In a survey done by GetResponse, an online marketing platform, 1000 people revealed the most passive-aggressive sounding phrases they’ve heard or used in emails. You’d be surprised at the phrase that made it to the top! I was shocked because I sometimes used them without wanting to sound passive-aggressive. Check the full video here to learn about the top six if you want to avoid using them in the future.
(via Flipboard)
Image credit: Kaitlyn Baker
A new website from the Tolkien Estate has a treasure trove of information about JRR Tolkien, beloved author of The Lord of the Rings. Part of the process of creating his fictional world was envisioning it, and Tolkien painted quite a few landscapes of Middle-earth for both The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings, plus the settings for his other books. Some, but not all were used in the book illustrations.
There's also a section on Tolkien's maps, which kept him going in the right direction in his stories, and another featuring his beautiful calligraphy. That's in addition to information about his life and writing. This site could keep a Tolkien fan busy for a while. -via Kottke
A tornado ripped through Elgin, Texas, on Monday. The storm left plenty of property damage, a few injuries, but no fatalities reported so far. Thousands are still without power. The most viral of images from the storm is a video of a red Silverado pickup truck that crossed paths with the tornado. The twister flipped the truck on its side, spun it around, and then righted it. Astonishingly, the man inside was able to drive away. The owner of the truck has stayed anonymous so far, but we get to see what shape the truck is in, and hear froma couple of witnesses.
The man obviously had his seatbelt on. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Chevy seeks out the footage to use in an ad. Silverados are quite protective. Recall this story from several years ago, in which the truck was destroyed but the driver was fine.
-via Digg
It’s a worm on a chip! Well, a roundworm to be more precise.
A team of researchers from Myongji University in Korea studied a species of tiny roundworms called Caenorhabditis elegans to find out if they can turn the small creatures into diagnostic tests for lung cancer. Prior lab studies have shown that this kind of worm tends to move toward samples that belong to patients with cancer. “It’s well known that the soil-dwelling nematode, C. elegans, is attracted or repelled by certain odors, so we came up with an idea that the roundworm could be used to detect lung cancer,” lead researcher Shin Sik Choi explained.
The researchers created a plastic chip with a well at both ends of the chip, in which one would contain a culture from lung cancer cells and the other would contain the healthy cells. The roundworms are placed at the channel between these two sections. Early results on testing the chip showed that a significantly higher volume of worms moved to the lung cancer cells than the healthy cells. This could be used to detect cancer cells with 70 percent accuracy. “We will collaborate with medical doctors to find out whether our methods can detect lung cancer in patients at an early stage,” Choi added.
Image credit: Nari Jang
Yikes.
Canadian artist Andrew Martin created a fan-art sculpture of one of the Tiki drummers from the Disneyland attraction called the Enchanted Tiki Room. Martin actually created the artwork during a seven-hour livestream in 2018, and made the design available online so people could 3D print the sculpture. It turns out that common people aren’t the only ones who took advantage of that opportunity. At least, that is what the artist is accusing Disney of.
A friend of Martin’s messaged him through Instagram, telling him that Disney was selling a sculpture that looks a lot like his 2018 artwork. "I'm like, 'that does look a lot like mine,' and then did a one-to-one comparison of mine just to make sure. And it's 100 percent the one I did," he said.
The art is now no longer available on the company’s online store, but it has been spotted to be sold at some park stores. Disney has not responded to the allegations after multiple requests for comment.
Image credit: Courtesy Andrew Martin
Congratulations! The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s 10th World Happiness Report has ranked Finland as the top country that made its residents happy. The country has won this title for five years in a row, which is an amazing feat. The rankings are based on the country’s gross domestic product per capita and social support, as well as how a country’s citizens gauge their freedom to make life choices. Learn more about the report here.
Image credit: Baptiste Valthier
An anonymous Turkish man broke a wall in his basement in 1963, which led him to discover a complex network of tunnels, halls, and chambers. This vast abandoned subterranean city, which was up to 18 stories and 280 feet (76 m) deep– was enough to house 20,000 people. Located in Derinkuyu, Turkey, no one knows exactly why it was built, who was it built for, or when and how it was abandoned. Read more about the possible reasons why here!
image credit: Yasir999, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Academy Awards ceremony is this Sunday night, and once again there are a bunch of movies that you haven't seen up for an Oscar. It was just so much easier to stay at home and binge on a television series you've seen before. In this day and age there may be a lot of movies nominated that you've never even heard of. To alleviate this problem, Screen Junkies presents their annual Oscars Honest Trailer. What that means is that this video has a mini-Honest Trailer for each of the ten films competing for the Best Picture Award. Sadly, Spider-Man is not among them. See all the nominees for this year's Academy Awards here.
Art is often considered a form of worship. Hundreds of small towns in Europe have churches and chapels containing priceless Renaissance (and older) artworks that are not as well-known as those hanging in art museums. The church in Castrojeriz, Spain, had a half-dozen 17th-century Flemish tapestries created by a follower of Peter Paul Rubens named Corneille Schutz. The tapestries depicted the muses of the liberal arts. The largest was 13 feet tall and 20 feet wide! And in November of 1980, a thief came in and took them all.
The tapestries were tracked down one by one over the next few years, and so was the art thief. René Alphonse Ghislain van den Berghe had stolen thousands of artworks, and then spent many years helping police to recover them. But the largest of the Castrojeriz tapestries had been vandalized. It was missing a two-foot-square section of the lower left corner, which depicted an angel. It took more than 40 years for the missing piece to be found, but now it has been turned over to the curators of the collection.
Read the tale of the notorious art thief and the missing piece that has finally been reunited with its puzzle at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Carlospalacios)
After Colin Darke went to art school, he proceeded to law school and became a practicing attorney. That's not the usual career path for artists or lawyers, but Darke is definitely unusual. Among his other skills is his ability to draw with both hands.
Yes, he's ambidextrous, but he can also draw with both hands at the same time!
Darke worked as an attorney until he asked himself "what would my 80-year-old self tell myself right now?" His goal is to make his 80-year old self happy, so he began drawing more actively and posting his content on TikTok. Now Darke is a viral sensation as he draws precise images, usually with both hands, requested by his followers.
You can see more of Darke's work on Instagram.
-via Laughing Squid
Gatwick Airport in London ran into an unforeseen problem that is popping up all over the world. When you shut down for a pandemic, you have no idea how long the closure will be. One or two years later, you return to find the plants dead and the refrigerator moldy because you thought you'd be back in a week or two. Gatwick shut down an entire terminal due to fewer flights and passengers, and are now working to get it back up to snuff. Tom Scott once again takes a rather mundane subject and makes it well worth three minutes of your time.
Lucid dreaming is the ability to consciously control your dreams while having them. Whether reuniting with someone you’ve missed for a long time or showing off cool superpowers in an intense fight, molding your dreamscape into a desirable experience is achievable.
Also known as metacognitive dreaming or conscious dreaming, scientifically, this phenomenon involves the dreamer becoming conscious at the end of REM sleep. The person becomes aware that they are dreaming, which provides them the opportunity to mold the environment to their will. Tree Carr, who teaches regular dreaming workshops at She’s Lost Control, a London-based outlet for alternative wellness, shared to Wallpaper some steps on how to lucid dream. Check the full guide here!
Image credit: Jr Korpa
It certainly sounds like a plot point from an apocalyptic movie, or the least funny euphemism you could ever pull at conversations. However, it is a legitimate goal for this company. Quaise Energy, a pioneering energy company shared its newest idea into making geothermal energy the next big thing in renewable power resources. The company plans to dig deep into the Earth to supply said energy to multiple power grids around the globe. Ambitious, right?
(via Flipboard)
Image credit: Quaise Energy
This is adorable. Belgian photographer Niki Colemont is someone who you could call an expert in taking images of red squirrels. Colemont has spent six years photographing them and spent over 3,200 hours working on the subject.
His new series, which depicts the local squirrels found near his home, show the small animals having fun and interacting with toy dinosaurs. According to the 35-year-old, combining his fondness for dinosaurs and squirrels in his work was a great idea. “I was really addicted to dinosaurs in my childhood and then Steven Spielberg came with his Jurassic Park movies. I thought it was a great idea to bring my love for squirrels and dinosaurs together in a themed series and to pay a tribute to Jurassic Park,” he said.
Check more photos from the fun series here.
Image credit: Niki Colemont
A new study published in Science suggests that mammal babies dream of the world before being born. The team of researchers noticed that newborn mammals acted as if they were somewhat prepared to interact with their environment. “At eye opening, mammals are capable of pretty sophisticated behavior,” said Michael Craig, the leader of the team. “But how do the circuits form that allow us to perceive motion and navigate the world? It turns out we are born capable of many of these behaviors, at least in rudimentary form.”
To determine how exactly the babies behave, the scientists observed the retinas of newborn mice before they open their eyes for the first time. Craig and his peers noticed waves of activity from the retinas which disappear after birth, and are replaced by a a network of neural transmissions that carry visual stimuli to the brain. The dream-like activity helps the mouse get ready for what will happen when it opens its eyes.
Image credit: Nagara Oyodo
