In an orderly TED-Ed lesson by educator Rachel Yang, directed by Avi Ofer and narrated by Addison Anderson, Anderson explains how mathematicians have been studying and devising faster ways to board a plane for years, addressing the two biggest boarding bottlenecks.

These models are designed to consider the two biggest plane loading bottlenecks. The first is “seat interference” when someone in a seat closer to the window is blocked by people already in their row. And the second is aisle interference when passengers seated in the back of the plane are stalled by folks in earlier rows stowing their bags and settling in.

These methods include back-to-front boarding, WMA (Window, Middle, Aisle), and the Steffen Method, which staggers passengers by row and seat position to allow more people to stow luggage and sit simultaneously. While these look great in theory, implementation is far more difficult.

Before you cancel your tickets, it’s worth noting that there really isn’t much time to be saved. Even the most perfectly executed boarding strategy would likely only save us about 10 minutes. So perhaps the best solution is to take a breath, allow your fellow passengers some grace, and try to enjoy the ride.

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Hossam Fazulla, aka Faz, hosts Food I Can’t Read, a series in which he chooses unfamiliar foods by their packaging and tastes them without being able to read their labels. The results aren’t always as pleasant as he hoped.

I ate Dark Matter! I don’t wanna feel like this ever again.

via The Awesomer

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Musician The Real Sully G unboxed five official PAC-MAN character Otamatone Melody models, along with a new Deluxe model in December 2025 during the game’s 45th anniversary year.

This PAC-MAN Otamatone Melody collection, a collaboration between Hamee and Bandai Namco, features 11 built-in songs and unique base designs in the iconic shapes of PAC-MAN and Team Ghost members Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde.

Join Gavan (@TheRealSullyG) as he unboxes the PAC-MAN Otamatone Melody collection featuring PAC-MAN and Team Ghost Blinky, Inky, Pinky & Clyde! Also check out the PAC-MAN Otamatone Deluxe.

‘Popcorn’ Played on Theremin and an Otamatone

via The Awesomer

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Nam Phueng and Thung Thong, a pair of bonded elephants at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand, were introduced to a new herd and warmly welcomed into the fold by the other elephants.

To help them settle into their new home, we gradually introduced them to the Thai Koon herd. The Thai Koon family warmly welcomed both elephants, creating a calm and trusting environment where new friendships could bloom.

These two elephants had a rough go of it and had difficulty being separated, with Thung Thong calling out to Nam Phueng as her friend was taken away for rescue. Initially, the pair stayed very close together, keeping their distance from the other elephants, so it was heartening to see their joy as they joined a new herd.

Nam Phueng and Thung Thong were rescued from Surin Province, Thailand. When they arrived at Elephant Nature Park, their deep and unbreakable bond became even more evident, staying close to each other through every step of their new journey at Elephant Nature Park.

Nam Phueng and Thung Thong’s Reunion

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The wonderfully candid Laurence Brown of Lost in the Pond explores how eight aspects of American culture, from Fourth of July celebrations and Black Friday shopping to air conditioning and Oreo cookies, are increasingly influencing daily life in the United Kingdom. Other examples include hot-and-cold mixer taps, “restroom” signs, country music, and Philly cheesesteaks.

Since leaving Britain for a life in the United States in 2008, I’ve since discovered that several popular American things have kind of… swapped places with me.

Distinctive American Phrases That Baffle British People

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The post How American Culture Is Influencing Daily British Life was originally published on Laughing Squid.

Pixel artist Posit Pixel, who previously explained how Jabba the Hutt was brought to life, amusingly animated what a human would look like with moth anatomy.

If A Human Had Moth Anatomy

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The post What a Human Would Look Like With Moth Anatomy was originally published on Laughing Squid.

Film student Keith David Brown deconstructed the classic comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail and reassembled it so that every spoken or written word was in alphabetical order. While Brown’s edits were exceptionally fast, the original’s absurdist humor was preserved.

A comprehensive alphabetical re-edit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. WARNING: This film contains extremely fast and abrupt editing.

Brown titled the project “And Grail Holy Monty Python The” and said it was inspired by “Of Oz the Wizard” by Matt Bucy.

The project was inspired by Matt Bucy's Of Oz the Wizard, but created independently.

‘Of Oz the Wizard’

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

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 The Cornell Lab Bird Cams shared heartwarming footage of Awheo, a northern royal albatross chick, practicing his hovering skills so that he can be strong enough to eventually fly away. This practice, along with the strong winds, helps him build muscle through resistance training.

The Northern Royal Albatross chick takes advantage of the strong winds blowing through Pukekura/Taiaroa Head to build up its flight muscles with some resistance training and practice short bursts of hovering.

Awheo Also Practiced a Bit of Wing Flapping.

Awheo’s Growth in 2026

Awheo Being Weighed as a Tiny Chick

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Photographer and former radio astronomer Marcel Clemens suspended 20 tiny vials containing slightly different masses of mercury from springs attached to a wooden frame, then set them all in motion at once. Their different oscillation frequencies created a beautiful wave that morphed into other colorful patterns, including a double helix. Clemens described the display as a visual representation of a pipe organ’s sounds.

The accuracy of the oscillation time period is better than about 0.5 milliseconds. The use of mercury allows the masses to be controlled very precisely and its high density means the bottles can be kept quite small. This is a kind of visual representation of the sounds of a pipe organ, the smallest pipe being on the right.

Clemens also configured the “Mercury Wave” so that each vial struck a piano key.

Clemens also demonstrated how speeding up the oscillations by a factor of 400 would produce sound.

If we were to speed up the oscillations of the “Mercury Wave” by a factor of 400, the oscillations would produce sound. The periodic alignment of the vials would now happen 5 times per second (rather than once per minute) and as they would all push the air in the same direction this results in a louder sound. 

Mesmerizing Swinging Pendulum Wave

The setup resembles an earlier pendulum wave demonstration using 15 pendulums of different lengths.

via The Awesomer

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A cocker spaniel with long flowing locks named Alfiee has a beautiful voice that he uses to croon like an opera singer, according to his humans, Nikki and Joe.

Meet Alfie, a dog that looks like Fabio and sings opera

This particular talent was discovered quite accidentally.

Nikki was leaving for work, and he started doing some sort of whimpering, which we’d never heard before, and then all of a sudden it was like a song. He was like fully going for it. It honestly just came out of nowhere.

The couple has gotten quite a few comments about Alfiee’s looks and his talent.

It was more so people commenting and saying your dog sings like Michael Bolton and comments like Pavarotti. Pavarotti’s estate account has commented on a few of his videos as well. So that’s really cool. Talent recognizes talent.

Other Dogs Singing Opera

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Astronaut Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency shared how she practices yin yoga in microgravity aboard the International Space Station. Adenot said yoga has been an important part of her life for years.

Yoga has been an important part of my life for years. On board the Station, I spend 30 minutes doing yin yoga stretching poses every evening to unwind after a busy day.

Adenot also demonstrated how she washes her long hair and brushes her teeth in space.

How Honey Reacts to Microgravity in Space

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Filmmaker Andrew Muir of The Art of Storytelling explored the creative process and linguistic nuances behind Apple Computer‘s iconic 1997 advertising campaign and its grammatically unconventional slogan, “Think Different”.

A closer look at the famous copy writing of Apple Computer’s 1997 “Think Different” advertising campaign.

Muir further noted that the deliberate use of “different” as a flat adverb challenged conventional grammar and helped redefine the struggling company’s identity at a critical turning point in Apple’s history, symbolizing its new direction after Steve Jobs returned.

The ultimate decision to go with the incorrect form of the phrase may have made all the difference in the campaign that is today widely credited with helping to save the company. … The campaign itself was a major success not because it immediately sold millions of computers but because it really affected public perception about Apple’s brand. 

Apple’s ‘Think Different’ Ad

Unaired ‘Think Different’ Ad Narrated by Steve Jobs

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The post How Apple’s Grammatically Unconventional ‘Think Different’ Slogan Helped Revive the Company in 1997 was originally published on Laughing Squid.

Christian Ivan of City 3D Timelapse created an enchanting 3D timelapse of Manhattan Island evolving through distinct views and eras of development from 1600 to 2026. This timelapse was made using historical texts and atlases from the New York Public Library.

This is a visual simplification of the evolution of New York through the years, it may not be 100% accurate No AI was used to create this Animation

The animation includes views of the entire island, Lower Manhattan, and Midtown Manhattan, spanning Dutch settlement, British rule, the Industrial Era, and the Globalization Era.

Other Urban Timelapses

NYC Timelapse From Year 0 through 2026

via Open Culture

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The talented and award-winning DJ Cummerbund created “Shape of an Octopus”, an amusing mashup that combines Ringo Starr‘s performing The Beatles‘ song “Octopus’s Garden” with others, including Shakira, Ed Sheeran, the Sinclair family from Dinosaurs, and Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

Shape of an Octopus is the song of the summer – and it’s irrefutable. All of the iconic English artists are here and they’re having a big, wet party in the ocean together.

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Magnet fishing has become a popular activity in which people search for lost underwater metal treasures (instead of fish) with giant magnets (instead of a hook) attached to ropes. Leigh of Bondi Magnets designed a series of incredibly powerful 360° neodymium magnets to make it easy for anyone to do this.

You tie a strong magnet to a rope, throw it into the water, and drag it along the bottom to see what it picks up. That is the whole hobby, and it is one of the cheapest outdoor pastimes there is to start. …Bondi Magnets are magnetic on all sides and made from extremely strong, high-quality neodymium magnets.

Bondi Magnets have been used to pull some very interesting items in cities such as New York City, Amsterdam, London, and Paris.

People have recovered coins, jewellery, keys, tools, knives, bicycles, motorbikes and safes, and occasionally things that had to be handed straight to the police. Anything thrown off a bridge in the last hundred years is a candidate.

Although the magnets can attract ferrous metals such as iron and steel, they cannot attract gold.

Gold isn’t magnetic, so a magnet won’t attract gold jewellery, gold coins or gold bars. But that doesn’t mean you’ll never recover gold. Sometimes valuables are hidden inside something that is magnetic, like a safe, cash box or toolbox.

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In a fascinating clip from the BBC Earth series Expedition Guyana, the adventurous Dr. George McGavin, accompanied by a team of local trackers, navigated the dark rainforests of Guyana to locate the incredibly elusive Goliath bird-eating tarantula, a massive arachnid known as the world’s largest tarantula with up to an 11-inch leg span.

 In the dark of the forest, George and a team of local trackers are stalking the world’s largest tarantula.

McGavin did locate a female of the species, but when he reached toward her, she released a cloud of defensive urticating hairs that irritated his skin and airways, which he found quite formidable. Despite his discomfort, the team used specialized techniques to observe her safely before returning her to her native environment.

She flicked the hairs, and they were in the clouds, and it’s gone in my face, gone up my arms and inside my arms. It’s gone up this arm. I’ve actually inhaled some of them. I’m coughing. Which of course shows what an effective way of putting off enemies it is. …I’m going to try and get her back in the box only because I want to see how heavy she is. After which, we will bring her back to her hole here.

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The very talented Tomosteen made a yummy ASMR stop motion LEGO video showing the preparation of a Belgian waffle that required the help of several pen-holding cats, a pecking chicken, and other animated creatures. As with Tomosteen’s previous creations, this “recipe” was created with individual photographs, not AI.

I took on the challenge of recreating a Belgian waffle recipe using LEGO. This video is a stop-motion animation created by stringing together numerous photographs. No generative AI was used at all.

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Musician Joshua Woo performed the classic disco hit “Stayin’ Alive” by The Bee Gees but in the somber tones of Pink Floyd‘s “Another Brick In The Wall”. The disparity between the two genres was bridged by matching 4/4 time signatures and a change in vocal pitch.

Stayin’ Alive By Bee Gees x Another Brick In The Wall By Pink Floyd

Other Pink Floyd/Bee Gees Mashups

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The As2-W by Unitree is a compact, open-platform quadruped robot so nimble that it can not only navigate incredibly rough terrain, wet or dry, but also seamlessly get up and breakdance upon request.

IFluid movement, compact yet exceptional. Supports a continuous 16kg payload, with 30+ km unloaded driving range.

This robotic dog can also switch between manual and AI modes via Unitree Go, its accompanying app.

Unitree Go, an App for rovot control with a simple interface, wide vision, and convenient touch control, brings excellent use experience. The App features AI large language model, OTA upgrades, HD image quality, intelligent avoidance, precise control and graphic programming to he users get started quickly with Unitree robotic dog.

via Born In Space

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Musician Jiaju Shen of The Either flawlessly shredded a slap-style cover of the inimitable Jimi Hendrix song “Purple Haze” on a traditional pipa (four-string plucked Chinese Lute).

Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze, with slap technique on Chinese traditional instrument pipa 

Other Rock Covers on a Pipa

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The post Musician Flawlessly Shreds a Slap-Style Cover of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze’ on a Chinese Pipa was originally published on Laughing Squid.