Supposedly, this stray cat had been trapped inside a wall for two years, while one of the building residents had been feeding her through a small hole. Her rescue is heartwarming story, but I suspect that the cat had another exit somewhere and chose to live in the wall because it's a warm enclosed space with an occasional rodent -and cat food. If she were really trapped, she would have walked out of the hole he was feeding her through. Still, it's good that she has a proper home now. -via Digg

In 1980, 56-year-old coal miner Zigmund Adamski left his home to walk to the store. He never made it there, and police could not find him. There was nothing suspicious in his recent behavior, and he had no known enemies. Five days later, a body was discovered on top of a coal pile in a town 25 miles away. It was identified as Adamski's.   

Unfortunately, that was the only question in this case anyone was able to answer. The more everyone studied the business, the weirder it got. For one thing, how did he get up there? It would have been extremely difficult for anyone to climb up the coal pile, particularly since recent rains had left it greasy and slippery. For someone with Adamski's health issues, it would have been impossible. Although the body was still wearing the jacket Adamski donned before leaving his house, his shirt was missing, along with his watch and wallet. (Those items were never found.) There were strange oval burn marks on the back of his head, neck, and shoulder.

The autopsy established that Adamski died on the day his body was found, sometime between 11:15 am and 1:15 pm. There were no physical injuries found, aside from those odd burns. The pathologist thought they were caused by some sort of corrosive substance, but he could not say what it had been. The burns had been covered with a gel which the doctor was also unable to identify. All he could say was that Adamski probably died of a heart attack. "Natural causes" was the final verdict in this most unnatural case.

Adamski had been missing five days, but his body only had one day's beard growth. The case was closed after the autopsy, yet so many questions remained that locals came up with a scenario that fits all the known facts, but is still unbelievable. Read Adamski's story at Strange Company.

(Image credit: The NeatoShop)

Redditor dadwithtowel recorded a time-lapse video of his daughter, while she was making a time-lapse video herself. What kind of video was she making? A video of LEGO minifigs ...making a movie. Here's her finished product.

-via Twisted Sifter

Seventy-five years ago, the Soviet Army marched into Poland and liberated the Auschwitz death camp, where over a million Jews and other minorities were killed. As they approached, tens of thousands of prisoners were evacuated, while others were shot. Only around 9,000 sick and starving inmates remained to be found by the Red Army. Most of the survivors scattered as soon as they were physically able. Today the site is a museum and memorial, but it's not exactly as it was. Before liberation, the staff destroyed the crematoria and as much evidence of their crimes as they could. After liberation, it was used as a POW camp, which meant alterations. Some of the most distasteful facilities were dismantled by authorities, and locals looted the camp for building supplies and any overlooked valuables.

Over the months that followed the camps’ liberation, many former prisoners returned seeking family members and friends. And a small group of survivors came back to stay.

“The earliest stewards of the site were former prisoners,” explains Huener. In his book Auschwitz, Poland, and the Politics of Commemoration, 1945-1979, Huener tells the story of how the site went from operational death camp to memorial. Most of the cadre of men were Polish political prisoners, and none of them had experience with museums or historic preservation. But even during their imprisonments, they had decided Auschwitz should be preserved.

“We did not know if we would survive, but one did speak of a memorial site,” wrote Kazimierz Smoleń, an Auschwitz survivor who later became the memorial site’s director. “One just did not know what form it would take.”

They had no expertise in historical preservation, but they were determined to keep Auschwitz as a cemetery, evidence repository, and a physical testament to the phrase "never forget." Read what happened to Auschwitz after the war at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Bundesarchiv, B 285 Bild-04413 / Stanislaw Mucha / CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Nine years ago, I read a story from redditor rhoner. It's the kind of comment that stays with you, and it became a legend at reddit and beyond. Now Chris A. Neal has made that story into a short film. -via Metafilter

Although nobody expected it, the Spanish Inquisition reached outward from Europe to persecute those who practiced "witchcraft" in the New World. Penn State professor Martha Few noticed how the victims of the Inquisition in Latin America tended to be women, who, being relatively powerless even among their own people, turned to magic spells to solve their problems. And they used chocolate.

Chocolate was an everyday drink, as common then as a morning cup of coffee is today. But, Few noticed, it often emerged in the records as a vehicle for women’s magic spells, and, in turn, for European anxieties about ruling a majority non-white population, filled with women who wouldn’t do what they were told. “It also became this flash point between social conflicts that were racial and gender conflicts,” says Few.

At root, the Inquisition’s crackdown on chocolate-related brujería, or witchcraft, was a campaign to eliminate indigenous and African spiritual practices from colonial society. It was an attempt that failed: Despite persecution, Latin American communities continue to practice folk healing and magic to this day.

Based on chocolate’s history as a ritual beverage in pre-colonial society, it makes sense that the drink became a receptacle for Spanish fears of sorcery. Indigenous people have cultivated chocolate in the Americas for at least 3,000 years, and archaeologists have identified chocolate residue on Mayan vessels from as early as 250 BC. Chocolate was a high-status drink, shared by diplomats and served to couples in marriage ceremonies. When the Spanish colonized the Americas, chocolate’s striking taste, caffeinated buzz, and indigenous ritual significance made it an object of European adulation and paranoia.

While we still joke about the bewitching effects of chocolate, the witch hunts in colonial Latin America were brutal. Read how religion, Spanish rule, and chocolate came together in an attempt to crush unruly women at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Carmen Deñó for Gastro Obscura)

Even though most business and communications in America are conducted in English, we do not have an official language. And you may be surprised at how many Americans speak more than one language. Business Insider put together a map of the most prevalent language in each state, excluding English and Spanish. Some of these languages have been handed down from ancestors for hundreds of years, while others are due to relatively recent immigrants flocking to areas with other immigrants from the same nations. You might be interested in comparing this map to one we posted in 2014, as there have been some changes.

-via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Business Insider/Andy Kiersz)

We know Takeo Ischi as the Japanese Chicken Yodeler. Three years after his viral Chicken Attack! video, he's back with two new adventures. Chicken Pig Attack is a musical action sequence in which Ischi, along with his trusty pig and chicken warriors, battle a gang of villains. It does not end the way you expect. Both the English and Japanese are subtitled in English. The sequel is out, too.



Rat Attack begins with Takeo-san as a captive of the villains. Can his yodeling or his animal-charming talents save the day? While the rat is an obvious nod to the new Year of the Rat, it's a little unnerving to hear how they are always watching over us from less then 20 feet away. Contains NSFW language. Both videos were made by the Gregory Brothers (which now include a sister). -via Metafilter

Natasha Baggett explained what happened at Facebook. The short version is that she was building an accessible desk for a young man in a wheelchair when the saw kicked back and sliced off two fingers and part of her thumb. She called an ambulance, rounded up the dogs, and spent a week in the hospital last May. The whole story is well worth a read. There are (warning) more graphic images of her injury here. Does she have any regrets?

No. And that sounds crazy but I don’t. I had an epiphany while I was recovering and changed a lot of things about myself and my lifestyle. The way I view the world and life in general has changed completely. If my accident hadn’t happened, then I wouldn’t have made those positive changes in my life that I desperately needed to make.

I also have connected with so many wonderful people in the amputee community and it’s brought me a lot closer to friends/family. It’s taught me a lot about the world and opened my eyes to many things I hadn’t realized before. Like how disabled people are treated in society and how inaccessible things are for others (just to name one example). It’s something I am passionate about now and if my accident hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have realized any of this.

Baggett recently received her new fingers, designed by Naked Prosthetics. See the fingers in action at imgur. -via reddit

(Images credit: natasha65232)

In 1909, there was a policeman at the 37th precinct in the Bronx who was a former sailor. He apparently annoyed his co-workers by bragging about his physical abilities back in his seafaring days, when he wasn't quite so stout. Bill O’Malley was called out to prove his stories when a distraught Mrs. Erickson came into the station to report an abused kitten.

“It was a shame, Captain, an outrage” she said. “You must send your men right away and have it stopped.” Her tears reportedly flowed so heavily that the captain could barely make sense of her words.

“Calm yourself, madam, and speak slowly, and I will help you,” he told her. Mrs. Erickson told him about the little kitten on top of a telephone pole, where it had perched since the day before.

“Wicked boys are throwing pieces of ice and sticks at it,” she said in between sobs. “If you don’t send your men right away to stop them I will climb the pole myself and bring down that kitten if it breaks my neck.”

Captain Post called for Policeman O’Malley, knowing he had once been a sailor. “You’re always bragging how you used to be a sailorman and loved to lay aloft in a howling gale,” the captain said. “Now, here’s your chance. If you can climb like you say you can, go with this lady and shin up that pole and save that kitten.”

O'Malley was game to give it a try, which you can read about at The Hatching Cat.

Executing condemned convicts is a task steeped in tradition, in order to kept it solemn, efficient, and fair (although many would argue with the last part). One part of the execution process we've become familiar with through movies and newspaper accounts is the last meal, in which a doomed prisoner can have anything he wants to eat. There's even a blog about them. How far back does that tradition go? It's possible that it may have grown out of feasts for Roman gladiators the night before battle.

Things began to pick up steam considerably on this front around the 16th century, however. Or, at least, things appear to have. It is entirely possible that such courtesies were widely granted before this to even the poor, with documented evidence of it simply not surviving. On that note, things like the printing press’ invention in the 15th century began making documented history of rather mundane events like the executions of random Joe Citizens more, well, documented. Thus, it may or may not be coincidence that accounts of such courtesies started to pop up more and more around the 16th century and progressing from there.

Whatever the case, by the 18th century, particularly in places like England, such practices were definitely around and relatively common. For example, in London it was common to allow the condemned to enjoy a meal with various guests, generally including the executioner, on the eve of the execution. Further, there is record of Newgate Prison death row inmates being allowed to stop at a pub on their march to their death at the Tyburn Fair gallows. At the pub, they would typically share drinks with their guards and executioner.

A prisoner's last meal before execution was treated differently over time and in different nations -and even in different states in the US. Read what Today I Found Out found out about the last meal before execution.

(Image credit: jeffreyw)

In a regular traffic video, you might feel a little guilty gawking at drivers slipping and sliding on ice. These drivers live for this sort of thing. And the photographers recording their antics might have a death wish, too, or maybe just a need for adrenaline. At least they don't encounter drivers coming from the opposite direction. This video was recorded at the 2020 Monte Carlo Rally held in France over the weekend. The course is deliberately designed to cover wet and dry roads, snow, ice, and twisting mountain routes. This video is from just one curve; there are plenty more from the rally at YouTube.  -via Digg

Louis Vuitton's Pre-Fall 2020 Look Book has taken the form of book covers. The fashion firm's creative director Nicolas Ghesquière has created a series of book covers featuring the style of well-known paperback books and set celebrities on the covers in new Louis Vuitton clothing. The books hint at science fiction, YA, horror, fantasy, gothic, and adventure stories inside.

“Fashion is a novel,” the brand claims in the look-book notes. And although the faux covers and posters draw inspiration from the ’70s and ’80s, the fashion is a mash-up of past, present, and future styles. Considering that Virgil Abloh, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director for menswear, predicted that the future of fashion means “expressing your knowledge and personal style with vintage,” it makes sense for the brand’s vision as a whole.

And moon boots. We'll all be wearing moon boots again. See all 24 of the covers at the Cut. -via Metafilter

(Images credit: Louis Vuitton)

Just now at Delancey and Norfolk in the Lower East Side an accident ran over a pedestrian trapping them under an SUV. Onlookers just lifted the SUV, dragging the victim out. pic.twitter.com/uq1IHcSJ9k

— help how do i change this (@colbydroscher) January 26, 2020

New York City residents are known for ignoring each other, but that's just a method of maintaining a sense of privacy in crowded living conditions. When the situation calls for it, strangers will band together to do what needs to be done. Sunday afternoon, a traffic accident pinned a 25-year-old woman underneath a car.

The woman was crossing Delancey in the crosswalk, police said, when a 65-year-old woman made a right turn from Norfolk St. and hit her, then struck a car stopped at a traffic light, causing a chain reaction of minor fender-benders.

The younger woman was pinned under the SUV. Video posted on Twitter shows one bystander run up to the rear wheel, as two more rush to help. More and more people crowd the heavy vehicle, surrounding it as they lift up the driver’s side to pull the woman to safety.

The woman suffered some pain and bruising, and was taken to a hospital to be checked out. -via reddit

This is Chesnut. He is a photogenic cat who has his own Instagram account. His human, ChazaySSB, posted these pics of Chestnut smiling for the camera on reddit last week, and they became an instant meme. See, it looks as if Chesnut is telling a joke that he thinks is uproariously funny. So everyone began putting words in his mouth. Here are a few examples- click to the right to see them.



There's always another bad Dad joke that Chesnut can tell. See 21 of them at Bored Panda.