Among the milestones of alien sightings, we have the first flying saucer report in 1947 and the first alien abduction report in 1961. But people have been seeing unexplained phenomena in the sky throughout history. In 1909, that included a lot of New Englanders at the same time.

"It all began on 12 December, when prominent Worcester businessman Wallace Tillinghast told a Boston Herald reporter he had invented the world's first reliable heavier-than-air flying machine," Stephen Whalen and Robert E. Bartholomew recounted in the New England Quarterly.

Over the ensuing weeks, airship sightings flooded in, which newspapers gleefully reported with little skepticism. The reports in turn prompted even more sightings. It was a chain reaction of delusions.

"The great airship episode peaked in a frenzy on Christmas Eve," Whalen and Bartholomew described. "On that night there were thirty-three separate reports, spreading from Massachusetts southward to Rhode Island and Connecticut, northward to Vermont and Maine, and as far west as New York. In Boston, 'thousands upon thousands of people... stood on sidewalks, street corners and squares... hoping for a glimpse of the flying machine.'"

Not exactly an alien invasion, as people assumed they were seeing an aircraft from earth. But it was still a delusion. The reasons behind it are explained at Real Clear Science.

Joseph from Joseph's Machines, and his dog Matthew, show us his easy method of preparing a Thanksgiving turkey. -via reddit

Every year, the Bookseller awards the Diagram Prize for the oddest book title to be published in the previous year. This year marks the 40th award. The many entries have been whittled down to six finalists, and the public is invited to vote for the one you think should win. They are:

Are Gay Men More Accurate in Detecting Deceits?
Call of Nature: The Secret Life of Dung
Equine Dry Needling
Jesus on Gardening
Joy of Waterboiling
Why Sell Tacos in Africa?

While there is no prize for the winning author besides exposure, a bottle of claret is traditionally given to the person who nominates the winner. This year's finalists were selected in-house, so a bottle will be given to a random person among those who vote for the eventual winner. Cast your vote here by November 16.  -via Vox

What does a panda do with a snowman? The Toronto Zoo trained their panda cam on their giant panda Da Mao to see. If you asked Da Mao, he'd say his aim is to climb on top of the snowman. If you asked anyone else, they'd say his aim was to make us laugh. -via reddit

Fantasy illustrator Fajareka Setiawan has a series of mashups that turn cats into Marvel superheroes! Isn't this feline Deadpool adorable? Continue reading to see Iron Man, Venom, and Black Panther (an obvious choice).

The emerald jewel wasp is a parasite that stings a cockroach to turn it into a zombie. It chews off half the roach's antennae, then leads it by the antenna to the wasp's nest, where it lays an egg inside the roach. The whole dreadful story is at Wikipedia. However, cockroaches have developed a defense against the wasp that resembles a martial arts film. It's hard to pick a champion when a cockroach fights a wasp, but this footage from Vanderbilt University is pretty cool. -via Metafilter

Vulture has compiled a ranked list of the 50 best dance scenes in movies. Whether or not you agree with their picks or their rankings, you'll enjoy watching at least some of the 49 accompanying videos (one was deemed too pornographic). You'll see Fred Astaire, Carmen Miranda, Prince, Patrick Swayze, Marilyn Monroe, Josephine Baker, Pee-Wee Herman, Ann-Margret, Elvis, Channing Tatum, Esther Williams, Grace Jones, Gene Kelly, John Travolta, Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, and hoofers from Broadway to Bollywood. As enjoyable as those videos are, Metafilter points out some egregious omission, like Jumpin' Jive and the Bottle Dance.

(Image credit: Emily Denniston and Maya Robinson/Vulture)

We know that the Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from France, but who actually owns the statue today? Is it the entity that owns the island underneath? The federal government or the state? Which state? CGP Grey explores these simple questions, with answers that will have you scratching your head. History is complicated, and sometimes just plain silly. -via Boing Boing

Benjamin Carroll and his wife staged an open house to sell their home in Jackson, Michigan. One man drew suspicion when he wouldn't sign the guest book or leave his name. A check of the home's surveillance cameras revealed that the man had "inspected" the basement, looked through the washing machine, and stuffed two pairs of men's underwear down his pants! The story made the local news after Carroll posted the video at Facebook. -via reddit

You may have noticed that racehorses sometimes have really odd names. You can't just name a horse Bob or Joe, because There. Are. Rules. Lots of rules. But within those rules, you also want a name that will be memorable, of course. And some horse owners take those rules as a challenge.   

Another trend when it comes to naming racehorses is to simply pick a name that sounds funny or is difficult to pronounce, usually just to annoy racing commentators. An example of this is a horse bought by one of the writers of the film Airplane, David Zucker named All Pink. If that doesn’t sound all that funny we should note that Zucker specifically instructed the jockey riding All Pink to hug the inside of the track so the commentator would have to keep saying the phrase “It’s all pink on the inside”.

So what would you name a racehorse? Be careful that you don't break any of the many naming rules enforced by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, or any of the local authorities that often have additional name restrictions. Learn about these rules at Today I Found Out.

And for a laugh, watch the race won by Hoof Hearted.

(Image credit: David Ohmer)

This guy shows us three different ways to make a shower head out of a plastic bottle. Why would you want to do that? So you can play with your pet otter! The otter in this case is named Bingo, so suddenly the title of the video makes sense. Bingo sure does loves his shower. -via Metafilter   

Cats have taken part in war since ancient times, although their use was often more gruesome than heartwarming. In the 20th century, though, we had quite a few morale-boosting stories of cats that made the global news during the two World Wars, like this one from 1918 of a cat who changed sides.

A story of a cat is told in British letters from the front. The lookout men saw a cat emerge from the German trenches in front of them, make her way calmly to their trenches, pass through, and proceed to the rear, where she carefully inspected the officers’ billets. Then she retraced her steps to the German lines and the Englishmen supposed  they had seen the last of her. To their amazement she re-appeared with a kitten in her mouth, passed by them to the zone of comparative safety in the rear, dropped her kitten in the dugout, went back to the German trenches and got kitten number two. Finally she had three kittens safe in the English lines. Speculation as to the reason for her removal of the kittens was in vain. She never told why she deserted the Germans.

Read a roundup of stories of cats in wartime at Pauline Conolly's blog. There are lots of pictures. -via Strange Company

When an aspiring standup comedian takes a day job as a flight attendant, you can get safety instructions that are worth listening to. That's the case for this Frontier Airlines flight to Colorado Springs.  Passenger Cindy Kuhn quickly decided this would be worth recording. It may have been the first time these passengers actually listened to these instructions, despite having flown many times before. -via reddit

The art collective Dorothy has constructed a map of the U.S. filled with song titles! In fact, song titles are the only text, but you won't have any trouble negotiating your way around. You'll be surprised at how many songs have been written about places America. And in case you'd like to hear those songs, there's a Spotify playlist for that!

Get a closer look at the entire map at the Dorothy website. Yes, it's for sale. -via Nag on the Lake

First, there was First Class and Economy. Your choice. Then came Business class somewhere in between. Now, three US airlines (American, Delta, and United) are splitting their Economy class flights into three sub-sections, with different names and different levels of misery for those trying to fly for the least money. The rules for each are different, and vary among airlines. At the lowest level, you might have to pay extra for carry-on luggage, and you can't change your flight. At the medium level, you can change your flight, but it will cost you. And depending on the airline, the most expensive Economy class might give you more seat room. These difference are spelled out for you for each airline at Lifehacker. Happy travels!  

(Image credit: Jason Cupp)