TinyKittens (previously at Neatorama), a cat rescue service, has teamed up with Langely Animal Protection Society in British Columbia to run a TNR (trap, neuter, return) program for feral cats. Unfortunately, life is not great for feral cats. Kittens born in the wild have abysmal survival rates, and kitten survivors that aren’t used to humans are difficult to rehome. So the project takes in pregnant feral cats and cares for them as best they can, in order to acclimate the kittens to humans and find homes for them as their mothers are spayed and released. Right now on their livestream, TinyKittens has Sable and Neelix, two pregnant feral cats who could give birth to their last litters of kittens anytime. If you miss the events, they will archive them in videos at the site. Read more about feral cats and the efforts to help them at Metafilter.
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Why would a successful film director take on a music video project? Because they were intrigued with the possibilities of the medium, or because they weren’t doing anything else between projects. There are also music videos directed by unknowns who went on to achieve notoriety as film directors later. In fact, you may not be aware of the famous director behind some of these music videos. One you’ve definitely heard about is Michael Jackson’s "Thriller," which led the way toward making the music video noticed as an art form.
John Landis has done something quite remarkable: he’s directed the greatest comedy of all time (Animal House) as well as the greatest music video of all time. Your opinion may vary, but the works I mentioned have to at the very least be part of that discussion. Landis also directed Michael Jackson’s “Black or White,” but “Thriller” set the bar for music videos and to this day has not been surpassed. We’ve all seen the original version, so enjoy the Final Fantasy version, posted above.
Well, actually posted at TVOM, where they have ten of these music videos that are worth another look.
Last year, Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post wrote a story with an interactive map about the USDA’s “natural amenities index,” a data set that ranked all the counties of the United States in various livability parameters. One had to come in last, and that county was Red Lake County, Minnesota. Immediately after it was published, Ingraham heard from indignant Minnesotans, a relatively polite backlash that included an invitation to visit Red Lake County. So he did.
Weeks went by, autumn's campaign season madness began in earnest, but I couldn't stop thinking about the places in Red Lake County I'd visited, or the people I met there. People who'd shown kindnesses small and large -- from a friendly handshake at the bar to an entire cake baked and decorated with cartographic precision as a map of the county -- to a stranger who they only knew from a line of snark he'd tossed into a news story.
I kept dreaming about big skies. Broad rivers. Flat roads running to the horizon and towns that smelled of wood and grain and dry prairie air.
Skipping to the end of the story, Ingraham is moving to Red Lake County, along with his wife and two young sons. He will continue to write for the Washington Post’s Wonkblog. Ingraham received a welcome and a hand-drawn map from Minnesota senator Al Franken, which you can see in the story about Ingrahams’ decision. -via Digg
(Image credit: Flickr user J. Stephen Conn)
Despite the title, this is not a documentary, but a mega mashup of “348 rockstars, 84 guitarists, 64 songs, 44 drummers” from Ithaca Audio. You probably know all the songs, but you’ve never heard them like this!
The video is arranged as a Facebook timeline of videos, with comments and all, but that’s not nearly as impressive as the music selection and mixing. Everyone from Elvis to the White Stripes is here. Yeah, it’s long, which makes it perfect to listen to while you’re doing something else. -via Tastefully Offensive
Oh yeah, everyone likes to talk about how things were different back in the day, when the world made sense, when we were young and so much more aware of everything. It’s the same for every generation, and will always be so. John McNamee at Pie Comic illustrates how ridiculous some those rants can be. And get off my lawn!
Human sweat and oils don’t inherently smell bad, but when they sit around long enough to attract bacteria, we can get pretty rank. For all of civilization, people have looked for ways to make ourselves smell better, usually by piling pleasant smells on top of our body odor. The things we’ve used for those scents have been recorded through history, beginning with the ancient Egyptians. But the variety of scents expanded significantly when global trade arose. Jonathan Reinarz, author of Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell, tells us about the history of scent.
In the 13th century, chemists mastered the art of distilling, whereby a natural specimen is boiled along with water and the evaporating substance—a combination of water and essential oils—is captured and separated during the cooling process. Inventors combined these essential oils with alcohol to create the stable, quick-drying perfume that we know today. The first major alcohol-based fragrance was a late 14th-century rosemary perfume known as Hungary Water, since it was designed for Queen Elizabeth of Hungary.
By this time, most of Europe’s public bathhouses had been closed due to the bubonic plague, which killed more than a third of the population. Without a scientific understanding of germs, people believed that diseases like the plague were contagious through the air. “Before germ theory, there was the widely held belief in miasma or malaria,” which Reinarz says described unhealthy or disease-causing odors. “Today, of course, we associate malaria with a specific disease, but if you take the literal Latin translation ‘mal-aria,’ it’s bad air, which was thought to impact dramatically on people’s health and even create epidemics.”Thus the stinking smell of sickness was fought with the sweet scent of other aromatics. “Specific diseases, like plague, believed to be conveyed by impure or corrupt air were frequently countered by building bonfires in public spaces and, in private, by burning incense or inhaling perfumes such as rose and musk,” Reinarz says. Doctors tending patients with the plague adopted a gas-mask style facial covering with a curved beak over the nose and mouth containing sweet-smelling substances to ward off the disease. Small bouquets of herbs and flowers called posies, nosegays, or tussie-mussies became popular accessories carried to overcome the stench of death.
There’s a lot more about the various ways we’ve tried to make ourselves smell better over the centuries, at Collectors Weekly.
KTVU reporter Alex Savidge was reporting live this morning from the scene of a train derailment in Fremont, California. As he was doing an on-air segment, two cars collided behind him and careened off the road, right into the parking lot where he and cameraman Chip Vaughan were standing! We heard them say they are alright before the station cut back to the studio. Here’s a video of them checking in a few moments later.
Neither of the drivers were injured in the accident, either. You can read more about the incident at KTVU.
Have you ever considered it weird that they made the word “dyslexia” so hard to spell? It’s a learning disorder that can be hard to imagine if you aren’t a sufferer yourself. Victor Widell aims to change that, as he has coded a page to read as someone with dyslexia would see it. And there’s a bookmarklet that you can use to change any website to read dyslexic. You may be able to read it, but imagine how it looks to a student just learning to read or trying to study elementary subjects. Or someone who avoids reading because it is difficult. How accurate is it? It’s hard to say, as the disability varies from person to person.
One redditor who claimed to be dyslexic said that Widell's simulation was "accurate" but presented "a more extreme case."
Others questioned how true the simulation was, including one user—who claimed to be school psychologist and who said "diagnosing dyslexia is my bread and butter"—who commented, "The whole letters-move-around-on-the-page thing is not it at all."
Regardless of whether the code depicts with complete accuracy a naturally occurring disorder that medical professionals and researchers don't fully understand yet, the simulation does recreate the experience described by some who have been diagnosed with dyslexia.
Read more about the simulator at The Daily Dot.
(Image credit: Flickr user Eye to Eye National)
The only place most English readers encounter the umlaut is in metal band names and IKEA. Both signify foreignness to us, but the intended effect is quite different. IKEA wants to convey European cleanliness, modernity, and simplicity, while metal bands use the umlaut out of a sort of metal tradition to convey Teutonic power and barbarianism.
Linguist and language historian Arika Okrent explains the origin of the umlaut and how its different uses can clash embarrassingly. -via Metafilter
The science fiction horror movie Alien was released in 1979, before digital effects made strange alien beings common in cinema, yet even at the time it was difficult to believe there was an actual person playing the xenomorph. That was 6’ 10” graphic arts student Bolaji Badejo. Director Ridley Scott and associate producer Ivor Powell had been considering various tall actors for the role, but found what they needed in a young man who had never acted before.
Casting agent Peter Ardram had been in a London pub when he saw Badejo, and called up Powell.
"'I've seen this guy in a bar,' he said. 'He's exactly what you were talking about. He's never acted before or done anything like that.'" A meeting was arranged.
"As soon as I walked in Ridley Scott knew he'd found the right person," Badejo said in a rare interview for the French film magazine, Cinefantastique, in 1979 (transcribed with permission by Strange Shapes).
The Nigerian had long limbs and a slight figure, ideal for the role, but translating that into Giger's vision would be no mean feat.
Badejo put in weeks of training and long hours of shooting in an uncomfortable suit to bring the xenomorph to life. Read about Bolaji Badejo’s Alien experience at CNN. -via Digg
Want to drive a cat crazy? Start a friendly game of ping pong! These cats want in on the action so badly.
The faster the ball moves, the more they want it. You must imagine that these cats believe they are better players than you could ever be, if they just got the chance to show you. -via Tastefully Offensive
The Slow Mo Guys saw the Crazy Russian Hacker burn steel wool for homemade fireworks and thought it deserved the slow-motion treatment.
It did turn out quite pretty. Notice that they watered the lawn before trying the stunt, and both Dan and Gav wore safety goggles. Those sparks don’t burn long, but it doesn’t take long for one to injure an eye! -via Tastefully offensive
Max’s parents pulled the old bait-and-switch. They told him they were going to a broccoli farm, and at the last minute he found out that the trip was to the circus instead. You can’t blame the little guy for being disappointed! Half the enjoyment of an outing is the anticipation, and that goes double when you’re four years old. That’s why you should never mislead kids in this way. Or this way. Now I want to go to a broccoli farm. -via Viral Viral Videos
The position of an airline pilot demands respect because he has a skill you don’t, and your life depends on that skill. At the same time, it’s a job like any other, and has its up and downs. Many are particular to the career, like all that travel without any time to see the sights. And then there are other things the rest of us never think about.
2. THERE’S NO READING IN THE COCKPIT.
Eric Auxier, a captain with more than two decades of experience for a major carrier, says that most name-brand airlines prohibit taking anything into the cockpit that could serve as a distraction: no magazines, no paperbacks, no music, and no knitting. “We talk amongst ourselves," he says. "That’s all we’re legally allowed to do.”
9. PEEING CAN BE PAINFUL.
According to Smith, kidney stones are a common occupational hazard. Pilots don’t always hydrate properly, and post-9/11 Federal Aviation Association (FAA) rules about entering the cabin can make a trip to the bathroom a chore. It all adds up to stress on the urinary tract. “The protocols for leaving the cockpit are very strict,” he says. “It’s inconvenient to get up when the cabin crew is serving refreshments, too, so we tend to hold it in.”
It’s not all bad news, though. Read a lot more trivia about the job of an airline pilot at mental_floss.
Emily from Nerds With Knives and her husband have seven chickens that lay seven different colors of eggs. Their breeds are Salmon Faverolles, Cream Legbar, Silver Cuckoo Marans, Olive Egger, ISA brown, and Ameraucana. She posted this picture at reddit. Someone asked her which chicken is her favorite.
I love the blue eggs but she's very skittish and shy. The tiny pale egg is very friendly. Some breeds are very tame and will let you pet them.
Edited to add (in case any of my chickens read this): I love them all equally.
She says the eggs all taste the same, though, fresh and delicious.