Randall Munroe, a webcomic artist, roboticist, and all-around genius, has a knack for explaining concepts or phenomena in original visual ways. We've previously seen his animated .gif showing the frequency of certain events, his world map of overlapping time zones, and his chart showing the largest land mammals in the world by gross weight.
Today, he brings us a chart showing how much land surface exists across our solar system.
To see something really neat, go to this large version and look closely at the border between Titan and Earth. He's got a section marked out for the surface area of all human skin.
It appears that Munroe did not include on this chart 4942 Munroe, an asteroid named in his honor. That asteroid is roughly the same size as the one that killed the dinosaurs, a fact that greatly pleases Munroe.
When I was a little boy, I wanted to be Superman, too. Now I just want to be like my Dad. But that's pretty much the same thing, though it took me a long time to notice.
Today is Canada Day, an annual Canadian holiday that marks the establishment of the modern Canadian government by the passage of the British North America Act on July 1, 1867. Redditor engrsohail writes that these photos show what happens to all Canadians on that day.
Canadian Neatoramanauts, can you confirm?
Tastefully Offensive quips, "Don't make me sorry. You won't like me when I'm sorry." The Incredible Leaf will very politely smash you if you speak ill of curling.
The hippopotamus is not native to the Americas. But there are wild hippopotamuses in Colombia.
That's because the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, who died in 1993, brought them to his lavish estate in that country. They were part of his extensive personal zoo, which also included giraffes and elephants. Escobar owned four hippos--one male, three females. He kept them in a lake.
After the Colombian government confiscated Escobar's estate, they broke up his zoo and sent most of the animals elsewhere. But they left the hippos alone. They continued to live--and breed--in the lake. Some of them broke out and wandered into the Magdalena River.
No one knows precisely how many hippos now live in Colombia, but there are estimates of 50 to 60. They've bred so quickly because living conditions in Colombia are better than their African homelands. BBC News explains:
Here, conditions for hippos are idyllic. The river is slow moving and has plenty of shallows, perfect for larger animals which don't actually swim but push themselves off banks, gliding through the water. Moreover, the region never experiences drought, which tends to act as a natural brake on the size of herds in Africa.
How much the hippos like Colombia can be judged from how much sex they are having. In Africa they usually become sexually active between the ages of seven and nine for males, and nine and 11 for females, but Pablo Escobar's hippos are becoming sexually active as young as three. All the fertile females are reported to be giving birth to a calf every year.
Hippos may look cute. But remember that they are fiercely territorial, aggressive animals that can swallow a human whole. Unfortunately, most Colombians do not have experience with hippos. Carlos Valderrama, a man who may be the only veterinarian to ever castrate a hippo in the wild*, explained that Colombians may be insufficiently cautious:
Colombian people, he believes, are more vulnerable than Africans because they see hippos as cuddly, "floppy" animals. The respected El Colombiano newspaper recently reported that children in a school near Hacienda Napoles are sharing a pond with the animals, and having direct contact with hippo calves at home.
"My father brought a little one home once," an unnamed girl told the paper. "I called him Luna (Moon) because he was very sweet - we fed him with just milk." Another child, a boy, told the paper: "My father has captured three. It is nice because you have a little animal at home. We bottle-feed them because they only drink milk. They have a very slippery skin, you pour water and they produce a kind of slime, you touch them and it's like soap."
On September 28, 1066, William the Bastard crossed the English Channel from Normandy to England. On October 14, his army met that of King Harold Godwinson at the coastal town of Hastings. As a result of that match, William the Bastard became William the Conqueror and Harold Godwinson became dead.
To commemorate that battle and the Norman conquest of England, William's brother Odo commissioned the creation of an enormous tapestry depicting the events. It is a marvel of early sequential art, beautifully detailed and measuring 230 feet in length.
But it was probably longer. The extant tapestry ends with the death of King Harold. Scholars think that there was probably an 8-10 section now missing. It likely depicted the subsequent coronation of William as King of England.
The English were not inclined to let that problem stand. So for a year, embroiderers on the island of Alderney (one of the Channel Islands) reconstructed that section of the tapestry using historic methods and materials. Pictured above are the results of their work. You can view larger images of these new panels at the BBC.
The International Space Station passed over Houston, Texas a few days ago. While there, astronaut Commander Reid Wiseman (USN) made this Vine video showing a thunderstorm over the city.
It felt like I could reach out and touch it…moving like a snake through the sky. pic.twitter.com/wx7GEdvjXt
What do dogs think about? I look at my own dog and wonder that. I'm especially curious what he dreams about, which he does, loudly and often. What is inside a dog's mind?
This is an especially important question for people who train guide dogs. A better understanding of dog perceptions can improve training.
For example, can a guide dog who helps a blind person understand that the human cannot see? Anthropologist F. Gaunet studied the expressions of guide dogs and non-guide dogs when they want food from their humans.
He determined that both kinds of dogs try to give visual cues to humans that they're hungry. Guide dogs, however, also learned to give auditory cues, such as smacking their lips loudly, to communicate with people. Here's a selection from an abstract of a journal article that Gaunet published on the subject:
A novel audible behaviour was observed: dogs licked their mouths sonorously. Data analyses showed that the guide dogs performed this behaviour longer and more frequently than the pet dogs; seven of the nine guide dogs and two of the nine pet dogs displayed this behaviour. However, gazing at the container where the food was and gazing at the owner (with or without sonorous mouth licking), gaze alternation between the container and the owner, vocalisation and contact with the owner did not differ between groups. Together, the results suggest that there is no overall distinction between guide and pet dogs in exploratory, learning and motivational behaviours and in their understanding of their owner’s attentional state, i.e. guide dogs do not understand that their owner cannot see (them). However, results show that guide dogs are subject to incidental learning and suggest that they supplemented their way to trigger their owners’ attention with a new distal cue.
This is a brilliant fashion concept that should have been obvious, but it took the inspired mind of Dulce Calaveritas to develop it. She makes a wide variety of geeky bow ties. Her Batman ties are, though, the best.
Clearly the next step is to develop a functional, razor-sharp steel batarang that also serves as bow tie. Then, even in formal wear, Bruce Wayne remains in uniform.
These ties are leather, but she also makes vinyl versions.
Robin Edds of Buzzfeed dove into the production history of Breaking Bad and found surprising bits of information about the actors' lives and the composition of the show. Here's a sample:
1. After watching Season 5, Episode 14 — “Ozymandias” — George R.R. Martin called Walter White a bigger monster than anyone in Game of Thrones and vowed to “do something about that” in his next book. Eek.
2. Aaron Paul has never had any acting classes. During a Reddit AMA he said: “I always just thought, ‘Hey, pretend like you’re being someone else and that’s all there is to it.’”
3. Due to the success of the show, some drug dealers have actually started adding blue dye to their crystal meth in an effort to “brand” their product. [...]
5. Nearly two decades before landing the role of Walter White, Bryan Cranston was in Power Rangers! Below you can hear him as the voice of the evil Twin Man.
Here's a video showing Bryan Cranston voicing that monster.
Cranston's involvement with Mighty Morphin' Power Rangerswas surprisingly deep. One of the characters on that show, Billy Cranston, AKA the Blue Ranger, was named after him.
Yes, I plugged that piñata right in the neck with a .243 round. People told me that I should use a stick or a bat, but that didn't seem fair.
Then I took it to Etsy seller SomeRabbits for processing. The meat was good, but on the sweet side. The skin, though, when properly treated, made a fine rug. She added some felt, but most of that is the original piñata.
The Terra Wind is a luxurious custom-built motorhome with everything you could want from a house, including a full set of home appliances, ornate teak cabinetry with gold inlay, and a jacuzzi bath. It's like a cruise ship on the road.
It's also that way on the water. That's because the Terra Wind was built by Cool Amphibious Manufacturing International--a company that specializes in amphibious vehicles. The Terra Wind is not just a road vehicle, but also a boat.
You can drive it straight into the water. The transmission can be switched from the driver's seat. It's built to move through freshwater at 7 knots. That may seem slow, but you drive your own motorhome or car into the water and see if you can go faster.
There's a swim deck in the back, as well as a trailer hitch. When the above video was made, the manufacturer was working on a custom trailer for the Terra Wind. The trailer would also be amphibious, so you could take it anywhere.
I suppose that it does not speak well of me, but there are times when I utter non-Disney words when using a computer. But only when the computer has provoked me beyond all reason. And who among you can claim only pure language when dealing with computers?
Unfortunately, this man in Stow, Massachusetts used language that was a little too graphic--and I don't mean 3D computer animation.
Reader challenge: in the comments, express frustration with a computer problem using only Disney words.
Would you like a nice, cold bottle of macaroni and cheese? Of course you would! A tall glass bottle is a convenient way to carry and eat food, so Tom Davie applied its shape to foods that you might not expect. He also re-applied the original labels and added color coded straws to accompany them.
I find the potted meat especially tempting. It may take some effort to get it through the straw, but I'd be willing to work on it.
Davie says that only these photos of the bottles remain because "some of the products do not age well over time." They were, alas, too good for this world.
Other foods that I'd like to see bottled: haggis, pigs' feet, and fried sheep brains.
