This photo dating from 1955 shows special slip-on sandals that loggers wore to protect mess hall floors during meal breaks. Lumberjack boots had spikes on the bottom, thus imperiling indoor surfaces.
-via Things from the Past
Photo: Potlatch Lumber Company/University of Idaho Digital Collections
Hunter and Jenna Perrin were in their home in Temecula--a city south of Los Angeles--when they received an automatic notification from their security camera system. This was followed by a knock on the door. NBC 4 News reports that a hot air balloon with thirteen people had landed in the small backyard of the suburban home.
The pilot had determined that the balloon was about to run out of fuel and had to make an emergency landing. He achieved an ideal landing, as the balloon didn't hit the house, any trees, or the fence. In fact, there was no property damage at all and no injuries.
-via David Thompson
Michael Billington, a theater critic for The Guardian, ranks from worst to best all of the plays of William Shakespeare. He identifies 35 of them, but scholars dispute that number, raising higher or lower due to the Bard's collaboration with author writers. The Two Noble Kinsmen, for example, co-written with John Fletcher, is sometimes described as a Fletcher play because that man may have composed the majority of it.
Several years ago, I read and watched all of Shakespeare's plays. There is good reason why some, such as Macbeth, are considered classics and others, such as Timon of Athens, are rarely staged.
Billington's lower ranks are not surprising (although I would place The Merchant of Venice much higher), his selection for #1 is.
-via Kottke
There are practical uses for brassieres. For example, if a horse suffers an eye injury and the owner needs an eye patch in a hurry, a bra wrapped around the horse's head will suffice. One horse rescue operation suggests, perhaps jokingly, that a bra can protect a horse from eye damage during solar eclipses. When an emergency strikes, you've got to think outside the cup.
-via Lunar & Sunny | Photo: Enck's Training
In years past, farmers in the Landes department of southwestern France moved through marshlands on stilts that kept them dry and able to see greater distances. The performing group Lous Cadetouns preserves that tradition through dances. These carefully choreographed events involve top tier athletes moving acrobatically and synchronized to create engagingly graceful displays.
-via The Awesomer
Since its introduction in 1978, the Milton Bradley board game Hungry Hungry Hippos has terrorized two generations of children. Who among us has not woken from nightmares, drenched in sweat and vomit, after revisiting childhood days spent playing the game?
Now we can return to the horror by watching the upcoming film Hungry by Aura Entertainment. It shows a group of tourists on a tour of a Louisiana swamp. Unbeknownst to them, there is a new apex predator in the waters.
I hope that the world's most famous hippopotamus, Moo Deng, was able to secure at least a cameo role in this film.
-via Gizmodo
The Texians' dreams of independence from the tyranny of Santa Anna seemed hopeless. The well-organized and equipped Mexican army had shattered the formations of the Texian settlers who were in full flight.
General Sam Houston led a retreat of his small force almost to the border with the United States. The Texians, who numbered only 910 men, were running out of room to retreat further. They were also out of patience and eager to strike at their enemies.
Police bodycam videos are a genre on YouTube with many channels devoted to showing the real life drama experienced by law enforcement officers and the people they encounter. I waste too much time watching them.
Many police departments, including that of New York City, maintain mounted patrols. Despite advances in technology, horses remain useful for managing particular environments, including city streets.
This video shows an officer's body camera as the mounted officer chases down an alleged purse snatcher. You can view the complete footage here. The suspect is a parolee out on a murder conviction.
We don't know the name of the officer, but ABC 7 News says that the horse is named Kelly.
This is Orhan Avci, who is the head of the Huzur Party of the region around Karliova in the eastern part of the country. I've seen him described as a Turkish politician and a Kurdish politician in Turkey. I don't know anything about him or his political party, but I do know that he's going places.
I mean, look at that 'stache. But be careful doing so. To borrow a phrase from Jerry Seinfield, get a sense of it and then look away.
When the World Beard & Mustache Championships are held, Avci should consider entering and dancing away with the grand prize.
-via NEXTA
In 1971, Apollo 14 became the third mission to land on the surface of the Moon. Alan Shephard and Edgar Mitchell reached the lunar surface while Stuart Roosa remained in orbit. To move scientific equipment around the Moon, NASA commissioned the creation of two-wheeled handcart called the Mobile Equipment Transporter (MET).
Jalopnik notes that the two tires on the MET were the first air-filled tires to reach the Moon. Goodyear considered possible options for the airless, rock-strewn terrain and settled on smooth, tread-less tires filled with nitrogen.
Shephard and Mitchell used the MET to cover two miles across the Moon. But the cart was so cumbersome that they quickly decided to just carry it, which was manageable in gravity 17% that of Earth's.
The police force of Westlake, Ohio maintains a program called Are You Okay? It provides welfare checks on elderly people living alone. Every day, they call the registered person. If no one answers the phone, police go to the home for a face-to-face check of wellbeing.
A few days ago, officers went to the home of a 91-year old woman who had not answered her daily call. They feared for the worst. Instead, WABI 5 News reports, they found the woman alive and well. She had a good reason for not answering her phone: she was attempting to beat her high score on a video game.
-via Jake Lucky
Sesame Street has changed a lot since I was a kid. The plots are grittier and the Muppets swear a lot more.
Bluesky user @pig'slaundry has lately watched the children's show on Tubi, a streaming service owned by Fox. They noticed that the error-filled automatically generated captions show the characters contemplating existential terror and considering brutal violence.
-via Super Punch
Amy Stewart is an artist in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. She works heavily in stained and painted glass. Stewart (or "Amy in the Aether", as she also calls herself) frequently uses motifs from Mid-Century Modern American pop art, including camp, burlesque, and the playfully supernatural.
Author Cory Doctorow coined the term "enshittification" to describe how online services tend to, over time, get stupidly worse. More generally, enshittification has become used to describe how products and services have become worse over time. Things are not built to last, but to break down almost immediately upon purchase. Contracts are not honored, trust is not nurtured, and providers of services take every opportunity to barely fulfill obligations.
It's what happens when a high trust society degenerates into a low trust society.
The Norwegian Consumer Council, a government organization ostensibly tasked with protecting consumers from enshittification, produced this humorous video describing a man whose job is to enshittify everything he can.
-via Kottke
