We finally caught him.
by u/Hashira_Oden in funny

What we have here is a dad performing his best dad joke. You can't help but laugh because he's really putting his heart into selling the silly scenario. The fact that he looks so "dad" with his mullet, knee socks, dad shorts, New Balance shoes, and Advil shirt only pushes our appreciation for him to new heights. He has discovered that there is no greater joy than making a baby laugh. That will continue for very young children, then turn into groans for adolescents and eye rolls from teenagers. By then, dad will take great joy in causing his kids embarrassment. That's how dads evolve. Still, even though dad gets the attention in this video, the greatest thrill for us is the baby's laughter. With an audience like that, you are impelled to put on a great show.

Suspension bridges are an engineering marvel, allowing access across water in all parts of the world. But they have their drawbacks. They must be somewhat flexible to avoid breaking apart, but if they move too much, they will break apart anyway. And strangely, a bridge full of pedestrians moving slowly puts more weight on a bridge than normal vehicle traffic. When soldiers march across a suspension bridge in unison, they can cause a bridge to sway rhythmically, called a "mechanical resonance." The Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, was built in 1826. But in 1831, a unit of soldiers marched across the bridge in cadence, causing it to sway more than usual. They found this amusing and marched even harder. Then the bridge fell in. No one was killed in that incident, but the British army afterward enacted a policy to break cadence when crossing a bridge. Then in 1850, a French bridge fell under the same circumstances, killing 226 people!

The effect of marching on a suspension bridge became known, but it doesn't have to be a military unit marching in cadence to produce the effect, as other bridges have failed due to the natural cadence of crowds experiencing swaying while crossing a bridge. Read about this effect and the harrowing examples of what can happen at Amusing Planet.

See also: Embarrassing Moments in Engineering.

You probably know the basics of how Anne Sullivan changed an almost feral blind and deaf child into the highly educated Helen Keller, especially if you've seen the movie The Miracle Worker. But the movie (and play) only showed the most dramatic parts of a lifelong story. There's a lot more to learn about it, like how Anne Sullivan came to have the skills she would need to take on such a challenging job. She had overcome her family's poverty, learned how to deal with the world as a blind person, and worked alongside both blind and deaf students at school, including one who was both deaf and blind. Besides the unique experiences that armed Sullivan for the task of educating Helen Keller, she also possessed a combination of stubbornness and patience that led to great things for Keller later in her life. She took a very difficult job and saw it through, because she knew that success would be worth the effort.

The phrase “420” was almost certainly invented in the Bay Area in the early 1970s. But who said it first? That’s a controversial question.https://t.co/sfoxv6mckr

— SFGATE (@SFGate) April 20, 2023

Today is April 20, or 4/20, as Americans shorten it. That's become somewhat of a stoner holiday, as "420" is a code for smoking marijuana. When I was young, there were an awful lot of euphemisms for smoking pot, but 420 was unknown in my neck of the woods, because in the 1970s we didn't have instant communication via internet. However, today it's pretty much universal. Where did the number come from?

It more than 50 years ago at a high school in San Rafael, California. But there are two stories, from two different groups of high school friends, who both claim to have originated the number. They have been squabbling over it for years, and each has evidence to back up their stories. So was it the Waldos or the Beebs who coined 420? The Waldos have a more exciting story, but the Beebs story is earlier and simpler. Read the accounts of both sides from those who were there at SFGate. -via Boing Boing

Fixed it.#Flandalorian🍮 https://t.co/O3BaFiJ6Wj pic.twitter.com/5HTBfi6ZqU

— The Mad Maker (@The_MadMaker) April 19, 2023

Twitter user The Made Maker is a committed geek of the highest order. He's a Dungeons & Dragons streamer and 3D printer of fantasy art mugs and a rather clever set of dice that serves as a random name generator. In general, he's very creative, so it's fitting that it would occur to him to make this pun-driven dessert.

Din Djarin, the titular character of the space western series The Mandalorian is made of flan, a custard dessert. He's the Flandalorian.

普段の活動といえば150年前のアニメーションおもちゃを現代に甦らせて「博物ふぇすてぃばる」で発表したりしてます。どうぞよろしゅう。 pic.twitter.com/2XV2TTkpgF

— シカクガング (@shikakugangu) April 19, 2023

Japanese Twitter user @shikakugangu makes tiny automata that display little creatures in motion.

Mattea DiGirolamo of Kenilworth, New Jersey, is an impressive young athlete. She does gymnastics, karate, and t-ball. But it's clear that her priority is gymnastics. There's never an inappropriate time to do cartwheels. Telina Cuppari of Tap into Kenilworth reports that Mattea has gained viral internet fame by performing a cartwheel on her way to first base at a t-ball game.

That seems like an unnecessary risk to take and could get her tagged out. But it looks like Mattea can cartwheel as fast as she can run. If anything, her cartwheel distracted the infield players and allowed her to reach first base safely.

-via Buitengebieden

The movie Cocaine Bear is fiction, because we know that the real bear the story is based on died pretty quickly from consuming cocaine. But could a bear who drank 69 cans of soda pop go on a caffeine and sugar-fueled rampage? People near Earls Cove, British Columbia, might want to be on the lookout. That's where a bear broke into Sharon Rosel's car and helped himself to a ton of soda while Rosel could do nothing but watch. The bear spent an hour and a half biting off the tops of pop cans and drinking the contents. He started with the Orange Crush and went through them until he came to the diet sodas, then quit. Even wild bears have their standards.

The beast left Rosel's car a mess, tearing up the leather upholstery, breaking off the door handle, and of course, spilling soda all over everything. -via Damn Interesting

I used my audio editing skills to recover a buried @TheSimpsons joke. #Simpsons pic.twitter.com/H0gD1qO7vF

— Ewzzy Rayburn (@ewzzy) April 19, 2023

On April 23, 1992, The Simpsons episode titled "The Otto Show" aired on television.

The directors and show runners did very thorough work, including burying a joke deep inside the audio track of the episode. It begins with Homer recounting going to heavy metal concerts in his youth. Marge questions whether it impacted his hearing. We hear what Homer does through severe tinnitus. Marge is saying something, but the audience can't tell what.

Ewzzy Rayburn, a professional video editor, recovered Marge's line of dialogue from the audio track and isolated it in the above tweet.

Dr. Christina Hartmann, Ph.D. and Dr. Michael Siegrist, Ph.D. of the Technical University of Zurich developed the Food Disgust Scale to study what makes people shy away from certain foods. They've also launched the IDRlabs Food Disgust Sensitivity Test so that you can identify your own triggers for deciding what not to eat. In 32 questions, the test will measure your disgust on the eight parameters seen in the graphic above. These are my test results, which show my food disgust is in the average range at 45.38%. No surprises here. However, I don't really find seafood disgusting as long as it's someone else who eats it. I just don't like fish or seafood. You can see I'll eat fruit no matter how disgusting it is, but that may come from having to wait until it's overripe because of dental problems. (TMI?)

So the short test doesn't control for some foods that you just don't like, or just don't eat because you're vegetarian or follow religious restrictions. And I would agree that there should be some component of texture, since that's a trigger for food disgust among a lot of people. Many of the questions could be answered with "It depends..." and while the desktop version has a slider for the degree of agreement, the mobile version requires a yes or no. But the test may give you an overall look at your own food disgust profile as compared to others. -via Metafilter

Here's something you would probably never notice on your own- soda cans in Hawaii are different from all other soda cans. That may be the case even if you've been to Hawaii a few times and had soda. To find out why, you are going to learn more about soda cans than you ever thought you would, from Half as Interesting. The reasons have to do with the confluence of product design, raw materials, shipping, and most of all economies of scale. Everything in the manufacturing industry has to do with economies of scale, where tiny little tradeoffs are made and the value of long-term investments must be compared to the value of short-term investments. The difference is also because Hawaii is unique, and that's what we love about it, even if you've never noticed the difference in their soda cans.

This video is a minute shorter than its length would indicate. -via Laughing Squid

TRY NOT SMILING 😄👩‍🦳

"Every time I put a new color on grandma, we die laughing."

(🎥:thecolourchemist)

pic.twitter.com/6N1WqMPykn

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) April 17, 2023

This is cute! 

People of any age are allowed to change their looks when they want to! A video of an elderly woman smiling in delight as she gets her hair dyed in a salon has been making rounds online. The short clip shows the reaction of the grandma as the hair stylist applies different colors to her hair. The video ends with a reveal of the woman looking giddy and amazed with having three different colors on her hair. 

Netizens praised her new look and found it cute that she remarked that she was going to look like an Easter egg (she did not look like one) but remained excited and enthusiastic all throughout the process. Very wholesome!

Image credit: Thecolorchemist

Yusuke Nagata is a Tokyo-based street photographer specializing in spontaneous street portraits. For two years (2019-2021) he decided to embark on a project about the Toyoko Kids, a group of homeless teenagers living around Shinjuku’s Toho Cinema in the Kabukichō district.

Nagata noticed in his frequent visits to Kabukicho that older homeless people he met way back in 2019 began disappearing. This was because the government was starting to prepare for the 2020 Olympics. The square was being redeveloped to get new buildings for business and this could be a possible reason why the elderly left. The photographer noticed that teenagers, many of them girls, replaced these elderly homeless people. “I guessed they were homeless because they had bought suitcases. They never seemed to leave,” Nagata shared. 

The photographer would go to the area regularly to chat with the people drinking out in the space next to the cinema in Kabukicho. “I’d stop by in the evening with a beer and just start chatting,” he remarked. “Once we’ve been chatting for a bit I might snap a picture.” 

According to Nagata, these kids did not trust adults, possibly due to their experience with their parents and the police. Some of the teenagers came from abusive homes, and if the police found out their real age, they would send them back to the places they escaped from, or to detention centers. 

image credit: Yusuke Nagata

☁️ Missouri's KFVS-12 weather reporter Lisa Michaels posted her 2021 Halloween costume which took advantage of the TV studio's green screen to create a floating cloud dress. Coming up with weather-related costume must be a breeze for such a talented meteorologist!

🐶 In 1908, a Newfoundland dog in France discovered that he could get a steak by rescuing a child who had fallen into the River Seine. So naturally the dog set up a clever scam that got him rewarded over and over again.

🍄 Obscure manga revealed the gruesome secret origin of Super Mario Bros' 1-UP extra life mushroom.

(Image: Lisa Michaels)

⚰️ For Sale: Death-themed house in Baird, Texas. At least with the asking price of $125K, the mortgage wouldn't kill you. Take a look inside.

🏧 It's only a matter of time till the ATM asks you for a tip.

🤘 With all that rage and shouting, you'd think that heavy metal fans are dark and angry people but you'd be wrong: they're actually some of the friendliest and happiest people in the world. Here's why metal fans are happy.

🍗 If heavy metal licks don't make you happy, perhaps finger lickin' good KFC will. Better yet, how about a whole KFC bucket meal that you can make at home?

🔎 Join the Official Bigfoot Search Team (or at least get the tee from indie artist machmigo) - via Shirt Stack

👕 Don't miss: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror T-Shirt sale over at the NeatoShop. Save up to 20% on tees.

When Ruth Handler introduced her fashion doll Barbie, she was an instant hit. Barbie was a glamorous young fashion model, and every little girl wanted to be like her. in 1963, she got a best friend named Midge. But Midge wasn't glamorous at all. She seemed to be designed as second best, in order to not steal Barbie's thunder. And she had weird eyes. What little girl would want a Midge doll for a friend when you could just as easily get two Barbies? Midge was discontinued in 1967. But she was brought back again and again, with no better results. Once Midge came back pregnant, with a husband and a son, but her popularity didn't take off no matter what Mattel did to her.

This is all coming back because Midge is a character in the new live-action movie Barbie ready to land in July. She and her husband Allan are the only characters in the film that aren't some iteration of Barbie or Ken. Will Midge finally find her spot in the sun? It's doubtful. Read the tragic history of Midge and her unceasing unpopularity at Buzzfeed News.  -via Digg