You know how it is to eat Grape-Nuts for breakfast. The first few bites are like eating rocks, then the cereal softens up a little bit in milk, and by the time you get the bottom of the bowl, it's just mush. But when you eat Grape-Nuts cereal mixed into ice cream, it stays at the medium-chewy consistency. Yes, Grape-Nuts ice cream used to be a thing, and the recipe goes almost as far back as the development of Grape-Nuts itself in 1897. You might think it was a scheme to add some fiber to a decadent dessert, but it was actually a substitute for more expensive cookie crumbs in an ice cream flavor called bisque. We would call that cookies-and-cream flavor today.

But you won't find Grape-Nuts ice cream at your local grocery store anymore, at least not in the US. However, it is really common in Jamaica, where they consider Grape-Nuts to be an ice cream ingredient instead of a breakfast cereal. Read the odd history of Grape-Nuts ice cream at Atlas Obscura. There's a recipe, too.

(Image credit: Kristen Taylor)

The Holy Grail is a term referring to the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper before his arrest, trial, and execution. The term is more familiar to most people now as a metaphor for anything important yet unobtainable, that if it were ever found would change everything. That we even have a term for the cup is a testament to its value as a religious relic. But far from being unobtainable, there are Holy Grails in around 200 cathedrals in Europe alone, with more in the Middle East and elsewhere.

According to the canonical Bible, Jesus did not own the cup. The room for the Passover feast was donated or rented from a Jerusalem resident, and the dishes would have been reused and replaced as needed. A medieval story says Joseph of Arimathea retrieved the cup, but contemporary accounts only mention him as taking responsibility for interring Jesus' body. In any case, interest in the grail only arose hundreds of years later, as Christianity spread through Europe. Recovering the grail was a big part of the Crusades, and Middle Eastern entrepreneurs were happy to help fulfill their quests for a price. Read about the medieval obsession with the Holy Grail and the many relics that are still venerated today at CNN. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Johannes Adam Simon Oertel)

In the US, we have a presidential election every four years, plus elections for senators every six years and congressional elections every two years. The time between is spent campaigning, and there's nothing we can do about it. In the UK, they decide to have an election at random times for one reason or another, and a couple of weeks later, they vote. They don't even have political TV ads! And that's before even getting into the subject of campaign financing.

Laurence Brown grew up with the UK system, but has lived in the US for 16 years now. Having obtained his citizenship, this year will be his first vote in a presidential election. Therefore, without giving a hint as to his political leanings, he tries to explain the difference between the way elections work in the UK and in the US. The upshot is that US elections are exhausting, and UK elections are not. But you already knew that. There's a 90-second skippable ad at 1:55.

Star Trek, The Original Series had a memorable episode in 1967 titled "Space Seed" in which Ricardo Montalbán played Khan, a genetically-superior human from the 20th century. By the end of the episode, Khan, the villain, was exiled to planet Ceti Alpha V. The character was resurrected in the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Khan proved so popular that he also was in Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013, although that was set in an alternate universe, with Khan re-cast since Ricardo Montalbán died in 2009.  

But Star Trek fans are still drawn to the character. What happened to Khan during those years as an exile on Ceti Alpha V? Nicholas Meyer, who directed The Wrath of Khan, sets out to answer that question in an upcoming podcast series titled Ceti Alpha V. The podcast series will explain how Khan went from an exile on a healthy planet to a desperate and cutthroat survivalist before returning to seek revenge on Captain Kirk. The story has been in the works for years, and now Meyer says it's in the casting stage. Read what we know about the podcast and the story at Inverse.

Back in 1974, the magazine Saturday Review brought together twenty of the era's experts to predict what the world would be like 50 years into the future. Now that 2024 is here, we can see how those predictions stand up. Several notable thinkers saw that the world would have interconnected computers, a system that would allow us to watch TV, read books, keep up with the news, shop, pay bills, work remotely, and even make video calls. One assumed that we would print out the news to read like we would a newspaper. None mentioned the astonishing miniaturization of computers. Still, pretty good predictions. Several also predicted the use of alternative energy sources, including an electric vehicle that would walk on legs so that roads would not be necessary.

Neil Armstrong had walked on the moon only five years earlier. He predicted extensive travel to the lunar surface, with people working in factories there. Wernher von Braun envisioned space flight with lavish first class airline service, which wildly missed the devolution of airline travel. One visionary thought a woman might be a US president by 2024, while another said maybe by 2074. Read up on how the best and brightest of 1974 saw the future and how right or wrong they were at The New Stack. -via Kottke

This is not such much of a war as it is a friendly competition- on the sports field, meaning that everyone takes it too seriously. People who try to explain history, culture, and economics like to compare people born in different eras as stereotypes, but it's really hard to pigeonhole millions at a time. In this game, or tournament, it's the Boomers vs. the Millennials vs. Gen Z. What about Generation X? As usual, no one is paying any attention to them. Foil Arms and Hog do the play-by-play with every stereotype possible making a play. The thing is, we are too busy trying to catch all the jokes to comprehend that we don't even know what sport this is. I assumed it was a ball game, with each side taking territory on the field, but the reference to "battle royale" at the beginning and "weapons" at some point implies that it's a down and out fight. A good time was had by all.

What was the original purpose of this recessed cabinet 5' up the wall in my dining room?
byu/Dry-Philosopher-8633 inOldhouses

Redditor Dry-Philosopher-8633 asked about this strange little home feature on the subreddit Old Houses. It's a recess in the wall with a door. They store things in it, but what was its original purpose? There were plenty of guesses, including the original fuse box, laundry chute, milk or ice door, phone nook, or a kitchen pass-through (the kitchen is on the other side). But it's five feet up from the floor! Well, maybe it was a safe, a liquor cabinet, or a gun cabinet, too high for children to reach. There were also some really imaginative joke guesses, like where the gnome lives, and where you leave your urine sample.

But when we learned that there is a chimney behind the recess, the original purpose became clear. This was where a stove pipe was attached to the chimney so it could vent to the outside. My house has a shelf where the water heater vents into a chimney, and the main chimney has two shelves that could have been original vents for something or other, but they are in the basement and don't need to be prettied up. So now we know. These days, it's just a perfect place to keep things away from the children.  

Scientists Uncovered a Blow From the Past: 17th Century Brains Contained Cocaine https://t.co/4JhdOiJEPz

— Popular Mechanics (@PopMech) August 22, 2024

There are around 200 species of Erythroxylum plants that produce cocaine, all native to South America. Chilean mummies that go back as far as 3,000 years have been found to contain traces of cocaine, but use of the drug elsewhere didn't become common until coca was synthesized into cocaine hydrochloride salts in the 19th century. Conquistadors brought coca to Europe, but its spread has not been well documented. A new report in the the Journal of Archaeological Science tells of a team that analyzed the preserved brains of cadavers interred in a crypt in Milan, Italy, and found cocaine. These people had been buried on the grounds of the Ospedale Maggiore, a 17th-century hospital.

The researchers had previously found evidence of opium in the same crypt, implying that the hospital had used both drugs, one from Asia and the other from South America. However, cocaine did not appear on the hospital's pharmacy list, which could mean that the cocaine was used recreationally. Read about this discovery at Popular Mechanics.  -via Damn Interesting

Henry Talmage Elrod had a troubled childhood, both of his own doing and through bad luck. He had to drop out of college when his father died, so he joined the Marine Corps in 1927. Elrod learned to fly, but had a problem with testing. He got so nervous under supervision that he flunked his pilot's test, so badly that he wasn't given another chance until a new commander was assigned. Even then he had to take the classes and training all over again. Elrod passed the test this time, just barely.

Without the pressure of testing, Elrod was a great pilot. He was promoted to Captain, and was transferred to Hawaii in 1940. He and his commander led a team of 10 other pilots flying Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat fighter planes to Wake Island, about halfway between Hawaii and Japan. That was on December 4, 1941. Four days later, Wake Island was attacked by Japan, just a day after the Pearl Harbor attack. The enemy destroyed eight of the 12 planes and killed most of the personnel. The Japanese returned on both December 10th and 11th, but this time Elrod gave them his all. Read about the early World War II battles that left Elrod with the permanent nickname "Hammerin' Hank" at Military History Now. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: US Navy)

A classic Hollywood story tells of a modern, but not too modern, archaeologist exploring an ancient Egyptian tomb, while more nefarious characters tag along just to rob these ancient graves of the treasures wealthy Egyptians were buried with. Nothing good can come of that scenario, since there is a curse associated with this tomb. But that's fiction, and was inspired by the discovery of King Tut's tomb with all its fabulous treasures in 1922. The real story of Egyptian grave robbing goes back to antiquity.

See, the reason the discovery of King Tut's tomb was such a sensation was because of the surviving burial goods. Other tombs didn't have so many valuable treasures because they'd already been plundered, often soon after burial. An upper-class or royal burial required the work of many people, like stonecutters, builders, craftsmen, undertakers, security guards, and an awful lot of porters. These workers were often quite poor, and saw no reason not to help themselves to buried goods. One of the ways Egyptians tried to protect these tombs was by attaching a curse, so thousands of years later, we have a ready-made horror film plot. Read the history of the wholesale plunder of Egyptian tombs at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Mark Fischer)

When we say that someone talks like a sailor, that usually refers to their swearing. But in reality, we all do it. The English we use today is awash with jargon originally used by sailors, and we can't fathom why. It likely had to do with large crews on long sea voyages who got used to all those nautical terms, and when anchored on land they kept using them. Their children learned the ropes and by and large continued until these terms infiltrated English permanently, the way they infiltrated the first half of this sentence.  

Linguist Dr. Erica Brozovsky of Otherwords (previously at Neatorama) tells us about the seafaring origins of a ton of words, including, strangely, "blog." I like the cut of her jib. Before this video is over, you'll know why so much of a sailor's language became standard parts of English, and you won't be at all surprised. 

One of the more common ways people are scammed out of their money these days is through gift cards. That may sound bizarre, since buying goods with a gift card just adds another layer of work for a scamming ring. But that extra work is well worth it for the safety of the scam, because the transactions involved are anonymous.

In the story of Mae, a real victim who doesn't share her last name, the elderly woman was frightened into withdrawing her savings from her bank, and using it to buy bitcoin. She didn't understand bitcoin, but did as she was told, then the transaction failed because someone at the other end recognized a scam. So the scammers directed Mae to buy gift cards. Mae was never told to give the cards to anyone, because all the scammers needed were the serial numbers or barcodes.

See, retailers rarely have any idea who buys gift cards. They also have no idea who is spending them. And gift cards are not regulated the way banks or credit cards are. In fact, gift cards are exempted from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's consumer protection rules for fraud. Retailers object to regulation because they made money off these cards. But it provides an extra layer of privacy for the scammers. Read what happened to Mae, and how gift cards are the perfect route for separating people from their life savings at the Conversation.

(Image credit: Mike Mozart)

Not long ago, the guys from Planting Peace heard of an elephant that was abandoned in the woods in Laos. Joy was 31 years old, and had spent her life working as a logging elephant. But now she was too old and had health concerns, so they chained her to a tree. One of the organization's missions is to rescue elephants, so they wanted to help Joy. They sent Aaron to get her, and he led Joy out of the logging area to her new home at MandaLao Elephant Conservation, a retirement home for elephants in Laos. This shelter welcomes tourists because they pay for the elephants' upkeep, but they never offer elephant rides or train the elephants to do stunts.

I'm sure you noticed the lump on Joy's shoulder. Elephants rarely get cancer, so it is probably an abscess. The shelter has a veterinarian, and Joy will get the care she needs. You can keep up with Joy at MandaLao Elephant Conservation's Instagram page.

It was bad enough when fictional stories brought back characters that had died. All they had to do was make their death a dream, or the character into a ghost, or switch to an alternate universe. Or just put them in a prequel. That trick may be annoying, but it's mostly harmless and done to please the audience. But it's a totally different thing to use actors who have passed on in real life to resurrect a popular character.

Many of us were surprised and somewhat disturbed when Rogue One used images of Peter Cushing, who had died 20 years earlier, to recreate the character of Grand Moff Tarkin. Cushing obviously had no control over the use of his face. Actor Guy Henry played Tarkin's body, but you have to wonder what will happen to Hollywood when actors are no longer needed and we just see the faces of Hollywood past over and over. The same technique was used in Superman Returns, The Flash, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. And we see it again in the new movie Alien: Romulus. There's also the creepy technique of using computer technology to make older actors look young again, but at least that is done with the involvement of the actor. Read about the rising trend of casting actors even after they die at Den of Geek. Note: the article contains spoilers for Alien: Romulus, and possibly other films you haven't yet seen.

Redbox arrives in video store heaven! But the afterlife isn't all that great when Redbox meets its predecessors. Could this be video store hell?

The movie rental business follows the course of technology and culture. A rental business thrives until someone else has a better idea, then it dies, and the cycle continues. The current "winners" are video-on-demand and streaming services, but one day someone will figure out how to make that model more convenient or more affordable or better in some way. Redbox, on the other hand, was a victim of mismanagement. The vending machine for movies has been in bankruptcy court for some time. On July 10, they went into Chapter 7 liquidation, which means that all 26,000 Redbox kiosks are defunct. Matt Mitchell single-handedly illustrates how the cycle of video rental businesses works when one company after another leapfrogs to the top with a better idea and then dies. The truth comes out when they all meet in video store heaven.