Black Plague swept through Europe in the 14th century and killed between 75 million and 200 million people. There have been assertions on the internet that this was caused by a widespread culling of cats for religious reasons, which led to the continent being overrun by rats. Considering how much the average person knows about medieval Europe, this makes sense. The problem is that it's not true. Oh, for sure there were some sporadic cat killings, but they were few and highly localized, and made no difference in the overall cat population.

Medieval people loved their cats, even if they didn't pamper them quite as much as we do today. Cats were exceedingly useful, usually in pest control but sometimes in doing the chores like spinning wool, as shown above. They asked for little in return, and provided gossip-free companionship, which is why in at least one convent, nuns were allowed to have one cat even when they were prohibited from talking to other nuns. Read about the way medieval folk regarded their cats, and indeed enshrined them in plenty of art, at Going Medieval. -via Metafilter

Rumors on the internet* hold that Gene Roddenberry once owned a 3-foot long detailed model of the Enterprise (NCC-1701, no bloody A, B, C, or D). This beautiful work was stolen from Roddenberry's home during the 1970s. It recently surfaced on eBay with a minimum bid of $1,000.

The seller has pulled the listing from eBay and reached out to Rod Roddenberry, a son of Gene Roddenberry and director of his intellectual properties.

The model bears the mark of Richard C. Datin, Jr., the model builder for the Original Series. This model would have been used in the filming of the show.

*Note this well: I have not found any careful reporting on the subject.

This year for Halloween we did the "candy or a potato" experiment. Kids overwhelmingly chose potato.
byu/TriggerHippie77 infunny

Giving out potatoes to trick-or-treaters may seem odd and even experimental, but it's not exactly new. What's new is instant evidence of its popularity on doorbell camera videos. Put yourself into the mind of a trick-or-treater. You've already got a bag full of candy, and a potato is funny. Even if you don't have a choice between a potato or candy, that potato is going to stick out from all the other treats you bring home. My trick-or-treat days were a very long time ago, but I still remember that one house where an old lady invited us in to select from a table full of homemade treats ranging from caramel apples to cupcakes to cookies. That doesn't happen anymore, but a potato is something to remember.

The potatoes were a big hit this year
byu/mapitch infunny

Some commenters under these videos assumed that the kids liked the potatoes because they could throw them at windows or each other for "tricks." That really doesn't factor in significantly, because the kids that go door-to-door in costume are overwhelmingly younger than those who use Halloween as an excuse for vandalism. Besides, it's a lot more fun to bring your loot home than to throw it away, even if you have no moral problem with destruction.

Many dermatologists recommend that we all use sunscreen, especially when we go out of the house. It protects us from the harmful UV-A and UV-B rays to keep our skin from aging and burning. However, despite the growing usage of sunscreen, melanoma and skin cancer rates are increasing as well, which many researchers dub as the "sunscreen paradox". Claire Loewen-McGill of Futurity speaks with dermatologists who have looked into this perplexing phenomenon to gain insight as to why this is the case.

Apparently, just as much as people have been using sunscreen, they have been going out and staying under the sun for far longer than they should, with the unguided notion that their sunscreen would be able to protect their skin from damage. But, for anybody who has ever used sunscreen and understands the meaning behind SPF, they would know that if you will be staying for expended periods of time under the sun, sunscreen must be reapplied after a few hours depending on the SPF level of the product.

Researchers including Ivan Litvinov and Sandra Peláez from McGill University conducted one study to explore the sunscreen paradox in Canada, while another study was conducted by Litvinov and researchers from the UK. These researchers found that sunscreen use was associated with twice the risk of skin cancer. So, apart from sunscreen, Litvinov suggests that people should also use protective clothing and other means such as using an umbrella to protect themselves from UV rays.

(Image credit: BATCH by Wisconsin Hemp Scientific/Unsplash)

I like the color blue for no other reason than it looks the coolest to me. Blue is probably one of the rarest colors that one can find in nature apart from seeing it in the sky or seeing it reflected by the oceans. Peacocks have a bright green and blue plumage, which can be attributed to its structure rather than pigmentation. The blue morpho butterfly has the same situation in which its wing scales have ridges that refract sunlight so that they appear blue in our eyes. The same goes for the blue jay and even plants such as bluebells, hydrangeas, and morning glories, which all use pigments and the reflection of natural light to appear blue.

In the case of bowerbirds, they make their bowers out of sticks and brightly-colored objects, most of which are in a shade of blue, all for the purpose of attracting a potential mate. Why the bowerbirds have chosen this specific color, we cannot say for certain except for that, just like me, and many other people in the world, they simply like it. This phenomenon has also been documented by Charles Darwin in his book The Descent of Man. The Marginalian offers this interesting perspective on the bowerbird and the color blue in this article.

(Image credit: Joseph C Boone/Wikimedia Commons)

The traditional cycle of life in today's modern world is that we go through school for 16 years at least, or 24 years if you pursue post-graduate studies, after which we find jobs and work until we're 65, then retire. For some people, that might not seem appealing, and so they become freelancers, entrepreneurs, or some other career outside the conventional life path. But even so, at some point or another, we're all going to retire and try to enjoy the remaining years of our lives. From Tim Jensen's perspective, there are some common mistakes that people make when it comes to retirement, and as a retirement planner for 17 years, he has graciously shared some of those on Reader's Digest so that we can learn from them.

Reading some of these tips, I think a common thread is the lack of understanding that people have about retirement and how it all works, and the fact that, people generally think about retirement much later than they should. I would understand why people wouldn't want to bother themselves with thinking about what will happen 30 or 40 years later, but it's worth considering as well as being flexible depending on the circumstances we find ourselves in. For me, the most relevant tip relates to health costs and how that affects one's retirement as I am currently surrounded by retirees and retirees-to-be whose main concern at the moment are medical expenses and the like. To see all 18 tips, check it out on Reader's Digest.

(Image credit: Marc Najera/Unsplash)

Winners of the Nobel Prize, especially for the sciences, usually are out of reach to the general public. Their ideas and concepts are, in one way or another, revolutionary in theory and for some, in practice as well. Many Nobel Prize winners in the natural sciences gravitate toward advancements in physics, chemistry, and medicine, much of which are too complex for the ordinary people like us who have no training or advance education in those fields. And one way that the Nobel Committee can communicate these ideas in simpler terms to the public is through illustrations, which distill the concepts into readily comprehensible imagery, analogies, or symbolisms. For the past 13 years, that has been the job of Johan Jarnestad.

One example is the illustration above, which depicts the research done by Claudia Goldin on the understanding of women's labor market outcomes. It's an incredibly simple illustration showing three generations of women looking back toward their mothers, with the first two having their children in tow, and the last one carrying books and a backpack. A signpost at the right end shows two opposite directions saying "expectations" and "opportunities". It's simple yet powerfully communicates a part of Goldin's research. Jarnestad also made three other illustrations of Goldin's research which you may check out on Fast Company.

(Image credit: Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)

GreenPower Motor Company has released an announcement about its latest school bus design which boasts a capacity of 90 people, and can go up to 300 miles in range with a 387 kWh battery. They call it the "Mega Beast" as an upgrade of their current "Beast" line which stands for "battery electric automotive school transportation" that can go up to 140 miles with a 197.3 kWh battery.

Although the current Beast design can also pack 90 kids in one ride, the reason why the company built the Mega Beast to go for longer distances was so that the buses can reach more remote areas like rural schools and so that, the bus would not need to recharge its battery in the middle of the day. Furthermore, the Mega Beast is more durable and versatile as it can climb up hills and endure extreme weather conditions. For reference, you may check GreenPower's website for the specifications of their Beast bus design and other details like top speed, motor power, seating configurations, fuel economy, and the like.

(Image credit: GreenPower Motor Company)

Redditor aubra_cadabra and six of her friends have a Halloween tradition that's been going on for more than a decade now. They all dress up as one actor in seven different movie roles! For 2023, that's Ryan Gosling, as you can see in this image. I think they chose Gosling because everyone wants to dress in Barbie style this year. Paige, Aida, Jamie, Lindsay, Lauren, Auburn, and Heather started off with Johnny Depp in 2012, and since then have portrayed the various movie roles of Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, Robin Williams, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Ben Stiller, and Adam Sandler. Continue reading to see a gallery of all their costumes from previous years.

How about a three minute version of The Fellowship of the Ring using LEGO? This is a faithful yet extremely condensed retelling without jokes. It features the massive 6167-piece The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell LEGO set that came out back in February. This production also assumes you know the story, but of course you do, don't you? This labor of love comes from Digital Wizards Studios. Take a look at how the set was built. It only takes two minutes, thanks to Gandalf and his magic -and the art of stop-motion animation.



Take another look behind the scenes and see how the video came together with camera work, lighting, and digital effects in this video.

-via Warner Bros.

You might have come across Roman Fedortsov's X (Twitter) profile where he posts photos of the creatures he finds while deep-sea diving. It truly is quite fascinating what diversity the deep oceans hold. You may have seen some of them depicted in movies like Finding Nemo or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Creatures like the anglerfish seem terrifying but also equally intriguing. They may only look scary but it just goes to show how much we don't know about the deepest parts of the ocean, which have barely been explored.

Here are some photos that show what deep-sea creatures look like:

If you think that the anglerfish in Finding Nemo was creepy, then what about this one which looks like it came straight out of the Alien movies.

This one is a photo of a frilled shark.

This last one is probably the weirdest one of them all. I can't even begin to explain or describe what it is. It looks like a fragment of a skull with a fleshy protrusion coming out of the head.

To check out the rest of the photos, check it out on Science Alert.

(Image credit: Roman Fedortsov)

(Header image: Jong Marshes/Unsplash)

Before Singapore became the bustling economic epicenter of Southeast Asia, it was just like everybody else in the region, until the British came and renovated the whole place, and much later, Lee Kuan Yew turned it into what it is today. However, when Sir Stamford Raffles came in the 1800s, there was a boulder, three meters wide and three meters tall, at the mouth of Singapore river. The mysterious thing about this boulder was that nobody knew how it got there, and there was some inscription on it that no one could decipher. Unfortunately, the East India Company blew up that boulder and only fragments remain today.

Legend has it that the origin of the boulder was when a strongman by the name of Badang threw the boulder in a contest between the strongmen of the kingdoms of Singapore and India. As for the inscription, Sir Stamford Raffles had surmised that the inscription was Hindu, since they had traveled far and wide, reaching even Bali and Java. Others also suggested that the inscription might have been ancient Ceylonese (Sri Lankan), Pali (Middle Indo-Aryan), Tamil, or Kawi.

(Image credit: Choo Yut Shing/Wikimedia Commons)

By some strange coincidence, NASA has taken a photo of remnants of a star explosion which could be interpreted to look like a skeleton hand. In its wake, the explosion left a pulsar, the magnetic fields of which form a pulsar wind nebula. Because of this phenomenon, the charged particles wrap around the base of the nebula creating the resemblance of a ghostly hand.

NASA explains that the unique shape of the nebula was brought about by the high amount of polarization around MSH 15-52, thus projecting the charged particles outward in a linear fashion, which formed the fingers of the hand, meanwhile, the wrist area had more turbulent regions giving particles an energy boost and forming somewhat of a clump at the bottom.

(Image credit: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./R. Romani et al. (Chandra); NASA/MSFC (IXPE); Infared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DECaPS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt)

October 31st is All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween. However, did you know that, depending on where you are located, people call the night before Halloween by different names? Why October 30th even has alternative names is a question all in itself, but as Mental Floss lists here, it is subject to varying regionalisms. For example, if you were living in Philadelphia or New Jersey, then you might be familiar with the term "Mischief Night" which is what they called October 30th in those parts. The reason for this is that people would go out and about doing some harmless pranking on the night before the official trick-or-treating begins.

Another very intriguing nickname for October 30th is "Cabbage Night" which is unique to New England. The term is used to refer to delinquency, and alludes to something that happened in the 1800s when people still had cabbage farms. Young hooligans would uproot cabbages and throw them at people's houses. It's a bit similar to what Nebraskans called October 30th, "Corn Night", and as you've guessed, it's because some youth would throw ears of corn at people's porches. For the rest of the regional names of the night before Halloween, check it out on Mental Floss.

(Image credit: Tangerine Newt/Unsplash)

Whenever we stroke a cat, they sometimes respond with a soft purr, and so we think the reason why cats purr is because they feel happy or relaxed, or something of the sort. Many researchers thought that cats' purring was caused by voluntary muscle contractions of the larynx, but new studies have shown that it is much closer to snoring than a voluntary response when they feel comfortable or stressed.

Although the researchers do not rule out the possibility that cats purr because of voluntary muscle contractions, they argue that it wasn't the sole cause for the purring. Instead, their research suggests that it was the flow of air that activated the vibrations causing the purring, much like how we snore when our breathing is obstructed. Despite not having fully understood the reasons behind purring, scientists are in consensus about some aspects of purring such as it is used as a signal by kittens so their mothers can locate them, it produces serotonin in cats, it helps in healing wounds, and purring is not merely a response to positive stimulus, but it is also done when cats are stressed.

To learn more about the biomechanics of cats' purring, check out the article on Wired.

(Image credit: Kasya Shahovskaya/Unsplash)