We all know that being overweight is bad for our health, but Kurzgesagt tells us why in detail down to the molecular level. And it's not just one thing, but an entire constellation of effects that excess fat can have on us. Carrying more weight than is healthy will screw up every organ in your body sooner or later. If you think of a hundred ways to die, 95 of them are liable to be due to excess fat. It's pretty scary, especially right after you've splurged on a fast food meal. However, it's better to understand what's going on than to just suffer and die in ignorance, even while eating cheesecake. 

The horror is somewhat assuaged by the googly eyes on our cells and organs when they are under stress, and by the forces of evolution that are illustrated by opossums. This video is only 9:12; the rest is an ad. 

Libraries are, traditionally, zones throbbing with romance and sensual passions. If the fires of eros burn within you, head to your local public library.*

Fittingly, seven couples at branches of the Anne Arundel County Public Library system in Maryland married each other on Valentine's Day. WBALTV 11 News says that the library system began hosting weddings last year.

There was a mass event at three different branches of that library system on Saturday. You can see photos of the happy couples and library staff on Instagram.

-via reddit

*My wife and I met at my library and I proposed to her at her library.

The Petosky District Library, a public library system in Petosky, Michigan, is taking advantage of winter weather to make a temporary Little Free Library.

The books are, appropriately, in zip-lock bags to protect them from moisture and, presumably, freezer burn.

Valentine's Day weekend was also a carnival cosplay party at the winter version of Québec Comiccon at the Québec City Convention Centre. Plenty of  Canadian cosplayers braved the cold to meet up and have their pictures taken. Love was in the air, too, as a duo of blinged-out Lady Deadpools stole the show. 

You can't be too cold when you're covered in pounds and pounds of rhinestones! You can get a closer look at Anne-Ma in her glittery gold glory in a video at Instagram. There were also a good number of group cosplayers arriving together or else getting together, like the cast of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the top, and a contingent of bad guys from the Empire below. 

As you can see, a good time was had by all. See dozens of the best costumes from the con in a gallery at Geeks Are Sexy. Click on any photo to bring up the full size version.  

When a women's style site gets a chance to interview the first woman to cross Antarctica solo, of course they are going to ask her about her skin care routine. British explorer Felicity Aston completed her record-setting ski excursion in 2012, and now lives on an Icelandic island near the Arctic Circle. As a scientist who leads polar expeditions, Aston doesn't rely on her looks, but she does know a thing or two about protecting herself from the elements. 

On many Antarctic expeditions, Aston was the only woman among many men. They were astonished to see how much moisturizer she slathered on her face at night. They kept their socks on for warmth, while Aston inspected her feet every night. And she uses a lot of sunscreen. When they returned, her skin was fine while the men looked "like they’ve been dipped in a vat of acid." And she names the products she uses. Oh yeah, she also talks about her motivations and the experience of being alone in Antarctica in an interview at A Cup of Jo. -via kottke 

(Image credit: Felicity Aston) 

Sabin, Minnesota outside of Fargo is a sleepy town of 619 people in the heart of wheat country. By the railroad tracks is an old grain elevator. What's inside is unexpected: a luxurious 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom home. It's for sale.

The Regency romance novels of Jane Austin defined an entire literary genre. They lend themselves well to cinema, with lush historical settings and the strictly-defined etiquette of the upper crust. We call these movies period dramas. Sketch comedy writers Julia Aks and Steve Pinder saw a pun in the term, and went to great lengths with it, turning a period drama into a comedy of errors.  

Mr. James Dickley is about to propose marriage to Miss Estrogenia Talbot when she unexpectedly starts her menstrual period. The clueless Dickley assumes she has been injured, and escalates the situation to a ridiculous degree. That's all you need to know, except that the incursion of a woman's unspoken biology into Dickley's genteel world is really funny, and the short Jane Austin's Period Drama is up for the Oscar for Live Action Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards. If you want to know more after watching it, Wikipedia has you covered. 

The International Olympic Committee provides free condoms to athletes staying in the Olympic Village. This has been going on for decades, but apparently they didn't plan for enough at the Milano-Cortina games. The initial shipment of 10,000 condoms ran out in the first three days of the 17-day event! Yes, 10,000 condoms seems to be very few when compared to the Summer Games, but there are only 2,800 athletes competing. Still, the ratio is eye-opening. This year, 47% of the athletes are women, which means they've gone through more than two condoms every day for each penis. 

However, these are Olympic-branded condoms, so you can bet that many from that first shipment were stashed with souvenirs to take home and show off, sell, or give away. Some, no doubt, were inflated for fun. But we also know that young, extremely healthy athletes on the most important trip of their lives will need more condoms to get through to the closing ceremonies. Read about the condom kerfluffle at Forbes in an article that tries to squeeze in as many puns and double entendres as possible. -via Metafilter 

On August 6th, 1945, the US military dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and killed 70,000 people. Another 70,000 would die later from injuries and radiation within a few weeks. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The Japanese, not knowing how many bombs the US had (which was two), surrendered and ended World War II.     

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima when the first bomb detonated. He was severely injured, but managed to get back to his home in Nagasaki and go to his job just in time for the second bomb to be dropped. What are the odds? Weird History tells the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both bombs and became a staunch advocate for nuclear disarmament later in life. There's a skippable promotional break from 2:03 to 3:13. 

Speaking of the odds, back in 2012, Neatorama published an article about the approximately 165 people who fled Hiroshima after the bombing and went to Nagasaki for safety. Read about these nijyuu hibakusha, or "double bomb-affected people" in The Unluckiest Train Ride. 

The Winter Games of the Olympics began as a separate event in 1924, to showcase sports that depend on snow and ice. In that century, some nations rose far above others in medal counts. To guess who's the champ in that department, Americans of a certain age might name the US and Russia, but that's Cold War thinking, as that rivalry has always been highlighted. You would eliminate tropical nations, since winter sports are not really a thing for them. Alpine and Scandinavian nations do really well, but many of them have relatively small populations. Brilliant Maps crunched the numbers and presents a list of the top 14 medal-winning nations, because there are 14 who have taken home more than 100 Winter Olympics medals. 

But if you are guessing, you have to take history into account and consider the definition of "nation." The list not only ranks these nations, but explains why the count is as high or as low as it is. There's even more detail in an accompanying video. -via Nag on the Lake 

CrackerMilk is a sketch comedy troupe in Brisbane, Australia. In this video, a police officer encounters mimes engaging in increasingly disturbing criminal behavior. The mean streets of Brisbane are tragically unsafe due to these monsters in face paint.

This is not surprising. Mimes are properly despised and tormented in any morally self-governing society.

Content warning: foul language.

In 1943, William McArthur of Sydney, Australia, patented an eating utensil that combined a fork, spoon, and knife all in one unit. It has a scoop like a spoon (although it's usually not round), tines on the end, and the side edges are straight so they can be used like a butter knife. This is the splayd, named as a portmanteau of spoon and blade. "Spknork" is offered as an alternative name, but who can pronounce that? The splayd became quite popular in Australia as permanent utensils used in the home. They were handy for cookouts and parties, because you could hold a plate in one hand and all your utensils in the other. A nice set of splayds even became a common wedding gift. Splayds are not that popular anymore, even in Australia, but since they were made of metal, many folks still have them in a drawer somewhere. 

Foil Arms and Hog, or in this case, just Foil and Hog, have differing opinions on the traditions of Valentine's Day. How do you make the simple act of giving a greeting card to someone super creepy? Is a homemade card better or worse than a store-bought card? A homemade card shows that you put thought and effort into it, but it may also signal that's you're too cheap to buy one. How about an original poem? That's so childish! Or is Foil just being a party-pooper? 

Whether a Valentine is creepy or not comes down to who you give it to. Between people who have a relationship, it's not only sweet, but often expected. On the other hand, getting a homemade card with a poem from a complete stranger can set off alarm bells. This skit works because Foil doesn't know what kind of relationship Hog may have been building with Megan that went underneath his radar.

Almost everyone carries an X chromosome from their mothers, and either an X or Y from their fathers. The Y is the odd man out among our 46 chromosomes, carrying only 51 protein-coding genes compared to thousands in other chromosomes. But those genes are important in developing male attributes, from the womb to puberty to fatherhood. However, when men get older, they tend to lose the Y from some of their cells. Since the Y has already done its job and has so few genes, this hasn't seemed to be a problem. But that may change due to more recent research.

Some of the genes carried on the Y chromosome inhibit cell growth, preventing cancers and other diseases. The X does, too. But having only one copy of those genes in certain cells may explain why older men suffer from cancer, Parkinson's disease, kidney disease, and heart problems more than women. Read about the Y chromosome and what we are learning about its usefulness at the Conversation. -via Damn Interesting 

In the sitcom The Office, Michael Scott is a corporate middleman at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Inc. His main purpose is to supervise a staff and avoid any real work. When this character is transported into the post apocalyptic world of Fallout 4, his is tasked with frst proving that he is a human (which turns out to be difficult), and then protecting colonies from attack. But he still just doesn't want to do the work. Scott's main mechanism is to make a joke out of any situation, but the apocalypse is deadly serious, and therefore the most inappropriate place to make jokes. Yeah, that's what she said.  

This mashup is the work of eli_handle_b.wav (previously at Neatorama, and appearing often at Infinite 1up) who has found his niche in putting comedic characters into life-or-death video game situations. He finds the perfect clips to make even the most serious fantasy world infinitely ridiculous. -via Born in Space