Dutch people saw a pole vault competition and said, "That looks like fun but this is the Netherlands; we have to do it over water." And so the sport of fierljeppen was born. It's also called polsstokverspringen, or in English, canal jumping. But seriously, folks, this was once the way to get to the other side of a canal efficiently if there is no bridge. It's far from the only time an everyday activity was turned into a competition, because that's what people do. The poles are between 26 and 43 feet long, and you are supposed to climb it while you are flinging yourself across the canal. Fierljeppen may look strange, but it takes strength, skill, and often a bit of luck to successfully complete a jump without looking utterly ridiculous. Great Big Story talked to champion jumpers Ruben Van Eijk and Mark Van Der Horst about this strange sport and what goes into it. -via Damn Interesting

Back in 2015, Meagan Abell bought some vintage slide film transparencies at a thrift shop, which she first thought were photo negatives. There was no information about the pictures that showed two women, one in a red dress, the other in a blue dress with a red sash, posing ethereally on a beach. The photos appeared to be from the 1950s. Abell took to social media to enlist help in identifying the women in the pictures, with the aim of finding the story behind the photos.

First, the location was identified as Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles. Then the purpose of the photoshoot was revealed -it was for an album cover! Once the woman in red was identified, the discarded slides led us to a tragic story about a music career in which everything that could go wrong happened. That includes the frustrating missed connection as the singer never knew of the search for her before she died. Read the entire story of #Find the Girls on the Negatives at Flashbak. -via Strange Company

My clay mascot made me some pancakes!
byu/guldies inanimation

This little dude didn't get the memo about not cooking nude. His downfall is not burns, though, it's the mess he made. This very short animation by Guldies is 100% old-fashioned claymation, as we can see in the full video at YouTube. Oh, the finished product is just as short as it is here, but then he goes into the making-of process, which is long but fascinating. Watching a lump of plasticine turn into Chef Boi is a trip. Guldies got caught up in the incredibly-detailed clay kitchen. The furnishings are not painted, but covered in clay for color. The tiles are each individually set! Then we see how the animation was shot frame by frame, including the genius detail of a blur effect while Chef Boi tries to break the more stubborn egg. Then we see the soundtrack recording, and you'll be surprised at how authentic the sound effects are. -via Everlasting Blort

Cornell University has a research paper that starts with the assumption that parents naming a new baby are rational creatures working on reasonable assumptions, and pick a name for its uniqueness. They also work with the assumption that parents are myopic, meaning they can't see the possible consequences of their actions. The paper is authored by Katy Blumer, Kate Donahue, Katie Fritz, Kate Ivanovich, Katherine Lee, Katie Luo, Cathy Meng, and Katie Van Koevering. So you can see where this is going.

The entire paper is available as a PDF. This is real research, which they admit is incomplete in several places. The theory is that parents find a name they like that has the low popularity they desire, seen as the frequency of it being used, which can be ascertained by Social Security records. However, they should (but don't) also look for changes in that frequency year over year. This omission results in a shock when the child they so carefully named ends up at school with an extra initial attached to their name because there are so many others with the same name. Those who know say the study has some really good math jokes, but don't let the math put you off; you can skip over the numbers and just read the text to understand just how tragically real yet funny this project is. -via Metafilter

PS: Current naming strategies have left us with several songs about the phenomena, like Multitude of Amys, Daves I Know, and 27 Jennifers.

For hundreds of years, British law said that a woman who was sentenced to death was not to be executed while pregnant. It naturally followed that many women in such circumstances claimed to be pregnant, whether they actually were or not. That's where the "jury of matrons" came in. These were panels of older women, sometimes including midwives, who were deemed as experts in detecting pregnancy. They were also used to determine signs of witchcraft or whether a woman had given birth. In other words, they investigated claims that wouldn't be proper for men to pursue, even if the men knew what they were doing. The jury of matrons were considered medical experts before gynecology was a thing. Of course, they had no say in the guilt or innocence of men.

These juries were used in the British colonies, like America and Australia, as well as in Britain. The practice only died out as men became qualified medical experts with modern instruments like a stethoscope. An article at Smithsonian tells us about the erstwhile juries of matrons and some notable stories from their history in the penal colony of Australia.

(Image credit: The British Museum)

It's only human to desire an easy path to money, excitement, and a better life. And there will always be con artists who take advantage of that desire, no matter if the plan is legal or not. The common sense rule for these schemes is that if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't true at all. At least it warrants further research on your part before parting with any money.   

The title of this video is "The Most Insane Ponzi Schemes In History," but that in itself is deceptive, because the 12 stories include only two people who ran Ponzi schemes, Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff. Six or seven were imposters, who profited by being someone they weren't, and the rest were just plain con artists. We can learn something from all of them, even if the lesson is that too many people are just too gullible.  

Despite the fact that there are no giant flying reptiles that breath fire, dragons show up in folklore from all over the world. Could there be any more frightening combination of features in a dangerous animal? Even contemporary stories, like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings present dragons as the ultimate fantasy monster.

But would it ever be possible for a creature of earth to spout flames like a fire-breathing dragon? To produce flames from the mouth, an animal would have to possess three things: fuel, oxygen, and a spark. Strangely, all three of those things are produced by living creatures already, although none produce all of them. If we were to rig up an animal that combines the biological processes of a cow, Devil’s Hole pupfish, or the the fulmar gull with the talents of the bombardier beetle and the electric eel, we might have a fire-breathing dragon (if it were also a flying reptile). Read about the biological possibility of a fire-breathing dragon at the Conversation. -via Kottke

(Image credit: Ltoinel)

When was the last time you were really impressed with a skateboard video? Pro skater Andy Anderson built a reputation for his wide repertoire of technical tricks (and for the fact that he always wears a helmet; common sense over coolness), but he doesn't rest on his laurels. Anderson is always developing new routines that are ever more surprising and appear to break the laws of physics. His moves are a combination of balance, fancy footwork, and imagination, as you can see in his newest video titled Crazy Wisdom.

Lest you be fooled by the way Anderson makes it look easy, there are some scary falls in the video just to prove that working out and then perfecting these stunts is honestly hard work. Still, some of it looks like it's just everyday movement for Anderson after all these years, while other tricks are a triumph of effort. -via Metafilter

Parents are told that they need to talk to their babies to help them learn to communicate. Studies show that this helps children tremendously with language acquisition. But is it truly necessary? Those studies were done in modern times in developed countries. In more traditional societies, people don't talk directly to babies, and they learn language just fine by overhearing adult conversations. In other words, when people talk to each other, babies are listening and drinking it in.

However, in these traditional cultures, babies are carried around and are witness to all their mothers' social interactions. In places like the US, babies are often home all day with their mothers or some other lone caregiver, and don't socialize as much. They just don't have the opportunity to overhear conversations, so the directive to talk to your child may be compensation for that. Read what we have learned about the process of developing language by hearing it at Big Think.

(Image credit: Shikoha Tautiko)

Wikipedia is very different from the encyclopedias we once used, in that it is added to daily and edited constantly. If you were to print out the entirety of Wikipedia on paper, it would fill a lot of bookshelves. How many would vary, because I would require the large print version. And no one has calculated how much paper it would take to print out more than one language version -they vary in more than just language. But the real functionality of Wikipedia is the constant edits. Randall Munroe's What If project (previously at Neatorama) was asked how many printers you would need to keep up with the real-time edits to Wikipedia. There are approximately 100 edits made every minute, so you'd need a lot of paper, but only six laser printers. The "Wikiprintia" project would require about 300 cubic meters of paper every month, although that would depend on page size and font, too. And manpower, which would also cost money. Commenters recommended moving to the newer ink tank printers, but altogether, trying to keep up on edits using paper is a fool's errand. At the least, we finally get a What If? video where everyone doesn't die. -via Laughing Squid

Kowloon Walled City was an enclave in the outskirts of Hong Kong. It was originally erected as a Chinese military fort. Under British rule, people lived and worked there without government administration or law enforcement. After World War II, the population soared with refugees, and buildings were built between buildings, up to 14 stories tall. At its height, the city had 35,000 residents, or 1.3 per square meter, making it the most densely populated spot in the world! Kowloon Walled City was demolished in 1993-94, and is now a park.

A Japanese research team documented the construction of Kowloon Walled City shortly before demolition, after residents were evicted. They constructed an architectural cross-section of the buildings, illustrated as if people were still living there. It was published in a 1997 book. Belarius has a copy of the book, and scanned and digitized the cross-section for posterity. Click on the image here to enlarge, and see the many apartments with people living their everyday lives.

You'll also see factories, shops, classrooms, entertainment venues, laundries, offices, tea rooms, brothels, medical clinics, shipping centers, gambling dens, and martial arts studios. On the roofs you'll find gardens, playgrounds, clotheslines, and an array of antennas. There are plenty of cats and dogs, and if you look closely, you'll find one guy about to be shot. Details highlight constant construction and renovation, and waste disposal problems. This could be a serious time sink. -via Metafilter 

(Top image credit: Ian Lambot)

The opening ceremonies for the Paris Olympics will not be held in a stadium, but outside on the banks of the river Seine. Many of the water sports will also be held in the river. The problem is that the river is often little more than a sewer, and has been as long as anyone knows. You can't hold international sporting events in polluted water, so Paris has worked for years to upgrade their sewage system for better water quality, but current samples still have unsafe levels of bacteria. So what are they going to do about it? Paris is taking the short-term tactic of making the water safe sometimes, specifically during the games, while also planning for long-range mitigation. Vox takes a look at the polluted Seine problem ahead of the Olympics and what the city is doing about it. This video has a skippable ad from 3:04 to 3:40.

NASA will decommission the ISS in 2030, after 32 years of service. The space station is the largest object in orbit, longer than a football field, so bringing it down is a project that scientists and engineers have spent years planning. Taking the station apart and bringing back the pieces one by one is not a part of those plans, since we don't have the spacecraft to even send our own astronauts up there. Instead, after all astronauts have left and taken the usable equipment, the station will be allowed to drift from its orbit at 250 miles up. Over a few months, the ISS should be down to around 150 miles above the earth. Then, an unmanned SpaceX vehicle operated by NASA will drag the station further down.

Most of the ISS will burn up as it reaches the atmosphere on re-entry, but 10-20% is expected to remain intact, and that's 180,000 pounds. The crucial part is determining where that debris will land. The de-orbit will have to be controlled so that the ISS lands in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean, the least populated area of the world. Read more details on the plans to bring down the ISS at Gizmodo.

(Image credit: NASA)

Allan Kassenoff and Catherine Youssef, both lawyers, had a volatile marriage beginning in 2006. Their split led to years of custody battles over their three daughters, with each accusing the other of abuse. The court dates stopped only in 2023, when Catherine, after a cancer diagnosis, went to Switzerland for a medically assisted suicide. Beforehand, she emailed a suicide note and uploaded files of her evidence against Allan. The files were obtained by a TikTok member who went viral sharing videos from the Kassenoffs' marriage, leading to a barrage of threats against Allan and the loss of his job.

Neither Allan nor Catherine was a perfect parent, but accounts of the marriage varied widely. Family and friends of the couple have conflicting views of the situation, as would be expected, but the courts, while changing custody orders frequently, most often sided with Allan. So do the three daughters, and three of the four nannies who agreed to be interviewed. But how can one fight back against a one-sided internet campaign and an opponent who is dead? Read the bizarre and tragic story of a permanently damaged family at The Free Press. -via Damn Interesting   

(Image credit: Ajay Suresh)

WTF does this machine do?
byu/knowitokay inWTF

What is going on here? A ridiculously small caterpillar vehicle is doing something with a bollard, but we can't figure out exactly what. Redditors have differing opinions, many of them NSFW, but the best is from finger_licking_robot, who confidently explained the workings of the Poller-Kalibrator. Whatever it is, it sure drew a curious crowd.

Other commenters figured this was either a protest, a stunt for internet clicks, or performance art. You should know by now that the answer is always C. This was part of the recent Berlin art festival called 48 Stunden Neukölln. The artists are Anton Steenbock and Peter Behrbohm, who collaborate under the name SONDER, and the little vehicle is part of the project called SONDER HARMONISATION. The description of the work is just as baffling as the performance itself, yet it was a great success in getting people to pay attention.

You can see more of SONDER's projects at Instagram, including a longer, even more confusing video of the bollard job. -via reddit