This delightfully silly piece is Albert Lavignac's "Galop Marche," a short work usually performed by multiple pianists on as few pianos as possible. Here's one performance in Dublin that requires the use of 16 hands squeezed onto 2 pianos.
-via TYWKIWDBI
For a holiday party gift, Twinkie Chan crocheted this frustrated octopus cozy. Why is he grumpy? He probably hasn't drunk enough coffee from his cup yet.
Link -via That's Nerdalicious!
Helen made this classy gift for a friend to welcome him to Tennessee. All she had to do was buy a soap bottle pump that fit the whiskey bottle, then fill the bottle with 80 proof soap.
Link -via Kathleen Guy
Dozens of contestants showed up for a Walter White Lookalike Contest in Albuquerque.
Last week dozens of wannabes showed up in Albuquerque for the event hosted by Steven Michael Quezada, who plays DEA agent Steven Gomez on the show. Fittingly held in the city that serves as the series’ backdrop and Quezada’s hometown, the contestants came clad in everything from those now-famous opening-scene underpants to the ubiquitous yellow hazmat suit that has taken over later seasons.
Wired's Raw File has a gallery of the best contestants, and scrolling through, I stopped at one that was particularly good. He was Bryan Cranston, who portrays the character Walter White on the TV series Breaking Bad, and was not a contestant, but a judge. Link -via Laughing Squid
(Image credit: Jakob Schiller)
Spending a few minutes with Santa at a mall or a Christmas party is a great joy for young children. But for children with autism, a busy setting with bright lights and loud noises isn't fun. That's why there's an opportunity in Madison, Wisconsin to meet Santa in a quieter environment:
For kids like William, the stimulation of lights and crowds and noise – three aspects inherent of just about every shopping mall, especially at holiday time – is simply too much.
"For them to not be able to have that," said Dena, "they're just missing out."
But this year, the Sekels' holiday wish has already come true.
"We were like, we have to go to this, this is our one chance to actually go," said Dena.
That chance came when they heard of an event in Madison that offered a quieter visit with Santa, particularly for kids with special needs.
That quieter visit was with a Santa Helper named Jim Sheldon, one of many helpers that take requests at malls while the real Santa is busy at the North Pole.
"Mall Santas and kids with sensory issues? That's a mess," said Sheldon.
About this time of year, most of us are thinking "What can I do with all of these spent shell casings that I've accumulated this year?" That's a big pile of material that you shouldn't just throw away. Beretta Fleur turns hers into Christmas lights. You can find instructions on how to make your own at the link.
Link | Photo: Beretta Fleur
Why? Because most wedding chapels won't offer you a Grand Slamwich at 3 AM immediately after you get married. That problem is now solved. Frances Allen, Denny's chief marketing officer, explained:
The diner chain’s newest location will feature a photo booth in which vacationers and locals can pose with trademark Denny’s products. Those photos, Allen said, can be shared instantly on Facebook and Twitter.
“We wanted to create a unique experience,” Allen said. “We have a lot of interactive features and a lot of things that make this location even more fun.”
For example, she said, the diner has a full cocktail bar. The bar serves, among other items, a bacon-flavored martini.
In addition, the location has some other only-in-Vegas features, including a wedding chapel. “It’s quite a unique experience,” she said, adding that couples can get a cake made out of Denny’s pancake puppies to make their ceremony extra special.
The new store also has Elvis-themed menu items like King Stack — pancakes with bananas, bacon and peanut butter — and the King Milkshake, featuring the same three ingredients.
What we've got here is failure to lose weight. That was something that Rafael Valadão should have done before boring a hole through the wall of a prison in Ceres, Brazil. That or dig a bigger hole.
Rafael Valadão, the well-built tattooed convict, tried to follow one of his smaller fellow prisoners who had already made a bid for freedom through the gap.
But he was left screaming for help when he became wedged while others tried to force him through the hole they had made with a metal shower pipe. [...]
He was left with his upper body hanging outside of the prison while he was trapped by the hole in the wall around his midriff.
He was rescued after firemen smashed through the rest of the wall and is now being treated for a suspected fractured rib.
Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Jornal Populacional
During the winter, northern Sweden gets only a few hours of sunshine a day. So an energy company in the town of Umeå placed light panels in bus stops to help commuters combat seasonal affective disorder:
The snow has not yet settled, and as a result the city is even darker than usual, something the energy company wants to fight artificially.
“Umeå residents both own us and are our customers and we believe we all need to be re-energized when it gets like this," Ernstson continued.
"Even though it snowed today, the sun had set by 2pm. People need to get their vitamin D somehow!”
Link -via Uncornered Market | Photo: Umeå Energy
All I ask is a tall tree and a star to steer her by. In a transporter accident, Captain Kirk's chair became fused with redditor Wizard_Glick's Christmas tree topper. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have in command of my Christmas tree.
That all-American food, peanut butter, began with the devastation of American cotton by the boll weevil and the cultivation of peanuts as an alternative cash crop. As America advanced in the world, so did peanut butter. Jon Krampner wrote Creamy and Crunchy, a history of peanut butter. In the New Yorker, Jon Michaud summarized and reviewed it. Here's how two of the three major brands developed:
Peter Pan, introduced in 1928, was the first dominant national peanut butter. It used a partial-hydrogenation process patented by Joseph Rosefield, an entrepreneur from Lexington, Kentucky. In 1932, after Peter Pan’s parent company sought to cut his licensing fee, Rosefield ended the partnership and started making his own brand: Skippy. Inventive and obsessed with quality control, Rosefield emerges as perhaps the most important and likable figure in the history of peanut butter. By the end of his career, he held ten patents relating to the food and numerous notable innovations. He set up his own research lab and conceived a new way of churning—rather than grinding—his peanuts to produce a smoother texture. By introducing fragments of crushed peanuts into his butter, he invented crunchy—or chunky, if you prefer. He instituted the wide-mouth jar that has been standard ever since. And he paid his employees well, to boot. Five years before Reese’s created its peanut-butter cup, Rosefield brought Choc-Nut Butter to market. He seems to have been a little too far ahead of the curve in combining peanuts and chocolate: the product failed. Nevertheless, Skippy thrived, overtaking Peter Pan in the late forties and remaining the nation’s favorite until 1980.
Link -via American Digest | Photo: arnold inuyaki
Eternal Flame Falls is not your typical waterfall. This geological oddity outside of Buffalo, New York has a channel of natural gas leading up to its base. When lit, you can see a plume of flame four to eight inches tall.
Link -via The Presurfer | Photo: Mpmajewski
If Star Wars had been made in 1928 by Walt Disney, it'd probably look like Steamboat Willie. Brendan Tobin imagined this alternate reality for the now Disney-owned franchise. I can't wait to see Han Solo play the washboard.
Link and Artist's Website -via Popped Culture
"And the daycare center charges ten dollars for every minute that I'm late for pickup! Why does this always happen to me?"
John Brosio injects monsters and animals into everyday life, usually not to human benefit.
In a cave in Slovenia, archaeologists found a human jawbone with intact teeth. One in particular captured their attention because it had a cavity filled in with beeswax. At 6,500 years old, this is the oldest dental filling ever discovered:
While the beeswax may have been applied as a coating before the crack opened, or placed after death as part of a funeral ritual, the researchers think it was a filling. It looks like the cavity formed before the wax’s application, and it seems odd that a funeral ritual would have targeted a single tooth—no wax was placed on the other teeth, even those with some damage. This particular crack would have been a nasty, painful cavity, and the beeswax probably soothed the pain and insulated the damaged tooth from temperature changes and contact with food.
Link -via Alex Knapp | Image: PLOS One
