There's a special kind of terror that a parent feels when they see their child in sudden mortal danger.

It is never far from your thoughts.

The Guardian reports that Adrián Simancas and his father, Dell, were kayaking in the Bahía El Águila in the Strait of Magellan in southernmost Chile. Dell was recording their trip at the moment when a humpback whale swallowed his son. After a brief moment, the whale spat out the young man and his kayak.

Hypothermia was a serious danger in these frigid waters, so the two went to shore immediately. Adrián was, thankfully, unharmed.

-via Nag on the Lake

This watch is an example of of anti-theft pocket watch designs from the Victorian Era. Antique watch expert Dan Coatsworth explains that watches were so expensive at the time and so easy to steal that the spring-loaded spikes remain in place if the chain is pulled slowly, but project if the loop is pulled quickly. As in Dune, the slow blade penetrates the shield.

Some of the inventors took advantage of the cylindrical shape to craft charming acorn shapes. They all attempted to do harm or at least alarm to the would-be thieves.

-via Steampunk Tendencies

Karel Čapek (1890-1938) was a Czech writer and early developer of the science fiction genre. He is credited with introducing the word "robot" into popular usage in his 1920 play R.U.R., which stands for Rossum's Universal Robots. It depicts a company that manufactures synthetic workers known as robots. These robots eventually develop self-awareness, then rise up and slaughter their human masters.

In 1938, BBC Television, which launched just six years previously, aired a 35-minute adaptation of the play. Only stills from the film survive to this day, but the film is regarded as the first science fiction television program in history.

-via Pulp Librarian

YouTuber Craven In Outer Space is having fun with the theme songs and introductions to various Star Trek series. He's adjusting the audio so that it sounds like the Enterprise is the speaker for the Alexander Courage's famous theme music. Craven's use of the Doppler Effect is particularly effective.

Volkswagen is most well known for manufacturing cars. But part number 00010 ZDK-259-101 is a bottle of ketchup. For a brief time, during last fall, this part was available to American customers.

The Takeout informs us that Volkwsagen has made its own ketchup for the past 30 years. The ketchup is made to go with Volkswagen-brand currywurst, which is identified by part number 199 398 500 A. The company made the currywurst starting in 1973 to serve to factory workers and then the ketchup in 1996 to season the sausage. The combination is popular enough that the firm is willing to occasionally offer it to non-employees.

Photo: Volkswagen

Government bureaucracies are stereotypically wasteful of both time and money. The Dodo reports that a community of beavers in the Czech Republic apparently became frustrated with governmental delays in the construction of a dam the Brdy wetland region and built one themselves.

The government had planned for seven years to build the dam which advocates hope would restore the damaged wetland. But after seven years and the equivalent of $1.2 million spent, there was still no dam. Then officials found that, in just mere days, local beavers had erected dams in the spots tentatively selected by the humans.

-via Oddity Central | Photo: Klaudiusz Muchowski

Spoon & Tamago, a design blog that informs English-speaking audiences about design developments in Japan, introduces us to the ZZZN Sleep Apparel System. Yes, it's a futon that you wear. But it's even more than just the fabric and stuffing.

The coat/bed electronically monitors the user's sleep state and has a built-in hood with noise-cancelling earphones. The design goal is to promote polyphasic sleep, which is a sleeping pattern in which a person occasionally naps throughout the day. The ZZZN Sleep Apparel System is thus optimal for taking an immediate nap anytime, anywhere.

The Japanese government is promoting the device in response to a study which reveals that the Japanese get the least amount of sleep among all nations in the 38-member Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).

🎭 Dramatic Monologue: Anti-Hero by @taylorswift pic.twitter.com/QDqetQ8qsK

— James McNicholas (@jamesmcnicholas) October 23, 2024

James McNicholas is an accomplished professional actor who is in high demand on television productions. He's getting a lot of social media acclaim for doing emotionally heavy interpretations of song lyrics, often as older or broken men. In the above video, he reflects upon Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero."

Ladies' posteriors can be quite interesting to observe. The great Pierre-Auguste Renoir, as evidenced above, made a careful study of them throughout his long artistic career.

But, unlike Renoir, we now live in an age of scientific wonders that permits us to ponder rear ends with greater precision. When men thoughtfully observe a shapely posterior, where are they looking?

This is of casual interest to us laypeople, but of professional interest to plastic surgeons when they are tasked with sculpting perfection from the clay of the human body. A journal article in Aesthetic Plastic Surgery found that men most often look at the gluteal cleft and then the thigh gap. The women who participated in the study also focused on those two areas.

But, the eye tracking technology revealed, the male participants tended to hold their gaze for longer periods of time than the female participants did.

-via Dave Barry | Image: Reclining Nude by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, photo by Pharos

Previously on Neatorama: Study Finds the Ideal Shape for Male Buttocks

Eating beaver used to be legal in Minnesota--as well as a popular activity. But, KSMP News reports, that changed last year due to a law addressing the hunting and trapping of beavers. These are regarded as nuisance animals, but the law accidentally made eating beaver meat illegal.

State Senator Steve Green wants to fix this legislative error so that people can get back to the joys of eating beaver. It apparently tastes like beef, but Senator Justin Eichorn prefers to refer to the dish as "nature's chicken nuggets." Their colleagues in the Senate have introduced a bill to re-legalize beaver eating.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Andrew Patrick

At 6,288 feet in elevation, Mount Washington in central New Hampshire is the highest point in the northeastern United States. It's quite windy. Back in early January, the observatory on the mountain recorded wind speeds of 142 MPH.

Last weekend, temperatures dropped to -47.2°F. This was a new record for the site, breaking the -35°F record set in 1963. The wind chill was so severe that Mount Washington experienced a nation-wide record low of -108°F.

Two days later, two hikers became lost in chest-deep snow on the mountain. News Center Maine reports that after a 13-hour search, rescue workers were able to extract the hikers and bring them to safety.

-via Physics Geek | Photo: Harvey Barrison

Anyone can blow on a deer call. But it takes a master hunter to precisely imitate a stag and thereby summon him from concealment into the sights of the hunter's rifle.

Deer calling is a revered tradition in Germany. Last Friday, the best deer callers gathered in Dortmund. Wearing their traditional hunting garb, they carefully blew into ox horns, snail shells, the dried stems of giant hogweed, and glass cylinders.

When played precisely, the sounds resemble either an old stag searching for a mate, a dominant stag calling to his harem of does, and combat between two rutting stags. The sounds are charmingly melodious.

-via Dave Barry

What would daily life be like if your name was Donald Trump? There's a man in the White House who can answer that question, but there's also a guy in Alabama with the same name.

The Associated Press talked to men who are named Donald Trump, William J. Clinton, Abraham Lincoln, and Grover Cleveland. Sometimes these men get freebies at hotels and restaurants. Sometimes they get mail from federal inmates asking for pardons.

The experience can have a real impact on daily interactions. Abraham Lincoln notes that he has to make good first impressions because his name is so memorable. People don't forget meeting him for the first time.

This is Dixon's Chili Parlor in Kansas City, Missouri. The menu is simple: chili. You can have that chili in a variety of ways and there are a few other alternative items to choose from. But since founder Vergne Dixon established it in 1919, people have flocked to to the dry chili cooked with beans. Dixon wanted no distractions for customers eating his chili, so he forbade smoking, ketchup, and newspapers in his restaurant.

Harry Truman was among Dixon's fans. He frequented it for decades and, in 1950, ate there while President. Truman and Dixon corresponded about the visit and, after Dixon's death, his family sent Truman a tub of chili every year for his birthday.

Dixon's Chili Parlor is 1 of 12 favorite restaurants of US Presidents listed by The Takeout. Other Presidents on the list include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Jimmy Carter.

The penny-farthing went out of fashion in the 1880s, despite the efforts of some modern people to revive the traditional bicycle. Perhaps Greg Mitchell's variant, pictured above, will re-establish it.

Motorcycle News reports that Mitchell is an engineer in Swindon, UK. His "Super-Farthing" is built with a Yamaha R6 sportbike. He machined 420 parts from scrap steel to convert the motorcycle into this high-rise vehicle.

Note the rear stabilizers. Initially, Mitchell built these to lift up and out of the way, but he found the bike too difficult to maneuver without them. So it's functionally a lifted quadricycle. Mitchell has taken it up to speeds of 50 MPH.

-via Oddity Central