Lucky for us, modern commercial food production is governed by laws on food safety and regulations ensuring fair trade practices. For the most part. But it wasn't always so, and some iconic brands have sad or cutthroat origin stories. You know John Pemberton developed Coca-Cola and named it after its ingredients, but did you know he started using cocaine to treat his own morphine addiction? Okra is not native to the US, and was smuggled in. Fanta was developed during World War II when Germany lost their American suppliers and had to use garbage from local food processors to made soda. The story of the first pink lemonade is either cute or gross, depending on which story you believe. Several companies blatantly ripped off the competition and won through the magic of marketing, leaving the originals in the dust. Read the more nefarious (and sometimes gruesome) parts of the origin stories of 12 familiar foods at The Takeout. 

(Image credit: angrit) 

In 1989, Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced us to the Borg, a collective of cyborgs that work together as one unit to capture and assimilate the universe's beings and technology for their own purpose- which is to capture and assimilate others. They are seemingly soulless, more powerful than Starfleet, and growing bigger and more powerful all the time. A truly frightening nemesis. 

The more our heroes learn about the Borg, the more frightening they became. In later episodes, the philosophical question of individualism, free will, and the hive mind are explored. However, over time and multiple appearances in later movies and series of the Star Trek universe, the Borg lost their horror because they were always ultimately thwarted. We also got to know a few individual Borg drones, and they became sympathetic. The Borg never succeeded in permanently assimilating any of the main characters, although they came frighteningly close. This video is 20 minutes long, but it's from The Art of Storytelling, so you know it's going to be riveting. -via Laughing Squid 

Exotic, amazing, and totally untrue tales from faraway lands come through many paths. Locals like to troll visitors with scary stories, like that of the snipe or drop bear. Returning travelers like to impress people by becoming brave witnesses to things they heard. Some storytellers have an agenda, like proving their superiority over uncivilized cultures. And news outlets sometimes prioritize a good story over the truth. Sometimes legends arise due to a combination of these factors. And that's how we got the Man-Eating Tree of Madagascar. 

On April 28, 1874, the New York World published an account of German botanist Karl Leche about a tree in Madagascar that resembled an eight-foot pineapple. The Mkodo tribe showed him a ceremony in which a woman was sacrificed to the tree by forcing her to drink its poison nectar, after which the tree's upper tendrils encased her. When Leche returned later, all that was left of the woman was her skull at the base of the tree. 

The problems with the story are 1. there is no evidence of the existence of Karl Leche, 2. there is no Mkodo tribe in Madagascar, and 3. no one ever saw the tree after that. But the story spread like crazy, and stuck around. This happened after insectivorous plants were discovered. There was a 19th-century queen of Madagascar who eliminated her rivals and invading foreigners by forcing them to drink poison. And, perhaps most importantly, most readers knew very little about Madagascar. Read how the legend of the man-eating tree came about at American Strangeness. -via Strange Company 

Christopher B. Buck, Ph.D., is a virologist with the National Institutes of Health's Laboratory of Cellular Oncology. Science News reports that he has lately experimented on himself and his brother by brewing and drinking beer that contains effective vaccines against cancer-causing polyomarivuses.

The project has caused legal difficulties for Buck who, as a scientist with the US federal government, is constrained by ethical requirements for experiments on human subjects--even if test subjects are himself and his brother. The formed and serves as the sole employee of the Gusteau Research Corporation to provide himself with some means of evading these restrictions.

-via NEXTA

The headstone for the grave of Joan Wytte in Cornwall, UK, is quite intriguing. Her birth date, death date, and burial date are in three different centuries! And the last line is quite sad- "no longer abused." Who was Joan Wytte? 

It turns out there is no documentary evidence of a woman named Joan Wytte, and the name "Joan" was often given to Cornish women who were considered a village wise woman. In other words, a witch. Forensic evidence shows the woman buried underneath this stone was around 38 years old at the time of her death, short, and undernourished. She died in the Bodmin jail in 1813, and we know a lot more about her existence after that. Her body was supposed to go to an anatomist, but he didn't bother to actually collect it, so she stayed at the jail, and her bones were used in a seance. Then a doctor took possession of the skeleton, and later sold it to the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in the 1950s, although the actual museum didn't open until years later. Read what we know about the woman whose restless remains were finally interred with dignity 185 years after she died. -via reddit 

(Image credit: Capricorn007_) 

Chesty is a bulldog who serves as the official mascot of the United States Marine Corps. He's named for Lt. Gen. Lewis "Chesty" Puller (1898-1971).* This particular bulldog is the sixteenth to bear the title of Chesty when the Marine Corps adopted its first bulldog for this purpose in 1957.

This video shows how Chesty is trained and kitted out to serve the corps and engage in his work for it. Although there are treats involved, Chesty also has responsibilities and standards to uphold.

-via Instapundit

*I enthusiastically recommend the Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography of Chesty Puller's son. It's a raw, honest, and moving story of the full life of a man in all its ordeals.

Oxford's Mathematical Institute reports about the development of shapes that can physically exist only in zero gravity. These "soft shapes" lack corners and are partially available as biological tissues. But recreating them in practice against the pull of gravity is challenging. The fluid dynamics require micro or zero gravity.

In the above video, Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu created an accurate physical model of one of these shapes while on board the International Space Station.

-via My Modern Met

Barry's Borderpoints is a website featuring photos and maps of national borderpoints visited by Barry Arnold, the Vice President of the International Border Research Group--an organization of border enthusiasts.

Arnold's website includes some of the more eccentric borders that history and politics have drawn across the world. Among them is this house that is in Slovenia but is surrounded by Italy. It is set in the region of Trieste--a city long disputed among Italians, Slovenians, and Croatians.

A map reveals the international border. There are official marker points at all four corners. Residents have incorporated them into their garden landscaping. There are no indications that the Slovenian and Italian residents across the fence are hostile to each other.

In the 1990 Christmas movie Home Alone, the McCallister family experiences a nighttime power outage. As a result, their alarm clocks don't go off and the family wakes up only when the airport shuttle van arrives to pick them up. This electrical problem is central to the plot. If the McCallisters are not frantically rushed to leave, it's very improbable that Kevin would have been left home alone.

How likely is it that there would be a power outage on that particular night? Physicist Luís Batalha produced this brief analysis on the subject. His conclusion is that the likelihood of this event is about 0.13%.

Kevin got lucky.

You know what Christmas needs? More chaos and destruction! In this bizarre animated sequence the Grinch gets lost on his way to Whoville and somehow ends up in the United States. Instead of correcting his mistake, he instead decides to ruin Christmas here. But since he's not familiar with the huge and powerful transportation and logistics systems in America, he takes quite a beating- to a ridiculous degree. He discovers that his nefarious schemes are no match for the country's over-the-top Christmas spirit. Yet instead of a genuine change of heart, the Grinch realizes that it is in his own best interest to leave Christmas alone. It's the American way. 

This involves teleportation, time travel, and the suspension of the laws of physics, which is what cartoons are for. It's the kind of nonsense you'd expect from Landon Fernald of Landon’s Animation Wheelhouse (previously at Neatorama). He hand-animated all the scenes in Blender, and did the music as well. -via The Awesomer 

The Rockettes are currently performing in the annual Christmas Spectacular show at Radio City Music Hall, just like they did when you were a kid. Christmas is their busiest season, when they perform in five shows a day from Thanksgiving into the new year, after weeks of rehearsals. I had always thought the Rockettes' name was somehow connected to the name Rockefeller, but I was wrong. The troupe, then called the Missouri Rockets, was formed in St. Louis in the 1920s as an opening act for movies. A theater owner saw them and bought the troupe in 1925 and moved them to New York, where they again performed before movie showings, but their name was now the Rockettes. They were kicking up their heels before Radio City Music Hall ever opened. 

The Rockettes have become a tradition in New York and on TV. They've performed in the Christmas Spectacular since 1933, and in the Macy's parade since 1957. Read about the Rockette's history, what they do, and what it's like to be one of them, at Smithsonian. Videos are included. 

Yukon Cornelius, the great mountain man of the frozen north and a hero of the 1964 classic Christmas film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, is a larger than life figure who taps into hidden universal forces to perform mighty feats.

In the original film, Cornelius wields a revolver. Now he prefers a lightsaber -- an elegant weapon from a more civilized age. In Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back he almost dies when captured by a Wampa.

Travis Chapman, a pop culture artist with a great gift for humor and the Christmas spirit, shows Cornelius at his best.

YouTuber Jonas Wolf and his friends adapt modern songs for the choral styles of the Renaissance and early Baroque period of Western European music. Past recordings include "Let It Be" by The Beatles and "Last Christmas" by Wham!

Embedded above is the 1977 disco hit "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees--a song made most famous for its appearance in the film Saturday Night Fever. Like many of Wolf's recordings, he and his colleagues are performing the 20th Century song as a madrigal. That's a polyphonic form of vocal chamber music that originated in Renaissance Italy and now grooves on the dance floor.

-via Kottke

Like most states, Illinois allows residents to choose combinations of letters and numbers to reflect custom messages on their car license plates. But, the state warns, applicants must follow certain standards of decency and decorum.

NBC News 5 Chicago reports that the state received 55,600 requests during the past year. It rejected more than 550 of them because they were "inflammatory, profane, or offensive...."

In this video, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias reads off some of the funniest license plate requests that he has had to turn down. I had no idea that "bricked" had an offensive connotation, but Urban Dictionary was unfortunately informative.

-via Jalopnik

Will my shipment arrive before Christmas? I have proceeded through the five stages of grief and reached acceptance: it will arrive at my home on the 27th.

But Flo & Joan, the musical comedy duo from the UK, are not working with the psychology of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, but instead that of Joseph Campbell. In this song, they go on a hero's journey to seek their missing parcel which itself is on a great journey.

Watch this beautifully staged performance that rises to a crescendo of anxiety combatted with courage as the women find the parcel serves as a boon that transforms them.

-via Nag on the Lake