There are documented stories of mysterious mass dancing manias that took place in Europe during the Middle Ages, but in Italy, there was a reason for sudden frantic dancing. It was supposed to save your life after a toxic spider bite. The story is tied together by Italian terms, so we may need to start with a glossary.

Tarantism: shaking and jerking as a hysterical reaction to a spider bite.
Taranto: a city in southern Italy. 
Tarantula: in this case, a European wolf spider. 
Pizzica tarantata: the ritual of dancing to force out a spider's toxin.  
Tarantella: a folk dance that grew from all the above.

During harvest season, it wasn't rare to be bitten by a wolf spider. The fear of dying from a spider bite made people shake. Somehow, this led to a belief that dancing fast would help the body work the toxin out. This was such an ingrained idea that musicians would show up and help a victim dance. It worked, since the victim would survive. But that was because a wolf spider is nothing like what we refer to as tarantulas today. Read about the dancing mania caused by spiders at Popular Science. -via Strange Company  

(Image credit: Filippo Falciatore) 

Robert Louis Stevenson had a frightening dream while he was ill in 1885. His wife woke him up when he cried out, and he admonished her for interrupting a good story. Three days later, he had written Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But that was just the first draft, and it was burned. Stevenson started all over again and again completed the novella in three days. After a few revisions, it became a bestseller. 

What was different about that first draft? We'll never know, since it never made its way out of the house. Who burned it and why? That's another mystery. Stevenson's wife Fanny, who routinely critiqued his works, gave conflicting accounts at different times as to what was wrong with the story and how it came to be burned. Fanny's son Lloyd Osbourne was in the home during the time, and gave a third, somewhat different account of the first draft burning. They even disagreed on how long the two versions were. Read about the origins of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the fate of the first draft at Mental Floss.  

Ethel Dougan was an artist who, during the Great Depression, worked for the Works Progress Administration. Among her compositions is this watercolor and graphite rendering on paperboard.

Why were these mittens made to give access to the forefinger? The Atlantic tells us that they belonged to Private Franklin Martin Spaulding of the Sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War.

An infantryman needed access to his forefinger to tear a paper cartridge, load his musket, and then pull the trigger. This design, rendered in patriotic red, white, and blue yarn, permitted him to do so under harsh winter conditions.

-via TYWKIWDBI

Why do your shoes laces keep untying themselves? It could be because you're out there running all the time, which vibrates your shoes until the knot loosens. Yeah, that's not the case for most of us. It could be because you're tying them wrong. We are supposed to use a reef knot, a term I'd never heard before, essentially a square knot with loops for easy untying. Yet some people tie a granny knot, which doesn't hold well at all. There are other knots that people swear by, but you have to have the motivation to learn them. Kids' shoes come untied all the time because they are so active and inattentive, so I used to double tie my kids' shoes or use those plastic clips to keep the knot in place. 

My feet are small, so I buy shoes from the kids' section because they cost less. My current tennis shoes are tied, then have a velcro strap that closes right over the knot, so no worries. If you need some help keeping your shoes tied, astrophysicist Josie Peters has the science of shoelaces to help you out. -via Laughing Squid 

The original Star Wars, now known as Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope, will be 50 years old in 2027. To celebrate the anniversary, Disney/Lucasfilm plans an entire year of Star Wars events. Today, executives announced that the original version of the film has been restored and will be shown in theaters in various formats, including Imax, beginning February 19th. Does this mean we get to prove to our grandchildren that Han really shot Greedo first? 

There will also be a new documentary about the making of the first Star Wars movie, called The Hero Awakens, premiering on Disney+ on May 4th. Then the new film Star Wars: Starfighter will open in theaters on May 28th. There are other Star Wars 50th anniversary events planned, and merchandising, of course. The company announced partnerships with Hasbro, Lego, Mars, and Adidas to bring us plenty of commemorative toys, clothing, and even candy. Read more about the 2027 Star Wars 50th anniversary offerings at Variety. -via MetaFilter 

We've heard of the Gulf Stream, but it's just a part of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). AMOC flows one way on the surface, and then a different direction in the lower depths of the ocean. This explains why the coldest regions of the continental US are at the same latitudes as the warmest parts of Europe. AsapSCIENCE also introduces us to the "cold blob" in the ocean. But this system has shown some changes lately, thanks to glacial melting in Greenland. What does that mean for us?

The effects would be felt in Europe first, but it may affect other parts of the world as well. When will all this happen? Unlike in the previous post, scientists are leery of assigning a date to the point of no return, or the point of environmental collapse. Other factors may be in play, and we can't say that today's trajectory will not change. Still, ocean currents that have been stable for a few thousand years suddenly starting to change can't be a good thing.   

Friday the 13th is a day we observe occasionally to celebrate superstitions and black cats crossing our paths. But November 13th, 2026, was designated as doomsday, in a scientific paper published in 1960. What were they afraid of? Nuclear war is the most obvious choice considering the Cold War, but there's also climate crisis, machines taking over, and political instability. You know, the things we worry about today. 

No, it was overpopulation. University of Illinois physicist Heinz von Foerster looked at 2,000 years of population numbers from around the world and saw an exponential growth rate. His calculations showed that the explosive rate would reach infinity levels in the 2020s. However, the reason for that exponential growth was not accurately identified. And today we have a declining birth rate that appears to be more of a threat than overpopulation. Also, picking a particular date for doomsday was not a good idea in the first place. So don't dread this Friday the 13th any more than you usually do, but go read about the overpopulation panic and what happened instead at Popular Mechanics.  -via Fark 

(Image credit: Tzim78) 

Why are these horses getting on a bus in Detroit? Or perhaps a better question is why are these humans bringing horses on the bus?

ABC News reports that a viral video shows men leading two horses on and off a public bus. They belong to Urban City Cowboys, a black urban horsemanship (this is an actual subculture; I see these horse riders occasionally in my city) organization in Detroit.

The founder, Jordan Williams, apparently hoped to normalize horsemanship through this publicity stunt. City authorities are displeased and are investigating why the driver allowed the horses to board.

It stands to reason that if two foods taste good, then the appeal of their flavors will at least double when those foods are combined.

Kentucky Fried Chicken's famous hot biscuits are delicious. So is soft serve ice cream. So let's put them together.

Sora News 24 reports that selected Kentucky Fried Chicken locations in Japan now offer soft serve ice cream sandwiches made with biscuits. Customers can order either vanilla, chocolate, or a combination of the two for ¥680, which is $4.26 USD.

The intrepid reporter for Sora News 24 reports that the combination works well. Soft serve ice cream also pairs nicely with the fried chicken the restaurant chain serves.

Justin Lesinski is an ingenious product designer in Palo Alto, California who makes gadgets that are both useful and aesthetically appealing. He has already brought geared box knives to market, but it not at that stage yet with his chessboard.

This immensely complex machine is made with custom gearing, 3D printed pieces, and a laser cut wood body. The 325 individual parts required precision crafting to prevent jamming. The pieces, I would guess, are held in place with magnets.

It's a beautiful but also functional sculpture.

-via The Awesomer

Harry Blake works outdoors for Cormac, an environmental services firm in Cornwall, UK. He and his co-workers must complete their tasks while combating mosquitoes and horseflies. His solution to these pests has been to clip fake plastic dragonflies on the brims of their caps. The springy wire causes the models to jiggle in such a way that they convince mosquitoes that the dragonflies are real.

You can read the complete story in Cornish Stuff. I don't know if the claims are scientifically valid, but Blake and his co-workers swear by the invention. A pair of the fake dragonflies is especially effective at deterring attacking insects.

-via Core77

It's been raining heavily in Florida lately. That's been a problem at Save the Chimps, a chimpanzee rescue organization in Fort Pierce that is home to two hundred apes.

One of them, Kaleb, is a 38-year old chimpanzee who became stranded on a plot of land that became an island due to rising waters. Even high clearance vehicles were unable to reach him.

Fortunately, the Associated Press reports, Save the Chimps had prepared for this kind of emergency. It had purchased a drone before the storm and put it to effective use to save Kaleb. The drone dropped food and blankets on his island, as you can see in the above video.

I wonder what is Kaleb's understanding of what happened.

Paisley Abbey in Paisley, Scotland, just west of Glasgow, was first built in the 12th century, although it was rebuilt in the 14th century and partially rebuilt in the 19th century. King Robert II was born there, and King Robert III of Scotland is buried there. The abbey has 13 gargoyles, or carved stone rain spouts. One of them looks suspiciously like the xenomorph from the Alien movies, designed by H. R. Giger! We don't see the inner teeth protruding, but when rains spews out of its mouth, this gargoyle must look pretty gross. In this Instagram gallery, you can see it with icicles, and the other gargoyles of Paisley Abbey.   

There's a perfectly logical explanation. During restoration work in the 1990s, twelve of the 13 gargoyles had to be replaced. While most of them resemble what you'd expect from a medieval structure, some stonemason had fun with this one. I am guessing that the gargoyle it replaced was too damaged to copy. And if you hadn't seen the movies, it wouldn't look all that out of place even now.  -via Boing Boing 

(Image credit: Thomas Nugent/CC BY-SA 2.0) 

The online game Borderline challenges us to draw map borders from memory. The United States version has proven to be very popular. Drawing each state's borders is not easy when you've never done it before, no matter how well you know the US map. Some people are astonishingly good at it. Then you remember that no one is going to try the game unless they think they can do it. Sure, you can draw your own state accurately, but that won't be the first state you are given. Better start on easy mode, or else you will be too discouraged to continue. 

A compilation map of how all players drew those lines is fascinating. Matt Forrest brings us some insights about that map, specifically that the states with the most complicated borders turn out to be the easiest states to place. The hardest are those with simple, straight borders because they are all together in the American West. Yeah, where you place the state is different from whether you draw a straight line. -via Laughing Squid