(Despic-Emoji t-shirt on sale at the NeatoShop)

In Book I of his Confessions, Saint Augustine of Hippo explained how he as a child acquired language:

When they named any thing, and as they spoke turned towards it, I saw and remembered that they called what they would point out by the name they uttered. And that they meant this thing and no other was plain from the motion of their body, the natural language, as it were, of all nations, expressed by the countenance, glances of the eye, gestures of the limbs, and tones of the voice, indicating the affections of the mind, as it pursues, possesses, rejects, or shuns. And thus by constantly hearing words, as they occurred in various sentences, I collected gradually for what they stood; and having broken in my mouth to these signs, I thereby gave utterance to my will. Thus I exchanged with those about me these current signs of our wills, and so launched deeper into the stormy intercourse of human life, yet depending on parental authority and the beck of elders.

And thus the individual was able to contribute to the "stormy intercourse of human life," as well as partake of the greatest works that resulted from the collected discourse of human civilization.

Then came emoji.

Emoji are small visual symbols that some people use to express their inner wills. They are acts of communication in the sense that a barking dog is communicating. They are, according to scholars at the University of Minnesota, dangerously imprecise tools to use instead of actual, you know, words. Hannah Miller and her colleagues summarize their findings:

Emoji are commonly used in modern text communication. However, as graphics with nuanced details, emoji may be open to interpretation. Emoji also render differently on different viewing platforms (e.g., Apple’s iPhone vs. Google’s Nexus phone), potentially leading to communication errors.

We explore whether emoji renderings or differences across platforms give rise to diverse interpretations of emoji. Through an online survey, we solicit people’s interpretations of a sample of the most popular emoji characters, each rendered for multiple platforms. Both in terms of sentiment and semantics, we analyze the variance in interpretation of the emoji, quantifying which emoji are most (and least) likely to be misinterpreted. In cases in which participants rated the same emoji rendering, they disagreed on whether the sentiment was positive, neutral, or negative 25% of the time.

When considering renderings across platforms, these disagreements only increase. Overall, we find significant potential for miscommunication, both for individual emoji renderings and for different emoji renderings across platforms.

-via Nerdcore

(Photo: Kees Peters)

Inspired by artwork by NoFlutter, Rini Cosplay created this retro look for Power Girl. She wore it to the Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht last month. You can see additional photos here and here.

There's no internet in the universe of Game of Thrones. Or running water or antibiotics. But if someone did set up WiFi hotspots on Westeros and provide smartphones, we'd get to see what major characters would do on the internet.

Jamie Jones and Becky Barnicoat of BuzzFeed illustrate what 13 characters from Game of Thrones would do with internet access. Tyrion would rule Twitter with his witty one-liners, Arya Stark would use Pinterest in horrifying ways, and the Mother of Dragons would overshare on Facebook about being a new mom.

Jess J. Hall of Wicked Hair Design in Kansas City cut and colored this awesome image of a dragon into the back of some lucky gent's head. It looks like the mark of a hero in a fantasy movie.

-via BuzzFeed

(Photo: MyLoveBox)

The bread is a bit crunchy now, but it can looks perfectly clear to eat. What's going on here? Chloe Bryan at Mashable comments:

We'd ask the baker to check Reddit, but we're not sure they can see a computer screen right now.

-via That's Nerdalicious!

Two burglary suspects made off in a Ford Mustang convertible in Los Angeles yesterday. For felons, they were incredibly chill about the whole thing. You'd have no reason to think that they were fleeing criminals instead of just guys out looking for a good time.

The police held back instead of pursuing them closely, thus potentially endangering innocent people. In fact, when the fellas decided to finally stop, sit on their cars, chat with pedestrians, and take selfies, it took a while for police to show up and arrest them.

(Video Link)

Thankfully, the entire bizarre scene was caught on camera with a news helicopter crew. If anyone was enjoying the event more than the thieves, it was two reporters with Fox 10. Duing the chase, they made jokes, speculated about taking down the suspects themselves, and marveled at their antics.

You must see the entire video, for it is good. So very, very good.

-via Geekologie

(Video Link)

I never realized how often directors strive to have symmetry or juxtaposition between the first and the final frames of television series. You can see this particularly well in Sons of Anarchy and Oz.

Last year, we saw Jacob T. Sweeney's compilation of first and final shots for 125 famous movies. Celia Gómez edited this video which shows the same for 19 television shows. They often fit well together, telling a whole story. Gómez's selections are:

(Photo: Thrillist)

What would convince Ron Swanson to try ethnic food? Maybe this meat tornado in Leo's Taco Truck in Los Angeles. It didn't literally kill a guy last year (as far as I know), but it does offer top-tier Mexican food.

The truck serves tacos al pastor, which is a type of vertical roasting. Serious Eats describes it:

There, in true al pastor form, the taqueras marinate thin, thin slices of pork shoulder in a mixture of chilies and aromatics colored bright red with achiote. The slices are then stacked onto a vertical skewer, forming a large, bell-shaped trompo (spinning top), which gets topped with an onion and pineapple, and slowly rotates in front of a vertical grill.

(Photo: Ross Huggett)

Redditor CharlieSnow poses this question and the good people of reddit show up with some preposterous and/or awesome jobs.

The dangerously named DrWhoIsOverRated says:

My brother in law is a professional jouster. He works for a company that travels to renaissance fairs, and he owns his own custom suit of armor.

Tinferbrains has a job for those of you who enjoy a good nap:

My uncle used to work in a psych ward as a security guy. He did the overnights, his supervisor told him "Sleep your shift away. If something happens that wakes you up, get me ASAP."

He basically got paid to sleep for 8 hours.

TriBeCa917 explains how modern banking works:

I work at an investment bank and we have a VP without a college degree..a couple of my buddies hired him as an analyst solely because he was a drug dealer and they wanted to be able to purchase drugs conveniently at work. We didn't expect him to actually do anything, but he slowly learned how to do everything and actually ended up getting promoted to VP by one of the senior directors. We all think it's hilarious

Unenthused_Tech worked in an uncommon archive:

I used to have a job where I would scan [breasts] into a computer all day everyday. Digitizing a mammography film storage library.

I once met a cruise ship librarian, which sounds a lot more fun that it actually was. And I knew a woman whose job in a biology lab was to stimulate male rats with a steel loop until they ejaculated.

What's the most ridiculous job that you've ever seen someone do for a living?

Finally, the genius of Simone Giertz is getting public recognition! This is the woman who invented the internet commenting robot and the chopping machine. It's long past time that her ideas are fully implemented to the benefit of humanity.

Giertz has now joined Tested, the new website of Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters. Together, they built this machine that automatically feeds you popcorn. This way, while you're re-watching Krull, you can snack without taking your eyes off the screen.

(Photo: Eggloo)

What do you want on your ice cream sundae? Eggloo in New York City's Chinatown offers strawberries, candies, cereal, pocky sticks, and even fortune cookies.

For all that, you'll need a very sturdy ice cream cone. Eggloo solves this structural integrity problem with entire waffles. It's everything you could possibly want in a breakfast--and more!

This 1 of 8 extreme ice creams that have debuted in 2016 and rounded up by First We Feast. These include ice creams with fireworks and churro cones.

And it's only April. Just think about what else could emerge in the next several months!

Maria Oberloher has to take care of her child and rule the concrete. As a master multitasker, she can do both at the same time! Watch her flip her board while pushing her son Luan in a stroller through the skate park.

-via Huffington Post

(Photo: Xiaomi)

The original Soundwave transformed into a cassette player boom box. It was the 80s, so that was high tech and cool.

Now it seems really obsolete. So Hasbro created a new version that turns Soundwave into a Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 tablet computer. Well, something that looks like a tablet. It's non functional--for now. 

Here's a promotional video for the new $26 toy:

It's time to make the banana chimichangas!

Stephan Brusche, a banana artist, finally saw the Deadpool movie. He says that it's "Very funny and well made!" It inspired him to recreate the famous anti-hero with bananas.

-via Between the Pages

(Twisted Doodles)

What's in your dog's wallet? His mind is always on you, so he carries appropriate mementos. What about your cat? Well, he's thinking about you, too. Just in a different way.