The Bard said:
In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger
When hard times are upon us, we may rely upon the stiffened sinews of The Vulgar Chef, a man whom we know only by his title, his manful deeds, in the kitchen. Lo! He has crafted chocolate cups filled with the richest mayonnaise. Let us rejoice.
Gabrielle Wall from New Zealand has become the fastest person to run 100 metres entirely over LEGO.
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) September 2, 2025
Her time was 24.75 seconds and had to do the attempt completely barefoot. pic.twitter.com/nSxPdyPR0d
Stepping on LEGO blocks is a staple of webcomics and parental humor. It is one of those universal experiences for people with young children around. Gabrielle Wall, though, does it competitively. Watch her clear 100 meters in under 26 seconds. Notice that she uses a wide running stance. She developed it specifically for this event so that she can keep traction over the loose bricks.
As previously noted, the precise day in which World War II ended is nebulous. August 15 is normally celebrated as V-J Day, although it was on September 2 that Japanese officials boarded the USS Missouri to sign the instrument of surrender. Although some committed Japanese soldiers disputed it, we can reasonably say that World War II ended precisely 80 ago.
The US Naval Institute shares the above photo of a special card distributed to people who were on board the Missouri at the time of the surrender. Captain Stuart Murray, the commanding officer of that ship, burned the unused cards and threw the printing plates in the sea to ensure that no one could claim an honor that was not theirs.
The USS Constitution--one of the original six frigates commissioned for the nascent United States Navy--is technically still in active service. "Old Ironsides" earned her name during an engagement of the War of 1812 when British cannonballs bounced off her hull, leading one sailor to suggest that her sides were made of iron, not wood.
But they are indeed made of wood. Specifically, the Constitution consists primarily of White Oak. To ensure that the frigate remains in suitable condition should the Royal Navy ever again need a a good thrashing, the US Navy maintains a forest with mature White Oaks.
The Naval Support Activity of Crane, Indiana consists of 64,000 acres of forest, including the finest White Oak in the United States. The White Oak preserve is appropriately named "Constitution Grove."
-via J&L Historical | Photos: US Navy
The Long Walk is a film adaptation of an early novel by Stephen King. The depicts a contest in which people must walk continuously along a road at a speed of at least three miles per hour. Anyone who stops is killed. The last walker and sole survivor of the contest gets anything he wants as a reward.
Entertainment Weekly reports that the Culver Theater in Los Angeles is holding a special screening. Each audience member walks on a treadmill for the full duration of the film. Anyone who stops for any reason during the movie will be "removed" by theater staff.
-via @coopercooperco
Today, I found on reddit an interesting thread in which Trekkies share odd facts about Star Trek.* One of them is that the late physicist Stephen Hawking is the only person to depict himself on any Star Trek series. This was in a holodeck scene in the Next Generation episode "Descent."
Arguably, though, Hawking was not portraying himself, but a holographic version of himself. The Deep Space Nine character Vic Fontaine, who was a hologram, as distinguished from his Mirror Universe counterpart, who corporeal. So although Vic Fontaine is not a person, there is, in established canon, a distinction between a person and a holographic variant of that person.
The Voyager episode "Future's End," in which selected crew members travel to 1996, or the film The Voyage Home, in which the original cast travel to 1986, would have given Hawking the best opportunity for him to actually portray himself within the Star Trek universe.
*I will not, of course, share information from such a list without doing some basic fact-checking. Memory Alpha, which is a tightly-edited wiki, confirms that Stephen Hawking is the only person to portray himself on Star Trek. And I'm at a loss to think of who else, outside of stock footage, would qualify.
You can do more than just eat beer soft serve ice cream at the Minnesota State Fair. You can also attend an art show using crops as the medium. Minnesota Public Radio reports that 451 people entered works, my favorite of which is this piece by Susan Du. It's a parody of Francisco Goya's famous painting Saturn Devouring His Son.
Many of the submitted works are seed mosaic parodies of other famous works of art, notably Magritte's Ceci N'Est Pas Une Pipe. Others are reminisces of icons of Minnesotan life. You can view them at Minnesota Public Radio.
-via Hegelian vs. Predator | Photo: /u/cybercuzco
The Minnesota State Fair opened on August 21 and will continue through Labor Day. Among the vendors is West End Brews, a local brewery that is offering a wide variety of intoxicating beverages, including a soft serve version of the locally-produced Pryes Brewing Royal Raspberry Sour Ale.
Charlie Burrows, the owner of the stand, talked with local news site Bring Me the News. It reports that Burrows worked with Pyres to create a recipe that would mix with the beer to create a freezable slush. The result has been a hit with fairgoers, so he plans to continue to develop the project in time for the fair next year.
-via TYWKIWDBI | Photo: Dustin Nelson
As we've previously noted, Indian weddings can be grand spectacles--even if there isn't a couple getting married.
These weddings almost seem competitive with couples attempting to outdo each other with original pagentry. The Instagram photography account shared this video of a groom named Fenil arriving in the greatest of all wedding vehicles: a Batmobile. It is, specifically, the tumbler Batmobile that appeared in The Dark Knight trilogy.
Fenil and his clearly very lucky bride create a dramatic impression among the innumerable wedding guests. Let us hope that he and his bride were able to depart the scene in the Batmobile, too.
-via Dave Barry
Master LEGO artist Neil Snowball composed this shirt entirely out of LEGO supplies, including approximately 25,000 bricks. How is it flexible? With the aid of 210 LEGO nets.
Joshua Hanlon of the Beyond the Brick fan community put on the shirt, which seems remarkably sturdy. The design is a massively expanded version of a treasured minifig torso. Hanlon says that it's comfortable, although it does weigh about 30 pounds.
-via The Awesomer
The city of Nuremberg was of great cultural significance in Nazi Germany, as demonstrated by the infamous rallies that took place there. The victorious Allied powers put substantial effort into cleansing the country of the symbols of Nazism, including the swastika and the eagle, in Nuremberg and elsewhere.
But it was impractical to blast apart every building associated with the Nazi Party and some remain intact to this day--even in Nuremberg. Atlas Obscura tells us that one of the buildings left over from the rally grounds built by Nazi Germany is now home to a Burger King. The eagle coat of arms has been removed, but its traces can be identified on the stone.
Like most of us, the streaked shearwater (Caolonectris leucomelas) poops every four to ten minutes. But, CTV News reports, where the streaked shearwater poops is specific and of tremendous ecological importance.
These seabirds live in dry islands off the Japanese mainland. They excrete about 5% of their body mass every hour. They do so while in flight over the sea, thus leaving their nitrogen and phosphorus-packed poop in the water. There are about 424 million birds in this species. Those numbers mean that a lot of streaked shearwater poop is in the sea, thus contributing to the ecosystem in ways that are essential to marine life.
-via Dave Barry | Photo: Tony Morris
Ralph Giese has had a successful music career throughout his life with his masterful command of whistling. He even appeared on The Tonight Show in 1986 when Johnny Carson was still in charge.
On his YouTube channel, Giese takes audience requests. He's performed "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, and "Always on My Mind" by Willie Nelson. I'm especially taken with this performance of an iconic, brooding song by The Rolling Stones.
-via The Awesomer
IFL Science tells us that "xanthism" is a kind of albinism found in some animals that produces a skin that is yellow or orange. Last year, sport fishermen near the Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica hooked a nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) that measured about six and a half feet long. It has pure white eyes with no discernible irises.
Scientists who published an article about the fish note that it is the first case of xanthism found in this species, as well as any species in the Caribbean Sea. The shark was probably healthy and its unique condition did not prevent it from feeding successfully.
-via Massimo
Celine Rousseau is a food blogger and gourmand who has traveled the world sampling the best dishes available. Now she prepares a table for herself and her husband at their home in Switzerland.
We love her work here at Neatorama and have featured it previously. We are most recently captivated by a series of pastries that she has prepared. They resemble common seafoods, such as this adorable lobster.
