Two linguists in Australia studied a database of words used in written communication on the internet to see where all this vulgar language comes from. In other news, the words you write end up on a database called the Global Web-Based English Corpus (GloWbE). They ranked twenty English-speaking nations to see who uses the most vulgarities online, including misspellings designed to get past filters. The research paper published in the journal Lingua included terms defined as "blasphemy, curses, ethnic-racial slurs, insults, name-calling, obscenity, profanity, scatology, slang, swearing, tabooed words, offense, impoliteness, verbal aggression, and more."

The top nation for swearing is the United States. That's not because there are so many internet users in the US, because the study analyzed frequency, meaning Americans use the highest percentage of swear words in the total amount of words written. The UK came in second, with Australia in third place. Of the Aussies' third place ranking, the lead author said, "Some may find it disappointing," but surmises it may be that Australians are likely to filter themselves in writing, but not so much in face-to-face discourse. Read more on the rankings at Popular Science. -via Fark

(Image credit: Anna Frodesiak)

Some years ago, I was talking about my cat and said he liked to make biscuits on my lap, and my brother said he'd never heard that term before, but he instantly knew what it meant without an explanation. He has cats, too. If you aren't familiar with the term, there are plenty of cats in this video who will illustrate it. If you need no explanation, you'll still enjoy the cats. Spoiler: it's also called kneading.

While those cats are making biscuits, Dr. Sarah Wooten fills us in on the reasons for this behavior. Surprise- it's not just one reason. Cat make biscuits, of course, because it feels good to them. But kneading also serves their needs in several ways. Whatever gets their human to swoon over how cute they are goes a long way toward ensuring a cat's future as the ruler of the home. -via Laughing Squid

Scientists have found fossil remains of quite a few human species, with the caveat that "species" is still not quite defined. How different from modern humans does a hominid have to be to get a different species designation? A type of human fossil found in Israel 100 years ago is called Homo sapiens, but these people were different from modern humans in several ways. They used tools, wore jewelry, and buried their dead in graveyards. They may have traded with other communities. But anatomically, they seemed to be a transitional species or a missing link between modern humans and earlier species. Were they an ancestor of Homo sapiens in the evolutionary tree? No, because they arose and died out long after Homo sapiens was already flourishing elsewhere. They were more like a cousin to modern humans. Some now call them an archaic version of humans.

Later, these archaic Homo sapiens were found in far-flung parts of Africa, but the remains still dated to after the debut of modern humans. Research on these archaic humans highlights how many holes there are in the fossil record when it comes to the human family tree. Read about the skulls of archaic Homo sapiens at Aeon.  -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Wapondaponda)

Ryan George titled this video "If Red Carpet Interviews Were Honest," but I feel it's a distillation of the different facets of the business of celebrities. One pseudo-celebrity is interviewing other celebs as they march into an awards show in a carefully choreographed way designed to fill the airwaves with hours of chitchat. Just slot in the details of whoever is hot right now for the generic patter, and you've got a set of Mad Libs going. Why are you here? To promote my new project or else to remind everyone I exist. Who are you wearing? That's both a required question and a required answer because it's an ad for whoever is providing the clothing. Next time you are tempted to actually watch a live red carpet event (if that ever happens), you'll have to laugh at how generic they really are, and how much acting goes into them.

"After we're done with this show, you should probably go."

I agree with Julia Dunn, colleague of reporter Olivia Jacquith, whose water broke at about 4:15 AM, right before the CBS 6 News Albany's morning broadcast began at 5 AM. Jacquith's baby was two days overdue, but he would have to wait until the show concluded before the mother left for the hospital. It's worth noting that staying was Jacquith's decision, not the station's.

Jacquith and her baby boy, who is named Quincy, are doing well. You can see photos of them at the news site of Jacquith's own employer.

-via Dave Barry

On May 18th, 1927, a series of bombings took place in Bath Township, Michigan. Before the day was over, 45 people were dead, including several school administrators, two teachers, and 38 children in grades two through six. A bombing blew up several buildings on a farm, where Nellie Kehoe was found dead. At almost exactly the same time, an explosion in the basement at Bath Consolidated School brought down the school's north wing. Soon after, a truck exploded, killing five more people, including a second grader and the man who planted the explosives, Andrew Kehoe.

Kehoe had spent months planning the massacre, buying explosives a little at a time until he had enough. During the investigation, another 500 pounds of explosives were found in the south wing of the school. If they had exploded, the death toll could have doubled. Read what led up to Kehoe's murderous plan and how he carried out the Bath School Massacre at Danny Dutch. -via Strange Company

McCallie School is a private boarding school for boys in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Several years ago, the school asked sixth graders to propose questions that they would answer when they were ready to graduate.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that the young boys asked their future iterations about their life preferences and future plans. Last week, the school videographer assembled them and gave the young men the opportunity to answer those questions.

Even though the video was intended for use by the school, it's gone viral. Perhaps many of us would like to connect with who we were in the past and who we could become in the future.

-via Colin Rugg

SLAW DOG WITH COMEBACK VICTORY pic.twitter.com/rQ1AHWTImN

— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) May 23, 2025

KTLA 5 News reports that all 6 of Oscar Mayer's Wienermobiles gathered at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway--the home of the Indy 500--to determine which Wienermobile is the fastest. The competitors at the Wienie 500 each represent different regions of the United States--the only nation capable of producing so spectacular a sport.

Slaw Dog, the Wienermobile that represents us here in the Southeast, prevailed in the final yards of the the last lap of the race.

Yesterday, Kermit the Frog delivered the commencement address to graduating students at the University of Maryland. Inside Higher Ed reports that Kermit passed on what he has learned over the 70 years of his life. The University of Maryland selected Kermit to honor the late alumnus Jim Henson, who graduated from that school with a degree in economics.

I notice that Kermit is wearing academic regalia that includes a doctoral hood. I'm having trouble interpreting the colors, although Insider Higher Ed notes that the frog does hold an honorary doctorate in amphibious letters awarded by Southampton College in 1996.

-via David Burge

"Jargon" refers to language that only means something to a specific group of people, such as a workplace. When it has something to do with that work, it functions perfectly well and rarely escapes into family or social life. Still, some phrases that turn out to be particularly useful get adopted into the greater world. Then there's corporate jargon, which has evolved into a whole dictionary of phrases that mean pretty much nothing, but it does pad the conversation out. We are inundated with corporate jargon that is designed to be vague and noncommittal, often as a way to give plausible deniability or else cover the fact that your supervisor just doesn't know what he's talking about. Master a good amount of corporate jargon, and you can talk for hours and still not say anything useful.

Linguist Dr. Erica Brozovsky (previously at Neatorama) explains how this language evolved from regular workplace talk, and why it is so frustrating whether you understand it or not.  -via Geeks are Sexy

Johan Helberg of Trondheim, Norway, was awakened when he heard someone knocking at his door at 5 AM Thursday, but he didn't want to get up to open it. Only when the neighbor outside called his phone did he learn that the bow of a huge container ship was just feet from his front door! The 135-meter (446 feet) NCL Salten had run aground as if it were aiming for Helberg's house.

"It's a very bulky new neighbor but it will soon go away," Helberg said.

No one was injured in the incident and no cargo was spilled, but the ship damaged a heating pipe in Helberg's cabin. Removing the ship has been delayed while an investigation is carried out. The shipping company said that the same ship had run aground twice before, in 2023 and 2024. There is no word yet on what caused the ship to run aground this time, but one might think it's become a habit.  -via Fark

Long ago, people said that cats should never be allowed near babies because they would snatch the baby's breath away. Later on, I heard that cats who appear to be doing that are just investigating a baby's mouth because it smells like milk. That makes sense. Now, after a lot of experience with cats and babies, I realize that cats know what human babies are, and find them attractive the same way people find infants of all species adorable.

Amanda got a tuxedo kitten and named him Sushi. Sushi likes Amanda, but absolutely loves baby Xiomora. Double squee! Sushi learned quickly how to climb into the crib and despite his young age, he became her guardian angel. They spend so much time together that Sushi knew immediately when Xiomora became ill. And even afterward, Amanda knows when Xiomora's diaper needs to be changed, because that's the only time Sushi leaves her side.

When I was a young adult, my dad would always ask if I'd checked my oil lately. I'd been reading a dipstick since I was too young to drive, along with other car maintenance tasks he taught me. But all these years later, I realize I have never looked for a dipstick in my current car. Not only do I get regular oil changes, but the car itself will nag me to get one when odometer reaches the recommended interval. Does it even have a dipstick?

Fewer and fewer new car models come with a dipstick at all. Instead, they have a warning on the screen if your oil level gets low. It's all run by the car's internal computer. Sure, it's a modern convenience, but internal auto computers can have their own problems, and can even stop performing some tasks. Drivers with no dipsticks have encountered problems with ever more complicated systems. Read about the death of the dipstick and what could possibly go wrong at Jalopnik.

(Image credit: Environmental Protection Agency)

We are all familiar with Medusa, the mythological Gorgon with snakes for hair and the ability to turn men to stone just by making eye contact. But how much do you know about her backstory? In ancient Greek mythology, she was a straightforward monster that needed to be killed for the safety of humankind. But in a later retelling by the Roman poet Ovid, Medusa started out as a perfectly normal young woman who was raped and then blamed for it. Her punishment turned her into a monster in more ways than one, first by making her a Gorgon, then by hate, shunning, and the quest to murder her. Ovid's story is tragic, and some might say cautionary, but much richer with the themes of trauma and injustice. In this TED-Ed lesson from historian and archaeologist Laura Aitken-Burt, we get an animated version of Ovid's Medusa story. -via Geeks Are Sexy

It was a great day when tracking animals went from finding them embedded with arrows to putting bands on their legs. Now an even less burdensome method is being tested to track an endangered species.

The Welsh water vole was once found across Wales, but now is limited to a few small populations, making them almost extinct. Studying these creatures is a problem, because they are small, shy, and can be mistaken for rats. Scientists want to track water voles to find their preferred habitats so that efforts can be made to accommodate them. But how to find them? Maybe the answer is glitter.

An experiment was conducted on some Welsh water voles raised in captivity. They were fed edible purple glitter smeared on apples in the hopes that they would produce sparkly poop. Finding glittery poop in the wild would help conservationists determine where the voles have been even when they don't want to be seen. The test was deemed successful when sparkly purple poop appeared. The next step is feeding glitter to wild voles. The real challenge will be to feed voles without feeding other wild species as well. -via Metafiler

(Image credit: Peter Trimming)