Expeditionary campers are travel trailers and motorhomes designed for camping away from the amenities of a campground. They're for something more akin to wilderness environments. Mammoth Overland, a manufacturer of such travel trailers, goes further with its ELE trailer.

Gear Junkie explains that ELE stands for "Extinction-Level Event". This trailer is thoroughly zombie-proof. Oh, the company says that it's designed to withstand a bear attack, but we know what it's really communicating. The walls and windows are bullet-proof, there are controls inside for bear spray emitters, and there's an air purification system that can last for up to 6 months of use.

The interior includes a combat information center that allows the user to observe the surrounding area with a nightvision camera mounted on a boom, launch a drone, or monitor radiation with a Geiger counter.

The system is pricey at $67,000. But isn't survival worth the expense?

-via Homecrux

Hemlock Public Schools in Hemlock, Michigan recently issued a press release in hope of quashing a rumor of an impending alien invasion. This rumor spread on social media, led parents to contact the school district for information, and finally resulted in the necessity of the Superintendent speaking out on the subject. In short: the aliens have not arrived.

The school district has investigated the rumor and determined that it began with one student who wished to create a distraction that would allow him to avoid taking a math test.

The press release urges members of the school district to verify information claims before believing them, let alone spreading them online.*

This warning stresses the importance of information literacy, which is, as a librarian, the most important thing that I teach to my students. An outrageous rumor on campus is a good teaching opportunity.

I've toyed around with the idea of creating an information literacy game that begins with intentionally starting a wild and false rumor on campus that inductively leads students toward evaluating the veracity of the rumor. But the project proved to be too complex to practically execute.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Hemlock Public Schools

*Assuming that the press release is accurate, which I am unable to verify at this time.

I've come across A LOT of good 17th- and 18th-century Quaker names over the past 3.5 years, as I've worked on my thesis. Now that my thesis is done and submission is near, it's time to share the more than 90 wildest early Quaker names I've found (in alphabetical order): pic.twitter.com/Qj18jPELMI

— Isabella Rosner (@IsabellaRosner) May 16, 2023

Are you searching for the right baby name for your little bundle of joy? Picking the wrong name can result in a /r/Tragedeigh. So let us turn toward the noble and dignified names of Quakers during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.

Isabella Rosner is a doctoral student at King's College in London who studies the material cultures of Britain from the 1600s to the 1800s. She's an expert on women's needlework during that period.

She examines an era when Quaker sects of Protestant Christianity were enormously popular in England. As a result, she's run across a lot of names that were normal by standards of that culture and time, but would be considered a bit eccentric today.

Personally, I think that "Love Beer" would be an excellent choice for an adult. "Experience Cuppage", though, sounds a bit naughty.

On Saturday night, police in Springfield, Colorado pulled over a driver for speeding. As the officer walked toward the driver's car, he saw that a dog was in the front passenger seat. The clever driver had a cunning plan, which he unfortunately executed in plain view of the approaching officer: he switched seats with the dog!

Perhaps if the officer had not seen the switch, the driver might have avoided arrest and let his dog take the fall for his traffic violation.

Surprisingly, the man was intoxicated. He was arrested and taken to jail. As for the dog, the police say, "The dog does not face any charges and was let go with just a warning."

-via Associated Press | Photo: Pixabay

Last Friday, Scott Haraguchi was enjoying a pleasant day of fishing from his kayak about a mile off the southern coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Then, suddenly, he heard a whooshing sound coming toward him. A huge tiger shark rammed into his kayak, attempted to get a meal, and then slunk off.

Haraguchi tells KITV News that he suspects that the shark thought of his kayak as a wounded seal--easy prey for a hungry predator. The next day, the sighting of a 20-foot shark led to the closure of a nearby beach at a Marine Corps base, although it's unknown if it's the same shark that Haraguchi met.

Dezeen introduces us to the Fog-X, a recent invention of Swedish engineer Pavels Hedström.

Think of this invention as an early stillsuit design focused on the needs of people in cold, arid environments. The jacket breaks down into an emergency tent and a vapor collection panel that extracts drinking water from fog. It pairs with an app designed to help users locate foggy areas while in the wilderness--assuming that you can get signal. He successfully tested Fog-X in the Atacama Desert of Chile, which is one of the driest places in the world.

Hedström hopes that, when Fog-X arrives in the consumer marketplace, it it will be priced at about €400 ($438 USD).

-via Nag on the Lake | Photos: Lexus Design Awards

Another working day in Antarctica.. 😯

🎥 IG: tomaszkurczaba pic.twitter.com/S6cvvwvmze

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) May 12, 2023

King George Island, which lies just north of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, is the home of the Polish Antarctic Expedition's main base. By Antarctic standards, it's a rather pleasant place noted for its easy access for visitors and pleasant weather.

Tomasz Kurczaba is a photographer there. He spends what idle time he has swimming in the brisk waters, sunbathing, hiking, kayaking, and hanging out with local wildlife.

Although he makes Antarctica look like an enjoyable vacation destination, it is rather cold and windy at times. In this video, Kurczaba shows a colleague trying to enter the base and close the door after herself.

In 1992, researcher Sir Mix-a-Lot released the results of his examination of the human female figure in a study titled "Baby Got Back." Sir Mix-a-Lot concluded that a round and heavy female bottom was of surpreme interest to heterosexual men such as himself.*

But a 2010 study written by Barnaby J. Dixson, now a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia, and his colleagues suggests that Mix-A-Lot's opinion is not as widely shared as the general public may think.

In their literature review, Dixson and his co-authors discovered that many previous studies tracked the eye movements of men when they saw women. These studies noted when men looked at the breasts, midriff, and hips of women. But the flaw in these studies is that they men looked at women from the front. How would reversing the view impact the male gaze?

In their study, Dixson and his colleagues asked men to look at images of women with a rear view. The researchers collected data on what parts of the female anatomy men initially focused on and which parts their gaze lingered on.

Although Sir Mix-a-Lot may have driven his scientific curiosity at the buttocks, the majority of men participating in this study found the women's midriffs to be of greater interest.

Image: VEVO

*It is, of course, this groundbreaking research that led to Mix-a-Lot gaining his knighthood.

Writer Anjali Enjeti was recently scheduled to fly from Houston to Atlanta when her Delta flight was delayed for a novel reason: there was a swarm of bees on one of the wings of the plane. She tweeted the adventure, which is, as appropriate from a professional novelist, worth a complete read.

The swarm was spotted before the passengers boarded, which is fortunate because a resolution to this saga took a long time. Enjeti watched and photographed events from a terminal window. Airport personnel considered hosing off the bees. They also summoned a beekeeper and a pest control expert, neither of whom were allowed to remove the pests.

They also tried to blow the bees off which vehicle exhaust. The bees stayed in place. So the airline decided to give the departure gate to another plane and move this plane. When the flight crew turned on the engine to move the plane, the bees left.

This delay caused a lot of problems for passengers. If the airport officials had simply summoned Samuel L. Jackson, they plane might have left on time.

-via Super Punch

Morning rose over the sleepy town of Old Bridge, New Jersey. It's a quiet community. But what secrets happen in the dark of night would be revealed to all: there had been a dumping during the twilight hours.

Near a creek in the woods, some unknown criminal representing shadowy forces that quietly rule our lives had dumped 300-400 pounds of pasta.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the pasta of the elbow and spaghetti varieties. It had been cooked prior to being dumped at the site. City workers cleaned up the pasta. But they don't know who is responsible for it.

Or perhaps they're just not talking about what they do know.

-via Emily Bloch | Photo: Nina Jochnowitz

The driver of a school bus in Warren, Michigan was struggling to stay conscious. She started to pull over, but passed out before she could finish. Then the bus continued drifting forward into oncoming traffic.

Our hero is Dylan Thomas, a 13-year old seventh grader who ran forward, gently pressed down the brake, downshifted the transmission, and steered the bus to a stop. Then he immediately asked for other students to call 911.

It's a remarkable scene. Dylan kept a cool head the whole time and performed a complex procedure to save the lives of fellow students and, possibly, other motorists. Get this kid a CDL.

-via Born in Space

It's not quite the Manhattan Project or Area 51, but the Swiss take their cheese very seriously and want to protect the trade secrets that make their cheeses famous and sought after around the world.

As a consequence, Tom Scott wasn't able to see all or possibly even most of the Agroscope facility. But he was able to pry out of the food scientists why Swiss cheese has (or at least used to have) many holes inside. It's not because of the traditional explanation: bubbles of carbon dioxide formed during the fermentation process.

The Swiss scientists were able to discover the reason why their cheese were gradually become less hole-y about thirty years ago. In short, the milk was too clean and a certain contaminant wasn't getting into the milk and flavoring the resulting cheese. Now that particular contaminant has not be added in intentionally.

Some birds inspire respect, if not awe. We Americans revere the bald eagle. Owls are associated with widom. Cardinals are beautiful. Peacocks are lovely to behold. Chickens are tasty.

There is a place for all birds in a human-dominated world.

Except for the seagull, of course. They're sometimes referred to as the "rats of the sea." They have unpleasant associations with stealing human food and pooping on us and our property. There's even a zoo in the England that is hiring people to drive them off.

But some people like seagulls enough to imitate them and imitate them perfectly. The Dutch Review proudly informs us that a Dutchman has won an annual seagull imitation contest held in Belgium. In this video, you can see a costumed Jarmo Slutter sing the song of the sea while in costume.

-via Marginal Revolution

The toy company Mattel says that it wants to make sure that all children can feel represented within their line of Barbie dolls. The Associated Press reports that in order to serve the needs of children with Down Syndrome, it has produced a Barbie doll who has Down Syndrome.

Mattel worked with the National Down Syndrome Society to design this doll, which wears a dress with blue flowers and butterflies. These images are associated with awareness for Down Syndrome. It also has a necklace with three chevrons representing three copies of the 21st chromosome, leg braces, and physical characteristics often found in people who have Down Syndrome.

Image: Mattel

Commemorative plaques are useful cultural artifacts because they give us, the visitors, a sense of the importance of a place, tying us to that location in both the present and the past. This is why people create them, often at great expense, and erect them in public view.

Heritage Toronto values the proud history of Canada's largest city. Its commemorative plaques can be found throughout the city. The creation and establishment of a commemorative plaque is itself a notable event, so this particular plaque commemorates itself, which was unveiled to the public on October 10, 2018--a date of great historical importance. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the only recursive commemorative plaque in Toronto.

-via Annie Rauwerda | Photo: Read the Plaque