Hi I’m Megan and this is Reverse William Tell pic.twitter.com/xZN1ln8x78
— meg “Yooper” bitchell (@MeganBitchell) May 7, 2024
The Swiss folk hero William Tell was allegedly forced by Austrian overlords to shoot an apple off the top of his own son's head. That's quite dangerous for the target, so New York City-based actress and comedian Megan Bitchell proposes an inversion of the game: impaling an apple on an arrow mounted on top of her head.
Cicadas are active again. Like humans, they emerge from their underground burrows once every seventeen years to grow, shed their exoskeletons, and mate. You can see the similarities we share with this species in this video produced by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Illinois. The employees re-enacted the life-cycle of the humble cicada.
The video production quality is remarkably good for a government institution and the mating scene tastefully expressed. I especially appreciate the entomological pick-up line that the male cicada uses on the female and plan to use it myself later today. After all, it clearly works.
-via Nag on the Lake
Sweden has the odd PhD tradition of Lutherishly nailing your thesis to a wall a few weeks before your defense, so here is my PhD student Vidya Somashekarappa nailing her thesis into the designated thesis nailing wall (officially required btw). pic.twitter.com/2s8DiwCy1l
— Asad Sayeed @asayeed@zirk.us (@asayeed) April 3, 2024
Sweden is historically a Lutheran nation, so the tradition of nailing statements to buildings is strong. At Umeå University, when doctoral students complete their theses, they nail a copy to the wall of the library in a ceremony called spikning or "thesis spiking." The library's website says that this procedure "is no longer mandatory," implying that, at some point, it was a formal requirement. Still, many students choose to participate in this ritual.
La plus grande baguette du monde - record battu ! Elle mesure 140,53m et a été confectionnée à Suresnes @villedesuresnes pic.twitter.com/2uHY9g5Npn
— Colas Aura (@ColasAura) May 5, 2024
Charles De Gaulle once said of his homeland:
My mind assures me that France is not really herself unless she is in the front rank; that only vast enterprises are capable of counterbalancing the ferments of disintegration inherent in her people; that our country, as it is, surrounded by the others, as they are, must aim high and hold itself straight, on pain of mortal danger. In short, to my mind, France cannot be France without greatness.
De Gaulle rose to international attention at the moment of France's greatest humiliation. She needed De Gaulle and men like him to restore France to her natural station in the world.
Five years ago, bakers in Italy produced a baguette--that icon of French cuisine--that was longer than any other in the world. Now, The Globe and Mail reports, France has regained its title as the creator of the world's longest baguette. On Sunday, bakers at Suresnes baked one that was 140.53 meters (or approximiately 71 Charles De Gaulles laid end to end) long.
-via Dave Barry
Bob Knetzger of Boing Boing reports that, last year, Mattel teamed up with the National Federation of the Blind to produce a Hot Wheels toy car designed specifically for the visually impaired. The die cast car is covered with the raised bumps of Braille text to read "Hot Wheels Twin Mill."
This name is a reference to a concept car that was pioneered as a Hot Wheels design in 1969 before it was turned into a real car.
Mattel makes two of the Hot Wheels Braille Racer, both of which can be hunted on eBay by collectors eager for a rare piece.
This viral video of a provenance unknown to me shows a woman giving a preschool-age girl an unforgettable ride on a highly convincing roller coaster simulator. Sure, it just looks like an upturned chair, but when paired with a first-person point of view video of a ride, it's good enough to persuade the tyke that she's really at Six Flags.
-via TYWKIWDBI
Bernth, an Austrian guitarist who fills his YouTube channel with musical oddities, including using the worst rated guitar picks and amps and playing guitars made of LEGO pieces and an acoustic guitar that is partially submerged in water. Bernth also modifies extreme guitars, such as building one with an extremely long neck and another that has 24 strings.
Is it hard to play a 24-string guitar? Even that challenge was unsufficient for Berth, who most recently cobbled together guitars into a 109-string monstrosity that produces a lovely sound. It does, though, require a lot of coordination to play effectively.
-via The Awesomer
Going to a wedding today. Instead of holding flowers, the bridesmaids have hatchets. They are not pagan as far as I know, but some of you might like it regardless. pic.twitter.com/MXKbV9QPDX
— sugar&ice Crystals (@WeirdCunning) May 4, 2024
Twitter user sugar&ice Crystals shares this story from a wedding. I like the idea of axes for bridesmaids.
It might also be an appropriate choice for the bride instead of a bouquet. Consider the tradition of the bride tossing the bouquet over her back to identify the next person to get married. Would axes be an improvement over flowers? Would the goal be to catch the axe or dodge it?
Today I learned that the US Navy traditionally allows the infant children of crew members to be baptized in the upturned ship's bell. A 2021 Navy press release about such a baptism onboard the USS Kearsarge says that this tradition was borrowed from the Royal Navy which permitted the such rites in foreign ports either in or under the bell.
A webpage created the National Bell Festival, a non-profit organization that supports the restoration of historic bells, says that the practice is also followed by the US Coast Guard, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy.
This video from 2017 shows a baptism performed in the bell of the USS Gerald R. Ford.
Photo: US Naval Institute
パッカーン！でも、ドレスドでもない
— テイストメイド ジャパン (@Tastemade_japan) April 24, 2024
ちょっと変わった卵の包み方🍳
【無慈悲】生まれたてのひよこオムライス🐣 pic.twitter.com/t2MBs6u1qU
Twitter* user @Tastemade_japan shows this clever omurice dish that begins with rice balls decorated to resemble chicks, then fried into a gentle nest made of the flesh of their lost siblings. Next, it is devoured whole by feckless gods who laugh at the terror of the birds. The rice birds realize all too late that the only purpose of their existence was to be consumed.
-via The Best
*None of this "X" nonsense. If the name "Twitter" was good enough for our forefathers, it's good enough for ourselves and our posterity.
Redditor /u/ChangsManagement compiled this map with the Interactive ArcGIS tool and birthplace data from Hockey Reference. It shows all of the birthplaces of the National Hockey League within North America. It looks like the birthplaces concentrate heavily along Canada's own population, as well as a strip from Boston to Philadelphia.
As a patriotic Texan, I looked up the stats for my own state. 12 NHL players were born in Texas, 3 of from Arlington, a suburb of Dallas.
A worldwide map would also be interesting. It would appears that NHL players also hail from decidedly non-icy countries such as Brazil, the Bahamas, and Taiwan. An vastly disproportionate number were born in the former Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
-via Flowing Data
The Nakizumo Crying Baby Festival is an annual ritual conducted in Shinto shrines across Japan. Sumo wrestlers carry babies into a dohyo (a sumo ring). Then priests put on bird demon masks and taunt the babies. The first baby in a pairing to cry wins. If both cry at the same time, the baby that cries the loudest is the winner.
Why do Japanese families do this? Traditionally, an innocent baby's cry is thought to ward off evil spirits. But the mothers interviewed for this video seem to be participating just to have a good time. They attended the festival in the city of Asakusa neighborhood of Tokyo, which is so popular that babies have to enter a lottery for the chance to participate.
-via Dave Barry
The runway model did not pee his pants.
Well, actually, that's possible. We don't know for certain. But the pants that he's wearing are made to look like he peed his pants. So it's possible he went ahead and peed in them anyway because, well, he's got nothing to lose at this point.
The revered journalistic outlet TMZ reports that the elite Jordanluca fashion house offers these luxuriously pre-stained (or pre-peed) jeans for a whopping $608--or it did until the jeans sold out of stock.
Fox 9 News reports that last week, a car crashed through a guardrail on I-94 in St. Paul, Minnesota and caught on fire. The driver was conscious, but also injured and trapped inside. Several motorists stopped and rushed in to save him.
As this dramatic video shows, they bravely struggled with the doors, which could not open because of the guardrail. Eventually, a highway worker used a tool to smash the window. The heroic rescuers then pulled the victim out of the burning car just before the flames reached the front of the cabin.
The driver escaped serious injuries but was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
-via David Thompson
If you've been holding your breath, anxiously awaiting the results of the world seagull screeching championships, you can now relax and collect your winnings with the bookie. The Guardian reports that the winner of the under-16 category is a 9-year old British boy named Cooper Wallace.
As I noted last year, thoughtful people admire this most noble beast of the sea. Admirers of the majestic seagull gathered in De Panne, Belgium for the fourth year to imitate the seagull's melodious screech. In this video, you can watch some of the top performances.
Notice that, in this video, the performances take place under a banana. Why? I'm fully capable of jumping to preposterous conclusions based on no evidence whatsoever. Specifically, Belgium is home the the world's largest collection of bananas and Belgium is, of course, a grotesque obscenity. Hanging a banana from the ceiling is a traditional Belgian way of summoning a blessing from the gods.
-via Super Punch
