Okay, yes, flying a plane sounds really exciting. But flight simulators are hard to complete successfully and take a lot of work. Wouldn't you prefer to just sit in a comfortable reclining chair while someone else flies the plane?

Alex Shakespeare built this simulator of the experience of being a jetliner passenger. It has a window that is actually a monitor that can be changed to accurately reflect different airports, including ones in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, London, and Innsbruck.

The overheard service board includes functional lights, a fan, and a call button. The button marked with a trumpet plays the iconic Ryanair landing jingle.

All that Shakespeare needs to complete the experience is a food cart with overpriced drinks. 

-via Hack A Day

Brian David Gilbert (previously at Neatorama) performs as the Bee Dee Gee's Hee Bee Bee Gees. Or something like that. Anyway, it's a Halloween anthem that puts a vampire into the song "Stayin' Alive" from the movie Saturday Night Fever. Music performed by Jonah Scott. If the idea of a disco vampire sounds like a horror to you, let it be known that I dressed as a disco vampire for Halloween in 1982. But BDG, or rather, the Bee Dee Gee's Hee Bee Bee Gees, also has a new Halloween song about a werewolf, set the the tune of the Bee Gees' song "Tragedy."



That's one I would have never thought of. Anyway, the AAAH!BBA stuff he referenced at the beginning of the first video is about Gilbert's project from last year, consisting of horror covers of ABBA songs. -via Laughing Squid

Claude Ambroise Seurat was a French man who was exhibited in traveling freak shows as the Living Skeleton. Born in 1797 or 1798, he appeared to be a normal baby, but as he grew, his body wasted away. As an adult, he was said to be 5' 7" tall and weighed only 78 pounds! Seurat became rather famous for his appearance, and drew scrutiny of the French medical community. It became obvious to anyone who observed Seurat over time that his skeletal body size was due to the fact that he ate very little. But why was that?

Seurat's bones had several deformities. His chest was sunken, his shoulder blades protruded from his back, and his neck was very short. These deformities could have caused him difficulty in eating, and at least one doctor noticed that he cut his food into tiny pieces, chewed it for a very long time, and swallowed small amounts. This points to a restriction or weakness in the esophagus or other parts of the digestive system, and could explain his extremely low weight. The real mystery is how he functioned in such an emaciated state. Seurat's father was offered cash for his remains should Seurat die, but he declined all offers. We don't know how long Seurat lived, or what happened to his body afterward. Read the story of France's Living Skeleton at Amusing Planet.

(Image source: Wellcome Collection)

This video allegedly shows helmet camera footage from a Russian Air Force pilot ejecting from his Sukhoi Su-25 "Frogfoot" attack aircraft. Internet rumor initially said that he was shot down over Ukraine, but later rumors assert that the pilot hit a power line while flying in Russia itself.

That's probably a pretty embarrassing mistake.

In just a brief moment, the flight went from calm and normal to a midair catastrophe. The pilot ejects while only a few hundred feet off the ground, then parachuted down to the ground. At about 0:11 into the video, we see the broken Frogfoot crash into the ground.

-via Dave Barry

King Charles Albert (1798-1849) of Sardinia-Piedmont owned this spectacular writing desk, which is now up for auction by M.S. Rau in New Orleans. A mere $266,500 can get you behind the ultimate power desk for your office.

Antiques expert Bill Rau takes us on a tour of the desk and its many, many secret compartments. Hidden buttons open spring-loaded drawers, as well as a centerpiece that pops out of the top. And if that's not enough, there are even hidden compartments in the chair.

I wonder if Rau has actually discovered all of the secret compartments or if some remain yet undiscovered.

-via Steampunk Tendencies

Periodically, a photograph purported to be of Hannah Stilley Gorby comes up on the internet as the earliest-born person to be photographed. Gorby was said to have been born in 1746. We know that the world's first photograph was taken around 1826. By 1840, there were commercial photography studios in larger cities where one could have a portrait made. In 1840, Gorby would have been 94 years old. But there is no reliable documentation on Gorby's birth year, and no evidence that she lived past 1840, so this photo goes under the category of unverifiable.

However, there are many contenders for the title of the earliest-born person ever photographed, and they are all unverifiable in one way or another. In the 18th century, birth certificates weren't a thing. A person's birth date was recorded in the family Bible, or not. Records became lost or destroyed over time. People lied about their age. Continue reading for more photos of people who were born in the early 1700s (or not) who may have been the earliest-born person photographed.

The shark that crashed into a roof in Headington, UK, might have been one of the first viral images you ever saw on the internet. The Headington Shark was erected on August 9, 1986, by homeowner Bill Heine and sculptor John Buckley. The neighbors were at first shocked, then amused, and then came around to very much liking the shark. The local planning commission was not notified, and no building permit was issued. They were not amused. They didn't want to forgive the violation of its authority, and didn't want to encourage other people to do that sort of thing. Heine battled bureaucrats for years to get permission to leave the shark up. Over time, it became clear that no one else was going to cut through their roofs to make a statement, so the shark was eventually reconsidered as a unique piece of art. Tom Scott gets the whole story from Bill Heine's son and current owner of the house Magnus Hanson-Heine.

Somewhere between seven million and five million years ago, our distant ancestors started walking upright on two feet. This allowed them to do all kinds of things with their hands, like use tools and make fire, and they became hominins. In the classic illustration The March of Progress, we see a chimpanzee-like ape gradually turning in a modern human, walking more upright in each version. That gave us the idea that human evolution was progressive, but we now know that's not true.

Millions of years ago, there were multiple species of early hominins, and they left very different footprints. They walked differently from each other, even in the same time periods, in the same places where they left evidence of their existence. We don't know how or if they interacted, but we know that the different species were "trying out" different ways of walking bipedally. One study identifies at least five different shapes of hominin feet in a million-year period, from both footprints and fossils. They all had both human-like and apelike features, meaning they could walk and climb trees with them. Environmental pressures must have favored those who walked on two feet, but only one style of upright walking led to the much later homo sapiens. Read about the research that led us to learn the many walking styles of our ancestors at Scientific American. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Paul Keller)

The road in front of my house just got a new layer of blacktop. I don't know why; we didn't have potholes or crumbling pavement. Then I realized there is an election coming up. Bingo! But roads elsewhere need to repaved often due to weather conditions and high traffic that wear out the asphalt. In New York City, it's often the case of gaining access to underground utilities. While most places put some old asphalt back into the system to be recycled, New York uses 100% recycled asphalt and it works just fine. This video shows how they do it, and why other communities should, too. Upgrading the recycling process would involve initial expenses, but it would pay off over time. And that's a problem- no governmental body wants to spend money now in order to save money for other people who will be in office by then. -via TYWKIWDBI

Disney's animated film Lilo & Stitch came out twenty years ago. It was a very different film from what we expected from Disney at the time, with hand-drawn animation and watercolor backgrounds in the vibrant colors of Hawaii. We loved the story of a little girl, her naughty best friend, and her big sister struggling to stay together as a family. That overshadowed the fact that it was a science fiction film about aliens. But the real story of how Lilo & Stitch turned out to be so unique was the fact that it was made on a relatively small budget by Disney standards, and that it was made at their Orlando studios, away from the suits in Los Angeles. The animators had the freedom to do what they do best without micromanaging executives tweaking every detail, as is standard for the company.

Writer/directors Christopher Sanders and Dean DeBlois talk about how they made Lilo & Stitch, along with animators, voice actors, executives, and others involved with the movie. Read how they went to great lengths to make the film authentic to culturally sensitive Hawaii, how Stitch went from an odd woodland creature to a  bratty alien, how artists had to learn the lost techniques of watercolor, how Ricardo Montalbán was cut from the film, and how 9/11 forced last minute changes in a compelling oral history of Lilo & Stitch. It will make you want to watch the movie once again. -via Metafilter

Bonus: The Art of Lilo & Stitch.

When you first see this birthday cake, you think, "Gaaahhh!" But then you look closer and decide you'd love to have this cake given to you. Those feelings are reflected in the comments under the post at reddit. It's not a cake wreck, as you might assume at first. The title said, "My mother made this cake for my sister-in-law. It yearns for the sweet embrace of death". Thiagooxr told us how it came about.

In case you aren't familiar with Flork of Cows, (more about), this is not necessarily a cow because all of the characters are drawn this way. And the fact that the sister-in-law received it after her own family forgot her birthday makes it altogether wholesome. I mean, look at all those strawberries! I'm glad they took pictures before they ate it all up.

Michael and Bridget Cleary had been married for eight years in 1895. It was reportedly a happy marriage, although they had no children. Bridget was a sort of independently-minded woman, which didn't sit all that well with the townspeople of Ballyvadlea, Ireland.

It was that year that Bridget took ill and was bedridden for more than a week, so ill that she was given last rites. Her husband came to think there was a supernatural cause- fairies. Folklore had it that fairies sometimes took a woman away to bear their children and left a fairy inhabiting the woman's body. Michael Cleary and some of his friends believed that Bridget was a victim of such a possession, and gathered to exorcise the fairy. They tortured the sick woman until she started acting normal again (which is most likely because her fever broke), but Michael still believed this was not his wife. So he set the clothing she was wearing on fire and buried her body away from their home. Then he sat for three days waiting for the fairies to bring his wife back.

Was Michael Cleary that suggestible, or did he believe in fairy tales all along? Or was he just looking for an excuse to get rid of his wife? Read the details of the murder of Bridget Cleary, along with the lore of Irish fairies, at Atlas Obscura.

The Hangogre returns after a wild Friday night only to be full of regret.

because today is INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY! OUR CAPS LOCK IS STUCK AND ALL WE CAN DO FOR THE REST OF THE DAY IS YELL.

THE HANGOGRE HAS MANY REGRETS THIS DAY#HANGOGRE #HEROESOFBARCADIA #DRINKING #UGH pic.twitter.com/MDwsvS8h3U

— Rollacrit (@Rollacrit) October 22, 2022

TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY, BUT SINCE CAPS LOCK IS SO ANNOYING, I will stop using it now. Using the caps lock as a habit came about as the internet user base grew exponentially, and suddenly we had people all over the world communicating by typing who didn't know how to type. These users soon fell into two groups: those who typed with the caps lock on because it was easier than constantly using the shift key, and those who hated to read anything typed in all uppercase letters because it feels like we are being shouted at. Since then, some people use all caps because they mean to shout, while others still just don't want to use the shift key. I have to admit that I never learned to touch type, but reading all caps is exhausting, so I deal with the shift key. Still, there are some who have more interesting stories about their caps lock use, like Mefite RonButNotStupid.

BY THE TIME I WAS IN FIFTH GRADE, I HAD MOSTLY TAUGHT MYSELF HOW TO TOUCHTYPE EXCEPT THAT I HADN'T YET FIGURED OUT HOW TO USE THE SHIFT KEYS. SO I ALWAYS TYPED EVERYTHING WITH CAPS LOCK ON, BECAUSE I FIGURED LOWER CASE WASN'T SO IMPORTANT ANYWAY BECAUSE THERE WERE STILL OLD APPLE II MACHINES KICKING AROUND SCHOOL THAT COULD ONLY TYPE UPPER-CASE.

I GOT BUSTED FOR IT IN COMPUTER CLASS. WE HAD TO TYPE A STORY. I WAS SO PROUD BECAUSE I WAS SEVERAL PAGES AHEAD OF THE OTHER KIDS WHO WERE HUNTING AND PECKING LIKE AMATEURS WHEN THE TEACHER LOOKED OVER MY SHOULDER AND SAID "YOU CAN'T TYPE WITH THE CAPS LOCK KEY ON, YOU HAVE TO START OVER". AND SINCE WE WERE USING SOME CHILD-FRIENDLY WORD PROCESSOR ON MAC LCIIS WHICH DIDN'T HAVE ANY FEATURE TO ALGORITHMICALLY CHANGE THE CASE, I HAD TO GO ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING AND RE-TYPE EVERYTHING.

International Caps Lock Day was first proposed in 2000 on Metafilter by Iowa software engineer Derek Arnold. A second International Caps Lock Day, June 28, was added later in honor of Billy Mays, the beloved pitchman who always seemed to be shouting. Mays passed away on June 28, 2009.

As the world shifted from people who can't type on a computer to people who can't type on smartphones, all caps became less of a thing, because iPhones do not have a caps lock key for texting, and in fact make any uppercase letter that's not at the beginning of a sentence or the word "I" into a chore.

The proper way to celebrate International Caps Lock Day is to engage the caps lock key on your keyboard and use it all day to annoy your friends and everyone on the 'net. Or not, because it's a holiday you aren't obligated to celebrate. Thank you. -via Metafilter

Image from a horror movie? Nope. That’s the very real face of an ant.
An ant.
Now you have to think about that all night. pic.twitter.com/HOWLTlnfJ1

— Rebekah McKendry, PhD (@RebekahMcKendry) October 17, 2022

Last week in the Nikon Small World competition, one image tucked down into the "images of distinction" gallery went viral, possibly because Halloween is near, and everyone has been watching too many horror films. It was the face of an ant, taken by Lithuanian nature photographer Dr. Eugenijus Kavaliauskas.

Look at those red eyes with slit pupils! Those devil horns! Those sharp snaggly teeth! Sure, that's a face that you wouldn't want to see emerging from the dark, but you wouldn't see it at all, even in broad daylight. It's just too small. Yes, it would make a great model for a movie monster. Still, cooler heads had to come in and explain what we are seeing.

for those confused, these red, circular things are not its eyes, they're not on the photo, those are their antennal fossa, heres a picture where the eyes appear https://t.co/WBMfxJZMTG pic.twitter.com/uxU3Yf40gR

— Manuke (@ManukePoker) October 18, 2022

Oh yeah, that helps. So the top image is just the ant's nose, and his eyes are out of the frame. The ant's mandible looks like a chin. It just goes to show that when your nose alone looks like a demon, the rest of your face either doesn't matter or... it might be worse. -via Digg

I saw the title of this video and thought, "200 bassists! This must be Rockin' 1000." And I was right. The bass guitar section of Rockin' 1000 (previously at Neatorama) played "Under Pressure," originally by Queen with David Bowie, with that ever-recognizable bass line and all the melodies, harmonies, and flourishes played only on bass guitar. They were led by Charles Berthoud, who played the vocals ...on bass. -via Laughing Squid