With the miracle of electricity, we set our clocks with the internet, or by someone nearby with a phone. But 140 years ago, this wasn't so easy. Sure, we had electricity, but it was new, scary, and people weren't really sure what could be done with it. It was in this historic time period that Paris figured out a centralized system to keep all its clocks synchronized without having to depend on someone to wind up each clock. And the clocks didn't even have to have their own power source!

The system required burying pipes under the city, which would carry a burst of air every 60 seconds, moving all the clocks forward one minute. That sounds like an awful lot of trouble, but they ran those pipes mostly through existing tunnels, like the subway and the sewer system. The main clock that synched all the others ran on weights, but the mechanics were designed so that the machine lifted its own weights when needed! All the clocks in Paris depended on this system, whether public or private, and it kept time within a minute, depending on how far you were from the central clock. This video has a 65-second skippable ad at 3:45. -via Nag on the Lake

I dare you to watch this video and try not think of the song "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"

Remember the 1982 movie Poltergeist? Of course you do, it was written by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hopper and scared the pants off us. More than 40 years later, you have the opportunity to buy the house where it took place. The four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom house in Simi Valley comes with 2,373 of interior space. It can be yours for just $1,174,999. The home has had the same owners since before the movie was made, and they haven't substantially changed the house. Now, if you recall anything about the film, you no doubt have a distinct memory of the house being completely destroyed, with not even a pile of rubble left.

Ah, memories. But that was just movie magic. The house is real, the destruction was not. And there are no bodies buried underneath. Still, imagine living here and playing the movie for family reunions and holiday celebrations. See 49 photos at the real estate listing. Television not included. -via Boing Boing

The pupils in our eyes adjust in size to let in more or less light to maximize our vision. That's a pretty handy ability to have, and it's automatic. Most animal species have eyes with adjustable pupils, too, but they vary an awful lot. House cats have vertical slits for pupils, while big cats like lions and tigers have round pupils. It's not just a matter of size, though, since bobcats have vertical slits and a Pallas's cat has round pupils, and they are about the same size. Strangely, some foxes also have vertical slits while dogs do not. The animal kingdom has developed a bunch of different pupil shapes, from the goat's horizontal boxes to the cuttlefish's "W" shaped pupils. All these shapes are there for a reason that has to do with the lifestyle of the animal. Except praying mantises. Their pupils are there just to freak us out. -via the Awesomer

In 1935, during the depths of the Great Depression, frustration was growing in the small towns and the large ranches of the Great Plains. The wildly-scattered populations of northern Wyoming, southern Montana, and western South Dakota all felt ignored by their state governments. They were only getting the dregs of New Deal money, and the lack of infrastructure made them feel quite neglected. So they began planning to secede. Not from the United States, but from their states, to form a new, 49th state of their own named Absaroka.

The reason you haven't heard of Absaroka is because the process for carving a new state out of existing states was too difficult, but the campaign got that area, centered around Sheridan, Wyoming, a lot of attention from their respective state capitals. And that's why the idea resurfaced again in 1939 (when a Sheridan city commissioner appointed himself governor of Absaroka), and then again in 1977. Of course, Alaska became the 49th state, and Hawaii the 50th. Read about Absaroka, the state that never was, at Smithsonian.

(Image source: Wikipedia)

Americans learn that the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863 was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Hundreds of thousands took part, and 50,000 soldiers died or were seriously injured over three days of fighting. We also learn that the site became a cemetery, and at its dedication, President Lincoln gave a speech that was short enough for students to memorize. But what was it like to be there during the fighting? To answer that question, Weird History brings us the stories of individual soldiers who fought and witnessed the carnage and the accounts of officers who kept track of the action, plus those of support teams, journalists, and the civilians who lived in the area, whether they hid from the battle or joined in to offer whatever help they could. They say that history is written by the victors; at Gettysburg there was a lot of history written by those who were lucky enough to survive.

When I was a kid, I always missed the first week of school because my elementary school started the same time summer school ended at the college where my dad worked. So we would take a week to go to the beach just before Labor Day. When I became a parent, I was aghast that school started the first full week of August! That always caused problems because that was the week of the local festival, as well. After decades of a useless three-day first week of school, they have changed the schedule locally (the school, not the festival -priorities, ya know).

Meanwhile, schools in New York City begin the school year after Labor Day, and continue until the second half of June. One percent of schools in the US start the year in July! Why is there so much variation in the American school year? In the United States, K-12 schools are under state and local control, so there's not a one-size-fits-all rule. While we are sure that part of the variation is because "that's the way it's always been done," there are real reasons for the regional school year start times. 

(Image credit: MassDOT)

Arrowhead Golf Club in Littleton, Colorado, is a picturesque course at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. David Townshend and his wife Lynn of David Lynn Photography were there on August 6th shooting video and still photos of a golf tournament. As they approached the 13th hole, they could see some animals on the fairway, and as they got closer, they recognized it was a family of bobcats!

Four bobcat kittens were playing with golf balls, as children do. The couple started shooting while they were far enough away to not disturb the family, and captured these adorable pictures of the kittens having a great time. The pictures were so good that they were featured on a local news report that you can see here. The mother cat was just barely in the rough, keeping a close eye on the action. She's not visible in the cropped Instagram photos, but you can see her at 1:42 in the video.

By the way, there is no penalty if your golf ball is removed from play by an animal. Bobcats don't follow rules, but they have no stake in the outcome, either. You just have to replace your ball.

We know that macaroni and cheese became popular in America because of Thomas Jefferson, but you might not know that Kraft got a real break on their boxed macaroni and cheese during World War II rationing. I would suspect the dish's popularity got another break when the government made surplus milk into processed commodity cheese and gave that away for a while. But it's not only the United States government that worked to promote certain foods among Americans. The dish we call Pad Thai is not an ancient recipe; it was created by the Thai government, right about the time it became the Thai government instead of the Siamese government.

You surely want to know about those stories, and you'll find the full versions, plus the government interference that boosted the popularity of risotto and Chinese restaurant food, at Cracked. Not that we really mind, because all those things are delicious.   

(Image credit: Andy Li)

Species that employ sexual reproduction have two basic schemes to ensure the survival of their genes. Some spread their gametes widely and indiscriminately to produce great numbers of offspring, like plants and many animals. Others produce fewer offspring, but take care of them to boost their chance of survival. Most sea stars use the former technique, but six-rayed sea stars (Leptasterias hexactis) are different. They are different because this sea star looks like a snowflake, with an extra "leg" that other sea stars lack, and it protects its offspring.  

Six-rayed sea stars don't have to feed their babies, because they've evolved to carry their nutrients with them, like birds with a yolk. But they grow temporary appendages to hang onto their mother until they are big enough to fend for themselves. On the sea floor, where it's eat or be eaten, this gives them a leg up, so to speak, on other sea creatures. Meet this sea star in a video from PBS's Deep Look series. -via Aeon

Every claw machine has that one prize that's really intriguing, but almost impossible to extract. One machine at Meadows Family Fun Mini Golf in Duncansville, Pennsylvania, had a groundhog inside. Not a plush groundhog, but an adorable young groundhog that wandered about among the pile of plushie toys up for grabs. The critter somehow made his way inside, probably through the retrieval bin, but couldn't figure out how to get out.

Employees of the business called the game warden's office, and State Game Warden Salvadore Zaffuto responded, but he couldn't get the critter out, either. They had to call in the vending machine company, who sent someone to unlock the machine and let the groundhog out. Meanwhile, they had time to take plenty of pictures, some of which which you can see at the state game commission's Facebook post. The groundhog was unharmed. It was released on its own recognizance. -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Pennsylvania Game Commission-Southcentral Region)

In a previous "What If" video, we confronted the theoretical scenario in which the oceans were drained. As an aside in that video, Randall Munroe explained the lack of water in a throwaway manner, saying it was sent to Mars. But that made viewers wonder what that would do to Mars. We know that Mars once had plenty of water, and still may have a significant amount, but the surface is almost all dry. So let's look at that scenario, even though it will never happen. We have enough trouble sending robots to Mars.

See, Mars is very cold, has no atmosphere, and the geology of the surface is very different from that of earth. But if we sent enough salt water, the red planet would start to display continents and islands. Eventually the water would freeze, maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe we could send some atmosphere to Mars, too, while we're in the shipping business. Like we have enough to spare.  -via Laughing Squid

Sometimes you search for the word you want, and it's right there on the tip of your tongue, but you can't reach it for some reason. Sometimes you remember the word you want after the conversation has moved on, or maybe you put some other words together so someone will help you. When my daughter asked for a laundry rope, it took me a bit to figure out she wanted a clothesline. If you ask for a wet salad, someone else may step in and suggest soup. But what is the word for when you can't think of a word?

That is "lethologica." The word is made from two Greek terms that mean forget and word. Mental Floss goes over the history of lethologica and what scientists think may cause it. Another term is "lethonomia," which applies specifically to someone's name that you can't recall.

Then there's "loganamnosis," a somewhat related term that I strangely found in another article from a different source just minutes after reading the Mental Floss article. Loganamnosis is a term for when you experience lethologica or lethonomia, and then become so obsessed with remembering the word or name that you can no longer enjoy what you were doing when it happened. Has that ever happened to you?

It's nice to know that there are terms for such forgetting, but no one expects you to remember them all.    

(Image credit: OERDesign) 

Throughout human history, we have vented our anger and frustration over bad luck and injustices by destroying something or someone who has nothing to do with it. That is how the word "scapegoat" came about. The catharsis of heaping all sins on one or a few people figured in human sacrifice, witch burning, public hangings, and mob lynchings, not to mention fiction like The Wicker Man. However, this can be done in a less harmful way, with an effigy burned instead of a person, which could have easily been the case in The Wicker Man.

Every Labor Day weekend, the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, holds that kind of ritual, when they put all their "glooms," meaning sorrows, anxieties, and negativity, inside a huge effigy called Zozobra. A play is performed to tell the legend of Zozobra, and the effigy is burned with great celebration. The ceremony kicks off the nine-day Fiesta de Santa Fe. You might assume that Zozobra is a figure from an ancient religion, and the burning is a long tradition. On the contrary, the ritual was made up by a Santa Fe artist in 1924, with a mythology to accompany it. It apparently works, as Santa Fe residents and those who travel to the festival see it as a renewal, a chance to destroy all their bad feelings and start afresh. Read how the burning of Zozobra came about, and how it's done every year, at Smithsonian. This year's 100th anniversary burning will be on August 30th, with a 50.5-foot Zozobra.    

(Image credit: Jweiss)

Someone once explained the old adage "starve a cold, feed a fever" to me as meaning that if a person with a cold doesn't feel like eating, don't make them eat. They need to rest. But if they have a fever, make them warmer if you can. They probably already have the chills despite their temperature, and they seek greater warmth. I've heard other interpretations of the adage that are so varied that it has become meaningless. But why would you stoke the fires of a fever, and how much is too much? It's a delicate balance between feeding a fever and fighting a fever, when your body just wants to kill an infection. Kurzgesagt, an organization that has explained the immune system to us a few times, explains what happens at the cellular level when your body produces a fever. This video ends at 9:40; the rest is advertising and promotional material. 

In 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593, a Russian Airlines flight from Moscow to Hong Kong crashed, resulting in the death of all 75 people aboard. There were three pilots aboard since it was such a long haul. When relief pilot Captain Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky took over, he brought his two children, ages 12 and 15, into the cockpit and let them each sit in the captain's seat. Kudrinsky led them to believe they were really controlling the plane, but one move led the plane to disengage the automatic pilot. An indicator light came on, but Kudrinsky was used to old Soviet planes that had an audio alarm. The sequence of events as reconstructed after the fact was complicated, but it all came down to plane crash due to showing off.

No matter how good you are at flying a plane, or how long you've been doing it, there are certain risks that you just can't take. There have been several incidents in which pilots pushed their luck by showing off, making a bet, or allowing someone unqualified to do their job, leading to death by plane crash. Read about Aeroflot Flight 593 and four other crashes due to tomfoolery at Amusing Planet.

(Image credit: Anna Zvereva)