Pictured above is a Native Alaskan participating in a high kicking contest from 1950. The object is to kick a leather ball hanging from several feet off the air. The ball is gradually raised until only the winner is able to reach it. The Smithsonian Institution describes the legend that led to this sport:

High-kick competitions were once part of Kivgiq, the Messenger Feast. As each man entered the qargi he tried to kick an inflated animal bladder or ball suspended from the ceiling. An Iñupiaq story tells of a young woman who owned two balls; the larger was the sun, and the smaller the moon. The sun ball fell (or in one version was dropped by Raven) and burst open, bringing light to the world. The circular designs seen on this ball represent the sun and commemorate this ancient story.

-via Weird Universe | Photo: University of Alaska at Fairbanks Archives

There are too many practical people on the internet today. This bed frame of a provenance unknown to me appears to allow cats to wander in and out at will.

But how will you detect the cat vomit before it sets deeply into the carpet? And if you simply can't locate your cat and begin a panic attack (I have owned a cat for only one year but can attest that this phenomenon is real), your search must include moving your mattress completely off its frame. Thus many internet denizens reject this design as impractical.

Is the cuteness factor really worth the stress?

-via Messy Nessy Chic

Update: Metro bungelt op 8 meter hoogte na ongeval Spijkenisse (video)

Het artikel staat online:→ https://t.co/kW5ZiiEEy1 pic.twitter.com/WcgJsndpsq

— Joey Bremer (@010fotograaf) November 2, 2020

A light train in Spijkenisse, the Netherlands derailed on Sunday. Fortunately, it didn't plunge down into water 30 feet below. Instead, the rear-most car got stuck on a sculpture shaped like a whale's tail. BBC News reports:

"We are trying to decide how we can bring the train down in a careful and controlled manner," one official told the Dutch national broadcaster NOS on Monday. [...]

The sculpture, titled Whale Tails, is the work of the architect and artist Maarten Struijs, and was erected in the water at the end of the tracks in 2002.

Mr Struijs told NOS that he was surprised the structure did not break.

At the time of the crash, the train was empty of passengers and the driver was uninjured.

-via Design You Trust

A month ago, YouTube member TrainDozer edited an introduction for an imaginary 90s-era sitcom using footage from Star Trek: The Next Generation. This hugely popular video inspired TrainDozer to create a 12-minute episode using selected scenes from the episode "The Naked Now" and a laugh track. It ends perfectly.

-via Geek Tyrant

Trying to imagine the online form that lets students choose how they'd like to get updates on food deliveries pic.twitter.com/spOl3HWKlC

— Nich🎃las Guyatt (@NicholasGuyatt) October 30, 2020

The University of Cambridge dates back to 1209 and has thus experienced the travails of pandemics of the past 800 years, including the Black Death. One of the hygienic practices dating back to that time includes ringing a bell to clear space between the infected and the uninfected. This type of hand bell is called a plague bell.

Cambridge students who are self-isolating can select to have their food deliveries announced by plague bell. One difference between now and centuries ago: they make this selection by filling out an online form.

-via Marginal Revolution

The 1986 movie Top Gun is about an elite training program for the US Navy's best fighter pilots. It was inspired by an actual school maintained by the Navy. As that movie is one of the most iconic of the 80s, students at the school are, of course, familiar with it. But they know better than to mention or quote it. Doing so results in a $5 fine.

Why? Former TOPGUN instructor Commander Guy Snodgrass explains in his new book about the school that everything about the school is serious. There's no time to make jokes. Business Insider reports on Snodgrass's book:

"But," Snodgrass explained, "when you get to TOPGUN, because it is such a professional organization and you want to emphasize that you are at the top of your game, that it's about professionalism, about good leadership, you don't turn TOPGUN into a joke by referencing the movie."

[...]

"So, it is a part of our bylaws that if someone overtly references the movie — it could be a direct quote, it could be something that is really close to a direct quote — that's an automatic $5 fine. And it's enforced. And you are expected to pay right then. You pull out your wallet and pay the $5," Snodgrass said.

Old habits die hard though. "I think at some point we were all fined because it's so ingrained in our aviation culture," he told Insider.

-via Geek Tyrant | Image: Paramount

The most common types of stained glass works that you might see include windows, decorative panes, and lamps. But Nicole Bex moves imaginatively beyond those norms. Her Etsy shop includes realistic bats with glass wings! Each one has a wingspan of about a foot.

-via So Super Awesome

Rise above those stormy, dreary days. Sit above them on the Rain Cloud Chair by Shota Urasaki, a designer on Okinawa. Stainless steel rods simulating the rain support the polyester foam seat. It would be an ideal chair for creative writing moments.

-via Toxel

You don't have to worry about your pharmaceutical reaction so as long as inanimate objects are waiting to affirm your life choices, as seen in Ryan Hudson's Channelate. And let us be glad that Kyle chose to have a normal throw pillow instead of an anime hug pillow as his companion (I'll let you Google that on your own).

Our game is titled The House on Blue Lick Road. It's a real house and actually for sale in Louisville, Kentucky. You can take a 3D tour of it . . . if you dare!

Walk around the sprawling and labyrinthine structure. There are mysterious and disturbing things beyond just the carpeted urinal and walk-in blue bathtub.

Can you walk through the whole structure while still alive? Some gamers are testing that out, as you can see from the above speedrun video. It may be safer than touring the home in person. WAXY News researched the history of this lair:

But a larger question remained: what’s the deal with this place? Whoever owned it, they were too organized to be hoarders. The home appeared to double as the office and warehouse for an internet reseller business, but who sells a house crammed floor-to-ceiling with retail goods?

Internet sleuths unearthed several news articles from 2014, outlining how police discovered thousands of stolen items being sold online during a raid at the address, the result of a four-year investigation resulting in criminal charges for four family members living and working at the house.

But it didn’t add up. If they were convicted for organized crime, why was there still so much inventory in the house, with products released as recently as last year? Why is it still packed full while they’re trying to sell it? And what’s with the bathtub!?

-via Super Punch | Photo: Redfin

The cats that live in your ceiling need to keep an eye on you. Try to be helpful to them as this shopkeeper in Japan has been. Twitter user SCMCrocodile reports that a friend swapped out the drop panels in his shop's hopefully sturdy ceiling with sheets of glass. The security cats can now see everything that happens in the store.

Suzanne Brewer, an architect, designed this amazing wheelchair for her son, Jarvis. The idea came to her when a man using a wheelchair in a bar couldn't get high enough to reach a drink from a bartender. What if the chair itself could lift up?

The Walking Wheelchair is the result of her search for a solution. Although young Jarvis isn't drinking in bars (as far as I can tell), he can now reach high objects that were previously inaccessible.

-via Nag on the Lake

The high plains town of Lusk, Wyoming has a wild, cowboy history. It has a peculiar relationship with the soiled doves of its past. For example, the Yellow Hotel brothel and its madam, Dell Burke, were famous in the region and respected in town.

So it is not surprising that, just outside of the town limits, there is a monument at the gravesite of Mother Featherlegs, a prostitute who was murdered 1879. Her nickname came from the ruffles of her pantalets, which were publicly visible on windy days. In 1964, people in Lusk erected this monument, which you can find 10 miles south of town, in her honor.

Photo: Jimmy Emerson

The documentary series Star Trek: Voyager told the story of a Federation starship trapped on the far side of our galaxy that made a 7-year long journey back home. The captain of the Voyager was the legendary Kathryn Janeway.

Bloomington, Indiana now has a monument to its most famous daughter. Captain Janeway was born there on May 20, 2336. Her fans, organized under the banner of the Captain Janeway Bloomington Collective, funded and erected a statue in her honor.

One of Janeway's strongest supporters, the actress Kate Mulgrew, virtually attended the unveiling. She said of it:

I’m not often rendered speechless, but in this moment I am. How many people have such a marvelous thing done in their honor, in their memory. It’s a wonderful comment on Janeway’s legacy… And hearing you all speak today is deeply moving to me. To realize that Janeway has had such an important role in your lives, and I think in cultural history, it not only terribly affecting for me, but makes me want to go forth in a new way.

-via reddit

Nota Bene: Lest anyone argue that creating this monument violate the Temporal Prime Directive, be aware that that law applies to Starfleet personnel only. Of course, that doesn't mean that messing with the timeline this way isn't a hazardous idea.

What's going to stop your kids from getting to school on time? Nothing, so as long as they're riding in this bus. Core77 tells us about the Praetorian, a bus platform manufactured by a Czech company called Torsus. It's available for a variety of purposes, including as a military command vehicle and an anti-riot vehicle. It's made to go where other vehicles can't:

The 4x4 Praetorian can carry 36 passengers, handle gnarly angles, clear obstacles 13.4 inches in height and wade through nearly three feet of water.

Imagine where Miss Frizzle could go in this bus!