It’s bad enough when you open a door and see a spider. How much worse is it when you open a door at night and a three-foot-long hairy spider rushes at you? Relax, this is a dog in a really nice tarantula costume. Doesn’t make a bit of difference to strangers who are pranked by seeing him emerge in the dark. This prank was pulled off by SA Wardęga. The fact that most of the prankees have their faces blurred tells me they have yet to forgive him. -via BroBible
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If you recall Lord Tennyson’s poem "The Lady of Shalott,” you know that it’s about a woman who is confined to a tower, and if she dares to look out the window, she will die from a curse. She only sees the real world reflected in a mirror, until Sir Lancelot wanders by. Kate Beaton at Hark! A Vagrant reimagines that story in a more realistic way. It’s a little gross, but altogether too funny not to share. Read the whole story here.
This is what happens when you feed the rabbits on Ōkunoshima, also known as Rabbit Island, in Japan. You might get smothered, but there are worse ways to go. The YouTube account mybbbunny has a series of videos about the island. -via Tastefully Offensive
(Image credit: Andrew Rambo, DVM, Gladstone Animal Clinic, Gladstone, Mo.)
The magazine Veterinary Practice News holds an annual x-ray contest, and receives entries illustrating the strange inedible things that pets eat. The latest issue reveals the winners of the 2014 competition and promises more entries soon. The winner was a frog that had eaten 30 rocks from its terrarium (which were removed by surgery). My favorite is the bearded dragon shown above, who was brought in because he wouldn’t eat and then found to have eaten a Barbie doll accessory banana. It won an honorable mention, as did the dog that ate a light bulb below. The Golden retriever passed the lightbulb intact a day later.
(Image credit: Christy McCratic, DVM, Golf Rose Animal Hospital)
In all, the winning pets have eaten a sish kebab skewer, a fishhook, a doll, needles, loose change, a bra, 5 rubber ducks, 41 socks, and a hacky sack. See the rest of the winners and honorable mentions at the magazine website. -via Uproxx
Australian Lachlan Lever was a newborn baby in 2012 when early screening discovered he had moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears. By the time he was seven weeks old, Lachlan was fitted with hearing aids. That’s when his parents, Michelle and Toby Lever, saw him smile for the first time, caught on video. Since then, Lachlan has developed well. He said his first word at 6 months, and he’s now a two-year-old chatterbox. Read more about Lachlan at The Daily Mail. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Most waterfalls occur in a places where the path of a river crosses a vertical drop in ground level. There is one waterfall, possibly the only one in the world, where the drop is parallel to the course of the river: Moconá Falls, on the Uruguay River that runs along the border of Argentina and Brazil. These falls run sideways, but it’s only a “waterfall” about half of the year! How does that happen?
An unusual feature of the Uruguay River is the presence of a submerged canyon or trench at the bottom of the river channel. The canyon, which is believed to have formed during the Ice Age, when the climate was drier and the river was narrower, is up to 100 meters deep and 15 - 30% of the width of the river. The canyon is only visible in two places, one of which is the Moconá Falls.
The falls itself are not visible for 150 days a year when the river is full. During this period, the falls become more like rapids. When water level becomes low and falls below the edge of the canyon, it starts spilling into the now exposed canyon, and the Mocona Falls is formed. Depending on the volume of the water dragged by the Uruguay River, the height of the falls varies from five to seven meters. The width of the waterfall is also subjected to water volume ranging between 1,800 meters and 3,000 meters wide.
Moconá Falls and the provincial park surrounding them are a popular tourist destination. See more pictures, and read about the falls, at Amusing Planet. -via the Presurfer
(Image credit: Flickr user Viajá por tu País)
In 1994, children were treated to a film called The Little Rascals. It was an updated, full-length color feature that used the plots of several of the original Our Gang shorts from the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. Twenty years later, the company 22Vision reunited the cast of child actors to recreate the poster and some of the scenes from the movie. As you can see, they aren’t much different aside from being grown up. Continue reading for more.
Ignoramusky lends the perfect touch to a video clip of the exact moment when the truth dawns on this cat. And it’s apparently quite shocking. -via Buzzfeed
Adolph Luetgert was a tanner and a butcher who lived in Chicago. In 1878, he married Louise Bicknese. Over the next few years, Luetgert opened his own sausage business, which expanded to include a five-story factory with the latest equipment, while his marriage went downhill. It was difficult to get a divorce in those days, and besides, Luetgert now had a lot to lose if he achieved one. May 1, 1897 was the last day anyone saw Louise alive. What happened? The evidence was right there in the sausage factory. Read the grisly story of Luetgert and his missing wife at Atlas Obscura.
I had a terrific fear of dental work up until my mid-thirties, when I found a dentist that uses nitrous oxide as a normal procedure. With the wonderful advances in dentistry since then, my kids don’t mind going to the dentist at all. But I will always carry the memory of enduring those huge painful novocaine injections in my earlier days. Imagine having a rotten tooth before novocaine -or even dental science! Medical historian Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris of The Chiruegeon’s Apprentice explains that dentistry didn’t even exist as a profession for most of history. Doctors, or more likely, barbers, pulled rotten teeth.
It wasn’t until the 18th century that the science of modern dentistry began to take form. During this period, global exploration and trade led to major changes in the Western diet, particularly as sugar became more accessible and no longer a luxury product. Along with increasing lifespans, such dietary shifts led to greater dental problems, and doctors worked to find new ways of treating problematic teeth. But the methods themselves were often excruciatingly painful.
“The tooth key was first mentioned in Alexander Monro’s Medical Essays and Observations in 1742,” says Fitzharris. “The claw was placed over the top of the decaying tooth; the bolster, or the long metal rod, was placed against the root. The key was then turned and, if all went well, the tooth would pop out of the socket. Unfortunately, this didn’t always go according to plan.” In many cases, the patient’s tooth shattered as the device was turned, and each piece had to be individually pulled from their bleeding gums.
Dr. Fitzharris talked to Collectors Weekly about the harrowing history of dentistry, including a close look at George Washington and his dental woes.
Earlier today, we brought you trivia about Charlie Sheen for his birthday. Uproxx has its own tribute for the occasion, in a list of trivia about the 1986 movie Platoon, which starred Sheen along with a slew of other young male stars and future stars. Oliver Stone incubated the film for many years before it was produced, which led to some surreal tidbits like this one.
1. Oliver Stone was hoping that Jim Morrison would appear in the movie. It seems odd that Stone would have any hopes of Morrison appearing in his movie considering that singer died 15 years before the film came out, but at one time it was a real possibility. Oliver Stone told Entertainment Weekly that he had been working on his Vietnam War epic since the late 60s and had gotten a rough draft to Jim Morrison in 1971.
“It was another version of it — a very mythic version. The character dies in Vietnam and goes to the Underworld. A lot of mythology. I couldn’t deal with Vietnam yet in a completely realistic way at that point. And I did send it to Morrison because it had a lot of Doors music in it. And he had it in his apartment in Paris when he died. It was returned to me in 1990 when I made The Doors. Very bizarre.”
No matter how many times you’ve seen the movie Platoon, you’ll learn something new from this list at Uproxx Movies.
If the HBO series Game of Thrones had been on TV fifty years ago, the opening sequence could well have been designed by Saul Bass. Also, there would be no nudity, no profanity, and very little blood. German designer Milan Vuckovic took that idea and ran with it, designing an opening Saul Bass-style sequence with ‘60s style music, and forgetting the rest of the show. Groovy. -via Laughing Squid
After Labor Day, the great exodus commences, in which college students make their way back to school from their various summer residences. In this week’s mental_floss video, John Green takes advantage of so many folks thinking of college to tell us about 40 traditions at different colleges and universities that freshmen must learn. These traditions give the student body a feeling of membership and solidarity that will last many years after graduation.
Funny or Die brings us a parody movie trailer about a dystopian world where junk foods is king, but one girl stands out because she prefers apples. It stars Chloe Grace Moretz, Tyler Posey, and First Lady Michelle Obama.
Lizzy Whimsy adds wonderful captions to historical art to make them more relatable. And funnier! Redditor jerip123 collected the images of George Washington together to make a narrative album of the Father of Our Country acting like an everyday guy. There’s also a running gag about his wife Martha, who wants more children. You can see 33 of these panels at imgur and more of George's adventures at Rally 'Round the History. -via reddit
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