For many years it was a tradition for local students sitting exams to make sure to ride this bus or a bus driven by this driver, who famously did not fall (in Japanese fall/fail can be the same word). Everyone remembers seeing this bus on a collapsed highway after the big… https://t.co/ETceFMbATL

— Wrath Of Gnon (@wrathofgnon) January 17, 2025

Wrath of Gnon, a culture critic who lives in Japan, shares this story about the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which struck southern Japan on January 17, 1995--30 years ago today. Bus driver Yusui Yoshimasa survived, as did his Mitsubishi Fuso Aerobus. In fact, the bus was put back in service and was popular among students preparing for exams.

NHK World-Japan interviewed Yoshimasa about his experience during and after this terrifying event. He's still driving, but a different bus.

Popular Science reports that scientists from Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam have just classified a species of giant isopod in Vietnam. They've named it Bathynomus vaderi after Darth Vader, as they see a resemblance between its head and Vader's famous helmet.

Giant isopods are a popular source of meat in East Asia, so it was easy for the researchers to acquire large quantities of them from fishermen for examination. The researchers' article in ZooKeys makes no mention of mysterious powers from Bathynomus vaderi, such as the ability to choke people without touching them.

-via Dave Barry

Joe Velaidum of Prince Edward Island has a doorbell camera mounted at the front door of his home. CBC News reports that in July, that camera recorded a meteorite strike right in front of his home. Velaidum says that he had stood in that spot just a couple minutes before the bug meteor attack, so he's very lucky to have been elsewhere at the time.

Scientists think this is the first time that a meteorite strike has been recorded with both audio and video. They recovered about 95 grams (3.3 ounces) of extraterrestrial material from the site, which they are now testing.

-via David Thompson

USS Seadragon (SSN-484) was a Skate-class nuclear submarine that surfaced through the icecap at the North Pole on September 15, 1960. For recreation, the sailors laid out a softball diamond that used the marker for the North Pole as the pitcher's mound. When a sailor successfully cleared the bases, he was circumnavigating the world.

-via US Naval Institute | Photo: Norman Polmar

Yes, Moo Deng, the baby pygmy hippopotamus is cute as she tries to eat the zookeepers. Full-size hippopotami (Hippopotamus amphibius), though, are dangerous wild animals that kill between 500 and 3,000 humans per year.

It's entirely possible that a hippopotamus is stalking you right now.

What happens when a hippopotamus decides he doesn't like the bumper sticker on the back of your truck? Katherine Gilson, Steve Teichmann, and Richard Teichmann found out when a hippo charged them during an expedition through the Manyoni Private Game Reserve in South Africa. The humans escaped, but their truck took some damage.

Content warning: foul language.

-via David Thompson

Before we get into the sheer technical sophistication and precise direction of this video, I'd like to point out that the song itself is beautiful. "A Song Only Rolls Downhill" calls upon us to stoically accept the hardships of life:

I wish I could say it would be all right

I wish I could tell you it would all be fine

But a stone only rolls downhill

And these things

They'll be what they will

All of which is true for the human adventure.

Now let's get into the video. OK Go is famous for its innovative and physically complex music videos. The band recorded 64 videos and displayed them on 64 phones side by side. The final product is a digital rendering, but, Rolling Stone reports, a recording of those videos playing on the actual phones.

-via Nag on the Lake

When you're suffering a cold or flu, you eat nutritious chicken soup to feel all warm inside, and you suck on lemon honey lozenges to sooth your cough. But now Progresso has flipped that idea on its head. For a limited time, they are offering "Soup Drops," which are cough drops that taste like chicken soup. The tag line is "Soup you can suck on."

I wondered if these were like chicken bouillon cubes, or sugary candy with a chicken flavor. Dennis Lee at The Takeout volunteered to try a Soup Drop so we don't have to. He says they resemble candy cough lozenges, but they are made with the sugar substitute isomalt, which is not as sweet as sugar. He didn't exactly describe how sweet the Soup Drops are, because he got busy telling us how they really taste. It's not a pretty picture. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Dennis Lee/The Takeout)

When several inches of snow piles up, many of us just think about how to get to work, or how to even get down the stairs without slipping. Then there are those who take advantage of the situation for fun.

Woodworker Matt Thompson describes himself at his YouTube channel as a "Maker of mostly ridiculous and unnecessary things." He makes things to sell as well. Recently he solidified his reputation as the coolest guy in the neighborhood after a snowfall, rigging up his model train with a snowplow on the front to clear the tracks as any full-size train would do. Only this track is along his fence. When the snow is this deep, what else would you do with a train? Right, most of us would just stay inside to play with our toys. Kudos to Thompson for selecting the perfect music to accompany this video, too.  -via Born in Space

When I was a biochemistry graduate student ages ago, a wise post-doctoral fellow once told me that there's no failed experiments in science if you can consume the result of your experiments (he was a Russian guy, and experimented on alcohol - and yes, he drank his experimental results afterwards).

In the same vein, here's an experiment by Imperial College of London's Chemical Kitchen to determine the best way to roast a potato in the oven.

If watching that video made you too hungry to continue, I'm happy to report that by cutting the potatoes at 30 degree angle, you can increase the surface area for extra crispiness. Better yet, you can add even more surface area by using a crinkle cutter.

Come to think of it, repeatability is a bedrock of doing science so I'm sure you'd want to repeat the roast potato experiment over and over and over again. Y'know, for science.

Every two years, the World Monuments Fund releases a list of the cultural sites that are in most danger of disappearing due to war, environmental damage, or other causes. The "other causes" come into play for 2025 because one of the sites listed is the moon.

On a relative scale, there are not that many cultural sites on the moon, but the legacy that humans have left there are is monumentally historic. It's been almost 56 years since Neil Armstrong set foot on Tranquility Base. Will future historians be able to even find that spot after we've landed more missions on the moon? When the space junk calls to the surface? Saving such sites will require international cooperation between myriad organizations.

But the moon is only one of 250 sites listed in the document. Read about the danger to the moon's historic sites and other endangered places at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: NASA/Neil A. Armstrong)

No one was really surprised that Squid Game came back; the audience loved the death and destruction ands wanted more. But we were surprised that the character Seong Gi-hun would return to play the game again. It works for the show itself to draw back fans from the first game, but logically, who would go through that again? However, the biggest surprise is that the game doesn't conclude in season two, making season three necessary. Score! And that twist provides longer contracts for more actors.

Season two delivers more fright and carnage, but the confusing multiple storylines and overall plot strain credulity to the max. Despite its hit status, Screen Junkies was keen to tear Squid Game's second season apart to show us why it's not all that it's cracked up to be. But if you're like me and waiting for some Netflix customer to help you watch it, this Honest Trailer will give you enough footage of Squid Game season two to learn about the major players, as flawed as they are, and keep you thinking about watching it. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The new film Wolf Man opens nationwide this weekend. Fans of cinematic werewolves have been waiting quite some time for the new Universal monster movie, directed and co-written by Leigh Whannell. Werewolf films aren't as common as superhero or vampire films, but there have been quite a few over the past century. How will this new film compare? Before you go to the theater this weekend, you'll want to revisit the history of cinematic wolf men in their various incarnations, and especially in their transformations.  

It's been 84 years since Lon Chaney, Jr. first turned into a werewolf in the 1941 film The Wolf Man. You might not remember, but the movie also starred Claude Raines and Bela Lugosi. That set off a line of Universal films featuring the Wolf Man, even though the character was often relegated to taking a second string role to Dracula or Frankenstein's monster or both. A few attempts followed to regain Universal's original glory, but often fell short. Will the new movie improve the Wolf Man's reputation? To know for sure, you'll have to relive the previous eleven films featuring the Universal Wolf Man. Video samples are included for most of them.

(Image credit: monstersforsale)

Core77 directs our attention to this unusual door manufactured by the New Jersey-based firm Construction Specialties. The door has a door inside. Why? The answer is below the fold.

Kevin Parry is a master of stop-motion animation. We've shared his work extensively and all is worth watching.

His latest project used 444 shots recorded over a 10 day period. The end result of his precise labor is 36 seconds of adrenalin-pumping chasing. Parry depicts a man on the run from the law and being pursued by police cruisers. He never leaves his chair, but with clever yet often simple visual effects, he tells a story of a cunning criminal who has complete mastery of his car.

Enjoy this episode of Grand Theft Auto: Living Room. But don't drive like this at home.

-via The Awesomer

Bruno Lobo was a champion swimmer and triathelte before switching to kite surfing, a sport in which he represented his homeland of Brazil in the 2024 Olympics. Sky News reports that on January 10 he was recording a training session off the coast of São Luís when he saw a 15-year old girl struggling to swim and losing her strength.

Lobo immediately abandoned his surfing and brought the girl to his board, then paddled the two of them ashore as she clung to his back. Lifeguards met them in the surf. The girl appeared to be okay and, at the end of the video, is in good enough condition to thank and hug Lobo.

-via Colin Rugg