Last month we saw Tuco Salamanca from Breaking Bad rushing through the dalgona candy game in Squid Game. The guy responsible for that, YouTuber Alternative Cuts (previously at Neatorama) hinted that he was working on another Breaking Bad/Squid Game mashup involving the red light, green light game. More than a month later, it's here and just as remarkable as you'd expect. Walter White is participating in the game, and displays just the right amount of horror when the truth sinks in. Jesse is in the crowd, too, as well as most of the characters from Breaking Bad, drug dealers or not. You have to admire the way they all fit in so well, but then again, the Squid Game scene is shock, gunfire, and death, and there was plenty of that in Breaking Bad. Besides, we know that Alternative Cuts has every scene from every episode of Breaking Bad memorized. He lives for this sort of thing. -via Laughing Squid

You may have seen advertisements already for the Presidents Day sale at your local car dealer or furniture store. It says Presidents Day on your calendar- right there on February 17th (although it might say President's Day or Presidents' Day). The truth is that there's no such federal holiday. We learned in grade school that George Washington was born on February 22nd and Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12th, and we marked both birthdays in class. But Washington's Birthday has been a federal holiday since 1879. It was moved from February 22nd to the third Monday in February in 1970, and people started calling it Presidents Day under the assumption that it was a combined holiday for Washington and Lincoln. But Lincoln's birthday was never a federal holiday, and what we call Presidents Day is still officially named Washington's Birthday by the federal government.

However, quite a few states recognize the holiday as Presidents Day, and celebrate George Washington, or Washington and Lincoln, or any combination of US presidents they please. The same with local governments, calendar makers, and stores. Read more about the confusion over Presidents Day (and its punctuation) at Mental Floss.

If someone were to ask you when Frank Sinatra sang "New York, New York," you might guess sometime in the 1950s or '60s. The song was Sinatra's signature song, and is synonymous with the city. Mayor Ed Koch declared it the city's unofficial theme song in 1985. The song invited tourists back to New York City after 9/11. It's played at every Yankees home game. You know the song.

The truth is that Sinatra didn't release his version of the song until 1980! The song, actually titled "Theme from New York, New York" was written for a 1977 Martin Scorsese movie that bombed at the box office. Liza Minelli sang it in the film, and her soundtrack version reached #105 on the music charts. Once "Uncle Frank" did the song, Minelli's record was quickly forgotten. Read how a song from a failed movie became the anthem of the Big Apple at Smithsonian. 

A lot of horror films deal with the end of humanity, by war, natural disasters, disease, aliens, or supernatural beings. But what if it happened without gore, panic, heroics, or any action at all? What if we slow-walked into our own destruction so gradually that we just accepted it? What if, instead of fighting for our last chance, we sympathized with our destroyers? Somehow, that scenario is even more terrifying than a violent apocalypse, because there's the possibility that we may already be doing that slow walk in real life.

The short film Quiet Apocalypse by Brazilian horror fan insolitum picks a scenario for the end of things that is a cosmic horror for both the predators and the victims. But even if all these deaths came from some other source, the misery that opens the door for the acceptance of doom is more dreadful than the deaths themselves. He got that idea across in less than two minutes, and now I may have trouble sleeping. -via The Awesomer

In 1944, Germany and other Nazi-occupied territories suffered greatly from new and powerful Allied bombers. They brainstormed for a defense against such bombing attacks, and one project had the benefit of not requiring highly trained pilots. That's because they did not need to take off or land their aircraft, the Bachem Ba 349 Natter. The plane would be launched vertically on its rocket engine, much like later space flights. The plane was made mostly of wood, and wasn't expected to survive a mission. After the pilot launched missiles at the Allied bombers, the pilot would eject and he and the rocket engine would separately parachute to the ground.

Did it work? Not at first, because production was rushed. Not at second, either, because failed tests slowed down development. And then the war was over. But the Bachem Ba 349 Natter proved that vertical aircraft takeoff was possible, so the research that went into this seemingly hare-brained idea wasn't a complete waste. Read about the Bachem Ba 349 Natter at Amusing Planet.

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

There are a lot of islands in the Atlantic Ocean around New York City and many are a part of the city. You know about Ellis Island, and Rikers Island, and Hart Island is known as the city's Potter's Field. There's also North Brother Island, which is notorious for several reasons. Its history is filled with misery, calamity, disease, and crime. Is North Brother Island cursed? Or could it be haunted? At any rate, no one lives there now, and it is considered abandoned. Finding a purpose for the island is difficult considering how close it is to the penal colony of Rikers Island. A wildlife refuge seems to be the best use for a place that no one really wants to occupy, and nature is working to reclaim what humans have done to it. Weird History takes us through some of the more notable eras, events, and personalities of North Brother Island. We'll also learn some facts about South Brother Island and Rikers Island as well.

You know the lives of celebrities. You know when their movies came out, when they peaked in the music business, or when they served in office. But do you remember what year they died? That's a tough one, even for history buffs. When I played my first game of When They Died, I could recall learning about each celebrity's death, but I couldn't place the year. I was close but missed the mark for each of them.

For each famous person presented, you move a slider to guess what year they died. They all died between 1950 and today, and there are five people in each game. A perfect guess will get you 1000 points, and getting within 15 years will give you some points. I ended up with 3732 in my first game, and unlocked a few "achievements" at the end. One of them was called Speed Demon, because I gave answers in a hurry so I could decide whether this game was worth sharing. Try it yourself, and let me know if I was right.  -via Nag on the Lake

Do you recall the story of The Ugly Duckling? Or the cartoon character Baby Huey? The story of Peawee reminds me of both. Peawee started out as an abandoned peafowl egg, which the farm family snuck into Susan's nest. Susan is a regular hen, and she's kind of a bird brain, but she has a motherly instinct that just won't quit. Susan fiercely protected the odd-looking youngster she hatched, and did her motherly duty in teaching Peawee how to be a chicken. The chick grew quickly and was soon much bigger than Susan. Peawee learned to be a typical chicken except for her size and the fact that she is very attached to her mother at an age when most chicks have moved out on their own. Susan doesn't mind, though, as she is quite attached to her giant baby, too.

You can see more of Susan and Peawee at Instagram. Adaurie Stemshorn wrote a children's book about Peawee that will eventually be available.

You understood the assignment 🤝 pic.twitter.com/DTU7BTbm5t

— Cinemark Theatres (@Cinemark) February 5, 2025

In order to get people back in the habit of going to movie theaters, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO, no kidding) has several promotions planned for 2025. The first was Bring Your Own Bucket Day, meaning popcorn bucket. You could fill your own container with popcorn for just $5, as long as the container would fit through the theater door and would not block anyone from seeing the movie. It was a win-win promotion, since you could fill a bathtub with movie popcorn and that $5 would still be almost all profit.

People showed up with an outrageous range of containers. Several people came into Cinemark theaters with stock pots or actual five-gallon buckets. A backpack or a pair of jeans will hold a lot of popcorn, but do you really want to eat out of them? One guy wheeled in a piece of furniture- a nightstand, to hold a movie's worth of popcorn. Read about Bring Your Own Bucket Day and see the clever containers people brought in at Foodbeast.

Over the past year or so, you may have encountered a video on social media about a strangely accurate apartment that was sized for dogs, but also became smaller for cats, and then increasingly smaller for other animals. I saw it with no narration and no attribution, but now I know who did this. This mini-home is by YouTuber Xing's World, or more specifically, Xing Zhilei, an engineer in Zhongyuan, China. He loves building things, and he made a miniature home as a playhouse for his young children. Then he took things a step further and built one for the family's various pets. You have to be impressed with the architecture, the furnishings, and the appliances -some that work! But more than anything, I had to wonder how he took us on a tour into smaller and smaller spaces. Not too long ago, Xing posted a behind-the scenes look at how he built this unique world.

You can see more videos of Xing's miniatures at YouTube. -via Boing Boing

In 1924, Charles Minear and his family recovered a lead cross from a layer of caliche that had been exposed by mining. The cross turned out to be two crosses stuck together, and when they were separated, there was a Latin inscription inside! Manier and his friend Thomas Bent returned to the site ready to dig for more artifacts. Together, they found eight crosses, nine swords, 13 spears, one fan, and one tablet, all but the tablet made of lead and containing more Latin inscriptions and some in Hebrew. The men were convinced that this was proof of a Roman settlement in the US long before Columbus. The inscriptions led them to believe this would have been between 775 and 900 AD.

But there were some fishy things about the discovery. The artifacts were recovered in an evenly-spread area, and from different depths in the caliche. No other artifacts were recovered from the site, no pottery, no trash, no evidence of architecture. The dates assigned to the artifacts came from the Latin inscriptions, which were surprisingly helpful, written as if the items they graced were manufactured as souvenirs. And the lead alloy they were made of was suspiciously modern. But the real kicker is the sword with a carving of a brontosaurus on it! The Tucson artifacts are generally regarded as a hoax these days, but no one has ever owned up to it. Read the story of the medieval artifacts found in Tucson, Arizona, at Archaeology Review. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Erin, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

An argonaut is also known as a paper nautilus. It's a cephalopod, but it's not a nautilus. Nor is it a squid or cuttlefish, but it has a shell. Argonauts are octopuses with shells. And in case you are wondering, the genus Argonauta was named after crew of the mythical Greek ship. Aristotle, Jules Verne, and others have written about these creatures using their shells like a boat to sail across the sea and their tentacles as sails to catch the wind. That's a myth, but the truth about argonauts is even weirder.

The shells they make are not related at all to other cephalopod shells. The argonauts paper-like shells were developed independently after shell-less cephalopods evolved. But are these shells egg cases, helmets, or flotation devices? The argonauts scoop air into them to make themselves buoyant, which lends some credence to Aristotle's assertions, just with different anatomy. So far, the argonauts are strange even among octopuses, but wait until you hear about their bizarre sex lives. The video is less than ten minutes long, the last part is an ad. -via Laughing Squid

If any storytelling device works in the Star Wars universe, you know it will come up again. The Death Star from 1977 was rebuilt in 1983 for Return of the Jedi. Then it came back again in 2015 for The Force Awakens. But a concept that appears even more often is the missing planet. Planets don't really go missing, but the maps that guide us to them tend to fail a lot in Star Wars. Obi-Wan found Kamino missing from the archives in Attack of the Clones. No one knew where Luke Skywalker was in The Force Awakens because a piece of the galactic map was missing. Missing mystery maps came up again in The Rise of Skywalker, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew.    

But while Star Wars fans sigh and lament that the same plot device gets used too often, astronomers here on earth tell us that it happens all the time. Maps have gaps, and planets go missing frequently. How does that happen? In Star Wars, it's often deliberate, when someone does not want to be found. Find out why it happens in real life from those who try to map the stars, at Inverse.

It's always interesting to find out what the rest of the world thinks of your culture. Laurence Brown has been pointing out the differences between Britain, where he grew up, and his adopted country, the USA, in his Lost in the Pond series. Over the years, as Brown has settled in and become an American citizen, his video subjects have become less British and more centered on America. In this video, he focuses on the things that make Americans stand out. We tend to be friendlier than most folks, believe it or not. We'll wave to strangers, greet strangers, and even hold a conversation with strangers. We smile at strangers, too, or maybe we're just showing off our teeth. Anyway, this gregariousness makes people from other countries wonder whether we are trying to take advantage of them or we're just nuts. There are other ways Americans are different that he'll point out for us. The video also features several sequences of Laurence doing his American accent while dressed as a Canadian. Or maybe he's going for an upper-Midwestern look. Be on the alert for a 70-second ad at 3:12.

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Egypt with his army and a contingent of scholars who wrote about the magnificent monuments they visited. That began a global fascination with the pyramids of ancient Egypt. As the 19th century progressed, more and more tourists made it a point to climb the Great Pyramid of Giza while in Egypt. Some of those pyramid climbers included Mark Twain, Amelia Edwards, and Arthur Conan Doyle, all of whom wrote about their experience. It wasn't an easy climb- 479 feet, or 146 meters over large stones- but it was a once-in-a-lifetime achievement they could brag about for years. Some folks even carved their names in the stones, and the Egyptians didn't mind. Or more accurately, they looked the other way because of the tourism dollars. But eventually they came to see what damage all those tourists were doing to their ancient monuments, and the practice of climbing the pyramids was prohibited in 1930. Some folks got away with it even after that, but today the thought of damaging these ancient structures just for a thrill is horrifying to us. Read about the tourists who climbed the pyramids and see plenty of pictures at Danny Dutch.

(Im age credit: Maison Bonfils)