"In 2013, cost of minting a penny was 1.8 cents, while the cost to mint a nickel was 9.4 cents. On the flip side, the cost to create a dime was a mere 4.6 cents."

Sand Snakes in real life

DailyDot:

Four Saudi Arabian princesses, daughters of 89-year-old King Abdullah, say they've been locked away in "gilded cages," barred from leaving their country or even their compound without permission. They're "imprisoned, held against their will, cut off from the world," their mother says, punishment for speaking out against the country's treatment of women and the poor. 

But they can tweet.

"An original Umami Burger contains 2,185 mg of glutamate"

Smithsonian:

“Most people don’t know the connection between umami and MSG. They know about it from the fifth taste, and the fifth taste was always called umami and not MSG,” Fleischman explains. “We didn’t feel that using MSG was creative enough. We wanted to do it ourselves. By doing it ourselves, we could create a flavor that was umami without the stigma of MSG. MSG, whether you like it or not, has been marketed so poorly, it sounds like this horrible thing.” 

By harnessing natural glutamates for their burgers, Umami Burger avoids negative connotations associated with MSG. But the “natural” glutamates in an Umami Burger aren’t chemically any different from glutamates in MSG.

Dune poster

Art from the David Lynch tribute show is now available.

Lookalikes

Christine McConnell:

On the left: A photo of my Dad as a baby. On the right: A light bulb I painted

Perfect Timing subreddit.

Video games with unusual concepts

RPS posted a batch of video games with unusual concepts including one where you play Tetris by controlling a cockroach playing Tetris. Also, this one:

A Russian Valentine by empty_fortress

Retro stealth game about Russian homophobia. Hold down X to kiss your boyfriend (best instructions ever) and gain a point. If the cops see, they’ll chase you, so you want to use the location of houses to minimize cop interference and have an escape route (they stop chasing if their line of sight gets interrupted).