This Online Museum Is Preserving Sounds for Future Generations

Conserve the Sound is not your average museum. It describes itself as “an online museum for vanishing and endangered sound” and it’s exactly what the world could use right now. Daniel Chun and Jan Derksen are the brains behind the operation, and they’re committed to preserving sounds that are vanishing from our everyday lives.

Some examples include a rotary phone, typewriter keys, and the buzzing sound of a vintage intercom.

Remember the vintage viewfinders you used to play with as kids? That sound is cataloged by Conserve the Sound as well.

Be sure to browse through the online museum’s website. I guarantee there’s something on there to make everyone feel like an old timer. What a great idea!

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These 17 Fruits Look Totally Creepy When Peeled

For some odd reason, these different varieties of fruits look totally bizarre when they are peeled, so bizarre that it might just blow your mind.

Next time you have the desire to peel a fruit, do yourself a favor. DON’T.

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The Number One Source of Trash in the Ocean is Cigarette Butts

I often picture plastic bottles when thinking about pollution in our planet’s oceans. But Business Insider recently pointed out, the number one source of trash in our oceans is cigarette butts.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Many smokers simply deposit cigarette butts on the ground when they’re done smoking for a few reasons. Most people don’t go to the effort of extinguishing their smokes, so they don’t put them in a trash can for fear of starting a fire. On top of that, public ashtrays are rarer than they once were, so they’re often difficult to find on the street.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Many cigarette filters contain a non-biodegradable type of plastic called cellulose acetate that doesn’t break down over time and instead washes into waterways. And you know all those people you see smoking on the beach? Those butts end up directly in the ocean.

Photo Credit: Max Pixel

It’s estimated that about 60 million cigarette butts have been removed from the ocean since the 1980s. Cigarette filters still contain many of the harmful materials that cigarettes have including arsenic, lead, and nicotine. This can have even more negative effects on marine life. It’s up to smokes to dispose of their cigarette butts in the proper manner. A company called TerraCycle will send smokers a recycling repository designed to collect ashes and filters.

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Top Beer Producer to Eliminate Plastic Rings and Glue Its Six-Packs Together

It’s no secret that the plastic rings that hold our beloved six-packs together are horrible for the environment. They end up in oceans and animals become caught in them and starve to death. I’ve even seen photos of turtles who got stuck in them and the plastic totally changed their shapes. Overall, it’s an environmental disaster. And you know that quite a few people aren’t taking the time to cut up the rings before putting them in the trash.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

But there’s good news from a top beer producer. Carlsberg, based in Denmark, has taken a bold step forward and come up with a glued six-pack design called the Snap Pack. This allows the six-packs to stay together without any extra plastic by using dots of glue.

The glue is strong enough to keep the cans together during transport but can be pulled apart easily.  It took three years to perfect the design. Carlsberg estimates that their new measure will reduce their use of plastic by 75% and will save over 1,300 tons of plastic each year. The Snap Packs will debut in the UK in September 2018 before they spread out to the rest of the world. Let’s hope other companies follow Carlberg’s lead.

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8+ Fascinating Facts About Hurricanes

Hurricane season is upon us once again. Those of us who live inland are not as familiar with the facts about these awful storms as the people who live on the coast. But, regardless of where you live, it’s important to know about the forces of nature.

Below are 10 interesting facts about hurricanes that might just blow your hair back.

10. If you look it in the eye, it will tell you its secrets.

Image Credit: Pixabay

A ragged, symmetrical eye means the storm is struggling to maintain its strength, while a smooth, round one signals a strong, stable storm. Oddly though, the smaller the eye is, the more intense the storm.

9. Hurricane Patricia is the strongest hurricane ever recorded.

Image Credit: Pixabay

She made landfall on the western coast of Mexico in 2015 as a huge category 5, with sustained winds of 210 mph off the coast and 150 mph when she made landfall.

8. There are only hurricanes in North America.

Image Credit: Pixabay

While a mature tropical cyclone is known as a hurricane in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Ocean, it’s called a typhoon when it appears near Asia and a cyclone everywhere else in the world.

7. The wind is only part of the danger.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Weather reports typically focus on wind speeds, but more than half of the deaths related to hurricanes result from the storm surge, which is when the ocean water is pushed inland by the winds.

6. They get names so we can keep track of them.

Image Credit: nhc.noaa.gov

Meteorologists began naming hurricanes in the 1950s to make it easier for forecasters and news reporters to talk about them. Today, the Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans each get a separate list of alternating names that are reused every six years.

5. The greatest danger is in the eyewall.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The bands of wind and rain that spiral out from the center of a hurricane cause damage, flooding, and tornadoes. But the eyewall — the tight group of thunderstorms in the center — causes the most damage with its winds when it hits the shore.

4. Hurricane Hunters are a thing.

Image Credit: Public Domain

They’re basically Helen Hunt in Twister, except they fly specially outfitted airplanes into the middle of storms to measure wind speeds and other meteorological data. They also drop sensors called dropsondes inside storms to read their activity.

3. The name of a particularly bad storm is usually retired.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

There’s no use tempting fate, I suppose, which is why the names of the most destructive and deadly hurricanes are taken out of circulation. Since hurricane names first started being recorded back in 1954, more than 80 names have been retired. For example, Matthew and Otto were retired after the 2016 hurricane season, and will be replaced by Martin and Owen the next time their letters roll around.

And, in case you were wondering, yes, Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Irma, and Maria have all also been retired.

2. The eye is warm.

Image Credit: Pixabay

This might not surprise you considering it’s a tropical storm, but since the eye is formed by air rushing down from the atmosphere to replace low pressure that’s being sucked away from the surface, the temperatures in the eye exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit even thousands of feet above the Earth’s surface.

1. California has different problems.

Image Credit: Pixabay

It seems a little weird that a state with hundreds of miles of coastline rarely deals with hurricane threats. While they certainly have their own issues with earthquakes and fires, to be sure, the colder temperatures of the Pacific ocean make hurricanes more unlikely. The worst one in history hit San Diego in 1858 and was only a category 1.

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Here Are 20 New Words Merriam-Webster Is Adding to the Dictionary This Year

Our language is constantly evolving. Many of the new words that get introduced into the Merriam-Webster dictionary come to us from the online world. And boy oh boy, are there a whole lotta slang terms.

Here are 20 new words that the Merriam-Webster dictionary is adding to the big book in 2018.

1. BOUGIE (ADJ.)

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Short for bourgeois, this term means “Marked by a concern for wealth, possessions, and respectability.”

2. FINTECH (N.)

“Products and companies that employ newly developed digital and online technologies in the banking and financial services industries.”

3. BINGEABLE (ADJ.)

“Having multiple episodes or parts that can be watched in rapid succession.”

4. HAPTICS (N.)

“The use of electronically or mechanically generated movement that a user experiences through the sense of touch as part of an interface (such as on a gaming console or smartphone).”

5. FORCE QUIT (V.)

Photo Credit: Flickr,Vincent Brown

“To force (an unresponsive computer program) to shut down (as by using a series of preset keystrokes).”

6. AIRPLANE MODE (N.)

“An operating mode for an electronic device (such as a mobile phone) in which the device does not connect to wireless networks and cannot send or receive communications (such as calls or text messages) or access the Internet but remains usable for other functions.”

7. INSTAGRAM (V.)

“To post (a picture) to the Instagram photo-sharing service.”

8. BIOHACKING (N.)

“Biological experimentation (as by gene editing or the use of drugs or implants) done to improve the qualities or capabilities of living organisms especially by individuals and groups outside of a traditional medical or scientific research environment.”

9. TL;DR (ABBREV.)

“Too long; didn’t read—used to say that something would require too much time to read.”

10. MARG (N.)

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A margarita. According to Merriam-Webster, the first known usage occurred in 1990.

11. FAVE (N.)

Favorite. This word is older than it looks: It dates back to 1938. (“Lester Harding, heavy fave here, clicks with pop songs,” was the first usage, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.)

12. HANGRY (ADJ.)

“Irritable or angry because of hunger.” People have been hangry (or at least using the word) since 1956.

13. RANDO (N.)

According to Merriam-Webster, this “often disparaging” slang means “A random person: a person who is not known or recognizable or whose appearance (as in a conversation or narrative) seems unprompted or unwelcome.”

14. GOCHUJANG (N.)

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

A spicy paste used in Korean cuisine that is made from red chili peppers, glutinous rice, and fermented soybeans.

HOPHEAD (N.)

Originally a slang word for a drug addict dating back
to 1883, this word these days means “A beer enthusiast.”

16. ZOODLE (N.)

“A long, thin strip of zucchini that resembles a string or narrow ribbon of pasta.”

17. ADORBS

“Extremely charming or appealing: adorable.”

18. GENERATION Z (N.)

Photo Credit: Unsplash,Jenna Anderson

The generation of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

19. TENT CITY (N.)

“A collection of many tents set up in an area to provide usually temporary shelter (as for displaced or homeless people).”

20. MOCKTAIL (N.)

“A usually iced drink made with any of various ingredients (such as juice, herbs, and soda water) but without alcohol: a nonalcoholic cocktail.”

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You’ll Love These 15 Outdated Celebrity Headshots

It’s always nice to see celebrities embrace a meme and remind us that they’re just people too. Recently, actors and actresses have started sharing their first (or old, at any rate) headshots…and it’s pure gold. It reminds us that everyone went through an awkward phase, that we all took photographs we thought were a good idea at the time, and also that the eighties and most of the nineties were truly terrible decades for fashion.

So please, enjoy these 15 favorite old celebrity headshots, and check out more on #oldheadshotday on Instagram.

 

#15. Jennifer Garner’s serious face definitely got her the part on Felicity.

Image Credit: Instagram

#14. I love how awesome Viola Davis looks in this snap.

Image Credit: Twitter

#13. The hair envy is real with Reba.

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#12. The reason Reese Witherspoon was cast in every early 90s movie you loved as a kid is right here.

Image Credit: Twitter

#11. 5th grade me wants to be Kristen Bell’s BFF as much as 39-year-old me wants the same thing.

Image Credit: Instagram

#10. Mark Hamill definitely practiced that smolder in the mirror.

Image Credit: Instagram

#9. I’m not quite sure what to say, Julian Feifel.

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#8. I think Ben Stiller should still use this one, tbh.

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#7. Whoa, Matt Damon. Lol.

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#6. Here’s proof that Amy Adams has always been adorable. Even in mom jeans.

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#5. Sofia Vergara was even prettier as a teen. No fair.

Image Credit: Instagram

#4. You own that haircut, Leah Remini.

Image Credit: Instagram

#3. Thank you, Ellen and Portia for your equally fantastic eyebrows.

Image Credit: Instagram

#2. Oh my goodness, Andy Dwyer. No.

Image Credit: Twitter

#1. And finally, Joseph Gordon-Levitt throwing down the cutest kid gauntlet next to Ben Stiller.

Image Credit: Twitter

 

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Can You Believe A Typo Helped End World War II?

As World War II tore its way through Europe, the British had to get the best and brightest minds involved in the war effort if they and their Allies were to be victorious. Enter Geoffrey Tandy…a man who was a bit taken aback when he was summoned by the Ministry of Defence in 1939.

Tandy was a volunteer in the Royal Navy Reserves, but his regular job was as a cryptogamist for the National History Museum. Cryptomgamists study algae and Tandy wasn’t sure where he fit in with the war effort. Tandy then guessed that the Ministry had made a mistake and confused his job with a cryptogramist—a codebreaker. Tandy was pretty much useless to the Ministry and didn’t do much for two years until something miraculous happened in 1941.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

That year, the Allies torpedoed and sank German U-boats. Among the wreckage was detailed instructions about how to unscramble messages for the German Enigma Machine.

Photo Credit: iStock

There was one problem: the papers with the instructions were waterlogged and needed to be restored in able to be deciphered and put to use. The Ministry needed a person who was proficient at drying out damaged materials that were waterlogged. Tandy had been trained in preserving algae in that manner and his two years of relative quiet were about to come to an end.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Tandy used absorbent materials to dry out the papers until they were able to be read. The information was used to crack German codes and Allied forces got inside information about their opponent’s war strategies. It’s estimated that the cracked codes caused the war to end earlier than it might have otherwise, and likely saved millions of lives. It’s uncertain how exactly Tandy ended up at his post, if it was a typo or someone misread the spelling of his position. Either way, the misunderstanding turned out to be a godsend for the Allied forces.

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12+ ‘Nice Things’ We Can’t Have Because of Other People

If you are alive in the year 2018, chances are you’ve heard the phrase “this is why we can’t have nice things.” It’s a common colloquialism that is often used to jokingly reprimand someone when they’ve done something wrong.

This list of “nice things” ruined by other people runs the gamut, but I guarantee you’ll find at least one thing on it that hits home.

 

#15. Thanks, criminals!

“24 hour decongestant/antihistamine cold medicine that worked. (Drixoral) Dropped off the market when everyone switched to new decongestant formulas that were somehow more resistant to distilling into meth. * Oh, and anytime I buy decongestants, my DL gets scanned. Thanks, criminals!

* Or maybe the result of big pharma lobbying, trying not to buy into the conspiracy.”

#14. Grownup toy restrictions

“Drones. All it takes is a few idiots doing stupid illegal shit like spying on people and legislators jump at the chance to restrict them.”

#13. Alway that one guy

“Very dumb and minor, but I think it goes to show how selfish people can be.

A few years ago a guy on Twitter shared his Starbucks card information, and told people to put it on their phones. The idea was to have a shared/community card thing. Get a drink if you wanted to, or donate to it so others could get a drink. You would think that people would just grab free drinks, but it actually had a surplus of donations versus people actually using it. I think the card ended up with like $200 at some point.

Anyway, some asshole comes along and locks the card/account, effectively shutting it down. He said he did it because he wanted to prove how ineffective sharing was or something dumb like that.

You always have that one guy who sees other people enjoying something and feels the need to disrupt it.”

#12. When Silicon Valley gets involved…

“Burning Man used to be a really cool, inclusive mini-society. Now it’s just a bunch of people with WAY too much money, isolating themselves from other people in the desert by buying out huge plots of land, and excluding others from their clubhouses. Which is a stark contrast from what Burning Man was fucking supposed to be in the first place.”

#11. No fun for anyone

“Playground equipment. The rolly slides, teeter totters, the merry-go-rounds, and there was even a park I used to play in as a kid that had an old, retired train car we could go in. The rolly slides apparently pinched too many fingers, the teeter totters were too hard to get off of and the merry-go-rounds were spun too fast. As for the train, I’m pretty sure there were people shooting up drugs and/or homeless people sleeping in it. Plus graffiti. Now it’s gated off and no fun for anyone.”

#10. Why they cut it off

“I used to work at Tim Hortons and we were located right beside a homeless shelter, so every night, we would take all the food that was still fresh and give it to charity. It wasn’t a lot, usually like a box or timbits and about a dozen doughnuts.

Until one day, the regional manager came and shut the whole thing down. He didn’t tell us why, only to never do it again or we will be fired. We never questioned it and just held the resentment of Tim Hortons in our hearts, like how cheap do you have to be that you would rather have us throw away consumable food!

A few months later a homeless man came in right as we were throwing food in a garbage bag. He goes, “Ahhh it’s such a pity, I used to love eating your guys doughnuts until that fuckin idiot had to ruin it.” My co-worker said, “yeah that’s honestly fucked up, corporation greed, you know?” The homeless man gave us a weird look, he goes, “nah, that’s not what happened, one of the fuckheads at the shelter faked choking on a timbit and tired to sue this store, that’s why they cut us off.”

#9. Vandals ruin everything

“We used to keep our church doors open 24/7. But then vandals wrecked that so we locked up at night. Then we left it open during the days on Saturdays and vandals wrecked that. So now we keep the place locked up except almost exclusively during banking hours and Sundays mornings.”

#8. Some drunk a**hole

“In California, we used to have backyard pool slides until some drunk asshole hit his head goofing around and drowned. His parents sued or advocated for greater laws restricting these. Now they’re few and far between. In the 80s, a lot of places had them.”

#7. Chronic pain

“Pain management for chronic pain patients.”

#6. Prove I’m not a bot

“buying tickets online.

it used to be easy. now i have to choose all the squares with a fucking car in them to prove i’m not a bot, log in with a password i forgot, get my password link sent to my email address, change my password, prove i’m not a bot again, pick seats, confirm seats, and pay an extra $20 for a convenience fee.”

#5. Still salty

“My parent’s old apartment had this little dog park. Our greyhound loved it because she could go run every morning.

They closed it because people wouldn’t pick up their dogs’ poop. They would just leave piles of shit, despite management sending letters out.

I’m still salty about that one. Don’t get a dog if you can’t pick up their messes.”

#4. Air travel

“I used to be able to walk into an airport, book a flight, walk to the gate and get on the plane. I have flown from SFO (where I live) to LAX (where my sister lives) countless times in just that fashion.”

#3. What is history, even?

“MTV, TLC, History Channel.

Thanks, assholes……”

#2. Ruined with powerboats

“Our parents had a small summer cabin on a quiet, wooded lake. The water was pristine and ideal for fishing and swimming. The air smelled of fresh pine.

Then it caught on, and the lake became overtaxed and ruined with powerboats – polluted with gasoline, oil, and junk tossed into the water (tires, mattresses, washing machines, solvents, etc.)

Now, the fish are gone, the water stinks, and the pine trees have been cut down.”

#1. Paranoia ended that

“A sense of community in your neighborhood.

As a kid (2nd grade ish) I used to walk over to my friends and wemd play in each other’s backyards. We learned how to bike together, would “explore” the woods between yards, play with the older middle schoolers.

A lot of paranoia kinda ended that. The DC sniper shooting, fear of kidnappers, it all kinda hit at once. Well that and cicada season. After that summer people around here kinda kept to themselves more.”

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7 Historical Figures Who Were Notoriously Poor Spellers

Being good or bad at spelling isn’t necessarily a sign of intelligence. In fact, some of the most famous historical figures were pretty terrible spellers. Some even made a living as writers, despite definitely flunking out of a spelling bee or two in their day.

Here’s a look at 7 infamously bad spellers who might surprise you.

 

#7. Agatha Christie

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

She’s inarguably a fantastic author, but that doesn’t mean she knew how to spell. Christie herself admitted that she had issues, saying, “[I was an] extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.”

#6. Winston Churchill

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

He might be remembered as one of the best speechwriters and orators in history, but as a child, teachers commented that his “writing was good but so terribly slow — and spelling about as bad as it well can be.”

#5. Andrew Jackson

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Jackson’s ineptitude when it came to spelling was something of a political punchline. In fact, John Quincy Adams denounced him as a “barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and hardly could spell his own name.”

#4. George Washington

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Multiple missives exist in which Washington misspells common words, but historians at the National Archives warn against assuming Washington was to blame. It was widely known that the letters he wrote between 1787 and 1790 were copied by his nephew so it’s possible the young man could have been the one responsible for the errors.

#3. Ernest Hemingway

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Hemingway struggled with certain words, so he added unnecessary letters here and there. What’s worse, he had no time for editors’ complaints on the matter, and reportedly snapped at them, often saying, “that’s what you’re hired to correct!”

#2. Jane Austen

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

She might be one of the most famous authors of all time, but Austen employed editors to fix her many spelling mistakes. It’s a good thing she finally started getting a second pair of eyes on her work, considering one of the books she wrote as a young teenager was titled Love and Freindship.

#1. F. Scott Fitzgerald

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Yet another person remembered for their ability with a pen, but not so much for the spelling of the words themselves. The original draft of The Great Gatsby contained hundreds of spelling mistakes, some of which can hardly be puzzled out by modern editors.

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