This little girl is not yet two years old, but she’s learning the basics of Tahitian dance from Tahitoa Productions in Guam. They normally take students starting at age three. In case you are not familiar with Tahitian dance, here’s what a talented adult can do. The little girl above is getting a head start! -via Daily Picks and Flicks
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When there’s a list of the types of people at your workplace, you have to wonder which one you are. I’ve encountered every one of these at one time or another, but not usually all at the same place. That’s because I’ve never worked in an office environment with a lot of people in it. Right now I work with a bunch of folks who all seem absolutely delightful -but I’ve never met any of them! -via Tastefully Offensive
Forensic science has come a long way in solving crimes, although murder remains unusually difficult do to the lack of cooperation from the victims. Investigators have to keep an open mind in order to find clues wherever they may be, including evidence from the deceased’s pets. In one particular case, that meant the victim’s cockatoo.
Texas native Kevin Butler was such a fan of NBA great Larry Bird that he ignored the potential redundancy and named his pet cockatoo after him. Friends said Bird was very devoted to Butler, and when Butler’s home was broken into in 2001, Bird tried to fend off his owner's murderers before he was mortally wounded himself. One of them, Daniel Torres, denied involvement until prosecutors presented evidence linking the DNA recovered from Bird’s beak to Torres. He received life in prison. Bird, just 18 inches tall, was heralded as “valiant” during the trial.
There are four other tales of crime-solving pets in this roundup at mental_floss. Not all of them had to die to solve the crime.
(Unrelated image credit: www.viajar24h.com)
Sesame Street does a spot-on parody of Netflix’s series House of Cards entitled House of Bricks. Frank Underwolf channels Kevin Spacey as he blows down the houses of the little pigs in Washington. Yes, the story is familiar, but the villain and his accent give it a modern twist. Oh, yeah, the ending is different, too. -via Uproxx
You know how things get crazy when that old devil PMS shows up? K-Pop singer Lizzy and comedian Park Myeong-Su (notice his initials) star in this bonkers music video in which Lizzy becomes a giant superhero to vanquish Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. It's probably even funnier if you understand Korean. -via Buzzfeed
The confluence of a slanted awning, a blanket of snow, icicles, and a slight melt produced this lethal trap waiting to skewer any tall person coming out of the door. Or any short person who stands on a few inches of hard snow. Luckily, redditor aeyntie saw the murderous icicle before he was impaled, and got a photograph from the side to show us how nature’s wrath works in mysterious ways. Doesn’t it look like a tentacled ice monster? Then of course, after the murder, the evidence would just melt away.
YouTube just celebrated it’s tenth anniversary. The Daily Conversation put together a retrospective of their biggest hits over the years. It begins with YouTube’s very first upload, which hardly anyone saw, but quickly gets to videos you know and love, from cute kittens to the Arab Spring. You’ve seen almost all of them on Neatorama, since this site is coming up on ten years as well. Which one is your favorite? -via Daily of the Day
Getting a good scare can make your heart race, but can it kill you? We know fear can save our lives, if it keeps us from doing something dangerous, but should we fear our fear itself? AsapSCIENCE explains the mechanism and physical effects of fear and what damage, if any, fear can do to us. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Every year, the Golden Raspberry Awards, commonly known as the Razzies, are bestowed on the night before the Academy Awards, recognizing the worst in moviemaking. The big winner last night was the Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas. It won Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Combo (Kirk Cameron and his ego). It’s a movie that brought the audience together -in agreement about how bad it was.
"This is a vanity project that Kirk Cameron put together", Razzie founder John Wilson told BBC Radio 5 live after the ceremony.
"It's about on the level of a super 8 movie from when I was a kid. It has no cinematic value at all."
He pointed out that the film was rated number one worst movie of all time on international movie database IMDB.com
Saving Christmas is also only one of two films last year to score a zero rating on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.
Winning a Razzie is not always the kiss of death, however. The awards ceremony also has a Redeemer Award, for former Razzie winners who go on to do good movies. It was won by Ben Affleck, who received a Razzie for Gigli, but went on to give us Argo and Gone Girl. See the full list of winners at Uproxx.
(Image credit: Provident Films)
Apparently there is a generation of Americans who think that Sally Ride was the first woman in space. Those of us who came of age before Ride's historic first trip on the space shuttle are well aware that cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was launched into space in 1963. She spent three days in orbit aboard Vostok 6, then became a poster child for the Soviet’s accomplishments in space exploration. The idea of sending a women to space came up on the heels of Yuri Gagarin’s flight in 1961.
Immediately after that, Nikolai Kamanin, head of the cosmonaut program and legendary Soviet pilot, proposed the idea of female cosmonauts to Soviet Air Force and space program designer Sergei Korolev. Kamanin, according to the Encyclopedia Astronautica, believed “it was [the space program’s] patriotic duty to beat the Americans in putting a woman in space. He wanted to find a female cosmonaut who would be a dedicated Communist agitator in the same class as Gagarin.” Korolev agreed, and the search for lady cosmonauts was on.
The Vostok was automatic, so while piloting skills weren’t necessary, parachuting skills definitely were. Since Kamanin had actually co-founded the DOSAAF, he looked there for candidates, and Tereshkova was among the many called up to Moscow. After several trials, she wound up in the top five; notably, she was the only one of the finalists who had no higher education. The final choice for who would fly came down to Nikita Khrushchev himself. He chose Tereshkova because she “embodied the qualities expected of the New Soviet Woman. She was a reliable communist, a factory worker from a humble background, and a ‘good’ girl.’”
Tereshkova’s space flight was publicity stunt, and she wasn’t a trained pilot or scientist. However, she had more to do with the success of her flight than anyone knew at the time. And even outside of that flight, Tereshkova was a fascinating woman who wanted better than what the circumstances of her early life left her -that’s why she learned parachuting, which led to her stint as a cosmonaut. After her historic flight, she earned an engineering degree, fought for the female cosmonaut program, and entered politics. Read about the life of Valentina Tereshkova at The Mary Sue.
(Image credit: Alexander Mokletsov / Александр Моклецов)
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.
Saving the forgotten soldiers of World War II.
Nearly everybody knows about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. But few folks know about the bombing of Clark Field in the Philippines that happened only hours later. The French resistance is legendary -especially in bad movies. So where are the movies about the heroes of the Philippine resistance? And while Hitler’s concentration camps deserve their worldwide infamy, did you know that Allied troops in Philippine POW camps suffered starvation, torture, and outright murder?
If World War II in the Philippines is neglected in the history books, it was worse while the battles actually raged. Thousands of the USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East) figured they’d become “the forgotten.”
NO MAMA, NO PAPA, NO UNCLE SAM
Within weeks of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Army pushed American and Filipino troops out of Manila. They were forced into the jungles of the Bataan Peninsula and the Island of Corregidor where they were cut off from supplies. Hungry and suffering from tropical disease, the troops were promised by the commanding General Douglas MacArthur that “thousands of planes” with food, medicine, and reinforcements were on their way. But no help had arrived by March when MacArthur was ordered to leave and set up a command in Australia.
MacArthur promised “I shall return.” But the soldiers were cynical about promises. They already had a song that went, in part:
No Mama, no Papa, no Uncle Sam
No aunts, no uncles, no nephews, no nieces
No pills, no planes, no military pieces
And nobody gives a damn.
By April, Allied losses and the lack of supplies in Bataan were so bad that General King, the local commander, ordered the surrender of 70,000 troops (Filipinos and Americans) -the largest American army in history to surrender. Having made plans to accept the surrender of about 25,000 soldiers, the Japanese were overwhelmed with POWs.
THE HIKE
You know when you think about it, animals are what a county or state fair is all about, whether you are showing them, winning them, or eating them. On a stick. This ad just put it all in a nutshell. Found at Bad Newspaper.
In 1988, film students Jack Saltzberg and David Teitelbaum put on tuxedos and went down to the Academy Awards ceremony. They didn't have tickets or press passes, and never expected to actually get in, but the opportunity presented itself and they strolled in like they belonged there, and talked to stars along the red carpet. The footage they shot was later shown on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. More recently, Vice interviewed David Teitelbaum about how the stunt came about, and what happened afterward. They got quite a bit of publicity out of it, which may or may not have helped his career in the industry. -via Metafilter
When a Japanese company wants to sell a product, the normal thing to do is design a robot for it, whether that makes any sense or not. Food manufacturer Kagome wants to sell tomatoes as a healthy refreshing snack. This wearable robot will feed you up to seven regular tomatoes while you run mile after mile, carrying the 17-pound robot. Now wouldn’t it be easier to just carry a bag of tomatoes?
Well, the robot is a one-off publicity stunt, as they won’t be mass-producing them. However, the news about it highlights the food company, which will be handing out tomatoes to runners at the 2015 Tokyo Marathon. This story is priming those runners to think about how good a juicy tomato would taste while they run. Meanwhile, watching this thing work is a hoot! -via Arbroath
The Master Agility Championship is part of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. On Valentine’s Day, Tex the border collie showed them all how it’s done. Watch this dog go- just under 31 seconds with no errors! He beat 329 other dogs to take the prize. At the end, he barks “I’m a good boy! I’m a good boy!” If he goes too fast for you, you can see stills and action pictures from the event at the Westminster Kennel Club. That’s a good dog. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
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