Wednesday Walk Around the Web – 06/28/2017

Welcome to the Wednesday Walk Around the Web, where we weave & wind through weblinks weekly. Hopefully you will find the links on offer amusing, interesting, or, occasionally, profound. Views expressed in the Wednesday Walk do not necessarily reflect those of anyone but the writer. Do you have a link you want to see featured in next week’s Walk? Comment on the Walk post at the Place to Be Nation Facebook page, or find Glenn on the social media platform of your choice!

• Via friend of the Walk Steve Wille: If you’re traveling anywhere in the world and need to notify some kindly locals that your hovercraft is full of eels, the Walk is here for you.
• This Week in the Suffocating Power of the Closet: It is tragic to read about Ryan O’Callaghan meticulously planning his life around his suicide plans. The fear of rejection by everyone in your life is real.
• This Week in Kids These Days: Middle English became its own language because speakers of Old English borrowed words and grammatical forms from the French-speaking Normans who took over the country; to the curmudgeons of the time, though, it was those damned kids speaking neither English nor French very well.
• Sonic will be trying out a combination mushroom/beef burger. I suppose it’s not great if you’re allergic to and/or just don’t like mushrooms, but otherwise it seems like a great way to (slightly) ease off of environmentally-disastrous beef production.
• Ask scientists what would happen if the Earth were to flatten, and the answer is almost always that we all die. Fun takeaway, though: a flat Earth would have no hurricanes, because the rotation of the spherical Earth is what drives storm systems.
• Despite what TV says, you shouldn’t actually pee on a jellyfish sting.
• The overwhelming incompetence of the US’ incumbent administration extends even to the Disney Hall of Presidents exhibit, possibly the easiest thing a president is expected to take care of.
• This Week in Wednesday Walk Top Tips: If you ever need a handy guide to converting between miles and kilometers, just think about the Fibonacci sequence!
• When Disney bought Lucasfilm, there were lots of gags along the lines of “har har Leia’s a Disney Princess now har.” It turns out that integrating her into the princess merch can actually be done really well.
• This Week in Books: Until about 300 years ago books were displayed with the spine facing the wall and the titles written in ink on the edges of the pages. It was something of a luxury when people started imprinting them on the spines.
• When you see a headline like “Cat given the title of ‘Most Awful Sleeping Face in Japan‘” you may think, no, there’s no way this cat has that awful a sleeping face. And yet.
• One more from Steve Wille: We have much to learn about ambitions and contentment from Buddha cats.