In the 1960s and '70s, the BBC lost 106 episodes of the TV series Doctor Who in an effort to clean house and make space. These episodes were from the earliest part of the series, in which actor William Hartnell played the first Doctor, and Patrick Troughton played the second. It was thought that the film was destroyed and the episodes were permanently lost.
But now those films have been found -in Ethiopia! The original tapes had been sold to the the Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency after being aired just once. Now the BBC is negotiating the return of those episodes, and hopes they may be back in the UK in time for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary celebration.
In the 1960s and 1970s, there was no market for home video. In fact, the concept did not exist. Even more, few TV programmers could envision a time in which decades-old TV shows would be used to fill hundreds of round-the-clock TV channels. But to legions of Doctor Who fans, the return of the missing episodes is an exciting chapter in the history of the science fiction series. Here's a list of the missing episodes.
There's no word yet on how soon they will be available for illegal download. -via Digg
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
The Chemex Coffeemaker is trendy, but it's not new. Dr. Peter Schlumbohm developed it more than 70 years ago! Schlumbohm patented more than 300 devices during his lifetime, making appliances that were simple, functional, and beautiful.
Schlumbohm developed his products by stripping appliances down to their essentials and making them work better. In the vein of modern inventors like James Dyson, Schlumbohm didn’t overload his creations with a jumble of new features—he reshaped the industries he entered through the sheer force of innovative elegance. Maybe that’s why the Chemex still feels so fresh; in a world of overly complex and smirking technology, the Chemex remains a quiet anomaly.
Read more about Schlumbohm and his philosophy of design at Collectors Weekly.
Comic Book Girl 19 (along with Tyson and CBG19) made an entire Robocop costume out of cardboard, but you'd never know it because of the boss color job, created with a printer. She won Best in Show at Dragon Con! Bonus: we also get a glimpse of the other contestants, too. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Have you ever seen a cat do a delayed reaction? Shorty says, "Wait a minute. Was that a balloon?" and adjusts her behavior accordingly. Her perfect timing is not innate; Shorty overcame an awkward childhood on her way to stardom. See more of Shorty and little buddy Kodi at their Facebook page. -via Tastefully Offensive
Vancouver musician Michelle Kwan plays the ghuzeng, or Chinese zither. She spent years playing classical music, but is now getting noticed for using the instrument for pop music. At the YouTube page, she is taking requests! -via Daily Picks and Flicks
You've heard it said that real courage is when you're scared but go ahead and do what you have to do anyway. But why would someone who's afraid of spiders became a bug scientist? Retired spider researcher Richard Vetter took a survey of entomologists and found 41 who are afraid of spiders.
They gave several reasons for their arachnophobia. Some think they have too many legs, even though they have no problem with centipedes. Others are leery of spider bites, although they happily work with bees that sting. Luckily, these scientists focus their research on arthropods they are more comfortable with. Read some of the experiences that turned entomologists off spiders at Inkfish, which could possible be disturbing, but will more likely make you laugh. -via Not Exactly Rocket Science
Shannon Hammer made a little top hat and handlebar mustache -for her snakes! First we see Sir Snowball, then Sir Sledge, both showing off their accoutrements. How did she get the hat and mustache to stay on? Peanut butter! -via Tastefully Offensive
Today's featured costume is from Aaron Rosen. It's a whole family affair!
3 years ago my wife and I decided we didn't want to have to hear our kids complaining about walking, so I came up with an idea. I created a hospital bed that my oldest son would sit in, and his little brother would jump out of his chest like an alien. We didn't put too much into making him an alien, but everyone got a big kick out of the whole costume. It even had a trap door on the front to put candy in.
Clever and cool! Thanks, Aaron!
The New York Times calls Twitter bios "a postmodern art form." What? I never paid much attention to the little blurbs on anyone's Twitter profile, because I rarely go to a profile, and I sorta know the folks there already. I did not know there was a Twitter bio style that has evolved.
The standard bio is a staccato string of statuses and interests separated by commas or periods. Frequently, one’s parental status is tossed in, particularly by men who seem to want public credit for fatherhood (“Proud papa to three adorable kids who destroy everything in sight”).
Then there are the addenda, the hobbies and passions and random facts. As Alex Blagg, a writer, noted in a blog post, these are often punctuated by self-aggrandizing words like “addict” or “junkie” (as in “coffee addict” or “CrossFit junkie”); “enthusiast,” “aficionado” or “geek” (“Breaking Bad aficionado”); the glamorous suffix “-ista” (“accountantista”); or the “super-heroic” tag of “guy” or “girl” (“war reporter guy,” “hedge fund girl”).
The article goes on to describe quite a few celebrities' bios and how well they fit in with the trends. Maybe I should start paying attention to those. Mine could probably be more trendy. What was I thinking, using a complete sentence? That's totally against the Twitter culture.
Alex doesn't tweet much outside of the Neatorama account, so I had to search. Did you know there are hundreds of Alex Santosos on Twitter? I don't recognize any of them. But I ran across my daughters, who are well aware of the modern conventions of Twitter bios. -via Boing Boing
This is Domino, an Italian greyhound. He looks to have his accelerator stuck while not in forward gear! He's just excited about his dinner being prepared. It must be some high-octane food to keep him at this level of excitement!
Now, it they wanted to name him after a toy, they should have gone with Superball instead of Domino, don't you think? -via Arbroath
Randall Munroe of xkcd is as exasperated as we are about infographics. Why make an image when it's so much more user-friendly to put your information in text with links? You can always add nice pictures and graphs. -via Laughing Squid
Mindy's little girl wanted to be a house. Not House, M.D. but a real house!
My daughter wanted to be a house (like the kid who wanted to be a table). So we made her Alice in Wonderland stuck in a house. It was a coffee maker box we painted. She was three years old then. I can't find any pictures on her own, but this one with her brothers as link and last second robot.
Mindy is the kind of mom who can make anything happen, no matter how implausible. Thanks for giving us our featured costume!
Today's featured costume was handmade by Neatoramanaut Mindy for her son.
This is a costume I made for my son a few years ago. He has a fixation with squids and has since he was a toddler. He begged and begged for a costume and finally I decided to put my craftiness to work. He was so happy with the result, even though he had trouble walking and his head kept leaning to one side.
That costume would make anyone happy!
Imagine that you're living on the ISS when the government furloughs 97% of NASA employees because of a shutdown. Furloughed employees are not allowed to answer their official email or official work phone numbers. Maybe this guy should call the Russians! Even without the shutdown, the Russians are his only means of coming home. -via Buzzfeed
Andrew Anderson worked at a Goodwill store in East Naples, Florida, until he was arrested for grand theft. Anderson had been giving discounts to the poorest people who came into the store. The 19-year-old explained that he was trying to help those in need, inspired by the Goodwill, "a helping and giving company."
Anderson says he never knew giving discounts was wrong or even illegal.
"The intent I had was to help people, just like Goodwill says, we help people," Anderson said.
Andrew says out of the two weeks he gave discounts, not once did he put a dollar in his own pocket and he even offered to pay back the money that Goodwill estimates he gave away.
Store officials say none of that matters.
"Our stores are not around to give a hand out, they're around to give people a hand up by providing funding, said Kirstin O'Donnell, a spokesperson for Goodwill Retail and Donation Center in East Naples.
The store officials have a point. Several, in fact.
* Anderson was not authorized to change prices on merchandise.
* Goodwill's mission is employment programs, which are funded by the stores.
* Let one employee get away with this, and others may follow.
But there are other points to consider.
* Goodwill's merchandise comes to them free.
* Arresting a naive teenager is overkill. They could have just fired him.
* It's also bad for public relations.
The store manager estimated that Anderson gave away $4,000 in discounts in two weeks. Either that store is exceptionally busy, or the prices are very high. Would they have moved that much merchandise if it weren't discounted?
Four days later, Goodwill dropped the charges against Anderson. -via The Week
(Image credit: Flickr user Daniel Oines)