Cassandra Calin, a cartoonist in Montreal, highlights the differences between our expectations and realities, such as those with hairstyles and swimsuits. Recently, she illustrated the way that yoga professionals look . . . and the way we ordinary people look when we try to duplicate their moves. You can find the rest of her cartoons in the series here.
John Farrier's Blog Posts
(Images: Lucasfilm)
Judge Yoda by his size, do you? Well, Dr. Rhett Allain does. He's a professor of physics at Southeastern Louisiana University. In the past, he's calculated Darth Vader's weight and how long it would take for an AT-AT to hit the ground. He wanted to know how much Yoda weighs. And since the Jedi Master is shy about the issue, Allain had to calculate the results from The Empire Strikes Back.
Allain assumes that Dagobah has the same gravity as Earth, that Luke Skywalker is 5'9" and weighs 150 pounds, and that The Force is not in play against gravity while Luke is carrying Yoda. You can read all of his equations and rationale here. Yoda, Allain argues, weights 43.7 kilograms.
-via Lost at E Minor
70 years ago today, the bloodiest, most destructive war in all of human history ended.
After the destruction of 2 cities from atomic bombs and reason to believe that even more were coming, the government of the Japanese Empire communicated on August 15, 1945, that it would surrender. The free world responded with a jubilation known as V-J Day--Victory over Japan.
Formally, though, the surrender would take place more than 2 weeks later. On September 2, 1945, the battleship USS Missouri steamed into Tokyo Bay with Allied emissaries. Japanese representatives boarded and signed the formal capitulation. You can read the document here.
This video shows newsreel footage of the surrender ceremony.
-via Ace of Spades HQ
(Photo: York in a Box)
Now that Disney owns Star Wars, we see the iconic Leia slave outfit crossing over into the Disney Princess universe. In the past, we've seen slave Leia versions of Tinkerbell, Ariel, and Elsa. Now the lineup is filling out even more, thanks to these ladies. That's Ashlynne Dae as Elsa, Elizabeth Rage as Belle, Rianne Synnth as Mulan, and Hendo as Pocahontas.
-via Cosplay America
Ioana Vanc is an architect in Arad, Romania. When she's not building with steel and concrete on a colossal scale, she's making art with food on a tiny scale. Each of these food sculptures can fit within a spoon. You can find more of her work at Fubiz (translation).
If the internet is representative, then Thailand produces impressively dramatic and heart-wrenching commercials. In the past, we've seen several that advocate for a virtuous life of kindness, generosity, and devotion to family.
This one, like the others, sells a product--a rather unexpected one. It is revealed only in the last few seconds. But more than that, this story about a shopkeeper and a homeless man convincingly sells the idea that people can be more than they appear on the surface.
-via Daily of the Day
There's no comedy like The Onion and no drama like Star Wars. When the two combine, a space saga becomes filled with the funny anxieties and problems of everyday life. Lindsey, a Star Wars fan, illustrates that by combining headlines from The Onion with scenes from the 6 Star Wars movies. You can view them here and here. Content warning: foul language.
-via Uproxx
(Photo: AP/Lee Jim-man)
Julius Yego of Kenya didn't have a world-famous coach. In fact, he didn't have a coach at all. He got his start by watching YouTube videos and practicing what he saw. Yego made it to the 2012 Olympics, placing 12th, by teaching himself. At the time, he said, "My coach is me, and my YouTube videos."
Now, with a professional coach, he's refined his technique. At the recent world championships in Beijing, he threw a javelin 92.72 meters, which is farther than anyone else has in 14 years.
-via Glenn Reynolds
(Image: Marvel Studios)
Hulk smash? Yes. But beyond that, Hulk save. The Hulk is male, but the original, real-life Hulk was a woman. Jack Kirby, the comic book artist who conceived of the Hulk, explained in a 1990 interview that an incident in which a mother rescued her baby by lifting a car off him was the inspiration behind the Hulk:
The Hulk I created when I saw a woman lift a car. Her baby was caught under the running board of this car. The little child was playing in the gutter and he was crawling from the gutter onto the sidewalk under the running board of this car — he was playing in the gutter. His mother was horrified. She looked from the rear window of the car, and this woman in desperation lifted the rear end of the car. It suddenly came to me that in desperation we can all do that — we can knock down walls, we can go berserk, which we do. You know what happens when we’re in a rage — you can tear a house down. I created a character who did all that and called him the Hulk. I inserted him in a lot of the stories I was doing. Whatever the Hulk was at the beginning I got from that incident. A character to me can’t be contrived. I don’t like to contrive characters. They have to have an element of truth. This woman proved to me that the ordinary person in desperate circumstances can transcend himself and do things that he wouldn’t ordinarily do. I’ve done it myself. I’ve bent steel.
-via io9
Bekah Miles has depression. She’s trying to come to grips with the illness. As an expression of her efforts, she got this tattoo which beautifully illustrates how depression is experienced. When other people look at her leg, it says “I’m Fine.” When she looks down at her tattoo, Bekah sees “Save Me.” In a heartfelt Facebook post, Miles writes:
To me, it means that others see this person that seems okay, but, in reality, is not okay at all. It reminds me that people who may appear happy, may be at battle with themselves. […]
This is one of the most difficult things to open up about because it’s extremely hard for me to feel vulnerable…but this needs to be talked about. Mental illness is serious, but so shamed in our society. We care so much for our physical health, but hardly a thing about our mental state. And that is seriously messed up. Mental illness is not a choice and will likely hit everyone at some point in their life. If it’s such a huge issue, why aren’t we having this conversation about it?
That’s why I got this tattoo; they are great conversation starters. This forces me to talk about my own struggle, and why the awareness of it is important. You’d be surprised by how many people YOU know that struggle with depression, anxiety, or other mental illness. I may only be one person, but one can save another...and that's all I could really ask for.
-via The Soul Is Bone
(Photo: Vice/Benjamin Reeves)
It is truly the sport of kings! To the Maya living in the Sierra de los Cuchumantes Mountains in Guatemala, drunken horse racing is an important tradition. Unlike, say, the Kentucky Derby, the riders are absolutely smashed. In fact, some are so drunk that they have to be tied into the saddles by their alleged “friends.” Atlas Obscura reports on a race in the town of Todos Santos:
Predictably, a few riders flew out of their saddles, landing with a dull thud in the loose dirt. Others slowly slumped to the side before gently reaching terra firma and giving up, their relieved horses continuing on without them.
The majority of the riders somehow made it to the finish line, but even after several hours of watching, it was never exactly clear who “won” or what the prize might be. Advil? A heating pad? Exemption from next year’s race?
In Todos Santos, it was recently reported that the winner of the annual drunken horse race was given a live chicken and the title of El Capitan.
(Photo: Tired Hands Brewing)
For a brief, golden age in the 1980s, the drink of Ecto-Cooler existed. It was a Ghostbusters-themed juice available from the Hi-C brand. It was heavenly.
But we were expelled from paradise and Ecto-Cooler was lost to us. Oh, you can make your own, of a sort. But it’s not the same, really.
Now, perhaps, you can experience something better. The Tired Hands Brewing Company in the suburbs of Philadelphia claims to have reproduced the joys of Ecto-Cooler in beer form. The company describes the taste:
Tart Summer Bier brewed with wheat. Hopped gently with Simcoe and Citra. Soured in the kettle then conditioned on top of nectarine purée.
It has 4.5% alcohol contest, which is higher than the original Ecto-Cooler.
-via That’s Nerdalicious!
Past Me thinks that it’s super professional and organized to set reminders to accomplish important tasks—but only for Present Me. It’s just an orderly form of procrastination. This will be noted on Past Me’s performance evaluation.
Over the years, we've featured many of artist Dominic Wilcox's ridiculous and hilarious inventions. This series tops them all. Wilcox was commissioned by the Kellogg's cereal brand to develop 6 machines that make breakfast fun. Among them is this crane operated by hand controls. Wilcox uses it to scoop cereal, place it in his bowl, then add milk using a tube connected from the milk jug on his helmet to the end of the scoop.
You can see all of his inventions in the series in this YouTube playlist. Among them is a sound amplifier for Rice Krispies cereal and a cereal spoon that gains energy as you move it, then gets sleepy when you lave it alone.
-via Fast Co Design
I've never seen a railroad crossing like this one. Allegedly, this video shows two rail lines crossing in Bundaberg, Australia--a region noted for a large amount of sugar cane production. When the light cane train needs to cross the main Queensland Rail line, a drawbridge-like section of track lowers. After the cane train passes, the section rises again.
-via The Presurfer
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