(Photo: Ian Lamont)

There’s putting words on paper, there’s writing, and a world of difference between them. Longform journalism requires good writing and, specifically, good storytelling. Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic reads a lot of it. He’s assembled a list of more than 100 longform pieces published last year that he considers to be the best. It’s sorted into several categories, including personal essays, nature, food, and sports. There are contributions from The New Republic, the Washington Post, Grantland, Mental Floss, and many other sources. Friedersdorf, apparently, reads very widely.

The most interesting piece that I found on the list is this article by Mike Dash in Smithsonian. We've previously mentioned it. The article describes Soviet geologists discovering in 1978 a Russian family that had been living in complete isolation for 42 years in a wilderness in Siberia. Dash describes them:

The Lykov children knew there were places called cities where humans lived crammed together in tall buildings. They had heard there were countries other than Russia. But such concepts were no more than abstractions to them. Their only reading matter was prayer books and an ancient family Bible. Akulina had used the gospels to teach her children to read and write, using sharpened birch sticks dipped into honeysuckle juice as pen and ink. When Agafia was shown a picture of a horse, she recognized it from her mother’s Bible stories. “Look, papa,” she exclaimed. “A steed!”

-via Kottke

Western aesthetic traditions did not always demand that women, to be icons of beauty, must fit into size 0 outfits. Past centuries of female nudes in Western art show an acceptance of a few healthy pounds.

Of course, the women depicted in fashion magazines do not always themselves fit into such tiny sizes. They are photoshopped that way, often ridiculously. To mock this tendency, Lauren Wade, a photographic editor, altered eight classic beauties, such as Sandro Botticelli’s Venus pictured above, in the manner of the fashion publishing industry. You can view them all here.

Content warning: artistic nudity (but nothing prurient).

-via Design Boom

You have to watch very carefully, but it's there. This boy knows how to charm the ladies.

This is a scene from a recent baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays. The boy catches a foul ball. It appears that he then gallantly offers the trophy to a pretty young lady behind him. But he actually palms that ball and hands the girl a non-game ball that he already had.

Very good. The Padawan has become the Master.

You can watch the full video here.

(Photo: Jason Rogers)

Now's your chance to buy a stake in Dracula's castle! Bran Castle in Romania, which has existed in various forms since the Thirteenth Century, is for sale. Prince Vlad the Impaler (1431-c.1476), the source of the Dracula legend, was imprisoned there for two months.

Much later, Bran Castle was the property of the Romanian royal family. In 1948, the royal family was stripped of its property and driven out of the country. After the collapse of the Ceausescu regime, Romania returned the castle to members of the royal family. Those three property holders are now elderly and would like to turn Bran Castle over to someone else. Mark Meyer, a representative of the sellers, described the possible future of the castle:

“Archduke Dominic and his family care very much for the castle, and it’s in far better shape now than it was when run by the government,” says Meyer. “The aim, though, is to take the whole thing a stage further, re-route the road and make Bran a destination, the kind of place people will stay for two or three days.”

There’s enough land to build a small hotel, he adds. “And we’re also installing a glass elevator that will lead to a tunnel in the mountain, with a light show featuring Dracula and the whole history of the place.

“That’s why we’d like whoever buys the castle to continue running it as a tourist destination. This isn’t just a national monument, it’s the largest and most significant attraction in Romania.”

Would you like to live in Dracula's castle?

-via Ace of Spades HQ

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In the criminal justice system of the Seven Kingdoms, the Crown is represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the City Watch, which investigates crimes and the Tribunal which prosecutes the offenders. These are their stories.

George R.R. Martin's police procedural show is wowing audiences with crime stories ripped from the headlines and compelling characters such as Det. Jaime Lannister.

Double Prizes Media made this mashup of Game of Thrones and Law & Order: SVU. Watch the opening credits and a gripping courtroom scene.

Warning: you will encounter spoilers if you're not current on Game of Thrones.

-via io9

Pictured above is the border between the United States and Canada. To the south, you see the State of New York. To the north, you see the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. You'll notice that there's a slice of land north of the border that is not attached by land to Canada. Let's take a closer look.

(Images: Google Maps)

This exclave is called Kana:takon. It's less than a square mile in area. The story of how it ended up Canadian instead of American goes back to the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the first attempt to define the boundaries of the nascent United States of America. That treaty's lengthy description of the border said that this area would be divided by the middle of the St. Lawrence River to the 45°N line of latitude.

These were decisions made by people with limited knowledge of the actual geography and, by modern standards, inadequate surveying equipment. As I've mentioned previously, such problems led the United States to accidentally build a fort in Canada.

The Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River have numerous islands. It was not always clear from the Treaty of Paris which islands belonged to which nation. But boundary commissions worked during the 1830s and resolved the outstanding issues by the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty. St. Regis, as Kana:takon was known at the time, would remain Canadian.

The entire territory is part of a Mohawk Native American/First Nations community that straddles the US-Canadian border. Members of that nation cross the international border freely because the 1794 Jay Treaty permits them to do so:

It is agreed that it shall at all Times be free to His Majesty's Subjects, and to the Citizens of the United States, and also to the Indians dwelling on either side of the said Boundary Line freely to pass and repass by Land, or Inland Navigation, into the respective Territories and Countries of the Two Parties on the Continent of America (the Country within the Limits of the Hudson's Bay Company only excepted) and to navigate all the Lakes, Rivers, and waters thereof, and freely to carry on trade and commerce with each other.

(Photos: Mohawk Council of Akwesasne)

Kana:takon is a thriving community with its own school, homes, and businesses. It's easy to walk or drive into the United States. But though it's part of Canada, residents must drive through the United States to get to Canada.

I carry a lot in my pockets and on my utility belt. It would drive me nuts to have to deal with the pocket problems that modern fashion presents to women.

My wife informs me that many items of women's clothing include not only tiny, inadequate pockets, but fake pockets. Fake! That would fill me with rage.

I wouldn't mind having a marsupial pouch, as Chris Hallbeck of Minimumble suggests. That would let me carry even more gear!

A hunter may stretch an animal hide on a wooden rack to prepare it for further processing or for permanent display, such as this polar bear hide pictured below:

(Photo: Mike Beauregard)

Instructables member mosspossum explains that, "as an adult I don't hunt alot but my kids are avid Pokemon hunters. So I figured why not?" Indeed, this is the right way to show your support for your children's hobby.

He cut up Pikachu (hopefully getting some good meat), prepared the hide, and attached it to a ring of branches. You can find his instructions here, which are presumably applicable with other Pokémon.

The lady in the picture with the pink shirt is Heleen. She has limited mobility. Her service dog manages many of her daily tasks.

Heleen owns a lamp with a floor switch. Neither she nor the dog can operate it easily. So some of her friends built a solution: a huge light switch. You can find a basic description of it in English at Instructables or a lengthy description in German here. They used a laser cutter to make the wood components. There's a concrete block in the bottom to prevent it from tipping over.

Now when Heleen needs to turn on or off the light, she says, "Veritas" and the dog will tap the on/off lever.

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George Neal, 21, of Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, owns a Nissan Micra. But for a while on Friday, a huge swarm of bees was in undisputed possession of it. A young queen searching for a good place to spawn a colony settled into the one of his wheel wells. About 20,000 of her friends joined her, covering much of the car. Rory Edwards, Neal's friend and the man who shot this video, cracked:

Although none of us are allergic, we thought George probably would not want his car covered in a swarm of bees. He did literally have a bee in his bonnet though.

Later, a professional beekeeper removed the queen and the colony with her.

-via Nerdcore

(Photo: James)

Superman was the last survivor of his species. Batman was an orphan who witnessed the murder of his own parents. Wolverine was the bastard son of a violent drunk.

The best of superheroes start at the bottom of human suffering and crawl their way out to greatness. The Dorito chip is no different. It began as garbage at a Frito-Lay restaurant in Disneyland. Archibald Clark West, a son of impoverished immigrants to the United States, found a great opportunity. Emily Upton writes for Today I Found Out:

The idea for Doritos was conceived in Disneyland, of all places. It wasn’t West who actually first made them, either. The original Doritos were made in Casa de Fritos, a restaurant owned by the Fritos founder, Elmer Doolin. The restaurant was located in Frontierland and served standard Tex-Mex, with every meal boasting a complimentary bag of Fritos. The restaurant was a hit, but it didn’t make its own tortillas, a job which was contracted out to Alex Foods. It was a salesman from Alex Foods who saw discarded tortillas at Casa de Fritos and told the cook he should fry them up and make tortilla chips out of them, rather than just throw them out. Because tortilla chips weren’t yet made by Fritos, and Fritos themselves were given out with the meals, Casa de Fritos hadn’t thought to offer them like other Mexican restaurants did.

The cook did as he advised and used his own special blend of seasoning and the chips were a hit. The restaurant put them on the menu as a regular item but didn’t inform the Frito Company of the change.

About a year later, in 1961, West walked by the restaurant on a family vacation and noticed the chips. He was then the vice president of marketing for the company and felt like he had stumbled upon a goldmine. When he returned to work, he pitched the idea of selling packaged tortilla chips—a happy medium between Lay’s thin potato chips and Fritos’ thick, curly corn chips. His bosses weren’t initially convinced.

Yet West persisted and brought Doritos to the world. When he passed away in 2011 at the age of 97, his family sprinkled Doritos on his grave.

-via Death & Taxes via Super Punch

They're a bit exciting and a bit terrifying. But that's what you should expect from the future, right? There will be surveillence drones everywhere, but also holographic girlfriends.

Fernando Barbella, an advertising and creative director from Argentina, developed a series of images that he calls Signs from the Near Future. He explains that:

Futurist predictions in technology can be exciting or downright scary. Here are some exercises on what we can expect to see in the near future on a daily basis. Machines and science that either enhance or replace activities and products near and dear to us. New materials, mashups between living organisms and nanotechnologies, improved capabilities for formerly “dumb” and inanimate things… We better get used to them!

-via Super Punch

A few days ago, a stray dog viciously attacked a four-year old boy in Bakersfield, California. The boy had to get stitches. But the attack could have ended much worse were not for the heroics of Tara, the family cat. Tara immediately leaped into action to defend her human, attacking and chasing the dog away.

(Image: ABC 23)

The cat has been widely praised for her quick thinking and courage during the encounter. The Bakersfield Blaze, a minor league baseball team, will honor the cat at its next game by permitting Tara to throw the first pitch. The AP reports:

Dan Besbris of the Bakersfield Blaze minor league baseball team said Friday that the cat named Tara will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the next home game. Besbris wouldn't reveal how they expect to pull off the stunt, hoping to heighten interest. Tara has already proven she's exceptional, he said.

"It sounds crazy," Besbris said. "But we've got a trick up our sleeve."

-via Dave Barry

This Pinkie Pie clock by DeviantART member madcomputerscientist reminds us of something important: now is always the right time to post ponies. That is why, today, we look at inventive timepieces made by and for bronies.

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Among the most impressive My Little Pony clocks that I have seen is this pendulum clock by Decodrew. It shows Derpy Hooves, the mailpony of Ponyville. Decodrew is a craftsman of impressive skill and precision. In addition to this clock, you can see that on display in this automaton of Derpy that he built.

Applejack is a member of the Apple family, has three apples as a cutie mark, and works on an apple farm. She's all about apples, so it's appropriate that her clock by Lucas shows her in the middle of a big apple.

Lucas has a lot of experience making pony clocks. He's made no fewer than three clocks showing the cellist Octavia. The shape of the clock appropriately reflects her cutie mark.

If Rainbow Dash has ever appeared on screen playing a guitar, then I've missed it. But, like Lucas, I can definitely see her playing in a rock band.

DeviantART member sgtgarand makes boomerangs. They're both visually attractive and practically functional. This one has a novel shape. It looks like Princess Cadance, a character on the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

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In this video, sgtgarand takes it out for a spin. The wind isn't ideal, but Cadance flies and returns successfully.

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He also explains why Cadance is scowling in the boomerang. Her appearance is a reference to this scene in the episode "The Crystal Empire"--Part 2. Cadance is weakened and unable to fly. So her husband, Shining Armor, throws her into flight to defeat the villain Sombra.

You can see the scene nicely illustrated in this automaton by renegadecow.

-via Equestria Daily