even gator love laser pointer đ„ș pic.twitter.com/QmgtBl5LAM
â Gators Daily đ (@GatorsDaily) September 3, 2020
We love to watch cats, dogs, and even penguins chase a laser pointer light, but who knew that even the reptilian mind of an alligator would find it so attractive? No wonder they call 'gators "swamp kittens." -via Boing Boing
Elisha Perkins was a physician in Plainfield, Connecticut, around the time of the American Revolution. Having patients who suffered so much pain from maladies there was no treatment for, he experimented with the properties of metals, thinking they could influence nerves and muscles from outside the body. In 1796, he patented metallic tractors, which were pretty much just a couple of nails. Â
Perkinsâ metallic tractors consisted of two instruments 3-inches in length. The tractors were described as âhalf rounded on one side, while the other was flat and usually had the name âPerkins Patent Tractorsâ stamped upon it; they were rounded at one end and drawn out into a sharp point at the other, and resembled a horseshoe nail in appearance.â[4] Although Perkins claimed the tractors were created from unusual metal alloys, one tractor was steel and the other brass. They could be applied to a patientâs head, face, feet, breast, side, stomach, and back to âdraw off the noxious electrical fluid that lay at the root of suffering.â[5] Perkins accomplished this by drawing the points over the affected parts of a person in a downward direction for about twenty minutes.
What was stunning was the success he had with the tractors. Patients experienced relief from pain, and the instruments sold like hotcakes for $25 a set- an enormous sum at the time. An institution was even founded in Perkins' name. But it didn't last forever. Read the tale of the metallic tractors at Geri Walton's blog. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Wellcome Images)
People who live in the Netherlands aren't all the same, but if you average their heights, they are the tallest nation on earth, with men averaging 5'11.85" and women averaging 5'6.42". It's not that tall people settled in that area, nor is it completely genetic (although natural selection may factor in just a bit). It's certainly not the wooden shoes. Â
A land of giants, the Netherlands is the loftiest nation on Earth: the average height of a Dutch man is 182.5cm; a Dutch woman 168.7cm. By comparison their American counterparts measure 177.1cm and 163.5cm respectively. It wasnât always this way. A review of Dutch military records for a study published by the Royal Society of London found that in the mid-1800s, men in the Netherlands were actually among the shortest people in Europe.
âIn 1860, Dutch military men were about 165cm tall,â said Professor Louise Barrett of the University of Lethbridge, Canada, who was part of the study. âAt that time men in the US were around 5cm taller.â This, added Barrett, made Americans the worldâs tallest people.
Since then, however, there has been a remarkable role reversal: in just 160 years, Dutch men have shot up by 20cm, soaring past their American counterparts, who have grown just 6cm.
As you might guess, there are several factors that play a role in Dutch height, one which has to do with their engineering of the sea level. Read how the Dutch grew over a couple hundred years at BBC Travel. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: esberat)
This little cutie got into a jar of strawberry jam and ate so much, he had to lie down and take a nap. My guess is that his punishment will be a bath. He's probably too young to know that people will be upset when their food is stolen, but other pets know they have to sneak around to do it. The cat below stole the corn muffins leftover from dinner.
(Image credit: hazeleyedsummer)
Look at that smile! He's either quite pleased with his loot, or else he's trying to look too cute for the humans to be mad about it. It most likely worked. See 46 cats and dogs caught in the act of stealing food at Bored Panda.
You recall the hilarious and beloved 1970s show Taxi? Of course you do, with stars like Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, and Peter Boyle? That show really opened doors for those young unknowns of the time. This mashup is from kingkida, who brought us The Mandalorian as a Spaghetti Western. -via Laughing Squid
Itâs the well-known brick phone! The Nokia 3310 is loved by a lot of [not-so young] people for its sturdy casing, the right shade of midnight blue, the long-lasting battery (did you know it can last at least a week without a recharge?), and the god-tier game, Snake II. Thereâs a sense of nostalgia, with the memories of the past associated with the classic gadget. Youâll see new thinkpieces singing praises of the 3310, as Wired details:
That explains the enduring nostalgia it invokes. Every year or two someone writes a new commemoration, anniversary or no. In 2018 a company called HMD Global even resurrected the 3310, in a fashion, turning out a feature phone that recalls the iconic design while adding contemporary touchesâa basic web browser, a low-end cameraâto help it function in todayâs world.
That reinvention feels in some ways misplaced. If you miss the Nokia 3310, itâs not with the caveat that you wish you could log onto Facebook from it. You miss it because it reminds you of a time when Facebook didnât exist. The internet has always been bad in parts, but in the 3310 era it was at least something you could reasonably ignore for long stretches of time. The 3310 couldnât do much because there simply wasnât much to do: no tweets to send, no News Feeds to refresh, no photo filters to swipe through. Your phone was primarily a phone, not a purposefully addictive portal into infinite knowledge and existential weight.
Image via Wired
Celebrities are trying their best to push new projects during the quarantine. No one is pushing people to be extremely productive and come up with new inventions or creative work, but thereâs also no harm in trying out new things. Channing Tatum has written a childrenâs book set to be published next year. The One and Only Sparkella is a picture book described as âa charming ode to self-esteem and the love between a father and daughter,â as Uproxx details:
It details a little girl named Ella attending school for the first time, which doesnât start off so well, partly because of her sparkle-heavy couture. âBut with a little help from her dad,â the description reads, âshe soon learns the importance of just being herself, no matter what other people say.â
On Instagram, Tatum described the genesis of the book, his first. No surprise that itâs the product of spending a lot of time hunkering down with his own young daughter. âGuys, I donât know about you but things got a little weird for me in quarantine,â Tatum wrote. âI ended up accidentally locking myself in my 7 year old daughterâs room. And I ended up finding my inner child. So this is what I created for my little girl. From what is, I guess, the little girl in me. Thanks for reading.â
Image via Uproxx
There are a lot of expectations when it comes to womenâs appearance. Theyâre expected to wear makeup, and be skinny and curvy in the right places. These expectations are being broken down and society is slowly becoming more inclusive. The dominant trends that we see forced on women are influenced by history, technology and consumerism. Bright Side delved into the past to understand the origin of todayâs beauty standards. Check the full piece here.
Image via Bright Side
Itâs hard to make friends. The harder battle is to keep your friends close, and to maintain the respect and bond you have with each other. Itâs hard to accept that sometimes, we are to blame for friendships falling out. If you feel like youâre becoming a bad friend, but want a guide or checklist to see if you really are and itâs not just the anxiety talking, check out the Huffington Postâs full list on the signs that indicate if youâre not being a good friend. Itâs not bad to try your best to be a good friend!
Image via The Huffington Post
Theyâre roughly the same size too, I wonder how the mantis was able to pull this off! In this timelapse video, watch how a praying mantis devours a whole adult locust. The original time it took for the praying mantis to successfully eat the locust was three hours. Youâll end up scared or in awe of nature after watching. I felt a mix of the two.
There are many things that could be considered a challenge when youâre in the kitchen, but the perhaps the greatest of them all is opening a stuck jar lid. I remember a time when I spent 20 minutes trying to open one. Thankfully, I was successful in my attempt.
Fortunately, you wonât have to experience that. Mental Floss has provided us with tips on how to open a stubborn jar lid. Here is one of them.
RUN THE JAR LID UNDER HOT WATER.
You may have heard this tip before, and it really works: If you run a stuck jar lid under hot water for about a minute and dry it off, it should be easier to twist open. This is due to the heat from the water expanding the metal in the lid. According to Spoon University, a hair dryer has the same effect. (Just be careful about making the jar too hot to hold.)
See the other tips over at the site.
(Image Credit: RyanMcGuire/ Pixabay)
In the 2018 film The Meg, which starred Jason Statham, the megalodon was portrayed as a shark with a length of 25 meters. But this scientific analysis implies that the megalodon was shorter than that, which doesnât change the fact that it was still a terrifying creature in the ocean.
The Megalodon went extinct around three million years ago, and nowadays almost all we have to show for it is, ominously, a pile of gigantic teeth. Thatâs because it, like modern sharks, would have had a skeleton mostly made of cartilage, which doesnât fossilize well.
That lack of records means itâs hard to measure just how massive the Megalodon was. Past studies have extrapolated its size based on the proportions of its teeth, using the great white shark as a guide. From this, it was estimated to be between 15 and 18 m (49 and 59 ft) long.
The problem is, the great white shark isnât the closest living relative of the Megalodon. So for the new study, scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Swansea compared it to five living relatives â the great white, the shortfin and longfin mako sharks, the porbeagle and the salmon shark.
More details about this study over at New Atlas.
(Image Credit: Karen Carr/ Wikimedia Commons)
Getting bitten by a snake is never good, but what damage you could sustain depends on what kind of snake it is. Different types of venom work in different ways, all terrifying. The danger also depends on how much venom you've been injected with. Bright Side explains how various types of venom work in your body. But even if the snake that bit you isn't venomous at all, there are still horrifying things that can happen to you! The upshot is that you should get medical help immediately for any kind of snake bite. -via Digg
Theodor Seuss Geisel, better know to us as Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904. Therefore, he grew up during World War I as an American with a German heritage and last name, which meant he and his family were looked upon with suspicion. This kicked off a series of events that would end up affecting Geisel for the rest of his life. Â
But the Geisel's bled red, white, and blue (three colors Seuss would often experience when being chased by brick-wielding bullies). To prove this, a 14-year-old Seuss started selling war bonds through his scout troop. His biggest customer was his own granddad, who spent $1,000 (which, in 1918 money, could buy you a lot of cocaine) to convince their neighbors their house wasn't worth firebombing. The tactic paid off: Seuss became one of the ten top salesboys to get a medal from none other than former President Teddy Roosevelt, cartoonish alligator wrestler and hero to every young boy in the country.
The experience was not a good one. Read what happened at that medal ceremony, which led to a lifetime of stage fright, and the reason Dr. Seuss did not read his beloved works in public, at Cracked.
Rabbits were very valuable animals in the medieval ages. Back then, rabbit meat was a delicacy, and their fur was an affordable alternative to an ermineâs fur, which was more expensive. This is why people did their best to breed them and protect them from the predators. This is where they bred the rabbits.
Back in medieval England rabbits were not bred in cages but in specially crafted earthen burrows called warrens, or pillow mounds. These were heaps of earth with multiple, well-ventilated inner chambers where rabbits mated, gave birth and raised their families. The pillow-like mounds were often built in oblong shape and sometimes were connected with each other with stone-lined tunnels. To prevent the rabbits from escaping, a field of pillow mounds was surrounded by a moat, or ditch filled with water. A fence provided protection from predators. Many warrens were accompanied by a lodge and a watchtower where the warrener lived.
[...]
Pillow mounds are an obsolete technology, and the majority of these structures have long since disappeared. But there still hundreds of these scattered across the islands, especially in dry areas like Brecklands and Dartmoor where the soil is poor for crops but ideal for burrowing. Some of these are now protected by English Heritage.
More about this over at Amusing Planet.
(Image Credit: Bob Embleton/ Wikimedia Commons)
