Most modern humans have at least one chin. Some of us are blessed with multiple chins. But only one actually has a solid bone structure behind it. Why?

Cosmos reports on a recent article published by Robert Franciscus in the Journal of Anatomy looking at evolutionary history of chins. One popular theory among physical anthropologists has been chins provide support to chewing as humans age and eat harder foods. But Franciscus and his colleagues found that longitudinal studies of bone growth in chins did not support this hypothesis.

What they propose instead is that human chins became prominent when early humans had higher levels of testosterone, which impacts bone growth, especially in the skull. As humans' aggressive behavior and testosterone levels dropped off, hormonal changes caused this large bone in the front of the human face to become sharper and angular--a chin.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Andrex99

Ray Chen, a master violist, was recently performing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Seattle Symphony in Benaroya Hall. During his solo, the E-string on Chen’s violin snapped.

He doesn’t stop playing, though. First, he signals the conductor that he has a problem. Then, in a smooth motion, at a good break in the music, he swaps instruments with the concertmaster (which, I gather, is a title for the first violinist). The concertmaster then swaps with the second chair next to him, who swaps with the fourth chair. Meanwhile, Chen is powering up with his borrowed instrument.

-via Twisted Sifter

ABC Store Clerk: I'll need to see some age verification.

Me: AT&T was the only telephone company. They owned the phone in my house and rented it to us. You dialed a number with an actual dial that turned and made a series of clicks by...

Clerk: Here's your package. Please go. https://t.co/DG5RRhUsYU

— Kwisatz Haterade (@jason0x21) November 6, 2021

Celebrity librarian Jessamyn West introduced me to a new meme on Twitter. Imagine that you're trying to buy alcohol and the liquor store clerk wants to verify that you are at least 21 years old. Aside from showing your state ID card, what could you say that would definitely date you?

Elastigirl, one of the main characters from Pixar's The Incredibles movie franchise has notably wide hips and a muscular behind. Or, at least, certain especially attentive people noticed this while watching the movie.

Personally, I watch The Incredibles for the plot.

Elastigirl is not alone. Like the mother from Dexter's Laboratory, she has "Hartman Hips." YouTuber fullcomma explains that this is artistically necessary and, in fact, tasteful.

Animators must reasonably convey the differences between sexually mature and immature bodies. Elastigirl, a middle aged mom, is precisely the former. Violet Parr, a teenage girl, is definitely the latter. The two must be differentiated.

Animators could give Elastigirl large breasts, but a very busty character would likely be seen as sexualized in our culture and thus inappropriate for a children's cartoon. Giving her wide hips, on the other hand, expresses that she is a full grown woman without arousing purient interests by viewers. Thus the audience can enjoy the film for the storytelling alone.

-via Twisted Sifter

He’s tall, mysterious, and a great listener. He’s a bit scary, which a lot people find hot. It’s no wonder that this woman fell in love with the 12-foot tall skeleton from Home Depot.

Anthony DiMieri’s short film “My New Boyfriend” tells the story of a young woman played by Chiara Gerek. After living for several years in New York City, she’s dated all sorts of men, but can’t find anyone serious—and anyone she wants to be serious about. Then she met the 12-foot skeleton from Home Depot and her life changed.

-via Laughing Squid

In other news: read an interview with Lance Allen, the product executive at Home Depot who invented the 12-foot tall skeleton.

-via Amanda Brennan

In one of the best scenes in one of the greatest comedy series—Yes, Minister—Sir Desmond Glazebrook explains to Sir Humphrey Appleby that, yes, he does carry a copy of the Financial Times with him. But that doesn’t mean that he actually understands it.

(In case it's not clear, the Financial Times is read by the people who own the country.)

Fortunately, the 404 error page of the Financial Times is far more comprehensible to those of us with a passing familiarity with economics. Or, if you’re like me, just smile and laugh when you see other people around you doing likewise. It will be less awkward.

-via Kottke

The common joke is that, eventually, advertisers will be able to buy space in your dreams to sell you stuff. We haven't arrived at that future yet, but we are making progress.

Apple Insider, a website that keeps up on the latest news about that corporation's products and services, notes that Apple recently received a patent for a product called "Apple Glass." It isn't simply a wearable augmented reality projector. It's a "direct retinal projector." This machine would use the human eyes themselves to experience the visual overlay.

So although it's not quite at the level of a holodeck on Star Trek, it is conceptually similar to the synaptic stimulator on the Star Trek:Voyager episode "Equinox."

-via Dave Barry | Image: USPO

I have not, unfortunately, been able to find the name of this amazing athlete. He should be famous, given the extraordinary feats he demonstrates in this video. 

It's not just being able to lift the barbell and a pair of 45-pound plates over his head. Such athletes would be thick on the ground in any gym. But that he can do so on a slackline shows phenomenal core strength and balance.

Who is he? Perhaps the uniquely shaped spire in the background could clue us into at least where he is located.

A suggestion: watch the video with the sound muted.

-via Born in Space

Norsonic Nor277 tapping machine for generating footstep sounds for building sound transmission testing. pic.twitter.com/SQdx1yFd3T

— MachinePix (@MachinePix) October 24, 2021

*slaps fender*

Yessir, this here is a top-of-the-line tapping machine. Barely any taps on it. The previous owner would just use it to tap a few beats on Sunday. You’ve picked the best bargain on the lot.

Why do you need a tapping machine? And, specifically, why do you need the Nor277 tapping machine? Because you need to test the acoustics of an area using a realistic simulation of footfalls with hard-soled shoes. It’s equipped with 5 tapping hammers tapping up to 10 taps per second. It weighs only 22 pounds and can be run from a battery for the off-road adventures that you’re so fond of.

The price? Step into my office. Let’s make a deal.

-via @lazerwalker

When Robert Baden-Powell founded the scouting movement in the early years of the Twentieth Century, it was directly inspired by his military career and the sense that some paramilitary training was proper for patriotic British boys.

This martial flavor is especially evident in the movement’s early literature, such as this 1925 instruction manual that teaches scouts in the tasks necessary to earn the master-at-arms badge. The first section addresses the use of the saber, while using wooden sticks as training implements. Next is the quarterstaff, which is a useful choice, as the most accessible of improvised weapons is surely a broomstick. Leaving aside the weapons, the scouts then train in the basics of boxing, ju-jitsu, and wrestling. The result is a well-rounded combatant.

-via reddit

Many navies maintain large sailing vessels in order to train naval officer cadets how to travel the seas the old fashioned way. Although the US Navy doesn’t, the US Coast Guard has an impressive three-masted barque for this purpose. Ecuador’s Guayas is a similarly built and equipped vessel. Such training vessels rarely engage in combat or even maritime law enforcement.*

Nonetheless, the cadets of the Ecuadorian Navy answered the call intrepidly when it fell to their ship to intercept a customized drug-smuggling vessel. The US Naval Institute news service describes the smugglers’ vessel as a low-profile boat painted gray and packed with potentially tons of cocaine. The crew of the Guayas captured it with their utility boat.

-via Super Punch | Photos: Ecuadorian Navy

*Though, you’d like to read about such a foray in fiction, consider S.M. Stirling’s excellent Nantucket trilogy in which the USCGC Eagle is transported back in time.

If someone asks you to count with your fingers, how do you do it? Anand Jagatia writes for the BBC that this practice varies by culture.

Like a good American, I count off starting on my index fingers. Europeans tend to start with the thumb. Iranians start with the pinky finger. In Japan, the norm is to start with an open palm, then curl fingers in as they are counted.

Here’s where it starts to get complicated. In India, it’s common to count off the lines of the finger segments. In Tanzania, both hands are used, with counts switching from hand to hand, forming a symmetrical pattern. The Northern Pame people of Mexio prefer to count on knuckles. The Yuki people of California used to take a different approach: counting the spaces between the fingers. Read about these customs at BBC Future.

-via Kottke

Harland Sanders came to financial success only in his sixties. By then, he was firmly committed to his restaurant vision as not only a means of making money, but serving particular types of food. He was a perfectionist, which sometimes caused conflicts with his business partners, such as former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown.

In Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, Josh Ozersky describes some of the spin-off businesses that Brown encouraged as Sanders lost control over the company he founded. Among these were a motel chain named Colonel Sanders Inns and a line of British-inspired fish-and-chips shops called H. Salt., Esq., Authentic Fish and Chips (89-91).

Perhaps the most daring venture to accompany Kentucky Fried Chicken was Kentucky Roast Beef and Ham. It was modestly successful, both as freestanding restaurants and as additional menu items, but as it was not as wildly popular as the fried chicken, the company eventually dropped the chain in favor of a focus on fried chicken.

-via Weird Universe | Image: Kawanee Historical Society

Pictured above it the late actor Nigel Terry, who portrayed King Arthur in the greatest movie ever made. At the end of that story, the fallen once and future king was carried off to the mystical island of Avalon to await the day when he would take up the sword of power and be king again.

Similarly, the Nigels have left us. The United Kingdom’s Office of National Statistics reports that not a single baby born last year was named Nigel. Although once a very common British baby name, it is now extinct.

On the upside, journalist Harry Wallop reports that there 189 Kylos, 86 Aadams (yes, I spelled that correctly), and 64 Cais.

But no Nigels, “for it is the doom of men that they forget.”

-via Marginal Revolution | Image: Orion Pictures

The headline is a translation. In New Zealand, the standard emergency number is 111. The concept is the same as the American emergency number of 911.

The Associated Press reports that a 4-year old boy dialed 111 on a phone while he was at home in the city of Invercargill. There was no emergency. He just had some awesome toys and wanted to show them off to someone. Could a police officer come and check them out?

The dispatcher put out a call to available units. An officer was, fortunately, available to examine the toys, which he confirmed were indeed “cool”.