We all know that Steven Spielberg is a treasure among filmmakers. His films include blockbusters like Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park. He is also behind important historical projects like Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, and Schindler's List. He also had some flops. You can see the complete Spielberg filmography here. That's a lot of material for unearthing easter eggs, like the painstaking process he and John Williams went through to come up with the perfect five-note melody used in Close Encounters. Or how Spielberg figured in the TV series The Incredible Hulk.
Now that's impressive, and ballsy, too. You'll certainly learn some new things about your favorite Spielberg movies in a Pictofact list at Cracked.
Eating, though it is great fun, is also a lot of work. Futurists promised us flying cars, but we don't actually need flying cars. We need automatic forks in order to ingest more food while using as little effort as possible.
Dave of DaveMakesStuff makes the best possible future a reality. He likes to say that "I don't usually know what I'm making until it's too late." This invention was supposed to be a 7-pronged screwdriver, but an eating utensil makes more sense. It's driven by eight beveled gears nested in a sphere. Dave kindly offers his STL files if you'd like to 3D print your own.
The Laundry Jet is the first vacuum powered laundry chute that transports laundry from any room with ports installed, to the laundry room [read more: https://t.co/ad50LRzmkn] pic.twitter.com/vuPaVi8j40
Is it really necessary? No. Would it be useful? Yes. Would I use it for purposes other than laundry processing if there was one in my home? You'd better believe it!
Laundry Jet has up to four ports that open either with a manual slide or motion sensors. Vacuum force sucks the clothes down to a central repository in the laundry room. It works the other way, too. You can get an optional return system installed that sucks the clean laundry up to a designated location in the house.
Although Laundry Jet is best installed during the home construction, it's also possible to retrofit the system into a preexisting home by routing the 6-inch wide pipes through an attic. Those pipes are wide enough for most laundry items or carefully wrapped sandwiches.
YouTuber North of the Border gives us a rather idiosyncratic project. He built a LEGO minifig out of clay. Except he made it much bigger. All in all, that's pretty normal, but then he had some modifications in mind. He decided to make it more "realistic" while keeping the basic idea of a minifig. That meant decisions had to be made, and that's when this project went completely off the rails. His intention was to kept the thicked-legged, cylindrical-headed minifig shape, or otherwise it wouldn't be recognizable as a LEGO minifig. But he added wrinkles to the skin and clothing. He also gave them human fingernails and toenails, in numbers that matched the plastic minifig shape. And those eyes! At normal scale, a minifig's eyes are dots, but this? Yeah, the result is quite unnerving, but you'll enjoy the process anyway. Now you know why North of the Border titled this video "I made a Realistic Lego Man and I'm Sorry." Is he really sorry or just Canadian? -via Metafilter
Ask anyone about their earliest memory, and they'll probably tell you something from when they were about three years old. Memories from much earlier than that are probably fake, derived from photographs or family stories. But why can't we remember our infancy? Some research suggests that we have trouble storing long-term memories of events that occurred before we have the language to encode them. Newer research suggests that infants have to learn and develop the process of long-term memory storage.
We know that babies form memories. Their entire job is learning, after all. Newborns quickly learn to recognize their mother's face. They learn how to elicit a response from their parents. And as they age, their ability to learn gets better with exercise. In an experiment, when six-month-old babies were trained for one minute to activate a toy with their legs, they would remember it for a day. Older infants would remember the task for much longer. But if you spent more time training, the memories would last longer even for younger infants. Newborns see their mother's face every day, often many times a day, so they don't have to store that memory for a long time. As we age, we learn to remember. Maybe it takes until the age of three to learn to store permanent memories. Read more about this research at The Conversation. -via Damn Interesting
We've seen some "modern trailers" made where the editor is making fun of the formulaic sameness of today's movie trailers. This isn't that at all.
The original trailer for the 1986 movie Aliens, the action-movie sequel to the horror classic Alien, has no narration and very little dialogue. It was all action scenes that gave away almost no plot. Michael Edwards made a new one 36 years later with a modern aesthetic. Well, digital editing is going to give us a much better-looking trailer, but the difference here is that his trailer explains the main premise of the movie. There's still no narration, but bits of dialogue are artfully strung together to tell just enough of the story to make us want to see the rest. Oh, there's some action, but also suspense and exposition, carefully balanced in a well-edited barrage of clips, with just a touch of the xenomorph. And unlike real trailers of the 21st century, this doesn't give away everything in the movie. Contains NSFW language.
For contrast, here's the 1986 trailer, which you should probably watch first.
Twitter, I need your help. I stacked a ceramic bowl into another one while doing dishes and now they are stuck. How do you remove the smaller bowl without breaking both of them?
Why am I so invested? I’ve tried to fix this for 2 days, and I cannot give up now. pic.twitter.com/ONfuw7L9dH
On June 4, Chi Nguyễn washed dishes and found that two ceramic bowls had nested and become stuck together. She tried to get them apart for two days, and then turned to the internet for suggestions. And if there's one thing that the internet loves to do, it is to give suggestions. Over the next two days and change, Nguyễn tried different ideas and gave regular updates of what hadn't worked so far. So many people became invested in the challenge of separating the bowls that someone launched a website about it, called Is the Bowl Still Stuck? But while many suggestions were in earnest, the funny ones really stuck out.
Have you tried politely asking the smaller bowl to leave?
Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?
Fill a tub full of warm (not too hot) water. Hold bowls snug to your chest. Get in the tub (clothes optional). Submerge fully. Close eyes. Take slow, deep breaths. Remain for 10 minutes. After toweling off, it is unlikely that the bowls will separate, but you'll feel stress-free.
Filled the bowls with prune juice. Prune juice will gaurentee a bowl movement.
They like attention. As soon as you pretend you don’t care they’ll get bored of this game. Eat some soup in the inner one, rinse, run through the dishwasher. If they stay together they are more devoted to the prank than is healthy.
I know I shouldn't laugh...
— Adelaide Braddock (She/Her/她) (@adibraddock) June 9, 2022
Maybe…they don’t *want* to be separated? They are not spooning, but are bowling.
Would it kill you to accept that the bowls are one now and maybe support their relationship?
Give them to a small child. Tell said child that never, EVER, under any circumstances, on pain-of-death must these two bowls be separated. Leave the room for 30 seconds. Return to separated bowls.
It was that piece of advice that finally worked. The bowls are free! However, the smaller bowl suffered a chip sometime over the dozens of attempts.
Your flight with Singapore Airlines has not been delayed. It's not late and you are not early. The flight has simply been "retimed". The language is important because you should have a positive outlook. As the sage advised, "always look on the bright side of life."
John Ollila of the travel website Loyalty Lobby shares this email from Singapore Airlines for his flight out of Bali. The new wording should make the experience less difficult, right?
So, yes, Ollila's flight has been retimed. But at least it has not experienced an unscheduled terrain contact. That could really disrupt his plans for after deplaning.
Riflery enthusiast Robert Brantley was on his way to the shooting range yesterday when he saw a kitten on the side of the road. This kitten turned out to be an advance scout, or possibly bait. His brothers and sisters came out of the grass and ambushed him! He said, "I can't take you all!" And then he did.
I was loaded down from a range trip when I was ambushed. So here is the video of them all in. I wish I would have been in my truck but I was stuck in the gas saver. This model didn’t come with the kitten box either. I couldn’t keep up with them as I would throw one in and 2 would jump out. So I had to close the door with the window down and funnel em in. That would have been good footage actually.
Since then, Brantley has taken more videos of the 13 kittens with his family, and is looking for homes for most of them. You can keep up with this adventure at Facebook. -via Metafilter
This image is pretty old. I think I saw it when I was fairly young, and that's been a loooong time! Still, I couldn't remember the answer. There is supposed to be two tigers in this image, and you are challenged to find the hidden tiger. In the internet age, you'll see this often with a clickbait title, like "If you can find the hidden tiger, you are in the 1%!" which is silly. It's a puzzle, and normal people can't see it right off. But when you do see it, you can't stop seeing it. Still, this is the 21st century, and some people try to solve an old problem with modern solutions.
Dog had a raspy cough. The vet went right over him, x ray, blood tests and it was all a big mystery. Out of the blue the vet asked me to cough. I coughed...the dog coughed...I coughed...dog coughed again. Turned out the whole family had colds and the dog was trying to fit in.
Kristin Chirico asked people on Twitter to share their most embarrassing veterinary visit. It turns out that every pet owner has at least one story of rushing a beloved pet to an emergency animal clinic, only to find out everything is normal, or else your dog or cat is just acting up to make you spend big bucks at the vet. This one was from a few years ago, but it was reposted as legendary.
You have to feel sorry for the poor hamster. But this one can't help but make you laugh.
COW LOOSE ON OKC HIGHWAY 🐄🤠 Sky 5 was flying over the moments when cowboys and emergency crews wrangled a cow that got loose on a busy Oklahoma City highway. https://t.co/pgZRNirP9Rpic.twitter.com/NgnlgqiEEA
If you thought calf ropin' was an obsolete skill only seen in rodeos, you haven't been to Oklahoma. The KOCO Sky 5 helicopter is used to following Oklahoma City traffic jams and the rare police chase, but Monday morning it was a juvenile cow being chased down the road. The bovine was first spotted on Interstate 40 near Pennsylvania Avenue, and was chased down a service road by trucks, golf carts, and emergency services, all caught on video by the traffic helicopter. Two cowboys with considerable skills managed to lasso and tie the cow within minutes.
The cowboy who lassoed the cow on his first try was Blake Igert, a contractor for Oklahoma National Stockyards. He saddled up and rushed into action through morning traffic when he got a call about a cow loose on the highway. We've seen many examples of street theater, but this is street rodeo! -via Boing Boing
Jalopnik asked its readers to tell about their worst automotive breakdown. You can tell these are stories that have been told over and over until they are succinct and even humorous in hindsight. Like how I tell people about my first car, a 1966 MG Midget that lost its tailpipe constantly going over the school speed bumps, and eventually lost its floorboards and steering wheel. There are tales of being stuck for days, incompetent repairmen, and blocking serious traffic. But none can compare to the time Dominic von Stösser's Land Cruiser's electrical system quit working in the middle of the Namib desert, near where they filmed Fury Road. There was no one and nothing around for miles.
Not to worry: the vehicle was primitive enough to run without any electrics at all, but... trying to start a cold 2H diesel (4 litre inline six) with its ~20.7:1 compression ratio without pre-heating the engine is a fool’s errand. Absolute madness.
Thankfully I’d camped on top of a rise, so we made a big fire and boiled a bunch of water. My partner poured the scalding water over the intake manifold, while I shovelled hot coals to underneath the oil pan. When the time came, my partner and I gave the Cruiser a shove, went running after it, jumped in, rammed it into 2nd, dumped the clutch and...
... breathed a massive sigh of relief when the engine turned over, and reluctantly, ROUGHLY, coughed emphysemically to life. Having got it running, we didn’t dare turn it off until I got home, 500km away. Stopped for fuel at one point. The attendant asked me to kill the engine, told him nope; hurry up and fill, the engine is gaining. Got home close to 10pm, driving by moonlight with next to no lights, no indicators, no brake lights, nothing.
Mercedes-Benz only made nine chassis for the 1955 Mercedes-Benz SLR coupe. The Mercedes SLR was a racing legend. It won every race it participated in, but then an SLR was involved in the 1955 Le Mans disaster, in which French driver Pierre Levegh's SLR was thrown through the air and landed, twice, among spectators. The car exploded into flames. Levegh and 83 spectators were killed, making it the deadliest car race ever. Mercedes-Benz withdrew from racing for three decades.
Two of the nine SLR chassis became street-legal autos for Mercedes executives, one being Daimler-Benz motorsport chief Rudolf Uhlenhaut. These two cars were called Uhlenhaut Coupés. That in itself made each one of the rarest cars in the world. One of those cars is in the Mercedes corporate museum. The other has set a world record for the most expensive car ever sold. In May, the bids went up to €135 million, or $142 million! The previous record was set in 2018, when a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for $70 million.
Of course, that $142 million is just money. The SLR that exploded at Le Mans was much more costly, but in a different way. The buyer has yet to reveal himself. Mercedes will use the proceeds to launch a global scholarship fund.
The Uhlenhaut Coupé has a 300 horsepower eight-cylinder engine, gull-wing doors, and exhaust pipes on the passenger side. If someone offers you a ride in one, take it, but be careful getting in. -via TYWKIWDBI
The worst has happened: there is a moment in time in which there is nothing distracting you from your own thoughts. You can sit in peace and think clearly for the first time since you first held a smartphone.
This is a disaster waiting to happen and Pablo Rochat isn't helping any. He's an artist and commercial art director in Atlanta. Rochat's Twitter feed is filled with many public pranks and visual jokes that bend reality. In this case, Thing from The Addams Family is disciplining you for your addiction to the phone. It's time for an upgrade.
