Billy Joel released the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" in the fall of 1989. It was a list of 118 newsworthy events that happened between 1949 and 1989, set to music. Joel himself didn't think much of the tune, but the song went to #1, and was quite meaningful to his fellow Baby Boomers.

Today, we have a new version that's almost like a sequel. Fall Out Boy released a cover of the song with lyrics that list things that happened between 1989 and 2023. There's a lot of them. The song has received mixed reviews so far. Some people love it because it contains what Millennials have experienced. Others criticized the song because the events aren't at all in chronological order, and some major things were omitted, like the Covid-19 pandemic and the fall of the Soviet Union. The lyrics are in the music video, and also listed at the YouTube page.  -via Digg

Conventional wisdom tells us that pizza was invented in Naples, Italy, in the 17th century. It was a simple street dish of flatbread, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. And sure, that's pretty much what it is today, except it now comes delivered in a cardboard box, often with extra toppings. But archaeologists working in the ancient Italian city of Pompeii that was buried in ash fron the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD have uncovered a fresco that depicts a dish that looks suspiciously like pizza. Did the doomed city have their own version of pizza 2,000 years ago? Or is the Italian Culture Ministry, who released the image, looking for more funding?

That would depend on how you define "pizza." The dish depicted in Pompeii was certainly "other food served on flatbread," but there was no mozzarella cheese in that era, and tomatoes weren't available until they were imported from the Americas. What the Pompeii fresco shows is more likely fruit served on flatbread (focaccia), possibly pomegranate and dates, sprinkled with spices or pesto. -via Metafilter

One Mefite suspects it may even have been a pineapple pizza, which another Mefite declared was grounds for destroying the city by volcanic eruption.

(Image credit: Italian Culture Ministry)

Six Flags Magic Mountain will turn its 30-acre parking lot into a solar farm. The 12-megawatt solar carport energy structure will be installed over the visitor and employee parking lot, providing shade for visitors' cars. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/6djyIt8R0d

— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) June 27, 2023

Talk about killing many birds with one stone! We've lamented about too much space being allotted for parking lots in America's car culture. We've talked about how great solar energy is, but it takes up a lot of space. And everyone has experienced trying to cool a way-too-hot car, which requires a lot of energy. And there are other benefits to this scheme, too.

The project will be California's largest solar energy project and the world's largest renewable energy site built by a for-profit organization, producing 20.8 million kilowatt hours of energy annually. 3/3

— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) June 27, 2023

Six Flags is not the first place to install solar panels in a parking lot, but they might be the first place to make a lot of people aware of it. You see it at schools and government offices in California, but rarely at a private business in which the upfront cost dissuades the bean counters from making the initial investment. However, Walmart is beginning to roll out the idea in California. France passed a law earlier this year requiring that parking lots of a certain size install solar panels.

Construction on Six Flags' "solar carport" will begin later this summer and is expected to be completed late this year or in early 2024.  -via Fark

The Wright Brothers didn't get publicity for their airplane for a long time because their short flight in 1903 wasn't impressive enough to prove that the plane worked. They could have learned a lesson or two from Thomas Edison, who was a master at self-promotion. Take the credit first, then work out the details later.

In September of 1878, Thomas Edison told the press that he had invented the light bulb, and newspaper reporters wanted to come see it for themselves. But Edison's light blub was nowhere near ready. He simply wanted to get ahead of the other guys who were working on electric light bulbs. Edison's prototype bulbs tended to burn out after only a few minutes of emitting light, which wasn't at all useful. Taking back his grand announcement was unthinkable, as he had already established himself as America's greatest inventor when he unveiled the phonograph a year before. So Edison managed reporter's witness sessions in a manner that left them quite impressed, and the newspaper stories that resulted staved off any competition for the invention of the light bulb. More than a year later, he was glad to demonstrate a long-burning bulb after he worked the kinks out. Read about Edison's "full speed ahead" promotion of the light bulb at Smithsonian. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Oaktree b)

Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or even The Incredible Hulk TV series, the world was treated to  3 Dev Adam, or Three Giant Men. The 1973 Turkish film featured Captain America, Spider-Man, and Santo with no authorization or input from Marvel or the characters' creators. It wasn't the first Turkish ripoff of comic book superheroes, but it was the first to feature several of them together.

But what really made the movie so unique was the fact that the comic books weren't even available in Turkey when this film was made! The characters were designed after old serials, movies, and cartoons. The producers of 3 Dev Adam gave us Captain America yielding a gun instead of his shield, Spider-Man as the villain of the movie with different powers, and Santo the luchador taking his mask off. Neon Harbor gives us the story of 3 Dev Adam for those unfamiliar with it. Those who have seen the movie are impressed to see clips in high-definition instead of bootleg quality. -via Digg

Update: Neon Harbor has issued a video correction on the inspiration for Captain America.

Maycee Kay Aycock and Sarah Marshall of Meredith College did not do well in the USA South Conference Championship golf tournament. The Meredith Avenging Angels were not going to be champions. Aycock and Marshall were the worst college golfers in America. Both women cried in the bathroom, when the mother of another player from another school told them they were heroes and shouldn't listen to the mean girls.

The full story is amazing. The Meredith College women's golf team started the year with six players, but by February was down to only two. They must have four players to compete in tournaments, and they must play a certain number of tournaments to be eligible for the championship. Furthermore, their conference had to have a certain number of teams to participate, and losing Meredith would cost the entire conference a shot at the USA South Conference Championship. Maycee Kay and Sarah answered a campus-wide call for players from coach Jimmy Hamilton and made the team, even though neither had ever finished a complete 18-hole round of golf. They didn't know the rules. Aycock had no clubs, and Marshall only had a child sized set.

Marshall scored 276 in one round of her first college tournament, which has to be some kind of record. In case you didn't know, the lowest score wins in golf.

"Did you ever see scores as high as ours?" they asked him.

"I didn't know scores got this high," he said.

But no matter how badly they played, and no matter how much they suffered, both physically and psychologically, they stayed with the game for the rest of the year. What Aycock and Marshall had done was save their team, and also saved their conference. You'll be glad you read about them. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Meredith College)

Elvis Presley died in 1977, but that's no reason he can't cover -and put his own style into- a song from 1992. This would have been a #1 hit for him.

Artificial intelligence is plenty scary when it tries to serve us misinformation or take away our jobs, but it's sweet when it's for purely entertainment purposes. Then again, I'm not sure how the Presley estate would feel about The King singing Sir Mix-a-Lot's song "Baby Got Back." That probably depends on whether there is any money to be made from it. A commenter at YouTube offered money if he could produce a full-length verion in time for his wedding. I felt inspired to laugh, and you will, too. This nonsense is the latest from Dustin Ballard, otherwise known as There I Ruined It. The tune is from Elvis' hit song "Don't Be Cruel," and the algorithm was programmed by MikeyNL1038.

Common sense would tell you that parents, and especially stay-at-home moms, look forward to the beginning of school in August so they can have some time away from hungry kids complaining that they're bored. Parents do often feel that way, but according to a study by three professors from Mississippi State University, mothers actually have a lot less free time during the school year.

On weekdays during the school year, moms average 25 minutes less sleep, 28 minutes less free time, and seven minutes less for exercise than they did during summer vacation. Fathers show this effect as well, but not as much.

See, during the school year, kids may be gone for six to eight hours, but every day requires a lot of prep, including getting children to bed at night and up in the morning, preparing breakfast (and maybe lunch), driving to and from school, managing extracurricular activities, and supervising homework. Generally staying on a strict schedule takes a lot of time and energy.   

The data came from the American Time Use Survey. Younger children didn't participate in the time survey, but teenagers ages 15-17 did, and it shows that school drains their time sleeping and unwinding as well. Read more details on this study at The Conversation.

Tom Scott is in the US now, and like most overseas visitors, had to buy health insurance to cover his trip. But he's not taking any chances by climbing on the world's first jungle gym on display in Winnetka, Illinois. The jungle gym, sometimes called monkey bars, was developed by Charles Hinton and patented by his son Sebastian Hinton in 1923. They story we didn't know was the scientific goal of the climbing toy. The reason it didn't make much difference to the children who climbed it was because by the time kids started school, they already knew how to climb trees, fences, and hills. The jungle gym just made it fun for everyone to join in together. Setting one on a school playground gave us the added thrill of possibly falling on gravel or pavement instead of plain grass or soil. Read the story of the first playground jungle gym at the Winnetka Historical Society.

You might have never heard of the marsupial mole. They live in Australia's deserts, swimming under the sand. They are weird animals, even by Australia's standards. They are tiny, blonde, have no visible eyes, sport strangely large claws, and their marsupial pouch is open on the back end, so that sand doesn't get in when they move.

Marsupial moles are only seen just a few times every ten years, so when artists James Young and Elliat Rich spotted one crossing the road near Uluru last week, it made the news. Young picked the mole up and carried it across the road, another 20 feet or so, and set it in a spot where the sand looked soft. It soon dug its way back underground. Oh yeah, they recorded video evidence.

This mole is considered rare because it's rarely seen, but it was taken off the endangered list because they leave tracks, droppings, and remains indicating there are plenty of them. They just stay away from us. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Elliat Rich)

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks made three romantic comedies together in the 1990s: Joe Vs. the Volcano in 1990, Sleepless in Seattle in 1993, and You've Got Mail in 1998. The first was a flop, and You've Got Mail has its fans but a terrible premise for a lasting relationship. Sleepless in Seattle was a masterpiece of the genre, having all the required elements and driving us to tears with a happy ending. The movie was released 30 years ago today, so you might want to jump back in time to relive that film and learn some interesting trivia behind it.

Some of the trivia has to do with the locations. It wasn't easy to get permission to shoot at the Empire State Building, and finally Leona Helmsley allowed the cast and crew in for six hours only. Seattle needed to be shown with rain, but it was the driest summer ever in the city when they shot the film, so water trucks had to be brought in to provide fake rain. And remember when the Empire State Building lit up with a Valentine heart? The movie did it with digital effects, but the building recreated it with real lights for the film's 25th anniversary.

That's just the beginning of the 30-item trivia list at Cracked regarding the film Sleepless in Seattle.

Sometimes we are totally impressed with things people eat in movies, and want to recreate those dishes. Binging with Babish is really good at showing us how to do that. But movies are also filled with odd meals that we remember a bit less fondly. These are desperation dishes, when a character has few ingredients and little choice but has to eat anyway.

A24, the movie studio that brought us Everything Everywhere All at Once, is releasing a cookbook of these desperation dishes called Scrounging: A Cookbook. The 54 recipes contained in it are less for epicures and more for movie fans who want to relive a cinematic moment. Remember the spaghetti from the 1960 move The Apartment? Jack Lemmon had no colander, but a tennis racket will do. Kevin made a 12-scoop sundae in Home Alone because there was no one to tell him not to. And if you've forgotten the Pixy Stix sandwich from The Breakfast Club, it's in there, too. Read more about these memorable if not delicious recipes at Mental Floss, and how to order the cookbook.  

This video was launched with the unfortunate name of "Why every radio station sounds the same". I thought that might be boring, because I don't even listen to pop radio anymore. But it turns out to be a very thorough explanation of music radio's evolution in the age of deregulation. Phil Edwards tracks my 24-year career as a radio disc jockey (a term I now have to explain to younger people) and the changes the industry went through. We've come a long way from WKRP. I went through all these changes until I decided to just go home and blog, because that was more fun. But that's a personal story, and if I say any more, I'm just asking for someone to respond "Okay, Boomer." In this history of radio, you'll recognize how radio has changed no matter what era you discovered it as the easiest way to add a soundtrack to your day. If you're at all interested, there's a fairly comprehensive list of source reading at the YouTube page. -via Kottke

You've seen pictures of these cool-looking vampire hunting kits. We posted about them four times between 2006 and 2011. One brought $14K at auction! They are purported to be 150-200 years old, and contain tools like a cross, a Bible, a stake, a gun, and bottles of what we may presume would be things like holy water and garlic. People who pay huge sums for these don't take into account that no record of such kits exist before the 20th century. Yes, they're fake.

But the takedown at Fake History Hunter has some intriguing details. While the kits themselves are not real vampire killing kits from previous centuries, the items contained in them often are pretty old. People who make these use very old wooden boxes, manufacture the bespoke linings, and fill them with antique objects that could be from different places and eras. As someone who collects old bottles, this makes me want one even more. But I wouldn't spend a lot of money for it. -via Strange Company

Covid really did a number on movie theaters, as it did to offices workplaces and dine-in restaurants. But movie theaters had been seeing a decline in attendance way before covid for reasons ranging from mass shootings to poor projection quality, and they aren't recovering much three years later. With attendance down, they raise prices to make up that revenue, and therefore attendance goes down again. Can you spot the problem with that logic? Really, which would you rather do: go to a theater and see the newest movie on opening weekend, sitting next to strangers and eating $10 popcorn, or wait a few weeks to stream it at home in your pajamas eating 50¢ popcorn, and put the movie on pause when you need to take a break? Roger Horton has many more reasons that theaters need to advertise to get you out of the house in this Honest Ad.