Arman Foisy of Lillooet, British Columbia was recently driving his mother around. He stopped the car to turn around. Then his mother, Albina Foisy, opened the door and got out. She wanted to play in the snow.
She's 101 years old, but she has the joy of a child when encountering snow. She scooped up a few handfuls, fashioned a snowball, and threw it. In the video (auto-start), she says, "It's snowing quite a bit. It's kinda fun to play in the snow!" She's right!
-via Huffington Post
(Photo: Thomas E. Jacks/Find-a-Grave)
The cause of the American Revolution was frequently short of men, commonly short of arms and other military supplies, and almost always deprived of cash. Wars--especially wars against great powers such as the United Kingdom--are expensive. Oliver Pollock, an Irish merchant based in Spanish-controlled New Orleans, helped the nascent American government fund its war efforts. During his struggle to back the Americans, he accidentally invented the dollar sign ($).
Dan Hess of Atlas Obscura traces the life of Pollock and his extraordinary efforts on behalf of the American cause. Not only did Pollock help fund the revolutionaries at his own expense, his diplomatic efforts were essential to getting Spain active in the war and ensuring the success of expeditions to capture the Trans-Appalachian West.
After the war ended, Pollock wanted his money back and asked Congress to make good on its debts to him. His notes include the first use of the dollar sign:
“Pollock...entered the abbreviation ‘ps’ by the figures for ‘peso.’ Because Pollock recorded these Spanish “dollars” or “pesos” as ‘ps” and because he tended to run both letters together, the resulting symbol resembled a ‘$,’” says Jim Woodrick, the Historic Preservation Division Director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
That’s it. Historians have analyzed the source of the $ symbol and have yet to find it written down prior to Pollock’s use in his ledgers. His unintentional creation is supported by the fact that Robert Morris chose to adopt the symbol and by 1797 had it cast in type in Philadelphia as the official symbol for new nation’s own currency.
Other historians that I've found cautiously corroborate this claim.
This original take on Star Wars cosplay is beautiful! Hendo Art Cosplay costumed herself in Leia's robes from Episode IV, modified to look like a kimono and accented with accessories and makeup that make the princess look like a geisha from a bygone Japan.
These men in Narooma, New South Wales, Australia find a cave. There are bugs inside. At first, they do not grasp the number of bugs inside the cave. But then they enter the cave, waking up the insects.
The resident bugs respond by swarming. Oh, how they do swarm! Soon, it is almost impossible to see through them.
Next, it is time to return to the other side. To this, one of the men says, "I don't want to go back!" Come on, where's your sense of adventure?
We all cry sometimes. For example, you may get sawdust in your eyes while woodworking. Or you watch an emotionally intense movie, such as The Dirty Dozen.
Those are the two occasions when it is acceptable to cry.
But Aaron Gillies, a comedy writer, has noted that his wife cries more often than that. She cries at incidents that he finds trivial. He has published a list of some of these occasions. These include watching a rabbit escape from a fox in a nature documentary and remembering that swans can be gay.
On reflection, I agree with the wife: all of these are legitimate reasons to cry, which you can now add to the pair that I have mentioned above.
Now, as a happily married man who plans to remain that way, I advise you gentlemen to never do this. Embarrassing your wife online is a terrible idea for most marriages. But Gillies's wife tweets that "I don't feel at all attacked." She's a good sport.
First, the subway rat of New York City (there's just one, right?) carried off a slice of pizza. Now he's taking pictures of himself.
Fox 5 New York (auto-start video) reports that a man was sleeping near the tracks at a station in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. A rat climbed on him and somehow activated his phone's camera, taking an Instagram-worthy photo of himself. You can see the incident in this video:
The rat is determined to remain in the media spotlight.
-via Dave Barry
Shave your legs for a date. Otherwise, why bother? For that matter, in winter, why shave for a date? A man might be impressed by your practicality solution for the cold weather.
If you enjoy Cassandra Calin's cartoons, be sure to read our interview with her.
Ethan Hall is just seven years old. He had been given an important task: singing the song of his people before a crowd watching him at the beginning of a baseball game.
It was the worst possible time to get hiccups. But Ethan did.
This took place at Cooper's Stadium in Adelaide, Australia. Ethan started hiccuping at the beginning of his performance of "Advance Australia Fair." But he kept right on going, maintaining his composure and the dignity of his homeland's national anthem.
As the color commentator for the game says at the end of the video, Ethan's performance was "absolutely priceless."
-via Huffington Post
Come over to the Dark Side, but please leave some thigh meat or at least one drumstick for the rest of us.
Etiquette tips: we all know that Lord Vader makes a mess when he tries to eat with his mask on. Just act like you don't notice. And also ignore Uncle Palpatine when he goes into one of his political rants.
Paul, the man behind the blog Then & Now Movie Locations, travels to and photographs the original locations in which scenes from famous movies were shot. For his most recent expedition, he journeyed to Sedona, Arizona and several towns in southern California where The Karate Kid was shot.
Pictured above is where Mr. Miyaki confronted John Kreese at his Cobra Kai dojo. You can see more comparison photos here (warning: auto-start audio)
The University of Houston includes the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. As a result, the archives of the University of Houston Libaries include a variety of old menus that show what hotel and restaurant patrons long ago could eat. You can browse high resolution images of several menus here.
One thing that I found surprising was the concept of "breakfast wine." Barnum's City Hotel in Baltimore had a wide variety of options. Drinking spirited beverages before noon? How scandalous!
-via Boing Boing
For his home Christmas light display this year, Bob Clagett made a pair of giant lightsabers. The hilts are made of cardboard cylinders painted silver and accented with duct tape. The blades are made of clear plastic roofing material and fixed inside the hilts with drywall screws driven through 2x4s. The actual light comes from Christmas decorative lights mounted just inside the hilts.
Clagett found the lightsabers surprisingly sturdy. You can even duel with them!
-via Core77
Mark Poulier, an Australian artist, specializes in drawing architecture in ink. Lately, he's been experimenting with coffee cup art, a trendy medium. The two practices blend perfectly in this Leaning Tower of Pisa. The detailed work was demanding and, Poulier says, "took many cups of coffee to complete."
-via Khool
A person who's high on cocaine, heroin, or marijuana may not realize how impaired he is. That's why the Ford Motor Company created this suit that simulates the effects. Jalopnik reports that it has goggles that induce tunnel vision, headphones that play distracting noises, vibrators that induce hand tremors, and weights that throw off balance.
The result is that even professional drivers, let alone everyday amateurs, become very dangerous on the road. In this video, Ford placed the suit on two drivers. They found it impossible to perform simple tasks, such as catching a ball, let alone driving a car safely.
Go ahead and step through the ropes into the ring. It's completely safe, even though this sideboard is designed to look like a boxing ring. Emmanuel Gonzalez Guzman, a Chilean designer, calls his eye-catching design Cuerda (translation). The ropes hold inside and partially conceal whatever is stored there.
-via Contemporist
