November 2016 – Page 31

filed under: shopping

Image credit:

amazon / istock

As a recurring feature, our team combs the Web and shares some amazing Amazon deals we’ve turned up. Here’s what caught our eye today, November 21.

Mental Floss has affiliate relationships with certain retailers, including Amazon, and may receive a small percentage of any sale. But we only get commission on items you buy and don’t return, so we’re only happy if you’re happy. Good luck deal hunting!

November 21, 2016 – 12:19pm

Amazon Product Id:

B00P8NEY5Q

November 21, 2016

Searching for a McRib Sandwich? There’s an App for That

Kirstin Fawcett

filed under: Food, tech, technology

Image credit:

Wikimedia Commons//Public Domain

Forget turkey gravy—McDonald’s wants customers to ring in the holiday season with the taste of barbecue sauce on their lips. As Fortune reports, the McRib recently returned to select restaurants, and will be available for purchase until December 31. To help fast food fans track down the limited-edition item, McDonald’s created an iMessage app, the McRib Finder, that locates the nearest franchise selling the popular pork-based sandwich.

Open the McRib Finder in iMessage, and a map will pop up showing your location, along with nearby McDonald’s outlets selling the sandwich. Click on the location markers to get the address—and if you’re meeting a friend for a bite to eat, you can even send it to them, along with a McRib-themed sticker. (Sorry, Android users—you’ll have to rely on the McRib Locator website.)

Few McDonald’s menu items are as elusive as the McRib. The franchise introduced the barbecue-flavored sandwich in 1981, but due to poor sales, it was removed from the national menu a few years later. Eventually, the McRib returned—but it wasn’t until 2005, when McDonalds began offering the savory sandwich for limited time spans only, that it truly reached cult status with customers. Today, the McRib returns at random, typically popping up at sporadic locations across America during the fall.

[h/t Fortune]

November 21, 2016 – 12:30pm

November 21, 2016

Scientists have successfully created cheese…

Scientists have successfully created cheese using human bacteria collected from toes and belly buttons. 10

November 21, 2016

During prohibition in the US an exemption was made…

During prohibition in the US an exemption was made for whiskey prescribed by a doctor and sold through a pharmacy. The Walgreens pharmacy chain grew from 20 retail stores to almost 500 during this period, from 1920 to 1933. 10

November 21, 2016

On September 15 1989, NASA published a comprehensive report…

On September 15 1989, NASA published a comprehensive report on house plants that are best for cleaning indoor air pollution. 10

November 21, 2016

A family won Extreme Home Makeover due to having adopted…

A family won Extreme Home Makeover due to having adopted 5+ kids. After the house was finished, all of the children were “returned” or sent to other foster parents. 10

November 21, 2016

9 Famous People Supposedly Killed by Food or Drink

Claire Cock-Starkey

filed under: Food, History, Lists, weird

Image credit:

British Library via Wikimedia // Public domain

Whether it’s an innocuous-seeming cherry or the more obvious culprit of wine, food and drink have been blamed for the deaths of various notable figures over the years. In the interests of public safety, here are 10 unusual eating-and-drinking-related deaths and the ingredients that are to blame. Don’t be surprised if this makes dinner seem much more ominous.

1. KING HENRY I // A “SURFEIT OF LAMPREYS”

Lampreys are an ancient variety of fish akin to an eel, and the slippery fellows have been blamed for the death of one of England’s kings. Henry I (c.1068—1135) was the youngest son of William the Conqueror, and lived into his mid-to-late sixties. As with most kings of this period he enjoyed a good feast, and one evening, against the advice of his doctors, he indulged in a large portion of lampreys (reportedly one of his favorite dishes). Henry fell ill and died soon after, forever tying his fate to that pesky final plate of fish.

2. DENIS DIDEROT // AN APRICOT

Louis-Michel van Loo via Wikimedia // Public Domain

Eighteenth-century French philosopher Denis Diderot was fond of his food and on occasion was known to overeat. One evening in 1784 as Diderot dined with his wife, he reportedly reached for an apricot with which to conclude his meal. His wife, concerned for his health, scolded him for eating too much, and he replied: “But what the devil do you think that will do to me?” Diderot died just moments after consuming the fruit (and we can picture his wife desperately trying to prevent herself from shouting out “I told you so!”).

3. KING ADOLF FREDERICK OF SWEDEN // CREAM BUNS

Gustaf Lundberg via Wikimedia //Public Domain

King Adolf Frederick of Sweden was a famous glutton and died after consuming an enormous final meal in 1771. The occasion was Shrove Tuesday (or Mardi Gras), the last big feast before the austerity of Lent. The 60-year-old monarch put away a meal of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, kippers, and champagne—so far, so normal—but then he decided to finish off with the traditional Swedish dessert of semla, a cream-filled bun, served in a bowl of milk. However, Adolf Frederick did not stop at one or even two buns—he ate 14 cream-filled buns. It comes as no great surprise to learn he ended up with terrible indigestion and possibly food poisoning, which ultimately killed him.

4. LUCIUS FABIUS CILO // MILK

Roman Senator Lucius Fabius Cilo was one of the most wealthy and influential men in Rome during the 2nd century, but he met his end in a rather unedifying fashion. According to legend, the senator died during a feast after he choked to death on a single hair in his cup of milk.

5. PRESIDENT ZACHARY TAYLOR // CHERRIES

Beinecke Library via Wikimedia // Public Domain

On a blisteringly hot July 4, President Zachary Taylor attended the national celebrations before walking back to the White House along the Potomac River. Arriving home hot and bothered, Taylor drank copious glasses of iced water and milk and ate a great deal of cherries. Soon he was doubled over suffering from extreme stomach pains, and he took to his bed. For five days Taylor lingered on in agony, until on July 9 he died, the official cause of death described as cholera morbus—an infection of the small intestine. However, historians have also suggested the president could have been felled by gastroenteritis caused or aggravated by the acidic cherries, or by food poisoning (still other theories suggest typhoid fever).

6. EUSTACE IV, COUNT OF BOULOGNE // EELS

Eustace IV was the 12th-century Count of Boulogne and heir apparent to the English throne, since his father, Stephen, was king. However, Stephen had been engaged in a long battle with his cousin Matilda and her son Henry, who also claimed to be heir to the English throne. Eustace was not greatly liked, and having recently sacked a sacred monastery at Bury St Edmunds, no one was surprised when during dinner he choked on a plateful of eels and died. Rumors abounded that he may have been poisoned, as his death conveniently paved the way for a peace between the warring parties and for the crown to pass from Stephen to his nephew, Henry II.

7. ADRIAN IV // WINE

PHGCOM via Wikimedia // GFDL

In 1154, Nicholas Breakspear was crowned pope as Adrian IV, becoming the only Englishman to ever hold the post. Contemporary reports suggest that Adrian died suddenly after choking on a fly that had landed in his wine. Some modern historians cast doubt on this story, in part because it seems such an unlikely way to go, and instead propose he died of an inflammation of the tonsils.

8. MARTY FELDMAN // SHELLFISH

Marty Feldman was an English comedy actor famous for playing Igor in Young Frankenstein. He died in Mexico City in 1982 after filming for Yellowbeard. Feldman suffered a massive heart attack that his friend, filmmaker Michael Mileham, claimed was the result of eating some bad shellfish that had given both him and Feldman food poisoning.

9. TYCHO BRAHE // DRINK

Wikimedia // Public Domain

Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe reportedly died after sitting through a lengthy royal banquet with a very full bladder in 1601. Brahe felt that excusing himself from the table to pee would be an unacceptable breach of etiquette, so despite his discomfort he remained sitting, continuing to eat and drink until his poor bladder could take it no longer and it ruptured, causing his death 11 days later. In 2010 tests were carried out on Brahe’s remains which put to rest rumors that he had been poisoned with mercury by his pupil, Johannes Kepler (who would go on to be a famous astronomer himself). The tests showed no unusually elevated mercury levels, indicating that his death was likely indeed caused by a bladder infection, as Kepler had originally reported.

BONUS: SIR FRANCIS BACON // A FROZEN CHICKEN

In March 1626, the elderly philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon was traveling home to St. Albans in a coach when he decided to test his theory that freezing food could preserve it for longer. Bacon stopped the coach and purchased a chicken from an old lady in Highgate Hill, which he then slaughtered, plucked, and proceeded to stuff with snow. Unfortunately, this exposure to the cold and wet caused Bacon to contract pneumonia, from which he died some days later. A number of rather dubious reports have suggested that a ghost of the fateful chicken returned to the site of its death at Pond Square in Highgate, and still occasionally appears to unwary passers-by, running around in circles and flapping its plucked wings.

November 21, 2016 – 12:00pm

November 21, 2016

Everything New Coming to Netflix in December

Jennifer M Wood

filed under: Lists, Movies, Pop Culture, tv

Image credit:

Netflix

Between the holidays and all that vacation time you’ve got to use before you lose it, December is a wonderful time for getting cozy on the sofa and turning your day into a movie marathon. And Netflix has got plenty of fresh content to keep you busy through the new year. Here’s everything new that’s coming to Netflix next month.

December 1

Always (1989)
Angels in the Snow (2015)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Beyond Bollywood (2014)
Black Snake Moan (2007)
Chill with Bob Ross: Collection (1990)
Compulsion (1959)
D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)
David Blaine: Street Magic (1997)
Dreamland (2010)
For the Love of Spock (2016)
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce: Season 2 (2015)
Glory Daze: The Life and Time of Michael Alig (2016)
Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
Hitler: A Career (1977)
Holiday Engagement (2011)
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
House of Wax (2006)
Hannibal (2001)
Merli: Season 1
Merry Kissmas (2015)
National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)
Picture Perfect (1997)
Rainbow Time (2016)
Rodeo & Juliet (2015)
Swept Under (2016)
Switchback (1997)
The Angry Birds Movie (2016)
The Crucible (1996)
The Little Rascals (1994)
The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)
The Rock (1996)
The Spirit of Christmas (2015)
Toys (1992)
Uncle Nick (2015)
Waking Life (2001)
Way of the Dragon (1972)
We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (1993)
White Girl (2016)
Wildflower (2016)
Zero Point (2014)

December 2

Fauda: Season 1
Hip Hop Evolution: Season 1
Pacific Heat: Season 1

December 3

Lost & Found Music Studios: Season 2

December 5

Mad (2016)
The Good Neighbor (2016)

December 6

Blue Jay (2016)
Homeland (Iraq Year Zero): Season 1
Reggie Watts: Spatial
The Devil Dolls (2016)
The Model (2016)

December 8

The Cuba Libre Story: Season 1

December 9

Captive: Season 1
Cirque du Soleil Junior – Luna Petunia: Season 1
Club de Cuervos: Season 1
Fuller House: Season 2
Four Seasons in Havana: Season 1
Medici: Masters of Florence: Season 1
Spectral
White Rabbit Project: Season 1

December 10

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
Phantom of the Theater (2016)

December 11

Breaking a Monster (2016)

December 12

Ricardo O’Farrill: Christmas Special

December 13

Colony: Season 1
Killswitch (2016)
I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016)
Nobel: Season 1

December 14

Versailles: Season 1 (2015)

December 16

Barry (2016)
Call Me Francis: Season 1
Crazyhead: Season 1
No Second Chance: Season 1
Rats (2016)
The Adventures of Puss in Boots: Season 4

December 19

Miss Stevens (2016)

December 20

Disorder (2015)
Gabriel Iglesias: Sorry For What I Said When I Was Hungry
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Season 6 (2016)
Ten Percent: Season 1
The Break: Season 1

December 23

Travelers: Season 1
Trollhunters: Season 1

December 25

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War (2016)
When Hari Got Married (2013)

December 27

Ajin: Season 2
Chasing Cameron: Season 1

December 28

Comedy Bang! Bang!: Season 5 (2016)

December 29

The Hollywood Shorties (2016)

December 30

The Eighties: Season 1 (2016)

December 31

Big in Bollywood (2011)

November 21, 2016 – 11:30am

November 21, 2016

Scientists Spy on Whale Sharks by Testing the Water They Swim In

Kate Horowitz

filed under: Animals, endangered species, fish, genetics

Image credit:

Steffen Sanvig Bach, Maersk Oil Research and Technology Centre, Qatar

Researchers have figured out how to monitor the genetic health of endangered whale sharks without ever touching them—by testing the waters they swim in. They described their progress in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Keeping tabs on endangered animals is an essential part of keeping them safe. Yet our current monitoring methods are imperfect at best. Some, like aerial monitoring, depend on clear weather and good visibility. Others, like tagging, can actually hurt [PDF] the animals they’re meant to protect. It’s time to find new ways to look out for our fellow animals.

One international research team came up with an interesting idea: rather than taking tissue samples from whale sharks’ bodies, what about testing the environment in which they swim?

Study author and geneticist Philip Francis Thomsen of the Natural History Museum of Denmark has been investigating the various uses of environmental DNA (eDNA) for the last few years. He and his colleagues found that testing the water is a great way to help scientists identify and count its piscine inhabitants. But they’d never used eDNA to examine a given fish population’s genetics—that is, how the members of the group are related to one another and others in their species.

Thomsen and an international team of his peers traveled to a site in the Persian Gulf where whale sharks like to congregate. First, they counted the number of fins at the surface to estimate how many sharks were around. Then they collected 20 small samples of seawater and small tissue samples from the sharks so they could compare their results.

They sequenced the DNA found in the tissue samples and the DNA in the water and found that the two yielded similar results. By combining these genetic family trees with their observations of the site, the researchers were able to estimate the number of sharks present. They found that the sharks in the gulf were more closely related to other populations in the Indian and Pacific Oceans than they were to Atlantic whale sharks.

There’s more work still to be done, the authors write, but this hands-off method shows a lot of promise. Whale sharks, if you’re reading this: We’ll keep you posted.

November 21, 2016 – 11:01am

November 21, 2016

Bright Christmas: Meet the Real-Life Griswolds Behind an Incredible Holiday Light Display

Jake Rossen

filed under: christmas, christmas-decorations, holidays, home

Image credit:

Joe Drelick

When the newly-married Joe and Tracey Drelick pulled up in front of a house for sale in Harleysville, Pennsylvania in 1998, she thought it was one of the most attractive properties she had ever seen. It was in their price range, well-cared for, and in their preferred neighborhood.

Joe refused to get out of the car.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “Are you kidding?”

Joe shook his head. “The castle,” he said. “The castle won’t fit in the front yard.”

For 15 years, Joe’s father, Bill, had been engineering one of the most elaborate and spectacular displays of holiday cheer of any private residence in the country. In addition to a 17-foot-tall castle, there was a church, a nativity scene, tens of thousands of lights, and over two dozen interactive displays. Press a button and an animated Santa would laugh heartily or the Little Drummer Boy would bounce up and down. Press another and tiny figures in the windows of the miniature buildings would dance.

Bill Drelick’s spectacle had attracted thousands of visitors from every state. But Joe knew his father wouldn’t do it forever. The day would come when the Drelick tradition would fall into his hands. And he would need a large enough yard to tend to it.

The couple kept looking. When they found another house, Tracey walked through it with the realtor while Joe stayed outside, measuring tape in hand. He wanted to be sure the spirit of Christmas could fit into 800 square feet.

The Drelick preoccupation with holiday excess began in 1983, the year Joe, then 13, begged and pleaded with his parents to put up a more elaborate display than the spare decorations they preferred. One night, with Bill and his wife at a party, Joe brought friends over and had them help with the lights. When the Drelicks returned, the exterior of the house looked like a Macy’s department store.

“My wife was very upset,” Bill tells mental_floss. “Hollering at him. ‘I’m gonna kill that kid.’ Typical mother.”

Bill convinced her the lights would be a fitting tribute to her father, who had recently passed. She relented. For years, Joe and his mother added to the display, hanging a series of lights until Bill realized he couldn’t watch television because all of that holiday spirit kept blowing fuses.

“That’s when I decided to get involved,” he says.

A facilities manager by trade, Bill had the electrical and carpentry knowledge needed to match his son’s ambition for increasingly involved decorations. “Around 1990, I made a castle out of plywood,” Joe, now 46, tells mental_floss. “Every time the wind would blow, it would fall over. So my father essentially remade it using metal screening so the wind would go right through it. We had little windows with elves in them. And that was really the beginning.”

The activity in the castle’s windows soon began to attract passersby, who would stop and peer out of their cars. “I thought, let’s give them something to really look at and study,” Bill says. “So each window had an ornament, and when you press a button, it would turn on.”

“I equate that to the invention of sliced bread,” Joe says. “It was huge.”

The push buttons gave the Drelick yard interactivity. Soon, dozens of people were getting out of their cars and approaching the residence, marveling at the growing population of plastic reindeer and animatronic figures. Despite $600 utility bills, Bill kept the lights on for hours at a time, setting a curfew only when he realized that people who came later at night had enjoyed a little too much liquid cheer.

“I would have buses from the senior home pull up,” he says. “Some of them were too old to get out and look, so I’d get on the bus and describe everything to them.”

Bill’s neighbors were generally tolerant of the traffic, apart from one resident who had just moved in and never quite acclimated to the goodwill. He had police come out nightly and complained to the township over noise levels, which put Bill on the radar of local electrical inspectors.

“They wanted me to get licensed or something,” he recalls. “But the push buttons were hooked up to a 5-volt battery. It’s no different than holding a flashlight.” Bill finally got an attorney to write a sternly-worded letter, which ended the back-and-forth.

“Still won’t talk to us,” Bill says.

Three generations of Drelicks—Joe, Jacob, and Bill—prepare the castle for display.

By 1998, Joe was out of the house, married and expecting his first child. His own display was comparatively modest, but he’d spend up to eight weeks helping his father get ready for the unveiling of the Ambler display on Black Friday.

“We just enjoyed each other’s company,” Joe says. “I knew he’d retire at some point. He did it until he was 75 years old.”

Bill’s final year as the lead builder was 2010. “I’m 80 now,” he says. “It just got to the point where it didn’t feel right. I’d be out of breath and have to sit down in a chair and burp every 20 minutes.” His retirement was official after both a quadruple bypass and a spill off a ladder. “That had nothing to do with my health, just my own stupidity,” he says. “I was standing on the very top step of a 12-foot ladder, which you should not do. The sun was high and I was trying to see around it. Down I went, brrrrrappp down the steps. They slowed the fall.”

Bill was fine, but done. In 2011, he and Joe began the laborious process of moving over all of his materials 20 minutes away to Joe’s residence in Harleysville, where Joe constructed a shed in his backyard to help contain it all. You could fit three cars in there, Joe says, except it’s full of gingerbread houses. Displays like the castle—which measures 24 feet across—were designed by Bill with storage in mind. The pieces are like Russian nesting dolls, folding into one another. In Joe’s basement workshop, he and his father spend time repairing displays that were pounded by weather the year prior.

“Olaf from Frozen took a beating,” Joe says.

New additions are frequent. Last year, Joe built a Philadelphia skyline featuring his beloved Phillies and a silhouette of Rocky Balboa. Two years before that, he constructed an immense clock tower that he had fantasized about crafting since he was a kid.

“It’s 19 feet tall and sits on top of the shed,” Joe says. “Kids look up in awe. It’s like Big Ben.”

Last winter, ABC came calling, wanting to film the Drelick display so they could go up against other light fanatics in a primetime contest special. The Drelicks lost. Sort of.

“Someone left a handmade trophy on our porch shortly after the show aired,” Tracey says. “It came with a note saying, ‘You guys were the real winners.’”

Joe has been a facilities manager for 25 years, which gives him a fair amount of vacation time. He uses 10 days of it every year to help meet the demands of preparing the display, which is sometimes enough to keep him up at night.

“I just want to get it done for Black Friday,” he says. “You hope the weather is good. I always worry about Nor’easters.”

He likes to say he’s happy year-round and Christmas is a time when everyone else catches up. Joe will play Santa at least once this year, handing out stuffed animals and coloring books. When his children were younger, they would play elves. “We have that on videotape,” Tracey says, which sounds vaguely threatening. Their oldest, Jordynn, wrote her college application essay about the display. Jacob, 16, is responsible for carrying parts around.

“It’s coming his way if he wants it,” Joe says. “I’m grooming him.”

Last year, the family received more than 12,500 visitors, with an average night attracting around 500 people. There’s no admission charge, though sometimes people will leave cookies or festive sweaters. Many sign the guestbook, which Tracey and Joe read after the 35,000 lights—mostly LEDs—go out at 9:30 p.m. It’s tangible evidence that their work has brought a lot of people a lot of happiness.

“Reading things like, ‘You have an amazing soul’ can get to you,” she says. Men have proposed to girlfriends in her yard. Young couples who visited Bill’s display in the past now show up with their own children in tow. Local police have told her they’ve driven by the house on nights they need cheering up. It always works.

You can follow the Drelicks’ progress as they set up the lights—and find out how you can visit—on their Facebook page.

All images courtesy of Joe Drelick.

November 21, 2016 – 11:00am

Month: November 2016

Amazon’s Monday Deals Start Black Friday Week With a Bang

GADGETS AND MEDIA

KITCHEN

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OUTDOORS, GARDEN, AND SPORTS

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Searching for a McRib Sandwich? There’s an App for That

Scientists have successfully created cheese…

During prohibition in the US an exemption was made…

On September 15 1989, NASA published a comprehensive report…

A family won Extreme Home Makeover due to having adopted…

9 Famous People Supposedly Killed by Food or Drink

1. KING HENRY I // A “SURFEIT OF LAMPREYS”

2. DENIS DIDEROT // AN APRICOT

3. KING ADOLF FREDERICK OF SWEDEN // CREAM BUNS

4. LUCIUS FABIUS CILO // MILK

5. PRESIDENT ZACHARY TAYLOR // CHERRIES

6. EUSTACE IV, COUNT OF BOULOGNE // EELS

7. ADRIAN IV // WINE

8. MARTY FELDMAN // SHELLFISH

9. TYCHO BRAHE // DRINK

BONUS: SIR FRANCIS BACON // A FROZEN CHICKEN

Everything New Coming to Netflix in December

Scientists Spy on Whale Sharks by Testing the Water They Swim In

Bright Christmas: Meet the Real-Life Griswolds Behind an Incredible Holiday Light Display