Redditor /u/colormuse makes embroidery pieces, many of them profoundly non-traditional. Her works that use multiple hoops at the same time stand out as innovative and clever. Wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tubeman definitely draws our attention.

The 2008 action film Taken offers Liam Neeson as an ex-CIA operative who puts his professional skills to work when his daughter is kidnapped by Albanian human traffickers. The scene in which Neeson's character calmly threatens to find and kill the criminals shows the actor's ability to play intimidating roles.

It would be terrifying to be on the other end of the phone, as Neeson once demonstrated on Jimmy Kimmel's show.

Dustin Ballard's There I Ruined It project presents the scene in musical format. Neeson's threat is light and playful, melodiously singing a casual conversation that suggests that the threat is only a joke.

Sora News 24 tours a convenience store in Chikusei, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan that offers rental showers.

Here in the United States, it's possible to get showers at truck stops, which is handy for long-haul tractor trailer drivers. But I've never heard of getting a shower in a convenience store. It's apparently rare in Japan, too.

Sora News 24 found their showering experience quite inexpensive. A mere ¥200, which is about $1.40 USD, purchases 10 minutes of hot water. That fee also provides free soap, shampoo, and towels so that it's not necessary to arrive with those supplies.

It might be interesting (in all possible meanings of that word) if American convenience stores provided showers.

Thirteenth Century Gothic cathedrals expressed a golden age of stained glass. Film photography, some historians argue, reached its zenith in the 1930s through the 1950s. For every medium, there is a time when human creativity surges. Now, in the 2020s, the great artists of the age are pouring their magic into designing the best popcorn buckets.

We've seen this phenomenon with buckets designed for Dune 2, Despicable Me 4, and Gladiator 2. Now that the horror classic Jaws has reached its fiftieth anniversary and return to theaters, Alamo Drafthouse has released images of its custom popcorn bucket for the event. It mimicks the most famous poster for that film.

-via Discussing Film

Fast Company reports on an epoch-defining technological development: the self-propelled zipper. YKK, the Japanese firm that is the largest zipper manufacturer in the world with possession of about 40% of the global market, is experimenting with motorized zipper pulls.

The product will mostly likely begin with large tents that normally require the use of ladders to assemble. These new zipper pulls can join sections 16 feet long in a mere 40 seconds. This invention is obviously useful for people assembling tents. But it's also clear that smaller versions could be helpful in alleviating people of the laborious task of getting dressed.

-via Book of Joe

It's worth noting that Tim Friede didn't allow himself to be bitten by so many venomous snakes while in a controlled laboratory setting with close medical supervision. Rather, Friede's hobby is getting bitten by  snakes. He's enjoyed this practice since childhood. Now, at 57, he's encouraged snakes to bite him hundreds of times.

The New York Times reports that scientists have determined that Friede's lifetime of venom acquisition has allowed him to develop powerful antibodies to the venoms of 19 snakes.* The pharmaceutical firm Centivax thinks that Friede's blood can be developed into a universal antivenom that can provide an effective medical response to bites by a vast variety of snakes.

-via Alex Stapp

*There's a similar means of protection from iocane powder.

Legally Trek pic.twitter.com/FT2BE19lB9

— I Love Spaceships (@SpaceshipAddict) May 2, 2025

Science fiction X account I Love Spaceships remade the climactic scene in the 2001 comedy Legally Blonde with Star Trek: The Next Generation-era action figures. Ensign (note that she has just one rank pip) Barbie cross-examines Counselor Troi in the courtroom of Judge Guinan.

It pairs with the original very well, although I Love Spaceships uses what is, I think, a Voyager mess hall playset as a courtroom. And there's also a Conehead on the jury, whom I think was absent in the original film (a poor casting decision by director Robert Luketic).

AI is amazing, right? But although British voice actor Sam Hughes uses artificial intelligences to add Schwarzenegger's face to all characters present, his human facilities are impersonating the Austrian Oak.

In this scene known as the Council of Elrond, the Schwarzeneggers debate about how to deal with the menace of the One Ring. In their thick Austrian accents, dwarves, humans, and elves consider their options. It is the 4-foot tall Frodo Schwazenegger who proclaims the mission of the hobbits to ensure the Ring's destruction.

-via Giga Based Dad

Taste Atlas introduces us to the Salzwedeler Baumkuchen, which means the tree cake from Salzwedel. This small town in north central Germany is famous for its unique confection that vaguely resembles a tree.

The cake is made of multiple layers--generally a dozen or so--of batter dripped over a form rotating on a spit over an open flame. The ingredients are simple: butter, eggs, flour, sugar, and vanilla. Sometimes honey or brandy is added for flavor. Once finished, the cake is slid off the spit and coated with chocolate or a sugar glaze and sliced into individual servings.

Photos: Sven Tetschke, Klass Brumann, respectively.

Cosplayer @shellzyeah_cosplay wore this fantastic costume at the 2023 DragonCon. It perfectly blends the madness of the Barbie movie with magnificence of the 1988 Tim Burton film Beetlejuice. I've seen this movie about 167 times and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it.

For humans, polar bears are perhaps the most dangerous of all ursines. That's why Churchill, Manitoba has a special-built jail for them and residents leave their car doors unlocked.

The Noregian archipelago of Svalbard, which is frozen year-round is home to many polar bears. As a result, carrying a rifle while outside of a settlement is not only lawful, but mandatory.

This gentleman in the village of Pyramiden was caught by surprise by a polar bear. He fired off a round from his rifle at the bear, which still charged him. The man fled on foot until he got onto a snowmobile. Nonetheless, the bear kept up the chase. It's not a bad strategy for a polar bear, as the species can run at up to 25 MPH.

-via kira

Law professor Eugene Volokh notes that Magistrate Judge Ray Kent ordered a firm named Dragon Lawyers to cease filing documents with an enormous watermark of a suit-wearing dragon on every page of its documentation.

Each page of plaintiff's complaint appears on an e-filing which is dominated by a large multi-colored cartoon dragon dressed in a suit, presumably because she is represented by the law firm of "Dragon Lawyers PC © Award Winning Lawyers". See Compl. (ECF No. 1). Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(f)(1) allows a court to "strike from a pleading an insufficient defense or any redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter." Use of this dragon cartoon logo is not only distracting, it is juvenile and impertinent. The Court is not a cartoon.

-via Jarvis

Fruits and ice cream are the staples of most parfaits. But we can count on Japanese cuisine to expand the boundaries of our palates to include other creatively-added ingredients. Sora News 24 sent a reporter to the Karafuneya Cafe inside a train station in Osaka to confirm rumors of a new type of parfait: one that includes fried chicken.

The cafe chain had already made headlines a decade ago with its fried shrimp parfait. Its fried chicken (karaage), which sells for about $9.70 USD has crispy fried chicken that is served warm. It contrasts nicely with the much colder ice cream and the sweet fruits.

The price of gold has risen steadily in the past year, with a noticeable jump in mid-April. Perhaps this rise has driven attention to a viral video from China showing a machine similar to an ATM.

You can deposit gold into it. The machine, which is located in a mall in Shanghai, melts the gold, assays it, and gives you credit for its value, minus a small fee, depositing the money in your bank account.

-via Trung Phan, who jokes about the value of scraping gold out of old VCRs.

I've just discovered this amazing Scottish musician named Ruairdh Maclean (the most Scottish of all possible names) who has gained internet fame for his remixes of popular songs. He attributes "Dueling Banjos" to his native fishing village in northern Scotland, although I think the song originates with a South Carolinian named Arthur Smith.

Maclean has also covered "Ring of Fire" popularized by Johnny Cash, "Delilah" as sung by Tom Jones, as well as classics of Celtic music, such as "Jean's Reel."

I've got to say that AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" works very well for the accordion.

-via Battle Byrd