Today, August 19, is the first ever World Orangutan Day, set to create awareness and drum up support for the conservation of the endangered ape.
From 1992-2000, the population of the Sumatran orangutan declined by more than 50% and only an estimated 7,000 animals are left in the wild. Its relative, the Bornean orangutan population fell nearly 43 % in the past decade and estimates place their population at about 45,000 animals. Since the last population estimates were done, deforestation rates have continued to climb which means the actual populations could be well below these.
To celebrate the orangutan, you can make a donation, spread the word, and/or upload a picture to the Facebook page to show your support. Link -via Arbroath
Quite a few companies have regretted their decision to promote something-or-other by offering to select a name by internet poll. However, the suggestions for exoplanets shown in the latest xkcd panel are awesome. I Like Neil Tyson's Mustache, Emergency Backup Earth, and Waist-deep Cats the best. Link
A massive government effort to get people back to work and restart the economy, the New Deal had its detractors, then and now. But it remains one of the most popular and effective government programs in American history.
CRASH AND BURN
In October 1929, during the first year of Herbert Hoover's presidency, the U.S. stock market crashed. By 1933, unemployment had climbed from 4% to 25%, plunging the nation into the Great Depression. Hoover, a Republican, took a lot of the blame for it and was beaten by a landslide in his 1932 reelection bid by the Democratic candidate, former New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR promised American a "New Deal" -sweeping government intervention to revive the economy, and new laws to make sure the collapse was never repeated. His legislation was quickly passed through the Democrat-controlled Congress.
Although heavily criticized at the time as socialism or even communism, the New Deal put millions of Americans back to work, provided security for senior citizens, and in the process helped to stabilize the American economy. Most importantly, it gave Americans hope. Here's a look as some of the many agencies created in the New Deal to institute Roosevelt's reforms.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The first relief agency of the New Deal, it provided emergency welfare and aid. More than $3 billion was allocated to states and cities for homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and vaccinations, as well as literacy training and free childcare for job-seeking parents. FERA also provided temporary work for as many as 20 million people- construction and maintenance jobs, such as repairing public buildings, laying sewer pipe, and raking leaves for $15 per week. The agency was terminated in 1935, and its projects were absorbed into other programs.
National Recovery Administration. The aim of the NRA was to stimulate economic recovery by asking businesses to set a 40-cents-per-hour minimum wage and standardizing the work week at 40 hours for white-collar jobs and 36 for blue-collar. More than 23 million people worked under NRA-abiding companies, but violations of the code were common. Also, participation by firms was voluntary, so the agency didn't really have a lot of authority. In 1935 the Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional because the federal government had overstepped state labor laws. Nevertheless, minimum wage and work hour laws were later passed by Congress.
Even the elder gods need refreshment sometimes! CTHUL-AID is an artwork by BeastWreck for sale as a print from Society 6.
It's the Great Old Ones' favorite beverage, guaranteed to be maddeningly refreshing! Cthulhu himself enjoys kicking back after a hard day's work in R'lyeh and pouring himself a tall cold glass of Cthul-Aid, and so should you!
Rob Reiner spoke to a crowd of fans at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences about the experience of filming The Princess Bride. He told of casting and special effects and how a little bit of Spinal Tap ended up on the set. And the time he was approached by one of John Gotti's men.
Reiner: Yeah, I walked outside the restaurant, and John Gotti was there with six wiseguys. There was a guy beside the limo who looked like Luca Brasi. He looked at me, and said: “You killed my father…Prepare to die!” I almost went right then! He said, “I love dat movie, da Princess Bride!”
Read the rest, illustrated with appropriate images and gifs from the movie, at Uproxx. Link
Consider this the Czech equivalent of "The Flying Purple People Eater." The song "Jožin z bažin" (Joey from the Swamp) was written in 1978 by comedian Ivan Mládek. This performance has English subtitles and those groovy fashions of the time. -via Daily of the Day
You probably cannot recall what you did six months ago without looking at your calendar, but anyone who is old enough to remember can recall very clearly what they did on September 11, 2001. I got my driver's license renewed very early that morning, and after listening to the news (and then watching it on TV), I went to work to broadcast more news -in fact my radio station played no music at all for several days afterward.
Rob Walker remembers, too, and recently recovered digital photographs taken in the aftermath of 9/11. He and his wife drove across several states and she took snapshots of signs along the way, to document the mood of the country at that time.
Depending on your age, you will either remember or never really understand what an unusual time September 2001 was in the United States. In the wake of the event that would come to be known simply as 9/11, signals and symbols of patriotism and unity were everywhere. These included a widespread display of flags, unprecedented in my lifetime at least — to the point that cheap miniature flags had sold out practically everywhere.
Similarly, many businesses replaced the usual deal-advertisement messages on their letter-board signs with more emotional sentiments.
Walker noticed how the signs gradually began to include store specials over time, as a sort-of gradual return to business as usual. Link
The Nag at Nag on the Lake posted a link to the pictures along with her personal remembrance of 9/11, which also involved a road trip. Link
How about you? Where were you when you heard about the terrorist attacks of September 11, and how did you spend the rest of that day, or week, or month?
We are most likely to notice the honeybee and the bumblebee, but North America is home to more than 4,000 species of bee. Take a look at some of the other species, which sport some surprising colors! Wired talked to Sam Droege of the U.S. Geological Survey's Bee Inventory and Monitoring program about the amazing variety of bees, with plenty of pictures. Link -via Not Exactly Rocket Science
Just because something is named after a place doesn't mean it came from there.
Outback Steak House, the Australian-themed restaurant, was founded in Tampa, Florida.
Irish Spring Soap is manufactured by Colgate in the United States, and is not sold outside of North America.
Uno's Chicago Grill pizza restaurant chain is Boston-based.
Texas Pete Hot Sauce, a popular brand in the South, is made in North Carolina.
AriZona Iced Tea is headquartered in New York City.
London broil is a method of marinating and preparing flank steak. The dish originated in the American Midwest; it's virtually unknown in London.
Old Milwaukee beer is brewed in Detroit.
Lone Star Steakhouse is the name of a restaurant chain that was founded in North Carolina. In Texas, the Lone Star State, there are no Lone Star Steakhouses.
Hawaiian Punch is made with Hawaiian fruits, including papaya and pineapple, but it invented in Fullerton, California.
Vienna Beef is a popular brand of hot dogs and deli meats manufactured by a Chicago-based company.
Arizona Jeans clothing is produced by and sold at J.C. Penney stores, based in Plano, Texas.
Budweiser beer is named after the town of Busweis in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), but it originated in Missouri.
Vermont Castings manufactures wood-burning stoves and grills. The company's home offices are in Kentucky; all of its products are made in China.
New York Brand Texas Toast is produced in Ohio.
This list was reprinted with permission from the Bathroom Institute's book Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute has published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.
Although they might look like it, none of the words or expression listed below is in any way dirty, and to prove it we're giving you the correct definitions. But use them at your own risk.
Bed Load: Solid particles, like the pebbles in a stream, that are carried along by flowing water.
Titbits: The British spelling for the word "tidbits." Tit-Bits was the name of of a British weekly magazine published from 1881 to 1984.
Loose Smutt: A fungus that attacks wheat crops.
Oxpecker: A small bird native to sub-Saharan Africa. Also known as tick birds, they eat parasites that infest the hides of livestock.
Dick Test: If your doctor suspects you have scarlet fever, you may be given this diagnostic test invented by Dr. George Dick and his wife Gladys in 1924.
Vaginicola: A singled-celled organism found in pond water.
Crack Spread: The difference in value between unrefined crude oil and the products that can be made by refining, or "cracking" the oil.
F-holes: The f-shaped sound holes cut into the front of violins, cellos, and other stringed instruments.
Rump Party: In British politics, when one faction of a political party breaks away to merge with or form a new party, the faction left behind is known as the "rump party."
Urinator: A person who dives underwater in search of pearls, sunken treasure, or other riches.
Spermophile: A genus, or grouping of more than 20 species of ground squirrel.
Crap Mats: The name of a mountain in the Swiss Alps.
Fucoid: An adjective that means "having to do with seaweed."
Fucose: A type of sugar found in human breast milk and in seaweed.
Titubate: To stumble, either in step or in speech.
Dickcissel: A species of finch native to the U.S.
The article above was reprinted with permission from the Bathroom Institute's book Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute has published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.
Your garbage collector knows more about you than any government spy. The city crew knows who has a baby, and exactly when your baby is toilet trained. They know what size TV you got for Christmas, how much beer you drink every week, what kind of pets you have, and when your birthday falls on the calendar. Archaeologists get into the act, too, by analyzing garbage dumps from eras past, although that's a bit less personal. Minute Earth tells us more about the science of garbage analysis. However, an analyst who goes through my garbage would think I am lying about eating vegetables, since any evidence of vegetable preparation goes into my compost pile instead of the trash. -via Viral Viral Videos
There is no shortage of viewers who have watched every episode of Breaking Bad over and over, spotting instances of foreshadowing, looking for recurring symbolism, analyzing each scene, and hoping that those things will help them figure out ahead of time how the story of Walter White will end. From these analysts come seven different theories of what will come. These, of course, contain spoilers for those not current on the AMC series. Take, for example, the color theory.
As graphic designer John LaRue of The Droid You're Looking For illustrates with his ludicrously painstaking infographic (above), color also seems to indicate both motivations and imminent turns in the narrative. For example, characters tend to wear yellow before they make intense, game-changing decisions, like Walt did when he killed Krazy-8 in season one. While yellow is the proverbial canary in a coal mine, green seems to indicate a character (usually Walt, often Saul) acting out of greed; white points to powerlessness (in the case of Walt's cancer and hospital treatments) while beiges represent to the straight-and-narrow life Walt left behind (see: Elliott Schwartz's birthday party guests). Some Breaking Bad color theorists believe the way a character's colored clothing is layered--and even put on or taken off--also represent compound or ulterior motives. For instance, when Jesse and Walt clean Jesse's apartment after the botched bathtub disposal of Emilio's body in the second episode, Walt wears a yellow shirt... under a green apron.
How does this tell us what will happen in the future? Read the rest, along with six other theories, at Wired. Link -via Digg
The music generated at the site Listen to Wikipedia may sound random at first, but what you're hearing is real data.
Using the data provided by Wikipedia's recent changes feed, bells are used to convey additions, while string noises represent subtractions from articles. Higher pitched noises are for smaller edits, while larger edits are translated into lower pitched tones. Deep swells of sound accompany new users joining the service. All of the various noises work together in surprising harmony, creating a zen-like mood to go along with the furious edits being made to Wikipedia's database.
At the same time, you can see what's happening onscreen. It may be soothing music, but you might also be sucked into the thrill of watching the encyclopedia of the internet being built in real time.
