedi, too. Whether it was practice for bigger things, or maybe just a side project by fanboys, who knows. But Johnson tells the story of how a coordinated campaign from Russia tried to control the destiny of the character of General Hux.

What did these highly coordinated Russian Twitter accounts want from the director of the new Star Wars film? To not kill General Hux, says Johnson. Coordinating around the hashtag #HuxLive, Russian accounts flooded Johnson’s mentions early in the production to ensure that their favorite oppressor made it through the new trilogy. Why the Russians bots love Hux is clear now — they are way into authoritarian regimes — but at the time, it appears to have been perplexing for Johnson and his collaborators on The Last Jedi.

#HuxLive pic.twitter.com/zyZmi3UEiS

— Херовый♦Генерал (@Loh_General) July 5, 2016

It's one of the tidbits Johnson revealed in the documentary The Director and the Jedi, a 90-minute feature on the home version of The Last Jedi. Read about about it at Film School rejects. -via io9