Key West is the southernmost part of the continental United States, but up until the early 20th century, it was hard to get to. Now there's a 113-mile highway that has 42 bridges (one is seven miles long) that will take you to all the Florida Keys. The Overseas Highway is an amazing feat of engineering, and you might be surprised to learn that it started out as a railroad. 

Henry Flagler was one of the founding partners of Standard Oil, a very wealthy man, who fell in love with Florida. In the 1880s, the biggest city in the state only had 10,000 people, but Flagler was about to change that. He bought hotels. And he needed railroads to bring in guests. Flagler became obsessed with transportation in Florida, and bought or built railroads all along the eastern coast. In 1905, he launched his biggest project yet- building a railroad through the Keys. He set up 83 work camps for 5,000 men at a time. He built floating concrete mixers. He shipped in millions of gallons of fresh water. And in 1912, his railroad was open all the way to Key West. It was nice while it lasted, but the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 caused so much damage that the state of Florida took over the railroad. And it became the foundation of the highway. 

That's only part of the story. Turning a railroad into the Overseas Highway took some imagination. Read how it all happened at The Autopian. 

(Image credit: Tinsley Advertising; Mercedes Streeter) 

There are now seven films in the Jurassic Park franchise, because people like adventure movies with dinosaurs. The first movie back in 1993 set the stage with amazing breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery that made the dinosaurs seem real, and every subsequent film upped the ante by making the dinosaurs bigger and more dangerous. But each iteration makes less and less sense overall because the characters constantly forgot the lesson of the first film. 

In the first movie, the dinosaurs took up only about 15 minutes of the more than two-hour film. The actual story was a deep dive into the ethics and philosophy of messing with Mother Nature, which makes it a think piece compared with the many sequels. It is also the only one of the series directed by Steven Spielberg. In this video, InCinematic looks at the crucial conversations that unveil the true meaning of the story, and how Spielberg frames them to emphasize the point. It's no wonder the only two quotes you recall from any of the Jurassic Park movies are from Jeff Goldblum's character Dr. Ian Malcolm. 

The army of the Roman Republic wasn't much compared to that of the Roman Empire that came afterward. The size and fierce reputation of that army was in large part the work of Gaius Marius. Marius served as consul of the Roman Republic for seven terms. He came from a humble background, and worked his way up the political ladder, and therefore many of his reforms were in extending privileges to common people that were once reserved for the aristocracy and landed gentry. 

That included the Roman military. Previously restricted to land owners, the military was expanded to a professional force open to warriors from all over Italy. He took care of veterans, too. But one innovation you might never have heard of is that Marius ordered his men to carry backpacks. At first that seemed undignified to the soldiers, but it turned out to be crucial in the Battle of Aquae Sextiae which gave the Roman army a new reputation as a force to be feared. Read how backpacks gave them a battlefield advantage at Mental Floss. -via Strange Company 

(Image source: Francesco Saverio Altamura) 

Is it possible to make a phone call across dimensions? A couple on a lonely highway see something strange in the sky. I couldn't see it at first, but it eventually looked to me like an incoming nuclear attack. But the sky phenomena turns out to be a MacGuffin, and director Danny Piñeros tells us he didn't even know what it would look like until the effect was added post production. What's important is that the couple becomes separated and we don't know how -and neither do they. They appear to be in the same space but not together. Or are they in a completely different place? Or maybe "place" isn't even the right word, as subsequent events bend even that idea. 

Be sure to stay for the credits, because the voiceover adds more to the story. The scene sets up a premise that the producers hope to expand into a feature-length film. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

(Image credit: teedpop) 

When the camera came out, redditor teedpop told his cat to smile, but honestly didn't expect that he actually would. That's a first-class grin, or else he's about to sneeze, or maybe it's a warning before an attack. I had a hard time selecting a cat photo, because it was between this one and one with "old man face" that cats get when they have teeth removed. My Tommy looks like that now, even though he's happier without the decayed teeth. But this list of animals making derpy faces isn't just cats. We also get to see iguanas, frogs, hamsters, horses, donkeys, goats, pigs, and all kinds of pets. Even dogs, like this guy who was told not to get dirty outdoors. He's not apologizing, he's just trying to explain that he couldn't help himself. I'm sure the camera around his neck will tell the whole story. 

(Image credit: DecentestMama)   

There are 96 such photos of funny-faced furry friends gleaned from reddit posted at Bored Panda. Better hurry and see them before they cut the list to 50. 

We know honeybees are amazing. They take flower juice and make honey, wax, royal jelly, and more bees. They also spread pollen from plant to plant, enabling us to raise fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Plus they build wax honeycombs where they can efficiently work together to do all that other stuff. How did they ever learn to do that?

Ze Frank takes us through the behavioral evolution of insect architects. Honeybees descended from wasps, who went through many phases on the way to building geometrically efficient nests. Ants and termites build elaborate nests, too, harnessing a new word I just learned: stigmergy. Honeybees are the best at making lovely hexagonal cells to build their combs, but it's not because they are all that smart. Hexagons are just what happens when you cram cylinders together in the most efficient way. In fact, their combs are not made of perfect hexagons all the way through. Still, those imperfections are a way of coping with uneven surfaces, so maybe they are pretty smart. Instead of an ad, there's a mere 30-second promotional message at 4:20. 

The story of the Space Race as most of us know it is that the Soviet Union was the first to launch a satellite into orbit in 1957 and the first to launch a human into orbit in 1961. The Americans scrambled to catch up, and won the big goal of landing astronauts on the moon in 1969. It was only years later that we learned what else the Soviets did, because they weren't keen on sharing information and they pulled most of their funding for space exploration after the Apollo moon landing. 

The world eventually learned about the Lunokhod program, in which the USSR was the first to land remote-controlled robots on the moon in 1970 and 1973. The US didn't do that until Sojourner landed on Mars in 1997. Lunokhod 1 and 2 were equipped with a reflector that bounced laser signals from earth and back to relay information. The rovers also moved, unlike reflectors left by the Apollo missions. While Lunokhod 2 continued to reflect signals after its mission ended, Lunokhod 1 was lost for almost 40 years. No one knew how far the rover had traveled before its power died. 

Then in 2010, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) determined the exact coordinates of Lunokhod 1, and researchers at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico were able to bounce laser signals off its reflector. The results were better than signals from Lunokhod 2, showing us that the reflector was still in good shape. Read about the lost and found Soviet robot on the moon at Daily Galaxy. -via Damn Interesting 

(Image credit: Музей Космонавтики) 

The latest hypothetical question for the What If? series by Randall Munroe and Henry Reich (previously at Neatorama) asks how long it would take a bowling ball to fall from the ocean surface to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans, and the point called Challenger Deep is around 11,000 meters or 36,000 feet deep. A bowling ball would take quite a while to sink that far. 

But wait- the real surprise here is that it might not sink at all. It might float! That depends on how heavy the ball is. Galileo told us that a hammer and a feather will drop at the same rate if you control for air resistance, like doing it on the moon or in a vacuum chamber. Apparently, physics doesn't work like that underwater, so we find out how objects of different weights would fall in the ocean. But let's don't do this, because that would be littering.  

Bharat Kalicharan Yadav (known as Akku) was brought into a courtroom in Maharashtra, India, in August of 2004 for the purpose of setting bail. Before any procedure could begin, dozens of women rushed to Yadav and began attacking him. He was stabbed more than 70 times, and parts of his body were cut off. Chili powder was forced into his face and mouth. And all this was after he had gone to the police for protection. 

Yadav had terrorized the poor neighborhood for 13 years by then. He had killed at least three people and raped more than 40 women and girls as young as ten. Yadav led a gang and paid off police. He had been arrested 13 times prior to the deadly attack, but had walked free each time. The mob attack was the culmination of years of abuse on an entire community. But now what? When the judge regained order, he asked who had attacked Yadav, and every woman in the courtroom raised her hand. After years of investigation, 21 people were charged in Yadav's death. Read the story of Akku Yadav and what happened afterward at Utterly Interesting. 

Language is a funny thing. It changes over time, and the exact meaning of a word can drift to become more broad or more specific, or something else completely. That confusion can spill over into a courtroom, when the exact wording of a law is debated. Does a more modern interpretation of those words change the intention of those who originally passed the law? And how do we determine exact meanings- by the current dictionary, the generally-understood meaning at the time the law was written, or how the wording of the law is understood today? It depends on how you look at it, or even more importantly, who looks at it. Dr. Erica Brozovsky (previously at Neatorama) breaks down the legal battle over words, and bfings us some court cases where a definition made all the difference. All I could think of while watching this is a quote: "It depends on what the definition of 'is' is."

The American colonists who fought against Britain for independence had help from other countries, mostly notably France, but others as well. The British Empire had plenty of enemies, and people all over liked the idea of fighting for freedom. One of those helpers was a small group of Jewish settlers on an island in the Caribbean. 

St. Eustatius is now more often called Statia, and it's a part of the Caribbean Netherlands, along with the islands of Bonaire and Saba. In the 18th century, up to 40% of the thousand or so residents of St. Eustatius were Jewish refugees who had found safe haven in the Netherlands and continued on to settle in the New World. Some of them built a lucrative trade network with both Europe and the American colonies, which included smuggling gunpowder to the Continental Army. The British were so upset that they raided St. Eustatius, looted the Jewish community of its wealth, and confiscated all the adult men they could find to send them into exile without their families. Now a new history exhibit is hoping to bring light to this forgotten chapter of American history. Read about the Jewish smugglers who aided the patriots at Smithsonian.    

(Image credit: Jrryjude) 

The Shiki Theater Company is the biggest such company in Japan, and they have a longstanding partnership with Disney. Beginning in August they will stage the musical The Little Mermaid at the Maihama Amphitheater in Maihama, near Tokyo. This preview video has sparked a lot of interest, even though the actual production is still months away. Rina Tachibana stars as Ariel. She has a lovely voice (crucial for the plot, I know) and belts out "Part of Your World" that sounds very much like the movie version, except it's in Japanese. But how does she do it while floating through the water? And how do they make swimming underwater look so effortless onstage? For that matter, how are they going to pull this off in an amphitheater? During the song, we also get glimpses of other scenes from The Little Mermaid, such as Ariel trying out her new legs. -via Kuriositas 

The Let’s Have Better Mottoes Association was the brainchild of Cleveland circus musician and advertising man Frederick E. Gymer, although he usually stayed in  the club's background, with the permanent rank of executive secretary. Formed in 1950, the association awarded a monthly prize for the best new motto, for anything, which was the title of club president for the month. The group, founded in 1950, was pretty popular and had quite a few chapters around the country until Gymer died in 1962, after which it petered out. But during its heyday, the club got all the newspaper publicity it wanted, since the mottoes they came up with were so funny, in a 1950s kind of way.

In case of fire, yell "Fire!"

The More You Explain It, The More I Don't Understand.

I'd Like To Compliment You On Your Work. When Will You Start?

You're doing a good job, but you're doing it all wrong.

We Don't Want 'Yes Men' Around Here — Everybody Agree?

And my personal favorite:

Do It Rihgt.

See newspaper clippings from the association and more mottoes at Weird Universe. 

(Image credit: Daytona Beach News-Journal - Feb 4, 1955) 

Most Americans aren't aware of how different toilets in Britain are, even those who have traveled to the UK. Oh yeah, there are places you have to pay to use them, but at least they are available. Laurence Brown, with years of experience living on both sides of the pond, is very aware of how our toilets are different. And our sinks and bathtubs, for that matter. The toilets actually use different mechanisms for flushing. He doesn't mention which system uses more water, but that's not really a concern in Britain, which is geographically consistent and it rains all the time. Now that I'm in the know for watching this, it's my opinion that American toilets are superior, with the exception of having to plunge or snake them occasionally, which is honestly not often enough to be a bother (your mileage may vary). American sinks and tubs seem to be better as well.   

It's somewhat amusing to hear how he talks about toilet efficiency without using any rude words. There's a skippable ad from 2:55 to 4:10. 

When you think of musicians who were in the US military, you think of Elvis Presley and Glenn Miller, who were both quite well known before joining up. Miller volunteered during World War II and Presley was drafted in 1958. But there were other big names who served before we knew who they were. 

Their military careers varied. One credits his navy training in logistics for his ability to later organize concert tours. One was a Morse code expert who intercepted Russian transmissions. Another got his start in the business by singing with an army band as his official duty. One gave up an opportunity to teach at West Point in order to pursue a music career. And two of them were victims of the "enlist or go to jail" scheme that judges once used for young offenders. Neither lasted out their full hitch. Find out which successful musician is matched with each of those stories at Mental Floss.