Believe it or not, there are people who can't wrap their heads around the use of non-medicinal drugs before the 20th century. But it was always so, from mind-expanding hallucinogens for religious rites to painkillers to escape the grinding stress of everyday life. And for some, mood-altering drugs could aid in warfare.

We all know that you stay away from someone who is in a drug-induced frenzy, because they may have lost all sense of self-preservation. That was the story of the berserkers, who were said to be immune to fire and weapons during battle. The more likely story is that they just didn't care, and that terrified their enemies into retreat or submission. It must have been the drugs.  

Nutty History goes through a whole bunch of drugs that were available during the Viking era, which all come with some contraindications for use in warfare. We don't know what they used- it could have easily been a combination. We also don't know how many casualties they had, in drug overdose or battle, in the quest for the formula they wanted. But when it worked, it gave the berserkers a reputation that long outlasted them. -via Boing Boing

Tori Yorgey, a reporter with WSAZ-TV News in Charleston, West Virginia was on the scene, reporting on the effects of a winter storm. The roads were slippery from the snow, as evidenced by the car that slid into Yorgey.

This is her last week on the job, as Yorgey is heading to Pittsburgh to work there. She now has the ultimate end-of-work story. Despite the impact, Yorgey stood up and was reporting on weather conditions within a minute.

I'm also impressed with anchorman Tim Irr, who maintains perfect composure as a colleague is cut down in front of him.

-via Born in Space

🐄 It may be borderline Black-Mirror stuff, but who can argue with udder success? A dairy farmer in Turkey created a bovine metaverse by giving cows VR headsets displaying green pastures. This reduced the cows' anxiety and increased milk production.

🤖 What happens when you let a chatbot talk to another chatbot? Watch the insults fly when it's AI vs AI.

💰 Hulk smash sales: First edition of The Incredible Hulk Comic sold for $490K ... and the Hulk wasn't even green in this edition!

🐀 This rat plays Doom better than me: Here's how a neuroengineer trained rats to play Doom on a custom VR setup.

🎃 Watch this nifty time lapse of a pumpkin growing from a small seed to a giant 1,322 lb behemoth.

📷 Woman took a selfie on top of her sinking car. In her defense, that is primo selfie opportunity, after all, it's not everyday that your car sinks into an icy river. Plus, doesn't the insurance company require photo proof of the incident anyways?

🐻 After humans abandoned the Kolyuchin Island in the Chukchi Sea between Russia and Alaska, polar bears moved into their houses. What squatters!

👂 Lastly, not for the squeamish: man's ear blockage turned out to be a [OH OMG!] (with picture)

Featured art: In a Relationship with My Books by indie artist Edu Ely.

📖 More: Books & Reading inspired tees from the NeatoShop

More neat posts from our growing list of new sites:

• Supa Fluffy for cute pets and animal news
• Laughosaurus for funny stuff
• Pop Culturista for everything pop culture
• Infinite 1UP for fun video games posts
• Spooky Daily for everything Halloween

Thank you for checking 'em out!

Ernest Shackleton led three expeditions to the Antarctic between 1901 and 1917. He survived all of them, but there were many moments when the possibility of death loomed large. And disasters happened. Shackleton set out on his third expedition, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, in 1914. The expedition's ship, the Endurance, became locked in ice for a year before being crushed by it. The crew camped out on the ice, but that also began to break up, so they took the lifeboats and tried to make it to uninhabited Elephant Island, 60 miles away. Once away from the ice, they now had to contend with crashing waves in 20 degrees below zero. And getting to Elephant Island wouldn't be the end of their troubles, as it wasn't near any shipping lanes that might draw a rescue. Read about Shackleton's expedition and their escape from the wrecked Endurance at Atlas Obscura.


(Image source: Library of Congress)

YouTuber Hyperboliumn transcribed the shapes of each of the 50 United States onto a midi graph. You would have never guessed how melodic they sound when played. I think there was some tweaks made here and there to improve the sound. I know Wyoming isn't that irregular along the bottom. If you don't recognize the shape of each state, a clue might help: they are in alphabetical order. However, if you are still stumped, or you just want to find your state, there's an index at the YouTube page. -via Laughing Squid

Actress and beloved icon Betty White would have turned 100 on Monday, if she hadn't died on New Year's Eve. In her honor, New Orleans residents staged one of the first parades through the French Quarter since the pandemic began two years ago. The Betty White Memorial and 100th Birthday Parade was held on Sunday.

The parade was led by Santa Claus, who organized the event (really). There was a brass band, Betty White fans in costume carrying signs, and plenty of pets. Betty White was a lifelong advocate for animal welfare, and the parade raised funds for the Villalobos Rescue Center in her honor. You can bet there was plenty of music. In addition to the usual New Orleans parade marches, the crowd sang "Happy Birthday," "Thank You for Being a Friend," and ended with an emotional rendition of "I'll Fly Away." Read about the parade and see plenty of pictures at Fodor's Travel. -Thanks, Bicycle Bill!

This funny yet straightforward series shows how contradictory modern society can be thanks to consumerism and other factors. The series, titled, “YES, BUT” features two-panel comics that are capable of showing irony, absurdity, and humor through its simple art style. Created by Russian artist Anton Gudim, new illustrations for the series can be seen on his Instagram account. Check more entries from “YES, BUT” below! 

Image credit:  Anton Gudim via Instagram

Some dream to own a small home outside their home country. I’m one of those people. Apparently, it’s possible to buy cheap homes in Japan. You just need time and money to renovate them, though. According to CNN, foreigners can buy property in Japan without a residency status. Vacant houses in the countryside are plentiful, cheap, and sometimes even free. This is thanks to the country’s aging population and the lack of employment opportunities in these areas. Learn more about these homes here! 

Image credit: Dean Irvine

Art enthusiasts, rejoice! Here’s another interactive show for people who live near Miami. Ice Palace Studios, the people behind “Beyond Van Gogh,” the first interactive art show to hit Miami back in April 2021, will now open a new exhibition featuring the famous anonymous street artist Banksy. 

The show, titled “The Art of Banksy: Without Limits,” features more than 155 of the artist’s works, including certified originals, prints, photos, lithographs, sculptures, and murals. According to Kemal Gurkaynak, the show’s founder, the exhibition is “not an exhibition but a show with a philosophy as Banksy loves to provoke, shock and even disturb society.”

Image via the Miami Herald 

This talented street artist creates stunning and hyperrealistic artworks/optical illusions that capture the viewer’s imagination and attention. Danila Shmelev aka Shozy was born and raised in Moscow. Shozy spent four years at the Moscow Institute of Art & Industrial (MHIP), and developed his unique style of street art– hyperrealistic graffiti art. 

The photo above of large hands that seem to tear through plastic foil is part of the artist’s ‘plastic series,’ which originated from his canvas works. The artworks in this series portray canvases wrapped in a protective film that have been torn in various places and are executed in a continuum of dark greys to achieve a plastic effect that trick the viewer’s eyes. Check out more of his amazing art below! 

Image credit: Shozy via Oddity Central

This sounds depressing, but hear me out. If you start thinking about your death, it can help you reverse engineer your life and create a plan. New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller, the man behind this morbid advice, told Inc that "if you start with the end in mind, then you can reverse engineer your life in such a way that you keep putting something on the plot to try to get to that place."

This, according to the writer, is the key to a more meaningful life. Planning your life creates a better story. Writing a eulogy is like willing yourself to live your life a certain way, which leads you to be more intentional about what you do each day. "It's helped me so much in terms of basic practicality, to help me know what my story's about so that I can actually get it done--or, at least die trying," Miller further explained. "The other thing has been even more beneficial. By processing my own death and thinking about it a little every day, it has increased two things: a sense of urgency in my life to get things done. And it's been the number one tool in my life to give me the gift of presence."

Image credit: lilartsy

Turville is a picturesque English village about 35 miles from London. It was there that Ellen Sadler was born in 1859, the youngest of ten children. Ellen was hired out as a nursemaid when she was eleven years old, but a mysterious illness put an end to her employment. The doctor noticed an abscess on her head he called a glandular swelling. Ellen spent four months in the hospital, but was sent home as incurable. She then had a few seizures, laid down to rest, and didn't wake up for nine years.

Naturally, this became village news, and the story spread further. Ellen Sadler put Turville on the map. Scientists, journalists, and the general public wanted to see the sleeping girl, and her parents obliged. The visitors often left small donations, which added a substantial amount to the poor family's earnings. Ellen's mother explained how she fed the girl with a small teapot of port wine and another of milk. As the years went by, some had their suspicions about the girl's condition. The climax of the story came when Ellen's mother died, and she was put into the custody of her older sisters. Within just a few months, Ellen woke up, by then a grown woman, and recovered completely.

There are conditions that can put someone in a coma for years, but no doctor ever had a diagnosis for Ellen Sadler. It seems unlikely that she would have survived, much less recovered completely on the life support her mother described. Read the story of Ellen Sadler at Amusing Planet.

One of the more distinctive features of a house cat is its weird vertical pupils, which don't seem all that weird to us because we are really familiar with cats. Maybe that's why the Pallas' cat seems so strange to us with their round pupils. But pupil shapes vary all along the spectrum of the animal kingdom, and each shape has a purpose for the lifestyle of its owners. In the TED-Ed video, we learn about pupil shapes in a variety of animals, including the extremely weird rectangular pupils of a goat. I was familiar with the shape, but I didn't know goats kept their pupils at the same angle when they moved their heads! And if you think that's weird, wait until they get to praying mantises. -via Laughing Squid

Here's a serious time sink for history nerds, but you don't have to be a history nerd to enjoy it. The Wiki History Game is a free browser game in which you are challenged to place historical events in chronological order. They range from carbon-dated prehistory events to movie premiere dates, but the more of them you get, the harder it is. After you've placed an event, you can turn the card over to get a link to Wikipedia for more information about the event. Win or lose, you are liable to learn something. A few people who've tried it note that 1. you don't have to be good at this game to enjoy it, and 2. you can't get any better at it by playing more. But it is addictive. I once managed to get a string of 15 events before missing one, but I've had a lot of failures, too. 

The game is fairly new. Developer Tom J. Watson asks that any cards that don't make sense be reported to Github. -via Metafilter

🌎 This is a true story about a fake country: A con artist named Gregor MacGregor (yeah, his actual name) sold the dream of moving to a new country named Poyais in South America to hundreds of would be settlers. Problem was, Poyais never existed.

😷 We don't talk about COVID No No No: A parody song and a catchy tune by The Holderness Family.

❤️ Think your blind date is uncomfortable? This Chinese woman met a blind date for a home-cooked dinner, and during the date, the government announced a sudden Covid lockdown. So her dinner date turned into an extended quarantine date for days on end.

🎨 Psst, got $547 million? You can buy this Italian villa with the only Caravaggio painted mural on the ceiling.

🐈 If you think sleeping with cats is tough, try sleeping with cheetahs. Dolph C. Volker did and lived to tell all about it (they're just large kitties!)

🎬 Film writer Kevin L. Lee asked a question on Twitter: "What is the best an actor has ever looked on screen?" He got thousands of replies, and compiled the most popular answers. See if you agree with the actor/actress and movies combo.

🎃 Love Halloween? If you think that every day should be Halloween, then you'll like our new site: Spooky Daily. We're adding new Halloween and horror-related content there regularly all year long. Like this one: A List of the Greatest Horror Comedies.

Featured art: Everybody Thinks I Suck by indie artist Edu Ely.

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