Blowing out the candles on a birthday cake is a grand tradition to celebrate the passage of life and hopes for its future. But it's also somewhat unsanitary. It's done with the breath of the celebrant and therefore contaminates the cake with the blower's germs.

In 2014, Brian Donnelly of East Northport, NY received a patent for a series of shields that cover different sized cakes with perforated shields that allow for the passage of candles while providing some protection for the cakes.

Donnelly provided six different designs to reflect a variety of cakes, including circular cakes, layer cakes, cupcakes, and pies.

-via Weird Universe

Greenlandic ice is noted for its natural purity and age. Dubai partygoers are noted for being very wealthy and profligate. Put them together and you have a business opportunity.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a startup company in Greenland is breaking up icebergs that roll off of the island's icecap, packing the ice cubes for refrigeration, and then shipping them to Dubai in packages of six cubes priced at about $100 USD.

In Dubai, bartenders place them in expensive cocktails. Customers are willing to pay extra for drinks that have unique origin stories. Their tastes may allow Greenland to expand the diversity of its economy, which consists primarily of fishing and mineral extraction.

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Christine Zenino

Australia is home to some of nature's most dangerous predators, as well as nightmarish heat and drought. But Valerie, a Miniature Dachshund, survived for a year and a half on her own after she got separated from her humans.

BBC News describes how Valerie got lost (or escaped) while camping with her humans on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia. Owner Georgia Gardner asked for help online and many volunteers combed island for the missing dog.

They finally set a trap baited with Gardner's clothes (and therefore scent) to attract Valerie. The dog fell for the bait and remained inside the trap until Kangaroo Island residents could contain her. Valerie is now back at home where she belongs.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Kangala Wildlife Rescue

At Less Wrong, a blog devoted to rational thinking, Arjun Panickssery notes that English language sentences have gradually decreased in length. Jane Austen (1775-1817) wrote sentences that were on average 42 words long. The modern writer J.K. Rowling, on contrast, wrote the Harry Potter series with sentences about 12 words long.

Why has this changed?

Panickssery suggests a few possible causes. One is that journalists, who tend to have a terse style, inserted their writing norms into writing as a whole. Another is that much writing in the past was intended to be read aloud rather than silently, the latter of which emphasizes shorter sentences for clarity. Panickssery also suggests that writers learned a style derived from classical Latin works with very long sentences and the abandonment of this style led to reduced sentence lengths. Modern writers are taught to write with short sentences, whereas their predacessors were taught to write very long, complex sentences.

-via Marginal Revolution

The design blog Core77 shares this clever invention. The set (single?) of eyeglasses has a single lens that flips back and forth on a hinge. This feature allows a person to put on eye makeup while seeing clearly through the opposite-side eye.

The cosmetics and accessories store Donna May London offers them in seven different magnifications. It's the sort of unique, single-purpose tool like one might see on the subreddit /r/specializedtools.

Toys 'R' Us rose to glory during the Baby Boom, spreading joy across the United States. As an 80s kid, I regarded it an almost supernaturally happy place. Many other Gen X kids did, too.

Alas, the company did not survive online retailing. It went bankrupt 2017, although the brand survives in some stores, tugging at lingering nostalgia.

It is that nostalgia that the film studio Story Kitchen, which has thrived with video game to film adaptations, wishes to exploit. Variety reports that a live-action film based on the toy store chain is in pre-production. It will be similar in tone to Night at the Museum, Big, and Back to the Future.

-via Gizmodo | Photo: JJBers

The American aircraft carrier Yorktown (CV-5, as distinguished from CV-10, which is now a museum ship) fought the Japanese at Coral Sea and Midway. It was in the latter engagement that she sank to the Pacific Ocean floor 18,000 feet below. Its location was discovered in 1998.

The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) recently conducted dives to its hangar deck and took photos of parts of the ship not seen since 1942. The finds include a well-preserved mural and Dauntless dive bombers. There is also a car.

Automotive historian David Burge identifies it as a 1941 or 1942 Ford Woody station wagon. It was most likely a staff car used by Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher during visits to ports, as that particular car model was commonly used for that purpose. 

People are squishy, which is why cars come equipped with airbags. But these airbags are usually inside the cars and designed to protect the driver and passengers.

Carscoops reports that Subaru is now providing additional airbag protection. The Forester model offered in Japan can be purchased with an airbag designed specifically to protect cyclists from crashing through the windshield during a collision. Although other Japanese cars have airbags that cushion pedestrians, this Subaru design takes into account that cyclists are higher up off the ground than pedestrians.

This video with extremely an annoying audio track demonstrates the instantaneous deployment of the airbag.

-via Jalopnik

Philippe Chrétien, a computer programmer and engineer, built this clock described on Instructables. The screen consists of five squares proportionate to the first five numbers in the Fibonnaci sequence. The hour is marked by the red square and the minutes with the green square. If the square is blue, that square illustrates both the hour and minute.

How do you tell the time? Chrétien explains the math:

To read the hour, simply add up the corresponding values of the red and blue squares. To read the minutes, do the same with the green and blue squares. The minutes are displayed in 5 minute increments (0 to 12) so you have to multiply your result by 5 to get the actual number.

-via Book of Joe

Elias Herrera has cattle. This is not too uncommon in the United States. But Herrera lives with his as pets. Buttons the cow and Bruce the bull (steer?) live in the house or at least visit it frequently. They certainly act like it's their home.

The cow and bull pull their weight. They help Herrera with his household projects, especially cooking. In this video, Bruce helps his human prepare cupcakes. Despite the mess that they make together, the end result is quite presentable.

Both cattle help with the consumption. Not so much the cleanup, though. Herrera should probably get another cow for that purpose.

-via Massimo

Only in Florida 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/H6QTc8kMru

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 18, 2025

I used to live in Florida. I like to hike, but avoided doing so in Florida. It's just too dangerous because of the wildlife. Even the delights of tubing down the Ichetuknee River are hard to enjoy when one is constantly watching for water moccasins.

Florida Man is the apex predator in Florida, but alligators routinely challenge him for that title. Here are two in the town of Ave Maria, a Catholic community in the southern part of the state. I doubt that they rang the doorbell because they have cookies to sell.

-via Jonah Goldberg

Dante Boccuzzi is among the most accomplished and sought-after chefs in the world. The Takeout reports that his restaurant in his native city of Cleveland occupies a building erected in 1924 as the Lincoln Heights Savings and Loan. Since it was built as a bank, its architecture includes the features that you would expect of one, including a vault.

If you're able to get a reservation for it, you and three other people can dine at the vault table. It was created at great trouble, as installing ventilation required jackhammering through a foot and a half of concrete. But don't shut the door anyway.

Photo: Dante Dining Group

The South China Morning Post reports an elite restaurant in Shanghai is offering a 15-course meal inspired by the rainforests of the Yunnan province. It culminates in a dessert which consists of flowers resting on a bed of elephant poop.

The poop has been sanitized and thus passes national food safety standards. The entire meal is popular and is drawing many people who are willing to fork over the equivalent of $550 USD for the feast. Some online commentators are skeptical, though, including one who said that "This feels like a grand-scale humiliation and an obedience test for the wealthy."

-via Dave Barry | Photo: 163.com

Malaysian-Chinese residential tower superstition. All floors with a 4 in it are the lower floor plus an A (Eg floor 4 is 3A, 14 is 13A, 24 is 23A, 34 is 33A) pic.twitter.com/uuWO6dZXse

— JR Urbane Network (@JRUrbaneNetwork) March 14, 2025

In the book Malaysia by Heidi Munan, Yuk Yee Foo, and Jo-Ann Spilling, the authors explain that the word "four" sounds like the Chinese word si, which means "death." It is therefore unlucky and people avoid it. License plates that end with the numeral 4 are undesirable. In contrast, "eight" sounds like the word for "prosperity" and is thus considered auspicious.

-via Super Punch

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce represented her homeland of Jamaica in the 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 Olympic Games, winning three gold medals, four silver, and one bronze. Her specialty is the 100 meter dash and her personal record for that distance is 10.60 seconds. She holds the Guinness World Record for the most number of Olympic medals in the 100 meter race for a woman.

She's also a mom, having given birth her son, Zyon, in 2017. When Zyon's school held a race for parents--specifically, 100 meters--she joined in. Sports Illustrated reports that she won handily this time, as she did during a similar race in 2023.

There's no mention of who took the silver medal in this particular race.

-via Kottke