Michel de Nostredame is best known today as a prophet, because of his prophecies written in verse. Those verses are so enigmatic that they can be connected to all kinds of historical events, whether he had any insight to them or not. But there was more to Nostradamus: He was a writer, a chemist, an apothecary, and a cook. All those activities came together in a 1552 book called the Traité des fardements et confitures (Treatise on Cosmetics and Jams). The book was full of things he whipped up himself in the kitchen, such as medicines, love potions, and beauty aids.

But other recipes are more recognizable and downright edible. In the Traité, sugar is touted for its ability to preserve fresh fruit, and many of the recipes resemble modern jam and jelly techniques. A recipe for morello-cherry jelly involves fruit cooked until soft enough to strain out the pits and skins, then mixed with sugar. If a dab of the jelly on a plate doesn’t slide around, Nostradamus writes, then it’s ready to be stored.

But at the time, sugar was fabulously expensive. This is probably why Nostradamus writes that several of his sweet concoctions are intended only for nobility or kings. Consider his quince jelly recipe. Nostradamus turns up his nose at those silly enough to peel their quinces before cooking them: The rind and peel, he writes, enhances the jelly. After boiling the fruit, straining it, and adding sugar (taking care not to overcook), the final product has the color of a ruby and is “fit to set before a king.”  

Read about Nostradamus' other recipes from the book at Atlas Obscura.

The Espaces Abraxas and Arènes de Picasso is an apartment complex in a Paris suburb called Noisy-le-Grand, designed by Ricardo Bofill and Manuel Nunez-Yanowsky. Erected in the late 1970s, it was part of a huge effort to provide housing outside the crowded city. The modern and slightly dystopian look of the structure made it the perfect set at which to film the 1984 movie Brazil and the 2015 movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Bofill designed the complex around a courtyard "theater," hoping to fill the apartments with a mixture of people from different classes and backgrounds and facilitate a feeling of community among them. When that didn't happen, he felt the "experiment" was a failure.

In 2006, Noisy-le-Grand sought to demolish parts of the development. After being met by widespread resentment from the population of Espaces Abraxas, the decision was made to keep them standing — for now. Kronental's photographs demonstrate very clearly that in spite of any assumed architectural or urban failings, these houses have been appropriated by their residents. In spite of the atmosphere of emptiness that Kronental has consciously captured, houses have become homes.

You have to wonder why anyone would tear down housing just because it didn't turn out exactly as you planned. The residents thought, "Oh, you wanted us to form a community? Why didn't you say so?" To keep their homes, they began to organize parties and clubs.

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-via Nag on the Lake

Do you recall the 1998 film Rounders? It starred Matt Damon, Edward Norton, and John Malkovich in a story about a compulsive but talented gambler who is trying to resist the lure of poker in favor of law school. Yeah, you know how well that works in movies. We follow him in a series of high-stakes games on the way to the World Series of Poker. Despite its star power and good reviews, Rounders did not do well at the box office. If it had been released a couple of years later, it would have benefited from the Texas hold 'em craze. As it is, the movie became a cult hit among poker fans on home video. Here's some more about Rounders.  

5. There are many types of games being played throughout the movie.

There’s No Limit Hold ‘Em, 7 card Stud, Draw or Stud, Forced Rotation, and so on and so forth. There’s a lot of different versions of the game and each person usually has their preference.

4. The film was set in New York but was shot in New Jersey.

It’s not that big of a jump really but there are many differences that can be noted.

There's more movie trivia about Rounders at TVOM.

Take a trip down memory lane as we zip through the best movies in history, starting with The Great Train Robbery from 1902 and continuing to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2! It's not just one movie per year, because some years were very good for film.

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We've come a long way, but aren't you glad we still have what came before? The list of movies in this video are listed here.  -via Tastefully Offensive

Four-legged animals have six different ways of walking, our at least most of them do, that are illustrated in this animation. I was surprised to see how a dog uses his left and right legs together in both front and back in the slower gaits. I had assumed that they usually worked the opposite way, as in the trot.

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There are exceptions, like my three-legged dog who just does the best she can, and my neighbor's dog who doesn't walk at all as far as I can tell -he just sits on the porch. -via Boing Boing

Since 2014, The Onion has been running the same headline with the same article over and over. ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens uses the same story every time a mass shooting happens, with only the location and number of victims changed. The seventh version of the story was published yesterday, after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.   

In May of 2014, it was UC Santa Barbara, California.
In June of 2015, it was Charleston, South Carolina.
In October of 2015, it was Roseburg, Oregon.
In December of 2015, it was San Bernardino, California.
In October of 2017, it was Las Vegas, Nevada.
In November of 2017, it was Sutherland Springs, Texas.

The headline was originally written by Onion editor Jason Roeder four years ago. Roeder no longer works for the website but his article still comes around. This time struck a little close to home- Roeder lives in Parkland, Florida.  

When I wrote this headline, I had no idea it would be applied to the high school a mile from my house. https://t.co/Vm1jCaiugo

— Jason Roeder (@jasonroeder) February 15, 2018

-via The Daily Dot

Police in Shanghai have released security footage of a crime in progress. It went viral on Chinese social media, not because people wanted to help solve the crime, but because the perpetrators are the very definition of dumb criminals.

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They want to break into a storefront, so they chuck bricks at the window, which is probably Plexiglass. That was a mistake. Forget calling the police, these folks need an ambulance! -via reddit

The newest episode of Simon's Cat Logic looks at how cats define, mark, and defend their territory. Animator and cat lover Simon Tofield gets the lowdown from cat expert Nicky Treverrow of Cat's Trust. We get to meet Jazz, the real cat who became a rival for Simon's Cat in his cartoons.  

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The informational part is only five and a half minutes long, followed by some classic Simon's Cat cartoons.  

The following article is reprinted from the book The Best of the Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.

Oh, the poor potato—a symbol of laziness (couch potato) and unhealthy eating (cheese fries). But it deserves much better. Here’s how the lowly potato altered the course of human history.

SPUDS OF THE INCAS

For at least 4,000 years, potatoes have been cultivated in the Peruvian Andes. The Incas called them papas, and although the flowers are toxic (they’re members of the deadly nightshade family), the part that grows underground -the tuber- is one of the healthiest foods humans have ever cultivated. Consider this: The average potato has only 100 calories, but provides 45% of the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin C; 15% of vitamin B6; 15% of iodine; and 10% of niacin, iron, and copper. Potatoes are also high in potassium and fiber, with no fat and almost no sodium.

But the papas that the Incas cultivated looked more like purple golf balls than today’s potatoes. More than 5,000 different varieties grew in the Andes, and there were more than 1,000 Incan words to describe them. The potato was so integral to Incan culture that they buried their dead with potatoes (for food in the afterlife) and measured time based on how long it took a potato to cook.

THE EDIBLE STONE

For a long part of human history, it was a tragedy when an engagement was broken -and grounds for a lawsuit, too. Both men and women could sue, but the laws in place were mainly to protect women who might have given up a chance to marry someone else or even (horrors) their virginity under the promise of marriage. But like any attempt to regulate human activity, there were those who took advantage of the system. In the early 20th century, lawsuits by gold diggers who manufactured relationships with rich men made sensational and lurid headlines.    

The legislation in question was something called the “breach of promise” or “heart balm” suit, and it was based on the premise that an engagement was a binding contract between two people. If one person were to break off the contract without consulting the other, the law could step in and award damages to the brokenhearted party.

Granted, no one was terribly happy about these laws in the first place—feminists thought they made women look dependent, while misogynists thought they allowed women to tap into their naturally devious natures—but as controversial, high-profile breach of promise suits kept making the papers, the public grew increasingly paranoid about the implications of such legislation. By 1935, the paranoia had grown so extreme that lawmakers were calling for a wholesale elimination of heart balm laws, and soon enough states were abolishing them right and left—abolishing them so quickly, in fact, that the constitutionality of some of the reform statues was later called into question. Still, the message had been made clear: it was no longer possible to sue over a shattered heart, real or false.

Women who targeted wealthy men were called "heart balm scammers," and they were more rare than newspapers would have one think, considering the publicity their cases received. Meanwhile, a lawsuit over a genuine everyday heartbreak got scant attention. Read about the heart balm scams and the rush to rescind laws concerning breach of promise cases at Smithsonian.

It's always a good day when you turn this much trash into a treasure. Zayd Menk spent three months constructing a scale model of Midtown Manhattan in his free time after school. He built it out of discarded electronic components: circuits, relays, motherboards, and whatever else fit the bill. It's big, too. The finished landscape is 165x80cm (5'5" x 32"), and the tallest building is 10.6 inches tall. If you know Midtown well, you'll want to check out his accuracy by the closeup views from different angles in this Flickr album. See more of Menk's work, including a video of this project, at Instagram. -via reddit

Luckily, this scene will never be expanded into a complete Star Wars movie, but it's perfect for a LEGO recreation! Ochre Jelly (Iain Heath) built Uncle Owen's and Aunt Beru's moisture farm in its death throes after the attack by Vader's Stormtroopers. Luke's entire family (as he knows it) is burnt to a crisp, but he takes it in stride. This frees him up to escape farm life and join the Rebellion as he always wanted to. Good thing he had his landspeeder with him, safe from the carnage!  

Even the smoke clouds are made of LEGO pieces. See all ten pictures of Luke's horrifying discovery in Heath's Flickr album.

See more of Ochre Jelly's pop culture LEGO work.

You'd think the 1985 movie American Ninja was conceived by someone pulling buzzwords out of hat A and hat B, but in reality the title came later. The plot pits an evil ninja gang in the Philippines against the US military, led by our protagonist Joe, who mysteriously displays amazing ninja and martial arts skills. The improbable plot matters little because the action drew audiences in, and American Ninja made more than ten times its production budget at the box office. If you fondly recall American Ninja, you'll want to read some trivia about the film.  

4. Chuck Norris was the original choice for the lead role.

He didn’t want to have to cover up his face to play the part in a movie. Chuck has always preferred to be seen as himself in any movie he makes.

3. There were four sequels to this movie.

Yes, there was an American Ninja 2, 3, 4, and 5. The main actors starred in a few of them together but not all of them.

Learn more about American Ninja at TVOM.

Just because you declare something to be so does not make it so. Got a deadline? Do you have to rely on the folks underneath you to reach that deadline? Too bad! They tried to tell you it wasn't possible, but did you listen? A supervisor who talks to their workers and doesn't listen to them is as bad as one who doesn't talk to them at all. This is the latest comic from CommitStrip.

Paris Ferguson had a car wreck last year and broke her arm. They gave her some good drugs at the hospital, since they didn't know what other injuries she had. As she came out of surgery and woke up, all her inhibitions fell away, and she proposed to the cute nurse, Luke, who was tending to her. Luke alternated between laughing and blushing, but he remained both reassuring and professional.

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She wants a blue wedding in a Las Vegas chapel. And a blue wedding ring. Sapphires, that is. Paris later made a video telling the whole story, which is pretty long. -via Digg