Thomas Edison didn't have much in the way of a formal education. Once he learned to read, his mother encouraged him to learn on his own. And he read a lot, about a wide variety of subjects. As a business owner, Edison hired plenty of employees, but didn't really care whether they had a college degree, as he thought higher education was overrated. Instead, he screened potential employees with a test he made up himself. Edison's tests varied over time, and he never made them public. But they usually had 140 questions or more. Not many of the questions had anything to do with engineering, salesmanship, or the science behind the position. They were trivia questions, supposedly to reveal a well-rounded education. 

It wasn't easy. Out of 718 applicants, only 32 scored 90% or higher. While we don't have any copies of them, many who took the tests were happy to share questions they recalled from it when New York Times reporters asked. You wouldn't be able to pass the test, either, since 100 years have passed and many answers have changed or are hopelessly period-specific. But you might have fun trying, as you'll see at The Saturday Evening Post. -via Damn Interesting 

Danny Fonfeder is a musician and craftsman in Montreal. His shop, dubbed Blueberry Guitars, offers uniquely beautiful works that are a delight to both the eyes and the ears.

Among them is this lovely instrument made of Balinese rosewood. He's carved and painted into its surface characters from the original series, Enterprise, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. Check out Fonfeder's gallery for other masterpieces.

Can you describe a smell without referring to the possible source of that smell, or something that smells similar? There are such words, like fragrant, stinky, or musky and a few others, but compare that to the huge number of words we can use to describe something we see without referring the the exact object. Most of the time, we just rely on shared knowledge of smell sources, such as "this smells like (bananas, lilac, crap, etc)." In English, you can be on the phone, go outside, sniff, and say "someone's cooking out," and the person you're talking to will instantly know what you are smelling because of our shared experience. Imagine trying to describe that smell without referring to the probable source. 

However, this only applies to Western languages. Some languages have a wide vocabulary to describe smells. What makes the difference is codability, or the tendency for all speakers of the language to agree on descriptive words. Dr. Erica Brozovsky (previously at Neatorama) explains the linguistics of smell across different languages. 

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, they thought it would be a short war. Ukraine fought back fiercely, refusing to surrender their homeland. The smaller country had to think outside the box to defend against a never-ending supply of soldiers from Russia and its allies. One piece of that strategy is the Ukrainians caught inside Russian-occupied territory who risk their lives to send intelligence out to the Ukraine military. 

Many of these operatives are women, sometimes called vidma. The word translates to "witch," but in Ukrainian it carries the connotation of wisdom. Thousands of them have been training to defend their country since the seizure of Crimea in 2014. Those caught in occupied territory harness the Russians' view of them as harmless because of their age or gender. Russia disabled Ukrainian phones and replaced them with devices filled with surveillance apps, but they've learned to work around that. One of the schemes they use to smuggle intelligence out involves catfishing. Innocently flirt with a lonely Russian soldier just enough to solicit a picture, and the metadata from it can help a Ukrainian drone target his base for a bomb attack, even if it's deep inside Russia. Read about the modern tactics of the Ukrainian resistance in an article from The Atlantic.  -via Metafilter 

(Image credit: Iktsokh) 

The new Supergirl movie is set to open nationwide this weekend, so it's as good a time as any for Screen Junkies to go back and do an Honest  Trailer for the 1984  film Supergirl. What? You didn't see the movie? You don't even remember it? Theres a reason for that. Despite an all-star cast and a large budget for its time, Supergirl was a box office bomb, and did even worse with critics. The few who enjoyed it weren't quite sure whether the producers meant for it to turn out the way it did. The attempt to make a superhero adventure/comedy/teen movie with supernatural elements just fell flat under the weight of a plot that made no sense whatsover. 

If you are looking forward to the new Supergirl this weekend, but are also apprehensive about possible disappointment, maybe you should go back and watch the 1984 version. It will only make the 2026 Supergirl seem better than it is.

Joseph McGrail-Bateup, an honorary town crier in Australia's Canberra, has been recognized as the world’s loudest person. Guinness World Records acknowledged the 58-year-old recorded the loudest ever shout by an individual. He yelled ‘now’ at 122.4 decibels. pic.twitter.com/NyQFWgDjrf

Joseph McGrail-Bateup is an HVAC professional in Canberra, the capital of Australia, as well as the town crier of that city. It's an honorary position, but he's definitely up for proclaiming the news across the entire metropolis if necessary.

McGrail-Bateup has secured a Guinness World Record for having the loudest voice. At 122.4 decibels, he's louder than a chainsaw or a rock concert.

Early in the American Revolution, General George Washington saw a problem. As the Continental Army had problems getting supplies to its troops, the British Army saw a steady stream of unescorted supply ships crossing the Atlantic. The Americans needed a navy to intercept them. Officers couldn't spare any soldiers to form a naval force, and there was no time nor funds to build ships.  

However, in the lead up to the war, England had had responded to various tax protests by making it illegal for Americans to fish in the Atlantic! As soon as the war began, an estimated 4800 angry unemployed fishermen signed up to fight. Washington recognized the opportunity, and made them into an instant navy. The experienced seafarers needed no training, they just needed to be armed and paid. They even brought their own boats. Read how all this came about, and what American fishermen did to win the revolution at the Conversation. -via Smithsonian 

(Image credit: John F. Leavitt) 

British immigrant Laurence Brown has spent years comparing and contrasting Britain and the US in his series Lost in the Pond. Many times he's pointed out the many differences in British English and American English. But somewhere along the way, he discovered that there is also Canadian English, which is another thing altogether. This reminds me of when some French relatives visited Montreal and were shocked to find out that Quebecois is very different from French, but still understandable if you give it a few seconds. 

Americans and Canadians are used to each other's word usage and pronunciation, but seeing if from the perspective of one who used to be an outsider is illuminating. We've all heard about Americans traveling to Europe and telling people they are from Canada to avoid backlash, yet we've wondered how they got away with it. The differences in language are rather subtle, and often undetectable to anyone who speaks English as a second language, or even as a first language, as Brown does. 

By the way, I've never heard any American refer to a knit cap as a beanie, but I live near the South, where they are only worn a couple of months out of the year. This video has a skippable ad from 4:58 to 6:01. 

Humans since 1982 is a Swedish art studio that produces a series of works made of analog clocks that synchronize with each other to display the time digitally. This series is called A Million Times, and these masterpieces go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Matt Zatorski and Patryk Zatorski created a version that you and I can afford- online. A Million Times Tribute is a grid of 288 analog clock faces that will display the time in digital numbers every minute, or whenever you reload it. But when it isn't displaying the time, it is a mesmerizing geometric artwork of rotating clocks. But that's not all! Run your mouse over the clocks and see them wake up and react in different ways. Click on them and make waves happen! Then find the star at the bottom right side of the page, and you can change the background, tempo, and choreography of the screen, and even bring up a version with 504 clocks. -via Everlasting Blort 

Miwa Ito is a glassblowing artist in Japan. She's made sculptures of many animals and characters, but much of her recent work focuses on remarkably realistic depictions of food. She calls them itadakimasu, which is the phrase that Japanese people traditionally speak before beginning their meals.

By carefully manipulating the molten glass of different colors, she's able to shape and layer the material into delicious creations.

You can see more of her work on Instagram.

Alamo Drafthouse presents a new quiz show that challenges your ability to recognize or guess names. They give you a name, and you have to decide whether it's from the fictional kingdom of Eternia from the TV show He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,  or from the non-fictional kingdom of IKEA furniture. There is a certain demographic who should ace this quiz, since they grew up on He-Man and now buy IKEA furniture. For the rest of us, it's a toss up because each of these strange names can go either way. 

As the game progresses, you can start to see how these kingdoms are somewhat alike. IKEA gives its furniture names instead of simply stock numbers to enable customers to share their favorites, creating free publicity. He-Man named its characters so you can keep up with them in a TV show- but that TV show was born to promote a line of toy products. It might help you to know that some He-Man characters are named for their unique features, while IKEA doesn't do that- or if they do, it's in Swedish. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

No doubt you've seen pictures of this fairy tale tunnel through the forest. You may have wondered where it is, or even if it's real. It is very real. This forest sequence is in northwest Ukraine, near the town of Kevlan. It's called Tunel Kokhannia, or the Tunnel of Love. You might wonder who gets the job of maintaining such a beautiful passage, and the answer is... nobody. This is the result of not maintaining a railway. As the forest grew closer to the tracks, the train itself snips off any branches that extend too far or any plants that dare to grow too high on the tracks. Yes, a train passes by here three or four times a day, shaping the tunnel and its greenery. Just don't stick your hand out the train window! 

The Tunnel of Love doesn't look like this year-round, though. See what it looks like in pictures taken in autumn and winter, plus the story behind the tunnel and the folklore that's grown up around it at Kuriositas. 

(Image credit: iSavoch) 

Yes, soft serve ice cream is delicious and we are grateful for the food service workers who provide it to us. But perhaps we, the public, are not appreciative of what people can do with soft serve ice cream when it's approached as not a menial task, but as a challenge of structural engineering.

If you really push the limits and get inventive, what extreme heights can you reach with mere wheat flower cones and melting, liquid ice cream? Arman Javeed, The Cone Maker on YouTube, shows us in a series of enticing short videos of expert pours from the pump handle.

CRABS Historical Fencing is an organization in Truro, New Glasgow, and Halifax, Nova Scotia that teaches traditional European swordsmanship. If you want to learn how to practically defend yourself with a broadsword, this is the place to go.

Do you anticipate being attacked with a sword while roller skating? Perhaps not, but it's best to be prepared. Here's a brief video of two of their practitioners at work on the roller rink.

People under 40 or so only know two things about Lady Diana Spencer, later known as Princess Diana. She was married to Prince Charles, the future King of England, until they were divorced. Then she died in a traffic accident in 1997 at the age of 36. Older people will remember the big news of the royal wedding in 1981 right after she turned 20. The way she was selected to be Charles' bride seemed a bit skeevy to Americans, but the young preschool assistant seemed happy. 

Yet underneath the royal trappings, Diana's life was no fairy tale. From the time she was born, her life was difficult, not financially, but psychologically. Still, she carried the weight of her family's expectations and then the world's expectations like a champ- until she couldn't. Then again, Diana's story contains elements of many stories we've heard before: the beautiful princess, absent parents, betrayal, a stiff upper lip, longing for love, and even a wicked stepmother. Maybe Princess Diana's life really was a fairy tale come true, just without the magic intervention and the "happily ever after" ending.