In my house, we really like Mexican food.

And Thai food.

Oh, and Chinese food.

We like all food, I guess, but that’s sort of beside the point.

The point is that, because of our tastes, I wind up handling a lot of chile peppers (some people refer to hot peppers as chili peppers, but I prefer to use the Spanish spelling favored in Mexico and the American Southwest, so as not to confuse the peppers with that dish you often put them in).

Sometimes these chiles are dried, or in the form of powders, pastes or oils. Often, though, they’re fresh, which means me cleaning and cutting them, which means me curling up in the fetal position on the kitchen floor coughing up a lung and crying like a little girl.

Why does that happen?

Feel the Burn

The problem is that capsaicin, the compound that gives chiles their heat and livens up my fajitas and pad thai, doesn’t just work its tingly, burning magic on the tongue, but irritates also some of our other tissues and mucous membranes.

Rubbing your eyes or scratching around your nostrils after handling chiles is always unpleasant, but you don’t need chile-to-skin contact to feel the burn. Washing, seeding, chopping and frying chiles can send capsaicin molecules flying into the air, where they can be inhaled and irritate and sensitize your lungs, leading to coughing fits, choking and discomfort while breathing.

Put Out the Fire

If cooking with chiles gets you all choked up, borrow this trick from pro cooks who work with them a lot: wear a damp bandana — or even a dish towel if you’re in a pinch — over your mouth and nose to cut down the amount of capsaicin that can make its way into your airways.

To get the stuff off your hands before you go touching your face, either wash with soap and water or rub some vegetable oil on your hands and then wash with water. Capsaicin is hydrophobic, so just water alone isn’t enough, but the soap and oil will both trap the molecules so they can be rinsed away.

Bonus Capsaicin Factoids for Your Next Cocktail Party

Capsaicin’s tendency to make people cough isn’t always a bad thing, and actually makes the compound pretty useful in medical research. In clinical studies of new cough suppressants, capsaicin is sometimes used to stimulate coughs for the medicine to be tested on.

The venom of Psalmopoeus cambridgei, a tarantula from the West Indies, contains three different peptides that target the same sensory receptors that respond to capsaicin, a really cool example of a plant and an animal using the same chemical methods for self-defense.

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Little kids make such cute mistakes when they talk.

We know they’re still learning the language, so we tolerate their errors and chuckle at how funny they sound.

Behind that chuckle is the assumption that the kids are getting it wrong because they just don’t know the rules yet.

In fact, kids’ mistakes show they know a lot more about the rules than we think.

The mistakes are evidence of very smart hypotheses the kids are forming from the limited data they’ve been given so far.

"Dop it!” instead of “stop it!”

It’s not easy to start a word with a consonant cluster. Kids don’t have the fine motor control they need to produce the ‘st’ in stop, but they don’t just leave it out. They substitute a sound they can produce. ‘D’ is a very smart substitution for ‘st’ in “stop.”

If you take a careful look at the acoustics of ‘t’ in adult versions of “stop” vs. “top,” you see that the ‘t’s in those words look different from each other.

The vocal chords kick in sooner for the ‘t’ in “stop.” A ‘d’ is basically a ‘t’ where the vocal chords kick in sooner, so when children substitute that sound, they show they’ve heard the difference between “stop” and “top” and hypothesized that it’s important for the language. And they are right!

Calls the dog “baby.”

When children start using words, they haven’t figured out all the situations in which they apply. They form hypotheses about word meaning and apply them on their own. The child might call all the kids and pets in the family “baby,” but not the parents, revealing a hypothesis that “baby” means “family member who other people have to get food for.”

She may call everyone she meets “baby,” extending the hypothesis to “living creatures.” Like any good scientist, she can only confirm her hypothesis by testing it. Eventually, she will get enough data to settle on the right one.

Points to something and says “thank you” when he wants it.

This mistake shows complex knowledge of pragmatics, or the meaning of words in contexts. He knows that “thank you” is not the name of a thing in the world, but is rather something we say in a specific context. “Thank you” occurs in the context of a transfer of possession. He’s saying, “Let’s do that thing where ‘thank you’ gets said.” Very clever way to try to bring about a transfer of possession!

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Certain movie scenes outlast the test of time.

While most of these iconic scenes required lots of planning and preparations, others sprung up spontaneously during, or even after, production.

You'll be surprised to find that classic scenes from 'Casablanca' and 'Indiana Jones' were spur of the moment filming decisions.

Beginning a beautiful friendship

Perhaps no movie has as many famous one-liners as Casablanca (1942). But they weren’t all the work of screenwriters Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch (who deservedly won an Oscar for their work).

Based on Murray Burnett and Joan Allison’s unproduced play Everybody Goes to Rick’s, the script was written in a hurry, and was still going through rewrites when filming commenced. As a result, some of the best lines were improvised.

“Here’s looking at you, kid,” Humphrey Bogart’s farewell line to Ingrid Bergman, was a popular quote in the 1930s. Bogart ad-libbed it while filming Casablanca, and it worked so well that it was used twice. In 2007, Premiere magazine named it the best greatest-ever movie line. Bogart’s final line, however, was created just for the film.

Who can forget that last shot, as Rick (Bogart) and Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) walk away, planning to escape Casablanca after assisting in a noble cause. “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” says Rick. The line was created by producer Hal B. Wallis, and dubbed by Bogart after filming was completed.

Indy vs. the Swordsman

In one of the coolest and most memorable scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), ready for action, is confronted by an evil-looking swordsman.

Rather than engage him in hand-to-hand combat, he gives the swordsman a tired, “you must be joking” expression, pulls out his gun and casually shoots him. This funny and clever moment, filmed in Tunisia, might never have happened if Ford and most of the crew weren’t suffering from food poisoning. 

Initially, Indy was supposed to defeat the swordsman in an extended fight sequence, using his famous whip. However, as he was so ill, the scene just wasn’t working. Instead, director Steven Spielberg allowed him to dispose of his foe in this simpler, but no less effective, method. The tired look on Indy’s face, of course, was utterly real.

“You ain’t heard nothing yet!”

Warner Brothers’ The Jazz Singer, immortalized as the first-ever talking picture, was basically a silent film, with just a few moments of synchronised sound.

The audio was mainly just a few opportunities for the star, Al Jolson, to sing hit songs like My Mammy and Blue Skies (later a hit for Willie Nelson). The small amount of dialogue was ad-libbed by Jolson and Eugenie Besserer (who played his mother – or his “mammy”).

Jolson spoke a grand total of 281 words in the film, and the most memorable line was his final one: “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothing yet!” It was a prophetic quote, and more than 70 years later, it would earn a place in the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest movie lines. 

Because Jolson’s line was so off-the-cuff, it might have been removed from the final cut if Sam Warner, the driving force behind talking pictures, had not insisted that it stay. Sadly, Warner died of a sinus infection a day before the film’s release, meaning that he would never witness it making history.

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Britons woke up yesterday morning to gleeful headlines declaring that the former Kate Middleton, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is pregnant.

It was, of course, something British tabloids already knew — every time the Duchess turned down a glass of wine in favor of water or happened to rest her hand on her stomach, she was instantly and obviously pregnant.

But this time around, she actually is. However, the happy couple was forced to explain to the salivating British press much earlier than they had wanted to after Kate, possibly between six and eight weeks pregnant, was rushed to hospital with severe morning sickness. And that’s got everyone speculating in a totally new direction — could she possibly be having twins?

The medical term for what Kate’s going through is “hyperemesis gravidarum,” and it’s typically caused by an uptick in baby-growing hormones; it’s also more common among women who are pregnant with multiples. However, The Daily Mail, normally one of Britain’s most excitable tabloids, had to go and rain on everyone’s baby parade when it cautioned that only a “tiny excess” of women who deal with the condition actually go on to have multiples. (So maybe hold off on buying those “Thing 1” and “Thing 2” onesies.)

But it could still happen — and in the event that Kate does have twins, or even triplets, who gets to ascend the throne? According to Josh Voorhies at Slate, “it’ll be a flat-out race down the royal birth canal” — meaning that whoever gets born first gets the crown. Voorhies also highlighted that under Britain’s new succession laws, it doesn’t matter if the firstborn is a boy or a girl; British Commonwealth leaders agreed in 2011 that males and females have equal rights to the throne.

But there’s another wrinkle! According to Britain’s NHS, just about half of the twins and nearly all of the triplets born in the UK were delivered via caesarian section — so the future King or Queen of England could actually come down to doctor’s choice.

More From Mental_Floss:

What Causes Morning Sickness?

If You Touch A Baby Bird, Will Its Mother Really Abandon It?

4 Scandals Juicier Than Prince Harry’s Strip Billiards

What Happened To Marie Antoinette’s Children?

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The beginning of Hanukkah is only a couple days from now — do you know where your chanukiyah, the nine-branch menorah, is?

Using the Hanukkah menorah your grandparents used may be a family tradition, but do-it-yourself, arty, or high-tech menorahs have the same symbolism.

Here are a few interesting ones found around the internet.

1. LED Hanukkah Menorah Kit

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories posted their first LED Menorah project back in 2006.

A microcontroller keeps the LEDs in order, so that each time you turn it on, the correct configuration of lights of that day of Hanukkah are displayed  — as long as you start on the right date.

So many people were interested that they started making kits for sale, which have been improved and updated over the years.

But if you want to provide your own parts, the code is open source and available through the Evil Mad Scientist Wiki.

2. Star Trek Menorah

Once you have the parts and the instructions, your own imagination can make your homemade menorah special and even reflect your personal interests.

Joyce and Kaufman made this Star Trek menorah with the above-mentioned LED kit and character heads from PEZ dispensers.

3. Recycled Circuit Board Menorah

If you like the LED idea but don’t want to make your own, this LED menorah from Zion Judaica also lights sequentially and runs on batteries.

Environmentally-friendly, too, as it’s constructed of recycled circuit board! And since it is sold through Amazon, they have instructions on how to get it shipped by December 25th. Heh.

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Chances are, you’ve been humming the theme songs for the "The Andy Griffith Show" and  "Bewitched" for years.

Turns out these songs weren't just tunes, but actually had lyrics that went along with them.

Our friends at mental_floss have uncovered the lyrics to 11 popular TV show songs.

Now you can get their lyrics stuck in your head, too.

'The Andy Griffith Show' theme song

Andy Griffith recorded a version of “The Fishing Hole” – AKA the theme song to "The Andy Griffith Show" – that was replaced by the all-whistling version. 

The 'Star Trek' theme song

Controversially, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry penned lyrics to Alexander Courage’s theme song even though he never intended to use them for the show. Why? Because under their contract, writing lyrics – even unused ones – meant Roddenberry would get half of the royalties for the song.

The lyrics:
Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand’ring in star-flight
I know
He’ll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me

Can’t quite put the words with the tune? Listen to Tenacious D putting their spin on the sci-fi classic here.

The 'Bonanza' theme song

The pilot episode of "Bonanza" featured the Cartwrights singing a little ditty. “We nearly fell off our horses from laughing so hard,” Michael Landon later recalled. Apparently producers realized that it was a little silly as well since they ended up scrapping the lyrics for music only. Here’s Ben Cartwright himself – AKA actor Lorne Greene – doing his version.

Here’s a different version by Johnny Cash, who changed the lyrics a bit.

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For everyone who’s ever been unhappy with the way they look in a picture or on video, there’s almost always someone there to try and comfort them by pointing out that the camera “adds ten pounds” to its subjects.

Sometimes this just excuses actual flabbiness, but some people swear up and down that the phenomenon is real and cameras actually fatten us up. What’s going on?

Flash Problems

A few different things, one simply being the way the subject is shot. Strong, flat light directed straight at a person—like from a bad lighting setup or the camera’s flash—flatten the features of a subject by killing shadows. Those head-on shots of you at the family reunion look bad, in part, because your cousin’s camera flash flattened and fattened you.

The camera itself also shoulders some of the blame. Telephoto and wide angle lenses each distort an image in their own ways. No matter the type lens, though, there’s also the problem of a camera having just one of them.

Seeing in Stereo

Most of us look at the world through two eyes, and our brains take what we see with each one and fuse it into a single image, which allows us to perceive depth. With only one eye—its lens—a camera lacks our accurate depth perception. Unless the photographer creates some illusion of depth by using distance cues, light, and shadow, or by composing their shots in certain ways, the lack of it makes their photos and subjects come out looking flatter than they really are, which also makes them seem wider.

Another difference between a two-eyed view of the world and a one-eyed view that factors in is the way they capture the background behind the subject. Background features hidden from one eye can be seen by its partner, and together they capture overlapping views that a single eye or camera can’t. This means that a single eye has a different perception of the width of the subject relative to the background than two eyes working together.

Michael Richmond, a physics professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, illustrates this effect with a few photos of a coffee mug against a patterned background sheet. He took one photo straight on like the lone eye of a camera would see it, one photo four centimeters to the left of center the way your left eye would see it if your nose was directly at the center and one photo four centimeters to the right of center the way your right eye would see it. He then merged the perspectives of the latter two “eyes” by cutting both those pictures through the center of the mug and fusing the right side of the right eye’s picture with the left side of the left eye’s picture to get something like what the brain would create.

In both pictures, the mug is the same number of pixels across, but there’s a huge difference in the way the camera view and the combined “two-eyed” view capture the background. In the camera view, background appears narrower, and the mug looks much “fatter” against it.

More From Mental_Floss:

7 Ingenious Hidden Spy Cameras

Weird Camera Effects

Does Eating Slowly Help You Lose Weight?

12 Essential American Cartoons

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1. Caves of Sea Lions

Oregon’s Sea Lion Caves are the only known mainland rookery and wintering home of the Stellar Sea Lion.

The system of sea-level caves also provide sanctuary for the California Sea Lion and serve as a resting place for a variety of birds, from Tufted Puffins to Bald Eagles.

There’s even a whale watching deck from which visitors can see Gray Whales and migrating orcas.

The caves were discovered by Captain William Cox in 1880, but have only been open to the public since 1932, as the cliffs and lack of roads made it difficult to access the caves by land.

Today, visitors can access the caves via their gift shop off of U.S. 101.

2. The High-Altitude Zoo

The only specialized zoo in India and the largest high-altitude zoo in India, Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (a.k.a. Darjeeling Zoo), specializes in breeding animals for alpine conditions, including Snow Leopards, Tibetan Wolves, Red Pandas, and Himalayan Newts.

The zoo is also home to Blue Sheep, Blood Pheasants and Bhutan Grey Peacock Pheasants, Satyr Tragopans, and Himalayan Monals.

The zoo was established in 1958 as the Himalayan Zoological Park.

It was renamed in 1975 when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dedicated the zoo to the memory of Padmaja Naidu, the former governor of West Bengal.

3. The Biblical Zoo

The Tisch Family Zoological Gardens in Jerusalem, also known as Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, highlights a collection of animals featured in the Hebrew Bible.

The narrow focus has been difficult for the zoo to maintain, since many of the Bible’s animals are now extinct in Israel.

The terms used in the Bible to name animals are also somewhat ambiguous, leading to some uncertainty over which animals are actually discussed.

The zoo now includes a variety of endangered species in addition to the biblical animals, and it has become known for its breeding programs, which have enabled it to reintroduce at least 11 species to Israel’s nature reserves.

Since its inception in 1940, the zoo has moved several times, but today it resides in the Malha valley.

The two-level park includes trees and shrubs mentioned in the Bible, an artificial wall called Moses’ Rock, and a “two-story, boat-shaped wooden visitor’s center meant to resemble Noah’s Ark.”

4. Old MacDonald’s Farm

In 1966, a public park and petting zoo called Old MacDonald’s Farm opened in Hampton, Virginia.

Designed like a working farm, the park showcases farm animals and fowl as well as Virginia-native wild animals.

Now known as Bluebird Gap Farm, the park intends to expose kids to animals in a farm setting, to which they would otherwise have very little exposure.

In addition to the animals, the park showcases both modern and antique farm equipment, the original Hampton train station, a family cemetery, a demonstration garden, and an Azalea Trail featuring rare azaleas.

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Holiday episodes tend to be a bit generic.

How many times can you rework A Christmas Carol or The Gift of the Magi into a sitcom plot?

Here are a smattering of episodes worth mentioning either because they’re rare, different or just because we like them.

A Very Special "Bewitched"

Bewitched had many traditional Christmas episodes during its eight season run, but 1970′s “Sisters at Heart” was controversial enough to require a special introduction by Elizabeth Montgomery at the behest of the show’s sponsor, Oscar Mayer.

The plot that was making the network so jumpy was young Tabitha’s desire to be sisters with her African-American friend, Lisa. In order to make them look alike, Tabby zaps black polka dots onto her flesh, and white ones on Lisa’s. No doubt the episode would still be controversial today, thanks to Tabitha’s brief appearance in blackface. The original story was submitted by a 10th grade English class at L.A.’s Thomas Jefferson High School.

"Married With Children": Woah, Jablonsky!

It’s Christmas time at the Bundy house, which means Al is feeling more depressed than ever: “The stockings were hung round Dad’s neck like a tie, along with a note that said ‘Presents or Die.’” As he plugs in a string of faulty lights he grumbles and wishes he’d never been born. Quicker than you can say “It’s a Bundyful Life,” guardian angel Sam Kinison pops in to show Al what his family would be like had he never existed.

Married…with Children put an evil twist on the classic James Stewart film, revealing a universe in which Peggy cooked wholesome meals, Bud was a gracious young gentleman, and Kelly was a chaste college student. Al decides he wants to live after all… just to make sure his family stayed as miserable as they’d always made him.

"Fraser": Miracle on 3rd or 4th Street

Many of us forget that December 25 is a regular work day for a lot of folks — nurses, fire fighters, police…and radio disc jockeys. Thus in the episode entitled “Miracle on Third or Fourth Street” we find Dr. Frasier Crane in the studio on Christmas day, taking calls from (as his disgruntled producer Roz predicted) the loneliest and most depressed people in the listening area.

After his shift ends, Frasier (uncharacteristically dressed in old jeans and a torn sweatshirt) finds a diner that’s open and treats himself to a turkey log with mashed potatoes. When he discovers that he’s left his wallet at the station, his down-on-their-luck fellow diners — thinking he’s homeless — pool their coins to pay for his dinner. Of course, Frasier is so touched by this “true meaning of Christmas” moment that he has to walk home in the snow rather than risk being seen climbing into his BMW.

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The origin of the word “booze” is often mistakenly credited to E. C. Booz, who was a distiller in the United States in the 19th century.

But the first references to the word “booze,” meaning “alcoholic drink,” appear in the English language around the 14th century as “bouse.”

The spelling we use today didn’t appear until the 17th century.

The word “booze” itself appears to have Germanic origins, though which specific word it came from is still a little bit of a mystery.

The three main words often cited are more or less cousins of each other, and are very similar in meaning and spelling.

One of the words came from the Old High German “bausen,” which meant “bulge or billow.” This, in turn, was a cousin of the Dutch word “búsen,” which meant “to drink excessively” or “to get drunk.” The Old Dutch language also has a similar word, “buise,” which translates to “drinking vessel.”

It is thought that the English word “bouse,” which later became “booze,” has its origins in one or more of those three words, with most scholars leaning towards it coming from the Dutch word “búsen.”

SEE ALSO: What Alcohol Does To Your Body And Mind

SEE ALSO: 8 Hot Holiday Alcoholic Drink Recipes to Warm Your Spirit

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The English version of Wikipedia features over 4.1 million entries.

While the encyclopedia is a terrific repository of knowledge—particularly if you don’t mind doing a little fact checking on your own—it really shines as a source of collaboratively edited prose.

From “Boo-Boo Bear”

"It is not readily apparent whether Boo-Boo is a juvenile bear with a precocious intellect or simply an adult bear who is short of stature."

From “McDonaldland”

"Even though hamburgers in McDonaldland were anthropomorphized and spoke, they were picked by characters such as Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar for consumption."

From “Curly Howard”

Never an intellect, Curly simply refrained from engaging in “crazy antics” unless he was in his element: with family, performing, or intoxicated. 

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Albert Einstein was one of the greatest minds of all time. He profoundly changed the way we look at space and time. But else do we know about the great scientist?

Kara Kovalchik of Mental Floss takes a look back at Einstein's life, uncovering some lesser-known details about the German-born genius' life.  

Did Einstein show any signs of future greatness as an infant?

His first impression wasn't one of fame, no. Born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879, Albert was the first child of Pauline and Hermann Einstein. And to say the couple was less than impressed with their newborn son would be an understatement; they thought his head was grotesquely oversized.

His parents described Albert to the delivering physician as a "monstrosity". The doctor convinced them that all infant heads appeared larger than normal and that Albert's body would grow to become more proportionate to his cranium.

Of course, once that happened, his grandmother clucked over him and complained to his parents that the boy was "much too fat!"

Was he really a slow learner?

Yes and no. The youngster didn't start to speak until he was two-years-old, but when he did chatter, he skipped all that "mama, dada" bunk and started off using full sentences.

In 1881, Albert's parents presented him with a new little sister, Maria (called "Maja" by family and friends). When two-year-old Albert saw her for the first time, he presumed that she was some sort of toy, and asked "Where does it have its small wheels?"

Despite his original skepticism, Maja and Albert soon became best friends.

Did Einstein suffer from a neurological disorder?

Einstein's primary-school teachers reported that the child had a powerful and lingering distaste of authority. Coupled with his late-developing speech, some medical professionals have suggested this behavior as symptomatic of either autism or Asperger's Syndrome.

Throughout his childhood and adult life, however, Albert did not exhibit any other behavior that would have been typical of such a diagnosis.

He had no difficulty communicating with others, for example. He also demonstrated the emotional capacity to develop both close friendships and passionate relationships.

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The world is made up of wondrous chemicals that sometimes do pretty out-of-the-ordinary things.

Here are seven places where minerals, carried by water, by heat, or by the actions of Mother Earth herself, left us with strange and wonderful sights.

Pamukkale Terraces, Turkey

Looks ice cold, doesn’t it?

Actually, the water is quite warm at the Pamukkale terraces in Turkey, but swimming in it is restricted to preserve the environment at this UNESCO World Heritage site.

The white formations are deposits of the mineral travertine from hot spring water that built up into a series of dams, making the terraced pools what they are.

See more pictures of Pamukkale and of other terraces formed by various mineral flows.

Fly Geyser, Nevada

The geothermal geyser called the Fly Geyser is on private land in the Hualapai Valley near Gerlach, Nevada.

The colors are due to different mineral deposits as well as algae growing on it.

The geyser broke through the surface of the land in the 1960s, in a weak spot where a water well had been drilled decades earlier.

It has since built up a mineral cone several meters high with multiple water geysers constantly spewing over 74 acres. The owners of Fly Ranch do not welcome sightseers, and do not want to sell the parcel on which the geyser sits.

Dallol, Ethiopia

Dallol is a huge area in Ethiopia that shows what happens when a volcano erupting from below meets water and concentrated minerals at the surface.

An explosive eruption left a volcanic crater, mineral springs, geysers, acidic pools, salt pillars, and other strange formations in the middle of the Danokil Desert, 150 feet below sea level.

Sulfur, iron oxide, salt, and other minerals give these formations otherworldly colors.

Due to harsh conditions (the average temperature of the area is over 90 degrees!), inaccessibility, and political tensions, Dallol has never been designated as a National Park, nor does it have any kind of reserved status. 

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Just about anything can inspire a movie, but we don't often hear that another movie, and much less events behind-the-scenes, as being the muse for a film.

Our friends at mental_floss have rounded up seven films that were inspired by backstage events from other films.

"Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1957) / "Ed Wood" (1994)

By any standard, Edward Wood, Jr. was not a particularly good filmmaker. His films had highly noticeable continuity errors, backgrounds that wouldn’t stay still, and flying saucers that were clearly made of cardboard. He would have died in obscurity had it not been for the irony that his movies achieved cult status thanks to their sheer awfulness. Film critic siblings Harry and Michael Medved pronounced Plan 9 from Outer Space the worst film of all time, and David Letterman got laughs from his audiences simply by running clips from the film during the early days of his show.

Made with the last remaining footage of his late friend Bela Lugosi, Ed Wood’s dogged pursuit to make Plan 9 From Outer Space is the subject of Tim Burton’s 1994 movie Ed Wood. Johnny Depp plays the title character and Martin Landau plays Lugosi (he received the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role). Burton paints Wood as not just a sympathetic figure but as the embodiment of a true auteur. Wood’s complete obliviousness to his lack of talent, and his unwavering optimism in the face of it, is seen as his biggest strength; it’s what wins the hearts of those around him and the audience. In fact, the film never allows Ed Wood to learn the reaction to his film: As Wood is walking out of the premiere of his film, he asks his girlfriend to elope with him instead of sticking around to hear critical opinion (which likely would have been negative). Both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp count Ed Wood among their greatest films.

"Nosferatu" (1922) / "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000)

F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, one of the landmark films of the silent era, is the first of a great many films to be based on Bram Stoker’s famous novel Dracula. Without Nosferatu demonstrating the popularity of the vampire genre, we wouldn’t have Twilight, True Blood, or The Vampire Diaries. The film almost got shut down, however, because Stoker’s widow sued the studio over the unauthorized use of her husband’s novel (written in 1897). Murnau persisted with different names for his characters.

The most chilling aspect of the film is Max Schreck’s portrayal of the Dracula stand-in (dubbed “Count Orlock”). Because audiences in 1922 were so new to the horror genre, Schreck’s striking facial features made quite an impression on audiences, and rumors fueled among audiences at the time that Schreck was an actual vampire. It also helped that Schreck didn’t do a lot of acting afterwards (although a closer look at his filmography shows he did do a number of less notable films).

In the 2000 film Shadow of a Vampire, director E. Elias Merhige and writer Steven Katz do a backstage film about Nosterafu with a twist: In this fictionalized account, director F.W. Murnau’s (John Malkovich) film is such a success because he finds an actual vampire to play the role of the Count.

"African Queen" (1951) / "White Hunter Black Heart" (1990)

Many of acclaimed director John Huston’s films were adventure stories that were shot on location, which was something few studios allowed directors to do at that time. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was shot in Mexico, Beat the Devil was shot in East Africa, and The Man Who Would Be King was shot in Morocco—but his most extreme location shoot was for the African Queen. The film, about a missionary (Katharine Hepburn) and a disheveled riverboat captain (Humphrey Bogart) travelling down Africa’s Zambezi River in World War I, was shot in a previously unmapped location in the Belgian Congo.

Pretty much the entire cast and crew got sick from dysentery, malaria, and snake bites. It didn’t help that Huston was a stubborn and strong-willed man who had a penchant for indulging in adventures. “He had a habit of losing interest in a project halfway through, and he indulged his passions for horses, drink, gambling and women as if he had the divine right to be supplied endlessly with same,” wrote Roger Ebert. In this particular case, Huston’s adventure of choice was shooting an elephant. When Huston first arrived in the Congo, he delayed production so he could go on a safari. When he failed to shoot an elephant on that outing, he refused to continue production until he succeeded in shooting one. Hepburn wrote in her autobiography that Huston convinced her to go hunting and inadvertently led her to a herd of wild animals from which the two were lucky to escape alive. She was among a number of people who theorized that Huston signed on to the movie just so he could go on safari.

Among those who got sick was screenwriter James Agee. A German-born screenwriter named Peter Viertel was sent to Africa as Agee’s replacement. Upon witnessing first-hand Huston’s mad quest to shoot an elephant, Viertel was inspired to write a semi-biographical novel about Huston centered around that experience. The novel was made into a movie by Clint Eastwood, who directed and starred as stubborn director John Wilson. Despite the name changes, the film sticks pretty close to the novel.

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Never doubt the power of a devoted audience: Time and again, adoring fan bases have brought television shows back from the brink of cancellation—or actual cancellation.

See the TV shows >

Shows like Family Guy and Futurama were resuscitated long after cancellation by the indirect fan actions of DVD purchases and the ratings of reruns on other networks, but sometimes fans take a much more direct role in rescuing their favorite programs.

Here are some of the most fantastic examples of shows saved by their passionate audiences.

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"Chuck" fans created a campaign with a 3-part strategy.

If you ever want to head a campaign to save your favorite show, the one that kept Chuck on the air should be the first place you look for inspiration. The campaign—which was launched after the show received low ratings in its second season—involved a strong three-prong strategy that hit the minds, hearts, and pocket books of network executives.

Petitions and letter-writing campaigns were just the first part of the successful plan. Fans also started a “Have a Heart, Renew Chuck” program, which asked fans to donate money to the American Heart Association on behalf of NBC. By the time the effort ended, over $17,000 was donated to the charity.

Lastly, fans reached out to Subway, one of the show’s biggest sponsors, to help show that their financial support of the show was worth it. Fans organized to head to Subway to buy a footlong sub on the day of the second season finale and to drop comment cards at the restaurant saying they visited to support Chuck. This movement became so big that even the star of the show, Zachary Levi, participated by leading nearly a thousand fans to a Subway in England.

If there is one thing network executives love more than viewers, it’s money, so when Subway announced that it would become an even bigger sponsor of the show, it was pretty hard for the powers-that-be to deny the show a third season. Eventually, the show lasted a total of five seasons and won two Emmy awards and three TV Guide Awards.

"Star Trek" the most successful letter-writing campaign in TV history.

After the second season of Star Trek aired in 1967, rumors began to circulate that the show was going to be canceled. Trekkers/Trekkies jumped into action, creating arguably the most successful letter-writing campaign in television history.

Young fans even held protests at their schools. The largest was at Caltech, where 200 students marched from campus to NBC’s studio in Burbank carrying signs with such great slogans as “Vulcan Power” and “Draft Spock.”

NBC denied the cancellation rumors. In fact, after the March 1st episode, the network aired the following message: “And now an announcement of interest to all viewers of Star Trek. We are pleased to tell you that Star Trek will continue to be seen on NBC Television. We know you will be looking forward to seeing the weekly adventure in space on Star Trek.”

One season later, Star Trek was actually canceled. But the show thrived in syndication, even occasionally attracting more viewers on rerun nights than on the days the original episodes had aired. As the show continued to gain fans, eventually it inspired an animated series, many movies and spin-off television shows, and developed one of the most dedicated fan bases in geekdom.

"Jericho" fans sent 20 tons of nuts to CBS studio execs.

If you’ve ever wondered how residents of a small town would survive after a nuclear war, then you should definitely check out Jericho. When you get to season two, thank the fans who kept the show on after one of the silliest campaigns to save a program.

When Jericho was canceled after its first season, the show’s fans—inspired by the main character shouting “nuts” during an epic battle in the season finale—sent over 20 tons of nuts to CBS studio executives, who then decided to review the show’s ratings. Network researchers looked at the numbers and announced that the show actually had quite a few more viewers than Nielsen reported because the show received so much online streaming and was viewed so often on DVRs.

As a result, Jericho was renewed for one more season, but when ratings still declined, it was canceled for good—even after a second “nuts” campaign. The show’s storyline was continued in a six-part comic book series though, which allowed creators to wrap up the plotlines. In fact, some fans call the comics the “third season” of the show.

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This is going to be a very trying year for people with Triskaidekaphobia, also known as the fear of the number 13.

While the superstitious folks afflicted with this problem can easily stay home on Friday the 13th, it’s going to be a lot harder to stay inside for another 362 days.

Why is 13 considered unlucky, anyway?

There were 13 people at the Last Supper.

It's said that Judas Iscariot and the one who betrayed Jesus - was the 13th man to take his place at the table.

Similarly, there’s a Norse legend that has 12 gods sitting down to a banquet when the 13th (uninvited) god, Loki, shows up.

Loki killed one of the other gods, which led to events that eventually resulted in Ragnarok - the death of a bunch of gods, a slew of natural disasters, and the eradication of everything on earth save for two human survivors. There's a lot more to the story than that, but you get the general idea.

Many Christians also believe that the Cain and Abel debacle took place on that date.

Let's go back to Christianity for a moment. Many Christians believe that Jesus was crucified on Friday.

Researchers, however, believe that it wasn't a case of Friday the 13th lore - it was possibly something like Friday, April 3, 33 A.D. But that doesn't mean the 13th is off the hook.

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When Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at age 21, doctors thought he’d only survive a few more years. But the theoretical physicist defied the odds: Hawking turned 71 this week on January 8, 2013.

Here are 11 quotes from the Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at Cambridge and author of "A Brief History of Time."

Happy birthday, professor!

On His Schooling

"At school, I was never more than about halfway up the class. It was a very bright class. My classwork was very untidy, and my handwriting was the despair of my teachers. But my classmates gave me the nickname Einstein, so presumably they saw signs of something better. When I was twelve, one of my friends bet another friend a bag of sweets that I would never come to anything. I don't know if this bet was ever settled, and if so, which way it was decided..."

From the lecture "My Brief History", 2010.

On Contacting Aliens:

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans. We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."

From "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking," 2010.

On the Eureka Moment Scientific Discovery:

"I wouldn't compare it to sex, but it lasts longer."

From a lecture at Arizona State University, April 2011.

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First off, popcorn isn’t just any old corn. It’s a cultivated strain of flint corn known as zea mays everta. Its kernel is also a whole grain—it consists of the bran (the hull or outer covering), the germ (the “embryo” that germinates into a plant), and the endosperm (the starch that provides nutrition for the germ).

Inside the protective hull, each popcorn kernel is mostly some soft, starchy endosperm and a small amount of water. All three of those things help make popcorn pop the way it does. As you cook the kernels in a pan on the stovetop or in a microwaveable bag, the water inside each kernel starts to heat up, create steam and expand. The hulls keep all that energy contained, like little pressure cookers, for a short while. Popcorn hulls are great at this because their cellulose molecules are arranged in a highly-ordered pattern that makes them both strong and impermeable.

The water and steam eventually create enough internal pressure to break the hull and make the kernel pop, but there has to be a certain amount of water for it to pop right. Too little, and there won’t be enough energy to open the hull. The kernel will either be a dud, or steam will just escape from whatever cracks it could create. Too much water, and the final product will be dense and gummy instead of light and fluffy. Farmers harvest popcorn when its moisture content is between 16 and 19 percent by mass, and then dry it until the moisture drops into the 13 to 14 percent range.

As the pressure and heat are building up inside the kernel, they gelatinize and soften the starchy endosperm. When the kernel finally pops, the drop in pressure and the escaping steam cause the starch and proteins in the endosperm to expand, and the air outside the kernel rapidly cools them and causes them to solidify and set into white, puffy flakes that go great with butter and salt (or a little Old Bay seasoning).

SEE ALSO:  No, Wedding Rice Does Not Make Birds Explode

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Daven Hiskey runs the wildly popular interesting fact website Today I Found Out. To subscribe to his “Daily Knowledge” newsletter, click here.

Here's something tailgaters, ice skaters, skiers and other cold weather fans might want to keep in mind: Drinking boozy beverages will make you feel warmer, but it doesn't actually keep you warm or prevent hypothermia. Instead, drinking alcohol lowers the core temperature of your body.

According to Dr. William Haynes, director of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Iowa, “Consumption of alcohol undoes many of the human body’s healthy reflexes, one of which is keeping the core body temperature warm in cold weather.” It doesn’t even take that much for this effect to kick in—just one alcoholic drink will start the process that results in a lowered core body temperature.

How does alcohol do this, and why does drinking alcohol make you feel warmer, even though you actually are getting colder?

You Booze, You Lose (Heat)

Alcohol is a vasodilator. It causes your blood vessels to dilate, particularly the capillaries just under the surface of your skin. When you have a drink, the volume of blood brought to the skin’s surface increases, making you feel warm. (That dilation is why slightly or exceedingly intoxicated people look flushed.) This overrides one of your body’s defenses against cold temperatures: Constricting your blood vessels, thereby minimizing blood flow to your skin in order to keep your core body temperature up.

Someone enjoying a drink in the cold may feel warmer from the extra blood warming his skin, but that blood will rapidly cool thanks to the chill in the air. Plus, the warmth caused by blood rushing to the skin will also make him sweat, decreasing his core temperature even further. The rapid drop often occurs without the drinker realizing it, because his skin will still feel fairly warm, which makes it doubly dangerous to drink alcohol in extremely cold weather. (You might want to put down the coffee, too; caffeine has a similar effect.)

The Big Chill

This isn’t the only bad thing about drinking alcohol in the cold. According to a study done by the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, drinking alcohol in chilly weather also reduces the body’s ability and tendency to shiver, taking away yet another method your body uses to help keep warm when it is cold.

Bottom line? The age-old practice of drinking alcoholic beverages to keep the body warm in cold weather is the exact opposite of what you should do.

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First off, popcorn isn’t just any old corn. It’s a cultivated strain of flint corn known as zea mays everta. Its kernel is also a whole grain—it consists of the bran (the hull or outer covering), the germ (the “embryo” that germinates into a plant), and the endosperm (the starch that provides nutrition for the germ).

Inside the protective hull, each popcorn kernel is mostly some soft, starchy endosperm and a small amount of water. All three of those things help make popcorn pop the way it does. As you cook the kernels in a pan on the stovetop or in a microwaveable bag, the water inside each kernel starts to heat up, create steam and expand. The hulls keep all that energy contained, like little pressure cookers, for a short while. Popcorn hulls are great at this because their cellulose molecules are arranged in a highly-ordered pattern that makes them both strong and impermeable.

The water and steam eventually create enough internal pressure to break the hull and make the kernel pop, but there has to be a certain amount of water for it to pop right. Too little, and there won’t be enough energy to open the hull. The kernel will either be a dud, or steam will just escape from whatever cracks it could create. Too much water, and the final product will be dense and gummy instead of light and fluffy. Farmers harvest popcorn when its moisture content is between 16 and 19 percent by mass, and then dry it until the moisture drops into the 13 to 14 percent range.

As the pressure and heat are building up inside the kernel, they gelatinize and soften the starchy endosperm. When the kernel finally pops, the drop in pressure and the escaping steam cause the starch and proteins in the endosperm to expand, and the air outside the kernel rapidly cools them and causes them to solidify and set into white, puffy flakes that go great with butter and salt (or a little Old Bay seasoning).

SEE ALSO:  No, Wedding Rice Does Not Make Birds Explode

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »