This precious baby pygmy hippopotamus named Obi recently went for his first-ever swim under the close and caring watch of his mama. The hippos, who reside at Melbourne Zoo, are especially dear to zoo staff and visitors due to their endangered status. According to the zoo staff,

"The name Obi means heart in the Nigerian Igbo language, and he is certainly melting a few hearts here at Melbourne Zoo. Obi has grown quickly from his birth weight of around 5 kilos, putting on roughly 500 grams a day and now weighs over 13 kilos. He has been leaning to swim in the nursery yard pool and passed with flying colours. Today marked an important milestone for Obi as he ventured into the deeper water of the exhibit. Wild Sea Manager, Justin Valentine said ‘he loves the water and spends hours in the small pool, so he is ready for the next step."

Image and Video: Melbourne Zoo | Via Laughing Squid 

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Hugo Weaving | Image: Warner Bros.

Art imitates life in that just as man has a healthy interest in artificial intelligence and the way its various forms may shape our future, our media presentations reflect that interest. As such, movies and television are filled with portrayals of artificially intelligent beings. This article looks back at A.I. representations in film, evaluates and rates them. See what you think of this writer's choices. On his best-of list is a performance by a favorite actor of mine, Hugo Weaving. Here's what he has to say:
 

"8. Agent Smith in The Matrix (1999) Forget about the sequels for a minute—it shouldn’t be hard since everyone else has—and just focus on Hugo Weaving’s performance in the 1999 original film. Delivered with a thin veneer of monotone indifference that hid his boiling contempt underneath, Smith’s cadence and line readings have a lyrical quality that purely make him a wonderful villain.

On top of that attribute, however, is that Smith is a program that exists solely to execute hackers that have figured out the system. He is not supposed to be able to develop feelings like revulsion, disgust, and perpetual hostility for all humanity, but he does. The Matrix might be a reworking of Philip K. Dick and James Cameron tropes, but for such a personal and vindictive personality to unpredictably manifest among sentient programs was a fun wrinkle that gave this action film a supremely entertaining antagonist that is literally reinventing the cyber world and cinematic clichés around him into something special."

Disagree with the list or feel it's missing something? Comment away.

Henry Rollins performing with Rollins Band, 1993 | Image: Pelle Sten

Musician Henry Rollins and his best friend Joe Cole, son of actor Dennis Cole, stopped at a grocery store on the evening of December 19, 1991. They were picking up a few things before returning to the house they shared in Venice Beach, California. 

Just steps away from their home, they came face-to-face with two armed men. They pushed Cole to the ground and Rollins to his knees on the grass in the front yard. The gunmen demanded money from Rollins and Cole, and were angered when they only had a combined $50. Ordered to enter their house, Rollins was on the way in when he was horrified to hear the gun discharge and see that Cole had been shot in the face.

Rollins was able to make a run for it and escaped out the back door, but his friend wasn't so lucky. Cole died from his injuries, and his murderers have never been caught. Rollins remains haunted by his death.

Read about other instances in which celebrities are somehow linked to murder in this article.

Game Over Cycles is shop in Poland that specializes in vintage cars and motorcycles. An ongoing project for them is this cool Batmobile-themed trike motorcycle, reminiscent of the vehicles in the Batman films. Sure would be an eye-catcher on the road, would it not?

Read technical specs and see many more pictures of the trike at the Game Over Cycles Facebook page. Via Laughing Squid

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Brandon Cohen decided to make a video of him wearing heels all day long in order to “prove that girls are huge complainers.” As swiftly as you can say "Goddess of Retribution," Cohen's feet were struck with something that likely every woman has felt once in her life: the ever-increasing, sheer pain of uncomfortable high-heeled shoes as the hours drag on. Via Uproxx

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This naturally sweet little sugar glider apparently has an innate response when he feels the wind from a fan rushing across his fur. He gets in flight simulator mode and takes a practice run. So far, it's a breeze. Via Tastefully Offensive

In this image thought to be taken by photographer Jules Antoine, it has been suggested that Vincent van Gogh is seen here, in conversation with Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard and Félix Jobbé-Duval. André Antoine stands between the artists. 

This recently discovered 1887 melainotype is what some experts believe to be a photo of Vincent van Gogh, in fact the only photo of him as an adult. Van Gogh hated photography and supposedly refused to sit for any photo portraits throughout his life. The only two known photos of him are taken at ages 13 and 19.

Though the idea that it is indeed van Gogh in the picture is controversial — van Gogh museum in Amsterdam says that it can’t be the artist due to his acknowledged hatred of photo portraits and “because it simply does not look like him” — nevertheless, others disagree. The photo generated enough interest to be sold at auction this past weekend. Though the sale price hasn't been made public, an estimate was between $136,000 and $170,000.

See a close-up of the man thought to be van Gogh in the photograph and read more on this story at Colossal.

French photographer Sacha Goldberger (previously) is back with a follow-up to his 2014 Super Flemish photo series. His latest, Family Portrait, was created by dressing models as pop culture and comic book characters and posing them together as family portraits. The result is, again, an odd and intriguing mix of new Western culture and 16th century Flemish art.

Sse the photo series in entirety on Goldberger’s website and Facebook page.

Via Laughing Squid | Images: Sacha Goldberger

 

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For a recent episode of the series The Watercooler, author Chuck Palahniuk reads his Fight Club for Kids. This tongue-in-cheek effort — which Palahniuk explains by saying his readership is now  "growing older and having kids and... dying," thus he wants to introduce Fight Club to a new generation — is an illustrated children’s book version of Fight Club. Have a listen to Palahniuk's "child-friendly" club, complete with bedtime-storyish music. Via Laughing Squid

Image: Rossparry.co.uk / Ceri Oakes

Glenn the Jack Russell terrier and his best friend Buzz, the Staffordshire bull terrier were rescued last month and are now in the care of Stray Aid rescue in Coxhoe, County Durham, UK. Rescue staff soon learned that the inseparable pair immediately becomes distressed if parted. Nine-year-old Buzz acts as the eyes of ten-year-old Glenn. Buzz assists Glenn with finding his bed and food and giving him a gentle nudge in the right direction if he needs it. Their rescuers will only adopt out this super sweet duo together, thankfully. 

Learn more about Glenn and Buzz, see additional pictures and get the link to inquire about adopting them here. 

Image: Rossparry.co.uk / Ceri Oakes

 

If you like to read, you may be interested in these forty books that have been adapted for the screen and will be released in film versions this year. Shown above is Andy Weir's novel The Martian, the film of which will be released on November 25, just in time for Thanksgiving weekend movie crowds. The premise is an astronaut getting stranded on Mars and trying to survive as he waits for NASA to come to the rescue. Legendary director Ridley Scott will direct and Matt Damon will star. 

Read about 39 other upcoming films based on novels here. 

Natalie Schafer (Lovey Howell) in her earlier days as an actress in the film Dishonored Lady
Image: Screen shot, public domain

Gilligan's Island is a television wonder that has seldom been off the air since its first run from 1964-1967. The celebrated sitcom has been paid lots of attention over its years of airing and syndication, with numerous books and articles making it the focus. Our own John Farrier wrote a factoid list about Gilligan's Island in February of last year that was quite well received; now Mental Floss has released a new list that is a good companion to John's in that it has very little duplication of information. 

One point of interest from the new list has to do with Natalie Schafer, who played the millionaire's wife Lovey Howell. The item reads as follows: 

6. THE MILLIONAIRE’S WIFE REALLY WAS A MILLIONAIRE.

Natalie Schafer, who played Mrs. Lovey Howell—and allegedly only accepted the invitation to play Mrs. Howell because it meant a free trip to Hawaii to film the pilot—was a real-life millionaire. During her marriage to actor Louis Calhern, the couple had invested heavily in Beverly Hills real estate at a time when a house on Rodeo Drive could be purchased for $50,000.

When she died in 1991, Schafer bequeathed a large chunk of her fortune to her favorite teacup poodle (she had no children), with instructions for that money to be donated to the Motion Picture and Television Hospital after the pooch’s passing. Said hospital now has a "Natalie Schafer Wing." Rumor has it that Schafer also left a tidy sum to Gilligan’s Island co-star Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), who lived with and helped care for Natalie as she battled breast cancer.

Read other facts about Gilligan's Island, including a fascinating bit about Schafer and stunt work on the series, in this article.

Sign warning South African beachgoers about the presence of sharks | Image: ChrisDHDR 

Two back-to-back shark attacks made the news recently in North Carolina when a twelve year old and a sixteen year old lost their arms in incidents approximately an hour apart. A ten year old was also attacked recently off of Daytona Beach. Experts say such occurrences are common at this time of year in the Carolinas and in Florida, when the amount of bait and game fish is peaking. Luckily in those cases, no one was killed. 

Of course, not all shark attacks are particularly explainable or leave the victim alive. After all, nature is wild and unpredictable. One dramatic and terrifying fatal shark attack took place in South Africa in 2010. A man named Lloyd Skinner was standing in waist-deep water off of Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town when what one onlooker described as a "huge... like dinosaur huge" shark swam up from behind him and snatched him up in his jaws before swallowing him whole. One witness who called the shark "longer than a minibus" said, 

"It was this giant shadow heading to something colorful. Then it sort of came out the water and took this colorful lump and went off with it. You could see its whole jaw wrap around the thing which turned out to be a person."

Read more about this incident and other instances of fatal shark attacks here. 

Image: Lauren Zaser for BuzzFeed

Ice cream is serious business my friends, as you well know. As such, verification may be needed as to whether a product labeled in a certain way is accurate as stated. In this case, those buying cookie dough ice cream are not in the mood for just a small, isolated chunk of it interspersed here and there in a vast expanse of vanilla. No, we want major cookie dough blobs, and lots of them. In this article, BuzzFeed evaluated four brands of cookie dough ice cream to get the skinny (or, rather, the fat) on this issue. With everything going on in the world, it's nice to know someone has their priorities straight. 

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This bulldog is a fan of watching videos on the iPad. Who can blame him? But when the fun is over, he's not waiting around for his human to come over and restart the process. On the contrary: this guy has things under control. Even when a switcheroo is pulled and he finds himself watching himself as life imitates art, he's not one to be thrown. Via Daily Dot