In 1984, Weird Al Yankovic released "Eat It," a parody of Michael Jackson's mega-hit "Beat It." The official video for "Eat It" was a shot-for-shot remaking of Jackson's video, only funnier. But it wasn't the only version recorded. Recently, a friend of Yankovic's came across a "B-roll" as he was digitizing footage of the video shoot. From Yankovic's YouTube page:

Basically this is a take where the director just points the camera at the star of the video, who just does anything they feel like doing for the duration of the song.  It's insurance, in case for some reason the production runs out of time and doesn't get all the shots they were hoping to get. I'm pretty sure NOTHING from this take got used in the final video, but I still thought it was stupid/amusing enough to share.

Indeed it is. It's basically three minutes of Yankovic playing with food as he lip-syncs, just as you'd expect. -via Digg

 

Norway is home to many ancient petroglyphs showing boats dating back 3000 years and more. The conventional wisdom about these petroglyphs was that they were religious icons, a fantasy showing people departing for the afterlife. But great leaps in archaeology over the past few years lead scientists to believe that these were real boats that carried large crews all over Europe, as far as Italy, for trade. Advances in precise dating of the petroglyphs, along with discoveries of settlements and DNA sequencing, show that Norway had a rather Viking-like Bronze Age society 3000 years ago, long before the Vikings who ruled for just 300 years around a thousand years ago.  

The Bronze Age saw a great leap forward in civilization, as societies learned the many uses of metal. There is no evidence of tin or copper mining among Bronze Age Norwegians, but they had bronze. Previously thought to be nomads, recent digs have revealed that people lived in elaborate settlements of the era, complete with tools and jewelry made of bronze ands other metals brought in from far away. DNA from 3000-year-old remains indicate that while almost all men were local, many of the women came from other nations. This indicates a booming trade between Bronze Age Norwegians and other countries of Europe.

A recently-discovered boat dating back to just after the end of the Bronze Age is very much like the ancient petroglyphs, and shows that ancient Norwegian boats were fairly sophisticated, made from planks of wood instead of only shaped logs as was previously thought.    

So what happened to this Viking-like Norwegian Bronze Age society? The petroglyphs of the later Bronze Age depicted smaller ships and more illustrations of conflict. Temperatures dropped, and made travel more difficult. And as the Iron Age began, the ingredients for bronze no longer had to be imported, because iron was available in Norway. And so Norwegians kept more to themselves for another two thousands years until the Vikings struck out to conquer the world. Read about these recent findings and what they tell us at Science Norway.

(Image credit: Erik Irgens Johnsen/Museum of Cultural History)

Trey Anastasio, guitarist, singer, and songwriter with Phish, performed a solo show in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Monday. In the audience was a little barefoot girl with a sign that said, "Can I sing Bug with you?" Anastasio called her up on stage and let her perform, and the crowd loved it. So will you. Jovi is confident yet a tiny bit hesitant, and doesn't really know what to make of the applause, but she keeps her adorable smile on and keeps going with the song. You don't have to be familiar with the song or even with Phish to enjoy the sweet interaction between Anastasio, 7-year-old Jovi, and the crowd. -via Metafilter 

In any era, there is the end of an era. We don't know what event will be the last until long afterward, but the last Old West train robbery turned out to be quite a story. By the turn of the 20th century, the outlaws of the Old West were becoming more outnumbered by law-abiding folks every day. And with more people, better communication, and more advanced law enforcement procedures, it was pretty hard to make a clean getaway after a crime. On February 15, 1900, five men boarded the train that had stopped at Fairbank, Arizona. They aimed to take the contents of the safe, but absconded with only $42 and two of them wounded. They left behind an injured train guard and plenty of witnesses. Three lawmen, all from different counties, gathered posses and set off to find the perpetrators, their professional reputations at stake.

One of the bandits, severely wounded, was left to die in the desert after he could no longer sit on a horse. He was found and brought back to town in a delirium. Wells Fargo detectives got involved in the case, as it was their safe and their guard who was targeted. And you won't believe what they found out. The whole story, with an unexpected twist, is told at Truly Adventurous, in both text and in podcast version.

This seems like a really weird question, but Tom Scott had it in the back of his mind since childhood. We get a quite detailed explanation why, which involves a bonkers old TV show, and then he has the opportunity to try it himself. The idea of driving while facing backwards was just a weird idea from the show, but can it be done in real life? Sure, as anyone who ever used a backup camera in a modern car will tell you. But Tom does it the hard way, by having a sponsor build him a vehicle in which all driving would be done by watching a video camera instead of the road. And it can go 50 miles an hour. What could possibly go wrong?  

If you've been in Hong Kong anytime in the last 40 years, you've no doubt noticed Jumbo Floating Restaurant, part of a tourist attraction in the city's Aberdeen Harbor. The restaurant on a boat had an area of 45,000 square feet and could accommodate 2,300 diners at once. One has to wonder how they fed that many people. In 2020, the restaurant closed due to the pandemic. In 2022, the cost to maintain the boat in the harbor was determined to be too high, and it was towed away last week. The plans were to dock the restaurant at a less expensive location to continue maintenance. Those plans are kaput, as the restaurant capsized on its journey.

The tow boat and restaurant encountered "adverse conditions" on Saturday and took on water. On Sunday the 260-foot-long restaurant completely capsized and sunk into the South China Sea where the depth is around 1000 meters. That makes it highly unlikely that there will be any salvage operation. There were no injuries.   

(Image credit: Michal Osmenda)

There is a monument in the cemetery of Pinner Church in the northwest part of London that is unlike any other. In fact, it dominates the tiny graveyard. The triangular monument has a coffin right in the middle-several feet above ground! This is the grave of William and Agnes Loudon, and the monument was erected on orders from their son John Loudon after William died in 1809. Agnes joined him in 1841.  

There’s a legend attached to the monument, because, of course there is.

It’s claimed, roughly, that the descendants of William Loudon, a Scotch merchant, retain the property bequeathed by him so long as he remains “above ground.”

Well, that's not true, as it has been ascertained that there is no body in the above-ground coffin. There are two coffins buried in a vault underneath the monument. So why the floating coffin? Could it be that John Loudon wanted people to talk about his parents and wonder about the monument? Read about the mysterious floating coffin of Pinner at Ian Visits. -via Nag on the Lake

Here's a question that never occurred to me before- why are there big cats, but no big dogs? At one time, there was a very big canid ancestor, but it wasn't Clifford the Big Red Dog, and that one's extinct anyway. While there are wild canine species left that differ from our human-bred domestic dogs, the biggest of them top out at about 175 pounds. Meanwhile, adult male tigers can easily weigh 600 pounds!

This video explains that the difference is in an animal's hunting strategy. Dogs are pack animals, and almost all cats are solitary ambush predators (the lion being an outlier). The size of the cat has to do with its preferred prey, which varies widely from house cats chasing mice to tigers taking down water buffalo. A dog's size matters less when they have an army of relatives hunting with them. The difference in hunting strategies also explains quite a few other differences between cat and dog anatomy, from their teeth to their shoulder articulation.

Thanks to constant wars, there were plenty of widows, orphans, and excess single women in 13th-century Europe. Some of these women became nuns, but many of them teamed up to form local mutual aid groups. Wealthier women helped to keep poorer women and children sheltered and on their feet, and their numbers provided security. As these groups grew and consolidated, they became known as the Béguines. Although they were religious, they were not officially tied to the church, took no religious vows, and were free to leave any time. The Catholic church, busy attaining not only religious but political and economic power, tolerated the independent Béguines as long as they helped alleviate the church's social welfare obligations and didn't threaten the church's power.

In this environment, the Béguines were able to study, serve the poor, hold jobs, and direct their own lives. They still mostly kept to themselves, as the medieval church was known to accuse women who stepped out of line of heresy or even witchcraft. But some of the Béguines began to write religious treatises. Marguerite Porete wrote a book called The Mirror of Simple Souls that became a best seller. The church condemned the book as being full of "errors and heresies." Porete was arrested and eventually burned at the stake in 1310. That was the beginning of the end of the Béguines, although the "order" held on for several hundred more years. Read of the rise and fall of the Béguines at Messy Nessy Chic.

We see skateboarders do amazing tricks and we are impressed with their talents. But it doesn't come easy. Every trick takes endless practice, and you have to be willing to fall a lot to achieve success. In other words, it's hard and dangerous work, for just a sense of accomplishment when you succeed. Najeeb Tarazi made an experimental video titled One More Try to show how skaters practice to master a new trick, and the many falls they endure to get it right. Warning: This video might make you feel a little pain in places, but to the guys doing the falling, it's all in a day's work. -via Nag on the Lake

In the American tradition of making something impossibly sweet and calling it a salad, Watergate salad became very popular in 1974. It's a combination of pistachio pudding and Cool Whip, laden with pineapple chunks, pecans, and miniature marshmallows. It may have gained our attention because of the name, as the recipe was published in newspapers during the Watergate investigation headlines of 1974. But maybe it was just an easier version of Watergate cake, which was first published in 1973 during the Watergate hearings. People would joke that it was called Watergate cake because it has so many nuts in it. Others jokes that the whipped frosting was a coverup.

But then again, the inspiration may have come even earlier. The Water Gate Inn in Washington went defunct in 1966, but at one time served a Water Gate Ice Box Cake, even though the recipe was quite different. While the origin of the name is probably impossible to determine, pistachio pudding will always be associated with the Watergate scandal for some reason or another. Read what we know of the history of Watergate salad at Mental Floss.

On a slightly related topic, the Jell-O company will let you know that pistachio pudding debuted in 1976. However, Royal Desserts was selling pistachio pudding mix as far back as 1966, and that was the brand used in early Watergate cake and Watergate salad recipes.  

In 1976, Sesame Street aired episode 847 with guest star Margaret Hamilton, in her classic persona as the Wicked Witch of the West. It only aired once. The producers received many complaints from parents who said it was too scary for children, and left some of them traumatized. There were also a couple of complaints from Wiccans about showing witches in a bad light. The Children's Television Workshop pulled the episode from circulation, and it was never included in reruns, syndication, or home video. It was never really "lost," (hence the quote marks) as it was archived at the Library of Congress, but most of us have never had the opportunity to see it.

But now you can. This video compiles all the Margaret Hamilton sequences, which total about 15 minutes, and tells the story of how the witch from The Wizard of Oz got into a kerfluffle with Sesame Street residents over her broom. It may seem silly and contrived to us, but it was meant to help preschoolers overcome their fears. I guess it wasn't that successful in its aim. If you like, you can see the full hour here.  -via Fark   

In the mid-20th century, Las Vegas had become the place to get married in a hurry, and Reno, Nevada, was where you got a (relatively) quick divorce. But even before that, the go-to spot for a divorce was Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In the late 1800s, people traveled thousands of miles to obtain a divorce at the historic Minnehaha County courthouse.

See, back then, a divorce was almost impossible to get in many states. You had to have a valid reason, and even then a spouse could contest it. South Dakota had more lax regulations, and it took only three months to establish residency. However, living in the state for three months might make one inclined to stay and put down roots, which is what South Dakota wanted. Sioux Falls became known as a "divorce colony," with communities of people staying in the city for that reason alone, and businesses willing to accommodate them. It also became known as a place to watch the salaciously entertaining divorce trials of the rich and famous. Read about Sioux Falls' divorce colony at Alas Obscura.

(Image credit: AlexiusHoratius)

Two toothbrushes, three credit card machines, two typewriters, and a telephone give their best version of Queen's song "Don't stop Me Now." Besides selecting a great song, they do their best to render it faithfully, although they have a slight problem with the lyrics. This is the Device Orchestra (previously at Neatorama). In this performance, we get a close look at the "singing" toothbrushes and their charming jiggly eyes. You can now meet each member of the Device Orchestra at Instagram. The red-headed toothbrush is Bob Floss.  -via Laughing Squid