Cartoonist Mark Parisi illustrates the proliferation of tipping as a practice for services that do not traditionally solicit tips. This dog really hopes that you wil click "Custom".
In the past year or so, I've seen automatic payment systems asking for tips and outrage from people on X and in real life objecting to this practice. But with the rise of AI, I accept that it may be worthwhile giving in to this shakedown. Perhaps tipping a robot now delays my future rightsizing into biomass energy.
YouTuber @CallDuckOfficial loves call ducks, which are a specific breed and, as far as I can tell, the most adorable breed. Chip and Clover live fun and pampered lives with their human, who gives them all of the comforts that an anatine companion could yearn for.
Nonetheless, Chip the duck is ungrateful and sometimes harasses his human. In this case, he prevents the human from tying his shoes.
-via Laughing Squid
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was marked as a musical genius from early childhood. Over the course of his life, he wrote over six hundred pieces that survive to this day. Now we can add one more composition to that list. The Guardian reports that the staff of the city libraries of Leipzig, Germany, have found a previously-unknown work.
Mozart probably composed the piece in late childhood. It has seven small movements for a string trio and, when played, lasts about twelve minutes. The manuscript is likely to be a copy of the original and dates to about 1780, fifteen years after the original was written. Scholars have titled it Ganz kleine Nachtmusik.
-via Ted Gioia | Image: Royal Opera House Convenant Garden
Design Boom introduces us to Mamonaku Kohi, a Japanese-styled cafe in Quezon City, the Philippines. It's not a place where you can park yourself for a couple of hours, sip your drink, and enjoy free WiFi in an air conditioned environment. The service point is literally a roughly-cut hole in the concrete wall.
George Washington was of English extraction and his family can be traced to northeastern England as far back to at least the 11th century. You can visit the manor house inhabited by the earlier Washingtons (then called Wessyington) in the town of Washington in County Durham.
The beautiful Durham Cathedral, built in the 11th century and substantially developed in the Fifteenth Century, is an architectural treasure. John Washington, a Benedictine monk and abbot, oversaw much of the 15th-century expansion.
A more recent plaque to honor John Washington's work notes that the monk's family has earned "everlasting fame in lands to him unknown," which is truly a great fortune for any family.
-via Grizzlegutweed the Bear | Photo: Kaihsu Tai
グラスに満ちた月 pic.twitter.com/uh8tfTYx3V
— Tatsuya Tanaka 田中達也 (@tanaka_tatsuya) September 16, 2024
Today, September 17, is harvest moon festival day in Japan. It is a traditional time, a Japanese tourism website explains, for viewing the moon at night. Tatsuya Tanaka, a professional miniatures artist and long-time Neatorama favorite, offers this lovely image of astronauts sharing a drink while back lit by the full moon.
The image appears to be three miniatures on top of a glass of beer which is lit from the bottom by an LED.
-via Spoon & Tamago
Serving curatorial realness fr.#museum #history #royalarmouries #genz #armsandarmour pic.twitter.com/tOLNbYGvKB
— Royal Armouries (@Royal_Armouries) September 14, 2024
The Royal Armouries in Leeds, UK is a military history museum that showcases important artifacts from British military history for the past millennium. It's totally slay.
Recently, the institution released this promotional video encouraging people to visit this sigma museum. The value is gyatt. So no bed-rotting. Head to the Royal Armouries in Leeds for, hopefully, an entire tour like this.
-via Rebekka
Brian Rust, a professional trombone player from a family of trombone players, was diagnosed with an intention tremor. A CNN affiliate in Madison, Wisconsin reports that treatment involved placing wires in his brain to stimulate areas of it. The patient must be awake during this kind of surgery so that he can respond to tests as the device is implanted.
With the permission of his neurologist, Rust brought his trombone into the operating room and played it (or at least manipulated the slide) as part of the tests. Now Rust is able to turn the device on and off and maintain greater muscular control.
-via Dave Barry
You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. There's a signpost up ahead--your next stop, Binghamton, New York.
The small city of Binghamton in the west-central part of the state is proud to call Rod Serling, the creator of The Twilight Zone, a native son. This past weekend, it and Ithaca College hosted SerlingFest 2024, a celebration of Serling's life and work.
The Ithaca Journal reports that this convention culminated in the dedication of a statue of the man near his childhood home. The statue is in Recreation Park, a favorite place of Serling and the inspiration for the episode "Walking Distance."
Fashion house BB IMP makes a wide variety of unusual shoes fit for ladies and gentlemen who wish to always be in style. Get noticed by wearing shoes that give you Bugs Bunny feet and skeletal feet. Or, for more formal occasions, such as job interviews or weddings, wear shoes that look like they're made of Cheetos or Chucky dolls.
The firm's most recent release are McDonald's-inspired suede slip-ons that look like hamburgers--presumably the Big Mac, specifically. They go on sale this Friday for $110 USD. Cheese will cost extra, or you can add your own.
Don't just eat fast food; look the part, too.
-via Toxel
Spoon & Tamago shares images of leather accessories created and sold by Cokeco, a firm in Fukuoka, Japan. The company offers a wide variety of handcrafted leather goods, most notably a series of fashion accessories that resemble octopodes and their kin.
At the subreddit /r/DataIsBeautiful, /u/profound_whatever showcases a huge chart illustrating when famous people in Western Civilization lived. It's useful for showing which lives overlapped each other.
The chart starts at the year 1200 and stretches to the current year. I focused on the era of Winston Churchill, that giant of the Twentieth Century who, during a 90-year lifespan, straddled multiple major political and technological changes.
Some redditors are looking at the simulanteous and sequential lifespans and drawing conclusions:
It would be interesting to see an expanded version that includes Asia. But other redditors are complaining about particular individuals being left out. I agree: the absence of Gallagher is unsettling.
-via My Modern Met
Damon Beres, an editor for The Atlantic, shares this image of an elevator. He doesn't share its location, but various people on reddit have posted similar photos of elevator control panels with buttons marked yes and no.
Redditor /u/allysx3 explains that New York City's safety code for elevators includes options for people with disabilities in emergency situations. After pushing the emergency button, remote operators can ask people in the elevator yes or no questions through a speaker, which are answered with the appropriate buttons.
-via Super Punch
Rock star Jon Bon Jovi was a big deal back in the 80s, but has never stopped performing since then. In fact, he and his team were recording a new music video on Tuesday in downtown Nashville when they spotted a woman climbing over the railing of a bridge across the Cumberland River.
The crew realized that the woman was considering jumping off the bridge. Bon Jovi and his companions walked over to talk to her. They convinced her to climb back over the railing and seek help. The Tennessean reports that Nashville police credit Bon Jovi and his colleagues with saving her life.
-via Colin Rugg
The Bonhams auction house in London recently sold this grisly coin-operated amusement dating from the 1920s and attributed to Charles Ahrens, a noted creator of such automata.
It's called the "English Execution." If it looks familiar, that may be because you watched "The Wench Is Dead," a 1998 episode of Inspector Morse. This automaton appears in the opening scene.
