In 1952, French biologist Alain Bombard set sail all alone in a 15-foot inflatable boat from the Canary Islands. His aim was to sail alone across the Atlantic. That was a crazy idea in itself, but what was even more remarkable was what he didn't take with him. Bombard had no engine, no food, and no fresh water. That was no mistake- Bombard had deliberately equipped himself like a shipwreck survivor to prove a point. 

Bombard had witnessed the toll of shipwrecks as a young doctor, and as he studied marine biology, he became convinced that castaways on the high seas could survive if they had enough knowledge about sea creatures and their nutritional content. It's not the kind of experiment you can round up university students for, so he took it on himself. After practice runs on the Mediterranean, Bombard spent two months alone on the Atlantic ocean, eating raw fish and other creatures and drinking seawater. He was "rescued" once, but after one meal, took to the sea again. He lost more than 55 pounds on his journey. But what about drinking seawater? Isn't its salt content supposed to be deadly? Bombard explained his theory and how drinking seawater worked for him during his 65 days as a castaway in an article at Amusing Planet. 

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was in the USSR when it was the site of the worst nuclear accident in history in 1986. Now it is in Pripyat, Ukraine. No, it wasn't blown across the border; the map changed after the fall of the Soviet Union. Reactor number four melted down and exploded, killing dozens of people from injuries and/or radiation and contaminating a huge area. More than 68,000 people were evacuated, and the area is still under restrictions almost 40 years later. Well, officially; the Russian Army doesn't pay attention to Ukraine's restrictions. 

The Soviet Union couldn't hide the event, but they weren't exactly forthcoming about the evacuation, cleanup attempts, and later expeditions to the site. Lack of information from authorities confused and enraged the former residents of Pripyat and the surrounding villages, as well as the rest of the world. Some people didn't believe the place was a dangerous as they said, while others spread rumors about what the real truth of Chernobyl could be. After Ukraine became an independent nation, more and more of these stories came to light. Weird History takes a look at the fallout (pun intended) of the Chernobyl disaster and its aftermath. Some of those tales include creepy supernatural elements, as if the real story isn't scary enough. 

The Bayeux Museum in France is actually three museums: one dedicated to art and history, one to commemorate the D-Day invasion of 1945 that took place just a few miles away, and one to house the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry museum is closed for two years for renovation and will open again in 2027. So where is the tapestry? In an undisclosed location, being readied for a trip to the UK. 

The British Museum will acquire the tapestry in the summer of 2026 for an exhibition that will run from September 2026 to July 2027, when the Bayeux Musem will reopen and regain the priceless tapestry. But the transfer of the 230-foot-long, nearly thousand-year-old artifact is a matter of great care. One of the stipulations in the contract is that the tapestry "does not experience more than 2 millimetres of vibration per second." That pretty much rules out an airplane flight. It may end up being transported by sedan chair through the Chunnel. Read more about the upcoming trip at ianVisits. -via Nag on the Lake 

Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink in the world. It's sweet, fizzy, a little tart and usually cold. The drink was developed in the 19th century as a medicinal product due to the coca leaves. But that was only half the story- there were also the kola nuts that contributed half the drink's name. Kola nuts have twice the caffeine found in coffee beans. Combine them with cocaine, and you have products like "forced march tablets" that serve as nature's speed. 

The kola nut has an interesting history of its own. Considered sacred in many West African cultures since ancient times, it figured in some of the darker parts of our history. Does Coca-Cola still use kola nuts in their signature drink? No one knows for sure, because unlike cocaine, the kola nut isn't illegal. This TED-Ed video explains the lesser-known side of Coca-Cola's original recipe. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

Several generations have grown up with the Star Wars movies, but that first movie has undergone many changes. It was renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It was re-edited into the Special Edition, with many changes, mostly to add CGI details and make the movie mesh with the later films. What fans lament are the addition of Jabba the Hutt and a reframing of Han's gunfight with Greedo. Since 1997, the Special Edition has been the only version available.  

In 2027, the Star Wars franchise will turn 50 years old. What will Lucasfilm do to mark the occasion? They're going to re-release Star Wars in theaters. No, not the entire series, and not Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but Star Wars, the original theatrical version of the first movie. A painstakingly restored original version will have a limited run in theaters beginning February 17, 2027, including IMAX theaters. Expect theaters full of gray-haired fans and their harder-to-impress grandchildren. 

The February run will begin a year of celebration and hype with the main event to be the release of the new film Star Wars: Starfighter, on May 28, 2027.  -via Fark 

The Pantone Color Institute had announced its annual Color of the Year for 2026, and it's what they call PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer. Most of us would call it white. They explain that this shade of white was selected because it "signifies our desire for a fresh start" and "serves as a symbol of calming influence in a frenetic society rediscovering the value of measured consideration and quiet reflection." I might add, it also shows stains easily. The choice is surprising, considering that three paint companies selected different shades of green as their color of the year for 2026. Pantone has helpfully paired Cloud Dancer with other pastels for your decorating inspiration. 

The backlash started the moment Pantone made the announcement. There can be all kinds of implications in choosing white, but the most basic is that white is not a color. Some call the choice lazy, while others have coined the term "Pantonedeaf." What do you think of their choice? 

Desiree of Tiny Paws & Whiskers animal rescue in California was alerted about a kitten that was trapped in a steel container which held a diesel fuel tank. The container was pretty deep and a small kitten would have never been able to climb out of it on his own. The tank fit inside rather snugly, so it was impossible to reach in and get the kitten. 

She organized an entire team of volunteers for a rescue operation that involved draining the tank and lifting it. That's a lot of men and equipment. But while they worked on the tank, another kitten appeared and was trapped. Moving the tank revealed two kittens had fallen into the container. And while Desiree was taking care of the three kittens, their mother was trapped. And she had more kittens! By the time the operation was finished, Desiree had six new cats to find homes for. At least they are safe. 

The Bermuda Triangle, a huge area roughly bounded by Bermuda, Florida, and Puerto Rico, is said to be a very dangerous place to travel, considering how many shipwrecks, plane crashes, and disappearance occur there. The urban legend has been debunked over and over, as the many mysterious events cited are not statistically more than any area of the ocean with the same amount of traffic. So where did this legend begin? 

Eighty years ago today, on December 5, 1945, five bombers under the mission title Flight 19 took off from Florida on a training mission over the Atlantic, carrying 14 Marines and Navy aviators. The planes were never seen again. Two naval patrol bombers were sent to search for them. Only one came back, and the crew of 13 on the other were never seen again. What happened to Flight 19? The records of that day are now declassified, and we have a detailed minute-by-minute account of failed navigation, failed communication, dwindling fuel, and a lack of the technology we've become accustomed to today. The investigation that followed was subject to corrections and modifications so that the cause of the tragedy officially ended up as "unknown." No wonder conspiracy theories grew up around the incident. Read what we know now about the disappearance of Flight 19 at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Lt. Comdr. Horace Bristol, U.S. Navy photo 80-G-427475) 

The history of Chick-fil-A goes back to Atlanta in 1946. Truett Cathy was searching for the secret of the perfect chicken sandwich, which turned out to be cooking the chicken fillet in a pressure fryer. Then he licensed his method to other restaurants before going into the fast food franchise business. You might recognize this as the story of Harland Sanders, the founder of KFC, except Sanders did it with bone-in chicken. The difference is that Sanders just wanted a faster way to cook chicken, because his fried chicken was already pretty good. Anyway, that was just the beginning of Chick-fil-A, which spread across the South and then went nationwide. Today Chick-fil-A is known across the US as the chicken outlet that advertises with cows and is never open on Sunday. Tom Blank of Weird History Food goes through the history of Chick-fil-A, including the controversies that land the chain in the news every now and then.  

(Image credit: maisonsmd) 

A world built for humans must look so big to a tiny kitten. It's no wonder they want to explore every nook and cranny. That will keep them busy for weeks! But meanwhile, you have to tread lightly, because it's easy to miss such a small creature on the floor. Or if the kitten finds a nice cozy place to hide, you may be looking for quite some time before you find them. And you'd better check before you plop down on that bean bag or bed, because the cat may have already staked out her territory! The reddit post for the cat above features a second, closeup image of the kitten in case you can't see her well enough. 

(Image credit: Colar) 

Sure, you can get the kitten her own bed, but it still might be awful big for such a smol cat. Ah, she'll grow into it. Bored Panda gleaned their favorite such images from the subreddit Tinycatsinbigspaces and posted them in a reader-ranked list of 50 pictures to make you go "squee!" 

Cookie Monster baked a triple berry pie, but it's all gone! Who could have helped themselves and left none for the monster himself? Oscar the Grouch baked a garbage pie, but for some reason, no one ate his. It's a mystery that none other than the world's greatest detective, Benoit Blanc, can solve. It's only a matter of observaation and deduction, which are beyond a Muppet's abilities, having felt for brains. 

'Forks Out': A Benoit Blanc Sesame Street Mystery is a Muppet take on Rian Johnson's Knives Out murder mystery movie series featuring Daniel Craig as investigator Benoit Blanc. You can see Craig's reaction to this parody here (spoiler- he got a kick out of it). Sure, it's an ad for Netflix, which is now a distributor of Sesame Street and the owner of exclusive rights to two of the Knives Out movies. But it's the Muppets, so you know it's funny. -via Metafilter 

An awful lot of underground shenanigans went on during World War II that were only discovered years later. Those who defied Nazi occupation knew that secrecy was a matter of survival, and after the war many just wanted to forget. Dr. Eugene Lazowski worked in Rozwadow, Poland, under German occupation. He lived near the Jewish ghetto, and he knew that he could only help its inhabitants in secret. But he treated children under the cover of darkness and smuggled medicine and supplies into the ghetto when he could. The Nazis were gradually taking the Jewish population away, and conscripting the non-Jewish residents of Rozwadow for labor. 

Lazowski's later fame came from the time he, along with his friend Dr. Stanisław Matulewicz, engineered a fake typhus epidemic in Rozwadow. As more and more people in Rozwadow and the surrounding villages had to be quarantined for typhus, the occupying Nazis tried to keep their distance. Deportations ceased, and roundups for labor stopped. After the war, the story got out that there had been no typhus at all, although with confusing and incorrect details. Lazowski emigrated to the US and only wrote his version of events in 1993. Read the true story of how the doctors created a fake typhus epidemic in Rozwadow at Utterly Interesting. 

The comic strip Peanuts debuted 75 years ago, and we are all familiar with its many TV specials and movies -and merchanidise, of course. We all know the Peanuts gang and we all have our favorite characters. The core group of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, and Snoopy are augmented by a group of children and animals (but no adults) who each had their own unique personalities and roles within the group. 

This video is set up to rank seven (actually eight) of these characters from "criminally overlooked" to "global icon," but we know how such rankings can rankle. It's better to look at it as an explanation of their personalities, and how each one plays a role in providing someone we can relate to, or maybe even aspire to. That said, I am disappointed by the absence of Pigpen. Not that I related to him, but I always liked the character. -via Laughing Squid 

Christmas is a totally secular holiday in Japan, and the symbol of the Christmas tree has become a medium for some spectacular public art installations. Spoon & Tamago have selected their favorite Christmas trees of 2025 from Tokyo and Osaka. There are five of them, and some stretch the definition of "tree," although the conical shape is unmistakable. 

The tree shown above was designed by Takahiro Matsuo of the art studio LUCENT, and is on display at Omotesando Hills in Tokyo. It contains a thousand prisms to reflect and multiply light. The ring near the top is Matsuo’s invention called Kinetic Light Vision (KLV), which produces the mid-air points of light you see surrounding the tree. And those lights dance. You can see a video of the device in action at the link, as well as four other spectacular Christmas tree art installations. If that's not enough, there are links at the bottom for the best Christmas trees from previous years. -via Everlasting Blort 

The movie Kill Bill: Volume 1 came out in 2003, and Kill Bill: Volume 2 followed in 2004 to complete the story. And now this Friday, both return to theaters together in a four hour and 35 minute marathon called Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. 

Both the earlier movies were box office hits and became martial arts classics. But it's been a long time, and if you are young, your parents didn't let you see these movies in a theater the first time around. Is it worth sitting that long to see both volumes on the big screen? Kill Bill is the saga of a woman done wrong who furiously gets her revenge. It has plenty of over-the-top violence and the many quirks that brand it as a Quentin Tarantino flick, which becomes obvious in this Honest Trailer. The Whole Bloody Affair will also feature a new anime sequence, and there's an intermission between the two parts, so you can stretch your legs and relieve your bladder.