How does one measure the size of asteroids? The Jerusalem Post is using a pug as a basic unit. If you stack 100 pugs together with paws on shoulders, then two particular asteroids are 100 pugs in width.

NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies warns that these two pugalicous asteroids, which are named 2019 BO2 and 2019 BZ4, will pass by Earth on Tuesday. BZ4 is traveling at approximately 36,261 MPH.

By my calculations, this is about 1,727 to 4,029 times faster than a pug can run. If this particular asteroid would ram the Earth at full speed, it would probably be an adorable apocalypse.

-via Dave Barry | Photos: State Farm, Jina Lee

A Facebook page called Meow Incorporated exists to share cat memes and stories. Bored Panda selected 50 of their images to post in a ranked list. The picture above was understandably voted number one by readers. I expected the rest of the list to be filled with funny cats, and there are some, but they are mostly odes to cats from cat lovers.

And for good measure, a bit of poetry.

The Facebook group also has an associated Instagram page. So that's three links that should keep you busy for quite some time. I know I just spent way too much time at each of them.

You can also see cute cats and other animals at Supa Fluffy.

The 1950s are often ignored in history classes due to the relatively tumultuous events of the 1940s and the '60s. But it was an important time of transition across the world, with undercurrents building up that would lead to great changes. Some look at that decade as an ideal time of peace, prosperity, and conformity. Yet millions of veterans were dealing with World War II trauma and the folks at home who didn't want to hear about the horror. Women settled into suburbia, subsuming their aspirations to fit into the stifling ideal of the perfect housewife. Prosperity brought out the worst in those who were out for Number One. Opportunities for minorities that opened up during the war were rolled back. And everyone was nervous under the constant threat of nuclear attack as the Cold War escalated.

All these tensions were downplayed, both publicly and privately. However, Hollywood used them as a jumping off point for some of the most thought-provoking and creative movies ever, whether the result was drama, comedy, musicals, or science fiction. Slashfilm takes a look at the decade's 15 best films and how they illustrated what was really going on the 1950s. You'll look at movies you've seen in a whole new way, and learn about those you haven't seen and why you should pull them up for a watch.

If you're young and broke and living in the city, do you really need a shower? I mean, occasionally, you should take a shower. But do you need an apartment that has its own shower?

Sora News 24 reports that increasing numbers of young residents in Tokyo are deliberately choosing apartments that are so inexpensive that they don't have a shower, then making use of one of the city's declining number of sentos--public bathhouses.

There's a risk involved: sentos aren't open 24 hours a day and the average cost of a single use is about 500 yen ($3.86 USD). But this option is popular enough that there's now a website that specializes in helping people find apartments without baths within a short walking distance of a sento.

Photo: Pakutso

Julie d’Aubigny was a singer and an expert sword fighter in 17th century France. Her father, who was also an expert swordsman, fought off all of his daughter's suitors until she did an end run around him by hooking up with his boss. D’Aubigny was also bisexual and fell for a young woman whose parents were so scandalized they sent their daughter to a convent. D’Aubigny responded by joining the convent herself and then burning it down to be with her lover. Oh yeah, she was also a married woman who dressed as a man.

This all happened before D’Aubigny turned twenty. As an adult, she became an opera singer known as La Maupin, achieved nationwide fame, and continued her adventures in killing people or sleeping with them. It got to the point where the king of France felt the need to pardon her. Twice. It is astonishing that such shenanigans were tolerated at all in the 1600s, but Julie d’Aubigny was admired by many for her sheer outrageousness. Some envied her, while others just enjoyed the entertainment she provided. And, of course, many were outraged. Read the story of La Maupin at Rejected Princesses. -via Metafilter

St. Peter Stiftskulinarium in Salzburg, Austria was originally founded as a monastery, not an eatery, during the Seventh Century A.D. In 803, Bishop Arno of Salzburg reported dining there. So we can say that this establishment has been serving food to visitors for over 1,200 years.

Now, though, unlike Bishop Arno, you have to pay for your food. Moss and Fog describes and provides photos of this beautiful mixture of medieval architecture and modern fine dining.

Christopher Columbus himself might have eaten here. In 1783, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ate here with his family. You can have a similar experience and enjoy classical and modern Austrian cuisine at the restaurant. There’s also a Mozart-themed banquet that features live music while you eat.

-via Nag on the Lake | Photo: St. Peter Stiftskulinarium

Humans, and many other animals, evolved to seek out and enjoy anything sweet, because the sugars those foods contain provided us with much-needed calories and energy. That's a useful adaptation because in the natural world, sugar is relatively rare and comes in fruits and other plants that also provide us with other nutrients. But humans found a way to process sugar into its purest form, and we went wild for it. That's not healthy, but it is lucrative. The money to be made in sugar production led to some shady, deceptive, and downright cruel episodes in history. Even today, when we know that sugar is bad for us, it's hard to get away from it, even by giving up candy, soda, and sweet treats. Food products that aren't even supposed to be sweet contain sugar, and it's difficult to find alternatives without it. That's because those who profit from those products know we are evolutionarily wired to prefer anything with sugar in it.

UPDATE 1/24/22: AP reports that the Rhode Island Department of Health has completed its DNA examination of the Santa Claus evidence. It could not match the sample with DNA in its database, although there is a partial match a 1947 case in New York City.

ORIGINAL POST:

Chief Matthew Benson of the Cumberland, Rhode Island Police Department is taking this case very seriously. It began when, ABC 7 News reports, he received a letter from a little girl. It included part of a cookie and carrots that were left in her home last Christmas night. The cookie was for Santa Claus and the carrots for his reindeer. Would he run DNA tests on these objects and get back to her?

I'm not sure what a DNA test would reveal, but Chief Benson processed the evidence and sent it to the Rhode Island Department of Health for examination. Is Santa real? Do these remains point to the presence of Santa and his reindeer in her home on Christmas night? The police will follow up with the child and let her know.

-via Dave Barry | Photos: Cumberland Police Department

Rare UFO-like cloud forms in Turkeyhttps://t.co/STYPv1qr9L pic.twitter.com/TJk7LP2O9w

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 20, 2023

At least, that's what I'm going to call it until someone actually tastes it to verify its flavor.

If it's not a cinnamon bun, then the mysterious object that appeared in the sky over Bursa, Turkey on Thursday might be a lenticular cloud. The US National Weather Service defines those objects as clouds formed:

...when relatively stable, fast moving air is forced up and over a topographic barrier that is oriented more or less perpendicular to the direction from which the upper-level wind is blowing.

The forces that shaped this cinnamon bun must have been purely coincidental, I'm sad to say.

Fox Weather notes that sightings like this one are unusual. Lenticular clouds, which signal impending preciptation, are far more likely to occur over mountainous areas.

To call Nims Purja an accomplished mountain climber would be a severe understatement. In 2019, he climbed all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter (26,000 feet) and above peaks in six months and six days- a speedrun never even considered before. In 2021, he led the first successful expedition up K2 in winter- without bottled oxygen. He's been to the top of Everest a half-dozen times. Purja's feats were chronicled in his book Beyond Possible and in the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.  

Purja has been criticized for being a dedicated self-promoter, a social media influencer who relies on simplistic motivational aphorisms to promote his brand. But Purja's most personal business venture is based on a novel but welcome innovation: his Himalayan climbing guide company, Elite Exped, employs and partners with Nepalese Sherpas and pays them at least as much as Western mountain guides are paid, making the most skilled guides into rich men. Read a profile of Nim Purja, known as Nimsdai, and how he turned the sport and business of extreme mountain climbing on its head at GQ. -via Digg

"Your Horoscope for Today" was an song from Weird Al Yankovic's 1999 album Running With Scissors that was never released as a single. You probably remember that album best for the song "The Saga Begins," which told the story of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Augenblick Studios, who worked with Yankovic on several previous projects, gives "Your Horoscope for Today" a new animated video that Yankovic released this week. The video makes the fast-paced song much easier to follow, even if the predictions under your star sign are pretty dismal. But that's just yours; everyone else's horoscope is pretty darn funny. Honestly, I never imagined Ernest Borgnine ever looked like that naked. But I can relate to playing an endless game of whack-a-mole all day long.  -via Geeks Are Sexy

It's a well-known stereotype: a man going through a midlife crisis often buys a sports car, preferably an expensive one. We've also heard the joke that a fast car (or a big truck, in some circles) means the driver is compensating for something. Those stereotypes must have inspired the design of an experiment by four British scientists. The subjects were 400 men between the ages of 18 and 74, who were told this would be a test about recalling facts and details. They manipulated them into thinking their penis is either larger or smaller than average, by telling the men, among other "facts," a false statistic for the average penis size, which no man can resist comparing to their own. Yes, it's true that there may have been outliers among the subjects, but the false information would still affect their relative ranking of their own size. Afterward, they asked each man how much they would like to own a sports car, among other consumer products.

The study, available as a preprint, found that men rated sports cars as more desirable when they were made to feel like they had a small penis. Furthermore, the effect was more pronounced if the subject was over 30 years old. Other "facts" that were meant to raise or lower the subjects' self-esteem had no effect on the desire for sports cars, or any of the other consumer goods they were asked about. The only significant correlation they found was between perceived penis size and sports cars. Alrighty then.

(Image credit: Ank Kumar)

Imagine The Simpsons if the show was a live-action sitcom starring Tom Selleck as Ned Flanders and Christopher Lee as Mr. Burns. The rest of the cast members are not quite as recognizable, but they fall somewhere in that uncanny valley between the new and the familiar, between the real and the unreal. The Pharaoh Nerd used the artificial intelligence program Midjourney to create an introduction for the animated series with a somewhat human-looking cast. This opening credits scene is designed to look like a typical 1980s sitcom, with the theme from Full House as a soundtrack for some reason. It actually works better than it has any right to. The Pharaoh Nerd titled this video "The Simpsons as an 80's Sitcom." Maybe someone should tell him that The Simpsons was an '80s sitcom, back in the 1980s. -via Digg

Have you always wanted to be an influencer? The Washington State Department of Natural Resources is looking for a few good people. Maybe even more than a few.

We're hiring influencers and by that I mean firefighters who influence the forest to no longer be on fire.

— Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources (@waDNR) January 18, 2023

People are jumping at the opportunity.

Thank you for your service

— Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources (@waDNR) January 18, 2023

And offering some outside-the-box solutions.

Can't believe we haven't tried that tbh

— Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources (@waDNR) January 18, 2023

There might even be some subterfuge going on in the hiring process.

Slip me some cheese curds, and I'll move your application to the top...

— Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources (@waDNR) January 18, 2023

Whether this results in a surge in applications, it sure has made the Washington DNR popular among Twitter users. Other government agencies are jealous.

Um...totally stealing this idea.

— SGVmosquito🦟 (@SGVMosquito) January 18, 2023

The San Gabriel Valley Mosquito & Vector Control District could probably uses all the help they can get to find recruits. Check out all the replies in the viral Twitter thread. -via Fark 

(Image credit: National Agricultural Library)

Akkodha has an answer to everything, and it's "okay." But that's not the only way she's agreeable. She's pretty, affectionate, and an all-around sweet cat. That alone would be enough for her to be a Instagram star, but her command of the English language clinches it. When everything's "okay," what else needs to be said? Maybe just an indication of where Akkodha lives on the internet.  -via Laughing Squid