Italian photographer Marianna Zampieri presents a series called C-AT Work that features cats who go to work with their humans. Librarians, hair stylists, musicians, craftspeople, office workers, and store owners go about their day as their cat presides over their domain.
Fulvio in his theater.
The goal of this project is always to try to capture the beauty of the relationship that is created between cats and people with whom they share most of the time, demonstrating the great dignity and incredible adaptability of these animals in any situation. All seasoned by the setting that the most diverse work environments can give, creating the astonishment that can be born seeing the cats placed in environments where we are not used to see them.
Ze Frank suddenly has another True Facts video. This one isn't about some weird animal, but the weird plants that eat animals. He talks about plants eating bugs as payback for us eating plants, but that only works if you feel closely related to insects. And if that's the way you feeel, the video might strike you as a bit gruesome. Contains NSFW language.
In 1958, America's new space agency called NASA launched an extensive search for men who would become astronauts. Of 508 candidates, the Mercury 7 were selected via a battery of physical, psychological, and intellectual tests.
Hopefuls sat in extreme heat and cold, did math in 145-decibel rooms (normal conversation is 60 dB), and spent hours in isolation chambers. On top of all that, candidates took 12 intelligence tests. These exams sought to predict a wealth of unknowns: how the men would maneuver spacecraft, if they could problem-solve midflight, and whether they grasped the science that would keep them aloft.
While the physical tests can't be taken online, Popular Science is offering us the chance to try a small portion of the intelligence tests those men took 60 years ago. I tried it; all I can say it I'm glad the questions aren't timed. Good luck! -via Mental Floss
We know crows are intelligent and good with tools. We know they learn from watching others do things. And in case you didn't know, they hang around train stations in Japan. This crow is using an automated kiosk to buy a ticket. When the machine says "insert credit card," the crow realizes he doesn't have one, but the women at the next machine does -so he takes it! The video stops before we find out if he got a ticket; let's assume the woman took her credit card back. Sure, he could have flown to his destination, but why flap your own wings when you can use someone else's money to ride? -via Digg
Wisteria sinensis, or Chinese wisteria, is blooming all over London. It's been a favorite in the city for a couple of centuries now.
Wisteria Sinensis was unknown in Europe before 1816, when several agents of the East India Company working in China sent cuttings back to England.[3] A 200 year-old vine, growing at Griffin's Brewery in Chiswick, London, planted that same year, is often cited as England's oldest living wisteria plant.[4][5] Over the next several decades the plant became, and remains, one of the quintessential ornamental vines in English gardens. The white-flowering form, Wisteria Sinensis Alba, was discovered in a garden by Botanist Robert Fortune in 1844, from whence he took cuttings for the Royal Horticultural Society.[6] It is most commonly trained along garden walls, along the exterior of buildings, or over a pergola to create avenues of overhanging blossoms during bloom.
One thing we don't have enough of is Western movies with giant monsters. There's Valley of the Gwangi (1969), and uh, that's about it. But now Fabrice Mathieu (previously at Neatorama) brings us a mashup with gunslingers defending the Alamo from a swarm of giant mutant insects! Far Alamo stars John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Yul Brynner, Richard Widmark, James Coburn, Clint Eastwood, Henry Fonda, Lee Van Cleef, and a host other actors you'd expect in a classic Western. This shoot-em-up was pieced together from a dozen different films, listed at the vimeo page. -Thanks, Fabrice!
More than 2,000 tweets answered her questions, including these gems:
When I was 4 my Mum convinced me that every so often fish and birds would change colour. So whenever a pet died and she replaced it she didn't have to tell me.
Our family had a metal gong with a padded mallet that we banged to alert the many siblings that dinner was ready. Ringing the dinner gong was a privilege and guests always freaked out when they heard it. I thought everyone used a dinner gong...
My mum used to randomly declare that we were having a “gross dinner” which meant that we didn’t have to use forks or be polite. My lil bro loved it & would spend the whole meal burping & farting & eating with his mouth open. I hated it.
Ever seen an insulated vest and thought to yourself, there has to be a pants-equivalent to that thing? Well, wonder no more: insulated shorts do exist. But ... why? Are they meant to keep only the upper half of your legs warm?
The Salem (Illinois) Police Department posted a courtesy alert for its citizens at Facebook.
This message was written on one of our city sidewalks today with sidewalk chalk. As a courtesy, we want to keep our citizens informed. Please, if you have satin sheets or pillowcases, keep them under lock and key as someone apparently wants to worship them!
This is your periodic reminder that if you want to strike fear into the hearts of your fellow men, it helps if you know how to spell. (via reddit)
Great Scott! Someone actually created a children’s book based on the Back To The Future Movie written by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale. I’m in heaven and so will anyone else who is proud to have been raised in the 80’s.
I admit it! I am totally biased when it comes to this book. I am a huge, huge Back To The Future fan. When this book came into our office I practically became giddy.
The book is about 40 pages long and goes through essentially the entire Back To The Future Story line. It starts out by introducing us to Marty McFly who is appropriately gliding around Hill Valley on his skateboard. We meet Doc Brown and Marty’s family. Of course we also meet Biff.
Cats who have human servants know they can dillydally as much as they want. They flaunt their superior position by taking their own sweet time. Why should they be in any hurry for a mere human? And so it is with Simon's Cat. My big tomcat will interrupt work and demand to be let outside, but then after I get up, it takes him forever to actually make it to the back door. He's just asserting his dominion over me, I am sure. -via Tastefully Offensive
Archaeological discoveries of ancient humans keep pushing our knowledge about our species further back in time. The Americas haven't been populated by people as long as other parts of the world, but exactly how long they've been here and how they got here are open subjects we still have a lot to learn about. Occasionally, a skeleton or a skull is found that dates back to the beginnings of their settlement. Real Clear Science give us a list of some of the biggest such discoveries.
Kennewick Man, perhaps the best known and most controversial ancient human remains in the United States, was found jutting from a patch of eroded dirt along the Columbia River near Kennewick Washington just 22 years ago. In life, roughly 9,000 years in the past, he spent much of his time moving around by water, hunting and eating marine animals and drinking glacial meltwater. In death, his remains were constantly the focus of lawsuits between indigenous peoples who sought to bury the remains and archaeologists who sought to learn from them. After DNA tests confirmed that Kennewick Man was closely related to modern day Native Americans, his remains were returned and reburied at an undisclosed location.
Turn the sound on before you watch this. Tasha is playing hide-and-seek because she doesn't want to go inside, and she's found the perfect hiding place! Tasha is pretty smart for a dog. She understands that her man's viewpoint is different from her own. She's a little fuzzy on the concept of glass doors, though. -via Bits and Pieces
Burros, or donkeys, are descended from the African wild ass. They are not indigenous to North America, but were imported by the Spanish. Burros proved to be the most useful beast of burden for the Grand Canyon area, where unsuccessful prospectors would sometimes abandon their animals, which led to a feral population of burros. That's how the burro named Brighty found himself living in the Grand Canyon.
Brighty himself, who lived from about 1882 to 1922, was first seen in the Canyon near an abandoned miner’s tent, sitting vigil as if expecting the tent’s occupant to return. The burro appreciated occasional human companionship, especially when pancakes were involved. He spent summers on the cooler North Rim, hanging out with the game warden Jim Owens or the McKee family, who managed the first tourist facility on the North Rim, which opened in 1917. Brighty came and went as he pleased, toting water for the McKees’ young son, but scraping off any loads he deemed unworthy of his efforts. For instance, if a hunter caught Brighty and tried to make him pack his gear, Brighty would sneak away, rubbing the pack against trees until the lashing loosened and the load fell off.
It was along the North Rim that early Canyon tourists first met Brighty, probably between 1917 and 1922. Wills writes, “Vacationers struggling to interpret, or connect with, the immense scale of the Canyon (John Muir called it an ‘unearthly’ place), appreciated the presence of a familiar creature.”
But Brighty’s hybrid existence—not exactly wild, but not domesticated enough to be consistently useful—would count against him and his kind when the park service decided in the early 20th century that it should restore the Canyon to a pre-Columbian state of virgin splendor. Having arrived with the Spaniards, the burro was not native to Arizona.
The National Park Service's plan for ridding the canyon of invasive species meant shooting the feral burros. Brightly had already passed on, but his story made him the face of the effort to save the burros. Animal lovers did not want them shot, and others wanted to maintain the feral burros for their part in US history. Others believed the canyon should be returned to its pre-settlement ecosystem. The controversy went on for decades. Read about Brighty and his legacy at Atlas Obscura.
Yes, it would be nice to have a machine that makes breakfast, but then you remember that making bacon and eggs is about the easiest thing there is to do in the kitchen. But this machine is impressive! There are two LEGO contraptions here. One is a huge scaffolding that delivers bacon and eggs to the frying pan, and even cracks the eggs open. The other is a vehicle which can move things around as needed and flip and serve the food with a spatula. YouTuber The Brick Wall (previously at Neatorama) built this set up for his father, who makes breakfast every weekend. He worked an entire week just to get the egg cracking unit right. -via Digg
