No matter how thoroughly parents think they explain the world to their children, they can’t cover everything, because it’s difficult to remember what a context-free life is like. But that’s what children have. Everything is a new experience, and it’s easy to get the wrong idea. A roundup of these childhood misconceptions had me giggling.

8. “I thought the cops would come get me.”

“When I was younger I saw an accident on the side of the road and my mom said, ‘If you have an accident, the cops come.’ I thought she meant that if I peed my pants in the car the cops would come get me.”

—Kate Heidenreich, Facebook

14. “I am too young! I am too young!”

“When I was in the first grade a lot of my school’s teachers were pregnant. One day I ran home to tell my mom that my teacher announced that she was expecting a baby, too, and my mom said, ‘I guess she drank the Kool-Aid.’ The next day we were served Kool-Aid for a kid’s birthday and I freaked out, screaming, ‘I am too young, I am too young!’”

—jennifers160

There are dozens more in the comments.

My mom used to tell me that hairspray was used to "keep your hair from flying away". I thought that without hairspray your hair would going flying off your head like a bird and you'd be bald.

Janell Ebel

Well, we all have these. I refused to eat cotton candy because I thought it was made of the same material that was stuffed into the top of aspirin bottles. My daughter just recently told me that she’d watch me put dryer lint in a “magic pink box” when she was very young. It was a small wastebasket on a shelf. She thought it was magic, because when it got full, it would “magically” disappear. It was years before she figured out I just emptied it. Read the roundup of childhood misconceptions at Buzzfeed. And if you remember a funny one, share it with us!

(Image credit: Flickr user Pete Bellis)

Insects have superpowers -some more so than others. This is from the fairly new webcomic They Can Talk. -via Pleated-Jeans

Mark Hamill has been signing Star Wars photos and memorabilia for 38 years. I’m sure what he puts on them depends on the situation and how much time he has. Some of the bubblegum cards have surfaced with great jokes to go along with the autograph. Hamill no doubt has heard every Star Wars joke ever made, so there are more of these to be found. I particularly like this one.  -via reddit

Hulk and his puppies | Image: Still of video by Barcroft TV

You may remember a previous Neatorama post about 173-pound Hulk, thought to be the largest pitbull in the world. The famous gentle giant is the pride, joy and family dog of owner Marlon Grannon, who breeds and trains protection and police dogs at Dark Dynasty K9 in New Hampshire.

There is an update in the world of Hulk since that post went live: he is now the doting father of eight adorable puppies. The litter may be naturally precious to Hulk and his puppy mama, but in the human world where money talks, each pup is akin to pitbull royalty, with a monetary value of between $30,000 and $55,000. 

By the time the puppies were born, most were already sold at a price of $30,000. Yet if the pups would go on to be trained by Grannon, their value would be in the neighborhood of $55,000 each.

Grannon's business caters to celebrities and other wealthy clientele worldwide, as well as law enforcement. Each dog is trained from birth and "lives together in a pack without fences, barriers or physical restrictions.” See Hulk and his puppies in action in the video below, and read more about him and his newly expanded canine and human family at the Daily Mail. 

This is Sir Francis Bacon. As you can see, he is an adorable little Boston terrier. He is also quite the wonderful Nibbler impersonator. 

While few dogs will be able to pull off this look as well as little Bacon here, you can at least try to mimick the look since his owner was kind enough to add an Instructable on how to make your own.

Via Fashionably Geek

Colin Woodard’s new book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America divides North America into districts that have no bearing on state borders, but are identified as unique cultures. Who knew that you could draw a map that puts John Farrier and me into the same category?  

Woodard says that among these 11 nations, Yankeedom and the Deep South exert the most influence and are constantly competing with each other for the hearts and minds of the other nations.

"We are trapped in brinkmanship because there is not a lot of wiggle room between Yankee and Southern Culture," Woodard says. "Those two nations would never see eye to eye on anything besides an external threat."

Woodward also says the regions are becoming more polarized, because humans are mobile and “self-sorting.” That’s not universal. I am still in Kentucky because of relatives and the property I own, not the politics. Read a short history and description of each of these cultures at Business Insider. -via mental_floss

(Image credit: Colin Woodward and Tufts/Brian Stauffer)

Trinity College Library | Image: Nic McPhee

Words go in and out of fashion, and as they do, sometimes we lose perfectly good ones in our daily barrage of media presentations. Unless one is an avid reader, they may never have seen words that are perfectly apt and have the benefit of having a melodic sound that flows well into other commonly used English words. 

This list of one hundred beautiful English words has some arguably attractive selections that would be great interspersed with our own vocabulary standards, if they aren't already in rotation. The more the merrier, correct? See what words populate the list and share your favorites, if you'd like. My favorites listed here are "bucolic" and "halcyon." 

George Lucas caught a lot of flak from fans when he decided to add a bunch of CGI scenes to the original Star Wars trilogy.

He caught even more heat when he decided to do away with the original versions in favor of his updated editions, leaving future generations thinking Jabba looks like this:

(Image Link)

Unless you’ve scrutinized all three versions of the original trilogy you probably didn’t catch all the changes Lucas introduced into each film, because there are so many it's hard to keep track of them all.

(YouTube Link)

Film fan Marcelo Zuniga has created a set of exhaustive side-by-side comparison videos showing all the changes made to the original trilogy, including the updated Hutt horror.

(YouTube Link)

See Every Change Ever Made To The Original Star Wars Trilogy here

(YouTube link)

Action Park in New Jersey is famous for their history of crazy and dangerous rides. The newest attraction at the refurbished and upgraded park is a water slide that’s 1,975 feet  long. That’s a third of a mile! The folks at Guinness agree it is the world’s longest water slide. It’s not open to the public just yet -the state of New Jersey has to approve it first. However, park employee Jason Mulder strapped on a GoPro and went down the slide for a media day event. The video is unsettling and soothing at the same time. -via Boing Boing

I just wanted to step in here and announced that we have a new rule at Neatorama.

All thumbnail images at the top of the page used to illustrate Neatorama's exclusive articles must have a diagonal line running from the top left to the bottom right. Partial lines or a slightly steeper angles will be tolerated only when necessary.   

Those illustrating older feature stories, which you can access using the arrows on either side, are grandfathered in.

This rule will remain in effect until I can think of another one.

Thank you. You may now resume your normal activities.

YouTube Link

Milo the baby fennec fox and his baby skunk pal Flower became fast friends as soon as they were introduced. Now inseparable playmates, the duo is being raised as educational ambassadors with Amazing Animal Ambassadors, a Massachusetts-based educational organization that facilitates animal encounters with humans. See more footage of their adorable play sessions below. Milo appears to be extremely active and agile, preferring to pounce on his mouse toy; Flower seems lovably subdued. Via Laughing Squid

YouTube Link

YouTube Link

Nerd love can be unrequited for quite some time, but eventually (if you look hard enough) there’s a somebody out there for everybody, nerds included.

We search for, and obsess over, the geeky guy or girl of our dreams, and then one day (if we’re lucky) we meet someone who has the same delightfully nerdy tendencies and our hearts join forces.

And then, about a month or two later, you discover that your nerd love isn’t living up to expectations, and that there are certain elements of nerddom that take all the allure out of a romantic relationship.

Dorkly’s JHALL created this very relatable comic strip detailing Expectations Vs. Reality- Dating Someone As Nerdy As You, take a peek and see if you relate to this comic as much as I do!

Dan Charles at The Salt was doing research on cottage cheese and was sent this photo of cottage cheese and canned pineapple on a presidential plate. It was the lunch President Richard Nixon ordered just before he resigned from the office. It was never a custom for the White House photographer to take pictures of meals, so you have to wonder what was going through photographer Robert Knudson’s mind at the time.   

The discussion on this meal at Metafilter covers Nixon and his crimes, the best way to eat cottage cheese, and the demise of ordering milk with a meal.

By the way, the original article he was researching is The Fall Of A Dairy Darling: How Cottage Cheese Got Eclipsed By Yogurt. 

(Image credit: Robert Knudson/Nixon Library) 

LAURA LIKES TO POP BUBBLES OH MY GOD pic.twitter.com/3FwtQXdiAk

— nick ✰ (@voemas) July 16, 2015

Nick (@voemas on Twitter) tweeted this video of his chameleon Laura sitting up and popping bubbles. The tweet soon was getting a lot of attention. Thankfully though, when Nick told Laura about her internet fame, she didn't let it inflate her ego, as evidenced by her photo below. She knows what is full of air and what isn't. Stay grounded, Laura! Via Laughing Squid

I have just informed Laura that she is going viral on Twitter. She seems to be taking it well. pic.twitter.com/9yQMaXiuCY

— nick ✰ (@voemas) July 16, 2015

Check out this amazing shot taken by friend's parents at their vineyard in Orange NSW #colmarestatevineyard #orange #snow #nsw #australia #kangaroo #wine #wildlife #luvaustralia

A photo posted by @docholidayescape on Jul 16, 2015 at 5:59pm PDT

Instagram member docholidayescape took this picture in Orange, New South Wales today. Yes, that’s a kangaroo in the snow, something you don’t see very often, even though it’s winter Down Under. Up to 20cm (almost 8 inches) of snow fell in New South Wales, the most snow in half a century. Parts of Queensland were affected, too. Many roads are closed, thousands are without power, and quite a few schools cancelled classes today. See more pictures from the Australian snowfall at Buzzfeed.