The Secret Polish Army was a group of underground resistance fighters who schemed against the Nazi occupation of Poland. Witold Pilecki, a military veteran, held a rather high position in the organization, and would do anything to aid his country. That included volunteering to get himself arrested in order to investigate what was going on at the Auschwitiz detention camp. That was in 1940, before the camp became a facility to kill as many inmates as possible, but it already had a reputation for brutality.

For two and a half years, Pilecki observed the transformation of Auschwitz into a death camp, and he managed to smuggle out reports to the Polish resistance and the Allies. He eventually urged the Allies to bomb the camp, but those who received the messages had a hard time believing the horrors that Pilecki reported. Their inaction convinced Pilecki that he had to escape on order to get their attention. Read the story of Polish resistance hero Witold Pilecki at Smithsonian.

Vampires in folklore were originally just corpses that came back from the grave to terrorize the living. You didn't need to actually see one to be afraid of them. When these monsters entered literature, they began to be more attractive. In the cinematic age, they are downright sexy. Well, literature, theater, and movie producers know they attract bigger audiences with a sexy antagonist. But even more than that, the story is easier to tell when a monster can draw victims into his clutches. That's the easy answer. But it's even more than that- an attractive and charming vampire makes the story closer to real life, because most people have encountered a sexy and charming love interest who then turned out to be a monster of some sort. Dr. Emily Zarka of Monstrum goes deep into the evolution of vampires from obvious monsters that we would all run away from to seductive shape-shifters that we are drawn to -with some notable exceptions.  

For two days now, 133 cardinals have been sequestered to elect a new pope. Ballots have been burned twice, producing black smoke, but no white smoke has been seen, which would indicate an election. While we are waiting, you might distract yourself by throwing your own hat into the ring. Virtually, of course, so you don't have to be a priest, an unmarried man, or even a Catholic. The game White Smoke has you competing for the position of pope. It's an old-style adventure game where you are given scenarios and you decide what to do next. You can do the politically ambitious thing, the expedient thing, or the selfless thing, but if you want to be the next pope, your selections should be ruthless while still displaying some virtue. The results may seem arbitrary, of course. You don't know what all the other cardinals are doing behind the scenes.  



I was elected pope on the first attempt. However, that might be more luck than skill. Your mileage may vary. -via Metafilter

Update: The new pope has been installed. He is an American.

In the latest theoretical scenario explored in the What If? series (previously at Neatorama), someone asked "What if you had all the money in the world?" It sounds like a case of wishful thinking, but all the money in the world wouldn't solve your problems, it would just be another problem. First off, it would instantly become useless, because money is merely a medium of exchange, and it's of no consequence when it's not exchanged. The rest of the world would just find some other way to keep track of trade, rendering your "money" worthless. But that would be too simple for an answer in the What If? series, so Randall Munroe and Henry Reich looked at the question from a different direction. Considering cash only, how big of a pile of money would you have, and how would you store it? It's a purely logistical view, but still interesting.

This map by Ian Wright at Brilliant Maps shows us the ten largest cities in Europe by population. Moscow is no surprise, and the others are plausible, but then... Ruhr? With 5.3 million people? I had to look it up, since I wasn't familiar with this city.

As with any project of this sort, you have to establish rules for your list. Do you go by population within the city limits, or the metropolitan area? That's difficult, as metropolitan areas can contain other cities. Wright decided to measure population from a city center to a circle 30 kilometers from that point. Totals are therefore understandably different from various official accounts, as each country calculates population counts differently. But then there's Ruhr, an area in Germany bordered by three rivers which contains several large cities that spread so much that they butt up against each other. Placing a circle with a 30 kilometer radius to encompass the highest population gives us 5.3 million.

You could also quibble about Istanbul if you wanted to, since 35% of the city's population lives in Asia, but why would you want to? Read more about the biggest cities in Europe, including those outside the top ten, at Brilliant Maps.  -via Nag on the Lake  

(Image credit: Frierfjord1)

Years ago, when my mother got a new car, I got her old gray Camry. Suddenly I became aware of how many gray Camrys there are. Once in a parking lot, I spotted four parked side-by-side. How did I never notice that before? At the same time, my mother said, "Have you ever noticed how many red cars there are on the road?" No I hadn't, because she was the one driving a new red car. This is called the frequency illusion, and Minute Earth explains it with a much more interesting example. There aren't suddenly more cars of your kind on the road, it's the fact that you never paid attention to that particular model before. This can happen with any new thing you encounter, like headless goat hockey, which we have covered before, although it's been a long time. This video is only 3:20; the rest is promotional.

Everyone's heard of the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans, the prestigious endurance race in Le Mans, France. But you have a much better chance of seeing the 24 Hours of Lemons, since there are a couple of dozen such events across the US every year. The real difference is that this race is restricted to cars that cost $500 or less. Safety equipment can be extra. Drivers come from across the country to compete in the 24 Hours of Lemons races, not so much to win fabulous prizes, but for the fun. Winning the race takes a back seat to the goal of finishing the race, but even that is less important than the comaraderie and laughs.

Cars show up with outrageous paint jobs and decorations, and teams often wear costumes. The cars are sorted into classes, ranging from "strong and reliable" to "more personality than power." The judges can be bribed. The races are spread out over two days, and a lot of time is spent on repairs. The winners get prizes, but there are also prizes for such things as the worst brakes. It's not that unusual to see cars being pushed over the finish line. Read about the 24 Hours of Lemons races at NPR. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Jcordle)

Screen Junkies has gotten into the habit of going back and producing an Honest Trailer for older movies that are still relevant, but I don't believe they've ever done one for a movie that is 50 years old! However, Monty Python and the Holy Grail recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and people are still watching -and quoting- the film. So what do modern irreverent film critics have to say about Monty Python and the Holy Grail? They pretty much think it is a silly place and then fart in your general direction. Meanwhile, we get to relive the best parts of the movie in a series of clips, plus learn some trivia and see some easter eggs that only become clear after multiple viewings. Oh, we also catch a glimpse of the pop culture juggernaut that movie became years later, and catch up with what the Pythons have been doing in the 50 years since.

Album cover art may be a dying medium, but we still recall the covers that became classics. Digital artist Steven Lear, who goes by WhyTheLongPlayFace online, uses the album covers we know best in his pop culture mashups. They are more than just mashups, though, as many of them are puns connecting the cover/title/musical act with some other piece of pop culture. Anyone who has ever looked into long play albums recognizes the image above, even after Lear turned a prism into the Death Star.

Because not all classic album covers are so instantly recognizable by everyone, Moss and Fog celebrated Star Wars Day by posting a gallery of Lear's Star Wars mashups alongside the original album cover art, so you can see how far he's taken the concept... to be exact, he's taken them into a galaxy far, far away. See more of Lear's album cover mashups (they're not all Star Wars) at Instagram.

Emily and Shawn adopted a dog that was rescued by the organization We Love Satos from the woods in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The long distance adoption was because Nina is a special needs dog. Her eyelids do not cover her eyes, her mouth doesn't cover her snaggleteeth, and she has very little hair. Her eyelids, or lack thereof, require regular care, but otherwise, Nina is a happy and well-adjusted dog. She just looks like a chupacabra.

They had Nina's DNA checked, and the test came back with a long list of breeds that she may have in her ancestry. She looks a lot like a xoloitzcuintle to me, which is a rare breed that can be hairless and is known for dental abnormalities. Veterinarians believe Nina has a chromosomal defect, but she is living her best life with Emily and Shawn. You can see more of Nina and her family at Instagram.

The Instagram account Ode to German Words introduces us to compound words and idioms that convey modern situations and feelings we can all relate to. They range from expressions of joy to scathing insults, all illustrated in cute graphics with further explanations and fun facts in the initial comment. Treppenwitz is both a situation and a feeling that we've all had, but also have had to use way too many words to describe it.  



Oh, English has a rather short phrase for "I don't care," but this one is much more colorful. Continue reading to see some more highlights.

During the Scramble for Africa in the 19th century, there were so many atrocities committed that you will be forgiven if you aren't familiar with The Jameson Affair. In fact, most of the horrific events of those years were never documented. James Sligo Jameson, a naturalist and heir to the Jameson Whiskey fortune, went on an expedition to the Congo in 1887 and died there a year later. The expedition suffered from supply issues and lack of support from the locals because of Jameson's relationship with a slave trader. Jameson was known to have been fascinated with the tales of cannibalism in Africa. After Jameson's death in 1888 in the Congo, excerpts from his diary and accounts from eyewitnesses tell of the day Jameson purchased a 10-year-old girl in order to witness her ritual murder and the consumption of her flesh. If you want more details after watching this video from Weird History, check out Jameson's entry at Wikipedia.

 

In 1946, renowned author Lin Yutang filed a patent for a typewriter that printed Chinese characters. This is the MingKwai typewriter, with a reasonable number of keys. By pressing two keys, eight characters from thousands in the machine's mechanical hard drive would appear in the typewriter's "magic eye" window. Pressing a third key would select from those and print the character. It was the first Chinese typewriter with a workable keyboard. Lin sank his life savings into producing a prototype in the United States, but the typewriter did not appear to be a profit-making venture, and was never mass produced. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Revolution happened. Lin moved from China to Taiwan in 1966. The prototype MingKwai typewriter remained in New York and became lost.

Fast-forward to January of 2025, and Nelson Felix was cleaning out his wife's grandfather's basement. He found a strange typewriter with Chinese characters and posted it to the Facebook group What’s My Typewriter Worth? The comment section exploded with information about the historical significance of the find and offers to buy it. There were also pleas to donate the typewriter to museums in China or Taiwan. The typewriter ultimately ended up at Stanford University. Read the story of Lin, his typewriter, and how it stayed in a basement in Queens for decades, at Made in China. -via Metafilter

Get a closer look at the typewriter in this video.

I just learned about Pub Choir from an unrelated video at kottke. Pub Choir is an Australian project led by Astrid Jorgensen where people go and learn to sing popular songs in three-part harmony. They describe it as an "ENTIRELY improvised, comedy music lesson." It's somewhat similar to the Toronto-based Choir! Choir! Choir! You don't have to be a singer to join the fun, and in fact non-singers are encouraged to participate because many voices make it much easier for shy people to belt out a tune.

At every Pub Choir show since 2022, one of the things they did was record all the participants singing at least one line from Queen's operatic anthem "Bohemian Rhapsody" for a project almost three years in the making. Now all those shows have been compiled into one video. The participants totaled more than a hundred thousand singers! See more Pub Choir videos at their site.   

The German magazine Stern had a journalist who was an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia. Gerd Heidemann was so avid that he once bought Hermann Göring's yacht and restored it. During that project he dated Göring's daughter and met a lot of former Nazis. So when Heidemann managed to get his hands on 60 volumes in Hitler's handwriting, his bosses were inclined to believe these were diaries Hitler kept from 1932 to 1945. A renowned historian examined the diaries and their provenance and believed they were genuine. So Stern paid an enormous amount of money for the volumes in 1983. As word got around, Rupert Murdoch paid for the right to publish the dairies in his British newspaper The Sunday Times.

But as The Sunday Times announced their world exclusive, a day before Stern published the story of the diaries' discovery, doubt were starting to add up about the authenticity of the books. Find out how the fake diaries was unearthed and who actually wrote them at BBC Culture. -via Strange Company