Everyone knows that Superman is a refugee from the doomed planet Krypton, raised by earthlings Ma and Pa Kent, who taught him to use his super powers for the benefit of earth. I almost said "truth, justice, and the American way," but we know that was added later. Yeah, Superman is the hero he always was, since that first comic was released in 1938.
But by the time Action Comics introduced Superman, Jerry Siegel had been working on the character for years. In early versions, he was an unwilling victim of a mad scientist who gave him strange and varied powers. The earliest version had him using those powers in a malicious way. The character went through several iterations, once as a time traveler, as Siegel collaborated with artists he knew before Superman had a name and a backstory. You can learn about those unpublished early versions of the Man of Steel in a 45-minute podcast at The Comics Code, or read a succinct account of the highlights at Boing Boing.
You may have heard about elective surgery some people have to lengthen their legs in order to be taller. That's the kind of story that makes it into the news. But medical intervention to lengthen bones is not new, and it's sometimes necessary for health. If one leg is longer than the other, that can lead to other bones being misaligned, or a curved backbone. And lots of pain. This video doesn't go into the ethics of elective leg-lengthening surgery, but rather gives us a tutorial on how it's done.
Leg lengthening relies on the way our bones heal by themselves when broken. The real trick is to keep the bone perfectly straight and healing properly. Developments in this kind of surgery over the past century have made it possible for more people to finally have aligned legs to walk on. This TED-Ed lesson from Jason Shih Hoellwarth tells the story in all its gory detail.
Are you a member of a band of adventurers that would like to level up quickly and are willing to take risks? I know the perfect dungeon you can go to grind up some experience points.*
Live Science reports that scientists have discovered an enormous spider colony in a sulfuric cave on the border between Greece and Albania. The dense web covering the interior of the cave stretches across about 106 square meters, which is approximately the surface area of skin of 73 humans if the skin is removed from those bodies.
-via Daddy Warpig | Photo: Urak et al., Subterranean Biology
*The loot is probably poor, though--aside from what's left behind by previous adventurers.
Well wasn’t this just a great way to wake up this morning. Went looking for my brand new chainsaw that I left on front porch last night. Never gonna find that thing again. This means war! pic.twitter.com/rPfXXVysLu
— BowTiedBroke (@BowTiedBroke) November 6, 2025
X user BowTiedBroke shared security camera footage of a bear stealing a brand new $500 unattended chainsaw from his home during the night.
Why does a bear need a chainsaw? Well, he can probably sell it on eBay. But in the Tennessee woods, a chainsaw could also be practically useful.
UPDATE: BowTiedBroke provides updates. He retrieved the chainsaw from the mouth of the bear's den.
Every one knows the best way to solve a complex mystery is to hang pictures and newspaper clippings on a wall and connect them with string to show the relationship between each item. At least that's true according to the movies. That familiar scene is called String Theory, and it's there to show you how widespread and complex a hidden conspiracy can be to an experienced professional investigator. On the other hand, it is also used to reveal the compulsions of a serial killer or the insane obsessions of a conspiracy theorist.
Shawn Gilmore has compiled an archive of Narrative String Theory scenes from movies, TV, comedy, books, animation, advertising, comics, art, and even the news. There are 1308 entries so far, including a scene from the documentary The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping shown at the top, and the parody that became a meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, above. Just when you are impressed with how many of them there are, you realize that there's a second page with the previous 900 entries. -via Metafilter
(Warning: the first link is from TV Tropes)
You've been told all your life not to put metal into a microwave. What's the worst that can happen? The possibility of uncontrollable microwave arcing could damage your appliance, and that's enough to keep most of us from trying it out. But what if the consequences are more serious than we've been told? This guy wrapped his potato in aluminum foil, as we've all done, but then placed it in the microwave. Instead of melting the machine, it becomes a uniquely powerful energy generator, so powerful that it calls extraterrestrials to come and take it.
The guy is initially terrified of the situation he has unleashed, but eventually we find that he's sort of into it and joins in the mission to retrieve the potato. The bizarre adventure unwinds wordlessly in this action video from Buttered Side Down. The moral of the story is: always read the directions thoroughly. -via The Awesomer
Nick Sharpes is known across the Internet as the 3D Wizard. He can design and print amazingly creative and useful objects, such as Incredible Hulk hands for his cat and thongs for AirPods.
One of his most recent design series consists of specialty drill bits for unusual conditions, such as drilling around corners, or cutting square holes, or drilling two holes at the same time.
Sharpes is a genius. It's amazing that no one ever thought of these inventions before.
-via Core77
Just saw a guy absolutely nail Yukon Cornelius—'Sil-verrrr!' His wild imitation had me laughing out loud. Instant flashback to cozy '60s TV nights, stop-motion puppets, and misfit dreams. Pure nostalgic joy! pic.twitter.com/TmeEovG3HD
— 𝐃𝐔𝐓𝐂𝐇 (@pr0ud_americans) November 4, 2025
Halloween is over, so we are now fully into the Christmas season, as that holiday is a mere fifty days away.
Let us prepare by watching Christmas specials, such as the classic 1964 stop-motion animation film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. To fans, a favorite character on it is Yukon Cornelius, a prospector who befriends Rudolph.
Can't find the original online? That's okay: voice actor Cameron Cortinas performs a Yukon Cornelius scene with perfect physical acting and improvised props.
Modern technology (IVF, donor eggs and sperm, surrogacy, and chemistry that can temporarily reverse menopause) has led us to ponder questions that we never had to confront before. What makes a parent? Is it a genetic link, the act of giving birth, the people who live with and raise a child, the person who paid for all the above to happen, or something else hidden in the Byzantine laws that have hastily grown up around these new technologies?
The case of MaryBeth Lewis combines all these questions. When her children grew up, she wanted more, and gave birth to her 13th child at the age of 62. But she still wanted more. For the next pregnancy, she used frozen embryos created with purchased sperm and eggs and a surrogate mother. But she didn't tell her husband Bob, and instead signed his name on the legal contracts. Twins were born in October of 2023, when Lewis was 66. By then, her scheme had started to unravel, and the twins were sent to foster parents, who still have them two years later and want to adopt them. Lewis was charged with felony fraud, yet she went to court to gain custody of the twins. The question is, who do those children belong to? Read the story in this gripping account at the New York Times, or at the Internet Archive. -via Damn Interesting
(Unrelated image credit: MultipleParent)
They say that practice makes perfect. More recently, we've all heard that to become really good at something, you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice. Unless you spend all day practicing, that's a lot of years. So not only is the "rule" discouraging, it doesn't really make sense. Quite a few people are very good at something when they are still young, and others change directions completely at an advanced age and then show amazing talent. In this TED-Ed lesson, David Epstein explains that you don't have to devote yourself to a certain activity from childhood in order to become really good at it. Sometimes it takes a bit of experimenting to find out where your talents lie, or what your passion is. If you find something you are excited about doing, practice doesn't feel like work. And if you begin to feel at home with what you are doing, who is counting those hours? We can't all be world famous for our talents, but we can all be good at something.
Many of us were raised to clean our plates and never waste food. Then as struggling adults, we took advantage of free food and got our money's worth at buffets. The habit of always filling up often leads to obesity or disordered eating and a lifestyle of yo-yo dieting. Contrast this with the Japanese philosophy of eating called hara hachi bu, which encourages us to eat until we are around 80% full. That idea resets our conception of satiety and staves off indigestion.
While the 80% rule is what you hear most about this philosophy, hara hachi bu involves much more. It is about developing a balanced relationship with food in which we slow down, enjoy eating, and choose more nutrititous things to eat. That means being more aware of what we consume instead of just how much. Hara hachi bu has been shown to be effective in weight loss, but it's not a diet. Rather, it's a long term way of eating that leads to long term health benefits. Read up on hara hachi bu and seven tips for trying it out at the Conversation. -via Real Clear Science
(Image credit: MIKI Yoshihito)
I once worked as a restaurant bartender, but the reason I got the job was because I spoke fluent English, and could communicate with customers when needed. My language skills came in handy that one time we had a fire. I also had to be there for the local health department inspections, otherwise no one would understand what needed to be fixed.
Restaurants are inspected by various government agencies, depending on the state or even local regulations. These inspections are crucial to make sure the restaurant meets standards for safe food storage, handling, and cooking, plus sanitation standards for the business as a whole. The results of these inspections can be posted as a percentage, a grade, or some other scale. If the results are bad enough, the restaurant will be shut down until conditions improve. But how are we to interpret passing grades that vary from one place to another? Weird History Food takes us through the system so we can understand what we are getting into a little better.
It's always been expensive to be poor. In Victorian England, if you couldn't afford accommodations, you could sleep outside, but in rainy and/or cold weather, you could pay for a spot inside for a penny (which was worth more 200 years ago). In a city establishment called a doss house, just providing a roof brought in cash from hundreds of itinerant laborers and homeless people. For a penny, though, you didn't get the luxury of sleeping. That would buy you a spot to sit on a bench overnight, called a "penny sit-up."
Double the price and you had a "two-penny hangover." This meant a spot on a bench, and a rope to keep you from falling on the floor when you fell asleep. It also meant a rude awakening when your time was up, because that's when the rope was untied. Or if you were to spend four cents for a night, you could really get a good night's rest -in a wooden box on the floor. This was called a "four-penny coffin." Read about the cost of existing in these doss houses and see pictures at Amusing Planet.
Oreo cookies come in a lot of flavors, but this is one that I can't see gaining any long-term traction. the company is now offering the Oreoid Thanksgiving Dinner Cookie Tin. It's a box with 12 Oreo cookie that come in six Thanksgiving flavors: turkey & stuffing, cranberry sauce, creamed corn, sweet potato, pumpkin pie, and caramel apple pie. Yum! A 12-count box will cost you $19.99 plus shipping. Imagine the kids fighting over the last creamed corn cookie! You can also opt for the tin with 12 classic Oreo flavor cookies with Thanksgiving images and sprinkles for $44.99.
The term "Oreoid" sounds like "factoid," meaning something that's not quite a fact but is shaped like one. However, this appears to be more like Oreo-ID. It refers to their program in which you can get custom-designed Oreo cookies with pictures on them. Still, those aren't available in turkey & stuffing flavor, even though they offer Thanksgiving-themed images. -via Boing Boing
Commonsense child-rearing consists of giving them love and security when they are young, and then gradually teaching them and supporting them as they grow and branch out. But there have been many periods in our history when self-styled experts gave advice that will curl your hair today. Bad advice may have sounded sensible at the time, but wasn't based on actual long-range outcomes, just on the desired outcome a parent might hope for. Ignoring a child's pain or giving them drugs might result in less crying, but it could also scar their souls or their livers. Putting children to work in factories or mines was a desperate measure to bring food to the family table, yet it led to stunted growth and a lack of education.
However, parents wanted to do it right, so they often take dubious advice from dubious experts even today. Read up on some of the worst parenting advice ever at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Crimfants)
