Although it seems like yesterday, the Disney/Pixar film Monsters, Inc. came out 16 years ago! The story sought to acknowledge that monsters are scary, but then reveals the truth that they have feelings, just like people. Kind of like the Muppets, but animated. If you liked Monsters, Inc. (and who didn't?) you'll want to see some of the things that went into the making of the movie.
10. The actress that did Boo was so young that she wouldn’t sit still for her lines.
She had such a hard time sitting still that they simply followed her around with a microphone and recorded the things she said.
9. It took 11 to 12 hours to render 1 frame for Sully.
All the individual hairs on his body made the filming take forever since they wanted him to have realistic motion.
He doesn't mention the biggest difference: taking care of a baby is intense, but temporary, while a cat is mostly the same its whole life. Inman left out the part that spans about two decades, in which you are constantly confronting a child with brand-new problems you never encountered before as they grow and develop. No doubt Inman will have things to say about that as time passes. -via Matthew Inman
Relax, they were secured with ropes. Rope swings, actually. In October, 245 people attempted to break a Guinness World Record by going on a simultaneous tandem swing off a 98-foot bridge in Hortolandia, Brazil.
Guinness has yet to certify whether these folks broke the previous record (which was also set by Brazilians), but a good time was had by all. You can see the jump from the vantage point of the bridge and also from a swinger's GoPro at Atlas Obscura.
Question: How many intelligence agencies does the U.S. have? Let’s see…there’s the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, and maybe…the DEA—that’s four, right? Wrong. How many do we really have? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! Just kidding. Correct answer: 17. Here’s the history of the whole—mostly secret—business.
SPY STORY
In January 1790, President George Washington, in his first State of the Union address, asked Congress for funding for foreign intelligence gathering. The president wanted to ward off any foreign threats against the new nation by learning about them before they could come to fruition. Congress approved Washington’s request and established the Contingent Fund of Foreign Intercourse, more commonly known as the Secret Service Fund. Amount of money appropriated for the fund: $40,000 per year, which the president could use at his own discretion with virtually no oversight. (That set the foundation for future problems between the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government over intelligence matters—problems that have existed ever since.) Within just three years, the fund had grown to $1 million a year. Funding for U.S. intelligence operations today is about $70 billion a year. (That we know of, anyway.)
On the menus of Thanksgiving feasts of the past are some items that were once considered traditional, yet are almost gone today. Honestly, I dropped cranberry sauce completely for a few years until I discovered a recipe that uses pineapple and walnuts. You should serve what people like. The unfortunate recipes that have disappeared from Thanksgiving include creamed onions, winter corn, and various mid-century Jell-O based recipes, like Jellied Turkey-Vegetable Salad.
There’s only one way to improve a dish as alluring as Jellied Turkey-Vegetable Salad, and that’s to stick it in the freezer. From the sound of the recipe—which combines cream of celery soup, salad dressing, diced turkey, vegetables, and gelatin—this is basically the inside of a turkey pot pie if it was served frozen. And also if it was square.
Why debate when you can destroy? Socrates, a 5th-century BC philosopher, and Neitzsche, the 19th-century polymath, play the dozens to the best of their ability. Socrates makes a good point, but Neitzsche has a couple thousand years of insult evolution on his side. Now, the development of insults does not mean they become more refined. It's just that they became more personal. Why insult the man when you can insult his mother? This is the latest comic from Jake Likes Onions.
French physicist Marc-Antoine Fardin was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize a couple of months ago for his groundbreaking research in rheology, which is the study of how matter flows and deforms. One of the problems in rheology is the definition of terms. The definition we learn in school is that a liquid is the state of matter that takes the shape of its container, but not the volume. The definition is further refined for scientists.
At the center of the definition of a liquid is an action: A material must be able to modify its form to fit within a container. The action must also have a characteristic duration. In rheology, this is called the relaxation time. Determining if something is liquid depends on whether it’s observed over a time period that’s shorter or longer than the relaxation time.
If we take cats as our example, the fact is that they can adapt their shape to their containers if we give them enough time. Cats are thus liquid if we give them the time to become liquid. In rheology, the state of a material is not really a fixed property—what must be measured is the relaxation time. What is its value, and on what does it depend? For example, does the relaxation time of a cat vary with its age? (In rheology, we speak of thixotropy.)
The whole point of the article that won the award, "On the Rheology of Cats," is that if cats can fit into the scientific definition of a liquid, then maybe most of us don't know enough about the states of matter. Fardin gives us non-physicists a short course in rheology, specifically a breakdown of the ideas and terms that went into the paper at Slate.
A 4000-year-old Assyrian clay tablet found at an archeological dig in Turkey has been translated as a marriage contract. Some terms are spelled out quite explicitly, particularly what would happen if the wife doesn't produce a child.
The contract, written in Old Assyrian and signed before four witnesses, stipulates that the wife in question was to hire a hierodule, or female slave, to serve as a surrogate mother if the couple failed to conceive a baby two years from the wedding date. It also specifies that the husband could not marry another woman—Mesopotamians were monogamous—and that if one of them opted for divorce, he or she would owe the other five minas of silver (more than five pounds, or about $1,500 worth, at press time).
While the idea that either party could initiate divorce proceedings seems downright modern, the prenuptial agreement doesn't appear to stipulate what procedures would come into play if the slave also did not produce a child. Maybe the possibility of male infertility was unthinkable, or more likely, the child would only be considered part of the family if he/she were produced by the father. Read more about the marriage contract at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Ahmet Berkız Turp/Harran University)
Jodie Whittaker will portray the 13th incarnation of the Doctor when the TV series Doctor Who returns. The first woman Doctor is under a lot of pressure to live up to fans' expectations, so costume designer Ray Holman knew he had to get the look just right. To do that, he referenced past Doctors and incorporated details from many of them into the new costume. Also, one cannot help but imagine that he put some thought into how cosplayers will study each detail to recreate them themselves. Holman also designed the dress of Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi's characters. Fans have a mixed reaction, with many pointing out that the rainbow stripe reminds them either of Mork from Ork (Mork and Mindy) or Wesley Crusher (Star Trek: The Next Generation). Metafilter has a roundup of reviews of the new costume. Jody Whittaker's debut on Doctor Who is expected to happen during a special broadcast on Christmas Day, with the series returning sometime in 2018.
(Image credit: Steve Schofield/BBC Worldwide Creative)
Everyone's a critic, and every parent has had to deal with children who have a problem with what you serve them to eat. Imagine how harsh they would be with an adult's vocabulary combined with their immature social filter! Well, you don't have to imagine, because that's exactly what this video is. Or else these little girls have been watching too much Gordon Ramsay.
YouTuber Woodsie employs the Face Swap Live iPhone app to make videos of his daughters. That way, he gets to play all the parts. Even so, the finished product is indicative of how they feel about Dad's cooking. See more of Woodsie's videos that use this same technique. -via Tastefully Offensive
Here's a state ranking that guaranteed to cause offense and arguments. Thrillist employed a mysterious panel of judges (described as "omnivorous") to eat their way through state cuisines. They don't reveal their methodology, although locally grown crops and products like wine and whiskey are factored in. The rankings will only surprise you for certain places you feel strongly about, such as your home state. Kentucky didn't make the top half, but it also didn't make the bottom ten, as it usually does in state rankings. And I thought Louisiana was robbed. However, you learn some details about the states along the way.
37. Arizona
Allegedly inventing the chimichanga by deep-frying a burrito definitely counts for something, and we're insanely fixated on Pizzeria Bianco. But it's hard to get excited about all those chains dotting the scorched landscape. If you happen to be elderly, advance this ranking seven spots up the list. If you happen to be a minority, drop Arizona 13 spots.
36. Indiana
Indianapolis has come a long way in recent years, with establishments like the universally beloved Milktooth injecting some life into a far too chain-dominant dining scene. And when you're outside Indy, keep your eyes peeled for some sugar cream pie. Maybe skip the fried brain sandwich.
We get the big stories in our news, but they fade from the headlines eventually. That doesn't mean it's over for the people involved, it just means that the media has moved on to the next big story. You might recall the Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko, who was a former KGB agent and a critic of the Kremlin. He was murdered slowly and painfully in Britain by drinking a cup of tea laced with radioactive polonium in 2006. But you don't know what happened to his body after he died. It was so radioactive that they left it alone, hooked up to medical monitors for two days while arrangements were made to move him safely.
The actual autopsy took place on December 1 at London's Royal Hospital. This time, the crew included Dr. Cary, another pathologist, a cop, a photographer, and a dude whose sole function was to wipe all errant blood drops from people's clothes, lest they become polonized. Nearby, an ambulance staff was watching over them in case someone fainted or collapsed. Everyone was wearing the same two-suit getup as Cary, complete with custom battery-powered, air-circulating hoods. If Litvinenko had against all odds opened his eyes, he'd have thought he'd been abducted by a bunch of extremely nervous aliens.
A post shared by @youdidnotsleepthere on Sep 7, 2016 at 7:05pm PDT
Luisa Jeffery likes to camp out, and when she does, it's usually in the back of her Toyota truck. Jeffery noticed the glut of adventure camping photographs on Instagram that are so perfect they appear to be staged or even Photoshopped. Yeah, that's the trend for just about any facet of life, as people go to great lengths to take the perfect picture of their vacation, their clothing, or their food. Jeffery started an Instagram gallery called youdidnotsleepthere, reposting the most egregious examples of illogical campsites.
Our mothers told us, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything." Socrates (and a lot of other people) said, "Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?" In the radio business, I was told, "What you don't say can't hurt you." That's all true, except that if you say nothing at all, you aren't going to get far in radio. But a little thinking before you say something goes a long way, and saying something nice can make someone else's day go much better. This is the latest comic from Lunarbaboon.
Time for a cuteness break! Spend a few minutes watching Milo the munchkin cat go from a fluffy kitten to a fluffy adult cat. This video was compiled from five months of recording.
