A year ago, we told you about a real-life Willy Wonka scheme. David “Candyman” Klein hid golden tickets in each state for a treasure hunt that would lead up to awarding someone with a candy factory. That someone is Andrew Maas, who followed clues for a year and ultimately found the last golden ticket at a park in Kokomo, Indiana.   

Maas registered his find on the treasure hunt website. Twenty minutes later, Klein called him while he was still in Highland Park and told him he had won. He had just won the candy factory.

Maas was floored. He now owned the plant, which makes an edible sand-art treat called Sandy Candy, along with other sweet concoctions. But he knew he couldn’t pick up his wife and two kids and move them to Florida to run the business.

Instead, the two are now working on an agreement in which Klein gives him the factory and then buys it back from him. Maas said he’s fine with whatever the agreement turns out to be.

Maas said the excitement and adventure of the treasure hunt was the real draw, but he's glad to have the money. Read how Kokomo was chosen for the final destination, and how Maas solved the clues to find it at the Kokomo Tribune.  -via Fark 

You may have seen people build skateboard ramps and pipes in their backyards. But Macu Bulgubure, an architect, has incorporated that convenience into the design of this house in Rosario, Argentina.

German theorist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach studied and wrote of racial hierarchies more than 200 years ago. He posited that the epitome of racial superiority were the people of the Caucasus Mountains, particularly the region of Circassia, which is why we use the word "Caucasian" today. In the US in the 19th century, putting the word Circassian in front of any beauty product meant it would sell well. In 1865, as Americans were dealing with issues of race at the end of the Civil War, P.T. Barnum debuted his first Circassian Beauty, a woman named Zalumma Agra.    

A staple of dime museums and traveling shows throughout the nineteenth century, Circassian beauties were alleged to be from the Caucasus Mountain region, and were famous for both their legendary looks and their large, seemingly Afro-textured hairstyles. The Circassian beauty was an attraction that required audiences to hold a number of ultimately unresolvable stereotypes in tension with each other. These women were presented as chaste, but were also billed as former harem slaves. They were supposedly of noble lineage but appeared as sideshow attractions. And they were displayed to predominantly white audiences for an exoticism that traded on hair associated with Black women, which came coupled with the paradoxical assurance that, being Caucasian, Circassian beauties represented the height of white racial “purity”.

Zalumma Agra came with a perfectly exotic backstory as a Circassian slave rescued from Turkey, but more likely she was a white performer who had super-curly hair. Or, as seen in later versions of the Circassian Beauty, she altered her hair to fit the part. But the fact that these acts lasted into the 20th century reveals the audience's fascination with race and the politics that surround it. Read the history of the sideshow Circassian Beauties at the Public Domain review. -via Nag on the Lake

This video is from the Youtube channel Brick bending. The unusual use of Lego constructions hovers between magic and art. I'm now waiting for the ASMR version and I'll be in paradise! :)

Royal Museums Greenwich, home of the Royal Observatory, has announced the winners of their annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The grand prize goes to Shuchang Dong, who traveled to Tibet to get this image of the solar eclipse of 2020, titled The Golden Ring. To his dismay, it was a cloudy day, but the heavens opened up just long enough to get this picture of the corona.  

The winner in the Stars and Nebulae category is British photographer Terry Hancock for this image called California Dreamin' NGC 1499. See the winners in each of eight categories plus two other awards, with links to other photographs in the shortlist for each category.

Inventor Ralph Woltstem doesn't call them shock absorbers, but that's basically what he had in mind when he filed this patent in 1928. In order to provide breasts with the support that they need during vigorous movement (e.g. anime), he proposed installing springs that support each breast from the bottom:

Another object of the invention is to provide a breast supporting device in which the breast supporting member is normally held in a vertical position by equalizing springs which allow lateral movement to be imparted thereto upon side bending body movement of a wearer so that upon the return to an upright position, the said breast supporting member will automatically return to normal position, thus readily adapting itself to the said body movement of the wearer.

I see no historical evidence that Woltstem's invention entered mass production.

-via Weird Universe

Just in time for the weekend, here are some of the cutest animals we've featured on Supa Fluffy over the week.

Southern white rhino calf named Nandi ("sweet one" in Zulu), born late August at the ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in England, finally took a walk outside (don't miss the aww-so-cute video!)

What would you do if a wild baby fox move into your backyard?

Indonesian wildlife photographer Ajar Setiadi took a pic of frogs using a flower as an umbrella.

Don't mess with this New Zealand school's new chicken traffic officer.

This cute pet rat named Mr Blick plays the harmonica better than I do ... and he's got a Spotify tune, too!

Bonk! A curious whale plays with a woman on a paddle board in the Argentine Patagonia.

Stadium cat fell from the upper deck of a football stadium, but was saved when nice people caught it with a flag.

This mouse family lives in a tiny hobbit house.

Image above: ZSL Whipsnade Zoo

If this were a list, you could argue about it. Well, some people will argue about it anyway, even though it's a compilation and should just be enjoyed as such. Looper takes a look at the more ridiculous scenes over the different series of the Star Trek Universe. You may think that the setup for each scene is a little long, but if they didn't explain what was happening, we'd either be confused or else the video would be more than an hour long. -via Laughing Squid

Researchers from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University have explored ‘hot streak--’ a period of high-impact works by an artist clustered together in close succession. Dashun Wang was motivated to discover what triggers an artist’s hot streak, and he was inspired after visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Phys Org has more details: 

Van Gogh experienced an artistic breakthrough from 1888-1890, during which he painted his most famous works, including The Starry Night, Sunflowers and Bedroom in Arles. Before that, however, his work was less impressionistic and more realistic. He also tended to use somber earth tones rather than the bright, sweeping colors, for which he is best known today.

"If you look at his production before 1888, it was all over the place," Wang said. "It was full of still-life paintings, pencil drawings and portraits that are much different in character from the work he created during his hot streak."

By using artificial intelligence to mine big data related to artists, film directors and scientists, the Northwestern researchers discovered this pattern is not uncommon but, instead, a magical formula. Hot streaks, they found, directly result from years of exploration (studying diverse styles or topics) immediately followed by years of exploitation (focusing on a narrow area to develop deep expertise).

The research will be published on Sept. 13 in the journal Nature Communications.

With this new understanding about what triggers a hot streak, institutions can intentionally create environments that support and facilitate hot streaks in order to help their members thrive.

Image credit: wikimedia commons

I don’t know if these new trash cans would entice or scare people into throwing garbage in them.The Japanese arm of Coca-Cola collaborated with local officials and people involved with the Attack On Titan series to promote urban cleanliness and recycling. Well, these Titan-inspired trash cans certainly catch the eye: 

If you wanted more people to be aware of their local urban sanitation, lifting some of the most terrifying villains in recent anime history is a good place to start. Because of their size, these trash cans and recycling bins actually give a fairly accurate idea of what titans would look like if they were real. Now we just need this AI to be able to give the complete picture.

This initiative wasn’t the first time Attack On Titan IP was used to encourage more environmentally-conscious behavior either. Earlier this year another Attack On Titan recycling bin was used to collect polyethylene terephthalate bottles. This makes me think about what exactly would resonate the same way in America... Peter Griffin? Homer? Mechanized Tom Brady?

Image credit: Change For The Blue

It’s adorable to watch. The border collie in the video noticed a man lounging on a park bench in The Colony, Texas. Just like any friendly, playful dog-- whose name is Nova, by the way, she decided to approach the man to see if he would like to play frisbee with her. 

The gentleman, who looked very bronze and stationary, was actually a sculpture of President Abraham Lincoln. I feel bad for Nova now. I hope someone actually played with her during her park visit! 

At the turn of the 20th century, scientists knew about contagion, but the concept of an asymptomatic carrier was completely new. How could someone spread a disease when they weren't sick? We can't say that Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary, was the first asymptomatic carrier, but she was the first that health officials knew about. Determining how all these wealthy families families came to contract typhoid would be easy now, since they all hired the same cook, but inspectors at the time were looking for actual sick people or bacteria in the water supply. George Thompson owned a vacation house in which the Warren family became sick, and he was determined to find the source to protect future renters.  

Desperate to get to the bottom of the puzzle, Thompson hired George Soper, thirty-seven-year-old freelance civil engineer who had been investigating typhoid outbreaks in well-to-do families. After learning that the Warrens had hired a new cook, who no longer worked with them, Soper had his suspicions. Soper was able to trace Mary's employment history back to 1900. He found that typhoid outbreaks had followed Mary from job to job. From 1900 to 1907, Soper found that Mary had worked at seven jobs in which 22 people had become ill, including one young girl who died with typhoid fever shortly after Mary had come to work for them.

Soper tracked Mary down to her new place of employment, the family of Walter Bowens, who lived on Park Avenue. There was typhoid in the residence too. Soper found that two of the household's servants were hospitalized, and the daughter of the family had died of typhoid.

Soper confronted Mary in the kitchen of the Bowens, and asked her to give samples of her urine and stool. This infuriated Mary. Grabbing a carving fork from the table, Mary chased Soper out of the house. Sopher tried again, this time in the apartment of a man Mary was spending time with. Mary threw Sopher out again, swearing the whole way.

If she had cooperated, the name Mary Mallon might only be known in science and medical circles, but she fought quarantine for years and became so notorious that her nickname is still used for people who spread disease. Read the story of Typhoid Mary at Amusing Planet. 

Bone Discovery Suggests Humans Were Already Manufacturing Clothes 120,000 Years Agohttps://t.co/HAIURNkU9c

— ScienceAlert (@ScienceAlert) September 17, 2021

Pinpointing when humans started wearing clothes is tricky, as leather, fur, and textiles tend to rot completely away. However, we can find hints in the tools people used to make clothing. A team headed by Emily Hallett of the Max Planck Institute has been excavating a cave in Morocco that has yielded some 12,000 bone fragments. Some of those bones, dated to around 120,000 years ago, have markings that match newer bones from other sites that were used to skin animals for fur and leather. In addition to these bone tools, other animal bones suggest that the people who lived there ate herbivores and just skinned carnivores.   

"In this cave there are three species of carnivores with skinning marks on their bones: Rüppell's fox, golden jackal, and wildcat," Hallett told ScienceAlert.

"The cut marks on these carnivore bones are restricted to areas where incisions are made for fur removal, and there are no cut marks on the areas of the skeleton associated with meat removal."

While for leather, several species of bovid were found at the site.

"Hartebeest, aurochs, and gazelle bones were found in high abundance in the cave, and these animals were also consumed by humans, because there are cut marks associated with meat removal on their bones," added Hallett.  

These are the oldest leather working tools yet found. However, genetic studies in lice suggest that head lice and clothing lice diverged around 170,000 years ago, which may mean there are even earlier leather working tools to be found somewhere. Read about the discovery at ScienceAlert. -via Strange Company

Superman? I’m just your daily journalist #NFID22 pic.twitter.com/0aL2Awnac8

— Ronith Arum (@ronitharum) September 14, 2021

North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills, Michigan, (previously and previously) has a tradition of letting their senior class wear what they want for their student identification cards. They've been doing it since 2014, and the incoming seniors plan their costumes long ahead of time. The class of 2022 has received their ID cards, and the students have posted them to Twitter.

“Mulan you will NEVER bring your family honor” @nfhs2022 #NFID22 pic.twitter.com/GU5tJ2xQxM

— jess💍. (@jessicawang23) September 14, 2021

#NFID22@nfhs_2022

I’m scared, she hasn’t gotten her muffin yet… pic.twitter.com/KspJB9B2Ht

— Em ⁷ 🏳️‍🌈 🎗 (@LittleJelly469) September 14, 2021

“I NEED A HERO” #NFID22 #nfhs_22 pic.twitter.com/lA5bIRv0eq

— Leah (@Leah09086642) September 14, 2021

Even one of the teachers got into it!

I threatened for years….I bring you @britneyspears #FreeBritney #NFID22 pic.twitter.com/oKOgDgicNY

— NFHS Engineering (@NFHSEngArch) September 14, 2021

You can check out all the ID cards that have been posted with the hashtag #NFID22. Or see a gallery of the best ones in a list at Bored Panda.

Well, Walead Beshty seems… inspired. The LA-based artist packaged his art pieces in FedEx boxes and shipped them across the countries to exhibitions and galleries. One would expect that extra precautions are made in delivering precious cargo for display, but Beshty intentionally designed his pieces to break. The reasoning behind this odd decision was that the sculptor wanted to obtain a ‘fingerprint’ that documented the journey of each package to its destination: 

The FedEx works […] initially interested me because they’re defined by a corporate entity in legal terms. There’s a copyright designating the design of each FedEx box, but there’s also the corporate ownership over that very shape. It’s a proprietary volume of space, distinct from the design of the box, which is identified through what’s called a SSCC #, a Serial Shipping Container Code. I considered this volume as my starting point; the

perversity of a corporation owning a shape—not just the design of the object—and

also the fact that the volume is actually separate from the box. They’re owned

independently from one another.

Furthermore, I was interested in how art objects acquire meaning through their context and through travel, what Buren called, something like, “the unbearable compromise of the portable work of art”. So, I wanted to make a work that was specifically organized around its traffic, becoming materially manifest through its movement from one place to another.

Image credit: The Whitney Museum of American Art