The cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi traveled around the world to work in otherworldly places that could pass for a galaxy far, far away. That includes the Bolivian salt flats, Skellig Michael in Ireland, and Dubrovnik, Croatia. Yeah, it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.
In the coming years, these places will be on even more bucket lists than they are now. After all, people still travel to Tunisia just to see where the Tatooine scenes in the first Star Wars movie were filmed. We also get to see some scenes of The Last Jedi film shoot and a glimpse or two of the special effects we'll see in the movie, which opens this coming weekend. -via io9
Gus Johnson is a YouTube comedian with a short rap about pretty much anything you can think of. In this one, he looks at the campus phenomenon of that guy who never wears a jacket. You've seen him around, although it's more common in high school, as far as I can tell.
My kids, and all the kids I knew, went to high school all winter without coats (although most would wear a sweater or hoodie). They said it was because there are no coat hooks in their huge school, and people would steal a coat even if there were. Lockers are too small for winter coats, and security rules prohibit students from wearing coats in class. A story from opie2 gives us another reason.
I teach middle school. One day a 12-year old boy shows up in my classroom at 8:00 in the morning dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip- flops. It's about 45F outside. He stands there with his teeth chattering, shivering like a leaf in the wind.
Me: Dude, you're cold because you're not dressed properly. You need pants, long sleeves, socks and shoes, and a jacket.
Kid: That's exactly what my mom said to me this morning.
Me: Well why don't you listen to her?
Kid: Because I can't let her win.
The jacketless guy on campus may be simply retaining his earlier habits, and might learn his lesson eventually as he trudges several blocks between each class on winter days. Unless he's just too high. -via reddit
Why would anyone do such a horrible thing to a pizza? And what kind of candy are those Santa Clauses made of that they didn't melt like the candy canes? This disaster was Tweeted by yung g.
My guess is that this was done specifically for an internet picture. But it's far from the only dastardly deed done to a pizza that didn't deserve it. Besides adding candy, there are burned, mis-sliced, and mis-handled pizzas, and pizza hybrids from hell. For ardent pizza lovers, it's a horror story. See 17 Of The Most Disrespectful Things Done To Pizza In 2017 at Pleated-Jeans.
The folks at Bad Lip Reading made the Netflix series Stranger Things into a retro family sitcom along the lines of The Wonder Years. The time period and the suburban setting is already there, and the addition of goofy fake dialogue sends it to the level of ridiculous.
You may have heard about the movie All the Money in the World because actor Kevin Spacey was replaced at the last moment with Christopher Plummer. What's even more amazing is that the movie will be in theaters December 22, which means that Plummer's work was done and edited in at astonishing speed for Hollywood. But the true story behind the movie is even more intriguing. Plummer plays John Paul Getty, the richest man in the world in 1973. That was when Getty's 16-year-old grandson John Paul Getty III (Paul) was abducted in Rome. The kidnappers demanded $17 million in ransom.
Initially, they suspected it was a hoax that Paul had contrived in order to ascertain more money from his family.
At the time, Old John told the media that he didn’t believe in paying kidnappers.
“I have 14 other grandchildren and if I pay one penny now, then I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren,” he said.
After three months of silence from the Gettys, the kidnappers took action by cutting off the wealthy teenager’s right ear with a razor and sending it in a bag to a newspaper in Rome.
What do you know about bismuth? You know it's beautiful in its crystalline form, and it's one the active ingredients in Pepto-Bismol. Beyond that, there's a lot of interesting things to learn about this element.
Belly aches aside, bismuth salts have been used since the 1700s to treat such ailments as diarrhea and to alleviate the symptoms of cholera. As Pepto-Bismol it has saved more than human lives. During the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster sea birds were force fed the substance to expel the oil they had ingested while trying to remove it from their feathers.
Although it has been known since ancient times the word bismuth seems to have first appeared in the late 17th century. Alchemists made some use of it medieval times. The miners who dug out the ore called it tectum argenti. This literally translates as silver being made. They believed that bismuth was a half-way house form of silver – in the process of being formed but not yet finished. The beauty of the crystals is testament, most certainly, to why they may have thought that.
Okay, when you saw this, which band started playing in your head, Led Zeppelin or AC/DC? I have to admit that it was AC/DC first for me, despite being a Led Zeppelin fangirl through my formative years. What musical genre would the song "Mobility Scooter to Purgatory" fall under? Easy listening? You have to admit the concept has less punch than heaven or hell, since purgatory is temporary, if I recall correctly. This is the latest comic from Aaron Scott at TwoLeafClover. -via reddit
Michele Boudreaux set out a box of treats for delivery drivers who are working hard this Christmas season. The local wildlife noticed, and a squirrel decided the box was fair game. Boudreaux tells the story of the thieving squirrel at her blog.
On Monday, I put out this year’s treat table and—NO JOKE—within a few hours, ALL the Ghirardelli chocolate squares were gone. I couldn’t believe it. Why would someone do such a thing? And why would they take the most expensive chocolate on the tray? Why not rob us blind of all the Reese’s and Mini Snickers since I can’t seem to stop eating them because holy crap, trash candy is so damn good and I totally don’t choose Us Weekly over Time while in the waiting room.
But, no. This thief took the good stuff. And I wanted to cry. It was day one and already two packs, like 25 pieces, of Ghirardelli squares had been taken from us.
The first Christmas celebration in what would become the nation of New Zealand was in 1642 after Abel Tasman's ship arrived. The weather was bad and the crew ate a pig from the ship's supplies. The next such feast in New Zealand was over 100 years later.
The next celebration of Christmas in New Zealand occurred during James Cook’s first expedition in 1769. The crew of the Endeavour marked the occasion by feasting on ‘Goose pye’ for their Christmas dinner while battling heavy seas off the tip of the North Island. There were no geese, so the crew had to improvise – with the magnificent gannet that had been shot in preparation for the feast by the ship’s noted botanist, Joseph Banks.
Apparently the Endeavour’s crew spent Boxing Day ‘nursing hangovers’. The Boxing Day tradition of suffering from Christmas excess clearly has a long history in New Zealand.
The Last Jedipremiered last night in Los Angeles. It was a star-studded event with the cast, director Rian Johnson, and Disney/Lucasfilm executives front and center. Costumed characters such as droids and Stormtroopers were everywhere. The event, as well as the movie itself, was dedicated to the late Carrie Fisher.
"I do want to acknowledge and dedicate tonight to Carrie," Johnson said from the stage, looking to the sky. "I know she's up there right now flipping me the bird, saying, 'Damn it Rian, how dare you bring the mood down and make this night a solemn tribute.' So let's have a blast together for Carrie."
The Last Jedi is dedicated to Fisher with the inscription, "In loving memory of our princess, Carrie Fisher."
But what about John Boyega? He woke up in Atlanta Saturday morning to rare Georgia snow and went to the airport to find that his flight had been canceled. Twitter lit up with anxiety among Star Wars fans that he wouldn't make it to the premiere.
Trying to get back for the LA premiere! I actually NEED a pilot !!!
The 1988 movie Die Hard broke new ground in many ways. We had heartwarming Christmas family movies, and we had Christmas horror films, but this was a Christmas action blockbuster. It put comedic actor Bruce Willis into a heroic role we weren't used to at the time. And it introduced us to Alan Rickman as the attractive yet terrifying villain Hans Gruber. Die Hard holds up well 29 years later. And it has a long and really interesting backstory.
1. IT’S GOT A LITERARY BACKGROUND.
Think some action-loving Hollywood scribe came up with the concept for Die Hard? Think again. The movie is based on Roderick Thorp’s 1979 crime novel Nothing Lasts Forever, which is a sequel to his 1966 novel, The Detective. In 2013, Thorp’s long out-of-print book was resurrected to coincide with the film’s 25th anniversary.
2. IT WAS INSPIRED BY THE TOWERING INFERNO.
The idea for Nothing Lasts Forever was inspired John Guillermin’s 1974 disaster flick The Towering Inferno. After seeing the film, Thorp had a dream about a man being chased through a skyscraper by a group of men with guns. He eventually turned that snippet of an idea into a sequel to The Detective.
French artist Benedetto Bufalino (previously at Neatorama) is known for his absurdist stunts. This year, he came up with a rather ridiculous idea that turned out to be a lot of fun. He covered the rotating drum of a cement mixer truck with mirrors, turning it into a giant portable disco ball! Bufalino took his truck out into the streets of Lyon, where pedestrians were invited to come dance the night away. With some music and some well-aimed lights, a good time was had by all. -via Nag on the Lake
A group of Knights Templar are on a quest to "liberate" the Holy Grail from the fortress of the Frenchmen who have it in their possession. They'll have to harness their best weapons skills and ability to leap tall buildings! Oh yeah, and a little bit of trickery, too. It's violent, alright, but not too bloody.
This is what happens when you give Devin Supertramp a television production budget and access to a French castle. Its a promotional film for the History Channel series Knightfall. And it's pretty durn good. -via Geeks Are Sexy
compiled by Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Improbable Research staff
Marmite, the born-in-Britain foodstuff with a powerful taste and a whiff-of-superhero-comic-book name, is more than just a condiment. Marmite, together with its younger, Australian-born kin Vegemite, is an ongoing biomedical experiment.
Streaky dabs of information appear here and there, spread thin, on the pages of medical journals dating back as far as 1931.
Marmite and Pernicious Anemia The 1930s were a sort of golden period for Marmite. A steady diet of Marmite reports oozed deliciously from several medical journals. Likely many physicians ingested them whilst munching Marmite on toast.
Dr. Alexander Goodall of the Royal Informary of Edinburgh regaled readers of The Lancet with a case report called “The Treatment of Pernicious Anæmia by Marmite”. Dr. Goodall told how a British Medical Journal article, published the previous year, had inspired him and benefited his patients:
“The Treatment of Pernicious Anæmia by Marmite,” Alexander Goodall, The Lancet, vol. 220, no. 5693, October 8, 1932, pp. 781-782. Dr. Goodall reports:
The publication by Lucy Wills of a series of cases of ‘pernicious anaemia’ of pregnancy and ‘tropical anemia’ successfully treated by Marmite raises many questions of importance.... Since the publication of Wills’s paper I have treated all my maintenance’ cases with Marmite. Without exception these have done well.
A few years ago we found some legitimate medical journals that took a break from their serious work and diagnosed the “ailments” of cartoon characters. Turns out they’ve “analyzed” some of our favorite Christmas characters, too.
Medical Issues: Unknown— it’s unclear whether Santa has ever undergone a physical exam, let alone had one in recent years. For this reason, Dr. Y. Ingrid Goh of Toronto, Ontario, referred the patient to one Dr. Yull Tyde and asked that he be checked for signs of respiratory problems and thermal burns (from sliding up and down sooty, smoky chimneys, some of which are probably hot); frostbite and hypothermia (from traveling in an open vehicle in the middle of night in winter); indigestion, heartburn, obesity, and hyperglycemia (Santa binges on milk and cookies at every stop); and obsessive-compulsive disorder (he makes lists and checks them twice).
Physician’s Notes: “It is highly recommended that Mr. Claus consider an alternative mode of transportation and adopt a healthier lifestyle… Please ask him to consider an alternative route of entrance… In addition, please ensure that his herd of reindeer has been vaccinated against rabies virus.” (Canadian Medical Association Journal, December 2004)
