The dodo was a flightless bird native to Mauritius, and was first described in 1598. It's been said that the dodo was so friendly that it would walk right up to people, making it easy to kill. These birds didn't have any natural predators besides man, and the last confirmed sighting was in 1662. That's barely a half-century that we knew about them, and afterward it wwa said that dodos were mythical all along. But they were real, and we have a few skeletons to prove it. But I just now learned that we really don't know what the dodo looked like! A few paintings were made, but these were often painted by artists who had never seen the actual bird.

Sir David Attenborough tells us what we know and what we don't know about the dodo, including some speculation on what they really looked like based on genetic testing. The animated dodo he is talking to may or may not be an accurate representative. Attenborough, however, is real in this clip from the PBS series Nature.  -via Born in Space 

In 1922, explorers discovered the tomb of Egypt's King Tutankhamun. Then we went a hundred years without finding the burial place of any pharaoh, until now. In 2022, a tomb was uncovered near Luxor that at first seemed to be for a royal woman. It was near the tomb of Hatshepsut, wife of Thutmose II, and near the wives of Thutmose III. But possessions found in the tomb more recently, namely alabaster flasks, have been identified as belonging to Thutmose II, so they believe this is his tomb. The mummy of Thutmose II was discovered in 1881, along with other royal Egyptian mummies that had been moved from their tombs. Experts believe that Thutmose's tomb may have become flood, and the contents removed after that. The mummy is housed at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, and we don't know if there are any plans to reunite this pharaoh with his original tomb. Read up on this singular discovery at Smithsonian. 

(Image credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)

People are very adaptable, and can make a culture out of a simple architectural feature. And thus it is with the iconic stoops of New York City. "Stoop" is a Dutch word for stairs, and in the 17th century, they built grand homes and apartment buildings in New Amsterdam with them for flood control reasons. But those stairs also became a front yard, a status symbol for those who kept servants in the basement, a garden, a place to socialize, and even a private store for the people who lived there. The stoop was the reason you knew all your neighbors. In the 20th century, the social aspect of the stoop started to fade away as more apartments had air conditioning, television, and later internet. But then the pandemic came along in 2020, and New Yorkers again returned to the stoop to get some human contact. -via Nag on the Lake

When sending out mass email notices, there's always the possibility of people responding with "reply all" instead of "reply." This results in an email storm as others engage, and any messages that try to stop the deluge only exacerbates it. It happened to the community of Berkeley, and to New York Times employees, and even to John Farrier. But not everyone is familiar with those stories, so it just keeps happening.

The latest high-profile email storm was initiated on Valentines Day, when author Susan Morrison sent out invitations to an event for her biography of Lorne Michaels. This email list was rich with celebrities, authors, and comedians. And many of them responded with "reply all," which not only gave us a glimpse into their tastes and schedules, but invited the wittier folks among them to contribute to the chaos. For example, Tina Fey sent everyone a link to a YouTube video explaining why you shouldn't use "reply all." Colin Jost then announced to everyone that Fey's link was malware, and the only way to save your computer was to continue using "reply all." See the highlights of this high-profile email storm here. -via Metafilter

They were both hot artists in the 1970s, but there was never a collaboration between John Denver and Black Sabbath. It would be hard to even conceive of such a thing. Yet here we are, all these years later, listening to Ozzie sing the lyrics of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" to the tune of "War Pigs." You can thank There I Ruined It (previously at Neatorama)

Rarely am I disappointed by a song from Dustin Ballard and company, and that's not saying I am disappointed with this one. However, when the music began began, I just wished it was the inverse, with Denver crooning the lyrics to "War Pigs." Lo and behold, we get a tiny snippet of such a song at the end. It's only 15 seconds worth, but you take what you can get. If the public demand is there, we may hear the entire song in the future.

How many planets can you see at the same time? Your opportunity to see seven of them at once is coming February 23–26. But since you can see Earth any time, you can consider this a chance to see all the planets of the solar system together! Oh, they won't look like the image above, which is not to scale, but it will be a sight to remember. There are some caveats- you must be between three degrees south and 42 degrees north. I snagged a couple of maps from Wikipedia to show you where that is (sorry, Europe).

You also need to have binoculars or a telescope to see Uranus and Neptune, and you will need to get away from earthly light sources. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are already lining up above the horizon, and Mercury will join them in a couple of days. Find out the best way to see this unique parade of planets, which won't happen again until 2036, at Newsweek.  -via Real Clear Science

(Top image credit: NASA; map images credit: TUBS)

Although it may be hard for most of us to imagine, there are people who don't experience mental imagery, or seeing pictures in your head. Most of us can conjure up images from memory, imagination, or an external description without much effort. About 4% of people cannot do that, although they think and navigate the world just fine. This condition is called aphantasia. It's not really a disability, and many folks who have it are completely unaware. How can you know that the way you think is any different from the way other people think? I can't imagine what it would be like to think without visualizing what I'm thinking, so why would people with aphantasia be able to imagine what those images in the "mind's eye" are like?

Scientists have been studying people with aphantasia, and have found some interesting things about people who have it. This TED-Ed lesson from Adam Zeman tries to explain what aphantasia is like. -via Laughing Squid

Among the many occupations of the Victoria era that no longer exist, you can count the cat's meat man. These were vendors who went from house to house selling fresh meat for cats and dogs. Dogs had always been both working and companion animals, but cats were rising in popularity among city dwellers as members of the family as well as pest control experts, and those who loved them were willing to buy meat for them. These vendors sold horse meat as well as organ meat and other castoff pieces from beef and pork slaughterhouses. In the mid-19th century, there were a thousand cat's meat men in London serving some 300,000 cats, and quite a few dogs as well.

The history of the profession had its ups and downs. Just the title was confusing- did these fellows sell meat for cats, or the meat of cats? There were always whispers of the latter, and even worse when one of Jack the Ripper's victims was found at the back door of a juvenile cat's meat man. But overall, the cat's meat men's services were appreciated. In 1901, 250 of the vendors gathered to enjoy an appreciation banquet sponsored by the new magazine Our Cats, and presided over by famous cat lover and artist Louis Wain. Read up on the cat's meat men of London at the Public Domain Review.  -via Nag on the Lake

Here's a story that illustrates the problems that arise when civilization encroaches on wildlife. A leopard mother will often leave her babies someplace she thinks is safe while she hunts. But this one left three cubs in a field that was plowed for crops, which isn't safe at all. She might have retrieved them soon, but someone took the cubs in as abandoned. We don't find out from the video where this was, but it's from Wildlife SOS, which operates in India, mainly to save elephants, so that may be a clue. Anyway, the best place for leopard cubs is with their mother. Volunteers took the cubs to the place where the mother was last spotted (or last seen, as she is presumed to be spotted at all times). And here you have to consider the bravery of the person who is carrying a litter of leopard cubs in the dark where you know the mom is hiding. That's true dedication to the mission! Still, this story has a happy ending, and if anyone was injured, they would have told us about it.   

There are truth in advertising laws that tell us you can't label a food product as "butter" if it has no butter in it. But you can label a butter substitute as "I can't believe it's not butter." Some say you only need the second half of that phrase, while the company hopes you only focus on the last word. But I digress. Truth in advertising laws won't help you when a product has used the same name for a hundred years or more. A young American might hear of black pudding and assume it's a creamy chocolaty sweet dessert. It is not. There is no seafood in Rocky Mountain oysters. An egg cream contains no egg nor any cream. And refried beans have only been fried once. That particular misleading name has a logical explanation having to do with the differences between Spanish and English. The Takeout gives us the real ingredients in 14 foods with misleading names, and explains how they were named. -via Fark

(Image credit: Stanistani)

Hurricane was a 69-pound black Belgian Malinois whose career in the Secret Service left him the most decorated dog in American history. In October of 2014, he took down an intruder who had scaled the White House fence and made it to within 100 yards of President Obama and the First Lady. He raced from the east side of the lawn as the intruder fought off another Secret Service dog. Hurricane suffered injuries in the incident that forced him into retirement in 2016. His actions caused the Secret Service to employ more guard dogs to White House duty.

Hurricane was awarded the Secretary’s Award for Valor from the Department of Homeland Security in 2015 and the Distinguished Service Medal in 2022, among other awards. After retirement, his handler Marshall Mirarchi founded a charity called Hurricane's Heroes that provides veterinary care for retired law enforcement and military dogs. Hurricane became an ambassador for the organization, and excelled at that job, too, since he was able to socialize and even play with children while off duty, a quality not found in most security dogs. At almost 16 years of age, Hurricane made one last trip to the White House on February 12th and met with the entire K9 team before he was put down. He was a good dog. -via Metafilter

The movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the first of the Harry Potter films, released in 2001. It was known as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone everywhere besides the US, India, and the Philippines. You would have thought that Screen Junkies would have already done an Honest Trailer for the movie, and they sort of did many years ago. But that was a quick overview of all the Harry Potter films, and didn't go into depth with any of them. However, the first four Harry Potter movies are being re-released in theaters this year, with The Sorcerer's Stone now playing in select theaters.

Oh, they find enough to criticize in the film, but your reaction will most likely be "Man! Those actors are young! And short!" After all, it was 24 years ago and they were little kids who all grew up to be famous adult actors long before their time at Hogwarts ended.

Over at TYWKIWDBI, Minnesotastan talks about natural tree fractures and what to do about them. You can trim a tree to promote scar tissue and recovery, but not all broken trees can be saved. Sure, you can just remove a broken tree, but there's a better solution. "Fracture pruning" and specifically "coronet cuts" are practices that promote rotting. But why would you promote rotting? It couldn't be good for the tree!

No, but it would be good for the tree's descendants, and other species of plants, animals, insects, fungus, and microorganisms. A dead tree, or a rotting log on the forest floor, is an entire ecosystem. Different kinds of fungus break down the hard parts of the wood, softening it enough for insects to move in. Birds, bats, and other animals come and eat the insects and the fungus. The softening tree provides shelter for some species and nutrition for others, including new plants that may take root there, from mosses to trees. Meanwhile, the decaying wood that isn't consumed becomes compost for the forest floor. Read about the crucial role of rotting wood in a forest ecosystem at Knowable magazine.

(Image credit: redditor narkotikahaj)

NASA has released the results of its engine performance tests on the new X-59 research jet, which is not built for space, but has the potential to change air travel down here on earth. You might not know this, but civilian planes that travel faster than the speed of sound were banned in the US in 1973 because their sonic booms could shatter glass and frightened the daylights out of people on the ground. And that's why passenger jets cannot travel at 800 miles per hour. Even in Europe, the Concorde was phased out for being too expensive to operate.

But NASA intends to upgrade commercial flight with the X-59, bringing back airline travel at faster than the speed of sound. The X-59 not only has a quieter jet engine, it is mounted on top of the plane to reduce shock waves going to the ground. It also sports a slim fuselage that can slice through the air, again reducing shock waves.



They would have done much better getting their point across if they showed us the jet with natural sound. Read up on the advantages of the supersonic X-59 jet at Gizmodo.   

(Top image credit: Lockheed Martin/Gary Tice)

Children's books are under the gun, but it's been that way for a long time. Usually it's for content that may be too sexual for some tastes, or too violent, or because someone's feelings were hurt. Sometimes the most innocuous books get a ban because people read things into them that aren't there at all, which tells us more about the book critic than about the book itself.

If you were to read a line in a children's book that said a character licked his lips, a well-read person would know that means they were anticipating eating something tasty. But that went completely over someone's head, or quite a few someones, because that was the line that got James and the Giant Peach banned in Wisconsin once. A spider licked her lips and that was interpreted as being overly sexual. Read about that case and those of eight other books that were banned for the strangest reasons at Cracked.