The deadliest animal in the world is the mosquito. They don't kill on their own, but spread diseases that causes hundreds of thousands of human deaths each year. So maybe we should wipe them out! Well, we know what could go wrong. Pesticides end up killing other species. And sometimes an animal goes extinct before we realize what useful ecological function it filled. With mosquitos, modern science has found a way to make just the most dangerous species die out without affecting other species. So should we do it? So far, research shows that if disease-carrying mosquito species were eliminated, there would still be plenty of benign mosquitos to, say, feed the bats. But would it be the right thing to do? Funny how no one asked that about wiping out smallpox. Since this scheme involves genetic engineering, there are still ethical questions about mosquitos and the future of such technology. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Generation Z, sometimes called Zoomers, have never known a life without social media. They started sharing -or oversharing- their lives in middle school, and now have their own children. And many of them are vowing to never post pictures of their own kids online. Then there are those whose parents jumped on the internet during the rise of mommy bloggers or YouTubers. Their entire lives were published for the entertainment of others, and often for profit.

The race for viral fame and a comfortable living is not the childhood they would have chosen. One young woman tells how, as a child, she was responsible for supporting her family by starring in her parents' videos. She is contemplating cutting off all contact with them when she turns 18. Her story reminds us of Hollywood stage mothers who lived off their child's labor and corrupted their formative years in the pursuit of fame and fortune.

Social media influencers can make a lot of money at the expense of their children, but the ultimate cost can be high. Teen Vogue looks into the lives of children who grew up as internet content, only to regret the permanent archive of their formative years.

Wil Wheaton responded to the article with his own thoughts, because as a child actor, he could see it coming. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: George Norkus)

The oldest continually-operating business in the world is the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan, a hotel in the mountains of Japan. That doesn't mean it hasn't changed. Or changed ownership. And the title itself is open to interpretation. It all depends on how you define your terms. This hotel was once the oldest continually-operated family business in the world, but the current owner is not technically of the same family, but was pretty much adopted into the business, if you aren't hung up on legal terms. Anyway, Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan started out as a place where you paid to camp and bathe in the hot springs, and is now a luxury hotel with all services. However, it is still the same business and it's never closed up shop. It is still pretty low-key and doesn't seek out a lot of publicity for its historic title. Tom Scott had the opportunity to stay at this lovely place and explore its history.

The premise of the HBO series The Last of Us is that a fungus of the parasitic Codyceps genus infects humans and turns them into zombies. Just a few days ago we posted about how we don't need to worry about Cordyceps in real life. But maybe Cordyceps should worry about us.

There are about 750 identified species in the Cordyceps genus, and it only stands to reason that people would eat at least some of them. Some species known as "caterpillar fungus" are grown as crops, although a very difficult crop, in Asia. These mushrooms are used in traditional medicine. Modern mycologists are developing farms to grow the species Cordyceps militaris without having to go through that whole zombie insect phase. They sell Cordyceps in a dried form for a flavor enhancer in soups, salads, and other dishes. Some folks even eat them by themselves! Read about the edible forms of this fungus at Atlas Obscura, where they have recipes for Cordyceps Tea and Miso & Cordyceps Ramen.

If you've ever wondered how the American West got so many lovely and awe-inspiring rock formations, here's an explainer. The western US was a very active place between 25 and 40 million years ago. The Rocky Mountains were formed by plate tectonic activity, and there were a lot of volcanic explosions, the largest of all happening in Colorado. They call this the "Mid-Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up." The Wikipedia entry for this event is so short and full of jargon as to be incomprehensible. A few graphics and a lot of everyday language would make this a lot more clear, and that's what PBS Eons gives us in this video. They describe the biggest volcanic explosions ever from the earth's past and what caused them. But the big surprise is how plants and animals survived this period without a huge extinction event, which they also explain. This story is a couple of minutes shorter than the video length indicates.

Beloved actor Tom Hanks won back-to-back Oscars for Best Actor: for Philadelphia in 1993 and then for Forrest Gump in 1994. He's also won a half-dozen Emmys and a bunch of other awards. Last night, Hanks won his first Golden Raspberry Award, known as the Razzies, which are given to the worst of movies from the previous year. Hanks had nominations for two movies, for Pinocchio in the Worst Actor category and for Elvis in the Worst Supporting Actor category. His win last night was for Worst Supporting Actor for portraying Colonel Tom Parker in the movie Elvis. Hanks won a second Razzie in the category of Worst Screen Couple along with "His Latex-Laden Face (and Ludicrous Accent)." He also had a hand in the winner of the Worst Remake, Ripoff, or Sequel award, which went to Pinocchio.

The Netflix film Blonde won Worst Picture, and Jared Leto won his second Razzie for Morbius. The Razzies also gave themselves an award for the blunder of nominating a 12-year-old actress this year, a nomination they rescinded after the backlash. From now on, all nominations will go to people 18 or older. You can see all the winners of the 2022 Razzie Awards at their website.  -via Uproxx

There seems to have been a few instances in the 18th century of women dressing down, way down, for their wedding. It was said that if a woman went through the wedding ceremony naked, she would be forgiven of her debts. However, "naked" here means that she only wore a shift, smock, or chemise, which was something like a nightgown or undergarment. There are many newspaper accounts of such "naked marriages" throughout the 1700s in England and America. There is one instance of a bridegroom being forgiven of his debt if his bride removed her clothing at the ceremony.

Note that we have little information on how much money was forgiven, if any, by these weddings. Still, if the debt was small, it may have been worth a creditor's forgiveness just to see such a wedding. It did not always go off without a hitch. At one wedding in 1794, three male witnesses were required, so neighbors were recruited. One man was so flabbergasted at the sight of the bride that he was unable to swear his witness, and the debt forgiveness was thrown into doubt.

These newspaper accounts of "naked marriages" are at All Things Georgian. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: The British Museum)

The wildest party I've ever attended was one I threw myself. Residents were evicted from three apartments, and around two dozen guests were arrested. To be fair, I didn't invite anyone; I just underestimated how many friends the guest of honor had. At least no one died. That can't be said about some of the wildest parties in history. How can you top a party in which the dancers caught on fire? That really happened in 1393, and one of the dancers was the king of France. There was also the party where someone dumped four buckets of liquid nitrogen into the pool, sending eight people to the hospital. And 1896 saw a party in which more than a thousand people were trampled to death by a crowd seeking souvenirs. Find out more about five historical party disasters that serve as a warning of what not to do as a host at Cracked.

The YouTube channel Just Rolled In compiles video evidence of eye-popping automotive cases sent in by mechanics from all over. You have to wonder how they ever managed to get the vehicle to the shop. Oh yeah, some had to have been brought in by wrecker, but often we learn they've been driving it that way for weeks. Most of these disasters are caused by the owner trying to do their own repairs when they don't know as much about cars as they think they do. Many are due to people ignoring a small problem with their car until it becomes a big problem. We also see cases of theft and vandalism, a few factory defects, and the delicious instances of drivers not consulting their manuals to find out which button controls what function.

Just Rolled In has a new compilation every few days, and watching them can become addictive. You can let the playlist roll, or check out the "best of" compilations for each quarter and each year. If you want to further explore a particular problem presented, they post a timeline with notes for the clips at each video's YouTube page. -via Metafilter

In the relatively early days of the medical profession, doctors weren't all that trusted and got little respect. That went double for medical students, who were condemned for cutting into dead bodies to study them. We've posted many times about how they got those bodies, from grave robbers, resurrectionists, and body snatchers who stole them from cemeteries. So how did that gruesome supply chain change into what we have now, which is voluntary bequests of earthly remains? The body supply business went through several difference stages as the medical business itself went from shady to crucial. Changing attitudes about death played a role, as well as the breakthrough in organ donation, allowing us to save or improve someone's else's life through own own deaths. And as the article asks, would you want a surgeon carving on you who had never practiced with a real body before? Learn the history of medical school cadavers at The Conversation. -via Geeks Are Sexy

It's only natural to be horrified at the idea of being buried alive. Yet at one time, like flagpole sitting or dance marathons, it was a competition for publicity and bragging rights. The fad reached its peak in the 1960s. Although the stunt was not new, earlier attempts at the record amount of time spent underground were not well documented, so spending the longest time buried was a challenge.

On February 21, 1968, 33-year-old Irish laborer Mike Meaney had himself buried in Kilborn, England. He was trying to go for the record set by Bill White of Texas, who had emerged after being buried for 55 days. But Meaney did not know that White was also being buried again at the same time, trying to top his own record. The stunts therefore became a real-time competition for who could stay buried the longest.

An article at Mental Floss has the details of Meaney's burial, including the particulars of his life-sustaining coffin, the history of the fad of premature burial, and a video of the public celebration when Meaney returned from the grave. -via Strange Company

Cincinnati Animal CARE, the shelter in Cincinnati which also serves as animal control, was called out in late January to get a cat out of a tree. The police probably should have been more specific, so the animal warden could have brought more deputies and more equipment. The 30+ pound cat in the tree was an African serval, and did not want to be captured. The serval had jumped out of a car as police were arresting the driver, and climbed the first tree he saw.

The dog warden eventually managed to get the cat out of the tree, but the serval's leg was broken during the struggle. The serval, named Amiry, was taken to Cincinnati Animal CARE's medical department, where his leg was set. A DNA sample was taken along with a toxicology test, which came back positive for cocaine! The DNA test confirmed that Amiry is indeed a serval, and not a Savannah cat. It is illegal to own a serval in Ohio, while a Savannah cat (which is produced by crossing a serval with a domestic cat) is okay. The serval's owner has been cooperative. He has relinquished ownership of the cat to authorities, and has been paying for Amiry's medical care.

Amiry has since been transferred to the Cincinnati Zoo, where he has been under the supervision of the zoo's medical staff. -via reddit

For the first time, scientists have been able to create a mouse egg cell from a male skin cell. A team led by Katsuhiko Hayashi of Kyushu University in Japan cultivated male mouse skin cells and programmed them to revert to a state resembling a stem cell. They replaced the Y chromosome with a second X chromosome from the same individual, and prompted them to grow into egg cells. With egg cells produced by a male, fertilized by another male, they implanted 600 embryos into female mice, which resulted in seven live pups born with two biological fathers. These mice were healthy, grew normally, and eventually produced offspring of their own.

The process for doing this with human cells is much more complicated, but if it ever succeeds, it could be a boon to people suffering from infertility. The research was prompted by the plight of women with Turner's syndrome, in which one X chromosome is incomplete or missing. Read more about the mice with two fathers at the Guardian. -via Damn Interesting   

(Image credit: Rama)

We thought we had reached peak disaster movie insanity with Sharknado, but we were wrong, because Cocaine Bear is out in theaters now. Never mind that Cocaine Bear was inspired by a true story; that just goes to show that truth is stranger than fiction. But if you want to go one better, how about combining them into a film named Cocaine Shark? Wild Eye Releasing went for it, with a story that involves a drug lord, a science lab, experimental animals, and an explosion. What could possibly go wrong? The answer is a cocaine-fueled mutant shark on the loose, with a beach full of unknowing potential victims. Sadly, Cocaine Shark is not coming soon to a theater near you. At least until someone in Hollywood sees this faux trailer, then all bets are off.  -via Geeks Are Sexy

Next up: Bubblegum from the moon is our only defense against a mutant cocaine shark.

Acclaimed science fiction author Ray Bradbury often recounted an event from his childhood that set him on a lifelong path of writing stories. In 1932, 12-year-old Bradbury saw a magician named Mr. Electrico performing amazing feats of electrical manipulation at a circus sideshow. The showman declared the boy immortal and so impressed Bradbury that he went back for a second performance a couple of days later and met the magician. The experience was so profound for Bradbury that he recounted it over and over after he had achieved fame for his books and short stories. He even made Mr. Electrico a character in his 1962 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes.

But although Bradbury had plenty of details about the encounter with Mr. Electrico, some details tended to change, and didn't quite match up with the historical timeline. Researchers and Bradbury fans have tried to track down Mr. Electrico or the circus he accompanied and came up empty-handed. There were plenty of shows featuring the magic of electricity, which was still fairly new in the early 20th century, but no one has pinned down Bradbury's Mr. Electrico. Read about Bradbury's memories and the search for the real thing at Smithsonian.

(Illustration credit: Meilan Solly)