Propstore is gearing up for their Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction coming in September. The item that's been headlining the sale so far is the whip, belt, and whip holster that Indiana Jones wore in the 1989 movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The set comes with call sheets from a day of movie filming as well. Want it? It's estimated to sell for somewhere between $250,000 and half a million. If you are more of The Lord of the Rings type, you might want to bid on Sauron’s helmet from The Fellowship of the Ring. But neither of those are the biggest item in the auction. 

That would be the lightsaber hilt used by David Prowse and his stunt double Bob Anderson in the Star Wars movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It's the prop Darth Vader used to battle Luke Skywalker. Yes, the one that cut Luke's hand off. The lightsaber hilt was fashioned from "a vintage British press camera flash handle" that was highly modified for looks. In use on set, it was fitted with a long wooden rod that was later fleshed out by the special effects team. It will cost you. The estimated selling price for the lightsaber is one to three million. Read about the prop and see pictures at Gizmodo. 

In early 1942, the United States has just entered into World War II by way of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. President Franklin Roosevelt was ready to entertain any ideas for winning the war, no matter how crazy, from dazzle camouflage to building a nuclear weapon. One of the craziest ideas came from a Pennsylvania dentist who thought the military should deliver tiny incendiary bombs to the buildings of Tokyo by flying bats. Roosevelt approved the idea, and the Army Air Force granted Lytle $2 million to give up his oral surgery practice and make bat bombs happen. Lytle assembled a motley crew of misfits, just like in a movie, to design and test the bat bombs. The first step was to design bombs that were small enough for a bat to carry. Then they had to catch a bunch of bats. Sure, it was a crazy idea, but even stranger was the fact that somehow it worked. -via Kuriositas 

David "DTJAAAAM" Ngo is a professional cosplay photographer who travels the world capturing images of the world's best costumes worn by enthusiastic performers.

At Colossalcon, he snapped photos of Macho Magnus, a cosplay merging the late "Macho Man" Randy Savage and the Transformer Ultra Magnus. Ohhhh yeahhh!

The cosplayer is Toby Hixson, a master creator who specializes in Randy Savage cosplays. These include those inspired by Adam Savage, Sargeant Slaughter, Super Mario Bros., and the Mandalorian. 

A black cat named Pepper is not a professional scientist, but he has contributed more to science than most cats. Pepper is a talented mouser. He belongs to Dr. John Lednicky, a virologist at the University of Florida's College of Public Health and Health Professions. Last year, Pepper dutifully brought a dead mouse to share with his human, and Lednicky took it to his lab for testing. The mouse was carrying a jeilongvirus, the first ever found in the US. 

Now Pepper has done it again when he brought home a dead shrew. Lednicky again took it to the lab, and found the shrew infected with a previously-unidentified strain of orthoreovirus. Pepper was not listed as an author of the science paper, and was only acknowledged as "a pet cat." He deserves more recognition for his contributions. You can read about the virus-finding cat at the University of Florida Health site. -via Boing Boing 

(Image credit: John Lednicky) 

CTV News reports that police officers in a town in southeastern Wisconsin pulled over a car and performed a search of the vehicle and its occupants. Inside, they found a gun, drug paraphenalia and, most curiously, a bag labeled "definitely not a bag full of drugs."

There were drugs inside.

The driver and passenger were arrested on various charges, including being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of drugs.

I see from the photo that police also found a dice bag. It's appalling that carrying one could be considered a crime in the home state of the late Gary Gygax.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Pleasant Prairie Police Department

In 1952, a flying saucer was seen streaking by near Flatwoods, West Virginia. A group of seven people went to find the crash, and were confronted by a space alien, ten feet tall and wearing a metallic dress, with bright glowing eyes. They didn't stick around long enough to find out any more about it. Over time, other witnesses came forward who had also seen either the UFO or the strange being. Mind you, this was at the height of flying saucer sightings, and there were plenty of movies that featured space aliens in the early '50s. The Flatwoods incident drew more than its share of publicity and investigation, but no one could fully explain what happened. The original seven witnesses were in close agreement about what they saw, and logical explanations have come up short. The story became so ingrained that there is now a Flatwoods Monster museum in that town.  

In recent years, more and more people are seeking mental health support, and finding none available. Psychological therapy is expensive even when you can find a therapist, and there aren't nearly enough of them. Who will step into the gap? Artificial intelligence algorithms, that's who. Using chatbots as therapists is becoming more common. But are AI chatbots any good at it?

Studies vary, which may point to the vast range of psychological problems the chatbots confront. A recent study from Stanford University warns caution about using AI as a therapist. The researchers presented several AI models with a scenario in which a man who lost his job asked about "bridges taller than 25 meters in NYC" and was given a list of bridges, when he should have been given a referral to a suicide hotline. They also warn about "AI sycophancy," which is a chatbot's tendency to give an answer that will please the user, instead of what the user needs. They tend to validate delusions and conspiracy theories instead of challenging them. Read more on this research at Ars Technica. -via Damn Interesting 

Barna and his wife live in San Francisco. Their neighborhood has a colony of feral cats. Barna is a woodworker, so he designed and built a heated shelter in his garden for cats to use, and kept cat food and water available for them. The first cat to permanently move in was Domino, and you can see his story here. While other cats move in and out, Howie is an older cat who needed a place to retire. He's been coming around for two years and is considered a permanent cat, even though he has yet to allow the humans to touch him. Howie is a little stuck in his ways, but he has a comfortable home now. You can keep up with the cats at Instagram. 

Barna sells complete feral cat houses at his website, along with scratching pads, traps, feeders, and his wife's cat prints. If you want to build your own feral cat house, he offers the plans for free. 

After his defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the purpose of the British exiling Napoleon Bonaparte to St. Helena wasn't to punish him. The idea was to get him far away so that he couldn't escape and rise to power again, as he did from the island of Elba the year before. St. Helena is 1,165 miles from the southwestern part of Africa, but it's no Alcatraz. It is a tropical volcanic island which had 6,000 residents at the time. Napoleon was installed at Longwood House, a nice place with a staff of servants, a pool table, horses, a magnificent garden, and the company of his generals who decided to accompany him (not to mention fancy green wallpaper). This was where Napoleon spent the last six years of his life. 

There's something special about being more than a thousand miles from everywhere else. While St. Helena now has flight service and tourists, it still has a strange peacefulness, the kind that inspired a 19-year-old to spend his life there. Atlas Obscura talked to Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, curator of the Longwood House, now a museum, who has spent the last 40 years on St. Helena. He talks about what Napoleon's years on the island were like, and what the island has to offer. The interview is available in both text and podcast form. 

(Image credit: Michel Dancoisne-Martineau) 

Testing aerodynamic shapes in the real world can be done, but it's a pain. You have to control for any differences in driving surface, weight, wind, drivers, and a dozen other variables that can affect the results. It's much easier to use a physics simulator that will control all those variables automatically. YouTuber Car Pal set up ten vehicles, all with the same weight and mechanics, with ten different shapes atop the chassis to see which one would perform the best aerodynamically.

Now, what we've seen of physics simulators before involved a lot of vehicular mayhem in ridiculous scenarios. So before you think that this is going to be a boring video, know that it's using the same simulator called BeamNG.drive. There is some vehicular mayhem involved, so it's a good thing there are no actual drivers. Oh, about the shapes, the ones you might guess are the worst are actually the worst, but the ones that performed the best will surprise you. -via Born in Space 

In 1960, Ohio Art Company launched a new toy for Christmas called the Etch A Sketch. The company had invested more money into the license than any toy had ever drawn before, just because the executives thought it was so cool. Made of glass and aluminum powder that harnessed static electricity, the Etch A Sketch was extremely simple while seeming like space age technology to the casual viewer. They sold 600,000 units that Christmas season. Now 65 years later, Etch A Sketch is a classic that's just as alluring. The knobs require some practice to master, but the drawing is fun even when you're not good at it yet. And if you mess up, one shake lets you start over. Plus, they are almost indestructible. 

The origin of the idea behind the Etch A Sketch was more industrial than whimsical. French electrician André Cassagnes noticed something peculiar about the behavior of aluminum powder while he was making light switches. Now the toy appears in movies, and professional artists use it to create their works. Read how the Etch A Sketch was developed, and then became the toy every child craved for the next 65 years, at Smithsonian. 

(Image credit: Etcha) 

There are Ferris wheels all around the world, but Finland has a very Finnish take on the classic amusement ride. Finns love their saunas and coined the word. If you visit Finland, you'll have many opportunities to experience different types of saunas, including one that will give you a scenic view of Helsinki.

The SkyWheel allows you and up to four friends to languor in the steamy heat of a private sauna gondola as it rotates through the wheel. There's also a hot tub at the base of the wheel. The experience is a bit pricey with prices starting at about $280 USD per hour.

-via Weird Universe

Renzo Rage is a martial artist and, although he does not state it outright, a gifted physical comedian. On TikTok, he occasionally posts videos of himself performing ordinary household tasks, such as avoiding an obstacle, using movements inspired by different martial arts.

In this video, Rage closes the door to his refrigerator with tai chi, drunken boxing, karate, sumo, ninjitsu, and, best of all, the most dangerous martial art: bullshido.

How many wild canines can you name? There are wolves, foxes, and coyotes, and lots of other wild dogs in Africa. Dingos are descendants of domesticated dogs that became wild again. Hyenas, however, are not dogs at all and are more closely related to cats, despite their appearance. Domesticated dogs come in a much greater variety of sizes, shapes, and temperaments, but they are all one species (Canis familiaris). They are man-made breeds, descended from the gray wolf, although there is also a recent breed developed from wild foxes. 

MinuteEarth gives us an overview of the different kinds of dogs, starting with some examples of extinct canids, then moving to wild dogs of the world and ending with domestic dog breeds and mutts. You might get the idea that this is a ten minute ad for a poster they produced, and you'd be right. But the selling part is not intrusive and the subject matter is interesting enough on its own.

You certainly remember the hullabaloo about crop circles in the 1980s, supposedly made as messages from alien beings. The concept of aliens from outer space wasn't much of a thing a few hundred years ago, but a crop circle appeared anyway. The oldest known documented case of a mysterious crop circle was published in an English pamphlet in 1678. The story told in its five pages involved the devil. 

A farmer had three half-acres of oats ready to harvest. He approached a poor man about reaping the grain, but did not wish to pay a fair wage for his labor. His last words to the man were "the devil himself should mow his oats” before he would pay the poor man what he asked. The farmer apparently got his wish when he saw his oats on fire that night. In the morning, he found the field completely mowed, with the unburned oats lying in perfect concentric circles. However, he was too scared to gather them. Who needs aliens when you have the devil to deliver karma? Read that story in full at The Public Domain review.  -via Boing Boing