I love antique plates just the way they are, but these will appeal to modern sensibilities as well. Etsy seller BeatUpCreations offers old plates with new additions like side show performers, political faces, music stars, artworks, and movie characters transferred onto the porcelain. Link -via mental_floss
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Fard is an animated short directed by Luis Bricenco and David Alapont. It's in French with no subtitles, but the plot is visual. The action really gets going about four minutes in. The style and effects make it quite memorable. Link -via Metafilter
At this point, "antique typewriters" sounds like a redundancy. These eleven are early typewriters, before the qwerty keyboard layout became standard. In the 19th century, new and innovative typewriter designs fought to become the standard, but many just became rare and valuable artifacts. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
You won't find a better gift for a Star Wars geek than soap in the shape of Han Solo as he was encased in Carbonite in the movie The Empire Strikes Back. $6.50 from Luxury Lane Soap. http://luxurylanesoap.bigcartel.com/product/solo-soap -via The Daily What
Meinhardt Raabe was a pilot in the Civil Air Patrol during World War II, a carnival barker, and a spokesman for Oscar Mayer. He earned a bachelors degree in accounting in 1937 and a masters degree in 1970. But he was best known for his role as the Munchkin coroner in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, where he delivered the immortal lines
Raabe, only 23 years old when the movie was made, spent the rest of his life repeating those lines as a motivational speaker for schools and civic groups. He was also Little Oscar, “the World’s Smallest Chef,” and drove the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile for 30 years. Raabe passed away yesterday at his home in Orange Park, Florida. He was 94. Link -via Stinque
See a 2007 video interview with Raabe.
As coroner, I must aver
I thoroughly examined her.
And she’s not only merely dead,
She’s really most sincerely dead.
Raabe, only 23 years old when the movie was made, spent the rest of his life repeating those lines as a motivational speaker for schools and civic groups. He was also Little Oscar, “the World’s Smallest Chef,” and drove the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile for 30 years. Raabe passed away yesterday at his home in Orange Park, Florida. He was 94. Link -via Stinque
See a 2007 video interview with Raabe.
The Illinois Poison Control Center posted stories of the 282 calls they took in one day. The calls range from requests for information to emergency room consultations. Here is a small sample:
This post drew interest from a local TV station, which then did a report on the poison center's funding problems. Incidentally, the nationwide number for poison control is 1-800-222-1222. Link -via Metafilter
# An adult female called worried because she took 2 Aleve® for her headache and then noticed that the pills expired 5 years ago.
# An adult woman called because a battery leaked out of her personal massager and she was concerned about battery acid burns.
# An emergency room called regarding a 29 year old male patient who had chewed and swallowed a fentanyl transdermal patch in an attempt to get high. He was found unresponsive by his mother and brought in via ambulance.
# An adult male called concerned about his friend who drank a very large amount of alcohol over the course of the previous evening after losing his job. His friend had vomited numerous times and had very garbled speech but is awake.
# An adult female called after she accidentally took 2 of her melatonin tablets.
# A 20 year old college student drank 2 Red Bulls® and took 6-7 Ritalin® tablets that belonged to a friend to help her stay awake and concentrate to study for a big exam. She stated she was having palpitations, vomiting and tremors.
This post drew interest from a local TV station, which then did a report on the poison center's funding problems. Incidentally, the nationwide number for poison control is 1-800-222-1222. Link -via Metafilter
Pat and Diane Farla of Shropshire, England moved into their home three years ago and wondered what a rectangle in the floor represented. On Good Friday, they has a few drinks and decided to find out. They pulled the metal grid up and found a narrow tunnel which led to an underground chamber! The room held a wooden cross, brick seats along the wall, an open chest containing newspapers from the 1930s, and some hooks hanging from the ceiling. The Farlas also found a stairway leading back up to a cupboard in their dining room.
Link -via Metafilter
The Farla said the deeds of the detached house dated from 230 years ago and they believe that at some point it had been used as a pub.
Richard Westwood Brookes, historical documents expert for nearby Shropshire auctioneers Mullocks, said: 'If the deeds are over 230 years old and the room dates back to the 1700's, there's a chance it could have been used as a Catholic hideaway or for other nonconformist religious groups.
'There's a possibility a room like that could be used as a clandestine Catholic church as you couldn't be a Catholic during that time - you would be persecuted and executed.
'It may well have been a Catholic priest hole - but it all depends on what the age was.'
He added that if it had been built during World War II it could have been a type of bunker.
Link -via Metafilter
Phil Gyford created an infographic about infographics, which says what many of us are thinking. Link -via Laughing Squid
Pixar studios has proven that Disney isn't the only game in town for quality animated films. How well do you know the Pixar films? Find out in this quiz from mental_floss! I scored 33%, way below average, even though I've seen most of these movies. You, no doubt, will do better. Link
Kid's entertainment in Finland is a little different. Hevisaurus is a metal band composed of dinosaurs! Here they perform the song "Jee Hevisaurus." -via Metafilter
Some people (up to 24% in one survey) tend to sneeze when they are exposed to bright light. A new name for this reflex is Autosomal Cholinergic Helio-Ophtalmologic Outburst syndrome, or ACHOO for short. Har har. The same researchers who came up with this acronym compared EEGs of people who sneezed as response to light and those who don't. The subjects also filled out a questionnaire designed to stimulate brain activity, and also to find out how much their noses tickled in response to light. Bursts of light accompanied the EEGs.
Could it possibly be that some people are just more sensitive than others? Link
You can see the red line above showing the photo sneezers had much higher nose-tickle response to bright light, and showed stronger activity in the somatosensory cortex, an area that processes sensory information. So it appears that people with ACHOO Syndrome have higher sensory responses to both the tickle sensation and to the visual stimulus of the bright light.
Unfortunately, they weren't able to come up with a connection between the two areas and a sneeze reflex center (we're not that good yet), but it's certainly a first step, and the hypothesis is that the insula, may link the areas, though other pathways could exist as well (the insula is totally everyone's favorite brain area right now, ain't it?).
Could it possibly be that some people are just more sensitive than others? Link
A cow apparently wandered into a culvert in Kaysville, Utah and squeezed through the town’s storm drain system until she became stuck where the drain narrowed just enough. Animal Control officers officers were alerted when a couple heard noises and found a full-grown cow in a street drain.
Animal Control staff tried in vain to chase the cow out the way she came in. Finally a crew had to dig up part of the street, and a tractor was used to pulled the cow out. Officers said she was underground for at least five days. The cow, covered with bruises and scratches, was returned to the farm and reunited with her calf. Link -via Fortean Times
Holden Holt and his wife told FOX 13 they found the cow stuck the drain while walking Thursday morning.
"We heard a noise in the storm drain and my wife went over and looked and there was a head with some eyes poking out. It was a little frightening," Holt said.
Animal Control staff tried in vain to chase the cow out the way she came in. Finally a crew had to dig up part of the street, and a tractor was used to pulled the cow out. Officers said she was underground for at least five days. The cow, covered with bruises and scratches, was returned to the farm and reunited with her calf. Link -via Fortean Times
A couple of two million-year-old skeletons found in South Africa have been classified as a new species and named Australopithecus sediba. This discovery may be a "transitional species" between australopithecines and humans.
However, there are also many apelike traits in the new species. Link
(image credit: Brett Eloff)
Growing to just over 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall, A. sediba has a number of key traits that some would say mark it as an early human, like Homo habilis, which many consider the first human species.
A. sediba, for example, had long legs and certain humanlike characteristics in its pelvis, which would have made it the first human ancestor to walk—perhaps even run—in an energy-efficient manner, the study says.
However, there are also many apelike traits in the new species. Link
(image credit: Brett Eloff)
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