Just over 240 years ago, the United States announced its separation from Britain… a separation that could be measured in many ways, but definitely in miles. And while pretty much the rest of the world has decided to “Make Mine Metric,” Americans remain unconvinced. Why? The Verge has some theories.
If your 2019 has been bereft of geeky, geeky mashups thus far, have we got the video for you! Behold: nearly all the Disney princesses playing D&D (with Belle as DM, which just makes sense). In case you not only like it, but love it, they apparently have a crowdfunding campaign going through February.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield debunks some myths about space in a wonderfully wonky first-hand way that only he can do. If you’re worried about cooking tomorrow’s turkey just right, remember, you can’t do as bad as exposing it to the hard vacuum of space. I’ll let him explain:
The other day, I was feeling my introvert tendencies pretty darn hard the same time I needed to interact with people. So what if you “leaned in” to that whole “interact with people” thing and talked to strangers?
If you’re a Shakespeare fan who hasn’t enjoyed the simple, stick figure pleasures of Good Tickle Brain, you should definitely avail yourself of it. If you’ve been kicking yourself because you know you’re not as familiar with all the Bard’s work, Mya Gosling, the brain behind Good Tickle Brain has your back. Watch as she summarizes all of Shakespeare’s plays in five minutes.
Big Bird, the character, will continue of course, but Caroll Spinney, the performer who gave both him and Oscar the Grouch life, is finally stepping away from Sesame Street after about 50 years. They’ve created a nice 5-minute tribute about Spinney’s work: If that leaves you too verklempt, enjoy the cast of Sesame Street participating in one of Wired’s “autocomplete” videos from last year: And hey, have a great weekend!
I’m not sure when I started using the W, A, S, and D keys playing first-person shooters on the computer, but I’m sure I wondered why that was the standard. In case you’ve wondered too, Phil Edwards over at Vox has your back.
As much about writing as it is about acting, here’s a 20-minute video for GQ with Monty Python’s Eric Idle explaining many of his acting roles over the past 50-odd years. Speaking for myself, this makes me want to go out and create something.
Star Trek, as an overall phenomenon, won a special Emmy a couple weeks ago and they had both a great gathering of cast and crew — as well as a pretty nice montage. Enjoy!
However your week has gone, you deserve to learn about the important history of cookies from the Neil Degrasse Tyson of cookie knowledge: Happy Friday!