An 80-year-old woman with dementia left her home in rural Utah to walk her dog. She was unaware of the passage of time, and her family became frightened when she failed to return home. They enlisted the help of authorities to find her. It was three days before they located the woman, but that might not have happened at all if it weren't for a search and rescue dog named Kip, and for the woman's loyal pet who stayed with her all that time, fending off wildlife and keeping her warm at night. His barks weren't just for protection, they also acted as a beacon for those searching for her.

The woman was really happy to see the rescuers. Not because they found her, because she didn't recall being lost. Rather, she was excited about taking a ride in a helicopter. I would imagine her canine companion got steak that night. That's a good dog.

The Missouri Department of Conservation received a call about an injured bald eagle in distress in the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield near Springfield, Missouri. The eagle, unable to fly, was captured and taken in for rehabilitation. When no injuries could be found, the eagle was x-rayed by the Dickerson Park Zoo. No broken bones or tumors were found in the x-rays, but there was a distinct outline of a bony paw in the eagle's stomach. It is believed to have belonged to a raccoon. So the eagle wasn't hurt, he was just heavy after engorging himself with roadkill. He had been floundering around because he had overeaten and was "too fat to fly."

The story is going viral because this particular bald eagle managed to emulate one of the most prevalent American stereotypes. However, after a good rest, the eagle was released at the spot he was found, and managed to fly away under his own steam. You can see his x-rays at the Facebook post.  -via reddit

(Image source: Wilson's Creek National Battlefield)

Mosquitos kill more human beings than any other animal on earth, by transmitting diseases directly into our bloodstreams. Therefore, a lot of research has gone into how these bugs find humans to bite. Do they smell us? Find us by sight? Feel our body temperature? Or is it something more foreign to us, like the carbon dioxide in our breath? It's all of these, and even more. In fact, mosquitos don't go after humans until they sense at least two identifiers. But they have plenty of identifiers, including the infrared signals our bodies emit.

These infrared signals are not the same of the mosquito sensing body heat. They have to be within about a foot of our skin to feel the heat we produce, but can sense infrared much further away. And it's not the same as seeing the rest of the visible spectrum, because mosquito eyes cannot see infrared. A new study tells us that mosquitos have sensory organs at the tips of their antenna that pick up infrared signals. And, like their other senses, infrared detection does not draw a mosquito to bite us in the absence of other types of stimuli. As you can see from the graphic above, wearing loose-fitting clothing helps to mask the sense of infrared because that radiation can dissipate between our skin and the fabric. Read about the experiments that revealed a mosquito's ability to sense infrared at Phys Org.  -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: DeBeaubien and Chandel et al.)

Did you know there are people on eBay selling antique toilet paper? Well, maybe not antique, but you can get unopened packages from decades ago. Why would someone buy them? To prove what we have all suspected- that toilet paper has shrunk considerably over time. I have a shelf where I store extra toilet paper rolls, and for years I could only stacked them one roll high. Now I can stack two, because they are narrower. Mark Dent bought a four-pack of Charmin made in 1992 and found there were 170 sheets per roll in 1992, and new "double" rolls have 154. But in the early 1970s, single-ply Charmin had 650 sheets on a roll!

Of course, that's not the only way to measure toilet paper. Further research shows us a four-roll pack weighs about half what it once weighed. And you already know about the prices. Yes, we have high-quality toilet paper these days, but the materials used to make it come with such price volatility that it's just easier for companies to keep prices high than to deal with market fluctuations. Read about the great toilet paper shrinkage, and the reasons behind it at the Hustle. -via Nag on the Lake

(Image credit: Elya)

Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting (previously at Neatorama) has been missing in action for years (doing real work), and we've missed his insightful look at the details of filmmaking. We are glad to see he is back, in what he calls a limited edition of his series on filmmaking, with a look at a classic type of scene called the sustained two-shot.

The sustained two-shot was common back in the days when film was more expensive than an actor's time. Now, actors don't have to perform minutes of dialogue perfectly all the way through a scene, because filmmakers use multiple camera angles and have the opportunity to edit several takes together to get the scene. But that's only the beginning of how filmmaking has changed over time, and why the sustained two-shot isn't seen much anymore. One simple film technique carries a rich history, and Zhou makes it way more interesting than you would imagine.

Major League catcher Danny Jansen goes into the record books permanently today as the first MLB player to play for both sides in a single game. He started the game as a Toronto Blue Jay, and will finish it as member of the Boston Red Sox. The two teams went against each other on June 26th, but the game was called for rain. Then the Red Sox traded three minor-leaguers for Jansen on the 27th. The postponed game resumes today at the exact point it was called off in June. That was, strangely, as Jansen was at bat, with one strike. Today, he will be behind the plate catching. The Jays are expected to use a pinch-hitter in his place. The lineup for both teams has changed considerably since June, but Jansen is the only one on both teams' rosters. It's the first time this has happened in Major League Baseball's regular season, and will be a trivia question from now on.

Also, because this game will go down in the record books as occurring on June 26th, three players might be listed as having played an MLB game weeks before their MLB debut. If Joey Loperfido gets in the game, he will be recorded as having played two games for different teams on June 26th, since he played for the Astros against the Rockies on that date. And if you like weird sports stats like that, there are more in the comments at Metafilter.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Athens, Alabama, when Little Johnny wrote to Santa Claus asking for a trampoline. Santa, wanting to get ahead on his Christmas chores, immediately complied. Then after a minute decided the trampoline didn't look all that good in the front yard; the driveway would be better. Johnny, who is old enough to write a letter on his own and therefore too old to believe in Santa Claus, thanked his puzzled parents profusely.

This actually happened last Thursday, and the bizarre incident was captured on Brooke and Zachary Stagg's doorbell camera from across the street. There doesn't appear to be any heavy weather brewing, but it was a bit windy. The wind speed was measured at 39 miles per hour at the airport in nearby Huntsville. Despite the viral video, we don't know if there was any damage done to the roof or the trampoline, or whatever was in its path. We do know that you're supposed to anchor a trampoline to avoid just this sort of thing. -via Laughing Squid

Göbekli Tepe in Turkey is an archaeological site that has confounded scientists for years. It dates back 12,000 years, longer than any other permanent human settlement yet found, and contains carved symbolism that we are just beginning to interpret. Various "V" shapes inscribed at the site could be a solar calendar that indicates the people there kept up with 12 lunar cycles and 11 extra days for a 365-day year. The summer solstice is marked with a special V. This would put annual timekeeping thousands of years earlier than we previously thought. The residents of Göbekli Tepe were very aware of the precise changes in the sky, the sun, moon, and stars, over long periods of time at the very dawn of civilization. They even factored in the wobble of the earth's axis, and how that affects the appearance of constellations.  

Scientists suspect that the calendar may have been inspired by a swarm of comet fragments that hit the earth 13,000 years ago. The event ushered in a 1,200-year ice age. As earth emerged from that ice age, people began living in permanent communities. These events may also have inspired the development of agriculture, religion, and writing. Read about the solar calendar at Göbekli Tepe at EurekaAlert!  -via My Modern Met

(Image credit: Dr. Martin Sweatman)

For sale: a 10,000-square-foot mansion on the Hudson River in Manhattan. Built in 1902, the Gilded Age building has five stories, five bedrooms, seven baths, two kitchens, and a separate full basement apartment. The landmark is named River Mansion. I was excited to see a tour, but then... oh my eyes! The decor is so ugly! Each room seems to be more of an abomination than the previous one. Apparently it was used as an art project, with a couple of dozen modern designers taking on a room each. The architectural details are nice, but the cost of getting these rooms back to a sensible and maybe even somewhat period-accurate look would be considerable. The good news is that the price has dropped from the $24 million this guy mentions to just under $10 million. That's only $63K a month. You could rent out the rooms to a dozen or so desperate New Yorkers and make that back in no time. Or we can wait and watch the price drop again. -via Nag on the Lake 

On August 25, 1944, 80 years ago today, Paris was liberated from the Germans who had occupied France for four years. But the city could have seen a completely different end to the war. As Allied troops moved east across France, Hitler was driven into a frenzy, and declared he wanted to see Paris burned to the ground before it fell into Allied hands. What Hitler didn't know was that General Eisenhower had drawn plans to bypass the city as they drove the Germans to the east because the Allies were low on fuel. On August 19, the Allies plus Free French fighters from the liberated territory were only 150 miles from Paris, so the French Resistance suddenly rose up and revolted against their occupiers. The German Army was low on men, and the Resistance was low on ammunition, but like the Allied fuel supply, none of this information was shared with the enemy.

But one secret was. A German officer who was stalling on Hitler's orders to burn Paris made a calculated risk to bring Eisenhower and his troops into the city. Read the details of the last-ditch efforts of the French Resistance and what happened to keep Paris from being destroyed at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Jack Downey, U.S. Office of War Information)

Today, we look at Abraham Lincoln as a heroic figure, usually ranked as the second best president ever, just behind FDR. But a big chunk of the nation hated him when he barely squeaked into the White House in the 1860 election, and seven states were so mad they decided to leave the US! While Lincoln's reputation was rehabilitated over time, other historical figures did not fare so well. Some of the most successful heroes of the past were eventually discovered to have been ruthless and cruel, opportunistic, or greedy, which can be an advantage in getting ahead. Yeah, no one is perfect, but those who left a really big mark on history are judged by the long-term consequences of their decisions. The static image for this video is of Christopher Columbus, who changed the world by "discovering" the Western Hemisphere. He isn't included in the six people this video tells us about, because we already know how his actions were judged over time, from "it depends on what side you were on" to "imperialism sucks, no matter who you are."

Science reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic in an amazingly rapid way, by harnessing the promising and already-existing technology of mRNA vaccines. The genetically-engineered vaccines work by teaching our immune systems to fight an enemy it has never encountered before. Now that we know it works, mRNA technology can be used for other deadly diseases, like lung cancer.   

Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common form of lung cancer, and a vaccine called BNT116 has gone into clinical trials for around 130 lung cancer patients in various stages of the disease in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and the US. The trial involves a massive number of injections over more than a year along with immunotherapy. The upside is that mRNA vaccines harness the body's own immune system to specifically target cancer cells without destroying healthy cells. Standard radiation and chemotherapy destroy both, leading to dangerous side effects. Another benefit to training the immune system is that cancer cells are less likely to ever come back. Read more on the new mRNA vaccine trials for lung cancer at the Guardian. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: National Cancer Institute)

You've heard that people in olden times drank wine all the time because their water wasn't safe. While the water supply wasn't quite as safe as what we drink now, people always drank water, but only when they couldn't afford beer. In Medieval Europe, beer, wine, and/or cider were always available. Hard liquor wasn't a thing, and the beer and wine weren't as strong as it is today, but that just meant you had to drink more of it. Beer was used to hire workers, feed them through the day, and to to pay them for their labor. It was used to hydrate, celebrate, and medicate. People gathered in drinking establishments according to the price of beer, which segregated them by social status. It was part of all life's stages, from weddings to childbirth to funerals, and children indulged, too. Alcohol was even used for church fundraisers! Yes, people sometimes got very drunk, but mostly it was a case of getting through a difficult life with a constant light buzz.

Fairy tales, myths and legends, epic adventures, and Christmas romances are all based on standard formulas, and get dressed up with details and movie stars for blockbuster films. The most original and fresh plots are based on true stories, because we all know truth is stranger than fiction. Not only does the plot differ, but if that story involves crime, we also get dramatic tension and a subversion of expectations. Okay, so to make a great movie, you start with an exciting true crime, something that no one wants to be involved with, but will find thrilling to watch on a screen. You condense the timeline, add interesting details, and cast talented actors in the roles. If the crime is too recent or you might get sued, just change the names and the setting. If it's not recent at all, you can go wild with fictionalizing it. In the right hands, it's a sure-fire formula for a great movie.

Den of Geek introduces us to twenty movies that were inspired by true crimes and became either critically acclaimed or big hits. They go back as far as 1931, but most are readily available to watch. They also vary in how fictionalized they are, and they adhere to no plot formula. They don't lend themselves to prequels or sequels. And you'll find a description of each movie, along with the true crime they were based on, plus a trailer for each.


 

The folks at It's a Southern Thing have a video in which discount stores compete on a cooking show. That sounds pretty random, but putting a personality on inanimate objects based on their reputation can be funny. It turns out this is an experiment, called a sketch cobbler. Viewers sent in random elements, they pulled a few out of a hat, and made a comedy sketch out of it. Can they incorporate all the elements and still make it funny? Yes, but they could have left the smaller details out. All they really needed was "discount stores" and "cooking show." Anyone who has shopped all all these stores will understand. We all know who the winner is; since we have a discount grocery store against two discount stores who sell a few food items on the side. And now you know the reason I keep a stash of quarters in my car; it's not for emergency car washes.