(via Buzzfeed)
Sunday, September 20, 2026
The World's Oldest Recorded Song
The Seikilos epitaph is a marble tombstone from the first century that has a song recorded in its stone inscription. The large letters, in Koine Greek, contain a poem about grief.They are accompanied by marks above each word that indicate the musical notation. The stone was discovered in 1893 in the town of Ayden, Turkey, and followed a circuitous route to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, where it resides today.
We have documentary evidence of older songs, but those are in fragments, while this stone contains a complete song. The musical notation on the Seikilos epitaph is not so old that it couldn't be translated, and that's why we are able to hear the song as it was meant to heard. The lyrics are appropriate to a tombstone, about the fleetingness of life and the futility of grief. Instead, we are encouraged to enjoy life while we have it.
Pips and Nubs
Some human technologies are so ancient and ubiquitous that we don't notice them at all anymore. Yet they are still so useful that we should appreciate the minds (whoever they were) that came up with them. YouTuber Craighill explains some of these design details and how they are found everywhere. The first are pips, which are concave dots. The second are nubs, which are convex dots. These two things are more useful than you ever realized, and they make life easier in so many ways. Then there's the basic mechanics of putting the two together. Pips and nubs combine properties to fill a lot of different needs. It's where we got what we know as the familiar "click." You'll know it when you see it in action. (via kottke)
The Chimp Who Believed She Was Human
A chimpanzee was taken from her mother and adopted by a human couple in 1964. They raised Lucy like a human child as an experiment. As you can probably guess, she became a problem for them as she approached adulthood, but Lucy was not equipped to live with other chimps, either. So they sent her back to Africa, to a wildlife refuge in The Gambia. Lucy was accompanied by grad student Janis Carter, who they paid to transition Lucy to live in the wild -for three weeks. Carter ended up staying for years. This film by Elisa Chee tells the story in beautiful animation. Read more of the story at the Atlantic. (via Laughing Squid)
Seasons Change, Temp Stays
PS: Autumn begins Tuesday.If you know me, you know I love NASA. I'm glad that this can be posted at all. I'm sad that they can't say "climate change" science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-...
— Peter Griffith (@carboncyclist.org) September 17, 2026 at 8:18 PM
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Saturday, September 19, 2026
The Best Meth
They should have been kind enough to label this Meth Not Even Once Poster Contest, or even just anti-meth, but that would take too much headline space. (via Bad Newspaper)
The Ship of Monsters
The Ship of Monsters is a Mexican science fiction musical comedy from 1960. It follows the ridiculous trope of women from Venus looking for males to mate with that has been used so many times. The two glamorous space travelers from Venus collect males of all shapes, sizes, and species from various planets (hence the title) before they land in Mexico and both fall for a singing cowboy. Oh yeah, they have a robot, too. The Ship of Monsters was regarded as refreshing and enjoyable despite its very low budget and worn-out science fiction plot. I really enjoyed it! (Thanks, WTM!)
Hambush
Every cat owner has something they find hard to eat because it drives the cats crazy. For me, it's anything with tuna in it. I don't eat canned food all that often, so anytime my cats hear the can opener, they assume it's tuna and gather to make ridiculous noises. Eating cold cereal with milk means that Marshmallow will be all up in my face. Here, Simon Tofield wants to make himself a ham sandwich, but the cat has other plans.
The Muppets Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day
Talk Like a Pirate Day was a big thing about 20 years ago, but over time, I tended to forget it until it was too late, and fewer people cared. Silly memes can only last so long. But it's today!
Cats Talk Like Pirates!
Cats are celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day! Continue reading to join them in the festivities. Pictures gathered from Fark over the year.
Pumpkin Spice: The Horror Movie
The pumpkins are taking over everything, along with their allies, cinnamon, clove, and ginger. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide! You cannot escape Pumpkin Spice!
And besides, it's not even October yet. Seriously, is this Pumpkin Spice obsession there to make me feel bad about my pumpkin patch's complete failure this year? (via Viral Viral Videos)
Government Officials
This administration would be so funny if it wasn’t so historically embarrassing and destructive. America deserves serious leaders.
— Save America Movement (@saveamericamvmt.bsky.social) September 17, 2026 at 10:04 PM
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Friday, September 18, 2026
"Eruption" on Accordion
One of the coolest musical sequences on earth, played on the world's uncoolest instrument. Yeah, the accordion is super difficult to play, but you don't see it on most stage shows, with the exception of Weird Al Yankovic, and he's a comedian. I was surprised to learn my last husband once took accordion lessons when he was young, the only musical instrument he ever played. That was a real turn after my previous late husband was a professional bass player. I did not laugh, though.
What we have here is the Finnish duo the Morander Brothers recreating the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo "Eruption" note for note on accordions. You're welcome. (via Laughing Squid)
Movie Characters Sing "Mr. Brightside"
The Usual Suspect made this CinemaSings mashup by taking clips from 144 movies and arranging them to sing the 2004 sing by The Killers, "Mr. Brightside." This sort of stunt has been done many times before, but this one sounds really good because it's so precisely edited, and many of the movies are musicals, so many of the clips are actually singing a song, even though it's not this one. That adds much more musicality to the finished product than we're used to. Even the parts without lyrics are dance scenes, which keeps the music flowing in your mind.
If go to YouTube and open the settings, then change the audio track to Klingon mode, you can hear the raw edit without the music. Sorry, that won't be in the Klingon language. (via the Awesomer)
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