It begins with the atoms in your morning coffee, then take a detour through your body, or maybe just your imagination, and then somehow leads us into an alternative version of nature. That's when things really get weird. The animated short film Cosmohedron by Duncan Hatch is disorienting because you never know where it will go next, but the bright colors and range of images is enough to keep you watching. It's altogether baffling. At the very end, it all comes together, but that doesn't mean it makes any more sense. Does it have a message? I doubt it. One commenter says, "Themes of interconnection, fractal scales, and humorous jabs at work culture all hit home." I have to wonder where he lives. -via The Awesomer

Many of us are familiar with the idea that coffee makes you poop. There are substances in coffee that contribute to this, and not just caffeine. But it could also be that coffee is usually a stable part of one's normal morning routine. And there is also the psychological association of coffee with one's morning routine, so much that the smell of a coffee shop can make you run to the bathroom. How much each of these factors contribute to the effect is arguable, but the effect is real.

However, there are variations. The urge to poop can arise from the experience of being in a book store. This is called the Mariko Aoki phenomenon, named for a woman in Japan who wrote about her experiences in 1985. Since then, many folks have admitted that bookstores have this effect on them. While there has been little scientific interest in experimenting with the Mariko Aoki phenomenon, there have been several theories suggested for why it occurs, from scientists and non-scientists alike. And some folks get this urge at more general locations, like shopping malls. -via Nag on the Lake

(Image credit: Ryan Abel)

What would Darth Vader put on his barbecue sandwich?

In the run up to Star Wars Day on May 4, the hot sauce company Truff has partnered with Lucasfilm to offer a special limited edition hot sauce styled after Darth Vader. It's called Dark Side Hot Sauce, and it comes in a bottle with Darth Vader's head, er, helmet as the bottle cap. It will be shipped in a "collectible gift box" featuring Star Wars imagery, resembling the volcanic hellscape of the planet Mustafar. They call it their hottest hot sauce so far, but also extol the virtues of its flavor. Does it taste good? Who knows? It sounds downright evil. Dark Side Hot Sauce won't go on sale until April 24, but you can sign up for the wait list at the Truff site. If you get your order in early, you could be enjoying some really spicy snacks for Star Wars Day.   -via Boing Boing

After World War II, the US continued its research into nuclear weapons and developed a bomb named Mike. That was the nickname of the first hydrogen bomb, and it was too big to ever drop from above. In fact, Ivy (for Operation Ivy) Mike (for megaton) weighed 74 metric tons, used a 20-foot tower, and required a cryogenics facility and a power plant for its liquid deuterium fuel. Why build a bomb that big? To see if it could be done.

Ivy Mike was detonated on November 1, 1952, on an island named Elugelab, which was part of the unpopulated Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands. I used the word "was" because Elugelab ceased to exist on that day, and became a crater in the ocean floor. The rest of the atoll was stripped of all its vegetation. The ten-megaton explosion created a fireball five kilometers wide, and a mushroom cloud 33 kilometers high.

Ivy Mike explodes in a clip from the documentary Trinity and Beyond.

Mike's detonation left the entire atoll contaminated. Despite decades of decontamination efforts, it will still be a few years before Eniwetok Atoll is safe for humans. Read the story of Operation Ivy and the first hydrogen bomb at Amusing Planet.

(Image credit: United States Department of Energy)

Charles Schulz drew 17,897 Peanuts comic strips over nearly 50 years. In the 1950s, though, he was still experimenting with the Peanuts gang. One of the characters he introduced in 1954 was named Charlotte Braun, who was loud, extroverted, and everything the beloved Charlie Brown was not. She was obviously intended to be the anti-Charlie Brown. The problem was that Charlotte had no redeeming qualities, nor any underlying issues that readers could relate to, and they really disliked her. She only appeared in ten strips, and then disappeared forever. Charlotte's absence was never addressed in the strip, and no one thought much of it.

Fast forward to the year 2000. Following Schultz's death, 66-year-old Elizabeth Swaim submitted a letter that she had received from Schulz in 1955 to the Library of Congress. It was Schultz's response to her complaint about Charlotte Braun. No doubt it wasn't the only complaint that Schulz received about the character, but it may be the only reply that revealed what happened to her behind the scenes. Read the story of Charlotte Braun and her untimely death at the hands of Charles Schulz at Mental Floss. -via Strange Company

We've grown to known and love Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot over the years, so much that we think if him (and his dog Spot) as everyday robots that have outgrown the "wow" factor and have become part of the family. So of course, they are retiring him and now have a replacement that is all electric. Yes, our old friend Atlas has plenty of electronics, but his strength and movement relies on hydraulics. The new fully electric Atlas is smaller, has more refined movements, and can articulate its limbs at 360 degrees. The upshot is that while the new Atlas may more resemble a human shape at first glance, watching it move gives us the creeps, as if it were a sideshow contortionist or a demon-possessed little girl in a movie.  

Boston Dynamics owes a lot to the original hydraulic Atlas, and have posted a tribute video for its retirement. The first half is a blooper reel, and the second half shows what Atlas can really do.



What does a robot do in retirement? Atlas should probably stay away from cruise ships. Maybe he could take up gardening instead. -via Born in Space

The odds of getting hit by a piece of space junk are smaller than the odds of winning the lottery, but they are not zero. You can reduce your odds of winning the lottery slightly by not buying a ticket, while space junk could hit anyone. We've learned that most debris that falls out of orbit burns up on re-entry, and most of the rest falls into the ocean. That still leaves a few unfortunate people who have to deal with the fallout, so to speak. Just last month, a piece of a pallet of batteries crashed through the roof of a Florida home. The falling debris was foreseen, but no one knew where it would end up.

It wasn't the first time that space junk fell on unsuspecting people and their property- it's been happening since 1969. Of course now there is a lot more junk up there. Read up on five cases of damage caused by stuff falling from space at Cracked.

(Image credit: NASA)

Archaeologists have found cannabis remains in a 2,500-year-old grave, with evidence indicating it was used at the funeral. And you thought "putting the 'fun' in funeral" was just a mortuary joke. But seriously, folks, researching the origins of cannabis is difficult because it's been deliberately cultivated for so long that any cannabis growing wild is feral instead of truly wild, and documenting historic samples is iffy because of its illegal status in many places. Scientists were having a hard time even charting out its taxonomy until gene sequencing came along. What we do know is that the plant developed its amazing chemicals to deter enemies, but the cannabis plant had no idea that humans would come along and find those chemicals so attractive.  

Yeah, this video from PBS Eons is posted a day early as far as the informal holiday known as 420 is concerned, but that leaves time for sharing. This video isn't nearly as long as it looks; the last two minutes are promotional.  

You have probably heard of Munchausen syndrome, a psychological condition in which a person is driven to spin fantastic tales about false symptoms and illnesses for attention. It is formally referred to as “factitious disorder imposed on self," or in the case of Munchausen by proxy, “factitious disorder imposed on another.” That's when a parent gains attention by insisting their child is sick when there is no illness present. The disorder was not named for the doctor who discovered it, but for a pop culture character from the 18th century.

Baron Munchausen as a character is legendary for telling tall tales about his military career, from traveling to the moon to riding a horse underwater to battling exotic beasts to riding a cannonball. His appearances over the centuries saw him change from a liar to a deluded old man reminiscent of Don Quixote. The original novel about him, Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of His Marvelous Travels and Campaigns in Russia, was published in 1785 and gave birth to a character featured in many stories and several films since then. But that original novel by Rudolf Erich Raspe only portrayed him as a teller of fantastic tales that no one believed. In reprints and translations, the story grew until Munchausen was a mentally ill buffoon.

However, there was a real Baron von Munchausen, whose name was Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, and he was not pleased at all for his title to be associated with such a character. Hieronymus was a storyteller, but not a liar, and he spent the rest of his life trying to find Raspe and suing anyone associated with the novel. Read the story of the real Baron von Munchausen at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Gottfried Franz)

Passover begins on the evening of April 22 (Monday) and will run through sunset on April 30. No, it doesn't always coincide with Easter. As they do every year, the Jewish a cappella group Six13 has unveiled another pop music parody for the holiday. This year their nine voices bring us "Matza Mia! An ABBA Passover." They've put new lyrics to four classic songs from the Swedish vocal group ABBA: "Take a Chance on Me," "Dancing Queen," "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” and “Mamma Mia!” They've also posted a song sheet if you want to use the new lyrics at your Seder or school program.

See also: previous Jewish holiday songs from Six13. I don't think anything will ever beat "5784" for Rosh Hashanah.

The school buses that roam the streets today look an awful lot like the first conventional school buses that came out of an American standardization conference in 1939. They are big, boxy, and bright yellow. They aren't the same buses, but they've carried that iconic look for 85 years. There are reasons for this: we want people to recognize school buses for what they are, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Also, school buses are different from consumer automobiles in that there are no customers to please. People who buy cars want modern styling, convenience, and the latest gadgets, while school buses aren't for status or luxury. We just want to get the kids to school and back safely.

However, you might be surprised at how school buses have evolved on the safety front. The only thing you might really notice is the rise of cab-over-engine buses, which makes it easier for drivers to see children crossing in front. Even though the first big, boxy, bright buses were already safer than cars, we've had many safety innovations in school buses over the years. Those improvements are worth every penny. Read about the evolution -and the lack of it- in school buses at Jalopnik.  -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: H. Michael Miley)

Imagine a scenario in which the Milky Way galaxy is full of alien civilizations that are advanced enough to travel and communicate with each other, but they don't pay any attention to us here on Earth. That idea can be followed by all kinds of jokes about how human civilization isn't civilized, or otherwise deserving of company. But theoretically, there are other reasons we might not have been contacted by these advanced aliens. We might be honestly too far away to make the trip worth it. We may be relatively too young to understand them. They might know about us and have decided we have nothing useful to offer them. Or we may be among the "do not land here" list for other reasons. Yeah, some of those reasons are getting us closer to the old joke. It's easier to think that we are truly alone in the universe. This video from Kurzgesagt is really 10:15 long; the rest is an ad.

Travertine is a type of limestone that has become quite popular for home decorating because of the interesting natural patterns in it. Redditor Kidipadeli75 went to see the new travertine tiles his parents installed in their bathroom. Kidipadeli75 is a dentist, and recognized one of the patterns as a mandible! When he posted the picture to reddit, he got responses from other dentists, forensic odontologists, and archaeologists who concurred that it was a jawbone cut at an odd angle, possibly human. The tile was sourced from Turkey, and is believed to be around 200,000 years old, so it might be Neanderthal. Since the image was posted, Kidipadeli75 has been in contact with a paleoanthropology team.

John Hawks explains how this can happen, and it's more likely than you might think. Fossils abound in travertine, although they are mostly from animals. The process of retrieving and cutting travertine is fairly automated, so it would be easy to miss an obvious fossil like this one. So how would you feel about having human remains in your bathroom tile? -via Digg

(Image credit: Kidipadeli75)

Young Cal Clifford has been obsessed with octopuses since he was two years old. By the time he was nine, his parents knew that it wasn't a passing fad and decided to get him a pet octopus. They procured Terrence, a two-spot octopus, and a 60-gallon tank. What they didn't know was that Terrance was a female who had already mated. Several months later, she laid eggs that produced 50 baby octopuses!

Cal's father, dentist Cameron Clifford, consulted Dr. Tim Tytle, a reptile expert who has two octopuses. They have separated all the surviving baby octopuses (half of them, a much better survival rate than in the wild) and are housing them at Tytle's duplex. Each have names, like Pearl, Seaoncé, Jay Sea, InverteBrett, Swim Shady, Squid Cudi, Bill Nye the Octopi, and Champ. The Cliffords, who now own 90% of the octopuses in Oklahoma, are looking for homes for the babies, but will not let them go to private families. Octopuses do not make good pets. Instead, they are reaching out to aquariums and research facilities.

Female octopuses normally die soon after laying eggs, but Terrence is still around five months later. Meanwhile, she and her offspring have gone viral with hundreds of thousands of people following the octopuses on TikTok. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: docktopus via TikTok)

We all recall that memorable scene in the movie Happy Feet when all the young emperor penguins go to sea for the first time, driven by instinct. They are terrified, but eventually the first one jumps in, and lets the others know it's okay. Scientists have recorded this first plunge many times, but they also found evidence that some juvenile migrations don't just go to the sea -they go in by jumping off high glacial cliffs! When you feel you must go to the sea, you go, whether it's a gentle jump off some floating ice or a plunge down a 50-foot cliff. For the first time, this phenomena has been filmed, using drones, by cinematographer Bertie Gregory for National Geographic. This footage is part of the documentary series Secrets of the Penguins, which will premiere a year from now, on Earth Day in 2025. -via Nag on the Lake