Back in 1990, a new show called Law & Order arrived on our televisions. Was it a police procedural or a courtroom drama? The concept was both. One crime got split into two dramas: the part where the police find the perpetrator (order), and then the court proceedings to prosecute them (law). It became such a hit that Law & Order lasted twenty years- and was then revived in 2022. But that's not all- the idea was so grand that spinoffs abounded, the same idea with different actors so they could be produced in abundance. Law & Order so far has six spinoff series, one television movie, and several crossover episodes with other TV shows.
We are used to seeing some version of Law & Order every time we check the TV listings. But 25 years later, it would be good to go over the show's origins and how it became an entertainment behemoth over time. Weird History has the scoop on Law & Order.
Yes, scientists could develop flying cars or genetically engineered slaves that would eventually conquer us. But who really needs those developments? We would be content if we could use urinals without getting pee on ourselves from the splashback.
The brightest minds in physics have labored in this field for years. Now, Popular Science reports, they have developed two ideal urinals. Researchers in Canada designed the two urinals named the Cornucopia and the Nautilus. The researchers use advanced computer modeling of fluid mechanics to provide for a cleaner urinary experience.
Their inspiration came from dogs. The researchers found that dogs pee against objects at particular angles that reduce splash. They measured the impact of urine at different angles to find the ideal solution to the "isogonal curve problem." The result is less splashing.
-via Dave Barry
Being a soldier for France in the Légion Étrangère can be rough. The training and discipline are famously brutal. But the Legion takes care of its own. A 2021 article in France Today reports that the institution possesses over 100 acres of wine grapes in Provence that are worked by disabled and elderly veterans.
The vineyard, named Domaine Capitaine Danjou after the Legion's most famous hero, produces 230,000 bottles a year. This income provides 40% of the budget of the Institute for the Invalids of the Foreign Legion. Much of the production is available for purchase at the organization's online store.
-via Wrath of Gnon
In 1777, John Brand, an English folklorist, published Observations on Popular Antiquities. In it, he described the customs of the people of England that might not be known among the upper classes of that nation.
In one passage, he wrote about a custom in which a newborn child is passed through a hole cut in the center of a wheel of cheese on the day of the child's christening. In some villages, the cheese is then cut and distributed to women as an aphrodisiac.
As with previous viral stories about history, my librarian spidey senses alerted to a potential fraud. I can say that Brand may have been incorrect, but he did actually describe this custom in his book.
-via Old European Culture
Instant ramen noodles are great when you're hungry, but a handmade bowl of artisanal ramen is a dream come true. In Japan, ramen is the ultimate the ultimate comfort food, with filling noodles, delectable pork or other meat, eggs, vegetables, and most importantly, the soup. The soup is the foundation for a bowl of ramen piled with noodles and extras that can be a work of art. That soup can vary widely and contain almost anything. In Rishiri Island, that means highlighting the taste of the local seaweed for a soup that people travel hours for. That's the first of three stories about Japanese ramen from Great Big Story. They also go over the history of instant ramen, which is how most Americans were introduced to it. And finally, we learn about Toyama black ramen, which is only available in Toyama. Warning: this video may cause hunger pangs. -via Geeks Are Sexy
We know how the Nazis operated a system of concentration camps across occupied territory, to incarcerate, use as slave labor, and execute millions of Jews. Each one had its own story, but the notorious Bergen-Belsen camp in northern Germany was different from all the others in many aspects. The history of the camp is often overshadowed by the shocking story of its liberation by the British on April 15, 1945. The Wiener Holocaust Library in London has a new exhibit called “Traces of Belsen” to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation.
When the Allies advanced on German-occupied territory toward the end of the war, the Nazis desperately tried to destroy all evidence of the Holocaust, which meant killing as many inmates as possible, but there were also evacuations, bringing thousands of Jews to Bergen-Belsen. The ballooning population was not fed, and overcrowding allowed diseases like typhus to run rampant. More than 18,000 prisoners died in March of 1945 alone, although none were executed. When liberation came, the British found 55,000 emaciated prisoners among thousands more dead bodies.
But that horrifying event is just part of Bergen-Belsen's history. It was also a POW camp where thousands of Russians died, then a holding place for Jewish hostages to be swapped for German prisoners, a hospital camp, a death camp without death chambers, and finally a postwar displaced persons shelter. Read about this unique concentration camp at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: The Imperial War Museum)
TikTok user xx..rayray..xx has trained her face into a tool that creates incredibly vivid expressions. Her eyes, eyebrows, cheeks, and mouth dance with precise and cartoonishly funny motions. Her timing is perfect, especially when lip synching Robin Williams.
It's quite hypnotic and addictive and thus ideal TikTok content.
-via Steve
At one-time in the past, you would hear about bear-proof garbage bins, but no one uses the term bear-proof anymore because you'll see. The best we can do is to call them bear-resistant. But bears don't even like that term, as ambiguous as it is. Anchorage Solid Waste Services is trying to design garbage bins that are more bear-resistant than previous bins. How are they doing? To find out, the agency took their latest design to the nearby Alaska Zoo. The bins were placed in the grizzly bear enclosure, and the bears thought these were wonderful new enrichment toys. Mind you, these bears are well-fed and not desperate to get into the bins. They're just having fun.
But then I thought, why does a zoo in Alaska have bears? Doesn't Alaska have plenty of bears? Well, it turns out that the Alaska Zoo, the only zoo in Alaska, specializes in local and arctic animals. They began as a shelter for injured and orphaned wildlife, and the zoo's origin story is really interesting. -via Born in Space
Psychologist B.F. Skinner was an expert in behaviorism, and was also a prolific author and inventor. He invented what became known as the Skinner box, in which an animal subject could be trained by a system of rewards. But that had nothing to do with another of his inventions, which he called the "air crib." When Skinner's second daughter Deborah was born, he and his wife Yvonne designed a modern crib for her that was revolutionary. It was higher than normal, so a parent didn't have to stoop down to reach the baby. It was enclosed, with a glass front, and had temperature and ventilation controls plus a dust filter. The linen on the mattress was on a roller, so it could be changed with a simple crank. A few hundred families used the air crib with reportedly good results. Skinner wrote about the crib for Ladies Home Journal in 1945.
But it never really caught on, mainly because of Skinner's reputation as an experimental psychologist and the association of the crib with the Skinner box. News stories said that Deborah was raised in the crib, although she spent no more time in it than any baby would in a traditional crib. The idea smacked of automated parenting, even though Skinner's (and Yvonne's) goal was to reduce the drudgery of parenting an infant while providing a healthy environment. And that's somewhat of a shame, because now we know that widespread use of the air crib might have saved many babies' lives by preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Read about the concepts behind the air crib that turned out to be the right idea at The Los Angeles Review of Books. -via Strange Company
The band OK Go has a catalog of songs on generic subjects that are all quite pleasant but not earth-shattering. However, they will go down in history for their videos, which are not only clever but so meticulously choreographed that they should be classified as dancers as well as musicians. In other words, the videos themselves are an art form. The video for their new single "Love" (as generic a title as it gets) is all about mirrors and the kaleidoscopic effects they produce, with the aid of precisely-timed robots. It's a feast for your eyes. And the song is rather nice, too.
If you're interested and have 20 minutes to spare, you can see a behind-the-scenes video about the making of the "Love" video. But as a commenter said, you can just watch the music video itself and see exactly how they accomplished each scene in the video and it's still amazing. -via Laughing Squid
Suggestion: watch with audio turned off.
NEW: San Francisco has erected a statue of a woman with no clothes on which will be greeting visitors in front of the Ferry Building.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 10, 2025
The 45-foot-tall statue was installed to "jazz up downtown" according to CBS News.
One worker was seen doing a "surgical procedure" on the… pic.twitter.com/QjxhbiYEpn
Marco Cochrane is an American artist most famous for his enormous metal sculptures of nude women. He recently installed a 45-foot tall piece in San Francisco titled "R-Evolution." It represents "feminine strength and liberation." An access port at the base of the torso allows access to the interior.
What people remember -or have heard- about the Vietnam draft was that millions of young men were drafted to fight the war, millions tried to get out of it, sometime fraudulently, and millions fled to Canada to avoid it. The real story is not quite so extreme. Only about 25% of the eight million Americans who served in Vietnam during the war were draftees, and only about 40,000 young men fled to Canada to avoid the draft.
Not every eligible young man was in danger of being drafted, since the Selective Service had a lottery to determine who would be called up first- by the date of their birthdays. These lotteries were televised, so young men could witness their odds of being shipped overseas in real time. While the lotteries were fairly random, getting a student deferment or a medical exemption was easier for those with money and connections. The threat of the draft hanging over one's head for years led to massive cultural shifts in the 1960s and '70s. Read the facts behind the Vietnam War draft at Mental Floss.
We all know what bubble gum flavor is. We all know what it tastes like. But how do we explain that taste to someone who's never tasted it? We might try to compare it to natural ingredients, but that would be rather difficult. Like everything else these days, it's made with artificial flavors. But what flavors?
Weird History looks into bubble gum flavor, what's in it, what it's supposed to taste like, and how it came about. That, of course, means telling us the history of gum, and then bubble gum in particular. Bubble gum is less than 100 years old, as it was invented in 1928 when the crucial ingredient latex was added to a failed prototype. All that history is pretty interesting, but if you want to learn about the flavoring only, you'll need to skip to about nine minutes into this video. If you watch the whole thing, you'll know everything there is to know about bubble gum.
TimeOut dares to go there, and they did it in a big fashion, by making a ranked list of the 100 best science fiction films of all time. But it wasn't just the TimeOut staff who contributed opinions. They also asked a few experts, "from Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Sir Paul Nurse, to Oscar-decorated film director Guillermo del Toro, to Game of Thrones writer George RR Martin and Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker," to make the list seems more, uh, professional.
Since this is a list of 100 movies, I expected it to begin with some that are pretty bad, but no. There have been so many good science fiction films over the past century that the entire list is worth a watch. The list is populated with good movies interspersed with movies I haven't yet seen, and in that it works as a recommendation list. You'll want to argue about the rankings, and maybe the categorization of some movies, but you have to admit that it's a treasure trove of sci-fi goodness. -via Metafilter
Online humor creators Jess & Quinn illustrate in a few seconds why Microsoft Word can be so frustrating.
I use Word every day. It's not actually this bad if you understand how a page is structured. But it's not MS Publisher and is clunky if you're trying to use it that way. Anyway, leave the furniture alone unless your house is equipped with an undo button.
-via Physics Geek
