Aladdin was not the genie’s first master. It’s unlikely that the movie shows the first time that he suggested that a master set him free. He must have had a previous master who refused. This master is never mentioned anywhere, but Andrew Bridgman and Paul Westover of Dorkly have inferred that he must exist. He’s one of 5 Disney characters that necessarily exist, including the clam that forms Ariel’s bra and the fashion expert who suggested that Cruella de Vil get a dog-skin coat.

The famous Lucky the Leprechaun now sits atop the Marshmallow Throne. But he never rests easy. It was by no means guaranteed that he would forever be the public face of Lucky Charms cereal. In 1975, General Mills experimented with a different mascot: Waldo the Wizard. He was a cheerful, absent-minded wizard who liked children.

Test audiences responded favorably to Waldo--they even liked him better than Lucky. Monte Olmstead writes for the General Mills blog:

“Waldo’s endearing quality was his forgetfulness linked with wordplay. Kids like to see human qualities in characters,” says Alan Snedeker, who created Waldo while working for New York ad agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample from 1964 to 1985.

While Lucky’s catchphrase was, “They’re magically delicious,” Waldo called Lucky Charms “ibbledebibbledelicious.”

And in every commercial, Waldo lost his box of Lucky Charms and had to find it.

In market tests in New England, Waldo and another one of his creations beat Lucky hands down. Lucky was vulnerable. “My work beat Lucky twice in tests,” Snedeker says.

In 1975, the two Lucky Charms cereal mascots coexisted – Waldo in New England and Lucky in the rest of the U.S. In some of the television spots, Snedeker says he made Lucky “more friendly,” which may have led to Waldo’s demise.

“In making Lucky nicer, I probably killed Waldo,” he admits.

After less than a year, Lucky returned. Goodbye, Waldo.

-via Rusty Blazenhoff | Image: General Mills

(Image: Chemistry World)

It's possible to use human urine to generate electricity and the flow of inventions that have resulted from this discovery has increased over recent years. Here's one clever application. The Bristol BioEnergy Centre in the UK has developed a small, portable emergency signal that can be powered by peeing on it. It's shaped like a pyramid and is covered with a membrane for processing the urine. Polly Wilson of Chemistry World reports:

An external waterproofing layer made from three layers of a conductive latex solution avoids any unpleasant leaks and also doubles as the cathode. Electricity producing bacteria in the form of dormant biofilms quickly revive when fed urine, even after long periods of desiccation and cold storage. These clever constructs ensure the membrane and electrodes are in close proximity, and generate enough power to power a transceiver just 35 minutes after activation. A feat that biochemist Gajanan Ghodake, of Dongguk University in South Korea, finds ‘quite astounding’. And two cells connected in series broadcast radio signals through a transceiver at roughly 6 minute intervals for 24 hours; a potentially lifesaving signal for an explorer in trouble.

-via Dave Barry

In 1983, the great comic actor Rowan Atkinson brought us Blackadder, a serial about a witty man surrounded by idiots throughout English history. It begins with depicting Atkinson as a scheming member of the royal court in the Fifteenth Century. Then he was a member of the court of Elizabeth I, then a butler to the Prince Regent during the Napoleonic Wars, and an army officer during World War I.

Blackadder is truly great comedy. If you haven't seen it, you should do so.

But Atkinson's Blackadder wasn't the first. Paul Gallagher of Flashbak tells us that the name first appeared as the title of a 1951 British children's adventure novel. In this novel by John Keir Cross, the Blackadder was a villainous spy who conspired with Napoleonic France to conquer Britain. Gallagher writes:

The story tells of two boys, Cathro and de Rohan uncovering a cunning plan for the French to invade England with the help of Simon Blackadder–a devious spy who pretends to be a smuggler to cover his nefarious activities. […]

He was thirty-five when the story unfolds, and had been an active participant in the great French Revolution, when he had been an associate of Marat and Robespierre–and had been “a fanatical informer and assassin of the aristocrats”. Blackadder is described as being consumed by “a fearful and continuous hatred” of England, and he threw himself into the war between English and the French, campaigning with Napoleon in Italy. But as he soon discovered, Blackadder made a better spy than soldier.

(Berkeley Mews/Ben Zaehringer)

Every gorgon occasionally wants a day off to go the ballfield and see a game. But the jumbotron isn't for you. And don't even try to get featured on the kiss cam.

Your child is transitioning from human to centaur. There's no point arguing that species is biologically determined. The child feels centaur and thus is. Accept and validate the child's identity. Dr. Pinder Chipps, a therapist and happy father of two centaurs, can show you how with his book endorsed by Star Trek's George Takei.

The mysterious blogger Obvious Plant creates highly realistic signs and leaves them in stores. As a result, he offers you funny but fake product reviews and extremely specific but helpful bookstore sections. In his most recent prank, he created book jackets for self-help books on basic adult life skills, human sacrifice, and the experience of parenting a new centaur.

(Photo: Taco Bell)

Glenn Bell founded 7 different businesses before he finally hit upon the idea that would become a multibillion dollar company. In 1962, he built Taco Bell, a taco shop in Downey, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It was a simple building. Joe Satran of the Huffington Post describes it:

The wood, stucco and brick Mission-style building measured just 20 feet by 20 feet. There was no indoor seating -- just a small kitchen, an ordering window and a few tables and chairs on the patio. A clay-tile roof, arch-shaped entryways and a large metal bell set in a cavity above the entrance lent it an air of festivity -- but no embellishment could conceal its essentially modest nature.

Singaporean artist Lee Wen made Ping-Pong Go Round, an interactive art installation. It's a modular ping pong table that allows several people to play at the same time. The set is portable, so he's taken it across southeast Asia and Australia, inviting people to play this loopy variant of the game. Most recently, he exhibited it at Art Basel Hong Kong.

-via Fubiz

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Fisherman Clayton Will isn’t going to allow chilly weather to keep him from enjoying a day out on the water. He’s built an iceboat by attaching skids to a jon boat. The engine is a saw motor with the buzzsaw blade still attached! The teeth on the blade do a great job of grabbing the ice and giving Will the traction he needs to maneuver.

-via Core 77

(Photo: Emily Yoshizawa)

Is that a ribcage? Yes, it is. It may or may not be a real one. But this is Etsy. If you want a human ribcage lamp . . . well, there are artists who do custom work.

It’s one of 12 very weird and often disturbing lamps on sale on Etsy, rounded up by Anna Fitzpatrick of The Hairpin. You can view the rest here. They include an eyeless baby who stares into your empty soul and a headless dog.

Ari Weinkle, a digital artist in Boston, created Feelers, an animated typeface. His letters quiver and writhe like living creatures. This would be ideal for composing an online horror novel or a résumé.

Food critic Mr. Sykes refers to the experience of the Bob Bob Ricard restaurant as "dining inside a faberge egg." The Bob Bob Richard is a luxury restaurant in the Soho neighborhood of London that serves Russian and English cuisine.

The exclusive club room has a button at every table. Press it and a waiter will bring you champagne. It's a lot like the pizza button gadget that you can put on your refrigerator. We all need buttons like these in our lives.

-via Messy Nessy Chic

When he was 17, Scott Bisson bent a glass tube over a Bunsen burner in his high school chemistry class. This began his fascination with shaping and folding glass as an art form. Now, from his studio in Philomath, Oregon, Bisson creates incredibly colorful sculptures of animals that look completely alive.

(Photo via Library of Congress)

From 1778 to 1782, Daniel Frederick Bakeman was a soldier in the Continental Army. On the final day of his life--April 5, 1869--he was the last surviving American veteran of the Revolutionary War. Kathy Benjamin describes his extraordinary longevity:

In 1867, Daniel Bakeman finally applied for a military pension, even though his service had been almost 90 years before. At that point he claimed to be 107, and was 109 when he died two years later. It's also claimed that he was married to his wife for 91 years and 12 days, which, if true, would make it the longest marriage ever recorded.

You can read about the last survivors of other major events, including the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Thermopylae, at Mental Floss.

-via The Presurfer

Tommy Krångh, a sign language interpreter, was tasked with providing a translation of the Eurovision Song Contest for a Swedish television network. Singer Magnus Carlsson captivated a live audience with his singing. But Krångh stole the spotlight with his energetic signing and dance moves. 

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As the song progressed, Krångh got more and more into the rhythm, busting out moves that have made him the darling of the internet

-via Huffington Post