Mark, Juliane and Loihi Pokini of Kula, Maui have the world’s heaviest avocado, weighing 5.6 pounds! The family shared that they picked the avocado in December and suspected they had a world record contender. They were correct, as their avocado beat the previous record at 5.5 pounds. In addition to their new Guinness World Record, the family shared that they previously grew a whopping 5.7 pound avocado. Unfortunately, they were unable to get the proper documentation to Guinness. Well, they have the record now!
Discount retailers, members-only wholesale clubs, fast food restaurants, car washes, and gas stations are some of the subjects the San Fernando Valley-based artist Marc Trujillo depicted in his visual records of “North American Purgatory”. These photorealistic paintings are depictions of the spaces and places that are not designed to be enjoyed, with people mostly just passing through them:
"It's this little slice that we spend a lot of our lives in," he says. "I like these kind of places people don't go to be there. If I paint a USA gas station, the painting has a real chance at being more of an experience than you have when you're actually there."
Magic City in Paris was one of the world's earliest permanent theme parks. It opened in 1900, and offered Parisians amusements and distractions beyond imagination for its time.
Dragons curled up under the bridge. Toboggans splashed Parisians in to the Seine, benches twirled, and wine flowed freely. It was a Saturday afternoon like any other at the “Magic City” of Paris, the long lost fun fair that was the nation’s very first parc d’attractions. As such, it was quite literally the gateway to extravagances unknown – a ticket into a world of whimsy matched only by the Universal Exposition, aka the Greatest Show on Earth – that could be enjoyed by all, but especially the LGBTQ community, whose legendary drag balls swept Brassaï (and his camera) off his feat. So grab your top hat, darling, for a day at the fair…
The theme park rides closed in 1926, and the ballroom space left behind became a place of celebration for the city's gay and drag community. But if you went to that neighborhood now, you would never guess its history. Read about the heyday of Magic City, with lots of pictures, at Messy Nessy Chic.
In 2010, Ray was a Navy corpsman in Afghanistan who stepped on a roadside bomb while trying to reached a wounded soldier. The blast blew off both of his legs, plus his penis, scrotum, and a chunk of his abdomen. In his years of recovery, he learned to walk again with prosthetic legs, but it was his unseen wound that bothered him more. Significant genital injuries affect 1,367 American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The standard treatment for a missing penis is phalloplasty reconstruction, creating a living prosthetic from the patient's own tissues, but that is not only a poor substitute, it was not enough to replace Ray's missing body parts. In 2012, his military doctors referred Ray to the reconstructive surgery group at Johns Hopkins. Surgeon Richard Redett thought Ray might be a good candidate for their first penis transplant. A suitable donor suddenly became available in 2018.
Once they had removed and packed Ray’s graft, nothing else mattered except speed. Bodily tissue begins to break down the instant it’s deprived of blood. If enough toxins are released, the tissue can swell so much it asphyxiates. It’s why you throw transplants on ice, as Redett’s crew did for their Learjet flight back to Baltimore—it delays the breakdown process.
It’s also why surgeons train, practice, and visualize their maneuvers. Redett’s team had already run dry rehearsals of their procedure. In the operating room, they had set up the table where Ray would lie, figured out where the ice machine went, placed the optical microscope Redett would use, and even tested every power outlet to make sure they wouldn’t short a circuit.
As the team ate snacks from their go-bags on the plane back to Hopkins, other surgeons wheeled Ray into the operating theater. By this time it was 11 p.m. on Sunday, almost 24 hours after he had arrived at the hospital. They prepared him by removing all the diseased tissue and exposing the blood vessels, nerves, urethra, and penile stump. At 2 a.m. Monday, Redett and his fellow surgeons took their places—some standing above Ray, the rest tending to the graft at another table—and steeled themselves. The gravity of his mission consumed Redett’s thoughts.
There are some who would say the only reason to read an opinion-based internet list is to condemn the ranking. If you do, you probably think "Who is this guy, and why does he have such terrible opinions?" But Paste magazine approached the project with a lot of experience.
This list has been a long time coming for Paste. We are fortunate—some would say “cool enough”—to have quite a lot of genre expertise to call upon when it comes to horror in particular. Several Paste staff writers and editors are lifelong horror geeks, and there’s also a strong sentiment toward the macabre among several of our more prolific contributing writers. Case in point: We have so many writers focused on horror that we’ve produced huge lists of the best horror films on Netflix,Amazon Prime and Hulu that are all updated on a monthly basis. We’ve even given you the likes of the 50 best zombie movies of all time, and the 100 best vampire movies of all time, if you can believe that.
And yet, somehow, despite all that expertise, we’ve never put together a definitive ranking of the best horror films of all time. That ends now, with the list below: a practical, must-see guide through the history of the horror genre.
There are classic films on this list, of course. There are also likely a handful of independent features that will be unknown to all but the most dedicated horror hounds. There are foreign films from around the globe, entries that range from 1922 to 2017. In some cases, you will likely be shocked by films that are missing. In others, you’ll find yourself surprised to see us going to bat for films that don’t deserve the derision they’ve received.
But even better than finding your opinions validated or contradicted is the opportunity to seek out horror films you've never seen to watch during the Halloween season. You might want to skip ahead to the top 25 first (where you'lll most likely find some movies you've never seen), but then you'll want to go back and read the entire list.
The Japanese company Toto is internationally famous for their high-quality toilets. The company has a museum in Kita Kyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, where the company gift shop sells chocolate candy called Toilette Chocolat in the form of their toilets!
756 yen (US$7) gets you five chocolates inside a toilet-shaped box, complete with a functioning lid. While you might be expecting them to be a deep brown, they’re actually made of white chocolate, in order to visually represent the pristine porcelain of a brand-new Toto toilet bowl.
As we unwrapped one, we were struck by how intricate the detailing is. Not only is the shape of the bowl accurately reproduced, the seat and tank are separately molded.
Sora News24 suggested that they might add a tiny dollop of regular milk chocolate to the bottom of the bowl. For taste, ya know. Read more about Toilette Chocolat at their website. -via Dave Barry
Kirkland Dawson, a 34-year-old New York-based attorney, toppled over the third-floor staircase railing and landed on the ground floor of the Brooklyn Museum. The tragedy occurred during the museum’s monthly “First Saturdays” program, and Dawson was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, but he died from his injuries the next day. In an interview with a newspaper, Dawson’s family revealed that the museum never reached out to them about the accident, as Hyperallergic detailed:
Dawson’s family told the newspaper that the museum never reached out to them to provide details about the accident or offer condolences. “I wish they would call,” the deceased’s mother, Kathy Dawson, told the Daily News. “They haven’t offered me condolences or anything,” she added. “To not even get a call saying we’re sorry or anything, nothing.”
“We’re really just hearing word of mouth what happened,” said the victim’s sister, Taylor Dawson. “We still don’t really know. No one at the museum has reached out to his mom or me,” she added. “A detective reached out to my mom and said it was a freak accident,” Dawson continued. “He was falling from some type of landing and couldn’t stop his fall from the stairwell he was on. They said he suffered brain damage and head trauma.”
Kurzgesagt says "What would it be like if we nuked a city?" The citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki say, "Well, let us tell you about it..." Those bombings were devastating, but nuclear weapons have come a long way since 1945. They are much bigger and more powerful, and the damage goes way beyond the city limits. Even in cheery neon-colored graphics, the story is terrifying.
Disney banned ice cubes last March 2019 as part of their project to manage crowds better and streamline bag checks at security areas. Ice cubes being banned from the park is likely thanks to a 2013 dry-ice bomb. Dry-ice bombs can explode and shoot shards of dry ice or pieces of the container, which can cause harm and injury. Even though ice cubes and dry ice are banned from the theme park, visitors can still bring ice packs for coolers, and cups of ice are free of charge at quick-service restaurants. It’s better to be safe than sorry after all!
Firefighters in West Point, Utah arrived at the scene of a car accident. A child who was in the car was unhurt, but very scared. To help her feel calm and safe, they asked her to paint their fingernails. She selected a purple polish from her supply and went to work. The North Davis Fire District reports:
Within minutes, the child was calmly paining their nails and had forgotten about the accident she had just experienced.
-via Dave Barry | Photo: North Davis Fire District
We aren't all lucky enough to have degrees Magizoology, but that shouldn't stop you from adopting your own little fantastic beast. Behold Pickett Fantastic Beasts Bowtruckle Pin from the NeatoShop. This delightful little fellow is bendable and comes with a pin backing. Pose him and place him on your clothes. He adds a magical touch to any piece of apparel.
Don't forget to stop by the store to see our large selection of customizable apparel and bags. We specialize in curvy and Big and Tall sizes.We carry baby 6 months to adult 10 XL shirts. We know that fun, fabulous, and book loving people come in every size.
In a special video to commemorate the Sanrio star’s first channel anniversary, Hello Kitty answers questions from fans and subscribers, like what she does in her free time. Mixed in the causal queries was a question about whether it’s wrong for guys to like Hello Kitty. The sweet-as-sugar Sanrio star replied with such a fiery look on her face, that it is not wrong to like her, and that guys should not feel ashamed to like her. In addition to that fiery reply, she also apologized for making anyone feel bad:
“Honestly, this is because I haven’t been strong enough to shake off my pubic image as ‘a character that’s just for girls.’ I’m sorry for making anyone feel bad.”
“But I hope that we’re slowly progressing towards people no longer criticizing or being criticized by others for what they like, and that doesn’t just go for liking me. I’ll do my best to help make that happen. I’ll do my best!”
Fifty-six women comprise 14% total of the Forbes’ 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, who together have a jaw-dropping combined net worth of $2.96 trillion. The richest woman in America is Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, with a net worth of $51.4 billion. She is joined by newcomers Julia Koch and her children, MacKenzie Bezos, Janice McNair, and Margot Birmingham Perot. Surprisingly, the famous celebrity billionaire Kylie Jenner, with a net worth of $1 billion, did not make the $2.1 billion threshold for this annual list.
The spooky season is right around the corner, and if you’re looking for this year’s costume inspiration, or just plain curious about what people wore during Halloween parties before cosplaying anime characters or coming in dressed up like an alien in green spandex was a thing, check out Glamour’s showcase of women’s halloween costumes over the years. Regardless of gender, I believe anyone can pull of a magician’s robes just fine!
