World’s Strangest

Somehow this gem has escaped my attention until now. In 1906, Sam Walter Foss, a librarian in Somerville, Massachusetts, published a series of funny poems about the variously happy and beleaguered staff of a public library. This must be made into a musical. From my first semester of library school, I’ve argued that what the profession [...]

Ryan McVay/Photodisc Here’s a gem for your next round of barstool trivia: a recent study shows that people who have a couple drinks solve brainteasers faster—and get more correct answers—than their sober peers. Jennifer Wiley, of the University of Illinois in Chicago, asked 40 men to play a few mind games to test creative problem solving skills. Half [...]

Here’s another gem from How It’s Made — an exploration of a German pencil factory, using Californian cedar. I’ve always found it curious how we still refer to pencil “lead” although it’s primarily graphite these days; the video explains that for these pencils, the “lead” is graphite and clay. It’s impressive to see how the [...]

This gem comes courtesy of redditor ultimobranchialbody. Adherence is mandatory. Link via Geekosystem

There have certainly been many odd music videos over the years. The short format seems to invite experimentation and risk taking. Brainz has collected 15 of the weirdest videos of all time, including a gem from Leonard Nimoy for his song “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins”: As if Leonard Nimoy needed to prove himself even more [...]

This and many more clippings of newspaper article titles so bad they’re good, funny typos and more at this gem of a blog called Criggo. Be prepared to lose hours: Link – via Miss Cellania