Two million years ago, the area of France that became Le Puy-en-Velay was a huge lake with a volcano. As molten rock rose through the volcano, it cooled, shattered, collapsed, fused, grew, and became a volcanic plug. Over time, the volcano eroded away and the lake dried, leaving the volcanic plug looming above the town of Le Puy. 

In 951 AD, Bishop Godescalc wanted to celebrate his return from a pilgrimage by building a shrine atop the plug. At the same time, Local cathedral dean Truannas also wanted a chapel up there, in gratitude that the village survived a plague. Together, they oversaw the beginnings of Saint Michel d'Aiguilhe, or St. Michael of the Needle. The only way to get to the chapel is by climbing 268 stairs, yet plenty of people do it. It's no wonder they added living quarters for the serving priest. Read about Saint Michel d'Aiguilhe and see plenty of pictures at Kuriositas. 

(Image credit: PMRMaeyaert) 

A couple of other platforms I use (not Neatorama) are always asking me to use AI to write a blog post. That seems infinitely silly because if I typed up what I wanted it to write, the post is therefore written. That's understandable because I am a blogger. But social media and even my email service wants me to use AI, and I just don't wanna. I know how to write a letter to communicate. Ryan George explains what could go wrong, and it's a lot. 

No, I don't like artificial intelligence, and I don't like reading what AI has written. However, there are some uses for AI writing that may actually be helpful. A relative in the medical field has some AI program translate her notes into a report that a client can understand. Sure, she could write it herself; she's quite literate, but AI saves her time. Still, she reads the finished product for accuracy before sharing it.   

Through much of human history, men have been confounded by women. Men were (are often are still) seen as the default, and women as an inscrutable variant. So if something were wrong, or even just different about women, it must have something to do with their uterus. The word "hysteria" came from the Greek word for womb, hystera, and the malady called hysteria meant a uterus that moved about in the body, wreaking havoc on the other organs. 

Doctors knew so much about hysteria that they put on public demonstrations of women displaying it with fainting and seizures, and came up with all sorts of remedies. Later on it was dubbed a mental illness, and became a catch-all diagnosis for women who experienced pain or "inappropriate" emotions. However, the symptoms of hysteria are easily explained by either real physical ailments men rarely suffered, society's unrealistic expectations for women's behavior, or a mental illness that would be likely be further explored in a man. Read the history of hysteria at Mental Floss. 

(Image credit: André Brouillet) 

An important part of most marriage vows is the limiting phrase "'til death do us part." That wouldn't be applicable at all when you marry someone who is already dead. In France, that was made legally possible in 1959. The case that changed the law was a disaster in Fréjus in which André Capra was killed and his fiancé Irene Jodart was not. Jodart was pregnant, and the press raised a lot of sympathy for her. President DeGaulle got involved, and new law was enacted to allow her child to be classified as legitimate. 

Once the law was passed as a kindness to Jodart, the floodgates were opened and others filed for marriage to someone who was already dead, creating a new class of instant widows. The reasons ranged from the understandable to the bizarre, and not every case was accepted. Read about the French posthumous marriage law at Weird Universe. -via Nag on the Lake 

A handheld rocket launcher is bad enough, so how about one that carries three rockets at a time? The YouTuber called Current Concept has a 3D printer and plenty of time, so that seemed like a challenge- the kind that will get you a knock on the door from some government agency. Still, he started out knowing nothing about rockets, so the main part of the story is figuring out how his rockets failed so hilariously. And they failed in every kind of way. 

The next challenge was to design the revolver, which he skips through quickly. Maybe it's because he didn't want anyone to try this at home for national security reasons, but I believe it's because it wasn't quite as funny as the rockets. The rocket revolver finally worked! And you'll be glad to hear that the only one injured was himself. 

There's a sponsor message from 4:28 to 5:13. -via Born in Space 

In January of 1934, John Dillinger was arrested in Arizona and extradited to Indiana, where he was lodged ion the Lake County Jail at Crown Point. The jail had a reputation as being extraordinarily secure. Another notable fact was that Lake County, which operated the jail, had a woman sheriff, which was quite rare at the time. Extra personnel were assigned to Dillinger. A few weeks later, he made his escape.  

Dillinger pressed a gun into the back of a trustee, who became his hostage. Dillinger then locked the guards in a cell and took possession of their machine guns, and escaped in the sheriff's car. Dillinger was on the loose for 141 days before he was killed by federal agents outside a movie theater in Chicago. So how did he pull of the jailbreak? The "gun" he initially used turned out to be carved from wood, but we don't know if Dillinger made it himself. He had to have help, at least with arranging for the sheriff's car to be available. There were plenty of suspects, but no one was ever convicted of helping in the escape. Read what we know about Dillinger's jailbreak at Utterly Amusing. 

(Image credit: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) 

This creek in a New Jersey forest has concrete walls on both sides that extend for miles. People on both sides noticed a fawn that had fallen in, and wasn't able to scale the wall to get back out. He was pretty small, and was injured besides. Local people kept returning to the site to see if he was still there, and that went on for two weeks. It became clear he wasn't going to get out on his own, so they called The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge. Nancy Warner responded and took stock of the situation. This would require some work. A carpenter and crew built a custom set of stairs for the deer! A bit of time and some deer chow, and the stairs did their work. The two weeks the deer spent by himself in the ravine were recovery time for the injury, and now he is free to find his family. 

In western Switzerland, near the French border, in a valley called Val-de-Travers, lies the town of Couvet. That's where absinthe was first developed. The drink began to be commercially produced in the 19th century, and gained a reputation in Paris and around the world. Known as the green fairy, absinthe was rumored to cause hallucinations, but that was less from the wormwood and other flora than the alcohol content, which could reach 70%. Absinthe was banned in 1910, only re-emerging in 2005. But of course, it never really went away, especially in the lush forest of Val-de-Travers.

In this forest, there are fontaines froides (cold fountains), which are hiding places for a bottle of absinthe. During the ban, they were well hidden, known only to those who knew where to look. These became part of the valley's folklore, and are being kept alive today even when grocery stores carry absinthe. The custom brings tourists and hikers to Val-de-Travers as a bonus for enjoying the beauty of the area. Read about the charming fountains and the history behind them at Atlas Obscura. 

It's hard to get anyone to watch a live-action film from a hundred years ago because they are black and white and silent. But animated cartoons? Those are still hilarious a hundred years later. Line drawings on film physically hold up better over time, and dialogue isn't necessary when the visuals are funny. Humor is based on the unexpected, and cartoons utilized funny scenarios that can't possibly happen in real life, like animals acting like people and extreme violence that leaves no damage. This mayhem included animated body parts stretching like rubber hoses, hence the name of the style. Rubber hose animation made cartoons big hits in the 1920s, and we still watch them today. 

Rubber hose animation enlivened cartoons of the 1920s and '30s, then Disney came along with color and dialogue and realism and superseded the bizarre slapstick of rubber hose animation. More's the pity, but we still have those old cartoons.    

There's a long history of people sailing across an ocean by themselves, or attempting to. Usually they are in small boats, which are easier to handle by oneself, which gives us the term "microyacht." As the boats got smaller, the competitive nature of the sport went from the accomplishment of making it across the ocean to racing other solo sailors to seeing who can make the smallest boat to get there in.  

Andrew Bedwell is no novice in solo sailing, or even microyachting. His newest boat is the smallest yet, and will set a new world record if he makes it across the Atlantic in May. The route will take him 1900 miles from Newfoundland to Ireland. The microyacht, called the Big C V2, is only 4.5 feet wide. How long is it? He won't reveal that, but it is shorter than the current record holder, which was 5 feet, 4 inches long (1.63 meters). It is made of aluminum and carries solar panels, a power system, food and water, sails, and even has room for Bedwell to stretch his legs out when sitting inside. The Big C V2 can also be packed up and sealed in case of a storm. Read about the tiniest microyacht at Practical Boat Owner.  -via Messy Nessy Chic 

(Image credit: Andrew Bedwell) 

I'm sure you've been puzzled by the meaning of a brand name at least once in your life, and found no one to ask that could shed a light on it. You may have found more confusion among those around you, as some see it one way and others have always seen it a totally different way, and neither side has ever considered the other interpretation.   

Musician Ben Lapidus took a fresh look at the logo for PetSmart and saw how ambiguous it is. There's only one thing to do- write a song about it, and make it heavy metal so everyone will pay attention to this matter. It's not exactly an earth-shattering dilemma, but it will make you think. Maybe it's supposed to be ambiguous. Lucky for us, PetSmart saw Lapidus' video and issued a response. 

Whew, aren't you glad that's been cleared up once and for all?  -via Laughing Squid 

Getting a glimpse of the earliest versions of beloved Disney characters was a hit, so why not do some more of them? 

The 2013 movie Frozen was the culmination of Disney's decades-long quest to make a movie out of the 1844 Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Snow Queen. If you're familiar with it, you know the Queen is the villain of the tale, cold but still beautiful. An early draft of the Disney character has her rail-thin, with blue skin, spiky hair, and the makeup of an elderly grand dame. That was before they decided that Elsa wouldn't be a villain after all. The early versions of Wreck-It Ralph were monsters, resembling a yeti or a bear and in some cases, sporting horns. And Stitch from Lilo and Stitch was a terrifying tiger with a rat head. See ten more early versions of Disney characters who looked nothing like the finished product at Cracked. 

How does a mere notepad inflict damage in a duel armed only with a pencil? By drawing on your opponent. The first with a full mustache and beard is the loser. Then one duelist figures out how to make himself more intimidating, a decision that may have won the competition but that he regrets the next day.

You might recall the Bent Objects series of whimsical sculptures made by Terry Border. They were everyday objects made into sentient beings doing everyday stuff to make you smile. It's been ten years since we posted them, and most of those links are no longer available. Now Border is back, experimenting with a new medium- video! Yes, he's done some digital videos over the years, yet this is his first old-fashioned stop-motion version of his signature objects, this time two notepads dueling it out with pencils. He thought it would be too tedious, and now he says it turned out to be a pleasant experience.  -Thanks, Terry!

https://t.co/Eyyg9Ybo92

— Miss Cellania (@misscellania) March 5, 2026

During the rise of the Nazi regime, radio was used as a propaganda tool to indoctrinate the German people and convince them of the inevitability of the Third Reich. The British were above such tactics, at least on the surface, as the BBC continued to broadcast strict truth during World War II. But they also had a secret program, a string of radio stations in the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), based out of the rural village of Milton Bryan. This program hired talented musicians, writers, and actors who were German refugees and not trusted for other British positions in the war effort. 

These propaganda stations broadcast big band music in German, often with rewritten lyrics designed to make soldiers homesick. The news they read was a combination of confusing war plans and rumors, laced with enough true gossip to convinced listeners they were broadcasting from Germany. Agnes Bernauer, a young aspiring actress and singer who was a half-Jewish refugee from Germany, became Vicky with Three Kisses, seducing German soldiers with her voice by singing and telling soothing tales of British propaganda. Read how all that worked out pretty well at Smithsonian. 

When is a lie a lie? That may seem like a simple question on the surface, but there are many factors to consider. When you say something complimentary to avoid insulting someone with your honest opinion, we call it a "white lie," but it's still a falsehood. You could say the same thing about embellishing a story for drama, or about passing along a lie that we don't know is false. How about when you word something in an ambiguous way that gives you plausible deniability? Should we define a lie by the literal words, the intent behind those words, or the perception of the listener? It's very possible to say one thing with words while implying something completely different with body language and tone of voice. Does this make one of them technically a lie? 

Linguist Dr. Erica Brozovsky (previously at Neatorama) explains how complicated lying is, from animals that use camouflage to criminal perjury. It's no wonder lie detectors don't work.