The 8-Bit Big Band performed a swanky cover of Nintendo Wii‘s Mii Channel Theme in the distinctive 1960s Space-Age Exotica style of legendary Mexican composer Juan García Esquivel.

One of the Nintendo Wii era’s greatest video game music themes, the beloved Mii Channel Theme!! This version is a tribute to one of my favorite arrangers of all time the great Juan García Esquivel.

Other Video Game Covers

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Partners Hannah Michelle (HM) Brower and Aspen Simone were not fans of pigeons until Brower helped rescue a sick pigeon named Primrose, whom the couple later adopted. They decided to share their newfound love of these birds with their South Philly community by establishing Philly Pigeon Tours.

On the tour, you’ll observe pigeons and learn all about their behaviors, biology, and history. You’ll learn the ups and downs of the relationship between humans and pigeons — and you might even see a baby pigeon!

Their tours offer valuable insights into the long, complicated relationship between humans and pigeons, while using the birds as a lens for contemporary issues.

On a pigeon tour, you’ll get a new look at contemporary issues like immigration, urbanization, ecology, and sustainability through learning about pigeons. We also debunk a hearty amount of misinformation about pigeons.

Primrose the Pigeon

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Content creator AJ Kaladi hops around the streets of New York City on his streamlined, air-powered pogo stick, traveling several miles at remarkable speeds. Kaladi also used bicycle lanes whenever possible.

Nihilist Pogoer.

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Dr. Erica Brozovsky of the PBS series Otherwords explained the linguistic science behind baby talk, or infant-directed speech (IDS), specifically why adults across cultures instinctively switch to this exaggerated speech style when interacting with infants.

Speech rate slows down with more pauses between words. Pitch tends to be higher with more variation. Vowels are often exaggerated. Grammar becomes simplified and words get repeated, specifically nouns and verbs. And the behavior is more or less involuntary. Nobody decides to baby talk; it just kind of happens.

Despite its instinctive nature, a stigma remained that IDS was a quirk of Western industrialized societies rather than a universal human trait.

By the mid 2000s, the majority of linguists and child psychologists agreed that baby talk is beneficial for language development. But a different stigma remained, that instead of it being a universal human trait, IDS was in fact a quirk of Western industrialized nations, a luxury of privileged white parents with plenty of free time and obsession with academic performance.

Brozovsky addressed why babies respond to IDS and how it may support their linguistic development.

Studies have found that a high-pitched voice will grab and hold a baby’s attention better than a lower-pitched one. In fact, they seem to prefer voices that are around the same frequency of their own vocal tracts, a preference that doesn’t develop until they’re old enough to make sounds of their own. …

Humans also use a similar register of speech when talking to animals.

Smooth, high-pitched speech signifies friendliness and vulnerability. This association is so deep that it crosses the boundaries between species.

How Babies Learn to Talk

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In the ACLU series Know Your Rights University, a pair of stop motion students named Lisa and Aaron learn about the three branches of the United States government, namely legislative, executive, and judicial, from their teacher, Mr. Charles. He further explains how the legislative and executive branches turn a bill into law, how the judicial branch interprets laws, and how all three are supposed to work together within a system of checks and balances, which he calls “The Three Branch Weave”.

Lisa and Aaron learn about the three branches of government and how they work together to make a law on this episode of Know Your Rights University.

More ‘Know Your Rights University’ Videos

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Alwyn Wils of the A Chick Called Albert channel incubated a clutch of six abandoned emu eggs, investigating their viability after learning they were more than three weeks old.

My expectations were very low as these eggs were over three weeks old when I got them. But I just had to give them a chance…

Wils determined that only two of the six eggs were viable. The first hatching went very smoothly, but the second was more difficult due to a dry membrane. Wils slowly coaxed the tiny hatchling out of her shell by painting the egg with water.

The second egg was running late and when I picked it up, I could see why. The membrane looked very dry. This could be an issue as the membrane shrinks as it dries out. This limits her ability to move.

After a few weeks, when both little emus were healthy and happy, Wils repaired the hatched shell with gold leaf in the spirit of the Japanese art of Kintsugi.

via The Kid Should See This

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Comedian Daniel LaBelle, who likes to keep things interesting, hilariously played a variety of games with his running partner while they were both sprinting down the street.

Playing games while sprinting

The games included Operation, Jenga, ping pong, pool, tug-of-war, Twister, and, most daringly, darts.

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Wildlife photographer Robert Martinez captured trail-cam footage of a wide array of wildlife passing through a creek in the Angeles National Forest from January to July 2026, including a winter flood that his camera survived. The animals included bears, mountain lions, deer, bobcats, and ringtails, many stopping for a drink.

Deep in the creek in the Angeles National Forest. Here’s the last seven months in six minutes of highlights from January 2026 to July 2026.

The camera also captured a bear and a skunk unexpectedly meeting twice in one week.

A skunk meets a bear in the Angeles National Forest. Twice in one week! This is definitely a first for my lucky trail camera. I’m not sure exactly what is going on here, but it’s definitely interesting to see.

via The Kid Should See This

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Adam of North of the Border sculpted a terrifying sentient spaghetti monster in a bowl with raised arms and menacing teeth.

Today I made a sentient bowl of evil pasta… An Italian nightmare made manifest. At least I didn’t snap the pasta before cooking it.

Adam, in his wonderfully forthright manner, described each step of the process as he sculpted and painted the piece.

via The Awesomer

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At the 2000 BBC FutureWorld exhibition in Bristol, England, presenters Peter Snow and Lindsey Fallow of the BBC series Tomorrow’s World reported on the latest World Wide Web technology and future projects.

Peter Snow and Lindsey Fallow present a special edition of Tomorrow’s World, live from the BBC Futureworld exhibition in Bristol – which aims to showcase the future of digital broadcasting, television and the internet.

Included in this exhibition were ideas for internet-enabled mobile phones, an online gaming setup with haptic feedback, 3D goggles, website design, and digital clones.

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Whenever a goat named Amber wants a boost to reach her favorite snack of maple leaves, her best friend Dolly, a donkey, is happy to lend her back as a step stool. According to their human, Dina, this unusual pair has a beautiful symbiotic relationship.

One summer day, all of a sudden, Amber had hopped up onto Dolly’s back so seamlessly, like they had done it 100 times before, and Dolly led Amber to the leaves so that she could eat. … I think the most wonderful thing about this relationship is that there’s so much love and respect exchanged without any words.

Another Goat Using a Donkey to Reach Low-Hanging Fruit

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Thirteen-year-old named Zac Waters, who lives in Lehi, Utah, spent 300 hours of his summer break designing, printing, testing, and assembling a custom 3D-printed mobility chair for a 21-month-old girl.

Zac, who learned to 3D print from an instructional video, downloaded a Toddler Mobility Trainer design from the nonprofit MakeGood and customized it. He told ABC4 Utah why he wanted to take on the project.

I really wanted to do this because I just love helping people in need, and it combines my two favorite things in life. 3D printing and helping people in need. Makes me so happy to print it and see the smiles and how happy the family is that really needs the wheelchair.

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A massive 10-foot hairball has been seen rolling through the streets of New York City in all its tangled glory. Nicknamed “Tumblehair”, the knotty sphere, which represents all the hair that New Yorkers lose to shedding, was a clever marketing stunt created by Uncommon Creative Studio for K18’s new FutureIQ biomimetic hair longevity serum.

To launch K18 Hair’s new product FutureIQ™ – we created a one-of-a-kind giant 10ft hairball made of real human hair representing the 167 billion hairs New Yorkers lose to shedding. Gross? Disgusting? Sure, that may be true but this rolling installation transforms the staggering scale of premature hair aging & everyday shedding into something impossible to ignore.

While the hairball looked like it was rolling around on its own like a hirsute tumbleweed, it was actually being guided by a hidden team.

Tumblehair Also Sheds

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An adventurous rescued orange tabby named Zoey enjoys kayaking with her devoted humans on the waterways of New Hampshire, sometimes even jumping back and forth between their two kayaks. She sometimes falls in, but it doesn’t faze her. Zoey was introduced to kayaking just four weeks after being adopted from a local shelter.

We started out slow, letting her explore the kayaks on the sand and just kind of find her way around. And then we had her sit on our lap and basically just sit on the water, not going anywhere. Once she was comfortable, we gave just a slow push away from the dock.

It didn’t take long for Zoey to love being on the water.

She was not so sure about this new floating world, and we were not so sure about her balance, but she figured it out pretty quickly. And soon she was walking up to the bow of the boat and ready for her first real kayak paddle.

Water Loving Cat Travels the World With Her Humans

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British musician Bella Band performed a jazzy cover of the 2006 Muse song “Supermassive Black Hole”, playing flute, clarinet, and bass while also singing. This multi-layered arrangement gave the song a softer, bossa nova-inflected feel.

my spin on Muse’s absolute bop

Other Versions of the Song

via Nag on the Lake

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Epic Spaceman (Toby Lockerbie) virtually explored the Mariana Trench while riding the Titanic’s anchor, explaining the history of deep-sea exploration and the adaptations of the strange sea creatures he encountered.

I travel from the surface to the deepest point in the ocean on the Titanic’s anchor in real time, exploring what happens as we descend nearly 11 kilometres to Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.

The animated presentation highlighted the immense pressure and environmental extremes encountered during the descent through the various oceanic zones to reach Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the ocean.

Along the way, we experience the scale of planet Earth, using science and engineering to uncover the wonders of the Universe hidden deep underwater. Watching out for mysterious monsters lurking in the deep, from megalodons to anglerfish and giant squid.

The Strange Deep Sea Creatures of the Mariana Trench

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The Thought Vortex explained why cats often ignore expensive beds their humans buy for them and instead head straight for the cardboard boxes they came in.

The bed is comfortable by human standards. The box is comfortable by cat standards. One is furniture, the other is shelter. And for a creature shaped by ambush, caution, and the constant possibility of becoming prey, shelter wins. 

While their humans mean well, hiding places such as boxes can help cats feel secure and reduce stress.

When the environment becomes chaotic, reduce the environment; shrink the world down to something you can monitor.  …So when your cat ignores the deluxe bed, rejects the plush tunnel, and crawls into a dented cardboard box by the recycling bin, it isn’t being random. It found the one place in the house where the world finally feels small enough to control.

Why Cats Love Cardboard Boxes So Much

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While visiting New York City, British foodie Harrison Webb traveled by subway to Elmhurst, Queens, to dine at Warung Selasa, one of the city’s smallest restaurants. The restaurant, which is tucked inside Indo Java Groceries, is only open on Tuesdays.

I travelled to Queens, New York, to eat at one of the city’s smallest and most unusual food spots. Inside Indo Java Groceries in Elmhurst, you’ll find Warung Selasa, a tiny Indonesian food pop-up that only opens on Tuesdays. There is no fixed menu, only a few seats, and the home-cooked regional dishes change every week and often sell out.

Webb found the restaurant very cozy, with people shopping around him as he ate a beautiful meal prepared by Dewi Tjahjadi, the proprietor, who explained that the weekly menu is determined by seasonal ingredients and weekly store sales.

This is such a unique restaurant. Don’t know the price of this, by the way, either, so we’ll have to let you know when we get the bill. But it is a very decent-sized portion. This is just for one, by the way. … People really are just shopping while you’re eating. It’s so funny.

Webb also asked random New Yorkers where he should eat next.

One of the Smallest Restaurants in NYC

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James Atamian of Morning Brew went inside Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield, Ohio, the largest family-owned grocery store in the United States. He toured the massive 280,000-square-foot store, which features thousands of food products from more than 70 countries.

Jungle Jim’s International Market is a 50 year old, family owned grocery store in Fairfield, Ohio. 280,000 square feet. About 82,000 shoppers a week. With over 180,000 SKUs from more than 70 countries. Hundreds of millions in annual revenue, with $0 in outside funding ever raised.

He also spoke with Jim Bonaminio, the owner, who said he is not too fond of computers but evidently has an eye for unique grocery items.

It’s run by an eccentric guy with a flip phone who has filled the place with things you won’t find in any other grocery store. Grocery is a brutal business and margins are razor thin. Every other indie grocer has been swallowed. So how does this place still exist?

Atamian was very impressed with the store.

Overall, I think the secret sauce for Jungle Jim’s is that, on the surface, your eye is probably drawn to all the weird quirkiness in the store, naturally, but beneath all that is an incredibly well-run grocery store with very talented and passionate people at the head of every department.

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Michael LaPointe of Pointe of View explained why certain flowering plants from around the world take on uncanny human and animal forms.

In this video we look at ten flowering plants that evolution apparently designed by accident, or possibly as a dare. … None of this is exaggerated. All of it is real. The planet has been doing this for four hundred million years and it kept arriving at us.

The anthropomorphic forms include skull-like snapdragon seed pods, naked men, red lips, giant disembodied hands, and tiny infants. Animal resemblances include startled primates and flying ducks. Several of the plants’ scientific names reflect these features.

Featuring: Antirrhinum majus, Impatiens bequaertii, Dracula simia, Orchis italica, Psychotria elata, Anguloa uniflora, Ophrys apifera, Calceolaria uniflora, Caleana major, and Chiranthodendron pentadactylon.

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