This creek in a New Jersey forest has concrete walls on both sides that extend for miles. People on both sides noticed a fawn that had fallen in, and wasn't able to scale the wall to get back out. He was pretty small, and was injured besides. Local people kept returning to the site to see if he was still there, and that went on for two weeks. It became clear he wasn't going to get out on his own, so they called The Last Resort Wildlife Refuge. Nancy Warner responded and took stock of the situation. This would require some work. A carpenter and crew built a custom set of stairs for the deer! A bit of time and some deer chow, and the stairs did their work. The two weeks the deer spent by himself in the ravine were recovery time for the injury, and now he is free to find his family.
How long does it take for you to poop? How does that compare with other people or species?
According to a recent study on the fluid dynamics of poop reported on by PBS News, mammals spend an average of 12 seconds (plus or minus 7) performing excretion. From cats to bears to humans to elephants, 12 seconds is about all the time that you need.
That said, the distribution of pooping speeds is not uniform. In general, larger animals tend to pass droppings faster. Elephants, for example, poop at about 6 centimeters each second. For humans, the speed of poop is about 2 centimeters per second.
I for one do not care for my species to be known as sluggish. We're the dominant species on this planet and it's time that we act like it.
-via Kottke | Photo: Mark Buckawiki
An essential component of disaster preparedness and response for libraries is consideration for the protection of the library collection. A library in Sicily resorted to extreme measures to rescue approximately 400 rare books in danger of destruction when a landslide left its facility hanging off the edge of a precipice.
The Guardian reports that firefighters made a detailed plan to enter the precarious building, strap together bookcases, and extract them quickly. This entailed serious risk to the firefighters, as geologists anticipate that the library will soon fall off the cliff. Their leader of the firefighters compared the planning and execution to akin to "pulling off a bank heist."
-via Super Punch | Photo: Sicilian Unit of Firefighters
In western Switzerland, near the French border, in a valley called Val-de-Travers, lies the town of Couvet. That's where absinthe was first developed. The drink began to be commercially produced in the 19th century, and gained a reputation in Paris and around the world. Known as the green fairy, absinthe was rumored to cause hallucinations, but that was less from the wormwood and other flora than the alcohol content, which could reach 70%. Absinthe was banned in 1910, only re-emerging in 2005. But of course, it never really went away, especially in the lush forest of Val-de-Travers.
In this forest, there are fontaines froides (cold fountains), which are hiding places for a bottle of absinthe. During the ban, they were well hidden, known only to those who knew where to look. These became part of the valley's folklore, and are being kept alive today even when grocery stores carry absinthe. The custom brings tourists and hikers to Val-de-Travers as a bonus for enjoying the beauty of the area. Read about the charming fountains and the history behind them at Atlas Obscura.
Admiral David Dixon Porter was one of the Union's most successful naval commanders during the American Civil War. After an excellent combat record, he served as Superintendent of the US Naval Academy and, in retirement, wrote his memoirs of the war and a naval history of it.
At Emerging Civil War, historian Neil Chatelain informs us that Porter also wrote fiction, including two romance novels. These he titled Allan Dare and Robert le Diable and Arthur Merton, a Romance.
Chatelain's wife, Brittany, promised to read one of these novels if he ever found one in print. Chatelain found a copy of Allan Dare and Robert le Diable. She was underwhelmed when her husband interviewed her about the experience:
How does Porter’s writing style compare with romance writers today?
Brittany: It’s actually interesting. He writes men in a way women might want to read about men physically, but the men are mostly focused on being strong. So, they have no real personality. Women are described as just vapid and materialistic and physically they all have small feet, which is apparently what men desired in the 19th century. Few of the women were very strong in character. All of this is in direct contrast to modern romance novels where women have a large depth of character, which highlights the difference between a female author and a male author writing a romance.
[…]
What was the best part of the book?
Brittany: None of it was particularly enjoyable.
What did you not enjoy about the book?
Brittany: The entire book. I would say more, but it would spoil the plot for any potential readers.
Would you recommend other romance novel readers take a chance with Admiral David Dixon Porter’s writings?
Brittany: Absolutely not.
She concludes by giving the novel a rating of two out of five stars.
In the 1994 film Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Jim Carrey must escape his robotic rhinoceros by squeezing out of its butt while naked.
The prop is quite sophisticated. You can see Adam Savage's complete walk-through of the mechanism and how it functioned to create the scene here.
I'm sure that you're already imagining how enjoyable it would be to own the prop and to role-play the scene yourself on a daily basis. Well, then, good news! The Propstore in Los Angeles is auctioning it soon. The starting price is $2,000, but it's clearly worth more given its obvious office workplace applications.
-via Dextero
The march of progress continues, building better lives for ourselves and our posterity. New wonders in this age of abundance, prosperity, and innovation harken to a utopia that is no longer on the distant horizon, but approaching with celerity.
How do we know? Because it's possible to buy and then use Reese's flavored toothpaste. The Hershey Company and the toothpaste firm Hismile are releasing this life-altering dental product. FoodBeast reports that it is, at the moment, only available in Australia and New Zealand. But keep in mind that it is possible to travel to those nations to partake of this Promethean bliss.
-via Ramp Capital
Andrew Hiers is a professionally trained opera singer with a highly successful stage career. He's a true artist and a master of his craft.
But the hard truth is that financially thriving in the performing arts is chancy. Road & Track reports that when his gigs dried up, he got a job selling cars at a Chrysler leadership in Cocoa, Florida. Hiers is a good sport about this unplanned career change and uses his musical skills on the lot to pitch purchases to customers. On his Instagram channel, you can listen to him try to seduce a sale out of you with his voice.
-via pagliacci the hated
It's hard to get anyone to watch a live-action film from a hundred years ago because they are black and white and silent. But animated cartoons? Those are still hilarious a hundred years later. Line drawings on film physically hold up better over time, and dialogue isn't necessary when the visuals are funny. Humor is based on the unexpected, and cartoons utilized funny scenarios that can't possibly happen in real life, like animals acting like people and extreme violence that leaves no damage. This mayhem included animated body parts stretching like rubber hoses, hence the name of the style. Rubber hose animation made cartoons big hits in the 1920s, and we still watch them today.
Rubber hose animation enlivened cartoons of the 1920s and '30s, then Disney came along with color and dialogue and realism and superseded the bizarre slapstick of rubber hose animation. More's the pity, but we still have those old cartoons.
There's a long history of people sailing across an ocean by themselves, or attempting to. Usually they are in small boats, which are easier to handle by oneself, which gives us the term "microyacht." As the boats got smaller, the competitive nature of the sport went from the accomplishment of making it across the ocean to racing other solo sailors to seeing who can make the smallest boat to get there in.
Andrew Bedwell is no novice in solo sailing, or even microyachting. His newest boat is the smallest yet, and will set a new world record if he makes it across the Atlantic in May. The route will take him 1900 miles from Newfoundland to Ireland. The microyacht, called the Big C V2, is only 4.5 feet wide. How long is it? He won't reveal that, but it is shorter than the current record holder, which was 5 feet, 4 inches long (1.63 meters). It is made of aluminum and carries solar panels, a power system, food and water, sails, and even has room for Bedwell to stretch his legs out when sitting inside. The Big C V2 can also be packed up and sealed in case of a storm. Read about the tiniest microyacht at Practical Boat Owner. -via Messy Nessy Chic
(Image credit: Andrew Bedwell)
I'm sure you've been puzzled by the meaning of a brand name at least once in your life, and found no one to ask that could shed a light on it. You may have found more confusion among those around you, as some see it one way and others have always seen it a totally different way, and neither side has ever considered the other interpretation.
Musician Ben Lapidus took a fresh look at the logo for PetSmart and saw how ambiguous it is. There's only one thing to do- write a song about it, and make it heavy metal so everyone will pay attention to this matter. It's not exactly an earth-shattering dilemma, but it will make you think. Maybe it's supposed to be ambiguous. Lucky for us, PetSmart saw Lapidus' video and issued a response.
Whew, aren't you glad that's been cleared up once and for all? -via Laughing Squid
Getting a glimpse of the earliest versions of beloved Disney characters was a hit, so why not do some more of them?
The 2013 movie Frozen was the culmination of Disney's decades-long quest to make a movie out of the 1844 Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Snow Queen. If you're familiar with it, you know the Queen is the villain of the tale, cold but still beautiful. An early draft of the Disney character has her rail-thin, with blue skin, spiky hair, and the makeup of an elderly grand dame. That was before they decided that Elsa wouldn't be a villain after all. The early versions of Wreck-It Ralph were monsters, resembling a yeti or a bear and in some cases, sporting horns. And Stitch from Lilo and Stitch was a terrifying tiger with a rat head. See ten more early versions of Disney characters who looked nothing like the finished product at Cracked.
How does a mere notepad inflict damage in a duel armed only with a pencil? By drawing on your opponent. The first with a full mustache and beard is the loser. Then one duelist figures out how to make himself more intimidating, a decision that may have won the competition but that he regrets the next day.
You might recall the Bent Objects series of whimsical sculptures made by Terry Border. They were everyday objects made into sentient beings doing everyday stuff to make you smile. It's been ten years since we posted them, and most of those links are no longer available. Now Border is back, experimenting with a new medium- video! Yes, he's done some digital videos over the years, yet this is his first old-fashioned stop-motion version of his signature objects, this time two notepads dueling it out with pencils. He thought it would be too tedious, and now he says it turned out to be a pleasant experience. -Thanks, Terry!
— Miss Cellania (@misscellania) March 5, 2026
During the rise of the Nazi regime, radio was used as a propaganda tool to indoctrinate the German people and convince them of the inevitability of the Third Reich. The British were above such tactics, at least on the surface, as the BBC continued to broadcast strict truth during World War II. But they also had a secret program, a string of radio stations in the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), based out of the rural village of Milton Bryan. This program hired talented musicians, writers, and actors who were German refugees and not trusted for other British positions in the war effort.
These propaganda stations broadcast big band music in German, often with rewritten lyrics designed to make soldiers homesick. The news they read was a combination of confusing war plans and rumors, laced with enough true gossip to convinced listeners they were broadcasting from Germany. Agnes Bernauer, a young aspiring actress and singer who was a half-Jewish refugee from Germany, became Vicky with Three Kisses, seducing German soldiers with her voice by singing and telling soothing tales of British propaganda. Read how all that worked out pretty well at Smithsonian.
When is a lie a lie? That may seem like a simple question on the surface, but there are many factors to consider. When you say something complimentary to avoid insulting someone with your honest opinion, we call it a "white lie," but it's still a falsehood. You could say the same thing about embellishing a story for drama, or about passing along a lie that we don't know is false. How about when you word something in an ambiguous way that gives you plausible deniability? Should we define a lie by the literal words, the intent behind those words, or the perception of the listener? It's very possible to say one thing with words while implying something completely different with body language and tone of voice. Does this make one of them technically a lie?
Linguist Dr. Erica Brozovsky (previously at Neatorama) explains how complicated lying is, from animals that use camouflage to criminal perjury. It's no wonder lie detectors don't work.
