Fast food restaurants in the US gather together around interstate exits, and they offer variations on sandwiches, chicken pieces, pizza, burritos, and fried potatoes on the side. They taste the same from coast to coast. Then in late summer, state and county fairs go wild and offer expensive opportunities to combine wildly disparate foods just for the fun of it- then they go away.
Those brands expanded to other countries where food cultures vary from the American model. You can't tell people in Italy that only American cheese is available, and you can't tell people in Thailand that chocolate doesn't belong on a hamburger. And fast food outlets have to give customers what they want. You know, I could get on board with an edible coffee cup if it weren't for all the people who touched it before me.
Tom Blank, the original voice of Weird History, takes us on a tour of international fast food offerings that might gross you out, but might also make you want to travel to try them.
July 23, 2026, was the busiest day for commercial air travel ever, according to data from @flightradar24.
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) July 25, 2026
A whopping 153,359 commercial flights were tracked worldwide. pic.twitter.com/0fJ9mcjZkY
With the instability of international oil markets due to the war in the Persian Gulf and what the International Air Travel Association (IATA) describes as decreased customer demand, one might expect that commercial air travel would be limited. But people nonetheless flew in record numbers, breaking a previous record set in 2023 by 14,122 flights.
These figures, of course, do not include non-commercial air travel, such as military flights.
-via John Konrad
Some 80,000 years ago, a huge iron and nickel meteor landed on earth in what would eventually become the Hoba West farm near Grootfontein in Namibia. In 1920, a farmer ran into the big hunk of metal while plowing, and scientists have been studying the Hoba meteorite ever since. How did such a large meteorite survive and not leave a huge crater?
There are several reasons. One is the meteorite's shape, which is assumed to be a remnant of a much more massive meteor. It is a slab, and had to have arrived at a shallow angle, greatly slowed down by our atmosphere. You can almost imagine it coming in like a rock skipping across a lake. Its internal structure also plays a part. And 80,000 years later, it sits in the same spot where it landed because it weighs 60 metric tons, even after chunks have been taken over the past 100 years. Excavations have determined that Hoba actually had a crater once, although a strangely shallow one, which was filled in naturally over many centuries. Read about the massive Hoba meteorite and its weird history at ZME Science. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Compl33t)
Magnificent music mixer Bill McClintock is at it again, with another unlikely rock/soul mashup. Eddie Kendricks never rocked so hard! This one features vocals from The Temptations's 1966 hit "Get Ready" and the music from "Lack of Communication" by Ratt from 1984. Despite being written and produced by Smokey Robinson, the Temptations' song did not do as well as was expected, and the remake by Rare Earth in 1970 was a bigger hit. Still, the Temptations version of "Get Ready" proved to be long lasting, and familiar even 60 years later. The Ratt song? Well, maybe you had to be a metalhead at the time to really know the song, but it has the distinctive sound of Ratt.
And if you are such a metalhead, you might recognize Dimebag Darrell's guitar work from the 1994 Pantera song "I'm Broken" in this mix as well. Enjoy songs song three different decades in this masterful mashup.
New York City's Waldorf Astoria Hotel was once two hotels, the Waldorf and the Astoria. Both were considered the height of luxury in their day, with electric lights and a bathroom for every suite. The Waldorf Hotel opened in 1893, with the Astoria following in 1897. Before the hotels went up, those sites held two mansions belonging to heirs of John Jacob Astor, New York's first multimillionaire. On one side was Astor's great-grandson, William Waldorf Astor, and the other was his aunt Caroline Astor. The two mansions were separated by a garden.
William moved to England, and had the Waldorf Hotel built in order to ruin the view for his aunt Caroline. Caroline's son, John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV, built the Astoria Hotel next door in revenge. It was many years later when these competing branches of the family made up and combined the two hotels into New York's premiere inn. But what caused the feud between William and Caroline? You'd be surprised at how petty it was, and you can read that story at Ephemeral New York. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Joseph Pennell)
In this music video, musician Barry Bergen travels to Africa in the 1980s to glean the ancient wisdom of this magical land. Mr Jambo is an older man who must have the enlightenment Bergen is looking for, but he doesn't speak English. Indeed, the closed captions tell us that he is saying, "I don't speak English. Do you have a translator?" Meanwhile, Bergan mentions jambalaya and bears, as if they have anything to do with Africa. As silly as the premise is, the song is quite catchy.
There is no Barry Bergen; he's a creation of comedian Kyle Gordon who has has made a career of parodying songs from genres you may not be consciously aware of, but you'll recognize when you hear them. The song "Mr. Jambo" is a parody of the "white guy goes to Africa" genre that you know mostly from Paul Simon's album Graceland, although it's been done by others. "Mr. Jambo" is from Gordon's third album Kyle Gordon Is Everywhere, to be released in October. -via Boing Boing
I San Diego this weekend? Whether you're a resident or just in town for SDCC, be sure to stop by the Paramount+ Lodge to live out your Star Trek dreams. Because who hasn't wanted to sip on a Vulcan sunset (sadly Romulan ale was unavailable) while enjoying music spun by an Andorean DJ?
You could even leave via transporter and head down to an alien planet.
It's not too early to start preparing for the harsh winter weather coming. This all-terrain vehicle in Hudson, New Hampshire available on Facebook Marketplace is ideal. It's a 1996 Mitsubishi Bravo, which is normally a city vehicle designed for quality roads.
You may have noticed some modifications to the original design. It has tracks from a Polaris UTV instead of wheels to provide for traction on snow. Although it's on sale for $11,500, the owner is willing to trade it for an ATV and cash.
-via Jalopnik
Suka Sushi in New York City is pioneering a revolutionary new sushi delivery mechanism. It's a push pop! The chefs at this counter service sushi restaurant put high-grade sushi inside. To eat, just push from the bottom, like the classic frozen treat.
There's a lot of merit to this design. If you're on the go, sushi can be hard to eat. Just push the bottom of the cardboard tube to expose another segment of sushi.
Food & Wine magazine offers a positive review, although each tube is pricey at $15-17. Think of the extra cost as a convenience fee.
-via Massimo | Photo: natenibblez
Have you noticed the strange phenomena of ice cream that doesn't melt? When a child drops a scoop or a novelty in your yard, you get the kid another and let the ice cream melt. Then you can pick up the stick and hose the cream down. But in the 21st century, you are liable to come back hours later and find a blob of ice cream still sitting there. I noticed this when my freezer died and a box of ice cream sandwiches sat there warm and intact.
Homemade ice cream contains milk, cream, sugar, and flavoring (and sometimes eggs and/or salt). The big conglomerates who sell store-bought ice cream have found ways to recreate that product with less of the expensive cream by adding gums and emulsifiers that enable them to whip in more air to produce volume. This includes premium brands like Breyers and Ben & Jerry's. These formulations often bring the product below legal standards for ice cream, but it doesn't matter if you grab a familiar package from the frozen food section. Look carefully, and you may find that it doesn't say "ice cream" anywhere on the package. Read how these frozen dairy desserts are made and how far they've strayed from "ice cream." -via Fark
The smallest countries of Oceania, spread across the Pacific, are widely-spaced paradises. They aren't rich, but some of them make a surprising amount of money by getting creative and looking to the future. Vanuatu makes a ton of money by selling citizenship. Tuvalu prospers by leasing its .tv internet domain. And Tonga was fortunate enough to be the retirement home of a satellite expert, who saw a fortune in the starry skies above his new homeland. There's money to be made in selling, or in this case renting, what you have plenty of. For Tonga, that was its isolation, which gave them a large swath of the empty space overhead. Half as Interesting explains how Tonga leveraged its location and international pacts about the use of space to make millions of dollars passively. What happened to the money is another story. This video is only around five minutes- the rest is advertising.
I majored in history. Why? It was a bad idea and I should have focused on a degree program that leads directly into a meaningful and finanially rewarding career such as online influencer.
Dextero reports that Arizona State University now offers a bachelor of arts program in Content Creation. This program prepares you for a financially rewarding career as "an influencer and strategic storyteller." Students have to prove that they have what it takes to succeed by gaining real followers. They can also complete their BA program while also completing a master's program in Digital Strategy and Audience Engagement.
You can't afford the tuition? Consider going into debt to acquire this degree.
-via David Burge | Photo: Pxhere
If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, chances are you watched your fair share of Nickelodeon. And if you loved Double Dare, You Can't Do That on Television, or The Kid's Choice Awards, you may have fell in love with the mysterious green slime that seemingly rained from the sky at the Nickelodeon Studios.
I know I sure did. So when I was given the opportunity to get slimed at Comic Con this year, my answer was a resounding "yes!" But since I knew there was a chance the stuff might end up in mouth, I was a little worried about it's ingredients.
A quick search online informed me that the formula has changed over the years, with some of the earlier recipes allegedly containing oatmeal for chunkiness. Kids who visited Nick Studios in the 90s swear it was made with vanilla pudding or applesauce. But modern slime doesn't have the same flow, so I had to ask someone at Nickelodeon.
Their representative confirmed that they have multiple formulas. Apparently, the Nick waterparks and reports use a runner slime so visitors can dive straight into the pool after a good sliming. But the one they use on TV was the exact one I was going to be slimed with. She told me that the formula is a secret, but it is food safe and free from all major allergens.
While she recommended not eating it, I admit curiosity got the better of me and I had to do a little taste. My verdict: it was pretty flavorless. If I had to guess, I'd say it was tapioca starch (or a similar thickener), food coloring and water.
If you're curious what it feels like, well, it was mostly just cold and gooey. On a hot day, it was pretty refreshing. In the long run, didn't stain my skin (my clothes were protected by a pancho), but it did crust up my hair.
For those in San Diego this weekend who are brave enough to risk a sliming, you can try it yourself at the Nickelodeon activation across from the Children's Museum. I recommend not tasting it. Or, if you have Comic Con passes, you can get virtuality slime (mess free) at the Nickelodeon booth in the convention.
Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, whom we commonly name as Diocletian, was Emperor of Rome from 284 to 305 A.D. He temporarily brought stability to a fragmenting empire before retiring to an estate in what is now Croatia to raise cabbages. It was a rare for emperors of this era to be able to retire peacefully. When political leaders asked him to return to power, he responded, "If you could see the cabbages I have planted here with my own hands, you surely would never have thought to request this."
As Diocletian's final years were in Croatia (then called Dalmatia), it is fitting that a Croatian film production studio offers a feature-length movie about his life. The dialogue of The Last Roman God is entirely in Latin.
-via Debby Witt
Stephanie Stullich of Beltsville Community Cats, a shelter in Maryland, received a call from Pet Supplies Plus that one of their kittens has been stolen from the store. She went down to the store and saw police cars arriving from all directions. She thought, "Wow, that's a heck of a response for a stolen cat." But there was more to the story.
On Monday, July 13th, a yet-unnamed man came into the pet supply store and stole the kitten. Employees said he had been there many times, showing great interest in the three-month old tuxedo kitten named Magnolia. Then he went across the parking lot to a bank and tried to rob it! He asked the bank manager to hold the kitten while he wrote a note, which was a note to the teller demanding money. He didn't get away with it.
Magnolia was stashed in the manager's office until she could be picked up, and was not hurt in the incident. Since she is no longer listed at the shelter's PetFinder page, we assume that the publicity of her adventure led her to a permanent home. Read or listen to the story at I Heart Radio. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Beltsville Community Cats at Facebook)
