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The Dodo introduces us to Patrick Seligman, a diver in Hawaii. On his occasional dives, he visits an animal dental office beneath the surface of the water. It's a section of reef inhabited by Pacific cleaner shrimp (Lysmata amboinesis), a species known for eating parasites and dead tissue from other fish. This symbiotic relationship allows the shrimp to eat and other fish to get clean.

Seligman opens his mouth near a shrimp and allows it approach him. Although some shrimp are skittish around the big human, others are willing to clean his teeth and pick up a free meal. After repeat visits, Seligman began bringing his friends for dental hygiene services.

It happens all the time. You, an employer, hire someone based on a stellar resume, and eventually find out that they aren't as good at their job as they were expected to be. You sever ties with them and never think about it again. It might not occur to you that the resume was completely fabricated and that employee was a criminal fraudster who'd done the same at workplaces all over. The career of Brigitte Cleroux continued for 30 years because her jobs were like jigsaw puzzle pieces that didn't come in the same box. Cleroux worked as a teacher and a hair stylist despite having no credentials, but mostly found positions as a nurse, with forged licenses, all across Canada and in the United States. She was only occasionally caught, but was able to start all over again by leaving for a new location with a new name and new forged documents. Decades of fraud finally caught up with Cleroux in 2021, but the harm she left behind is just beginning to be noticed.  

Cleroux was able to get away with this because so few employers cross-checked her credentials with schools or licensing agencies. And even if they did, she would just change her name and move on. Read the story of nurse imposter Brigitte Cleroux at Maclean's. -via Damn Interesting

Dad is 6'8", Mom is 6'3" tall. Their children were doomed to follow in their large footsteps. Scott and Krissy Trapp of Esko, Minnesota, had two daughters, Savanna, who is 6'8" and Molly, who is 6'6". Their son Adam is 7'3", but he may still be growing, as he is only 22. Now, that's a family you can look up to! The Trapps were recently recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's tallest family. That's a nice honor, but it doesn't help when you have to duck going through each door of your house, or bend down to wash dishes. Buying clothing and sitting in a car aren't all that easy, either. But the Trapps seem to take it all in stride. -via Fark

Yellowstone National Park is celebrating its 150th anniversary. One of the special events of the year is the sale of a special $1500 "Inheritance Pass" that won't be usable for 150 years! The owner of such a pass will have unlimited access to the park in the year 2172. Yeah, no one buying this pass will live to use it, but it can be bequeathed to someone in your will.

The point of the pass is to raise funds so that Yellowstone can survive into the future. The money raised through the campaign will go to "supporting scientific studies, trail maintenance, and wildlife conservation, among other projects." You can consider it a donation, as it is tax deductible. However, once you buy an Inheritance Pass, the park will send you a thank you note with an annual pass for the current year. You can purchase one here. Read about the Inheritance Pass project at Backpacker. -via Kottke  

Any bowl can be a soup bowl if you’re quick enough.

Our Asparagus Soup pairs perfectly with the creamy milk chocolate of our Easter Egg Bowls, @BOLfoods could never… 👀 #EggcellentAldi pic.twitter.com/hoDPbz2WiQ

— Aldi Stores UK (@AldiUK) April 13, 2022

The grocery store company Aldi tweeted out this disturbing menu plan for the Easter weekend. The company offers large chocolate shells shaped like bowls and proposes using them to serve soup.

This would not be a bad idea if the soup in question was some sort of dessert, such as a pudding or fruit.

But Aldi proposes serving asparagus, a plant that, to put it charitably, should not be served with chocolate. And there's more.

(Jung at Heart t-shirt on sale at the NeatoShop)

We all know a**holes. And, at some point, we're the a**hole in someone's story about some a**hole they met.

What makes an a**hole? By that I mean the person, not the anatomical feature. Researchers at the University of Georgia decided to find out what are the most common character traits ascribed to a**holes.

They asked 397 people to describe the single biggest a**hole that they personally knew. The researchers than arranged these traits according to the five-factor model of personality used by psychologists. A**holes tended to be high in neuroticism, low in openness, high in extraversion, low in agreeableness, and low in conscientiousness.

79% of identified a**holes are male and had an average age of 43, and 35% were current co-workers, bosses, family members, friends, or romantic partners, whereas 50% were former holders of those positions.

You can read the complete scholarly article here.

-via Dave Barry

Getting ready for the arrival of a baby is a big job. Although my wife insists that childbearing fell heavier on her than me, I can tell you that preparing for fatherhood is no small task. There's a lot do, what with setting up a nursery and buying appropriate gear and such.

Why not outsource some of those tasks? Or at least one of the more difficult and time consuming ones: coming up with a name for the baby. Do yourself a favor and hire Taylor A. Humphrey, a professional in the field of baby naming.

You might think that choosing a baby name is an easy task. But you thought that installing a new septic tank was easy and look how that turned out. Leave the big jobs up to the professionals.

The New York Post describes Humphrey's business. There's high demand for quality baby names and this consultant has a stash of the best. In 2020, 100 customers paid enough to give her an income of $150,000. She interviews her customers, digging into their family and personal histories to select a personalized baby name that reflects their lives and family traditions.

I see a lot of potential for this field. I should talk to Neatorama owner Alex about selling quality and high priced baby names at the NeatoShop.

-via David Burge | Photo: Jonny Hunter

First off, no this isn't a real series, even though you will be forgiven for thinking so considering how many Star Trek series there are now. Gazelle Automations made a new cartoon in the style of the 1973-74 series Star Trek: The Animated Series and used a scene from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94), along with its audio. The conceit here is that ST:TAS had ingenious plots and cheap animation, and ST:TNG had awesome visuals and silly plots. This cartoon manages to highlight the worst aspects of each, but it's fun nevertheless. Watch it twice to catch all the details, like the perfect Filmation music, the imperfect lip-voice synchronization, the odd manner in which each character begins moving, the faces that only move one feature at a time, the Kzin, and the pink Borg Cube. Oh yeah, there's also the horror of using two colons in one sentence. -via Metafilter

Those who love cats but are allergic to their fur now have hope to finally own one in the future!

Researchers from Virginia-based biotech company InBio (previously called Indoor Biotechnologies) have found a way to block the most common source of cat allergies using CRISPR, a Nobel Prize-winning device capable of gene-editing. 

The experts aim to reduce the gene in the furry animals that make them produce little to no Fel d 1, a protein that causes over 90% of cat allergies. Learn more about their research here. 

Image credit: Daria Shatova

Whether you’re planning on reducing your alcohol intake or completely swearing off the drink, there are a lot of available methods you can use to achieve your goal. 

Sometimes, some methods might not work for you. According to ScienceAlert, other factors will also determine if a method of cutting back will work or not. Take, for example, the frequency of your drinking. People who drink more than others can have symptoms of dependence and might find it more difficult to stop drinking alcohol or cutting back from it. 

Learn more about cutting back on alcohol here. 

Image credit: Wil Stewart

Two items from the Christie’s to be auctioned roster have been withdrawn after an expert in forensic archeology pointed out that said objects were associated or linked to convicted traffickers and dealers of artifacts. 

According to Christos Tsirogiannis, the items, a vase, and a helmet can be linked to two different convicted antiquities dealers who have been active since the 1970s. The vase can be traced back to Gianfranco Becchina, a prolific trafficker of Italian artifacts. Meanwhile, the helmet was found in the photographic archives of Robert Hecht, an American dealer who was suspected of selling looted artifacts. 

A spokesperson from the auction house said that they dedicate time, effort, and resources to investigating an artifact’s provenance, or the record of ownership of a work of art or an antique. “In the case of the upcoming sale of these lots, the research we conducted gave us no reason to believe that any of these lots are from an illicit source,” the statement said. 

Image credit: Christos Tsirogiannis

Why thank you, kind sir!

A video was able to capture this kind animal’s gesture towards a wayward alligator that happened to walk onto a golf course. The crane approached the animal and can be seen trailing behind it, as if guiding the alligator to the right path. 

It’s surprising how the alligator didn’t seem fazed by the bird’s surprise approach. Regardless, this crane managed to not let the people in the golf course panic because of a lost alligator. Kudos to them! 

Image credit: USA Today

Munich-based company Spark To Go has developed a way to easily create sparkling water without wasting a lot of single-use plastic bottles because you keep buying them at a supermarket. Not to mention this one is a portable device too!

The portable sparkling water maker of the same name as the company was designed with  an integrated carbonation system. All you need to do is to press a button and the Spark To Go will do the magic for you! Check the full product listing and details here.

Image credit: Spark To Go 

Here's a tale that will convince you that all your possessions need to be tied down, even if you live far from civilization. A masked bandit thought the object was interesting, so he just took off with it! It was a security camera in use, but that didn't matter at all to this raccoon, criminals that those creatures are. Luckily, the raccoon abandoned his new toy when he realized it didn't taste all that good, and the homeowner was able to retrieve the camera eventually, most likely aided by the video evidence. -via Laughing Squid 

We think of sitting as an activity that isn't active, so how could it ever be a sport? Sitting is something office workers do all day that they know isn't good for them, or a rest and reward for people who stand or movie all day for their job. To Robert Silk, it isn't just sitting that makes it extreme, but where and how you do it. It was an idea that came to him in 1995, but he only developed it in the last few years. The idea is to find an extreme location and sit all day, without electronics or entertainment. Or even a clock. Silk sat in Joshua Tree National Park for 14 and a half hours once. He's sat all day in the desert quite a few times, and even spent the day on a beach in Antarctica in a chair he brought with him on a cruise ship.

As far as competition, it hasn't quite taken off yet, as Silk is the only competitor. But the idea might catch on. Read about Silk's philosophy about sitting and his accomplishments at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Peter Wick)