There are 106 baby boys born for every 100 baby girls. The folks from MinuteEarth tell us why, as far as we know, in this video. However, the sex imbalance is more severe than birth statistics indicate, and varies over time and place. They offer reasons for that, too. -via Geeks Are Sexy
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As we prepare for a particularly American holiday centered around the custom of eating ourselves into a coma, we might want to learn more about what’s going on in our bodies. Why do we feel so full after Thanksgiving dinner? Because we ate too much. But that’s just the beginning. Watch this video from the American Chemical Society now, so you’ll have time to forget the unpleasantness of the situation before the turkey hits the table. And remember, when you can’t eat any more, there’s always leftovers for tomorrow! -Thanks, Elaine Seward!
Research into how dogs think is yielding some amazing results, although a lot of it just confirms what we already thought from behavior observation, but did not know for sure. What’s amazing is how its done. Imagine putting a dog in an MRI machine.
The most direct brain-based evidence that dogs are hopelessly devoted to humans comes from a recent neuroimaging study about odor processing in the dog brain. Animal cognition scientists at Emory University trained dogs to lie still in an MRI machine and used fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to measure their neural responses to the smell of people and dogs, both familiar and unknown. Because dogs navigate the world through their noses, the way they process smell offers a lot of potential insight into social behavior.
The scientists found that dog owners' aroma actually sparked activation in the "reward center" of their brains, called the caudate nucleus. Of all the wafting smells to take in, dogs actually prioritized the hint of humans over anything or anyone else.
Other studies show that dogs process information a lot like people do -and quite differently from what we know of cats and other animals. Read more about canine brain research at at Brain Mic, and do not miss the picture of the good dog waiting for his MRI. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Borbala Ferenczy)
A building in London wasn’t even finished when it started melting cars around it. The culprit was solar convergence, which happens when too many glass windows reflect solar heat onto the same spot. Fix the spot? That’s not feasible, since the angle of the sun changes both daily and yearly. Fix the building? That’s an expensive proposition.
Surely the building's designer was mortified by the results of his creation, right? Well, no. When architect Rafael Viñoly was questioned about his flawed design, he heartily deflected, blaming consultants, global warming, cost-cutting developers, and the sun's elevation. This was an especially galling disavowal of responsibility because the science of solar reflectivity analysis has been gaining traction for several years. There are many tools, firms, and even apps available to architects and developers to help avoid just this problem. Especially damning for Viñoly is that the "death ray" issue was not actually unprecedented. And the last time a high-profile building had had problems of this nature, it was also one he'd designed.
Solar convergence from modern architecture is not a new problem. The phenomenon is so well-known that there’s even a generator on the French-Spanish border that harnesses its power. Read about how solar convergence problems happen again and again at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Flickr user Luc Mercelis)
We know quite a bit about the anglerfish because it’s so weird that bloggers love to talk about it. But it’s rare to catch footage of one in its natural habitat because they live deep down where there is little sunlight. An ROV from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) recorded this anglerfish at a depth of 600 meters in Monterrey Canyon. Although scientists at MBARI have recorded anglerfish before, they believe this is first time the species Melanocetus, or the Black Seadevil, has been filmed. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Which dog will eat a plate of spaghetti noodles faster: a golden retriever or a German shepherd? Recall the last competition between these breeds of dogs, in which both considered themselves winners for different reasons. Then you can probably guess which dog will win this one, but you may be surprised at the margin of victory. Unless you own that breed, of course. -via Viral Viral Videos
Tell your Thanksgiving dinner guests you are thinking of serving Veg-All Pie Plate Salad, and you’ll either trim down your guest list or get someone to volunteer to bring a salad -or pie. It’s made of lemon gelatin and a can of Veg-All chopped vegetables, molded in a pie plate and cut in wedges, like a pie. Yum! Pie Plate Salad one of the many recipes that the makers of convenience foods like Miracle Whip, Jell-O, and Campbell’s Soup filled women’s magazines with in the ‘50s and ‘60s. There are a few recipes that survive from those dark days, but Pie Plate Salad is not one of them, for obvious reasons. This is from a list of 21 Truly Upsetting Vintage Food Advertisements at Buzzfeed.
(Image source: Flickr user Jamie)
The following is an article from Uncle John's Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader.
Historical fact: The Pilgrims never called themselves “Pilgrims.” In fact, they weren’t known by that name until the 1840s. Here’s the second part of their story that began last week with Why the Pilgrims Came to America.
CRAMPED CONDITIONS
The Pilgrims finally set off from Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620, more than a month behind schedule. Historians can only guess as to the Mayflower’s exact exact size and shape (no pictures of her were ever painted), although most agree that she had two decks and three masts. “Considering the proportions of a number of known merchant vessels of the era,” writes William Baker in Colonial Vessels, “the Mayflower might have had a keel length ranging from 52 tp 73 feet, a breadth of 24 to 27 feet and a depth of 10 to 13 feet.” Other historians say she may have been as a long as 90 feet. Even so, that’s roughly the size of a two story, three bedroom house. And that’s what 102 passengers, 25 crew members, two dogs, many cats, and even more rats squeezed into for 66 days on rough and often stormy seas.
The Mayflower was designed to carry cargo, not people, so there were few cots or hammocks to sleep on. Some of the wealthier families paid the ship’s carpenter to build cots, but most of the passengers slept on hard wooden floors on a constantly rocking boat. Seasickness was common. Because people were heading to a new life in an unknown land, they brought along as many of their possessions and rations as they could pack in… which made the living quarters below decks extremely cramped. A few of the passengers even slept in the shallop, a surveying boat that was stowed on the gun deck.
SMOOTH START
The Mayflower II, a replica of the Pilgrims' ship. (Image credit: OldPine)
The first few weeks of the voyage saw relatively calm weather, and the mood among the Pilgrims was good. It is commonly believed that the Pilgrims were a bunch of staid old men who wore black clothes and black hats with buckles. That’s a myth. In reality, there was only one man over 60; the average age was 32; and there were 30 children on board. The Pilgrims even wore colorful clothes; William Bradford, for example, owned a “green gown, violet cloak, lead colored suit with silver buttons, and a red waistcoat.” And unlike the stricter Puritans, the Pilgrims liked to sing and play games.
ROUGH SEAS AND ROUGHER SAILORS
But after those first couple of weeks, the fun came to a stormy end.
If they made a movie about Black Friday shopping, of course it would be a horror film. By this point, I’m starting to believe that Black Friday sales are a tradition people only participate in to create news stories and viral videos. Why would anyone want to be anywhere near the carnage? My Christmas shopping philosophy has evolved over the years -I never buy any Christmas gift because it’s on sale anymore. I’d personally rather buy something that the receiver needs or wants. That’s completely opposite my philosophy for buying groceries. This movie parody trailer is from Nacho Punch. -via Tastefully Offensive
More than 800 cats were paraded and judged at The Supreme Cat Show in Birmingham, England, yesterday. The event, held for thirty years now, is one of the largest cat competitions in Europe. Exhibitors brought longhairs, shorthairs, Persians, Sphinxes, and more with fancy names like Sugartump Supremo Disaronno, Adzwosh Darling Doris Day, Bleugems Believe-in-me, and Leadpruuf Pruby Doo. The overall winner was a British Lilac Tortie named Premier Pinemarten Tina Sparkle, owned by Penny Hopgood.
Continue reading to see more pictures.
Be careful! A guy in Corbett, Oregon, was going to remove the snow from his driveway. Turns out he didn’t need to worry about snow at all. He needs to worry about the ice! The driveway is on a hill, and from the looks of it, no vehicles should attempt to drive down. Or walk down, for that matter. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
So, did Batman watch Frozen, or did he become familiar with the entire story by osmosis, like I did? I finally saw the movie, or most of it, about a month ago. This comic is from DeviantART member nebezial. And there was a great comment underneath:
Clark? Do you want to save the planet? Come on lets go today. We don't save people anymore, come out the door, and up up and away. We used to be best allies, but now we're not and it's all DC's fault. Do you want to save this planet? It doesn't have to be this planet.
Go away Bruce.
Okay bye.
Go away Bruce.
Okay bye.
-via Geeks Are Sexy
The movie Steel Magnolias turned 25 years old this past week. Where did the time go? Just the mention of the movie reminds me of getting my hair done and crying along with the movie characters as we watched on VHS. The star-studded film was based on a successful play and became one of the biggest hits of 1989. Let’s learn some more about Steel Magnolias.
1. IT’S BASED ON A TRUE STORY.
Writer Robert Harling wrote Steel Magnolias as a way of coping with the passing of his sister, Susan, who died from complications related to diabetes in 1985. In the play, Susan became Shelby.
5. BETTE DAVIS WANTED A PIECE OF STEEL MAGNOLIAS.
Bette Davis saw the play in New York and immediately began a push to be cast in the film as Ouiser (Shirley MacLaine’s part). She also thought that Katharine Hepburn could make a fantastic Clairee and Elizabeth Taylor would be a perfect Truvy. In 1989, Harling told The Morning Call how Davis had invited him to tea to lobby for the part. As he left, Davis told him, “You may give the role of Ouiser to someone else. But you and they will hear from Bette Davis.”
15. THE FILM WAS CRITICIZED FOR THE MALE ROLES’ LACK OF SUBSTANCE.
But the guys are lucky there were any roles for them in the film at all. Though the men are often talked about in the stage play, no men appeared on the stage at any time. In his review of the film for The New York Times, Vincent Canby noted that “The men in their lives are played by Sam Shepard, Tom Skerritt and Dylan McDermott, among others, but the male characters are no more substantial now than when they were invisible.”
Treating male characters as tokens with barely any substance may be a flaw, but women are used like that in movies all the time. Steel Magnolias turned a spotlight on women and showed that a man is just one of many things they care deeply about. Read the rest of 23 Facts About Steel Magnolias at mental_floss.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
Western movies, of course, start and end with John Wayne. Whether it is Rio Bravo (my favorite John Wayne Western), Red River, The Shootist, True Grit, Stagecoach, or any one of the dozens of other Western classics he made in his long and illustrious career, John Wayne remains the Michael Jordan of the Western film.
Films about Wyatt Earp, the most famous Old West lawman, also abound in film history, whether it be Gunfight at the OK Corral, My Darling Clementine or the scores of lesser cinematic tributes, Earp remains "the" Old West icon of icons. With all this said, in my own humble opinion, 1993's masterpiece Tombstone is the finest western ever made.
Filmed on a budget of $25,000,000, Tombstone was the first-ever Wyatt Earp film to deeply research and pay actual attention to the Wyatt Earp period in Tombstone. Ironically, when the film was released, a few critics panned the film's straying from the truth and indulging in "revisionism.” This statement couldn't be further from the truth.
Tombstone has unparalleled accuracy in detail not only with dialogue, but mustaches, clothes, guns (including long-barreled and nickel-plated weapons), and, especially, hats (which had a clearly southwestern flavor, particularly in the cavalier-style sombreros worn by Wyatt and Doc Holliday.) It is also the first and only Wyatt Earp film to be shot in the country where the actual events took place, the first movie to use young, vigorous actors as the principals, and the first to make the town of Tombstone itself look exciting.
In this clip from the BBC One series Life Story, Sir David Attenborough narrates a hermit crab housing chain. If you’ve ever had pet hermit crabs, you know they are always on the lookout for the perfect shell, one slightly larger than the one they have because they are growing. But a shell that is too big will be hard to carry around. In the wild, they’ve worked out their own system for exchanging shells of the proper size. Everybody wins! I love how each of them "claimed" the shell they really wanted, as if they had been watching it for some time. After seeing this, I have to wonder if they leave the smallest shells strategically placed near crab eggs for newly-hatched hermits. -via b3ta
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