The geek entertainment blog io9 is celebrating its tenth anniversary in many ways, but the one you're most interested in is its list of The 100 Most Important Pop Culture Moments of the Last 10 Years. The list is split into five parts, and the top twenty is finally here. It covers movies, TV, video games, comics, and the fandoms they spawned. Star Wars takes four (and a half) of the spots, but there's plenty of other events to remember. Here's a sample.

19) Deadpool proves not all superhero movies have to be the same

As superhero fare has dominated the Hollywood ecosystem, one of the biggest criticisms of the genre has been its reliance on the same formula. Deadpool didn’t give a damn about any of that. We didn’t see Wade Wilson struggle to accept the changes that happened to his body or grapple with the right thing to do with his powers. The Merc with a Mouth loves being a randy, potty-mouthed engine of destruction and, in turn, audiences loved the unpredictable meta-aware romp that Ryan Reynolds, Tim Miller, and crew delivered in 2016. It felt like a movie that did whatever the hell it wanted and that R-rated energy propelled Deadpool to become one of the biggest superhero successes of all time.

Read and relive all these turning points at io9.

Law & Order: SVU is now in its 19th season, which puts it in contention for some kind of record. It has 421 episodes ...so far. That kind of run for a police procedural requires a never-ending supply of journeyman actors to play suspects, victims, and lawyers. Over the years, many of those actors have gone on to star in their own TV series or movies, so it's fun to look back at the time they were on SVU. If you watch the shows in reruns years after their first airing, these stars might be completely unrecognizable, especially since many of them were children in the show. Oh, you remember Robin Williams and Carol Burnett, but Serena Williams? Check out all 43 Celebs You Totally Forgot Appeared On Law & Order: SVU at Buzzfeed.  

Winter weather means you sometimes just have to stay at home inside the house. WCCB in Charlotte, North Carolina, talked to one delightful lady who has the right idea about it.

(YouTube link)

That's living, eating soups and bread and desserts... there is an upside to bad weather in winter! I bet she makes good soup. And she will soon be a viral star. -via reddit

It's been taken for granted that Mormons don't drink coffee, tea, or any soda pop containing caffeine. Or do they? Of course, not all Mormons follow the rules all the time, but what are the rules, exactly? The restrictions in diet came from founder Joseph Smith himself, who received a revelation from God in 1833. The Words of Wisdom explained what was to be eaten and drunk.

But there was one contentious line in the Word that continues to inspire debate. “Hot drinks,” Smith wrote, “are not for the body or belly.” This appears to refer to tea and coffee, both popular beverages in 1830s America. Some modern Mormon scholars have argued that this is because these drinks are often served at near-boiling temperatures, causing a detrimental effect to both the body and the teeth. But others wonder if “hot” refers instead to the caffeine in tea or coffee, citing an 1828 Webster’s definition of “hot” that gives “stimulating” as one of its meanings.

That leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Would decaf coffee be considered a "hot drink"? Hot cocoa? Then Coca-Cola was invented years later -it's not served hot at all, but it did contain a small amount of cocaine at the time. And when the cocaine was gone, the caffeine remained. The disagreements about what drinks are prohibited continued over the years, and led to the story of the secret vending machine that held ice-cold bottles of Coca-Cola and other soft drinks at BYU, which you can read at Atlas Obscura.

Max Chappell was a chess whiz as a kid, but as he got older, it became boring. He didn't lose his love for the game, but it seemed too easy. So he looked into 3D chess -which has been tried in many different ways, but none were really enjoyable. So Chappell set out to design a way to do chess on multiple levels right: a game that was playable, logical, challenging but winnable, and stayed true to the original idea of chess. Still, none of his ideas worked. Then he saw the version of chess played on Star Trek. Not only was it pretty, it was not symmetrical, and that sent Chappell in a new direction with his game. The TV prop was there for looks, and not really playable. Others had tried to make the Star Trek version work as a game, with little success. Chappell, on the other hand, already knew the challenges of 3D chess and adapted the asymmetrical idea he'd seen on the show.   

Chappell hoped his version would maintain chess’s integrity, but coming up with a design was more complicated than you’d think. He spent approximately two decades hammering out the specifications of his invention. He was 22 when he jerry-rigged the first Hyperchess prototype from plywood and aluminum in his father’s garage, and 45 when he sold the first manufactured unit. In the years between, he did a lot of work on the game, redesigning the setup countless times, filing various patents, and trying in vain to remove bubbles from Formica laminate, which he planned to use to coat the transparent boards.

The next challenge was getting people to play it. Read the history of Hyperchess at Motherboard.

Last year, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus went out of business after 147 years. It wasn't the last traveling circus, but the entertainment medium isn't what it once was. Still, you can relive those glory days with some genuine memorabilia of your own, whether it's a photograph, poster, or an actual circus prop. How about a motorcycle that rode on a tight wire? Or a giant pair of clown shoes? On Saturday (January 20), these items and more are going up for auction. Brian Hollifield of Freedom Auction Company talked to Collectors Weekly about the one-day sale.

With more than 700 items from around 30 different sources, it’s a remarkable collection, particularly since all of the props, costumes, and signage are original to actual circus and carnival performances. “They’ve come directly from traveling shows, seamstresses, and the closets of little old ladies’ houses,” Hollifield says. Most of the items are from the early 20th century, though the collection includes pieces dating to the late 1800s up to contemporary shows. Bidding will take place online and at the Showfolks Club in Sarasota, Florida, with a portion of the auction proceeds benefitting Showfolks of Sarasota, an organization for active and retired members of the circus world, and CATS (Circus and Traveling Shows) Retirement Project. “My wife and I cast the idea out to members of the Showfolks Club last year, and we had enough merchandise to put together a sale,” Hollifield explains. “It was such a success that people got on board without solicitation for this upcoming auction.”

You will be able to bid online. Read about the auction and see a gallery of the items for sale at Collectors Weekly.

Professor Pussycat is happy explain gravity to you, and other types of physics that you use in everyday life (if you are a cat). That doesn't mean Professor Pussycat isn't a typical cat who thinks you're an idiot for even asking. Cats are like that. The "why" question doesn't even deserve an answer. It's because he's a cat. This comic is from Einstein's Mama. There may still be a way to stop cats from knocking things onto the floor, if you are so inclined. -via Geeks Are Sexy

ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) gives us a lesson in why we shouldn't be afraid of sharks, spiders, and snakes ...all those things that we joke are keeping us from visiting Australia. There are other things you can select as your top three fears, and the app will explain what your odds of dying from each one are.

So how much do cold, hard facts change that rush of adrenaline at the sight of, say, a spider? There have been no confirmed deaths from spider bites in Australia since 1979, while falling out of bed (a sub-category of falling deaths shown in the chart) killed 523 people between 2007 and 2016. Does knowing this mean you’ll now be more afraid of beds than spiders?

Probably not. Most people with irrational fears are well aware that the object of their terror isn’t likely to kill them. In fact, awareness that the fear is “out of proportion” to the actual threat or danger posed is one of the criteria for diagnosing phobias, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

So if we know they’re irrational, why do we cling to these fears?

And that's where they lost me. Yeah, we'll learn about the odds of dying, but while dying may be the great equalizer, it's not the only reason to fear something. I know I won't die of wasp stings, but an experience last summer taught me that a dozen angry wasps can make you wish you were dead for several days. At any rate, the site is geared toward summer safety, because it's the middle of summer in Australia. Check your fears here. -via Digg

The City of Los Angeles needs to hire a graphic designer. They need one badly, as evidenced by the ad they posted to Facebook, presumably by some third-grader who stepped in when the old designer was fired. If you think you can do better than this, apply at the city website. The pay starts pretty low for someone who wants to live in Los Angeles, but could offer a bright future of pay increases -and as government jobs tend to have, benefits. There are qualification as to experience and education, but no mention of having to be competent in MS Paint.  -via Boing Boing

The 1973 Martin Scorsese crime drama Mean Streets starred young actors Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. This was not De Niro's first film, but it came before The Godfather II and Taxi Driver. Critics raved about Mean Streets and De Niro won a Best Supporting Actor award from the National Society of Film Critics. Mean Streets, from the era before home video, has been overlooked relative to Scorsese's later films, but is well worth a watch 45 years later. Here's a bit more about the film:   

10. This was the first film in which Robert De Niro and Martin Scorcese worked together.

Obviously they would go on to collaborate in a lot of films after this. In fact it’s hard not to think of one or the other when you see their name on a film.

9. The music in the film took up half the budget.

There wasn’t much of a budget to begin with and getting the permission to use the music took a heavy toll on the expenses.

Learn more about the making of Mean Streets at TVOM.

The Great Fire of London destroyed the vast majority of the city in 1666. Of course, the river, the streets, and the property lines still remained, and the residents started rebuilding. But most city maps were gone, so work began on a new map.

The Morgan Map of 1682 was the first to show the whole of the City of London after the fire. Produced by William Morgan and his dedicated team of Surveyors and Cartographers it took 6 years to produce, and displayed a brighter perspective on city life for a population still mourning their loved ones, possessions, and homes.

Now the Morgan Map has been overlaid with aerial views of the city at the London Time Machine. A "spyglass" shows the city as it is today. You can move the spyglass around, zoom in and out, and pull the spyglass off the map the see how much bigger London is today. However, if you go too far, you can lose the older map and have to reload. Check it out here. -via Metafilter

Randy Gardner and Bruce McAllister needed an idea for a science fair project. They had heard about a man who'd just set a world record for staying awake, and decided they would beat it. The idea was to study the effects of sleep deprivation, whatever they were. A coin toss decided that Gardner would be the subject of the experiment, which was done over the Christmas 1963 school break. The story made the newspapers and drew the attention of Stanford University sleep researcher Dr. William Dement, who came to Gardiner's home to observe. That was a relief to the 17-year-old's parents, who were worried about their son's health and safety.

As all this was happening, attention from the media began to gain momentum and for a brief time the boys’ experiment became the third most written-about story in the American national press – after the assassination of John F Kennedy and a visit by The Beatles.

However, it was portrayed as a prank, in the same bracket as “telephone booth stuffing and goldfish swallowing”, according to McAllister. The students were very serious about it and pushed through. Eventually after 264 hours of no sleep, the world record was broken and the experiment was over.

Randy Gardner's world record still stands, mainly because Guinness no longer accepts record attempts due to the possible danger. Gardner's physical and cognitive functioning were tested throughout the experiment, and afterward he was sent to a naval hospital to have his brain scanned and his recovery documented. Read what they found in the boy who stayed awake for 11 days at BBC Future. -via Digg

(Image credit: Flickr user Don Johnson)

There is obviously a good reason this cat is alone. All by himself. Lonely. Antisocial. Awash in his solitude, he turns to poetry. But no one is fooled by his plight -he likes it that way! This comic is from Jimmy at the treasure trove known as They Can Talk. 

(Image credit: Sicnag)

The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Perpetually Pleasing Bathroom Reader.

We’ve all heard of the Ford Model T—but we rarely hear about the earlier automobiles in the whole “model-letter” scheme. So hear you go…

ALPHABET CITY

In 1908, the Ford Motor Company, founded by Henry Ford just five years earlier, released its first Ford Model T—and the world has never been the same. The Model T was the first car that ordinary people could afford, and is regarded by automobile historians as the car that ushered in the Automobile Age (and killed the then extremely popular electric car). From 1908 until production ended in 1927, more than 16 million Model Ts were sold worldwide. No other car model ever sold as well …until 1972, when it was finally surpassed by the VW Beetle.

But the Model T’s great success overshadows all the models that came before it—all of them based on previous alphabet letters. Did Henry Ford make nineteen earlier models before the Model T—one for each letter before “T”? No. Most were experimental and never made it to production. But eight did.

Residents of Hawaii will never forget the bogus nuclear missile warning they got last Saturday that sent them all into a panic. Everyone had to quickly decide what they wanted to do in the few minutes they had left to live. One metric that can be used to track behavior is web traffic. Pornhub, the huge pornography sharing site, released its traffic statistics for Hawaii last Saturday (link goes to Twitter). You can see from the graph that when the alert went out at 8:07 AM, traffic at the site plunged 77% below normal for that time of day. The correction went out at 8:45, and traffic began climbing again -to even higher levels than normal! Folks were making up for lost time, it seems. You have to wonder about the 23% of users who stayed online with the site even during the alert. My guess is that they weren't paying attention to anything else. -via Boing Boing