It is a truth universally acknowledged that all music is improved with the inclusion of bagpipes. Yet, until I heard of it today, I did not know that prudent jazz musicians have adopted the pipes.

This is Gunhild Carling, a performer of many talents. She is most famous for her work with the trumpet (or 3 trumpets simultaneously). In this 2014 performance in New York City, she works her magic with bagpipes. Her actual piping begins at the 1:04 mark.

For another treat, watch Carling playing "Happy" by Pharrell Williams while switching between ten different instruments.

-via Super Punch

Frank L. Koralewsky (1872-1941), a German-born American metalsmith, made this amazing lock that tells the fairy tale of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." It's made of iron, gold, silver, and bronze. The lock won Korwalewsky a gold metal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. It's now the property of the Art Institute of Chicago.

-via Nag on the Lake | Photo: Art Institute of Chicago

The publishers of the Merriam-Webster dictionary have announced that their Word of the Year for 2020 is "pandemic." The word of the year is often determined by how many people look up the word in the online dictionary compared to previous years, which reveals what is significant about the year. They noticed the first big spike for "pandemic" on February 3rd, although lookups had increased earlier in 2020.  

On March 11th, the World Health Organization officially declared “that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic,” and this is the day that pandemic saw the single largest spike in dictionary traffic in 2020, showing an increase of 115,806% over lookups on that day in 2019. What is most striking about this word is that it has remained high in our lookups ever since, staying near the top of our word list for the past ten months—even as searches for other related terms, such as coronavirus and COVID-19, have waned.

The dictionary site also reveals to us the eleven next most-looked-up words of 2020, with context for each, and none of them will surprise you.

Maybe you’re one of those people who easily get cold. Or have you wondered why you always feel cold, even if you aren’t sick, or there’s no A/C  on? It could be that you just easily get cold, or it could also signal a medical issue. Parade lists some possible reasons: 

Usually, feeling cold often isn’t a major reason to worry, but you should still bring it up with your doctor if it persists or seems to come out of nowhere, says Philip Junglas, a primary care physician at the Cleveland Clinic. “After evaluation, I can usually tell most patients the cold, chilly feeling is annoying but not a marker of life-threatening concerns,” he says.

The body’s usual temperature is about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, but it can lower with age. And a number of factors can make you feel cold even if your body temperature is normal, Junglas says.

Women also tend to feel colder than men. That’s because women often have a lower metabolic rate, which means they burn fewer calories at rest and don’t generate as much heat. If you’re prone to feeling chilly most of the time, here are 10 possible reasons why.

Check out the detailed list of possible reasons why you feel cold here. 

image via Parade

Every once in a while, you hear that a ridiculous percentage of internet users are merely algorithms. We design tests to exclude bots from making new accounts, leaving comments, or even consuming content. The bots are then taught to pass the tests. So more complicated tests are designed. It has come to the point that  a human not only has be human to pass these tests, but superhuman! Comedian Stevie Martin illustrates how we all feel competing against algorithms that have more patience, faster reflexes, and better eyesight than we do. In this version, the tests are not only difficult, but judgmental as well. -via reddit

You won’t run out of milk tea if you follow this recipe. At least, you won’t run out until you get tired of drinking milk tea! Tasty’s Alvin Zhou is back with another humongous recipe - this time taking on a lot of people’s favorite drink - boba milk tea. You’ll need 1000 little bobas, 500 tea bags, PVC pipe, and a hotel vase. Wait, what’s the PVC pipe for?! 

At first glance, this map could be the next framed addition to your wall decor. It’s that aesthetically pleasing. However, this map actually shows world population density in 3D. Created by Alasdair Rae of Sheffield, England, a former professor of urban studies who is the founder of Automatic Knowledge, no land is actually shown on the map: 

The higher the spike, the more people live in an area. Where there are no spikes, there are no people (e.g. you can clearly identify ... the Sahara Desert)."

The major world population concentrations are immediately obvious — particularly China, India and Indonesia.

"Yet it is often also possible to pick out even quite small towns and cities, such as those in the south of New Zealand, or northern Russia."

How it works: Rae says that he uses "data from the EU's GHSL dataset, software is Aerialod by @ephtracy and render time for the big image was about 6 hours."

Rae explains that the light-and-shadow effect lets you identify some isolated population centers, including ones in Hawaii and central Australia.

And he reminds us of the old saying: "Where there is water, there is life."

Image via Axios

Rachel did not like taking pictures when she was a kid, and so when it was time for their kindergarten school picture, she clearly did not like what was about to happen. To ensure that she would stay put while her picture is being taken, her mom held her (thus the hand on Rachel’s back).

Image via Awkward Family Photos

Spam brings joy to our hearts, stomachs, and now our ears. The Spamp Man, a mysterious engineer in Liverpool, UK invented several different versions of this musical feast. What does this Spam-canned guitar amplifier do? Spamp Man explains:

SPICE adjusts the gain prior to the distortion stage.

HEAT adjusts the post distortion signal level going on to your amp or following effects.

The SPICE and HEAT controls have a detente at 50% to help with location when you are not looking or it is dark.

CHILLED no distortion, just the warm tone of JFET amplification.

FRIED a subtle application of even harmonics for a warm fuzz.

GRILLED blends in odd harmonics for a meatier, overdrive sound.

It sounds delicious!

-via The Awesomer

Whether in video games or in cartoons (except horror ones), children are usually depicted as cute and adorable. But children in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are not, and this game isn’t even a horror game.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a pretty great-looking game. The decent graphical fidelity is bolstered by solid animations and a fantastic art direction. And in the game, the characters look great. Do they look like characters in The Last of Us Part II? No. Not even close, but they are serviceable by modern AAA standards, or at least the adults are.

Over on Reddit, one user shared the most terrifying thing you'll see on the Internet this week: a collage featuring various children from Assassin's Creed Valhalla. As you can see, they don't look anything like children.

As you may know, this problem isn't exclusive to Assassin's Creed Valhalla. For whatever reason, children have plagued developers for many years. This isn't the first game to boast demonic children, and it won't be the last.

Spooky.

(Image Credit: KrotToppen/ Reddit)

A group of friends in Ventura, California, decided to participate in No Shave November together back in 2013, and they ended it with a themed photoshoot to show off their facial hair. And they did the next year, and every year after.

For 2020, the same guys ended the month as Vikings, which seems only fitting for such a barbaric year. See an enlarged image of all the pictures here.  -via reddit 

The Broomway is the notorious footpath to Foulness Island in Britain. It's narrow, unmarked, surrounded by sea, sticky mud, and quicksand, and sinks under the tide twice a day. Oh yeah, and there may be explosives. So of course, Tom Scott had to walk it to show us what we are missing.

Cats have been known to be the arch-nemesis of Christmas trees. Leave a cat alone in a room with a Christmas tree, and chances are the cat will take down the tree. But not all cats are like that, at least not this cat. This cat from Japan has incredible self-control.

On November 28, Twitter user TomokoDoe, posted this picture of the cat with the Christmas tree. Later that evening, Tomoko posted an update: the Christmas tree was safe.

Awesome.

Via 9GAG

(Image Credit: TomokoDoe/ Twitter)

Here’s why you should take everything you see on TV with a grain of salt. Okay, maybe not everything, but some shows apparently leave people with more problems! A recent Reddit thread by user u/akumamatata8080 asked: "People who’ve been on home renovation shows, how’s the house holding up?" People who have participated in TV home makeovers shared their experiences on the thread. Buzzfeed picks out some of the best responses.

Image via Buzzfeed 

You read it right. Science has figured out the number of hours that you have to spend with another person in order for the two of you to become friends.

Scientists have calculated the number of hours of quality time it takes to progress through each stage of friendship, and it's so precise that you can pretty much set your watch by it. Want to level up an acquaintance to a casual friend? It's going to take between 40 and 60 hours... Double that for a true friendship, the "increasingly elaborate insults toward your freshly minted ex" kind.

Unfortunately, you've gotta act fast. Most friendships develop within three to nine weeks of meeting,..

And that’s not all. What you do and what you talk about with that other person also matters. But no worries, Cracked.com has got you covered. Learn more about how to make friends over at the site.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)