Tyler Marcum made a silly dance video in his underwear back in college ten years ago. Now he's turning 30 and recreated that same dance, side-by-side with the original, to mark the occasion. The song is "Landslide," originally by Fleetwood Mac, but this verso is by the Dixie Chicks. -via Viral Viral Videos
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
You don't have to be crazy to believe in conspiracy theories. In fact, 63 percent of registered voters in American believe in at least one political conspiracy theory. Scientists say that the belief that powerful people are manipulating things behind the scenes is the brain's way of making sense out of forces that the individual cannot control, sparked by the region of the brain called the amygdala.
Economic recessions, terrorist attacks and natural disasters are massive, looming threats, but we have little power over when they occur or how or what happens afterward. In these moments of powerlessness and uncertainty, a part of the brain called the amygdala kicks into action. Paul Whalen, a scientist at Dartmouth College who studies the amygdala, says it doesn’t exactly do anything on its own. Instead, the amygdala jump-starts the rest of the brain into analytical overdrive — prompting repeated reassessments of information in an attempt to create a coherent and understandable narrative, to understand what just happened, what threats still exist and what should be done now. This may be a useful way to understand how, writ large, the brain’s capacity for generating new narratives after shocking events can contribute to so much paranoia in this country.
“If you know the truth and others don’t, that’s one way you can reassert feelings of having agency,” Swami says. It can be comforting to do your own research even if that research is flawed. It feels good to be the wise old goat in a flock of sheep.
Read more about the research into conspiracy theories in an article by Maggie Koerth-Beker in the New York Times. Link
(image credit: Matt Dorfman)
A woman in Tasmania pled guilty to five counts of sex with a minor after she was caught in the act with her boyfriend's 16-year-old son. She explained that she mistakenly thought 16 was the age of consent. But the real kicker is how they were caught.
Crown Prosecutor Jackie Hartnett told the court in October last year the woman had gone to her stepson's room to discuss his driving lessons.
Although the pair had previously had a strained relationship, tickling led to kissing and then to intercourse, the prosecutor said.
The following day, the woman's de facto partner set up a video camera in a bid to capture evidence of paranormal activity in the house, but forgot to turn it off.
When he returned from work and reviewed the footage, he saw his son and the woman kissing and cuddling.
So instead of "paranormal activity," the camera caught normal, but illegal, activity. Link -via news.com.au
It's amazing what you can do with time, imagination, and modern cameras. The group Homemade Movies recreated the "chestburster" scene from the movie Alien -and nailed it. You can see a behind-the-scenes video and a side-by-side comparison with the original at Laughing Squid. Link
Movie posters are pretty important to the overall success of a film. They go through different drafts of different visions before the final product is released. What didn't make the cut gives us a glimpse into the creative process. In this collection at Flavorwire, you will see that changing and refining the initial concept is usually a good idea. Link
Imagine that you bake so many pies that you need a special tool for crimping the top and bottom crust together -one that makes different patterns to keep things interesting. Then imagine that yours was custom-carved from whalebone or walrus tusk by someone who loves you. The New Bedford Whaling Museum has many, many scrimshaw pie crimpers.
The exhibit attributes this functional extravagance to many hours of boredom at sea, but also to the American diet in the nineteenth century. A typical New England meal of the era would involve not just pie, but pies, in both savoury and sweet form. Armed with a crimping multi-tool, a lucky whaler’s spouse or mother need never fear a moment’s confusion differentiating between her cherry and chicken pies.
Read more about these intricately-carved tools at Edible Geography. Link -via TYWKIWDBI
(Image credit: Nicola Twilley)
You hear stories about waiters being stiffed, which is inevitably followed by a storm in the comments about the entire system of tipping. But how about some really good tipping stories? Every so often, a very generous diner surprises the server with the tip of a lifetime.
Rhode Islander Kristen Ruggiero is a single mom of three who has had a tough time making ends meet by working the restaurant job she’s held for the last 15 years. One day last year, a couple came in and ordered a pizza, a salad and a pitcher of beer only to settle their $42 bill by leaving $500 on the table. At first, the waitress thought they made a mistake and accidentally left the five hundreds thinking they were ten dollar bills. So Kristen set the money aside until the pair returned to the restaurant and tried to return it to them. That’s when they assured her that the $458 tip was no mistake. "He said no it was absolutely not a mistake, you deserved it," Kristen said.
But that's far from the biggest tip in this roundup of stories at mental_floss. Link
A juvenile fox takes advantage of a golf ball coming his way. This hazard wasn't explained back at the club house. Still, watching him play was probably more fun than the game. -via Daily of the Day
Quick -how many nuclear accidents can you name? Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima …any more? There have been quite a few nuclear accidents of varying danger that you probably never heard of, including some fatal incidents. For example, in 1957, nuclear waste exploded at a reactor near the Soviet town of Ozyorsk.
One of the storage tanks contained around 70 to 80 tons of radioactive liquid waste, and its cooling mechanism stopped working and wasn’t fixed. The tank’s contents, made up mostly of ammonium nitrate and acetates, began to dry out as the liquid heated up and evaporated. Moreover, the temperature increase caused an explosion whose force was equivalent to 70 to 100 tons of TNT, and this sent huge amounts of radioactivity – roughly 20 MCi (800 PBq) – into the environment. The fallout cloud from the explosion contaminated an area of up to 7,722 square miles (20,000 square kilometers).
Over a period of nearly two years, about 10,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area. In terms of fatalities, the exact cost of the incident is not known, but immediately around the site of the explosion there were 66 diagnosed cases of chronic radiation syndrome.
Read more about the Ozyorsk incident and nine others in a list at Tech Graffiti. Link -via the Presurfer
(Image credit: Ecodefense, Heinrich Boell Stiftung Russia, Alla Slapovskaya, Alisa Nikulina)
At first I thought this might be a sequel to the 2008 video Death Star Over San Francisco, but it's not. and it is, directed by Mike Horn. In this alternate reality, Earth is part of the Galactic Empire, but it's still okay to use the fake "amateur shaky cam" effect. And then the Enterprise shows up from the future to grab some more whales. -via Buzzfeed
A truck carrying tons of grapes overturned and spilled on the 210 in the San Gabriel Valley in California. You don't get an opportunity to write a headline like that often. Link -Thanks, Michael Carney!
A David Attenborough soundalike delivers a anthropological piece poking fun at Sweden's equality, agnosticism, tolerance, and sexual liberation. Featuring the actual prime minister of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt, plus several famous Swedish actors. Contains NSFW language. -via reddit
Photographer Nolan Conway was impressed by the wide variety of people who visited his local McDonalds, which led to a photo project called Happy Meals. He's traveled the country, finding interesting people at McDonalds. Of course, you recognize this couple. That's Vance and Nancy Evans of Bakersfield, California. At least that's who they say they are. See more photos from the series at Wired. Link -via Laughing Squid
Congratulations! And welcome to the adult world of debt. Remember: A Lannister always pays his debts, even if it might takes a long time. Link -via Blame It On The Voices
This guy's such a great gymnast, he appears to totally defy gravity! The popular Japanese TV show Masquerade is a talent contest. Look through their YouTube channel and you'll see many such physical illusions. -via Tastefully Offensive
Email This Post to a Friend