Nature has given us a wide variety of substances that can act as a medicine, a recreational drug, or a murder weapon, depending on the dosage. There are also a lot of substances that will just plain kill. And since we all eat and drink, poisoning has a long history of the being the easiest way to murder someone. Arsenic was once the easiest way to get rid of a husband, just by serving him dinner. In the Old West, whiskey was sometimes served with a dash of strychnine. During Prohibition, industrial alcohol was imbued with poisonous methanol, to deter -or kill- those who wanted to drink it. Nazi war criminals used cyanide for both killing concentration camp inmates and for suicide.

Read about these poisonings and more, and also the most fashionable way to store your poisons, at Messy Nessy Chic. And when someone pours you a drink, watch how they hold their hand over the glass.

Back in 2010, Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate introduced the world to an adorable seashell named Marcel, or more specifically, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. You can see the original trilogy of shorts here. Over the past five years, the creators have been working on a full-length film in secret, so they could maintain creative control without having to deal with deadlines, a budget, or outside interference. The finished product was unveiled at the Telluride Film Festival last fall, and was picked up for distribution by A24. The movie is a "documentary" that follows Marcel as he searches for his family. The movie stars Fleischer-Camp and Slate, plus Isabella Rossellini, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, and Lesley Stahl. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On will be in theaters on June 24. -via Metafilter

Last fall, we learned about Dylan, who ate all his meals at Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park with  a $150 annual Dining Pass. Over seven years, he saved enough money to pay off his students loans and buy a house. Dylan's story went viral, and he was interviewed on some major TV shows. At the time, he was still eating a meal every day at Six Flags, but that will soon come to an end when his current pass expires. Six Flags is doing away with the $150 all-you-can-eat plan. The park's new pricing structure doesn't have any plan offering unlimited meals. In fact, the most expensive plan will now only come with ten meals for the year.

Did Dylan's viral story have anything to do with the annual pass plans changing? You might guess that the park probably sold a lot of dining passes right afterward. A representative from Six Flags denies that Dylan's story had anything to do with it, stating only that the pandemic caused the pricing restructure. Read about what Dylan's life was like after going viral and how it may have contributed to the scheme's downfall at Mel magazine.

(Image credit: Jeremy Thompson)

There're two types of cats.🐈🦐😅 pic.twitter.com/W9NQWsr5fv

— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) March 28, 2022

Make sure the sound is on for this one. The common perception of cats is that they all like seafood. Cat food producers will tell you that the fishier the smell, the more that cats like it. They have to draw a fine line between appealing to a cat and making the human who serves that cat food sick from the smell. But common perception doesn't tell you that all cats are different, just like humans. I have a white cat like the first one in this video. She is deaf, and I enjoy waking her up with something she thinks smells good. But as you can see here, cats preferences can vary greatly.  -via Fark

Governments used to build underground bunkers to protect people from aerial bombardment in wartime, but after World War II, they backed off because the danger is just too widespread, unpredictable, and devastating to even think they could protect everyone who might someday might need it. The private sector stepped in, because there was money to be made.  

Ever since the dawn of nuclear weapons, there have been companies that specialize in building underground bunkers in which one could survive a nuclear war. They thrived during the Cold War era, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, turned to doomsday preppers for business. But in the five weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, business has been booming. You can get a concrete bunker built underground for around $45,000 and up (way up). You can purchase a space in a converted missile silo so you can hunker down with others. But if you are just starting to think about it, you may have to wait in line. Read about the booming business of bunkers at CBC.  -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: A. Latina Brown)

The internet is a wonderful place, full of documentation on things you never knew existed. You've probably never considered the testing procedures for manhole covers, grates, and other objects made to be embedded in roads. After all, they have to be tough, or anyone driving over them could meet disaster. The testing process is largely automated and is conducted by a robot that drives over them. This industrial video from the company PAM has no narration and French text, but what information they give is pretty easy to decipher even if you don't read French. The robot drives over the test object ten times a minute, at 50 kilometers per hour, for a total of 5,000 passes, to ensure the manhole covers will last 20 years. At least that's what I think it says. -via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories

Inspired by the Lego Star Wars trench run diorama, which won't even be available until later this month, Evie Rees made a birthday cake. It's quite elaborate, to say the least! The entire artwork is edible, with the exception of the spaceships and their stands. Using real LEGO bricks as molds, she made the LEGOS out of fondant. The blue pieces were picked out of assorted candy sprinkles. It took two days to get it all done- the fondant decorations came first, and the cake was baked on the second day. One side of the trench is Victoria sponge cake, and the other side is carrot cake. Rees could have made it chocolate and vanilla to represent the light side and the dark side, but bowed to what her family prefers to eat. Yes, they ate it. But the photographs are forever. You can see a gallery of ten larger images of the cake in this reddit post. 

When you think about a cat in ancient Egypt, you probably think of the god called Bast. A god pictured as a cat must mean that cats were worshiped, right? That's the popular notion, but it's a lot more complicated than that. Yes, we've found millions of cat mummies, but my first thought on learning that was that they used cats as practice for mummification. However, that's not part of the story, either. SideQuest gives us the longer, more involved story of how cats were regarded in ancient Egypt. Now, just imagine when archaeologists a few thousand years from now dig up and decipher our internet archives of lolcats and catios and crazy cat lady stories and, quite understandably, assume that we worshiped cats. No, we just treat them like they are our masters and we are their servants. And when they eventually discover toxoplasmosis and its effects, they'll understand why. -via Digg

Ukraine is so proud of their wheat fields that they designed their national flag around them. You may have recently read that Ukraine is the world's breadbasket, which might come as a shock to Americans. Yes, America produces a huge amount of the world's wheat grain, too, but Ukraine is the reason we grow that productive wheat to make bread. Before 1880, most American bread was made with rye, corn, or low-gluten soft wheat varieties. The vagaries of history and waves of immigration brought the staple known as Turkey wheat to the Great Plains of the US.

This variety of wheat has roots in Crimea, a peninsula that is recognized as part of Ukraine, which was once under Turkish control—hence the grain’s name. It earned German Mennonite stewards in 1770, after Catherine the Great promoted settlement, promising the group they could keep their pacifist values and language. When regime change and conscription came knocking again, these people needed to find a new home.

Of course, wheat continued to be produced in Ukraine long after it spread to America. Read the history of how Ukrainian wheat came to the US at Modern Farmer.

(Image credit: Сергей Марцынюк)

Real actors doing The Simpsons' opening? And it's good? This was created by British Sky Broadcasting as a promotion for the series, which went viral and then was used for the opening of The Simpsons season 17 episode 15 entitled "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife," co-written by Ricky Gervais, who also guest-starred. You might be surprised at Bart and Lisa portrayed as redheads, and Marge's hair is not quite so outrageous, but you can't argue that those involved didn't do an excellent job of channeling the animated yelllow-skinned family. -via reddit

Science demonstrates once again what we suspected all along. People who had a rural upbringing have better navigation skills than their counterparts raised in cities. This is most likely due to the lack of standardization of rural roads as they are routed around mountains, rivers, and much older roads -and because country folk often have to travel further for a variety of reasons. Rural travelers exercise their sense of direction out of necessity, while those who live on logically-designed city grids can find their way around much more easily.

To check out this hypothesis, a team of scientists used the video game Sea Hero Quest, which was developed in 2016 specifically to study the effects of Alzheimer's disease. In the game, participants have to navigate around the ocean, and remember where they've been. The results showed not only that people who grow up in the countryside had better navigation skills, but those raised in older, more complex cities like Paris and Prague showed a better sense of direction than those who grew up in cities with a planned grid, such as Chicago. Still, you have to wonder whether it's the grid itself, or the ability to rely on mass transit that makes navigation easier for city dwellers. Read more about this research at The Guardian. -via Damn Interesting 

(Image credit: Jonathan Billinger/Walking up Coppet Hill/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Automotive engineer Norman Garrett wrote an essay to any would-be thieves who think they've hit the jackpot just because they found an unlocked Porsche. I started reading it and felt right at home, because I have two very old Camrys that I never lock because no one would want them anyway for some of the same reasons. But his story is more involved, better written, and quite hilarious.  

Welcome to my Porsche 914. I imagine that at this point (having found the door unlocked) your intention is to steal my car. Don’t be encouraged by this; the tumblers sheared-off in 1978. I would have locked it up if I could, so don’t think you’re too clever or that I’m too lazy. However, now that you’re in the car, there are a few things you’re going to need to know. First, the battery is disconnected, so slide-hammering my ignition switch is not your first step. I leave the battery disconnected, not to foil hoodlums such as yourself, but because there is a mysterious current drain from the 40-year-old German wiring harness that I can’t locate and/or fix. So, connect the battery first. Good luck finding the engine cover release. Or the engine, for that matter.

Oh yeah, that's just the beginning. You'll get to know this particular car quite well as you decide whether or not to steal it -or try to. The connection with my own cars was suddenly severed at the end when he recommended that the thief find "a nice, reliable Camry to heist" instead. You'll enjoy this description of automotive adventure at Hagerty. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Norman Garrett)

 

The city of Pompeii is an archaeological treasure, as it is gradually dug out from underneath the ashes of Mt. Vesuvius' 79AD eruption. That means looters, people who steal and trade in historical relics, want to get into the city. To guard the site, authorities are using Boston Dynamics' Spot robots. They can patrol all night without rest, watching and recording any activity, aided by drones that can watch from above. Not only are the robots acting as security guards, they are also monitoring the ruins for signs of change or damage so that preservationists can catch problems with the fragile structures before they completely fall apart. It sounds like a good use for these dog-like robots. They could sure scare a thief away! Read more about the project at Gizmodo.

But what if...  Mt. Vesuvius were to erupt again? The city is mostly restored to its condition from 2,000 years ago. Imagine if it were buried under lava, ash, and rubble again, only to be excavated again in another 2,000 years. These scientists of the future would find Roman roads, ancient homes and businesses, and robots. And that's the kind of thing that causes us to misunderstand history. -via Nag on the Lake

Neatorama has an extensive archive of stories about dead bodies that were not allowed a peaceful rest. However, there are always more stories about earthly remains exploited for obsession, profit, or entertainment. For example, I had no idea that Charlie Chaplin's corpse was dug up and held for ransom, and that happened in my lifetime! It was only a couple of months after Chaplin's death in December of 1977 that Chaplin's body was disinterred from Corsier-sur-Vevey cemetery in Switzerland. Numerous phone calls to the actor's widow, Oona Chaplin, demanded money that would be equivalent to almost $2 million today. Oona refused to pay the ransom, police investigated, and Chaplin's body was dumped in a field to be found three months later. Read how that story turned out, as well as the cases of the restless corpses of Abraham Lincoln, Alistair Cooke, Eva Peron, and those of quite a few other famous people at DiggingUp1800. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Giramondo1)

Remember that unique ad that introduced us to the Squatty Potty? It's a stool that brings your feet up to a squatting position on the toilet in order to help you poop more naturally. Now the company brings us the Squatty Potty Pillow in order to sooth you, reassure you, and help you release your pent-up emotions in a more natural way, as in "relieving your emotional constipation." Believe it or not, it's a pillow shaped like the Squatty Potty. Only at the end of the ad do we find out why they made this ad, but people are already asking when it will be available to purchase. That seems to happen every April first, no matter how stupid the product is.  -via Geeks Are Sexy