Burl, the incredibly creative luthier and craftsman behind Burls Art, built a guitar with no neck or body by suspending its components on a custom system of tensioned aircraft cables. Using a metal bed frame as a base, Burl incorporated 3D-printed fret components and standard Telecaster hardware to create the playable instrument.

I attempt to build a fully playable guitar with no neck or body—just strings, frets, and tensioned aircraft cables.

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97-year-old Betty Bromage took to the skies to perform a loop-the-loop wing walk, breaking her own 2022 Guinness World Record for “oldest wing walker (female)” and setting another record for the oldest female wing walker to perform a loop-the-loop.

Soaring high in her latest daredevil stunt, 97-year-old Betty Bromage (UK) has not only broken her own record for oldest wing walker (female), she also became the oldest person to perform a loop-the-loop wing walk (female).

This flight raised money for Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity.

It was at an airfield in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, UK, on 4 August that Betty took to the skies with a mission to raise money for charity.

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Laurence Brown of Lost in the Pond explored how the meanings of certain English words differ between the United Kingdom and the United States, noting how terms such as to table, public school, and pants can have drastically different or even opposite meanings across the Atlantic.

Many words have completely different meanings between Britain and America. But there’s also a special category of words that have the exact opposite meaning on either side of the Pond. In today’s video, we explore six of them.

More Words That Are the Same With Different Meanings

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During Sea Otter Awareness Week at the Oregon Zoo, three resident sea otters named Juno, Lincoln, and Uni Sushi repeatedly smashed fresh oysters and clams against hard surfaces to open their shells and enjoy their well-earned treats. The activity mirrors the way sea otters use rocks as tools to break open shellfish in the wild.

Watch Frisky Sea Otters Smash Open Fresh Oysters And Clams

The zoo’s three otters are non-releasable rescue animals who serve as ambassadors for efforts to restore sea otters to the Oregon coast.

“Juno, Lincoln and Uni Sushi are great ambassadors for their species”, said Nicole Nicassio-Hiskey, senior marine life keeper. “Bringing sea otters back to our coast would benefit all Oregonians, and we’re excited for our community to learn how they can help this historic effort become a reality”.

This Adorable Trio Has Been Together for Quite a While

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The post Sea Otters Repeatedly Smash Open Oysters and Clams to Enjoy the Tasty Treats Inside was originally published on Laughing Squid.

Fashion designer Cory Infinite created “Infinite Pocket Jeans”, a pair of jeans constructed from thrifted jeans and made up of 41 fully functional pockets.

Created from thrifted jeans These jeans are very thick and are warm – Best for fall and winter.

Other Clothing Designs by Cory Infinite

via The Awesomer

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The post Jeans Made Entirely From 41 Fully Functional Pockets was originally published on Laughing Squid.

Animal advocate Bill Helman of WooFDriver’s DogMotoSports came to New York City and mushed his dogs around town using a wheeled e-dogsled that he invented. Helman and his canine team visited several places around town, including One World Trade Center near the 9/11 Memorial and The Battery, with a good view of the Statue of Liberty. They also took a well-deserved break along the Hudson River at sunset.

Taking a break at Sunset on the Hudson River as we adventure MUSHed in New York City yesterday!

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95-year-old William Shatner, who is indeed living long and prospering, performed with his new heavy metal band The *uckers at Riot Fest 2026 in Chicago.

William Shatner and The *uckers- Crazy Train – Riot Fest 2026 – Chicago, IL – 09-20-2026.

The band, which is made up of veteran rock musicians, performed Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. They also played Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” and Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades”.

William Shatner: Lead vocals.
Marcus Nand: Guitar and musical director.
Britt Lightning: Guitar (from Vixen).
Phil Soussan: Bass (former Ozzy Osbourne collaborator).
Fred Aching: Drums (from Kings of Thrash and Dead Groove).

Shatner’s Interview With ‘Entertainment Tonight’

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Jelle Bakker of Jelle’s Marble Runs, who hosts sand “Marble Rally” events, built “Cacophony”, a colossal marble machine designed to make a lot of noise. The machine features 2,000 marbles, plus all sorts of bells and whistles that add to the terrific racket.

It has 2 dumpsters (tipping containers) which holds 1000 and 200 marbles. It has 128 bells and chimes, but also a large number of drums, funnels, springs, nails, wooden sticks and much more. The cabinet of this marble machine functions as a resonance box to improve the sounds of the marbles.

The machine took Jelle 278 hours to build.

Finally, after 278 hours of work, I (Jelle) build this Marble Machine mostly from scrap wood and reused materials from older projects (maybe you recognize some parts)

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Tico, the incredibly musical double yellow-headed Amazon parrot, vocally accompanied his talented human, Frank Maglio, as he played the classic Led Zeppelin song “Black Dog” on his sunburst Les Paul guitar. Instead of singing the lyrics, Tico kept up with Maglio with melodic calls and whistles.

Black Dog, Green Bird, what’s the difference? Had to whistle those lyrics. I certainly can’t sing like Robert Plant.

Other Tico Performances

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Composer Tzu-Chin Hsu transcribed a duck’s quacks and honks into sheet music.

I heard a duck, I had to transcribe it.

The duck, named Happy, lives at Mother The Mountain Farm in Bundjalung Country on Australia‘s East Coast.

The sounds of Happy the duck, with the cutest quacks and quonks 

Other Animal Transcriptions

Hsu was inspired by fellow composer Alexander Liebermann, who also transcribes bird sounds and incorporates them into his music.

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Voice actor Brian Hull sings Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” from Toy Story 5 as 28 Disney characters, seamlessly switching between impressions.

Taylor Swift’s I Knew It I Knew You gets a Disney makeover!

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Patrick Foote of Name Explain investigated how many country names there are, using the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names as a reference. He explained that short, formal names, abbreviations, and linguistic variations push the total far beyond the 193 UN Member States.

According to the United Nations, there are 193 countries, so that must mean there is 193 country names too, right? Well it’s not that simple. In today’s video, we look into the truth behind country names, and how many there really are.

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The music and audio channel Mixed Signals explained how 12-year-old Bronx DJ Theodore Livingston, later known as Grand Wizzard Theodore, accidentally pioneered the now-iconic record-scratching technique.

While practicing his mixing skills at home in 1975, his mother came into the room and told him to turn the music down. As he lowered the volume, Theodore moved the record back and forth under the needle, creating the sound he would develop into scratching.

After his mom left the room, he decided to listen back to the tape, heard the scratches, and realized he had struck gold. And when I rewinded back to the part where my mother came in the room, I can hear myself baby scratching. I was like, “Wow, I can incorporate that into all the other things that I do as a DJ.” 

While DJs had previously manipulated records by hand, Theodore developed scratching as a deliberate musical technique.

Radio DJs would have been manipulating records with their hands to find the start of a track for decades, which is called backing. …And presumably someone out there had moved the record with their hand at some point, accidentally or otherwise. The difference was that Theodore was the first person to treat this as a musical feature as opposed to a mistake.

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Simple Things – Surprising Histories explained why some tape measures use black diamonds to mark 19.2-inch intervals, dividing an eight-foot span into five equal sections. The marks provide a visual shortcut for laying out floor joists and roof trusses.

We explain why tape measures have those black diamonds and how they are used step by step using real math and verified framing methods.

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The post Why Some Tape Measures Have Black Diamonds was originally published on Laughing Squid.

Dr. Helen Czerski spoke with Professor Ron Douglas of City St George’s, University of London for BBC Earth Science about how different animals perceive ultraviolet light, comparing human visual limitations with the very different eyesight of starlings and birds of prey.

Ultraviolet light is invisible to humans, but some animals can see it. From birds of prey to other creatures in the wild, discover how UV reveals a world of patterns and signals that we can’t see.

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The post How Different Birds Perceive Ultraviolet Light was originally published on Laughing Squid.

Dr. Erica Brozovsky of the PBS series Otherwords explained how the meanings of common words shift over time and across generations.

This type of language evolution, where the meanings of words shift over time, sometimes even leaving their original meaning behind, is called semantic change. There are probably words in your vocabulary that future generations will use in completely different ways.

She also explored the fascinating linguistic mechanisms behind semantic change, including extension, reduction, elevation, pejoration, and intensification.

With all of these processes bumping up against each other every time we communicate, it’s no wonder that language is always changing, first in small speech communities and then larger ones, until the change is so ubiquitous, we forget we didn’t always use these words this way.

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James Dundon, the Mechanical Music Man, used perforated cardboard strips in his beautifully restored Dutch street organ, Blauwtje, to play a wonderfully buoyant cover of the classic Cher song “Believe”.

Cher’s “Believe” was released in 1998 and became a landmark pop hit, famously using the Auto-Tune effect as a deliberate vocal sound. There’s no auto-tune with this mechanical organ though.

Other Blauwtje Covers

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Ryan Socash of It’s History explained why the Liberty Building in Buffalo, New York, has two 36-foot replicas of the Statue of Liberty perched on opposite ends of its roof.

High above downtown Buffalo, two 36-foot replicas of the Statue of Liberty have watched over the city since 1925.

The neoclassical building was constructed in 1925 as the headquarters of Liberty Bank, which had changed its name from German-American Bank in 1918 amid rising anti-German sentiment during World War I. To reflect the bank’s new image, sculptor Leo Lentelli created three Statue of Liberty replicas: two for the rooftop and one for the Main Street entrance.

During World War I, rising anti-German sentiment led the bank to change its name to Liberty Bank, transforming its public image as it entered a new era of American patriotism.

The building was also the site of a daring high-wire performance.

Inside the building was a heavily secured bank vault, while the tower later became the setting for a remarkable high-wire performance between its two rooftop statues.

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Ross Fearnley of The Unusual Suspect edited together lines from 144 movies to seamlessly recreate the lyrics of “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers.

The Killers’ smash 2004 hit Mr. Brightside gets the CinemaSings treatment!

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Rob Watts of RobWords explored the origins of English surnames and how hereditary family names spread in England in the centuries after the 11th-century Norman Conquest of England. Watts traced many surnames to four broad categories: occupations, parental names, locations, and descriptive nicknames, with meanings that are often obscured in their modern forms.

Our last names reveal the lives of our ancestors. Though it’s not always obvious, they can tell us where they lived, what they did, what others thought of them, and what their first names were. From Archer to Wright, Anderson to Wilkinson, Short to Strong, and Danvers to Disney, enjoy this journey through the history of family names.

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