The eel swam in his own, otherwise empty tank at the FairPrice Ultra supermarket in the Changi Business Park in Singapore. He noticed that the neighboring tank had tasty prawns, so he slipped over the barrier and had a snack.
YouTube user itedaniel recorded the eel then returning to his own tank.
(Photo: Alan Levine)
Americans usually drink milk from cartons. Canadians usually drink milk from plastic bags. How did this difference develop? Modern Farmer explains.
Up until the 1960s, both Americans and Canadians commonly used glass bottles for transporting and distributing milk. But these were heavy, expensive, and tended to break. So Americans began using the newly-developed cardboard cartons.
Canadians faced an additional challenge. They were switching over to the metric system, so it was necessary to repackage milk to be metric compliant anyway. Bagging milk made this change easier:
Everything in Canada, including milk, had to be rejiggered to be sold in metric units. No more quarts and gallons of milk: liters were the way to go. And it turned out that the thin plastic bags used for DuPont’s milk were extremely amenable to size changes. It was no problem at all to seal the bags in a different spot to make them metric-compliant. Jugs and cartons, on the other hand, had to be redesigned and manufactured from scratch, a significant disadvantage. They never really succeeded in making up for lost time, and bagged milk now reigns in Canada.
(Photo: Jencu)
Your baby has now been born. So you need a drink.
But what, precisely, should you drink? Let us consult Vanessa Rasanen of The Federalist. She's researched the perfect beers for 9 major events in baby care. For example, while potty training, you need an "easy-on-the-palate amber for the good days or a stronger imperial stout for the not-so-good." And she has some specific recommendations:
However, on those more difficult days when nothing goes as it’s supposed to and everyone’s fed up, consider switching to something a bit heftier like an imperial stout. Think Oskar Blues’ Ten Fidy or Karl Strauss’s Wreck Alley.
And what about those rough mornings? If it's 7:30 AM and you're already exhausted, then Rasanen suggests a bourbon-aged porter. Read the rest of her suggestions at The Federalist and leave your own in the comments.
What amazes me is that the iPad survived being baked at 350ºF and came out apparently fully functional.
Brandon of GizmoSlip wanted to see if it would be possible to make a protective case for an iPad using only chocolate chip cookie dough. This is called scientific research.
So Brandon made one. Then he dropped the iPad with its chewy case off the 100-foot high roof of a parking garage. Would the case provide sufficient protection for the thoroughly baked iPad?
Content warning: foul language.
-via That's Nerdalicious!
(Photo: Chick-fil-A)
The Huffington Post reports on a clever gimmick offered by some Chick-fil-A restaurants around the US. It all started with a franchise in Suwanee, Georgia. Owner Brad Williams made little paper cartons where families could deposit their phones while eating. Instead of phubbing, diners could actually talk to each other.
People who successfully keep their cellphones in the coop for the entire meal--what Williams calls the Family Challenge--can get free ice cream at the end. He says that the project has been very successful:
Chick-fil-A's challenge "has completely taken off,” said Brad Williams, who came up with the concept at a store he operates in Suwannee, Georgia. “We have families who aren’t successful the first time and come back to try again. We even have people asking to take the boxes home with them! Our whole community is talking about it.”
Are you a freelance writer? Then may I offer my condolences to you. It is a sad, difficult time in your life. But you may be able to pull through. This is simply your cross to bear, so carry it with as much dignity as you can.
Dennis Ferrell is also a freelance writer. In a very self-demonstrative article at Something Awful, he offers his advice for how you can pitch an idea, write good copy, and maybe even get paid occasionally. He begins with this sage counsel:
Begin every article with the word "begin". This is quite the power move. It establishes that the article has begun, leaving no room for doubt. It's also a subtle way of telegraphing where a reader is in relation to the rest of the article.
Try not to use any letters that you made up. Unless you get really lucky, they won't be on your keyboard.
Content warning: foul language.
-via American Digest
(Photo: Justice Don Willett)
On March 2, 1836, the founding fathers of the Republic of Texas gathered at the settlement of Washington-on-the-Brazos and declared independence from Mexico. Although we were an independent nation for only 9 years, we Texans maintain our independent streak and celebrate Texas Independence Day every year.
The Glazing Saddles franchise of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts contributed to the celebration in Austin yesterday by arranging red, white, and blue donuts in the shape of the Texas flag. Appropriately, there were precisley 1,836 donuts.
-via David Burge
(Photo: NASA)
Scott Kelly, an American astronaut, recently returned to Earth after nearly a year on board the International Space Station. NASA physicians found that he's now 2 inches taller than his identical twin brother. Kelly was in very low gravity for a year, so there was no gravitational compression bearing down on him.
NBC News describes other effects of spending a long time in space, including a shrunken heart, difficulty with balance, and decreased bone mass:
- Astronauts no longer walk to get in the spacecraft, they float so the bones in the legs, hips and spine experience a significant decrease in load bearing. […]
- Extended spaceflight results in less work for the legs and back: muscles can begin to weaken or atrophy, and this could lead to fall-related injuries and accidents during exploration missions. […]
- The heart doesn't have to work as hard up there: Over time, this could lead to a decrease in the size of the heart.
-via The Mary Sue
Laura of the Japanese-language blog Caroline & Laura's Tea Break loves cats and makes beautiful snacks and crafts that look like them, such as eclairs and sweets.
Her most recent project is a set of painted shells. They are used in kaiawase, a game played by women in Heian period of Japanese history, which lasted from 794 to 1185 AD. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes the game:
To play the game, a number of shells are divided between two boxes. One group is taken out and then matched one at a time to the halves from the second box. Pairs of related scenes from the Tale of Genji and other romances are painted on the inside of the shells as clues.
You can see more photos of Laura's kaiawase shells here (translation).
It's not just a snack--it's an adventure!
Doughnut Time is a donut shop in Brisbane, Australia. It's been very successful in its first year of operation. In fact, the business is already expanding to new locations. And to celebrate its first birthday, the business invited 20 local bakers to radically alter their classic glazed donut in 6 different ways.
This one by Elisa Pietrantonio is one of the most deliciously preposterous. It has strawberry Persian fairy floss, gold leaf, vanilla unicorn buttercream, popcorn, sprinkles, chocolate bark, and more. The most novel part of it is a syringe filled with edible glitter. I'd never heard of this practice before, but I can see how it would appeal to customers.
You can see more extraordinary donuts from this project at Distractify.
-via Lost at E Minor
(Photo: Indian Express)
These men are candidates in the state of Bahir for the Indian Army. They were forced to strip down to their underpants prior to taking the entrance exam. The proctors hoped that this requirement would ensure that no one could cheat by bringing in secret notes or electronic devices.
After getting naked, the 1,159 candidates were seated about 8 feet apart from each other. Uniformed soldiers patrolled the testing area while the candidates took the 1-hour exam. The Indian Express reports:
“As we entered Chakkar Maidan, the venue, we were asked to remove all clothes except underwear. We had no option but to comply with the instructions even though it felt odd. The gap between candidates was about eight feet in all directions,” said a candidate, who did not wish to be identified.
“We do not expect to appear for such largescale examinations in halls, but telling us to remove our clothes was not dignified,” said another candidate.
(Photoof a priest hole by Quodvultdeus)
When she became Queen of England in 1558, Elizabeth I ramped up the suppression of Catholicism in her country. This did not deter many Catholics from adhering to their faith privately. Any Catholic priest was automatically wanted for treason against the Crown, so it was necessary to hide them.
The result was an architectural feature that has come to be known as the priest hole. It's a hidden chamber in a house where a priest could slip into and remain while priest hunters searched. Eric Grundhauser writes at Atlas Obscura:
These small hideaways were often built under staircases or inside fireplaces or behind false walls. (Even if you weren’t harboring a religious fugitive, the priest holes made a great place to stash your candles, crucifixes, and other Catholic accoutrements.) Some homes would have multiple priest holes scattered throughout, with at least one, Hindlip Hall, maintaining 12 separate holes. Some priest holes would even be hidden behind secret panels in other priest holes as an added precaution. The hiding places were generally very small, with barely enough room for a full-grown adult to fit, but they did the trick.
A Jesuit priest named Nicholas Owen was among those priests in hiding. He was also a master architect who helped build excellent priest holes. He paid the ultimate price for his devotion:
Owen was almost found out a number of times during his career, and got arrested and tortured in 1594. But even when subjected to agony, Owen never gave up the location of another priest or the holes he built. When was caught a final time in 1606, he gave himself up to distract from other priests hiding in the house. He was taken to the Tower of London and tortured to death, never giving an inch. For his work in creating the priest holes that saved countless lives, Owen was sainted by Pope Paul in 1970, and is now known as the patron saint of illusionists.
1979 saw the revival of the Star Trek franchise with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. McDonald's was part of the marketing blitz. It tried to draw in kids by offering Happy Meals inspired by the movie and its fresh take on Star Trek. The box included a connect-the-dots game, corny jokes, and puzzles.
McDonald's commercials pushed this Happy Meal option. One of them used a Klingon as a pitchman. The narrator offers a translation, but the character is not actually speaking Klingon--just gibberish. He's assuming that no child who was watching would know the difference.
You can see more photos of the Star Trek Happy Meal and another commercial in the series at Flashbak.
Make that trench run in warmth. There's no need to endure the bleak coldness of space while giving up your life for the rebellion. MJ made these X-wing blankets to prevent that. They wrap around the lower body, so they're perfect for binge watching the entire septology. Send your R2 unit to the kitchen for snacks when needed.
-via Geekologie
(Photo: Alan Levine)
It would cost $12.86 billion USD. That's the answer on Quora from Kynan Eng, an expert on artificial intelligence and something called neuromorphic engineering--whatever that is. To sum up: he's a math guy who is much smarter than you or me. He's also the guy who once calculated how much money we spend rescuing Matt Damon over and over again.
Eng explains in great detail over at Quora how he arrived at $12.86 billion. He found a way to randomly generate a sample of Amazon.com products, then created a price distribution of them for his statistical model.
He did not include the price of shipping.
-via Conan O'Brien
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