The world was jarred by the loss of the five men aboard the Titan submersible that imploded last week as it went down to explore the Titanic shipwreck. The depth of that dive was around 13,000 feet, or about 2.5 miles, or four kilometers. The deep sea is dangerous whether you are in a submersible or a submarine. Wikipedia has an extensive list of incidents and accidents involving underwater transport, many of them deadly. But how deep was the deepest successful underwater rescue?
That would be 1,575 feet. Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson were laying transatlantic cable in the submersible Pisces III off the coast of Ireland in 1973. After their shift, the submersible was towed up by its cable, but at the surface, the tow line tangled with a hatch, popped it open, and water flowed in. The submersible sank again, snapping the tow line when it reached its limit, then fell to the ocean floor. The two men inside had no lights, but by a minor miracle, they had 64 hours of oxygen left. They also had a support ship above them with other submersibles. But those had 1973 technology, and weren't built to rescue people from the ocean floor. By the time the men returned to the surface, they had been in the submersible for 84 hours. Read about the complicated rescue of the Pisces III at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: United States Navy)
Cute aggression is a psychological term that was coined in 2013. It refers to the urge to pinch, bite or squeeze something we find to be adorable, like babies, puppies, or kittens. We got an overview of this urge in a previous video. Scientists believe the aggressive urge to squeeze or bite what we find cute may have to do with the intensive rush of positive emotions.
In his new song "Cute Agression", musician Anthony Vincent supplies the aggression with his heavy metal composition, and his beloved cat Pyretta supplies the cute. Well, some of it. There are other YouTubers and their cats experiencing cute aggression in this video, too. It's quite unique- I bet you have never heard the lyrics "I boop her little nose" in any other metal performance. Warning: this song may stay with you.
-via Metafilter
The Barbie/Oppenheimer crossover has begun pic.twitter.com/16zESO1TAY
— Stone Cold Jane Austen (@AbbyHiggs) June 28, 2023
Two of the most anticipated films of the year are both opening on July 21st: Barbie and Oppenheimer. The only thing they have in common is a single name for a title. Will you watch them both? In many multiplexes, you will be able to see them back-to-back, but remember that Oppenheimer is three hours long, so plan accordingly. Theaters with limited screens will most likely run Barbie early in the evening, and reserve Oppenheimer for later at night, so you can see both, but that is not the order I would recommend for a good night's sleep afterward.
— đ€đ©¶đ€đQuinton Murdockđ©·đđ©”đ MFF đ (@QuintonMurdock) June 5, 2023
Anyway, the timely juxtaposition of Oppenheimer, a biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, and Barbie, a live-action movie about the fashion doll, gives us a perfect opportunity for memes. Some are mashups of the two polar opposite films, while others contrast people's facial expressions after watching each movie. And some are just found humor.
Their entire lives have led up to the Oppenheimer / Barbie release pic.twitter.com/w2FgLwhDg1
— Yann (@yannhatchuel) June 26, 2023
See lots more of these in a roundup of Barbie/Oppenheimer double feature memes at Hyperallergic.
-via Nag on the Lake
An artwork was discovered in the remains of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Found by excavators in Region IX, located in the center of the city, it was hung on the wall in an annex of a house that included a bakery. This painting suggests that the residents of the city could have been munching on the earliest version, or at least the possible precursor to modern Italian pizza.
The fresco, dated to be around 2,000 years old, shows a flatbread that looks like the distant ancestor of the modern delicacy, at least according to the Italian Culture Ministry. The dish featured in the painting doesnât really have the ingredients that make it technically a pizza, but archaeologists said that the toppings on the flatbread were fruits such as pomegranates or dates.
Additionally, instead of the classic tomato sauce, it looks to have been seasoned with spices and some kind of pesto sauce. âHow can we fail to think, in this regard, of pizza, also born as a 'poor' dish in southern Italy, which has now conquered the world and is also served in starred restaurants,â Pompeii director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said.
Image credit: Italian Culture Ministry
Have you noticed the video of an athlete in a race where she was taking her sweet time with the hurdles? Well, that was Jolien Boumkwo of Belgium in the European Team Championships in Krakow, Poland. It wasnât that the country sent the worse runner because she was their only and/or best betâ it was due to the fact that they had no choice. Anyone was enough for the second heat of the 100-meter hurdles.
The two hurdlers they brought to the meet got injured, and if the country did not send a delegate to the starting line in the hurdle event, their team would be disqualified. Running out of choices, this is when Boumkwo entered the picture. The shot-putter volunteered. âI thought the chance would have been very small of me having to do this,â she shared.
Boumkwo only learned that she will be running the day before, but she was not that nervous. She shared that she tried to not think about it too much and just enjoy it. âIf Iâm going to do this, I want to make the best of it and try to enjoy it,â she stated. Well, she did seem to have fun. The athlete smiled and waved to the camera, and the 29-year-old took the race seriously and took it hurdle by hurdle. Her goal was not to win, but to finish on her feet. She cleared every obstacle and finished in 32.81 seconds, which is pretty good for someone who wasnât really trained for that sport.
Image credit: Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters
Billy Joel released the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" in the fall of 1989. It was a list of 118 newsworthy events that happened between 1949 and 1989, set to music. Joel himself didn't think much of the tune, but the song went to #1, and was quite meaningful to his fellow Baby Boomers.
Today, we have a new version that's almost like a sequel. Fall Out Boy released a cover of the song with lyrics that list things that happened between 1989 and 2023. There's a lot of them. The song has received mixed reviews so far. Some people love it because it contains what Millennials have experienced. Others criticized the song because the events aren't at all in chronological order, and some major things were omitted, like the Covid-19 pandemic and the fall of the Soviet Union. The lyrics are in the music video, and also listed at the YouTube page. -via Digg
Conventional wisdom tells us that pizza was invented in Naples, Italy, in the 17th century. It was a simple street dish of flatbread, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. And sure, that's pretty much what it is today, except it now comes delivered in a cardboard box, often with extra toppings. But archaeologists working in the ancient Italian city of Pompeii that was buried in ash fron the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD have uncovered a fresco that depicts a dish that looks suspiciously like pizza. Did the doomed city have their own version of pizza 2,000 years ago? Or is the Italian Culture Ministry, who released the image, looking for more funding?
That would depend on how you define "pizza." The dish depicted in Pompeii was certainly "other food served on flatbread," but there was no mozzarella cheese in that era, and tomatoes weren't available until they were imported from the Americas. What the Pompeii fresco shows is more likely fruit served on flatbread (focaccia), possibly pomegranate and dates, sprinkled with spices or pesto. -via Metafilter
One Mefite suspects it may even have been a pineapple pizza, which another Mefite declared was grounds for destroying the city by volcanic eruption.
(Image credit: Italian Culture Ministry)
Six Flags Magic Mountain will turn its 30-acre parking lot into a solar farm. The 12-megawatt solar carport energy structure will be installed over the visitor and employee parking lot, providing shade for visitors' cars. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/6djyIt8R0d
— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) June 27, 2023
Talk about killing many birds with one stone! We've lamented about too much space being allotted for parking lots in America's car culture. We've talked about how great solar energy is, but it takes up a lot of space. And everyone has experienced trying to cool a way-too-hot car, which requires a lot of energy. And there are other benefits to this scheme, too.
The project will be California's largest solar energy project and the world's largest renewable energy site built by a for-profit organization, producing 20.8 million kilowatt hours of energy annually. 3/3
— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) June 27, 2023
Six Flags is not the first place to install solar panels in a parking lot, but they might be the first place to make a lot of people aware of it. You see it at schools and government offices in California, but rarely at a private business in which the upfront cost dissuades the bean counters from making the initial investment. However, Walmart is beginning to roll out the idea in California. France passed a law earlier this year requiring that parking lots of a certain size install solar panels.
Construction on Six Flags' "solar carport" will begin later this summer and is expected to be completed late this year or in early 2024. -via Fark
The Wright Brothers didn't get publicity for their airplane for a long time because their short flight in 1903 wasn't impressive enough to prove that the plane worked. They could have learned a lesson or two from Thomas Edison, who was a master at self-promotion. Take the credit first, then work out the details later.
In September of 1878, Thomas Edison told the press that he had invented the light bulb, and newspaper reporters wanted to come see it for themselves. But Edison's light blub was nowhere near ready. He simply wanted to get ahead of the other guys who were working on electric light bulbs. Edison's prototype bulbs tended to burn out after only a few minutes of emitting light, which wasn't at all useful. Taking back his grand announcement was unthinkable, as he had already established himself as America's greatest inventor when he unveiled the phonograph a year before. So Edison managed reporter's witness sessions in a manner that left them quite impressed, and the newspaper stories that resulted staved off any competition for the invention of the light bulb. More than a year later, he was glad to demonstrate a long-burning bulb after he worked the kinks out. Read about Edison's "full speed ahead" promotion of the light bulb at Smithsonian. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Oaktree b)
In 1990, United Airlines offered a lifetime, unlimited pass for flights. It cost Tom Stuker of New Jersey $290,000, but with that pass, he's flown 23,000,000 miles, which is equivalent of three round-trip journeys from the Earth to the Moon.
Pictured above is an infographic created by the Washington Post, which interviewed Stuker. It shows just one year of flights. As you can see, he averaged more than one per day.
United Airlines doesn't offer this special pass anymore, but it doesn't resent Stuker's hustle. He's treated like royalty by the airline and given luxury hotel stays, gourmet meals, and limousine service as he travels over the world.
Stuker is arguably the world's foremost expert on airline travel and offers advice to flyers. This includes telling flight attendants that he remembers them from previous flights, even if it's a lie, because they'll provide extra service. That may be unethical, but he's certainly correct about his final piece of advice: if you use your cell phone, use headphones instead of playing the speaker.
That should be common courtesy, but is occasionally uncommon.
-via Flowing Data | Image: Washington Post
Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or even The Incredible Hulk TV series, the world was treated to 3 Dev Adam, or Three Giant Men. The 1973 Turkish film featured Captain America, Spider-Man, and Santo with no authorization or input from Marvel or the characters' creators. It wasn't the first Turkish ripoff of comic book superheroes, but it was the first to feature several of them together.
But what really made the movie so unique was the fact that the comic books weren't even available in Turkey when this film was made! The characters were designed after old serials, movies, and cartoons. The producers of 3 Dev Adam gave us Captain America yielding a gun instead of his shield, Spider-Man as the villain of the movie with different powers, and Santo the luchador taking his mask off. Neon Harbor gives us the story of 3 Dev Adam for those unfamiliar with it. Those who have seen the movie are impressed to see clips in high-definition instead of bootleg quality. -via Digg
Update: Neon Harbor has issued a video correction on the inspiration for Captain America.
Maycee Kay Aycock and Sarah Marshall of Meredith College did not do well in the USA South Conference Championship golf tournament. The Meredith Avenging Angels were not going to be champions. Aycock and Marshall were the worst college golfers in America. Both women cried in the bathroom, when the mother of another player from another school told them they were heroes and shouldn't listen to the mean girls.
The full story is amazing. The Meredith College women's golf team started the year with six players, but by February was down to only two. They must have four players to compete in tournaments, and they must play a certain number of tournaments to be eligible for the championship. Furthermore, their conference had to have a certain number of teams to participate, and losing Meredith would cost the entire conference a shot at the USA South Conference Championship. Maycee Kay and Sarah answered a campus-wide call for players from coach Jimmy Hamilton and made the team, even though neither had ever finished a complete 18-hole round of golf. They didn't know the rules. Aycock had no clubs, and Marshall only had a child sized set.
Marshall scored 276 in one round of her first college tournament, which has to be some kind of record. In case you didn't know, the lowest score wins in golf.
"Did you ever see scores as high as ours?" they asked him.
"I didn't know scores got this high," he said.
But no matter how badly they played, and no matter how much they suffered, both physically and psychologically, they stayed with the game for the rest of the year. What Aycock and Marshall had done was save their team, and also saved their conference. You'll be glad you read about them. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Meredith College)
The man behind OpenAI, the company that has been spearheading the wide use of AI in different industries has more tricks up his sleeve. Financial Times has revealed that Sam Altman, the CEO of the organization, is in talks to secure around $100 million investment for Worldcoin.
Worldcoin is another of his ventures that involve scanning everybodyâs eye and exchanging their data for some amount of crypto. It aims to invoke OpenAIâs vision of powerful automation, and promises to usher a âpath to AI-funded UBI.â Sounds a bit vague to us, to be honest. With how the crypto industry has been facing quite a downfall, the news of Altman securing $100 million in investment for his project is quite surprising. But it is a testament to how he can persuade investors and how much weight his name brings to the table.
While the idea of scanning every single eyeball in the world sounds a bit tedious and ridiculous to achieve, Worldcoin has been making progress on its project. According to Fortune, roughly 40,000 peopleâs irises got scanned with the companyâs orb-shaped device per week starting in March of this year, for an estimated total of 1.4 million people getting their eyes scanned. Thatâs a lotâ but not enough compared to the 8 billion people on the planet.
Image credit: Engin Akyurt
If we ever found a piece of artwork made by a renowned artist for such a low price, weâd cry too. Thrift store enthusiast Nancy Cavaliere was in an establishment trying to find the next set of trinkets that would join her collection in her apartment when she discovered some interesting-looking ceramics that was being sold for $1.99 per plate. âI stumbled on the plates during my daily trip to the store,â Cavaliere told Newsweek. âOn my way out I noticed some new china had been added to the shelves. My first reaction was that they would make a great tablescape, but then I turned them over and saw the Picasso tag.â
Whether or not the Picasso tag was real, the plates were fascinating and cheap enough for her, so she checked out and ran back to her office to do some research. It turns out that the plates she got were part of a large set of ceramics that the famed artist did during his time. Realizing just how much value she just got for a measly $6 in total, she freaked out and started crying.Â
Now, Cavaliere shares just how she screamed and threw up during the auction for her plates, which they were initially expecting to only sell for around $4,000 each. The collectors, however, surprised her when all of the ceramics sold for over $10,000 each instead. âIt was absolutely bananas,â Cavaliere said. âI was watching the auction from the office âscreaming crying throwing up.'â
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Image credit: Nancy Cavaliere
Why are there so many Irish or Irish-like pubs around the world? They're popping up all over the place.
One contributing factor is the work of companies that mass-produce flat-pack Irish pub kits with all of the necessary components. Eater reports that all that's necessary is to assemble, stock, and open them.
Mel McNally, an Irish architect, launched one such company in 1990. The Irish Pub Company offers six different styles of Irish pub: Shop, Gastro, Victorian, Brewery, Country, and Celtic. You can find thee pubs around the world, including in the US, Canada, Switzerland, Russia, and Kazakhstan. But the company manufactures the components in Ireland, so they are, strictly speaking, Irish pubs.
Another company named ÓL Irish Pubs has produced similar pubs in Oman, New Zealand, India, and other countries. A firm named Ballance Hospitality helps bars develop menus that reflect actual Irish foods mixed with those in demand by customers. This is a thriving industry.
It's unclear how long international markets will continue to favor the development of these "McPubs." But as long as the style is in demand, these companies will supply drinkers with the Irish experiences that they crave.
-via Messy Nessy Chic | Photo: Irish Pub Company
