Because food is such a big part of our lives, and something we like sharing with our friends and family, new food trends are constantly popping up and sweeping through our networks until everyone is talking about the latest taste sensation.

Most of these trends take off and become a way bigger deal than they deserve just because they seem like new and interesting ideas, which leads to something as dumb as rolled ice cream becoming a huge social media trend.

But if your food "creation" was made just so it'll look good on Instagram then it really needs to go away, along with these glittery lattes that turn your guts all nice and shiny.

A post shared by betty collective (@bettycollective) on Dec 18, 2017 at 1:02am PST

Let's make 2018 the year we do away with dumb food trends and come up with something real and genuinely delicious, because throwing flaming hot Cheetos on a pizza isn't a trend- it's an idea you come up with when you're stoned.

A post shared by Food | Travel | Pizza (@sorrynosalad) on Dec 19, 2017 at 1:32pm PST

See more Food Trends That Need To Die at 22 Words

Burger Fiction is getting ready for the Academy Awards with another supercut, this one featuring all the winners of the Best Animated Feature Oscar and the nominees for this year's award.

(YouTube link)

The Oscar for Best Animated Feature has only been awarded since 2002, so this supercut won't plunge you back into childhood (unless you're pretty young), but you might have fond memories of watching these films with your kids. In fact, I can pinpoint the year that my kids started going to the theater without me (2009), because I didn't seen any of them beyond that point -in theaters. I can also pinpoint the year my kids learned to torrent films. -via Laughing Squid

The campaign to extend voting rights to women in the US took more than 70 years, from the Seneca Falls meeting to the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Tennessee became the state that sealed the deal in the summer of 1920. Author Elaine Weiss talked about the battle for 36 state ratifications in promoting her forthcoming book The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote. 

How did the battle for women’s suffrage all come down to Tennessee?

By 1920 we’re talking about no longer getting resolutions or referenda in the states to allow women to vote state by state. It’s finally come down to an amendment to the Constitution. In January 1918, the House passes the federal amendment, but the Senate refuses to, and it takes another year-and-a-half until World War I is over. It’s in June of 1919 that the Senate finally relents [to consider the amendment]. They actually reject it twice more and then finally June of 1919 it is passed by Congress and it goes through the ratification process. Three-quarters of the states have to approve the amendment. There are 48 states in 1920, so that means 36 states have to approve it.

It goes to the states, and it’s a very difficult process because one of the things that the [U.S.] senators did to make it harder for the suffragists, and very purposefully so, was that they held off their passage of the amendment until it was an off-year in state legislatures. At that time, most state legislatures did not work around the calendar. Lots of governors didn’t want to call special sessions. But there’s a Supreme Court decision around this time that says amending the Constitution has its own laws and they take precedence over any state Constitutional law. The legislature has to convene to confront whatever amendment comes down to them.

Since ten states had already rejected the ratification, every remaining vote counted dearly. All in all, the fight was much dirtier than we ever learned in school. Read about the final push for the 19th Amendment at Smithsonian.

Dogs and squirrels don't get along when they meet in the wild, in part because dogs can't help but chase squirrels and partly because squirrels are always super stressed out due to their high pressure jobs.

But if the dog could stop chasing and the squirrel could stop working long enough to speak slowly and clearly to the dog the two could learn a thing or two from each other and become best friends.

And It helps to have a friend by your side when you encounter strange talking plants in the forest...

(YouTube Link)

Dog and Squirrel is an adorably odd 2d animated short created by Andrea Gerstmann for Nickelodeon Animated Shorts 2017, watch it with your dog so they can learn to get along with all the lonely squirrels out there!

Stranger Youth Black by zerobriant

Everything had gone wrong before they made it onto Highway 11, but now that they'd left those lab vans in the dust the two young lovers were homre free. But then came death on the highway, and like a sonic boom the realization that they'd crossed over into the upside down smacked them in the face, the road a sea of squirming tar. Emboldened by the sound of little demogorgons being squished under the tires Mike pressed the gas pedal to the floor and gave El a smile. She didn't see the humor in the situation but smiled anyway, knowing their evol love would give her the brain juice to keep the upside down's denizens at bay...

Show the world that you're a rebel with a taste for the stranger things in life with this Stranger Youth Black t-shirt by Zerobriant, it's a rockin' good design that will make your fellow fans cheer with delight!

Visit zerobriant's Facebook fan page, official website, Instagram and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more geek-tastic designs:

View more designs by zerobriant | More TV 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!

WillieB87's wife loves succulent plants, is pregnant, and yesterday was her birthday. So these cupcakes are perfect for her! And that's frosting, not fondant. Someone offered congratulations for getting them home in one piece, and then we found out that he made them himself! That's some good work. And a man who will go that distance to surprise his wife for her birthday, well, he's a keeper.  

(YouTube link)

In 2000, an elderly British couple were on vacation in the US and stumbled into a play test session for the Star Wars D20 role playing game. They're up to give it a go, and that's when the magic happened. This video is just Owen K.C. Stephens telling a story to the camera, so you don't have to watch it -open another window and play a mindless game like I do- but you need to listen to him tell this story. You won't regret the time spent. -via Metafilter

The 1957 Disney family drama Old Yeller scarred a generation of children, with its heartwarming relationship between two young boys and their heroic dog. It was more brutally realistic than most adult films in depicting the struggles of pioneer life. Sixty years later, Old Yeller has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. You'd be hard-pressed to find a Baby Boomer whose eyes don't well up just thinking about the movie. While you're at it, you may as well check out some trivia about Old Yeller.   

5. This was the Disney debut of Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran.

They would both on to star in The Swiss Family Robinson and The Shaggy Dog, but would also explore other movies throughout their careers.

4. The ‘wolf’ was actually a German shepherd.

The shepherd was made up to look like a wolf and both dogs were taught how to play-fight. During these bouts they were always muzzled so as to avoid any accidental damage.

Read more about Old Yeller at TVOM.

Michael Callaghan decided it was time that he got to know his neighbors, and he came up with a genius way to do it: ask them for a favor, and make it fun! He went door to door and asked each neighbor to come over and dance with him for a music video. He didn't mention if anyone refused, but plenty of them said yes.

(YouTube link)

While you're doing something  like this, you get to know their names, interests, and how friendly they are. Or at least how well they dance. When he throws a party, he'll know exactly who to invite. He's trying to start a trend with #NeighborDanceChallenge. We'll see how that goes. -via Tastefully Offensive

The following article is from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Tunes Into TV.

What kept TV alive through its birth and early decades of life? Beer and cigarette commercials.

Belly up to the Bar

In 1946 a 10-inch, black-and-white RCA television set cost $400. Today, that’s about $4500, enough to buy a few very large flat screen TVs and Blu-Ray players. Most post-World War II Americans wanted to own a TV, but few could afford it. Besides, there weren’t many TV shows to watch in 1946.

In those early days, networks found that sports were a cheap way to fill up air time. All they had to do was train a camera on a baseball game, boxing match, or roller derby bout, and people would watch. And bar owners realized that a TV over the bar would pay for itself (and then some) when patrons showed up to watch sports and buy beer. Neighborhood taverns all over the country posted signs promising, “We have TV!” In 1946 and 1947, half of all televisions sold in the United States were to bars.

The first major sporting event to air on TV took place on June 19, 1946: a heavyweight title bout between Joe Louis and Billy Conn (Louis knocked out Conn in the eighth round.) The boxing match set a TV viewing record: 140,000 people watched, most of them in bars. A year later, that record was shattered when a million people watched the Joe Louis/”Jersey Joe” Walcott title fight. When the 1947 World Series aired on TV, bars around the nation reported lines winding around the block. Television had found its first mass audience.

Meowsondeck posted a picture of a friend's cat that had been playing with a lizard. I believe the lizard won that game. SchnoodleDoodleDo had to write a poem about it. 

my name is cat

i play wif liz

i don tink he

knoze wat fun is -

you bite my lip

il getchu back

n eatchu for

a little schmack

don test my skills

i fas n punctual

how qwik youl be

a reptile disfunctual

You'll have to forgive her for the lack of capitalization and punctuation. Cats are not good at those things. Of course, she's referencing an earlier meme.

I am often struck by nostalgia fever for all the rad stuff that came out in the 80s and 90s, be it movies and TV shows, music, toys, art, fashion or otherwise.

Even though I can't explain why I love it all so much I've always assumed it had something to do with my childhood, and the fact that the 21st century has been a real disappointment in comparison.

So when I saw this animated TED talk by Clay Routledge I figured I'd see where the nostalgia factor in my life comes from, and that's when I discovered it was first seen as an illness and later linked to depression.

But now we know nostalgia ain't a bad thing, and when people feel nostalgia it can "help increase their feelings of self-esteem and social belonging, encourage psychological growth and even make them act more charitably".

(YouTube Link)

In the early 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu went to Turkey when her husband was made England's ambassador to that country. She wrote extensive letters about the exotic city of Constantinople and the lives of the Turks. She was particularly fascinated by the way they controlled smallpox: by a process called variolation. Fifty years before Washington inoculated his troops with the method, Lady Montagu convinced doctors back in England to experiment with the process, on prisoners and orphans. To her credit, she also had her own children inoculated against smallpox.  

But the idea of purposely giving someone a disease was not an easy sell, especially since about 2 or 3 percent of people who were variolated still died of smallpox (either because the procedure didn’t work, or because they caught a different strain than the one they had been variolated with). In addition, variolated people could also spread the disease while they were infectious. Lady Montagu also faced criticism because the procedure was seen as “Oriental,” and because of her gender.

Read about Lady Montagu and her campaign to protect England against smallpox at Mental Floss.

When our robotic overlords decide to purge the planet of the filthy hairless apes known as humans they will be justified in doing so, because from their (and sometimes our own) perspective humans are the worst thing to happen to planet Earth.

Which is why people are afraid of robots having artificial intelligence and too much control over their own functions, knowing they'll exterminate us like vermin the moment they figure out that we're a bunch of jerks.

This comic by Einstein's Mama is absolutely right- it's probably best we destroy all robots now so we can continue being jerks later!

-Via Geeks Are Sexy

Four-year-old Nathan Mezquida tells a story he made up about dinosaurs. His dad, Allen Mezquida, animated his drawings to tell it.

Nathan spends hours drawing every day, mostly dinosaurs. He also loves watching BBC documentaries about dinosaurs. Next thing I knew, we were working on this short film together. Nathan was very clear about the story he wanted to tell and how he wanted it to look. He said he wanted it to be very real, "never cartoony." I did my best to stay true to his vision.

(vimeo link)

-via Laughing Squid