Some of these you've heard before, but some may be new to you. You'll have to listen carefully, as these amazing facts go pretty fast! -via Geeks Are Sexy
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
It's a mashup/video parody that just had to be. My Little Pony meets PSY when the gang goes all Gangnam style! From a collection of "Gangnam Style" video parodies at The Week. Link
Colin Britt and Arianne Abela put together an arrangement, a choir, and an orchestra to bring you Carly Rae Jepson's "Call Me Maybe" the way it was always meant to be. -via The Daily What
Throughout history, whether because of abundant food or lack of exercise or both, monarchs have been plagued with largeness of girth (what hardship!). Here are just a few of the fattest kings and queens on record.
1. Itey (ca. 1490 BCE)
Sort of an ancient Egyptian punch line, this corpulant queen ruled over the land of Punt, located somewhere in East Africa. So how exactly do we know of the great monarch's girth? Well, the Egyptian pharoah Hatshepsut launched a trade delegation to Punt, and carvings on the walls of her temple complex at Deir el-Bahri record the expedition. Itey is depicted as grossly obese and is even pictured standing next to a diminutive husband and a tiny donkey. Under the donkey, in a delightful bit of Egyptian humor, is the inscription "This donkey had to carry the queen." A beast of burden indeed.
2. Eglon (ca. 1100 BCE)
According to the Bible, Eglon was the king of Moab (in modern Jordan) who united several tribes of highland and desert raiders to conquer the central Israelite tribes sometime in the 12th century BCE. An Israelite named Ehud gained the king's confidence, got him in a room alone, then killed him. Of course, the murder wasn' exactly a smooth operation. The Bible describes vividly that Eglon was so fat that Ehud couldn't retrieve his blade. Luckily, though, he managed to escape with little trouble. As he fled, Ehud told Eglon's servants that the king was using the restroom. The stench coming from the room must have been fairly run-of-the-mill, because by the time they went to check on their beloved king, Ehud had already rallied his followers and formed an army.
3. Charles the Fat (Ruled 881-888)
Three things that so many people love, all in one recipe! And it's pretty simple, too. Make a little sandwich with Oreo cookies and peanut butter, plop it into a cupcake liner, and fill it up with brownie batter. Food Snots posted the recipe and pictures at Instructables. Link -Thanks, Rich!
A proper chameleon likes to keep himself clean. And when he gets a chance, he'll take a shower! -via Buzzfeed
Mudd is so happy to bounce around that he has to bark about it! Mudd's trampoline has covered springs, a safety net, and an open escape hatch. It's a dog's life. -via Bits and Pieces
At a fairly young age, Frederick Augustus Heinze developed a process to smelt copper from low-grade ore before it was even brought to the surface. This enabled him to make lots of money from mines that were thought to be played out in the late 19th century. Heinze kept buying mines until his company, United Copper, became one of the biggest copper producers in Montana. His tactics weren't always totally ethical, even among mining magnates. Then he decided to try his hand at Wall Street.
In 1907, Heinze set out for New York, moved United Copper to 42 Broadway in Manhattan, and determined to prove that he could succeed in finance. Though he knew little about banking, he aligned himself with Charles W. Morse, a Wall Street speculator who controlled several large banks and owned a big piece of the Mercantile National Bank. Together, the two men served as directors of more than a dozen banks, trust companies and insurance firms.
Down the hall from Heinze at 42 Broadway, his two brothers, Otto and Arthur, had set up a brokerage firm, hoping they too could make their fortunes on Wall Street. Otto is believed to have come up with the scheme to corner the stock on United Copper by engaging in a short squeeze, where the Heinzes would quickly purchase as much United Copper stock as they could, hoping to drive up prices and leaving short sellers (who had bet the price of United Copper would drop) no one else to sell but to the Heinzes, who could then effectively name their price.
The scheme didn't work, but the fallout was bigger than anyone could have imagined. The events that followed, referred to as the Panic of 1907, eventually led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System to make sure that kind of financial collapse never happened again. Read the entire story at Smithsonian's Past Imperfect blog. Link
Whew, I almost never got this video posted! The explanation and advice from ASsapSCIENCE makes all kinds of sense. If it weren't for the last minute, I'd never get anything done at all. But I can't follow the advice on getting off the internet to reduce distraction, because finding great distractions for your enjoyment is my job! -via Digg
Some public restrooms are works of art. And as "art," they can sometimes be hard to identify as restrooms at all! Take a look at ten of the most stunning public facilities in the world, because if you ever go to these places, you'll need to know how to recognize what they are. If you're going to "go," you may as well "go" in style! Pictured here are the Kumutoto Toilets by Studio Pacific in Wellington, New Zealand. They were designed to look like sea creatures to fit in with the harbor area. See the rest at Flavorwire. Link
Denise Campbell of Winnipeg, Manitoba, saw some odd behavior in a public bus driver, and thought it was worth passing on to the community online forum. The driver pulled over at a corner that had no bus stop and got out. The passengers, many of whom took the same bus every day, were puzzled. The driver walked over to talk to a man who looked to be homeless. He was barefooted.
I first thought the driver was going to offer the man a ride until our driver took off his own shoes and gave them to the man on the sidewalk.
That is when I realized that the man the driver was chatting with was barefoot. The bus was dead silent. I think we were all stunned and speechless. As we proceeded to our next stop, one of the passengers got up and said to the driver, that was the most amazing thing she had ever seen; and then she asked him, why did he do that?
The bus driver answered because he couldn’t stand the thought of that poor man walking without shoes. Wow! No judgement; it was just, “Here buddy you need these more than I do.”
Has it really been 30 years since E.T. was stranded on Earth? That's hard to believe. The groundbreaking film by Steven Spielberg holds up pretty well over time. And if you enjoyed the movie, you'll enjoy learning some trivia about it. For example, did you know that gadget that E.T. rigged up to phone home worked?
When they wanted E.T. to phone home in the film, they got science and technology expert Henry Feinberg to design a device that would actually work. The communicator was made up of parts including; a Speak & Spell, a record player, a coat hanger, a tin can, an umbrella and a few other components.
You'll also get a glimpse of how many people were involved in creating the title character, from visual inspirations to voice actors to those who were in the costume. Link -via the Presurfer
Jemma Kuma helpfully interprets kaomoji (Japanese emoticons) for you by acting out the facial expression each one intends to communicate. I'm sure they are totally meant to be this cute and dramatic. Kuma did not appear to have the props necessary for my favorites:
（╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
┬──┬ ノ( ゜-゜ノ)
-via Boing Boing
Which will win -the blue ball or the red ball? LEGO master akiyuky built the most elaborate LEGO ball machine you've ever seen over the course of two years. This is all at his house! You'll enjoy it even more if you mute the video and listen to this song while watching instead. -via The Daily What Geek
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