We often lament that Hollywood has run out of ideas for new stories and new characters, which is why it seems like every new film is a sequel, prequel, remake, gender-swapped version, musical, or a different point of view of an existing franchise. But you can't argue with the fact that it works, or at least sells an awful lot of tickets. From the looks of the first trailer, the movie Wonka may work very well. This is a musical, and a prequel to the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. On paper, that sounds like throwing in all possible guaranteed shortcuts to a hit, but if the movie lives up to the trailer, it will be a lot of fun.

Wonka follows a young Willy Wonka, played by Timothée Chalamet, as he sets out to open a chocolate factory, but must first battle the existing chocolate cartel. Other characters are played by Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Olivia Colman, Tom Davis, Sally Hawkins, and Hugh Grant -as an Oompa-Loompa! Wonka was originally scheduled to open in March of this year, but now will open on December 15. One look will tell you it will work much better as a Christmas movie. -via Gizmodo

In the early 19th century, the secret society of the Masons became more and more popular. The movers and shakers of small communities would bond over elaborate initiation rituals and spend time together socializing and sometimes publicly flaunting their wealth as they did good works. But in the 1820s, a member of the Batavia, New York, Masonic Lodge 433 named William Morgan became fed up with the insular political power wielded by the Masons. He threatened to publish an expose in the newspaper.

The Masons began to harass Morgan incessantly, having him arrested, searching his home, and even setting his business on fire. They also harassed publisher David Miller who was working with Morgan on the expose. In 1826, Morgan was again arrested, but bailed out by a stranger who was part of a gang who shoved Morgan into a carriage upon leaving jail. Morgan was never seen again.

The disappearance/murder investigation went nowhere, since everyone involved was a Mason. Miller then went ahead and published Morgan's expose, which led to more scrutiny and a backlash against the Masons from the public. Read how this led to the formation of the Anti-Masonic Party and even a presidential candidate in 1832, and dealt a blow to the secrecy of the Masons, at Smithsonian.

Ft. Worth company Sky Elements Drone Shows set a new world record with a Fourth of July show last week. They launched more than 1,000 computer-synched drones carrying LED lights to amaze the crowd with a sequence of patriotic American iconography, including Washington Crossing the Delaware, flags, eagles, a cowboy, fighter jets, and a lunar astronaut. The company was scrambling to stage 40 different shows over the holiday weekend, as drone shows are starting to replace traditional fireworks for climate and safety reasons.   

So what world record did they set? It was not for the biggest number of drones, nor for length of the show, but for the “largest aerial sentence formed by multirotor/drones.” That's a fairly niche record, and it may seem anticlimactic, but it gives us an excuse to show you an impressive drone show a week after the holiday. -via Laughing Squid

There were no airplanes in 1897, although we did have hot air balloons and a few gliders. Still, that doesn't explain the incident in Aurora, Texas, reported by the Dallas Morning News on April 19, 1897. It cites an incident two days earlier in which "the airship which has been sailing around the country" slowed down and crashed into Judge Proctor’s windmill, crumbling into pieces. The townspeople removed the deceased pilot, described as "petite" and "Martian." The alien was given a Christian burial in the town's cemetery. He may have been given a headstone with his UFO engraved on it, but if so, that has disappeared. Another was carved in more modern times, but that was also stolen.

It is said that the spaceship debris was dumped into a well that was later sealed. Aurora is a small town of 1,400 people today, but its historic cemetery holds around 800 graves. The historical marker there tells of several of them, including the many who died of the 1891 spotted fever epidemic. The marker makes a passing mention of the alien grave. The people of Aurora today refer to the alien as "Ned." Various groups have approached the cemetery association to have the grave exhumed, but have been turned away. The cemetery is open to visitors, and the location of the alien grave is covered by a large rock, usually with mementos adorning it.

(Top image credit: E's & D's Adventures in Life)

Maru, the famous Japanese Scottish fold, recently celebrated his 16th birthday. He was just a young cat when he became an internet star. Maru's first video was posted on July 10, 2008. For the 15th anniversary of his internet career, Maru's human mugumogu has compiled a retrospective of Maru's most popular videos, chosen by fans. There's a lot of them, so you might want to consume this video in pieces, but you'll enjoy every minute when you have the time.

It makes me feel old that I posted Maru's first viral video back in 2008, the one that first showed us his obsession with boxes. That video now has 18 million views! Since then, Maru has become a global brand, selling books, calendars, and other merchandise, and appearing in ads and making celebrity endorsements. He has also gained a couple of roommates, the younger cats Hana and Miri. Happy Anniversary, Maru!  -via Fark

The Kp-index has indicated that a magnetic storm on the sun is taking place, causing mass ejections of plasma and pieces of the sun's magnetic field. These usually take a few days to reach the earth, and when they arrive, the skies will be lit. That means the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, will be especially vivid and will be visible across the upper tier of the United States.

The forecast is for the geomagnetic storm to be visible Wednesday from Washington state to Maine, including the areas around Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and Halifax. On Thursday, the aurora will be visible even further south, in Nebraska, Maryland, Wyoming, and Massachusetts, among other states.

Read an explanation of magnetic storms and how the aurora is formed at NPR, as well as a viewing guide if you happen to be in a place where the aurora will reach.

(Image credit: Elaine R. Wilson)

Tom Scott got the chance to visit a rotating house, because it's on the market. He's there to find out the answers to the real questions we have about such houses: how do the utilities work? I paid close attention, and I think I understand how slip rings work, and how the concept of four funnels inside each other work, but how do you integrate the liquid utilities with the electrical utilities? Maybe the electricity and cable come in from the top and the liquid utilities are connected at the bottom of the house. It still sounds way more complex than feasible outside of a major metropolitan area, where the really expensive maintenance companies are. The owner, Al Johnstone, is an engineer who worked out all the technology when he built the house in 2000. If you think you might want to buy this house, you better get to know him, because you'll have to learn a lot about this house to keep it rotating.  

Around 620,000 soldiers died in the US Civil War, but that toll would have been higher if surgeons hadn't become schooled in the art of the quick amputation, along with other battlefield medical innovations. Another half-million men were injured in battle, many of them left with life-long disabilities. Even those that recovered often faced a long and painful rehabilitation. But overworked battlefield doctors had something to help them through it- opium, morphine, and laudanum, which were prescribed for everything from wounds to malaria to stomach aches.

After the war, many of these men went home addicted to painkillers. There were no drug rehab programs in place. In fact, these veterans were shunned for being weak and unmanly. Reliance on opioids could get a veteran excluded from housing benefits or pensions, even widow's benefits if he was discovered to have been taking opioids. Read about opiate use in the Civil War and the stigma it left behind at Jstor Daily.

Meteorologist and storm chaser Reed Timmer saw a huge tornado in the distance in Nebraska, and rushed to get as close as possible to it. Timmer was quite excited, while those in the vehicle with him weren't so sure about getting that close to a tornado that big. If there had been any structures around, we would have seen more debris flying and more damage. As it was, the windshield was broken pretty early in the video. What to do? Just stick your head out the window and drive, and stick the camera out, too! This gets pretty intense for a while, and then the tornado moves away, probably wanting to escape from these crazy guys. -via Digg

The page above is from a chapbook titled The Child's New Year's Gift published around the year 1770 that contained riddles for children. A chapbook was a cheap publication that folded up and sometimes consisted of only one sheet of paper. As such, there are only two original copies of this book surviving in libraries. This particular riddle is guaranteed to make kids laugh. In case you have a hard time reading the text, it says,

Since the world first begun, I was never once seen,
Though everyone knows in their presence I’ve been.
No sooner I’m born than I give a loud cry,
And your noses inform you, I presently die.

The answer to this riddle is, of course, a fart. The picture added the provocative but unnecessary detail that the figure is farting toward a candle. One can imagine how this might have inspired children to try the dangerous deed.  -via Boing Boing and commenter allenk

You don’t expect an old bachelor to remember something like that.
by u/XqueezeMePlease in funny

Brides all over get their ideas about weddings from American movies, in which the officiant ends with "You may now kiss the bride." That's not universal, and it isn't a part of the basic Catholic wedding liturgy. So this Irish priest walked away when he finished the wedding rites, but the bride reminded him about the kiss. Yes, that's what she's saying, although the accent had me thinking she was asking about "keys" at first. The priest responded in perfect fashion, and gave everyone who attended a reason to remember this wedding.

You might even get the idea that he didn't forget anything; he just wasn't used to telling a couple to kiss after their vows. But to give her what she wanted, he feigned forgetfulness with a humorous quip at his own expense. A good time was had by all. -via reddit 

McDonald's is a fast food outlet, also called a restaurant, that is globally successful and has sold untold billions of hamburgers. Their real success is in expanding that chain and becoming the first fast food people think of. But like any successful corporation that has a long history, McDonald's has experimented with expanding beyond its core mission. That's happened over and over, and if Mickey D's weren't so big already, some of these projects could have spelled the end of the company.

Yeah, you know about McDonald's experimenting with the food, like the McPizza, the Arch Deluxe, and a burger with a slice of pineapple on it. But that's just food. McDonald's also tried out the McTrain, the McBarge, the McPlane, and the McUFO ...and more. Read about these ventures into putting the McDonald's name on something other than what they do best, and how each attempt gave them reason to stay in their lane, at Messy Nessy Chic. 

(Image credit: Aero Icarus)

Warning: if you are still on the fence about whether it is ethical to eat an octopus, this video might push you right over the edge.

Elora Explora owns a watersports center in Bonaire in the Caribbean. But before that, she lived in Belize, where she went diving almost every day. One day, she saw a tiny octopus and reached out her hand toward it. The octopus reached back! Another day, Elora found him again, and he seemed to remember her. Elora named him Egbert and they became friends. She brought him food and toys, and he would run to meet her. Uh, I mean swim to meet her, I guess. One time, Elora didn't get to dive for a whole week and she wondered if Egbert would remember her. Of course he did!  

You can see more of the sweet interactions between the diver and the tiny octopus at Laughing Squid. 

Here's a mega-list of funny films that will certainly give you ideas for what to watch this weekend. It's supposedly a list of "the funniest movie the year you were born" but I don't see how that makes a movie special among great films. All the listed movies that I've seen are indeed worth the time, and I want to check out some of them that I haven't seen. The funniest comedy of each year was determined by ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, with later movies also factoring in box office. Bonus: trailers are included.

Your opinions may vary, for the designation of "funniest," and even the categorization. I saw The Graduate during its initial run, although its been a long time, and I never knew it was supposed to be a comedy. For most of the years represented, it's hard to complain when you can't think of what other movies came out that year, but in 1987 I have to argue that Raising Arizona was much funnier than Moonstruck, which I also didn't realize was a comedy.

Check out all 73 films, one for each year from 1950 to last year, at Mental Floss.

What if you staged a robbery and no one cared? A man tried to rob a nail salon in Buckhead, Georgia, near Atlanta. But no one paid any attention to him as he demanded money. The guy behind the counter was on the phone, and the waiting customers just ignored him. What did he expect? It's a nail salon; they probably didn't have much cash, since people pay with credit cards, and there's no expensive merchandise to take. He obviously had no weapon, even though he held his hand in a bag like he was trying to fool them into thinking he might have. The guy managed to grab one woman's phone as she left, but since he was getting nowhere, he just gave up and walked out. Police are asking the public if they can help identify the suspect, but if they catch him, you can imagine the giggles when the jury is shown the security footage.  -via Boing Boing