Emily Beer produces all kinds of art, including lovely embroidered works. Her series called Jaime le Cinema (I Love Movies) recreates familiar movie posters in embroidery, with some patchwork and crochet involved as well. Click to the right to see some of the finer details of The Wizard of Oz above, or Singing in the Rain below.    



Beer's taste in movies is not limited to classic musicals, though. She has stitched posters for The Shining, King Kong, Jaws, and E.T.: the Extraterrestrial, along with other movies, including French films that you might not be as familiar with. While the details are somewhat limited by the medium, the themes are well illustrated by her design decisions, like the ethereal chiffon skirt on her poster of The Seven-Year Itch, or the semi-detached lower jaw on the shark in the Jaws poster. See more of Beer's embroidered movie posters in this gallery and at Instagram. -via Messy Nessy Chic 

Dr. Emily Zarka knows a thing or two about monsters, their history, and their meaning. Sure, we know that we love scary monster stories because we get a rush out of kickstarting our emotions, even when they are supposed to be unpleasant emotions like fear. It's an adrenaline rush. But the reason they stick around is more complicated than that. Get ready for seven theses of monster theory! No, Zarka isn't going to go through all of them, but she does give us a good overview of what purpose these scary tales serve, and how those purposes differ through the rise and fall of cultural norms. They illustrate the importance of good vs. evil, and what happens when we don't stay on the good side. They warn us against danger, whether it's from real animals or people we don't know. They can be propaganda to rile up the populace against a perceived enemy. And they can help us examine what it means to be human.  

This video is only ten minutes long; the rest is promotional. -via Laughing Squid 

Caesarean sections have been around for thousands of years, but until fairly recently, they were only performed on pregnant women who had died or were very close to death, in order to give the baby a last-ditch chance. Beginning in the late 19th century, new techniques such as antiseptics, uterine sutures, and anesthetics began to make C-sections survivable. But who was the first mother to survive a caesarean section?

It has been said that Julius Caesar was born by caesarian section, hence the name. But there's no evidence of that at all, and the story may have arisen because of the name. There was a case in the early 1500s of Jacob Nufer, a Swiss veterinarian who cut his wife open after days of labor, and she survived to have more children. However, the earliest account of that case came eighty years afterward, and we don't know how true it is. A better documented account was even earlier in 1337, when Beatrice of Bourbon produced a child who would become Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, known to us as "good king Wenceslaus." We have contemporary accounts of that birth, including letters from Beatrice herself, although they are somewhat enigmatic for political reasons. Read about those early accounts of surviving a caesarian section at Amusing Planet. 

(Image credit: Wellcome Collection) 

My daughter once bought a fresh and expensive duck at the grocery while staying with me. I asked her when she was going to cook it, and she looked at me like I had two heads. She hadn't planned to cook it; she expected me to do it. I told her I didn't know how to cook a duck because I don't even like duck. She ended up freezing it and then taking it with her. I never heard about it again. 

You might expect a channel called HowToBasic to give clear and useful instructions for whatever it is they are doing. This recipe for a whole roast duck is clear, but clearly unhinged. Useful? I don't know about that. I spotted a problem as soon as a I saw them set the oven to 400°. Then instead of adjusting the temperature, they adjusted the cooking time. And I kept thinking how expensive fresh whole duck is. I guess the investment is worth it if the algorithm is good to your video. -via Boing Boing 

At its simplest, a "scarecrow" is any kind of scheme a farmer will use to shoo birds away from eating the crops. We've come to know scarecrows as an effigy of a human, made with clothing and stuffed with straw. That's the cheapest form of scarecrow, but it isn't very effective. Some birds are pretty smart, and even dumb birds will figure out in a few days that a motionless effigy won't hurt them. 

Scarecrows of this type have always been common, and tend to look creepy. We aren't built to see a motionless human shape hanging from a pole. Often, scarecrows were designed to look like a monster, as if that would be more terrifying for birds. But scaring birds wasn't always so straightforward. In different times and places, scarecrows were thought of more as a talisman or a good luck charm, urging the powers that be to protect this crop. 

So why are scarecrows associated with autumn? It may be that suburbanites and city dwellers never think of farms and crops until the harvest bounty comes in, or it may have to do with the ritual of burning a scarecrow in autumn as part of cleaning up the farm. Read everything you ever needed to know about scarecrows at Popular Science. -via Strange Company    

(Image credit: Mohsen H.Rahimi) 

Tardigrades, commonly called water bears, are microscopic animals that have a reputation for being indestructible. They are found all over the earth, and can survive extreme temperatures, extreme pressure, dehydration, and lack of air. Yet they are quite vulnerable when they are newborns. Are they born, or do they hatch? In this strange sequence, it seems like both. 

There are many species of tardigrade, and they reproduce sexually by several different methods. In the species shown here, the male deposits sperm under the female's cuticle, or outer shell. When she molts, she deposits eggs into the discarded skin, where they are fertilized. The discarded cuticle provides an extra layer of protection. When they hatch, the young water bears must find the head opening in their mother's skin, which is much harder to pierce than their own eggshells were. Yes, it's strange, but it works for them. Watch the "birthing" process in this 1000X magnification. -via Born in Space

You might have recognized a ball turret under a World War II bomber before, but if you're like me, you only found what they were all about from the Steven Spielberg story "The Mission." Ball turret gunners had one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. Army Air Force, more from being shot than by getting trapped. And it was quite uncomfortable. Most ball turrets were far too small to allow drawing, as in the TV show, and gunners spent their flight rolled up in a fetal position while spotting enemy fire and firing two machine guns.  

Even with functional landing gear, ball turrets landed perilously close to the ground when a mission was over. They could be retracted on the B-17 bomber, but not the B-24. See plenty of images that give you an uncomfortable feeling and sympathy for these war heroes at Vintage Everyday. -via Nag on the Lake 

(Image credit: the Imperial War Museums) 

Vincent van Gogh has proven to be a popular Halloween costume in the past few years. And why not? The artist did a lot of self-portraits, so he's very recognizable with his red beard and occasionally a missing ear. His distinctive painting style can be imitated. And his most famous works can make a great costume for a companion. 

However, redditor ScrappyMasquerade has taken van Gogh to another level. You might think the image above is a painting, or digitally generated. I can't vouch for the veracity of the background, but that's him. Get a closer look at the makeup work.



ScrappyMasquerade debuted his van Gogh for a recent Halloween party. He said the makeup took about five hours, which was more effort than he had originally planned. He had already spent a couple of weeks assembling the clothing items and painting them with acrylic paints, down to the shoes. The arms are painted gloves. I hope he won a prize at the party! See a gallery of seven pictures of this costume (plus reactions) at reddit. 

Tips for getting better sleep usually tell us the obvious: remove distractions such as your TV or phone, turn all the lights off, stop eating hours before bed, and keep a regular schedule. This video from AsapSCIENCE goes way beyond that, with a couple dozen small things you can do that will add up to a better sleep schedule over the long run. Not only that, but they explain the science behind these healthy habits according to the latest research. 

Some of these tips may be things you've heard before, but when you understand how and why they work, you're more likely to remember them and make them a part of your regular routine. Some may be completely new to you, so they are worth a try. Remember, you can't just try one new tip and expect amazing results. Getting a good night's sleep requires a range of daily habits. -via Laughing Squid 

When you picture someone "walking on their head," you might think of a person moving while doing a handstand, or maybe a contortionist who bends until their feet reach the top of their head. Alexandre Patty (spelled Alexander in English) did neither of those things. What he did was a sort of hop while balancing on his head, moving around and up and down stairs at a jaw-dropping pace. Patty came from a family of French circus acrobats, and he practiced his trick walk for three years before unveiling it in front of crowds in 1904. Did it hurt? Yes, it did, at least at first. Patty eventually got used to it and said, "it doesn’t hurt anymore and I don’t know what a headache is.” Maybe he achieved the point of -dare I say it- being a numbskull. 

Patty's act was a sensation in Europe and it wasn't long before he was signed with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, where he performed for decades. He earned quite a lot of money doing it, which can numb the pain of banging your head against the ground for a living. Read about Alexandre Patty, and see photos, at Weird Historian. -via Strange Company 

As World War II wound down in 1945, the Allies had to decide what to do with the Nazi leaders. Winston Churchill wanted to simply execute them, but the Russians, French, and Americans held out for putting them on trial. The resulting Nuremberg Trials lasted a year and a half, but paid off by exposing the details of Nazi crimes to the global public while giving those leaders the opportunity to defend themselves, thereby offering a sense of justice and closure to a war-weary world. 

The British prosecuted the charges of crimes against peace, while the Russians and the French tackled war crimes and crimes against humanity. United States prosecuted the conspiracy charges, which tied the crimes -and the defendants- together. The Americans appointed Robert H. Jackson, "arguably the most accomplished forgotten man of the 20th century," as the lead prosecutor for the US. Jackson had skipped college altogether to apprentice under a lawyer, and only attended one year of law school before passing the bar. His practice and his writings were so impressive that President Roosevelt appointed Jackson as a Supreme Court Justice in 1941. Jackson, a staunch advocate for due process, volunteered to leave the Supreme Court to serve the war effort in any way he could. Roosevelt kept that in mind, and his successor Harry Truman sent Jackson to Nuremberg to serve justice. Read his story at Smithsonian. 

An addendum to the linked article recommends four movies about the Nuremberg Trials. 

(Image credit: Raymond D'Addario) 

There have been all kinds of antipoverty programs launched all over the world, with mixed results. Some approaches fail, while others show minimal results, and some that are promising in the short term don't hold up so well in the long term. The most promising idea today is to give money directly to the poor and let them decide how to best use it. After all, need comes in all flavors.  

Of course, massive global antipoverty programs face barriers that make research difficult. Sometimes grants to struggling nations end up in the pockets of corrupt leaders. Funding sources, whether from governments or private foundations, can rise and fall on a whim. An enormous amount of charity funding is dedicated to saving lives in an emergency, such as famine, and aren't designed to address generational poverty. But even when a program is deemed to be ineffective in lifting a significant number of recipients out of poverty permanently, it means the world to the ones who made it out.  

The Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka, California, has three black bears: Tule, Ishung, and Kunabulilh. But Friday morning last week, they had four bears. Zoo staff arrived to find a juvenile black bear had made its way into the zoo and was hanging around the bear enclosure. The young bear was interacting with all three of the zoo's bears, in a calm and polite manner. 

Zoo staff called the Eureka Police Department and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and then observed from a distance. When reinforcements arrived, they all collaborated to usher the guest out of the zoo and back into the 67-acre Sequoia Park, from which they assumed he had originated. The bear didn't give them any problem about leaving. They never found any breaches in the zoo's fencing, but the zoo's director speculated he may have climbed a tree and made it over the fence. -via Boing Boing

What does a bearded dragon eat? According to Wikipedia, they eat "vegetation and some insects." Lenny wants to expand his palate and eat everything that his human Emily eats. He has learned that the clink of a fork on a dish tells him when she's having lunch, and he comes running to get a taste of whatever she's having. But he's not much on green leafy vegetables, which is what he's supposed to eat the most of. Sharing food with Lenny has expanded Emily's palate, too. 

A lot of people have a hard time wrapping their heads around having a reptile as a pet, because they don't come across as expressive, emotional, or snuggly. Lenny might make you think twice about that, because he has a personality you don't see in backyard lizards. He might be snuggling with Emily for the warmth, but isn't that what cats and dogs do as well? -via Laughing Squid 

The fad of a sunken living room, which later became known as a "conversation pit" was trendy in the 1960s and '70s. They turned a large living room into a cozy, intimate space for socialization. Such a pit was a perfect place for a huge wraparound couch and getting close to your guests. It just seemed cool. But sunken living rooms didn't spring up full blown in the '60s. The idea actually goes back to the 1920s, and was admired by a generation of innovative architects before they hit the mainstream. 

But while the design magazines were full of conversation pits, everyday people saw problems. Digging a pit in one's living room was not only an expensive upgrade, it also assumed that one had a living room that was big enough to add a smaller section. Besides that, you had to consider who these pits were for- cool young adults who threw parties. They certainly weren't practical for anyone who might someday have children or grow old. Read about the rise and fall of this design trend that required a long term commitment at Mental Floss.