Did you manage to see the lunar eclipse this morning? I was in a position to see only a small part of it before moonset (which is variable in a mountain area), and it was cloudy anyway. Peter Katkov woke up at 3AM this morning in California to see the super blue blood moon and take some photographs. This one is stacked, showing the progression of the moon and how it changed color as it dipped under the shadow of the earth. He was so proud, he posted it at reddit. He gives some technical information on how he took it, too. There are a couple of other pictures of the moon at his Instagram gallery.
(Image credit: Peter Katkov)
Airlords of Airia is a stylized sci-fi short created by visual effects artist Dirk Müller, and what started as a teaser has been expanded into a fifteen-minute-long short film that Dirk hopes to make into a feature length movie set in the same universe.
Imagine the Earth's continents were drowned by a biblical flood some years past, and mankind was collectively forced to move to the skies to survive, then make it a Steampunk setting and you've got Airlords of Airia in a nutshell.
Hollywood movies are remade for distribution in nations around the world, which requires subtitles or dubbing the dialogue for non-English countries. But often there are other changes, too, like the title. American movie titles are often shortcuts that are well understood here, but may not have any meaning somewhere else. What the movies you know and love end up being called elsewhere can surprise you. It's not only slang terms or politics at work. Some titles are made more descriptive to draw an audience in, although this one may have given too much away.
One movie title was changed to distance itself from a porn star of the same name. How does a porn star become so famous that people might mistake an animated Disney film for one of hers? See 19 of these changed titles at Cracked.
Since Valentine's Day is supposed to be all about love, wouldn't it be better to make your loved one something special that comes straight from the heart instead of giving them some store bought crap?
So instead of buying a silly card and some chocolates, make your loved one a sweet treat you can seal with a kiss- a 'pie envelope' that shows the delicious depth of your love.
With this easy to follow recipe created by food blogger Liz Bushong you'll be folding up some heartfelt goodness in no time, sending a message of love no cheesy store bought Valentine's Day card ever could.
Plus it's basically just pie crust, coarse sugar, and pie filling so it's easy to make, and when you're done you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor too!
-Via CountryLiving
John Green is back, but things are different. The Mental Floss List Show is now called Scatterbrained, and will tackle the same kinds of subjects you've always been interested in, even those that that don't easily fit into a list of facts. Join Green, Becca Scott, Amanda Suk, Dani Fernandez, Mike Rugnetta, and Elliott Morgan, the hosts of Scatterbrained.
The first episode is online today, and it's about the Olympics.
Scatterbrained will have a new episode every other Wednesday. -via Mental Floss
You don't need fancy dice to play a tabletop RPG, and contrary to popular superstition fancier and more expensive dice don't roll more successful saving throws and critical hits.
However, some gamers just enjoy spending money on their obsession, and their gaming kit doesn't feel complete without some shiny and expensive dice, so their group will see them rollin' and get super jealous.
But if you're looking for dice that will both make your group jealous and make it impossible for them to tell what you rolled take a note from this Dork Tower comic by John Kovalic and grab some Elvish Dice of Inscrutability!
-Via Geeks Are Sexy
Pets don't know what to make of babies when their owners bring their little bundles of joy home, so they treat the new addition to the household as either an unwanted annoyance or a new plaything.
Dogs will eventually surrender to their instincts and start protecting the baby like a member of the pack, but cats don't give a crap about packs, instincts or the child's welfare- and they show their disdain for the newest member of the family with reckless abandon.
This compilation of video clips posted by YouTuber Animals TV will make you cringe at times, especially if you have kids and a crazy cat at home, but I guess babies have to learn to watch out for crazy cats the hard way.
We normally don't post nudes here, but hey, this actress is wearing shoes and a wig. Can you guess who she is? Hint: she is not obscure, not at all, but she is young in this picture. In fact, it's from her very first feature film, in 1933. When you've given up, learn the answer and the details surrounding the picture at Eddie Deezen's Facebook post.
The Aztecs appreciated the beauty of death and how important it was to life, so they offered human sacrifices to the Lord of Mictlan in life and were buried with offerings for Mictlantecuhtli and his wife so they could safely navigate the dark dangers of the underworld after death. And while the Lord of Mictlan is not necessarily seen as a heroic figure he's still given his proper dues as one of the most important gods in the Aztec pantheon, plus the skull-faced helmets the Mictlan priests wore were so metal!
Add some deadly cool style to your geeky wardrobe with this Skull Aztec t-shirt by Albertocubatas, featuring a brutal yet colorful design that will blow people's minds.
Visit Albertocubatas's Facebook fan page and official website, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more dark and geeky designs:
| Wolves Attack | Princess Attack | Tribal Unicorn | Dark Circle |
View more designs by Albertocubatas | 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!
Shelter dogs are unseen and therefore typically not on the minds of the general public unless caring humans get the word out and raise awareness about them in the hopes of finding them a forever home.
One of the best ways to raise awareness about pet adoption and get people to care is to show them what these adorable shelter pets look like, so their cuteness can tug at some heart strings.
Photographer Ausra Kel has come up with a neat way to showcase the shelter pets living in the Penkta Koja shelter in Lithuania- she creates magical worlds for them to show potential adopters how amazing it can be to adopt a pet.
In 1852, Laurel Cemetery opened on the outskirts of Baltimore as an African-American cemetery that offered "an undisturbed resting place for all time to come,” in an early advertisement. It became a fashionable place to be buried. The most prominent black Baltimore residents were interred there, along with thousands of others, including 240 Civil War veterans. But over time, the cemetery company couldn't maintain the graveyard's upkeep and eventually went bankrupt. Neighbors used it to dump trash. Baltimore grew, and the land became more valuable due to its location. A couple of local politicians maneuvered their way into buying the land for $100 and then sold it to commercial developers in the 1960s at a tremendous profit.
Soon after the relatives of Laurel Cemetery’s occupants learned of the sale, bulldozers were knocking over gravestones. The graves, families were told, had been moved to a cemetery in Carroll County, miles away from the city and inaccessible to most of the families whose relatives were buried at Laurel. Families filed lawsuits to stop the development and the local NAACP took on the case. The city started an investigation into the officials involved in the sale. Ultimately, though, there was nothing in the law to protect the cemetery or the families of the people buried there. The development went forward, and soon the beautiful, tree-filled cemetery was replaced by a parking lot surrounded by discount stores.
The new cemetery held around 500 graves, but thousands of people were buried in Laurel Cemetery. An archeologist investigated the shopping center site and, along with his students, began digging in an unpaved portion in 2015. They found human bones and casket hardware indicating that most of the bodies had been left on site. Read the story of Laurel Cemetery at Atlas Obscura.
First, there was the story of the internet poll that named a research ship Boaty McBoatface. The name was ultimately rejected by the powers-that-be. Then naming polls across the globe followed suit, which gave us Trainy McTrainface and Horsey McHorseface, among others. Would we expect any different results when Australia named one of its six new ferries Ferry McFerryface? The New South Wales Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Andrew Constance, announced the naming of Ferry McFerryface in November, stating that the name came in second only to Boaty McBoatface, which already had its day in the sun. But now the news has surfaced, thanks to a Freedom of Information request, that Ferry McFerryface was NOT the winning name from the poll at all.
A 9NEWS freedom of information investigation has revealed the competition to name a new fleet of ferries costs a whopping $100,000.
Documents reveal Ferry McFerryface was not only ineligible to be accepted under the government’s own criteria but it attracted just 182 votes.
Clean Up Australia founder Ian Kiernan was the clear winner for the ferry’s naming rights with 2025 eligible votes.
It appears that people in the real world have grown tired of the naming meme. Ian Kiernan had actually been told that his name had won before the announcement was made. So now will he get a ferry named after him? No, because Constance said the boat will be named after the children's book author May Gibbs. Read the roundup of news that tells the whole story at Digg.
(Image credit: NSW Public Transport)
In the 1989 action film Road House, Patrick Swayze takes a job as a bar bouncer in a small town and ends up battling corrupt local businessmen. It was like a sexier version of the original Walking Tall. The movie received poor critical reviews and middling box office receipts, but then gained a cult following on home video and TV. If you enjoyed Road House, you'll want to take a peek behind the scenes.
10. Swayze was trained by an actual kickboxing champion.
His name was Benny Urquidez and he held multiple black belts in several disciplines. He trained the entire cast, or at least those that were supposed to fight.
9. Swayze was approached to play a part in Predator 2 thanks to this film.
Unfortunately due to a knee injury he sustained on the set he wasn’t able to say yes, nor was he able to take a part in Tango & Cash.
Read more trivia about Road House at TVOM.
Would you recognize the font your favorite movie or TV show uses if the words were different? Or those from your favorite comic, video game, website, music video, or book? Test your observation skills with this music video from Izac Less. He illustrated the lyrics of the song "Pop Culture" by Madeon with altered yet familiar typography, plus character illustrations and vehicles where there are no lyrics.
Typography becomes really familiar when we see it so many times, and we don't even realize it. In case there's one or two that you know but can't quite name, he also released a reference video that labels them all. -via Tastefully Offensive
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
In the early 1970s, the Zucker brothers, David and Jerry, and their creative partner Jim Abrahams, were performing in a comedy and improv theater group called Kentucky Fried Theater. During nights while the three slept, they had a habit of taping the television shows that ran into the early hours of the morning. They used this procedure to try and find TV commercials which they could satirize in their comedy routines. One night, completely by accident, they happened to record an obscure 1957 movie called Zero Hour!
Zero Hour! was an oh-so-serious drama starring Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell and Sterling Hayden. The plot of Zero Hour! involved a commercial plane flight, during which the pilots and some of the passengers get food poisoning, which causes one of the passengers, an ex-World War II fighter pilot, to try and land the airplane in a heavy fog. The Zuckers and Abrahams watched the film and found its extreme seriousness highly amusing. It contained lines like: "We have to find someone who can not only fly the plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner."
The trio of young writers eagerly wrote a satirical script, mainly using things from Zero Hour! and adding several satirical commercials. They called this original script The Late Show. This script was later changed and the idea of the satirical commercials was eventually dropped from it. The basic premise of satirizing Zero Hour! remained, but instead of the commercial satirization, the boys threw in scores of crazy puns, bizarre sight gags, wild slapstick and hilarious dialogue.
