This video about parasites might make your skin scrawl, but if that’s what you’re into, who am I to judge? Besides, you’ll probably never have any of the parasites described here. If you have had one in the past, we’d love to hear from you!
Aaron Carroll of Healthcare Triage hosts this week’s mental_floss List Show. By the way, if you really want to know what it’s like to pass a tapeworm, here’s a detailed description from a writer who experienced it. You’re welcome.
Saturday is the 40th anniversary of the release of the movie that would become the first summer blockbuster and make Steven Spielberg into a star: Jaws. It emptied the beaches and ruled the theaters in 1975. If you had to wait for it to come to your town, you read the book.
Robert Jones made this video in tribute to the film. He wanted to highlight the best scenes and particularly that awesome musical theme that added so much to the suspense. This contains spoilers. In fact, it’s like watching the entire movie in just three minutes! In other words, if it were made today, this would be the trailer. -Thanks, Robert!
Canadians attempt to talk trash Americans in this video from College Humor. It doesn’t quite work out, as Canadians are just too darn polite and accommodating to fill an entire song with insults. That’s an American skill. In the comments at YouTube, half of the Canadians laughed at this, and the other half were offended. However, those who were offended immediately apologized. -via Viral Viral Videos
Although I loved the 2003 Pixar film Finding Nemo and watched it again and over again with my kids, I had no idea about all the interesting stories behind the making of the movie. In fact, the earlier versions of Finding Nemo led Disney executives to think it would be a flop! But there were changes along the way, all for the better. There’s also trivia that will make you look at the movie in a new way.
5. DOGS WERE USED AS MODELS FOR THE FISHY FACIAL EXPRESSIONS.
While the Pixar team’s extensive research on the denizens of the deep yielded a wide variety of spectacular shapes and colors perfectly suited to an animated feature, the underwater populace proved consistently lacking when it came to one anatomical component. The dull eyes of the average finned critter weren’t especially conducive to building expressive characters, so Pixar had to look elsewhere for its optical models. The crew chose one of the most openly expressive members of the animal kingdom on which to model the eyes of its fish characters: dogs.
6. THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT HAD A DIFFERENT TREATMENT FOR THE BARRACUDA INCIDENT.
At first, Stanton kept the inspiration for Marlin’s overprotective attitude—the loss of his wife and all but one of their unborn children in a barracuda attack—a secret to reveal gradually through intermittent flashback sequences. Ultimately, this technique made the revelation obvious and anticlimactic while making Marlin feel substantially less likable, so the script changed.
Read more about the making of Finding Nemo at mental_floss.
The illusion above is called Splitting Colors by Mark Vergeer. You can read an explanation of it here. It was crowned the winner of the annual Best Illusion of the Year Contest for 2015. Coming in second was Ambiguous Garage Roof by Kokichi Sugihara of Meiji University in Japan.
See all top ten finalists in this year’s competition at the contest website. But first, prepare for your mind to be blown. Yes, that colored dress is in there. -via Metafilter
The Warp Zone has the perfect premise for the next Mad Max film: he and everyone around him have finally run out of gas. Well, what did they think would happen, running the roads in those huge gas-guzzling muscle machines and tanks?
It would be different, that’s for sure. And they might save a lot of money on the budget! -Thanks, Michael Davis!
It started out so innocent, so geeky, so interesting, and then took a dark turn really fast. I love it when webcomic artists send each other guest comics to publish on each other's websites, because that’s an easy way to discover new artists. This one is by John Sutton at The Petri Dish, published at Pie Comic.
(Image credit: Betsy Gregory Photography)
Look at this fierce team of four- and five-year-old softball players! They play ball in Edmond, Oklahoma, and have a great time together. The only thing these girls love more than playing softball is the movie Frozen. So they named their team Freeze.
(Image credit: Betsy Gregory Photography)
One of the moms, Betsy Gregory, is a photographer. She thought it would be a hoot to take team pictures combining the girls’ two interests. Every one of them already had an Elsa costume, so they donned them for the picture. No, they don’t wear their evening gowns for games. However, they do have hats with blond braids attached! Learn more about this adorable team and see more pictures at Buzzfeed.
Herman Melville's epic novel was supposed to secure his fame. Instead, it sank his career.
Herman Melville had everything a young author could dream of. By the age of 30, he’d traveled the world and written five books, including two bestsellers. He’d married the daughter of a prominent judge, and he owned a beautiful farmhouse. He hobnobbed with the literati. Strangers asked for autographs.
Then he wrote Moby-Dick and ruined everything.
Today, the book is often hailed as the Great American Novel, an epic D. H. Lawrence called “one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world.” But in Melville’s time, it was a total flop. Readers couldn’t comprehend the difficult narrative. Critics dismissed it as the ravings of a madman. When Melville tried to mend his image with a follow-up, titled Pierre, the reviews were equally brutal, and the work cemented his reputation as a lunatic. At just 33, Melville was finished. When he died in 1891, at the age of 72, people were shocked—not because he’d passed away, but because they thought he’d been dead for decades. It would take half a century—and a bored academic—to resurrect the author’s legacy.
In 1839, a 20-year-old Melville boarded a merchant ship docked in New York City and voyaged to Liverpool as a cabin boy. The trip kindled his spirit for adventure. Two years later, he joined a whaler named Acushnet and set off for the Pacific. That’s when he learned how terrifying a 70-foot sperm whale could be.
A full-grown whale can weigh as much as eight elephants. Fifty-two teeth—each nearly the length of a bowie knife—ring its lower jaw. The fluke dwarfs the size of most minivans and can smash a small whaleboat into splinters. And while the behemoths are generally timid, over the years, they’ve given whalers plenty of horror stories to tell. Two in particular stuck with Melville.
The first concerned a seaman named George Pollard Jr., captain of the whaleship Essex. In November 1820, a sperm whale attacked Pollard’s ship in the Pacific, about 2,000 miles from shore. The 85-foot-long leviathan barreled into the boat headfirst and rocked the crew to their knees. When the men heard wood crack below, they rushed into the ship’s hold: The Essex was leaking, but the damage looked repairable.
Then the whale returned.
This time, the animal tore through the waves twice as fast, snapping its jaws as it thundered back into the bow. Seawater gushed in, and the ship tilted on its side. The Essex slowly slipped beneath the waves, leaving Pollard and his men lost at sea.
Melville also learned about Mocha Dick, a vicious whale that had attacked at least 100 vessels and sent 20 boats to the ocean bottom. Lore of the whale fueled nightmares: Rusting harpoons protruded from its back, a ghastly reminder of how many men had failed to kill him—and died trying.
In 1838, Mocha Dick attacked an American ship after its sailors killed a calf and its mother. Enraged, Mocha smashed apart one of the whaleboats, but not before a sailor managed to plant a harpoon in his back.
In China, it’s a tradition to take group photos with your friends when you graduate from college. In recent years, they’ve become more and more creative, from dressing alike, which the students above from a university in Shandong Province took to the next level, to recreating movie scenes, like the students below from the Law School of Dalian Ocean University.
I have to wonder, how are they ever going to show their children which one they are? See many more graduation group photos at Buzzfeed.
Comedian Mark Malkoff (previously at Neatorama) asks kids about Fathers Day. It’s a good thing, too, because otherwise, none of these kids would even be aware of it!
I can’t figure out which is the best answer, but I think it may be “Your face!” followed by “Poop!” I guess you just have to ask the right questions. Still, the part about going to Disney World and having Dad pay for it was pretty good. -Thanks, Mark!
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
1) Most people played to in one day by the Beatles.
On June 4, 1966, in Manila, Philippines, the Beatles played for the most people ever in one day. At the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in Manila, the band played two concerts. The early concert drew a crowd of 30,000. The later, evening crowd, drew an amazing 50,000 fans. The 80,000 fans the boys played to on that date were the most fans they ever performed for in one day.
2) Most "takes" on a Beatles song.
The Beatles were known as perfectionists in the studio, often recording dozens of takes on a specific song. The Beatle song with the most attempted takes was actually never released by the Beatles.
“Not Guilty,” a George Harrison song, took 102 takes, before it was ultimately rejected for the Beatles 1968 album The Beatles.
3) The Beatles had 12 number one hit records in a row, until Englebert Humperdinck came along.
On February 17, 1967, the Beatles released their single “Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane.” This single is regarded by many critics as the finest record in rock history. It sold 2.5 million copies, but did not make it to the number one spot in the charts.
Because of the curious mathematics of the pop charts, sales figures of the double-sided hit were counted separately, as two singles, so that one side canceled the other out, giving Englebert Humperdinck the #1 spot in the charts with his record “Release Me.”
The Beatles record outsold “Release Me" by a 2-to-1 ratio.
4) The biggest crowds to welcome the Beatles were in Australia.
The Portsmouth High School (Portsmouth, New Hampshire) class of 2015 shook things up a little at their graduation ceremony. When valedictorian Colin Yost finished his speech, he started dancing to the strains of “Shake It Off”! Then the entire class joined in, flashmob-style.
The graduates had been rehearsing for a while, but they all managed to keep the performance a secret surprise for their parents. I bet the school administration, at least some of them, were in on the plans. A good time was had by all. This kind of thing should become a tradition, to counteract the total bore most graduation ceremonies are. -via Buzzfeed
I can’t believe that Screen Junkies hadn’t already done an Honest Trailer for Toy Story already, but it’s true. They rectified that oversight today, with a close look at the 1995 Pixar film, featuring comedian Will Sasso as Randy Newman. They figured it was time for a Pixar video, as their new film Inside Out opens this week.
Better late than never, and this may give you an entirely new look at a movie you barely understood as a child. -via Tastefully Offensive
This compilation video shows men in the process of finding out they are going to be fathers.
Yeah, it’s an ad, but it’s happy and touching and sweet all the same. And it just might get you into the mood for Fathers Day this weekend. -via Buzzfeed
