When Apollo 11 touched down on the moon in July of 1969, the Space Race was won. At the time, the USSR's space missions were kept secret, and the US didn't know their plans and progress until after the fact, so there was some suspense about Russians beating us to the moon. The Soviet Union never landed on the moon. As time went by, many of us assumed that the risk and expense of coming in second was not worth it to the USSR, but that's only a small part of the story. As the long-buried stories of the Soviet space program have been revealed, we've learned that they were never even close to beating the US to the moon.  

The documents from April 1963 testify how the Soviet engineers just completed an analysis of 26 different scenarios for the lunar expedition and were only able to narrow them down to four diverse architectures, which still needed more detailed studies before the final plan could be picked. In retrospect, it's stunning to see how far from the final architecture, these four finalist scenarios had been with the plan's less-than-feasible hopes for multiple launches of super-rockets, yet-to-be-tried docking procedures, and ambitious refueling in Earth’s orbit.

For comparison, in the middle of 1962, fathers of the Apollo project had already favored the rendezvous in the lunar orbit as the key element of the flight scenario and a single-launch architecture, thus clearing the way for a fast-paced development of the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo missions.

Even at this early paper phase—when serious investments of money and materiel had not been required from the Kremlin—the Soviet engineers were almost a year behind the U.S., and it went only downhill from there for the Soviets.

But the Soviets carried on, to the point of testing the N-1 rocket, built to go to the moon, in the summer of 1969. Read how that spelled the end of the Soviet moon mission at Popular Mechanics. -via Digg

Redditor emilou09 asked, "I’m cooking one meal from every state in the United States, what meal best represents your state?" It's an ongoing project for her that you can follow at Instagram, where she is so far only in the states that begin with A. The response has been overwhelming, with thousands of suggestions. But life's not fair: there are dozens of iconic dishes from Louisiana and all are correct, while no one seems to know what they eat in Connecticut. Meanwhile, I had to keep checking Wikipedia for food terms that are new to me.

Laulau (Hawaii)

In old Hawaii laulau was assembled by taking a few luau leaves and placing a few pieces of fish and pork in the center. In modern times, the dish uses taro leaves, salted butterfish, and either pork, beef, or chicken and is usually steamed on the stove. Laulau is a typical plate lunch dish and is usually served with a side of rice and macaroni salad.[1]

Jojos (Oregon)

Jojos are potato wedges fried in the same vat as chicken and usually eaten plain alongside fried chicken, coleslaw, and baked beans.[2]

Tri-tip (California)

The tri-tip is a triangular cut of beef from the bottom sirloin subprimal cut, consisting of the tensor fasciae latae muscle. Untrimmed, the tri-tip weighs around 5 pounds.[1]

Sometimes labeled "Santa Maria steak," the roast is quite popular in the Central Valley regions and the Central Coast of California.[10] Along with top sirloin, tri-tip is considered central to Santa Maria-style barbecue. In central California, the fat is left on the outside of the cut to enhance flavor when grilling, while butchers elsewhere trim the fat side for aesthetic purposes.

Runza (Nebraska)

A runza (also called a bierock, krautburger, fleischkuche, or kraut pirok) is a yeast dough bread pocket with a filling consisting of beef, cabbage or sauerkraut, onions, and seasonings.

Knoephla (North Dakota)

Traditional knoephla soup is a thick chicken and potato soup, almost to the point of being a stew. It is particularly common in the U.S. states of Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota, where there was significant settlement of German emigrants from the Russian Empire.

Mofongo (Puerto Rico)

Mofongo (Spanish pronunciation: [moˈfoŋɡo]) is a Puerto Rican dish with fried plantains as its main ingredient.[1] Plantains are picked green and fried, then mashed with salt, garlic, and oil in a wooden pilón (mortar and pestle).[2][3] The goal is to produce a tight ball of mashed plantains that will absorb the attending condiments and have either pork cracklings (Chicharrón) or bits of bacon inside. Most dressings and mixtures include broth, garlic, and olive oil. It is traditionally served with fried meat and chicken broth soup.[4] Particular flavors result from variations that include vegetables, chicken, shrimp, beef, or octopus packed inside or around the plantain orb.

Chislic (South Dakota)

Chislic (or sometimes chislick) is a traditional dish of cubed red meat most commonly localized to the state of South Dakota (United States). Traditionally made from mutton or lamb, but has also been associated with wild game, deer and venison mostly, and even cubed beef steak depending on preparation.

You may want to peruse the many responses at reddit, and in the discussion at Metafilter, but be aware that they will make you hungry at some point.

Cup stacking is a real sport, with real teams and real competitions. You'll be impressed when you see what they do, then you learn some of the tricks and tips, and the history the sport. -via The Kid Should See This

Like buried treasure, 36 Chevy Corvettes sat in several garages for 25 years. They belonged to artist Peter Max, who had planned to use the vehicles for an art project that never came to fruition. In 2014, they were finally purchased by two families of auto aficionados with intentions of examining each car individually for its potential.  

As it turns out, the tale of how 36 Chevrolet Corvettes can go instantaneously from making TV headlines to disappearing in plain sight for a quarter-century isn't as nefarious as one might suspect. Back in 1988, long before VH1 dumped actual music for reality-based programming, the network figured it could tap into its then baby-boomer demographic and snag some ratings with a mega promotion based on the iconic Corvette. So the network enlisted a producer to gather 36 Vettes, one from each production year from 1953 to 1989 (the 1983 model year was skipped when production was halted to prepare for the launch of the '84 C4). The giveaway was a call-in affair that required contestants to enter by dialing a 900 number at the cost of $2 per call. By the time VH1 had milked this promotion for all it was worth, more than a million people had entered.

Max bought the whole collection from the contest winner, but never did anything with them. The story has been updated. Five years on, some of the cars have been completely restored, while others have been simply "spruced up." And you could get your hands on one, if you're lucky.

The owners of the collection, the Heller and Spindler families, formed the Corvette Heroes entity to raffle off the cars with proceeds going to the National Guard Educational Foundation (NGEF) and numerous additional charities that benefit veterans. Each entry is good for one car, and you cannot pick the car you wish to win; the deadline for entries is 12:00 p.m. Pacific time, April 30, 2020. The drawing will take place at an independent auditors' firm on or about 14 days later.

See more pictures of the Corvettes and enter the raffle at the Corvette heroes website. Tickets are $3 each, or less if you buy multiple tickets. You can also enter without a donation by instructions on the rules page. -via reddit

Deadpool made his presence known in the halls of Comic Con this past weekend. Watch as he flirts, photobombs, and performs various shenanigans among the cosplayers and fans. He gets away with it because he is Deadpool! -via Geeks Are Sexy

If you're looking for the traditional dishes of Iceland without going to Iceland, you might consider a trip to New Iceland, an area on the shores of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. New Iceland is sparsely populated (as is Iceland), but that's where you'll find rúllupylsa in both grocery stores and restaurants, and Brennivin to drink, with vínarterta for dessert. Tourists from Iceland love to stop by for a taste of home on their North American trips. The founding of New Iceland might remind you of stories of other, more familiar settlements.

The origins of this delicious diaspora are explosive. Following a volcanic eruption in 1875 that starved livestock, crippled the economy, and punctuated an ongoing series of hardships, Sigtryggur Jonasson, who had recently arrived in Canada, traveled home with a booklet titled Nýja Ísland I Kanada, or New Iceland In Canada, which Canadian officials wanted to distribute as part of an effort to attract immigrants to the lightly populated area. Over the next few decades, some 20% of Iceland’s population emigrated to North America, mainly to Canada. Jonasson became known as the Father of New Iceland, and Icelanders eventually settled, by being towed on flat boats, on Lake Winnipeg, where they hoped to fish and govern themselves in the remote territory. They named the capital of New Iceland Gimli, Icelandic for “paradise.”

But it wasn’t quite. Even hardened Icelanders weren’t prepared for the cold winters, and many died from scurvy and a smallpox epidemic during the first years. According to Stefan Jonasson, a Winnipeg-based New Iceland historian and editor of the community newspaper Lögberg-Heimskringla, at least one setter stored bodies in cold sheds until spring thaw when they could be buried. The newcomers survived in large part thanks to First Nations people, who taught these ocean-fishing immigrants how to set a net four feet under the frozen lake’s ice. The bond formed between First Nations and Icelanders persists today—intermarriage was common, as well as culinary exchanges. Many nearby First Nations families still make Icelandic dishes.

In some ways, New Iceland is more traditionally Icelandic than Iceland itself. Read about New Iceland and its cuisine at Atlas Obscura. 

(Image credit: Micah Grubert Van Iderstine)

Animator Tibo Charroppin has a muse: his cat, Lizzy. Not only is Lizzy a good cat, she can step in for any movie star in any movie, or just improve a film with her presence. Lizzy has become a famous internet star known as OwlKitty.   

Aside from being “just really stinking cute,” Lizzy is a seamless star in these blockbusters thanks to Charroppin’s animation and video manipulation skills. With the help of a green screen and a knack for impeccable timing, Lizzy swats, pounces, and scratches her way into the center of everything. The videos are meant to make you laugh, which is why Charroppin began creating them in the first place. “We [he and Olivia, Lizzy’s mom] started this account,” he says, “wanting to make stupid videos for our friends and it really blew out of proportion.” But, there is a heartwarming, earnest point to all the fun. “We’re trying to show that shelter cats, adopted cats, foster cats,” Olivia explains, “that they all have this star power.”

Charroppin gives us a look behind the scenes of making these movies here. See a collection of the best OwlKitty movies, including Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Rogue One, John Wick, The Matrix, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at My Modern Met. Keep up with all the Owlkitty videos, pics, and magazine covers at Instagram.  -via Everlasting Blort

Mandarin Chinese : 脱了裤子放屁

English Translation: To do things the hard way.

Literal Translation: “Remove one’s trousers in order to fart”

— Ciaran Fitzpatrick (@CCFitzpatrick95) July 19, 2019

Twitter user @jazz_inmypants has only recently discovered the phrase "not my circus, not my monkey,” but in Polish. His Tweet about it drew people from all over to contribute idioms in various languages that you may want to adopt yourself. There are some 2,600 responses so far.  



There are more in the discussion at Metafilter. From jklaiho:

A couple of Finnish ones I didn’t see there:

”Ei ole kaikki Muumit laaksossa”
Approximately: to not be all there
Literally: to not have all of their Moomins in the valley

”Aina ei mene nallekarkit tasan”
Approx.: life’s not fair
Lit.: the gummi bears are not always divided evenly

And there's this one from Mefite alchemist that paints a picture:

“Der er ingen ko på isen"

Language: Danish

Literal: “there is no cow on the ice”

English Equivalent: “we have no problem/everything is OK”

Another favourite: "Cocodrilo que se durmió, es cartera"
Language: Spanish
English equivalent: It's a jungle out there
Literally: "The Crocodile that fell asleep is now a purse"

— Joe Shed (@redactednerd) July 21, 2019

You can browse all the responses at Twitter.  -via Metafilter

Large swaths of the US have been suffering under extreme heat the past few days. police in Braintree, Massachusetts went so far as to plead with the public on Facebook to keep a lid on things until cooler weather returns, because it's just too hot to fight crime. CNN had to confirm the story.

Yes, a police department really used the phrase "hot as soccer balls."

The department confirmed to CNN Saturday that the post is, indeed, legit.

Although we hate to say "cooler," as it might get people's hopes up, we can say less drastic temperatures are expected in the coming week. You have to wonder if the Braintree Police will end up busier than ever when that happens. -via Fark

Bootleggers are people who sell illegal alcohol, often meaning untaxed alcohol, although the term has widened to mean the selling of any illegal or unofficial goods. Simon Whistler explains the origin of the term, but there's a lot more here than just etymology. We also learn a lot of trivia about Prohibition.

Xafi and Auri are Russian blue cats with mesmerizing green eyes. Those eyes are ringed in yellow, and become more blue toward the center of the iris, so the overall look changes depending on how dilated their eyes are at the moment.    



Xafi and Auri are sisters, but not litter mates, and live in Reading, UK. Their relatively new housemate is a Somali cat named Errol.



Find out more about Xafi and Auri at their website, and keep up with their photographs at Instagram. -via Nag on the Lake  

David Warren was only eight years old when his missionary father died in a plane crash in 1934. His father's last gift had been a crystal radio set, which sparked David's interest in science and technology.

By his mid-twenties, David Warren had studied his way to a science degree from the University of Sydney, a diploma in education from Melbourne University and a PhD in chemistry from Imperial College, London.

His specialty was rocket science, and he went to work as a researcher for the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL), a part of Australia's Defence Department that focused on planes.

In 1953, the department loaned him to an expert panel trying to solve a costly and distressing mystery: why did the British de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner and the great hope of the new Jet Age, keep crashing?

The problem was the lack of evidence. Warren thought about devising a way to record what happened in a plane during a flight, just in case something went wrong. His boss didn't want him to work on it. Pilots hated the idea. But Warren knew it was a useful idea. Read the story of how David Warren invented the "black box" flight recorder (which was never black) at BBC News.  -Thanks, WTM!
 
(Image credit: the Warren Family)

San Diego Comic Con is a traditional venue for big pop culture announcements, and Marvel is continuing its rollout of announcements at the convention. Yes, there will be a Thor 4, specifically titled Thor: Love And Thunder, in which the superhero god is played by ...Natalie Portman.

Notably, Chris Hemsworth will also star in Thor: Love And Thunder, so he’s still Thor (?), but Portman’s Foster will be The Mighty Thor. Well, in addition to this development providing fodder for so many fan theories to come over the next two years (this movie is currently scheduled for November 5, 2021) there’s the matters of confusion to address: (1) Portman’s height is 5’3″ according to Google, so the idea of her as Mighty Thor is, well, something that folks will have to digest; (2) Portman was, according to Hollywood Reporter, reportedly dissatisfied while working on Thor: The Dark World (in part due to Patty Jenkins’ departure) and told Vanity Fair in 2016 that she was done with the MCU.

Read more of the MCU Phase Four news at Uproxx. 

I honestly don't recall any scene even close to this, and I've seen lot of old movies. But still, he makes us laugh at the melodrama, a feature film's worth squeezed into a minute and a half. Joel Haver plays both parts. -via Digg

Human beings first walked on the moon 50 years ago, and the very last manned moon mission was only three years later. What's changed in that time? A lot of things here on earth, but what about on the moon?

Buzz Aldrin, seeing the moon from the surface for the first time, described it as “magnificent desolation.”

It was not so desolate when they departed. The Apollo 11 astronauts discarded gadgets, tools, and the clothesline contraption that moved boxes of lunar samples, one by one, from the surface into the module. They left behind commemorative objects—that resplendent American flag, mission patches and medals honoring fallen astronauts and cosmonauts, a coin-size silicon disk bearing goodwill messages from the world leaders of planet Earth. And they dumped things that weren’t really advertised to the public, for understandable reasons, such as defecation-collection devices. (Some scientists, curious to examine how gut microbes fare in low gravity, even proposed going back for these.)

But are those things still there? There have been photographs taken of the Apollo 11 landing site in the years since, from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. What those photos don't show us, scientists can extrapolate from other sources. Read about the historical Apollo 11 landing site at the Atlantic.

(Image credit: Ruby Aitken)