It’s rare to see news about space launches being cancelled, but even after months of preparation, launches can get cancelled even at the last minute. For example, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launch was cancelled due to bad weather. Check out other possible reasons for a launch cancellation over The Washington Post.
image via wikimedia commons
Here's disturbing news for you: bags (yes, plural) of human remains were found along the Seattle shoreline. At least one of the “several bags” was in the water according to the Seattle Police Department. Identities of the dead are unknown, along with the number of bodies involved.
image via wikimedia commons
A lot of us are seeking different ways to alleviate stress and the anxiety caused by the pandemic. Some watch movies and tv shows, while some start a new hobby. It seems that lucid dreaming is something we can also try, given the amount of time we can sleep nowadays! Lucid dreaming has its benefits, as USA Today details:
Lucidity Institute psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge, who has spent decades researching the science behind awakening in your dreams, points to studies where the visual imagery produced during lucid dreaming could improve physical and mental health. For example, someone who solves a problem or confronts a fear while lucid dreaming can wake with a sense of empowerment and courage, according to the Lucidity Institute FAQs.
“People aren't relying on alarm clocks in order to wake them up, so there’s less interference to help them recall dreams, and recall is key to lucid dreaming,” says Kristen LaMarca, a clinical psychologist in sleep medicine and writer of a concise new dream book, “Learn to Lucid Dream”.
And since people are more isolated and without their normal routines, she says, it gives them “more room to have more of an inward reflective focus.”
image via USA Today
Wealthy businessman Joseph Williamson built several rather eccentric houses for his family on Edge Hill in Liverpool. He then built elaborate gardens between them, and eventually took his tinkering underground, where he had a system of tunnels built. Many men worked on the tunnels, but none knew the exact purpose for them. And Williamson didn't say, either.
The 19th century Liverpool historian James Stonehouse, who toured parts of the tunnels following Williamson's death in 1840, described the labyrinth as “a strange place” with “vaulted passages cut out of the solid rock”, and beautifully crafted arches “supporting nothing”. Stonehouse described vast cellars beneath the buildings that went several layers deep, up to six level at times. He also described the obscure caverns, immense in size, deep below the ground, the most famous being known as Williamson's 'Banqueting Hall'. The numerous cellars and caverns were linked by a complex series of tunnels which varied greatly in size and construction—ranging from small passageways hewn into the rocks just large enough for a person to squeeze through, to large vaulted tunnels.
There are several theories about why Williamson built so many tunnels and chambers, especially in the last few decades as they are being restored. Read about the tunnels below Liverpool at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: Kyle J May)
Kana Hashimoto (@himu1017) uploads eerily breathtaking photos of Tokyo at night during the pandemic. Hashimoto is an amateur photographer who takes nighttime photos of Tokyo as a hobby. Her photos feel like they are suspended in time, and make the viewers feel a sense of serenity and longing:
“Five years ago, I became aware of and began doing nighttime photography,” Hashimoto told me. She added, “I like the night’s silent atmosphere and the light that floats up from the depths of the darkness. I also like the sense of longing one can feel throughout these streetscapes.”
Hashimoto, who admires the work of the contemporary Japanese photographers Miyako Ishiuchi and Seiichi Motohashi, did not begin shooting her nocturnal Tokyo scenes with the goal of producing a series. “During the state of emergency [imposed by the Japanese government, which was lifted on May 25], I tried to refrain from going out,” Hashimoto said. But even during that period, she did slip out into the darkness. “Not having contact with other people, when it came to going out at night to shoot photos, I used my best judgment.”
image via Hyperallergic
We posted before about Miniatur Wunderland, but in the years since, it has only grown. The world's largest miniature railway now has more than 1,000 trains traveling 16,000 kilometers of track, and a working miniature airport! Their destinations include the wonders of the world, and in this video from Great Big Story, you get an introduction to the miniature world, and an invitation to see more in a choose-you-own-adventure set of further videos. There's that much to see!
Roger Adams came up with the idea of a shoe that had a wheel in the heel, so that you could just raise your toe and ride them like skates. He enlisted Mike Staffaroni, who had experience selling both shoes and skates, to market them. Staffaroni knew Heelys were a good idea, but had some conservative estimates of the company's first year sales. They launched the product at the Action Sports Retailer Trade Show in San Diego in 2000.
Sitting at a booth made from card tables and a couple signs, Staffaroni and sales rep Gary Golden armed themselves with printed out Excel sheets and credit forms, anything to make it “at least look like we were in business and ready to go.” They hoped by the end of the convention they’d leave with a few sales scribbled down.
But when the pair enlisted a couple skaters to demonstrate the Heelys prototypes, the entire convention took notice. Similar to Staffaroni himself, actually seeing Heelys in motion got people to buy in. “It has a stealth nature to it that grabs people’s attention: It looks like a normal shoe, but you can lift your toe and roll. So there was the wow factor that comes with it.”
Heelys succeeded beyond their wildest dreams -but the company fell just as fast as it rose. Read how that happened at Mel magazine.
During World War II, US Army airborne forces needed a cheap dispatch vehicle that could be easily dropped by parachute into the field. The Cushman company, then producing scooters, quickly converted its line to fill military purchase orders with the Model 53 scooter. Harley Davidson and Indian picked up the slack to produce even more military scooters.
The National Museum of the US Air Force describes the capabilities of this tough little vehicle:
[...] it had a hitch to pull a model M3A4 general-purpose utility cart. By adding certain equipment, the cart could be converted to carry a .30-cal. or .50-cal. machine gun or an 81mm mortar, though the scooter often could not pull a heavy load. [...] Cushman made nearly 5,000 airborne scooters for the military beginning in 1944. The rugged, simple Model 53 could travel through a foot of water, climb a 25 percent grade and had a range of about 100 miles.
A surviving example of the Cushman airborne scooter was once featured on the reality TV show Pawn Stars.
-via David Burge | Photo: War History Online
P.S. Check out the French Army's anti-tank Vespa.
Remove one of the Hippos from the tabletop game Hungry Hungry Hippos and let a dog step up to the table. Pour in the kibble and he'll out-eat any hippo in the jungle. For some dogs I've known, it might have worked just as well with the original plastic beads.
-via Five
Johannes Vermeer's 1665 painting Girl with a Pearl Earring metamorphoses into an onion in this piece by Russian photographer Olga Pavolga. Perhaps, as one commenter suggests, the painting should be remade into Girl with an Onion Ring.
-via I Need a Guide
In 1925, the Green Giant brand of preserved vegetables began promoting its huge peas with a giant figure offering his fare to the world. There's a 55-foot tall statue of the company's mascot in Le Sueur, Minnesota.
In brightest day and darkest night, no hunger shall escape this giant's sight when cosplayer Gordon Buri is on the job with his Green Giant and Green Lantern mashup costume.
“Can be single, double, triple or more.” pic.twitter.com/edKh5on46Z
— TM (@tempdownatkzug) June 8, 2020
One reason restaurant chains are so successful is that they are consistent at every location, so fans and travelers know what to expect. There's a reason all Cracker Barrels face the interstate, even when that puts them at an odd angle to the road they are actually on. When one fast food outlet goes rogue, everyone notices. That was the case in 2014 at the South Side Burger King in Pittsburgh.
The epic saga began when customers noticed that their food didn't seem to taste like Burger King. That's usually a compliment, but if you specifically choose to go to Burger King, it's because you want that special experience of having your tastebuds beaten with a used sock full of nickels. The situation deteriorated as food began to be served in plain brown paper bags, without the famous BK logo. Fries came in dixie cups, drinks were in plain styrofoam cups, the burgers were wrapped in tin foil or sandwich paper. Some expert soda connoisseurs claimed that the Coke machine appeared to be dispensing Pepsi. Rumors spread that employees had been sighted loading up on burger buns in a nearby Giant Eagle supermarket.
The shenanigans at the particular outlet got much weirder before the media noticed and began investigating (after social media, of course). Read the true tale of the fake Burger King at Cracked.
As was done with Star Wars, Shrek, and Back to the Future 2, the classic summer blockbuster Jaws has been remade by more than 100 dedicated fans. The feature-length remake is called Jaws WeMake, a tribute for the film's 45th anniversary, produced by The Daily Jaws. The participants contributed their talents in acting, animation, stop-motion, toys, lip-synching, and a wide-ranging bunch of costumes, props, and effects to create a glorious new Jaws. Some of the actors have an eerie resemblance to Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. After you've seen the trailer above, continue reading to see the entire film.
Daven Hiskey looked at a couple of the highest honors that the UK and the US can bestow to compare and contrast them, namely, a British knighthood and the American military's Medal of Honor. This may seen silly because the two are very different and really have nothing in common besides being a high honor, but we can learn something new about each of them.
As we’ve covered before in great detail, it turns out getting knighted entitles you to just about nothing, other than getting to attend a special ceremony where you’re knighted and then afterwards you can adopt a title, such as “Sir”. That said, there are more intangible perks, such as a slightly higher profile, more impressive looking resume, potential invites to parties one would otherwise not have been, quicker seating at some exclusive restaurants, etc. But, on the whole, you officially get basically nothing.
This lack of official perks is in keeping with historical precedent, with the title of Knight throughout history being largely ceremonial in nature, especially in the United Kingdom. For example, as noted by the Royal Collection Trust, the title in ancient times didn’t confer any monetary benefit upon a person since anyone granted the title of Knight would, to quote them, “Be expected to have the financial ability to support the honour of knighthood, so that he could provide himself with arms, armour, horses and the required number of armed followers to render military service to his Sovereign for a minimum period each year.”
Knighthood can be given for pretty much any reason, as long as the recipient is a citizen of the United Kingdom. The Medal of Honor is a completely different story. They are not easy to achieve, being given to members of the military who have distinguished themselves through acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. Beginning with World War II, nearly half of the medals have been awarded posthumously. But for recipients who survived their acts of valor, the rewards are pretty sweet, which you can read about at Today I Found Out.
(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
Japanese social media went into a frenzy deciphering a mysterious object that appeared in the sky over northern Japan. The odd white object gave birth to different speculations, from UFOs to weather balloons to North Korean propaganda. Footage taken in Sendai showed a balloon-like object above a cross, as Reuters detailed:
Television footage taken in the northeastern city of Sendai showed a balloon-like object above a cross, on which propellers seemed to be turning. Officials in the Sendai Weather Bureau said it had appeared near dawn and hung in the sky for hours, largely unmoving, until obscured by clouds.
By afternoon it was the third-most trending topic on Japanese Twitter, with theories including UFOs and North Korean balloons used to drop leaflets. One user said it could be spreading novel coronavirus, adding, “This gives me a very bad feeling, as if Godzilla might suddenly appear.”
Police could not be immediately reached for comment and a Sendai government official said inquiries were still proceeding, with both the size of the object and its origin, as well as its function, undetermined. No move had been made to retrieve it as of late afternoon.
“We have absolutely no idea what it is,” said a weather bureau spokesman, declining to give his name. “It may be some kind of weather monitoring equipment, but it definitely isn’t ours.”
image screenshot via Reuters
