Watching classic Star Trek is...soothing. That's what I'll call it. Pop in the DVD and watch an episode of The Next Generation that you've already seen half a dozen times in the past thirty years. It's like an old friend. So this is a fitting mashup with Gary Portnoy's song "Where Everybody Knows Your Name," which served as the opening theme to Cheers.

Commenters on YouTube remind us of a connection between Star Trek and Cheers: the Deep Space Nine barfly character Morn was inspired by the Cheers character Norm. Norm, though, was less annoying because unlike his Star Trek counterpart, he wouldn't talk all of the time.

-via Kurositas

When I was a kid, my grandmother wore her hair in tight curls with bluing, cat-eye glasses, and stockings rolled to her knees. And dentures. I thought she was ancient, but she was younger then than I am now. It's not your imagination- people did indeed look older in those days. The easiest way to see the effect is in TV shows. You can watch an old episode of All in the Family and assume that Archie Bunker was in his 60s, but actor Carroll O'Conner was in his 40s when portraying him. In the 1984 movie Cocoon, Wilford Brimley played a character in a retirement home, but he was only 49. YouTuber TV Guess-O-Matic goes over some of the main reasons people used to look older. The comparison of Lucille Ball and Jennifer Anniston seems a bit of a stretch, because if you swap the hairstyles, the difference in appearance just disappears. It's the same with The Golden Girls, because their hairstyles made them look much older than they were (and Estelle Getty required plenty of makeup to look old). -via Laughing Squid 

Roger Williams was a very accomplished man. He was a Puritan clergyman who emigrated from England in 1631 to what is now Massachusetts. But his strange ideas about religious freedom and the separation of church and state, not to mention his belief in the humanity of Native Americans, got him kicked out, so he founded both Rhode Island and the First Baptist Church. 

Williams died in 1683 and was buried on his own property in Providence, next to his wife, who had died a few years before. In 1860 when the graves of Roger Williams and his wife were dug up in preparation for a monument to be erected, a very peculiar situation was found. There were no remains of the couple found except for a braid of Mrs. Williams' hair (and a few teeth, according to Wikipedia). What was found was an apple tree root. The tree had been planted many years after Williams' death, and the root had grown through the grave. The root was found to have taken a shape as if it had grown around a human skeleton, even though there were no bones. That root was preserved, and can still be seen today. Read about the tree that ate Williams at American Strangeness. -via Strange Company 

(Image credit: Rhododendrites) 

(Beetle Moses)

Alone, these items are ordinary purchases. But when they are selected on a single trip to the store, it's reasonable if not also advisable to be suspicious.

Honestly, I don't know why it's even legal to own or pruchase a copy of Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kitties. There's a reason why it polls so badly on Rotten Tomatoes. It's just too dangerous to have around, especially where kids can get at it.

Redditor /u/eugendied crafts mostly quilts and other creative fabric arts, but what drew my attention from her body of work was this strikingly realistic and beautiful bench that looks just like a stick of butter. As one commenter says, "I can't believe it's not butter!"

The form is actually a precisely cut and shaped wooden box. /u/eugenedied then used Canva and Photoshop to create the lettering design, which she then cut out of vinyl with a Cricut.

This table was a fitting gift for a friend who is a food scientist at Land O'Lakes.

I've read that cat food manufacturers struggle with having to walk a fine line between making cat food smelly enough to attract our feline pets, but not smelly enough to make their owners sick when opening the can. Cats love smelly foods, and what's stinkier than surströmming, the Swedish fermented fish famous for its strong smell? Viral internet videos make it clear that just opening the can can make humans lose their lunch. Etiquette requires you open a can of surströmming outside. 

This guy asked his cat Pusic (previously at Neatorama), who we have called Russia's most pampered cat, and his year-old sister Mila if they would like some surströmming. The two cats are curious, bordering on excited, but will they eat it? The average house cat naturally loves fish, but fermented fish in a can is something outside their wheelhouse. Too bad we don't get to see the human's reaction. 

What do you know about Vincent van Gogh? Most people would say he painted The Starry Night and cut off his own ear. The artist was a complicated man who suffered from mental illness and died at age 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1890. Ever since then, people have been trying to untangle what was wrong with Van Gogh. 

In addition to a very unhealthy lifestyle, Van Gogh had pica, an unnatural compulsion to consume things that are not food. He ate paint, particularly the yellow paint he used so much, plus the paint thinner turpentine. These dangerous substances can cause brain damage, but no one knows for sure whether the cravings were his primary problem, or just another in a pantheon of mental illnesses. Van Gogh himself didn't know why he ate paint. One theory is that he had a biochemical craving for terpenes, the chemicals that give plants their distinctive aromas. Read about pica, terpenes, and Van Gogh's obsession that may have led to his death at Big Think. -via Metafilter 

(Image credit: Vincent van Gogh/GoldenArtists) 
   

We recently showed you a robot soccer game in which small humanoid robots competed (poorly) using artificial intelligence. In this robot kickboxing tournament held in China, the action is much more exciting. These are Unitree G1 EDU model robots, which can be operated by a remote control, by voice commands, or by motion sensing. In these fights, they are using remote controls. The robots are quicker and better balanced than the AI robots playing soccer- and a little taller, although not yet human sized. Most impressively, they also have the ability to get back up when they are knocked down (cue "Tubthumping"). They even show a little personality in their fighting style, which might be hard to replicate in AI. In this video, their main vulnerability seems to be a tendency to get lost when they aren't facing the right direction. Read more about robot kickboxing at Cnet. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

A photographer from the Atelier d'Ora in Vienna took the photo above in December of 1916, on the occasion of the coronation of Karl I, Emperor of Austria, as the King of Hungary. It was a grand affair, as we can see by the sumptuous finery worn by the ladies. But it seems strange that the photographer would take portraits of a pair of shoes! Three such photos exist, focusing tight upon the footwear that appears to be made of silk brocade laced with satin ribbons, and the rich lace petticoat adorned with fabric flowers. And all that would scarcely be seen at all under the fur-trimmed gown worn over top. 

The images were labeled as those of Countess Erdödy. There were three Countess Erdödys at the coronation. There was Countess Johanna "Jenny" Margareta Margit Maria Gobertina Erdödy and her sister, Countess Franziska Violet Maria Gobertina Erdödy, and their mother, Countess Erdödy, the American Julia Hanby Scott who married Count Gyorgy Maria Gobert Erdödy de Monyorókerék et Monoszló. We have portraits of the two younger countesses at the coronation, and they are not wearing fur-trimmed gowns. So this must be the feet of their mother.  

Read what we know about these "shoe portraits" at Gods and Foolish Grandeur. In the comments we learn about the photographers of Atelier d'Ora, although we don't know which one was so fascinated with the countess's shoes and took these pictures. -via Everlasting Blort 

Women secured the right to vote in the United Kingdom is 1918 after an activist movement overcame popular and political opposition. Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, the occupant of Number 10 from 1908 to 1916, was an opponent of the movement. Feminist leader Emmaline Pankhurst was ultimately victorious in a February 1918 act which extended the franchise to men over 21 and women over 30.

Pank-a-Squith was a pro-suffrage board game published in 1909 in which players acted as Panks (Pankhurst) to overcome the resistance of Squiths (Asquith). Hanson's Auctioneers sold the copy photographed above. You can download and print out your own copy here courtesy of Johns Hopkins University Libraries.

-via Women's Art

Alcohol is the most familiar and widespread drug we have. People have been consuming alcohol for thousands of years for many reasons. In small amounts, it makes you feel good, acts as a social lubricant, and can make you forget your miseries for a while. People are willing to commit crimes to get alcohol, as Prohibition taught us. But what does alcohol do to our bodies?

We know the dangers of operating heavy machinery while drunk. That wasn't a problem until we developed heavy machinery, like cars. We also know what chronic alcoholism does to families. And heavy drinking or long-term drinking will cause liver failure. But that's just one organ. Alcohol affects every organ in your body, including the brain. At some point, that damage can become permanent and even deadly. And that's before we even get to alcohol's addicting qualities. Kurzgesagt goes through all the things that alcohol does, and it's rather scary. 

What do you get when you combine dodgeball with Asteroids? Or maybe it would be more descriptive to compare this game with "bullet time" in the Matrix movies. Anyway, in Dodge This, you (the green ball) have to avoid being hit by red bullets. The bullets are traveling fairly slowly for bullets, but they are coming from all directions. Whoever is shooting at you is not particularly well-aimed, either. You could survive a half-minute or so by not moving at all. But once you are hit, the game is over. The scoring system can easily confuse people who aren't paying close attention, because when it says you are "top 94%," that's actually really bad. 

From what I've heard, this is much harder on a touch screen than for those of us with a mouse. My advice is to stay away from the edges, because you never know where gunfire will originate. Ultimately, your score depends on how long you survive. Therefore, your maximum score depends on when you are obliged to stop and do something important. -via Metafilter 

If you've been following Neatorama for any length of time, you are surely familiar with artist Theo Jansen's enormous Strandbeest wind-powered kinetic sculptures. Every time I see one, I always feel sorry for the way he has to chase them down when the wind is blowing and they are walking fast. Yeah, their legs are way longer than his! But now he's got that problem worked out. Not only can he keep his creations on a leash, but he doesn't even have to run to keep up with him. The solution is a chair Jansen calls the Caterpillar. It glides smoothly across the sand on rolling, uh, "wheels" that resemble tank treads. And it's powered by the much bigger Strandbeest that is pulling it along. 

Jansen says the Caterpillar device will eventually find itself incorporated into a Strandbeest. That sounds pretty neat, but I don't think it would be nearly as cool to watch as seeing his previous works of art walking down the beach on their many legs. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

Dennis "Tink" Bell was a scientist who served in the British Antarctic Survey. The Guardian reports that in 1959, he fell into a crevasse on King George Island, which is just north of the Antarctic Peninsula, during a mission. His companions were unable to pull him out and he died.

In January, shifting ice exposed Bell's well-preserved body, which was found by Polish explorers. DNA testing compared those remains with surviving siblings and confirmed the identity of the body.

The Antarctic Monument, an organization that honors British explorers who died exploring the Antarctic, notes that Bell was noted for his great sense of humor. He's the man on the left in the photo engaging in playful tomfoolery to the amusement of his colleagues.

-via Glenn Reynolds

Katia Lekarski loves to attend weddings, but doesn't get invited to as many as she'd like. Figuring that there are other people like her, she created the app Invitin. This app allows people to invite strangers on the internet to attend their weddings in exchange for ticketing fees. The Guardian explains that couples can sell these tickets to defray the costs of their special events.

There is a screening process. Guests must abide by a dress code and event organizers can vet them by their profiles prior to approval. But it is otherwise a straightforward process to attending a wedding.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: outreachr on Wikimedia Commons