In 1876, General George Custer met his end at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The armies of the Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho left no survivors among the US 7th Cavalry Regiment. It was days before the rest of the army knew what had happened, when a Crow scout who worked for Custer named Curley was found traumatized and broke the news. Curley became quite famous for surviving the battle, and later after the turn of the 20th century would travel from town to town in the West, telling the story of the Battle of Little Big Horn and Custer's dying words. As soon as his identity was known, the mayor and other prominent citizens would hurry to make him feel welcome. Curley also made deals that enabled white townspeople to buy fertile tracts of land on the reservation in Montana.

But that kind of activity couldn't last, especially since some of Curley's appearances made the papers. There were those who knew that Curley didn't speak English, and that he rarely ventured from the Montana reservation. Why, this guy, whose name was also Ben McIntosh, didn't even look like Curley the Crow! That was a particular shock for those who bought land and then went to Montana to claim it from Curley. Read the story of the real Curley and the fake Curley at CrimeReads. -via Damn Interesting

When Keira was four years old, she told her father she wanted a billion-story building. Instead of just laughing it off, he started thinking about why it couldn't be done, and turned to Randall Munroe's What If? project (previously at Neatorama) to ask about the nuts and bolts of the idea. So why can't we build a billion-story building? First, there's the instability of architecture as we know it, and then there's the expense. But those are just the beginning. The real story is that people have a hard time imagining how many a billion of anything is, whether you are four years old or an educated adult. A building one hundred stories tall has its own problems; so imagine one a hundred million times taller. No, you can't. So Munroe whips up a theoretical billion-story tower so we can see how ridiculous the idea is, for so many reasons, ranging from elevators to the rotation of the earth.

Humanoid robots are becoming more and more advanced, but most of the time, that just makes them creepier. The uncanny valley gives us the impression that technology is encroaching on what it means to be human. But a robot doesn't have to be humanoid, or canine, or resemble any living thing to be expressive. Pixar made that clear back in 1986. In fact, it was Luxo, Jr., also known as the Pixar lamp, that inspired the robot called ELEGNT, developed by a group of Apple roboticists.  

ELEGNT is a functional lamp, but it also demonstrates personality. It is curious, eager to help, and can demonstrate a sense of fun and even affection sometimes. A video at the robot's site shows us how it "looks" at its user, follows instructions by both words and gestures, and even makes suggestions. It's adorable, just as you'd expect a real-life Luxo, Jr. to be. But is this what we want in a robot? At first you think "take my money!" but then you have to consider the implications of a lamp telling you what to do, or trying to be your friend, no matter how cute it is. You can read both sides of that story in the comments at Metafilter.

Last month we saw Tuco Salamanca from Breaking Bad rushing through the dalgona candy game in Squid Game. The guy responsible for that, YouTuber Alternative Cuts (previously at Neatorama) hinted that he was working on another Breaking Bad/Squid Game mashup involving the red light, green light game. More than a month later, it's here and just as remarkable as you'd expect. Walter White is participating in the game, and displays just the right amount of horror when the truth sinks in. Jesse is in the crowd, too, as well as most of the characters from Breaking Bad, drug dealers or not. You have to admire the way they all fit in so well, but then again, the Squid Game scene is shock, gunfire, and death, and there was plenty of that in Breaking Bad. Besides, we know that Alternative Cuts has every scene from every episode of Breaking Bad memorized. He lives for this sort of thing. -via Laughing Squid

You may have seen advertisements already for the Presidents Day sale at your local car dealer or furniture store. It says Presidents Day on your calendar- right there on February 17th (although it might say President's Day or Presidents' Day). The truth is that there's no such federal holiday. We learned in grade school that George Washington was born on February 22nd and Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12th, and we marked both birthdays in class. But Washington's Birthday has been a federal holiday since 1879. It was moved from February 22nd to the third Monday in February in 1970, and people started calling it Presidents Day under the assumption that it was a combined holiday for Washington and Lincoln. But Lincoln's birthday was never a federal holiday, and what we call Presidents Day is still officially named Washington's Birthday by the federal government.

However, quite a few states recognize the holiday as Presidents Day, and celebrate George Washington, or Washington and Lincoln, or any combination of US presidents they please. The same with local governments, calendar makers, and stores. Read more about the confusion over Presidents Day (and its punctuation) at Mental Floss.

If someone were to ask you when Frank Sinatra sang "New York, New York," you might guess sometime in the 1950s or '60s. The song was Sinatra's signature song, and is synonymous with the city. Mayor Ed Koch declared it the city's unofficial theme song in 1985. The song invited tourists back to New York City after 9/11. It's played at every Yankees home game. You know the song.

The truth is that Sinatra didn't release his version of the song until 1980! The song, actually titled "Theme from New York, New York" was written for a 1977 Martin Scorsese movie that bombed at the box office. Liza Minelli sang it in the film, and her soundtrack version reached #105 on the music charts. Once "Uncle Frank" did the song, Minelli's record was quickly forgotten. Read how a song from a failed movie became the anthem of the Big Apple at Smithsonian. 

A lot of horror films deal with the end of humanity, by war, natural disasters, disease, aliens, or supernatural beings. But what if it happened without gore, panic, heroics, or any action at all? What if we slow-walked into our own destruction so gradually that we just accepted it? What if, instead of fighting for our last chance, we sympathized with our destroyers? Somehow, that scenario is even more terrifying than a violent apocalypse, because there's the possibility that we may already be doing that slow walk in real life.

The short film Quiet Apocalypse by Brazilian horror fan insolitum picks a scenario for the end of things that is a cosmic horror for both the predators and the victims. But even if all these deaths came from some other source, the misery that opens the door for the acceptance of doom is more dreadful than the deaths themselves. He got that idea across in less than two minutes, and now I may have trouble sleeping. -via The Awesomer

In 1944, Germany and other Nazi-occupied territories suffered greatly from new and powerful Allied bombers. They brainstormed for a defense against such bombing attacks, and one project had the benefit of not requiring highly trained pilots. That's because they did not need to take off or land their aircraft, the Bachem Ba 349 Natter. The plane would be launched vertically on its rocket engine, much like later space flights. The plane was made mostly of wood, and wasn't expected to survive a mission. After the pilot launched missiles at the Allied bombers, the pilot would eject and he and the rocket engine would separately parachute to the ground.

Did it work? Not at first, because production was rushed. Not at second, either, because failed tests slowed down development. And then the war was over. But the Bachem Ba 349 Natter proved that vertical aircraft takeoff was possible, so the research that went into this seemingly hare-brained idea wasn't a complete waste. Read about the Bachem Ba 349 Natter at Amusing Planet.

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

There are a lot of islands in the Atlantic Ocean around New York City and many are a part of the city. You know about Ellis Island, and Rikers Island, and Hart Island is known as the city's Potter's Field. There's also North Brother Island, which is notorious for several reasons. Its history is filled with misery, calamity, disease, and crime. Is North Brother Island cursed? Or could it be haunted? At any rate, no one lives there now, and it is considered abandoned. Finding a purpose for the island is difficult considering how close it is to the penal colony of Rikers Island. A wildlife refuge seems to be the best use for a place that no one really wants to occupy, and nature is working to reclaim what humans have done to it. Weird History takes us through some of the more notable eras, events, and personalities of North Brother Island. We'll also learn some facts about South Brother Island and Rikers Island as well.

You know the lives of celebrities. You know when their movies came out, when they peaked in the music business, or when they served in office. But do you remember what year they died? That's a tough one, even for history buffs. When I played my first game of When They Died, I could recall learning about each celebrity's death, but I couldn't place the year. I was close but missed the mark for each of them.

For each famous person presented, you move a slider to guess what year they died. They all died between 1950 and today, and there are five people in each game. A perfect guess will get you 1000 points, and getting within 15 years will give you some points. I ended up with 3732 in my first game, and unlocked a few "achievements" at the end. One of them was called Speed Demon, because I gave answers in a hurry so I could decide whether this game was worth sharing. Try it yourself, and let me know if I was right.  -via Nag on the Lake

Do you recall the story of The Ugly Duckling? Or the cartoon character Baby Huey? The story of Peawee reminds me of both. Peawee started out as an abandoned peafowl egg, which the farm family snuck into Susan's nest. Susan is a regular hen, and she's kind of a bird brain, but she has a motherly instinct that just won't quit. Susan fiercely protected the odd-looking youngster she hatched, and did her motherly duty in teaching Peawee how to be a chicken. The chick grew quickly and was soon much bigger than Susan. Peawee learned to be a typical chicken except for her size and the fact that she is very attached to her mother at an age when most chicks have moved out on their own. Susan doesn't mind, though, as she is quite attached to her giant baby, too.

You can see more of Susan and Peawee at Instagram. Adaurie Stemshorn wrote a children's book about Peawee that will eventually be available.

You understood the assignment 🤝 pic.twitter.com/DTU7BTbm5t

— Cinemark Theatres (@Cinemark) February 5, 2025

In order to get people back in the habit of going to movie theaters, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO, no kidding) has several promotions planned for 2025. The first was Bring Your Own Bucket Day, meaning popcorn bucket. You could fill your own container with popcorn for just $5, as long as the container would fit through the theater door and would not block anyone from seeing the movie. It was a win-win promotion, since you could fill a bathtub with movie popcorn and that $5 would still be almost all profit.

People showed up with an outrageous range of containers. Several people came into Cinemark theaters with stock pots or actual five-gallon buckets. A backpack or a pair of jeans will hold a lot of popcorn, but do you really want to eat out of them? One guy wheeled in a piece of furniture- a nightstand, to hold a movie's worth of popcorn. Read about Bring Your Own Bucket Day and see the clever containers people brought in at Foodbeast.

Over the past year or so, you may have encountered a video on social media about a strangely accurate apartment that was sized for dogs, but also became smaller for cats, and then increasingly smaller for other animals. I saw it with no narration and no attribution, but now I know who did this. This mini-home is by YouTuber Xing's World, or more specifically, Xing Zhilei, an engineer in Zhongyuan, China. He loves building things, and he made a miniature home as a playhouse for his young children. Then he took things a step further and built one for the family's various pets. You have to be impressed with the architecture, the furnishings, and the appliances -some that work! But more than anything, I had to wonder how he took us on a tour into smaller and smaller spaces. Not too long ago, Xing posted a behind-the scenes look at how he built this unique world.

You can see more videos of Xing's miniatures at YouTube. -via Boing Boing

In 1924, Charles Minear and his family recovered a lead cross from a layer of caliche that had been exposed by mining. The cross turned out to be two crosses stuck together, and when they were separated, there was a Latin inscription inside! Manier and his friend Thomas Bent returned to the site ready to dig for more artifacts. Together, they found eight crosses, nine swords, 13 spears, one fan, and one tablet, all but the tablet made of lead and containing more Latin inscriptions and some in Hebrew. The men were convinced that this was proof of a Roman settlement in the US long before Columbus. The inscriptions led them to believe this would have been between 775 and 900 AD.

But there were some fishy things about the discovery. The artifacts were recovered in an evenly-spread area, and from different depths in the caliche. No other artifacts were recovered from the site, no pottery, no trash, no evidence of architecture. The dates assigned to the artifacts came from the Latin inscriptions, which were surprisingly helpful, written as if the items they graced were manufactured as souvenirs. And the lead alloy they were made of was suspiciously modern. But the real kicker is the sword with a carving of a brontosaurus on it! The Tucson artifacts are generally regarded as a hoax these days, but no one has ever owned up to it. Read the story of the medieval artifacts found in Tucson, Arizona, at Archaeology Review. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Erin, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

An argonaut is also known as a paper nautilus. It's a cephalopod, but it's not a nautilus. Nor is it a squid or cuttlefish, but it has a shell. Argonauts are octopuses with shells. And in case you are wondering, the genus Argonauta was named after crew of the mythical Greek ship. Aristotle, Jules Verne, and others have written about these creatures using their shells like a boat to sail across the sea and their tentacles as sails to catch the wind. That's a myth, but the truth about argonauts is even weirder.

The shells they make are not related at all to other cephalopod shells. The argonauts paper-like shells were developed independently after shell-less cephalopods evolved. But are these shells egg cases, helmets, or flotation devices? The argonauts scoop air into them to make themselves buoyant, which lends some credence to Aristotle's assertions, just with different anatomy. So far, the argonauts are strange even among octopuses, but wait until you hear about their bizarre sex lives. The video is less than ten minutes long, the last part is an ad. -via Laughing Squid