(YouTube link)

Now that the trailer for the movie Jurassic World is out, let’s all find problems with the dinosaurs in it. It happened with the first Jurassic Park movies, I think there were three of them. Movies, that is, not problems. Since the first Jurassic Park movie came out, we found out that dinosaurs often had feathers and probably quite a bit of color. And scientists have already weighed in with their criticisms of Jurassic World.

But see, the filmmakers expected this, and did an end-run around such quibbles by giving us a “hybrid,” genetically-modified, improved dinosaur. That could be anything, not necessarily tied to any real dinosaurs that ever lived.  

In today’s xkcd comic, Randall Munroe references Jurassic World and its “improved” dinosaur, which looks strangely like the T.rex from Dinosaur Comics. Hey, it could be worse.

(YouTube link)

It’s the ultimate showdown of badass fictional characters in black! Never mind the odd crossover of the Disney and DC universes -at least there’s no problem with the style of music for these two. Who will win when the Caped Crusader goes against the Sith Lord with light sabers? Enjoy this Super Power Beat Down video from batinthesun. -via Gamma Squad

This sounds like a setup for an “In Mother Russia…” joke, but it happened at the Igarka airport above the Arctic Circle. The flight to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk was in danger of being cancelled because the plane was frozen to the ground! Technicians said that the plane’s landing gear was greased with a lubricant that was not suitable for Arctic temperatures- and at 52 degrees below zero, that’s important. The airport’s tractor didn’t work, either, because its brake pads were frozen. What to do? The 70 or so passengers waiting for the flight were mostly oil field workers who wanted to go home, so they did what they had to do: they pushed the plane.  

(YouTube link)

Ivan Ivanov caught this footage of the procedure. They managed to free the plane from the frozen tarmac, and the flight to Krasnoyarsk was completed without further problems. Read the story and see more pictures at The Siberian Times. -via Digg

(YouTube link)

When did people start losing their minds over Christmas shopping? Maybe it was a gradual process. Thirty years ago, shopping centers promoted Black Friday as a good day to get your Christmas shopping done, and a lot of folks listened. Here are a couple of news reports from WLOX, on Thanksgiving Day and then on Black Friday in 1983. The money quote: “It  gets a little crowded.” People were happily enduring the crowds, and indeed, at least one shopper just wanted to join the crowds for holiday cheer.

Compare that with what we’ve seen in the past few years, as shopping has become a competition to see who can score one of those “limited supply” electronic gadgets at half price. Here’s a supercut uploaded last year.

(YouTube link)

The money saved on items we really don’t need does not justify the time, hassle, and danger of injury to oneself or others involved in the modern version of Black Friday. There’s still a month left to shop, smaller stores to visit, online sales that involve no hassle at all, and one’s sanity to consider. -via Uproxx

ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, and the machine that bore the name is often considered the first true electronic computer, although that depends on how one defines “computer.” It weighed 27 tons, contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, and consisted of 40 huge interconnected metal panels. When ENIAC was deemed obsolete in 1955, it was dismantled, separated, and parts went to various locations, where the machine’s historical value was sometimes considered, sometimes not. Then in 2006, Ross Perot wanted a piece of computer history for his Plano, Texas, headquarters. Libby Craft was in charge of the project, for which her team decided to track down what was left of ENIAC. It was not an easy task.  

Craft was on the verge of ending her search when an Army functionary dug up documents indicating that some panels had once been shipped from the Aberdeen (MD) Proving Ground to Oklahoma’s Fort Sill, home to the Army’s field artillery museum. When Craft contacted Fort Sill to inquire, the museum’s curator was stunned to discover that he did, indeed, possess the world’s largest trove of ENIAC hardware—nine panels in total, all stored in anonymous wooden crates that hadn’t been pried open in years. Fort Sill officials are unclear as to how they ended up with nearly a quarter of ENIAC, pieces of which also came to Oklahoma from the Anniston (AL) Army Depot.
An ENIAC technician changes a tube.

Craft struck a deal to borrow eight of Fort Sill’s panels in exchange for a promise to restore the hardware to some semblance of its former glory.

Read the story of just how they did that, and what happened to the remains of ENIAC (hint: you can go see it) at Wired. -via Digg

(Funny or Die Link)

Canadian filmmaker Seth Rogan grew up in a family that didn't observe Thanksgiving. They managed to explain that away to him in a manner that he didn't question -but sooner or later, children will find out the truth.

(YouTube link)

Munchkin is an adorable Shih Tzu puppy who dresses like a teddy bear. He was a hit at Halloween with his costume, but watch him walk on a treadmill! It honestly looks like we’re being chased by an Ewok. This is one of those videos you keep around for a pick-me-up when you're stressed out. It bet it would work like a charm! -via Laughing Squid

Sometimes you think you know what’s going on when you really have no clue. People with children can babysit as well as anyone, even if you define that as caring for a baby that’s not yours. When I’m watching my grandkids, is that “babysitting” or “grandparenting”? And does it really matter? This comic is from Chris at Lunarbaboon.

I just bought celery and olives yesterday. I always buy them for Thanksgiving, but rarely any other time of the year. Olives are a special treat, and the adults in my family love them. I use celery in my cornbread dressing, and the rest of the stalk is served alone or stuffed. However, I did not know that the two were traditional on everyone’s Thanksgiving tables for almost a century, and then faded out in the 1970s. It all started when fresh produce began to be transported across the country to be enjoyed whatever the season.

The pairing of the two was both a result of the fact that they were introduced and made readily available around the same time and they served a similar purpose: both celery and olives were palate cleansers, and ones that didn’t require a servant.

“People were looking for a palate cleanser in between Thanksgiving’s richer courses,” explained [Rick] Rodgers. “At a family meal where you don’t have servants, the tray of celery and olives could be put on the table and you didn’t need a servant to serve a sorbet course.”

Advertising played a big part, too. Celery and olives eventually became “traditional” at Thanksgiving. But what happened in the 1970s to change that? Read the entire story of celery and olives on the Thanksgiving menu at boston.com.

Inexperienced babysitters really do need a little supervision the first time they interact with infants. That holds true even if you're a monkey. In this clip from the BBC One series Life Story, a juvenile langur monkey tries out her parenting skills for the first time -with less-than-stellar results. It's a good thing mama monkey wasn't too far away! Maybe she'll do better next time, but you can be sure that mama monkey will stay close by to make sure there are no shenanigans. -Thanks, Caragh Salisbury!

For decades, visitors to Los Angeles have tried their best to go see the famous Hollywood sign up close. It’s not easy to get to, involves quite a bit of walking, and the view isn’t great when you get there. But they keep coming, and the people who live there keep trying to stop them.

By 2011 the anti-tourist rhetoric reached a fever pitch, with homeowners mounting a vicious campaign threatening visitors, who, unsurprisingly, just kept coming. Some neighbors painted their curbs red (illegally) to discourage parking and tacked up more signs (illegally) warning against trespassing. In a vacant lot, someone took the time to build a full-on piece of land art that seemed to echo the large white letters in the distance: TOURISTS GO AWAY.

And now, although the location is correct on maps, if you request directions to the Hollywood sign from Google Maps (or several other services), you get directions to one of two “observation points” that are not near the sign. You can’t really blame the neighbors for being tired of tourists parking on and blocking their streets constantly, but the idea that a small number of homeowners have the clout to dictate policy to Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing, and the GPS service Garmin is a little unsettling. Get a rundown of how it happened in an article at Gizmodo.  -via Metafilter

(YouTube link)

The Copenhagen musical group The Bottle Boys play us a tune we all know and love, and let us in on one of their secrets to making bottle music look so easy -when we all know it’s not. From the YouTube page:

Sometimes people say, that it’s impossible to play that fast on bottles when they see our videos, because they are looking at just one persons head movements. But if you look closer you will see, that we share all the melodies by two persons. So if Philipp plays one part of the lead melody, Kaspar plays the other half, which combined gives you the complete melodic part that you all recognize:-)

We decided to shoot this video in our own studio, since it’s too cold outside here in Denmark and since we wanted it to have a more cosy look, without too much else going on in the frame. In that way you can really focus on what’s being played. We chose to play Y.M.C.A because it has some fast melodic parts and some really cool secondary melody lines.

-via Tastefully Offensive


See more videos from The Bottle Boys.

(YouTube link)

Welcome to your college dining experience. Food Service Manager Brad Green has a list of rules that will make everything work, and if you follow them, you will also avoid getting punched in the face, or heaven forbid, being beat down by Wanda’s Army. This video is from Kentucky Christian University, but they apply to just about any cafeteria: don’t waste food, don’t be nasty, and don’t make life difficult for the people around you. These are things anyone old enough to go to college should know, but a little reminder doesn't hurt. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

Wildlife photographer Jeff Cremer found something very unusual in the Peruvian rain forest: little glowing green dots. They were larva, and they appeared to have teeth! So far, the species has not been clearly identified, and it may even be a new species. Continue reading to learn more about this mysterious but showy glow worm and its lifestyle, in pictures and video.

There are objects from bygone eras that most of us have never even heard of, yet someone somewhere will be a collector and an expert on them. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were arcade games in which one could shoot actual live ammo from a .22 rifle to test your skill and win prizes. That seems thoroughly daft now, but it happened, and the targets were made of cast iron to withstand the beating they took. Richard and Valerie Tucker, the authors of Step Right Up!: Classic American Arcade and Target Forms, collect these targets, and can tell you some wild stories about those old arcades.

Of the few galleries that have survived, the stories of how they were discovered are similarly intriguing. One shooting gallery in Ohio was revealed during a restaurant remodel. The gallery, which proved to be in full working order, had been boarded up behind a wall. “So now Richard and I are going all over the country trying to tear down walls,” Valerie says.

The Tuckers found one, too, but restoring it and setting it up for public use proved unworkable. “At one time, we found a complete gallery out at Coney Island,” Richard remembers. “It was another one of these stories where the gallery had been boarded up and was behind a wall. We thought we might buy it because we had a friend who ran a country-western honky-tonk in Fort Worth. We were going to put the gallery in his honky-tonk, but those conversations quickly came to an end because nobody wanted to accept the responsibility and potential liability behind it.” Apparently, even in open-carry Texas, the prospect of handing loaded weapons to patrons of a bar was simply too much.

Read more about live ammo arcade galleries and the antiques they left behind, at Collectors Weekly.