In a followup to his previous video on the differences between Australia and New Zealand, Jordan Watson (also known as the How-to Dad) draws more contrasts between the two countries. He lives in New Zealand, which he paints as a more peaceful and sensible place.
This video delves deeper into the language differences of two English-speaking nations, although he does wander into the wildlife, sports, and geography a bit. Jordan is quite proud to be a Kiwi, although he should brush up on recognizing his own flag. -via Tastefully Offensive
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
The year was 1931 and the four Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo) had by now had three hit Broadway shows and two smash movies: The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930)- behind them. Both The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers were simply filmed versions of their Broadway shows. Both films had been shot in nearby Astoria Studios in Long Island, New York.
The Marxes, now being official 24-karat movie stars, decided to pull up stakes and move to the only residence befitting motion picture celebrities- Hollywood. Their third film would be their first with an official Hollywood screenplay.
The working title of their tertiary film was Pineapples, but was soon changed to Monkey Business. Written by S.J. Perelman and Will B. Johnstone with a screenplay by Arthur Sheekman, Monkey Business was directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Monkey Business was to be the only Marx Brothers film in which none of the brothers have a character name. Because they played four stowaways on a passenger ship, they were simply referred to as "the stowaways." (in the film's end credits, they are credited by their names, i.e. Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo Marx.)
What little plot there is involves the boys stowing away on a ship, being pursued by the captain of the ship and his underlings, meeting rival gangsters on board and getting involved with them, leaving the ship and thwarting an attempted kidnapping of one of the gangster's daughters.
Over the years, hospitals have relaxed rules about children and even pets visiting patients. And some hospitals will go the extra distance to make life as normal as possible for patients in need. Chelsea Barkley was engaged to Jordan Harper, and when her mother, cancer patient Kim Sherwood, was given a prognosis of about a week to live, she and Jordan and the hospital staff went into high gear to make sure her mother would witness their wedding. Wedding vendors helped out with donations for the wedding, put together in only 48 hours and held at the hospital. That included photographer Wendy Teal, who shot the wedding for free.
As Teal arrived to shoot the wedding, she realized that not only was it the same hospital where both of her parents died of stage 4 cancer, but the ceremony was taking place in the exact same room where her mother's funeral was held.
When Teal's mother died, the doctor's told her that her father wouldn't be able to leave the hospital to attend a funeral, so staff members let Teal hold the funeral inside the hospital. Her father was able to say his final goodbyes, and died five hours later.
While Teal decided to not to share her history with the bride and groom, given the stress they were already under, some staff members recognized her and couldn't believe she agreed to shoot the ceremony.
Teal said that this was an opportunity to pay it forward. The wedding was beautiful, despite tears from the bride, mother of the bride, and others. You can see more pictures of the wedding at Buzzfeed.
The new animated film Isle of Dogs, directed by Wes Anderson, opens this weekend. In honor of the occasion, Screen Junkies has a trailer that includes every Wes Anderson feature film made so far. That's eight of them, none of which I have seen. But apparently they are all alike.
Why haven't I ever seen a Wes Anderson movie? Because no one ever told me that I should, and that's saying something because I live on the internet. After watching this Honest Trailer, I don't feel the need to see one, ever. That doesn't mean that Isle of Dogs won't be wonderful -the reviews are pretty good. But I'll wait for the word-of-mouth. -Thanks, Kelli!
The YouTube series Forces of Destiny fills in the gaps between the Star Wars movies. They've posted a lot of animated vignettes since we showed you the first one, Sands of Jakku. In the latest episode, we find out how Leia first met Maz Kanata.
It happened long, long ago... well, you already knew that. It was between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. And now we know where Leia got the disguise she used to infiltrate Jabba's palace. -via The Daily Dot
"Exocomet" is probably a new word to you. We know exoplanets as planets that revolve around stars outside our solar system. Exocomets are comets that revolve around stars outside our solar system. Astronomers assumed that they were out there somewhere, but only recently have we seen evidence of them. And like exoplanets, they are too far away to see, but we have evidence that comes from those far away stars themselves. One exocomet was detected around a star 815 light-years away, and another at 850 light-years away. So we at least have evidence that they were at those stars over 800 years ago. But how do we know they are comets?
The alien comets were found in data taken by the Kepler telescope, which spent several years staring at 150,000 stars in one spot in the sky. It was looking for exoplanet transits, a teeny dip in a star's light if an orbiting planet happened to pass directly between us and it. That only happens if the planet's orbit is almost exactly edge-on as seen from Earth, which is why it looked at so many stars. The more you look at, the more likely the geometry will work out.
Transits are detected by measuring the amount of light from a star, and when that light dips, it usually means a planet is transiting. But graphs of those transits show that light dips and then increases in a regular pattern. Some graphs showed an asymmetrical dip, which would have been caused by a comet's tail.
When this team of astronomers looked at the star KIC 3542116, though, they spotted decidedly asymmetric dips. Six of them, in fact! Three were about the same depth (about 0.1% of the star's light blocked), and another set of three a bit shallower (0.05% blocked).
As soon as they saw the fang-shaped profile, they knew they had something special. Still, first they made sure their data weren’t contaminated by the legion of issues that can mess of the observations: starspots (sunspots, but on another star), known stellar variability, camera detector issues, and more. Once they eliminated all the known potential problems, they were left with one conclusion*: exocomets.
The vernal equinox occurs today at 12:15 Eastern Daylight Time. That's when the earth reaches the spot in its revolution around the sun where the planet's tilt causes the direct line of the sun to cross the equator from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere. So we have reached the point where the Northern Hemisphere will have days longer than nights. But the important part is that today is when winter ends and spring begins! The equinox involves science, space, weather, history, folklore, and fun. Read about all these things as they pertain to the equinox at Vox.
This little girl has put some real thought into her spiel. If you can't fulfill a need for your customers, the next tactic is altruism and guilt. That's when you let them know that proceeds of your sale benefit the local school, charity, or in this case, the Gopher Guides. When that fails, you have to bring out the big guns. Always have another reason for them to buy. Avoiding future awkwardness must be worth at least five dollars. This is the latest comic from Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble.
And if you enjoy Hallbeck's comics, you'll want to read a personal message from the artist.
In the 1930s, artist Grant Wood sketched a peculiar small house with a "pretentious" Gothic church window in the front. He later enshrined the house in his painting American Gothic. That house still stands in Eldon, Iowa, and is owned by the State Historical Society. From 2010 to 2014, Beth Howard lived in the house for $250 a month. The rent was cheap because the house is small, is in Eldon, Iowa, and 15,000 tourists visit it every year -which can be a hassle at times.
I eventually got used to being woken by laughter and high-beam headlights shining toward it in the middle of the night when travelers wanted a photo. Sometimes I would turn on the light and give them a scare — who would expect anyone to be living there?
By day, a steady stream of tourists came, posing for pictures (and peeking in the windows) dressed in the free costumes provided by the visitor center — calico smocks with cameos, overalls and black jackets, even the spectacles — and wielding pitchforks of all sizes. They brought their own props, which included a prized Harley Davidson, a fleet of Stanley steam cars, and a herd of llamas. It was the centerpiece of a Klingon calendar shoot, a bare-chested rock band’s album cover, a marriage proposal, a family reunion — a gamut of creativity daily.
That set off a string of stories about the weird things that people's grandpas would do. Some stories were about habits left over from different times. Some were about showing how hardcore they were. And some were pranks from old men who wanted to laugh at their grandchild's naivety.
My grandfather would eat heads of garlic like they were apples. One time, my father said, “Jesus, did you eat a whole head of garlic?” Charlie said, “Well, yeah, but I had a piece of gum afterward. You can still tell?”
My grandpa ate onions like apples, and Friday night was Swanson Fried Chicken TV Dinner Night, no exceptions. If grandma wanted to go out for dinner, he would bring a tv dinner along and make the restaurant heat it up.
Once when we were hanging out with my Grandpa, my 4 y/o little sister asked if he had any gum. He looked around conspiratorially and then gave her Copenhagen. My mom was not happy.
Science has slang? You betcha! Just ask anyone who's ever referred to a thagomizer. In this video, Bill Nye, the Science Guy, lets us in on some of the shortcuts scientists and science writers use.
Yeah, we've covered quite a few of these over the years, but it's good to have a refresher course. Read more about the spherical cow here. It's obvious that scientists are the coolest nerds there are. -via Tastefully Offensive
Sven has a cat named Muldar who is a genius. He wants what he wants and no human shenanigans are going to stop him. Closing the door? Pfft! Muldar will just open it. Set a pan of water in front of the door? Not a problem. For Muldar. For Sven, it's a problem.
Sven noted that the water pan was added to keep Muldar from scratching at the door, and that putting a round knob on the door (as has been recently suggested) would make no difference. I concur; Muldar would just figure out how to open a door with a round knob. -via reddit
Fay's Restaurant in New York City was the spot for a fight that made the papers in May of 1910. The eatery kept a container of lobsters on the sidewalk for diners to select for their dinner. A cat named Mattie lived at the restaurant for pest control, but she was always more fascinated with the lobsters. And Miss Rose Leland came in to eat with her bulldog Gus, who was allowed to stay as long as he behaved and his leash was wrapped about Leland's chair.
On this particular spring night, one of the lobsters fell on the sidewalk after the waiter had gone inside. Naturally, Mattie jumped at the opportunity. She had no idea what she was up against.
The lobster clamped its claw onto Mattie’s tail, sending her howling and scurrying through the front door and into the restaurant. Not about to be left out of the fun, Gus the bulldog pulled wildly at his leash–and Miss Leland’s chair–to join in the melee.
Down went Miss Leland, who screamed in horror and then reportedly fainted. Gus caught up with cat and lobster as they ran around the other diners. The lobster released its claw on Mattie and grabbed Gus by the hind leg.
As we age, we expect to develop wrinkles as our skin dries and loses elasticity. However, that's not the only change that happens. Whether or not you are in the habit of looking in the mirror, you may be surprised one day to notice how different your face has become. A variety of health and aging experts tell us what's going on. Plastic surgery professor Alexes Hazen says,
If you look at the faces of young people, regardless of weight, their faces are full and full of convexities! As we age the fat in our faces dissipates and also descends southward or down due to aging of the structures and gravity. The bony component remains stable but all of the rest ages and changes. We typically see noses that look longer and hence bigger, this is due to drooping of that structure, ear lobules that are longer and hanging, and the same phenomenon with the jawline and the chin even! In the midface we see prominent high cheekbones look lower and less defined. Usually lips thin out a bit as well. All these factors influence the shape and appearance of the face.
Keeping a youthful-looking face is part genetics, which you can't control, and part factors we can control. But it's more than just skin care -it's a matter of overall health. Read more about how our faces change with age at Gizmodo. -via Digg
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, by most accounts, is around 5' 7" tall, yet he appears taller in pictures. That is due to a set of tricks he's memorized or internalized for those times when a camera is around. Nick Douglas, who admits to being 5' 6", studied those photos and tried a few of the tricks himself. Some worked better than others.
We found three basic tricks for looking tall next to other people:
Get closer to the camera, but “cheat out” by turning a bit toward the camera, to imply you’re as far away as your companion.
Maintain excellent posture. Shoulders back, chin up, legs straight. But like Zuckerberg, look casual, not like you’re standing at attention.
Wear a hat, and wear it high.
Find the shortest person in the group, and stand next to them.
