If you still have any of your early childhood toys, the odds favor that it may be a yellow duck. The ubiquitous bath toy is not only classic, but fairly indestructible. And they've been around longer than you think -almost as long as rubber itself.

The ducks had their origins in the mid-1800s, when rubber manufacturing began to gain ground. Out of the many animals crafted, they were the most native to water and broke away from the pack. Families who used to make bathing a weekly event prior to Sunday church sessions would entice children to submerge themselves in the murky tubs with a duck, some of which didn’t float. They were intended as chew toys.

Anything that makes bathing a child easier is bound to be popular. The improvements in the rubber duck came because it was popular, which made it a user-driven design. Read what else happened to the classic rubber duck on its way to your bathroom at Mental Floss. 

General Daniel E. Sickles (previously at Neatorama) led a remarkable life. He was a murderer (he shot Philip Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key), a Civil War hero, an amputee, a New York City alderman, and a Congressman. He was also devoted to his purebred Blenheim spaniel named Bo-Bo, who lived from 1902 to 1905.

Following Bo-Bo’s death, General Sickles was inconsolable. For two days, he sat beside his companion, refusing to leave the dead dog’s side. During this time, he made plans to give Bo-Bo a burial fit for a king. He  ordered a magnificent wood coffin lined with tufted satin, which he topped with a small American flag and numerous roses and cut flowers. For several days, Bo-Bo lay in state in the front parlor at 23 Fifth Avenue.

Bo-Bo’s burial was originally scheduled for August 24, but the general had to postpone it because it took him some time to find a cemetery to accept his dog. He first approached the trustees at the Beechwoods Cemetery in New Rochelle, New York, where his father had purchased a family crypt prior to his death in 1887. They turned him down. He looked into several other cemeteries, but no one wanted to accept the general’s beloved dog.

The Beechwoods Cemetery eventually relented and allowed Bo-Bo to be buried in the family plot. That's when the trouble started. The other plot owners objected, and Sickles' family members threatened to sue. Read the story of the dog buried in General Sickles' family plot at The Hatching Cat.

The following is an article from Uncle John's Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader.

We hope you get a rise out of this story—it cost us a lot of dough to put it together, but it was the yeast we could do!

RISE AND SHINE

Did you eat a sandwich today? Did you have an English muffin this morning or a slice of pizza last night? Americans eat 34 million loaves of bread per day, not to mention rolls, baguettes, bagels, croissants, pitas, doughnuts, and dozens of other kinds of bread. Bread is thought to be the first processed food in human history, and it’s still the world’s largest single food category—more people eat some form of bread on a daily basis than any other food product.

Most bread falls into one of two groups: leavened, which rises with the help of an ingredient (yeast is the most common leavening agent) and unleavened, which is basically flat. Many flat varieties—for example, Mexican tortillas, Jewish matzo, Norwegian flatbrød, or Indian chapati—have remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years. But the history of bread is really about the flatbreads that did change—and evolved into the leavened loaves we know today.

TIMELINE

The history of bread begins with wild grain. Around 11000 B.C. huge fields of grain appeared in southwest Asia as the glaciers began to retreat. Nomadic people ate the raw seeds (in addition to whatever else they could gather).

We know milk does a body good, especially the green milk of the thala-sirens of Ahch-To. In any real universe, it would taste a bit fishy, but in this recipe, it's sweet with a hint of vanilla and almonds. And you don't have to milk a sea sow- just buy some at your local grocer.

To make a thala-siren milkshake, you'll need to make your own green ice cream, which involves freezer time. Since you'll also need fancy silver sugar, you might want to file this recipe away for your next Star Wars party or film festival. May would be a good time for that, since it has both Star Wars Day (May the fourth) and the release of the movie Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25). Get the recipe for thala-siren milkshakes here.

(Image credit: NYSDOT)

An ice jam is when a river freezes, then warms up just enough to break up the ice into chunks. The chunks flow downriver until they crash into solid ice, or a bridge, or come to a narrowing of the river. There, the ice builds up and causes flooding. Melting snow and ice from surrounding areas also feed into the flooding. Recent winter weather has caused ice jams all over the eastern US. The home above was flooded by Pine Kill Stream in Sullivan County, New York. The residents were evacuated safely.   

Checking out an ice jam on the Rocky River before road conditions deteriorate. #ohwx @NWSCLE pic.twitter.com/2oJ7MEy6HB

— Cory Mottice (@EverythingWX) January 12, 2018

EAST BRADY: empty foundations where mobile homes were displaced by the river flood / ice floe earlier today along Allegheny River #floe #flood #riverflood #pawx @breakingweather pic.twitter.com/nsFGiAGq35

— Reed Timmer (@ReedTimmerAccu) January 12, 2018

See more pictures and videos of ice jams at Earther.

When Luca Iaconi-Stewart thinks of a paper airplane, it's not the kind you fold up and toss, hoping it will glide. He's thinking about his intricate sculpture of a Boeing 777. The one he's been building for years, in excruciating detail, all from paper.

(YouTube link)

It's not a toy; it's art. He's recreating all the details of a real airliner, from the wing struts down to the rows of passenger seats. The doors swing on their own hinges, the landing gear retracts, and you know that eventually, he'll have a little paper pilot. He even keeps the "plane crashes," the discarded parts that didn't quite work. Now, that's dedication! -via Digg

Kieran Murray is an aspiring Australian filmmaker now living in Los Angeles. When he travels, he takes pictures and leaves room for his toy Godzilla figurine named Ryan Godzilling. Then he Photoshops the monster into the images later. The monster appears in different sizes, depending on whether he's helping Murray with the laundry or getting ready to wreck city buildings. Or just enjoying the scenery.

Notice the details, like Ryan's shadow and reflection, and the people who are watching in some of the photos. You can see the "best of" collection at Behance. One image (Las Vegas) may be NSFW. See all of Ryan Godzilling's photos, categorized by location, at Instagram.

-via reddit

Doc Cornman is the school superintendent in Hillsboro, Missouri. It's his job to determine whether school will be held during winter weather. His students are not above bribery to get a day off, as evidenced by this Tweet.   

The first round of "Please Call School Off Tomorrow" candy has arrived. Students in my neighborhood really want a Snow Day!!! They remembered my favorite! pic.twitter.com/QQGjBF1tDb

— Doc Cornman (@DocCSupt) January 12, 2018

Cornan is beginning to get used to this kind of thing.

This isn't the first time Cornman has received candy when the snow starts falling.  Last year someone dropped off some Hershey bars.  He tweets, "This is the second time over the past year the mysterious candy has appeared. They never ring the doorbell, never knock, it's just placed on the front porch for me to see when I walk out to check the weather. Local Girl Scouts have offered to bring by my favorite cookies as well."

Cornman let his students know that he prefers Reese's Cups to Hershey bars, and they remembered. He wasn't the only target of a bribery attempt. Dr. Link Luttrell, the superintendent of Festus, Missouri, schools, got this.

Getting Creative..Doorbell just rang and when I answered..this was there... #TryingToTwistMyArm pic.twitter.com/x6ESbG6tnR

— Dr. Link (@FestusR6Supt) January 12, 2018

Ultimately, the bribes did not work. Both the Hillsboro and the Festus schools were in session after the snow event this week. -via reddit

(Image credit: Randen Pederson)

Oh, if one person only had the power to do this! But alas, cultural shifts take a critical number of people cooperating, and we don't even know what that number is, much less know how to get them to cooperate, especially on something that's not critical. But you never know what will catch on. Language is always evolving. Speculating on what a society in the far future will think about the artifacts we leave behind can be amusing, and it's purely optimistic to think that there will even be a society in the far future. This is the latest comic from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Check out the hovertext and push the red button for more at the comic page.

Languages are different, and use sounds that are different from each other. But people who learn a new language often retain an accent from their original language. How does that happen? Folks tend to retain bits and pieces of their original language when operating in a new one. This happens at such an elemental level that we don't even realize it. You don't see it in people who learned two or more languages in their early childhood, because they are both his "native language."    

(YouTube link)

Linguist Arika Okrent gives us examples that illustrate this concept, while an artist shows us what's happening on a whiteboard.  -via Mental Floss

(Image credit: Romy McCloskey)

Romy McCloskey raises butterflies. She's also a costume designer. One of a crop of ten butterflies emerged with a torn wing, caused by her cat playing with the chrysalis. She knew it would never fly on its own. So McCloskey got her tools together and repaired the wing, using a wing from another butterfly that had died. A wing transplant, so to speak. It sounds really risky, but without a new wing, the butterfly's chances of flying, or even surviving, were zero.

(Image credit: Romy McCloskey)

Ta-da! He's finished! You can see that the black lines in is upper right wing don't match up 100%, and if you look at his lower right wing is missing the black dot that indicates male gender. Oh, and the white on his wing is the talc used to make sure any stray glue doesn't make the wings stick together.

McCloskey shared every step of the process at her Facebook page, including a video of the butterfly's first flight with his prosthetic wing. You can see those posted all together at Laughing Squid.

The live shot from KTVU's camera overlooking a neighborhood of San Francisco was definitely live yesterday, because an unexpected visitor showed up during the mere half-minute that the weather report used it. The result was not unlike a 1950s monster movie.

(YouTube link)

The curious crow took all the attention away from the actual forecast, but meteorologist Mark Tamayo took it in stride. A viewer is a viewer, even when it's a crow looking in from the other side of the camera! -via Digg

This picture was taken by Staff Sergeant Martin Riley of the Marine Corps in Korea. The image of a Marine feeding a two-week-old kitten with an eyedropper offered a tender moment in a brutal war, and was published in over 1,700 newspapers in 1953.

In the middle of the Korean War, this kitten found herself an orphan. Luckily, she found her way into the hands of Marine Sergeant Frank Praytor. He adopted the two-week-old kitten and gave her the name “Miss Hap” because, he explained, “she was born at the wrong place at the wrong time”.

Miss Hap was still luckier than her mother and sibling, because she found the right person to take care of her. Read the story of the kitten and what eventually happened to her here. -via Strange Company

If you had an email address in the late 1990s, you probably received a video file titled “badday.mpg” at least once. It was big- 5MB, and took a while to download, if you were lucky enough to have a video player on your computer. The 26-second video was worth it, though, as we saw a man sitting in his office cubicle losing his temper at a computer. He picks up his keyboard and whacks the monitor so hard it falls off the desk! It was one of the earliest examples of a viral video, and it made Vinny Licciardi a star. Twenty years later, the video is still shared.   

That the clip still resonates is a testament to our broader cultural feelings about technology, especially vis-a-vis the workplace. “I’m kind of amazed it’s still going around as much as it is, but I think everyone can relate to that moment,” Licciardi says. “They’re so ticked off because their software is not working, or there’s some glitch, and everybody’s wanted to do that at one point in their life.”

(YouTube link)

You might want to learn the story of why the video came to be, and how it became a viral hit, at Wired. -via Metafilter

Entertainment took some strange forms before movie theaters and television. There were circuses, sing-alongs, and running down to the morgue to see the dead bodies. At least they did that in France in the 19th century, when the Paris Morgue had picture windows set up for the public to peer through.

The Morgue may have existed so that friends and family of the dead could identify anonymous bodies, but few visitors came with any intention of looking for a missing person. They had a single goal: to see the dead up-close. The more gruesome or mysterious a person’s death, the more tourists showed up to see their body.

As USC history professor Vanessa R. Schwartz writes, “The Morgue served as a visual auxiliary to the newspaper, staging the recently dead who had been sensationally detailed by the printed word.” Whenever newspapers reported on an unknown decapitated person or a bloodied trunk on display, tens of thousands of people flocked to the Morgue to see it.

Not only did the visitors augment the news stories with a visual inspection that photography would later fill, but they imagined themselves as amateur sleuths, speculating on the cause of death. Read about the crowds who flocked to the Paris Morgue, and some spectacular cases they witnessed, at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: G.Garitan)