Popcorn Shorts
Cool stuff that’s too small for a big article
Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them. From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch. By the way, much (but not necessarily all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!
Did Bruce Lee threaten Burt Ward in the Batman/Green Hornet crossover episodes?
Robin/Kato fights were a complete surprise to us, but so was all the trivia about Bruce Lee and especially Burt Ward back in the day. We thought you’d get a kick from it! (ha ha. Get it?) from Quora.com– “Like many rumors, this one has everything backwards. Bruce Lee and Burt Ward were good friends who once lived in the same posh LA apartment complex, Barrington Plaza. They dined out together, sparred together, and were on very friendly terms. Burt Ward was a black belt in Karate and they shared a similar passion for the martial arts. [Ward] ended up in the emergency room several times during his stint as Robin. One problem was when working with explosives he could smell liquor on the stage hands’ breath…”
US invaded by Canadian ‘super pigs’
Adam Gabbatt in The Guardian- “As fears over the potential of the pig impact in the US grow, North America is also facing a new swine-related threat, as a Canadian “super pig”, a giant, “incredibly intelligent, highly elusive” beast capable of surviving cold climates by tunneling under snow, is poised to infiltrate the north of the country. The emergence of the so-called super pig, a result of cross-breeding domestic pigs with wild boars, only adds to the problems the US faces from the swine invasion. Pigs are not native to the US, but have wrought havoc in recent decades: the government estimates the country’s approximately 6 million wild, or feral, pigs cause $1.5bn of damage each year…”
Cute, cuddly, and great with ranch dressing
From BBC.com– “The Exmoor Squirrel Project is asking landowners to set live traps and restaurants to serve grey squirrel. Acting manager Kerry Hosegood said the grey squirrel was “wreaking havoc” on UK woodlands, costing about £40m a year in tree damage. “This isn’t something that we like to go out and do and just target greys and say ‘Let’s remove all of them.’ It’s a very serious project and there are a lot of managed plans in place as to how they are actually dealt with. Ms Hosegood said they would also like to encourage the use of grey squirrels on menus. “We’re going to introduce them to restaurants because they actually make for good eating,” she said. “They’ll be put to some good use instead of being put in a hole in the ground.”
China leading US in technology race in all but a few fields
Daniel Hurst in The Guardian– “The United States and other western countries are losing the race with China to develop advanced technologies and retain talent, with Beijing potentially establishing a monopoly in some areas, a new report has said… China leads in 37 of 44 technologies tracked in a year-long project by thinktank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The fields include electric batteries, hypersonics and advanced radio-frequency communications such as 5G and 6G… “The critical technology tracker shows that, for some technologies, all of the world’s top 10 leading research institutions are based in China and are collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country (most often the US).”…“China’s lead is the product of deliberate design and long-term policy planning, as repeatedly outlined by Xi Jinping and his predecessors.”
