People will try anything to be more attractive, and through most of history, the long-term effects of those beauty regimens were unknown. Sure, Aunt Sarah got sick and died young, but no one knew that it was the lead in her face-whitening makeup that did her in. Lucky for us, science eventually figured that one out. The further back you go, the more bizarre some of these regimens get. Ancient Greeks and Romans sometimes used urine as a mouthwash, because the ammonia it contained would eliminate worse smells. Eww. 

Also in Rome, a tincture of nightshade might be used as eyedrops, because they would dilate one's eyes. This could be very alluring, but it could also cause you to go blind or even die. There's a reason it came to be called "deadly nightshade." Read about ten of these deadly bygone beauty tips at Mental Floss. And then wonder what we are doing today that may be found quite dangerous in the future. 

Screen Junkies celebrates the silver anniversary of The Lord of the Rings movies, or at least the beginning of the trilogy, by giving us a full set of Honest Trailers in conjunction with the release of the extended versions of all three films in theaters. We've seen what they think of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and it's time for the big one: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. 

Everyone from the previous installments shows up for the final battle, plus many characters we've never seen before. Everyone either dies gruesomely or gets to be the hero. The satisfying ending is not the end, and neither is that one. Or that one, either. The extended edition runs four hours and 23 minutes, so you wonder how many more ending scenes were tacked on. But you'll get plenty of Monty Python references and jokes at the expense of farts, George RR Martin, and England. 

In 1848, obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis suggested that doctors should wash their hands between patients, and was laughed at. Then doctors started learning about germ theory, and medical sanitation rose, especially in surgery, where the danger of infection was particularly high. 

Dr. William Stewart Halsted, a prominent surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, insisted that his entire surgical team not only wash their hands, but douse them in various germ-killing chemicals. Those chemicals caused massive irritation on the sensitive hands of his top assistant, nurse Caroline Hampton. So in 1889, Halstead had a couple pairs of rubber gloves custom-made for her. This was for Hampton's protection, not the patient's, but post-surgical infections dropped as more of his team started wearing rubber gloves. Some doctors rebelled against the gloves because they would surely affect sensation and fine motors skills, but that argument was eventuallyput to rest by improving the gloves. Read about the genesis of surgical gloves at Amusing Planet. 

(Image credit: Wellcome Collection) 

This guy, who goes by Whisker Street online, started feeding a stray cat. The first stray cat brought his girlfriend around, so he welcomed her in as well. Before you know it, he has 20 cats. But it's not just because he fell into the habit of rescuing more street cats. It took him a couple of years to figure out why they kept having kittens and how to prevent that. Well, he sounds young. Anyway, he stepped up and got them all fixed, and made them indoor cats. Catering to them is quite a job. But what you'll remember most from this video are the names he gave them. The first two are Epakateketekete and LaoGanMaHuHanCha. One is named HP Deskjet 2852E All-in-one Printer, but he admits that he sometimes calls her simply All-in-one-printer for short. That's short? We learn a few others, and then more crazy names at their Instagram gallery. 

Halley's Comet returns every 75-77 years, and is named after English astronomer Edmond Halley because he was the first to figure out it was the same comet returning each time instead of a new comet. Knowing what we know now, we have documentation on the comet's appearance going back to 240 BC, and records of its observation in 164 BC, 87 BC, 12 BC, and every appearance since, although these records came from different parts of the world. 

But was Halley really the first to document the return of the same comet? Recent research into the matter takes us back to the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1066, which was recorded on the Bayeaux Tapestry and was said to herald the death of King Harold II of England, which happened later that year at the Battle of Hastings. It was also that same year that an elderly monk known as Eilmer (or Æthelmær) of Malmesbury observed the comet and recognized it as the same comet he saw in his childhood, which would have been the year 989. Researchers have even suggested the comet be renamed for Eilmer. That's not likely to happen. 

Why wasn't Eilmer given such credit earlier? Popular Science hints that Eilmer may have been considered somewhat of a crackpot because of his notable attempt to fly like Icarus and Daedalus from Greek mythology when he was much younger. Wikipedia goes into greater detail about that flight, which is now regarded as a possible milestone in the history of aviation. 

If you recall, back in 2024, Ze Frank was invited to be on the board of the Senkenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA). He promptly visited them in Germany and made a video roasting the organization. Now, this is the institute that is charged with studying and naming new species of mollusks as they are discovered. What could Ze Frank offer this organization? Publicity, of course. They soon returned the favor by naming a type of chiton after him, Craspedochiton zefranki. 

What next? How about crowdsourcing a species name? SOSA and Ze are now inviting fans to suggest a scientific name for a new species of Craspedochiton. That doesn't mean you necessarily have to be fans of SOSA or Ze Frank. You might just like mollusks. Or maybe you are just good at coming up with names. Anyway, you can submit one in the comments at this video's YouTube page, but it must only be one word, Latin or not, with an explanation, so molluskmcmolluskface won't cut it.

We sometimes get a cockeyed view of life in pre-modern times because it's common knowledge that thre average life expectancy during the medieval era was about 40. It's taken years to convince people that the number was low because so many infants and children died, drawing down the average. If you made it to puberty, you probably had a lot of years ahead of you. And then there's the fact that books are written about kings and especially queens who were married off at shockingly young ages. These were often arranged political alliances that had little to do with anyone else. 

Meanwhile, the common people of Europe tended to delay marriage until their twenties. While education ended early, young people would work to buy a home, and women could earn a fair amount of money before they settled down to have children. These everyday folk didn't make the history books, but they were documented in records that tell the real story. Read more about the customs of medieval marriage at Fake History Hunter. -via Strange Company 

When you think about animals using tools, you probably don't think about the examples given at the beginning of this video. You think about the Veronika the cow, or maybe Figaro the cockatoo. But yeah, chimps and crows and octopuses use tools as well. Even insects use tools! Stefan Chin of SciShow tells us how various insects use external objects as weapons, grocery bags, glue traps, bait, compactors, and amplifiers. He also goes into the evolving definition of "tool." 

By now, we should completely let go of that outdated theory that tool use is what distinguishes humans from other species. A commenter said,

I remember being taught as a kid that "Man is the only animal that uses tools." More like "Man us the only animal that pretends other animals aren't using tools."

The problem with that is having to come up with a new way to distinguish humans from other animals. -via Laughing Squid 

The great boxing championships we recall from history tend to be the heavyweights, but in the early 20th century, all weight classes could draw huge crowds. And a little guy who didn't mind being beaten could make a lot more money as a fighter than as a farmer. Adolph Wolgast became a prizefighter in his teens and quickly became popular, despite being only 5' 4" and skinny, because he was fast, relentless, and fearless. By 1910, he was booked to compete for the world lightweight championship against Oscar Nelson, the "Durable Dane," who had held the title for four years. 

The fight drew ticket prices as high as $85, a considerable sum in 1910. The match went for forty rounds, with rules thrown out the window. Neither boxer backed down, but when the fight was finally stopped, Wolgast became the youngest lightweight champion ever. He also became a rich man, but paid a terrible price for his fame and fortune. Read the story of Adolph Wolgast at 3 Quarks Daily.  -via Nag on the Lake 

When you want to make a good impression on a first date, you take any advantage you can. This guy is a bit shy and socially awkward, but thinks he will get a leg up with the help of the Artificial Intelligence Dating Assistant, or AIDA. Yep, there's no need to think when you have an app to tell you what to say and do. What could possibly go wrong?

This creepy little skit portends a world in which we've outsourced our common sense and personalities to AI as well as our mental work, because it's just easier that way. I used to tell my kids that they needed to learn to navigate because GPS and cell signals can fail, and it only needs to happen once to drive the point home. Sometimes technology enhances our lives, but when it takes over, we could be left unable to stand on our own feet. -via Kuriositas 

The Lunar New Year is Tuesday, Feb 17, 2026. That date will usher in the year of the horse, according to the Chinese zodiac. In preparation, factories in China are quickly rolling out symbols and souvenirs. One factory had a little oopsie in making their red plush horses. If you look carefully, you can see that the muzzle was attached upside-down, which gave the horse a frowning mouth instead of the intended smile. When the manufacturer realized the error, they offered customers replacement horses. 

The frowning horses were dubbed the "cry-cry horse," even though the toy's wide eyes combined with the frown seem to imply fear or dread more than sadness. It quickly became a viral sensation. Suddenly, everyone wanted a frowning horse. The manufacturer hopped on board, and reset the factories to produce more cry-cry horses to meet the demand. In China, they are sold for about US$3.50, but if you order from the US through Amazon, they will cost you $10 to $15 plus shipping, depending on size and vendor. If you're moving into the year with trepidation, this may be your spirit animal. -via kottke 

We learn in elementary school that planets orbit around the sun (or their nearest star, in the case of exoplanets), and moons revolve around a planet. But then there are asteroids, which also revolve around the sun like planets, but we didn't cover those much in elementary school because there are too many of them to learn. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has thousands of asteroids, which were once called small or minor planets. But are they really planets? That's a matter of semantics, and depends on how you define terms, which is very important in astronomy. A discovery in 1953 helped to determine the definition of a planet, sort of, but it took some time for all astronomers to come around to how these terms are used. Meanwhile, Minute Physics makes the difference between a planet and an asteroid clear and simple, although there are still some edge cases.

The first cloned mammal was Dolly the sheep born in 1996, who developed from the complete genome of an another single adult sheep. At the time, we thought cloning animals might come in handy someday for producing beef or something, but only if the costs came way down. Cloning a beloved pet is available for very rich people, and some entities are trying to bring back extinct species by cloning (with little luck so far). But there is one animal that can earn millions of dollars in its lifetime in sports- horses. Yet it's not thoroughbred racing. Neither artificial insemination nor embryo transfer is allowed in thoroughbred breeding, much less cloning. But no such restrictions exist for polo ponies. 

The world's top polo player, Argentina's Adolfo Cambiaso, wanted to preserve the genetic legacy of his best horse Aiken Cura after he suffered a devastating injury and was euthanized. He founded Crestview Genetics, which not only cloned Aiken Cura but also Cambiaso's best mare, the retired but still living Cuartetera. Twenty years later, there are many Cuarteteras and Aiken Curas. Read how that came about at Knowable magazine. -via Metafilter 

A homeowner in Altadena, California, had a bear living in the crawl space under their home for more than a month! They had contacted state wildlife officials, but attempts to evict the 550-pound bear were unsuccessful. The bear was causing some damage down there, so they did the prudent thing and shut off the gas line before Christmas. Then they called the Bear League, who does this a lot. They sent Scott and Dave, who aren't afraid of anything. They couldn't lure Yogi out with a pic-a-nic basket, so Scott went down into the crawl space and got behind the bear to chase him out! Dave was ready outside to chase the bear away, and we get to see it because he was wearing a camera on his hat. The bear barely squeezed through the opening, and went back into the woods. No bears nor humans were injured in the operation. -via Laughing Squid 

The whole point of using slang words is to be trendy, a member of the cool group that knows the latest word usage. These word usages may arise from anywhere, but they don't become trendy until a critical mass of the group, say, teenagers or influencers, use them. And considering how long these terms have been around, it could take a hundred years to reach that critical mass, or more likely, they were resurrected from a more ancient time. 

For example, the word "fly" can mean an insect or the act of moving through the sky. But as a slang term meaning fashionable or stylish, you probably didn't hear it much until the 1980s. But it was used in exactly that way to describe a petticoat in a book written in 1753! The list distinguishes the slang term "high" from its normal meaning of elevated, which confused me for a second, because the word "elevated" is now a term used to get around TikTok censorship. But "high" meaning intoxicated by drugs, came into wide use in the 1930s to distinguish it from bring drunk on alcohol. But the term "high" was used for alcohol intoxication going back to 1607. Find out how far back some slang terms can be traced at Mental Floss.