One of the first images we got to see from the new movie version of Pet Sematary is that of the zombie cat above. This is not a graphic; it's a real cat actor. A sweet-looking cat actor.

im too scared to see Pet Sematary I think but I would like to say I support how handsome and big that cat is pic.twitter.com/imheRO04Rk

— tom schwartz’s transition lenses (@rachelmillman) April 4, 2019

Gabriella Paiella marveled at the vast difference in the cat's apearance, so she sought out the crew responsible. She spoke to groomer Tanya Graham and trainers Melissa Millett and Kirk Jarrett about how the five cats used for the film were given their movie looks.

Tanya: It took almost two months of training to get them fully comfortable with the makeup. We used a protocol with desensitization to really get them used to that. We started out with just doing a cat in a dry tub having catnip parties. That was a lot of fun. Then we did the cats enjoying the dry tub with lots of treats, so they got some pâté and kitty treats. Then we started doing a little bit of water each time, slowly increasing the amount of water each time just to make sure they were comfortable with that process.

Melissa: We did it so progressively that the cats were comfortable with the bathing and comfortable with the makeup. We knew that if we didn’t acclimate the cats to the makeup, they’re licking it off.

Read about the process of doing a cat's makeup at The Cut. -via Digg

Libraries, archives and other cultural institutions around the world shared free coloring books and coloring sheets that are based on their own collections last February 4-8, 2019. In other words, you get to color some of the notable artworks around the globe! What a time to be alive!

Here are some of the screenshots of the said coloring books.

Check the website here!

(Image Credit: colorourcollections2019 )

What a sad news for coffee aficionados out there.

Plans to abolish the emergency stockpiling of coffee beans has been announced by Switzerland, as they decided that coffee beans are not necessary for human survival.

From The Guardian:

Nestlé, the maker of instant coffee Nescafé, and other importers, roasters and retailers are required by Swiss law to store bags of raw coffee. The country also stockpiles staples such as sugar, rice, edible oils and animal feed.

This system of emergency reserves was established between the first and second world wars as Switzerland prepared for potential shortages in case of war, natural disaster or epidemics.

According to the plan released for public comment, coffee stockpiling obligations will expire by the end of 2022, with companies free to draw down what they have in their warehouses.

“The Federal Office for National Economic Supply has concluded coffee ... is not essential for life,” the government said. “Coffee has almost no calories and subsequently does not contribute, from the physiological perspective, to safeguarding nutrition.”

(Image Credit: Ailura / Wikimedia Commons)

Very cuteness. Such tasty. Much wow.

Japan’s number one cat-merch maker, Felissimo, offers us a new treat: Shiba-Inu shaped marshmallows! Now THIS is yum and cuteness and fluffiness overload. Need I say more?

From SoraNews24:

The Shiba Inu marshmallows are a follow-up to Felissimo’s kitty ones from a while back, and they keep the focus on the Shiba Inu’s goofily lovable faces.

The marshmallows, which are hand-made, are specifically shaped to mimic the dogs’ muzzle.

Since the Shiba is a Japanese breed, it’s only fitting that the marshmallows it’s inspired have a Japanese flavor too. Inside each is a filling of mixed of chocolate and anko (sweet bean paste), which should delight the palates of people raised on either side of the Pacific.

You can order now for only 1,296 yen ($11.70) for a box of nine online via this link!

(Image Credit: Felissimo)

Though cats may sometimes look very haughty and snarly, they can also do some of the cutest things you'll ever see. In this collection of 60 photos, you will see cats doing various dance poses that would put a smile on your face. Above, you will see a cat doing a sort of ballroom pose but they're not limited to one type of dance as you will see from the breakdancing cat below. Many other

(Image credit: sakata_77/Twitter; reddit_for_karma/Reddit)

Stop-motion animation, much like any animated film production takes an absurd amount of time to create since the characters that you are portraying in the story are either drawn or handcrafted sometimes with the assistance of CGI, like Laika's new film "Missing Link".

The video featured in the article takes us inside the artists' studio or workshop and it gives us an idea of how difficult the animated medium really is.

“What we do at Laika is to take this style of filmmaking, which is craft-based, it’s about artists using their hands to bring something to life, and blend that with technologies,” says Knight. He believes the appeal of the stop-motion technique is primal. “It feels like a child’s plaything being brought to life. It’s like we’re playing with our dolls, playing with our toys, telling stories that mean something to us.”

Animation as a medium of entertainment is generally looked down upon by filmmakers because of its perceived target audience but the stories being told through the medium are not just for mere children as they are for adults as well.

(Image credit: LAIKA Studios)

A restaurant in New Jersey named Elsie’s created this beast of a sandwich. Would you eat this sandwich?

The said sandwich is now making quite a stir on social media.

From MyRecipes:

“Our pickles have been made with the same family recipe for many years using only fresh ingredients and peppered with more than a little love,” Elsie’s website explains. “We cater to a Keto and Gluten-Free lifestyle and it is our sincere honor to pamper guests with our curated selection of sandwiches and roll ups constructed on our Elsie’s Signature Pickle.”

Yum or yuck? Be the one to decide.

Grab a bite of this article at MyRecipes! And don’t forget to visit the website of Elsie's!

(Image Credit: Elsie’s)

Since its year of discovery in 2007, this dwarf planet that orbits the sun beyond Neptune has been addressed as (225088) 2007 OR10. Now the people who have discovered it are asking the public to help them pick a more appealing name, with the choices being:

• Gonggo, the Chinese water god known for creating chaos and tilting the Earth. The said god has a red hair and a serpent-like tail.
• Holle, the European winter goddess of rebirth, fertility, and women. Finally,
• Vili, a Nordic deity.

The voting will end on May 10 and people can vote via this link.

See the news on BBC.

(Image Credit: BBC)

Before there were memes and funny video clips on the internet, webcomics dominated. Even now though, artists still share their funny strips online although with much more competition online, their reach is more limited in terms of capturing people's attention. Still, their influence on online communities is big.

The Verge asks several artists to share their thoughts on the early days of webcomics and how their experience was in creating this internet culture.

(Image credit: R. Stevens/Diesel Sweeties/Wikimedia Commons)

I'm not really sure what the name of this French game is, but the opening window says Play For Good. The rest of the instructions are in French, but you really don't need them. The goal is to jump a ball from one column to the next. To do that, hold your mouse button down for the right length of time, and then release to jump. The audio cues will help you know how long to hold it when you get used to the game. The game is over the first time you miss, but it's easy to restart. My guess is that it gets harder as you progress, but I haven't progressed much ...yet. -via Boing Boing  

Let the children run free and explore things that interest them independently with supervision. That's the philosophy that a lot of these new outside preschools, or forest schools as they are now being called, uphold. But people in the community of North Park Village are getting annoyed by some of the things purportedly being done in these schools.

One concerned citizen, Janita Tucker, who lives opposite Walking Stick Woods where these schools operate, read out a letter in a community meeting regarding the forest schools.

Tucker began to read a letter from “Residents Living Adjacent to NPV,” listing complaints about the open fire, an accumulation of junk, and a lack of appropriate licenses.

Forest schools were developed and became a trend in early childhood education because people thought that it would be better for children to have a more carefree development compared to the more restrictive environments that try to foster learning with rigid curricula.

Inspired by traditional European outdoor preschools, these programs are, in large part, a backlash to helicopter parenting and overly structured, tech-oriented teaching environments.

So far, all of the complaints against the forest schools have been answered and there will be no further meetings regarding them. Whether these programs will help children's development and learning, separate studies need to be made as to their effectiveness.

(Image credit: RMSC rochester/Wikimedia Commons)

Nothing inspires me more than to read stories of people's adventures, whether it be in far-flung, remote areas or within the confines of the urban realm. But within these singular pieces of people's lives strewn together, we can find the resolve within ourselves to go and venture out ourselves.

This is the story of Andrew A. Schafer who spent two years in Sichuan, a southwestern province in China, to teach English in university, his struggles with Mandarin and getting around in a culture completely unfamiliar to him. 

He recounts how he worked his way toward developing relationships, speaking the language, and learning from the people and students he worked with as much as he taught them about his own culture and language.

From there, he went back home to the US and he talks about the adjustment phase of reintegrating yourself into a society where not too long ago you had been a part of but after being away only for two years seems somewhat a bit unfamiliar. And he moved on from one deep end to another.

As a philosophy and English teacher, he tried looking for jobs that might sound interesting. After much searching, he landed on a tech job in one of the rising companies in Silicon Valley. Another set of learning opportunities and hard work lay before him.

The experiences he had in China worked to his advantage. Though he had no clue about tech culture, he applied the same principles he used in China to learn the ways of tech. The more he immersed himself, the better his understanding of tech became. And down the rabbit hole he went, finally emerging fluent in the ways of tech.

In all that, he tells us what he learned throughout those years and how he came out from them all the wiser and more well-versed in the environments he delved into. His is a fascinating story of continuous learning and development, something of which I feel deeply inspired.

(Image credit: Andrew A. Schafer/Cloudflare)

Neatorama readers know that Tristan de Cunha is the most isolated community in the world. It has fewer then 300 residents, and they were mostly born there. But which city is the most isolated in the world? Living in an isolated city means a high cost of living, since supplies have to be shipped in. And going anywhere would mean taking a plane. To find the answer, first you have to define "isolated" and "city." For this video from Half As Interesting, "city" is eventually defined as any place with more than 100,000 people, which is a low bar to clear. "Isolated" means the furthest from another "city" of 100,00 or more people. When you find out which city it is, you will understand why so many people want to live there. -via Digg

We live in confusing times. I'm old enough to remember when Captain Marvel was male and had a costume that looked a lot like Superman's except for the colors. Then Captain Marvel became part of the MCG and was an alien in a totally different costume. Now Captain Marvel today is female and has a different costume still, with totally different powers than had her predecessors. I'd give it all up and just read Nick Fury, who used to be white but is now black, or the Hulk, who used to be green but now also comes in red and also in an assortment of versions - immortal, world war, world breaker, and so forth. What's a confused comics fan to do?

The obvious answer is to blame it all on DC Comics and the above video will tell you why.

Called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, the first defense mission will be an interesting one seeing that there are so many possible threats on our planet, not just from within it but from without as well. 

In order to preempt any asteroid from hitting earth, NASA has now embarked on creating measures to counter any cataclysmic event like that from happening with this new mission.

The mission, led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will be the first to demonstrate the kinetic impactor technique, which involves slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid at high speed to shift it off course.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Wikimedia Commons)