In the event that you haven't seen any of the nominees for Best Picture at the 2026 Academy Awards, you might learn enough about them from the annual Honest Trailer to form some kind of opinion on who should win. Don't laugh, I have seen exactly none of them, but I probably will catch a few in the next couple of years on TV. Whether I will make that effort at all depends on who wins and what Screen Junkies can tell us about them. The only one that has been recommended to me is Sinners, but they are all rated pretty highly. 

There's plenty of fun in the Honest Trailer. I'm going to put "Thousand Island stare" in my backpack to pull out at the proper time. That's golden. The best part is at the end, where they make a supercut showing how all these movies are the same, or at least incorporate all the same elements. The 98th Academy Awards will be bestowed this Sunday night. 

We have long been fascinated with falling cats and their ability to land on their feet. So much so that we've dropped an astonishing number of cats in the name of science over the centuries. Even after the development of high-speed photography, experts disagree on how they do it, but there are several theories, including the “tuck and turn” model, the “falling figure skater” explanation, and the “bend and twist” method. My favorite is the "propeller tail" concept.

Recent research gives credence to the tuck and turn theory. The study began with a truly terrifying phrase in which each word is worse then the one before, until you get to the end: "A team of Japanese scientists removed the spines from five donated cat cadavers," and placed them in a twisting device. The researchers then moved on to live cats, but they neither had their spines removed nor were they put into a twisting device- they were just dropped, which is bad enough. The cats landed on their feet, and showed a marked preference in turning to their right. Learn more about this important research at Ars Technica. -via Damn Interesting 

(Image credit: Yasuo Higurashi et al., 2026) 

The 1927 German silent movie Metropolis gave audiences of a hundred years ago a fantasy glimpse a hundred years into the future. So what does Fritz Lang's vision mean in the world of 2026? The movie was groundbreaking in its special effects, and influenced all science fiction films that came afterward,l and indeed filmmaking itself. The plot was more political, and wasn't all that impressive to viewers of the time. Reviews were mixed, and H.G. Wells called it "silly." Yet modern audiences recognize historical events that came afterward in the movie's elements. 

The influence of Metropolis on later science fiction films is undeniable. It gave us the classic humanoid robot, cities with flying vehicles, and the mad scientist, not to mention innovative filmmaking techniques still used today. We'd all know that already, if we were inclined to sit through several hours of a black and white movie with no voices. DW History and Culture takes us through the history of Metropolis and why it still relevant today. -via Laughing Squid 

Two million years ago, the area of France that became Le Puy-en-Velay was a huge lake with a volcano. As molten rock rose through the volcano, it cooled, shattered, collapsed, fused, grew, and became a volcanic plug. Over time, the volcano eroded away and the lake dried, leaving the volcanic plug looming above the town of Le Puy. 

In 951 AD, Bishop Godescalc wanted to celebrate his return from a pilgrimage by building a shrine atop the plug. At the same time, Local cathedral dean Truannas also wanted a chapel up there, in gratitude that the village survived a plague. Together, they oversaw the beginnings of Saint Michel d'Aiguilhe, or St. Michael of the Needle. The only way to get to the chapel is by climbing 268 stairs, yet plenty of people do it. It's no wonder they added living quarters for the serving priest. Read about Saint Michel d'Aiguilhe and see plenty of pictures at Kuriositas. 

(Image credit: PMRMaeyaert) 

A couple of other platforms I use (not Neatorama) are always asking me to use AI to write a blog post. That seems infinitely silly because if I typed up what I wanted it to write, the post is therefore written. That's understandable because I am a blogger. But social media and even my email service wants me to use AI, and I just don't wanna. I know how to write a letter to communicate. Ryan George explains what could go wrong, and it's a lot. 

No, I don't like artificial intelligence, and I don't like reading what AI has written. However, there are some uses for AI writing that may actually be helpful. A relative in the medical field has some AI program translate her notes into a report that a client can understand. Sure, she could write it herself; she's quite literate, but AI saves her time. Still, she reads the finished product for accuracy before sharing it.   

Through much of human history, men have been confounded by women. Men were (are often are still) seen as the default, and women as an inscrutable variant. So if something were wrong, or even just different about women, it must have something to do with their uterus. The word "hysteria" came from the Greek word for womb, hystera, and the malady called hysteria meant a uterus that moved about in the body, wreaking havoc on the other organs. 

Doctors knew so much about hysteria that they put on public demonstrations of women displaying it with fainting and seizures, and came up with all sorts of remedies. Later on it was dubbed a mental illness, and became a catch-all diagnosis for women who experienced pain or "inappropriate" emotions. However, the symptoms of hysteria are easily explained by either real physical ailments men rarely suffered, society's unrealistic expectations for women's behavior, or a mental illness that would be likely be further explored in a man. Read the history of hysteria at Mental Floss. 

(Image credit: André Brouillet) 

On April 6, 1917, the United States entered the Great War with a very small army and limited equipment. How would the Yank endure and ultimately prevail over the challenges of Twentieth Century warfare?

Helmets were in common use among the soldiers of the different nations. Different designs were considered, including the Model Number 8, pictured above. This was built by the Ford Motor Company and designed by Bashford Dean.

Dean's career began in zoology, but his interest eventually focused on historical armor. At the time that the US entered the war, he was the Curator of Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dean accepted a commission as a major in the Army and set about designing, from his historical knowledge, helmets for American soldiers. They included this model inspired by Fifteenth Century Italian armor.

It did not see widespread use.

-via Jalopnik

Etsy seller GremlynRugs (content warning: artistic nudity) makes tufted rugs that you could walk on or hang decoratively. But please don't actually eat them! This piece looks like a grilled cheese sandwich cut and then stretched apart with cheesy goodness overflowing the edges. But it's all fabric.

-via The Awesomer

Would you like to login to this online interface? We'll just need for you to download an app, create a new account with a highly complex password, submit a DNA sample, and participate in a retinal scan.

Actor and comedian Russell Parry illustrates the ordeals of passing online scrutiny to verify our identities.

Content warning: foul language.

Funniest thing happened at Comic Con today. I was walking around as Deadpool (per usual) and a Foggy Nelson cosplayer with a She-Hulk tap me on the shoulder to serve me these papers.

I love it LOL pic.twitter.com/vCj5Z3TAuD

— Pids (@justpids) March 8, 2026

The Emerald City Comic Con is currently underway in Seattle. X user @justpids is cosplaying as Deadpool. He's now facing consequences for his crimes with the assistance of Jennifer Walters--the main character from She-Hulk: Attorney at Law--in her professional capacity. Wade has been summoned to appear before a US District Court to answer for first-degree murder and breaking the fourth wall.

This is a very good thought experiment. Who are the five authors that most 20th c writers have read but most 21st c writers have not?

What about 19th c writers? https://t.co/s2ttoUJBrN

— T. Greer (@Scholars_Stage) March 7, 2026

Some works of literature are considered essential reading or even classics in the past, but cease to be popular or highly regarded and thus fade from the Burkean parlor of inter-generational discussion.

For example, as we noted in the past, Herman Wouk's 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny was lauded as great literature at the time of its release and was required reading for many colleges, but is no longer a book that one could assume that most people have read.

X user T. Greer poses an interesting question: which Nineteenth Century works were essential foci of public discourse, but have since faded away from it?

My immediate answer is Lays of Ancient Rome by Thomas Babington Macaulay, which was among the most widely read works of Victorian literature (as a child, Winston Churchill memorized it). But contemporary critics, including Matthew Arnold, disparaged it as trash. Arnold's perspective is apparently confirmed by its absence from literary discussion in subsequent times.

An important part of most marriage vows is the limiting phrase "'til death do us part." That wouldn't be applicable at all when you marry someone who is already dead. In France, that was made legally possible in 1959. The case that changed the law was a disaster in Fréjus in which André Capra was killed and his fiancé Irene Jodart was not. Jodart was pregnant, and the press raised a lot of sympathy for her. President DeGaulle got involved, and new law was enacted to allow her child to be classified as legitimate. 

Once the law was passed as a kindness to Jodart, the floodgates were opened and others filed for marriage to someone who was already dead, creating a new class of instant widows. The reasons ranged from the understandable to the bizarre, and not every case was accepted. Read about the French posthumous marriage law at Weird Universe. -via Nag on the Lake 

How do you woo a woman? My advice: find a pretty stone that suits the tastes of your preferred companion, place the stone in your mouth, then deliver it to her nest.

Trust me, bros. It works.

This is how male gentoo penguins at the Edinburgh Zoo impress female penguins. About a hundred of these creatures live there and the mating season is upon us. To assist the penguins in their romantic ambitions, children painted stones and presented them to the males, who picked through the pile in search of the perfect rocks that will win the hearts of their beloved companions.

A handheld rocket launcher is bad enough, so how about one that carries three rockets at a time? The YouTuber called Current Concept has a 3D printer and plenty of time, so that seemed like a challenge- the kind that will get you a knock on the door from some government agency. Still, he started out knowing nothing about rockets, so the main part of the story is figuring out how his rockets failed so hilariously. And they failed in every kind of way. 

The next challenge was to design the revolver, which he skips through quickly. Maybe it's because he didn't want anyone to try this at home for national security reasons, but I believe it's because it wasn't quite as funny as the rockets. The rocket revolver finally worked! And you'll be glad to hear that the only one injured was himself. 

There's a sponsor message from 4:28 to 5:13. -via Born in Space 

Did you grow up watching CHiPs?

For many people, it was their first introduction to motorcycle officers. While the show was entertainment, it inspired plenty of riders who eventually chose a career in law enforcement.

Our Motor Unit is a valuable part of the Orange County… pic.twitter.com/5K1Fx2yRQF

— Orange County Sheriff's Office (@OrangeCoSheriff) March 6, 2026

CHiPs, which stands for California Highway Patrol, was an hour-long television series that aired from 1977 to 1983. The Orange County Sheriff's Office recently created a shot-for shot remake of its iconic introduction showing two of their officers in the place of Jon and Ponch.

-via Direto da América