The question originally posed by the Norwegian duo Ylvis gets a backstory. It turns out that the fox had to decide himself what to say! This interpretation is by Tommy and Markus Vad Flaaten, Norwegian animators who go by the name Twintrash. -via Daily of the Day
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Frances Henshaw was a 14-year-old schoolgirl when she drew a series of maps in 1828. There were only 24 states at that time; she reproduced 19 of them. Henshaw preserved her work in a book with information about each state in beautiful handwriting.
Besides these maps, Henshaw’s book also contains carefully transcribed information about astronomy (likewise a socially-sanctioned area of study for young women), American history, and climatic patterns of the world.
While this personal atlas was produced as a school project, Henshaw clearly relished and took pride in her work. An inscription on the title page indicates that she saved the book and gave it to her son in 1872.
Follow the links at Slate to see the entire book and more analysis of the work. Link
(Image source: David Rumsey Map Collection)
The physics of scale has a profound effect on locomotion. The way we move through the world seems so normal, but is very different from what a single-cell organism has to deal with. The title comparison of this TED-Ed presentation comes from the fact that a sperm is a single cell that must move, but cannot do it the same way larger organisms like a whale moves around. Aatish Bhatia gives us the short version, with animation by Brad Purnell. You'll find a more in-depth explanation at Bhatia's website. Link -via Viral Viral Videos
It's the ferret version of a ball pit! Simon and Garfunkel take advantage of a large carton with plenty of stuff to tunnel under. -via Laughing Squid
A British TV station was beginning its local newscast on the night of November 25, 1977. In the broadcast studio, nothing unusual happened. But in homes, the video signal of the regular newscast was accompanied by a strange voice that did not make sense.
"This is the voice of Vrillon, a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command, speaking to you."
It was now ten past five in the evening. With the news report still continuing on the screen, the deep, oscillating voice continued with his message.
"For many years you have seen us as lights in the skies."
None of the evening staff at Southern Television were aware of the intrusion to their signal. International Broadcasting Authority engineers in Croydon, Surrey did not hear the rogue signal, nor was it detected at the main transmitter site in Southampton.
The message from “Vrillon” continued for nearly six minutes as stunned families across South-East England tried to comprehend what they were hearing. Some panicked, believing that aliens really were communicating through the television.
In all the years since that stunt, no one has come forward to take responsibility, and clues point to anyone in particular. But there were a couple of UFO cults gaining followers in the 1970s, and the word Ashtar pops up now and then in their beliefs. Read about the broadcast incident, and the cults it may have referenced, at The Kernel. Link -via Metafilter
Here's a research paper that reveals the mechanism for Wolverine's amazing ability to heal and regenerate after deploying his adamantium claws, or after he is wounded by an enemy. It's because he's part amphibian! Or at least produces an amphibian protein. Here's the abstract:
Wolverine, a mutant from the X-men team, possesses super healing abilities. Wolverine’s healing abilities have striking similarities to that seen in axolotl, an amphibian with the capacity to regenerate amputated limbs. In this study we sought to determine the mechanisms by which Wolverine regenerates. Widentified a novel protein, dubbed Howlett, that is nearly identical to the Amblox protein in axolotl which is known to be responsible for the amphibian’s limb regeneration. siRNA knockdown of the howlett and amblox genes demonstrated decreased replication in Wolverine and axolotl, respectively, and Howlett was found in all Wolverine tissues. Using mass spectrometry and x-ray crystallography, we identified an S2 pocket in the Howlett protein that we postulate contributes to the 5.66-fold increased specific activity observed over Amblox in cleaving a large substrate analogue. Our findings show that Howlett is a major contributor to Wolverine’s incredible regeneration capacity, and further investigation of the signaling and regulatory mechanisms associated with this novel protein could provide outstanding advances in the field of regenerative medicine.
There's six pages of "science" in the paper. Link (pdf) -via Boing Boing
MIT physics professor Edward Pickering was an early advocate of astrophotography and also had a relatively enlightened (for the time) attitude toward women in science. But he was an outlier in both fields.
In 1881, Edward Charles Pickering, director of the Harvard Observatory, had a problem: the volume of data coming into his observatory was exceeding his staff’s ability to analyze it. He also had doubts about his staff’s competence–especially that of his assistant, who Pickering dubbed inefficient at cataloging. So he did what any scientist of the latter 19th century would have done: he fired his male assistant and replaced him with his maid, Williamina Fleming. Fleming proved so adept at computing and copying that she would work at Harvard for 34 years–eventually managing a large staff of assistants.
So began an era in Harvard Observatory history where women—more than 80 during Pickering’s tenure, from 1877 to his death in 1919— worked for the director, computing and cataloging data. Some of these women would produce significant work on their own; some would even earn a certain level of fame among followers of female scientists. But the majority are remembered not individually but collectively, by the moniker Pickering’s Harem.
A slightly more respectable name for those women was the "Harvard Computers." Find out what they did and how they were rewarded at Smithsonian's Past Imperfect blog. Link
(Image source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
The Shironekoshiro cats sit up in their chairs, as if they were human. Sometimes I feel like those cats are made of fur-covered Play-Doh with pipe cleaner armatures you can bend whichever way you want, but here they eventually look for a more comfortable cat position. Bonus: Shiro himself walks by, with his eyes open. I think it's the first time I've seen those eyes open. -via Tastefully Offensive
If you want to go see Westeros, you're out of luck, because it's a fictional place. But the TV series Game of Thrones uses settings from all over, despite its reliance on special effects. Where are those wonderful places? It began in Stirling, Scotland, which is also where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed. There are also filmed settings in Malta, Croatia, Northern Ireland, Iceland, and Morocco. Travel to these fantastical locations is just another perk of working on the HBO series. See all these places at The Luxe Travel. Link -via Daily of the Day
Photographer Greg Anderson attended the National Beard and Mustache Championships in New Orleans to take portraits of the entrants. Those turned out so well, he's going to publish them in a book. Beard Team USA will be seen again at the World Beard and Mustache Championships in Germany. Anderson will also be there, as the official photographer of the event.
Link | Full Gallery -via Metafilter
The A.V. Club posted a list of shows in which the lead protagonist is the least interesting of the main characters. It happens all the time, to all kinds of TV shows. The list includes current shows like The Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire as well as older shows like Barney Miller and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. I would add Seinfeld and Bewitched and Northern Exposure and …well, it's such a standard fact of TV that TV Tropes calls it the Designated Protagonist Syndrome, featuring the Standardized Leader. (Warning: following links from TV Tropes can cause you to lose the rest of the day.)
I first noticed the trend when The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended and spun off TV shows for all its other characters. Those wacky characters we all loved then became the main character, and they lost their quirkiness by having to corral a whole new cast of wacky characters. Happy Days, which is on the A.V. Club's list, revolved around the generic Richie Cunningham for the first half of its run. The more interesting character Fonzie was the real draw, but when Richie left the show, Fonzie lost his juvenile delinquent status and settled down with the Cunningham family. P.E. teacher Roger Phillips was brought in as the Standardized Leader, but few remember him as such.
When a lead character is played safe, it is because the viewer is expected to see the action through his/her eyes, so writers can't afford to take too many risks lest the viewer find they can no longer identify with the character. That is especially true if the show was built around the generic lead and the producers hope to make the series last a long time.
My guess is that the inspiration for this list is the success of Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, two shows that defy the trope in a big way. Breaking Bad very deliberately introduced the main character Walter White as someone the audience could identify with, and then took him into frightening territory to make viewers consider how such a transformation could happen. And the show was always meant to be a story that ends. Game of Thrones is truly an ensemble show. Try to recall who was considered to be the lead character in the series' first season. Both shows prove that the audience can handle having the rug pulled out from under them.
What other shows would you add to the list? Link
The following is an article from the book History's Lists from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
America's great westward expansion took place between 1807 and 1912. It took a lot of people with a lot of gumption to tame the Old West, but those adventuresome types wouldn't have stood a chance without some important enterprises and contraptions.
1. TRADING POSTS
The first explorers of the North American frontier were interested in one thing: making money by hunting the pelts of wild animals. Trading posts gave the fur hunters a market and supplied them with provisions. From the late 1600s to about 1850, posts were built along a vast arc of wilderness from Canada to the northern border of Mexico, mostly on waterways that linked them to the East Coast and the shipping lanes to Europe. Pockets of civilization grew up around the posts, a melting pot of Native Americans, Spaniards, french, Dutch, and English, all bartering with each other.
Significance: Believe it or not, it was fashion. European high style at the time was all about fur -beaver in particular- and North America had a seemingly endless supply.
Story: England's Hudson Bay Company got exclusive trading rights to the watershed of Hudson Bay in Canada in 1670 and constructed the first trading posts on the Western frontier. The posts hired white frontiersmen to trap animals, since the Indians had little interest in doing it. The traders shipped the fur to Europe to rake in huge fortunes. By the late 1700s, rival companies set up trading posts deep in the interior of Canada and points south. By 1808, John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company -with its own frontier posts- dominated the West and made Astor the richest man in America. Many major North American cities began as trading posts, such as Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg, and Montreal.
Demise: The demise of trading posts was due to a shortage of animal furs, caused by overkilling in North America and the introduction of silk as the new stuff of haute couture in Europe.
2. CONESTOGA WAGONS
From the late 1700s to the early 20th century, these famous covered wagons were as common on trails heading west as today's tractor-trailers. The average 21-foot-long, 11-foot-high, 4-foot-wide wagon could carry two tons of cargo. Some freighter wagons with seven-foot-tall wheels were capable of carrying a massive eight tons. Designed like boats, with ends that were higher than the middle, once the wheels were removed the heavily-caulked wagon body could be floated across Western streams. The ride wasn't as smooth on land: pulled by horses, mules or oxen, the Conestoga moved over roads so rough and mountainous that most people preferred to walk alongside. But they kept inside at night for protection against inclement weather and wild animals.
A dalek mis-recreates Schroedinger's famous experiment in its own way, ignoring the fact that it was always a thought experiment. Found at The Daily Dalek from Tone Cartoons. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
The Indian comedy collective India Bakchod produced this black humor PSA to highlight the attitudes of many involved in rape cases.
Every sexual assault case in India inspires a string of stupid and hateful remarks against women. This is our response to those remarks.
The video features Bollywood stars Gursimran Khamba, Rohan Joshi, Tanmay Bhat, and Ashish Shakya. -via Metafilter
Most cats are terrified of vacuum cleaners, although a few enjoy having their fur fluffed by a vacuum hose. Then there's this strange cat. We saw him do this once before, but this video confirms he's enslaved to this magical device. In other words, it's his favorite toy! -via Tastefully Offensive
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