Muffinizer1 said, “My uncle was super proud of his video. I thought it was hilarious.” Well, it is funny, but also short, enjoyable, and charming, and he’s really good at what he did. There are apps for recording yourself with yourself, and we are used to singers doing their own harmony in a technically seamless fashion. What Aoch did here was figure it out on his own with the technology available to him at the moment. The result is impressive, as his scat harmony steals the show from his melody. -via reddit
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Denver got a lot of snow in March, and at Adam Stevens’ house, it left a deep snowdrift up against the sliding doors. Boots the cat started to dig his way outside, which turned out to be a bigger job than he imagined!
But that hole in the snow turned out to be a cozy spot for a cat to curl up in. No wind, and access to the warm house -it’s the perfect igloo! -via Laughing Squid
French artist Jordan Molina (TutoDraw) paints increasingly clever illusions on his hand. The artworks have incredible shading that make them look three-dimensional.
Some of the illusions are a little gory, but remember, it’s all paint. -via Tastefully Offensive
The following article is from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Nature Calls.
(Image credit: The NeatoShop)
We asked our friend Andy the Talking Humpback Whale to settle this once and for all: Do these creatures exist or not? We’d tell you what Andy’s answer was… but then we’d have to krill you.
BACKGROUND
You’ve possibly heard of cryptozoology. It’s the study of animals that some people think exist, but whose existence has yet to be proven. Of course, the field includes a lot of wackadoodle creatures (Uh-oh— here comes the angry letters from Bigfoot and Chupacabra!), but there’s some serious science involved, too. That includes the study of animals that are believed to be extinct… but not by everybody. Meanwhile, take these possibly imaginary creatures… please.
1. RHINOCEROS DOLPHIN
(Image credit: Bob Jones)
This odd cetacean (a marine mammal such as a porpoise, dolphin, or whale) was first sighted in the Mediterranean Sea in the 1800s. The reports, which claimed the animal was a dolphin with two dorsal fins— hence the name “rhinoceros dolphin”— were not taken seriously, because no other known cetacean has two dorsal fins. (They all have either none or one.) That would have been that, but in 1819 two respected French naturalists, Joseph Paul Gaimard and Jean René Constant Quoy, backed up the story when they reported seeing very similar creatures while sailing the South Pacific: “Every one on board was surprised to perceive that they had a fin on their head bent backwards, the same as that on their backs,” they wrote. The naturalist duo even gave the creature the scientific name Delphinus rhinoceros. Sightings of similar two-finned dolphins have been recorded over the years since, but none have been confirmed. (If you see one— take a picture and send it to us!)
2. GIGLIOLI’S WHALE
If you’ve ever wanted to be a Powerpuff girl (and you don’t have to be a girl), here’s your chance. To welcome back The Powerpuff Girls to TV, here’s a generator that let’s you design a Powderpuff Girl to look like yourself -or someone you know. Powerpuff Yourself lets you customize the eyes, hair, clothing, everything! This one is me, except my hair is more white than gray. White is not an option. The finished product is available for download as an avatar, wallpaper, and animated .gif. The Powerpuff Girls return to Cartoon network Monday, April 4. -via Geeks Are Sexy
We love to complain about language and they way other people mangle it. Like complaining about the younger generation, it has always been so. Linguist Arika Okrent tells us of some previous controversies about making nouns into verbs and making up new words. Those words are just normal to us now.
English is a fluid language, and changes all the time. What is incorrect usage at one point becomes correct over time by that very usage. Otherwise, we’d all be speaking Old English. But then again, Old English was so fluid that it died out in favor of Middle English. The very idea cautions us to keep an open mind, or we’ll never be able to understand how our great-granddaughter turned out to be a well-regarded author. -via mental_floss
There have been many tales of people stranded by nautical problems, who end up floating at sea or stranded in an uninhabited wilderness. They are the victims of bad weather, mechanical problems, pirates, poor planning, or just plain getting lost. Surviving such calamities is pretty special. Take the story of Temaei Tontaake and Uein Buranibwe, which is not the longest or most tragic castaway story, but it does have a twist.
In October of 2011, two men living in the South Pacific, Temaei Tontaake and Uein Buranibwe, were heading from their island, Marakei, to a nearby island called Abaiang. The trip was only 80 miles and wasn’t supposed to take long, but their GPS ran out of batteries and they got lost. Luckily, they had their fishing gear and were able to catch some sharks; they then used the shark meat as bait and caught some tuna. Their big problem was water. It didn’t rain much and at times they were forced to drink seawater.
They were at sea for 33 days before they ended up on a coral atoll called Namdrik. On the atoll they met some locals and Tontaake learned that the locals were the offspring of his long lost uncle who everyone thought had died while out at sea 50 years ago. It turns out that his uncle ended up as a castaway on the very same atoll. When he couldn’t get off, he ended up settling down, had a family and died years later on the atoll.
Tontaake and Buranibwe were able to get off the atoll from a passing cargo ship a few days after arriving and then they were flown home.
Read nine other stories people who survived being stranded in places all over the world at Top Tenz. -via the Presurfer
(Unrelated image credit: Anil T Prabhakar)
We’ve been posting a poll maybe three times a year to get your predictions on who will die next on the TV show The Walking Dead. The season six finale is tomorrow night, and this would be the time to place your bets under normal circumstances. But this finale is different, and a poll just seems pointless. Continue reading for the reasons why, which will contain spoilers for those not current on the series, and comic book spoilers, too.
Those crazy Finns! These farmers put a remote-control chainsaw on a heavy-duty drone to create the most terrifying weapon ever conceived. The kind of thing that chases you in your worst nightmares. What could possibly go wrong?
What can defeat the mighty remote-control flying chainsaw? The end illustrates our best defense against such a weapon. Sure, this is more cinema magic than real danger, but anyone clever enough to fake this is probably smart enough to make this (for real) if they were so inclined. -via Digg
Ben Tardif spent three years designing and building an intricate marble machine he calls Marble Mountain. It has everything- ramps, stairs, slides, a castle, a luge run, a ski jump, a golf course, a bowling alley, and so much more. He says it’s not yet complete, but it’s complete enough that he can turn it on and show us what it does.
-It has a footprint of 12' x 8' and stands 8' tall
-The material of the tracks and supports consist almost entirely of wood
-Everything is custom-made from materials bought mostly from craft and hardware stores (mainly Michaels and Home Depot)
-The lift is 11 feet long, holds 90 marbles at once, and rotates at 1 revolution per second (60 RPM)
-It takes at least 250 marbles to keep it running without delay, but looks better with 300
-There are 32 possible paths for the marbles
-There are 14 rockers that distribute the marbles onto the different paths
-The first year and a half of construction happened in my apartment before moving to a small warehouse
-The original design was smaller and not as cool, so a redesign took place making it much bigger and morphed into a half-conical shape with the lift right down the middle
-I do know how much it cost to make thus far but even my finaceé doesn't know that number
-It takes just under an hour to set up or tear down Marble Mountain
-Since it is modular, I could remove a section and rebuild it as something else as long as the tracks matched up with the other pieces
Give him a couple more years and this will be a monster. See more of Tardif’s project at Instagram. -via Tastefully Offensive
Helene Meldahl is a Norwegian artist who doodles on mirrors. She creates a variety of scenarios right on her laundry room mirror to frame her selfies. Whatever fantasy you can think of, she’ll just draw it right around herself!
That includes props, characters, backgrounds, and even clothing!
Check out the imaginative ways she hides her phone in many of the pictures. See Meldahl’s collection of mirror selfies at Instagram. -via reddit
I look at Game of Thrones as a tournament bracket. We started out with a ton of characters, many introduced over several year’s time. They are from several different regions, or “houses,” like the Lannisters, the Targaryens, the Starks, the Baratheons, etc. Everyone is competing to win the Iron Throne, and no one will rule from it until the last competitor is eliminated. Each season, several people in serious contention are eliminated. Does it seem that way to you?
But since there are so many characters, and they come and go somewhat randomly, it’s hard to tell who’s the real star of the show. At the beginning, we assumed Game of Thrones would be centered around Ned Stark, but they sure pulled that rug out from under us quickly. To determine the real main character, we turn to mathematics. Or rather, professor Andrew J. Beveridge of Macalester College did, along with undergraduate student Jie Shan. They crunched the numbers.
The pair started by connecting characters every time they “interacted” in the third book of the series, A Storm of Swords. Whenever two characters appeared within 15 words of one another, a link (or “edge”) was added between them. The links are weighted based on how often the two characters appeared in close proximity. Characters don’t necessarily have to be friends to be linked—which is a good thing because there are few true friendships in the series.
They also took a few other metrics into consideration to determine the main character.
Ranked first in every measure, save for one, was the same character: Tyrion, the sharp-witted, marginalized member of powerful house Lannister. In spite of his small size, Tyrion is mathematically the most important character in Game of Thrones.
What does this mean for the series? Not much, since they only analyzed one book. But the audience would be tickled to see Tyrion Lannister reach the championship round and ultimately win the Iron Throne. Read more about the research at Quartz. -via Uproxx
(Image credit: Andrew J. Beveridge and Jie Shan)
(Image credit: Poorly Drawn Lines)
Do you have a favorite webcomic that you check every day? A better question is, do you check more than one webcomic every day? Because if you do, today may have given you a case of deja vu. They all have the same story, same gag, even the same punchline! Who is stealing from who?
(Image credit: Lunarbaboon)
It didn’t take long for accusations of plagiarism to start flying on Twitter. Readers even lined up behind their favorite comics. But it was all an April Fool’s Day prank. Webcomic artists from all over got together and planned this.
(Image credit: Pie Comic)
Just like women meteorologists, webcomic artists have their own private Facebook group where they talk shop. It was there that Alex Norris of Dorris McComics shared a template for today’s joke, and the other artists ran with it. They each have their own style, even if the joke is the same. See 29 of the webcomics in this imgur gallery. -via Metafilter
People sometimes faint under stressful conditions, like skydiving or riding on a roller coaster. This can be frightening, both for the fainting person and for those in close proximity. Are they dead? They were screaming just a minute ago! But then they wake up, and go straight back to screaming again! It’s like a human reboot operation. We can assume that all the folks in this compilation video are fine now, although they may have given up thrill seeking adventures. Contains NSFW language. -via reddit
It’s not easy to take a sad, tragic, or scary subject and make a comedy out of it. Some filmmakers are masters at this game. Then there are movies that you didn’t realize were supposed to be comedies. It’s hard to draw the line with so many examples near the line. I laughed too many times during Inglourious Basterds, but I’d never consider it a comedy. I didn’t laugh at all during Heathers, but it’s considered a comedy. What was your favorite dark comedy? See if it’s on this list of ten dark comedies from TVOM. If not, tell us about it!
Email This Post to a Friend