Red Side made an illustrated comparison of how fast various birds can move, on foot or flying. They start with the slowest birds which are overtaken by faster ones, one by one. I felt sorry for the penguin, who leads things off as the slowest walker, but never gets to show us how fast he can swim. The information is interesting, and you have to appreciate the research that went into this. But the animation itself is way more fascinating. Where are all these birds going? Why are they all going as fast as they can? Is something chasing them? Some are rather awkward even as they are speeding by other species. I found myself waiting for the roadrunner to show up, wondering if a coyote would be watching. The running birds seem to have no knees, and the ostrich has hips hidden way up in its backbone, which makes this frantic chase seem all the more hilarious. Oh yeah, the epic music will have you wondering if there's some kind of reward at the end of this race. -via Nag on the Lake

It was called Project Iceworm, inspired by Norwegian-born US Army colonel Bernt Balchen, who pushed for the US military's continued presence in Greenland as a strategic geographical midway point between the US and the Soviet Union.

The US Army had planned on digging trenches under Greenland's ice, in which they will burrow medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) as a means of deterring the Soviet Union from targeting the US. They had also wanted to build an underground city where they will presumably conduct operations undetected by Soviet satellites.

However, what foiled the US Army's plans was neither Soviet spies or budget constraints. It was nature, as Greenland's ice started to shift. After nine years of building the facility that was supposed to house 600 MRBMs, they were forced to abandon the site, which cost an estimated $2.37 billion.

However, this also led to some tension between Denmark and the US after the truth was exposed. Thankfully, the discovery of fossilized leaf and twig fragments under the ice helped ease those tensions as it suggested that there had been plants growing there before.

(Image credit: Tina Rolf/Unsplash)

Scientists may have finally found out how serotine bats reproduced, and it may be the first mammal to have such a reproductive process. Since bats are nocturnal, it's very difficult to observe their mating behavior especially since they would most often have their backs turned from their observers. But, with new footage taken by a Dutch bat enthusiast, researchers now have visual evidence of what exactly goes on when bats have their backs turned.

According to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology, serotine bats reproduce through touching, or something akin to the "cloacal kiss". In short, no penetration occurs during the process. And the researchers reasoned that this may be due to the structure of the bats' genitalia.

Despite now having footage of the bats' mating behavior, there is still no definitive proof of how the sperm transfers from the male to the female bats, but it provides scientists new avenues for further research on the matter.

With this information, researchers may now have the means of devising strategies on how to artificially inseminate bats or even help in understanding human infertility.

(Image credit: Denley Photography/Unsplash)

Purple has been the color signifying royalty since time immemorial. The reason being that the purple dye was one of the rarest and most expensive to procure and process. But even among the purple hues, one sits atop them all, the Tyrian Purple or also called, shellfish purple.

The manufacture of Tyrian purple dyes had been the central industry of ancient Rome and the Byzantine Empire. The dye was used on the robes of royalty, cardinals, and religious manuscripts. Originating from the ancient Phoenicians, neighboring regions of Southern Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia had all coveted the precious dye.

Though it is generally known to come from sea snails, the exact process and recipe had been lost after the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. The dyeing industry had been very elusive and protective over their recipes that nobody had written records about them. Pliny perhaps comes closest to documenting how the dye was made, but it's no easy task.

First of all, extracting the mucous from the sea snail itself required laborious work and thousands upon thousands of snails. Then, to get the color just right, one would need to have the right conditions to turn the chemicals in the mucous into the purple dye.

However, one man who had a stroke of luck and serendipity, incidentally rediscovered Tyrian purple. His name is Mohammed Ghassen Nouira, and for 16 years, he had obsessed over the process of making Tyrian purple dyes. But perhaps he has finally found the right formula. Read more about it on BBC.

(Image credit: Mohammed Ghassen Nouira)

How did Messi’s bodyguard just spawn out of nowhere 😭 pic.twitter.com/AKMPxhIPcR

— 𝐀𝐅𝐂 𝐀𝐉𝐀𝐗 💎 (@TheEuropeanLad) November 23, 2023

This new tweet has gone viral over the past two days because it shows Lionel Messi walking on some grass, and after a few seconds later, his bodyguard just appears as if from thin air, without any sign where he came from.

Initially, I had thought that the bodyguard had been in the golf cart and possibly got down then started walking behind Messi, but the timing just isn't right, and if you looked closely at the golf cart, there was no one wearing a black shirt and joggers a few frames before. Perhaps it's a magic trick, or some kind of camera illusion, or video editing but it seems that the person who shared the video doesn't know where the bodyguard came from either.

Many people have been scrambling their brains trying to figure it out, but still nobody has provided any rational solution to the problem. You can check some of the funniest responses to the tweet on The Poke.

(Video credit: TheEuropeanLad/X)

Retro video game tunes are timeless pieces of cultural history as much as classical music is. One wouldn't think that these two would have anything in common, until the birth of Arcade, Classical California's new 24-hour streaming channel which is dedicated to playing some popular and nostalgic video game music alongside classical music.

Jennifer Miller Hammel hosts the stream, and plays a selection of video game music as well as requests from listeners. In proposing the concept to her producers, Hammel curated a 12-hour playlist of video game music which she remembered from when she was a kid. They agreed with the suggestion of adding classical music into the mix, which many video games now incorporate as well.

Reception for the streaming channel has been great so far with fans of both video games and classical music, as well as people who have no experience in either, finding it enjoyable with one major donor even remarking how she loves listening to the channel despite having no knowledge of video games.

Anyone can jump in and listen to the Arcade channel at anytime.

(Image credit: Sarah Golonka)

The Mongol empire stretched as far as Eastern Europe and the Middle East to the west, parts of Russia to the north, and China to the south. With a formidable army riding on horseback, lending much speed to the Mongols' conquest of many strong kingdoms and empires, and good military tactics, they were able to subdue a large portion of Asia, perhaps one of the largest empires in history. However, despite the size of the Mongol army, it struggled to conquer the tiny kingdom of Goryeo, the first unified dynasty of the Korean peninsula.

It took them more than 25 years to subjugate the small state, and eight invasions before finally breaking through to the royal family. What had the hermit kingdom done in order to fend off the largest empire at the time?

The Goryeo dynasty of Korea was established in 918, right after the Later Three Kingdoms period. For the next 300 years, Goryeo would experience incursions from the Khitan Liao, out of which they gained valuable insight on how to use the two-pronged strategy of the quill and the sword - diplomacy and military prowess - to successfully resist the 100,000-strong Khitan army.

So, when the Mongols came knocking on Goryeo's door, the Koreans did not go down without a fight. Now, by the first invasion in 1231, the Goryeo dynasty was still under the military aristocracy who had fortified the kingdom's defenses with well-trained soldiers. This was further bolstered by wise diplomatic withdrawals and peace negotiations to bide them time to prepare for the next attack.

The dynasty continued on with this quill-and-sword strategy until their dictator suddenly died thus weakening the control of the military aristocracy. Add to this the fact that the Mongols burned fields whenever they were able to subdue villages, Goryeo's royal family would later sue for peace and make an alliance with the Mongols.

(Image credit: History Maps)

Drug lord Pablo Escobar had a menagerie of exotic animals on his seven-square-mile Colombian estate called Hacienda Nápoles. When he was killed in 1993, most of the animals died or were taken to zoos. Escobar's collection of hippos, however, were just left in place. These animals are huge, ill-tempered, and dangerous, and they seemed to be getting along fine on their own. Thirty years later, the herd has grown to around 170 hippos, and they've been declared an invasive species in Colombia.

The Colombian government has announced a plan to try to control the hippo population, which could grow to a thousand animals by 2035 if left unchecked. They plan to capture some, kill some, and sterilize some. And now you're thinking the same thing I did when I read the headline: just how do you sterilize a hippopotamus? Not only are they huge, ill-tempered, and dangerous, they also have very thick skin and tend to stay in the water. Read about the plan to sterilize the hippos at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Paul Maritz) 

In the 19th and early 20th century, people would walk backwards long distances in order to gain publicity or set a world record. It was akin to flagpole sitting- useless, but a way to make yourself famous. But maybe they were on to something. Studies of human physiology show that walking backwards, or "retro walking," has benefits for our health.

The main risk of walking backwards is the inability to see where you are going, but that can be overcome with a mirror, a partner, or a peeking technique. The actual act of walking -or running- backward is easier on the hip and knee joints because the range of motion is smaller. Also, you are using muscles that you normally wouldn't in forward locomotion, like back muscles. Walking backward has been shown to reduce pain in the lower back and strengthen hamstrings. The backward motion also causes you to land on the balls of your feet instead of the heel. The brain benefits, too, by using different brain areas to control the incongruous task. Read about the physical and mental benefits of walking backward at BBC Future.  -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Roberto Ferrari)

Nobody knows what airline company is operating a fleet of Boeing 737-600s which have no logo or name on it, except for a red line running through its side. It's dubbed the most secretive airline in the world, and some have named it Janet. But Janet is not really the name of the airline.

So, why is it called Janet? Apparently, it's an acronym which stands for 'Joint Air Network for Employee Transportation'. And it supposedly transports officers of the United States Air Force to Area 51. Not only that, but rumor has it, it's being housed in a secret terminal, which some have said is located in Las Vegas. 

Currently, Janet is looking for a new operator, and will host different players in the airline industry to acquire bids next month. Apparently, Janet also has its own Wikipedia page, so if you want to know more details about Janet's fleet or area of operations, you may want to go there to check them out.

(Image credit: Eddie Maloney/Wikimedia Commons)

Rules help maintain peace and order in society. They provide boundaries that protect us from doing harm due to some excessive behavior or action. At times, they are guidelines which could help us know what to do in certain situations.

However, in cases where there are no rules, it's difficult to determine to what extent we can do something, until somebody goes a bit too far prompting others to make rules against it. In this regard, people on Reddit shared what rules were made due to something they did.

The behaviors exhibited by these people were not ethically or morally wrong per se, it just bothered some people in authority. Some rules were a bit silly and funny like these two:

Others like this one seem to be necessary just to prevent any harm from befalling other people.

However, this rule made me crack up because it came out a misunderstanding, but the rule can be quite useful in the future, and really quite forward-thinking.

To see all 25 rules, check out Tastefully Offensive.

(Image credit: Mark Duffel/Unsplash; Tastefully Offensive)

People going on vacation sometimes go on a luxury cruise ship so that they can have a fun time at sea. It has a lot of amenities inside the ship, and you get to travel while on it. In the 1940s, Pan Am founder and CEO Juan Terry Trippe wanted a luxury airliner that would rival ocean liners, and so, he bought Boeing's most luxurious airliner at that time, the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser.

The Stratocruiser was a semi-double deck airliner which featured a cocktail lounge which could be accessed through a spiral staircase that led downstairs. It had bunk beds, spacious seats, a coat closet, and even dressing rooms for men and women. It would have been the perfect luxury airliner, until its propellers started falling off.

Despite having the more advanced R-4360 engines, the propellers were pushing the boundaries of the technology a bit too far. Several flights in the 1950s had suffered from engines dropping mid-flight and in April 1952, a Pan Am flight crashed into the Amazon rainforest when one of its engines and propellers tore off, killing everyone inside.

Pan Am crashed seven Stratocruisers from 1952 to 1959, and most of the others had been sold for scrap. Later on, the Boeing 707 became the new hot thing that airlines turned to, and with it began the dawn of the Jet Age. The junked Stratocruisers were later reused to build super-sized Guppies, which became cargo carriers for NASA's rocket parts.

(Image credit: Pan Am/HistoryNet)

Memes can come from anything as long as anybody finds a witty way to put words on a photo. Even the most mundane images or scenarios can be brought to life by memefying them, and putting another spin to the scene being depicted in the photo. Creativity is the key, as long as one has an eye for it, even the most obscure photos can become legendary. Just like these three military memes.

Of course, behind the memes that went viral online are real people who have encountered serious situations over their military career. The first meme is the "You don't operate, do you son?" featuring the retirement photo of former EOD specialist and Delta Force operator, Mike Vining. The second is the Grenade Meme, showing Chris DeBlanc, a Marine, who is casually throwing a grenade down a flight of stairs. The third is of Dan Pronk, a member of the Australian Special Air Service as a combat medic, who had been in Afghanistan doing a raid.

Despite these photos becoming viral on the internet, there's more to the stories of these three men than just those moments that were captured on camera. They share their stories as well as the tales behind the photos with Coffee or Die Magazine.

(Image credit: Mac Caltrider/Coffee or Die Magazine)

Queen Genepil was merely 18 years old when she was chosen by the Mongolian council to become the new wife of Bogd Khan. Her name was Tseyenpil and she was already married with children at the time, but the councilors had assured her that the marriage would just be for the sake of appearances as they merely wanted to maintain the image of the monarchy.

Had she refused the proposal, that would have been the end of it, and the councilors would have been forced to let the arrangement go. But Tseyenpil agreed and became the queen consort of the Bogd, and she was renamed Genepil. A year after their marriage, the Bogd died marking the end of the Mongolian monarchy.

Unfortunately, after the abolition of the Mongolian monarchy, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party took over and its leader, Khorloogiin Choibalsan, who had been referred to as the "Stalin of Mongolia", became the supreme ruler. Much like Stalin, he began purging Mongolia of people whom the party deemed as dissidents and enemies of the revolution.

Being a former queen consort, Genepil was accused, tried, and convicted of treason. She and her family were arrested in 1937, and a year later, executed. Despite this, her daughter Tserenkhand escaped the fate of her family and recalls how her mother had been taken at night and simply left a piece of sugar on their pillows.

(Image credit: Joy V Spicer)

Simone Segouin had only been 15 years old when the Germans invaded France, and for the next three years of her life, she helped her father shelter and feed the resistance fighters. She became acquainted with Roland Boursier who taught her how to handle rifles, explosives, and guerilla tactics. He gave her fake documents and a codename, Nicole Minet.

At the age of 18, she became a reconaissance agent for the French resistance by stealing a bike from the Nazis in Chartres, and pedaling around the area uninhibited. Later, having become an expert in the use of weapons and tactics, she led more daring operations against the Germans, capturing troops, setting traps, and sabotaging German equipment.

It soon escalated to bigger and riskier operations which included blowing up bridges and derailing German trains. Leading up to the liberation of France in 1944, she continued to fight with her comrades with a submachine gun slung on her shoulder until the joint forces of the French army, the US infantry, and the French resistance were able to retake Paris.

She became a second lieutenant and received the Croix de Guerre for her service in the resistance. She and Boursier had six children together although they didn't marry. After the war, she became a pediatric nurse in Chartres, and lived to be 97 before passing away this year on February 21st in Courville-sur-Eure.

(Image credit: US National Archives and Records Administration/Wikimedia Commons)