Comprehensive smart green lighting systems can save a ton of money for large institutions. When Minnechaug Regional High School in Massachusetts built a new high school in 2012, they equipped it with a computerized system to control all 7,000 lights in the 248,000-square foot facility. The lights would automatically dim when less light was needed, and turn off at night. What could possibly go wrong? In this case, everything. In 2021, nine years after the system was installed, the software crashed. And the lights have been on ever since.

1. The company that installed the lights has changed hands several times.
2. No one currently at that company was familiar with the software. But they found someone eventually.
3. The software cannot be fixed.
4. A new system would cost $1.2 million.
5. The system could be patched with hardware, but the parts have been backordered from China for a year. You know, supply chain issues.

Meanwhile, the people of the school district are wondering about the electricity bills, and teachers have to remove classroom light bulbs to show a film. The story of the lights at Minnechaug Regional High School reads like a situation comedy or a snowball rolling downhill. -via Fark 

(Image credit: John Phelan)

Every time we revisit the Voyager spacecraft, we confront statistics that are hard for the human mind to grasp. The intrepid space probe Voyager 1 has been traveling for more than 45 years, and is now more than 23 billion kilometers (14.817 billion miles) away, in interstellar space. It's still communicating with earth with its 1970s technology. That technology might be obsolete, but it was built to last. Sadly, the programming involved is no longer being taught. After taking amazing pictures of our solar system for a decade, Voyager's cameras were turned off in 1990. There's more than one reason why they won't be turned on again, but the ability to do so is a testament to the durability of vintage hardware.

Also, if you recall the launch of the two Voyager probes, this will make you feel old. The video has a one-minute ad starting at the four-minute mark. -via Geeks Are Sexy

A collective refusal to do business with someone is an ancient tactic, but it finally got a name in 1880. Charles Cunningham Boycott owned some land himself in Ireland but also worked as the land agent to the 3rd Earl of Erne, who owned a large amount of land, on which tenant farmers made their living. Boycott was a ruthless landlord, levying fines against the farmers and raising their rent even in years of crop failures. The farmers formed a league for collective action in 1879. In 1880, their pleas for rent relief went unheeded, and several families were evicted from their farms.

The league then organized a personal shunning of Boycott. No one would deliver goods to his home, no one would provide services like laundry, and no one would harvest his crops. People even stopped greeting him on the street. Read how the scheme played out and how Boycott's name became a verb we use to this day at Amusing Planet.

The hog calling contest is a staple of midwestern county and state fairs, but Iowa puts a different spin on the idea with a husband calling contest! You may have seen a viral TikTok video that's racked up more than a million views in the last six days featuring an edited version of some of the contestants from the 2017 competition. The video above is the original uncut report, which gives some context to the silliness. The winner receives a ribbon, a $5 cash prize, and bragging rights, which is what makes it so competitive. The Iowa State Fair also has a mom calling contest for kids, and of course, the traditional hog calling contest, too. -via Boing Boing

The Lunar New Year, often called Chinese New Year even though it's celebrated in many Asian cultures, is Sunday. Or is it? While the lunar calendar synced with the Gregorian calendar begins on January 22 this year, some cultures in Mongolia and Tibet follow a different calendar, which puts the New Year on February 20th. If that's not confusing enough, the zodiac animal associated with the year varies this year. The twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac are universal every year except when the fourth animal comes around. In China and most countries, this will be the year of the rabbit. But in Vietnam, Tết will usher in the year of the cat. Al Stewart would be proud. 

The reason why the two zodiacs differ is not quite clear. One theory is that the zodiac term for the year in Chinese sounds like the Vietnamese word for cat. Another theory has to do with the differing stories of how all the animals raced across a river to decide who would be represented in the zodiac. You can read those stories and find out more about the Lunar New Year celebrations at the Conversation. Now if we could just figure out how the mousedeer came to represent this year in the Malay zodiac, we'd know a lot more.

(Image source: dandagent)

Ain't modern technology wonderful? Machine translation allows us to read news articles on non-English websites, but if you've done that a few times, you know that certain details have to be taken with a grain of salt. Today I read about a skating rink in South America, but if you look closely at the picture, it's obviously what we would call a skate park. That's a minor detail. But when you are posting a sign in more than one language, it may be rather important to get some feedback on the language you don't know.

(Image source: Gucci1827) 

What was, we assume, supposed to be a "no exit" sign has turned into something way more dramatic and memorable. Sure, a machine translation is cheaper, but you're taking a chance that may result in your sign becoming an internet meme. See 50 examples of poor translations that turned out to be quite funny in a second language at Bored Panda.

Japanese gamer and live streamer Mutekimaru has a great stunt going, but recently found out how wrong it could go. He has a popular series in which his pet fish play Pokémon. Yes, really. He installed a motion-tracking circuit board on the wall of his aquarium, divided into sections corresponding with keyboard commands. When a fish swims across a sensor, it trips a command of some sort. By activating random commands, the fish slowly play the game. Cool, huh? Maybe not so much. There's danger in automating a live stream, no matter how cool it is, and you should never trust a fish.

Sunday, the fish were playing Pokémon Violet (and live streaming) when the game crashed. They kept swimming, got into the eshop (apparently, the computer was set to bypass the password), went into the wallet, and exposed Mutekimaru's credit card information! The fish bought some items, sent Mutekimaru an email, logged back in and selected a different game, joined a chat group, and generally caused chaos along the lines of a six-year-old on his dad's computer. Turn the closed captions on to get an English narration for the video. You have to wonder how long all this took before Mutekimaru caught on to what had happened, but it is hilarious. Mutekimaru has now suspended his fish play videos.  -via Metafilter

It has been estimated that up to 10% of the Union Army was made up of volunteers below the age of 18 in the Civil War. Boys as young as 14 would sign up by lying about their age. Their parents tried to retrieve them, and the law was on their side, but the army dragged its feet in releasing the young soldiers. After all, they were useful. The 16- and 17-year-olds often distinguished themselves in battle, and the younger boys provided badly needed support services. There could have been as many as 200,000 underage boys serving in the Union Army. On the Confederate side, records are spotty, but estimates of underage soldiers range up to 100,000, which was a bigger percentage of their military than the larger Union Army.

Conscription laws, verification procedures, and enforcement varied on both sides over the course of the war. Both armies were considerate of the tender age of these soldiers, but needed every warm body they could get. While families and the general civilian populace objected against such young men serving, expediency in the war effort won out in most cases. Read about the young teenage soldiers of the Civil War and how they got away with serving at Smithsonian.

Batman is globally popular, but has not always been available in every language. So the knockoffs began, and each culture puts their own spin on the Caped Crusader. Weird Media shows us three of the strangest Batman incarnations in entertainment history. In South Korea, the Golden Bat has superpowers. In Mexico, Batwoman is a wrestler/detective/swimsuit model/superhero. In the Philippines, everyone just decides to become various comic book characters from Gotham City and everyone else buys into it. And sings about it. This video contains a little NSFW language.

And in case you were wondering about it, here is the Spider-Man around the world video mentioned at the beginning in the above video.



-via Boing Boing

The first six days of January bring a local custom in the town of Píllaro, Ecuador, called Diablada de Píllaro. That's when men dressed as the devil parade through city streets, yelling and teasing onlookers, waiting for an opportunity to feed them chili peppers or alcohol. Other characters in this procession are bailarines, representing rich colonial overseers, and capariches, the lower class workers who sweep the streets ahead of them. It's all in fun, but the traditional characters are all acting out the evolving story of how Diablada de Píllaro became what it is now.



The city of Píllaro didn't exist until Spanish colonizers came and exploited workers from the surrounding villages. The rich landowners partied early in January and forced local men to clear the streets. Now those "bouncers" are devils and the surrounding villages send groups to participate in Diablada de Píllaro. The festival isn't all that well known in the rest of Ecuador, but it is becoming a tourist draw for Píllaro. Read more about Diablada de Píllaro and see some awesome pictures at Atlas Obscura.

The Sentinel Chickens are performing their protective duty in New South Wales, Australia, but it's nothing like what a guard dog would do. In fact, it's more like the canary in a coal mine scenario, except for the fact that these chickens send a warning of danger not by dying, but by having their blood drawn once a week to check for specific antibodies. It's an all-around cushy job for a chicken, spending all their time doing important chicken things in a yard and eating, right up until the time they develop permanent antibodies for some mosquito-borne disease. Then the chickens are sent off to who knows where; let's hope it's a free-range egg-producing farm or backyard coop instead of someone's frying pan. After all, they've done their bit to safeguard humanity. The chickens were already unlucky enough to be in a place where they're going to get bitten by mosquitoes constantly. Tom Scott explains the procedure, and you can read more about it at NSW Health.

What do you store in the cabinet over the refrigerator? Redditor phalangeslemon posted this picture that terms this cupboard "literally pointless." That makes sense: the cabinet is too high for most people and the large American refrigerator makes it even more difficult to reach. But people aren't about to let storage space go to waste. In the replies, many explained that this cupboard is for Christmas kitchenware that's only retrieved once a year, like serving platters and cookie cutters. Others described the rarely- or never-used items they stored there, such as picnic supplies or fondue pots. A few tall guys hide their treats or alcohol from the rest of the household over the refrigerator. And some said they have no idea what is up there because they stack cereal boxes on top of the refrigerator, blocking the cabinet doors.

I went to look at my refrigerator cupboard. On the more accessible side, I have things I don't use often, like a hand mixer, rolling pin, meat grinder, and an electric knife that I have only used once because I don't like it and forgot about it. I went to the less accessible side and oh my. It's full of parts and accessories for kitchen gadgets I no longer own. Maybe I should get the ladder and clean it out. Have you checked your inaccessible cabinet lately? What's up there (if you don't mind sharing)?

The Lunar New Year is Sunday, January 22. In China, that will mark the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit. Every year since 1980, China Post has released special commemorative stamps for the occasion, and one of the two designs this year is a blue rabbit with red eyes designed by 99-year-old artist Huang Yongyu (黄永玉). The stamps were officially released on January 5th, in a ceremony that included a mascot character that resembled the blue rabbit.  

The reaction in China has been mixed, according to What's on Weibo. Some on social media see the blue rabbit as monstrous or evil with those red eyes. Others say the eyes are a nod to the surge of COVID-19, indicating that the rabbit has been sick. Many can't decide if it's ugly or cute, so they've dubbed it "ugly-cute." The artwork is completely in line with the style of Huang's other works. Huang himself said that he just wanted to design something that would make people happy. Whether they are happy or not, plenty of people wanted to buy the stamp, which sold out almost immediately and is now a collector's item. You can't argue with a viral internet meme. -via Metafilter

Also: Huang Yongyu was the subject of another controversy in 1974 when his painting of an owl with one eye open was interpreted as critical of China's Cultural Revolution. Owls do sleep with one eye open. Chairman Mao himself defended Huang, and after the Cultural Revolution was over, the artist was exonerated.

The 2022 Miss Universe pageant was held last night in New Orleans. Miss USA, R'bonney Nola Gabriel, is the newly-crowned Miss Universe. She is the first Filipino-American to win Miss USA or Miss Universe. At 28, she is the oldest titleholder in the pageant's history. Congratulations! But the part of the pageant that's the most fun to see is the parade of national costumes. So let's take a look.

Ukraine is SLAYING on stage, along with her beautiful feathered wings. What an inspiration to all. 💙 #MissUniverse pic.twitter.com/bP3LA4gDsx

— Miss Universe (@MissUniverse) January 12, 2023

We've seen Miss Ukraine's costume before, but we didn't know those wings moved!



Miss Netherlands wore a stroopwafel for her national costume. The audience loved it. Click to the right on the image above to see all of the costume.



Miss Iceland wore a beautiful painted ball gown that was not the least bit outrageous, but she should get a special award for having the most awesome name of the pageant: Hrafnhildur Haraldsdóttir.

Hold up! Miss Guatemala's name is Ivana Batchelor. Either that's a stage name or her parents didn't know what it would mean in English. She wore a costume so big it needs a scaffolding.



Miss USA shot for the moon, literally, carrying a moon, stars, and a flag, not to mention red, white, and blue LED lights. She seemed to have a little trouble walking in that costume. But we can let the outrageous costume slide, since she ultimately won the title of Miss Universe.

See a gallery of all 83 contestants in their national costumes at Buzzfeed.

Qin Shi Huang, the founder of the Qin dynasty, ruled over a newly-unified China from 221 to 210 BC. One of his first projects after becoming emperor was to begin construction of his own underground tomb, 30 kilometers outside of the city of Xian. The location of the tomb was discovered in 1974, when farmers unearthed the first hints of the Terracotta Army, consisting of thousands of sculptured soldiers and other attendants guarding the tomb. Most of those have been excavated, but the actual burial place of Qin Shi Huang has never been opened. Why is that?  

There are actually three reasons. The first will remind you of the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Later writings about Qin's tomb warned that it was booby-trapped with automatic archers who would shoot anyone who entered. The second reason, from those same ancient writings, is the mention of "rivers of mercury" that adorn the tomb. There is contemporary evidence that this may be true; the concentration of mercury vapor around the outside of the tomb is much higher than normal. But the third and main reason the tomb has not been opened is that archaeologists do not want to damage the tomb, and are searching for a reliable non-invasive way to look inside. Read about the unopened tomb of Qin Shi Huang at IFL Science. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Jmhullot)