There have been an increasing number of female leads in films lately. Mad Max, Wonder Woman, the new Ghostbusters, and so on and so forth. Many progressive or liberal critics have hailed this as a success, a triumph for women everywhere. This analysis raises a much-needed critique, of that stance. By paying careful attention to the symbolism in these movies, Pageau suggests that feminine symbols in pop culture are actually reinforce masculine stereotypes, undermining the very point of having a female hero. 

This video was eighteen months in the making. In 2012, a Mark Rothko painting from 1958 was defaced with black graffiti at the at the Tate Modern. It took nine months for the team to test methods for removing ink from the painting, and the methods that the used to find a way that would work are worthy of any Sherlock Holmes experiment. It took another nine months to work on the painting, called “Black on Maroon.” 

Before big name actors step onto the set to play their parts, a stand-in goes through the same kinds of motions that the actor will go through. This enables the lighting and sound people to adjust their levels, and it allows the directors to see what the shots will look like. The Queen of England has one of these stand-ins. She appears in important events all over England, events that are broadcast around the country and sometimes around the world. Things have to go just right, hence the stand-in. This is the story of the Queen’s double.

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and Ukraine by supporting separatists in the regions, engaging in misinformation campaigns, and sending in Russian troops disguised to look like Ukrainians. Russia denied doing all this of course, and there has been no way to prove that they did. But according to a book by former French president Francois Hollande, Putin lost his temper with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and accidentally made an admission: “Poroshenko and Putin constantly raised their voices with each other. The Russian president was so worked up, that he started threatening to decisively crush his counterpart’s forces.” This statement seems to point to Putin’s knowledge about Russian troops in the Ukraine.

There have been countless floods over the centuries. Some are more notable than others for their destructive power. Think Noah’s flood, for example, or the floods following the earthquake in Japan. Others are notable for their strangeness. This video covers a few historical floods that involved substances besides water, such as molasses and whiskey. The great whiskey flood in Ireland, for example, killed thirteen people––all of whom died from alcohol poisoning, not drowning.

“Back in my day,” many an older person has been heard to say, “school started at six in the morning, and I had to walk uphill in the snow both ways!” Well, there’s not much snow in California so there’s no snow to walk through. And soon, there won’t be any super early days. California lawmakers recently banned schools from opening before 8:30 in the morning to ensure that students can get enough sleep. It’s going to be quite the change because something like 80% of schools start before 8:30. Lawmakers are relying on studies that show students do better when they sleep more, and they’re banking that this will help improve graduation rates.

Several years ago, during the last major oil crisis, airlines introduced checked bag fees. The idea was that the fees would make up for the money spent on the extra cost of oil. When the cost of oil went back down, some people naively hoped that the cost would disappear. Obviously that didn’t happened, and things are only getting worse. United, for example, is about to raise its checked bag fee from $25 to $30 dollars. 

The finale to “How I Met Your Mother” was pretty much universally reviled. It was called the worst finale of all time by several sources. But besides the finale, the show was pretty much universally loved. So how did the show’s finale manage to sour the taste of an otherwise good television meal? This video suggests that it’s actually in the final two minutes of the show, in which the narrator’s children call him out for not really loving their mother. 

It’s easy to look at the next generation and think, “Well, we’re screwed.” But don’t lose hope just yet. As it turns out, the teenagers of Generation Z are leaving social media in droves, refusing to participate in the happiness-for-likes trade that social media inspires.

How many times have you excitedly waited for your favorite book-to-movie adaptation, only to be disappointed by a terrible movie? Many of the Harry Potters were awful, for example, and don’t even get us started on the Lord of the Rings travesty. The less said about The Hobbit the better. But does Hollywood ruin books? Actually, this Numberphile episode suggests that it’s merely a matter of our perception. Watch the video to learn about the paradox that explains this.

It’s easy to forget that the ancestors of Man’s Best Friend were not exactly best friend material. And we’re not talking about wolves, the immediate ancestors of modern, domesticated dogs. We’re talking about borophagus and his comrades, also known as the bone crushers. These dogs literally ate bones, and this video describes the evolution that went into making the bone crusher and then how the bone crusher eventually declined. At the very least, it’s fun to say bone-crusher.

A few months ago, one of the cave divers who helped rescue that trapped Thai soccer team criticized Elon Musk’s tiny submarine plan. Elon Musk shot back by claiming the diver was a pedophile––without any sort of evidence whatsoever. Well, after Elon Musk’s disastrous claims that he was taking Telsa private and  the news that was being sued by the diver, Musk once more took to twitter to call the diver a pedophile. The timing is unsurprising, given Musk has often used diversionary tactics to draw attention away from his mismanagement.