The Marvel film Thunderbolts* assembles a team of antiheroes, who some would call villains, for a government mission. But, as you might guess, nothing turns out to be as it seems. Is this another case of making villains into heroes by explaining their motivations, or is it a thoughtful exploration of the shades of gray on the good-evil continuum? Or does that matter at all in a Marvel superhero action film? Thunderbolts* reunites some familiar MCU characters with newly-arrived screen characters from the comics, and some intriguing bonus characters, like Harrison Ford once again playing the president of the United States. MCU Fans have been waiting two years for Thunderbolts*, hoping this movie will turn Marvel's fortunes around. As for the asterisk in the title, that's very deliberate, although no one connected to the film will explain why. They say the reason will be apparent when you see the completed movie. Thunderbolts* will be the 36th MCU film, and the last of Phase Five. It opens nationwide on May 2, 2025. -via Geeks Are Sexy

We all know the story of how Alexander Fleming went on vacation in 1928 and left colonies of the bacteria staphylococci in his lab. When he returned, he found that one dish was contaminated with Penicillium fungus, and that it had killed the staph near it. That event led to the world's first antibiotic, penicillin. Fleming won a Nobel Prize for the discovery in 1945.

But in 1949, scientists discovered an 1897 doctoral thesis by French scientist Ernest Duchesne that pretty much made the same discovery. Duchesne found an antagonistic relationship between funguses and bacteria. He experimented with introducing E. coli and (separately) the typhus bacteria into guinea pigs along with the fungus Penicillium glaucum. While the pigs became ill, they recovered quickly, and in subsequent experiments they did not become ill. Duchesne urged further research on the therapeutic uses of the fungus, but it didn't catch on. Crucially, Duchesne did not name the antibiotic substance produced by the fungus Penicillium glaucum, and Fleming did.

However, even Fleming's 1928 discovery was overlooked for years until other scientists proved that the discovery was actually useful in human healthcare. Read about Ernest Duchesne and the history of penicillin research at Amusing Planet.

(Image credit: Science History Institute)

Sriracha sauce is a crucial condiment in households like mine, for cooking and for spicing up takeout from Asian restaurants that have toned down their dishes for Americans who think salt and pepper are exotic spices. For sriracha, or "rooster sauce," we can thank David Tran, who founded Huy Fong foods in 1980 and became a sensation. But in the last decade, sriracha sauce has had its ups and downs. We recall the incident in 2013 when the big new sriracha factory overwhelmed the town of Irwindale, California. The town and the company went back and forth for years before working things out, which not only affected production, but caused a run on sriracha and a shortage. There have been other shortages since then, caused by rumors of shortages, weather conditions affecting jalapeño crops, and disputes with suppliers. Weird History Food gives us the story of sriracha and the lowdown on why it might taste different from the way it did years ago.

The 1987 film Spaceballs was easily described just by saying "Mel Brooks does Star Wars." The goofy parody is getting a sequel after almost 40 years, which is in development now. Josh Gad will star and is writing the screenplay. But could we have a real Spaceballs sequel without Mel Brooks? Brooks is 98 years old and officially retired, but is enthusiastically involved in the movie, at this point critiquing and editing Gad's writing.

Gad know he couldn't do Spaceballs justice without Brook's blessing, but did not expect him to be so involved in the production at his age. He describes how he approached Brooks with the idea, taking 40 minutes to explain what's happened in the Star Wars saga since the original trilogy at Brooks' insistence. Read what happened at that meeting, and how Brooks is contributing to Spaceballs 2 at Cracked. We don't yet know when to expect the finished movie.

Toward the end of his life in 1953, Soviet leader Joseph distrusted his doctors and got rid of so many of them that there was no one to treat him when he died. But he had a different opinion in 1934, when Stalin heard of Dr. Alexander Bogomolets and his “anti-reticular cytotoxic serum.” Bogomolets had extrapolated on the discoveries that led to the diphtheria vaccine and further research on serum produced in animals. Bogomolets wanted to boost the health of a body's connective tissue, which he believed was the secret to a longer life. Stalin gave Bogomolets his own institution to produce the serum called ACS, and then received doses of it.

The recipe for ACS was pretty gruesome. It required cells from healthy young humans, and getting volunteers to donate bone marrow was a problem, so the process begins with "three corpses from healthy young men accidentally killed in within the previous 12 hours." It is up to the reader to wonder if Stalin helped with this part. The rest of the instructions sound like something from a witches book of magic spells, but there is some science involved. Read about Alexander Bogomolets and his quest for a longevity serum at the Montreal Gazette. -via Real Clear Science     

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Although I personally do not see the draw, the popularity of ocean cruises just keeps going up. To keep up with the demand, cruise ships are getting bigger all the time. Royal Caribbean's new ship Icon of the Seas is twenty stories tall and can carry almost ten thousand people, but it also cost two billion dollars and took years to build. Cruise companies get more bang for their buck by "jumboizing" their existing cruise ships. The "jumboization" process takes about nine months from start to finish, removes a ship from service for only a couple of months, and costs around $80 million.

What they do is cut a ship in half, slide in a new section in the middle, and weld it all back together. This requires precise measurement and design, so that the new section can be built to match every hallway and pipeline that runs through it. The exciting part (if seen in time-lapse form) is when the ship is brought in and cut into two pieces with acetylene torches. The parts are separated, and the new section is rolled in and welded. When it's done, a much longer ship leaves the dock, ready to book hundreds more passengers than before. New Atlas explains jumboization and has a series of videos documenting how this has been done to several different ships. So the next time you want to spend a week or so floating on the waves up close and personal with a few thousand strangers, there may be a ticket for you. -via Boing Boing   

(Image credit: Silversea Cruises)

No matter how powerful a person may become, they are still no match for the force of millions of gallons of water following gravity. Typhoon Yagi raged across Southeast Asia earlier this month with such force that it has been classified as a super typhoon. More than 700 people have been killed by the storm, thousands were injured, and the damage exceeds $15 billion. In Vietnam, floodwaters caused two sand dredgers laden with equipment to become unmoored on the Chay River on September 9. One was carrying a crane! Both barges struck the To Mau bridge. As you can see in this footage, the first barge was completely broken up, with the wrecked pieces passing under the bridge. That's some powerful flow. The second barge became stuck, and the crane was eventually toast as the dredger came apart underneath it. The bridge held up surprisingly well, considering the mass that hit it.  -Thanks, Brother Bill!

There are thousands of species of animals that have developed the ability to change their sex. It's not so much a matter of what chromosomes they carry, because only mammals have X or Y chromosomes. Other species have sex chromosomes, but they are so different they are labeled in their own way. These animals are classified as male or female by whether they produce sperm or eggs. And that can change over time, often due to environmental conditions.

For example, there is a snail that changes from male to female depending on where it is in the mating chain, and since they are snails, that takes a long time. Some amphibians change sex when there is a big imbalance between males and females in the population. Many species of turtle will change sex when the temperature of the water changes. One fish can change from male to female in a hurry if confronted by a male rival it doesn't want to fight. And the clownfish has a sex change scheme that would give a whole new meaning to the movie Finding Nemo if Disney had wanted to be completely accurate. Read up on seven species of animals that change their sex at Mental Floss.

(Image credit: Nick Hobgood)

Stargazer and Northstar (Nora for short) were wild mustangs in Utah who were captured in 2021 when their herd was reduced. Melissa Tritinger adopted them together, knowing they were pair-bonded. You can read their story here. The mustangs live with another horse named Reuben. One day Stargazer spotted a kitten in the field that was obviously hungry and lonely. All three horses were fascinated, and welcomed the kitten into the paddock. It took a little longer for Turnip to trust Melissa, but that came with a good meal or two. The family decided to adopt Turnip, but he'd need approval from the other two cats. That wasn't a problem, either, because everyone loves Turnip. No one knows where he came from, but Turnip isn't going anywhere. The Dodo shows us that first encounter when the horses decided they wanted this cat. You can see more of Turnip at Stargazer and Nora's Instagram page.  -via Laughing Squid

Sunday is the autumnal equinox, when we officially say goodbye to summer. What it really means is that for the rest of the year, we in the Northern Hemisphere will have more nighttime than daytime. One way to mark the occasion is to make the transition psychologically, with a pumpkin spice latte, some popcorn or early Halloween candy, and a good fall movie.

Bored Panda has compiled a list of 30 movies that will put you into an autumn mood. Most of them take place in fall for at least a substantial part of the story, with gorgeous scenery of falling leaves and a hint of a chill in the air. First, there are ten big hit movies evoking fall, then five family movies that both adults and children will enjoy, then five romances to make you feel cozy and loved, then five spooky features for spooky season. The final five are autumn movies that are available now on Netflix. All have descriptions, and some have trailers. Happy equinox weekend!   

The rise of digital cameras changed photography for all of us, because it eliminated the cost of film, the cost of developing, and the wait to find out if the picture you shot was any good. A hundred years earlier, there was another revolution in photography, when we went from only having expensive portraits shot in a studio by a professional to cameras that anyone could use, and therefore, the invention of the snapshot. The century in between was dominated by one company that produced not only the cameras, but the film for those cameras, flashbulbs, and the developing of the pictures. Yes, it was Kodak, who took control of the photo industry by making us all photographers. They led the industry for snapshots, and then retreated when their film was no longer needed. I had a Kodak Brownie when I was a kid, but it was already an antique. I took pictures with my Instamatic, with Magicubes for the flash. -via Digg

Native Americans and early colonists marked the graves of their dead, but markers made from wood don't last and stones weren't carved as they are today, until one man was memorialized in Jamestown, Virginia. A polished black limestone grave marker was found near the settlement's church in 1901. Jamestown was founded in 1607, but the tombstone has no dates. It had indentations where metal inlays have corroded and disappeared. One is in the shape of a knight, so it has been titled the Knight's Tombstone.

According to a new study published in The International Journal of Historical Archaeology, it was the shape of that indentation that led to the identification of the man who was originally buried there, and the fossils contained in the stone itself that led to the identification of its origin in Europe. As with many historical mysteries, the conclusions are labeled "most likely" in a lot of places. Read the story of the man who got America's first carved tombstone at IFLScience. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Jamestown Rediscovery (Preservation Virginia))

Redditor valardohaerisx spotted this scene on the highway near Idaho Springs, Colorado. While refreshingly seasonal, one has to wonder why they felt the need to use ratchet straps to secure a pumpkin on top of the vehicle. From the comments, here are the most plausible reasons, not at all ranked in the order of likelihood.

1. The kids in the backseat were fighting over who gets to hold the pumpkin. And the trunk is full.
2. Dad recently bought ratchet straps and by golly, he's going to use them.
3. You don't put a dirty vegetable inside a Lexus!
4. The car is already full of pumpkins.
5. It worked for the Christmas tree.
6. Someone in the car is allergic to pumpkin.
7. "Because one stray "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" from a passenger, and you got a big freakin' horse carriage in your backseat."
8. Because it's funny.

A good time was had by all.
 

Amara is a young southern white rhinoceros at Knowsley Safari in Prescot, UK. She's just under two years old and was noticed to be limping earlier this year. Rest and pain medication didn't help, so the zoo consulted with veterinarians from the University of Liverpool. Scans revealed that Amara had a broken ulna and needed surgery. How do you perform this kind of surgery on a rhino? Very carefully. In fact, it had never been done before.

The university sent a team of ten large animal veterinarians to perform the five-hour surgery. But they had never operated on a rhinoceros -they specialize in horses. And who knows the amount of anesthesia to give a juvenile rhino that weighs 800 kilgrams (1,760 pounds)? But Amara came through the surgery just fine and her leg was fitted with a cast. She spent the next six months confined to a paddock with her mother, but now the cast has been removed. Veterinarians will continue to monitor the condition of Amara's leg, but she is doing well and back to playing with the other rhinos in the park. Click to the right on the image above to see Amara.

A dairy cow named Aria is appalled by the behavior of a distracted and incompetent barn hand who not only treats the cows like objects, but also wastes their milk. This young man needs a lesson in respect. So they sit him down and Aria performs a song written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who composed the music for Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid, among other productions. "Aria for a Cow" was composed for Sesame Street, but was never used for the show. In this short it is sung with spirit by Kate Pazakis Gonzalez. The short has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. -via Metafilter

Bonus: Farmer Explains Why You Should Sing To Cows.