In this goofy episode of Aaron's Animals, Aaron Benitez and his cat Prince Michael go fishing. They are not expert fishermen, like everyone else at the lakeside appears to be. But hey, fishing is supposed to be fun, not a competition! -via Tastefully Offensive
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Serious question for #medtwitter: If you show up at a code, and the patient is a centaur who had a cardiac arrest, ignoring the joules question, where do you think the defib pads should go? A, assuming the heart is in the human part, or B, assuming the heart is in the horse part? pic.twitter.com/OJt9haEgx3— Fred Wu, MD (@FredWuMD) July 28, 2018
Dr. Wu and Dr. Funk had a discussion on Twitter about the proper treatment of a centaur having a heart attack. Where is the heart? Does he have more than one heart? After all, the hagfish and the octopus have auxiliary hearts, and a centaur has a lot of body to power. And what about the lungs? The conversation turned to centaur anatomy in general, which can get technical between medical doctors. Read their speculations and conclusions at Dorkly. -via Metafilter)
So How Does a Centaur Eat, Anyway?
Terri Metz has a unique but simple way to fold a fitted sheet -yeah, right, as if there exists such a thing as a simple way to fold a fitted sheet. If I were to try this, I'd probably fall asleep in the middle. But I can't try this, because I'd need to vacuum the rug first, and I don't want to do that. See, I know how to fold a fitted sheet real nicely, but instead I just launder my sheets and put them back on the bed. -via Everlasting Blort
You've heard about people trying to date someone "out of their league," and people who manage to "marry up," but how can you really measure that? There are so many different qualities that go into desirability: looks, education, income, age, and of course, virtue and personality. However, online dating gives us the digital tools to actually measure an individual's desirability in relation to others -at least during initial contact. Sociology professor Elizabeth Bruch of the University of Michigan crunched the numbers of 186,000 heterosexual users of one online dating system in four cities for a month.
Imagine for a second that you are one of the users Bruch and her colleagues studied—in fact, imagine that you are a very desirable user. Your specific desirability rank would have been generated by two figures: whether other desirable people contacted you, and whether other desirable people responded when you contacted them. If you contacted a much less desirable person, their desirability score would rise; if they contacted you and you replied, then your score would fall.
The team had to analyze both first messages and first replies, because, well, men usually make the first move. “A defining feature of heterosexual online dating is that, in the vast majority of cases, it is men who establish the first contact—more than 80 percent of first messages are from men in our data set,” the study says. But “women reply very selectively to the messages they receive from men—their average reply rate is less than 20 percent—so women’s replies … can give us significant insight about who they are interested in.”
The study found that online daters commonly approach or respond to people who are an average of 25% more desirable than they are. Some reached even higher, but hardly anyone reached out to potential dates who are less desirable. What is most intriguing (and depressing) about the study are the factors they found that determine the desirability score. For example, women's desirability peaks at age 18, while men's score holds pretty steady through adulthood, peaking at 50. Read about more factors that go into one's desirability score at The Atlantic. It might cause you to swear off online dating forever. -via Digg
(Image credit: Thomas8047)
A family in Marlborough, New Zealand, has a pet sheep named Bacon, which you have to admit is a slightly better name than Mutton. Bacon is having a great time on the backyard trampoline. I don't think this is his first time playing on it. It's a pretty good life for a sheep, even with that weird name. -via Tastefully Offensive
The American version of The Office ran on NBC from 2005 to 2013. In the five years since, its popularity hasn't waned at all. Nicole Gallucci is a fan who knows that other fans have their favorite scenes they'll never forget. She compiled 65 of the most important, iconic, funny, emotional and/or memorable scenes from The Office so that you can relive the entire series. Most have video evidence, and all are illustrated in one way or another. They are not ranked, but are listed in chronological order, so that you can follow along in sequence at Mashable.
This is a watermelon. It's been skinned, brined, smoked, basted, and grilled like a ham, so it resembles a ham. Duck's Eatery in New York City offers it as an entree, but you could make it at home, with some skill, particular ingredients and tools, and lots of time. What does it taste like? My guess is that it tastes like a watermelon, no matter what it looks like. My guess is also that it looks better than it tastes. -via Laughing Squid
Americans are known around the world for our size. The country is big, our people stand tall, and in the last 50 years, we've become increasing fat. There are quite a few reasons why, and some of them multiply each other. You can probably guess some of those reasons, but you may not know them all, and you might be shocked at the extent of the changes over time. As you can see here, portion sizes have increased greatly. We're also eating out more. We consume more sugar. But there's more, including ideas for what we can do about it at Vox. -via Digg
Lindsey Ellis looks at the marketing of the dark side. We all know that Lucas and company designed the evil Empire to resemble the forces of Nazi Germany, but the costumes and sets are just so cool-looking that every new young Star Wars fan wants to be Darth Vader for Halloween. In much the same way, the original Nazis looked cool to the generation that became the Hitler Youth. It helps that we don't get much of a look into the Empire's fascist ideology, and even less into that of the First Order. Not understanding the underpinnings of evil makes it easier to sell, as in pajamas and lunchboxes. This video is long, but if you are interested enough to begin, it will hold your interest. -via Metafilter
My parents’ cat inexplicably LOVES peaches, and it’s the most delightful thing. They send regular picture updates to the family group chat of this cat just chilling with the peaches. It’s the most important notification I get to my phone. pic.twitter.com/mPEQaRF8Mv
— Lydia Coutré (@LydiaCoutre) August 1, 2018
This is Ozzy. He belongs to journalist Lydia Coutré's parents. Ozzy loves peaches, and can't wait until they are in season. I can understand- in August and September, I can't get enough fresh peaches. But Ozzy does not eat the peaches, he just loves to sit among them and maybe nuzzle a few. You can't get any cuter than that! Ozzy has gone viral on Twitter, and people have responded with pictures of their own peach cats, cats who love other fruits, and other animals who like peaches, too. And then there's the fan art.
I had to draw @LydiaCoutre 's awesome story about peach cat Ozzy! What a good boy protecting those furry eggs <3 pic.twitter.com/cF0Ydv3o0k
— Erin McLaughlin (@Eboods) August 7, 2018
See more pictures of Ozzy and Ozzy fan art at Bored Panda.
Even when "we" are doing nothing at all, our bodies are busy. Sustaining life is an miraculous feat, and every organ of your body must work together around the clock to keep it going. For your entire lifetime. When you know all the stuff going on, you'll have a real sense of accomplishment -or else you'll be exhausted. -via Nag on the Lake
How would you like to own Anakin's lightsaber from Revenge of the Sith? Or Indiana Jones' fedora from Raiders of the Lost Ark? Or Marty McFly's hoverboard from Back to the Future II? Or the jacket shown above, which Harrison Ford wore in the movie The Empire Strikes Back? The Prop Store is going to auction off more than 600 pieces of rare movie memorabilia on September 20 in London, during their fifth annual Entertainment Memorabilia Auction. You can see a preview of some of the most iconic items at How Stuff Works. Most of it is expected to go for more than you can pay, but you can register online and take your chances when the auction goes live.
Too hot, too crowded, needs more vending machines... You can find customer reviews for anything now, including national parks. What does it take for someone to leave a one-star review for the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone? No much- lackluster food at the restaurant or uncomfortable weather can be more important to some folks than the magnificence of the area's natural beauty. Tom Chitty found one-star reviews for America's best-known national parks on TripAdvisor and illustrated them. See seven of the illustrations plus the reviews that inspired them at Topic. -via Everlasting Blort
(Image credit: Tom Chitty)
After this year's Oscars broadcast garnered the lowest ratings ever, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will make some changes to the Academy Awards. The broadcast will be earlier in the year, and some awards will be announced during commercial breaks, so that the broadcast can stay within three hours. But the big news is the new award.
At least as important, in terms of improving the ratings of the Oscars telecast for ABC, the Academy also said in its letter that it "will create a new category for outstanding achievement in popular film" in time for the 91st Oscars, adding that "[e]ligibility requirements and other key details will be forthcoming." Some will complain that adding such a category cheapens the prestige of the Oscars, making it more like the People's Choice Awards or MTV Movie & TV Awards, but that is old-world thinking. More than the length of the telecast or the name of the host, Oscar ratings have been shown to correlate with the popularity of the nominated films among the general public. And the gulf between what the public buys tickets to see and what the Academy nominates and awards has never been greater.
The backlash against such an idea was immediate. Some critics see the popular award as an excuse to exclude blockbusters from the Best Picture category, even though the Academy says a movie can be nominated for both. The Academy sees it as a way to counteract the exclusion of blockbusters, as was the intent in expanding the Best Picture category to ten films a few years ago. Some think the idea is specifically targeted at the critically-acclaimed Black Panther, while others see it as a continuation of the Oscars' traditional exclusion of science fiction, fantasy, and superhero films, no matter the quality, much like animated films, which have always had difficulty in being considered for Best Picture. Either way, it's an admission that the usual contenders for Best Picture aren't popular movies- and that fewer people want to see them celebrated on TV. -via Digg
(Image credit: Greg Hernandez)
When Cristóbal Colón/Christopher Columbus happened upon the New World, ripe for exploitation, he became a very wealthy man, although most of the riches went to the king of Spain for sponsoring the trip. But what happened afterward? Colón had two sons, Fernando and Diego, who inherited his wealth, but were they to inherit a portion of the lands their father "discovered," or a portion of what it produced, or just what Cristóbal left them when he died? The Spanish crown had passed to another generation as well, and Charles V did not see eye to eye with Colón's heirs.
While Fernando was spending money, Diego was trying to consolidate his family’s status as one of the most powerful families in the “New World,” with control over Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Cuba. Before his father’s first voyage, in 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had agreed that, if his quest succeeded, Cristóbal Colón would be entitled to 10 percent of the takings of his voyage, plus a bevy of titles. Every time Diego tried to claim what he thought he was owed, the crown fought back. When he died, his father’s legacy was still contested.
The monarchy’s legal case rested on the idea that it wasn’t Colón, but one of his ship’s captains, who had first discovered the Americas. Ultimately, Diego’s widow went into arbitration with the crown, and his son, Luis Colón de Toledo, came out with a title—Admiral of the Indies—control of Jamaica, an estate in Panama, and a 10,000-ducat annuity that was meant to last in perpetuity.
It was, perhaps, less than the Colón family thought they were owed and less than Cristóbal’s contract specified. But the Colón family came out ahead of other scions of conquistadors.
The Age of Exploration enriched quite a few European families, who had varying degrees of success dealing with the riches and legacy of their explorer fathers. Read the adventures of the descendants of Hernán Cortés (who had a son in the New World and a son in the Old World, and named them both Martin), Francisco Pizarro, and Cristóbal Colón at Atlas Obscura.
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