The Texians' dreams of independence from the tyranny of Santa Anna seemed hopeless. The well-organized and equipped Mexican army had shattered the formations of the Texian settlers who were in full flight.
General Sam Houston led a retreat of his small force almost to the border with the United States. The Texians, who numbered only 910 men, were running out of room to retreat further. They were also out of patience and eager to strike at their enemies.
Police bodycam videos are a genre on YouTube with many channels devoted to showing the real life drama experienced by law enforcement officers and the people they encounter. I waste too much time watching them.
Many police departments, including that of New York City, maintain mounted patrols. Despite advances in technology, horses remain useful for managing particular environments, including city streets.
This video shows an officer's body camera as the mounted officer chases down an alleged purse snatcher. You can view the complete footage here. The suspect is a parolee out on a murder conviction.
We don't know the name of the officer, but ABC 7 News says that the horse is named Kelly.
This is Orhan Avci, who is the head of the Huzur Party of the region around Karliova in the eastern part of the country. I've seen him described as a Turkish politician and a Kurdish politician in Turkey. I don't know anything about him or his political party, but I do know that he's going places.
I mean, look at that 'stache. But be careful doing so. To borrow a phrase from Jerry Seinfield, get a sense of it and then look away.
When the World Beard & Mustache Championships are held, Avci should consider entering and dancing away with the grand prize.
-via NEXTA
In 1971, Apollo 14 became the third mission to land on the surface of the Moon. Alan Shephard and Edgar Mitchell reached the lunar surface while Stuart Roosa remained in orbit. To move scientific equipment around the Moon, NASA commissioned the creation of two-wheeled handcart called the Mobile Equipment Transporter (MET).
Jalopnik notes that the two tires on the MET were the first air-filled tires to reach the Moon. Goodyear considered possible options for the airless, rock-strewn terrain and settled on smooth, tread-less tires filled with nitrogen.
Shephard and Mitchell used the MET to cover two miles across the Moon. But the cart was so cumbersome that they quickly decided to just carry it, which was manageable in gravity 17% that of Earth's.
The police force of Westlake, Ohio maintains a program called Are You Okay? It provides welfare checks on elderly people living alone. Every day, they call the registered person. If no one answers the phone, police go to the home for a face-to-face check of wellbeing.
A few days ago, officers went to the home of a 91-year old woman who had not answered her daily call. They feared for the worst. Instead, WABI 5 News reports, they found the woman alive and well. She had a good reason for not answering her phone: she was attempting to beat her high score on a video game.
-via Jake Lucky
Sesame Street has changed a lot since I was a kid. The plots are grittier and the Muppets swear a lot more.
Bluesky user @pig'slaundry has lately watched the children's show on Tubi, a streaming service owned by Fox. They noticed that the error-filled automatically generated captions show the characters contemplating existential terror and considering brutal violence.
-via Super Punch
Amy Stewart is an artist in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. She works heavily in stained and painted glass. Stewart (or "Amy in the Aether", as she also calls herself) frequently uses motifs from Mid-Century Modern American pop art, including camp, burlesque, and the playfully supernatural.
Author Cory Doctorow coined the term "enshittification" to describe how online services tend to, over time, get stupidly worse. More generally, enshittification has become used to describe how products and services have become worse over time. Things are not built to last, but to break down almost immediately upon purchase. Contracts are not honored, trust is not nurtured, and providers of services take every opportunity to barely fulfill obligations.
It's what happens when a high trust society degenerates into a low trust society.
The Norwegian Consumer Council, a government organization ostensibly tasked with protecting consumers from enshittification, produced this humorous video describing a man whose job is to enshittify everything he can.
-via Kottke
The Utah Mammoth is a professional hockey team that formed in 2024. It's based in Salt Lake City. The team initially had a bear mascot but, in the past year, has adopted the woolly mammoth as its avatar. Quite appropriate for hockey, don't you think?
To promote this new team to potentially new fans, it recently converted its zamboni (once used in the 2002 Winter Olympics) into the visage of its own mammoth. They call it the Zammoth.
Fans will have to opportunity to ride it during games. Perhaps they will be permitted to gore fans of the opposing team on the tusks.
-via Super Punch
Professional cosplay photographer David "DTJAAAAM" Ngo attended the recent MegaCon in Orlando and snapped images of the best cosplayers. Among them was this young lady who adds Kermit the Frog to the hairstyle and wardrobe of Hatsune Miku, a vocaloid and virtual idol singer. It's not easy being blue, but she does it with style.
Usul has called a big one! Again, it is the legend.
Plant a thumper and summon Jera, a professional cosplayer and costumemaker in Nashville. For the 2023 Dragon Con, she appeared in this costume that mashes up the sandworm from the Dune franchise (specifically the 2020s depictions) and a bunny girl outfit.
The detail is exquisite. Notice that the ears appear to be made of stillsuit cells.
The Artemis II mission is an extraordinary endeavor that possibly heralds a return of the ambitions and accomplishments of the Space Race of the 1960s. These astronauts are making the first human departure from low earth orbit in 54 years.
Their $30 million toilet was recently in the news as it briefly malfunctioned. This toilet is notable in that it is the first in human history to leave the loving embrace of Earth's close gravity. Scientific American explains that the Apollo astronauts did not have a high-tech suction toilet. They had to make do with an assortment of tubes and bags that did not function well in microgravity. The astronauts loathed it, as fecal matter occasionally escaped to float about the capsule.
So as long as the Universal Waste Management System on the Artemis II vessel continues to function, current astronauts will have a better experience.
-via Marginal Revolution
Itaru Sasaki's cousin died of cancer. Sasaki struggled with the loss. To help him move through the grief, he purchased an old phone booth and added a rotary phone. That's what you see in the garden pictured above. Sasaki can, when he needs to, pick up the phone and speak as though he's communicating with is departed cousin.
Thus began the Wind Phone movement. There are at least 551 around the world, including 386 in the United States. Many are in spaces open to the public. You may be able to find one near your home using these interactive maps.
-via Atlas Obscura | Photo: Matthew Komatsu
In 1988, the Oscar Mayer company offered this promotional item. It can still be found occasionally on auction sites. This pan flute is not the only wiener whistle that the company offered, but appears to be the only one capable of multiple tones. The back side of the label provides instructions for playing the enchanted tones of the company jingle.
This pan flute is certainly superior to the alternatives, as it offers a loop at one end so that the instrument can be hung around the neck with a lanyard or at the waist with a retracting belt reel. Always keep your wiener whistle handy for emergencies.
-via Geppetto San Martín
William Daniels's acting career is almost as old as television itself, since it began in 1943 with a variety show performance on the nascent NBC network. He continued acting on television, films, and on stage.
For my generation, Daniels is the voice of KITT from Knight Rider. For Millennials, he's Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World. He's still active, recently playing the ghost of King Henry VI in a production of Richard III and appearing on Dancing with the Stars.
But I posit that Daniels's greatest accomplishment is his marriage. Daniels and his wife, actress Bonnie Bartlett, hold the record for the longest ever Hollywood marriage at 74 years.
