Pigeon whistles, called geling 鴿鈴 or geshao 鴿哨, are lightweight (8 grams or less) whistles tied to the backs of pigeons so that they produce a musical sound when the birds fly. This has been going on in China for a thousand years, first by the military as a means of communication, then by people who kept and trained pigeons as a hobby. Pigeon whistles are made from bamboo or dried gourds, and these can be combined to produce multiple sounds. They are attached to the bird's four main tail feathers, and do not hinder or injure the pigeon. There are strict traditions for making the whistles, so that multiple birds will sound harmonious when flying.

The sight and sounds of pigeons carrying whistles are likened to "old Beijing," because the art is dying out. Keeping pigeons declined when China's architecture turned to skyscrapers and modern-looking homes, which left little room for nests. There are still a few experts in the craft of making the whistles, but they are entering the realm of collectibles. -via Present & Correct

YouTuber The Usual Suspect recreated Eminem's #1, Oscar-winning song "Lose Yourself" from the 2002 movie 8 Mile using movie clips that deliver the lyrics. We've seen supercuts like this before, but this one stands out for its artfulness. None of the movie scenes nor the movies themselves are duplicated, even in the chorus. Plus they were selected for their rhythmic pace and edited accordingly, leaving us with the illusion that the actors are really singing this song. Even if you aren't a fan of "Lose Yourself" or previous supercuts of movie clips, you'll want to try this one out.

The Usual Suspect used this video as a resurrection of his CinemaSings series, which hasn't had a new video in three years. There's a list of all 331 movies in order under the pinned comment at the YouTube page. The list does not include the movie 8 Mile. Contains NSFW language.

Lon Chaney wasn't the first cinematic werewolf, even though The Wolf Man established the folkloric monster as a box office star in 1941. Six years earlier, Universal Pictures introduced lycanthropy to movie audiences in Werewolf of London. It starred Henry Hull as a botanist who goes to Tibet to find the world's rarest flower, which only blooms under moonlight. It is also supposedly a cure for "lycanthrophobia," a condition that causes a man to turn into a wolf -with the urge to destroy that which he loves most. He comes back with three buds, but also with a case of lycanthrophobia himself. Warner Oland stars as the werewolf that bit him.

Werewolf of London was a box office disappointment, for reasons that are spelled out at Inverse. But Universal learned some lessons from Werewolf of London and brought the werewolf to greater things in The Wolf Man a few years later.

For a long time, I thought the only difference between Miracle Whip and mayonnaise is that Miracle Whip has sugar in it. But that's far from the whole story. I was never a fan of mayonnaise, but I learned in chemistry class that it's an emulsion of eggs and oil with a little lemon juice or vinegar added for tang. That was a fun day in class. Meanwhile, Miracle Whip is a brand name for "salad dressing." I've never known anyone to use it on a regular salad, but it comes in handy for potato salad or tuna salad, if you don't just use mayonnaise.

Miracle Whip was unveiled in 1933 as a cheaper alternative to mayo. When oil was expensive, people came up with a recipe for "boiled dressing" that used a lot more ingredients but got the job done. Kraft combined this alternative recipe with mayonnaise to make a lighter, sweeter dressing they called Miracle Whip. Read about boiled dressing and how it led to Miracle Whip at Mental Floss.

Artist Kamber Carroll makes furniture that satiate your hunger for novel and eye-catching style. He's built up a portfolio of home furnishings that look like food. Carroll's latest collection titled The Sandwich Series presents popular sandwiches as tables.

Aliens in Los Angeles
byu/bedmed8 infunny

Grik and Carl are from a civilization that has been keeping on eye on earth for thousands of years. Aside from an occasional abduction and that unfortunate incident in Roswell, they've kept their profiles really low. But in recent years, they've decided to reveal themselves to humans and help earthlings become advanced enough to join the Interdimensional Federation. There's a problem, though- no one believes them. This requires more research. They continue to study us and try to make sense of the humans who inhabit this planet. It's not easy. In this video, they visit Los Angeles to take in the vibes and learn about yogurt, Peloton bikes, and pickleball. No one is the least bit surprised to see them.

Grik and Carl are comedians Brent Pella and Blake Webber. While a lot of comedy relies on pointing out the weird parts of our society, it works well for them because they pull off the alien impersonations to a T. The aliens have a fairly new YouTube channel in case you want to catch up on their saga. -via reddit

Where do babies have the lowest risk of dying? In wealthier nations, the infant mortality rates are small, but never small enough. Japan, Finland, and Sweden have the lowest mortality rate, but that needs some explanation. The comparisons are between 19 OECD countries, meaning the most developed nations, that have at least 20,000 babies born every year. And, as in everything else, it depends on your definition of infant mortality. Some countries count infant deaths as any infant born alive who dies afterward, while other countries only include births that occur after 22 weeks of gestation.

A series of charts at Our World in Data shows the difference in the way statistics are determined, and then adjusts infant mortality rates to compare them for only babies born after 22 weeks of gestation. They also compare the rates of mortality in the first month after birth and the first year after birth. That's when South Korea slides from the third lowest mortality rate to the sixth lowest mortality rate. The good news is that in all these countries, the mortality rate is less than 1%. If only the entire world could boast such low rates. -via Real Clear Science

(Image credit: Hannah Ritchie)

Elliot was found on the streets of Cairo with missing paws due to abuse. Debbie Pearl of the Unstoppable Ranch arranged to bring Elliot to California, nursed him back to health, and had him fitted with four prosthetic legs. It took Elliot months to learn how to walk in them, but once he did, there was no stopping him! But that's not the end of the story.

Pearl heard about another black dog in Cairo with missing paws due to abuse. This dog is a girl, now named Zoe. Having gone through Elliot's recovery, Pearl immediately accepted her and had prosthetics made again. The two dogs look like twins, so one cannot help but think they may be related, and maybe even suffered under the same abusers. But both Elliot and Zoe are living a good life now with eleven other well-loved disabled dogs, and are even paying it forward by working as therapy dogs! -via Laughing Squid

In the 19th century, people flocked to cities to take new jobs produced by the Industrial Revolution. Poverty and adulterated food left too many school children malnourished, so Boston and Philadelphia were two of the earliest cities to offer school lunches, in 1894. A new exhibition at Philadelphia’s Science History Institute titled "Lunchtime: The History of Science on the School Food Tray" looks at the evolving science of nutrition in school lunches. The chart above isn't identified by the year, but the lunches cost only a penny, so it must be from around the turn of the 20th century. Notice it has no meat and no vegetables, although some fruits are offered.

Scientists tried to determine what an optimum school lunch consisted of, but The Great Depression, wartime rationing, and available food supplies all affected what was served. We still haven't hit on a formula that produces optimum nutritional value at a cost that schools can manage, but we've come a long way from crackers and milk for lunch. Read more about how school lunches developed at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Science History Institute)

The habu (Protbothrops flavoridis) is a venomous snake common to the Ryukyu Islands, which includes Okinawa. These snakes measure about four feet long and their bites, if left untreated, can result in death. They don't prey on humans, but humans do prey on them, often by infusing them in local liquors.

Sora News 24 found that they're good eating. The publication sent a reporter to the island of Amami Oshima, where restaurants offer habu meat. This serving of fried habu sells for ¥2,000, which is about $13.98 USD. The reporter says that it tastes like fried chicken, albeit with a chewy texture.

Arieh Smith, who goes by the online pseudonym of Xiaomanyc, is a polyglot who picks up languages incredibly easily. Among other languages, he has a nearly native-level command of Mandarin Chinese. He teaches it online using his sophisticated knowledge of the way that languages work.

In this video, he first delivers a speech to high school students using Gen Alpha slang, which is helpfully subtitled for Gen Xers like me. Then he gives another speech, also in Gen Alpha slang, to language education students at the Ohio State University. Gyatt, Xiaomanyc's rizz is no cap sigma and mad lit.

-via Laughing Squid

There is a charming scene in Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers in which Wallace is slung out of bed, dressed, and served breakfast in a mere few seconds by his dog Gromit with the aid of some mechanical shenanigans. Joseph Herscher of Joseph's Machines (previously at Neatorama) saw this as something right up his alley. Can he recreate the scene in real life without resorting to animation or special effects?

The fact that this video exists means the answer is yes, but it wasn't easy. This time, we get to see the process of building one of Joseph's machines, despite his trepidation about falling from a great height. The jelly made a mess, the bed broke, and there was no plausible substitute for training a real dog to initiate it all. You can skip to 7:39 and see the finished stunt, or you can enjoy all the hard work and bruises that went into making it. -via kottke

During the Age of Exploration, it wasn't uncommon for ships to lose the majority of their crews to scurvy. While there were many theories as to what caused scurvy, a lot of people suspected it was a dietary deficiency. After all, long ocean voyages required foods that could be preserved and stored a long time, which meant they were pretty plain. Ship captains tried various kinds of supplements, and several found that citrus fruits or sauerkraut could fend off scurvy, yet neither scheme was well communicated nor adopted in the shipping industry. Provisioners had to keep costs down, and vitamin C wouldn't be discovered until 1912.  

Then in 1747, Scottish naval surgeon Dr. James Lind selected 12 sailors suffering from scurvy to test six different treatments. Besides the experimental treatment, they were all kept in the same conditions and fed the same food. The two men who were given oranges and lemons improved quickly, one going back on duty in just six days! The men who were given vinegar, seawater, sulphuric acid, or other treatments shows no significant improvement.

Unfortunately, since this was the first clinical trial of its kind, Lind didn't have enough confidence in his methods or results. It would take several more decades before citrus fruits were widely adopted as a scurvy preventative. Read the story of that first clinical trial at Amusing Planet.

(Cropped image credit: Robert Alan - Parke, Davis & Company)

When you're young, you might think of your brother as merely a companion who has always been there, and you don't really appreciate him until something goes very wrong. Caleb got himself trapped inside a video game titled Leftover Pasta. His little brother Frankie can save him only by completing the game. But Frankie is younger and this mission (and the game) is making him very nervous. The game itself is hard to crack and nonsensical to those of us not familiar with this kind of challenge. But that's not really important to the plot. It's really about the love these brothers have for each other.

Ben Knight made this short film for his BFA degree at CalArts. From the credits, it appears that his family did the voices. They did the music, too. -via Metafilter

Sometimes you see a display of ancient history and all you see is rocks. But they are labeled as ancient stone tools. Have you ever wondered how anthropologists can tell they've been deliberately shaped, as opposed to just breaking that way? To tell the difference, you need to be somewhat familiar with the art of flintknapping, or shaping rocks by breaking off pieces.  

Flintknapping requires a basic understanding of physics and geology, plus skills that only come with practice. Those who have tried it know that it's not easy, and our ancient ancestors most likely took years to perfect the skill, and then passed it down to the next generation. Picking just the right stone and finding the right place to apply force to knock off flakes left behind telltale clues to those who know how it's done. Read up on those clues and how the deliberate shaping of rocks differs from random breaking at the Conversation. You might even pick up a new hobby.

(Image credit: Gary Todd)