Tulle is a sheer mesh fabric generally used for various crafts, or sewing projects where a bit of sheer color is needed, but an industrious artist named Benjamin Shine has discovered another good use for this niche fabric- he uses tulle to create detailed portraits.

Benjamin creates highly detailed, and incredibly realistic, portraits using a single folded sheet of tulle, creating the shadows on each portrait by layering the fabric and ironing it down in all the right places.

It's amazing what Benjamin is capable of creating with just one sheet of tulle and a regular old steam iron!

-Via My Modern Met

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How can you pass a straight rod through a curved hole? No, neither of the two are pliable. This demonstration at the Science Museum in Valencia, Spain, shows you in just a few seconds. This reminded me of a hyperboloid, which I discovered when writing about math shapes.

What mathematicians call a hyperboloid of one sheet is a really cool structure that is made up of many (actually an infinite number) of perfectly straight lines that look to us like a curved structure. First, imagine that you have a cube. Stand it on one of its corners and spin it like a top, then look at it from the side -the sides seem to be curved, but you know they aren't. Now, take a handful of uncooked spaghetti noodles. Use two hands, and twist the strands loosely. It forms the shape of a hyperboloid structure, which looks like a cooling tower at a nuclear reactor. All the spaghetti noodles are still straight, but the shape of the handful is curved. In architecture, this idea enables builders to produce curved structures by using straight line supports.

The museum display is the same thing, only they are using one straight support in motion instead of an infinite number to build a structure. The animation here helps to connect the two concepts. -via Viral Viral Videos

(Image credit: Cmapm)

(Photo: College Hunks Hauling Junk)

College Hunks Hauling Junk is a moving company based in Tampa, Florida. While on the job, employee Cesar Larios found himself in a stuck elevator. This caused great concern to an elderly woman on that elevator. She couldn't stand for a long period of time.

So Larios, a true gentleman, kneeled down so that he could be a human chair for her. Nick Friedman, the president of the company, writes:

A lot of people say the younger generation has lost certain values. But one small picture shows that chivalry and hard work are still very much alive in our youth.

-via 22 Words

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A Russian father and his baby daughter are having a seriously heated discussion. The little girl most likely only understands a few of the words, and she can’t reproduce them coherently, because she’s a baby. She can, however, reproduce the cadence, emphasis, and body language to an amazing degree, which is adorable. If I understood what she was arguing about, she’d have me convinced. According to the comments at reddit, he is chastising her for throwing her pancakes on the floor. That means that her side of the argument is a vigorous defense. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

The riots in Kiev, Ukraine, which subsequently turned into a full blown revolution, weren't started by soldiers or police officers, they were started by average people willing to fight for their rights against a corrupt government.

DIY weaponry is the norm among the freedom fighting citizen soldiers that form the front lines, and these weapons look like something straight out of a post apocalyptic movie.

Photographer Tom Jamieson has chosen to document the DIY weapons of the Ukranian Revolution in a totally artsy way, taking them out of the fray and simply showcasing the brutal ingenuity and crude beauty of each weapon.

And even though you can't see the wielders in these photos you can somehow get a sense about them simply by looking at their choice of arms.

It's your lucky day: you've just found a $20 bill. What would you spend it on? Would you get yourself a hot lunch? Maybe a video game?

Eight-year-old Myles Eckert was so excited when he found a $20 bill in the parking lot of his neighborhood Cracker Barrel restaurant. "I kind of wanted to get a video game," the young boy told CBS news, "but I decided not to."

Myles changed his mind when he saw Lt. Col. Frank Dailey in uniform, having an early lunch at the same restaurant. The soldier reminded Myles of his late father.

"Because he was a soldier, and soldiers remind me of my dad," Myles explained why he wrapped the $20 he found with a green note that said:

Dear Soldier -- my dad was a soldier. He's in heaven now. I found this 20 dollars in the parking lot when we got here. We like to pay it forward in my family. It's your lucky day! Thank you for your service. Myles Eckert, a gold star kid.

After lunch, Myles asked his mom to make one more stop. "He wanted to see his dad," the boy's mom Tiffany said, "And he wanted to go by himself that day."

Steve Hartman of CBS Evening News has the story:

The Ladybird Book line still exists, but in the traditional sense, the name refers to a line of British children’s books that were published from the 1940s through 1970s. The had a standardized format including a listing of key vocabulary words on each page.

Miriam Elia, a writer and artist, has released the book We Go to the Gallery. It's a satire on modern art that in the form of a fake Ladybird book:

“I thought it would be humorous to see Mummy, Peter and Jane going to a really nihilistic modern art exhibition”, she says. Among the works confronted by the trio on their cultural outing are pastiches of Emin, Creed and Koons, through which they learn about sex, death, nothingness “and all of the debilitating, middle-class self-hatred contained in the artworks.”

You can see more a few more pages at The Independent.

-via American Digest

Meet Mercury, the kitten that gets around on his two rear legs, like a T. rex. He was found in September, when he was only about four days old, having already lost his two front forelegs and most of the toes on one back leg. Neighbors suspected it was due to a weed whacker. After veterinary care, he was placed with an Oklahoma foster family even before his eyes opened. Mercury learned to get around one two legs as he first learned to walk, and now he runs, jumps, climbs stairs, and holds his own with the other cats. His foster family decided to make him a permanent member of the family. Here’s a video that shows how he moves around on two legs. You can see more pictures and videos at Mercury’s Facebook page. -via Fark

(Image credit: Raising Mercury)

Jonathan Thorpe is a photographer in the Washington, D.C. area. His friend, Heather Byrd, is a model. She has leukemia. But that hasn't stopped her professional life. Thorpe wanted to work with her to show "beauty through a troubling time." So he created a carefully-staged shot of her in a hospital scene modeled after Sandro Botticelli's famous painting "The Birth of Venus" (above).

I think that photograph is completely safe for work. It's non-erotic, like Botticelli's original. But on the off chance that you work in a profoundly conservative workplace, I decided to provide just a link. Go here to view the magnificent photo and Thorpe's description of how he shot it.

-via My Modern Met

Jesse Cottle and his wife Kelly were on a family photo shoot when photographer Sarah Ledford suggested the couple take a picture in the water. That's when Jesse - a former Marine who lost his both of legs in Afghanistan - hopped on his wife's back.

It was on patrol in Afghanistan in 2009 when Jesse's life changed forever.

"About 5 hours into that patrol, into that mission, I was struck by an anti-personnel IED," Jesse said. "It was a pressure plate, I stepped on it and lost both legs right away."

One of his fellow Marines was wearing a helmet camera, and the explosion that injured Jesse was caught on tape.

"I remember most everything," he said "I was awake the whole time."

The couple's photo has now gone viral on Facebook, as explained by KTVB7: Link

Ah, this is so terribly sad. Redditor The MacMan posted this picture of the son of U.S. Army Special Forces Medic Benjamin Wise spending some time with his dad, as caught by his mom. The boy's father was killed in Afghanistan on January 15th.

A bit on SFC Benjamin Wise from NBC News:

Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Wise, 34, of Little Rock, was on his fourth deployment overseas when he was injured during an insurgent attack on his unit last week. He died from his wounds Sunday at a hospital in Germany, the Department of Defense said in a statement Tuesday.

His brother, 35-year-old Jeremy Wise, was killed in a terrorist attack on a CIA outpost in Afghanistan in December 2009. He was a former Navy Seal working as a security contractor.

Their brother, Marine Corps Cpl. Matthew Wise, is based in Hawaii but was in Germany to be with his brother, his wife Amber said. She said she was at Benjamin's home in Washington state watching his children, but she declined further comment.

The Army Special Forces soldier is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Go hug your kids. Link | Benjamin Wise' tribute website

The improvised campgrounds around music festivals are often covered with garbage when festival goers leave. To encourage tidiness and promote its new line of trash bags, the Glad company asked people to camp in tents made from those trash bags. When participants are ready to leave, they could pack their garbage into the tents for easy disposal.

You can watch a promotional video at the link.

Link

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Russians commonly use dash cams to record what happens on the road to defend themselves in case of accident fraud. That's why we have so much footage of the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk. The custom also records some wonderful instances of kindness. This compilation shows drivers and passersby helping drivers stuck in the snow, animals in the street, and many little old ladies terrified by traffic. -via Laughing Squid

A married couple of the town of Roermond in the Netherlands are forever separated by cemetery walls. According to Varik and Church Records of the 17th Century,

In 1842 a twenty-two year old Catholic woman of nobility (J.W.C. van Gorkum) married a colonel in the Dutch Cavalry. He was not of nobility and was Protestant as well. That must have been the scandal of the century in Roermont. However, the marriage had lasted almost forty years, when the colonel died. Eight years later the woman past away also. She had refused to be laid to rest in the family's large tomb and, instead, had ordered the monument that you can still see today. She lies on one side of the wall, he on the other, still holding hands.

Apparently, while the church had rules about who gets buried where, there were no hard and fast rules about such monuments. Link  -via TYWKIWDBI

Image via Joey deVilla

I'm at a loss of what to say about today's tragedy in Boston, but perhaps this quote from Mr. Rogers is appropriate:

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world."

Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.