Movie star, fashion icon, and dancer Audrey Hepburn was a young teenager during World War II, when her family lived under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. We know that deprivation during the war helped led to Hepburn's lifelong thin frame, but she told the press almost nothing about what she did for the war effort.

In stories of doomed World War II gallantry, little is as romanticized as Operation Market Garden. A technical failure by the Allied Powers to defeat the Nazis in 1944, this invasion of the Netherlands left British paratroopers stranded around a bridge in Arnhem, far too removed from their tanks to hold the line. Nevertheless, the bravery of those Airborne “Red Devils” has lived on in pop culture, as have the Dutch resistance fighters who sheltered them. What has been largely forgotten is that among those courageous souls was… a teenaged Audrey Hepburn? For about a week, in fact, the future movie star kept a Red Devil hidden in the cellar.

Yes, before she became a Hollywood actress, Audrey Hepburn worked with the Dutch resistance. She was an assistant to a local doctor who ran resistance operations, and was able to hide her activities from the Germans because she was so young. But she never talked about those things, according to Robert Matzen, author of the book Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II. 

Says Matzen, “Her mother and father were pro-German, pro-Nazi supporters up to and through the invasion of the Netherlands. Audrey could never reconcile herself to what her parents represented. It was her darkest secret, really, one that could contaminate the press about her. It could contaminate her career and kill it.”

That knowledge—as well as a lifelong modesty bred into her about never boasting or complaining—caused her to omit those sordid details, as well as stories of her dancing later in private gatherings to raise funds to hide and feed Jewish neighbors as the Holocaust marched on. Both aspects of her youth, her parents’ mistakes and her family’s later resistance, have thus become greatly diminished.

Read about the horrific event that led Hepburn's family to see things differently, and get an overview of what young Audrey did during the war at Den of Geek.

(Image credit: Hmarskiy II) 

Sure, I'll have a gin and tonic -it's medicine, right? Or it was at one time. You don't want to risk suffering from malaria, scurvy, or the plague! Alton Brown explains the history of this particular cocktail, and how to make one. The original footage is from 2013, recently unearthed and finished, which explains why the text gives us corrections every once in a while. -via reddit

At approximately 8.2 feet on an edge, this massive Rubik's Cube is the largest in the world. And it's not a sculpture on display, but playable. This enormous puzzle is located in a mall in Hong Kong, where enterprising players begin solving it at the 1:45 mark. You can watch some of the construction process at the 3:47 mark.

-via Technabob

A couple who visited a Seoul art exhibition accidentally defaced a $450,000 abstract painting. The artwork, called, “Untitled,” was created by JonOne. The young couple thought the expensive painting was an interactive exhibit where they could add their own input to it. So they picked up a paint brush and added a few dark green strokes, not knowing that the artwork wasn’t interactive at all: 

Alarmed by the defacement, the organizers of the Seoul exhibition called the police and reviewed surveillance footage to track down the couple, who said they mistook the setup as an invitation to collaborate. (It was not; the display of paint and brushes was a nod to the artist’s creative process.)

JonOne, who painted the graffiti-style piece, was initially shocked by what he thought was an act of vandalism.

“What is this shit?” he recalled thinking. Then, he told VICE World News, he “realized their misunderstanding by watching the video.”

Born John Andrew Perello, JonOne’s reaction followed a flurry of global media reports about the incident at the exhibition, called Street Noise, that opened in February at a gallery in Lotte World Mall in the Korean capital.

“With just three brush strokes on my canvas, they have managed to cause a planetary buzz?!? There is strength in that,” the artist said in an email.

Image via Vice 

Did you know that you can easily fix toilet failures without calling a plumber? Familiarizing yourself with three parts of a toilet can help you avoid repair costs and make you feel smart (or give you a sense of accomplishment, that’s also a good one). Check out Popular Mechanic’s tutorial on how to upgrade (and how to get to know) your toilet here. 

Image via wikimedia commons 

A gravity clock slowly rolls down an inclined plane. The turning motion powers the clock. To reset it, move it back to the top of the platform. Physics Fun explains:

As the clock rolls down the incline (here 12 hours are captured in time-lapse of 24 seconds), gravitational potential energy is translated into the kinetic energy of the moving clock gear train and oscillating balance wheel. The clock face and mechanism hang suspended with a counterweight that keeps them upright- although you might notice the mechanism of this vintage clock sticks a little at 7 o’clock. The clock unit is also quite heavy, weighing in at 2.7kg (6lbs). After some research I believe this clock was produced in China about 50 years ago. 

-via reddit

Werner Herzog has never used a skateboard, but he agreed to an interview with Ian Michna of the skateboarding magazine Jenkem. Herzog's thoughts on skateboarding delved into philosophy: failure vs. achievement, the sport as an art, and how it should be filmed. This brief but fascinating exchange shows how all worlds intersect when you take a look at what's really going on. -via Metafilter

Pterosaurs have always seemed like an anomaly among ancient reptiles. They were huge- the azhdarchid pterosaur had a wingspan of up to eight meters (26 feet), plus it had a long neck and long beak. How does such a big animal fly and carry prey large enough to feed on?

To learn more about their bones, researchers examined the internal structure of a well-preserved azhdarchid pterosaur vertebra; it was nearly 100 million years old, and had been found in the Kem Kem beds, a fossil-rich region near the border of Morocco and Algeria. Using x-ray computed tomography and 3D modeling, the scientists found the vertebra was filled with dozens of 1-millimeter-thick spikes, called trabeculae, crossing each other like the spokes of a bicycle wheel in cross section, and forming a helix along the bone. The spokes surrounded a central tube where the animal’s spinal cord would have been. “We just could not believe it,” says Cariad Williams, a paleontologist at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who first looked at the scans. “We have never seen anything like it before. … It was really impressive.”

To test whether the spokes provided extra support to the bones, the researchers did some mathematical modeling. They found that as few as 50 trabeculae almost doubled the vertebra’s ability to carry weight, they report today in iScience. The researchers also calculated that the neck of their specimen could lift prey weighing between 9 and 11 kilograms, roughly the size of a large turkey. “It’s a real feat of biological engineering,” Ibrahim says.

Read more about the research at Science magazine. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Mark Witton and Darren Naish)

Justice is served! Jordan Gerbich shot an elephant seal in California with a handgun back in September 28, 2019. Two years later, Gerbich was sentenced to three months in prison, according to prosecutors. The man’s attorney stated that the killing of the poor mammal was so ‘unusual and troubling,’ as NBC News detailed: 

He cited a past history of substance abuse and childhood physical abuse and neglect that left him with a need for approval.

Gerbich shot the seal after an intoxicated friend, "as a kind of grotesque test," demanded he kill an animal, according to that document.

Prosecutors wrote that the killing "did not happen by accident or on a whim," that they drove to a place where they knew elephant seals haul out, and that Gerbich brought a handgun.

Image via NBC News

NASA delayed the first flight of its Ingenuity helicopter after receiving some messed up data from the aircraft. At first, the reason behind the confusing data wasn’t determined, therefore causing the delay. NASA has figured out the source of the error and will be able to fix the issue, but there’s a catch: 

As you can probably imagine, the software that runs an autonomous aircraft built to fly on another planet is, well, pretty complicated. NASA says that it can build the update easily, but sending it to Mars and going through all of the vital checks will take some time.

While the development of the new software change is straightforward, the process of validating it and completing its uplink to Ingenuity will take some time. A detailed timeline for rescheduling the high-speed spin-up test and first flight is still in process. The process of updating Ingenuity’s flight control software will follow established processes for validation with careful and deliberate steps to move the new software through the rover to the base station and then to the helicopter.

The good thing about all of this is that the helicopter has a friend alongside it as it gets its new smarts. The Perseverance rover, which is hanging out in the area where it dropped the chopper off, acts as a base station that will receive the software update and then push that new program to the helicopter itself. It’s a slick little process that NASA believes will work well, and we’ll get to see it in action for the first time.

Image via BGR

PlayStation 4 owners, beware! Some players have discovered that if the console’s battery dies, it will make all games unplayable. Ouch. The  claim  was initially made by media preservation account Does It Play, and YouTuber Hikikomori Media decided to test this claim. The results, sadly, prove the statement to be true: 

In a lengthy video posted to the channel, Hikiko tested out a few of the games that had been purchased digitally on his PS3 console, which has a dead CMOS battery. Hikiko then adjusted the system's internal clock to several years in the future and restarted the console. As he did so, he warned Playstation users, "Your paid content is on borrowed time."

When Hikiko attempted to fire up the same games he had previously started on the system, he could no longer do so. Instead of being able to play Okami, he was greeted with an error that told him, "This content has a time limit."

In addition to Hikikomori Media, Twitter user @Forest_Reviews tested the claim with a slim model PS4. The results were also similar:

Sure enough, after removing the CMOS battery from the PS4 and disconnecting from PSN servers, Forest was unable to play any games. Instead, as can be seen in a photo posted to Forest's Twitter account, he received an error message that read, "Forest Reviews will be logged out of the PS4 because an error has occurred."

Forest explained, "I took out the battery to see if I could replicate the issue and well, It does not play any physical or digital games without connecting online. error CE-30391-6 appears." 

Image via SVG 

Now that’s a power move! Expected to bring in between £3 million and £5 million, Banksy’s new parody painting, Subject to Availability, offers a climate-conscious take on the image. The artwork features a different version of an 1890 oil painting by Albert Bierstadt, depicting Mount Rainier National Park. The artist added an asterisk with the note: “Subject to availability for a limited period only:”

“Banksy’s witty dialogue with the art historical canon brings the painting sharply into the current context of the global climate crisis,” says Katharine Arnold, co-head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s, in an interview with Artnet News. “Ten years on from its creation,” she adds, “the idyllic park it depicts has already been closed to the public since February 2020 due to severe flooding and landslides.”

Subject to Availability is expected to bring in between £3 million and £5 million via Christie’s, though this was also the estimated value of the Monet piece before it was surpassed on the day. Just last month, the artist’s Game Changer — an artwork dedicated to NHS staff — exceeded estimates of £2.5 million to £3.5 million to sell for a staggering £14.4 million (or £16.7 million with fees).

Image via Dazed 

From a human perspective, trap jaw ants are just plain weird. Ze Frank presents them by following an ant named Mildred, a mentally-ill daughter of a dysfunctional family. Of course, that lifestyle is just normal for her species of ant. Her jaws snap so hard that it throws her body backwards, a side effect that these ants have harnessed for survival purposes. We also get a look at other trap jaw ant species and how they differ in strange ways.

Talk about dedication to your craft! The artists at Hungarian animation studio DIGIC Services did a study in which they enlisted the help of quite a few oddly calm and cooperatives cats. They outfitted the cats with sensors and filmed them in motion capture to learn exactly how cats move. This will help in rendering animated cats in a more realistic manner. As impressed as I am with the animators, I am more impressed with these chill kitties. -via Laughing Squid

Peter Waldraff's N gauge scale model railroad diorama is a masterpiece of precision craftsmanship, electrical engineering, furniture making, and creative problem solving. The result of his inventing and labors is a tabletop that converts into a three-season display of a train moving through the mountains.

And Waldraff isn't done yet! He plans to make the device WiFi-enabled so that he can control it from a phone. That will make demonstrations even more amazing.

-via Gizmodo