You will always run into people who remember that McDonald's hamburgers were once 15 cents. They were also ready when you got there, because that's all they served, unless you wanted a cheeseburger, which were ready as well. The slowness of fast food is due to the variety of options available, but what happened to the price? You can go to a sit-down restaurant and get a plate of hamburger and fries and a drink brought to your table for $10, and it may cost you the same to get one at a window to eat in your car, and you won't know what a mess it is until you unwrap it a half-mile away. I wrote that before I watched the video, but the sentiment is widely observed. McDonald's isn't the only outlet where prices have risen dramatically. Weird History explains what happened, beginning with the history of fast food.

If you were to ask a longtime Neatorama reader which city has the most haunted hotels, they might guess Savannah, Georgia. And they would be right. Vio crunched the numbers, and Savannah came up with a "horror score" of 75.41. I'm not sure what that means, but it landed Savannah at the top of the list of cities with haunted hotels. I'm surprised that New Orleans came in as low as fifth -behind Orlando, for goodness sake! Baltimore, San Antonio, and Charleston also ranked high in hotel spookiness.

The factors they considered include the number and percentage of hotel guests who report paranormal activities during their stay, and the number and percentage of hotels in each city that guests reported to be haunted. However, one would think that a hotel's reputation might color a guest's expectations. You can't visit Savannah without hearing about the many ghosts who call that town home. The good news is that haunted hotels are slightly cheaper than non-haunted hotels. The bad news is that all these cities have very expensive hotel rates. See the complete list at Vio, plus the breakdowns of cities by either haunted mentions or paranormal mentions. I'm not sure how the difference between the two terms was determined. -via Digg 

(Image credit: Steve Langguth)

Drones can be a lot of fun and give us great visuals from an aerial point of view, but their most impactive use is for jobs that are difficult and dangerous. What we hear about most is their use in war, but while that's safer for the aggressor, it's still killing people. Check out what drones are doing for power grids, such as clearing ice from power lines. Temperatures in these conditions can make human work even more dangerous when fingers get stiff and helicopter motors fail. Drones are also used for inspection, line photography, and troubleshooting, and some can even recharge themselves on the electrical towers without returning to home base. The drones used for this kind of work are above your budget or your needs, but for infrastructure maintenance, they are not only cost-effective (compared to a pilot plus workers in a helicopter), and much safer than sending people to do certain jobs. -via Nag on the Lake

In 1948, E. B. White wrote an essay about his experience in raising a pig. The plan was to buy a spring piglet, feed it all summer, and then have it slaughtered for ham and bacon in the fall. It was a common custom, but this pig changed White's perception completely when it became sick. He confronted feeling like a failure in the simple task of feeding a pig for a few months, but more importantly, explored the connection he felt for an animal who was completely dependent on him. The ailing pig became less a unit of livestock and more like a pet.

A few years later, White published the children's novel Charlotte's Web, which became one of the most beloved stories of all time. In that book we see White's motivation to save the pig from slaughter, except this time he succeeds. As The Atlantic is celebrating its 160th anniversary, it has reprinted that original 1948 essay called Death of a Pig. This time, it won't be a spider you'll cry over, but the pig that became neither pet nor bacon. -via Kottke

There are plenty of ways to gauge how well you are aging. One test is how much difficulty you have getting to a standing position after sitting on the floor. Or whether you can put your pants on without sitting down. I was pretty proud to think that not many people my age can still wash their feet in the sink (one at a time, of course), but why would I brag about that? However, a new study from researchers at the Mayo Clinic suggests an even simpler test.  

How long can you stand on one leg and keep your balance? People under 50 can usually hold the “unipedal stance” for 30 seconds or more with no trouble. Just bend one leg up like a flamingo and hold your arms by your sides. The amount of time you can retain your balance indicates the health of your neuromuscular connections, and that time naturally decreases as we age. If you cannot hold your balance on one leg for ten seconds, it may be time to do something about it. There are ways to improve our strength and balance, which you can read about at ZME Science.

Of course, you can test your continuing sense of balance by riding a bike or using roller skates, but with age comes wisdom, and we who are wise don't want to take the risk. -via Real Clear Science

(Image credit: Deepak Sundar)

Normally I look at holiday decorations made with projections as the lazy way out, since most of them consist of projecting colored lights on the side of a house. But this one is different. It's custom-designed for this house with projection mapping, and results in a movie for anyone outside. The movie in this case is Ghostbusters, the short version set to the film's theme song. ...and some other tunes. You know there's just a normal house underneath, but for a few minutes, it's an al fresco movie theater. This kind of thing sets the bar really high for the neighbors, with their strings of lights and inflatable pumpkins. You guessed it, this is from a professional called Seasoned Projections. See what the house looks like during the day.  -via Born in Space

We are getting closer to the end of the year, when everyone and their brother tries to predict what will happen in the next year.  If you were to bet on baby names for 2025, you couldn't go too wrong predicting that Olivia, Emma, and Sophia as well as Noah, Oliver, and Liam will be popular. They've been at the top of those lists for many years now. But watch out, there's some really different name trends that could take over and more and more Gen Z parents look for unique names.

These trends include Fast Fashion, Safe Haven, Femininomenal, and Croc Names. What? Who would name their kid Fast Fashion? But those aren't the names, they are what the trends are named after, and the names themselves are just as strange. What kinds of names go under each of the ten trend categories at Mental Floss may astound you. Learn why we might have a class of students named Novalie, Xochitl, Suede, Abner, Bliss, Guinevere, Valkyrie, and Prairie in a few years.

Once upon a time, apples were best when they were in season, but you couldn't do anything about that. You ate the variety your tree grew or your store carried, and that was that. Years later, the supermarkets were full of different varieties of apples, all bred for long-distance shipping and year-long storage. There was plenty of variety, but not much joy in their flavor. But now, thanks to consumer backlash, apple aficionados, and scientists, we are in a "Golden Age of Apples."

Apple growers are no longer looking a one variety of apple to please all consumers. Some like their apples really sweet, other prefer tart flavors, and some concentrate on apples for baking. There are people who crave a certain mouth feel when eating an apple, or enjoy the crunch under their teeth. So why not perfect apples for all these folks? But you might wonder what happened to get the apple industry to finally pay attention to the consumer.

It was the Honeycrisp. Honeycrisp apples defined what an apple could be, and its popularity spread like wildfire. If they can breed an apple like this, why couldn't they breed apples for all the qualities consumers like? Read the tale of how the apple industry went from blah to amazing at Scientific American. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Danielle Scott)

Warning: the Honest Trailer contains spoilers for Alien: Romulus in case you haven't seen it yet and still want to. The Alien franchise goes back to 1979, and of the first eight films, only the first two seem to have clicked with anyone outside of hardcore Alien fans. So Alien: Romulus went back to the original premise of a cast that encounters an alien life form no one understands. But their employers know about it, and so does the audience, and that may be a problem. The film tries to introduce some innovations, but they are all borrowed from other science fiction stories. Alien: Romulus came out in August and has grossed $350 million worldwide. Audiences liked it well enough, and critics called it better than all the Alien movies past the first two, which honestly isn't saying much. From what I can tell, it's a good time if you're into this sort of thing, but it doesn't really make a splash in the cinematic science fiction pantheon. The first two Alien movies set the bar that high. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Find a Grave is a singularly valuable resource for finding dead people. It began in 1995 as a way to share the locations of the gravesites of famous people, but since 2010 has expanded to include anyone's grave. I've used it to corroborate stories before I post them, and for checking family details, like when an in-law was born or who a cousin is related to. But Find a Grave is not a complete archive of graves- it is being expanded every day, by family and friends of the deceased, and by an army of volunteers who contribute to the site.

These volunteers, called "Gravers," fall into three categories. There are those who try to fulfill requests that certain graves be photographed for the site. This is not an easy job, as few cemeteries keep accurate maps of their plots, or any maps at all. In the second category are those who pick a cemetery, and make it their job to photograph every gravestone and memorial for posterity. The third category contains the archivists, who research the records for each grave and the person buried there. Tony Ho Tran is a Graver in the first category, running down particular graves that have been requested to be photographed. How did he get into the hobby of taking pictures of tombstones? It's a very personal story of how he found the site, and is an illustration of what Find a Grave means for the people who use it.  -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Tim Evanson)

Italian artist Amedeo Capelli handcrafts whimsical automata scenes. When he decided to make a whole orchestra of skeleton musicians, he soon found out it was a lot more work than he had intended. The finished piece contains thousands of individually carved bits of wood, plus the rope, iron, and aluminum required to wire all the movement controls together. A single skeleton's movements are controlled by levers and a wire, but to control them all without making them move in simple unison required that Capelli design an extra device. That control panel can be cranked by one person, but makes each skeleton move in its own way, which was what he was aiming for. Three weeks of intense work went into this orchestra. Here you watch them "play" Verdi's Dies Irae.

Laughing Squid shows us more of Capelli's automata, including these skeletons at a Christmas concert, and one video that is literally jaw dropping.

One of the best parts of any party is the food, and a Halloween party is no exception. You want to feed your guests and impress them at the same time, while keeping the holiday theme alive. Courtney Wright at savor_style made a gorgeous charcuterie board featuring the likenesses of the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus rendered in food! Next up is a Poisoned Apple Pie that looks just like the apple that the evil queen gave Snow White. Except we don't think this one has any poison in it, just caramelized apples.



Joana posted her recipe in a video, but you'll only be able to follow it if you understand French. Some of these wonderful food creations are beyond the abilities of us mere mortals, but here is one monster that should be within our range of talents: a Monster Chicken Sammie from Hungry Planet Foods!



Check out a lot more of these artistic and ghoulish Halloween treats at Bored Panda.

Many people go to a psychiatrist or some other kind of therapist to get a professional opinion on what they are doing wrong with their lives. But in this guy's case, you don't need a professional therapist. Any fool who has ever been to a movie theater can tell what he's done wrong, but we might be at a loss over what he can do about it now. Not that he would take your advice -he's obviously in denial about it. I think what he really needs is a certified exorcist. But that's the thing about a curse, once you have been cursed, half the stories we've heard tell us there's nothing you can do about it; you're doomed. But the other half offer some loophole or quest to get a curse lifted. However, that only helps if you have one curse. This guy has them all! This skit for Halloween came from the twisted mind of Ryan George, who always plays all the parts.

In the mountainous region of northern Georgia, East Tennessee, and western North Carolina, you can still hear tales told of the moon-eyed people who only come out after dark on moonless nights because light hurts their eyes. If you leave them alone, they may do your farm chores for you. The origin of these folk is supposed to go back way before pre-Columbian America. They pre-dated the Cherokee in these mountains, and when the Cherokee drove them off their lands, they started avoiding all human contact. They are short, pale-skinned, and have unusually round eyes.

Who were these short, round-eyed people who predated European colonization? Some speculate they could have been Welsh, a people who were also called "moon-eyed" at one time because they worked in deep mines and could see in the dark. Could they have been a race of albinos? Strangely, white skin weren't a part of their description by the Cherokee. Except these supposedly Cherokee tales aren't even part of Cherokee culture. They first appeared in print in 1797, as a legend told by white settlers about the Cherokee. But the moon-eyed people are still thing, and the park rangers at Fort Mountain State Park, where a short stone wall is said to have been built by the moon-eyed people, get plenty of questions about them. Read what we know about the legendary race of moon-eyed people at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Cherokee County Historical Museum)

By now, we all know that Christopher Columbus ended up in the New World by accident, a result of mistakes in navigation and  lack of knowledge. The result was that the Old World and the New World were brought into contact, for better or for worse, which would have happened eventually anyway. But that's only the first of a string of miscalculations and screwups that led to the way the United States is today. Some of these mistakes were the result of hubris, while others were just incompetence or stupidity. Then again, some of these movers and shakers were confronting problems never seen before. Would Japan have surrendered if they had really grasped the power of the atomic weapons the US had developed?

That's a big one, but other mistakes you've never even heard of may have led to permanent changes in the US. These eight historic errors are not presented in chronological order, but you can place them easily if you know anything about American history.