Accounts of how sperm whales give birth are pretty rare, and video from the event is even rarer. But in 2023, a research boat in teh Caribbean studying whale communication noticed some odd calling between whales and grabbed their camera drones for deployment. What they found was astonishing, and was published in two scientific journals yesterday. 

The actual birth took about half an hour. Then the whales took turns, in groups of two or three, lifting the newborn above the water with their bodies, for several hours until the calf was able to swim on its own. These were whales known to the researchers, and they identified them as the calf's grandmother, sisters, and aunts, plus a second family of sperm whales. Most of those involved were female. After the blessed event, the researchers went back and analyzed the sounds made, which is why the papers are only published now. See video clips of the whales supporting the newborn calf at AP news. 

The Gregory Brothers and friends sing a little song about the Maspeth neighborhood of Queens, New York. They call it the "Bermuda Triangle" of the city, because there is a 60th Street, 60th Avenue, 60th Lane, 60th Road, 60th Place, 60th Court, and 60th Drive. No wonder you can't find anything, including a way out. It's a catchy song. 

But why is Maspeth like this? It's not like Peachtree in Atlanta, where everyone wants to live or work on Peachtree. The wacky numbering system goes back to the turn of the 20th century, when New York City annexed Queens. The city wanted to lay a logical grid of numbered street names like they did in Manhattan, but the geography of Queens was not amenable to the logic of the system. Streets run along longitude lines, and avenues run along latitude lines. But Queens already had plenty of streets. There's a real explanation for the streets named 60th in Maspeth, and good luck understanding it. -via Laughing Squid

This rare instrument sounds like human voices
by u/Due-Explanation8155 in Romania_mix

Hans Reichel was an "experimental luthier" from Germany. He adapted and invented various stringed musical instruments, including, in 1987, the daxophone demonstrated above. It's an idiophone--a musical instrument in which sound is caused by vibrations through the entire body of the instrument rather than strings or membranes.

When played, the box produces sounds that resemble a human voice. Or the voice of something that used to be human before...changes took place. I don't know the origins of this specific daxophone, but Daniel Fishcan, a master woodworker, produces many and offers recordings on SoundCloud.

-via David Thompson

The Roman Empire mined gold in Spain by digging shafts and tunnels deep into the mountains. This yielded gold, but not as much as what came after. At the same time, they built aqueducts and diverted mountain runoff water to the hilltops. When they had enough water, they would flood the shafts and tunnels until the pressure split the mountain open! The fallen rock could then be sifted for gold. The technique was called ruina montium, or the wrecking of mountains. The tons of gold they recovered ended up stamped with Caesar's likeness, and the mountains still show the scars 2,000 years later. 

The mountains shown above are Las Médulas in northwestern Spain, where the mining technique and the aqueducts still remain. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Read about the wrecking of the mountains and what it left behind, with plenty of pictures, at Amusing Planet. 


(Image credit: Udri/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

There are two main reasons to buy Peeps. Either you are filling an Easter basket for the kids, or you have a great idea for a funny diorama and don't want to mold clay figures. But around Easter, they are sitting there in a store, five or ten in a box, at a rather low price, and your mouth waters at the anticipation of a sugar rush. By the time you get to the third one, you're full of regret. 

But did you know that before 1955 Peeps had wings? They were works of confectionary art that really looked like cartoon chicks. But that's neither scalable nor affordable. The family that runs the Just Born company were inventors as well as confectioners, and they figured out how to get Peeps made in a hurry at mass scale- but they had to lose the wings. That made Peeps what they are today- an Easter tradition made of sugar and air that you can either eat or keep from year to year.  

Does it ever feel to you that time is accelerating as you age? It happens to all of us. My mother used to say that life is a like a roll of toilet paper- it goes faster as you get closer to the end. The web toy Another Day highlights this time distortion by calculating how old the pop culture of your life really is. The first episode of South Park is closer to the moon landing than to today. The release of Toy Story is closer to the attack on Pearl Harbor than to today. The birth of Wikipedia is now closer to the release of Star Wars than to today. Well, pop culture sticks around, and if it's good, several generations will enjoy it. But you can put your own birthday into the calculator and feel really old.  

Oh dear. I may have to go lie down for a while. The relevant discussion at Metafilter might make you feel even older. 

It was time for this ball of fur to go to the vet.

He disagreed.

Fox 4 News Kansas City reports that the cat in the suburb of Overland Park worked his way into the interior of a recliner and then became stuck. It became necessary for firefighters working with animal control to cut the chair apart to rescue him.

Thankfully, the cat was able to arrive at the veterinarian's office in time for his appointment.

Scooter the cat, the master of a home in Asheville, North Carolina, is completely unafraid of anyone or thing considering intruding into his territory. Human servant Will Jones recorded this video of Scooter standing his ground and driving the two black bears from his territory.

He is an inspiration to cats everywhere.

The UK division of Kentucky Fried Chicken is promoting pickles with a limited-time menu of pickle-infused foods, including Pepsi with pickle juice and French fries with pickles. KFC thinks that you love pickles (and you know that you do) and would do anything to have more pickles in your life.

FoodBeast reports that the company is now offering a puffer jacket that consists of pockets filled with pickles and pickle juice. There are siphons so that you can drink the pickle juice while on the go as well as refill the reservoir. Now if we can just hook in a pressure washer motor....

-via David Burge

Passover is the Jewish festival that celebrates the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. It begins at sunset on April 1st and continues through sunset on April 9th, and just in time we get the traditional song parody from the Jewish a cappella group Six 13 (previously at Neatorma). This year, it's a medley of Michael Jackson hits with new lyrics that explain the history that led to the holiday and the traditions of the Passover seder, from the wine to the bitter herbs, all created with nothing but the human voice. 

The songs included in this video are "Billie Jean," "Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’," "Beat It," "Smooth Criminal." and "Man in the Mirror." I would have included at least one song from The Jackson Five, but those songs are older than any member of the group. Maybe next year. Send this song to anyone you know who is celebrating Passover and wish them Chag Pesach Sameach! 

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, no one could find Luke Skywalker because the star map was missing the part that contained his planet in The Force Awakens. The Sith planet Exegol was hidden unless you had a specific compass in The Rise of Skywalker. Similar plot points were found in Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Ahsoka, and in Skeleton Crew. Fans got tired of plots revolving around missing planets no one could find, and it became a joke. 

But of all the Star Wars tropes, this one is the most scientifically accurate. Here on earth, astronomers make maps of the stars, but there is no one organization that is tasked with keeping them accurate. The latest are stored in bits and pieces on computers that are reliant on technology that goes obsolete quickly. And the facilities that make and store maps are dependent on funding, usually from governments that can change. Add on top of that the fact that objects in space move over time. Learn how the silliest trope in Star Wars is quite believable to folks who know stars at Inverse.  

The latest question in the What If series (previously at Neatorama) concerns digging a deep hole in the ground. Our parents told us if we dug deep enough, we would come out on the other side of the earth in China. However, if you started in the United States and dug straight down, you'd end up in the Indian Ocean, west of Australia. Be that as it may, you can't dig through the earth's core, because it's too hot. And it gets too hot way long before you get near the core.  

But in this scenario, heat isn't the only factor working against you. Randall Munroe also explains the difficulty of trying to dig such a hole, such as the logistocs and energy expenditure of removing the dirt once you get too deep to throw it, and the air pressure underground. That doesn't mean that people haven't tried it. You might recall this somewhat disturbing video of the deepest holes humans have dug. 

In the late 1980s, I became addicted to Taco Bell's Meximelts. It was a simple food, beef, tomatoes, and lots of cheese wrapped in a soft tortilla. You could eat them while driving, and best of all, they were only 79 cents. My family bought Meximelts in large numbers for about thirty years, but when the price reached $4 each, I quit buying them. Apparently, so did everyone else, and they fell off the menu in 2019. The chain figured no one wanted them, but it was the price that did the Meximelt in. Now I get soft tacos with no lettuce for $1.49 and pretend they are Meximelts.

The Meximelt is just one of the once-popular Taco Bell items that are no longer on the menu for one reason or another. Read about ten of these discontinued items at Mental Floss, and let us know which one you want to bring back.  

(Image credit: Michael Rivera) 

As always, Japan gets there first. Sora News 24 tells us that public restrooms in the Umeda Station of Osaka will be the site of a new toileting experience. Technicians will install screens that will show video content, including advertisements. Railway passengers will be able to avoid the most awkward aspect of using a public toilet: not having a screen in front of them.

The photo that I selected is not from Japan, a nation with famously clean public restrooms. It's not even Texas's own Buc-ee's, which has a similar reputation. But I want to set realistic expectations for the time when this trend comes to America.

Photo: THe GoOgLeR

The Vulgar Chef, as you expected, produced this culinary marvel.

On Instagram, he says nothing. He just shares this image of the pastry masterpiece. On Facebook, he describes experiments with donut sorcery, including a shepherd's pie donut.

But he says nothing about how he created this salty, choclately beauty. The Vulgar Chef just lets us imagine it as we salivate hungrily and lick our computer screens.