Miss Cellania's Links

Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projects. (via Fark) 

Valonia ventricosa: The Giant Single-Celled Organism (Also Known as The Sailor’s Eyeball). 

Knocked it down real good! (via Everlasting Blort) 

How is deli meat made? The food science behind the turkey, ham and other cold cuts in your lunch. (via Geeks Are Sexy) 

What if America Went Completely Dark? Our electrical grid is vulnerable to attack by pretty much anyone. (via Metafilter) 

The comic strip that may have cast Sean Connery as the first James Bond. 

Why This Traffic Light Only Turns Green Once Per Year. (via Fark) 

A Blast from the Past (2007): Life Before Air Conditioning. 

Cats Do Shakespeare

 

You know how dramatic cats can be. If all the world's a stage, they are surely all players. Continue reading to see their talents. 

The Space Song

Here's a cute and catchy song from Clare and Si Bennett, also known as Planet Custard, about the planets of the solar system. It's set to an animated video that is cute, funny, and artistic at the same time. Each planet gets a verse about what makes it unique, and even Pluto makes a cameo appearance. And now I can't get the tune out of my head. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Going to the Doctor

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What Else Would You Do With It?

(via Bad Newspaper)

I Dunno

(via Give Me a Sign)

Baby Talk

Your mother told you not to use baby talk, but that's when you were old enough to use regular speech. She changed her mind when you had children of your own. We just can't help ourselves when we talk to a baby. But what is baby talk? One kind is just gibberish, when the speaker is imitating baby sounds that aren't real words, which is useless. The other is "parentese," or "infant directed speech" (IDS). The word pronunciation is correct, the grammar is correct, but the tone and accent are especially designed to grab an infant's interest.And it comes fairly naturally to anyone interacting with a baby. 

Dr. Erica Brozovsky breaks down what infant directed speech is for and how it helps babies learn to speak a real language. This video is more than a minute shorter than it looks, as it ends with a sponsor. 

Corporate Artists

From Married to the Sea.

A Terrifying Bowl of Spaghetti

We're getting into that time of year when you look for ways to make an impression for Halloween. YouTuber and crafter North of the Border made a bowl of spaghetti that wants to eat you instead of being eaten. You could call it creepypasta. It's very detailed, all made of clay and some metal wire. I would have just used a real bowl, fork, knife, and spaghetti and thrown in the homemade eyes and teeth, but he went all out. After all, those eyes and teeth could be used in other dishes. The twelve minutes of the building process are cut into chapters in the progress bar in case you want to skip something, but the commentary can be funny at times. See the finished product from all angles at 10:38. 

I cannot quite peg where North of the Border learned English, from the way he pronounces pasta and oregano, but the channel reveals he's in the UK even though the accent is not quite British. The channel also reveals he's made quite a few weird things you might want to try. (via Laughing Squid) 

Harp Player

(via Fark)

Sweetest What the Fluff Surprise Yet

Zephyr is a four-year-old golden retriever witnessing the "What the Fluff Challenge." We don't know what Zephyr was expecting, but we were expecting the young man holding the blanket up to disappear. Instead, he changed into Kevin, Zephyr's favorite person, who has been gone for nine months doing Army training at Ft. Bragg. Zephyr was pretty happy with the result! (via Digg)

A Joke

It's all in the way you tell it. This comic is from Liz Climo at Hi, I'm Liz.

Music Critics

(via Bad Newspaper)

Rapper's Delight

"Rapper's Delight," as performed by the Swedish Chef. The only fault I could find with this is that is it too short. (via Metafilter) 

Dipstick

(via Bits and Pieces)

Why Cats Love Cardboard Boxes

We all know that a cat will ignore the luxurious bed you just bought him and instead go for the box it came in. Sure, it's funny, but it also causes cat lovers to bring home boxes just for the cat. Why do they love boxes so much? Because it's cozy and a great place to hide. But the reasons go much deeper. 

Cats don't see the world the way humans do. They have instincts that go back thousands of years, to the days their ancestors had to deal with a harsh world. They don't know how much you spent on that new cat bed, but they know what they like, and they like boxes for their own instinctual reasons. Once you see the world through their eyes, it makes plenty of sense. (via Laughing Squid) 

Stop In

(via Pleated-Jeans)

Buc-ee's

Comedian Tim Hawkins wrote a little song about Buc-ee's, the unique travel stop that I once called the most inconvenient convenience store ever. Buc-ee's is know for clean restrooms, expensive food, and a hundred gas pumps all lined up outside. The stores are about the size of an airport, and sell everything from barbecue sandwiches to "Bible verses on shot glasses." 

The subject of the song is excited to see a billboard for Buc-ee's and sings the praises of its over-the-top offerings. As a takedown of redneck taste and consumerism, it's pretty funny, but you can also hear the advertisement value, because these are exactly the things that American travelers want to see and spend money on, for some reason.  

Miss Cellania's Links

How American society shields perpetrators of child sexual abuse. 

Unresolved: The Langville, Montana, Mystery & the Legend of a Disappearing Town. (via Strange Company) 

Atlas Obscura's Guide to the World’s Strangest Christmas Traditions. 

A Surprising Real Estate Detail Worth Sharing. 

Explaining systemic racism with a board game. Way oversimplified, but effective. 

Meet Alessandro Moreschi, the Last Surviving Castrato in the Sistine Chapel Choir. (via Nag on the Lake) 

Researchers Return to a Forgotten Forest Experiment 30 Years Later—With “Astounding” Results. (via Damn Interesting) 

Grandma's binder. (via Everlasting Blort) 

Flock is Trying to Find Out How Much of the Surveillance State You’ll Tolerate.  

Heartbreak

(via Fark)