A truck hauling 30,000 pounds of squid dumped its load into a broccoli field Tuesday near Soledad, California.
The driver, a 71-year-old Oxnard man, was uninjured in the crash and no other vehicles were involved, the California Highway Patrol said.
The truck was traveling south on Highway 101, south of Los Coches Road, when the driver allowed the truck and trailer to go off the road, overturning on a dirt frontage road adjacent to the highway, CHP officers said.
As the truck and trailer flipped, the load of squid spilled onto the frontage road and into a broccoli field.
The highway was not blocked, but everyone involved in the cleanup probably lost their appetite. Link -via Arbroath
You know this is going to be funny. Allie Brosch tells about the time she had oral surgery the same day as a friend's birthday party. Part of the account reminds me of the viral video David After Dentist, except of course things get much worse. Link
Cthulhu as a pitchman? Maybe he just wants to show off his abs. Still, be warned of the "unspeakable horror" to come. From the folks at Gods Playing Poker. Link-Thanks, Michael!
Scientists at Brown University have grown an ovary in a Petri dish, using donated cells. The organ is more than a tissue culture; it is a working organ composed of three specific types of tissue which each have their own functions.
“An ovary is composed of three main cell types, and this is the first time that anyone has created a 3-D tissue structure with triple cell line,” says Sandra Carson, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University.
Carson, the study’s senior author, says the ovary not only provides a living laboratory for investigating fundamental questions about how healthy ovaries work, but also can act as a testbed for seeing how problems, such as exposure to toxins or other chemicals, can disrupt egg maturation and health.
But does it function like an ovary should?
The big test, however, was whether the structure could function like an ovary—namely to mature eggs. In experiments the structure was able to nurture eggs from the “early antral follicle” stage to full maturity.
The artificial ovary does not produce its own eggs, but might be a way to store and grow immature eggs harvested from women who must undergo cancer therapy, for instance. For now, the organ will be used for fertility research. Link -via Holy Kaw!
Bewitched was an American television series that ran from 1964 to 1972. The premise was that a witch (Samantha Stephens) married an advertising executive (Darrin Stephens), but in order to blend in with "mortals", Samantha had to keep her supernatural powers secret. However, neither she nor Darrin could control her wacky relatives -particularly Samantha's magically meddling mother Endora! In most episodes their cover was nearly blown, but the couple explained away the most ridiculous situations as a "demonstration" of a creative new advertising campaign.
1. The biggest controversy on Bewitched was the sudden switch in Darrins. Dick York played Darrin from 1964 to 1969, when Dick Sargent slipped into the role with no explanation. Dick York had suffered a back injury while filming a movie in 1959. Continued pain left him addicted to prescription painkillers, which damaged his health as years went by. By 1969, he was suffering blackouts on the set. In January York was rushed from the set to the hospital and never returned to Bewitched. After he left the show, he was flat on his back for a year. York also suffered financial losses from bad investments and he and his wife cleaned houses for a living at one point. By 1980 he kicked the drugs and began acting again. York died of emphysema in 1992.
2. Ratings for Bewitched fell in its final three years, which many blamed on the Darrin switch. It wasn't Dick Sargent's fault; people just didn't like the change from a more familiar face. In fact, Dick Sargent could have very well been the original Darrin! He auditioned for the show in 1964 and was actually offered the job, even before Elizabeth Montgomery was cast as Samantha. However, he had to decline as he was under contract to Universal Studios, which wanted him for the series Broadside.
3. A few new phrases were born from Bewitched. Darrin Syndrome is the term for replacing the actor of a main character with no explanation. This situation is sometimes called The Other Darrin. It happens a lot, but in the case of the character Becky in the series Roseanne, there were constant jokes about the switch. In one episode, the family watched Bewitched on TV and actress Sarah Chalke (the second Becky) remarked that she preferred the second Darrin. Of course.
4. Darrin was not the only character played by two actors in Bewitched. Among others, the neighbor Gladys Kravitz was portrayed by Alice Pearce at first, then by Sandra Gould. However, Gladys Kravitz Syndrome has nothing to do with TV casting. It's a term used when people are just too nosy about the lives of their neighbors.
5. The characters on Bewitched drank so much alcohol that a fan website created a database of the drinking incidents with locations and episode numbers.
6. Elizabeth Montgomery, who played Samantha, also played her deliciously mischievous cousin Serena in several episodes. She was not credited for the role, as producers figured it would be obvious. The role was credited to "Pandora Spocks", who didn't exist but received fan mail from viewers who didn't get the joke. Spocks eventually received her own biography from a fan site.
7. The real house used in the 1959 movie Gidget was copied, but reversed, to build the set for Bewitched. The patio and living rooms were copied from those used in the 1963 movie Gidget Goes to Rome. The exterior set used for the home of nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz later became the home of The Partridge Family.
8. The Stephens had two children during the run of the series, but they were not ratings gimmicks. Elizabeth Montgomery produced two children, her second and third, as she played Samantha in Bewitched, and both pregnancies were written into the show. Her son Robert Asher was born in 1965 as daughter Tabitha appeared in the series, and daughter Rebecca Asher was born in 1969 as Adam Stephens was born in the series.
9. In the last year of the series, Bewitched was cursed with terrible time slots. Already showing its age, the series' ratings fell faster than ever in 1971-72 when it was scheduled against the very popular Carol Burnett Show and then moved opposite the powerhouse series All in the Family.
10. Elizabeth Montgomery cherished her privacy, and felt no need to make her vital statistics public. When she died in 1995, her age was published as 57, although she was actually 62. She had married Robert Foxworth a couple of years before her death, but few knew about it, so some obituaries said she was single. Her death certificate said "Elizabeth A. Montgomery", but her actual middle name was Victoria.
The video that was here has been pulled because of employment concerns for the climber featured. Read more about it at The Online Engineer.
This helmet-cam video is not for anyone with an extreme fear of heights. Engineers climb a 1,768 foot broadcast tower. In my previous career in radio, I used to watch guys do this, but could never understand their bravery, except for that one guy who drank a pint of whiskey to get up the nerve. -via Metafilter
The artist who goes by the name freakingawesome created a typography poster entitled Zombies. It contains the names of 978 zombie movies, books, and video games. At the link, you can click the image to enlarge it (several times if needed) and read them to find your favorites. http://freakingaweso.me/zombies.php
It's the Fill in the Bubble Frenzy with boy genius Mal and his talking dog Chad! What is he saying in this empty speech bubble? Tell us and you might win any T-shirt available in the NeatoShop -take a look around, pick one out and tell us what shirt you’d like with your submission in the comments. If you don't specify a t-shirt with your entry, you forfeit the prize. Enter as many times as you like (text only, please), but leave only one entry per comment. For inspiration, check out Mal and Chad’s comic strip adventures by Stephen McCranie at malandchad.com. Good luck!
Update: We have a winner! Congratulations to Skully, who said, Let's do the ol' "There's someone on the wing!" gag. Skully did not select a t-shirt, however.
Garry and Joan Marsh of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England adopted a ten-week-old kitten from the local animal shelter and named her Polly. Three days later, they noticed the word "cat" on her left flank.
Mr Marsh, a teacher, said: ‘We were commenting on how symmetrical her tabby patterns seemed when Joan suddenly noticed the letters.
‘Once somebody points it out, it is obvious – the word stands out a mile.’
See more pictures at the Daily Mail. Link -via Arbroath
A secret corps of photographers and filmmakers documented US nuclear testing in the 1940s through the '60s. The "atomic moviemakers", officially known as the Lookout Mountain Laboratory, established in 1947, made at least 6,500 films for the government.
Two new atomic documentaries, “Countdown to Zero” and “Nuclear Tipping Point,” feature archival images of the blasts. Both argue that the threat of atomic terrorism is on the rise and call for the strengthening of nuclear safeguards and, ultimately, the elimination of global arsenals.
As for the atomic cameramen, there aren’t that many left. “Quite a few have died from cancer,” George Yoshitake, 82, one of the survivors, said of his peers in an interview. “No doubt it was related to the testing.”
Double congratulations to our friends at mental_floss!
Fun Fact: 15% of all mental_floss employees are now on paternity leave.
Mental_floss co-founder Mangesh Hattikudur and his wife Lizzie welcomed in the next generation on Sunday. Their new son is named Henry Narayan Hattikudur. Link
Then today, mental_floss managing editor Jason English and his wife Ellen met their second daughter, a healthy baby named Katherine Therese English. Link
The beginning of a four-part video series by filmmaker Kirby Ferguson. I'm looking forward to part two, which you'll see at the website when it debuts. http://www.everythingisaremix.info/ -via Laughing Squid
Archived TV and film footage is kept safe and sound underground in a salt mine in Kansas. The Hutchinson Salt Mine in Kansas covers 900 underground acres. When a section is finished as a mine, that space can be used for climate-controlled storage, through a company called Underground Vaults (which sounds like a name for a coffin company) and Storage. So far, around 50 acres are dedicated to storage facilities. In this interview, sales manager Jeff Ollenburger said,
It dates back to the Cold War era in the late fifties…a group of Kansas businessmen were seeing a need in the business community to store sensitive and vital records and information underground. It was the height of the Soviet Union and United States' tension in the Cold War. Nuclear warfare was top of mind for everybody, and to get everything that was important underground was a key driving element of the security of the day, and it was that need to find a location that led that group to Hutchinson, to the salt mine. Here we're in a salt mine that has been in operation since the twenties. And space was not a limiting factor--there was plenty of room, controlled access in and out, and a perfect storage environment, so it just kinda came to be that it was the ideal spot.
No water, no insects or animals, constant temperature and humidity, and that's why so many Hollywood films, videotapes, props, and other memorabilia are stored there -plus governmental archives the company won't tell us about. Link-Thanks, John!
Jeroen and Sandra Kippers of Brussels, Belgium were lifted on a platform by crane up 160 feet in the air for their wedding ceremony. They were joined by the officiant and about 20 guests. Another platform held the musicians. After the vows, they made it official by bungee-jumping over the side!
The company behind the nutty nuptials - Marriage In The Sky - have been inundated with requests from couples desperate to fling themselves off the end of the aisle.
But the ultimate thrill-seekers' wedding doesn't have to end there - once the wedding party have all been lowered back to earth, guests can head skywards again - for a floating reception.
Wedding guests are wowed with a three-course wedding breakfast - all while strapped in to the dining chairs.
The cost for such a spectacular? Around £25,000. Link -via Unique Daily
