Leap Year is when we add an extra day to the calendar to make up for the fact that it takes 364.25 days to travel around the sun. It happens every four years, and means that we also have the summer Olympics and a US presidential election. I had always heard that February 29th is the day that women can actually propose marriage to men, which is a joke on how rare that outrageous act should be. But it turns out that traditionally, women can propose to men any time during a Leap Year. Until recently, that was still seen as a strange twist on the the usual custom of a man proposing to a woman. Sometimes it made the papers, and sometimes it backfired.

In 1932, Alf Shepherd, the manager of the Ashington Ballroom in England, launched a promotion in which he offered a free wedding reception, including the venue, orchestra, and a cake to a woman who proposed to her gentleman while in the ballroom. With no takers by the February 11 deadline, the business extended the promotion to February 29 and encouraged women to propose by valentine, but some women misunderstood the update notice. Shepherd received at least three valentines from women who asked for his hand in marriage, sight unseen!

Read about this and other newsworthy Leap Year proposals through the years at Fishwrap. -via Strange Company

Once upon a time, when there were many fewer academic journals than there are now, a scientist or team would submit a paper on their research, and then scientists in the same general area with no connection to the authors would then review the paper before it was accepted for publishing.

Today, science journalism is a cutthroat industry, and we have artificial intelligence to help create shortcuts. A paper published in the journal Frontiers drew peer review from the public for its AI-generated images. The authors disclose that the illustrations were generated by the program Midjourney, but they are so inaccurate and badly labelled as to be completely useless. Science integrity consultant Elisabeth Bik described the image above as "a bunch of pizzas with pink salami and blue tomatoes." But the real show-stopper is an image of a rat with the world's largest penis and four testes. Now, science illustrations will often enlarge an important inset, but will indicate this somehow. This rat's parts are labeled with words like iollotte sserotgomar, testtomcels, dissilced, and dck. The testtomcels label points to the rat's hind leg. But at least the word Rat is spelled correctly.   

A commenter who knows more about molecular biology than I do says the text appears to be AI-generated in places, too. Twitter is having a good time with the paper.

really, the only thing i'd take issue with here is the unclear labeling of the diƨlocttal stem ells.

— Paranoid Delusion Mocker, Professional Gangstalker (@legs_snail) February 15, 2024

One day after Bik posted her article, Frontiers has retracted the paper. A document of the original is still available. -via Metafilter

(Image source: Frontiers)

The 1988 movie Beetlejuice revolves around Barbara and Adam Maitland, who are killed in an auto accident early in the film, but continue to live in the house they love. Being ghosts, they cannot stop the sale of their home to a new family, so they try to scare them away. If you didn't know the movie already, you might think that makes them the villains in the story, but no, that belongs to the chaotic Beetlejuice who they enlist to help them out. But one fan theory suggests we look elsewhere for the real villain.

Before the accident, the Maitlands are visited by pushy realtor Jane Butterfield, who could make a large commission selling their home. The couple aren't interested in selling the house. But then they immediately die, making the real estate deal possible. What if Jane had engineered the accident? It was ostensibly caused by a stray dog in the street, but Jane could have led him there. Was it murder? It may seem silly at first, but why include the realtor in the film before the death otherwise? A deleted alternate ending brings Jane back, and lends more credence to her importance in the story. This theory could open up possibilities for the as-yet-unknown plot for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the 2024 sequel opening in September. Read about this theory at Screen Rant. -via Mental Floss

Ukraine is known as the breadbasket of Europe. Its farmers raise and export a huge chunk of the world's wheat, barley, and other grains. But in 1932 and '33, Stalin decided to show Ukrainians who was boss and suppress those who would oppose the authority of the Soviet Union. The collectivization and modernization of agriculture was going on throughout the USSR, and all areas that were once abundant resources were harmed when experienced farmers were replaced by government policies and unreasonable goals. Bad weather made things worse. Still, Ukraine suffered so much more that many countries consider the Holodomor an act of genocide. And it was kept secret from the outside world for decades.

Tom Blank of Weird History makes no attempt at humor in this video, because it's a truly tragic story. He does allow a little sarcasm when appropriate. You can learn more about the Holodomor at Wikipedia. Beware, the details are gory and heartbreaking.

Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer are a musical duo who have, for decades, endeared listeners with their performances on guitars, mandolins, and, most importantly, banjos.

The banjo is traditionally associated with bluegrass music, although you can play almost any genre on it, including classical and hard rock. Fink and Marxer can blend it with traditional Chinese music with the aid of Chao Tian, a master of the Chinese dulcimer (sometimes called a yangqin). Two years ago, at a concert titled "From China to Appalachia", the three musicians performed together.

What is this new genre? On Twitter, Emma Tolkin suggests that we call it Appalachinese.

Casimir Zeglen left his Polish monastery in 1890 and immigrated to the US to lead a Polish Catholic congregation in Chicago. He was shocked when the mayor of Chicago was assassinated by gunshot in 1893. So shocked, in fact, that he went all in on developing a way to protect public figures from such attacks that could be worn unnoticed underneath a regular shirt, namely, a bulletproof vest. After two years of research with other materials, Zeglen learned that silk had an extraordinary strength, enough to slow or even stop a bullet. Zeglen began learning about the art of silk weaving and developed new methods to make it as strong as needed for his lifesaving vest. He received two patents for his innovation in 1896.

But despite the vest's effectiveness, Zeglen ran into problems. His business partner betrayed him. His funding, spent on research, ran out when it came time to manufacture the product. And then the real problem with a silk bulletproof vest came to light- it was biodegradable. Still, Zeglen's research paved the way for bulletproof materials we have now. Read the story of Zeglen's bulletproof vest at Amusing Planet.

If you have ever searched for RAM to upgrade your PCs, then you might have noticed that most RAM circuit boards, if stripped bare, are colored green. Many brands now try to add some fancy covers on the circuit board, but at its core, their usually green in color. Why is that?

Although there are technical details to the manufacturing of these circuit boards, especially regarding the type of materials used to make them, the main reason why companies went for a green color on the circuit boards is due to the need for high contrast to make quality control faster and easier for inspectors.

Most of the chips and circuits are dark in color, so manufacturers tried to mix pigments to improve the contrast. Initially, because of the resin, the boards were brown, and then, they tried adding red and blue pigments which just resulted in first, a rusty color, and then a darker brown.

Until finally, they found a nice contrast by mixing blue and yellow pigments, which gave a dark green, satisfying the criteria for high contrast and reducing eye strain for inspectors. Evolutionary biologists suggest that the reason why humans are more receptive to the green color was so that they could navigate the forests and jungles back in the day.

The adoption of green became more standard when the US military requested manufacturers to make the circuit boards green, which spilled over to commercial circuit boards, and so, it has been used to this day.

The only reason why this might change is the fact that getting the green color results in toxic fumes being released, causing harm to the environment. Some manufacturers offer "halogen-free" circuit boards, but the dominance of the green circuit boards won't seem to be challenged anytime soon.

(Image credit: Chris Ried/Unsplash)

Cracked laid out for us in their article a very simple hypothetical situation: if you were someone who lacked resources but wanted to have one of the newest pieces of technology at that time, the boombox, but also, for some reason, contracted a disease that gave you a dangerously high fever, where will you decide to put your money into? Should you admit yourself to the hospital or go to your nearest electronics store and buy the boombox?

In order to answer the question, we need to know the numbers. Based on Cracked's research, we find that in 1983, the best boombox that money could buy, the JVC RC-M90, cost $550. On the other hand, a one night stay at the hospital, including all the associated doctor's fees and the like, would have cost you $369.

Anyone might have gone for the hospital stay, and that's a reasonable decision, unless you're a big music fan and tech geek, who wants to be the coolest kid in the block. Although questionable, I think no one can blame anyone who would just buy some aspirin from the pharmacy, and then, scurry off to buy the new boombox. Wait a few days for the fever to die down, and all is well.

That was back in 1983. Of course, things are a lot different now. Factoring in inflation, Cracked found that the JVC RC-M90 would have cost about $1,468 in 2021. Meanwhile, the average cost for an overnight hospital stay in the same period was $2,883. If you were to find yourself at a hospital in New York, that would balloon up to $3,609.

So, there you have it folks. In 1983, the boombox cost more than a hospital stay. But that has reversed almost 40 years later. Then again, we can all chock this up to the advancement of medical technology, as well as the obsolescence of the boombox. It might be different if we were to compare, say, the cost of an Apple stock in the 80s, and cancer treatments. But that's a discussion for another day.

(Image credit: krakenimages/Unsplash)

In ancient times, a solar eclipse caused people to believe the world was ending. We know better now, but animals can act like they feel the same way. Some begin to act anxious, or run away, or start acting like it's nighttime when the sun goes dark, which only makes sense. Other behaviors are not so easily explained. Tortoises who start mating could be the wisest of the bunch, because, well, if the world really were ending, what would you do? But then again, how much attention do we pay to these animal behaviors when there's no eclipse?

The next solar eclipse will be on Monday, April 8, which will be seen in the parts of the US. Those places are already battening the hatches for the hordes of tourists who will be rolling in to see it. Learn more about the April eclipse at NASA. They've got some cool visuals. -via Laughing Squid

FUN FACT: For my demoreel I used the song: Firehouse Five Plus Two - I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire

The Firehouse Five Plus Two was a Dixieland jazz band, formed in 1949 by Ward Kimball, consisting of members of the Walt Disney Studios animation department. pic.twitter.com/uL0uv5ezLq

— javier Pedreño (@j_pedreno) March 28, 2021

In the 1940s, Disney Animator Ward Kimball and a few friends from work discovered they shared a love for jazz. They started a band and played together, sometimes at work during lunch. They went through a few names and finally settled on The Firehouse Five Plus Two (because there were seven of them at the time). The band was asked to play at parties, and then found paid gigs, and before you know it, they were recording artists. Walt Disney didn't mind the side hustle, and was proud of the band, even using them on some Disney productions. That is, until Kimball started getting a bit too much admiration for his music, and the band had a falling out with Walt. The Firehouse Five Plus Two recorded 13 albums up into the 1970s.

Cabel Sasser tells us the story of The Firehouse Five Plus Two, and then how he came into the possession of a collection of acetate records of their early practice sessions from the 1940s. He had the records digitally copied, because they were quite fragile. The songs show us how the group worked out new tunes, labeled the recordings with different rude band names that were never meant to be seen, and marked them with "please destroy." These songs are shared on Sasser's site, but the very last one is a rare treasure. It contains a song that was long in the making, but the sequence was deleted from the 1950 Disney movie Cinderella.

Go on, hit play. And as you listen, take a moment to let it sink in that you’re one of the first people to hear this music in nearly 75 years.

You'll also learn the story behind the deleted scene. Even if you don't care about Dixieland jazz, you'll enjoy reading about this piece of musical history. -via Kottke

We've known for a long time that ultraviolet light kills viruses, but we never used it because ultraviolet light is what gives us skin cancer when we spend too much time in the sun. In other words, it's dangerous. Oh, not the small black lights we use to see groovy posters or check for bloodstains; those have very little power and are quite safe compared to the sun. We wear sunscreen to protect us from UV-A and UV-B rays from the sun, but there's also UV-C, which has a narrow point in the spectrum that doesn't cause cancer called far-UV. Strangely, this discovery was made in 2020, which is when we were pretty desperate to kill viruses. So why aren't we using far-UV everywhere to kill viruses? Because there are other questions about its safety and efficacy, not to mention the cost-benefit ratio. There's still a lot to learn about far-UV, but the very idea is exciting. -via Digg

For about a hundred years, from the late 15th to the late 16th century, codpieces were high fashion. The original codpiece was a part of a suit of armor, and it was seriously for protection. But off the battlefield, this piece of clothing had an innocent and even modest start. Men commonly wore a tunic and hose, with the hose being two separate socks that were tied to the tunic. In the late 15th century, style dictated that the tunics or doublets got shorter and shorter, and the codpiece was developed to cover a man's genitalia when his fashionable clothing no longer would.

But men quickly saw an opportunity, in that a codpiece can be enhanced. That scrap of fabric could be any size, and stuffed with fabric or straw, it changed from an item of modesty to an attention-grabbing accessory. Some even used their codpiece as a pocket to store handy items, while also inflating the size of the codpiece. Henry VIII was a fan of the codpiece, since it was important for a monarch to flaunt his virility despite his trouble producing an heir. And you know the king is a fashion influencer, no matter how scandalized the clergy was. Meanwhile, everyday folks laughed at codpieces with jokes about compensating. Read about the codpiece fad and how it eventually died out at BBC Future. Get ready for plenty of double entendres. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Hans Holbein the Younger)

The custom of writing love letters has fallen from an art form to a few scribbled words inside a Valentine's Day card, thanks to instant communication. Once upon a time, a well-written letter could make someone fall in love with you, and even better, letters sometimes survive the ravages of time so that we can all enjoy them. The letters that our nation's leaders wrote are particularly interesting because we know the public facing president, who can be very different from the private man seeking to impress a lady. Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler have written a book called Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?: Letters of Love and Lust from the White House. The title comes from a letter Woodrow Wilson wrote to his wife.

In an excerpt, we find that Lyndon Johnson met Lady Bird in Texas in September of 1934, and when he returned to Washington where he was serving in Congress, he wrote her every day until she agreed to marry him, which happened in November of that year. U.S. Grant's wife Julia had to instruct him on how to write an acceptable letter. And Martha Washington had all her letters from George burned before she died, but a few somehow escaped that fate. Read about the love letters some US presidents sent at Literary Hub.  -via Damn Interesting

Four Italian guitar players, Matteo Brenci, Emanuele Grafitti, Enrico Maria Milanesi, and Andrea Vittori, all from different musical backgrounds, got together and formed a band called 40 Fingers. They don't need any other instruments, because in each song, they split the parts into percussion, bass, melody, and vocals, and play as an orchestra. In this performance, they bring us eight Michael Jackson songs in a medley, or rather, six Michael Jackson songs, plus a Jackson 5 song, and that one from USA for Africa. You have to admit they make beautiful music. If Michael Jackson is not your thing, their website and YouTube channel are full of pop covers, medleys, show tunes, and full concerts that will tickle your fancy. -via Laughing Squid

Appropriate for Valentine's Day, the New York Times (paywalled) tells the love story of Sophie Lund Rasmussen and Troels Pank Arboll, two Danish academics who share an interest in the history of the ancient Near Eastern culture known as the Assyrian Empire. Rasmussen is actually an ecologist, but she likes to read within the academic specialty of her husband, Arboll, who is a professional Assyriologist.

The couple are credited with groundbreaking research into the history of kissing. The historical and archaeological records from ancient Mesopotamia indicate that couples kissed. It was generally a practice not engaged in as a precursor to further intimacy but something that couples did after they had "clashed chariots", if you know what I mean. Specifically, a clay tablet from 2400 B.C. describes a male god impregnating his mother/sister with seven gods and then kissing her.

If you get some romantic time with a partner on this Valentine's Day, perhaps you should pass along this story to set the mood.

-via Dave Barry | Image: British Museum