Amazon Deals

New at Amazon

Friday, October 23, 2015

Menstruation music videos for kids

Barnkanalen, the Swedish childrens’ TV channel, adds this item, called “Hurra for Mens!” [English translation: “Hurrah for Monthlies!”] to the emerging category of menstruation music videos for children.

In Swedish with English subtitles - behold the dancing tampons:



Here’s a earlier video about dancing tampons, set to the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker.

Friday links

Some Halloween-related links: history, witches, costumes for animals and people, pumpkin carving (and exploding), and trick or treating origins, candy hierarchy.


Gallery of photos from hot-air balloon festivals.

Guinness record du jour - this 400 ft long baguette smeared with Nutella, with bonus world's largest pizza.

We Used to Recycle Penicillin from Patients’ Urine. Related: A Moldy Cantaloupe & The Dawn of Penicillin.

Photo of the iceberg that may have sunk the Titanic for sale.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include atomic gardens of the 1960s, the history of 20 dog breeds, ATM in Antarctica, how French artists in 1899 envisioned the year 2000.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Some Halloween-related links

also Hallow-e'en, c. 1745, Scottish shortening of Allhallow-even "Eve of All Saints, last night of October" (1550s), the last night of the year in the old Celtic calendar, where it was Old Year's Night, a night for witches. 
Today I Found Out has an excellent Halloween Facts Roundup, including why witches are use broomsticks, trick or treating origins, and the relationship between Halloween candy and Daylight Saving Time. 

20 Houses That Are Clearly Winning At Halloween.

Faust, Mephistopheles, Napolean, Oliver Cromwell or a Hugenot: Halloween Ideas From an 1884 Costume Guide, plus 1880's Batgirl costumes and, from 1931, NYC architects dressed as their buildings.

Vintage and Antique Halloween Ephemera.

40,000 people's votes determined this candy hierarchy.

An excellent site for DIY intelligent women's costumes.

25 Easy DIY Halloween Costumes You Can Make Last Minute.

Dave Barry's Halloween column from 1996: Night Of The Living Chocolate.


Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Guinness record du jour - this 400ft long baguette



Via The Guardian:
The baguette was smeared with Nutella and
distributed to the crowd.
A judge from Guinness World Records has certified that a 400ft baguette baked at the Milan Expo 2015 World’s Fair is the longest ever made. Some 60 French and Italian bakers worked for nearly seven hours on Sunday to bake the baguette, moving a specially designed portable oven along its length.
The process was sponsored by Nutella:
The Italian maker of Nutella, Ferrero, backed the enterprise to beat the 111-meter (364-foot) record held by a French supermarket chain. Once certified as a record-breaker, the baguette was cut and smeared with Nutella to share with the hundreds of Expo goers who celebrated the record.
Pizza almost a mile long was made with 1.5 tons of mozzarella and
2 tons of tomato sauce, weighed some 5 tons in all
It was at least the fourth world record declared during the six-month Expo, which closes Oct. 31, including the longest pizza at 1.5954 kilometers, or nearly a mile long.

Monday, October 19, 2015

Monday links



ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include lessons from the Sioux in how to turn a boy Into a man, the history of Oktoberfest, a compilation of Rita Hayworth's dancing scenes set to Stayin' Alive, and photos of a young AndrĂ©, before he became AndrĂ© The Giant.