November 13th is St. Brice's Day. Have you ever heard of Saint Brice? He has nothing to do with story aside from the date. 

It was on St. Brice's Day in the year 1002 that England's King Æthelred II issued a decree that all Danes in the kingdom should be killed. This meant all Scandinavians, or more pointedly, Vikings. This was a couple hundred years into the Viking Age, and England was suffering from Viking raids in the north and east and an extortion scheme that taxed all of England. But Scandinavian influence had been spreading to England for some time, and there were Danes who had settled in England for generations and knew no other home. These were mainly the people who were slaughtered during the St. Brice's Day Massacre. 

The killings were carried out locally, and brutally. The massacre only lasted a day or two, as far as we can tell from archaeological finds. But the repercussions were swift. The ruler of Norway, Sweyn Forkbeard, set to England for revenge and eventually ended up as its king. Read about the brutal St. Brice's Day massacre at Utterly Interesting. 

(Image credit: Alfred Pearse)

Ben Newell builds terrariums and aquariums and gets up close and personal with the tiny creatures that inhabit them. as you might guess, the trick is in gentle moves and food. In the video above, he makes friends with a tiny jumping spider named Earl that he's had for several months now. There are a couple of scary moments in the video that add just the right amount of drama, but Earl is fine. In later videos, we find that Earl, who is a female, met a potential boyfriend named Toejam, who was quite a dancer. That didn't work out, and now Earl's new boyfriend is a spider named Tom Selleck. We wish them all the happiness in the world. 

You'll find a lot more vignettes from Earl's life at Newell's Instagram page, and longer videos that give more details (in case you want to befriend spiders, frogs, and lizards) at his YouTube channel. -via Boing Boing 

When the people of Texas overthrew the Santa Anna's shackles of centralist tyranny and established the Republic of Texas, General Sam Houston served as the second President of the Republic.

President Houston's government was located in the sixth and penultimate capital of the Republic--the nascent City of Houston. Picturd above is the Presidential Residence in 1837, a year after independence.

The Texas historical X account Traces of Texas informs us that the famous naturalist John J. Audubon visited President Houston and his cabinet in this home. It was a rough but servicable home. A current Google Street View of the location at 405 Main Street reveals significant construction since 1837.

The beloved movie Toy Story went into wide release on November 22, 1995, so I will soon be 30 years old. At the time, it was hailed as the first all-computer-generated feature film. As such, it opened the doors to what animated movies would become. Toy Story was a big hit- not so much because of the CG, but because it was a great story. That's what Pixar does.  

Still, when you think of a CG movie, you think it was produced digitally and then digitally recorded, sent to digital theaters and transferred to digital home video, where you watch on your digital high-definition flatscreen TV. That may be how movies are done today, but in 1995, the process was different. In order to be shown in theaters, the digital files had to be recorded on analog film, as that was how theaters showed movies. Even if theaters had been digital at the time, computers didn't have the capacity to record or transfer an entire feature film. As film buffs know, analog film has a different look, so the Toy Story digital files had to be tweaked to make the movie look correct on film. And then tweaked again when the raw files finally could be used to view the movie. Read how those processes changed what we see when we watch Toy Story, at Animation Obsessive. -via Damn Interesting 

The Running Man is a 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the man who runs. I don't know what prompted Screen Junkies to pick this movie from the past to critique, but there are clues in the narration. I never saw The Running Man, but from this video it appears to be a precursor to The Hunger Games and Squid Game dressed up in 1980s neon spandex. It's also a satire on modern bread and circuses for the masses while the power elite behind the scenes get away with everything. The Running Man features athletes like Jesse Ventura and Jim Brown, who fit right in, and some unlikely casting in game show host Richard Dawson and musician Mick Fleetwood. Should you pull out The Running Man and watch it again? I don't know, it might give you a nostalgic laugh or maybe a sense of dread about our modern world. Pick your own poison.  

Update: rcxb set me straight. There is a new movie version of The Running Man opening this weekend. I am embarrassed over how that flew under my radar. 

We know that people in Turkey love cats, and take care of the numerous strays as well as their own pets. This is not a new phenomena. A palace built more than 500 years ago had cat doors to allow free access for wandering felines. 

Topkapı Palace in Istanbul was built beginning in 1459, as a headquarters and residence for the Ottoman sultans. In the mid-19th century, another palace was built for the sultan, and Topkapı Palace was made into a museum in 1924.  

The palace was outfitted with a series of cat doors, which allowed resident pets to pass through the palace unobstructed, even though passage for humans was severely restricted according to one's role. As the palace has been undergoing a restoration project, it was announced that the cat door in the external entrance to the Karaağalar Quarters, where those who worked in palace security lived, has been restored, allowing cats to once again enter the palace on their own accord and wander unrestricted as they always have. It was one of the final projects of the restoration, and now human visitors will be allowed back into the museum as well. The cats took full advantage of the access, as their ancestors did. Many of the cats are known to the palace, as you will see in an article about their return. -via Metafilter 

The What If? series by Randall Munroe and Henry Reich (previously at Neatorama) has returned to form with a theoretical question that would surely lead to the death of everyone on this planet. Humans have learned to concentrate light into a small space to produce lasers, which can be very dangerous depending on their power. What if the sun did that, with all its power? What if the star concentrated all its light and heat into a single laser beam the diameter of, say, a meter? As you might guess, this is not good. Yet how each of us would die depends on where you are when it happens, and what would happen to the planet itself might surprise you. 

All in all, we would prefer the sun to stay the way it is, radiating heat and light in all directions, and sending us just the right amount to power life on earth.  

The French king Charles VI was a young and well-liked ruler, but in his early twenties began to show signs of mental illness, possibly schizophrenia. His physician advised keeping his stress level low, and keeping him amused. And so a wedding party in the year 1393 for one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting was turned into a project to raise the king's spirits.  

The most anticipated entertainment at the ball was a dance by six men in elaborate costumes portraying wood savages, a sort of wild men. They were covered with fur made of flax, affixed to a fabric coated with resin. They also wore masks to conceal their identities. One of the dancers was the king himself, but few knew that, nor which one he was. The dance was going over well until the king's drunk brother brought a torch near their faces to see who they were. The highly flammable costumes ignited, and the party was over. One of the dancers burned to death that night, while three lingered in agony for days until they, too, died. Read about the disastrous Ball of the Burning Men at Amusing Planet. 

(Image credit: Philippe de Mazerolles) 

Stress is the body's natural reaction to changing conditions that we need to react to. It puts our bodies into "fight or flight" mode by releasing hormones that temporarily grant us the power to protect ourselves or our loved ones. That's all well and good when you are being confronted by a man-eating tiger or a forest fire, but our modern world doesn't work like that. We are safe from tigers, but still confront threats that cause stress. The problem is that modern stressors are constantly with us, and they are things we can't really do much about. Why is my boss mad? Why is my spouse mad? Will I be able to pay the bills? Will my child come home safely? Why are people driving so crazy? Is society collapsing? Living in a chronic state of stress is unnatural, and can take a toll on our health. Kurzgesagt explains the physiological effects of stress, how we can mitigate the damage. -via Laughing Squid 

Babycenter has released their list of the top baby names for 2025. The top ten names for boys and girls are listed above. They look familiar, so what's different from last year? Not much. For boys, Luca replaced Leo at number 10, and Levi and Lucas switched spots. For girls, Eliana replaced Ava at number seven, and the celestial Aurora replaced the celestial Luna -and the rankings changed a little. But this is the fifth year in a row that Olivia is the most popular name for girls. 

It's outside of the top ten that names get more interesting. There is a lot more movement in name rankings for girls, as usual, and quite a few new names appear on the top 100, like Catalina, Juniper, and Emersyn. Some old names are gaining popularity again, like Josephine and Vivian. See the top 100 names for both boys and girls in 2025 in the expanded list at Babycenter. 

And where are these names coming from? TV is a big influence, but they are also coming from sports, music, and literature. Check out the trends that may influence the popularity of baby names of 2026 in this article. 

Ignacia Fernández entered the Miss World Chile beauty pageant and went viral for her talent competition performance. While the majority of contestants who must participate in a talent competition choose to sing, Fernández was already a professional singer, having founded the progressive death metal band DECESSUS in 2020. She, of course, showcased one of their original songs at the pageant, accompanied by DECESSUS guitarist Carlos Palma. You can imagine that the judges weren't quite ready for that. However, they were impressed by her performance, which launched Fernández into the top 20 contestants.  

Last night, Fernández was crowned Miss World Chile, and will go on to represent Chile at the Miss World competition in Thailand later this month. You can hear more DECESSUS songs at their YouTube channel. And in case you are wondering, Fernández works with a vocal coach to protect her voice from death metal damage. -via Metafilter, where there's a serious discussion about what this kind of singing does to one's vocal chords.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who return their shopping carts to a store or cart corral, and those who don't. There's the same sort of dichotomy among people who never use turn signals or who stand in doorways, or any number of behaviors that separate those who consider others and those who don't. The shopping cart thing is one we see most often, because these people leave behind evidence. 

Hannah B. Waldfogel did some research into shopping cart behavior, which consisted of analyzing 564 videos posted by Cart Narcs in which people abandoned a shopping cart improperly and were then confronted about it. As you would guess, many were not happy about the confrontation and went into road rage mode. But not all. Waldfogel sorted out the types of responses, and the various excuses they gave. Then she offers some reasons why people develop a habit of abandoning shopping carts, and some ways that stores -and society- can encourage them to start doing the right thing. -via Damn Interesting 

(Image credit: Curlyrnd) 

When we first see a holodeck on the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data uses it to create a beautiful forest. We later see it in the franchise for recreational and training purposes. And let's not mention Reginald Barclay's unique and private uses for the holographic technology.

Adam Schwartz, a YouTuber who makes videos that lampoon Star Trek, gently suggests that "what happens on the holodeck stays on the holodeck." He knows exactly how he would use it if granted sufficient privacy and confidentiality.

Where is your mind going? No, that's not what Schwartz has in mind for his holodeck time.

-via reddit

The annual Farmer's Almanac, which provided readers with weather predictions and tips for cooking, gardening, and home medical remedies, will cease publication in 2026 and its website will shut down in December of that year. The Hill reports that this icon of Americana was first published in 1818. It has financially struggled for years and is no longer a viable enterprise.

NiemanLab notes that the Farmer's Almanac is distinct from the Old Farmer's Almanac, which appears in calendar format and provides weather predictions. That publication, which first appeared in 1792, will continue to provide people with occasionally accurate weather forecasts.

-via Marginal Revolution

On November 10th, 1975, a sudden storm blew over Lake Superior, with gale force winds and 60-foot waves. The freighter named the Edmund Fitzgerald, with a crew of 29, was caught in the confluence of three storms and sank, with no survivors. The Great Lakes are not just lakes, they are more like inland seas, and are more dangerous than oceans due to their geography. But they are also useful transportation for industry. The Edmund Fitzgerald is only one of many tragic shipwrecks on the Great Lakes (6000 in the previous century), but the ship was notable as the best ship on the lakes long before the wreck, and the ship’s captain, Ernest McSorley, was a legend in the industry. The run launched on November 9th was to be his last before retirement. Then the haunting song by Gordon Lightfoot that came out in 1976 made the Edmund Fitzgerald a household name.  

Read an interview with John U. Bacon, author of the book The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald about what we know and don't know about that shipwreck, including some stories of crew members and their families, at Smithsonian.