If you want to gauge the sorry state of higher education in the United States, this statistic tells you everything you need to know: there is only 1 college in the entire country that offers bagpiping as an undergraduate major.
That college is Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The instrumental performance Bachelor of Fine Arts program includes a bagpiping option. Standing alone in the breach is one man: Professor Andrew Carlisle. He teaches the bagpiping classes as well as supervises the three or so students majoring in that noble instrument at Carnegie Mellon. Carlisle teaches them in a designated bagpipe room, which is soundproofed for reasons that I do not understand.
Bailey, a Golden Retriever, is convinced that she’s a human! She adopts convincing human poses. It’s just an act, though. She doesn’t actually know what she’s doing. Notice that the iron isn’t plugged in! It’s going to take her a long time to flatten out that shirt.
Artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge gained fame by painting dogs playing poker and pool. Bailey participates just because it’s fun. Don’t step into her game! She’ll clean you out.
In the village of Tappan in Rockland County, New York, there is a circular plot of ground dedicated to the memory of Major John André, a British Army officer whom General George Washington ordered hanged for spying.
Isn’t that rather odd? Although Americans might be polite to the memories of their British oppressors, it seems unusual to erect a monument to an enemy. We have to back up a bit to understand why Americans would build and maintain this monument.
The yaybahar sounds like an electronic synthesizer, but it’s a completely acoustic instrument that uses only drum-like membranes, strings, mallets, and bows. When its inventor, Görkem Şen, plays it, the yaybahar creates weird, ethereal sounds like you’d expect from a science fiction movie. You can listen to more performances here.
Garfield the cat has appeared in movies, television shows, and, most importantly, comic strips since 1978. Scott Neumyer of Mental Floss rounded up 20 fun facts about the long-lived cat.
For example, cartoonist Jim Davis named Garfield after his grandfather, who was named after US President James A. Garfield. Let us hope that if Garfield ever passes away, Arthur the aardvark will step into his role.
Tom Schutt, a high school math teacher in Washington, D.C., received treatments for cancer. As a result of his chemotherapy, he lost his hair and a lot of weight. So while in a Starfleet uniform, he looked a lot like Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation. After his cancer went into remission and his chemotherapy ended, Schutt regrew his hair. Remove one rank insignia pip and he looks like Commander Will Riker!
Cairo, Egypt can get really hot in the summer. That’s why people bring their horses, donkeys, mules, and other beasts of burden to Mohamed Mahmoud, a qassasseen—an animal barber. He learned the trade from his father, who learned it from his father. Mahmoud keeps the animals’ coats short to keep them cool and clean.
That’s the practical purpose. But Mahmoud is also an artist. He sometimes shaves the owners’ initials or geometric patterns into the animals’ hair. Each job takes about half an hour, for which Mahmoud charges the equivalent of $3-4 USD.
Mahmoud has a reputation for being gentle with his 4-legged clients. Although he has occasionally been injured by them, Mahmoud thinks that a kind touch is the right approach to handling them.
Johnny of Spoon & Tamago spotted these clever lamp designs at the Tokyo Design Week fair. They’re called Pampshades—a term which is a combination of the word “lampshade” and the Japanese word for bread. Morita, the designer, says that her recipe is a secret. But she reveals that it does include “Bread flour, salt, yeast, LED, batteries.”
Any company that has this conference table is the type of company that I want to work for. Meetings in such a room would inspire the same type of aggressive business strategy that carried Norse raiders from Newfoundland to the Caspian Sea. Draw your sword and cut the competition to shreds!
P.S. Yes, I know that the chairs look horribly uncomfortable. Meetings will be short so that we can get back to raiding. On this ship, we don't have meetings for the sake of meetings.
The group is put into peril when the rifles supplied to Kramer by Bob Sacamano turn out to be movie props.
George has to break it off with his GF because she saved him from a zombie attack, and now he feels emasculated. "I can't take it, Jerry. Last night, we were in bed, and I was the little spoon! Its the big spoon or nothing. Theres no coming back from being the little spoon!"
Jerry tries to impress a good looking lady with gangrene by telling her that he knows a doctor. Unfortunately, Tim Whatley is the only "doctor" within the area and Jerry is forced to bribe him with the last of his Snapple.
George meets a lovely, capable woman who seems to genuinely like him but he is convinced that she is only using him to procreate and thus ruins the relationship. Kramer opens up a shelter for people to spend the night that inadvertently becomes a brothel. Meanwhile, Elaine is offended that nobody thinks she is a worker at the brothel.
George convinces a slightly disfigured leg model to have dinner with him by explaining that he has a tin of corned beef, which he does not.
The only person with such an item is Newman. When he finds out why George wants it, he insists on a date with Elaine as payment. On it goes, with George orchestrating a frustrating network of trades and promises until it is all precariously in place.
Turns out the corned beef tin is missing the little key thing to open it, and nobody has a can opener.
45 years ago, Dr. Jim Affleck, an obstetrician, worked at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, California. He delivered many babies into the world, including a boy named Robert Kincade.
Kincade grew up and became a surgeon. He now works at Sutter Memorial Hospital, where he was born. By sheer coincidence, among his recent patients was Dr. Affleck, who came into the hospital to have an aortic valve replacement. Kincade had the opportunity to return the care that Affleck gave to him. Sammy Caiola writes for the Sacramento Bee:
Kincade, learning of Affleck’s lengthy obstetrics career at Sutter, mentioned that he was born in the same hospital. Curious about the coincidence, Kincade went home and dug out his birth certificate. There in the bottom right corner was Dr. Affleck’s signature.
“I, of course, didn’t remember it,” said Affleck, 83, who figures he delivered between 3,000 and 4,000 infants during his three decades at Sutter. “But I think that it’s come full circle.”
Is your ice cream trying to hide from you? If it wants to survive, then wearing camo could be a good idea.
The ice cream shop chain Baskin-Robbins is selling ice cream and cones that come in a woodland camouflage pattern. It's a mixture of chocolate, salty caramel, and cake flavors. So if you go into a Baskin-Robbins, you'll have to stalk your prey more thoughtfully. You are hunting the most dangerous game--ice cream that can not only hide, but also approach you in stealth.
Brian McElhaney, a comedian who forms part of the duo BriTANicK, shot this gloriously geeky photo. Behold the majestic battle between Joss Whedon, the producer of Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and Nathan Fillion, an actor from those two shows.
This job will eventually kill you. Do the sensible thing and get on the patch. It'll satisfy your cravings just enough to keep you sane. Doug Savage of Savage Chickens imagines a more reasonable world that encourages you to be healthy.
Like his father, Sean Pertwee is an actor. When David Tennant left the show a few years ago, rumors circulated that Sean Pertwee wanted to replace him as serve as the Eleventh Doctor. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Pertwee described the origin of this rumor:
No, I never said I wanted the part, but there is a financial tale behind how the rumour started. For a laugh I tried putting a £50 bet on me to play the next Doctor because I thought I was in with a chance, but all the boys I knew in Islington decided I must have some inside info so they piled in behind me. When the betting shop staff asked who I was, the boys told them my father had played Doctor Who so they called head office about it and then declared all bets off. The next thing I knew I was in the news as running for the part, but I think it stemmed from trying to put £50 on myself. I'd love to have a guest part, but when it comes to the main role my father was too big an act to follow.
