Railroad trains and music go together like peas and carrots. You know the songs (and if you don't, we have videos), now learn the stories behind five classic railway songs.

1. “I’VE BEEN WORKING ON THE RAILROAD”

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Originally, the song was about levees. Black laborers popularized it in the 1830s, later switching the lyrics as they began building railroads. The name “Dinah” typically referred to a female slave. And back then, the lyrics were PG-13. One verse goes: “Someone’s making love to Dinah / Someone’s making love I know. / Someone’s making love to Dinah, / ’cause I can’t hear the old banjo.” (Of course, back then, “making love” meant flirting.)

2. “DOWNTOWN TRAIN”

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Although Tom Waits wrote the song, Rod Stewart made it a mainstream hit in 1989. It makes sense: Rod Stewart is a model train nut. While touring, he often works on train set pieces to relax. His Beverly Hills home boasts a sprawling 23 x 124-foot landscape of post-war Manhattan and Chicago, which he built himself. It almost takes up the whole third floor!

3. “BALLAD OF JOHN HENRY”

Just veggin' out in your comfy chair in front of the TV or computer seems like a nice way to spend the evening after a hard day at work. You might get so comfortable that you just dose off. But what if you just never got up again? Your enjoyment wouldn't last all that long.

As it turns out, it’s possible to have too much chill. You will die if you never get up from your seat.

Within a matter of hours, the reduced physical activity coupled with gravity will force the blood to pool in your legs, explains Hedge. The reduced circulation will put you at risk for developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot in one or both of you legs. You might experience some swelling or pain, or you might not. But you won’t die from DVT, at least not directly. No, where you really run into trouble, Hedge stresses, is if part of that clot breaks off and enters your lungs. That might cause a pulmonary embolism, a blockage of the very important pulmonary artery, which can definitely kill you.

Oh, but that's only the fastest way to die sitting in your chair. If you don't experience DVT, other unpleasant things will lead to your demise. Find out about them in this article at Digg. After I read it, I felt the need to start a load of laundry, make the bed, and  walk around the yard.

(Image credit:  Christen Smith)

P.J. McQuade always has the best pop culture holiday greeting cards, and his Valentine 2017 collection is no exception. Send your sweetheart a Valentine with his/her favorite fictional character to say how much you respect their geeky interests. You see here what they look like; continue reading to check out what they say inside.

No matter how long you've been playing Mario games, there's always something new to discover about the world of Mario, Luigi, and all the other components of the games. Like, how they were conceived, the stories behind each element, and stuff that happened along the way to the games' global domination.

Check out 18 Super Mario facts at TVOM. 

Is there anything that could better put you in the mood for the Super Bowl than to see a bunch of football players spouting nonsense? Probably, but you'll enjoy this anyway. It's like the art of abstract trash talking.

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Bad Lip Reading found some wonderful clips to add words to, even though the words are randomly ridiculous. They do match the lips well, you have to give them that much. -via The Daily Dot 

Rescue Rovers Dog Adoptions took in a pregnant pit bull and placed her with foster mother Stevoni Wells. Grayce gave birth to eleven puppies! When they were just two days old, she took them in her mouth one by one and placed them all in Wells' lap.  



Wells and her husband seem to think that Grayce wants to be petted but doesn't want to leave the puppies unsupervised. It's also possible that Grayce wants some help from an experienced mother. Or maybe it's just a gesture to show how much she loves and trusts her foster mom. -via Metafilter

A comic artist who goes by the name Avengergram imagines what superheroes do in their off hours. He uses 1/6 scale model action figures to illustrate these scenarios that give us a good look at our favorite comic book characters' sense of humor. Here, Black Panther reveals that he really does have the instincts of a cat.

And here's an illustration of the differences between superheroes from different countries.

You can follow Avengergram at Facebook or Instagram.  -via Geeks Are Sexy

The Veil Brewing takes dessert beer to the next level. 'Hornswoggler' Choco milk stout, aged on Oreo cookies. There's even icing chunks pic.twitter.com/z9FOqjRsQW

— Beer Street Journal (@BeerSTJournal) January 30, 2017

The Veil Brewing Co. of Richmond, Virginia, has unveiled a new brew called Hornswoggler Chocolate Milk Stout with Oreos. Head brewer Matt Tarpey says it's selling like hotcakes.

“We made 64 cases and quickly sold out within a few hours last week,” Tarpey said.

The Scott’s Addition brewery, located at 1301 Roseneath Road, has a small amount left on draft which will be available for the next few days or until it runs out.

I dunno, when you think of "two great tastes that taste great together," beer and Oreos are not the first things that comes to mind. -Thanks, John Farrier!

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Bored Panda has one of their photo compilations up containing pictures that may well make you uncomfortable, ranging from illusion art to people who don't care about their behavior. There are a lot of baffling architectural details.

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At the original reddit thread, a commenter stated this is probably not an elevator in a restroom, but something scary anyway.

Italian here, I could be wrong about this specific picture since I have no proof, but 99% of the time this is a instamatic-potty configuration, pretty common in train stations and public places in my country, so you put money in, press a button to open the sliding door and do your business, also scary is the fact that if you do not exit in 15 minutes the door will open itself, exposing you to the people outside!!! . So not an elevator.

The post is called 10+ Photos That Are So Uncomfortable You Probably Won’t Finish Scrolling. The real reason you won't finish is that there are so many. I got to 130 and stopped scrolling because that's a lot of images, arranged by votes. -via Metafilter

Did you know that Underoos are still a thing? Not only that, but they are available in adult sizes. And if you are a Harry Potter fan, you can get Underoos with the coats of arms for each of the dormitories at Hogwarts. You can wear them and fantasize about being a Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin. Sorry guys, these are only available in women's sizes. Only $24.99 a set. Because there's no rule that says you have to outgrow Pottermania.

Two goats in Nepal got their heads stuck in the same jar. Whatever was in that container must have been really good, or else the critters are just insanely competitive.

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It appears the farmer rescued them by brute force. Wouldn't it have been easier to shove one goat further into the pot while pulling the other out? -via Digg

Those horrible monsters aren't so scary when you are surrounded by others who help you feel brave. Still, I think the would fit better if the crowd had torches and pitchforks. I don't have any torches, but I'll gladly contribute a box full of flashlights. And I have my own pitchfork. This is the latest from Lunarbaboon.

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The nominees for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects are Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Deepwater Horizon, The Jungle Book, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Doctor Strange. They all contain the kind of action scenes we like to see, with sometimes amazingly similar elements. Vic Rincon created this mashup to show us those parts of all of them. I don't think there's much in the way of spoilers here. -via Tastefully Offensive  

Mark and Scott Kelly are identical twins who were both selected for NASA's astronaut program. They are the only siblings ever to both fly in space. Mark Kelly flew the space shuttle for ten years, then retired in order to take care of his wife. Scott Kelly spent an entire year in space aboard the ISS. Now NASA is studying the differences between the two after Scott's year in space, and the early results are intriguing.

As identical twins, the brothers are genetically very similar. However, researchers found that while he was in orbit, Scott’s telomeres—the caps on the ends of chromosomes—grew longer than his twin brother’s. Though Scott’s telomeres returned to their pre-flight lengths shortly after he returned to Earth, these results were totally unexpected, since telomeres naturally shrink over the course of one’s life, and the stresses of spaceflight are supposed to accelerate this. At least that was the idea.

“That is exactly the opposite of what we thought,” Susan Bailey, a radiation biologist at Colorado State University, told Nature.

That's not the only genetic difference they found in the twins. Read more about the study at Gizmodo.

(Image credit: NASA)

When you see a list of trivia about the states, you are sure to hear about the most famous facts; you know, the ones you've heard so many times. Wendover productions has some facts about all the 50 states, but these are not the facts you've heard before.

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The geographic oddities in this video are mind-boggling. El Paso is closer to Los Angeles than it is to Houston. Maine is the closest state to Africa. Mind blown. -via Tastefully Offensive