You may have guessed that Bum Farto wasn't his real name. He was born Joseph Farto. Farto was the Chief of the Key West Fire Department from 1964 until he disappeared in 1976. He was a well-known local character as well as a skilled firefighter, wearing bright red leisure suits and driving a lime green car with a Santeria shrine on the hood. Farto was also a drug dealer. He would sell marijuana and cocaine right in front of the fire station, and no one thought much about it. After all, that was Key West in the 1970s.

But the law finally caught up with Farto, and between his conviction and his sentencing, he just disappeared. In doing so, he became more famous than ever, sparking the sale of t-shirts like the one seen above. Farto is now a legend in Key West, and there was even a musical written about him as recent as 2022. Read what we know about Bum Farto and where he went at Mental Floss.

(Image credit: Jenni Konrad)

The trend in institutional dining has been toward pre-processed, pre-packaged, and even pre-cooked food, for schools, colleges, hospitals, and prisons. Sure, it saves kitchen space and the expense of personnel, but at what cost? The Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine, initiated a pilot program to reverse all that and grow their own food on farms near the prison. What they got was more home-style dinners that are fresher and more nutritious, plus both the farm and the kitchen serve as training programs, because the inmates are producing the food themselves. The kicker is that the program saved money over contracting with outside suppliers, like Sysco, Aramark, or Sodexo. Too bad elementary school children and hospital patients can't work their own farms and kitchens. -via Damn Interesting

Renaissance mathematician, astronomer, physician, economist, and clergyman Nicolaus Copernicus, or Mikołaj Kopernik in his native Poland, published the theory that the earth revolves around the sun. That is merely the most memorable of his many accomplishments. When Copernicus died in 1543, he was buried under Frombork Cathedral, along with about 100 other people (although not at the same time). In the centuries since, the floor of the cathedral has been replaced several times, and the few grave markers that survived the renovations ended up in the wrong places. No one knew where Copernicus was buried, although searches were conducted a few times.

Polish archaeologists began a new quest to find Copernicus' remains in 2005. This time, they had information that narrowed the search. They exhumed 13 skeletons, one of which was the right age to be Copernicus, but skeleton 13/5 was the most badly damaged of them. And how would they confirm Copernicus' identity, anyway? He left no heirs, neither did his brother, for DNA comparison. A lucky find and DNA tests led to the conclusion that skeleton 13/5 was indeed Nicolaus Copernicus. Read how that happened at the Conversation.

An article in Polish shows an image of the facial reconstruction of skeleton 13/5, done by an artist who had no idea that it might belong to anyone in particular. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Jan Matejko)

Mickey Mouse starred in a short film called Steamboat Willie in 1928 and became a legend. The mouse character was not Walt Disney's first popular character, nor even his first anthropomorphized critter rendered in rubber hose animation, but something about him resonated with audiences so much that he became the symbol of Disney for the next 95 years. In fact, Steamboat Willie wasn't even Mickey's first cartoon! As we celebrate the mouse entering the public domain this year (at least the original version), it might do to look back and try to figure out what made Steamboat Willie such a special cartoon. After all, Mickey was just another of the many cartoon characters of the era that looked pretty much the same. Phil Edwards takes us back to 1928 to show us how it wasn't the character that was a breakthrough, but the technical wizardry of the short itself, helped by some serious public relations work. (via Digg)

Today's romantic and sexual relationships often don't fit into the classic terms we have for courting, like "dating," "going steady," "boyfriend," or "girlfriend." Even the more modern terms like "friends with benefits" and "friendzone" don't cover all situations, so the word "situationship" has arisen for what Facebook used to call "it's complicated." Often even those involved don't know how to define it because they're not sure how the other feels, or else both are just not all that committed.  

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. That's exactly what Sweethearts Candy is doing for the upcoming Valentines Day holiday. They are making use of their rejected conversation hearts -meaning those that didn't print right and came out blurry- and marketing them as Sweethearts® Situationships, with the tag line "Messages as blurry as your relationship."

A gift of these candies might spark a conversation about what this relationship is and where it is going. After all, they are conversation hearts. And it's a great idea for using candy that would otherwise be wasted. But how many misprints could they possibly have saved? The situationship candies went on sale this morning and are already sold out. But they'll make more before Valentines Day, even if they have to deliberately misprint them.  -via Boing Boing

Rodney Holbrook of Builth Wells in Wales has a work bench in his shed where he often leaves a project out at night, intending to take up where he left off the next day. But when he returns to it, he finds that the bits and pieces he left out are mysteriously put back where they belong! This happened almost every night for two months. Did he have a brownie living in his shed? Holbrook got a clue when he found birdseed stashed in a shoe, and set up a camera to find out who was tidying up at night. It was a mouse!

The mouse cleaned up the bench by stashing all stray objects into a wooden tray. Holbrook began leaving out larger objects to catch the mouse's limitations, but the rodent diligently cleared the bench every night. Holbrook never bothers to clean up the bench anymore, as he knows the mouse will see to it. Read more about the tidy mouse at the Guardian. -via Metafilter

Vince Taylor was the late 1950s-early '60s rock star who inspired David Bowie's concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Except Taylor was not an alien, he was an Englishman raised in America, and his downfall was not exactly ego, it was LSD. Taylor found fame in rock-and-roll with his American accent, black leather, and scorching stage presence, fueled by amphetamines and alcohol. But in 1965, when Taylor joined his band in Paris after a trip to England where he dropped acid, he declared his name was now Mateus and he was from outer space and the son of God besides. Even worse, he set a stack of cash on fire. That started a decline that ended Taylor's musical career.

While many musicians experimented with the drug and went on with their lives, Taylor wasn't the only rock star that succumbed to LSD to the detriment of his career. There was also Peter Green and Danny Kirwan of Fleetwood Mac, Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Read how LSD affected the musical careers of each of them at Messy Nessy Chic.

(Image credit: Hugo van Gelderen (ANEFO))

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!

Chris Wolfe, the RC Geek, recently posted a New Year greeting featuring a flying Superman. He originally built this remote control Superman for the 2015 Big Jolt RC event in California. It's very lightweight, made of foam, and therefore did not break the pavement on his nose-plant landing, as the real Superman might have. Wolfe thinks this contraption looks more like one of the Beatles than it looks like Superman. Check out his post about the event, and you'll also see him flying a remote control Snoopy on his Sopwith Camel, although it look suspiciously like a dog house to us. That only makes it all the more stunning to see soaring through the air. -via Geeks Are Sexy

A fish called the Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus) is a really popular pet among those who can afford it. One fish can set you back thousands of dollars, all the way up to $300,000 for a single fish! Be warned, it is illegal to own one in the United States. The Asian arowana was once just a nondescript fish with little value found in southeast Asia, but in 1975, it was classified as a threatened species. That meant they were rare, and were suddenly a hot commodity. Talk about unintended consequences! In the years since, the price for an Asian arowana has skyrocketed, and the demand grew because owning one let everyone know you could afford it. Arowana farms thrived, and new and colorful varieties were developed, all priced on how rare they are. Globally, owners want to show off their specimens, and there are even practitioners of fish plastic surgery to improve an Asian arowana's appearance. Showing off isn't so easy in the US, where the fish are traded illegally on the black market. Read about the Asian arowana at The Hustle. -via Nag on the Lake

(Image credit: A2zphotography)

A recent Tweet unveiled this amazing tattoo. It references a 1993 episode of The Simpsons entitled "Last Exit to Springfield," in which Grandpa Simpson tells a long and rambling story that goes nowhere, just as he promised. That episode was also the origin of the "onion on my belt" meme. The tattoo itself is long and rambling, and probably cost a lot of time and money to get inked. We have no information on who is living with this tat, but if you saw it in real life, you would never forget it. Oh, have you found the typo yet? -via Digg

During the 1960s, four US soldiers, in separate incidents, deserted and went to North Korea. Only one of them ever got out. Charles Robert Jenkins was 24 years old in 1965, and desperately wanted to avoid being transferred to Vietnam. His plan was to surrender to North Korean authorities, then defect to the Soviet Union and eventually get home through a prisoner exchange. But in 1965, Jenkins knew little about the kind of country Kim Il-sung was building.

Jenkins was kept under constant surveillance, physically abused, underwent indoctrination, and was used in propaganda films. He lived with the other American defectors for years, and afterward taught English to North Korean spies. The authorities arranged his 1980 marriage to Hitomi Soga, a kidnapped Japanese woman almost twenty years younger than Jenkins, and they had two daughters. When a thawing in relations between Japan and North Korea began in 2002, Jenkins confronted the possibility of leaving North Korea. He knew he would be charged with desertion, but was more concerned about his daughters, who were being groomed as potential spies. Read the story of the soldier who spent more than 39 years in North Korea and made it back to see his 91-year-old mother at Smithsonian. 

(Image credit: US Army)

I almost titled this "Jaguar Spotted in Arizona," then realized that jaguars are spotted no matter where they are. But seriously, folks, this is special. There have only been eight jaguars identified in the United States in the past 30 years, and only two in the past few years. Those jaguars are named El Jefe and Sombra, and their markings are well documented. Jaguars all have unique markings, and this one is new to the US. You can see all three jaguars in comparison images here. 

Jason Miller runs trail cameras in the wilderness of southern Arizona. The jaguar was captured on video December 20th in a deep canyon in the Huachuca Mountains near the border with Mexico. If you just want to see the jaguar, he or she shows up at 3:30 in this video, but watch the whole thing because you'll see a cougar, bears, a ringtail, and javelinas as well. -via Metafilter

From the end of World War II until his death in 1953, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin spent more time at his private residence, but still ruled with an iron hand. The USSR's movers and shakers lived in fear of Stalin having them shot, but they also dreaded his many parties. You couldn't refuse, obviously, but his get togethers were quite an ordeal. Stalin would invite generals, political officials, and celebrities, and send a car to bring them to his private dacha. Dinner was fabulous, better than anywhere else in the Soviet Union. All who attended were on their best behavior, because they knew Stalin, but that was perilous when you're expected to drink copiously. And Lavrenty Beria, chief of the secret police, kept his eye on everyone to make sure they were drinking. Beria also played humiliating pranks on guests for Stalin's amusement. There were movies shown, too, often stretching the parties into the wee hours of the morning. All were afraid of saying the wrong thing or displeasing Stalin in some way, until they were safe at home. Read about Stalin's life-or-death drinking parties at Le temps d'une bière. -via Strange Company

In poker, it matters what cards you have. But it also matters if you can manipulate your opponent into thinking you have better cards than you do. Or you can remain enigmatic with a "poker face." That's all because you are bound to win some and lose some according to the cards, but how much money everyone bets is even more important, and can be manipulated with skill. Of course, you could always cheat, but that could get you killed. But honestly, winning fairly could get you killed, too, when the stakes are too high. No one is more frustrated than a man who has just lost his family farm, which he wouldn't have wagered if he weren't drunk. There's nothing more dangerous than an armed drunk loser. So practice your poker face, but never play for stakes that will ruin someone's life. This TED-Ed lesson explains how we got poker and why it's so alluring to gamblers. -via Damn Interesting

Everyone wants to know what the future holds for them, and there have been methods for predicting it that involve any number of objects: dice, tea leaves, chicken bones, tarot cards, or molten lead. One method you may not be familiar with is tyromancy, or reading fortunes in cheese. The practice goes back at least to ancient Greece, but reached its height during the Middle Ages. You can imagine a cheesemaker promoting tyromancy in order to sell his wares. Cheese varies so much that tyromancers have divined fortunes from the veins in bleu cheese, the holes in Swiss cheese, the pattern of curds forming, which block of cheese ripens or goes moldy first, and a number of other variations. A tyromancer would look at a piece of cheese and tell you who you'll marry, or how your kids will turn out, or whether your business will succeed. The practice is not dead yet; a tyromancer explains the history of reading cheese and a bit of her recent experience in doing it at Saveur. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Geoffreyrabbit)