Because…okay I have absolutely no idea why (but hopefully just a college design project), this is a video of a cat carrier that unzips from the rear of a pair of pants, allowing a cat to be carried directly behind the owner’s ass. “But what did you have for lunch?” I imagine every cat worrying while it’s being reluctantly stuffed inside. Is it a good idea? Not unless you want to absentmindedly sit on your pet. I accidentally stepped on my dog’s paw the other week and she got so upset about it she puked shortly after. I still feel awful about it. Ten years from now I’ll still feel awful about it. I’ll probably think about it on my deathbed and speed my way into the tunnel. And, if life was a perfect fairy tale, she’d be right there on the other side waiting for me.

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This is allegedly a video of a tele-operated Optimus (Prime is insulted) humanoid robot from Tesla serving water bottles at an event when it appears to mimic the movements of the person operating it by taking off its invisible tele-operator headset, collapsing in the process. Whoops! Still, I do find it frightening just how much humanoid robots are already like us: they just can’t wait to be finished working.

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This is a video from photographer Vadim Makhorov, who used a drone to capture footage of a group of polar bears who have claimed the abandoned weather station on Koluchin Island (located in Russia’s remote Chukotka region) as their own. I say let them have it! Apparently the weather is so cold even the weather station operators couldn’t stand it. And, considering the average temperature on Chukotka is 14°F, I can’t believe a weather station was even built in the first place. SPOILER: Frigid everyday, chance of polar bear.

Because back before computer graphics there was a thing called practical effects, these are two animations detailing how six people (including one slime-spreader) operated the one-ton Jabba The Hutt costume in Return Of The Jedi. Honestly, I’m not sure how I thought it was operated, but it wasn’t this. “You probably thought a giant had a hand up his butt like a puppet, didn’t you?” No! Well, not a giant, a trained Rancor.

Keep going for two videos of the same thing, the first an 8-bit pixelated version. Now what’s it take to be a slime spreader?

The Oxford University Press has chosen ‘rage bait’ as its 2025 word of the year (technically words of the year) after deliberating between it, ‘aura farming’ and ‘biohack’. The definition of each while I ponder when Gen Alpha made a hostile takeover of the Oxford University Press.

aura farming (n.)
The cultivation of an impressive, attractive, or charismatic persona or public image by behaving or presenting oneself in a way intended subtly to convey an air of confidence, coolness, or mystique.

biohack (v.)
To attempt to improve or optimize one’s physical or mental performance, health, longevity, or wellbeing by altering one’s diet, exercise routine, or lifestyle, or by using other means such as drugs, supplements, or technological devices.

rage bait (n.)
Online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account.

Well, there you have it. It doesn’t feel great, does it? Of course the 2024 winner was ‘brain rot’ and 2023 was ‘rizz’, so I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise. A disappointment, yes. But, to answer my pondering from earlier, I guess by 2023.

Thanks to Addie, who agrees surely there were better options.

This is a GoPro video captured by the “Hurricane Hunters” of the US Air Force’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron as they fly through the eye of Hurricane Melissa. I don’t know about you, but I’ve known several Hurricane Melissas myself. Actually, every Melissa I’ve ever known. If you’re a Melissa I’m sure you’re the exception and not the rule though. It looks so peaceful inside, doesn’t it? Hard to believe its exterior is WREAKING HAVOC. Want to see a hurricane up close and personal? Come over to my place. My girlfriend isn’t a Melissa, but make no mistake, she leaves a trail of total destruction. “What are you writing?” Nothing dear! Just hitting the keys at random.