A woman goes to her mother for a little help with her job. Turns out that Mom is a bit over-extended herself. Sometimes you have to consider how much is too much and how good is good enough. -via Laughing Squid

In the early 1980s, the gay community was learning about the horror of AIDS. There was no treatment, nor even a test to determine if you were infected with HIV. It took years to know if you had it, and years to die of it. Mark Olmsted watched his brother Luke get sick and fade away for years before he died. Luke used those years to become a doctor, treat HIV patients, and experiment with a cure. Mark had the virus, too, but he wanted to spend what time he had left enjoying himself. And he did, first by cashing Luke's disability checks, then by credit card fraud, and eventually by selling drugs. However, the more crimes he committed, the more HIV research was advancing. Antiretroviral drugs were developed. And although Mark got sick off and on, he kept on living. Eventually he even tried to fake his own death -several times. Read the story of Mark Olmsted and the death sentence that never came. -via Digg

(Image credit: NIAID)

Fame doesn't insulate people from criminal charges all the time. And people don't change their underlying character because they've become part of pop culture. Plenty of successful actors, musicians, and sports stars have run afoul of the law even after they made good. Take the cast of the TV series The Sopranos, who may have been typecast, or may have been inspired by the characters they played.

Anthony Borges played Larry Boy Barese, and in 2011 he pleaded guilty to extortion charges. His fictional cousin Albert was played by Richard Maldone, who was arrested as part of a drug ring operation that was selling cocaine, meth, and ketamine. Meanwhile, Lillo Brancato Jr. played Matthew Bevilacqua, and he ended up being sentenced to ten years in prison while narrowly avoiding a charge of second-degree murder back in 2005. Brancato and an associate were trying to rob a house that happened to be next to the home of an off-duty cop, Daniel Enchautegui. He came over to investigate and Brancato's partner fatally shot him. Both men were arrested, but Brancato was only charged with the burglary. He got out of prison in 2013.

And those weren't the most bizarre crime stories that came out of the Sopranos cast. Plus you'll read stories about celebrity crime that had nothing to do with The Sopranos. Cracked named the article 4 Celebrities Whose Fictional Crimes Turned Real, but since we'e already named almost that many in one paragraph, let's just say you can go read plenty more of them.   

Cats will find the darnedest places to give birth. That was unfortunate for a cat somewhere around Haywood, California. Her litter of five kittens was born inside a 60-foot steel beam that was then transported to a San Diego construction site 500 miles away. Luckily, workers heard the kittens' mewing, and tipped the beam to get them out. The Humane Society estimated them to be one week old, and have already lined up a couple of construction workers as adoptive cat owners when the kittens are old enough. -via Fark

When the first suspected victim of bubonic plague died in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1900, the whole 12-block neighborhood was quarantined even before the tests came back. While outsiders were angry when their servants did not show up for work, Chinatown residents had more urgent problems, like getting needed supplies and health care. One young girl risked running a police barricade to seek help for her sister dying of appendicitis. Agents from the Board of Health entered to vaccinate residents against plague, using a killed bacteria formula that was known for severe side effects. Residents also feared the fate of Honolulu's Chinatown, which was burned to the ground when plague was found a few months earlier. Ng Poon Chew, who founded one of the early Chinese language newspapers in San Francisco, reported the news from inside the quarantined zone.

The city’s English-language papers expressed skepticism that the plague was real (their businessmen owners and advertisers, after all, stood to lose tourism dollars if news of a plague outbreak in San Francisco became known) and criticized the Board of Health for overreacting.

By contrast, Chew’s urgent articles reflect the unnerving experience of working in an area ringed by police. The rumors of controversial mass inoculations had “plunged the town into disorder,” reported Chung Sai Yat Po. From the start, the paper questioned the quarantine itself: “According to the epidemic prevention laws a yellow Flag should be planted in front of an epidemic-afflicted house, or a house should be encircled by tapes to warn people off. But never have we heard of blockading a whole town.” (Chew surely knew of the quarantine of Honolulu’s Chinatown before its devastating fire, so perhaps he ignored that recent incident to make his point.)

Read about that scary episode in California's history at Lithub. -via Nag on the Lake

A man (played by Eka Darville) encounters a talking tree (played by by John Ventimiglia). You can imagine how surprising that would be, and he's inspired to make the most of the situation. Why was he chosen to hear a tree's thoughts, and what great wisdom can come from it? This short by Stefan Hunt is awesome in ways you don't expect. -via Laughing Squid

A "Mary Sue" is a female protagonist of a story who is perfect, naturally able to accomplish great things, and can do no wrong. You may have heard the term referring to Rey in the new Star Wars trilogy, but the name goes back to the '70s, when Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro analyzed fan fiction submitted to the Star Trek fanzine they founded. The concept behind the name goes back much further.  

The “Mary Sue” character, introduced in 1973 by Smith in the second issue of Menagerie (named after a two-parter from the show's first season), articulated a particular trope that exists far beyond the “Star Trek” universe. Mary Sues can be found throughout the history of literature, standing on the shoulders of earlier fill-in characters, like Pollyanna, the unfailingly optimistic protagonist from Eleanor H. Porter’s children’s books from the 1910s. More recently, cousins to the term can be found in the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, as coined by Nathan Rabin in his review of the Cameron Crowe film Elizabethtown, and the Jennifer Lawrence-personified “Cool Girl.”

It’s no accident that all of these examples are women. Smith and Ferraro also threw around terms like Murray Sue or Marty Sue when they corresponded with editors of other zines, but male fill-in characters, it seemed, could be brave and handsome and smart without reproach. “Characters like Superman were placeholders for the writers, too,” Smith points out. “But those were boys. It was OK for [men] to have placeholder characters that were incredibly able.”

Placeholder characters are those that the reader can imagine embodying, and have existed in fiction since the beginning of fiction. However, a female protagonist is more likely to draw criticism, whether they are too perfect, like Ray, or not perfect enough, like Daenerys Targaryen. Read about the fiction trope and its history at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Menagerie)

A few years ago, Simone Giertz introduced us to her chopping machine. The guys at Megabots (previously at Neatorama) were so impressed, they recreated the knife-waving contraption in giant robot style! The robot proves to be about as dangerously inept as Giertz's original version, but her delight makes it all worthwhile. -via Metafilter

See more videos from Simone Giertz.

The plague called the Black Death affected millions of Europeans in the 14th century. Doctors were terrified of treating patients, but did the best they could (which wasn't much) and developed a kind of hazmat suit that they hoped would protect them. It may have helped somewhat. If you prefer to read text instead of watching the video, you can at Strange Ago.  -via Strange Company

The Phantom Menace was released on May 19, 1999. From its premiere, the movie has been a source of disappointment among Star Wars fans. The first episode of the Skywalker saga gave us a pint-sized Darth Vader, too much Jar Jar Binks and not enough Darth Maul, bureaucratic discussions, midichlorians, and no apparent bridge to the next chapter. But it was also the first Star Wars movie in 16 years. For the movie's 20th anniversary, io9 spoke with fans attending Star Wars Celebration in Chicago last month to see how they felt about The Phantom Menace. They were surprisingly enthusiastic.

“I have a personal connection to that movie,” said Natassia Strayer, who was cosplaying as Rey at the convention. “When I was younger my favorite character was young Anakin and I used to have this pair of ski goggles that looked like the podracing goggles. So, when I was like four or five, I would just wear them and run around my basement like I was podracing. I know that a lot of people don’t like [The Phantom Menace] as much but for me, just because of that nostalgia, I still enjoy it because I think back to that childhood.”

That comment explains the rehabilitation of The Phantom Menace rather well. In 1999, longtime Star Wars fans had high expectations, while for an entire generation, it was their first Star Wars experience, or at least the first Star Wars movie they saw on the big screen. With no preconceived notions about what a Star Wars movie should be, they enjoyed The Phantom Menace for what it was- essentially a movie for kids. But was it their age or their lack of Star Wars experience? To find out, Andrew Daniels watched the movie with his wife Lauren, who hadn't seen any of the Star Wars films before. An interview with her before and after the screening gives one point of evidence that it's your age at first watch that determines how much you enjoy The Phantom Menace.  

When you think of a pool filled with Jell-O, you might think "That's really dumb but kind of cool." Then you realize that Jell-O has to be boiled to dissolve, and then refrigerated to set. How can you do that in quantities necessary for a pool? Mark Rober (previously at Neatorama) was determined to make it work, and takes us on his journey. -via Tastefully Offensive

Simon Forman and Richard Napier were 17th-century astrologers in England, but they practiced medicine. They had a thriving business of patients who came in and described their ills. Forman and Napier would consult the stars, and then prescribe treatments like bloodletting or applying a dead animal to the body. The practitioners took detailed notes on thousands of cases, which survive today. Better yet, the notes have been transcribed into understandable modern English and the 500 most interesting cases uploaded for all to read, sorted into categories like witchcraft, venereal diseases, bad marriages, frenzy, and chastity diseases.

There are many treasures to be found here. Joan Broadbrok, 40, has a throbbing headache and "thinks her children to be rats & mice." Edward Cleaver's worrisome ill thoughts ("kisse myne arse") may stem from the witchery of a neighbor who suckled a puppy.

The project "opens a wormhole into the grubby and enigmatic world of 17th-century medicine, magic and the occult," Professor Lauren Kassell of Cambridge's History and Philosophy of Science Department and one of the project's leads, said in a statement.

"Channeled through the astrologers' pens are fragments of the health and fertility concerns, bewitchment fears and sexual desires from thousands of lives otherwise lost to history."

The selected cases file is part of a larger project to transcribe and digitize the entirety of Forman and Napier's writings. Read about Forman and Napier at Cnet and browse the searchable case files here. -Thanks, WTM!    

(Image: Wellcome Images)

Japan is full of costumed mascots, representing anything from villages to corporations to the local prison. New mascots, called yurukyara, are invented for every TV show and advertising campaign. But it's not easy to convey personality when you can't speak or use your own facial expressions, so the people who aspire to live inside those kawaii costumes go to Choko Group Mascot Actor’s School. The school was founded by actor Choko Ohira, who worked in costume on a children's show for ten years, then decided to train the next generation of mascots.   

Her dedication is key, as it’s not a simple matter of prancing around in a costume. Companies might just put their new recruits into a mascot suit without any training, but students at Choko Group adhere to strict rules set by the school. These include never letting anyone see you change or showing skin when in costume. Keeping the fantasy alive of it being a flesh-and-blood character, rather than a human in a suit, is of the utmost importance.

For that same reason, no talking is allowed either, unless the student has progressed to the upper echelons of mascot society as the main actor, or is in a generic costume that isn’t tied to one specific yurukyara. If speaking is required, cuteness is key, no matter the actor’s natural tone of voice. Who can wear which costume is specified by height, not gender, so the chance of a cute animal costumes being worn by a man with a deep voice is just as high as it being a high-pitched woman, and there should be no discrepancy in the level of kawaii (cuteness). Other than that, a sunny disposition and a reasonable level of fitness always help. The costumes can be cumbersome, there’s lots of movement involved, and those movements have to look as upbeat as possible.

Read more about yurukyara training at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Roberto Solisa)

The village of Vrontados is on the Greek island of Chios. Every Easter, the town lights up with a war between two churches called Rouketopolemos (rocket war). The congregations of Agios Markos (St. Marks) and Panagia Erithiani assemble their homemade rockets on the night before Orthodox Easter and fire away until after midnight, with the aim of hitting the bell tower of the rival church. The tradition dates back to the occupation of the Ottoman Empire, but no one really knows the origins of the war. Real cannons were used until 1889. Even today, the 60 to 80 thousand rockets can do some real damage, so the churches and surrounding homes reinforce their buildings with metal plates and mesh, and man the hoses until the war dies down. There is never a "winner" declared, so the battles can be continued the next year. Despite the danger, Rouketopolemos is a tourist draw for Vrontados. The footage above is from the 2019 rocket war. It gets a little scary around 1:48. -via Laughing Squid

The man in the hat is redditor BeardoGREG. Yes, he has a beard, and his name is probably Greg. He managed to get his entire family into one selfie. But look, he has no legs! What happened? There is no Photoshop involved, because that would be dumb. This is an unintentional illusion.

See, his wife is taking the picture. She is probably sitting on the ground with their son. The daughter isn't too tall, either. So Greg tried to get down on their level by spreading his legs apart, then lowering his head to be even with his daughter's, which meant bending at the hips until his torso was almost perpendicular to the ground. His legs are behind the kids. The shirt hangs a little away from his body, hiding any evidence of pants. So it only looks like he is flying into the picture, Superman-style. -via Boing Boing