Tom Scott really waded into the deep end when he decided to run a poll of the best things. First, he had to define "thing," which eliminated a lot of choices, but there was way more work to get the choices down to a manageable number. Then he had to figure out how to rank the things in an automated fashion. Then he got over a million votes in just a few hours. Now, since there's no way to get everyone in the world to participate, you must realize that the final list is from the opinions of "English-speaking extremely online nerds." The list appears at almost seven minutes into the video. We only get the top ten, plus some other interesting tidbits.

(For the folks asking: I'm not planning to release the ranked list -- partly because "ranked list of major world religions" sounds like the sort of thing that'll cause trouble, and partly because I can't guarantee there aren't some other nasty things still in the list. Apologies!)

Yeah, it's a dumb question, and you won't agree with the answers. "Kittens" did not make the top ten.

(Image credit: esberat)

This little cutie got into a jar of strawberry jam and ate so much, he had to lie down and take a nap. My guess is that his punishment will be a bath. He's probably too young to know that people will be upset when their food is stolen, but other pets know they have to sneak around to do it. The cat below stole the corn muffins leftover from dinner.

(Image credit: hazeleyedsummer)

Look at that smile! He's either quite pleased with his loot, or else he's trying to look too cute for the humans to be mad about it. It most likely worked. See 46 cats and dogs caught in the act of stealing food at Bored Panda.

When the newfangled “automobile” was widely adopted at the turn of the 20th century, there were few rules and no infrastructure for the meteoric rise of driving. An entire system for managing traffic was implemented one piece at a time in different cities to accommodate ever-more cars, in the short period of about twenty years. And so it was with the question of parking. Where will we put these vehicles, whether parked, chauffeured, or horse-driven, while people went about their business? It became clear that streets couldn’t hold them, and they would have to go somewhere.

On April 10, 1920, the Los Angeles City Council decided that “since ninety percent of those who entered the downtown area did so by streetcar, the best solution to overcrowding on the streets was to ban private automobile parking downtown.” Almost immediately, downtown merchants were negatively affected by the ban. By the third day, “an advertising manager for Jacoby Brothers, a [major department] store in the area covered by the ban, reported that business was down 15 percent,” reasoning that “there are many more women who use automobiles for shopping in Los Angeles than any other place in the country.” And by the ninth day, “another merchant claimed downtown business was down 40 percent.”

The ban did not stop women drivers from getting their shopping done; they simply took their business elsewhere. A rumor in a Los Angeles Record article on April 20 reported that a woman drove with her car to Pasadena and bought $23,000 worth of furniture “because the police made her remove her car from the vicinity of Barker Bros. store a few days ago when she was inspecting goods there.” The result — the parking ban was overturned just 17 days after the regulation went into effect.

Read about the development of parking and parking lots at the MIT Press Reader. -via Digg

(Image credit: iMahesh)

People who live in the Netherlands aren't all the same, but if you average their heights, they are the tallest nation on earth, with men averaging 5'11.85" and women averaging 5'6.42". It's not that tall people settled in that area, nor is it completely genetic (although natural selection may factor in just a bit). It's certainly not the wooden shoes.  

A land of giants, the Netherlands is the loftiest nation on Earth: the average height of a Dutch man is 182.5cm; a Dutch woman 168.7cm. By comparison their American counterparts measure 177.1cm and 163.5cm respectively. It wasn’t always this way. A review of Dutch military records for a study published by the Royal Society of London found that in the mid-1800s, men in the Netherlands were actually among the shortest people in Europe.

“In 1860, Dutch military men were about 165cm tall,” said Professor Louise Barrett of the University of Lethbridge, Canada, who was part of the study. “At that time men in the US were around 5cm taller.” This, added Barrett, made Americans the world’s tallest people.

Since then, however, there has been a remarkable role reversal: in just 160 years, Dutch men have shot up by 20cm, soaring past their American counterparts, who have grown just 6cm.

As you might guess, there are several factors that play a role in Dutch height, one which has to do with their engineering of the sea level. Read how the Dutch grew over a couple hundred years at BBC Travel. -via Nag on the Lake

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better know to us as Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904. Therefore, he grew up during World War I as an American with a German heritage and last name, which meant he and his family were looked upon with suspicion. This kicked off a series of events that would end up affecting Geisel for the rest of his life.  

But the Geisel's bled red, white, and blue (three colors Seuss would often experience when being chased by brick-wielding bullies). To prove this, a 14-year-old Seuss started selling war bonds through his scout troop. His biggest customer was his own granddad, who spent $1,000 (which, in 1918 money, could buy you a lot of cocaine) to convince their neighbors their house wasn't worth firebombing. The tactic paid off: Seuss became one of the ten top salesboys to get a medal from none other than former President Teddy Roosevelt, cartoonish alligator wrestler and hero to every young boy in the country.

The experience was not a good one. Read what happened at that medal ceremony, which led to a lifetime of stage fright, and the reason Dr. Seuss did not read his beloved works in public, at Cracked.

Getting bitten by a snake is never good, but what damage you could sustain depends on what kind of snake it is. Different types of venom work in different ways, all terrifying. The danger also depends on how much venom you've been injected with. Bright Side explains how various types of venom work in your body. But even if the snake that bit you isn't venomous at all, there are still horrifying things that can happen to you! The upshot is that you should get medical help immediately for any kind of snake bite. -via Digg

Elisha Perkins was a physician in Plainfield, Connecticut, around the time of the American Revolution. Having patients who suffered so much pain from maladies there was no treatment for, he experimented with the properties of metals, thinking they could influence nerves and muscles from outside the body. In 1796, he patented metallic tractors, which were pretty much just a couple of nails.  

Perkins’ metallic tractors consisted of two instruments 3-inches in length. The tractors were described as “half rounded on one side, while the other was flat and usually had the name ‘Perkins Patent Tractors’ stamped upon it; they were rounded at one end and drawn out into a sharp point at the other, and resembled a horseshoe nail in appearance.”[4] Although Perkins claimed the tractors were created from unusual metal alloys, one tractor was steel and the other brass. They could be applied to a patient’s head, face, feet, breast, side, stomach, and back to “draw off the noxious electrical fluid that lay at the root of suffering.”[5] Perkins accomplished this by drawing the points over the affected parts of a person in a downward direction for about twenty minutes.

What was stunning was the success he had with the tractors. Patients experienced relief from pain, and the instruments sold like hotcakes for $25 a set- an enormous sum at the time. An institution was even founded in Perkins' name. But it didn't last forever. Read the tale of the metallic tractors at Geri Walton's blog. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Wellcome Images)

even gator love laser pointer 🥺 pic.twitter.com/QmgtBl5LAM

— Gators Daily 🐊 (@GatorsDaily) September 3, 2020

We love to watch cats, dogs, and even penguins chase a laser pointer light, but who knew that even the reptilian mind of an alligator would find it so attractive? No wonder they call 'gators "swamp kittens." -via Boing Boing

Movies can make us afraid of all sorts of wild animals, but the truth is that we have little to fear, since wild animals are usually afraid of us- with good reason. Still, some apex predators will kill and eat you if there's nothing tastier around. For some reason, the article begins with a story of people eaten by catfish, but catfish aren't on the list. What is on the list are the predators most likely to kill you. Keep in mind, wild animals will kill you in defense even if they aren't hungry, so don't put yourself in a position where they feel threatened. Neither wolves nor werewolves made the list.

And remember, the animal that causes the most human deaths is a tiny insect.

(Image credit: Benh LIEU SONG)

Pinpointing the oldest city in the world seems like a fool's errand. For one thing, archaeologists keep discovering "new" ancient ruins where no one lives now. For another thing, the ability to accurately date a civilization that lasted a long time is a difficult art. But most of all, how can science agree on the definition of a city?

For example, archaeologists working in Mexico might classify the Zapotec capital of Monte Albán as a city, when it exceeded more than 5,000 residents by 300 B.C. But that size wouldn't cut it five centuries later, in 200 A.D., when the great Teotihuacan likely harbored 100,000 people.

Perhaps more important than the city itself is its relationship with surrounding lands. Many archaeologists say cities, by definition, rely on hinterlands for food, water and raw materials. A city stands out as the largest settlement and civic center in a landscape of smaller, socially-tied villages, homes and farms. People from the greater region would identify with the big city, like how today's Wellesley, Massachusetts residents might say they're from "outside Boston." The city designation depends, then, on a site's prominence relative to other settlements nearby.

At the very least, most archaeologists would classify a site as a city if it functioned as a regional hub. That means it contained major public attractions, like amphitheaters, monuments and markets, and housed a substantial portion of the regional population — usually 5,000 residents or more before 1 A.D.

Any of these definitions is relative, as a population of 5,000 would be considered a small town today. So there are, at this time, quite a few contestants for the title of the world's oldest city. Read which ancient metro areas those are at Discover magazine.  -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Gzzz)

Over a period of 110 years, werewolves roamed France. Or maybe they were just wolves, but a lot of people were killed or injured, and a lot of people were executed, accused of being a werewolf. Between 1530 and 1640, those accusations were lodged against around 30,000 people.

As it pertains to France, the country’s history with wolf-related mythology is long and rich with stories such as the La Bête duGévaudan, or The Beast of Gévaudan, which for three years terrorized the area. The first attack occurred in April of 1764, and the victim, a young woman tending her flock of sheep, described her assailant as looking “like a wolf, yet not a wolf.” She survived when her sheep went into action, defending the teenage girl from the Beast. Two months later, another young girl, Jeanne Boulet, was attacked and killed by what the residents of Gévaudan thought to be a natural predator, given the fact Boulet was also tending a flock of sheep. Two more fatal attacks would follow within a matter of weeks, both young field workers, a girl, age fifteen, and a boy age sixteen. This would be the start of more than 100 documented fatal attacks in Gévaudan in which most of the victims were partially eaten. The residents of Gévaudan would take up arms, and large rewards were offered for the capture or killing of The Beast of Gévaudan. Experienced hunters and even groups of children would go out in search of the Beast and return with stories of battling a giant wolf (noted in the book Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast). One such incident describes the wolf attacking a group of young children, five boys and two girls in a bog where they were playing. The wolf preyed on the youngest of the group, an eight-year-old boy who he clenched in his massive jaws as the kids attacked the wolf with their make-believe weapons (in this time period, pretend bayonets), finally getting the animal/manimal torelease their friend.

Some actual beasts were hunted and killed, but the attacks went on in Gévaudan and different parts of France. Read more about the "werewolves" and their victims at Dangerous Minds.

I was not aware of the pocket. pic.twitter.com/bWywuHJk9f

— jamie (@gnuman1979) August 28, 2020

Did you know that sea otters have pockets? It's true! They have a fold of loose skin under their forearms where they keep their favorite rock, which they use to open shells. They can also stash food in their pouches while they swim to the surface. If that's surprising to you, read on about their sex habits. -via Everlasting Blort

Margaret Caroline Rudd was a con woman in late 18th-century London. She lived a lifetime of spending other people’s money in one way or another, getting away with the most audacious crimes by leveraging some peculiarities of the era. First, a husband was always considered responsible for debts incurred by his wife, no matter the circumstances. Second, crime victims were often blamed for their losses, and often were too embarrassed to complain. Third, a well-dressed, well-mannered woman of some class was given the benefit of a doubt. While Rudd had many ways of separating people from their money, her main career was prostitution.

She had her established clients, and a host of high-society connections to procure more. Blackmail and fraud were occasional sources of income, but for the most part she lived a lavish life as the mistress of a rotating cast of thoroughly beguiled, and often foreign, men. A certain reputation with the locals was inevitable, after all⁠⁠—yet even those who knew for certain that she had fleeced friends often found her irresistible when their turn came. She was by all accounts quite average in beauty, but as historian Sarah Bakewell put it, “Caroline had wit in the full eighteenth-century sense of the term: insight, intellect, adaptability, cynicism, and the ability to use language as a deadly weapon.” She could talk her way into, and out of, anything, at least as long as the listener was male. Some of her lovers included the poet John Boswell (who wrote extensively of her wickedness even as he continued to visit her nightly), the Marquis of Granby (who died carrying a mind-boggling £37,000 in debt, due in no small part to Caroline), and possibly even King George’s brother, the Duke of Cumberland.

Rudd had three children with David Perreau, and eventually roped his twin brother into a scheme to defraud. After so many years of getting away with various crimes, Rudd became the subject of a sensational and scandalous trial. Read about the crimes and trials of Caroline Rudd at Damn Interesting. The story is available in both text and audio.

Mattel is releasing a new themed Barbie doll in honor of Mexico's Día de Muertos, or Day the Dead. Or sort-of new. They released a limited edition Day of the Dead Barbie last year, and it went over so well that it's now going to be an annual release, different each year, so collectors can begin saving them in the box.

As Romper reports, the 2020 doll flaunts a pale pink lace hoop skirt underlaid with a colorful floral pattern (interspersed with a few skulls). Her braided updo features flowers to match, and her makeup is painted to emulate the beautiful calaveras, or decorative skulls, that are seen at many Día de Muertos celebrations. Last year’s Barbie, on the other hand, has two long braids with blue highlights, and she wears a black trumpet-flared gown adorned with butterflies and flowers.

Día de Muertos is the first day of November, and the dolls will be shipping beginning on October second. You can pre-order yours, if you have $75.

You recall the hilarious and beloved 1970s show Taxi? Of course you do, with stars like Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, and Peter Boyle? That show really opened doors for those young unknowns of the time. This mashup is from kingkida, who brought us The Mandalorian as a Spaghetti Western. -via Laughing Squid