They're calling it a Big Mac ATM, which indicates that someone doesn't know what ATM stands for. But this is really happening. On January 31st, hungry people in Boston will have the opportunity to order McDonald's Big Macs from a vending machine. You can select from a Big Mac, a Mac Jr, or a Grand Mac. If no one likes the experiment, they'll call it a publicity stunt. If it goes over, you'll eventually see these in McDonald's outlets all over, and there will be no need for front counter staff. That means the fast food industry will no longer have to hire as many unemployed factory workers or overqualified college graduates.
What zoo around the world produces the cutest baby animals? It's not really a competition, because we get to see all of them using the Twitter hashtag #cuteanimaltweetoff. It started with a Tweet from the National Zoo announcing the birth of a baby seal. Then Sarah Hill issued a challenge for the Virginia Aquarium to top them. They responded, and then zoos all over started joining in.
The devil may wear Prada. But the devil also wears bowler hats, togas, and codpieces. In other words, history is overflowing with horrible bosses, many of whom would make Miranda Priestly look like a softy.
Let's start with the Control Freak Boss. First prize goes to 19th-century railroad baron George Pullman, whose company manufactured sleeping cars. He built an Orwellian town for his workers to live in, complete with schools and a church, but no fun stuff (like taverns or nonsanctioned newspapers). His inspectors would march into homes to make sure they’d been properly cleaned. Pullman even replaced American currency with Pullman money, so he could control the prices of food, rent, and supplies. As one unhappy worker put it, “We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman Church, and when we die we shall go to the Pullman Hell.” When workers staged a strike in 1894, Pullman refused to negotiate, and the crisis spiraled, leading to gunfire and the death of several workers.
When I first heard of paper dresses, I was confused. How would you wash a paper dress? I was a young child, and didn't realize these dresses were supposed to be disposable. Throw away a dress? That sounded wasteful, but they were only $1.25, whereas a nice fabric dress would run you $3 or $4. Paper dresses were popular with young women who wanted to be on the cutting edge of fashion. You have to wonder whose bright idea this was in the first place.
Like many great things, it all started with toilet paper: In the spring of 1966, the Scott Paper Company, a major manufacturer of disposable household paper goods, launched a promotion for its colorful new line of bathroom tissue, napkins, paper towels, and other products. Along with a couple of proofs-of-purchase, customers could redeem a mail-order coupon for a preposterous new concept, a paper dress. The advertisements offered two designs, a red paisley bandana pattern or a black-and-white Op Art print, both at the low price of $1.25 including shipping.
While wearable items had been made from paper in the past—think paper folding fans, crepe paper costumes, or paper soda-jerk hats—they’d never truly caught on as mainstream fashion. But Scott’s “Paper Caper” dresses were a surprise hit, and by the year’s end, the company had received nearly half a million orders. Several other businesses jumped on the disposable clothing bandwagon, as hip young women clamored for the cheap paper shifts advertising their favorite political candidates or candy bars, or featuring groovy patterns and modern photography. Yet like these disposable garments, the trend was also short-lived; by the end of the Go-Go Sixties, the fad was already passé.
Well, to be honest, by the end of the "Go-Go Sixties," women needed fewer everyday dresses because they were wearing pants. Read the fascinating history of the '60s paper dress fad at Collectors Weekly. Don't miss the gallery of groovy dresses at the end.
You might know Mozart's opera The Magic Flute as a wonderful musical experience, but how well do you remember the story? It will only take a couple minutes to go through it with the help of classic cat GIFs! The image above illustrates the line
Papageno despairs at having lost Papagena and decides to hang himself, but is stopped by the three spirits. They advise him to play his magic bells to summon Papagena.
So bells it will be. Some of the gifs are extremely funny, and the entire project proves there's a cat on the internet for every occasion. Read The Magic Flute and enjoy the cats at King FM 98.1. -via Metafilter
Moore is best known for her portrayal of Laura Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 to 1966 and Mary Richards in The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970 to 1977. She won six Emmy Awards, and was nominated for an Oscar for the 1980 movie Ordinary People.
“Mary Tyler Moore became a feminist icon as Mary Richards,” Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, the author of “Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And All the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic,” said.
“She only wanted to play a great character, and she did so. That character also happened to be single, female, over 30, professional, independent, and not particularly obsessed with getting married. Mary had America facing such issues as equal pay, birth control, and sexual independence way back in the ’70s.”
Ms. Moore had earlier, in a decidedly different era, played another beloved television character: Laura Petrie, the stylish wife of the comedy writer played by Dick Van Dyke on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Also on CBS, the show ran from 1961 to 1966.
Ms. Moore was the lesser star in those days, but she shared Mr. Van Dyke’s background in song and dance, and as a comedy duo they magnified each other’s charm. Ms. Moore transformed and tamed the vaudeville style that had dominated sitcoms, perfecting a comic housewifely hysteria in Laura, made visible in the way she often appeared to be fighting back tears. Her “Dick Van Dyke Show” performance won her two Emmys.
She had more influence on television than was visible, thanks to her MTM Enterprises, which was run by Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker, who passed away in November. Moore leaves behind her husband, Dr. Robert Levine. Mary Tyler Moore was 80.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
On October 3, 1961, a new CBS sitcom hit the airwaves. The Dick Van Dyke Show centered around the adventures of an easygoing comedy writer named Rob Petrie (played by Van Dyke), his beautiful wife Laura (a young, then-unknown actress named Mary Tyler Moore), and his two comedy co-writers Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) and Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam). Let's take a look at a few things you may not have known about The Dick Van Dyke Show.
1. The series was originally called Head of the Family and starred Carl Reiner. The executives at CBS thought Reiner was "too Jewish, too intellectual, and too New York" and cast Van Dyke instead, in a new version. Van Dyke actually was taking a bit of a risk in signing on to do the show. He was then starring in a hit broadway show (Bye Bye Birdie) and had to quit to do the series. If The Dick Van Dyke Show had flopped, he would have been an out-of-work actor.
2. The original opening credits for the show were just a packet of photos of the cast spilling onto a table and being individually shown on screen. These credits were used only during the show's first season. For the show's remaining four seasons, the classic two openings were used, i.e. the famous shot of Rob entering the room, greeting his wife and friends, and tripping over the ottoman. Another version has him entering exactly the same way, walking towards the group, and expertly sidestepping the ottoman. These two versions were used randomly in the opening credits. (During season three, another similar opening has Rob entering the room, sidestepping the ottoman, then stumbling anyway, was also occasionally used.)
Americans have a weird relationship with NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration runs educational programs all the time, but it's easy for the rest of us to forget about it until they do something totally spectacular, like landing the Mars Curiosity rover. We fret about the agency's expense, but meanwhile, we all secretly wish we were part of it. One can never overestimate the body of knowledge that NASA has contributed to mankind. So let's learn some things we didn't know about NASA in this week's episode of the mental_floss List Show.
The Useless Duck Company has developed a machine that will toss your salad. Considering that the tossing is the easiest part of making a salad, this is truly a useless machine. But when you have a new 3D printer, you look for things to make.
You'll have to admit that watching this thing work is more fun that making a salad. Still, I don't think they'll be overwhelmed with orders. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Daphnis is a tiny moon of Saturn, one of seven discovered by the Cassini probe as it explores the space around the ringed planet. In this incredible picture taken by the probe, you see Daphnis causing a ripple in the rings.
Cassini took the image on January 16, 2017, while 17,000 miles (28,000 kilometers) away from the moon. Measuring 5 miles (8 kilometers) along its longest axis, irregular Daphnis resides in the 26-mile (42-kilometer) wide Keeler Gap in Saturn's outer A ring. The Keeler Gap seems narrower than it really is in this image because of foreshortening due to the spacecraft's viewing angle. You can just see grooves along the long axis of Daphnis in the image, as well as a few impact craters.
Despite its small size, Daphnis' gravity is causing the ripples in the rings. Cassini's 20-year mission will end on September 15, 2017, when it crashes in the surface of Saturn. -via Metafilter
Janne Käpylehto took a chainsaw to a frozen lake in southern Finland and carved out his own ice carousel! He cut a near-perfect 40-foot circle, and then used a solar-powered outboard boat motor to power the spinning circle of ice.
The ice must be pretty thick and heavy to stay level with a shelter, fire, and several people all on one side, although you can see it dip slightly as they jump across the circle. Käpylehto plans on building a bigger one next.
I’ve been planning to build an ice carousel for some time, but managed to do it in Lohja just now. I shot a video with aerial views and its gone viral. Total views more than 5 million. Next one will be a 50-meter giant with sauna, PV plant, electric outboard motors, stage and band.
John Clem was born in 1851, which should have made him too young to fight in the Civil War, but he was determined. The Ohio youngster had to fight his way into the service, and when he was discharged as the war was winding down, he was a 12-year-old folk hero. Clem wrote his autobiography in 1914, which told some amazing stories, some of them backed up by the historical record.
John’s interest in military service had begun shortly after Confederate rebels fired on Fort Sumter, officially starting the U.S. Civil War. At one point, he approached the Third Ohio Regiment of Volunteers, which happened to be passing through Newark, and asked the commanding officer to take him on as their drummer boy. “He looked me over, laughed, and said he wasn’t enlisting infants,” Clem later wrote. But he wasn't willing to let the matter drop. His sister Elizabeth later recalled that as the family sat eating dinner one night in May 1861, “Johnnie said ... ‘Father, I’d like mighty well to be a drummer boy. Can’t I go into the Union army?’ ‘Tut, what nonsense boy!’ replied father, ‘You are not yet 10 years old!’”
After the Klems finished eating, John announced that he was going out for a swim. Instead, he ran away from home.
Clem participated in some of the war's most famous battles, was captured by the Confederate Army, and was wounded twice. After the war, he went to high school -and then joined the army again! Read the story of John Clem at mental_floss.
This would be an everyday "thin ice" video if it weren't for the laughter. The woman recording can't stop laughing long enough to help her buddy out of the water, but somehow is able to continue recording. -via reddit
The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!
Inventive, yet under-publicized devices by Marina Tsipis, Improbable Research staff
U.S. patent #2033357 was granted to Norman D. Riker of Plandome, New York on March 10, 1936 for an “apparatus and process for killing human and animal vermin.” It is intended, he writes, “for killing human and animal vermin such as Pediculus capitis, Pediculus pubis, and Pediculus corporis.” Mr. Riker clothes the infested human or animal in a special garment which bathes the individual in a pest-killing chemical solution.
Norman D. Riker invented this special “gas-tight” clothing, and a method for using it to kill vermin on a person or an animal.
Heart has the answer for Brain's dilemma, as always. They've hit upon the filing system for random stuff that I've been using for many years. All my stuff is labeled "Miss Cellania's." It's the best way to get everything put away in the proper place. Yeah, I'll sort it out. Someday. This gem of a comic is from The Awkward Yeti. -via Geeks Are Sexy
