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If you were anything like most children, The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West wasn’t the most terrifying part of the 1939 classic. No, that honor was reserved for her flying monkeys, those awful winged humanoid creatures that could swoop down and wreak havoc without any warning.

Several of the primate parts were played by real people: Nikko, the head monkey, was played by actor Pat Walshe, while vaudevillian actor Harry Monty was both a Munchkin and a monkey. But in the creepy scene where thousands of monkeys descend upon our heroes in the Haunted Forest, the monkeys were all tiny rubber figures no more than a few inches tall.

The figures were hung from a gantry car with four strands of extremely thin music wire, resulting in about 1100 wires total. As the gantry moved down the soundstage, it took all of the little monkeys with it, making it appear as if they were flying. That’s about 275 tiny little winged monkeys in all—but according to the Oz museum in Wamego, Kansas, only four of these models survive to this day. They have two of them.

They’re so small, in fact, that despite being hyped as one of the coolest exhibits in the museum, I walked right by them without realizing what they were. So, the next time you watch The Wizard of Oz and find yourself shuddering at that swarm of winged primates, remind yourself how tiny and nonthreatening they actually were. Now, the monkeys played by actors ... we can’t help you with that fear. They’re still pretty scary.

By the way, the “little insect” the Wicked Witch mentions in the beginning of the video was a reference to a scene that was cut from the final movie. Before the monkeys show up, the Wicked Witch of the West sent little pink and blue mosquito-like insects called Jitter Bugs to make Dorothy and her friends dance and tire them out. Despite the $80,000 it cost to film the song-and-dance number, the footage was cut to help with the run time of the movie. Though most of the Jitter Bug film has been destroyed, there is some grainy footage of the number being performed in rehearsal. Here it is, mixed it with some other images from the movie:

submitted by Mikereb
[link] [724 comments]

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David Karp's Tumblr, which Yahoo bought back in 2013, serves primarily as a blogging platform. Some people use it to curate photos. Others obsess over fandoms.

Some Tumblr users with more followers aren't just posting and reblogging, though. They're actually getting free stuff and making money from the platform by linking their blogs to their Amazon wish lists and PayPal accounts.

Their followers — the people who buy them stuff — don't seem to expect anything in return.

A quick search on Tumblr for "Amazon wish list" yields hundreds of results.

Mostly it's people posting their own wish lists to the website, or posting a picture of a gift they've received from a follower via Amazon wish list. A lot of these results are NSFW (think sex toys), but even more of them weren't — they were just pictures of people thanking their followers for sending them a funny hat or a cute pair of cat tights (seriously).

This trend is popular enough that one Tumblr user wrote a tutorial to help others create their own wish list and embed a link to it on their blogs.

Apparently there are dudes on Tumblr who really like just spending money on girls' Amazon wish lists, too.

To have enough of a following that people on a blogging website buy you gifts generally means you're pretty popular, as some users point out.

To the average person, this sounds too good to be true: you post a link to your Amazon wish list, and nice people on the internet buy you stuff.

For the user with the wish list, it's secure: they don't have to give our their address to anyone. Amazon obscures your address, so your followers just decide which item they want to buy you from the wish list you've created, they pay for it, and it shows up at your door.

It seems to be a way for people to interact with their friends on the platform, in the same way that you'd buy your offline friend a gift for their birthday.

Here's a post from someone who came home to a package from their Amazon wish list:

 

Most people seem to expect nothing in return. However, some users post wish lists and promise to follow their followers back, either on Tumblr or another platform, or reblog their selfies. Such is the commoditization of the internet. 

We reached out to a dozen Tumblr users who had written posts about their Amazon wish lists to see if they wanted to talk to us for a story. We didn't hear back from almost any of them. A lot of Tumblr users seem to be really big into anonymity, so this wasn't really surprising.

However, we managed to track down one Tumblr user who told us a little more about how the Amazon wish list strategy worked for her. Her name is Rachel, and before she deleted her Tumblr at the end of 2014 — "I kind of dipped out of Tumblr because it's gotten too hateful and childish," she told us — she had about 5,000 followers.

Here's a lightly edited transcript of our interview with her. 

SEE ALSO: This Instagram User Is Going Viral Without Taking Any Of His Own Pictures

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NOW WATCH: This 9-year-old makes $1 million a year opening toys

This is the treehouse castle built for a Hertfordshire, England family by treehouse design and construction firm BlueForest. I am so jealous right now I could spit. *spits* Wait -- is that blood? Quick -- check my back for stab wounds.

Perhaps the most striking thing about this project is that it is not one treehouse, but rather two distinct treetop havens, each with their own unique features. The fairytale children's tree house features a secret trapdoor leading to a games room. Inside, the room is fully equipped, complete with a plasma television and games console, meaning that the complex is also a great place for the kids to hang out and relax with their friends... and not that bad for the 'adults' either! The adults' tree house is fully furnished to be a spectacular venue for treetop dinner parties and a large and comfortable living area for entertaining. The adults' retreat also features a kitchen and a toilet, giving the owners the ability to host their guests from start to finish in their impressive treetop venue. The two treehouses are connected by a dramatic canopy walkway which takes the form of several interconnecting rope bridges that weave between the trees and look out over the beautiful surrounding scenery. As well as gazing out over the dramatic vistas of the garden, the decks also lead to a raised assault course. An eighty-yard zip wire descends from a crow's nest that sits above a balcony and leads down to an exciting adventure trail.

Wow, it must be nice growing up with filthy rich parents. Or maybe it's horrible. I don't know, I was raised by bears. We didn't have much in the cave -- a dirt floor, a few tree branches, a couple rocks. But you know what? We were happy. Well, Sister Bear wasn't, but she always imagined herself as a princess. You know how many frogs she kissed trying to make her dream come true? Probably hundreds. Plus a good amount of toads (she's not that smart and toads will say just about anything for a smooch). Keep going for a bunch more shots of the why can't I have that? SPOILER: Too poor.

After another dismal sales month in China, Elon Musk is ready to fire the executives running the show in the country.

Read more...

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What is the difference between a smart blonde and a UFO?

There have been sightings of UFO's.

Check out this awesome series of old Japanese commercials featuring some very popular Transformers robots from a time before they were actually called Transformers.

[thespacebridge | Via Kotaku]

The post Transformers Ads From Before They Were Called Transformers appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.

Mother Appalled at What Her High School Son’s Quiz Said About Conservatives/Republicans. Welcome to Indoctrination 101.

A teenage girl with the Twitter handle “@Cellla_” did not want to go to work at her new job at Jet’s Pizza in Mansfield, Texas last week, so she Tweeted about it.

And now she doesn’t have to go, because she was fired.

Her would-be boss, Robert Waple, saw the tweet (thanks to one his employees), and he let her know himself that she didn’t have to bother showing up.

It seems like Robert is done with Twitter for while after this 15 seconds of fame. He hadn’t used his account since 2009, and he has since deleted all the tweets related to her firing.

“Made my point today,” he wrote. “I’ll check in again in 6 years.”

And Cella is seeing a lot of mixed reactions on her Twitter account now as the story spreads, but she just finds the whole thing so LOL.

It’s the space heater that doesn’t take up a lot of space. In fact it doesn’t take up any floor space at all. The Wall Outlet Space Heater mounts directly into any three pronged (grounded) AC outlet. The heater sits flush against the wall and heats up rooms up to 250 square feet. Great for small unheated rooms like bathrooms, enclosed porches, laundry rooms, or even walk-in closets. The two fan-speed heater can sit under your desk at your office and discretely heat up your area.

The heater is 400 watts and had a digital thermostat so you can set it to the exact temperature you want (between 60 and 90 degrees). Most other space heaters simply give you a high or low setting. This is more precise. Not to mention compact. It even has a timer so you can set it to turn on automatically, ensuring a warm room before you even get there. An automatic cut-off stops it from overheating. It measures just 6.5″ H x 3.75″ W x 5″ D and weighs less than 2 pounds so it’s great for traveling as well.

Wall Outlet Mounted Space Heater
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