Kids that appear different often get bullied. The pressure to conform can be overwhelming, and those who cannot suffer greatly. We've all seen campaigns to fight this tendency, to encourage acceptance of others, and to boost the confidence of those who don't quite fit in with the crowd. The short film We’re Kinda Different by Ben Meinhardt takes that concept to a higher plane by making the protagonist a small marshmallow with a butt where his torso would normally be.
The idea is so ridiculous, you can't help but laugh. This little guy has his talents, like playing the trumpet. But the reactions from the people around him tear at his self-esteem anyway. Over the course of the song, we get to see the pure and innocent soul underneath that butt. His determination to hold his head high eventually changes those who recoiled at the sight of him, and his confidence spreads to others who may be considered different. -via Kuriositas
The City of Dallas, Texas, like most cities, regulates the construction of new buildings in its jurisdiction. The permit office is in the process of moving to a new 11-storey facility. Staff had already started to move in but have, NBC 5 News reports, been forced to return to its old facility.
That's because the new building is not up to code. It lacks an occupancy permit and so, of course, cannot be occupied. The confusion is causing delays in the office issuing occupancy permits for the rest of Dallas, as well as, apparently, itself.
-via Megan McArdle | Photo: City of Dallas
Think what you will about the gluttony and grossness of the sport of competitive eating, but what if it wasn't really competitive? Goats don't care about how much another goat eats, as long as they get what they want for themselves. And eating is what they do best. That's the thinking behind Goatham, an eating contest for goats to be held this Saturday in Manhattan's Riverside Park.
For the last five years, Riverside Park Conservancy has been using goats to clear away invasive plants, including poison ivy, that want to take over the park. The eating event is to bring awareness to the goats' talents in trimming, weeding, and fertilizing the park. Over a few years, they've expanded the areas of the park that can be used by the public. There are no "rules" posted for determining who wins, but you can meet the five star goats who will be participating. The contest will be overseen by Major League Eating, which usually stages human eating competitions. -via Boing Boing
The Jenny Jones Show was a daytime talk show that ran from 1991 to 2003. After a benign beginning, the show descended into the "trash TV" genre by focusing on scandalous subjects for their entertainment value. In 1995, 24-year-old Jonathan Schmitz was shocked to find that his friend Scott Amedure had a secret crush on him- in front of a studio audience, while the tape was rolling. Three days later, he shot and killed Amedure. Schmitz used the "gay panic" defense at his murder trial. The facts of the murder itself were not in dispute, but how culpable was The Jenny Jones Show? Schmitz was humiliated, but was he ambushed? Not surprisingly, there were other cases of crime and death associated with tabloid TV in the 1990s, and while that particular kind of show has mostly gone by the wayside, other TV shows are making bank on drama concocted on the backs of everyday people.
Daphné Keraudren is a French and Greek artist who lives and works in Brussels. Her work includes many playful pieces of public furniture that are daring for their colors, forms, and riskiness. Pictured above is her Use at Your Own Risk Chair, which is one of five pieces that suggest taking chances with personal safety while going about in Amsterdam.
It's attached to a window and is found in Scandinavia. What is it? The answer is below the fold.
Someone put My Cousin Vinny dialogue over Skeletor and Evil-Lyn and its way too perfect pic.twitter.com/Ld4ZyY5nTj
— Todd Spence (@Todd_Spence) July 9, 2025
Mylo the Cat has, for a decade, remixed popular media online to juxtapose unexpected scenes and genres. His Muppet combinations have been a Neatorama favorite.
In this video, Evil-Lyn from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe argues with her supervisor Skeletor. The audio is from an argument between Joe Pesci's and Marisa Tomei's characters in the 1992 legal comedy My Cousin Vinny. Evil-Lyn is tired of Skeletor's busy career conquering Eternia and is ready for him to settle down into married life.
The Minnesota State Fair opens August 21st in St. Paul and runs through September first. As always, the fair is full of shows, concerts, competitions, and carnival rides. But many people go for the fair food, which we have described for years as "deep-fried on a stick." The menu for the 2025 fair has been released, and it includes new conglomerations of sweet, spicy, exotic, and decadent foods. Treats planned for the fair for the first time this year include Chicken-Fried Bacon Fries, Dill Pickle Iced Tea, Hot Honey Jalapeño Popper Donut, Shrimp & Pork Toast On-A-Stick, and Birthday Cake Cookie Dough On-A-Stick. Is that decadent enough? If not, you must try the Uncrustaburger, a hamburger with cheese and pickles served between two peanut butter and jelly Uncrustables.
There are also fusion dishes, combing two (or more) cultural recipes, like Somali Street Fries, Tandoori Chicken Quesaratha, Cannoli Gelato Nachos, and a Fawaffle. That's a waffle made of chickpeas. Check out 41 new kinds of food and drink available when the fair opens in this gallery. -via Metafilter
Just a reminder, the new Superman movie will open this Friday. We saw from the trailer that Krypto will be a part of it, and nothing draws people to a movie more than a dog (except maybe sex and violence and superheroes). Will Krypto be held hostage by Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor? That's the idea in this animated skit from How It Should Have Ended. What will Superman do to get his dog back?
Stay on your toes, Superman. Yours is not the only movie riding the hype machine this summer. There's also Jurassic World Rebirth, in theaters now. Fantastic Four: First Steps will open on July 25. There's always a new Batman movie in development, even if it won't come out this year. And when it comes to dogs in danger, there's one hero who stands above them all. We know you love Krypto, Superman, we all do. But this time you might be outshined. -via Geeks Are Sexy
The Miami Herald reports that a Sri Lankan man was caught at an airport in Bangkok, Thailand attempting to smuggle three snakes in his underpants through a security screening. The trouser snakes turned out to be ball pythons, a protected species. Removing them from Thailand requires special permits.
This particular man has an extensive history of wildlife smuggling. He's also been accused of attempting to move "wolves, meerkats, black cockatoos, sugar gliders, porcupines, ball pythons, iguanas, frogs, salamanders and turtles" illegally. I have no information about whether he tried to sneak these animals in his underwear, too.
-via Dave Barry | Image: Thailand Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plan Conservation
You might recall back in 2021 that a woman from Mali had nine babies at once. Halima Cissé was flown to Casablanca, Morocco, and delivered four boys and five girls by Cesarian section, ten weeks before what would have been a normal due date. There had been a couple of cases of nonuplets born before, but none in which even one baby survived. Cissé's infants, who weighed between 1.1 and 2.2 pounds, were kept in a hospital nursery for months, and the family was joined by her husband Abdelkader Arby and older daughter Souda. They returned to Mali 18 months later. The Guinness Book of World Records awarded Cissé the world record for the most children delivered at a single birth to survive, surpassing Octomom's record.
On May 4, Kadidia, Fatouma, Hawa, Adama, Oumou, Mohammed VI, Oumar, Elhadji, and Bah all turned four years old, and are thriving. People magazine has posted pictures of the family for the occasion. -via Fark
I recall reading about the Marvel movie Thunderbolts* last year, mainly about why they had an asterisk in the title. It completely slipped by me that the movie opened in May. As the final installment of MCU's Phase Five, it was expected to be a hit. Alas, no. Thunderbolts* received generally favorable reviews, but it has yet to make enough money to cover its massive production and marketing costs. The premise is that a group of misfit antiheroes, i.e. criminals, band together to save the world and become heroes. Marvel seems to be aiming for the heroics of an Avengers movie meshed with the humor of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. However, the too-large cast of characters wasn't likable enough to pull it off. Screen Junkies goes all in on pulling Thunderbolts* apart in this Honest Trailer.
By the way, the asterisk is supposed to go to the footnote *The New Avengers. Good luck with that.
In 1929, Germany was still struggling with the political and economic mess left by World War I. Friedrich Ritter was a Berlin physician who wanted to get away from it all and live a simple, natural life. So he left his wife and went to Floreana, an uninhabited volcanic island in the Galapagos. He took a patient with him, Dore Strauch, who he was in love with. Strauch suffered from multiple sclerosis, but gamely went to build a new life on the island. The couple sent letters back to Germany by passing ships, and some were published. Those letters made island living seem like paradise, and Ritter and Strauch were joined by Heinz and Margret Wittmer and their teenage son. The Wittmers set up their own household and gave birth to another son while living on Floreana. In 1932, a third household arrived- Eloise Wehrborn de Wagner-Bosquet, who claimed to be a Baroness, and her two younger lovers.
The Baroness lived closer to the sea, and talked of a plan to open a hotel on Floreana. That never happened, but she greeted passing ships and collected everyone's mail. They suspected she intercepted supplies, too. The three households on Floreana were never close, but they were the only people living on the island. The cordial equilibrium they had built began to break down, particularly when the inhabitants began to disappear. Read the incredible, mysterious, and true story of the settlers of Floreana at Danny Dutch.
Olivia is experienced in fostering pregnant cats, but Pizza was a really hard case. She was feral and pregnant, and didn't trust anyone. That can be a dangerous combination, so Olivia kept away from Pizza as much as she could, lest she get her fingers bitten off. Pizza did not approve of anyone handling her kittens for even a minute. But like many cats, Pizza was won over by lots of time and a life of luxury. She was only unfriendly as long as it took to get her kittens weaned. Once she came out of her shell, she set her eyes on Olivia's big orange cat! Well, you can't separate a bonded pair, so the ferocious feral foster cat became a forever cat in Olivia's household. You can see more of the foster cat household at Olivia's Instagram gallery. It's titled House of Six Cats, but you'll find a lot more than six!
Marie Curie coined the term radioactive, and with her husband Pierre discovered radium and polonium. The couple worked in a shed that became covered with radioactive dust, but they didn't mind. They even went out there at night to admire the glowing bottles of radioactive chemicals. After Pierre's death. Marie worked in a laboratory in Paris (now a museum) for twenty years until her death in 1934. She handled radium with her bare hands, because it wasn't thought of as particularly dangerous. In fact, in those days, radium was seen as a miracle of sorts, used in cosmetics, drinks, remedies, and glow-in-the-dark paint.
The atomic age made us all more aware of the dangers. In the 1980s, Marie Curie's lab was decontaminated. The surfaces were all scrubbed, and the cabinets sent to a nuclear waste site. In the 1990s, the Curies were exhumed and reburied in lead coffins due to radioactivity. In 2020, the Curies' granddaughter had her family heirlooms tested for radioactivity. The results led her to send her grandmother's cupboard to a nuclear waste facility. Recently, a team was allowed to search for radioactive fingerprints remaining in Marie Curie's laboratory. There they found the places she had touched, still emitting radioactivity as the materials had sunk into the wood. Read about the radioactive Marie Curie at BBC Future. -via Curious About Everything
(Image: unknown, colorized by VictoriaKC)
