A parrot squeezes through a door opening and is apparently very proud of himself. His laugh is priceless! That laugh would be right at home coming out of a mad scientist’s mouth when he's plotting to take over the world. -via Tastefully Offensive
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Conducting research in the world's newest country yields a new genus and unimaginable dangers.
By DeeAnn Reeder of Bucknell University, as told to Jed Lipinski.
SOUTH SUDAN, 2013—On our way into the Bangangai Game Reserve, a protected area of lowland forest and glades, we pass an open-air bushmeat market. It looks like any African vegetable market, except the tables are lined with rows of blackened monkey arms, as well as bushbucks, dik-diks, even pangolins—an endangered species. Hunting has existed here for thousands of years, but lately it’s become a commercial enterprise, emptying the forest of primates. And because Bangangai is near the Democratic Republic of Congo, cross-border poaching is a problem. We set up our tents on a high, grassy plateau in the center of the reserve, lush tropical rainforest sloping away on all sides. As night falls, gunshots echo in the distance.
I’m a bat biologist at Bucknell University. I survey a broad range of bat species to identify reservoir hosts, which harbor potentially fatal diseases like Ebola. But I’m also interested in mammal biodiversity, conservation, and understudied ecosystems—all of which brought me to South Sudan. After decades of civil war, the region finally declared independence in 2011, making it the newest country on earth.
Dr. Reeder inspects a bat’s wings. (Image credit: Flickr user Brandon Keim)
It was in Bangangai a year earlier that my colleagues and I discovered a rare species of vesper bat rarely ever seen. When we established that it was a different genus—based on its black wings and badger-like white stripes—we renamed it Niumbaha, meaning “rare” or “unusual” in Zande, the local language. The discovery highlights the country’s extreme biodiversity.
Atlas Obscura talked with Sigurður Atlason, Manager of the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft, about some of the weirder parts of magic as it is known in Iceland. He spoke of revenge zombies, summoned from the grave in order to haunt your enemies. For seven generations. It's pretty gruesome.
[In order to wake up a dead person] you have to shout out some poetry, some invocations, over the grave. And walk around the church graveyard. And spit on the grave. It can be quite nasty. It is the words or the language that [are] most important to get correct in order to get them up. And it’s very dangerous because of course, once you get the dead man up, he’s nine times stronger than he was in life. So you would never chose a very strong fisherman or farmer, you would choose a teenager or some guy who is not very strong.
You have to fight a little bit with him once he gets up. You have to manage to put your head in front of his and lick up all the liquid that streams out of his nose and mouth, and actually clean him with your own tongue. That’s how you tame him. After that you can just tell him whatever he has to do.
Then there’s the necropants, made from the skin of a dead person, and the worm that comes alive from a stolen human rib, and the elves …all part of ancient Icelandic mythology that you can read about at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Flickr user Bernard McManus)
The A.V. Club has a series on children’s television, with three posts of suggestions for shows that parents can enjoy along with children, for Pre-kindergarteners, kindergarten through first grade, and 2nd-3rd grade, with eight shows on each list. And then there’s the big finale: 8 kids’ shows to avoid at all costs. I can’t say I disagree with their rankings. The Disney Channel in particular.
If your previously polite child suddenly turns into a disrespectful smart aleck, check your Disney level. Studies have shown (based on an informal survey among The A.V. Club’s immediate circle of parent friends) that Disney-sitcom viewings can result in a rise in attitudinal behavior as your kids mimic what they see on the screen. An overarching element of all these shows is an idiot adult figure that the kids feel free to make fun of, usually in a servile or authority position like doorman or manager. We pin the start of this juvenile downfall to The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody, a grating pair of twins who ran roughshod over an entire luxury hotel (and later a cruise ship with The Suite Life On Deck).
What shows did you most enjoy watching with your children? Which ones rubbed you the wrong way? -via Metafilter
You can’t tell anything from the static image, but this Vine will simply surprise and delight you in a mere six seconds.
It’s the creation of Greg Baskwell, who has mastered the art of planning, framing, and timing. -via Digg
Alex Norgay put together a video for his mother as a gift. It’s a dating profile, and she had no idea he was making it.
In the video, we find out that Eva is a remarkable woman! She skis, bikes, dances, swims, and does yoga. She enjoys art, travel, beer, and hanging out with friends and family. Eva's reaction when she first sees the video is priceless. -via Viral Viral Videos
Tiny Hamster and his friend Tiny Hedgehog get treated to a Tiki party! That means grass skirts, leis, fruit smoothie “cocktails,” and a tiny little Pu Pu platter. Oh, these little guys love the refreshments! In this video, we also get a glimpse into what’s involved in preparing the tiny treats.
But what I really want to know is, how does an outhouse ever become out of order? -Thanks, John Macunitan!
Jürgen Horn and Mike Powell are in Valencia, Spain, for 91 days. They were recently at the Festival Internacional del Viento (International Festival of Wind) at the beach in Malvarossa, Spain. They saw regular kites as you’d recognize them, but also kites from all over the world that defied the imagination in size, shapes, and performance, all dancing on the wind. I particularly like this aerial squid with the trailing tentacles.
There were also sharks, dragons, dinosaurs, and teddy bears, as well as synchronized kite flying and stunt kites. See plenty of pictures and a video of the festival at For 91 Days.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, we had microbuses instead of minivans. Some of those Volkswagens still exist, and they stand out in a crowd, but none stand out like the one mimaki cg60 modded to look like the Star Wars droid R2D2! It's like the '70s meeting, uh, the '70s.
How’d he do it? With computer design and a lot of vinyl. The design took about 50 hours, and the rest took even longer (he lost count). You can see the entire project unroll in photographs at Instructables. -via Boing Boing
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
The day was April 19, 1996. It was to be one of the most unusual days in baseball history. The day was not unusual for anything that happened on the field, it was unusual for what happened in the stands- in two different stadiums.
Every baseball fan (at least the guy fans) dreams of catching a home run ball hit into the stands. But actor Charlie Sheen tried harder than most.
Charlie, a huge and devout baseball fan, actually spent $6,537.50 to help him achieve his goal. The Detroit Tigers were playing the California Angels and Charlie was there at Anaheim Stadium. He had spent the money to purchase 2,615 seats in the outfield to increase his chances of catching a home run ball.
We’ve seen quite a few videos from People Are Awesome, and they’re back with a new compilation, this time featuring children doing awesome things. Watch young boys and girls excelling at gymnastics, skateboarding, dance, parkour, martial arts, and more. These kids are amazing!
-Thanks, Dan Rice!
Shalin Shah and Frances Chen were married on April 24th, after five years together that included their high school senior year and four years at USC -and traveling all over Europe. You can see their story in pictures at their wedding site. After graduation, Shalin joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Peru. Doctors there found that Shalin had a tumor. Despite surgery and chemotherapy, cancer invaded his lungs, bones, and spinal cord, and in 2015, he was given a prognosis of six months. Since then, Shalin and Frances have worked on his bucket list. Among other things, he met his musical idol, Usher, became a fully-fledged Peace Corps volunteer, and married Frances. As his health wanes, Shalin wrote a message to leave behind:
No room for hatred in my heart
Stay positive, no time for negativity, no complaints or regrets
Life is perfect. I would not change one thing about Life or about myself or anyone or anything I know, everyone in the world is perfect in their own ways and serves a specific role in the universe
That’s just the beginning. You can read the rest of the message, and more of Shalin’s story, at HuffPo. -via reddit
Many of us fondly recall The Muppet Show, Jim Henson’s primetime comedy for adults that ran from 1976 to 1981. Those wacky characters are coming back this fall! The new show is called The Muppets, starring Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, the Swedish Chef, and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, along with so many other favorites. The first trailer for the show debuted today. If you are outside the U.S. and can’t see the above video, try it here. The Muppets will air on Tuesday nights starting this fall. -via Metafilter
Florence SeeSee Rigney celebrated her 90th birthday in the hospital last week. Oh, she’s in good health. In fact, she was working! Rigney is the oldest working registered nurse in the United States, putting two days a week at Tacoma General Hospital in Washington state. After 60 years of taking care of other people, you’d think she’d be ready to retire, but Rigney loves what she does. -via Viral Viral Videos
T.E. Lawrence was a British archaeologist and war hero who became known as Lawrence of Arabia. But his life was cut short only two months after retiring from the military. Lawrence was riding his motorcycle in Dorset and crashed while trying to avoid a collision with some children on bicycles. He died of brain injuries six days later in May of 1935. He was only 46.
However, Lawrence’s death set off a chain of events that saved many other lives. One of the physicians that attended him during those six days was Hugh Cairns, who wondered if a crash helmet might have saved his life. It seems obvious now, but in 1935, there were no statistics to back up that theory. So Cairns went to work finding them. He published his first findings in 1941. In one 21-month period, 1884 motorcyclist were killed on British roads, and two-thirds of them suffered head injuries.
"There can be little doubt that many patients in this series would have lived if their heads had been adequately protected," he wrote.
His biggest problem, he conceded, was finding enough riders who did wear helmets voluntarily to show it made a difference. Cairns could only gather evidence from seven riders wearing helmets who were involved in accidents. All survived.
"In all of them the head injury was mild, though in four there had been considerable damage to the crash helmet," he wrote.
The British military took Cairns’ findings seriously, and were the first to require riders to wear helmets. That set the stage for Cairns to collect more data. You can read the rest of the story, and the astounding difference helmets have made since then, at BBC magazine. -via Digg
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