(Image: Fox)

In 1998, The Simpsons episode “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace” depicted lovable dunce Homer Simpson as a failed inventor. At one point, he writes a mathematical equation on a chalkboard. Simon Singh, the author of The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets says that this equation describes the mass of the Higgs boson subatomic particle . . . more than a decade before scientists discovered it! The Daily Telegraph reports:

Simon Singh, author of The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, told a literary festival audience that the series is staffed by writers with an interest in maths.

The Simpsons is the most mathematical TV show on prime-time television in history. A lot of the writers on The Simpsons are mathematicians," he said.

"That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson. If you work it out, you get the mass of a Higgs boson that's only a bit larger than the nano-mass of a Higgs boson actually is.

"It's kind of amazing as Homer makes this prediction 14 years before it was discovered."

When I encountered this story, it struck me as suspiciously too good to be true. It may turn out false as many astonishing science news stories do. But note that Simon Singh has a doctorate in particle physics, so presumably he knows what he’s talking about.

-via Glenn Reynolds

(Unrelated photo by Scott Davidson)

In a surprising turn of events, the jar in question was inaccurately labeled!

Police in Lincoln, Nebraska arrested a man for suspicion of drunk driving. While searching his car, they found under the passenger seat a 16-ounce container. It was marked “Not Weed.” To their shock, there were 11.4 grams of marijuana inside.

-via KevinNR

While developing his vaccine for polio, Dr. Jonas Salk bravely injected himself with an early prototype. He survived and eventually gave to humanity the life-saving fruits of his genius.

In that same pattern of self-experimentation, this Japanese language video shows a man taping Mentos candies onto his own body, then jumping into a bathtub filled with Coca-Cola.

(Video Link)

That the reaction of Mentos and Coke is known to scientists makes the effort all the more intrepid. Skip to the 4:31 mark to see this researcher’s brave leap into danger.

-via BuzzFeed

(Image: Columbia Pictures)

The 1980s was a glorious time for cinema. Audiences could swoon over soaring science fiction epics like Dune and Return of the Jedi. It was also a high time for fantasy film making. Leah Schnelbach of Tor has ranked 18 of them. They include some of my favorites of the genre, including Krull, Conan the Barbarian, and The Beastmaster.

Krull is a sadly neglected work that has not received the attention that it deserves. It is not a truly great movie, but it is consistently entertaining. I became enamored of it in my youth. By the time I was 16, I had watched it so many times that I could recite the dialogue from memory.

What movies on the list do you like? Are there any films you would add to it?

(Photo: PR Times)

Can you guess what animal is cooked in this special sandwich?

The café at the Japanese science museum Orbi Yokohama is noted for its surprising hamburgers, such as one that looks like the Earth. That museum, in conjunction with the nearby Sunshine Aquarium, held an exhibit on poisonous and venomous animals, including frogs. After looking at poisonous frogs, you’re invited to eat a presumably non-poisonous one. You read more about it at Rocket News 24.

(Video Link)

Your must-see video of the day is this gripping shot of a man barely escaping death because he was unable to open his parachute.

Christopher Jones of Perth, Australia has epilepsy. The debilitating effects of a grand mal seizure hit him at the worst possible moment: while he was skydiving. He jumped at 12,000 feet. At about 9,000 feet, the seizure started.

At the 1:10 mark in the video, it becomes apparent to the jumpmaster that something was terribly wrong. He made his way over to Jones and pulled his ripcord at 4,000 feet. Jones regained consciousness before landing safely on the ground.

-via Ace of Spades HQ

Etsy seller lyl393 makes clever use of the elongated characters on Adventure Time by showing them stretched as necklaces. The shapeshifting Jake is, of course, the most obvious choice. But the form also works very well with her depictions of Lady Rainicorn, Fiona and Cake, and Lord Monochromicorn.

This romantic piece that shows Jake and Lady Rainicorn together is especially charming.

-via Fashionably Geek

(Photo: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)

Madera, an 11-year old Labrador Retriever, is completely blind. She lives in Fairbanks, Alaska with Ed Davis, her owner. On February 6, Davis let her outside briefly to relieve herself. Madera usually does her business then comes right back in. But this time, Madera started wandering. She vanished into the snowy darkness.

On February 19, Constantine Khrulev, another local resident, was out biking with his own dog. They heard another dog whining and investigated. It was Madera! The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner describes the rescue:

Khrulev went into the woods and found her under a tree, more than 100 yards from the trail and about half a mile from Davis’ house.

“She was not going to be found accidentally,” Davis said.

Khrulev took Madera to one of Davis’ neighbors. The dog had lost about 14 pounds but was otherwise in good health, Davis said. Her rescuer asked for the $100 reward money to go the the Fairbanks Animal Shelter Fund, a gesture that so impressed Davis that he decided to increase the donation to $250.

-via AP

The huge St. Bernard dog wants to rest. But little kitty wants to play!

(Lunarbaboon)

There will be a time when you stop pushing someone and that someone starts pushing you. No matter what, keep going. Death can catch up with you later.

(Video Link)

Mostly Minis, a goat farm in Armstrong, British Columbia, sells tiny goats for pets or milk production.

When the goats want milk, they visit their local bottle stand. Drinking there makes them so happy!

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

(Photo: Yelp user Michael L.)

This is a photo of the main entrance to the Terence Cardinal Cook-Cathedral Library, a branch of the New York City Public Library. You've never heard of it? That's because it's so underground. If you want to go inside, you'll have to go to the 6 line station located at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 50th Street.

According to a New York Times article written in 2010, there's been a library in that spot since 1887. The first one was operated by the Archdiocese of New York. The NYPL has been there since 1992. Corey Kilgannon talked to librarian Anisha Huffman, then the branch manager:

At 2,100 square feet, it is the second smallest of the 90 branches in the New York system, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island (the Macombs Bridge Library in the Harlem River Houses is 700 square feet). It has little space for desktop computers, so there are 13 laptops. But the Cooke branch has the circulation activity of a much bigger library, officials said.

Ms. Huffman, who commutes on the No. 6 from Upper Manhattan, said the patron pool seemed to reflect the ridership of a typical downtown train in Manhattan: an extreme diversity of ethnicity, wealth, education and occupation. You have the rich and the poor, the soiled and the well scrubbed, all pushed together. The branch also sees tourists from Midtown hotels who check e-mail, print airplane tickets and ask touristy questions.

“It’s funny,” said Alvin Tulshi, a clerk at the library. “One question we get regularly is ‘Where’s the Barnes & Noble?’ ”

Don't try to visit right now. The library is temporarily closed for renovations.

-via Pop-Up City

The Journal of Dracula Studies is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually by the English Department of Kutztown University, a college in Pennsylvania. It contains studies of vampiric images in folklore, literature, and popular culture.

(Image: Universal Pictures)

It is unclear if this publication is still active. The last call for papers that I can find was approximately one year ago. Perhaps it is simply slumbering, waiting for the right moment to rise out of its crypt.

-via Slate Star Codex | Image: Kutztown University

P.S. A bonus item:

All these Dracula reboots are failing to capture the original's focus on international real estate law.

— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) October 8, 2014

This photo of unknown origin shows what appears to be a breakfast buffet table. There's a honeycomb frame offering the freshest possible honey to diners!

I don't know where this one is, but various redditors report having seen set ups like this at high-end hotels around the world.

(Photo: Sarah Lee/The Guardian)

Zoe Laughlin, the director of the Institute of Making, says that, "my ambition is to make the best spoon in the world." Oliver Wainwright of The Guardian met her to learn about how important it is to choose the right eating utensils in order to taste particular foods. He writes:

I reach for a spoon and plunge it into some yoghurt. The resulting mouthful tastes a bit fizzy, as if the yoghurt’s gone off – the trademark tangy tingle of zinc. A second spoon gives a salty metallic kick – the steel – while chrome makes no difference at all. Sadly, there is no magnesium spoon; if you ever put an old school pencil sharpener on your tongue, during an idle moment in maths class, you’ll know that it gives even more of a thrill than popping candy. (Or was that just me?)

In a blind tasting, Laughlin’s guinea pigs found that copper and zinc were the sourest, while the spoon to end all spoons was, of course, made of gold. “Mango sorbet with a gold spoon is just heaven,” she sighs. “Mango never tasted so mangoey.” But too bad if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth: in the blind tasting, it came out near the bottom.

It all has to do with the “reduction potential” of the different metals – the ease with which they oxidise – which affects how many atoms come off in your mouth. The relatively inert gold is best suited to subtle, creamy foods, Laughlin found when she put on a seven-course banquet with a Michelin-starred chef, because it has the least metallic taste. Cod on a zinc spoon, on the other hand, was revolting. Time for Heston to appoint a spoon sommelier, perhaps?

Like, gag me with a spoon! But make sure that it's the correct spoon. To know for sure, consult designer Andreas Fabian, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on spoons. He's working to optimize the tactile experience of eating:

He unravels a black pouch, containing a collection of oddly fetishistic implements, like the toolkit of an aesthete-torturer. There is a pair of golden tongs – half knife, half chopstick – and a silver-plated tuning fork, for pronging chunks of food with a twang, along with several glass wands with rounded, pendulous ends.

“This one is to replicate the pleasure of licking your finger,” he says, inviting me to dip a gold-leafed wand in a jar of warmed Nutella. Then there is a glass bowl covered in rabbit fur, designed to encourage a more tactile experience with your soup.

-via Marginal Revolution