I think Ariel the parrot has spotted a squirrel. Ya think? -via Arbroath
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
A Nissan Cube was stolen in Youngstown, Ohio. The car, wrecked and abandoned, was recovered by police with Penelope the 300-pound pot-bellied pig still in the backseat.
Crews towed the vehicle with Penelope inside. They left her in the vehicle until her owner could be reached.
"I opened the door and when I looked in the back I was shocked. It is big," explained John Weslolwski with Schultz Automotive and Towing.
"This isn't something we see every day," said Chuck Sayer with the Mahoning County Humane Society. "Usually dogs, cats, domestic animals, usually not a pot belly pig that weighs 300 pounds."
Wendy Thrasher, the pig's owner, was quick to claim her pet, explaining that Penelope was being kept in the car temporarily after a house fire. One can imagine that the car wreck occurred when the car thieves realized the pig was in the backseat. "I'm wondering if that's why they wrecked it," Thrasher said. Link -via Arbroath
Netflix ranked the major internet service providers for speed, and they should know, as they feed full-length films down the series of tubes constantly. The newest "major" ISP is Google Fiber, which is only available in Kansas City for now, but was included because anything Google does is considered "major." It's a good thing they did not rank these against European providers, or we'd all feel bad. Link -via Digg
Almost 30 years later, we find out that there were female Rebel pilots in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. Two of them are finally seen in the Blu-ray version just released.
Though women fighter pilots were seen amongst the crowd within the Rebel Cruiser briefing room earlier in RETURN OF THE JEDI, it was believed that none were seen in the actual final battle above Endor...until now, with the Blu-ray revealing that one of the brave A-wing pilots was indeed female (as seen in the above image) but, for reasons unknown (probably an accident made during the Post Production dialogue re-dubbing phase in the US) replaced with a male actors voice instead (with one line: "Got it"). Her character was seemingly killed mere seconds later by a TIE fighter.
There were four female Rebel pilots in all, but two are still unseen. Which means, of course, that there is still a lot of unused Star Wars footage available for new edits of the existing films for future releases. See more pictures at Star Wars Aficionado Magazine. Link -via Kotaku
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
This post was selected because today is the 97th anniversary of the Frank Sinatra's birth.
He was "the Chairman of the Board." "Old Blue Eyes." There is no debate about whether he was a great singer. That would be rather like debating whether Michael Jordan was a great basketball player. The debate is whether he was the greatest popular singer of all time. He also happened to be a brilliant, underrated movie actor. He was the ultimate "swinger," leaving countless swooning women and girls in his wake. He loved to brawl, and he loved his Jack Daniels. He was a completely original and unique character in the history of show business.
Okay, that being said, here's a few facts you may not have known about the one and only Mr. Frank Sinatra.
A forced delivery at birth left permanent scars on his neck and cheek and ruptured an eardrum. This eardrum injury is what kept Frank from enlisting and serving in World War II.
When Frank was born, his parents had wanted a girl. They had already picked out the feminine name "Frances," so when Frank was born, they changed the chosen name to "Francis" for a boy.
According to Mia Farrrow (who Frank had been married to briefly), Frank offered to have Woody Allen's legs broken for her after he found out Woody was having an affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn.
Ashley Gilreath made this necklace of photos of her ancestors, all in miniature, in dollhouse size frames.
This necklace was made to represent the memory of my grandparent's long staircase in their house. I want the viewer to see my history as the necklace wraps around, and to feel the sensation of climbing up and down the stairs as the images of my family line the walls. More importantly, I wanted my skin to show through as my family's skin, so that my stories, my life and who I am as an individual is shown as the sum of all of the people that came before me.
The work is titled I Am Who They Were. See more pictures at her website. Link -via Laughing Squid
Did I say my favorite year-end lists were science lists? I have to make an exception for the funniest typos, mistakes, and corrections of the year. After all, I make those mistakes all the time, but rarely are they humorous. The 16 items in this year-end list will make you glad you aren't in charge of a printed publication. Oh yes, and see how many intentional typos the Atlantic included "for solidarity." Link -via Boing Boing
The holiday table decoration in Japan was made out of lobster parts. Clever or creepy? Or maybe delicious? Link
It may not be graceful, but you'll have to stop sometime and admit your mistake! Still, an unnecessary hug is better than letting someone choke to death. This Twaggie was illustrated by Kevin Coffee from a Tweet by Tim Seidell. See all the new illustrated Tweets at Twaggies. Link
A street vendor in Ciqikou, Chongqing, China, goes the extra mile to sell cotton candy that looks like multicolored flowers. -via Arbroath
Anyone who has a dog will tell you they are pretty good at finding buried bones. But can a dog sniff out ancient human bones, apart from all the other organic material buried underneath us? Dog trainer Gary Jackson has been working with a female Australian rescue dog, a Labrador named Migaloo, to see if man's best friend can help scientists find our buried ancestors.
I like to experiment with things that have never been tried before. I've trained dogs to find cane toads, koalas, lots of unusual things. So I thought: Can you imagine the discoveries in archaeology that could happen around the world, if dogs could be trained to locate human bones? For years, people have been training cadaver dogs to find decomposed bodies. But the problem with that is at some point rot becomes the primary odor rather than the actual human odor. And many things are rotting throughout a forest. By training the dog on just human bones, you eliminate those distraction odors.
And Migaloo is doing well in her training. In a test, she found a 600-year-old grave in an acre size area in which even Jackson did not know the location. Read about how she was trained at National Geographic News. Link
(Image credit: Gary Jackson)
In Saratoga Springs, New York, it's time to ship out the traditional peppermint pigs. It's hard to pinpoint where the tradition actually started, but pigs have always been symbolic of prosperity. In upstate New York, the pig made it into the rituals surrounding Christmas. Now Mike Fitzgerald, owner of Saratoga Sweets, is scrambling to fill holiday orders.
In the old days, the pig was placed on the Christmas dinner table. Father would wrap it in a napkin and crack it with the steel rod used to sharpen knives so the family could share the sweet-tasting bits, Fitzgerald said. But by the mid-20th century, the area holiday tradition went the way of lit candles on Christmas trees.
In 1988, Fitzgerald made a first run of 60 peppermint pigs at the request of the local historical society. He was surprised to see people lining up to buy them, many of them older people who fondly recalled smashing pigs when they were young. He sold out his run and never looked back.
Link | Sarasota Sweets website -via Fark
Our friends at Improbable Research are excited to announce that the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research is now available in ebook form. They've been wanting top do this for some time, but wanted to work out the logistics of serving readers who use computers, e-readers, and small handheld devices. And they did just that.
That’s why we invented a special format. Each of our e-books contains TWO copies of the magazine, each with the same content. The first copy is formatted in a simple, small-screen-friendly way. The second copy shows the same issue of the magazine, but formatted in full glory, exactly as it appears in the print edition.
This two-in-one format is just a wee, little innovation. But it solves the problem of how to make a magazine (or any publication that has a complex layout) that people can get and read as a standard e-book.
The electronic version is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but you can try out a free issue first by downloading it from Improbable Research. Link
Dogs are busy preparing for Christmas just in case they are adopted in time for the holiday. A video by Best Friends Animal Society. Link -via Everlasting Blort
Eli Lenno's Hasidic Orthodox Jewish wedding was jumping with a "Gangnam Style" parody featuring alternate English and Hebrew Yiddish lyrics, which are available at the YouTube page if you can read them. The lyrics for "Lenno Style" were written by Avrumy Kalisch and Tuli Brull. -via Viral Viral Videos
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