The French company and brand Bic is famous worldwide for its iconic ballpoint pens, notably the Cristal, which it unveiled in 1950. To celebrate the 75th birthday of this office staple, the South African division of Bic company threw a party for it.
Fast Company reports that the company also commissioned the creation of selected LED lamps made to resemble giant versions of the Cristal pen. They can be suspended over your work-covered desk like a Sword of Damocles or tastefully accenting a wall. Each will sell for $350 when they become available in the United States.
On January 6, 1592, Irish patriots Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Art O'Neill, and his brother Henry Shane McNeill escaped from English captivity in Dublin Castle. They ran for 62 kilometers to safety in the wild lands of the Wicklow Mountains. The winter conditions were brutal and Art O'Neill died while Hugh Roe O'Donnell lost his big toes due to frostbite.
To commemorate this heroic moment in Irish resistance to foreign rule, runners participate in the Art O'Neill Challenge. There are running, hybrid, and trekking categories. All participants strive to reach the summit of a mountain topped by Art's Cross--the spot it is thought to be the location that Art O'Neill was buried.
No cap, Dr. Alison Luchs drips the rizz on us with her totally slay vibe about "Urn with Grotesque Masks," a treasure at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. A professional historian with decades of teaching experience in art history, Luchs mogs the haters with her exposition on this Egyptian stone turned into a column by the Romans, then modified into an urn by Sixteenth Century Florentines.
It's giving, especially given that this gyatt urn likely held nothing but the owners' aura. Some might find it sus, but the artists responsible would have no opp in their era or modern times.
So get out and touch grass at the National Art Gallery. Staying at all home day is big yikes.
YouTubers Monen mit Melonen (Google Translate says that's German for "monkeys with melons") are master violinists. Yet they are also starving artists who can afford only one violin. It would appear that they're not fond of taking turns or their practice time is limited and thus necessitates simultaneous practice.
In several videos, they play one violin simultaneously.
The premise is ingenious: we have the classic Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet most memorably told by William Shakespeare but we experience that story from the perspective of Godzilla.
How does Godzilla appear in the most well-known play? My immediate thought was to replace Friar Laurence with Godzilla as the cleric's personality and role in the story is very fitting for the great kaiju.
But it will be necessary to wait for the release of IDW Publishing's one-shot comic book on April 8 to know for sure. Godzilla's official website informs us that readers can expect love, intrigue, and the destruction of fair Verona.
The grandeur of the Pokémon universe began thirty years ago and Japan is celebrating the franchise. Sora News 24 tells us that a permanent Pokémon theme park is opening in Tokyo. It's called Poképark Kanto.
It consists of two sections: Pokémon Forest, where visitors will be able to encounter Pokémon in natural environments, and Sedge Town, which consists of attractions aimed at the needs of trainers.
A few promotional photos are available. They show this lovely carousel ride with your favorite pocket monsters. You'll be able to ride it starting on February 5 with the grand opening. But demand for tickets is so high that the park managers have a lottery system for visits up through March.
"Yeah, I know how stupid this is. But it had to be done."
No, Aaron Christophel is far, far from stupid. His project is intelligent and thoughtful. What if you want to play Doom but only have access to a Krups Cook4Me electric cooking pot? Christophel provided detailed instructions on which steps you need to take.
If I understand him correctly, Christophel has arranged his Doom porting in such a way that a person must complete the game in order to again use the cook pot for cooking food. That's motivation to kill the demons and secure final victory!
This gentleman on the Chinese video hosting app Bilibili plays the erhu--a two-stringed bowed instrument. It produces excellent fiddle music as aptly demonstrated with the American folk song "Dixie." The erhu's vibrant notes transport us to a land of cotton for old times there are not forgotten.
-via Orikron, who imagines the song as authentically Chinese had the Ming dynasty had not closed off private maritime trade in 1371.
Can I tell you how to get to Sesame Street? Yes, but I assure you that you should go as a tourist. You do not want to actually live there. The residents are freaks. And I don't mean just their physical features, but also their behaviors. Comedian Ross Snow depicts life as a normal person on The Street.
Like all morally decent and right-thinking people, I enjoy pineapple on pizza. But that's not the only fruit that can do well on pizza. The Takeout has a list of 10 others, including pears. Pictured above is a pizza photographed by Flickr user Edsel Little. It is topped with caramelized pears, field, greens, onions, mozzarella, and fontina. The Takeout recommends crisp pears because they're unlikely to go soggy while baked and their soft flavors will accent rather than overwhelm the cheese.
What other fruits work? The Takeout suggests apricots, apples, berries, pomegranate seeds, plums, melon, mango, melons and dates. Which have you tried on pizza?
In 1862, John Gilleland was a 53-year old carpenter in Athens, Georgia. He was too old to serve in the Confederate Army, but he was a private in a home guard unit. Determined to find some way to counteract the Union's massive manpower advantage, he devised this cannon to fire chain shot.
Chain shot--a length of chain between two cannon balls--had been used for centuries for anti-personnel purposes or, in naval applications, to destroy rigging. But such shells were usually loaded into a single cannon.
Gilleland's innovation, according to a 1996 article by military historian Lonnie R. Speer, was to cast a cannon with two barrels side by side. The barrels were pointed 3 degrees away from each other so that the chain would fan out and sweep through the bodies of Union soldiers.
Test firings revealed many technical problems. The chains would break apart and the balls would scatter wildly--a problem exacerbated when the firing of each barrel was not precisely simultaneous.
Gilleland's cannon was used in battle only once in August 1864 outside of Athens. I have no information about the utility of the cannon in that battle, but the Confederate forces were compelled to withdraw despite its use.
This unusual weapon resurfaced in the 1890s and, in 1957, was put on public display in Athens.
Yes, the base of this table is exactly what you think it is. Papaya Studios is an antique store and design studio in Thailand. In fact, it's the largest antique store in that nation. The size allows for a variety of unusual items, such as this coffee table that is definitely a conversation piece for your next home gathering.
Housekeeping is not a prestigious profession, but any job takes skill and, given enough time, consideration, and determination, a person can demonstrate a mastery of that occupation that can astound outsiders.
The International Sanitary Supply Association is a professional organization for the people who keep our environments clean, safe, and orderly. Each year for 35 years, the ISSA conducts a championship competition of core housekeeping skills. Teams from the top hotels of Las Vegas converge in an arena to prove which is the best at vacuum cleaning, mopping, floor scrubber driving, and more.
Fox 5 Vegas News reports that, last December, teams from Resorts World, Aria, and V-dara claimed the top prizes. Watch them in action.
