Now that question just sounds like a situation straight out of Lord Of The Flies. Don’t worry, no one has a tragic end in this one. The Boys State program is a one big civics lesson orchestrated annually by the American Legion, with each state hosting its own weeklong gatherings of high school juniors. The program has a lot of safeguards that prevent murder, don’t worry! Hyperallergic has more details: 

The Texas Boys State program randomly sorts the teens into two political parties, the Nationalists and Federalists, with each party then electing various representatives, leaders, and a nominee for governor over the course of the week. Along the way are myriad public debates and mock legislative sessions, held at the University of Texas at Austin, which becomes a miniature self-enclosed society. (Again, one composed entirely of pubescent males, so basically Hell.) The gubernatorial election is the big climax that events are working toward, and the film’s main characters are the respective parties’ candidates and chairmen chairboys.

The Federalists play the more villainous role, particularly Ben Feinstein, a wannabe CIA agent who uses his position as chair to get a disquietingly savvy head start on ratfucking the opposition. Said opposition consists of two Nationalists who both stand out for being liberal, non-aggro POC in an overwhelmingly white, right-wing, and fratty environment. They skillfully use their rhetorical skills to bypass the biases stacked against them. Rene Otero wins over the party to become chair, while Steven Garza gamely earns their nomination for governor with a message of unity and a straight-shooting persona (he cites Bernie Sanders as his inspiration for getting into politics, God bless).

image screenshot via Hyperallergic

Sumer Walser Williams tells the story of some late-night visitors to her front deck- which is 12 feet above ground! A bear cub climbed up and tried out the wading pool, but only managed to wreck it. When he heard a dog barking, he was  curious and looked in. Maybe he wanted a new friend to come out and play! Williams said,

Mom's reaction in my head played out as "Let's go, I have told you a hundred times not to bother people while we're raiding their house for goodies. We have to be silent. I've told you this. Why can't you seem to listen? I had to climb 12 feet up a pole to rescue your little butt. Get off their deck now."

The video ends with mama bear trying to figure out the best way to get her child back down to ground level. A good time was had by all. -via Bored Panda

Barbara Ketcham Wheaton always had a passion for cooking, and so when Julia Child and her husband handed Wheaton the keys to their house in the 1960s, she was thrilled. She had just been given the chance to explore Child’s collection of historical cookbooks, and she embraced that opportunity.

Now an honorary curator of Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library Culinary Collection, Wheaton was then in her early 30s, with young children at home. She had left an art history PhD program a few years before to marry historian Bob Wheaton, but she still had a passion for the past. When she discovered her love of cooking, and her neighbor’s trove of unique books, Wheaton wondered: What if she turned the same methodology she had learned in art-history classes to a more humble text—the cookbook?

Now, after 50 years, the public can now enjoy the fruits of Wheaton’s work in the form of The Sifter, an online database made by Wheaton, her children, and a team of scholars.

Part Wikipedia-style crowd-sourced database and part meticulous bibliography, The Sifter is a catalogue of more than a thousand years of European and U.S. cookbooks, from the medieval Latin De Re Culinaria, published in 800, to The Romance of Candy, a 1938 treatise on British sweets.

Know more about this database, as well as the history of food studies, over at Atlas Obscura.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Sir Edmund Bedingfeld built a fine manor house with a moat around it in Norfolk, England, in 1482. Since then, Oxburgh Hall has been continuously occupied by Bedingfeld's descendants. As part of a roof restoration project, archaeologist Matt Champion was standing by to see what was underneath the attic floorboards, which had not been removed in all those centuries. What he found was more than he ever expected.   

The cache is one of the most remarkable “underfloor” archaeological finds ever made at a National Trust property, the British heritage organization says in a statement. Together, the objects offer a rich social history of the manor’s former residents.

Among the discoveries are the nests of two long-gone rats that built their homes out of scraps of Tudor and Georgian silks, wools, leather, velvet, satin and embroidered fabrics, reports Mark Bridge for the Times.

The critters also repurposed roughly 450-year-old fragments of handwritten music and parts of a book. A builder recently found the rest of the volume—a relatively intact 1568 copy of Catholic martyr John Fisher’s The Kynge’s Psalmes—in a hole in the attic.

There were other objects stashed in the 16th century, along with some interesting finds from World War II above the floorboards. The Bedingfelds were staunch Catholics, which was dangerous in the Elizabethan era, when Catholic priests were tortured and killed for performing Mass. Researchers believe some of the objects found were related to secret, illegal rites of the time. Read more about the treasures unearthed at Oxburgh Hall at Smithsonian. 

(Image credit: DeFacto)

Of Nero, the Roman historian Seutonius wrote:

In stature he was a little below the common height; his skin was foul and spotted; his hair inclined to yellow; his features were agreeable rather than handsome; his eyes grey and dull, his neck was thick, his belly prominent, his legs very slender, his constitution sound.

This add a bit of flavor to the work of digital artist Daniel Voshart, who used historical records with surviving portraiture to reconstruct images of Roman emperors from Augustus (d. 14) to Numerian (d. 284).

-via Geekologie

Believe it or not, the iconic smiley face didn’t just evolve naturally. The worldwide symbol for happiness, with its perfect circle, two oval eyes, and a large upturned mouth was created by graphic designer Harvey Ball in 1963. Ball was commissioned by State Mutual Life Assurance Company to create an image to boost staff morale, as My Modern Met detailed: 

Apparently, Ball spent just 10 minutes drawing up a deconstructed smiling face on yellow paper—a surface he chose simply “because it was sunshiny and bright.” Ball was paid a whopping $45 for his now world-renowned visual.

At first, the insurance company printed Ball’s design on buttons and posters to give out to its employees, hoping to cheer them up. It’s unknown whether the “happy” memorabilia did the trick; however, the image quickly gained popularity. Yellow smiley faces started popping up on everything, from greeting cards and stickers to T-shirts and key rings. And although it is widely accepted that Ball invented the smiley, neither he nor the insurance company trademarked the now-iconic design.

Image via My Modern Met 

Instagram has a lot of trends and hashtags going around. Some hashtags are for entertainment, while some are informative or done to raise awareness. You’ll see celebrities join in the movements with posting  black squares or short clips of singing John Lennon lyrics. Another trend dominating Instagram is called #ChallengeAccepted. Women are sharing black and white selfies in the name of female empowerment, as Paper Magazine details: 

As written by Taylor Lorenz for The New York Times, there are several possibilities as to where #ChallengeAccepted originated. Back in 2016, black and white photos with the hashtag first emerged, aiming to share messages of "cancer awareness," and "spreading positivity" in the years since.

Speaking to the Times, an Instagram representative indicated that the first post "for this current cycle of the challenge" was shared close to two weeks ago on the page of the Brazilian journalist, Ana Paula Padrão.

The Times also spoke to a public relations and "influencer marketing manager" at Later, a social media firm, who believed this round of selfies might have been inspired by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's speech on the House of Representatives floor last week, after Ted Yoho referred to her as a "fucking bitch." Feminist and female empowerment posts circulated on multiple social media platforms after Ocasio-Cortez spoke out.

Another popular theory is that the challenge derived from Turkey, where women have been said to be posting black and white selfies to protest gender-based violence there.

Writer and artist Mina Tunay shared a graphic detailing "what's going on in Turkey" at the moment, connecting the hashtag to high femicide rates in the country, the recent killing of university student Pinar Gültekin by her boyfriend, and information regarding "honor killings," police brutality and other forms of violence facing Turkish women within four slides. In its caption, Tunay writes, "Of course this is not the entire story but a general background."

image screenshot via Paper Magazine

Amateurs who won't take risks and who are complacent is what I got from this comical and entertaining video,

View the video here!

This is a little lesson to research what you buy before you buy it. An unwelcoming surprise awaits.

Click Here for the Full Story

Mike Fahey of Kotaku reports that Strata Miniatures now offers a line of 3D printed Dungeons & Dragons miniatures for tabletop fun. They depict fantastic combat wheelchairs and their users who are fully prepared for the challenges of any quest. Fahey, a role-player who uses a wheelchair, is delighted:

My personal favorite, and the one I’ve purchased, is the elf rogue. She looks nothing like me, but her sly little grin is all me. I love playing the sneaky rogue in RPGs. I bet her chair has a silence spell of some sort cast on it. Look at those dagger-lined wheels! That is one badass wheelchair user.

Image: Strata Miniatures

You might laugh, then feel bad about laughing, then you should know that this picture was staged by the folks at Bitterroot Bison Company in Missoula, Montana. The image has spawned some memes. However, it was based on a real story about a bison goring in South Dakota. The lesson here is: don't try to take a selfie with wild animals. -via reddit

Whenever you feel the need for a safety sign that is ANSI Z535-compliant, just use the Safety Sign Generator. Pick a level of warning with a signal word, select a pictogram or two, and write out any kind of notice you wish.

The examples here were generated by commenters at Metafilter. There are a ton of them if you need a laugh or some inspiration, although some are hilariously rude. Damon Burke, who designed the generator, also has one for Laboratory Door Safety Signs. Go wild with both of these!

Allen Pan invented a gun that shoots a mask onto people’s faces. This gadget comes in handy, especially since some people are actually not taking this whole pandemic seriously. If they won’t gear up for their own safety, someone has to force them to do so. Pan used parts of a car’s brake line, a pistol grip from a spray can, custom electronics, and a solenoid valve, as Gizmodo detailed: 

Even with the addition of an actual laser scope that projects a green dot onto a target who’s not been properly educated about the benefits of mask wearing, aiming the mask gun is the most challenging part of using it. After some initial successes during testing, the accuracy of the blaster took a steep nose dive as the wonky aerodynamics of a face mask attached to four projectiles makes its trajectory almost unpredictable. Functionally, the Mask Gun works exactly like those cannons that launch nets to knock drones out of the sky, but the mask instead works like a sail or a parachute designed to catch the wind, and even with a laser scope, aiming is almost completely random.

Image via Gizmodo

It’s best to avoid adopting pets online, as it’s not certain if you’ll be getting an actual furry friend! People who have been victims of online puppy scams have spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars before realizing that no pet is on the way to their homes. With the pandemic, more people are searching for companions in order to ease their isolation and brighten their lives, as FastCompany details: 

Scammers often place ads on social media platforms or other sites, offering to have a pet shipped to buyers for a fee paid up front. After would-be pet owners place an order, sometimes by wiring money or sending it from a bank account, the sellers often request additional fees to handle shipping issues or for other reasons. Some buyers can be out hundreds or even thousands of dollars before they finally realize there’s no new pet en route.

The scams have been reported across the country and across the world, with former Australian Football League player Andrew Leoncelli revealing last week he was scammed into spending nearly 3,000 Australian dollars on a nonexistent dog he found online.

The BBB advises the following:

• avoid pet purchases that require sending payment through unusual means, like wiring money or buying gift cards to other stores
• be wary of deals that sound too good to be true for the animal breed in question
• check for stock photos and text that appears on multiple unrelated websites
• attempt to adopt from an animal shelter before going the online order route

Image via FastCompany 

As we struggle during these trying times, it is no surprise that we experience higher levels of stress. With that being the case, what could help in lowering our stress levels?

Some say that food could help us in lowering our stress levels.

Unfortunately, a lot of these are just puff pieces with little to no scientific basis. Sometimes, however, journalists interview actual scientists about their research. The problem is that researchers often use the word "stress" to mean something very different than what the general population thinks of as stress—and that often leads to confusion.

In this article, Monica Reinagel clarifies that there are two types of stress: physiological and psychological. She also explores the relationship of refined carbs, as well as probiotics, on those two types. In doing so, she separates the facts from fiction.

Learn more about the ways to reduce your stress levels over at QDT.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Myriams-Fotos/ Pixabay)