There’s a lot of Lego video games available for different consoles. As a casual player myself, I wonder if there’s an audience for these games, as they keep getting new releases. From Lego Star Wars to Lego Knight’s Kingdom, the appeal in these games is the nostalgia and letting two people play at the same time, as Ryan Fan explains: 

You’re constantly making progress and helping each other figure out where to go, what blocks to hit, which characters to talk to, and which items you need. You’re sharing triumphs as well as struggles with someone else, and I don’t know if I would like the games as much without playing with my brother or my girlfriend.

To be fair, the appeal of Lego video games is not their story. The plot follows pretty closely after a movie franchise like Star Wars, The Incredibles, or Lord of the Rings, but people in these games rarely talk. They may tell you about an item they need, but the story is often more lightly comical than it is profound in a Lego video game.

For adults too, the Lego video games are funny. According to Keri Honea at The Playstation Lifestyle, the miming, drawings, and gestures of the Lego games often parody the seriousness of the movies. In Lego Lord of the Rings, ​one of the main characters is killed with a banana and a broom in his chest. Serious events that the survival of the entire world is contingent on, such as Gollum and Frodo fighting over the ring, are treated with meme-like dancing and faux-outrage.

The director for ​Lego The Incredibles​​, ​Peter Gomer, calls the process similar to building a giant Lego set, where developers have components, ideas, and mechanics, and then proceed to modify them, mix them together, and use their imagination to make whatever they want.

After you get through the story of each Lego game, it’s an open world. You’re on a quest to 100% completion of the game, even if there’s no one set, linear path to get it. And then there’s the element of fantasy, imagining that we are all also ourselves building our real buildings or climbing our own elaborate towers ourselves.

image via Medium

Longtime Neatorama readers already know some pretty messed-up things about the Disney empire, like scattered cremains at the theme parks and the human skeletons in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. But there's more to learn. This one caused me to search for "Disney shared underwear" to see if it was true (it is).

   

See 21 pictofacts about unsavory Disney dealings at Cracked.

South African YouTuber SuzelleDIY has quite a following, and quite a lot of concise do-it-yourself tips on every subject under the sun. Her long-suffering assistant Marion has more patience than the rest of us.  -via Nag on the Lake

Tom Cruise returns as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the forthcoming movie Top Gun: Maverick. It is a sequel to the 1986 movie Top Gun. The film is set in real time, which means that Cruise's fighter pilot is now 57 years old. How realistic is the idea that an ace pilot would return to combat at that age? Real life TOPGUN graduate Mike Crosby, who is 60 years old, looks at the question. He says pilots who stay in the military that long usually gain rank and become teachers and supervisors.      

“So I’m not sure what rank they’re going to have Maverick, but the majority of the pilots are the young guys,” Crosby tells me. He has, however, seen enough movies to know that this inconvenient fact won’t stop Cruise and company. “Somehow they’ll get him into the action,” Crosby says. “He’ll be an instructor or commanding officer of TOPGUN, which would be a captain, and that’s someone in their early 50s. So it’s not unreasonable.” (As long as a pilot trained between the ages of 18 and 33, there isn’t a maximum age limit that would prevent someone like Maverick from flying.)

Instead, it’s how they get Maverick into the actual fighting that Crosby says he and his fellow fighter pilots will probably laugh at the most. “None of us who have been there will believe it. It’ll be like, ‘There’s nobody else left in the Navy!’ or something. But that’s okay: The best part of the movie is the action, and the flying scenes anyway.”

We all know that veterans and active military are the harshest critics of war films. Read more about how Tom Cruise might or might not pull off the role at his age at Mel magazine. Top Gun: Maverick is scheduled to open on December 23.

Matthew Cosman's kids are very lucky. They have a dad who built this professional-grade, museum-quality jungle gym just for them.

The dinosaur, modeled after an apatosaurus, rests on 12 tons of concrete. It measures 48 feet long and had to be moved into position by a crane. Cosman described the challenges involved:

The challenges aside from raw materials was, first of all, the space. I had to wait for the right window at our fab shop. Getting a gap in projects that allowed the space to the side. Then, once started, getting that done ASAP to get it out of the way. That was just the main dino—the rest was finished onsite at my home. All of the top structure and rope and add-ons. It takes time and dedication to the details.

You can see more photos of this amazing jungle gym under construction at Bored Panda.

-via Geekologie

Most movie clichés are groan-inducing, because they are overused and indicate lazy writing. But there are some tried-and-true tropes that show up more often than they should in movies, yet still leave us with a sense of satisfaction because they just work. You may have never thought about those kinds of things, but the A.V. Club did. They asked their staff and some regular readers about movie clichés that are so good they don't mind seeing them over and over, and got some thoughtful answers, like this one from Danette Chavez.

Their outcomes aside, most trials and other courtroom proceedings are fairly dry affairs, all procedure and precedents (which is probably for the best, given that there are enough biases to deal with). That is, unless they’re happening in a movie or TV show, and the lawyers are played by Tom Cruise, Sam Waterston, or Christine Baranski—then every big revelation is delivered via a grandstanding speech in a packed courtroom, a thunderous statement that’s interrupted, but not dampened, by equally vociferous objections from opposing counsel. It’s such a common occurrence in film and TV, from ...And Justice For All to A Time To Kill to every thought Dick Wolf has ever had, but it still moves me to this day. You disagree? Then you’re out of order! This whole list is out of order!

Read of some other movie clichés that you may also enjoy, at the A.V. Club.

It may seem strange to think of Scandinavians eating tacos as a tradition, especially when you find out what they put in their tacos. It grew out of an advertising campaign in the 1990s (yeah, well, twenty-something years can birth a tradition) originally known as Fredagsmys, or Cozy Friday. It's a night to stay at home, watch TV, and eat highly processed food. Lately, that means Tex-Mex food like tacos.  

Tex-Mex was a hot American import, just like the series and movies on the tube. But once it arrived, it morphed, becoming infused with Swedish food culture. Spin-off recipes emerged, such as taco pie (also available in frozen food aisles), taco soup, taco pizza, and taco burgers. “Anything where you could add the packaged spice mix, really,” says Tellström. Americans might recognize the ground meat, soft or hard tortilla shells, peppers, onion, tomatoes, and guacamole of Swedish tacos, but not necessarily the cucumber, peanuts, pineapple, and yoghurt sauces that Swedes added to suit their own cultural tastes.

Learn more about Swedish tacos and the cozy nights devoted to them at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Aïda Amer)

An animation student who goes by Lumi spent eight weeks making friends with the local squirrels and getting them to eat at a miniature table with tiny dishes and books. Lumi presented the resulting videos as her final project, named Sciuridaes, in an Experimental Capture class.     

This project is inspired by children’s book illustrations of animals picnicking together in the forest, and is a continuation of the same project from earlier this semester. The squirrels perform uniquely ‘human’ activities such as reading and “baking”. They eat from tables with tea pots and snack on bagels in their kitchens. Their choices of activities, mirror how I, a human, spend my time.

It wasn't easy. The project took both patience and plenty of treats.

Key materials: For the span of this project, to train and film the squirrels, I have exhausted the 8lb bag of squirrel food, two bags of walnuts, 4.5 apples, some carrots here and there (trying to offer healthier options, they are getting chunky), a full jar of Jif peanut butter and half a jar of fancy Costco peanut butter (which they like significantly less than the Jif). I have also accumulated a cast of 8 ‘repeating visitor’ squirrels and in the last week an additional 5 squirrels just out of the nest.

The things we do for grades. See plenty of short videos and read more about the project here. -via reddit

Using a technique called “lucky imaging” — a technique used to record hundreds or thousands of images over a short span of time (similar to a camera’s burst mode) in order to capture high-resolution images of astronomical objects (and has nothing to do with luck, by the way) — researchers were able to reconstruct this magnificent image of Jupiter.

This one, showing the entire [planet] in infrared light, was compiled from a mosaic of nine separate pointings on 29 May 2019.

From a lucky imaging set of 38 exposures taken at each pointing, the research team selected the sharpest 10%, combining them to image one ninth of Jupiter's disk. Stacks of exposures at the nine pointings were then combined to make one clear, global view of the planet.

Wow!

(Image Credit: International Gemini Observatory/ Noirlab/ NSF/ Aura M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley) and Team Acknowledgements: Mahdi Zamani)

Walker, Louisiana — At about 4 PM on May 1, the Walker Police Department received a complaint about an aggressive chicken wreaking havoc at a bank. The police department immediately responded by dispatching officers to the said location. Unfortunately, when they came, the chicken was already gone. It apparently “anticipated the imminent arrival of law enforcement and fled on foot from the scene.”

In response to this, the Walker Police Department informed the public about the fowl via a Facebook post. The cops also gave a physical description of the chicken.

More information about this incident over at their Facebook post.

Via AP News

(Image Credit: Walker Police Department/ Facebook)

You’ve probably come across a meme where you can see some guys lifting a coffin using their shoulders while dancing. The video is accompanied by a music called “Astronomia”, but due to the meme becoming popular, the music is now known as the “Coffin Dance” music.

In his rendition of the Coffin Dance music, Sheet Music Boss gives it a twist by making it sound like those sonatas of old, while at the same time retaining its pop feel to it.

Check it out on this video.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Video Credit: Sheet Music Boss/ YouTube)

In 2011, miners in Alberta spotted the fossil of a nodosaur, called the best-preserved fossil of its kind. It had fossilized skin and even soft tissue! But extracting the fossil from the surrounding rock was not easy. In fact, they broke it. And it was caught on video. -via Digg

Let’s face it. Most of us now feel sad or bored because we’re stuck at home. Many of us might be living alone, too.

When it comes to dealing with stress, boredom, and sadness, dogs could prove to be a great help, as they can offer tons of emotional support, and I’m not exaggerating with this one. A dog just being around already can offer comfort to a person. With that in mind, you might consider adopting a dog.

But before you adopt a dog, NPR has some things for you to consider before doing so. Check them out over at the site.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Chiemsee2016/ Pixabay)

We've read for years about how overprescribing antibiotics and the use of anti-microbial soaps and cleaners are killing just enough germs to open the door for the strongest and most dangerous to take over, giving us antibiotic-resistant superbugs. But what about alcohol? We go through alcohol-based hand sanitizer like water these days, so will it have the same effect? SciShow explains how alcohol works on germs, but if you substitute "liquor" in your head, it sounds like a plausible explanation for hangovers as well. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Now that the statute of limitations has expired, Clay Jennings Desmond tells us about that night he and a friend went frog gigging and he decided to scare his buddy. It worked, but when the two made it back to civilization, exhausted from running and one of them still scared out his wits, the story had to be told.

Pointing at me, he said: “He heard something big in the bush while we were frog hunting. It sounded really big. I mean, like huge. When he turned his five-cell flashlight on it, oh my God!” He let out a theatrical gasp, his hand going to his throat. Limitations aside, he was a masterful performer with an audience.

I picked up the improv tale. “When I heard a stick snap, I knew it had to be something pretty large, real near us. I focused the light in that direction and saw this thing.”

“What thing?” asked the chorus of boys and girls outside the car. Our group of rapt listeners was quickly growing.

Scottie added inspired embellishments. “It was about seven feet tall,” he said with elaborate hand gestures, “had the face of a man, but covered with fur. It had big reddish eyes. It growled and snapped its fangs at us.”

A fine tall tale, told admirably. But the word got around, the police got involved, there was a search with tracking dogs, and even physical evidence. The seven-foot-tall creature became an urban legend that lingers on 60 years later. Read what really happened and how it got out of hand at Narratively. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Matt Rota)