Zaouli is an astonishingly difficult traditional dance in which the dancer doesn't repeat steps, and in an unexpected twist, the drums follow the dancer. Notice that the dancer's top half is static, while his bottom half is moving furiously, creating the effect of floating in the air. In the Guro communities of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), each village has a Zaouli dancer who performs every few days. The tradition is not as old as you might think, having been codified in the 1950s. The dance incorporates older traditions into one performance.  

Zaouli dancers are men, but wear a mask of a beautiful woman, inspired by Djela lou Zaouli (Zaouli, the daughter of Djela). Seven types of masks are used, each representing a different legend. Zaouli was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017. -via Twisted Sifter

Author Ernest Hemingway was renowned for living life to its fullest, even though that sometimes meant running over other people or nature itself. He had a great appetite for adventure, women, and food. Although Hemingway no doubt went through privations at certain times in his life, he always wanted to enjoy food at its best, and wouldn't think twice about telling a fine restaurant exactly how to prepare his meals. Making a hamburger the Hemingway way must have taken quite some time, but the recipe sounds delicious to me. So does the recipe for campsite corn cakes, despite the need to take a food processor, griddle, two bowls, and half a pantry of ingredients along on the camping trip. He liked roughing it without roughing it too much. But Hemingway would also try foods you and I would never consider, like raw lion meat.

And then there's the Hemingway Daiquiri, born at Havana’s El Floridita bar when Hemingway thought daiquiris needed more alcohol. You'll find the recipes for all these dishes, plus Bacon-Wrapped Trout in an article at Flashbak. -via Nag on the Lake

The title of this video is "When you want to dance but only have 2 points of articulation." The taller dancer is a Knights of a Slice action figure, with joints that were made for dancing. The little guy, not so much. The great thing about this stop-motion animation is how the larger figure isn't making fun of the Playmobil guy, but instead is encouraging him to dance in the way that he can. Adorable. -via reddit

There have been a lot of kings, queens, earls, dukes, etc. in British history, and most have died of illness or other natural causes. But being in power also means a somewhat enhanced risk of dying by murder or by war. In a list of the strangest royal deaths in Britain, the first in chronological order stands out, whether it's technically true or not. Viking Sigurd Eysteinsson was the Earl of Orkney in the 9th century. He battled the Picts, led by the Earl of Moray who was named Máel Brigte the Bucktoothed. You can just imagine what he looked like.

Having challenged the Pictish earl to a battle where each side could have 40 men, Sigurd reneged on the deal and brought 80. Inevitably, Máel Brigte and his army were defeated and suffered the ignominy of having their heads cut off and tied to the Vikings’ saddles. But Máel Brigte and his enormous teeth would have their revenge: As his severed head bounced around on the horse, his teeth scraped  Sigurd’s leg. Infection set in, and the Viking ruler was dead before he made it back to Orkney.

Yes, he was bitten by a dead man. That's only the first of ten royal deaths that are worth reading about at Mental Floss.

For most of us, our image of a European castle in medieval times comes to us from TV and movies. Some who travel take tours of medieval castles and are astonished at their durability (or else they wouldn't still be there), their size, and their emptiness. But if you lived there, it would be quite different. YouTuber Tod's Workshop shows us Dover Castle and its reconstructed interior, as it was in medieval times, with the furniture and accessories found in such fortified homes where people actually lived hundreds of years ago. Since those people were quite wealthy, they tended to have the best furnishings and decorations that were available at the time. Their belongings were brightly-colored to impress anyone who came inside, and even more so to compensate for the less-than-adequate lighting before light bulbs. It isn't what we think of from the movies; it's even more interesting. -via Metafilter

Sure, Sir Isaac Newton was quite a scientist, what with inventing calculus and discovering gravity and all, but he was also a devout Christian. And an alchemist. In Newton's day, the lines between those disciplines weren't so clearly drawn. Newton studied the Bible diligently, and wrote theological treatises on prophesy. He did a deep dive into the book of Daniel for clues on the end times, and calculated that the world would end in 2060 -or sometimes thereabouts. Here's an excerpt from a 1704 letter on the subject.

So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half, recconing twelve months to a yeare & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year. And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived [sic] kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner.

His later studies gave a wider latitude to the date. Of course, scientists consider this all hogwash. The Bible does, too. Read about Newton's calculations for the end of the world and the notes he left behind at Open Culture. -via Damn Interesting

As they do every year, Game On! Minnesota waits until the end of the high school hockey season to announce the best head of hair on the players of Minnesota. These young athletes spend all year selecting their style, growing their locks, and getting their one second on TV just right, hoping to make the Minnesota State High School All Hockey Hair Team. That moment has arrived, and the competition this year is referred to as "Flowchella." The title of this video ended with "presented by Duke Cannon," and I thought we were going to find out the name of the guy who does this every year. But no, that's just the sponsor. Anyway, if you're new to this, you don't have to know anything about hockey at all to enjoy this championship. And you'll learn a few things about Minnesota. -via Metafilter

See the all-hockey hair teams from previous years.

The manufacture of organic, eco-friendly, biodegradable products is not strictly a modern-day idea. Henry Ford himself looked into the possibilities of replacing steel with an agriculturally-derived plastic made of soybeans, hemp, wheat, and other crops. His purpose was not environmental sustainability, though. A car made of plant-based plastic would be cheaper than steel, would reduce the weight of a car to increase fuel efficiency, and what his engineers came up with was surprisingly tough.

Ford's prototype plastic car was unveiled in 1941. It had a tubular steel frame that acted as roll bars, was covered in tough and resilient plant-based plastic, and ran on fuel made from hemp. Ford was eager to get the car off the ground as he suspected the availability of steel would be an issue due to World War II. He was right about that, but it turned out to be impossible to manufacture an alternative car when the government forbade all automobile production and shifted manufacturing to military vehicles and weapons. By the time the war ended, Ford was in ailing health and soon retired. Interest in the plastic car faded.

Recent coverage of Ford's plastic car mainly focuses on the hemp aspect, but he had quite a few agricultural products in mind. However, the exact formula for the plastic no longer exists. There are several ideas for what it might have contained, but no one knows for sure. Read about the plant-based plastic car that might have been at Amusing Planet.

(Image credit: Flickr user John Lloyd)

Boba Fett had a thankless job as a Tatooine crime lord who only wanted to do the right thing, sort of. What he really wants is to relive the joys of the second best day of his life. Specifically, that day he and the Sand People heard an ice cream truck out in the desert. You know what they say, money can't buy happiness, but it can buy ice cream, and that's kind of the same.   

Auralnauts continues to be the premiere producer of Star Wars parodies because they see the most ridiculous possibilities in the galaxy far, far away while still refusing to denigrate the actual source material. The result is just plain fun. -via Laughing Squid

The super viral game Wordle is a lot of fun, but you can only play once a day. Lucky for us, there are plenty of clones and variations you can try while waiting for the new Wordle. Try some, and pick out your favorites to bookmark. If you happen to be a geography nerd like me, you might enjoy these daily puzzles that challenge your knowledge of the world.    

Worldle gives you the shape of the nation, so if you recognize it, you're done in one. If you guess wrong, it will tell you how many kilometers away the right country is. Drawbacks: It only gives you six guesses. It has only one puzzle per day. And it includes territories that you may not have heard of.

Globle gives you a world globe to work with. A guess will tell you whether you are anywhere near the answer by color, but not by direction or exact distance. You won't get any other clues, so it's a matter of triangulation. If there is a limit on guesses, I haven't found it yet. Drawbacks: There is only one puzzle a day. I eventually knew where to go, but had to pull up a map in another window to name countries (which might help with Worldle, too).

 -via Metafilter

A surprising number of mammal species have a penis bone, or baculum, a bone that doesn't attach to the rest of the skeleton. Many primates have a baculum, even apes, but not humans. There are many reasons that a baculum would be beneficial, all having to do with mating and reproduction, which explains why ancient species developed one and passed it along to the mammals who use it today. Since our near-relatives still have a baculum, it follows that humans must have discarded it somewhere along the evolutionary line. But why?

Scientists still don't know the definitive answer, but the general theory is that we no longer needed it. Men of today would argue about that, considering how much money is spent to fight erectile dysfunction. The latest hypothesis is more about the behavior of women, specifically monogamy, or at least relatively temporary monogamy. Read about the baculum and why humans don't have one at Inverse. -via Damn Interesting

Go.Adventure Arenal Park in La Fortuna, Costa Rica, offers zip-lining through the rainforest to tourists. Sunday was an adventure that no one foresaw. A young boy was the last of eight tourists to go down the line, with park owner and guide Flavio Leiton Ramos following him closely with a camera. Ramos tells him not to use the brakes, but the kid did, and rightly so, when he bumped into a sloth! How did a sloth get onto the zip-line? The other riders did not see it, and it would be quite a leap from the nearest tree branches. In any case, the sloth didn't zip away- he took his own sweet time, as sloths do, to climb down the line on his own. They had to wait about 15 minutes for the zip-line to be cleared before Ramos and the child could continue. A good time was had by all. -via Boing Boing

We are used to the spectacle of women's bodies being objectified in beauty pageants, but they are held for men, too. The Mister Global pageant is held annually in Thailand, and after a two-year pandemic hiatus, the 2022 Mister Global pageant was held yesterday. The most interesting part of the competition is the parade of national costumes, which are supposed to represent a contestant's home country while making him look as good as possible. The contestant from Vietnam is shown at the top; and Spain is below.

And then there's the USA.   



The new Mister Global is Miguel Ángel Lucas Carrasco from Spain. See all the national costumes in a gallery at Buzzfeed. Or you can watch the parade from the pageant in this video. -via Metafilter

(All photos credit: David Ryo via Mister Global at Facebook)

In case you didn't know, the same company that makes Michelin tires is the company that rates restaurants with Michelin stars. How this came about is a rather interesting story. Adam Ragusea explains the history of the French company, which was once so all-encompassing that it had its hand in everything to do with travel. When that hand withdrew from many of those interests, two very different namesakes remained. That's why the tire company also rates the finest restaurants in the world. -via Digg

In every film production, a lot more was filmed than ever makes it into the final production. A lot of that editing is for time, some for pacing, and some to make a simpler narrative. Often, all three are involved in what gets dropped. Picking and choosing what is discarded and what is kept shapes the film in ways the writers and actors, and even the directors don't see coming. It is only long afterward that we might see how the inclusion of some deleted scenes might have changed the plot. Some deleted scenes could have changed the entire universe of that story, including sequels. If we had known Pepper Potts was pregnant during Captain America: Civil War, would it have changed everything? Well, no, actually, as she eventually married Tony Stark and they had a child anyway. But it would have shifted the story chronologically. Another deleted scene could have changed quite a few movies.

If Palpatine were considered to be Anakin's father, then Kylo Ren would have been his direct descendant, a great grandson. That would have made the entire "Rey is my granddaughter" plot line unnecessary (which it was anyway) in The Rise of Skywalker. After all, "manipulating the Force" was how Palpatine got a clone son anyway. Plus, that would have made Rey and Ren cousins. Ew. Read of 13 more deleted scenes and how they would have changed movies (or TV series) at Cracked.