This video of uncertain provenance shows an ingenious method to eliminate a rat infestation inside a wall. Just cut a hole through the drywall and feed a snake inside. The panicking rats flee through the hole. Amazingly, the snake, once it has completed the task, slides right out, too. That's helpful, because I wouldn't want to have to put a larger animal, like a honey badger or an eagle, into the wall to get rid of the snake.
-via Dave Barry
How many times has something happened that made national news, and someone said "Simpsons did it!" immediately? It's uncanny how The Simpsons made so many gags that ended up happening in the real world years later. Were the writers so in tune with trends that they could predict the future? Is it all coincidence? Is this phenomenon an illusion of our perception? Or are they time travelers? Maybe our world is turning into a sitcom! Buzzfeed Unsolved goes through these theories, and then takes a look at what's really happening. -via Digg
ive just been informed that round hot dog burgers exist and i am LOSING IT pic.twitter.com/mQHXZO6nEv
— maria yagoda (@mariayagoda) June 15, 2021
Have you ever bought the wrong buns and then wished that you could make hot dogs fit on the hamburger buns you bought by mistake? This product wouldn't help with that, since it's mail order, but you get the idea. And calling it a round hot dog is a little confusing, because hot dogs are already round. This is more of a flat hot dog. Rastelli's sells their round hot dogs at eight for $18 plus shipping. But wait- isn't a round hot dog the same as a slice of boloney?
Listen. There are key differences between round dogs and thick-cut slabs of bologna. While hot dogs and bologna are often made of the same stuff, squished into different forms (and different types of casing), there can be more qualities that differentiate them besides their shape. I spoke to a Rastelli's spokesperson who refuted claims that their round dogs are just "thicc bologna," as one tweeter put it to me.
In a patented process, Rastelli's chops black angus beef and premium pork, rather than fully emulsifying or liquifying the mixture like what's done for many traditional bolognas. "We then wrap our meat mixture in a collagen casing, followed by a netting to help hold shape," a spokesperson told me. "The product is then smoked, similar to an Old World-style hot dog, with a proprietary blend of woods, such as chicory, and later finished in the oven. Before slicing into rounds, we remove the casing." They remove the casing so the meat becomes more permeable, allowing the flavor of the condiments to "really sink into the round dog," and to help reduce the chances of choking.
This still sounds like baloney, just high-quality baloney. Anyway, Food & Wine gave it a try, and posted a good review of the results. The argument about whether round dogs are baloney will continue, as will the argument over whether a hot dog is a sandwich. Either way, it appears that a round hot dog is a sandwich. -via Metafilter
Every author has at least one awkward story of getting asked to perform an authorly duty at an opportune time.
— Jarrett J. Krosoczka (@StudioJJK) June 29, 2021
This is mine: pic.twitter.com/siQsSbn7Ik
Jarrett J. Krosoczka is a children's book author and illustrator. He's most famous for his Lunch Lady series. Perhaps he's a bit too famous, as he learned when he went to a funeral home to pick up the cremated remains of his late mother. Krosoczka tells the story and tells it masterfully. Be sure to stay for the punchline.
-via Aaron Starmer
It's one thing to collect a particular kind of pottery, but quite another when those pottery pieces were manufactured by one's own ancestors. Tony Patterson's brother discovered that their great-great-grandfather made pottery in the north of England. In fact, there were quite a few Pattersons involved in the business in the 18th and 19th centuries. But those pottery pieces were hard to find and/or hard to identify. They weren't mentioned in Geoffrey A. Godden's An Illustrated Encyclopedia of British Pottery and Porcelain, so the family pottery must have been a cottage industry. Or was it? Further research revealed that the Pattersons had rather large pottery manufacturing operations.
For a while, there were plenty of “capital clay pits” to keep the Gateshead area potteries supplied with the raw materials needed for their exports to Norway and customers in the British Isles. Eventually, though, business was good enough for the extended Patterson family that clay had to be brought in from Cornwall, which had been supplying Staffordshire potteries with white clay for porcelain since the end of the 18th century. “In the course of my research,” Patterson says, “I found a bill for clay that was transported from Cornwall up to Gateshead.” A second piece of evidence indicating the size of the Gateshead ceramics industry was a newspaper advertisement placed by George Patterson, in which he expressed his interest in purchasing 200 tons of clay to keep the 60 men, 26 women, 32 boys, and 15 girls working at his earthenware pottery on Sheriff Hill productively occupied.
The potteries in and around Gateshead, then, represented far more than a minor cottage industry. Geography aside, how could the Geoffrey Goddens of the ceramics world have missed them? In the end, it may have been nothing more than a routine case of ingrown conventional wisdom. “I wrote Godden when I was beginning my research,” Patterson says. In his book, Patterson describes Godden’s response as “far from enthusiastic.” “It motivated me to prove him wrong,” Patterson says. “Perhaps if he’d let me down in a gentler fashion, I might not have proceeded.”
Tony Patterson wrote his own book, 19th Century Patterson Potters and Pottery, to chronicle his family's surprisingly prominent place in England's pottery manufacturing history. Read how all that came about at Collectors Weekly.
These are not like the ordinary dolls that you will find in a toy store. No. These are much much more superior.
Thanks to their ball and socket joints, these dolls, made by artist Anastasia, enjoy greater mobility. And thanks to the artist sculpting them with great care, you could mistake them for real people at first glance.
Even the hands of these dolls have been sculpted in such a way that they can be posed in a variety of different positions that seems completely natural for the figure. Many of Anastasia's clients have imaginative photoshoots with their purchases, dressing them up with custom clothing and styling their hair into different coiffures.
The exquisite creations are available to purchase via Eslyn's Dolls Etsy shop. You can view her full portfolio by following the artist on Instagram.
Breathtaking.
(Image Credit: My Modern Met)
This might just be the most valuable non-fungible token (NFT) to be sold to this day.
On June 23, Tim Berners-Lee's source code for the World Wide Web went up for auction as an NFT, and people were quick to bid for the digital object. The bidding had reached $2.8 million just two days after the code went up for sale.
"Ten years ago, we wouldn't have been able to do this," said Cassandra Hatton, vice-president at Sotheby's, referring to the recent boom in NFTs.
Hatton said this work is unique because of its importance for the creation of the World Wide Web.
"That changed every aspect of your life," Hatton said. "We don't even fully comprehend the impact that it has on our lives, and the impact that we will continue to have on our lives."
The most expensive NFT to be sold as of this moment is Beeple’s collage, which was sold for $69.3 million. Will the source code be sold at a higher price once the bidding ends in August? Only time will tell.
(Image Credit: TechXplore)
Top Trumps USA Inc., a company based in the UK, has secured from Hasbro the global license to create a Worcester edition of the iconic board game Monopoly. Thirty-four places in the said city will be featured in this edition.
Scot Bove, the owner of Ralph’s Tavern, wanted to be featured in the upcoming edition, but how will he get people to vote for his place? His friend, Eric, suddenly came up to him and pitched to him his idea: an event where patrons can pay using Monopoly money.
Ralph’s Tavern [invited] guests to use Monopoly money between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on June 23…
… $5 in Monopoly money for admission, $10 for a hot dog, $20 for Jell-O “shots,” and $50 for a raffle entry.
“We can’t give any alcohol away, so all the Jell-O shots will be alcohol-free,” Bove said. “Any alcohol needs to be paid with regular U.S. currency.”
I hope their effort paid off. It would be a shame if it didn’t.
(Image Credit: John Morgan/ Wikimedia Commons)
Whoever designed the kitchen of this house clearly did not think of convenience and only prioritized how to save space.
A man named Josh shared this frustrating kitchen design on TikTok, and demonstrated how the puzzle works. In order for him to open the dishwasher, he must first open the oven. And in order for him to open the drawer between the two, he must first open the oven, and then the dishwasher, in that order.
If that doesn’t frustrate you, I don’t know what will.
Via Mirror
(Image Credit: Josh Morin/ TikTok)
Photo-editing software programs like Photoshop are usually used to create posters or banners composed of photos and text. But these programs are not just for professional use, as they can also be used for fun. And creating funny photos can be a great pastime once you get the hang of it.
I have to say, though: this uncle had too much time on his hands when he created this one.
IG user @al.heng submitted this image over at Awkward Family Photos, and this is what she had to say:
“Uncle Steve was having fun with photo editing and sent these out to our family. I’m in the pot on the back burner on the right. And please note the detached arms flailing in the rear pot.”
Thankfully, this man did not take this photo seriously and did not make it realistic.
Image via Awkward Family Photos
What is this crowd chanting? TikToker Kegan Stiles gives us nine options; which do you hear? What's really weird is that you can read down the list while listening to the audio, and it sounds like every one of them... except there are nine options, and only eight lines to the chant. When you hear the line you are reading, it's an example of the McGurk Effect. Once you've decided what you are hearing, you can go to the original video to find out what they are really saying. There is a parental warning for explicit lyrics on that one, although I don't understand why. This audio clip illustrates how we often hear what we are primed to hear. -via Boing Boing
Every parent is concerned about their kids getting proper nutrition. Vegetables are packed with nutrients, but how can they possibly compete for your child's palate when the competition is breakfast cereals, chicken nuggets, and chips? Food scientists have tackled this problem in many ways, and one experiment may be promising.
Researchers have come up with a new way of getting kids to follow a healthy diet: putting more vegetables on their plate.
Larger portions of veggies resulted in kids chomping down 68 percent more of them on average (an extra 21 grams, or 0.74 ounces per day), in a 4-week experiment involving 67 children aged from 3 to 5.
The research team used broccoli and corn as their test vegetables, doubling the amount served – from 60 grams to 120 grams – to see how this would change the eating behavior of the children.
Of course, there's more involved, including what other foods are served and the proportions on the plate. You can read more about this experiment at Science Alert. In my opinion, anyone will eat vegetables if you sauté them with onions, garlic, and spices, but that's setting them up to never eat vegetables from a school cafeteria. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Angela Sevin)
Brazilian musician Johnatha Bastos was born with limited arms, but that doesn't limit his musical ability. He can masterfully play a guitar with just his feet. In this video, he takes on the iconic Guns N' Roses song "Sweet Child O' Mine."
-via The Awesomer
In July 2016, David Cameron announced his resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and stated that Theresa May will be the one to replace him. Before heading into 10 Downing Street, however, Cameron hummed a rather strange tune before completely disappearing from the camera.
The music is still unidentified to this day, but Thomas Hewitt Jones used Cameron’s tune (now known as Cameron's Lament) to create this dramatic track called “Fantasy on David Cameron”.
Sounds like something you would hear from a documentary film.
Well, what do you think?
(Image Credit: thomashewittjones/ YouTube)
Powdered or glazed, dog nuts are probably one of the most delicious treats out there, along with ice cream (just ignore the calories). It doesn’t matter if it’s cinnamon or chocolate, jelly or cream-filled; a dog nut would still be good to eat, and even better if served with either coffee or milk.
If you don’t know where to eat good dog nuts, try going to Krispy Kreme, Tim Hortons, or Dunkin’.
Check out these people who tweeted about their love for dog nuts over at Sad and Useless.
(Image Credit: Sad and Useless)
