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This cat may not have opposable thumbs, but he knows someone who does! As one commenter said, you know who wears the pants in this relationship. -via reddit
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
THE DREAM STUDENT
[caption id="attachment_45952" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="A store in Georgia Tech's student center is named for Burdell."][/caption]
When other students found out about the hoax, they helped keep Burdell's story going. According to his resume, Burdell flew 12 missions over Europe during World War II and served on MAD magazine's Board of Directors from 1969 to 1981. In 2001, when Burdell was supposedly 90 years old, he nearly became TIME magazine's Person of the Year after garnering 57 percent of online votes. Today, Burdell is one of Georgia Tech's most celebrated alums. He even has a page on Facebook, where he keeps in touch with over 4,000 "friends."
THE FANTASY HOCKEY PLAYER
Like many hockey players drafted in the 11th round of the 1974 NHL draft, Taro Tsujimoto never actually made it to the big time. But unlike the other players drafted with him, Tsujimoto didn't exist. His name is in the record books because of Punch Imlach, the former general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. Imlach was so fed up with tedious late rounds of the draft that he decided to poke some fun at the league. He pulled a Japanese name from the local phone book and made up an imaginary team. Then, he simply told NHL president Clarence Campbell that his draft pick was Taro Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Kahanas. Sure, no one had ever heard of Tsujimoto, but that didn't stop the NHL from making the selection official. Several weeks later, Imlach revealed his prank, but Sabres fans didn't care. For years after the draft, Buffalo crowds would break into chants, demanding, "We want Taro!" (Image credit: twoeightnine design)
THE FICTION CRITIC
Very few film critics had anything nice to say about Rob Schneider's 2001 comedy The Animal. One exception: movie reviewer David Manning of the so-called Ridgefield Press, who called the movie "Another winner"! In reality, Sony marketing executives created the fictional critic to promote the company's worst films. In fact, The Animal was just one of many box office bombs that Manning enthusiastically praised. He also lent his critical support to Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, and The Patriot.
After reading about the deception in Newsweek, two California movie lovers, Omar Rezec and Ann Belknap, decided to sue Sony. They filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all filmgoers who saw the movies based on Manning's "reviews." In the end, Sony settled out of court, paying real money to anyone duped by the fake critic.
THE ELUSIVE ARTIST
Sometimes life imitates art, and sometime life mocks it. In 1998, Scottish novelist William Boyd wrote a book called Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960. The book was pure fiction but Boyd released it as a biography because he wanted to see how long it would take the art world to figure out that Tate never existed. To help sell the story, Boyd enlisted some powerful friends, including author Gore Vidal (who is liberally quoted throughout the book) and rock star David Bowie. When the book debuted, Bowie threw a huge party in Tate's honor, inviting the most elite members of New York's art scene. Journalist David Lister, who knew that Tate was fake, made the rounds at Bowie's party and asked people what they thought of the artist. When they inevitably spoke of their familiarity with his work, Lister would hear them out, then let them in on the joke.
THE MYSTERIOUS ABORIGINES
In the early 1990s, two Australian artists had the same bad idea completely independently: to sell their work by pretending to be Aborigines.
One of the two artists was Leon Carmen, a cab driver living in Sydney. He invented a new identity for himself as Wanda Koolmatrie, an Aboriginal woman abducted from the bush in the 1950s and forced to live in white society. Carmen wrote an autobiography as Koolmatrie, and the book went on to win praise for its "distinctive new voice." But when Carmen tried to write a sequel in 1997, the publisher caught on, and the incident became a national scandal.
The other artist, painter Elizabeth Durack, had more luck with her fake identity. In 1994, she began signing her work Eddie Burrup, supposedly a male, Aboriginal ex-convict. The paintings were selected for indigenous art exhibitions and won numerous prizes. But when the paintings began to draw serious interest from art collectors, Durack revealed herself as Burrup, claiming that she understood Aborigines well enough to paint as one of them. Aborigines disagreed, and they demanded that galleries stop selling her work. Strangely, the artist continued to paint as Burrup until her death in 2000.
Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff!
[caption id="attachment_45952" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="A store in Georgia Tech's student center is named for Burdell."][/caption]
(Image credit: Wikipedia user Disavian)
George P. Burdell was a man born of a simple mistake. In 1927, someone in the admissions office at Georgia Tech accidentally sent student Ed Smith two registration forms instead of one. Sensing an opportunity for mischief, Smith filled out one form for himself and the other for George P. Burdell -a student he completely made up. When Smith arrived at the school, he kept the ruse going by enrolling Burdell in all his classes and even turning in assignments under his name. In fact, Smith did so much work on behalf of his imaginary friend that Burdell eventually graduated.When other students found out about the hoax, they helped keep Burdell's story going. According to his resume, Burdell flew 12 missions over Europe during World War II and served on MAD magazine's Board of Directors from 1969 to 1981. In 2001, when Burdell was supposedly 90 years old, he nearly became TIME magazine's Person of the Year after garnering 57 percent of online votes. Today, Burdell is one of Georgia Tech's most celebrated alums. He even has a page on Facebook, where he keeps in touch with over 4,000 "friends."
THE FANTASY HOCKEY PLAYER
Like many hockey players drafted in the 11th round of the 1974 NHL draft, Taro Tsujimoto never actually made it to the big time. But unlike the other players drafted with him, Tsujimoto didn't exist. His name is in the record books because of Punch Imlach, the former general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. Imlach was so fed up with tedious late rounds of the draft that he decided to poke some fun at the league. He pulled a Japanese name from the local phone book and made up an imaginary team. Then, he simply told NHL president Clarence Campbell that his draft pick was Taro Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Kahanas. Sure, no one had ever heard of Tsujimoto, but that didn't stop the NHL from making the selection official. Several weeks later, Imlach revealed his prank, but Sabres fans didn't care. For years after the draft, Buffalo crowds would break into chants, demanding, "We want Taro!" (Image credit: twoeightnine design)
THE FICTION CRITIC
Very few film critics had anything nice to say about Rob Schneider's 2001 comedy The Animal. One exception: movie reviewer David Manning of the so-called Ridgefield Press, who called the movie "Another winner"! In reality, Sony marketing executives created the fictional critic to promote the company's worst films. In fact, The Animal was just one of many box office bombs that Manning enthusiastically praised. He also lent his critical support to Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, and The Patriot.
After reading about the deception in Newsweek, two California movie lovers, Omar Rezec and Ann Belknap, decided to sue Sony. They filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all filmgoers who saw the movies based on Manning's "reviews." In the end, Sony settled out of court, paying real money to anyone duped by the fake critic.
THE ELUSIVE ARTIST
Sometimes life imitates art, and sometime life mocks it. In 1998, Scottish novelist William Boyd wrote a book called Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960. The book was pure fiction but Boyd released it as a biography because he wanted to see how long it would take the art world to figure out that Tate never existed. To help sell the story, Boyd enlisted some powerful friends, including author Gore Vidal (who is liberally quoted throughout the book) and rock star David Bowie. When the book debuted, Bowie threw a huge party in Tate's honor, inviting the most elite members of New York's art scene. Journalist David Lister, who knew that Tate was fake, made the rounds at Bowie's party and asked people what they thought of the artist. When they inevitably spoke of their familiarity with his work, Lister would hear them out, then let them in on the joke.
THE MYSTERIOUS ABORIGINES
In the early 1990s, two Australian artists had the same bad idea completely independently: to sell their work by pretending to be Aborigines.
One of the two artists was Leon Carmen, a cab driver living in Sydney. He invented a new identity for himself as Wanda Koolmatrie, an Aboriginal woman abducted from the bush in the 1950s and forced to live in white society. Carmen wrote an autobiography as Koolmatrie, and the book went on to win praise for its "distinctive new voice." But when Carmen tried to write a sequel in 1997, the publisher caught on, and the incident became a national scandal.
The other artist, painter Elizabeth Durack, had more luck with her fake identity. In 1994, she began signing her work Eddie Burrup, supposedly a male, Aboriginal ex-convict. The paintings were selected for indigenous art exhibitions and won numerous prizes. But when the paintings began to draw serious interest from art collectors, Durack revealed herself as Burrup, claiming that she understood Aborigines well enough to paint as one of them. Aborigines disagreed, and they demanded that galleries stop selling her work. Strangely, the artist continued to paint as Burrup until her death in 2000.
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The article above, written by Adam K. Raymond, is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the March-April 2011 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff!
The Galactic Empire Times, which looks suspiciously like the New York Times, has a breaking story.
CORUSCANT — Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mastermind of some of the most devastating attacks on the Galactic Empire and the most hunted man in the galaxy, was killed in a firefight with Imperial forces near Alderaan, Darth Vader announced on Sunday.
In a late-night appearance in the East Room of the Imperial Palace, Lord Vader declared that “justice has been done” as he disclosed that agents of the Imperial Army and stormtroopers of the 501st Legion had finally cornered Kenobi, one of the leaders of the Jedi rebellion, who had eluded the Empire for nearly two decades. Imperial officials said Kenobi resisted and was cut down by Lord Vader's own lightsaber. He was later dumped out of an airlock.
There's much more. The ads and comments are priceless. http://www.galacticempiretimes.com/2011/05/09/galaxy/outer-rim/obi-wan-kenobi-is-killed.html -via reddit
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You know when it's the devil. A truly frightening advertisement. -Thanks, Andre Price!
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"Per Aspera Ad Astra" (through hardships to the stars), part four of The Sagan Series, is a promotion for NASA. Creator Reid Gower, is admired by NASA, but they have no funding for public relations whatsoever. Link
The design called PIT IN uses a desk or table as a bike rack. The bicycle seat then serves as a chair while you work or take a break. That is, if you are OK with sitting on a bicycle seat while you're not riding. This could only be comfortable if my bicycle had a tractor seat. Link -via Laughing Squid
Among hundreds of women who acted as spies during the Civil War, Elizabeth Van Lew stands out as one of the most effective. She was a prominent member of Richmond society who opposed both slavery and secession, but kept quiet among the fervent Confederates around her. Van Lew and her mother volunteered to care for Union prisoners at Libby Prison, where they gained many contacts. Word got back to Gen. Benjamin Butler, who recruited her as a Union spy.
Despite her bravery and the Union victory, Van Lew was regarded as a traitor by her neighbors and found it hard to support herself after the war. Read her story at Smithsonian. Link
(Image credit: The Granger Collection, NYC)
By June 1864, Van Lew’s spy network had grown to more than a dozen people. Along with the agents in government service, she relied on an informal network of men and women, black and white—including her African-American servant Mary Elizabeth Bowser. The group relayed hidden messages between five stations, including the Van Lew family farm outside the city, to get key information to the Union. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant later told Van Lew, “You have sent me the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war.”
Despite her bravery and the Union victory, Van Lew was regarded as a traitor by her neighbors and found it hard to support herself after the war. Read her story at Smithsonian. Link
(Image credit: The Granger Collection, NYC)
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Christian Schallert has a 258 square foot apartment in Barcelona. With some imagination and design help, he remodeled it into a transformable space. Everything is stored away. He opens doors to use the kitchen, and moves things around to have a dining area or bedroom. Link -via Buzzfeed
According to police, Mark C. Sirben of Spring Hill, Florida, was so drunk that he went home, made himself a snack, and passed out on the couch. But it wasn't his home. It wasn't even in Spring Hill -the home was in Palm Harbor! The sleeping woman who actually lived there heard someone coughing in the middle of the night.
They found food in a frying pan they had not prepared. Sirben, who has a record of DUI convictions, was jailed for trespassing and criminal mischief. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Florida Mugshots)
The woman went to investigate and found Sirben asleep on her couch. She woke up her husband, who went to the living room and confronted Sirben. Sirben argued with the husband, telling him that he lived there, before he passed out again.
"They had no idea who this guy was," said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda.
When a deputy arrived, Sirben was still asleep on the couch with a plate of food at his side. The couple said Sirben must have cooked something for himself before he fell asleep.
They found food in a frying pan they had not prepared. Sirben, who has a record of DUI convictions, was jailed for trespassing and criminal mischief. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Florida Mugshots)
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According to Steve Spangler, the tiny amount of water in Ivory's famous air bubbles heat up and expand. The end product is a "soap souffle"! -via The Daily What
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This stop-motion film by Dave Green shows what happens when the refrigerator thermostat malfunctions. It's a horror story. -via The Daily What
A cycad tree of the ancient species Encephalartos woodii was brought from Africa to the Kew Gardens in London in 1895. Since then, it has been cloned, but cannot reproduce in the normal way, because it is male -and it may be the only natural example of its species left in the world.
The tree produced a cone in 2004 for the first time ever, which is the signal for reproduction, but there was no female for it to pollinate. http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/05/10/136029423/the-loneliest-plant-in-the-world
(Image credit: Andrew McRobb/RBG Kew)
Previously: Another species of cycad at Kew Gardens is even older.
Researchers have wandered the Ngoya forest and other woods of Africa, looking for an E. woodii that could pair with the one in London. They haven't found a single other specimen. They're still searching. Unless a female exists somewhere, E. woodii will never mate with one of its own. It can be cloned. It can have the occasional fling with a closely related species. Hybrid cycads are sold at plant stores, but those plants aren't the real deal. The tree that sits in London can't produce a true offspring. It sits there, the last in its long line, waiting for a companion that may no longer exist.
"Surely this is the most solitary organism in the world," writes biologist Richard Fortey, "growing older, alone, and fated to have no successors. Nobody knows how long it will live."
The tree produced a cone in 2004 for the first time ever, which is the signal for reproduction, but there was no female for it to pollinate. http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/05/10/136029423/the-loneliest-plant-in-the-world
(Image credit: Andrew McRobb/RBG Kew)
Previously: Another species of cycad at Kew Gardens is even older.
Dugan Smith of Fostoria, Ohio, was ten years old when he was diagnosed with bone cancer. After chemotherapy, his leg was removed, but part of it was reattached -backward!
It took 18 months of physical therapy for Dugan to learn a new way to use his leg. Now 13, he is playing baseball again. http://healthandfitness.sympatico.ca/news/leg-reversal_surgery_keeps_boy_in_the_game/f26953cf -via J-Walk Blog
Known as a rotationplasty, his surgery involved removing a large section of his right leg that surrounded the tumour - from below his knee to about mid-thigh - then reattaching the lower limb to the shortened upper thigh.
The twist, so to speak, is that Dugan's lower leg was rotated 180 degrees and sewn on backwards.
His ankle now acts as his knee, his calf has replaced the lower part of his thigh and his backwards-facing foot slips into a prosthetic and powers the reversed muscles and joint with an up-and-down motion.
"I'll be able to play basketball and baseball - baseball's my favourite sport," says Dugan, a seventh grader who pitches and plays first base on his junior high school's baseball team in Fostoria, Ohio. "Just knowing I would be able to play those made my mind go straight at it."
It took 18 months of physical therapy for Dugan to learn a new way to use his leg. Now 13, he is playing baseball again. http://healthandfitness.sympatico.ca/news/leg-reversal_surgery_keeps_boy_in_the_game/f26953cf -via J-Walk Blog
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Yep, that's a long truck! According to commenters, this kind of transport is used to haul sugar cane in Brazil. Normally they only travel from farm to farm, and it is unusual to see one on a highway. -via the Presurfer
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This building apparently doesn't have a freight elevator. In order to avoid carrying boxes upstairs, these guys hatched a plan. The language in the video is Turkish, and the video was posted to a Russian video site, where there is no more information available. -via Buzzfeed
Update: This is an award-winning ad for a Turkish bank. You can see the full version here. -Thanks, Murat!
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