Modern dentists don't have to worry about the possibility of exploding teeth, except in their nightmares. But somehow W.H. Atkinson knew of three cases in his 40-year dental career. The three people involved may not have been regular patients of his before the explosions; they all seemed to have put off dental help when they needed it most. The first case was in 1817, when a man experienced a toothache so bad that he was driven to distraction trying to relieve it. After a day of worsening pain, the tooth exploded with an alarmingly loud sound, and he experienced immediate relief. In 1830, a woman had a similar experience. When Atkinson experienced a third case in another woman in 1855, he wrote up all three cases in an article for the American dentistry journal The Dental Cosmos. While Atkinson has some harsh words in his paper for dentists who expect their patients to endure such pain, he doesn't offer any report of follow-up care for any of the three patients. One has to wonder if the roots of the shattered teeth were extracted.
In any case, Atkinson's cases were not the only reports of exploding teeth in the 19th century. It doesn't seem to have happened since 1920, except for one case involving baby teeth that had already fallen out. We don't know why teeth used to explode, but there are several theories. It may have something to do with the difference between dental care in the 19th century and more modern times. Read more about the possible causes of exploding teeth at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: Wellcome Images)
Preying mantises come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They are masters of camouflage, and the orchid mantises (Hymenopus coronatus) that live among colorful flowers are gorgeous, delicate little creatures. But they are also skilled predators, waiting for the insects that come to pollinate those flowers. Amateur wildlife photographer Pang Way captures the beauty of the preying mantises of Malayasia's rainforests in all their glory.
How does Way get these photos? He uses a macro lens and a soft lighting box, but that's just the technical aspects. The magic is in how he finds these insects and gets them to look at the camera and pose for him. Maybe he takes a hundred photos for each one he keeps, but it seems like magic anyway.
Way doesn't just photograph preying mantises. He aims to document many different species of insects and arachnids as they face the destruction of their environment. See an extensive collection of Pang Way's mantises at Design You Trust. -via Nag on the Lake
It's true that Generation Z, or Zoomers, don't drink as much as their parents did at that age, but those who do have refined the art of binge drinking to a viral recipe called BORG. It stand for "black out rage gallon." The recipe is simple: fill a gallon jug halfway with water, add as much vodka as you think is proper for you, and then use a flavor additive, such as MiO, Pedialyte, or your favorite energy drink. You will probably see this recipe as not so different from other cheap cocktail mixtures that college students have been using forever, like vodka mixed with Kool-Ade, Gatorade, or Tang.
The idea is that a gallon of BORG should last you all day. The reality is that college students often mix up a gallon and take it to a party. The danger in this trend is the same as with any type of binge drinking: 1. dying of alcohol poisoning, 2. causing a car wreck, and 3. kickstarting a life of alcoholism, among other possibilities.
However, some folks are looking at BORG as a "wellness trend" or a "harm-reduction strategy." What? For one thing, the water is supposed to keep you hydrated, but we know that's not how binge drinking works. The other idea is that each person keeps to their own gallon, to reduce the danger of a spiked or roofied drink and the danger of sharing germs. It's sad that those things are even considerations. And you wouldn't be surprised if BORG sharing begins after a few drinks at a party.
The real upside of BORG (for us) is that gallons often get labeled with a pun name to tie it to its owner.
Jason Borg
Heisenborg
Borgzilla
Borger Patrol
All Aborg
Pablo Escoborg
Borger King
Borganizational Skills
Borgasm
-via Metafilter
Imagine going on a flight and leaving the airplane with being gifted free plane rides for the rest of your life. Now, that’s a memorable traveling experience!
Ikechi Chima Apakama boarded a flight with PLAY Airlines in Liverpool, bound for Keflavik International Airport in Iceland with his two friends. As they took off, the crew began giving gift bags, prosecco, and cake, celebrating the fact that the flight was carrying the company’s one-millionth passenger.
Unbeknownst to him and his friends, the person the crew was referring to was Apakama. PLAY Airlines announced during the flight that they would be giving the person (who was unnamed at that time) free flights for life. He only knew when he landed, as he was surprised with a party, and was told that he was the lucky passenger.
Apakama was given the pass displaying he received free PLAY flights for life, a coat, and a hat from Cintamani, an Icelandic band.
Image credit: PLAY Airlines
Was it from space?
Residents and visitors were surprised to see a 4.9-foot metal sphere randomly rolling on Enshuhama beach in Hamamatsu City, Japan. Initially spotted by a passerby, the authorities were then called into the location to inspect what this object was. Thankfully, it didn’t start mutating or transforming into some alien tech, but it was run under an X-ray to check if there was something inside.
To the officers’ surprise, the ball was hollow. A bomb squad was also called to investigate. At the moment, no one knows what it is or its purpose. Theories range from a buoy to lost marine equipment to an experimental device and to space debris. The beach remains closed to the public until the investigation is over.
Check out NHK World’s coverage of the mysterious sphere here.
Image screenshot via NHK World
Thanks to drones, the Hiwassee Dam Fire Department was able to ascertain the location of a missing boy in North Carolina. The devices were equipped with infrared technology, which was able to detect the boy’s body heat even in darkness.
According to the department, one of their drones picked up a heat signature during its rounds. They then decided to zoom in and saw a body lying in the fetal position. The GPS coordinates were marked and rescue personnel was sent to the location, and they found the missing boy.
After the success of the rescue, the fire department shared that it wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t have drone cameras. Without them, they wouldn’t be able to locate the child within hours.
Additionally, Hiwassee Dam Fire Department Chief Chad McNabb shared that the technology they used helped them cover more ground without using too much manpower. “I knew the technology existed, I’d never been exposed to it to this extent. But now that I’ve seen it — highly impressed. I think everyone on the scene was impressed with it as well,” he said.
Image credit: Twitter/@westonwamp.
After years of being undiscovered, a family member has finally found the treasure buried by his relatives during the Second World War. The Glazewskis buried their silver in eastern Poland when the Russians invaded their country.
The head of the family remained to fight them off but failed. He narrowly escaped from being executed and was chased out of his home. His sons never returned home, but they carried the legend of their family treasure for decades. Now, 80 years later, a grandson was able to discover the treasure.
The man, Jan, was able to follow the path laid out by a treasure map drawn by his father, Gustaw. “My father was getting old and I kind of nagged him, I said ‘please draw me a map – one day I might be able to go to the estate and look for it,” he shared.
The 69-year-old got emotional when he read the map and felt motivated to fulfill his father’s dreams of finding the family’s silver and hunting guns. He began his search in 2019 and was assisted by his niece and two Ukrainian metal detectorists. We’re glad that one of the family members found the treasure, and it was not salvaged!
Image credit: Pen News
🍸 In 1955, Campbell Soup had an idea of how to sell more of their canned beef bouillon: make them into nonalcoholic cocktails! Thus Soup on the Rocks was born. Later, they also came up with Frisky Sour (Campbell's beef broth mixed with ice and lemon juice) and chicken soup martini. You can guess what that one contained.
🏰 Psst! Got £500,000? Go and buy an actual fort in Wales. That turns "man's house is his castle" into something quite literal.
🦔 That baby porcupine sure looked delicious to a leopard, but thankfully momma and poppa porcupines were there to, uh, poke a hole in the big cat's dinner plan.
🤣 Here's something to make you LOL: 7 Funny Tees and Big & Tall T-Shirts. This one above is "I Live in a Van Gogh" by indie artist kg07. Who remembers that skit?
🥔 Star Trek: Voyager characters drawn as potatoes. Tuvok is spot on.
🚽 Did the Chinese invent flush toilets too? (Sorry Thomas Crapper!)
Experience: I gave birth to the world’s ‘8 billionth baby’ https://t.co/conNZAQsDq
— The Guardian (@guardian) February 24, 2023
On November 15th last year, the world population crossed to over eight billion people. Most people who read about it wondered in the back of their minds just who that eight billionth person would be. Now we know. Her name is Vinice, and she lives in the Philippines.
Several new babies in different parts of the world were designated to be the symbolic eight billionth person, but Vinice has become the best known. Her mother, Maria Margarette Villorente, was in labor and on the way to the hospital in Manila as midnight approached on November 14th. The hospital staff turned them away, because the facility was already full! So Maria and Vincent went to another hospital in the San Andres area of the city. Representatives of the Philippines Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) were already at that hospital to welcome the birth of the eight billionth person. Vinice was born shortly after midnight on the 15th, and was immediately lavished with a huge cake, baby supplies, and toys. Maria was obliged to give an immediate interview. It was a total surprise for the couple. Read the story of how Vinice came into the world of eight billion people with much fanfare at the Guardian. -via Damn Interesting
LEGO makes a very special kind of brick that can shoot objects out forcefully. These spring-loaded shooters work on the same simple principle as a ballpoint pen that clicks open and shut. Simple, but still fun. And like any cool toy, someone will go way overboard with them for our entertainment. Brickstory Builds collected 400 of these shooter bricks, and just as many projectiles to shoot out of them. How many different ways can he fire them en masse? Who is he going to shoot them at? Anyone who has 400 shooters will have plenty of LEGO figures to select from. He starts with a tower, then a train attacking Star Wars droids, and moves to ever more elaborate artillery constructions until he goes up against a truly menacing monster.
I used to lament how LEGO went from basic brick sets that required imagination to make anything to complex sets that make one thing and you have to follow pages of instructions. But there will always be people who think outside the box, literally, to brings us nonsense like this. -via Born in Space
The "w" in the English language is an outlier. It is the only letter with a name that's more than a syllable long (it has three), and the only one in which the name is a visual description instead of its sound. Yeah, it would make sense to call it wuh, but it's a bit too late for that. Furthermore, its description doesn't make sense in type. It looks like a double "v." The conundrum is the basis for a children's poem from 1885.
“Excuse me if I trouble you,”
Said V to jolly W,
“But will you have the kindness to explain one thing to me?
Why, looking as you do,
Folks should call you double U,
When they really ought to call you double V?”
Said W to curious V:
“The reason’s plain as plain can be
(Although I must admit it’s understood by very few);
As you say I’m double V;
And therefore, don’t you see,
The people say that I am double you.”
But if you want the real answer, you have to go back to the time when the Latin alphabet collided with the English language in the 7th century, and had to make accommodations for sounds that did not occur in Latin. For the "w" sound in Old English, they used two letters. And those were "u"s. For example, the word "wonder" was spelled "uundra" in Old English. The process of this sound becoming a "w" in English is a bit more complicated. For instance, there was another letter, "ƿ" (or wynn) that tried to take its place, but was ultimately discarded. You can read up on the evolution of the letter "w" at Grammarphobia. -via Strange Company
Madeleine McCann was a 3-year-old girl who disappeared from her bed in an apartment in Praia de Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. People have been doing search operations for years but nobody was able to find her. Her case is one of the most heavily reported missing person cases in history.
More than a decade after her disappearance, a woman on social media is now claiming that she is that missing person. A woman with the Instagram name “I am Madeleine McCann” appeared last February 14 and rekindled people’s attention to McCann’s case. The Instagram user does not call herself as Madeleine, though– she introduces herself as Julia.
What’s interesting is that this lady actually states her goal: to have her story heard, and be given a DNA test to prove her identity. "Police investigators from UK and Poland try to ignore me. I will tell my story in posts here,” her bio read. “Help me, I need to talk with Kate and Gerry McCann.”
Julia uploaded posts where she explains multiple reasons why she’s the missing girl. From sharing her earliest memory being a holiday in a hot country with white apartments to having the same hazel mark in her eye that Madeleine has. “I want to prove that I’m real and honest and I really think that I could be Madeleine,” she said. She insists on taking a DNA test so she can also be 100% sure.
As of the moment, she has managed to speak with the McCanns and will be getting a DNA test to prove her identity.
Image screenshot via iammadelinemacann/Instagram
The USS Albacore was a submarine from World War II that was used by the United States. Unfortunately, the sea craft disappeared almost 80 years ago after managing to sink ten enemy vessels during the war.
The submarine– the wreckage of it, at least, was found by the University of Tokyo's Tamaki Ura off the shore in Japan. According to the country’s records, it likely struck a mine off the shore in 1944.
The wreckage of a U.S. submarine from World War II was found off the coast of Hokkaido in northern Japan — after disappearing almost 80 years ago. The USS Albacore was positively identified by the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) after its initial discovery.
Archaeologists employed by the NHHC utilized the underwater imagery provided by Ura’s team to confirm the remains of the submarine.
Image credit: Naval History and Heritage Command
Foreigners and residents in Portugal are no longer allowed to purchase homes and use them as Airbnbs in the country. In a series of laws passed, the government has limited the number of these hotel-like places in their country.
This decision came after an influx of foreigners decided to purchase expensive homes and turned them into these kinds of establishments, which lead to the country’s housing market rising up and managing to drive away the local population. “The great appeal of our cities is not to turn [us] into some sort of Disneyland,” Prime Minister Antonio Costa, said at a press conference. “There is no city that can remain authentic if it isn’t able to maintain its residents.”
Aside from limiting the Airbnbs in Portugal, the country will also no longer hand out “Golden Visas,” which are passes that allow people to have an easier and streamlined process to become residents of Portugal as long as they promise to invest in the country.
Image credit: Carlos Machado
The annual Mister Global beauty pageant for men was held a couple of weeks ago in Chaing Mai, Thailand. The winner for 2023 is Juan Carlos Ariosa, from Cuba (shown above). Contestants from 39 countries competed in tuxedos, national costumes, and itty-bitty swimsuits. The most interesting part of the pageant is the national costume competition, because let's face it, all these guys are hot and it would be difficult to judge their looks against each other. Below is the representative from Haiti.
However, the costumes ranged from sublime to baffling. The readers at Bored Panda have judged and ranked all 39 contestants in their costumes, which you can see here. The contestant from the Philippines drove his costume in.
If you want to see the entire pageant, it's up at YouTube, or you can see just the costume parade, or the swimsuit competition if you prefer. We won't judge you.
(Images from Mister Global at Instagram)
