Rian Johnson, the director for the film Knives Out, explains in an interview for Vanity Fair that Apple forbids filmmakers from letting villainous characters use iPhones on screen. So if you see a character using an iPhone, that means that that character is not one of the bad guys.

The Verge says that Apple has long carefully controlled how its products appear on screen:

There have long been rumors about Apple’s control over how its products are shown in TV shows and movies. According to MacRumors, the company says that its products should only be used “in the best light, in a manner or context that reflects favorably on the Apple products and on Apple Inc.” It’s especially difficult when Apple is the one bankrolling a production. Last year, The New York Times reported that Apple was concerned with how its devices were depicted in content made for its own streaming service.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This control seems to go back a long way. Check out this Wired article from way back in 2002, which pointed out that all the good guys in 24 use Macs, and all the bad guys use Windows PCs. By that logic, I guess the fact that everyone in Succession seems to use Samsung products makes them chaotic neutral?

-via Ace of Spades HQ

Deanna Troi, the ship's counselor on Star Trek: The Next Generation, wore an outfit that, as an 11-year old boy, I found fascinating. Both of her assets--her intelligence and interpersonal skills--were regularly exhibited on the show.

What if the plunging neckline that she wore (until Captain Jellico asked her to dress like the officer that she is), was standard in Starfleet uniforms?

This image of unknown origin suggests that the open bodice works for the other senior officers, although Worf's sash gets in the way.

-via Super Punch

What can you get from a vending machine in Japan? A better question would be what can't you get from a vending machine in Japan.

The nation that made the world's products available automatically now introduces a vending machine for soiled babies on the go. Sora News 24 reports that a beverage and a paper company are teaming up to offer diapers 24/7 at roadside stops.

Each diaper costs $1. As a father, I can tell you that when you're completely out of diapers, a fresh one is worth a whole lot more than $1.

Photo: Livedoor

Ah, the 70s! It was a crazy time to be alive. The decor in particular was wild, as exemplified by this groovy pad at 23645 Country Villa Road in Ramona, California.

This unit was set aside for the developer's own use. He sold it as a vacation home to a retired couple who rarely used it. The gem has, as a result, been almost perfectly preserved, right down to the original furnishings and appliances.

The best news of all: it's for sale!

It's 2020. Why aren't you wearing inflatable pants?

This is the future that countless generations of humanity have labored for. The advancements of technology and culture have finally brought us to the destination: Harikrishnan's inflatable pants. He debuted them at a fashion show for the London College of Fashion's graduate students.

Ladies don't have to feel left out. He also offers them for women, too.

-via Weird Universe | Photo: London College of Fashion

Titos Tsai is a contact juggler from Taiwan. Contact juggling involves moving balls and other objects around one's body without losing contact. Tsai is an absolute master of that craft. Watch him, seemingly without effort, move a huge sword around his body while gracefully dancing. He doesn't drop the sword or cut himself with it even once.

You can see more of his fantastic work on Instagram.

-via Geekologie

When her mother died, French artist Cécile Davidovici watched old VHS home movies of her family back in 1988. To reinforce the permanence of the relationship now separated by death, she embroidered still images from those home movies to "anchor herself in the moment."

Davidovici calls the series, appropriately, 1988. You can see more examples on her website and Instagram.

-via Colossal

62-year old personal trainer and former Marine George Hood first gained a Guinness World Record for planking in 2011. Then his record was surpassed by a Chinese competitor. Now Hood holds the top title again since holding the planking for 8 hours, 15 minutes, and 15 seconds on February 15.

Hood's training regimen was brutal. Forbes reports:

In training for last month’s attempt, Hood reportedly did approximately 674,000 sit ups and 270,000 push ups. That’s totally Hood. To put these numbers in perspective, if you did a hundred sit-ups a day, it would take you over 18 years to do that many sit-ups. 

-via Stuff | Image: Guinness World Records

Modern problems require bold solutions. For example, how do you eat spaghetti without spilling it everywhere, including on yourself?

You use a pair of scissors, as this genius does. Just snip off the ends of your forkful before putting the remainder in your mouth. As he says, "Beats crawling around with a fork."

We salute you, sir. Audentes Fortuna iuvat.

-via Dave Barry

We stopped after just one moon and got our magma vents snipped. But Jupiter kept going and going. Soon, she had 79 kids!

That's just too much stress and work. If you have too many moons, eventually you start losing a few.

-via Pleated Jeans | Image: Safely Endangered Comic

Isabella Dalla Ragione is an archaeobotanist. That means that she researches the history of plants, many of which have changed over time with human cultivation. For example, Albrecht Durer's 1525 painting Madonna and Child with Pear actually shows an old form of the apple. Atlas Obscura describes how her research methods led to this conclusion:

“You can find so many texts detailing the symbolic meaning of pears in this painting,” Dalla Ragione says. However, the distinctive shape of the top of the fruit in Durer’s painting made Dalla Ragione realize that it was actually a “mouth of the ox” apple, an ancient variety that Dalla Ragione had found years ago in an abandoned field near Perugia and now grows on her farmstead.

Ragione tries to restore these old varieties through careful cultivation:

Once she finds a long-lost tree, Dalla Ragione plants three samples in her farmstead and puts them up for adoption via Archeologia Arborea’s website. “If you adopt a tree, it means your contribution will be used for its preservation,” she says. “Some adoptive parents come from as far as the U.S. or Australia.”

She personally takes care of her 600 plants year-round. Between September and October, she picks up most of her pears and apples and preserves them inside an abandoned chapel next to her farmstead. Standing against the chapel’s frescoes, these baskets of fruit symbolize Archeologia Arborea’s mission statement: that plants are an essential element of cultural heritage.

Image: Web Gallery of Art

The would-be thief experienced a major failure in the victim selection process when he chose to hold up the wrong Raising Cane's chicken restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky. Officers Chase and Nicole McKeown from the nearby city of Elizabeth town were there on a date.

NPR describes how they responded when the robber walked up to the cashier and pulled out a gun:

"I saw her hands go up like this and I'm like, 'Is he doing what I think he's doing?' " Nicole McKeown said at a news conference Tuesday, describing how she and her husband watched the scene play out. "And he's like, 'Yeah.' "

From there, the couple reacted quickly, drawing their weapons and circling the center tables to converge on the would-be robber.

"There was literally no question. We just looked at each other: 'Is this what's going on? Let's go,' " said Chase McKeown. He said their police instincts took over, adding, "We just did what we felt like we had to do."

The McKeowns chased the suspect down and captured him.

-via Dave Barry

Mayonnaise is usually a viscous liquid--well, unless you forget about it in the back of the refrigerator for a couple of years.

But you don't have to wait that long in order to eat it as a solid. Andrew Liszewski of Gizmodo informs us that in Japan, mayonnaise sometimes comes in slices akin to cheese shingles. You can drape a mayo slice onto a sandwich, noodles, or ice cream.

Photo: ITmedia

Black bears apparently know when it's trash day in particular neighborhoods, so this 400-pounder decided to stroll down from the mountains and see what tasty treats could be found.

In the incredibly unlikely event that this happened in my neighborhood, I'd run inside my home and call the police. And I wouldn't leave until wildlife officials or law enforcement had secured the beast.

But these people see a wild bear roaming about unrestrained and think, "It's selfie time!"

Perhaps Californians are made of sterner stuff.

Anyway, wildlife officials tranquilized and relocated the bear from the Monrovia neighborhood. Then, the next day, a different black bear went for a jaunt through the same neighborhood!

In this photo, Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) sports an impressive bouffant. Big hair styles were popular in the United States during the 1950s-70s, so the First Lady's hair is not out of the ordinary.

But when, precisely, did big hairstyles reach their zenith in American fashions? Elle O'Brien, an AI researcher for Botnik Studios, and Jan Diehm, an engineer and journalist, crunched the numbers from 30,000 American high school yearbook photos.

At The Pudding, O'Brien and Diehm present an interactive chart showing the growth and shinkage of hairstyles for both men and women over time, as well as a decade-by-decade summary of the most common hairstyles for both sexes.

-via Marginal Revolution