You know this diner has been waiting for a long time to do this. The tip is below 15%, but maybe it was carry out or a buffet. I wonder if pie came with the dinner! Link
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
You know when someone in a movie caught in a compromising situation and the first thing they say is "I can explain!"? It's because they are stalling for time to think of an explanation, of course. That happens a lot in movies, as Slackstory shows in their latest movie supercut. It's a followup to their No Time to Explain supercut. -via Laughing Squid
The second Monday in January is set aside to welcome Japan's new adults, meaning those who turned 20 years old between last April and this coming April. On the holiday Seijin No Hi, the honorees dress in traditional kimono (although a business suit is also also okay for men) and girls get their hair done in elaborate styles. Municipal and/or family ceremonies are held, and afterward the young adults have parties. Attendance may be down this year, as heavy snowfall has slammed eastern Japan, including Tokyo. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: moguphotos via Wikipedia)
BibliOdyssey has 26 World War II posters that rallied support from the public in various countries from Canada to Greece and beyond. They are from the over 1600 posters of the Elisabeth Ball Collection at Ball State University. The 1917 poster shown here is from Scottish War Savings Committee in Edinburgh. Link
Who knew? Nachos were named after a guy named Nacho! Geobeats gives you some nacho trivia to share with your buddies the next time you're noshing on nachos. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Blizzard, the company behind the online game World of Warcraft, has announced that its fundraiser for hurricane Sandy relief has raised $2.3 million dollars -all from players with big hearts who bought a virtual kitten.
The money was raised in-game by offering players the chance to adopt a fiery pet cat known as a “Cinder Kitten.” The pet was offered to players at the price of a $10 adoption fee, and Blizzard announced that all the money would go to Sandy relief even before the Cinder Kitten was added to the game. The community responded in record numbers, snapping up the fiery little furballs.
The money was presented to the American Red Cross. Link
You can make a silly pun of out anyone's last name, as most elementary students can tell you, but the famous faces of literary figures gives them an extra kick. Timothy Leo Taranto has eight more of his visual puns based on famous authors at The Rumpus. Link -via Flavorwire
Rob Cockerham happened upon a crew setting up an outdoor ice skating rink and took the opportunity to find out how it's done. It turns out the whole thing rests on a series of tubes.
The ice was to be kept frozen with very cold liquid flowing inside the tubes. There was 40,000 ft of tubing in the rink, filled with 1,620 gallons of water mixed with propylene glycol to a 35% solution. These were the numbers off of the top of his head, but 5 ounces per foot of tube sounds about right to me.
Propylene glycol is antifreeze, so in essence the water can circulate at a temperature much lower than the freezing point of water, which sucks the heat from the water outside the tubes, turning it to ice. Read the rest, with plenty of pictures, at Cockeyed Science Club. Link
Photographer Angus R. Shamal shows us a collection of behind-the-scenes shots that illustrate the lengths filmmakers had to go to give us a fantasy before computers came along and made it a matter of assembling pixels. The photo here is from the set of the 1961 monster movie Mothra; there are plenty of other classic movies represented. Link -via Holy Kaw!
We almost never post full-length feature movies here, because even ten minutes seems long for a video, but this is extraordinary. Teenagers Jonason Pauley and Jesse Perrotta worked for two years to recreate the entire Toy Story movie as a live-action film using actual toys! They even got permission from Pixar for the production. I've only skipped around to see various parts, but those who've seen the whole thing say it gets better and better as you watch it. Read more about the project in a news story from the East Valley Tribune. Link -via Metafilter
Sir David Attenborough is a treasure, and not just to humans! The other side is illustrated by Rosemary Mosco of the comic Bird and Moon. Link -via Laughing Squid
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.
Old-fashioned laws permitted husbands to beat wives who refused to, ahem, submit to their spouse's demands. As if that weren't insulting enough, governments granted only men the right to vote. Eventually, in America and England, groups of gutsy gals began demanding women's rights, especially suffrage (voting rights). Here's a sample of those rebellious females.
EARLY BLOOMERS
The women's suffrage movement attracted some unusual women. Take, for instance, Margaret Brent. In 1647 it was considered "not done" that a woman would remain unmarried, much less become a property owner. Brent managed to do both and accidentally became the first woman suffragist when she insisted -unsuccessfully- on being allowed to vote in the Maryland assembly.
Almost two centuries later, Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) escaped slavery through the Underground Railroad. Tubman should have been preoccupied after 19 trips across the Mason-Dixon line, leading 300 other slaves 90 miles to freedom, which resulted in a $40,000 price tag on her head. Instead, she demanded the right to vote for all women while speaking out against slavery and racism. Not one to be idle, she also worked as a spy and a nurse during the Civil War for the federal government, which rewarded her with a $20 monthly pension in the 1890s and her picture on postal stamps in 1995.
WHAT'S NEXT LIZ? VOTING RIGHTS FOR FURNITURE?
Back in the 1970s, someone got the great idea to build a four-story igloo as a hotel about 20 miles from Cantwell, Alaska, on the highway between Fairbanks and Anchorage. It was never finished, due to problems with building codes and available cash. Igloo City Hotel is now abandoned and becoming more dilapidated by the day. Wanna see what it looks like inside? There are plenty of pictures at Kuriositas. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user sandwichgirl)
Kerntype is a kerning game.
Your mission is simple: achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters. Typographers call this activity kerning.
And of course, when it's done wrong it's called keming. I scored 73 out of 100, possibly because I hurried through it. With a little more care, I could've done better. If you're not a type nerd, the game will give you a sense of appreciation for those who labor to make type readable. It's an art, after all. Link -via Ed Yong
Do you use a Kindle or eReader? Then you probably know that many books are available at no cost, but often they are hard to find or you don't know what you're getting. But now our friends Michael Powell and Jürgen Horn, whom you know from their travel blog For 91 Days, have launched FreebookSifter. It's a daily listing of books that can be downloaded from Amazon free of charge, plus ratings for each book. Here are the top-rated book available today, which may change at any time.
1. Science of Trapping by Elmer Kreps
2. The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses by John J. Stutzman and P. R. Kincaid
3. Tales of Fishes by Zane Grey
4. Animal Rights Poetry: 25 Inspirational Animal Poems Vol 1 by Jenny Moxham
5. Olaf the Glorious A Story of the Viking Age by Robert Leighton
6. The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton
7. Operation Terror by Murray Leinster
8. The Runaway Skyscraper by Murray Leinster
9. Amateur Fish Culture by Charles Edward Walker
10. Dogs and All about Them by Robert Leighton
Take a look around, you might need something good to curl up in bed with this weekend! Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Mike Licht)
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