Veronika Richterová, an artist from the Czech Republic, makes sculptures by heating and reshaping plastic bottles. She commonly features plants and animals, depicting them in a highly realistic manner. Richterová has worked with this medium in hundreds of pieces for 11 years, becoming highly proficient at finding new purpose for what we might casually through away.
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(Photo: AP)
On January 31, 1954, black civil rights protesters occupied a whites-only lunch counter at a McCrory's five-and-dime store in Rock Hill, South Carolina. These men, who came to be known as the "Friendship Nine," were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to 30 days of labor on the county prison farm.
(Photo: Reuters/Jason Miczek)
James Wells, David Williamson, Willie McCleod, Willie Thomas "Dub" Massey, Clarence Graham, John Gaines, Thomas Gaither, Robert McCullough, and Mack Workman endured a terrible injustice. York County, South Carolina, the scene of this abuse, is attempting to rectify that wrong. On Wednesday, Judge John C. Hayes III, the nephew of the judge who presided over their trials, vacated their convictions. Reuters reports:
Local prosecutor Kevin Brackett, who helped initiate the motion to clear their names, apologized to the men and said they deserved to be recognized as heroes.
He noted they did not want their arrests to be erased from public documents because they felt it was important that their actions be remembered.
"There is only one reason these men were arrested ... and that is because they were black," Brackett said. "It was wrong then, it’s wrong today."
Graham, 72, said after Wednesday's hearing that the group sought no "hero worship," either in 1961 or now.
"It wasn’t for any glory," he said. "We were simply ... students who were tired of the status quo, tired of being treated as second-class citizens."
-via Nag on the Lake
(Photo: Fredrik Ringnes)
A barn in Klokkarstua, Norway caught on fire. Firefighters evacuated the goats and chickens inside and put out the fire. In the cold winter night, the animals needed a place to stay. So while waiting for a more permanent home, the goats sat in an ambulance and received oxygen treatment.
We've seen a previous execution of this idea that involved baking a whole Oreo inside a croissant. Nick Chipman of Dude Foods offers a version that is even simpler and more promising. He took premade chocolate chip cookie dough and cut it into triangles matching the size of canned croissant dough triangles. He wrapped one around the other, then baked them together. He says that it was both flaky and chocolatey, which is exactly what we're looking for.
Unboxing is a genre of amateur video in which people take products that they have purchased out of their packaging and examine their features. It's particularly popular with electronic devices, such as smartphones. But you can unbox anything that you can buy, such as a family.
This video from Clickhole, a parody of BuzzFeed produced by The Onion, shows a man unpacking his recently acquired family, which consists of a wife and 2 children. If you're thinking about buying a family, you should watch this video to get a sense of what you're likely to get delivered to your door.
-via American Digest
It's a bit more unconventional than Cherry Coke in the US. But in Takko, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, garlic flavored soda is not a surprising product. That's the garlic capital of Japan, which produces garlic beer and garlic ice cream in addition to regular bulbs of garlic.
Audrey Akcasu of Rocket News 24 reports that the new drink is called Takkola, a combination of the name of the town and the word "cola." The soda is a simple combination of ground garlic and cola. It's supposed to be good for your heart, but, presumably, not for your breath.
Image: Takko
When you say "Hello!" to this Boston Terrier, he'll bark back "Hello!" That's a friendly, polite dog. I can't say as much about the humans laughing at him, though.
-via Tastefully Offensive
Rochester Personal Defense, LLC is a company in Rochester, New York that teaches personal safety and self defense skills, including unarmed combat and the use of firearms. Most courses are designed with human clients in mind, but the company also offers sciurid residents of that city the chance to become as skilled and adept as Secret Squirrel, a cartoon squirrel famous for his spycraft. The Awesome Secret Squirrel Training program costs a mere $5 in peanuts and teaches ordinary squirrels all they need to evade human pests and raid birdfeeders, among other "Secret Squirrel Stuff."
-via Jonah Goldberg
(Image: Artist’s Conception of the ring system by Ron Miller)
Star J1407 is about 400 light years away from our solar system. 2 years ago, scientists discovered that one of the planets orbiting it has a ring system, just as Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune do. This was the first known ring system outside of our own solar system.
Scientists at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands and the University of Rochester in the US have learned more about this system. It’s huge—much, much larger than that of Saturn. Phys.Org reports:
"This planet is much larger than Jupiter or Saturn, and its ring system is roughly 200 times larger than Saturn's rings are today," said co-author Mamajek, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester. "You could think of it as kind of a super Saturn."
-via David Thompson
For the next two weeks, randomly selected customers at certain McDonald’s restaurants will be able to pay for their food by giving affection to someone else. It can be a hug, a phone call to your mom, or saying someone nice to the person next to you. You can read more about this ad campaign at the Huffington Post.
Starting today, Neatorama readers may also pay with hugs. For every 5 posts that you read, hug the author of your choice.
Clark Hunt owns the Kansas City Chiefs, a professional football team. So it’s not surprising that he owns a private skybox at Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs’ home. What’s amazing is that his recently renovated skybox is a luxurious mansion. Leaked photos indicate that it’s 3 stories tall and has 6 bedrooms. It’s so huge that the only thing that it’s missing is an inside tram service to carry people from one end to the other. You can see more photos of it at Core77.
Airbnb, the lodging rental social networking site, offers this unusual room that has unmatched privacy and a spectacular view. It’s a modified gondola lift near the resort town of Courcheval in the French Alps. This is a 2-bed suite that can accommodate up to 4 guests. The room comes with snowmobile transportation to the site and a gourmet dinner. Fast Co Design reports:
According to Airbnb, up to four guests will be chauffeured up the mountain on snowmobiles before being plied with mulled wine at the Saulire summit. They will then check into their room, where they will be served cheese fondue, before their room is winched up for the night to the very highest point of Courcheval.
-via My Modern Met
(Photo: Amazing Surf Adventures)
In 2010, Martin Pollock, a rifleman in the British Army, lost his legs and part of one arm in action while serving in Afghanistan. He returned home to the UK, where he set about learning how to walk and trying to build a normal life.
2 years later, he learned about Operation Surf, a program that helps wounded servicemen engage in adaptive surfing. Pollock got involved and travelled to California to learn surfing—something he had never done before.
It was a wonderful experience. The Huffington Post reports:
He spent the week learning how to sit up on a surfboard and ride the waves. For the first time in a long while, he felt the stoke of adrenaline that only surfing can offer.
He also became aware of his body in new ways.
With his body weightless in the water, Pollock was able to feel the exact parts of his sockets that caused him pain. He went home, twisted a screw on his prosthetic a couple of times and, he says, he's been walking more ever since.
"Surfing hasn't just changed my life, it has become my life," he told HuffPost.
Prankster Obvious Plant leaves signs in public places. They look quite official, which is why you might be excused for singing Happy Birthday to a non-existent McDonald’s cashier or obeying park rules that aren’t real.
For his latest gag, he left product reviews inside what appears to be an appliance store. They aren’t real, but are probably helpful to customers.
-via Pleated Jeans
This clever ad for Norwegian Airlines by M&C Saatchi shows you just a few places that you can travel to: France, Thailand, Finland, Poland, and the Netherlands. Sorry, Bhutan travellers—you’ll have to change flights somewhere along the journey.
-via Gizmodo
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