On Memorial Day weekend, a rockslide sent this huge boulder tumbling down a mountain and onto a highway outside of Telluride, Colorado. It's too big to move and blasting it apart is prohibitively expensive. So the state Department of Transportation has decided to leave it where it is, name the boulder "Memorial Rock", and re-route the highway. The Denver Post quotes Governor Jared Polis:
“We expect that for generations to come, people will have the opportunity to observe this geological masterpiece that we’re calling Memorial Rock,” Polis said at a morning news conference, adding the decision will save taxpayers about $200,000.
In many parts of rural South Korea, plummeting birth rate means that there aren’t enough children to fill a school. In order to save a local school from being shut down, the local education office decides to enroll older villagers that wanted to learn to read and write.
Not only has this move saved their school from being shut down, but it has also reinstated the elderly women's dreams of getting their education and grabbing new opportunities in town.
Every morning on her way to school, Hwang Wol-geum, a first grader, rides the same yellow bus as three of her family members: One is a kindergartner, another a third grader and the other a fifth grader.
Ms. Hwang is 70 — and her schoolmates are her grandchildren.
Illiterate all her life, she remembers hiding behind a tree and weeping as she saw her friends trot off to school six decades ago …
Help came unexpectedly this year from the local school that was running out of school-age children and was desperate to fill its classrooms with students.
Ready to jump into the Millennial lifestyle? Why rent a whole apartment when all you need is a bed?
Enter Podshare, a California-based startup, that aims to solve the problem of high rents by renting out bunkbeds in (where else) San Francisco and Los Angeles.
With a hostel-like set up where one has the access to a bed and the communal spaces in the building, Podshare provides a space for those who want to "focus on their startups and experience something new."
You'll get a hand-built, high-end bunk bed complete with your own flat screen TV and night light, together with a community to socialize with, for just $1,200 a month in San Francisco. That's a little more than the average monthly rent of an apartment in the rest of the country. What more can you ask for?
Podshare founder Elvina Beck explains:
Podshare is a byproduct of high rents. My solution to the rising prices in neighborhoods I’ve wanted to live in was a simple math equation. Add up the rents, utilities, staffing costs and divide. But not by the traditional 2-3 but by 10 so that the price is affordable for all. I take on all the risks with the leases, maintenance and insurance in my name and remove the burden of security despots which was hard on me after the 2010 economic turn. I don’t build a PodShare in a place that I don’t want to live in, and where rent is affordable. Breaking up the payments with nightly and weekly stays allows folks to afford staying – whether it’s because they are paycheck-to-paycheck, don’t yet know if co-living is for them, or don’t have a definite date of how long they’re in town for.
The High Line on the west of Manhattan used to be an old, dilapidated and abandoned railway which was once part of the New York Central Railroad. Now, it has been gentrified with luxe condos and more modern urban designs which was conceptualized by a collaboration between James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf.
Gothamist's Jake Dobkin took a lot of photos of The High Line long before its renovation and redesign. And you can feel from the photos just how much history the place has been through and as time passed by, how it was slowly brought back to life.
This week the High Line unveiled "The Spur," the final section of the park, which extends over the intersection of 10th Avenue at West 30th Street. It's a happy ending for the old cargo railroad trestle, which was slated for demolition during the Giuliani administration before a committed group of activists organized behind a bold vision to turn it into an elevated urban oasis.
It’s probably a good idea to inspect what you’re buying, especially if it costs a lot of money. Case in point: a woman in China bought a parking space for 200,000 yuan ($29,000) without seeing it first, and was surprised to find out that the space was so narrow that the only way she could move out of her parked car was to climb out of the sunroof!
The space is located conveniently near to the elevator in the parking garage, but inconveniently in between two walls, leaving just enough room for a car to pull in, but not enough for the driver to actually open to door and get out. The woman, surnamed Tao, said that the only way she could actually leave her vehicle was through the sunroof.
Tao has already decided to bring the matter to the court upon the company's refusal to give her a refund. Read the full article over at Shanghaiist.
Michelle Woo tried out an experiment which turned into a fun activity, a way for her daughter to learn and practice at her own volition, and a medium of communication between the two of them.
That evening, she did. Without any prompting, she quietly got a pen, sat on the floor and completed the worksheet. And that was that! I didn’t say “Good job!” or anything at all—instead, when she was off at school the next day, I simply took down the completed page and put up a new one. And then she finished that one, too. So I put up another and another and another.
Due to her daughter’s enthusiasm in answering the papers taped on the noticing wall, Woo’s little experiment has now become a zero-pressure space for the mother and daughter to write notes to each other, ask questions, jot down fun things, and make plans.
Maybe if I do this on my bedroom wall, I can also get my tasks done on time.
Dominic Wilcox makes things you didn't realize that you needed until he made them possible, such as ruby slippers (like from The Wizard of Oz) with GPS navigation to lead you home.
On a busy city sidewalk, it could be helpful to know where other people are turning, especially if they're turning in front of you. The Directing Jacket solves that problem.
(Next, Mr. Wilcox, please invent a shock collar that activates when a person stands still in the middle of the sidewalk or hallway.)
Can't see what's happening at the concert because taller people are blocking your view of the stage? That's why Wilcox invented the Periscope Glasses, which give you the sight of someone one foot taller. He describes their origin:
I was standing at a gig and turned to see a small woman dancing away but unable to see the band. This gave me the inspiration to design a way for people to see over obstacles such as tall people like me.
Scientists have revealed that the dragonfish's so-called invisible fangs are actually made up of the same material as the human teeth. The dragonfish, a deep sea species called Aristostomias scintillans, has virtually-transparent fangs that are made up of an outer layer of enamel - but unlike the enamel in our teeth - they contain nanoscale crystals that prevent light from reflecting off the fish's tooth surface.
The dragonfish’s “invisible” teeth makes lets them catch their prey easier, as the prey is less likely to notice the predator’s mouth.
Usually it takes time and a lot of practice for us to learn something new or to improve on a skill, but is there a way of accelerating the progress of improvement, like say getting our brains zapped while in the process of learning? That's what some staff from NPR tried to find out.
What if we could master skills a lot faster — with less practice — simply by wearing a brain-boosting headset? I tried the technology behind this claim to improve my vertical jump. In Future You Episode 3, check out the technology and whether my vertical jump got higher — and hear from an Olympic athlete who has tried it as well as the founder of Halo Neuroscience, a company that makes brain-boosting headsets.
One of Van Gogh's famous masterpieces, Starry Night, has given inspiration to many artists because of its beautiful impressionist style where the colors just flow into one another and you feel a sort of serenity when you look at it.
Artist Aja Trier has felt moved by the painting so much that she has been remaking it and putting her own twist into the scenes. With the Starry Night as a background, she paints various breeds of dogs as well as other characters and scenarios.
Check out her collection of the Starry Night Series on her Instagram page.
Fidan Zaman, an artist in Baku, Azerbaijan, paints seascapes into the pages of a sketchbook, then photographs them lined up with the Caspian waters that inspired them. There's something especially charming about her painting made in the rain.
When you become famous for inventing something that changed the world, you don't just rest on your laurels, because the drive that came up with one genius idea will also work toward others. In other words, innovators gotta innovate. Learn about some of the other inventions that didn't get quite so much press, or could even have been total flops, in the latest episode of the Mental Floss List Show. -via Tastefully Offensive
There are legends of large, wild, ape-like creatures all over the world, from Sasquatch to the Yowie to the Yeti. In South America, these legends are called Maricoxi. British explorer Percy Fawcett walked through the rain forests of South America for years, and made notes of the stories he heard about the Maricoxi.
These creatures were apparently called Maricoxis by the Maxubis. They dwelt to their northeast. Due east there were said to be another group of short, black people, covered with hair, who were truly cannibalistic and hunted humans for food, cooking the bodies over a fire on a bamboo spit and tearing off the meat. These the Maxubis regarded as merely loathsome and lowly people. On a later trip, Colonel Fawcett was told of an “ape-people” who lived in holes in the ground, were also covered with dark hair, and were nocturnal, so that they were known in surrounding areas as the Morcegos or Bat-People. These types are called Cabelludos or “Hairy People” by the Spanish-speaking, and Tatus, or armadillos, by several Amerindian groups because they live in holes like those animals. Fawcett also records forest Amerinds as telling him that the Morcegos have an incredibly well-developed sense of smell which prompts even these acute hunters to suggest that they have some “sixth sense.”
After being steeped in such stories, it was inevitable that Fawcett would encounter such creatures. According to Fawcett's meticulous notes, his expedition was surrounded by hairy man-like beings, one who eventually drew a bow and arrow on Fawcett. Read that story at Mysterious Universe. -via Strange Company
When we feel isolated or outright rejected by someone, it hurts. But we often deal with it as if it's not something serious or that we will eventually move on from it without having any drastic effects on our psyche or general well-being. However, there may actually be some kind of connection between emotional and physical pain. And rejection might cut deeper than we think.
In a landmark experiment in 2003, Eisenberger and her colleagues had test subjects strapped with virtual-reality headsets. Peering through goggles, the participants could see their own hand and a ball, plus two cartoon characters – the avatars of fellow participants in another room. With the press of a button, each player could toss the ball to another player while the researchers measured their brain activity through fMRI scans.
In the first round of CyberBall – as the game became known – the ball flew back and forth just as you’d expect, but pretty soon the players in the second room started making passes only to each other, completely ignoring the player in the first room. In reality, there were no other players: just a computer programmed to ‘reject’ each participant so that the scientists could see how exclusion – what they called ‘social pain’ – affects the brain.
After analyzing the data, researchers found that the same neural circuits that respond when we experience physical pain such as having a broken bone also lit up when the participants of CyberBall had experienced being rejected or socially excluded.
This leads us to considering whether social exclusion or rejection may need medical help instead of simply being shrugged off as something that we can get by or get used to. Further studies also suggest that the effects of these linked emotional and physical pain might lead to health compromises or even diseases.
According to Eisenberger, the significance of social pain goes back to evolution. Throughout history, we depended on other people for survival: they nurtured us, helped to gather food and provide protection against predators and enemy tribes. Social relationships literally kept us alive. Perhaps, then, just like physical pain, the pain of rejection evolved as a signal of threat to our lives.
And perhaps nature, taking a clever shortcut, simply ‘borrowed’ the existing mechanism for physical pain instead of creating a new one from scratch, which is how broken bones and broken hearts ended up so intimately interconnected in our brains.
