The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!

by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff

Victor Gabriel Rocine’s Heads, Faces, Types, Races, published in 1910, is a book about people who, in Rocine’s opinion, need their head examined—examined in the way that Rocine considers proper for examining heads. Rocine (fig. 2) introduces his subject with exuberant turgidity:

There is perhaps no science that can do more good for the people, in the various avocations of life, than phrenology, when it is thoroughly understood. A phrenologist who is well versed in his science, can do good to the public, the individual or the nation, in hundreds of different ways…. This is an age of specialists and inventors. When the talent or genius of a man is discovered and directed, he succeeds.

Rocine lavishes attention and detail on different parts of the head. Consider his treatment of the forehead. The table of contents lists 16 separate subsections about foreheads. Four of Rocine’s forehead varieties—the low, the high, the square, and the retreating—are shown here in figures 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Have you ever noticed that the quality of a YouTube video drops immediately when snow falls or confetti is thrown? I honestly never did, but my eyesight is not that great. The HBO intro was given as an example of how noisy background affected video quality. And there are examples in this video.    

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You’d think the explanation would be very technical, and it is. But Tom Scott (previously at Neatorama) explains what happens in a simple, concise way that left me feeling smarter about video in the digital age. -via reddit 

The fourth feature film of the Star Trek franchise, The Voyage Home, was released in 1988. It immediately stood apart from the first three films, and its magic has never been duplicated. Conceived and directed by Leonard Nimoy, it highlighted each main character from the Original Series and used plenty of humor to contrast the 23rd century with 1980s San Francisco. And what little violence it contained turned out to be counterproductive. Who was responsible for straying from the formula? Well, three writers got credit for the screenplay.

So it was a team effort, in front of the camera and behind the scenes. But it was a team effort with a leader. And the leader wanted to make a different kind of film. Nimoy later explained the core concept: “No dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy.” His previous Star Trek film had all those things, and outer space, and aliens, and sets. Nimoy wanted to make a movie about Earth, right now, shot on location, with human people.

Now that the franchise is celebrating its 50th anniversary and the 13th film is coming, it’s nice to look back at the one film that even non-Trekkies can quote. Entertainment Weekly tells the story of how Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home came about, and gives us some great behind-the-scenes stories, too.  -via Metafilter

Earlier today, the freshmen class at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis performed the annual ritual that ends their time as plebes. Every spring, the class rushes to “climb Mount Herndon,” meaning to scale the 21-foot-tall Herndon Monument, which is covered in grease for the occasion. The goal is to remove a "dixie cup" plebe hat on top and replace it with an upperclassmen’s hat.

The plebes first try to remove as much grease as possible, becoming covered with grease themselves. That makes climbing the monument, or each other, quite difficult. Today’s climb took one hour, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds. The cap at the top was removed with a thrown projectile, but it still had to be replaced. Chris Bianchi, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, finally placed a hat at the top, ending the grueling mission.

 

And there was much jubilation. See a video report of the climb at WBAL-TV. See more pictures in the Naval Academy’s Flickr album.

If you were watching Game of Thrones, Fear the Walking Dead, The Preacher, or The Billboard Music Awards last night, as I would imagine covers a vast number of people, you may have missed The Simpsons. The couch gag was provided by Polish artist Michal Socha, and was rendered in the style of IKEA.

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See, in order to have a couch gag, first you must assemble the couch. All you need to do is follow the simple illustrated instructions. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The explanation of the universe starts with the very basics and grows from there. It's a rapidly expanding subject, after all. You probably won’t understand any more about the universe than you did once it’s done, but you will enjoy a few laughs.

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And because an explanation of the universe is quite complicated, exurb1a must jump from one subject to another, which is only more opportunities for puns. I mean, really, who thinks of rhyming ebola virus with Miley Cyrus? Physics can be funny, as well as astronomy, biology, geology, etc. -via reddit

A modest house in San Francisco or Sydney will set you back at least a million dollars, but if you’re looking for a bargain, you can buy an entire town! Allies Creek, Queensland, is listed for just $750,000. That includes a town hall, a sawmill, a power station, a water purification plant, paved roads, plumbing, a dammed lake, and 16 houses. The town was sold as a unit in 2008 after the sawmill went out of business, and the widow who now owns it has reduced the selling price. It’s not a ghost town; half of the homes are occupied. Read more about Allies Creek at Housely.

I love my sister. We are inseparable #love #sisters #love #kittens #catsofinstagram #cats #sleepy #lazy #cute #aww #reythekitten

A photo posted by Rey (@reythekitten) on May 16, 2016 at 8:43pm PDT

Rey was born eight months ago with no eyes. Alexander Speweik adopted Rey and her sister Leia, and Rey now gets around the apartment just fine. She even plays fetch!

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Wadded up aluminum makes a great ball to roll around on a wood floor, and Rey follows it almost perfectly just by the sound. She also plays with boxes, climbs her cat tower, and wrestles with her sister. She doesn’t chase a laser light, but likes to play with the chain attached to the laser pen! You can follow Rey at her Facebook page or at Instagram. -via Digg

Frankly, considering how many videos we’ve seen under the topic of “fun with dry ice,” I’m surprised you can’t find it at more grocery stores.

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The Crazy Russian Hacker bought thirty pounds of dry ice just to throw it in the pool. Which, of course, makes it wet ice. It looks pretty cool, but what is surprising is how long it lasted. -via Viral Viral Videos

The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Canoramic Bathroom Reader.

Since the 1965 debut of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charles Schulz’s Peanuts characters have appeared in more than 40 animated specials. The classics leave us feeling warm and fuzzy; others leave us wondering, “What were you thinking, Charlie Brown?”

Charlie Brown’s All Stars! (1966)

Plot: A recurring storyline in the Peanuts comic strip is Charlie Brown’s woefully bad management of his woefully bad baseball team. In this special, Charlie Brown quits baseball for good after his team loses by more than 100 runs. He’s coaxed out of retirement by Mr. Hennessey (voiced by a trombone, of course), a hardware-store owner, who offers to sponsor Charlie Brown’s team and give them new uniforms. But there’s a catch—the league is “boys only,” so he’d have to cut Lucy, Violet, Frieda, Patty, and even Snoopy. Unwilling to sell out his friends, Charlie Brown turns down Mr. Hennessey. To cheer him up, his teammates make him a new uniform…out of Linus’s security blanket. (Linus is traumatized.)

He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown! (1968)

Plot: After becoming increasingly annoyed by Snoopy’s getting into mischief, the Peanuts gang insists that Charlie Brown take action. Caving to their demand, Charlie Brown arranges to send Snoopy to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm for obedience training. Instead, Snoopy runs off and hides out at Peppermint Patty’s house. After he wears out his welcome by using her pool and drinking all her root beer, Peppermint Patty forces Snoopy to earn his keep as her maid. A few days later, when Snoopy breaks some dishes, Peppermint Patty sends him to the garage. He realizes he’s better off with Charlie Brown and runs away, back home to his doghouse. Everybody’s happy to see him again and assumes he’s learned his lesson, but he soon returns to his bad behavior. No lessons are imparted.

Play It Again, Charlie Brown (1971)

The Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem were a group of elite knights from Europe’s nobility who banded together to defend Jerusalem and the Catholic Church from the Ottoman Empire. They lost Jerusalem, then they lost their next base at Rhodes. They settled on Malta, and in 1565 withstood a siege by the forces of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, although quite a few of the knights died.

In 1572 construction on a grand cathedral was begun, now known as St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta. The knights who died in the siege were reburied in the cathedral, and magnificent marble tombstones were inlaid over them, forming the floor of the cathedral. Other nobles were buried in the cathedral until sometime in the 19th century. St. John's Co-Cathedral is an elaborate and intricately-decorated Baroque structure, but the marble floor of tombstones is its most popular feature. Read more about the cathedral and see lot of pictures at Amusing Planet. -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: Flickr user Tony Hisgett)

Tumblr user dajo42 posed a rhetorical question that inspired artist Julia from Brazil to draw a complete comic.

And then later, Lalaoon added the last panel as an extra.

It’s a little sad at the end, sure, but think about this: Is there something out there we consider beautiful that will eventually destroy us all? -via Geeks Are Sexy

How do you make an eggplant tasty? Some would say you barbecue it, while I think the sauce of garlic, onions, oil, and spices will do the job. Others would say you can’t make an eggplant tasty, but this demonstration from Guangzhou makes it look delicious.   

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She’s demonstrating how to cook while her Australian husband provides the dry wit in his English translation. Their YouTube channel sarcasmo57 has quite a few other cooking videos with comparable translations. -via reddit 

You’ve seen dogs dance with humans in canine freestyle competitions, but have you ever seen a goat dance with a human like that? Or a chicken? These goats do, and more besides. They run agility courses, and have learned to, uh, help Marie take her clothes off.

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Marie Verbouw trained her goats Roosje and Kato and the chicken Milca to do all kinds of incredible things. Wait until the dogs get s load of a goat in their agility competitions! -via reddit

Grant Woolard, who gave us that awesome Classical Music Mashup a few months ago, is back to give the same treatment to Disney songs. he mixed 49 different songs into a pleasing mashup that highlights how similar some of them are, illustrated by musical notes made from icons of the movie, to make it easy for you to follow along.  

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Some tunes stand out above the others, while some stay in the background, and others just blend well. I think you’ll like this! -Thanks, Marissa Bush!

See more mashups from Grant Woolard.