A couple of days ago, we saw a video in which parents explained the facts of life to their children. This is different, because it’s in musical form! Above Average brings us the musical group Summer and Eve to sing about the birds and the bees when two young people appear to be confused about the whole thing. It’s a catchy song. -Thanks, Carl!
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Cesar Zamora took his adorable corgi Pancake to Disneyland for a day of fun and photography. It wasn’t Pancake’s first trip to the the Happiest Place on Earth, but it was a memorable one, as she posed with Alladin, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Merida, Stitch, Peter Pan, Ariel, Donald Duck, and Cinderella. But the real highlight was meeting the Disney dogs Pluto and Dug. You can see the entire photo shoot at Zamora’s blog. -via The Daily Dot
(Images credit: Roxie Cohen)
There are very few subjects that will get people’s blood boiling on internet forums faster than tipping. The system is so weird that there are plenty of winners and losers, and the only way to avoid dealing with it is to never eat out. And the rest of the world just scratches their heads, wondering why we put up with a system that doesn’t pay servers at least the federal minimum wage. In this Adam Ruins Everything video from College Humor, we find out how our current tipping system got started and how it just plain sucks for most of the people involved. Contains NSFW language.
Psychologist Arthur Aron set up an experiment in which two strangers, a man and a woman, met at the laboratory. They were instructed to discuss the answers to a set of 36 increasingly intimate questions, and then stare into each others eyes for four minutes. What happened? Six months later, they were married, and even invited the psychology lab staff to the wedding.
That was twenty years ago. Mandy Len Catron found herself discussing Dr. Aron’s experiment with an acquaintance at a bar. They decided to recreate that scenario, right then and there, over beers. Catron wrote about the experience at the New York Times, and you can try to guess the outcome. -via Digg
(Image credit: Brian Rea)
A media group in Italy recruited a few young boys for a video project, but the real purpose of the video was not explained to them beforehand. Watch as they take direction up to a point. When the director asks them to slap a girl, all bets are off. The result is a thought-provoking PSA about domestic violence. -via Brother Bill
This nature film follows the epic journey of a flock of the species Teeshirticus domesticus as they make their annual migration back to their natural habitat to nest. All it's missing is the soothing voice of Sir David Attenborough. Well, actually it’s an IKEA ad called The Joy of Storage, but I think my title is funnier. Your mileage may vary. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Artist Andrew Rae created this poster for SYZYGY illustrating twenty things that happened on the internet in 2014. How many can you recognize? Continue reading to see a larger version, all the details, and how you can win a poster!
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.
Start with nine very determined knights and a couple of sacred oaths. Add a jealous and vindictive king, a puppet pope, a mysterious wagon train, and a medieval “celebrity roast,” and you get the amazing -and sometimes bizarre- story of the warrior-monks known as the Knights Templar.
At the end of the First Crusade (1095-1099), the Christian armies of Europe had succeeded in wresting control of the Holy Land and the holy city of Jerusalem from the Muslims. But very soon afterward, the Muslims started winning battles and regaining some of their lands, which made traveling to the Holy Land from Europe a perilous undertaking for pilgrims and non pilgrims alike.
In 1118, nine knights, concerned for the welfare of the Christian pilgrims, bound themselves together in the creation of a knightly order of warrior-monks called the Knights Templar. The order’s full name -the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon- was a reference to the Temple of King Solomon in Jerusalem, where the Templars were stationed when they took their vows. They vowed to consecrate their swords and their very lives to the defense of the Christian faith, and to live humbly and simply according to the monkish dictates of poverty, chastity, and humility.
THE PRICE OF ADMISSION
Candidates seeking to join the Knights Templar had to prove that they came from noble families or that their father was a knight. Potential Templars also had to be at a least 21, unmarried, and free of all obligations, including debt. Eventually, the competition for admission was so great that the candidates had to pay a very high fee to get in, making it increasingly difficult for anyone but the well-heeled (mostly noblemen) to apply. In addition to fully-armed knights, there were originally three other categories of Templars: the sergeants, who formed the light cavalry; the farmers, entrusted with the administration of the Knights Templar’s affairs; and the chaplains, charged with ministering to the spiritual needs of the order. Another one of their vows was to swear complete and utter obedience to their boss, the grand master (who answered only to the pope).
MONKS WITH MUSCLE
The Templar knights were the shock troops of the Crusader forces. They rarely wielded the largest force in any particular battle. But the effectiveness of medieval armies was often determined not by numerical superiority, but by training and equipment. Weight of armor, rigor of discipline, and sophistication of battle tactics (all of which the Templars had on their side, and their opponents, for the most part, didn’t) proved to be as decisive as firepower would be later.
When the Templars went into battle -a mere dozen fully armed knights, charging on heavy horses- they would function like 20th-century tanks, easily scattering a force of 200 or 300 Saracens (the Crusaders’ name for Muslim soldiers). A massed charge of 100 mounted knights could crush 3,000 adversaries.
NO RETREAT, NO NOTHING
When taken prisoner, the Templars (if they were lucky) were told they might be allowed to live -on the condition that they renounce their faith. At the siege of Safed, in Palestine in 1264, ninety Templars met their death in battle; 80 others were taken prisoner and told their lives would be spared if they denied Christ. They refused and were executed. This fidelity to their faith, although very admirable, cost the Templars dearly. Overall, it’s been estimated that in less than two centuries, almost 20,000 Templars -knights and sergeants- perished in war. This death toll could also be attributed to one of their most solemn vows: when in battle, no matter what the odds, they swore not to retreat.
AND THEY WERE WELL MANORED TOO
Remember those other vows the Templars swore? To live like monks and obey the vows of poverty and humility? Apparently, someone needed to remind them.
For years, Neatorama followed the story of Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island tortoise in the world. George died in 2012 at the age of 100-and-something, after quite a few unsuccessful attempts to breed him with other subspecies of Galapagos tortoises. He was recently stuffed. Here's a little song about Lonesome George from NPR's Skunk Bear. It seems to be a fitting tribute. I’d like to think that Lonesome George is cavorting with lovely female Pinta Island tortoises on that big island in the sky. -via Metafilter
You can explore a city all day and night, but if you don’t go underground, there’s still more than meets the eye. Every large city has underground infrastructure, for transportation, communication, utilities, etc, but some have even more. Find out what underground secrets metropolitan areas are hiding, like the gloriously-decorated water reservoir below Istanbul, the network of nuclear shelters underneath Beijing, or the mine shafts beneath Odessa.
The Odessa Catacombs started out as a system of natural caves, which were then expanded rapidly due to mining operations in the 17th and 18th centuries. Smugglers too, were known to frequent this subterranean realm so close to the Black Sea coast.
When the Nazis invaded Odessa in 1941, the Red Army retreated north towards Russia; but as many as 6,000 Soviet partisans remained, hiding out in the tunnels beneath the city. From here they would launch surprise attacks on the occupying forces, destroying factories, stores and convoys before disappearing back into the labyrinth… and many would remain down there, right up until the Soviets returned to liberate Odessa in 1944.
Beijing Underground City was open to the public for a few years, but since it’s off-limits now, you can see it only in pictures. Those you will find, along with the stories of nine other cities and their subterranean secrets, at Urban Ghosts.
(Image credit: The Bohemian Blog)
We showed you Hong King’s Museum of Visual Culture’s exhibit of neon signs, but America has its own Neon Museum. It’s only fitting that the museum of this particularly American art form is in Las Vegas, where neon still lights up the night. Iconic signs are donated when the owners find they cost more to repair than to replace, or when a business folds and finds no buyer for the sign. Sometimes they are restored to their former glory for all to enjoy. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Tillie Klimek spent a large part of her life cooking. The problem with that was that if she was mad at someone or if she was the beneficiary of life insurance, the recipe often included arsenic. By the time Klimek was arrested in 1922, she had three dead husbands and one in the hospital for arsenic poisoning, two dead children, one dead grandchild, a dead lover, and numerous dead cousins -all for whom she’d cooked meals. Her cousin Nellie Koulik, also a widow, was arrested for providing arsenic.
Since Chicago was so thoroughly out of control in the '20s, it's not surprising that Tillie's trial turned into something of a circus. On numerous occasions, the judge was forced to yell, "This is not a theater!" But the audience would have disagreed with him. Gossipy neighbors, three gravediggers, and a "lady undertaker" testified against Tillie, and just like Hamlet's gravediggers, they were hilarious. One gravedigger kept the audience in stitches by telling a scandalous story about Tillie's lover John, the one who would come over after Frank left for work. "Once I seen him kiss her," said the gravedigger, and when McLaughlin asked what happened next, the gravedigger replied, "Why then, Tillie put up some newspapers in front of the window, so I couldn't see in." Everybody cracked up at this part—even Tillie.
Tillie Klimek was far from the only woman in Chicago in the 1920s to go to trial for murder, but her case differed from the others in that she wasn’t pretty, didn’t flirt with the court and newspaper reporters, and she didn’t beat the rap, like so many others did. Read the whole sordid story of the perennial widow and her sensational trial at Jezebel. -via Digg
Sometimes the overwhelming urge to pet a cat will trump common sense. This cat obviously does not want to be petted, but the guy is so determined that he puts an oven mitt on his hand. The cat is having none of it. The man should’ve stopped while he was ahead, but no, he had to go and invade the cat’s sense of space and dignity. The cat chases him completely out of the house! I thought, well, he won’t be back for a while. But that wasn’t enough for the cat: stay until the end of the video for even more feline payback. -via Viral Viral Videos
DeviantART member DrFaustusAU has given us many pop icons drawn in the style of Dr. Seuss, like Cthulhu, Batman, and horror movie characters. Now we get thirteen Doctors from the Doctor Who universe drawn in the style of the other doctor, Dr. Suess! That’s the twelve that are numbered plus the War Doctor. Keep going for a better look at each individual Doctor.
It took 450 hours of work, but redditor manne0708 finished a jigsaw puzzle with 33,600 pieces. She says it was accomplished over two and a half months, despite the interference of two dogs and a cat. There were a few pieces retrieved from the vacuum cleaner bag. She is considering donating it to a children’s hospital after it is sealed.
The puzzle is called Wildlife, and it will cost you nearly $400. It’s not a world record puzzle, but it is the largest mass-produced puzzle on the market.
Email This Post to a Friend