Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher designed this beautiful table which they call the Liquid Glacial Table. The transparent acrylic is carefully molded to have a flat surface for practical use, but a rippled interior to create the impression that it's a sheet of ice supported by icicles.
Hadid and Schumacher made a coffee table and a dining table version. The latter splits into two tables with a combined length of 17.5 feet. It would be ideal for Elsa's ice palace.
This chart is a bit inaccurate. If you choose children, then you don't get time or money. Or at least I didn't. And I wouldn't change my decision for anything.
The artist adds this caveat:
Exceptions to the rule include, but are not limited to, robbing a bank, building a time machine, or having imaginary children.
It's been a while since Anna Stoehr, 113, of Plainview, Minnesota has been carded. Just shy of 114, she decided to sign up for Facebook. That's when she ran into problems.
Let’s just reflect on that accomplishment for a moment.
These incredible sculptures have every appearance of being translucent yarn wrapped around knitting needles. How does Milne do it? Christopher Jobson of Colossal summarizes her technique:
First, a model of the sculpture is made from wax which is then encased by a refractory mold material that can withstand extremely high temperatures. Next, hot steam is used to melt the wax, leaving behind an empty cavity in the shape of the artwork. Pieces of room temperature glass are then placed inside the mold which is then heated to 1,400-1,600 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the type of glass. Afterward, the piece is slowly cooled over a period of several weeks, followed by a careful excavation process, where Milne delicately chips away like an archaeologist to reveal the final piece.
You have a wooden board balanced on your head. So does your opponent. Your task is to knock his board off without losing your own. You may do so only by hitting his board with your own.
So do you have what it takes to be a woodkopf champion? This sport, which is named “wood head,” began in 1992 at a cultural festival in Prague. It’s now an emerging sport with regulation boards that measure 200x16x2 centimeters and weigh between 3 and 4 kilograms. If you knock down your opponent’s board twice, then you win the match.
Actor Jeff Goldblum has a . . . let’s say unique laugh. Is it playable? You can try it out on this sheet music. Be sure to play it on your bagpipes con brio, which apparently means “vigorously.”
Hebron High School of Carrollton, Texas faced off against Allen High School of Allen, Texas. Hebron pulled off an elaborate trick play. Like a good stage magician, the team distracted its opponents by drawing their attention to the center of the field.
Meanwhile, one player ambled over to the sideline, apparently to talk to a coach. But he remained inbound and thus still in play. Hebron kicked the ball down the field, which was recovered by the player near the sideline.
Referees called the play an illegal shift, so it wasn’t accepted. But it was a commendably clever attempt.
When it is completed, the first ship in Maersk Triple E series will be the largest ever built in human history. Photographer Alastair Philip Wiper got the chance to crawl around it for a few hours while the hulk, still under construction, passed through Copenhagen last year. You can see his photo set of this amazing machine here.
The Maersk shipping line plans to build 20 of these marvels, each of which is 59 meters wide and can carry 18,000 shipping containers. When the first one is complete, it will have a crew of 15 who can enjoy on board amenities, including a swimming pool and a movie theater. This ship is the pride of Opko, South Korea, where its construction now take place.
Why are these men not wearing shirts? Maybe it's hot, but they're actually in uniform. This is a classroom at a school for sumo, a traditional Japanese sport. Brian Ashcraft of Kotaku has a roundup of more photos and a description of student life there. The Sumo Training School in Tokyo has a 6-month curriculum that includes 2 hours a day inside a classroom. There, the students learn etiquette, calligraphy, and singing, among other subjects.
Having advanced in years and become infirm, Nancy Cowen of Westcott, Surrey, UK, had to move into a nursing home. It was necessary for her to part with her beloved cat, Cleo. She sent Cleo to live with her former neighbors.
But Cleo was having none of that.
Nursing home staff noticed that two weeks after Ms. Cowen moved in, a cat began hanging around outside, sleeping on the benches. Ms. Cowen and her sister saw the cat and confirmed that it was Cleo. Jennifer Hardwick writes for the Dorkling and Leatherhead Advertiser:
The happy pair have now been officially reunited, with Bramley House able to cater for the contented feline and keep her in her beloved owner's company.
The pet-friendly facility has also pledged to give Cleo a home for as long as she needs one in the future.
In about 1899 or 1900, the German chocolate company Hildebrands published postcards that showed what life would be like a century hence in the year 2000. What is remarkable about them is that so many of these predictions were completely accurate--as though the artists really could see into the future.
For example, this postcard shows people traveling over the water on personal boatwheels and footboats while supported by helium-filled balloons. It's hard to think that there was a time when this wasn't normal.
The combination steamship/locomotive is now how many people in coastal regions make daily commutes to work and school.
Do you want to control the weather? Until just 50 years ago, it was impossible to set your personal weather preferences. If it was raining, you just had to carry an "umbrella"--or actually get wet!
Other predictions were less foresighted. The artists also imagined being able to electronically transmit theater performances to viewers far away or travel on airships to the North Pole. Still, the accuracy rate of these postcards is really impressive. You can view them all here.
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France from 1774-1792, was fond of her dogs and could afford to buy them luxurious homes far beyond what the average human could afford to live in. This is a doghouse made for her by the famous French furniture builder Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené. It's currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It's made of beech and pine wood covered with gold and cushioned by silk and velvet.
Nick Chipman is the executive chef of DudeFoods, a site filled with the most manly and nutritionally dubious foods in the world. We've featured his work extensively.
He recently made a hamburger that had compressed macaroni and cheese for buns. One of his readers pointed out that he could make a mac and cheese burger even more mac-y by building a Big Mac with mac and cheese buns. This beautiful meal is the result.
Chipman says that it's hard to eat because it's so tall. But:
On the plus side, there’s a really simple solution to the problem — deep fry the entire thing and serve it on a stick!
We've seen Starbucks cups with doodles, but we've never before seen Starbucks cups like this! South Korean artist Soo Min Kim takes Starbucks cups and makes them into wonders fit for any art gallery.
Sometimes he changes the siren into different characters or places her in other settings. Recently, he's been cutting out portions of the cups and illuminating them with tea lights to provide a visual depth to the scenes. You can view more of his work at Rocket News 24.