It's been a year since the BBC interviewed Professor Robert Kelly of Pusan University on the impeachment of the South Korean president. His political reporting was totally overwhelmed by the grand entrance of his swaggering four-year-old daughter Marion followed by his baby son James in a walker. Then his freaked-out wife Jung-a Kim, who didn't have time to pull her pants up, made a perfectly-timed Cosmo Kramer slide into the room to to corral them both. The charming video went globally viral, and Kelly became the meme called BBC Dad. On the anniversary of the interview, Kelly gives us his thoughts on the fallout of his internet celebrity.

It is quite a curious sensation to be a quasi-celebrity, especially when you haven’t really done anything to earn it. People often ask me if it is fun or cool to be famous, and I suppose it might be more so if my fame was based on something meritorious.

As it is, we are famous simply because our children are cute and precocious, which is pretty much how everyone’s kids are. But whatever the reason, my wife now tells me I cannot go outside wearing grungy clothes because someone will recognise me. A loss for me but a gain for civilisation, I suppose.

The viral video has boosted Kelly's career somewhat, as more organizations reach out for his political perspective and more people follow his blog and Twitter account for news from Korea. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: @deathtodickens)

"All hockey hair innovation happens in the pomade plains here in Minnesota."  

It is the dream of every hight school hockey player in Minnesota to be included in the All Hockey Hair Team. It may even be more important than winning the state hockey championship. John King of Game On! Minnesota assembles the best heads of hair every year for the honor. This very Minnesota video follows up on a previous honoree and his awesome life before it gets into this year's rankings. The number one head of hair may be a surprise.   

(YouTube link)

Check out the team from 2017 and 2016. Also see the All Hockey Hair Teams from 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. -via reddit

During World War II, consumer goods were restricted so that materials could be used for the military. This included food staples like sugar and butter, and most metals. It also applied to shoes. From February 1943 to October 1945, Americans could only buy three pairs of shoes per year.

Shoes were rationed because leather and rubber were in short supply. (Rubber especially, as Japan controlled Southeast Asia, where the bulk of the world’s rubber was produced.) Hoping to avoid serious shortages, the OPA set a cap on shoe purchases, and issued new rules about the kinds of shoes that manufacturers could make. Only four colors were permitted — “black, white, town brown, and army russet” — and two-toned shoes were prohibited. Further disappointing the nation’s snazzy dressers, the OPA banned boots taller than 10 inches, heels taller than two-and-five-eighths-inches, and “fancy tongues, non-functional trimmings, extra stitching, leather bows, etc.” The resort set felt the pinch, too: men’s sandals and golf spikes were deemed inessential, and discontinued.

There were some exceptions. If you lost your shoes in a flood or fire, or if they were stolen, you could, mercifully, apply for a special certificate to buy a new pair. Mail carriers, police officers, and others whose work was hard on their feet were also exempt. Allowances were made for orthopedic and maternity shoes and a few other cases. Otherwise, the three-pair limit stood firm, but the OPA figured it was better than the alternative: compelling manufacturers “to produce shoes that would be so unattractive that people would not buy them unless absolutely needed.”

It's hard to believe that any adult would ever need more than three new pairs of shoes per year, but maybe they didn't last very long in the 1940s. You can read more about the shoe rationing program and see lots of pictures from that era at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Knowledge)

The following article is from the book Uncle John’s Uncanny Bathroom Reader.

Tired of your standard boring, run-of-the-mill monument to some dead president? Then try one of these.

1. RADIOACTIVE DECAY MONUMENT

Where You’ll Find It: The coastal city of Nieuwdorp, Holland.

What It Looks Like: A bright orange, blocky building about the length of a football field and 130 feet tall, with scientific formulas -such as “E = MC2”- in huge, bright green letters on its exterior.

Story: It’s a nuclear waste storage site, holding thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste, accumulated from Holland’s two nuclear power plants. It’s also a work of art meant to serve as a monument to radioactive decay, according to William Verstraeten, the artist hired by the Dutch government to design it. The building, officially known as the Habog Facility, was completed in 2005, and it will be the home of the radioactive waste inside it for at least 100 years. And it won’t always be bright orange: every 20 years it will be painted a lighter shade of orange to symbolize the metamorphosis process, as the waste slowly decays and becomes less and less radioactive over time. This, the government says, will help educate the public about the safe management of radioactive waste. (Bonus: You can go inside the building. It has a visitor center and a museum, and it’s a popular tourist destination.)

2. GIANT CORN MONUMENT

(Image credit: Flickr user Miguel Castaneda)

Where You’ll Find It: Dublin, Ohio.

In 1980, Mark Hamill was dispatched to appear on a German TV show as part of the promotion for The Empire Strikes Back. Someone dug out a clip and posted it on Twitter.  

Mark Hamill singing in German, 1980 pic.twitter.com/8MDi9UB2iJ

— skywalker (@tolkienianjedi) March 10, 2018

Hamill recalled that episode from long, long ago in a country far, far, away:

I remember not wanting to wear a gold jumpsuit like a rejected member of ABBA or if I could memorize dialogue in a foreign language-but thought "Who cares? No one outside of Germany will ever see this!" Thanks to the internet-NOTHING EVER GOES AWAY. Who knew?

Hamill said they told him the song was a Christmas tune, but he learned the lyrics phonetically and doesn't know what they said. If you'd like to see more of the surviving footage of the show, the clip below contains Hamill's skit, plus a dance number, and a goofy ad for Chew Chew Chewbacca chewing gum.

(YouTube link)

-via The Daily Dot

Everyone hates potholes, and you want the one that you have to drive over to be repaired. But with limited funds, government entities have to prioritize. Only the worst ones get fixed. Cheshire West and Chester Council is the Twitter account for the body of government responsible for local road repair in that area of the UK. They posted a now-deleted Tweet explaining how they determine which potholes will be fixed first. They should have examined the picture a little closer before they made it available to the public.

And Darren should have had his glasses all the way on.

Poor Darren! There are plenty more funny responses in an imgur gallery. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: schmerbert)

Cats and dogs are often high on life, but that is nothing compared to being high on drugs. It's nice to be able to laugh at goofy pictures of cats and dogs, and also know that they are okay, and even under a doctor's supervision.

(Image credit: mrs_wac)

The Mind Circle compiled a bunch of pet pictures taken during or after a veterinary visit. Some are sedated, some are angry, but all are adorable in their own way. -via Metafilter

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Bentley the goldendoodle is a good boy. He always goes outside to pee. But I think he has some security issues about it. He always takes a toy with him. Or a towel, a blanket, or something that will give him a little comfort and courage. Maybe it's his "buddy system." Or maybe it's just a habit. Anyway, his human, Kelly Brown, made this compilation video of the various things Bentley takes on his trips outside. You can see more of Bentley at Instagram. -via Tastefully Offensive

Oof. I should have seen that one coming, but I did not. I was expecting some humorous but insightful punch line about whether the robot was actually autonomous or not. Well done. This is the latest comic from Alex Culang and Raynato Castro at Buttersafe.

Nice picture, huh? But why are they all leaning to their right slightly? And what's with the ropes? It's because they're all high. It would help if you turned the picture the correct way up.

(Image credit: Hes-so Valais Wallis)

These 14 students at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Hes-so) Valais-Wallis campus climbed 2,400 meters (7,874 feet) up the mountain called Pierre Avoi in the Swiss Alps. If you think that's an awful lot of trouble to get a picture, you haven't seen the half of it. Watch the process they went through to make this photograph happen.

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These young folks take mountain climbing seriously, except when they want to have fun. You can see more pictures here.  -via reddit

Back when California's Salton Sea was really a sea, or at least a big lake after the last flooding in 1905, Captain Charles E. Davis made it his home. Davis had already been a fishing boat captain, a gold prospector, and a world explorer before he settled down to become one of California's more memorable eccentrics.

There, Davis developed and inhabited Mullet Island, on top of an inactive volcanic butte and among what Salton Sea historian Pat Laflin calls “an inferno of hissing geysers and boiling mud pots.” It was befitting of Davis’ character to live atop a dormant volcano, and that is said to have been one of the site’s major draws for him. The island was named for the alfalfa-fed mullet that Davis raised, which later became famous throughout California. It also became the site of Davis’ passion project, Hell’s Kitchen, a combination boat landing/restaurant/dancehall where boaters and fishers often stopped for good food and a good time. Davis built it alone, along with his own cabin.

In the 1920s, Hell’s Kitchen’s heyday, motorcyclists and adventurers frequently wrote about Hell’s Kitchen’s oddball charms. Describing Mullet Island as “the headquarters of the Salton Sea fishing industry,” one 1922 periodical noted that Hell’s Kitchen was so named because it was “on top of a volcano and may blow off into space any minute.” (The same could be said, perhaps, of Davis.)

Davis provided both food and entertainment to those who visited his island. He also developed a slew of side projects that rarely succeeded: fish farming, painting, historical investigation, and various tourist draws. Read about the unique Captain Davis at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Coachella Valley Historical Society)

Remember the super blue blood moon eclipse from January? William Briscoe was in Fairbanks, Alaska for the event on the morning of January 31 and captured it on 8K panoramic video, along with the Aurora Borealis! The time-lapse footage is stunning.

(YouTube link)

It's also interactive, so you can adjust the viewing angle as it goes. That means you can watch it again and again and never see the same exact video. -via Laughing Squid

Hedy Lamarr was a world-renowned actress referred to as "the most beautiful woman in the world," but that was only the most public part of her story. A new documentary on her life, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, looks beyond the stardom to unveil her complicated life story, and especially her work in science and technology. While earning a living in Hollywood films, Lamarr studied all kinds of subjects, did her own experiments, and filed patents on her inventions.

Hedy’s most significant invention was one she worked on with the avant-garde composer George Antheil. The pair wanted to help the Allied cause during WWII, so they began designing a radio guidance system that allowed torpedos to avoid enemy detection. Ultimately it was rejected by the Navy and Hedy was told that she’d be more helpful as a fundraiser, using her celebrity status to sell war bonds and entertain troops.

But after raising millions of dollars doing exactly that, her patent was seized when she was deemed an alien due to her Austrian nationality. Twenty years later, with her name removed from the invention, her technology was put to use during the Cuban Missile Crisis. “Sons of bitches!” Mel Brooks howls when he learns of this in the film.

Those very same principles are now a core component of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and various military technology – an invention with an estimated market value of $30bn. To make matters worse, it’s been disputed that Hedy came up with the idea at all, with some believing she stole it from the Nazis and hid it in her shoe – an assertion Bombshell proves false.

Read more about the life and times of Hedy Lamarr and the movie Bombshell at Huck magazine. -via Digg

The Dread Crew Of Oddwood call their musical genre "heavy mahogany," while others just call it pirate music. They perform at Renaissance festivals, fan conventions, and their own concerts. You can keep up with their schedule at their website. Check out their performance of the classic "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard."

(YouTube link)

Or maybe you'd prefer something a little more science fiction.

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And here they are doing their pirate music.

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-via reddit

Mary Ann Patten came from a seafaring family and married a sailor, Joshua Patten, who soon became a ship's captain. That ship, Neptune's Car, had a cursed history, but Joshua was game to command, and Mary accompanied him. She studied navigation while they sailed around the world. On their second voyage, Joshua fell ill, and the first mate broke his leg. The financiers behind the voyage wouldn't wait, and replaced the first mate with the first guy they found, William Keeler.  

Keeler proved an incompetent shitheel in record time. His list of infractions are staggering: he’d sleep through half his shifts; he set course through reef beds; he had to be ordered to do simple tasks; and finally, he just outright refused to do some tasks, like putting out sails. About a month in, Joshua put him in chains and confined him to his cabin.

While he didn’t have many other options, this choice proved deadly for Joshua.  He’d relied on Keeler to keep the course while Joshua slept. But with Keeler gone, the ship facing constant gales of snow and sleet, and no other crew members able to handle navigation — the second mate was illiterate, the third an idiot — Joshua had to stay up all day and night.

Increasingly, he relied on Mary to help confirm the position, course, and speed. He recognized she was a better mathematician than he was, even when he wasn’t out of his mind from staying up all day and night.

But by the eighth day of staying up, it became clear Joshua was out of his mind from more than that. After navigating to the Le Maire Strait, he collapsed. He’d developed pneumonia, which only exacerbated the undiagnosed ailment he’d started the voyage with: Tuberculosis meningitis.

That's when Mary took command of Neptune's Car. She was 19, pregnant, and had a sick husband to care for. The weather was horrendous. Keeler tried to incite a mutiny. Read the story of Mary Patten and the ship she commanded at Rejected Princesses. -via Strange Company