A rogue planet is a celestial body that is not tethered by gravity to a star, but rather roams through space on its own. It may have once orbited a star, but was knocked off their trajectory by another object, or pulled away by another star, or may possibly be the remnant of a star system that exploded. It may be even possible that planets can form without ever being in orbit. We don't know much about them because astronomers have only detected rogue planets in the 21st century, and then only indirectly. 

But more recent data suggest that rogue planets are way more common than previously thought. Current estimates say that there are an average of seven free-floating planets for every star in the Milky Way galaxy! We just can't see them because they emit no light and only rarely cause a shadow. But they are out there, moving between star systems, colliding with other bodies, and sneaking through the darkness. Our newer, more powerful telescopes are expected to shed light, so to speak, on these so-far invisible planets. Read about the search for rogue planets at IEEE Spectrum. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Chris Gunn/NASA)

To be honest, I have never used or seen a dishwasher before. It's one of the few home appliances that I have not been fortunate enough to own or even see firsthand, in person. I am aware of its function and efficiency, and I have seen an ad for a dishwasher which demonstrated the inner workings of the machine. Alas, it's not something that many people I know think to be a must-have for home appliances. However, if I were given the option to receive a dishwasher, then I will not hesitate to accept, just so that I can see the process that goes on in there, and perhaps, just so that I won't be ignorant about it.

Did you know that the inventor of the dishwasher, Josephine Cochrane, brought her idea to reality out of sheer desperation? The story is, Mrs. Cochrane's husband met his untimely demise leaving her and their two children to fend for themselves. Given that it was also in the 19th century, being a widow with two children to feed and raise, life wasn't going to be rainbows and skittles.

Being born into a family of inventors and tinkerers, Cochrane decided that it was finally time to bring her ambition to fruition. Despite not having a formal education in the sciences, Cochrane had been exposed well enough to her civil engineer father and her grandfather, who had first patented the steamboat. And so, she looked for a problem that needed an urgent solution.

Now, anybody who has washed dishes would know the annoyances that such a task can bring. Cochrane was fed up with chipped, nicked, or cracked dishes and utensils, and she wondered why nobody has ever thought of inventing a machine that can do all of that labor for her.

The 19th century saw many inventions brought to life from the steam engine and the telephone, to the first automobile and the light bulb. However, most of them were concerned with things outside the home. Being a housewife, Cochrane knew the struggles that many other women were most likely going through at the time. They would spend all day doing housework, leaving them with no time to do other things.

Seeing this particular problem with her chinaware, Cochrane resolved to make her own dishwashing machine. At the time, there had already been several attempts at building prototypes of dishwashers. There was a hand-cranked dish soaker designed by Joel Houghton, and an upgraded version of that by L.A. Alexander. Both of which were quite bad.

Cochrane, on the other hand, paid particular attention to measuring cups, plates, and other kitchenware in making her design, envisioning the final product as one in which different types of wares will have their own compartments. These compartments were then placed on a rotating wheel which allowed all of the wares to be squirted with soapy water.

With the help of the local mechanic George Butters, Cochrane was able to invent the first dishwasher and she filed her patent in December 1885 for the "Cochrane Dishwasher". Then came the equally challenging part of the whole process: actually selling the machine.

Having an initial price between $75 to $100 made sure that these dishwashers would not yet be sold to households, as it was too expensive, so Cochrane turned to commercial establishments like restaurants and hotels. The first order of dishwashers she received was from the Palmer Hotel in Chicago, for $800.

Soon, another opportunity would open up with the World's Columbian Expo in Chicago, where she exhibited the first dishwasher to investors, other inventors, and the public. At the time, her dishwasher was the only invention by a woman displayed in the Machinery Hall. Also, the dishwasher had been upgraded as an industrial model which could wash and dry 240 dishes in two minutes. This piqued the interest of many other clients like schools and hospitals that ended up ordering machines from her. Furthermore, she received the award for design and durability, which catapulted the dishwasher into a household name.

Fast forward to 1898, Cochrane opened up a factory for her business, now called Cochrane's Crescent Washing Machine Company. In 1913, Cochrane died from a stroke, but her legacy lived on as her dishwasher continued to be improved upon with innovations in design until such a point that the company was able to sell the dishwashers at a lower price, enabling households to purchase them. Advancements in soap also paved the way for dishes to be cleaner and come out without residue.

The company became KitchenAid, which was later acquired by the Whirlpool Corporation. And in 2006, Josephine Cochrane was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Her story is quite an inspiring one and at the end of her life, she admitted that had she known how difficult it was going to be to invent something and then bring her invention to the market, she may not have had the courage to embark on it. However, she also said that the whole journey had been a wonderful experience.

(Image credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

Drawing maps can be more than just jotting down places, locations, or coordinates on a piece of paper or canvas. Much like history, the way that maps are drawn can be influenced by the cartographer's values, beliefs, and context.

Looking at records of maps from antiquity can give us an idea of not just the places that existed back then, but also of the ruling society, its geopolitical position in the known world, and even its socioeconomic structure as well as the prevailing religious and philosophical thought of that time.

Many maps of the world have been discovered throughout centuries. Some examples being the Hereford Mappa Mundi dated c. 1300, which conveyed not just geographical information but also looked into Biblical subjects as well as general history.

Muhammad al-Idrisi, an Arab geographer, also drew a world map called the Tabula Rogeriana (1154). This was considered the most accurate map of the time since it synthesized the knowledge accumulated by classical geographers along with the information gathered by Arab merchants and explorers who have traveled throughout Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the Far East. Commissioned by the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, the Tabula Rogeriana depicts the entirety of the Eurasian continent with parts of northern Africa.

After 1492, the advent of the age of discovery, maps grew larger as more information became available from explorers and mariners who were setting out to sea in search of resources. World maps evolved and cartographers created different ways of presenting places and locations in a clearer and more concise manner.

The Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator introduced the Mercator projection, a cylindrical map projection which aimed to preserve local direction and shapes, in exchange for inflating the size of objects the further they are from the equator. Nevertheless, it became the standard map projection, which we still use today.

What has been considered the oldest world map dated at around the 6th century BCE was a Babylonian world map called the Imago Mundi. It was first discovered by the Middle Eastern archaelogist and Assyriologist, Hormuzd Rassam in the late 19th century in what is now Iraq.

Later, the British Museum acquired the clay tablets and upon further investigation, they concluded that the map had been carved around the late Babylonian period, c. 6th century BCE. It showed regions including Assyria, Urartu (Armenia) and several cities, encircled by a "bitter river" with eight outer regions surrounding it in the shape of triangles.

The schematic above marks the "bitter river" from 14 to 17, while Babylon is number 13. Descriptions of some of the outer regions survived and have been translated as such: (1) Number 19 is the place "where a light brighter than the sunset or stars exists"; (2) Number 18 is the place "which is in complete darkness where one sees nothing"; and (3) Number 22 is the one "where the morning dawns". One can only surmise which of the other two is where a horned bull dwells and where birds cannot reach.

(Image credit: The British Museum, CC BY SA 4.0; Public domain / Wikimedia Commons)

Fatboy Slim gave us an unforgettable video in 2001 with his song "Weapon of Choice" featuring Christopher Walken dancing solo through a Marriot hotel. Twenty-three years later, the students of St Wilfrid's Catholic School in Crawley, West Sussex, England, made their own version to celebrate the end of the school year. The star is their head teacher Michael Ferry. The school also posted a side-by-side comparison with the original to show how close they are.  



The school couldn't compete with the expensive special effects in the latter part of the original, so that's where having a volunteer chorus line comes in handy. This goes to show that there are still people having fun the internet these days.  -via Metafilter

I bought something this morning and had to choose between different versions from different vendors. The reviews of every one were awful. I eventually realized that most people who are happy with a product do not bother with a review at all, and everyone who has a problem will write one. But some people are born writers and love to tell a story. Linda wrote a review of Bic for Her Retractable Gel Pens.

I got these pens partly because people made fun of the fact that they were for women. I got them to write anti-feminist articles. Really I thought if I bought them I might actually get good at things like vacuuming and washing dishes and decorating. The pens work great but I'm still not very good at homemaking. Dang.

The funnier the product, the better the story. Sean C. bought some Liquid Ass fart spray, or at least told an amazing story about fart spray.

Got stopped by the police. I already knew why he got me (speeding) but of course, I was gonna ask him why he stopped me. I don’t have any extra money to give them so I decided to test my luck and humor. About a week ago, I purchased some fart spray and tried it on my wife, but wanted to see just how far I could push it. The bottle says to squirt about 2 sprays. Well as the policeman walks toward my vehicle I sprayed about 5 squirts. He gets to my window and asks me to get out. I said I can’t! He immediately stops in his tracks and he says lawd...what’s that?

That's just the beginning of the story that gets more ridiculous as it goes. Read that review in a roundup of 26 priceless customer product reviews at Bored Panda.  

(Image credit: Amazon)

Did we name that bone in our arms the humerus because it's the funny bone, or was it the other way around? That's the joke, because the bone is not spelled humorous; it's just a homophone. Or a homobone, if you're being silly. We call that horrible feeling of striking our elbow "hitting our funny bone" because it feels funny, but it's funny-weird, not funny-haha. What is causing that feeling isn't even a bone, anyway, it's the ulnar nerve, which is very important because it connects our brains to our hands. But the strange placement of that nerve that makes it vulnerable to strikes is necessary for the way we move. Our dexterity comes with a cost. This TED-Ed lesson from Cella Wright explains what's going on in our elbows when we hit our funny bone. There's literally nothing funny about it. But if you want to hit your funny bone figuratively, I would recommend a trip to Laughosaurus.     

Summer is probably my least favorite season out of all the four, with winter following its heels. Some people may love summer because of the warm, nice weather which allows them to go out, frolic, and maybe go to the beach to take a dip in the water.

As someone who has lived in a tropical country for majority of my life, my body has loathed the heat and the humidity, and when I lived in a country with a more temperate climate, I acclimated pretty well especially with spring and fall. I even started to grow fond of winter, despite experiencing below-zero temperatures, ice-cold showers, and very slippery streets due to snow. But summer is a different beast altogether wherever you may be. And the general rise in global temperatures doesn't help at all.

I have also spoken with friends I've met and they too preferred winter over summer. Perhaps, it's the feeling of lethargy brought about by the suffocating humidity, whether you're inside or out. Not to mention the effects of UV rays on the skin. Then again, these come from the perspective of someone who has lived under the sun, the heat, and the humidity for most of their life. It may be different if, for example, you spent majority of your life living in frost and tundra, without seeing much of the sun for most of your days. In that case, maybe you would find summer to be such a refreshing season to frolic in the meadow and bathe under the sunlight.

That may exactly be what comes to mind for some classical Russian writers. Where winters can be as long as five months a year, it might be good for both the mind and body to spend several moments, if not, months under the sun. But alas, summers in Russia may not always be what one would expect. There may be instances when instead of bright sunshine, what greets you when you look outside the window are dark clouds and downpours. So, here are some of the thoughts of Russian writers about summer.

Lazing around

Chukovsky writes that summer is the best time to go out for a walk, if the weather is good, that is. He further indicates that it is such a temptation that draws one from their work, in that, instead of writing a book, they would rather just go out, enjoy the weather, and take a lazy stroll. Tolstoy echoes this sentiment admitting that when summer comes, he'd just enjoy life and do almost nothing else.

Going on vacation

As with the rest of us, the Russian writers associated summer with making vacation plans and wiling their time away on the sea, at a distance village somewhere, or deep within the Caucasus. Dostoevsky even writes how he would consider it such a disaster and loss of life if he were not able to swim in the sea during the summer. He would lament such a tragedy to the point that he would become sick over it.

Unexpected weather

Then, there are those summers which you just can't seem to predict the weather. Chekhov complained how one nasty summer they never had a day without rain, which is quite an abysmal state indeed. As much as I hate the terribe heat and humidity of summer, I'd prefer having the sun out instead of rain clouds.

Best time of the year

Tolstoy recounts in his diary a time when he was 17-years-old, spending a summer night, and the charm brought about by such a setting. And both Paustovsky and Bunin shared how summer is quite a fleeting season, it passed just as quickly as it arrived, not having enough time to do everything you had planned or wanted. And alas, it's fall again.

(Image credit: Ethan Robertson/Unsplash)

When reading a book, article, journal, or other scholarly or academic writing, we might notice the small superscript numbers attached to certain words or phrases, which lead us to the fine print at the bottom of the page, i.e. the footnotes. For a moment, we glance at what the short citation says, and then, proceed to read the rest of the article or journal.

It has become such a mundane or trivial aside that we often might not even take notice of the footnotes at all, especially when we merely want to extract the main idea of the text, or to skim through the salient points of each section in the article or paper. But, for anyone working in academe or doing scientific research, or for those in the publishing industry, footnotes are an integral part of their work. It is the standard practice for any scholarly work. After all, readers would want to assess and investigate for themselves the credibility of the sources which the authors used to make their conclusions, and to try and understand the framework which the authors used to interpret those sources.

The question is, "When did the practice of adding footnotes to publications begin?" In general, the person cited to have established source-based history and thus, the use of footnotes, was Leopold von Ranke, a German historian who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, despite championing modern source-based history and influencing Western historiography, Ranke's footnoting was subpar. Moreover, the practice of citing sources had already been used by historians and theologians in late antiquity, albeit in varying forms.

The structure of modern-day footnotes may be traced back to the 17th century with Pierre Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697). Initially written to comment on errors and omissions in Louis Moreri's Grand Dictionaire historique (1674), Bayle also used the dictionary to critique the religious authorities of his time who persecuted him to exile, and thus, promote his anti-authoritarian view of faith. Most entries included in the dictionary described people with some section devoted to religious beliefs and philosophies. Where the footnotes proved to be useful was as a means of hiding away the more controversial ideas he wanted to promote, often slipping them into articles on seemingly uncontroversial topics.

From that point, scholars had emulated Bayle's model and started using them in their own works. Historian Anthony Grafton even cites a footnote which may very well be the longest one in history: a 165-page long citation found in John Hodgson's 1840 History of Northumberland. Meanwhile, Edward Gibbon's footnotes on his work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, may be considered the most ironic with Gibbon adding snarky comments on the footnotes, perhaps to add his own personal flavor, humor, or opinion on the events being described in the text.

Critical analysis of texts these days has become easier with footnotes. They give us the source from which the author takes certain ideas, concepts, or passages and expounds from them. At the same time, they give us an idea of the interpretative framework by which the author asserts their own point. So, if you're reading a book, article, journal, or research paper, take time to look at those footnotes. You might just learn something new or even look at the sources from your own lens, because there might be something there that you notice which others may not. - via Strange Company

(Image credit: Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash)

Ed Wood's 1957 film Plan 9 From Outer Space is often cited as the worst movie of all time, mainly because it was shot in a few days on a budget of $60,000, which was far too little for the grandiose special effects in the storyline. The resulting movie was full of obvious shortcuts, like non-actors in roles beyond their abilities and cheap miniatures. Yet there were a lot of B-movies made the same way in the 1950s. Plan 9 From Outer Space got its reputation as a stinker from Harry Medved and Michael Medved who trashed it in their book The Golden Turkey Awards. The book brought renewed interest that made the film a cult favorite.

But is it really so terrible? If you look past the production values and special effects that resemble a homemade fan film, the story is surprisingly compelling. Its original title, Grave Robbers from Outer Space, gives away a significant plot point. Inverse looked at the movie's themes and overall story and found a study in grief, the specter of a government coverup, mankind's inherent selfishness, and the fear of nuclear annihilation. Read about the ideas behind Plan 9 From Outer Space, and you may look at the movie differently.        

(Image: Public Domain)

Here's a little tune that confirms what we've always known, but rarely admit: the beat is the most important thing in a song. The latest mashup by Bill McClintock (previously at Neatorama) just dropped today. This work of art combines the hard rock of Drowning Pool and their song "Bodies" with the 1978 disco hit "Get Off" by Foxy. That's not all, because the bridge is from the song "Strutter" by Kiss. McClintock calls this "Let the Bodies Get Off" by Drowning Fox. While the title may sound dirty, the song isn't. I'm sure you will enjoy it, and it might inspire you to dance. 

Still, when mixing rock with disco, the undisputed champion is this song.

There was a time when the hundreds of thousands of condoms handed out at the Olympic games would have been a scandal, but that doesn't even make the cut anymore. Since the modern Olympics began in 1896, the international sporting event has seen plenty of cheating, injuries, politics, fighting, terrorism, drugs, and one-upmanship. Some are news stories we'll never forget if we are old enough to remember, like the Israeli hostages taken during the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Others you've never heard of, or else you'll say, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that one." And these scandals are just from the summer games, so you won't hear about Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. But you'll relive the awful moments in ten historic Olympic scandals of the summer games at Mental Floss. The opening ceremonies for the 2024 Olympics in Paris are this Friday, but some qualifying events start tomorrow.

Imagine if aliens landed on earth to find out what residents of this planet were all about. It would be easy for them to figure out that humans are the dominant species, even though we've seen jokes that say otherwise. If a guy in a flying saucer were to land at a ballet school, he would probably enjoy the experience, but would leave with a skewed view of humanity. Before you know it, there would be green men pirouetting across the galaxy. Would that be such a bad thing? But the bigger question is, has there ever been a science fiction ballet before?

Tutu Academy is an ad produced by Dean Alexander Productions and ad agency Design Army for the Hong Kong Ballet. It's only two minutes long, followed by a long list of credits. A lot of people put a lot of work into this! -via Nag on the Lake

We know that the world's first computer program was written by Ada Lovelace in 1848. It would have run a theoretical computer called the Analytical Engine designed by Charles Babbage, but he never actually built the computer. However, computer programs are made up of data, flow charts, and calculations. People understood those things, at least some smart people did, long before the algorithms they produced were usable.

For example, if you had enough data, you could forecast the weather. British mathematician Lewis Fry Richardson compiled the necessary data in 1913 and worked out how to calculate the weather of the future. The problem was that the calculations took so long that the "forecast" had passed before it was predicted. If he had a computer, it would have worked much better. Various people worked out the same types of algorithms for playing chess, tabulating the census, and generating random numbers. They worked, but not well, because human calculation just isn't fast enough. Read about the algorithms that predated the computers that would make them work at Cracked.

National Geographic gives us a film about the wolverine. It is the largest member of the weasel family, but that's about all we learn about it, because the narrator got bored, and so the film is unexpectedly short. He does give us some hints about they way a wolverine smells. The narrator is Deadpool, or actually Ryan Reynolds, who plays Deadpool. Is this really an ad for Deadpool & Wolverine, which opens this weekend? That would explain why the subject is a wolverine, but this was really released by National Geographic. It turns out this is an ad for a National Geographic show, and the Deadpool & Wolverine movie was just a convenient opportunity for a collaboration that people would actually watch. If you ever get an opportunity for Ryan Reynolds to write your advertising copy, go for it. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Jose Romero has been a dishwasher at the Red Lobster restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado for twelve years. He's also responsible for unpacking newly arrived lobsters. The Pueblo Chieftain reports that, on July 12, Romero spotted an orange lobster. Romero and his coworkers had never seen or heard of that coloration before.

They named the lobster "Crush" after the formidable defensive line of the Denver Broncos during the late 70s. The team decided that Crush had to be saved. They donated him to the Downtown Aquarium in Denver on July 17, where he can spend the rest of his days. His rare mutation, which can be found in only 1 in 30 million lobsters, will make him a draw.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Red Lobster