Plankton is a catch-all name for the tiny lifeforms that inhabit our water. They come in a ridiculous variety of sizes and shapes, but mainly two types: plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton). Within those categories are an entire encyclopedia of different plankton species, each with their own ecological niche. Plankton drift along with the current, mainly reproducing and waiting to be eaten. As they are the bottom of the food chain, they are essential to all life on earth. They also excrete oxygen as a waste product and perform other chemical processes that help to keep ocean waters healthy for other living things.
Dutch filmmaker Jan van IJken recorded different types of plankton through a microscope and assembled this gorgeous compilation of their forms. Some look like inanimate objects, while others resemble critters we might recognize if they were bigger. A few of them may as well be aliens from a science fiction fantasy. -via Geeks Are Sexy
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While the basics of America's Thanksgiving feast are widely known and eaten across the country: turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, there are regional variations in the menu that you might never have heard of. Or maybe your family has a tradition of serving something that you would be surprised to find doesn't exist nationwide. Then again, there might even be a local variation in your own area that you aren't familiar with!
Does your family serve Frog Eye Salad, Wild Rice Casserole, Sopapilla Cheesecake, or Funeral Potatoes for Thanksgiving? Find out where these are common and why at Atlas Obscura, and if they pique your curiosity or hunger, follow the links to a recipe for each. You'll have to Google the recipe for persimmon bread, I'm afraid.
Note: The list does not include cranberry pickle pie.
(Image credit: Flickr user SK)
You wouldn't go online to hire someone to commit murder, would you? Of course not. First, it's wrong, immoral, and illegal. Second, it's dumb. You would know right off that a site called RentAHitman is a joke. Apparently not everyone is so internet-savvy. A woman in Michigan pled guilty earlier this month to soliciting the murder of her ex-husband through the site! Wendy Wein was contacted by a police officer posing as a hitman from the service and received all the evidence he needed, including a $200 deposit. She is expected to be sentenced to nine years in prison.
Bob Innes launched RentAHitman in 2005 as a joke and a website test. He ignored it for some years, but eventually went back to clean it out and found hundreds of messages. A lot of them were trying to enlist his "services." Innes took his concerns to police, who contacted other law enforcement agencies all over the world to check out the messages. This was easy to do, since earnest potential clients filled out a form with their own information plus personal information on the person(s) they wished to exterminate.
“I don’t get it,” Bob Innes, the owner of the joke site, told the Washington Post in a recent interview. “People are just stupid.”
Read about the many people who were caught trying to hire a hitman through the website at Gizmodo. And when you visit RentAHitman, do not add your own joke by filling out the inquiry form.
(Image: RentAHitman)
Many communities stage a Christmas parade to kick off the holiday season (see: Macy's), but there's an inherent problem with having one right after Thanksgiving. Everyone's too tired and bloated to march, due to eating all that turkey, dressing, side dishes and pumpkin pie!
Glen Arbor, Michigan, took that idea and ran with it. The town's Chamber of Commerce encourages everyone to come out and do their Christmas shopping on Black Friday wearing pajamas. Their parade begins in the morning, and features beds rolling down the street! One of the parade's organizers says it's hysterical. You can put wheels on a bed, but they often lose them before they get to the end of the parade, and end up being carried. So much for resting up after Thanksgiving. But it's an annual traditional that Glen Arbor is proud of.
Last year's parade was canceled due to the pandemic, but it's back on for 2021, beginning at 9AM Friday. -via Fark
We sure love our fried potatoes. Which kind do you like best? There are french fries, curly fries, Tater Tots, potato wedges, and more, and you have to admit they are different, even though they are all fried potatoes. The Fry Universe gives us an elaborate 3D visualization of how they are different, which is a matter of surface area vs. volume. It's all in the frying, meaning how much of this food is potato, and how much is fried. Sure, we like both parts, but the frying is magic. Still, I am a bit disappointed they didn't include hash browns or latkes. -via Metafilter
Marvel Studios dipped its toe into the world of martial arts films this year with Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings. Screen Junkies are here to point out how this movie uses all the usual tropes from Marvel superhero movies plus all the tropes you expect from a martial arts film (plus father issues), and yet it works better than you'd ever expect. After all, those film elements became ubiquitous because audiences liked them. While there's plenty to say, it's obvious that our favorite film critics really liked Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings. Even if they are really bracelets.
Early 20th-century modernist architecture was big in Southern California. There were innovative architects bringing sunlight and class to the homes of the nouveau riche, movie stars, and real estate moguls. Many became quite famous, and led lifestyles that rivaled those of movie stars. And then there was Jock Peters.
When the great 20th-century architect Richard Neutra arrived in Los Angeles in 1925 with his wife, Dione, and the couple’s young child, his first residence was 835 Kings Road in West Hollywood. There, the Neutras shared the home of fellow Austrian architect Rudolph Schindler and his wife, Pauline. Schindler, who designed the architectural landmark, had already made a name for himself in the United States by writing a “manifesto” that described, perhaps for the first time in so many words, an architecture in which, “The distinction between indoors and the out-of-doors will disappear.” A stint with Frank Lloyd Wright sealed Schindler’s reputation, as did the legendary soirees at Kings Road, where it was not uncommon for modern dancers to perform in the nude while Schindler’s guests drank freely, despite the strictures of Prohibition.
When the little-known 20th-century architect and designer Jock Peters arrived in Los Angeles in 1922, his wife, Herta, and their five children remained back home in Germany. Peters’ first lodging was a room at a local YMCA, which he shared with his brother George, who had landed in the United States almost a decade earlier. “I want to lead a quiet, insular life with you here,” Jock was soon assuring Herta in a letter home, “and shall try to avoid ambition and fame.”
Peters kept this promise, maybe too assiduously…
Peters started his career in California at a draftsman table, working for an architectural firm. But he branched out by getting creative for Hollywood studios, designing fantasy sets and interiors, a step that may be even more lasting than the expensive houses that brought acclaim to other architects. He went on to design stores and other commercial businesses, but he always kept a low profile. Now Peters' real influence can be recognized through the publication of his archives in the book Jock Peters, Architecture and Design: The Varieties of Modernism by Christopher Long. Read an overview of Peters' life and work at Collectors Weekly.
Radon is a naturally-occurring radioactive gas that we are warned about in our basements. We know the dangers of radiation, which was driven home forcefully after Hiroshima and during the arms race. There was a time before that in which people sought out the miracle of radiation in cosmetics and even medicine. That belief hasn't quite died out.
There are places in the world that people go to and pay good money to be exposed to radon. Radon therapy seems to help some people, but is it a miracle cure, a placebo, or a matter of faith? Tom Scott visits the radonstollen (radon tunnel) in Bad Kreuznach, Germany. It's the site of a thriving pain clinic. The unique feature of this clinic is that the radon can be turned on or off! It sounds like the perfect place to propose a double-blind study on the effects of radon, but that probably won't happen. Even if you could find enough volunteers, good luck getting that idea past a university's ethics board.
If you know only two things about Benjamin Franklin, you know the story of how he flew a kite in a thunderstorm to capture electricity, and how he wanted to name the turkey as our national bird. If you know three things, you know he also liked beer. And then there's all that Founding Father stuff. You might like to learn how Franklin combined his electrical experiments with his fondness for turkey meat.
Two years before his famous kite experiment, Franklin decided to slaughter a turkey using electricity. He theorized that turkeys killed by electricity would be tastier than those killed by the usual method of decapitation. On December 23, 1750, Franklin set up the procedure. But instead of killing the turkey, he electrocuted himself! No, he didn't die, but he wrote about his injuries. We don't know what happened to the turkey, but it most likely ended up as Christmas dinner anyway. Read the story of that experiment at Smithsonian.
The 58-story Millennium Tower in San Francisco is the tallest residential building in the city. Whatever you may think of the wisdom of living in a skyscraper in an earthquake-prone city, residents began moving in in 2009, despite the fact that there were already signs of trouble with the building. Two terms come to mind when reading about the Millennium Tower: One is the "sunk cost fallacy," but that's a little too on the nose, and "throwing good money after bad," which means the same thing without the word "sunk."
Such a large and heavy building built close to the sea needs an extremely stable foundation. The Millennium Tower was built on a ten-foot-thick slab over 950 concrete piles installed 80 feet deep. Engineers thought that was enough, and predicted the building would settle four to six inches over its lifetime. But the building settled 16 inches by 2016, and not evenly. The top of the skyscraper was 12 inches out of plumb! That's twice what building codes allowed, but the residents were assured the building was safe. Still, there were numerous lawsuits to be settled.
What next? Engineers came up with a plan to fix the Millennium Tower, even though the repairs to the foundation would cost twice the original construction cost. And when they started the repair process, plans went awry again. Read the story of the Millennium Tower from an engineer's perspective, or watch it in video form, at Practical Engineering. -via Nag on the Lake
— Marina Amaral (@marinamaral2) November 20, 2021
Theaters put their rules up on the screen before film showings to remind people to turn off their cell phones, keep quiet, and put their empty popcorn tubs in the garbage. The cell phone reminder is useful to those of us who never think about our phones until the ringer chimes. While most other rules seem like just common sense and common courtesy, we know there are plenty of people who have neither. And it was ever so. Even at the beginning of cinema, people had to be reminded that there are others in the room.
— Marina Amaral (@marinamaral2) November 20, 2021
Marina Amaral collected slides that were shown before silent films in 1912 to remind people that while that hat is lovely, other theater patrons would like to see around it. You can see how how these slides worked to set the standard back when the movegoing experience was new. Sadly, some of these etiquette rules are still needed today, but you have to wonder if they do any good. On the one hand, someone who is prone to talk loudly over a film or harass other patrons is not going to be swayed by a posted rule. On the other hand, having the rules posted gives a theater owner grounds to evict a transgressor. See more of Amaral's collection of slides at Twitter or at Threadreader. -via Fark
"Man, the internet sure has changed!" You say or hear that statement quite a lot. It's true that new technology, shared experiences, and cultural shifts take place at the speed of light thanks to the ease and reach of the internet. When so many changes take place in just a few years, you can lose track of what once was. Quick, do you recall which came first- Napster or Wikipedia or wifi? Those milestones seem to exist in a lump now, although the internet we have now evolved in a series of steps. I remember when we talked about "web 2.0" for a long time before the term "social media" was settled on, and it wasn't all that long ago.
Mental Floss has a refresher on the subject of internet history, with 20 milestones that may strike you as profound, or maybe just nostalgic. At any rate, they help to explain how we got where we are today.
It could be worse. pic.twitter.com/Q1LTpg5i2c
— God Creating Animals (@GodAnimalBooks) April 29, 2021
God Creating Animals is a series of books for early readers based on Tweets by Charles Peterson and drawings by Brian Russell of Underfold Comics. The Twitter account for these gives us a glimpse at how all animals are different and have their unique niche in the ecosystem -with humor! Check out some of the Tweets in which animals learn their features and purposes.
God: you're a moose.
— God Creating Animals (@GodAnimalBooks) August 30, 2021
Moose: what if there is more than one of me?
God: still a moose.
Moose: oh.
God: what's wrong?
Moose: I thought my plural was Meese lmao.
God: lol.
Moose: can you even imagine how silly that would be.
Goose: [narrows eyes].
God: you’re a dog.
— God Creating Animals (@GodAnimalBooks) September 3, 2021
Dog: what does that mean?
God: you’re happy.
Dog: yay!
God: loyal.
Dog: let’s be best friends forever!
God: and very forgiving.
Dog: we all make mistakes.
God: lastly, I need you to help the humans.
Dog: [tail wag] do what?
God: be just like you : )
God: you're a frog.
— God Creating Animals (@GodAnimalBooks) November 18, 2021
Frog: what does that mean?
God: you’re an amphibian.
Frog: so I can breathe on land and-
God: -underwater yes.
Frog: oh my gosh I’m a mermaid?!?
God: no that’s not what I me-
Frog: [happy whisper] I’m the littlest mermaid.
God: you’re a squid.
— God Creating Animals (@GodAnimalBooks) May 8, 2021
Kraken: actually I’m a kraken.
God: what’s a kraken?
Kraken: nothing what’s a kraken with you? lol.
God: haha that reminds me of updog.
Kraken: what’s updog?
Dog: [tail wag] just happy to be here.
Kraken:
God:
Dog: thanks for asking : )
You can keep up with the voluminous animal jokes at the Twitter account. While the jokes fly thick and fast, one thing that always comes through is that God really loves his animals.
Hey you stop scrolling!
— God Creating Animals (@GodAnimalBooks) October 20, 2021
The Boss wants to tell you something : ) pic.twitter.com/EFojPedMn3
-via Metafilter
We've published many videos of deep sea exploration taken by an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) sent down by NOAA's ocean exploration research ships. The amazing videos they record are often accompanied by real-time commentary from the scientists back on the ship who are seeing these creatures at a safe and comfortable distance. Their enthusiasm makes deep sea exploration all the more pleasant for those of us who have no idea what we're seeing.
Ze Frank considers himself in that category, and thought it would be a good idea to have someone in on the conversation who doesn't have an advanced degree in marine biology or whatever. He made it happen, with an injection of confusion, horror, and humor edited into the dialogue.
We've already read about the worst Christmas gifts, which was quite sad. Here's a gift guide that's a little more lighthearted that recommends actual products you can order -as long as you allow plenty of time for delivery. Supply chain issues, you know. When you feel obligated to give a gift to someone you really don't like, you don't show your hand by getting something way too cheap, or used, or ridiculously mundane. No, you get them something with plausible deniability. It's new, it's trendy, it came at the expected price, but it will eventually cause problems for the recipient.
Naomi Kritzer has published her annual gift guide for people you hate, broken down into categories. How about a kit or some supplies for a difficult new hobby that the recipient never expressed any interest in? Or maybe gadgets for a home office that is already cramped, or even your public office, where a tape dispenser that plays the cymbals when you use it will amuse coworkers (shown above). There are always single-purpose kitchen appliances that will be little used, but take up valuable kitchen space, whether on the counter or in the pantry. And you might consider a subscription to a magazine that completely counters the recipient's political ideology. Charity donations are good for that, too. Read more of these ideas, with links to specific products for giggles, at Will Tell Stories For Food. -via Everlasting Blort