Charlie Bernstrom of Lancaster, Minnesota is a competitive pumpkin grower. For several years, he's grown some of the largest pumpkins in the world. On Saturday, a crane lifted his 2,501-pound pumpkin high into the air, then dropped it on a school bus. Fortunately, there were no children inside the bus at the time. The pumpkin, who was named Joy (yes, really), did not survive the encounter.
This pumpkin was only one of several that Bernstrom raised and then dropped. The others weighed 2,131, 2100, 1655, 1524, and 1352 pounds.
The event was part of a fundraiser to benefit the Kittson County Literary Council, an organization that promotes reading among kids. The fundraiser generated $1,500.
The definition of taxidermy is supposedly the art of preserving an animal's body for the purpose of displaying it such as in museums or as part of a rich person's collection. However, everybody makes mistakes, even taxidermists. It's just, when they do, it turns into some kind of horror exhibit. Sad and Useless has collected several taxidermy fails which might actually be the stuff of anyone's nightmares. To be honest, though, I actually found these photos quite amusing, funny even.
They also have a book of these taxidermy fails called Crap Taxidermy as well as a calendar. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
Here are a few examples that I have trouble imagining whether they were accidental or intentional in the first place.
Here's a googly-eyed feline creature. I'm not sure whether it's a lynx or a caracal.
And this other one is a bobcat, which I wouldn't have known without the clue from the plaque right next to it.
First of all, what's a fairy ring? It's a circle of mushrooms which can sometimes surround patches of dead grass inside them. Fairies are said to dance inside the circle of mushrooms, thus giving it its name. However, the explanation for fairy rings is quite simpler and less fantastical. Certain fungi cause the emergence of these fairy rings as they feed on dead organic matter in the soil.
The reason why fairy rings are circular in shape is that the original spore usually starts at the center of the ring, and it spreads horizontally on all sides. Sometimes, mushrooms grow on the edges of the ring, as a part of the fungus. If you wonder whether these fairy rings should be eradicated or not due to their nature of feeding on the grass, fungal experts suggest not to go through the trouble as it would require scooping out the soil where the fairy ring lays. Since it doesn't necessarily harm anything outside its scope, it's best to leave it as is.
Out of all the things that I never ever want to see inside my house or elsewhere, rats probably top that list. Rats are very notorious among people because they are thought to be disease-ridden, food-thieving pests that destroy human properties. What's more, they reproduce very quickly and so the spread of diseases through infestations can get out of hand in the blink of an eye, just as it did in mid-14th century Europe when the Black Death pandemic ravaged through ports, towns, and cities. However, research suggests that the cause of the bubonic plague wasn't actually rats.
Epidemiologists looked at the probability that the spread of the bubonic plague was caused by rats and the parasites that clinged to them, fleas. However, studies have tried to argue that the transmission, demographics, lack of rat corpses, and climate conditions during the time in mid-14th century Europe point to the fact that rats would not have been the likeliest cause of the black death plague, and some researchers have suggested that human fleas and lice were the culprits, as the spread of the disease were more consistent with those as the carriers.
Other researchers have also looked into the behavior of rats in connection with their risk of disease to coincide with these findings. Chelsea Himsworth, a veterinary pathologist and epidemiologist studied rats in Vancouver and found that rats were more likely to stick to one side or the other of alleys which meant that they generally do not spread diseases in the way we perceive. Not only that, but the idea that rats are filthy is actually a misconception as rats were very meticulous when it comes to cleanliness according to one scientist.
So, perhaps rats aren't that bad after all, and not just those we see in cartoons and films.
We hear that for one to become successful, you must give it your all, 100% and with that hard work and effort, you'll be able to achieve many things. I don't know about you, but giving my all in everything that I do, has often led to my being burnt out quicker than I would expect. At least, because I don't feel rewarded enough for the effort, at some point, I start to lose motivation and stop giving any effort at all. So, perhaps this 85% rule, which states that the best way to maintain a balance between excellent performance and excellent output is to work at 85% of your capacity. Then, what do you do with the remaining 15%?
Well, you can use that to take a rest, and refresh yourself so that you'll be able to give it your 85% once again, the next day. However, there are some people who think that it's a preposterous paradigm, and a general waste of productivity. Managers, entrepreneurs, and businessmen probably would think that the only way for them to continue expanding their business is to always give it 100%, otherwise, it might collapse. On the other hand, employees would definitely want to have leeway and space for them to slack off a bit, and take a break from the stresses of work.
Whichever camp you may be on, I think it all boils down to what kind of job or career path fits well with your paradigm, perspective, and values. I was once told by a hiring manager that for a company to survive or keep going, there must always be at least one person who concerns themselves much with the business affairs of the company. It seems inspiring but it's just one way of saying sacrifices have to be made for the company, and it doesn't matter if you will sacrifice your personal life, your family, your relationships, or even your dream, as long as the company stays afloat, then you put all your passion into it. Hopefully, in the long run, it pays off. What are your thoughts on the matter?
Planning an itinerary usually goes hand-in-hand with going on a trip, and as someone who used to like sticking to plans, I often got frustrated when things don't go as planned. As I got older, I realized that the fun is in the mystery or the unexpected. So I learned to go along the ride and see where it takes me. And I have been able to enjoy wonderful adventures stress-free because of it. Research has also found that the element of surprise is actually beneficial to our overall wellbeing.
This, of course, not only applies to traveling, although having a great, big adventure filled with unexpected twists and turns can definitely be stressful at times, but it actually makes it all the more worthwhile and memorable. We can learn to live more freely by not being confined to what feels comfortable for us. And studies have shown that surprises or unexpected events in our lives can improve happiness, relationships, mental health, work, and more.
Of course, there are certain surprises that may be too much for us to handle, but I think as long as we are able to roll with the punches, we can get out of whatever sticky situation or circumstance we find ourselves in, and learn much from it as well. That is what Dennis Lewon has discovered in his adventures, and continues to live by as well. So, as the saying goes, live a little, and you might find something great from the surprises that await you.
The official Youtube channel of One Piece has announced that, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the show, the channel will be streaming the entire series on Youtube starting October 29th. For one whole year, you can watch One Piece non-stop from the first episode until the latest episode count which is episode 1080. For anybody who may not have access to streaming sites like Crunchyroll or Netflix, this would be the best way to finally start binging the series and get on that One Piece hype train.
The video announcement titled Anytime One Piece cannot be viewed by audiences outside of Japan, however, we can assume that the live stream will be available to everyone around the world who would like to have a marathon of the show. Apart from the 25th anniversary of the show, the manga will be entering its final saga and supposedly the end of the entire series.
A popular health trend over the past several years has been walking at least 10,000 steps a day, which many say can do wonders for your heart. Definitely, it's great cardio, especially for people who may not have the time to go to the gym or do any more strenuous exercise. But researchers now say that there's a simpler alternative to walking 10,000 steps, and might be just as effective if not more than aerobics. That would be climbing up more than five flights of stairs or around 50 steps a day.
If you have ever tried walking up ten floors of your office building, you'll know how tiring it gets. Before you even reach your floor, you'll already be gasping for air. But the study has shown that people who regularly climbed five to ten flights of stairs were at least 3% less likely to develop atherosclerosis. Of course, there may have been other factors that contributed to their health such as diet, sleep, and other lifestyle habits. But incorporating exercise, even simple ones, into your daily routine definitely aided in reducing the likelihood of developing such diseases.
The story of Frank Abagnale was quite a thrilling one. Immortalized in the film Catch Me If You Can, we see the life of Frank as a con artist, and how he was able to deceive people into believing that he was this or that, jumping from one profession to the other as a means to survive. Later on, he is caught and was offered the opportunity to work for the FBI Financial Crimes Unit. It's a very interesting true-to-life story. There is a Scottish version of it, which has been made into a documentary in 2022 titled My Old School.
It's the story of how a 30-year-old man named Brian MacKinnon conned his high school into thinking that he was a 16-year-old high schooler named Brandon Lee. His reason for doing it was so that he could go back to university and continue pursuing his dreams of becoming a doctor. None of his classmates or teachers had realized his true identity until a few years later. Jono McLeod, an old classmate of his, decided to make a film about him and his time at Bearsden Academy, so he had an audio interview with "Brandon" 20 years later as well as interviews with other former classmates, and turned it into a documentary about the most successful hoaxer in Scottish history.
Gopuff is a food delivery company headquartered in Philadelphia which operates in more than 650 US cities. This coming Halloween, Gopuff has promised that they will deliver free candy to anyone if they run out, as long as supplies last. This is in partnership with Mars, Inc. who found in a survey that almost half of Americans feared running out of candy on Halloween. And so, to address this concern, they partnered up with Gopuff so that people wouldn't have to race to the nearest convenience store to get replenishments for their candy stash or even worse, take some of their child's candy to give to trick-or-treaters.
However, in order to have free candy delivered, customers will have to go to the M&M's Halloween Rescue Squad website rather than the Gopuff app. According to the website, you will be able to start ordering candies from 3 PM EST on October 31st, and delivery will take from 30 to 60 minutes. Stocks include fun-size packs and party-size bags of M&M's as well as a variety mix pouch which includes Skittles, Twix, Snickers, Starburst, and M&M's.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, someone in the US dies of a stroke every three minutes and 14 seconds. Out of the 795,000 people in the US who have a stroke yearly, 610,000 are first or new strokes. Furthermore, despite the risk of getting a stroke increasing with age, anyone at any age can get a stroke. Looking at the distribution as regards gender, stroke deaths occur about 40 percent in males and 60 percent in females, according to the American Heart Association. So, the question is, why are strokes more common in women than in men?
There are three main factors according to this article from Deseret News. First of all, it takes into account the fact that the likelihood of having a stroke increases with age, and that women, generally, live longer than men. Therefore, statistically, there will be more women reported to have strokes. The second factor involves hormonal changes that also comes with age and with one's lifestyle. And the third is weight gain, which leads to high blood pressure, diabetes, and atherosclerosis, which are all contributing factors to stroke.
To learn more about the signs and symptoms as well as the means of preventing strokes, you may want to check out resources from the CDC and the American Stroke Association.
First let's learn the word "toponym," which means a place name. Sometimes a place name can reveal who named it, how old the name is, and its original meaning. Some original names for places are quite descriptive, and give a lot of information if you know the language. Others are named for people, often when a previously-named place was claimed by new colonizers. Coining or changing a place name is the most blatant form of marking one's territory, after all. In modern times, there's a worldwide effort to revert colonial names back to their more original form, like Mt. McKinley reverting to Denali. Dr. Erica Brozovsky looks into how places are named and why, plus a lot of interesting trivia like the longest and shortest place names, and a few wild stories about toponyms for the PBS series Otherwords. -via Laughing Squid
On October 16, the Nebraska Humane Society took in three small kittens. Two seemed healthy, but the third kitten, eventually named Thorn, was weak and lethargic and appeared to be suffering from "flea anemia." The tiny kitten needed a blood transfusion, but there was a problem. While cats have blood types, there is no feline universal donor type, and there wasn't time to test for a compatible donor. However, the shelter has a six-year-old husky named Bret Michaels who just had blood work done that morning, and was a donor candidate. Surprisingly, dogs can donate blood to cats. Bret Michaels was a very good boy while his blood was drawn and transfused into the kitten. Thorn appeared to feel better almost immediately after the first of several transfusions. Here is our husky hero.
The Facebook post about the transfusion went viral, and the rock star Bret Michaels heard about it. The singer for Poison has experience with huskies, and called to adopt the dog named after him.
Bret Michaels (the man) is adopting Bret Michaels (the dog)! We can't wait to see how he thrives in his new home, we just hope it doesn't get too confusing when someone tells Bret Michaels to fetch!
Michaels posted pictures of his new dog at Facebook, and pledged to find a good home for the kitten Thorn, too. Michaels is calling his new dog Bret, Jr. and will soon welcome the hero husky into a home that already has two German shepherds.
The fastest Formula One cars can go from zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) in about two seconds. Some experimental cars can accelerate even faster. But how about an electric vehicle? The car called mythen by AMZ Racing (in conjunction with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and ETH Zurich) is an EV that holds the world record for electric vehicle acceleration: 0-100 km/h in 0.956 seconds! And since it's electric, it makes barely any noise doing it. To achieve such a feat, mythen designers had to build a system to keep it on the ground where it can get traction, instead of flying off into the air. It sounds kind of scary, especially when Tom Scott is recruited into driving it himself.
When you see his reaction, you realize that the most likely real-world application of this technology will be to make it a theme park ride. It will be short and expensive and have very long lines. And everyone will say it was worth it.
The most convenient and perhaps reasonable explanation is that it originated from the Flying Tiger brigade of American pilots who picked up the gesture from the Chinese when they were stationed there. After arriving back in the US, it simply caught on, first in the military and then to ordinary civilians. However, that meaning of the "thumbs up" sign only came about after WWII. The odd thing is that records have shown that the terms hitchhiking and "thumb-pointer" (to refer to a hitchhiker) had already been used before WWII.
But generally, it appears that the reason why hitchhikers would stick out their thumb was simply to indicate the direction in which they were going. Considering how awkward the gesture would be if you used any of your other fingers, the thumb sticking out is the best way to go.
