The 1993 video game Doom is an icon of the gaming world. Since its debut, fans have attempted to run the game on very non-standard consoles, including pregnancy tests and refrigerators, powering Doom with potatoes, controlling the character with a rotary phone, and displaying the game on E. coli bacteria.

Soon, you will be able to play Doom on a lawnmower. Husqvarna, the Swedish manufacturer of outdoor cultivation equipment, announced that the next software update to its robotic lawnmower will permit it users to play Doom.

Call me paranoid, but I'm skeptical that it's a good idea to teach self-controlled robots with powerful blades to roam through an area and kill everything that they see.

-via Dave Barry

Many ordinary objects could be turned into weapons or otherwise misused by people with ingenuity and nothing to lose. That's why, as we've noted in the past, there's an entire industry that produces ordinary household and office products for prison environments.

This includes computers. Zephray Wenting purchased a prison laptop named the Justice Tech Solutions Securebook 5 on eBay. The laptop is encased in a transparent plastic shell. It has no hard drive or USB port. When turned on, the laptop asks for a password. Wenting opened the case and partially disassembled the machine, but has had no luck so far hacking the password.

You can read a complete exploration on Twitter or a detailed and informed summary on Hack-A-Day.

突然のスマホ落下から顔面を守る装置を作りました！ pic.twitter.com/S7zCAvpMiN

— カズヤシバタ(KAZUYA SHIBATA) (@seevua) October 13, 2023

I keep reading news stories and commentary about how excessive cell phone usage is harming us. I was confused until I saw this video by Japanese inventor Kazuya Shibata. Now I understand the concern: it's easy to drop a cell phone on your face if you use it while lying down. And we have a solution from Shibata: the automatic face shield.

The build video is in Japanese, but I gather that this 3D printed machine automatically deploys the shield when an object passes through motion sensors. It's the kind of genius innovation that we've come to expect from Shibata, who previously changed modern life with his automatic shirt flapper.

-via Science Girl

Modern gaming consoles, such as Xboxes and Playstations, allow for playing DVDs. But the Atari 2600, which debuted in 1977, long predates the DVD and almost predates consumer use of VHS tapes. Nonetheless, it is possible to play movies on an Atari 2600.

The MovieCart adapter processes video from a micro SD card into the cartridge reader. The kit comes with Night of the Living Dead, which is in the public domain, preloaded on a micro SD card. Use a joystick to navigate the menu options and start watching.

There's no high definition video available, though. The screen resolution is a mere 80x192 pixels. That's just enough to figure out what's being displayed on the screen.

-via Hack-A-Day

The French fashion design house Jacquemus has partnered with Nike to produce a handbag inspired by the brand's iconic swoosh logo. This leather bag goes on sale on Monday for €420, which is about $455. You can use yours to store, um, swooshes, I suppose. Or, as Instagram user @yaminansari puts it, "My lipgloss and one tampon are so excited for this."

-via Toxel

When a Hooters restaurant is erected in your town, it is cause for celebration. Similarly, we heave our bosoms in sadness when one closes. Truly, there is a time for every purpose under heaven.

Last night, the people of Kanawha, West Virginia gathered to hold a candlelight vigil to mourn the scheduled demolition of the metropolis's solitary Hooters on Tuesday. WOWK TV reports that it is to be replaced with a gas station. Nothing beside remains round the decay of that colossal wreck.

Participants in the vigil, in addition to processing their grief, raised money for a local woman to travel to California for specialized medical treatment.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: WOWK TV

Atlas Obscura informs us that a museum focused on alligators exists. Where is it? You guessed correctly: New Orleans.

On April 8, North America will be exposed to a solar eclipse. You can see the path projected by NASA here. It will be the last solar eclipse visible from the 48 contiguous states until 2044.

If don't live in the path, you may have to travel to reach it and view the event. UPI reports that Delta Airlines is offering a special flight which will show passengers the eclipse. Delta flight 1218 will consist of an Airbus 220-300, which has large windows by jetliner norms. Passengers should wear protective glasses where viewing the sun during the flight.

-via Instapundit | Photo: Callan Carpenter

What's a good word for being drunk? According to an article in The Guardian, this type of word is a drunkonym. A healthy, robust language has many of them to refer to particular types, styles, and means of being intoxicated with alcohol.

Just as the Sámi of northern Scandinavia have many words for snow and we Texans have many words for tortillas, the people of Albion can experience a vast variety of intoxicated states. British English has at least 546 of these words.

Depending upon when, what, and how a Brition drinks, he may become gazeboed, rubbered, mullered, zombied, bladdered, or stewed. Consider trying all of these states, but not on the same day.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: mail.andrewpinter

Fine. You're not invited https://t.co/oTPtZwM5s2

— Republic of Kiribati (@KiribatiGov) February 19, 2024

The Republic of Kiribati (pronounced "Kirr-ih-bass") is a nation consisting of 32 islands stretching across 1.3 million square miles of water in the central Pacific Ocean. The social media manager for the government has had a lively week responding to a viral tweet about the names of villages on the island of Kiritimati.

Emmanuel Rougier, an early 20th Century French priest and entrepreneur, provided the names of the villages when he leased the island.

In modern life, there's a very real risk of being caught in a nuclear blast. You may be caught unawares while casually walking to work, shopping, or doing chores around your home. This is a reality that we've lived with since August 22, 1949. Fortunately, American inventor Harold C. Tifft prudently responded with a portable protective shield. You can read a copy of his patent here.

Why do we exercise? In the West, a cultural emphasis on fitness derives from a desire for military preparedness.

Strabo notes that the Romans had a field dedicated to Mars, the god of war, outside of the city where men engaged "ball-playing, hoop-trundling, and wrestling." An apocryphal statement by Wellington asserts that "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." It is an invented quote, but became a popular attribution because the sentiment is true: sports prepare young people for war.

Which brings us to cornhole.

This is a martial sport popular in the United States, especially at outdoor social gatherings. It consists of throwing beanbags precisely into holes cut into an inclined board. Cornhole requires precision, focus, and courage--martial qualities.

So it is good that Winthrop University in South Carolina is offering scholarships to Gavin Hamann and Jaxson Remmick, who are two young men with prodigious talents in cornhole. The New York Post informs us that they are the first such scholarship recipients in the United States.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Tony Alter

The Greco-Roman historian Plutarch, in his Life of Julius Caesar, describes an incident in which the future ruler of Rome was reading a biography of Alexander the Great when he burst into tears. His companions asked him why. Caesar replied:

"Do you not think," said he, "it is matter for sorrow that while Alexander, at my age, was already king of so many peoples, I have as yet achieved no brilliant success?"

No matter what any of us can accomplish of the course of our lives, there is always someone greater than ourselves. That person is Peter von Tangen Buskov, who has secured a Guinness World Record for the most matchsticks stuck up the nostrils. That number is 68, but von Tangen Buskov plans to train his nose to take an even greater number, just as Alexander, at the time of his death, was planning the conquest of Arabia.

-via Dave Barry

Little is known about the mysterious and frozen lands of the Caledonians. Historically speaking, we have few sources to work with. The First Century AD writer Tacitus, in his biography of the Roman general Gnaeus Julius Agricola, describes a great battle by Agricola in what is now Scotland, but provides only that the inhabitants have "red hair and large limbs" -- a description nearly as skimpy as a true Scotman's underwear.

But recent news reports trickling south of the Wall inform us that Scottish people like to "hurkle-durkle" in bed. And, despite gender stereotypes, both men and women do this. The New York Post tells us more, if you really want to know. Social media is abuzz with this scandalous news. Defenders insist that a good hurkle-durkle is beneficial for your health.

As for me, I make no judgments of other cultures or what other people do in the privacy of their bedrooms. Or huts. But I assure you that although my ancestors may have hailed from Scotland, I most assuredly do not engage in hurkle-durkling.

-via Dave Barry | Image: Pxhere

Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer are a musical duo who have, for decades, endeared listeners with their performances on guitars, mandolins, and, most importantly, banjos.

The banjo is traditionally associated with bluegrass music, although you can play almost any genre on it, including classical and hard rock. Fink and Marxer can blend it with traditional Chinese music with the aid of Chao Tian, a master of the Chinese dulcimer (sometimes called a yangqin). Two years ago, at a concert titled "From China to Appalachia", the three musicians performed together.

What is this new genre? On Twitter, Emma Tolkin suggests that we call it Appalachinese.