Wednesday links

Dubious medical device du jour - the prostate warmer.

Scientists are investigating the secrets of smelly cat butts - apparently anal sacs can tell you a lot about an animal.

The physics of juggling.

The peculiar bathroom habits of Westerners. Related: Toilet Paper History: How America Convinced the World to Wipe. My favorite writing on the subject is the toilet paper advice from Lord Chesterfield's Letters to His Son.

The Origin of the Bar Foot Rail.

How Scientists Are Recreating Dinosaur Breath.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include 1960 instructions for building your own fallout shelter, the anniversary of Trafalgar Day, the 19th century practice of dining and dating in cemeteries, and why sodas in outdoor vending machines don't freeze in the winter.

Thursday links

Whatever is dreamed on this night, will come to pass; the summer solstice is this morning (June 21) at 6:07 AM Eastern Time. Related, Fridgehenge: to celebrate the solstice, British guy recreated Stonehenge using old refrigerators. 

Gallery: Cars with Propellers.

During the Great Depression, ‘Penny Restaurants’ Fed the Unemployed.

How to Have a Healthy Summer: Advice from 1656: you'll need to drink feebl green Wine and eschue the company of women.

Operation Acoustic Kitty: (Unsuccessful) Cold War attempt to eavesdrop via transmitters implanted into cats. 

"CIA staffers drove Acoustic Kitty to the park and tasked it with capturing the conversation of two men sitting on a bench. Instead, the cat wandered into the street, where it was promptly squashed by a taxi."

Alcohol - is there anything it can't do? Drunk People Are Better at Creative Problem Solving.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include the anniversary of the 1815 Battle of Waterloo (including, of course, a Lego re-enactment), the sport of motor-ball (AKA soccer on motorcycles), prayers to stop a dog from barking, and where to hit someone to do the most damage.

Wednesday links

On February 29, 1504, Columbus tricked Jamaicans out of supplies using knowledge of an upcoming lunar eclipse.

Before he was president, Abraham Lincoln went on a terrible blind date.

Historical European Martial Art: a crossroad between academic research, martial heritage re-creation and martial sport practices.

Why Do Cats Meow?

100 years ago - Harvard's 1917-1918 midterm and final exams from Principles of Economics.

Lost Art Of Bending Over: How Other Cultures Spare Their Spines.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include the anniversary of the 1945 assault on Iwo Jima, the Nazi-era world's longest kayak journey, the romantic benefits of snail slime, and a supercut of movie characters cursing without cursing. 

Thursday links

Scots, wha hae - Happy Burns Day! Here's a bio of Scotland's "prince of poets" Robert Burns, plus Braveheart, Burns Supper instructions,and lots of haggis.

Incredible 'Hypatia' Stone Contains Compounds Not Found in the Solar System.

The USS Akron plunges into the ocean: an airship disaster worse than the Hindenburg tragedy.

Dog vs cats video du jour - watch this dog intimidate a pair of much larger lions.

18th Century Cudgelling Matches.

The 10th President of the United States, John Tyler, who was born in 1790, has two living grandsons.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include why all the actors from Hollywood’s Golden Age have such a distinct and strange accent, an animated map of the changing borders and population of Europe by year since 400 BC, two new Van Gogh drawings, and why your car company may know more about you than your spouse.

Dog vs cats video du jour - watch this dog intimidate a couple of much larger lions

Taking the dogs vs cats rivalry to a new level:

Monday links

Composer Dimitri Shostakovich was born September 25, 1906: some quotes, history, and music.

Mind-Altering Cat Parasite Just Got Linked to a Whole Lot of Neurological Disorders.

How the Star Trek Punch Became the Worst Fight Move on TV.

Hypnotic breast enlargement.

Man Who Saved the World From Nuclear Armageddon in 1983 Dies at 77.

The Long, Strange Journey of Buffalo Bill's Corpse.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include the physics of wiffle ball, some equinox science for the first day of Fall, the use of the ducking stool on common scolds, and a kid showing his dad how to make Leonardo da Vinci’s self-supporting bridge.

Wednesday links

Summer started this morning at 12:24 EDT - here's some solstice science, history, poetry and music. Related: Fridgehenge: to celebrate the solstice, British guy recreates Stonehenge using old refrigerators. 

Why Is It Called Area 51?

 

Hawaiian Style: The History of the Aloha Shirt.

How to Have a Healthy Summer: Advice from 1656.

You've Got Quail: Why Thousands of Rural Mail Carriers Count Roadside Wildlife Every Year.

How Cats Used Humans to Conquer the World.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include the science of whiskey flavors, the anniversary of Waterloo (with a Lego re-enactment), the art of Soviet children's literature, and, for Father's Day, a selection of parenting advice from Homer Simpson.

Friday links

Daylight Saving Time starts this weekend: here's some DST history (including Ben Franklin's proposal), stories and video.

It's Chuck Norris' 77th birthday: 5 most badass movies and a bunch of Norris "facts".

How Mickey Mouse Evades the Public Domain.

How To Become a Cat: The Complete Guide.

Making Prescription Eyeglasses From Scratch.

The Curse of the Bahia Emerald, a Giant Green Rock That Ruins Lives.

How to Clear a Path Through 60 Feet of Snow, Japanese Style.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include training bomb-sniffing dogs, predatory plants, and Michelangelo's birthday (and his illustrated grocery list).

Friday links

Here, on one sheet of paper, is a map of the entire internet as of 1973.

When Americans Outlawed Christmas.

The Island Where Donkeys Wear Pajamas.

Advice from c. 1200: How to Survive the Winter. Don't forget to lay off the purging and blood-letting, and keep your hands and feet covered in wolf grease.

Humans and Cats Have a Strange, Complicated History.

Digital Incarceration: The Finger Pillory.

ICYMI, Wednesday's links are here, and include lots of ugly Christmas sweaters (and DIY instructions for making your own), how animals cope with cold, debunking Kwanzaa, and a 1562 map of America showing the homes of giants, mermaids, dragons and cannibals. Also, T'was the Overnight Before Christmas: the merry tale of how air cargo deregulation led to Amazon.

Tuesday links

St. Bartholomew's Day - some history (including the massacre), a brief documentary, and Monty Python.

We finally know how sunflowers track the sun across the sky.

Which bathroom stall you should choose if you want the cleanest one?

How to Undress in 20 Seconds or Less, and the tactical order of re-dressing.

How People Call Cats In Different Countries.

Bread in the Middle Ages.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include Dorothy Parker's birthday and the long, weird journey of her ashes, the United States' first trip to the Olympics, the world's only surviving tattoo shop for medieval pilgrims, and a supercut of technology breaking down, then being beaten until it works again.

Friday Links

Video: making 18th century fried chicken.

What Happens if a Presidential Candidate Dies?

Wine For Cats Has Hit The United States.

Happy Birthday Ambrose Bierce, author of "The Devil's Dictionary".

What Accident Most Changed the Course of History?

Police swoop on 'illegal' rubber duck race in the Cotswolds.

ICYMI, Wednesday's links are here, and include superhero physics, spider fighting, revolving restaurant history, and really bad book covers. 

Monday links

Instructions from 1984: how to send an 'E mail'.

Amazing Submarine Concepts.

10 Things School Didn’t Tell You About Amelia Earhart’s Disappearance.

Spring is here (although it doesn't feel like it in the DC area): equinox science, myths, and music, and here's Richard Feynman’s Ode to a Flower (and science).

How a Ragtag Gang of Retirees Pulled Off the Biggest Jewel Heist in British History.

Amsterdam’s Floating Sanctuary for Cats.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, including the Batmobile Parachute Pickup Service van, borderline nations between the US and Canada, and disease-fighting beer.

Dog picture of the day - Cornered

Best dog photo I've seen in a while. ;-)

via Fark.com

Why Do Cats Meow?

An interesting tidbit about cat behavior: in this BBC clip from Cats Uncovered, veterinarian Dr. John Bradshaw of Bristol University says that cats use the vocalizations that work on their mothers when they're kittens (and then stop working when the kitten is weaned) with their humans as a way of getting attention:

The meow starts off as a kitten vocalization. Its something they use in order to call their mothers over…the mother is very attentive to those meows. And then as the kitten grows up, it gradually stops meowing, presumably because it just stops working. The mother wants to wean the kittens and stops responding. A pet cat is constantly meowing at its owner. It’s a way of getting the owner’s attention.

via Laughing Squid.

Monday links

Weird nativity sets.

The Difference between Spider-Man and Santa Claus Is Very Small.

The real history of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ - it all started with a Montgomery Ward marketing campaign in 1939.

How do cats use their whiskers to catch their prey?

1981 Proposal: keep the nuclear launch codes in an innocent volunteer's chest-cavity.

Inside the Operating Theater: Early Surgery as Spectacle.

ICYMI, last Monday's links are here, and include the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor (and Monty Python's reenactment), what Christmas meant to the Nazis, the politics of beards, most popular dog names of 2015, and the feast day of St. Nicholas of Myra (aka Santa Claus).

How do cats use their whiskers to catch their prey?

From the BBC, this rather fascinating look at the thin veneer of cat civilization:

Friday links

A Thanksgiving miscellany: Mark Twain, science, WKRP, Cicero, the best turkey fryer PSA ever, and more.

Crazy Russian Hacker has some kitchen tips to help you out with Thanksgiving festivities. The cupcake tin full of appetizers is my favorite.

A Depression-Era Zoo Housed Wolves and Three Species of Bears Together. It Didn’t End Well.

Are your animals home alone all day? Here's a free archive of entertaining videos for cats and dogs, with bonus cat and dog links for humans. Semi-related: The Long and Glorious History of Cat Ladies.

Who gets the royalties for Hitler's Mein Kampf?

Mortimer Mouse? The Original Names of 10 Cartoon Characters.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include President James Garfield's birthday (when he was shot, Alexander Graham Bell showed up with a metal detector to try to locate the bullet),  the Gettysburg Address and a Pennsylvania newspaper's retraction for an 1863 article calling Gettysburg Address "silly remarks", a woman who won the right to wear a spaghetti strainer on her head for her driver's licence photo, history of people mailing themselves in boxes, a defenestration supercut, and a father who borrowed a Go-Pro, held it backwards and recorded his entire vacation as one long selfie.

A free archive of entertaining videos for cats and dogs, with bonus cat and dog links for humans

There are lots of cat and dog videos around, but generally they're made for humans to watch. These purport to entertain your animals - I don't personally find them all that fascinating, but per youtube comments on Paul Dinning's channel, lots of dogs and cats do. I guess if you leave your pets home alone it would be nice to leave the TV on for them.

Per OpenCulture:

Over the past 6 years, Paul Dinning has created a YouTube channel packed with over 400 videos featuring the wildlife of Cornwall, England. And, from that footage, he has cobbled together playlists designed to delight all cats and dogs with access to the internet. And, apparently cats and dogs are watching. 

Here's Squirrel and Bird Fun:

And The Ultimate Videos of Birds for Cats To Watch:

Previous posts, about animals but for humans:

Terrible pictures of men with cats, bonus Nazis with cats.

Explosives manual from 1530 offers images of rockets strapped to cats.

Slow Motion Flipping Cat Physics, with bonus Buttered Toast/Cat Paradox video.

Animals From History: Portraits of Historical Figures as Cats and Dogs.

Awwww... Cats and dogs meeting babies for the first time.

10 things dogs hate about humans

This compilation video of sneaky dogs raiding the kitchen is a hoot.

Video: Dogs Train Their Human Friends to Keep Petting Them.

It’s Okay To Be Smart on explains how dogs interpret human language.

Science video: Why Do Dogs Smell Each Other's Butts?

Video compilation: Dogs That Forgot How To Fetch.

Dogs vs physics: dogs trying to get big sticks through doors and dogs confused by glass tables.

Dog lovers, start your day with a smile: Compilation Video of Puppies Chasing Laser Pointers.

Dogs Terrified Of Walking Past Cats

More doggy science.

Add some bling to your cat’s bum with Twinkle Tush, a jewel you hang from your cat’s tail

Add some bling to your cat’s bum with Twinkle Tush, a jewel you hang from your cat’s tail, and watch them strut their stuff.

Have you ever thrown a respectable cocktail party at your home only to have your feline family member come out and proudly display their uncovered rear? While kitty might enjoy showing off their brown eye, we’re sure your guests don’t like to see that one eyed monster while munching on their caviar. Give your cat some class. Hang a Twinkle Tush from their tail and cover that butt in bling.

Come with the following warnings:

CONTAINS SMALL PARTS

Contains small parts – keep away from small children. Only cats can handle this much bling.

REMOVE IF DAMAGED

Remove if damaged, do not let pet eat any part. Twinkle Tush only looks good on the outside.

DON’T LEAVE UNATTENDED

Don’t leave your cat unattended with Twinkle Tush. They might be hatching a plot to kill you.

via Mashable.

Wednesday links

Terrible pictures of men with cats, plus Nazis with cats.

Well, that's handy: Butterflies Have an Extra Stomach Attached to Their Vaginas.

How the Second World War Made America Literate.

June Is Goat Trauma Awareness Month: here's a map of every goat in the United States, with bonus goat-related links.

Rich Star Trek Fan Creates the World's First USS Enterprise Building.

What Your Beer Says About You.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include Vonnegut's letter home after his imprisonment in an underground slaughterhouse (Slaughterhouse Five) during the Dresden bombing, France's no-man's land due to poisoning during World War 1,  how to ship a whale via UPS, and the banning of pre-sliced bread in the US.