Every year you get "the list" of supplies your kids need for school. Crayons, glue, stapler, 3-ring binders... where did all this stuff come from? Rob Lammle gives us the origins of these back-to-school gadgets and supplies that schools can no longer do without. For example, the lunchbox:
In the early part of the 20th Century, most kids packed their school lunch in an empty cookie, biscuit, or tobacco tin. In 1935, a company called Aladdin tried to create a market for specialized lunch boxes by putting Mickey Mouse on the cover of their tin box. But even The Mouse couldn’t convince kids to buy en masse. Aladdin didn’t give up, though, and they had their first bonafide lunchtime hit in 1950 when they released the Hopalong Cassidy lunch box to young baby boomers. Available in red or blue, the box and thermos combination featured a crudely drawn picture of the popular TV and radio cowboy on one side.
Read more about lunch boxes and other school items at mental_floss. Link
After enjoying the blog Cake Wrecks, you may be concerned about buying a decorated cake.
Loyal Henchpersons, it has come to my attention that some of you are now concerned about ordering a cake. You feel there's no hope; that you're doomed to receiving a Wreck no matter what precautions you take. And for some strange reason, I feel a little responsible for this.
Well, good news, cake consumers: I'm here to restore your confidence! That's right: we're going to take a little field trip over to the local grocer's bakery. C'mon.
What they found didn't exactly inspire confidence that the words you want on your cake will come out the way you want. Link
Have you ever wished your car had eyelashes? Now it can! Carlashes attach to your car with tape and won't damage the paint. It will give your car that totally unnecessary feminine look. Link -via The Daily What
Every year, twins from all over the country gather in Twinsburg, Ohio to celebrate what sets them apart from those born by themselves. National Geographic was there earlier this month to document the festivities, in text and in five photo galleries, plus a memory game where you try to match sets of twins who attended the festival. Link
(Image credit: J. Kyle Keener/National Geographic)
The Oatmeal has the lowdown on Why Working from Home is Both Awesome and Horrible. I can vouch for the whole list of reasons, particularly the "loss of regimen". Link -via Gorilla Mask
Doctor Who apparently made a visit via his time machine/police call box to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Entering freshman paused in their moving procedures this morning to see a blue TARDIS atop a building on Mass Avenue. A close up showing the sign on the time machine can be seen at the Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/08/_by_june_q_wu.html
Watch me do the Ugly Dance! Click around at the bottom to make it look even sillier. This generator is a promotion from the Swedish band Fulkultur. It worked; I can't get their song out of my head now. You can upload your picture and make yourself dance. http://www2.theuglydance.com/ -via the Presurfer
For fashionable men like Geraldo Rivera and Wilford Brimley, giant mustaches are mere frills. But for the walrus, whiskers are a matter of life and death. The long hairs of a walrus' mustache are actually delicate instruments, bristling with nerve endings. Walrus use them to detect shellfish hidden on the ocean floor, where the animals consume as much as 120 pounds of food a day. Wilford Brimley's mustache has never seen that much seafood, even in its prime.
Walrus tusks are actually modified canine teeth that can grow up to 3 feet long. The walrus uses its tusks to hoist itself out of the water and onto the ice-an ability that earned it the scientific name Odobenidae, Greek for "tooth walker". But these teeth weren't just made for walking. They can dig into an ice floe, anchoring the walrus so it doesn't drift away in its sleep. The Tusks work as weapons, too. While mostly used to settle disputes between male walruses, the tusks also protect against predators; even the deadly polar bear steers clear of the tooth walker.
LEGEND OF THE LEFT-HANDED WALRUS
A few years ago, a team of very patients researchers off the coast of Greenland observed the way walruses snacked on shellfish. As the walruses used their flippers to clear away ocean muck to find clams, the scientists noticed that they overwhelmingly favored their right sides. In fact, a left-handed walrus has yet to be seen.
BIG BONED
(Image credit: Flickr user flikkerphotos)
The male walrus has a penis that's actually worth bragging about. It contains a bone within the erectile tissue called a baculum. Bacula are common in mammals (humans are a rare exception), but what sets the walrus apart is that its baculum can grow as long as 30 inches. And they're expensive. In 2007, a fossilized 4 foot baculum from an extinct walrus species sold at auction for $8,000.
In the water, walruses are brown, but in the sunlight they become a rosy shade of pink. It's not a sunburn, as early observers thought, but rather a change in the way blood circulates through the animal's body. When the walrus is in the ocean, its blood retreats to its core, keeping the vital organs warm. On land, however, the blood returns to walrus' outer layers, giving it a healthy, sun-kissed glow.
When courting a lady walrus, the guys aren't afraid of a little song and dance. In fact, a male walrus will elaborately click, bark, and drum his flippers on his pharyngeal pouches-two air pockets on the sides of his throat-creating music so complex it's been compared to the songs of humpback whales. On land, this pouch-drumming isn't so impressive, but underwater, it sounds like chimes. In fact, when marine explorer Jacques Cousteau visited the Arctic in 1972, he dropped a microphone into the ocean and mistook the ringing for bells. In addition to making music and impressing French divers, pharyngeal pouches also serve as flotation devices, allowing walruses to comfortably float and sleep with their necks above water. They're like water-wings, except in your neck.
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The above article was written by Isaac Kestenbaum. It is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the September-October 2010 issue of mental_floss magazine.
Be sure to visit mental_floss' entertaining website and blog for more fun stuff!
Coming soon, a cell phone or special eyeglasses that will change the way you look and interact with the world around you. Augmented reality will give us more information about the places we go, things we see, and even translate the local language into one you understand. National Geographic has a taste of what augmented reality can do, and how close we are getting to this brave new world. Link
Allie at Hyperbole and a Half relates four tales of something she did that turned out completely different from what she expected. At her expense. You can imagine they are all hilarious. Link
Letters of Note has a memo from 1987 outling which actors were being considered for parts in the new TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The above actors will be brought in to read for Gene Roddenberry starting next week. However, Patrick Bauchau did come in to read for Gene today for the role of "Picard." His reading was well received; he and Patrick Stewart seem to be the favorites for the role of "Picard."
For the role of "Ryker," Michael O'Gorman seems to be a favorite. He's sort of an atypical choice for the role, however, a good one.
Denise Crosby seems to be the only possibility for the role of "Troi" at this point; the same for J.D. Roth for the role of "Wesley."
Denise Crosby as Troi? Rosalind Chao as Tasha Yar? Wesley Snipes as Geordi LaForge? The imagination starts to run wild... Link -via The Daily What
This camper vehicle for one is called the Bufalino. German designer Cornelius Comanns based it on the Piaggio APE 50 three-wheeled light transport vehicle for its size and economy. Part of the bed you see here folds up to make a driver's seat. See more pictures at DesignBoom. Link -via Unique Daily
Artist TokyoGenso illustrates the city of Tokyo as it would appear after humans have been wiped out. Mother Nature gradually moves in, takes over, and tears the evidence of civilization apart. This picture depicts Haneda Airport; see more at Pink Tentacle. Link-Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
International symbols for successful brands don't change a lot, but they do change. The point of a fast food logo is to make a known brand recognizable at a distance for those who are new to the neighborhood. Here are the histories of some restaurant logos you'll recognize anywhere.
McDonalds
Dick and Mac McDonald made a good living selling 15 cent hamburgers in California in the 1940s. They began to branch out in the 1950s, and wanted a distinctive look for the franchised hamburger stands. A building design by architect Stanley Clark Meston incorporated several of Dick McDonald's ideas, including the two golden arches that framed the building. Meston hated the idea, until years later when McDonalds became an American icon. The first such building went up in Phoenix, Arizona in 1953. Many buildings also used one golden arch to support the sign out front. As more McDonalds opened, the arches became recognizable to travelers all over the country. Meanwhile, the McDonald's symbol was a chef named SpeeDee until he was officially replaced as a logo in 1962 and as mascot by Ronald McDonald in 1967. Speedee was nice, but it was the arches that everyone recognized. In 1962 Jim Schindler, the head of engineering and design for the company, sketched a logo that incorporated both the arches and the buildings' slanted roof. The genius of the design was that the arches formed an "M". The simplified modern double arch design was trademarked in 1968 and is still in use today.
Burger King
The Burger King chain began in 1954 in Miami as an Insta Burger King outlet. James McLamore and David R. Edgerton, Jr. changed some Insta Burger King ideas and added some of their own, such as the flame-broiling that became Burger King's signature technique. The logo was developed in 1967 to resemble a hamburger, with bun halves surrounding the name. It was in use chain-wide by 1969. The design was updated in 1994 to add a blue swirl to the now slightly-tilted burger.
KFC
Kentucky Fried Chicken has always included its founder Colonel Harland Sanders in its logo. Sanders was a restauranteur since 1930 and franchised his chicken recipe in 1952. The original logo design was created by consultants Lippincott and Margulies in 1952 and updated in 1978. Schechter and Luth created the red logo in 1991, with the chain name shortened in order to get away from the connotations of the word "fried". The 1997 update by Landor put a smile on the Colonel's face. Tesser redrew the Colonel again for the 2006 logo, which put the Colonel in the kitchen, so to speak, as he is now wearing an apron. He's also noticeably slimmer than he ever was in real life.
Taco Bell
Glen Bell opened the first Taco Bell restaurant in 1962 as a spin-off of his Taco-Tia restaurants in California. The first franchise logo resembled someone asleep wearing a sombrero. PepsiCo bought Taco Bell in 1978 and immediately replaced the logo with a simpler and less controversial bell symbol. The even simpler purple and pink logo was introduced in 1995, inspired by the color treatment of the logo as it appeared in the 1993 movieDemolition Man. See also: The Stories Behind Ten Famous Food Logos, Evolution of Car Logos, and The Evolution of Tech Companies' Logos.
