We read about TikTok challenges in which everyone tries to outdo each other in something outrageous and sometimes dangerous. But that's not really new, because children have been doing this kind of thing forever. I remember when kids were dared to chew on cinnamon toothpicks. In the 1990s, it was Warheads. It seems that Warheads were the result of a candy manufacturing challenge to make the sourest candy on earth, since those types of candy were growing more popular all the time. Warheads lent themselves readily to a schoolyard dare. How many could you eat before they burned a hole in your tongue? No one found out, because you gave up before that happened. But are Warheads really as dangerous as they are rumored to be? Tom Blank of Weird History Food explains how Warheads came about, what they are made of, the controversies they sparked, and why kids are both attracted to and frightened by them. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

These lovely handmade glass vessels get their distinctive color from crushed quagga mussel shells. Quagga mussels are an invasive species in the US and most of Europe, having originated in Ukraine. The mussels tend to clog pipes and must be removed, but they aren't fit to be eaten, so they end up in landfills by the ton.  

Glass artist Lulu Harrison has spent years studying and experimenting with waste products in order to turn them into beautiful new objects. Her Thames Glass project uses artifacts removed from pipes in and out of the River Thames such as quagga shells, local sand, wood, and metal to make glassware and tiles. She collaborated with glass blowers Sacha Delabre and Rosie Power to make the Thames Glass collection, which will be shown at the Design Museum in London June 24th through August 25th. The museum has recently awarded Harrison the Ralph Saltzman Prize for the project. 



See more of the Thames Glass project at Harrison's website and at Instagram.   -via Nag on the Lake  

The Duluth News Tribune introduces us to Dustin Soyring of Hibbing, Minnesota got his start by restoring antique cars. His skills at paint and bodywork made for a smooth transition to provide customers with matching refrigerators. Soon, he developed a reputation as skilled in this specialized trade conducted by perhaps four people in the United States.

Then the famous football players Travis and Jason Kelce reached out to Soyring and asked him to provide vintage fridges decorated with the logos of the brothers' beer brand, Garage Beer. After the Kelces showcased the fridges on their social media outlets, Soyring's services have been in high demand. He now keeps a couple 1949-1951 units in stock, ready for the next celebrity request.

-via Marginal Revolution

A truly ridiculous scenario was submitted to the What If? series (previously at Neatorama). What would happen if you tried to send all the water going over Niagara Falls through a straw? That's 50,000 to 100,000 cubic feet of water per second! Randall Munroe and Henry Reich gamely explain why you can't do this with some of the finer points of fluid dynamics, and how this attempt would trigger some bizarre effects, like water "boiling" under pressure in a pipe. 

Most of that went over my head, but I wondered how they knew that the flow was 50,000 to 100,000 cubic feet per second. It turns out that's the mandated minimum amount of water regulated by treaty. A lot more Niagara River water is diverted for power generation. The preservation of Niagara Falls is overseen by at least five different organizations- or else the falls could be dry a lot of the time. You can learn a lot from a stupid question. 

Jaws was the movie that gave us the word "blockbuster" in 1975. Of course, they made Jaws 2, without Steven Spielberg. Producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck thought making another sequel after that would be stretching things unless they came up with a different idea. How about a comedy? They approached National Lampoon, which had a hit in 1978 with Animal House. National Lampoon writers John Hughes and Tod Carroll started working on a script for Jaws 3, People 0. 

The premise of the film was that a Jaws sequel was being filmed at a beach when an executive producer was eaten by a real shark. The shark continued attacking the cast and crew, while the movie executives fought amongst themselves. Oh yeah, and the shark was from outer space in at least one version of the script. The film was announced and the roles were cast, but Jaws 3, People 0 was never made. The reason it was canned varies depending on who you ask, but there could have been many reasons. Ultimately, there were two other Jaws sequels released (Jaws 3D and Jaws: The Revenge) that were not intentional comedies. Read the story of Jaws 3, People 0 at Mental Floss.  

It stands to reason that if you can do something--especially something of a culinary nature--you probably should. Thus if you have a few cans of tuna and a soda water maker, it's time to be creative.

YouTuber Ordinary Sausage makes extraordinary foods for his viewers' appreciation. These marvels include chocolate-covered pickles, Oreo-stuffed sausage, and steak flavored with Sour Patch Kids candy.

Most recently, Ordinary Sausage carbonated tuna and water to produce a sparkling tuna liquid that made for a fine tuna salad. He then turned this into a tuna salad sandwich with a bit of kick.

Not everyone on YouTube appreciates his genius, though:

-via Born in Space

According to the available statistics, there are 13,162 nuclear weapons in the world today. That's a lot, considering how we know from experience that the most you need to defeat an enemy is two. However, that experience comes from 80 years ago, back when no other country had the means to respond in kind. There have been times when the number of nuclear weapons was staggeringly large, peaking at more than 64,000 in 1986. What did we think we were going to do with all that?  

Sasha Medin of Data Is Beautiful put together an animated timeline to show how many nuclear weapons existed in each year since they were developed. For a statistics video, this actually has some dramatic moments, like in the 1950s when the Soviet Union raced to build their nuclear arsenal. In the late '80s, both superpowers began pulling back their numbers. In 1991, the Soviet Union suddenly disappears from the timeline, as Russia became the world's biggest nuclear power, with Ukraine and Kazakhstan just below the US. Ukraine and Kazakhstan gave up their nuclear weapons in 1994. In the 21st century, the US and Russia have achieved parity as they cut back, while other nations are still building their arsenals up. -via Laughing Squid 

In 1878, the American Neurological Association was informed of a strange phenomena in the lumber camps of northern Maine. A visit to the camps proved the stories to be true. Many of the lumberjacks and their family members were extremely sensitive to being startled, and they reacted by jumping to extreme heights. Not only that, but they would unthinkingly and immediately obey any command given to them during the startle. Those afflicted became known as "the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine," since many of them were of French-Canadian heritage. 

Later studies proved that the condition was not limited to any ethnicity, nor to the state of Maine. Experts thought it might be genetic, but it only appeared that way because the affected logging camps contained families. At first you might think the jumping reflex might be related to the dancing manias of medieval Europe, but then it also seems akin to the physical condition that affects the fainting goats of Tennessee. Then in the 1960s, yet another possible cause arose from sociological studies in isolated lumber communities. We still don't know the exact cause of the jumping syndrome because it doesn't happen anymore, but you can read what we do know about it at Amusing Planet. 

You would have a hard time finding entertainment franchises as different as the sitcom It's Always Sunny inPhiladelphia and The Lord of the Rings. But that's exactly what makes this mashup so funny. Danny DeVito's character Frank Reynolds is rude, crude, and socially unacceptable. He frequently pulls a gun for the slimmest of reasons, or for no reason at all. Putting him in LOTR, among characters regarded for their loyalty, bravery, and honor is totally antithetical to the ethos of Tolkien's tales. YouTuber Your_Kryptonite7 edited Reynolds into Middle-Earth, using clips from both The Lord of the Rings movies and The Hobbit films. Frank is just Frank, in all his psychopathic glory, while Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel, and the other characters can't hide their feelings of bafflement, disgust, and shock. What Galadriel is shocked by is blurred out, but you get the point. Yeah, it's a deranged idea, but you will be impressed by the editing and timing. -via Cracked 

Remember when you first watched Star Wars on the big screen back in 1977? The movie blew you away because the special effects were way beyond anything else movies had at the time. Then the years went by and George Lucas kept fiddling with the original, bringing us Special Edition after Special Edition with his improvements. Fans hated the changes, like making the puppet Jabba into a CGI Jabba and having Han shoot Greedo only in self-defense. Eventually, Hayden Christensen became a Force ghost even though he wasn't even born until 1981. Meanwhile, George Lucas refused to allow the original print to be shown. 

Until now. A group of movie critics and avid Star Wars fans were invited to see the 1977 print screened by the British Film Institute as part of their Film on Film Festival. That's when fans learned that a lot more has changed besides Jabba and Greedo. The 1977 special effects that were so groundbreaking at the time now look laughably amateur. The sets appear cheap. The sound effects are tinny. The audience realized that Lucas had changed so much more than just the scenes they recalled, and that's why watching A New Hope on TV looks almost as good as watching Rogue One. Read how the 1977 version of Star Wars went over at The Hollywood Reporter. -via Fark 

Once upon a time, wolves were the stand-ins for any evil in folklore. There was a good reason for that, since hungry wolves were dangerous for small villages, and children had to be warned to stay out of the dark forest lest they become dinner. But when it's just a story and not a literal life lesson, wolves can be anything. The danger still comes from the dark and mysterious forest. 

Lesllie Pulsifer reworked the folk tale of Little Red Riding Hood into a new story titled The Wolves Are All Gone. It's an allegory about strangers with malicious intent upending the established way of life by frightening the populace. You have to let go of the traditional reputation of wolves in such stories to really understand the metaphor. Relating the tale to modern times, who the wolves are and who the stranger is all depends on your preconceived notions of friend and foe.

Pulsifer wrote the story, created the animation, and wrote and performed the music, which will give you an earworm. 

The movie Fantastic Four: First Steps will hit theaters on July 25th, and the marketing is ratcheting up quickly. Leading the pack is a pizza from Little Caesars that is a four-in-one combo. Each quadrant has different toppings: cheese, pepperoni, Italian sausage and bacon, and pepperoni and jalapeño. The jalapeño quadrant obviously represents the Human Torch, and the sausage quadrant looks like rocks, so it should represent The Thing. But which quadrant is Mr. Fantastic and which is The Invisible Woman? More importantly, how are we going to split this pizza when everyone wants the pepperoni and jalapeño slices? 

But that's just the beginning. The Fantastic Four will also appear on cereal boxes on grocery shelves, on boxes of limited edition Pop Tarts, on jugs of flavored blue milk, and on Snapple tea. Read about all of these food tie-ins that appear to tell us this movie is a kids film at io9.  

Mack Roesch was riding his bike near his home in Florida when he saw a raccoon with an aluminum can stuck on his head! The raccoon couldn't see and was wandering near the road, so he would have eventually become roadkill. Mack tried to pull the can off, but it was securely jammed on the raccoon's head. Not only that, but the scared creature was keen to attack anyone who touched him. But other strangers got involved. A woman used a yoga mat to pin the raccoon down while Mack went to get some tin snips. Then a construction worker stopped and used a truck mat. It took all three to free the raccoon, who didn't so much as say thanks before he scurried off into the woods. That's a lot of work for one raccoon, but saving the little fella made everyone feel warm all over. And Mack got a video. 

The picture above is of actor Pedro Pascal. You might know him from his roles in Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, or The Last of Us. In 2023, Pascal was quoted as saying there is no good Mexican food in New York City. Annisha Garcia, owner of Son Del North Mexican restaurant in Manhattan's Lower East Side begs to differ, and he got the idea to stage a Pedro Pascal lookalike contest. The contest was yesterday. You'll have to click right on the picture to the third image to see the winner. He is George Gountas of Brooklyn, whose family and friends noted his resemblance to Pascal back in the days of Game of Thrones. His family insisted he enter the contest. 

Gountas, a lighting designer at The Daily Show, won $50 and a year's supply of burritos. We don't know how many burritos that is, but it's a nice haul for Fathers Day. At The New York Post, you can see all the contestants, a couple of whom actually have a passing resemblance to Pascal. -via Fark 

Update: get a better look at Gountas in the comments. 

Jerry Wayne Longmire is a Houston-based comedian who is not just Texan, but very Texan. In this video, he describes a very relatable experience that, as a fellow Texan, I feel in my sweat-soaked overalls: Longmire must look at his energy bill as the summer heat (made all the worse by the moisture blowing in off the Gulf of America) erodes his being.

Longmire tells the story as the long-winded Southern novelist William Faulkner would. Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi is geographically far from East Texas, but not culturally far from this kudzu-stangled land ruled by mosquitoes, cottonmouth snakes, and languid despair.

-via Elai