In an unprecedented show of support for women's and all vaginal health, Parliament unanimously passed a law this week granting all people legal right to free tampons and pads in schools and other public buildings.

"Period poverty" has made it difficult for some people to access necessary sanitary products, but other circumstance can interfere as well, such as homelessness, abusive relationships, or certain health conditions. Some transgender people also have trouble accessing sanitary products. Access has only become more difficult during the pandemic.

"Aileen Campbell, the cabinet secretary for communities and local government said the bill's passage would send "a very clear message to the kind of Scotland we want to be." She said it was "clear that everyone in this chamber agrees that no one in our society should have to suffer the indignity of not having the means to meet their basic needs and that being able to access period products is fundamental to equality and dignity."

Via The New York Times

Florida man – what can't he do? A nature camera posted near a pond in Estero, Florida, captured the harrowing footage of Richard Willbanks, age 74, straddling an alligator and wrenching its jaws apart in order to save his three-month-old King Charles spaniel puppy, Gunner, who had wandered too close to the water. It should be noted that not only did Willbanks manage to save his dog's life, he also heroically never dropped his cigar throughout the entire ordeal.

Image: F Stop/ Florida Wildlife Federation

You may never think of beloved artist Mary Blair the same after viewing actor Jack Plotnick's hilarious lampoon of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. In Plotnick's version of the 1965 series, viewers are once again taken behind-the-scenes to meet with Disneyland imagineers, only this time the polite veneer filtering the sexism and ill-advised design concepts (The "It's a Small World" song should really be a registered torture device) are met head-on.

Image via YouTube.

Video curator Bret Berg has been slowly unleashing his 40+ terabyte collection of video oddities in a new Twitch series called Museum of Home Video. Produced by Jenny Nixon, who moderates their lively chatroom filled with kindred devotees of weird videos, the weekly 90-minute broadcast introduces viewers to public access kooks, forgotten talk show meltdowns, advertising kitsch, cutting room floor ephemera, and more. The hosts are adamant that this is "a variety show," so don't expect any neat and tidy themes. Do expect a pop culture assault so rich with buried treasures, you might need to take a cold shower afterwards.

In nature's coolest collage experiment, Platypuses are like the result of throwing together the leftovers from a bunch of other animals. They're the only mammal to lay eggs, they have venom in their feet, they don't have nipples so they sweat milk to feed their young, and now it turns out they glow in the dark as well.

"Scientists are seeing the Australian platypus in a whole new light. Under an ultraviolet lamp, this bizarre-looking creature appears even more peculiar than normal, glowing a soft, greenish-blue hue instead of the typical brown we're used to seeing.

Over the centuries, biofluorescence has been reported in various plants, fungi, fruits, flowers, insects, and birds. It's only recently, however, that scientists have begun to actively track down examples in the animal kingdom."

The Mystery of the Platypus Deepens with the Discovery of its Biofluorescent Fur.

As of yet, it's unclear why they glow in the dark. Researchers think it might help camouflage the platypus from other UV-sensitive nocturnal predators (ravers?) or prey by absorbing UV light instead of reflecting it.

Some things never go out of style, like pop music and being creeped out (turned on? I don't know your life) by prancing humanoid pink poodles. Hunx and his Punx frontman Seth Bogart teamed up with Canada's US Girls to create this fun remix of queer anthem "Boys Who Don't Wanna Be Boys" from the recently-released Men on the Verge of Nothing album. The video pays tribute to legendary choreographer and pop goddess Toni Basil's "You Gotta Problem" video from the '80s, proving that some things will always remain timeless.

You could go with a Mad Max aesthetic. Instead, why not ride out the end of the world in the very same bus that once transported Prince and the Revolution on 1984's Purple Rain tour? The 1983 Eagle Model 10 Motorcoach has mostly been in storage since the '80s and will be available for auction December 3rd – 5th. Bid well and you could soon be sitting in the very same seat that once held the most regal butt cheeks in Minneapolis music history.

Prince's Custom Purple Rain Tour Bus Could Be Your Next Motorhome

The Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theater might be the most storied strip club anywhere in the country. Certainly in San Francisco. Opening its doors in 1969, it almost immediately became ground zero for obscenity law and free speech battles. Mayor Diane Feinstein led several raids in an attempt to get the club closed down. In addition to fighting the charges in court, the brothers infamously posted "For A Good Time, Call…" with Feinstein's phone number on their marquee in retaliation.

In addition to being a strip club, The O'Farrell Theater was something of a cultural center at times. There were film screenings, hippie vaudeville acts, underground cartoonists and the literati held meetings there, journalist Warren Hinckle edited an underground paper called War News, and Hunter S. Thompson served as the "night manager" for several years.

In the early years, the Mitchell Brothers were best known for directing the classic adult film Behind The Green Door starring former Ivory Soap model Marilyn Chambers. It became one of the highest grossing XXX films of its day and helped to usher in "The Golden Age of Porn". In later years, however, the brothers entered the limelight again under much darker circumstances when Jim Mitchell murdered brother Artie when Artie's drug use began impacting their business. This incident was adapted into a movie starring Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen called Rated X in 2002.

Though closing this year, the club is not a covid casualty. It had been in trouble for some time and had gone up for sale in 2018. Another wild institution gone, but leaving a rich bounty of stories in its wake.

Of the many social activities that covid has taken from us this year, Halloween is an especially bitter pill to swallow. If you're looking for virus-free thrills from the safety of your couch this weekend, the folks at Filmbot have put together an excellent Halloween movie marathon. The line-up features Wes Craven's classic The Hills Have Eyes (loosely based on the legend of cannibal Sawney Bean), followed by Dario Argento's Deep Red (with awesome soundtrack by Goblin), and wraps up with the creepiest cult movie ever to feature a flying orb, Phantasm. Fantasy artist Skinner gives Svengoolie a run for his money as the host of this triple feature, offering Elvira-worthy skits and one-liners in between shows.   

Artist Margaret Rolicki is the Cynthia Plaster Caster of the prop fabrication world and the spiritual heir to Milicent Patrick's (Creature from the Black Lagoon) legacy. When not making her own art (like this fantastic bat mask tribute to Margaret Brundage's Weird Tales cover art), Rolicki is deep in the bowels of the Slave Pit, creating dick udders, molding monster brains underneath removable skullcaps, and whipping up a fresh batch of spew (fake blood and alien bile) for an upcoming live show of Richmond, Virginia's fabled thrash metal band, GWAR, best known for their elaborately gross stage show filled with beheadings, spewing foam penises, and alien abortions.

I don't know that I could name a single song by GWAR, but I can tell you that showing up at high school with your skin stained red with fake blood the morning after one of their shows was a badge of honor.

Check out Margaret's art on her Instagram page, her website, and see her operating the spew cannon live in action at GWAR's Scumdogs of the Universe anniversary show on Oct. 30th.

From grocery stores populated by anthropomorphic insects to an extraterrestrial encounter, each of lito_leafart's gorgeous paper cut style leaves invites us into a standalone narrative. The artist's bio shares that the creation of these cute and meticulous scenes is the result of channeling their ADHD into something positive.

Pepe the Frog emerged into this world as a happy-go-lucky amphibian whose life's purpose was to get high and eat pizza with friends in Matt Furie's Boy's Club comic. But that was before the internet got a hold of him. In a nightmare so insidious you know it started on a message board, Pepe was co-opted and corrupted by internet trolls, transformed from a positive character into a white supremacist meme and iconic symbol of hate. A new documentary, Feels Good Man uses live interviews and animation to tell the bizarre story of one man's fight to reclaim the frog he loves from the dark forces who debased him. Catch one of four sneak preview screenings benefitting independent theaters and bookstores this weekend or watch it online September 4th.

Leatherface with a chainsaw or Karen with a cell phone – who really strikes fear into the hearts of men in 2020? This latex mask sculpted by artist Jason Adcock captures the true horror underneath the haircut. Be sure to talk your partner into dressing up like the manager of Arby's for an unbeatable couple's costume this year.

A Michigan man transforms his grandparents' unassuming rural home into a module-stuffed control center dedicated to contacting alien life forms in the Netflix original, John Was Trying To Contact Aliens. Weighing in at under twenty minutes long, this short documentary nevertheless provides us with a powerful story of a life spent yearning for connection.

Beginning in the 1970s, John Shepherd attempts to communicate with aliens by broadcasting "the universal language of music" into space from his grandparents' living room. Any extraterrestrials that had tuned in would likely have been grateful for his impeccable taste, choosing to send obscure Krautrock and Afro Pop over the airwaves rather than Top 40. As radio and electronic equipment increasingly begin to overrun the house (to say nothing of the huge signal tower on the front lawn), John's grandmother agrees to build an addition onto their home so that there is more space for John's obsession to flourish. The film uses archival television footage as well as recent interviews with John in order to tell his story: abandoned by his parents, gay, nerdy, isolated, and with eclectic musical tastes, it's no wonder to anyone watching why John is obsessed with making contact. And though John's quest to find aliens never comes to fruition, it does fill his life with meaning on his way to finding a deeper connection here on earth.

In uncertain times, is it any wonder that more and more people are turning to astrology, tarot cards, and other New Age woo to find a sense of universal order? Cuban American illustrator Cristy Road (who, yes, legally changed her name in homage to a Green Day song) has created a tarot deck that embraces diverse representation by modeling the cards after her friends, comrades, and heroes: queer couples, the disabled, punks, BIPOC artists and activists, fat bodies, all defiantly populating a dystopian landscape.

 Cristy explains the inspiration behind her work. "My stories are about smashing systematic oppression, owning our truths, being accountable to the people and places that support us, and taking back a connection to your body that may have been lost through trauma or societal brainwashing,"

The original set of cards are a traditional 4 x 6" tarot size that allows space for the artwork, but now there's a more affordable pocket-sized deck available, as well as a coffee table book edition from publisher Silver Sprocket.

Cave City, Kentucky's Wigwam Village Motel #2, a registered National Landmark as well as a culturally-insensitive remnant of roadside kitsch, is currently on the market for $395K. That's 15 conical buildings for the price of one boring rectangular house – quite a deal. Built between the 1930s and 1950s, there was once several of these concrete teepee roadside motels providing a pit stop for weary families traversing the American highways. Now Wigwam Village #2 is one of only three survivors of that era. If you've been considering a lifestyle change, maybe this is the sign you've been waiting for.