You'd know an elephant when you see one, wouldn't you? Today we have African elephants and Asian elephants, and we are all familiar with the extinct mammoths and mastodons. But there were once many more species of the order Proboscidea, from which elephants and other long-nosed species came. The strange-looking elephant shown above is Stegotetrabelodon, which really did have super-long and fairly straight tusks on both the upper and lower jaw. These tusks could be up to nine feet long! Can you imagine what and how they ate with those teeth in the way?

Stegotetrabelodon is just one example of the many Proboscidea, or what we would recognize as elephants today, that roamed the world over the past 60 million years or so. Meet some of the most notable and unusual elephant species, including the earliest short-trunked ancestor, the ones whose tusks curved backwards, and ones who used their bottom jaw as a shovel, at Smithsonian.

Dubois & Fils of Le Locle, Switzerland crafted an automaton watch around the year 1810.pic.twitter.com/lLSnJlUMwE

— 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐤 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 (@Steampunk_T) April 6, 2025

Sotheby's auction house once offered this amazing watch and automaton for sale. Dating back to 1810, the carefully preserved antique depicts an acrobat balancing on a tightrope while a woman plays a lute and a man plays a lyre. An internal cylinder plays a sequence of 33 notes.

It also tells the time.

DuBois et Fils (DuBois and Sons), a Swiss luxury watchmaker, produced the treasure. That firm is still in business. This watch is one of several similar devices that it made.

STS 3D is a robotics and software design firm that, as a modern Prometheus, is advancing everyday technologies beyond the finite imaginations of other product designers. Its crew most recently teamed up with YouTuber Plumber John (John Ward) to design and build a dishwasher that is far more powerful and faster than any other dishwasher available in the home.

My dishwasher's long cycle is almost four hours long. This massively overpowered dishwasher, in contrast, will transform your dishes within a handful of seconds. You won't even recognize your dishes after a single brief cycle through the most vigorous dishwasher ever assembled.

Do you remember ice tennis? It's tennis placed on skates on an ice rink. Ice football is similar in that it is American football* except played on an ice rink. No, the players aren't wearing skates. They're wearing shoes instead of skates and hockey gear in addition to football helmets.

A 2024 article in the Huron Daily Tribune describes this innovative sport that is popular in Germany. The gameplay is thrilling as the athletes battle on the frozen gridiron, but also comical as they fall and slide on the ice easily.

-via Washington's Ghost

*Maybe in Europe they call it soccer. I don't know.

Last December we showed you the teaser for James Gunn's Superman, which will open in theaters on July 11. We were quite delighted to see that this Superman film shows the heroics of Krypto the Superdog as he saves an injured Superman, played by David Corenswet. Now we have a sneak preview that makes clear the teaser scene was heavily edited. In this expanded version, we find that the rescue scene was not quite as simple as we might have thought. Krypto is certainly Superman's best friend, has super powers, and loves his human very much. But he's a dog after all, and acts the way you might expect your loving dog to act. Which doesn't help a bit until Superman comes up with specific orders.

Notice this sneak preview doesn't mention the name of the movie at all. It doesn't have to, since everyone knows Superman. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Does your country have more immigrants or emigrants? Immigrants are people who move in from another nation, while emigrants are people born in a country and then move out. Brilliant Maps crunched the numbers for all the nations of the world to see who has the most of each, and who has the biggest ratios of people arriving and leaving. You might be surprised to learn that North Korea has a better ratio of arrivals to departures than South Korea. Then you think, well, that's because no one is allowed to leave North Korea. However, records show that 46,379 people moved out of North Korea in 2024, while 50,439 moved into North Korea. There's a story there, I'm sure. While the ratio is puzzling, South Korea records both immigrants and emigrants in the millions.  

The United States, as of 2024, is still the most common destination for people moving to a new country, while India is the country the most people are leaving. That still doesn't tell the whole story, because smaller countries may have more extreme percentages and ratios. Check out the stats for nations around the globe at Brilliant Maps. -via Nag on the Lake

Churches are built as an act of faith and worship, but some builders also know the value of novelty. If you can get people to come and visit out of curiosity, they may stay for worship. That's not the only reason some churches end up being extreme, but it works to draw people in. Several churches built high on top of barely accessible rock pillars in different parts of the world make the statement that just getting there is an act of sacrifice. Some people think that way, while others just take it as a challenge. Some churches are unusual because of events in their history, like the cathedral in St. Petersburg that the Soviets spent a half century pretending its not a church- yet they couldn't bring themselves to tear it down. Great Big Story looks at seven of the most unusual churches in the world, any of which would make a great vacation destination or an adventurous pilgrimage for the faithful.  

Starting in the 1960s, Richard Scarry set a standard for the adult world in his Busytown books. These manuals taught children what to expect when they became independent, working adults in the world outside of their homes.

We thus grew up anticipating that animals would transport themselves across town in vehicles befitting their habits and interests, such as the cheese car (really a cheese passenger van due to the number of mice that could fit within it).

It is only now, though, that the cheese car is a reality. Illustrator Jess Fink produced this lifesize toy vehicle that provides local mice with their transportation needs.

-via Super Punch

It shouldn't surprise us that records of money and court cases are so often prioritized over records of human lives, which is the case of Eulalie Mandeville. No documented records of her life exist outside of the three-year court fight over her money, but those records tell a gripping tale. Eulalie Mandeville was a free woman of color in New Orleans who became one of the richest Black women in America. Born enslaved, she was manumitted by her white father and raised in his white family. In 1793, she was already a successful young businesswoman when she met Eugene Macarty, who was white and would become her life partner. They were prohibited by law from marrying, and their children were therefore considered illegitimate. Neither Mandeville nor their children could inherit anything when Macarty died in 1846. He was found to have an estate of only $12,000, when his brother and other relatives thought he was rich. The couple had prepared for this situation for many years, transferring wealth and property to Mandeville in different ways, resulting in her fortune of $155,000 (worth around five million today). Macarty's relatives cried fraud, and took Mandeville to court. Read the not-too-long story of that long court case that tells us what we know about the life of Eulalie Mandeville at Jstor Daily. -via Strange Company

(Image source: New York Public Library)

The Soviet Union had, on a small scale, a domestic production of video and arcade games. Tetris, is, of course, the most famous Soviet video game, if not the most successful cultural export of the Soviet Union. Many of these games are playable at the Museum of Soviet Video Games, which has locations in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

This particular arcade game tested players' strength. It simulates the motion of pulling up turnips and takes its inspiration from a Russian folktale about an entire family harvesting an especially massive turnip.

You can see photos of other Soviet arcade games at this 2019 post from the Arcade Blogger.

-via @after_history

You've heard the phrase "don't think about an elephant." It is impossible to achieve, because the word elephant implants that concept in our heads, despite the word "don't" that we understand. Understanding that negative word in context and obeying the sentence is two very different things, and artificial intelligence has not mastered the idea of negation. It's a good thing that humans can separate uncontrolled thoughts from controlled actions, because we can draw a room without putting an elephant in it -and even when it's there, we can ignore it. But maybe that's taking the elephant analogy too far.

Dr. Erica Brozovski (previously at Neatorama) explains negation and the words we use for it in English. We don't always use these words correctly, but we understand them and we can usually parse what someone is saying to us even when the words are misused, as in double and triple negatives. However, there are rare cases when language is so confusing that we really have to stop and ask, "What are you really trying to say?" Even so, we are better than AI.

Many British castles earn their maintenance costs by flaunting their ancient history. If a king once lived there, or a famous battle took place there, the more tourists that a castle will draw, even if it is in ruins. However, there is one castle that doesn't rely all that much on its ancient origins to draw tourists. Doune Castle in Scotland was built in the 13th and 14th centuries, but what keeps it attracting tourists is the fact that Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed there.

You see, when the movie was filmed in 1974 (it is celebrating its 50th anniversary this week), many different castles were scouted, but they were governed by agencies, and the National Trust for Scotland withdrew permission for any castle to be used as a film set, especially since it was Monty Python asking. But Doune Castle was in private hands and said yes. In fact, Doune Castle was the actual setting for several of the castles in the story, filmed from different angles. That decision paid off well, since people are still visiting just because their favorite Monty Python movie was filmed there. Read more about the ancient history of Doune Castle at Wikipedia and its pop culture legacy at Cracked.

(Image credit: Wikifan75)

Passover, or Pesach, is April 12 through the 20th this year. The Jewish a cappella group Six13 (previously at Neatorama) has released their annual Passover pop parody song, and this one is set to the tune of "Apt." by Rosé and Bruno Mars. They call it "PSVR." This video tells of the exodus from Egypt that was the origin of Passover and describes the seder meal, and actually makes a lot more sense than the Rosé song (which has a sort of an explanation in the first comment here). At any rate, this song fits nicely with Six13's extensive collection of pop songs converted to Jewish holiday anthems.

Would you eat escargot-flavored ice cream? It might be a good way to prepare for your stay in Paris.

The New York Post reports that EasyJet, a British discount airline, is offering snacks befitting the destinations of its travelers. Those traveling to Paris are served ice cream flavored with garlic and crystallized sugar made to resemble the texture of snail shells.

Travelers to Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Morocco also receive special "jet-lato" flavors. I would enjoy trying the ice cream made to taste like cacio e pepe, a cheese and pasta dish from Italy.

You can see a promotional video for the program on Instagram.

-via Dave Barry

It's time to class up this shindig. Yes, a champagne fountain is nice, but it's also expensive and does not defeat the ennui of the modern party scene. But a pickle fountain will make sure that people talk about your party for years to come.

Born in Space has a roundup of TikTok videos showing people setting up and enjoying pickle fountains at events. The spigots are helpful for those of us who prefer to drink  pickle juice straight from the source. If you insist on staying traditional, you can offer champagne glasses to your guests for this purpose. But don't be surprised if I just stick my whole head under a spigot and open it up.

-via Dave Barry