Ok, so they may not be readable, but they are absolutely adorable and seem simply delicious. They could also be a great way to excite the kiddos about back to school time.

Link Via Craftzine

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Vice Books is releasing a new title based exclusively around kitties and their fashionable styles. All of the delightful outfits are by Japanese cat fashion designer Takako Iwasa.

Via Laughing Squid

I love Pete & Pete, but this great MTV article has a lot of good points about how the show inspired one of the biggest trends of the last ten years. It makes sense too. After all, most of today's hipsters grew up watching the show, sucking in its tacky fashions and deeper idiosyncrasies.

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If you’ve been to Disneyland in the last twenty years, then you’re almost certainly familiar with Splash Mountain. Even if you refuse to ride the massive log ride, you probably at least rode the train through the tunnel that shows the happy ending of the ride. But did you know the ride is based on a movie that has never been released on home video because it’s considered too offensive? Or that the reason there are so many familiar faces inside is because the imagineers salvaged the characters for another attraction? There’s plenty more fun trivia like this inside this edition of our Neatorama Facts series. Image Via OpenThreads [Flickr]

Trying To Make a Splash

The Zip-a-Dee River Run was originally conceived of as a way to start attracting more people over to the often empty Bear Country area of the park, which was renamed Critter Country after Splash Mountain was opened. Unfortunately, the project quickly ballooned over budget, becoming one of the most expensive projects the Imagineering team had worked on up until that point. To help reduce the cost as much as possible, the team decided to use previously existing animatronic animals from the recently closed America Sings attraction. Even then, the ride still ended up costing $75 million to complete. Although CEO Michael Eisner kept pushing for the ride to be based on the film Splash, imagineers had long planned to base the ride on the live action/animation film Song of the South and they refused to be moved on that point. In honor of Eisner’s ignored contributions, they did decide to change the name of the ride from the Zip-a-Dee River Run to Splash Mountain. Strangely, despite the fact that one of the most popular Disney rides was based on Song of the South, the company has still refused to release the title to American home video or DVD because their executives believe the content is offensive to black people. While Uncle Remus is the character believed to be the most offensive and was left out of the ride as well, his presence can be felt in the queue area; a variety of his quotes can be found throughout the barn-themed line area, all the way up to the loading area. Images Via Express Monorail and PrincessAshley [Flickr]

These days, getting a hold of your favorite spice is simply a matter of heading to the grocery store and buying a bottle. If you want a particularly rare variety, you might need to drive to a specialty grocer. But only a few centuries ago, spices were a much bigger deal. Trade routes were established simply for the sake of spices. Monopolies were established to protect the value of these culinary specialties. And wars were even fought for them. Next time you reach into your spice rack, remember a few of these saucy facts about some of the most common seasonings.

Saffron

Let’s kick things off with the world’s most expensive spice, the exotic saffron. This colorful spice is the stigma of a beautiful purple/blue flower. Interestingly, the autumn-blooming plant with three highly valuable stigmas per flower doesn’t even exist in nature. It’s speculated that the sterile flower is a descendant of the Mediterranean flower Crocus cartwrightianus. Whatever the true origins of the flower though, it was subjected to extensive artificial selection starting over 3000 years ago by growers seeking longer stigmas until the plant became sterile and was no longer the same species as its original source. If you’re wondering how they keep a species of sterile flowers alive, the process involves digging up the flower’s bulbs, breaking them up and then replanting them. Each plant can produce about ten blubs. This process, along with the relatively small bit of the flower actually used account for why saffron is so darn expensive. About forty hours of labor are required to pick 150,000 flowers and each pound of saffron requires between 50,000 and 75,000 flowers. That’s about one week’s worth of work to pick about a football field worth of flowers all for two pounds of saffron. Once in the market, the price per pound of saffron ranges from $500 to $5,000. These days, saffron is most commonly used in paellas, but throughout history, the spice has been used to treat illness, to dye clothing, to bathe in, and as a yummy seasoning, of course. Alexander the Great used saffron in his rice and in his bath to help treat his battle wounds. His troops followed suit and brought the practice back to Greece where saffron baths became all the rage. During the Black Plague, saffron was sold as a medicine to treat the illness. There was such a huge demand that when a shipment of the spice was stolen by noblemen, a fourteen-week long “Saffron War” broke out. The flower’s cultivation soon started spreading north and soon there were so many people selling counterfeit saffron in Nuremberg that the city issued a law that made it a crime punishable by death to sell adulterated saffron. As it turns out, the spice is highly useful as a medicine although its effectiveness against the plague is still questionable. Recent studies have found that it can help treat Alzheimer’s, depression, obesity, PMS, breast cancer, allergies and help prevent heart and eye problems. Source Image Via Kenpei [Wikipedia]

Vanilla

While you probably know vanilla comes from a bean, did you know that bean came from a beautiful orchid plant? Or that while we are now accustomed to “Tahitian vanilla” and “Madagascar vanilla,” the orchid is actually native to Mexico? In fact, even though vanilla was brought to Europe by Cortez in the 1520’s, it wasn’t until the 1840’s that a 12-year-old boy figured out a way to hand pollinate the flowers that previously could only reproduce with the help of Mexico’s native Melipona bee. Once little Edmond Albius figured out this process, the plant quickly started being grown commercially in tropical climates around the world. These days, Madagascar is the largest supplier of the bean, responsible for 58% of the total vanilla production. Despite the fact that it can be grown in tropical areas throughout the world, the process to grow the plants is so labor intensive that vanilla is still the second most expensive spice in the world. Long before Cortez arrived in the New World, the Totonacs of the Gulf Coast were the first people to cultivate vanilla. According to their folklore, the orchid was born when the Goddess Princess Xanat was forbidden to marry a mortal. She fled to the forest with her lover, but both of them were captured and beheaded. When the blood hit the ground, the vines of the orchid plant magically took root. Source

Nutmeg

Dante was looking quite stylish at the Otakon Convention in the great Okami Amaterasu costume his owners made for him. While I've seen a lot of great cosplayers in my day, I don't think I've ever seen a dog with such a great costume before. Have you?

Link Via The Mary Sue

Pop Up books are largely considered children's territory, but WebUrbanist has a great selection of 3D books that grown ups can enjoy too. I certainly would enjoy getting my hands on some of these. How about you guys?

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Jonathan Stark is either a marketer or someone performing a strange social experiment. Either way, he has offered up his Starbucks card for free public use. Surprisingly, people have continued to add money to it, so the card has continued to be useable for a long time now. You can even check the balance on the card before you order up a drink by following the automatically updated Twitter feed.

Link Via The Consumerist

I can understand a writer making this mistake in the midst of writing dozens of questions a day, but shouldn't an editor have caught this?

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The Republic High School in Missouri recently banned Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five. In response, the Vonnegut Memorial Library is offering the students a free copy of the novel so they can read it on their own and draw their own conclusions. According to the library's representative:

We have up to 150 books to share, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor... We’re not telling you to like the book… we just want you to read it and decide for yourself.

Link Via The Mary Sue

Remember Mary Bale, a.k.a. the woman who was tracked down and harassed after someone uploaded a video of her throwing a cat into a trashcan? She's one of the many people who were taught a lesson by the throngs of angry internet users. You can read more about her and 11 others in similar situations over at Ugo. Fair warning, not all of the people actually deserved what they got.

http://www.ugo.com/web-culture/people-who-got-owned-by-the-internet

I don't know about all of you, but I'm a sucker for vintage photos shot in color and these gorgeous WWII images from the Library of Congress are both fascinating and stunning. You can find more of them over at The Atlantic.

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Did you know they made a National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2? Or that there was a sequel to American Psycho that didn't have anything to do with the film Christian Bale starred in? If not, then you'd probably enjoy this great list of terrible sequels found over at Mental Floss.

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For those of you who think you have a terrible landlord, it's always good to remind yourself things could be worse. After all, you could have a landlord who is willing to load your home up with scorpions in order to push you to move out. That's what one Chinese landlord did to his tenants when they refused to sign a deal that would require them to move out and allow him to demolish the building.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/National/2011/07/21/Scorpions%2Bon%2Bthe%2Bloose%2Bin%2BShenzhen/ Via Consumerist

I recently came across artist James Hance's website and I have to say, I'm impressed with what he calls his "Relentlessly Cheery Art." Just look at this piece titled "Chester Copperpot's Goonie Clubhouse Band" and you'll see how fun his work really is. See more over at his website and if you like his paintings, go ahead and indulge -the prints are only $10 each.

http://www.jameshance.com/prints.html