Tom Otto and Shaun Sears are professional arborists (tree guys) and cat lovers. The brothers-in-law volunteer to rescue cats that are stuck in trees. See, in Washington state, the trees can be very tall, and cats can be very scared once they get too high. Firefighters aren't equipped for that kind of height, even if they had the time to rescue cats.   

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Their project is called Canopy Cat Rescue. Since they don't charge owners for rescuing their cats, the organization relies on donors. -via Tastefully Offensive

The Andy Samberg movie Hot Rod was released ten years ago this week. That seems like just yesterday, but the guys from The Lonely Island made their first feature film in 2007. Let's learn some trivia about the movie.

10. The stuntman trying to jump over the bus actually broke his leg.

Gotta give it to stuntmen and women, they take a horrendous beating sometimes for their job. The kind of things they go through on a regular basis can risk life and limb for just a brief moment on camera that a lot of times they won’t ever be known for.

9. The band called “Gown” is actually Queens of the Stone Age.

It’s kind of interesting why they wouldn’t use their real name, but in a film I suppose it doesn’t matter. They were awesome as always. Sometimes the director just wants to keep the fantasy without bringing too much of the real world into the picture.

Read the rest of the movie trivia list about Hot Rod at TVOM.

The kids are asleep! That means it's time to do that thing. Meaning, all those things you can't get done when the kids are sucking up all your time and attention. How you prioritize that long list of things is up to you. In this case, the reward is a cleaner home, although tomorrow it will go back to chaos. It's one step forward and two steps back, but it's better than no steps forward at all. This is the latest from Lunarbaboon.

Trader Joe's is a grocery store chain with 450 locations in the United States. The chain has thrived by offering a wider variety of food than their competitors at reasonable prices. But there are lots of procedure that go on behind-the-scenes that make the store what it is. That includes  the benefits that go to employees, several of which involve food.

10. THE BREAK ROOM KEEPS THEM WELL-FED.

Trader Joe’s customers enjoy visiting the store’s sample station for food and coffee, and employees enjoy their own grub in the break room. “We are always cooking things up,” a Trader Joe’s employee tells Forbes. “When we get new foods in, we try them out. We eat and drink throughout the day here.” Because employees are constantly tasting new products and familiarizing themselves with older ones, they can recommend certain products to customers and speak genuinely about the flavors, textures, and overall tastiness of the food. And just like customers, Crew Members also definitely hit up the sample station. “I can’t even begin to tell you how many teeny tiny cups of coffee I chugged or samples I inhaled in a given shift,” Royal says.

Learn more of the secrets behind Trader Joe's at Mental Floss.

(Image credit: Anthony92931)

This is not an old music video. Believe it or not, it's brand new. Yet the costumes, dancing, and even the production values are right out of the mid-70s disco era.

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"Guardians’ Inferno" is the song that played over the end credits of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and appears on the soundtrack album. Now it has a video, featuring David Hasselhoff, and a cameo appearance by Stan Lee. This video is a bonus feature on the home video version of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. -via Geeks Are Sexy

We've mentioned a few times that the rules and regulations we have today normally originate from some horrible precedent. The many rules and regulations regarding air travel come together to make flying the safest mode of transportation per mile, so you know that the mistakes of early aviators and plane designers contributed to what we know about safety. However, those mistakes were tragic.

Upgrade: Retiring tin

As Aloha Flight 243, a weary, 19-year-old Boeing 737 on a short hop from Hilo, Hawaii, to Honolulu, leveled off at 24,000 ft., a large section of its fuselage blew off, leaving dozens of passengers riding in the open-air breeze. Miraculously, the rest of the plane held together long enough for the pilots to land safely. Only one person, a flight attendant who was swept out of the plane, was killed.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) blamed a combination of corrosion and widespread fatigue damage, the result of repeated pressurization cycles during the plane's 89,000-plus flights. In response, the FAA began the National Aging Aircraft Research Program in 1991, which tightened inspection and maintenance requirements for high-use and high-cycle aircraft. Post-Aloha, there has been only one American fatigue-related jet accident—the Sioux City DC-10.

Read about other accidents and how they led to greater airline safety at Popular Mechanics. -Thanks, Tim!

Did you ever get the feeling that Luke Skywalker was dealt a truly raw deal, having to grow up on Tatooine, raised by a moisture farmer? Meanwhile, Leia, who wasn't his twin sister until Return of the Jedi, was adopted by planetary royalty, eventually becoming a senator! It turns out that Lucas had an even bigger vision for Leia than all that.

Hang on wait what... Leia had a PhD in Star Wars? Christ can you imagine having everyone call you Princess when you were actually Dr Organa pic.twitter.com/HYertPJqWU

— Dr Becca Harrison (@BeccaEHarrison) August 4, 2017

Wow, talk about an overachiever! A PhD at 19 is almost unheard-of in our galaxy, outside of a few child prodigies who clepped through high school at a ridiculously young age. This tidbit gives Leia another title in addition to General, Senator, and Princess. We can call her Doctor.

We have clearly, clearly all been doing our PhDs in Alderaan places....

— Sarah McCook (@mccook_hx) August 4, 2017

We can tell ourselves that what Luke didn't get in genetic brains, he made up for in his sensitivity to the Force. That is, as long as you ignore midi-chlorians. Which we all do. -via Buzzfeed

Azerbaijani photographer Kamal Bagirli traveled to Milan, Italy, to find the spot where a photograph was taken in 1964. He managed to line up the photo with the spot and the train. There are a few differences. The train is different, and we cannot imagine that they'd have had a woman conductor in 1964. Some Italians quipped that the train is the same one, delayed for 50 years as expected. Bagirli has done quite a few of these old photograph with modern framing projects. Check out more of his work at Instagram.

-via reddit

Have you ever dreamed of living by the shore, but thought you could never afford a home there? You might want to rethink that dream, since the U.S. General Services Administration has six lighthouses up for auction right now, with bids starting as low as $10,000 to $15,000. They are all historic buildings on the waterfront. There is a catch or two: the auctions are for the buildings only, and the government will retain ownership of the land beneath them (which is underwater). Also, you must agree to restore and even upgrade the lighthouses.

One lighthouse being auctioned off, the historic Chesapeake Bay lighthouse, is just two miles from the Baltimore shores. The other five being sold are on Michigan’s Great Lakes. The most expensive, by far, is the Minneapolis Shoal Light which is situated on the Great Lakes Public Trust bottomlands in Lake Michigan. Its bidding will extend until August 15th. The Craighill Lower Range Front Light Station, located off North Point State Park in the Chesapeake Bay, is also for sale and will be auctioned until September 15th.

Read more about the auction at Inhabitat. -via Mental Floss

There was a time when Dunkin' Donuts was known for their donuts. But the times, they are a'changin', and coffee culture is where the money is in the 21st century. The company is considering a pivot that will cement their focus on coffee as opposed to their donuts. Several locations, beginning with Pasadena, will rebrand as just "Dunkin'" in a test run of the new, shorter name.

The company does not consider this a departure from current branding.

“We have been referring to ourselves simply as Dunkin’ in our advertising for more than a decade, ever since we introduced our ‘America Runs on Dunkin’ campaign,” said the spokesperson.  

The trial run on the rebranded name may become part of a larger redesign that is set to roll out during mid-late 2018, and Dunkin’ Brands plans to determine “Dunkin’s” permanence at that time.  

Mashable has some other, funnier suggestions for a new name. I'm okay with any change as long as we can still buy donuts.

The world as a whole may have stepped back from nuclear buildup, but the new weapons being developed are increasingly terrifying for reasons other than world destruction. The testing is terrifying enough. Was that guy a volunteer?

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Neill Blomkamp's latest Oats Studios short is less than five minutes long, which is unusual, but the video is entirely computer-generated. Why? It's an experiment. Surely this would have been cheaper to make just by filming actors. The story is as gripping as any other. However, there's no punch line. The next episode in a proposed series will be made if they raise enough money to make it.  -via Digg

A litter of eight baby hedgehogs (hoglets) became orphans when their mother was killed in a lawnmower accident. The hoglets were found and taken to a lactating cat named Musya.

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Musya nurtures and feeds the hoglets like they were her own. She might have a little difficulty in grooming them. She probably feels sorry for these ugly kittens. -via Laughing Squid

Slack Wyrm is a fire-farting dragon. It's also the name of the continuing comic series by Joshua Wright (previously at Neatorama) that the dragon stars in. However, many of the comics can stand on their own, like this one. Never has a chicken held so much power in her hands! Er, wings.

If you want find out what happened after Janet's judgement, see the next comic. Afterward, Slack Wyrm turned a new leaf and is now on a quest with a wizard to find the kingdom's worst troll. Yeah, he's an internet troll. You can read the entire series starting here. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The original 1984 Karate Kid reached its climax when our hero Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) faced his nemesis Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) in the All Valley Karate Tournament. Although the sequels went on to other adventures, and Jaden Smith starred in the 2010 reboot, we will never forget that first rivalry, in which Johnny was encouraged to "sweep the leg!" And now the two are back together. A new 10-episode series called Cobra Kai is slated to run on YouTube's subscription service YouTube Red. Macchio and Zabka will reprise their roles as Danny and Johnny.

The series, set to bow in 2018, is set 30 years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament and revolves around a down-and-out Johnny who, seeking redemption, reopens the infamous Cobra Kai dojo. It reignites his rivalry with a now-successful Daniel, who has been struggling to maintain balance in his life without the guidance of his mentor, Mr. Miyagi (the late Pat Morita). The half-hour comedy follows the duo addressing demons from their past and present frustrations — through (what else?) karate.   

Comedy? I was on board until that part. How could they take a martial arts film and make it into a comedy TV series? Read more about the planned Cobra Kai series at The Hollywood Reporter. -via Boing Boing

The following is an article from Uncle John's 24-Karat Gold Bathroom Reader.

American history might have been written in French or Spanish. Here’s part of the reason it wasn’t.

PLUNDERERS FOR HIRE

In 1562 some French Protestants known as Huguenots landed on what is now Parris Island, near Beaufort, South Carolina. Like the English Pilgrims who would arrive a half century later, the Huguenots wanted religious freedom. This group, led by Captain Jean Ribault, also wanted riches: They were privateers. In an era when navies were smaller than they are today, countries hired armed private ships and crews to do much of their pillaging and plundering for them. Privateers were an accepted part of naval warfare: Under admiralty law, if captured they were supposed to be treated as prisoners of war, even if what they were doing looked like piracy.

The Huguenots were going to do their pillaging under the French Crown. After raising a stone marker on Parris Island and claiming all the surrounding land in the name of King Charles IX, Ribault sailed back to France for supplies. He left behind 28 men to establish a fort, with enough food for six months and sufficient arms and munitions for defense. The men immediately set to work building a shelter made of wood and earth, with a straw roof. They dug a moat around it and added four bastions- bulwarks from which they could defend the new settlement. Then they waited …and waited …and waited. But Ribault did not return. The problem: By the time Ribault reached home, France was embroiled in a full-blown religious war between Protestants and Catholics and had no money to spare for his resupply mission. So Ribault sailed on to England, hoping to find a sponsor there. Instead, he ended up imprisoned in the Tower of London by a suspicious Queen Elizabeth I.

WE’LL NEVER HAVE PARRIS

When their supplies ran out, the abandoned men panicked.