John Atkinson at Wrong Hands hands out the BS with his latest comic. The level of plausibility for the five weird "facts" is about equivalent, meaning any of them could be true if you remove the punch line. Atkinson says he will reveal which one is true sometime today, maybe in the comic post or in the comments below it. Wanna take a guess ahead of time? -via Nag on the Lake
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Duane Scott Cerny started out in the business of collecting other people's things at a young age, when he traded toys with his classmates, then graduated to selling Playboy magazines to high school friends, then he worked in an antique shop. Eventually, he had his own antique mall. After years of buying and selling, Cerny wrote a memoir about the business called Selling Dead People's Things.
In “Selling Dead People’s Things,” Cerny takes us inside a few hoarder dens, describing the sights as well as the smell, which he says is “a vile mix of feces, mold, decay, and death.” In one chapter, Cerny tags along with a man named Marvin, who makes a living in one of the weirder corners of the real-estate industry by cleaning out the former homes of hoarders in order to make them presentable enough to sell. For Cerny, these trips into olfactory hell—Marvin rarely eats before a cleanout—hold the potential of one or two hidden treasures amid the garbage, or perhaps an entire cache of goodies that can be sanitized, disinfected, and resold. For Marvin, everything else is equal before the blade of his shovel. The work, we learn, is grinding and monotonous, and falls into two basic categories—ankle-deep or knee-high—referring to the height of the plastic garbage bags that Marvin wraps tightly around his legs to protect himself from the worst filth.
At some point, most serious collectors and dealers have their own hoarder moment, in which they consider, if only as a passing thought, whether their collection of porcelain signs, candlestick telephones, comic books, or sofas has become a hoard. Where does one draw the line?
“I think when you can’t have people over, you’re a hoarder,” Cerny says.
The book is about more than hoarders, but hoarding is one of the subjects of an article at Collectors Weekly in which Cerny gives us an overview of hoarders and obsessive collectors he's encountered, both alive and deceased, while obtaining antiques for his store.
New Zealand lacked mammalian land predators for millions of years, and was a marvel of biodiversity up until the arrival of man, who introduced rats and other new species. Stephens Island lies between the two big islands of New Zealand, and became a refuge for species that had been hunted to extinction everywhere else. Then humans moved to Stephens Island in 1894 to operate a lighthouse. They were three lighthouse keepers and their families, including David Lyall and his cat Tibbles.
Shortly after David Lyall took position as the assistant lighthouse keeper at Stephens Island, Tibbles started bringing him such presents. Although Lyall had been on the island for only a short time, he could put a name to most of the birds Tibbles brought him, except for one peculiar specimen. This bird was small, olive on the back, pale on the breast, with body feathers edged with brown. It had a narrow whitish yellow streak above the eye, short wings, and a long, straight bill. Lyall had never seen this bird before, and for that matter, no biologists ever had. Sensing that he was on the verge of a new discovery, Lyall sat down one evening and by the light of a paraffin lantern, started to prepare the specimens. He sent a number of them to some of the most renowned ornithologists of the time, including Walter Rothschild, Walter Buller, and H. H. Travers.
Walter Buller immediately recognized it as distinct species and began preparing a scientific description to be published in an upcoming journal. Walter Rothschild, a British banker and zoologist, acquired several specimens from Lyall for a handsome price. It was Rothschild who suggested the scientific name Traversia lyalli in honor of David Lyall, the discoverer, and naturalist H. H. Travers, who helped him procure the specimens.
Within a year, Tibbles no longer brought in Traversia lyalli, or the Stephens Island wren, as her prey. The bird couldn't be found alive, either. Although there have been a few sightings in later years, the wren went extinct. Every existing specimen of the species was caught and killed by Tibbles. Read the story of the wren that is no more at Amusing Planet. We only know about it because Lyall was an amateur ornithologist. Imagine how many other species humans have wiped from existance without us ever knowing. -via Strange Company
While the title of the linked article implies that one cat hunted the wren to extinction, Wikipedia adds more details to the story. When the lighthouse keepers and their families moved to the island in, it is believed that more than one cat was brought along. At least one cat was pregnant and escaped into the wild. Within a year, the island had a growing population of feral cats. By 1897, shotguns were brought in to exterminate the cats, and by 1925, there were no more cats on Stephens Island.
"I don't know if this is really mean or not."
Yes, covering someone's yard in toilet paper is pretty mean, and even more so if it's right before a rain shower. But hey, it might make a great viral video! George Matus, the 20-year-old CEO of Teal Drones, played a prank on his COO Billy McGuire by toilet papering his home, using a drone, of course. Watching the drone in action is pretty cool. The upside is that if any expenses are incurred in cleaning it up (meaning, they hire someone to do it), the company can write it off as an advertising expense because of the video. -via Laughing Squid
Paula Godwin took her dogs out for an early morning walk last Friday in Arizona. Along the way, she came close to stepping on a rattlesnake! But her 6-month-old puppy Todd jumped in the way, and was himself bitten by the snake. Quick medical intervention saved Todd, but the golden retriever's nose was swollen and itchy for days. Godwin's Facebook posts indicate that her hero dog is healing up nicely. See a video gallery of Todd here. That's a good dog. -via Laughing Squid
(Image credit: Paula Godwin)
The Hacksmith became a walking meme for Independence Day as he walked around in a T-rex costume holding Roman candles. Don't try this at home.
WARNING: THESE VIDEOS ARE FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. PERSONAL USE OF VIDEO CONTENT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE HACKSMITH IS A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL WHO KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE'S DOING. EXCEPT WHEN HE DOESN'T.
Those T-rex costumes are probably just flame-retardant enough to pass the US standards for Halloween costumes. They weren't designed for pyrotechnic stunts. That said, we'll always have this video. -via Geeks Are Sexy
The blades on a lawnmower aren't as sharp as the name would imply (although they will hurt you), and they don't use an opposing force like a knife on a cutting board or scissors, so how do they cut grass instead of just pushing it down? The answer may surprise you. Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day takes us underneath a mower with a high-speed camera so that we can understand what's going on. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Mark Hough and his wife were enjoying some margaritas in their backyard Jacuzzi last Friday, when their fun was interrupted by a bear! The Houghs hightailed it into the house, and the bear took over the good times. First he swam in the Jacuzzi.
Hough said the bear was "bobbling away having fun, playing with the chlorinator and the thermometer, and grabbing the string of the thermometer and throwing it up in the air."
He stood "about 15 feet away" and started filming.
The bear was "playful" and "kinda cute, even though he’s huge," Hough said.
Then he helped himself to Hough's abandoned margarita, climbed into a tree, and slept it off for a couple of hours. You can read the whole story, and see a couple of videos taken from a distance at Buzzfeed.
(Image credit: Mark Hough)
Pierre Gombaud made a video of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road by animating the still picture from the album cover. But that's just the beginning! As soon as they make it to the other side, the Fab Four enter their psychedelic period. The songs used are "Two-Finger Chord & Whistle" by Paul McCartney and "Tomorrow Never Knows" by the Beatles. -via Digg
While the members of the second Continental Congress didn't celebrate American independence with picnics or backyard grilling the way we do today, they did their share of celebrating. Smithsonian takes a look at the food that was available to the Founding Fathers in Philadelphia at the time, but the more interesting subject was what -and how much- they drank. They drank a lot of alcohol. George Washington was known for spending prodigiously on drinks for everyone, while Thomas Jefferson worked to produce better wine. Benjamin Franklin was the most famous drinker of the bunch, because he wrote about his appreciation of alcohol. Steven Grasse and Reverend Michael Alan, who produced a book on colonial drinking, tell us more.
Benjamin Franklin was especially unabashed about his love of “the cups.” Though Grasse writes that he was careful to advise temperance, he regularly enjoyed wine and what some might argue were early iterations of craft cocktails. His favorite, according to Alan, was milk punch, a three-ingredient brandy-based sip whose two non-alcoholic components–milk and lemon juice–washed and refined its third. Another Franklin foodie badge is his “Drinkers’ Dictionary,” a compendium of Colonial slang describing the state of drunkenness. Initially printed in 1737 in the Pennsylvania Gazette, its publication made Franklin one of America’s first food and drink writers.
Then there was Alexander Hamilton, who reportedly couldn't hold his liquor as well as the others. Read about the food and drink of the Founding Fathers at Smithsonian.
When the subject of the show is "modern marvels," you really don't know what to expect. Maybe this is a "potpourri" episode of the Mental Floss show Scatterbrained, where each host got to select a subject that fascinates them. Anyway, the new gives us information and trivia about skyscrapers, the history of robots, Tesla's Gigafactory, transportation myths, and the Three Gorges Dam.
Americans go a little crazy blowing stuff up to celebrate the nation's birthday. John Adams said that Independence Day should be celebrated with "bonfires and illuminations," even though he was actually referring to July 2. Our national anthem has "the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air," leading us to do just that on July 4th. The majority of people who set off fireworks don't thoroughly consider the dangers, which can lead to a trip to the hospital.
According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, fireworks were implicated in 12,900 hospital visits, resulting in eight deaths in 2017. There were 800 hospitalization from firecrackers, 1,200 from sparkler injuries, 400 from Roman candles, and 300 from bottle rockets (if you needed clarification, a device called a “bottle rocket” is not perfectly safe).
Who would you have guessed is affected most? You're exactly right -teenage boys. A 2014 study in The Journal of Surgical Research came up with the data in the above graph (the raw numbers are from 2006-2010). See more statistics on fireworks injuries at Vox.
YouTuber DogScientist built a mechanical game for his dogs. Was this project just to give the dogs something to do? To make them put a little effort into feeding? Or is it a lesson in figuring out challenges? It doesn't really matter, because all those ends are accomplished as the dogs learn how the machine works, and then learn strategies to make it work better for them. And it's pretty neat to watch, too. -via Tastefully Offensive
It's a plot from a Cold War B-movie: nuclear fallout produces dangerous mutant animals that cannot be controlled because of the radioactivity of their environment. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine suffered a meltdown in 1986, leaving the surrounding area so radioactive that an exclusion zone was designated for 30 kilometers in each direction of the plant. A few residents refused to leave, but thousands of people moved away. Scientists consider the zone too dangerous to live in, although it is open to tourism and a few people work there on a strict time limit. With so few people, nature has taken over.
Numerous investigations into the effects of Chernobyl's radioactive fallout on its surroundings have returned conflicting results. While some studies have found that local wildlife suffered, others have discovered evidence that wildlife has prospered, likely because the exclusion zone — devoid of people — has "become a de facto nature reserve," study lead author Michael Byrne, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Missouri at Columbia, told Live Science.
Gray wolves have especially flourished in the exclusion zone, "with their population density within the zone estimated at up to seven times greater than in surrounding reserves," Byrne said. Given this high population density, the researchers expected that some wolves born within the zone would disperse into the surrounding landscapes, "since one area can hold only so many large predators," Byrne said.
Now, for the first time, "we have tracked a young wolf that has definitely left the exclusion zone," Byrne said.
Of 14 wolves fitted with trackers, one juvenile was found to have left the exclusion zone. But no one knows where it is now, because the tracker has malfunctioned. Nor do we know how many others may have wandered outside the zone. The Invasion of the Mutant Wolves may be coming to a theater near you as soon as someone writes the script. Read more about the wolves of Chernobyl at LiveScience. -via Fark
(Image credit: Eric Kilby)
Фотография заряжена на покорение бесчисленных миров и строительство межгалактической империи. pic.twitter.com/P2sUKhOCZa
— Некстджен и Усиление (@turbojedi) June 30, 2018
This is a weird-looking cat in a field of flowers, the kind of thing that's all over the internet already. But when you translate the Russian text, the real magic appears.
The photograph is charged on the subjugation of countless worlds and the construction of the Intergalactic empire.
Click the date stamp to see the entire thread at Twitter. You'll get a kick out of translating the Russian comments, while noticing the English commenters are completely oblivious to what is going on among the Russians. Kind of like real life. -via Digg
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