New Orleans, 2018. Baby Boone Anthony’s great day at the park with his parents turned into a fantastic day when they passed by a brass band playing live jazz. It was probably on this day when he realized how fun it is to make music.

The ensemble, Where Ya At Brass Band, was playing on percussion, sousaphone and trumpet in Jackson Square in the Louisiana city, where they were attracting quite the crowd.

Unable to resist sharing in the musical joy, the one-year-old grabbed his slide whistle and toddled over to the group.

“Our little one-year-old baby boy went out there and ‘performed’ with an outstanding band in front of a huge crowd on Jackson Square,” his mother, Stefanie Coleman Anthony, said in a Facebook post.

[...]

Stefanie reshared the video in February this year, saying: “It’s been 2 years. My sweet boy Boone was born to play! Happy viral day buddy!”

Wholesome!

(Image Credit: WAFB Channel 9/ Facebook)

When given a chance, some cats sneak out of their houses to go on a little adventure during the day and then return at nightfall. But have you ever wondered where the felines go? Aoife McAleer has also pondered the same question and she decided to look for answers by buying a GPS collar, which she put on her cat Jagger.

Turns out, Jagger was too clever to have one owner to provide regular pets and snacks. In 24 hours, this cat visited about five houses on her way and returned home like nothing happened, but this time, she was caught.

“I knew that she visited a few houses (in fact one household actually named her Peter) and she would always come home after her adventures each day, but I was interested to see where exactly she visited and was super shocked to see she visited many houses and it looks like she was fed at many also. More interestingly, she actually stayed there for some time,” Aoife McAleer told Bored Panda.

[...]

Unfortunately, Jagger passed away last Monday due to complications in her kidneys. McAleer told us that a few houses Jagger was a regular guest in also miss her and have even messaged her.

We can still celebrate Jagger’s life, however, by knowing about her story over at Bored Panda.

(Image Credit: eefskol/ Bored Panda)

All we need after this are the wind doggo and the fire doggo, and maybe balance will return to this world, and with it, peace and harmony.

Cute!

(Image Credit: 9GAG/ Facebook)

When we think of animal beauty pageants, we think usually of dressed-up dogs and horses. If anything, we would hardly think of chickens being in animal beauty pageants, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t put on a show. In fact, I say that they do better compared to pups and ponies. Don’t believe me? Then check out pictures of fabulous chickens of Ernest Goh to see what I am talking about, over at Sad and Useless.

(Image Credit: Sad and Useless)

Aside from the turkey over at the dinner table, Thanksgiving is also a season for one of the most loved spices in the world: cinnamon. It is a spice that we usually add to our coffee and our bread rolls. Today, cinnamon is widely available across the world. But centuries ago, people in Europe desperately tried to get their hands on this aromatic condiment, with some people, like Gonzalo Pizzaro, being so desperate that they resorted to horrific methods.

More than 2,500 years ago,... cinnamon—native to east and southeast Asia—was available in the Mediterranean. But it was very expensive. Its origin was mysterious to people there. The ancient Greek author Herodotus told his readers that cinnamon was brought to Arabia by large birds who used it to build nests high in the mountains. To harvest it, he explained, people tricked the birds into flying large joints of oxen into their nests, which broke under the weight of the meat.

This may have been an extremely silly story, but, for the next 2,000 years, no one in Europe knew where cinnamon actually came from. Given its high value as a medicine, a component of incense used in religious practices, and a flavoring, Europeans looked for it everywhere.

Learn more about this story over at JSTOR Daily.

(Image Credit: ulleo/ Pixabay)

The British Air Ministry knew before the Second World War that the Ruhr Valley and its dams, the Mohne dam, the Sorpe dam, and the Eder dam, were “important strategic targets”. These dams not only protected the area from being flooded, but also regulated water levels and generated hydropower, too. And so, during the war, they knew that they had to do something about them.

On the night of 16–17 May 1943, a squadron of the Royal Air Force conducted a daring mission deep into German territory to destroy two dams in the Ruhr valley, the industrial heartland of Germany. The subsequent flooding destroyed two hydroelectric power plants and several factories and mines, crippling Germany’s steel and coal production. The mission was codenamed Operation Chastise.

While the operation was successful in destroying the dams, its impact was “not enough to change the course of the war.”

Learn more about this operation, as well as the squadron formed for the mission, the Dam Busters, over at Amusing Planet.

(Image Credit: The National Archives UK/ Wikimedia Commons)

We know that our world’s oceans are deep. Well, we have an idea of sorts that the ocean is deep, to the extent that we will drown if we can’t swim properly, or get lost in the deeper parts of the oceans during trips. But just how deep does the ocean go? This animation illustrates how far the depths of the oceans go. It’s a great perspective to look at. Also lowkey terrifying. 

(via Flipboard) 

Image screenshot via Flipboard

Leaks and rumors are all over the Internet. Whether it's about upcoming game releases, new consoles or gadgets, usually it’s spread by anonymous accounts in social media, and then people start talking. This time however, the company itself accidentally leaked the model themselves. Apple made this mistake in the latest beta version of iOS 14.3, as Forbes detailed: 

Spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple has added a new icon to the release’s internal system files showing an illustration of the first AirPods over-ear headphones. And the design has caught (almost) everyone out. 

Following leaks of an extreme minimalist design earlier this year from popular Apple tipster Jon Prosser, Apple’s new AirPods icon instead shows a much more conservative design. Prosser has expressed surprise at the discovery, noting Apple has used different placeholders in the past, though with headphones tipped to arrive in early 2021 the design will now be finalized and the time for placeholders should have passed. 

The reason I say “almost” everyone, however, is because Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman appears to have nailed it. Back in April, he said AirPods Studio would have “a retro look with oval-shaped ear cups that swivel and a headband connected by thin, metal arms” which ties in. Gurman also commented on 9to5Mac’s discovery pointing that this was “one of my better description jobs”.

Assuming Gurman is correct, Apple’s AirPods Studio will be a big departure for the company.

Image via Forbes 

One of the advantages of living in an RV or a tiny house is that you’ll have an ever-changing view (provided that you move from place to place from time to time). To maximize this advantage, this tiny house called the Ala Köl has wide windows, which not only offers the people living in it a wide view of the outside, but also lots of natural light. Also, to minimize the known disadvantage of RVs and tiny houses — lack of elbow room — the Ala Köl only has a simple but neat interior.

The Ala Köl tiny house is named after a lake its owners once visited together while traveling in Kyrgyzstan. It features a modern exterior design and is based on a double-axle trailer. It's finished in cedar and aluminum, with a spruce frame.

Learn more about this over at New Atlas.

(Image Credit: Baluchon/ New Atlas)

Similar to how a conductor, using gestures, directs an orchestra in a musical performance, this man masterfully directs the chickens by strategically placing bird seeds in places where he wants the chickens to be. The result is this giant stickman holding a ball in his hands, which is similar to the “Hadouken” pose made by characters in the Street Fighter games.

Just like most street artists, the creator behind this bird art performance remains anonymous. However, whoever it is deserves the praise they’re currently getting from the Internet—both for their idea and for their effort in making it happen. The gif has amassed over 66k up votes on Reddit and most six million views on Gfycat.

Strangely—if you look closely at the video—you’ll spot what looks like a turkey joining in with the flock.

Watch the whole video over at My Modern Met.

Magnificent!

(Image Credit: Gfycat/ My Modern Met)

When we are introduced to a character in a movie or TV show, we assume that the character is supposed to be exactly who he is. It is only later that we learn what process the character went through to become the finished product we see. It's difficult to imagine the woman from The Ring as anything but crawling around with her face covered by hair.   

Even before the movies, it's hard to see how anyone would interpret Gollum as a giant. The picture I got from the books was that he was short, emaciated, and terribly gross, even more so than the Andy Serkis version. See what other well-known characters were like in their formative stages at Cracked.

It’s Thanksgiving once again, and that means that turkey will be served at the dinner table once more. And of all the many things that you can talk about at the dinner table, such as football, or childhood memories, nothing would be more appropriate than talking about turkeys, because they are the star of the season. But what could we say these large birds? For one, we can discuss how to determine the bird’s sex. However, this might not be something that should be talked about over dinner.

According to Discover Magazine, you can tell male and female wild turkeys apart by looking at their poop. This is a byproduct of the bird's cloaca, or the multipurpose orifice used for both waste disposal and reproduction.

In female turkeys, this tract is stretchy and spacious to accommodate any eggs that pass through it. When females expel their droppings (which contain both urine and feces), the matter has room to swirl into a coil shape.

The size and shape of the male cloaca is a bit different. Because they don't need to lay eggs, the tract is more confined. There's also a phallus near the end of the cloaca that makes the space an even tighter fit for any passing waste. Without the extra room to coil, male turkey poop comes out in a longer J shape.

So I guess let’s just talk about football. That’s much better.

(Image Credit: Dimus/ Wikimedia Commons)

Turns out this kid was not stuttering after all. He was singing acapella, apparently, and Charles Cornell just made the perfect accompaniment for him. Listen to the beautiful music on this video.

(Image Credit: Charles Cornell/ YouTube)

We usually do not want any disturbances when we work, especially now that many of us are working from home, we are not amenable to our family members disturbing us for no good reason. How do you drive that home when you have children? David Kuhl, a father of five from Florida might just have a solution. He came up with a great way to keep the kids out of his office during his work hours: 

David Kuhl, a father of five created the sign for a company halloween contest, according to Good Morning America.

Kuhl explained that he was trying to strike a balance between having the kids home and having to work from home. He showed his coworkers the poster during a Zoom meeting. Once he noticed that it got people laughing, he decided to then go ahead and post it on LinkedIn, where it gained the most traction.

He had put up the poster on LinkedIn at the end of October around lunchtime. He said by the time he woke up, it had over half a million views. The poster itself is hilarious. They are "rules for when dad is in a meeting." If they don't follow the rules then they will lose screen time for two days. There are answers to very common questions that kids ask. The answers to the questions include

"In the wash"

"Ask mom"

"No"

"Unless you are bleeding it is fine"

"Pieces of fruit"

Kuhl said that there was an overwhelmingly positive response to his poster, with the occasional troll who thought the "ask mom" wasn't a great answer. However, he and his wife laugh about it. He says they both joke around and tell the kids to either go ask their father or go ask their mother about whatever it is that they may be asking. His wife also stays at home and works as well.

image via Moms

Creators never stop trying to conceptualize and test new objects that might be the next big thing, whether it's in terms of sales or in terms of helping society. Chuck Hoberman, artist, inventor, and tinkerer continues to develop new materials and objects. Hoberman is now creating objects for the future, as Discover Magazine details: 

Which brings us back to that ruler and the objects to the left. They’re the future: An entirely new taxa of inflatable, origami-based structures that he’s asked me not to describe in detail, partly because they’re not published or patented yet, and partly because they’re not his alone. 

They’re the kernels of wild design projects with engineers, roboticists, computer scientists, an origami expert, mathematicians and even biologists. They run the gamut from soft robotics (how can we fold up bots that can help people in disaster areas anywhere?) to collapsible habitats (how can I pack an origami house into my backpack, and take it to the moon as a place to live?) to printable, inflatable, replaceable organs (how can I pack the most blood vessels into the least surface area?).

Image via Discover Magazine