I love going to playgrounds. As a kid, I would go play on the seesaw or on the slide, or just swing for hours. I still go to playgrounds up to this day. I would watch the kids go swing or slide or just run around and play tag with friends. Unfortunately, I was not given the chance to see these amazing mid-century modern playgrounds.
The past is really an amazing thing to look upon, and how beautiful it is when it blends with the present. Why don’t you take a look, too?
Because leprechauns are fictional characters, why does it have to be strictly male? That was exactly the question that Lynnette Wukie from the University of Notre Dame posed and so with that in mind, she auditioned to be the school mascot and landed the role.
"I talked about being a role model (during the tryout process) because even through high school and into college, it's always been important to me to be someone people can look up to," Wukie said. "I think I hadn't (yet) found that thing, like I wasn't fulfilling my true purpose here to be that face and that role model, so when this opportunity came about I thought it was destiny. This is what I'm meant to be doing."
Wukie won her spot "thanks to her passionate outlook and dedication to leadership," the university said.
Donning the green suit, Wukie will not only be the first woman to be the mascot but she will also be the second black student to represent the school.
Apart from Wukie, there are two others, Samuel Jackson and Conal Fagan, who will also masquerade as leprechauns as the school has three leprechaun spots: gold, blue, and green, each with their own responsibility. -via Jezebel
Our individual lives are shaped depending on which country we were, when we are born, and what type of environment we are born. With this in mind, we can also say that these same factors also affect our death — or to euphemize it, our life expectancy. This map of America tells you your life expectancy depending on what state you are.
Americans born in 2015 can expect to live to the age of 78.8 years. That's one-tenth of a year less than in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported, and the first time U.S. life expectancy declined since 1993.
The CDC cited the rise of preventable deaths — notably traffic accidents (+6%) and "accidental poisonings" (+13%) as the main causes for the drop in longevity. The latter category consists almost entirely (97 percent) of alcohol and drug overdoses, with the opioid epidemic a major contributor to the increase.
What I can only say is, wherever you are right now, enjoy every moment of your life. And live it to the fullest.
This animated TED-Ed lesson from Michelle Brown looks at weird images that we know from medieval art and particularly from the doodles of monks copying and illuminating manuscripts by hand. Certain ideas are found over and over, so they must have some meaning. We know the meaning behind some, but not others. Could it be possible that one person drew a funny image, and others laughed and drew it also, until it became ubiquitous? Happens every day on the internet. You would imagine the medieval version would just be slower. -via Laughing Squid
There are wild cats in Britain, most notably the Scottish wildcat, which is classified as endangered. However, they are small and hard to distinguish from domestic cats. But big cats have been spotted in the UK for decades, sometimes seen as cougars or lynx. In fact, there have been 155 big cat sightings reported to authorities in the past three years alone!
Where might these cats have come from? One theory suggests they were released by their owners in the months leading up to the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act. Exotic animals had been sold in Harrods; cheetahs could occasionally be seen being walked in Hyde Park. Given the choice of acquiring a costly licence or relinquishing their pets to animal sanctuaries, at least some owners chose a third option: sending cats out into the wild. In 2000, Leslie Maiden, a lion tamer known as One-Eyed Nick, told the Birmingham Post he’d released a panther and a puma in Derbyshire some 25 years before. “At first I was a bit worried about how they would get on,” he said. “But I went up to the moors a few weeks later and saw bones of sheep and pheasants, so I think they adapted pretty well.”
That was forty years ago, so the theory requires that these freed big cats managed to not only survive unseen, but also find mates of their own species and reproduce undetected for generations. There are other theories that hold almost as much water. Read about the continuing big cat sightings in Britain at the Guardian. -via Boing Boing
A new contestant in Jeopardy! has been raking up big wins on the game show for over a week now and there is no sign of stopping him especially with the strategy he employs, one that is derived from game theory.
If you haven't heard of James Holzhauer, then you will be surprised that he has been breaking records left and right on the trivia game show, somewhat comparable to how former Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings had done before. Jennings was impressed and even commented that Holzhauer's performance was "absolutely insane".
Or so says Casey Johnston who shares her sudden realization regarding the matter. Wind is the worst type of weather she has ever and will ever encounter, apart from very large-scale disasters of course. There are little to no safeguards against wind, nothing that could protect you save a big concrete wall firmly anchored on the ground.
Wind’s behavior alone is not what makes wind the worst; it also super-charges other weathers to be the worst version of themselves. Wind so strong the rain goes horizontal, as we all know, is one of the worse weathers. But if it were just the rain, it’s not as bad; the wind is what makes it bad.
Many proponents of digital detoxing would tell us that there are several benefits to switching off our phones and our laptops for a time to take a break. Unplugging can definitely give us the breathing space we need to recollect ourselves, to pause and reflect on the information overload we receive online.
Whatever your tech-related problem, someone will tell you that the solution is to simply unplug. In this respect, the off-switch resembles nothing so much as the humble leech, long used as a go-to treatment for a mind-boggling assortment of maladies.
But a general or blanket unplugging may not bear as much results. Rather it would be best to ask yourself why you should unplug and what you will gain from it instead of simply doing it without thinking about the effects it will have on you no matter how short or long a time you spend offline.
But we’re well within our rights to ask for a more precise diagnosis before submitting to the surgical removal of our devices, particularly since the relationship between digital causes and human effects is still so murky.
While we’re still trying to figure out which of society’s problems can be attributed to technology use, we can at least get clear on which of our personal or professional problems we’re trying to address by unplugging.
Inevitably, in a world that is increasingly getting hyper-connected and digital, one way or another we need to adapt to the changing social, economic, and cultural landscape.
And as the majority consumes and is consumed within the system, perhaps there are better ways of dealing with our issues directly associated with the technoscape, instead of just doing away with the internet altogether. These four questions will help us navigate living in this reality of increased online presence and its ubiquity in our daily lives.
For the rest of the world, the Notre Dame fire is a big tragedy, as a piece of history had crumbled and fallen. People regarded it as a cultural symbol but it also formed part of the French identity.
Within the city of Paris however, the burning of Notre Dame goes deeper into its roots and may reveal a certain malaise that is sweeping through the veins of France. Chris Knapp gives us a more intimate perspective of the recent event and the implications it has on the French and the world.
Benjamin Franklin was never president, but he held many other important jobs, including that of minister to France during the Revolutionary War. Franklin was in Paris in 1778, when he received a letter from a stranger supposedly named Charles de Weissenstein that proposed a clandestine meeting at Notre Dame cathedral to arrange for ending the war. Weissenstein made it clear that King George would never allow the Americans to be free of the British Empire, but might accede to some colonial demands, which Franklin could convey to him in a very suspicious cloak-and-dagger fashion. The instructions for dropping off the document were very explicit, and might remind you of a poorly-written spy novel.
“If the Iron Gates above mentioned happen to be shut, you will find him in the aisle of the right hand on going in, on the same side (if I mistake not) where the huge statue of St. Christopher is. For your more certain guidance, I have desired him to stick a rose, either in his hat, which he will hold in his hand up to his face, or else in the buttonhole of his waistcoat, either of which will be remarkable enough, with the other circumstances.”
From the snarky response Franklin wrote, you might imagine that he first had a big laugh at the very idea. Read the whole story of Ben Franklin's brush with a spy at Plodding Through the Presidents. -via Strange Company
What did sailors eat in the 1700s? It wasn't all hardtack, even though there was plenty of that. The provisions for each man were strictly enforced, because it could be a long time before the ship took on more supplies. Jon Townsend uses a published sailor's diary to explain how sailors ate, as he recreates a recipe for burgoo.
Last week, James Holzhauer set a new record for one-day winnings on the game show Jeopardy! He's now on a streak that may break Ken Jennings all-time money-winning record, and even faster than Jennings. How does he do it? Well, it helps that you know a lot of answers, but that's not all it takes to do well on a game show. Every game is different, and Jeopardy! requires a certain set of skills to do well, even if you're very smart.
...what sets apart the really, truly dominant players like James isn’t just luck, smarts, or betting strategy: It’s the buzzer, and James is very, very, very good at using it.
“He had a lot of questions about the subtlety of the buzzer right away,” says Jeopardy! producer Maggie Speak, who oversees contestant coordination and leads an hourlong group orientation for new players each taping day. “Before he ever hit the stage, it was: ‘Well, what if I do this?’ He had a lot of very specific questions about the timing of the buzzer.”
The scene opens. It is a quiet evening in a normal and unsuspecting suburban town. Suddenly five masked creatures, with long fingers and sharp claws, emerge from the depth of the sewer. They are hunting for their next meal. Silently these animals bound through the manicured streets. Moonlight glistens off their victim as he stands alone at the curb. This is the Garbage of the Damned!
Sadly this is not a movie ...yet. Garbage of the Damned is, however, a fantastic design available on a large selection of apparel.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great items. New items arriving weekly.
The NeatoShop specializes in curvy and hard to find Big and Tall sizes. We carry up to 10 XL shirts. Special order items also available. We know that fun and fabulous people come in all sizes.
Drawing from one of the saddest Disney moments, you’ll surely shed tears when eating “Bambi’s Mom” at this Disney-themed restaurant named Nel. The restaurant is run by Australian Chef Nelly Robinson. The dish is “venison slow cooked and served over a beetroot sauce with two [shotgun] shell casings of a special seasoning spice.” Just seeing the meal would give you a blast from the past, and eating it would be a tearful experience.
The 11-course meal is one that is quite interesting and a bit off the wall with its names and items, but the restaurant is well known for such dishes. “Once Upon A Time” is a limited time engagement which is available now but only through June 29, as per Inside The Magic.
Any type of work that consists of you sitting on a chair for eight hours straight or more needs to be reconsidered. There are many health risks in living an inactive or sedentary life, something that Shawn Kittelsen found out a couple of years ago.
He had been working as a writer for two years, all day sitting on a chair writing. Until one day, a jolt shot through his back and he was unable to move. He developed herniated discs which left him immobile for the better part of several months.
Of course, he knew that the best solution was to exercise and get his body moving but it caused him too much pain and suffering to do so. He was trying to look for other methods to deal with his situation and he found salvation in VR. This is his story.
