I don't have much information about this lamp design. But it appears that dropping a steel marble in the top activates the power switch. It takes about 21 seconds for the marble to spin in the video. Alternatively, I suppose, an impatient user could simply drop the marble down the hole.
-via Core77
Katerina Murphy, an artist in Ukraine, makes three-dimensional stained glass sculptures. They're made, specifically, out of sea glass, which is weathered glass that washes up on beaches. Slide a light inside and they turn into vibrant cat lamps.
Vitaly Vivchar of Tomsk, Russia trained with yoga and freediving techniques before attempting this amazing feat. While holding his breath, he climbed onto a submerged bench and pressed a 110-pound barbell 77 times! In doing so, Vivchar blasted pass the previous record of 62 presses.
Some sources are reporting that Vivchar only completed 76 presses. Either way, the current Guinness World Record is his.
A poll of 1,211 US adults was conducted by YouGov. The participants were instructed to choose which of two states is the better state, with seven matchups per participant. The results were ranked by which states were selected the highest percentage of the time. Whether the results reflect experience or reputation is up in the air, as we don't know whether the participants travel extensively or not. Read more about the survey at YouGov. -via Fark
Portal 2 turns 10! The popular co-op and puzzle game was announced in 2010, and was available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PCs. The game was rated the 2nd best on Time's list of best games of 2011. Happy birthday, blow out the candles, but be careful, the cake is a lie!
It was a decisive moment in French history when the notorious prison known as the Bastille was stormed in 1789. The Bastille was destroyed, but the site in central Paris remained important to the people of France. What kind of monument should be in that place? For 32 years, it was a huge elephant.
When the Bastille fell in July 1789 and subsequently demolished, there was some debate as to what should replace the former prison. It was decided that the area would become a square celebrating liberty, and a column would be erected there. A foundation stone was laid but the column never materialized. Instead, a fountain was built in 1793, depicting the Egyptian God Isis with water flowing from her breasts. But Napoleon had more grandiose plans. In 1810, the emperor decreed that a new fountain was to be erected, in the shape of an elephant, one that would be heroic and delightful to all who beheld it.
Napoleon's vision was that the elephant should be made of bronze, incorporating the cannons he had seized from enemies. But Napoleon would only be in power a few more years, and that spelled doom for the elephant monument, although it outlived him for some time. Read about Napoleon's elephant at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: Aquarelle de Jean-Antoine Alavoine)
I don't want my cat to see the bedroom of Michael's Cat lest I get tasked with building a private room for him. The room has all of the essentials: a bed, a rug, art hanging on the wall, and a TV monitor. I don't see a door to ensure privacy, but we can assume that's a work in progress.
-via Super Punch
Sadly, this product is not widely available yet. It's a one-off created by a friend of Twitter user Danimal Cannon after he joked about pickling cucumbers in Monster Energy drink. Let us hope that the Monster Beverage Corporation seizes upon this brilliant idea and puts these pickles on grocery store shelves all over the world.
-via Super Punch
This 4-month old puppy, Emy, found a butterfly in her yard in Brazil. Her humans report that the two played together for over an hour. Such is bliss.
-via Nag on the Lake
Norma Shearer was the supremely confident early Hollywood star whose career survived both the advent of "talkies" and the censorship of the Hayes Code. Between those two cinematic milestones, she turned the popular concept of womanhood in movies on its ear by playing woman with real personalities and sex drives. Shearer never let an opportunity slip by, and she went from being rejected by the Zeigfeld Follies to a contract with Louis B. Mayer and marriage to Irving Thalberg.
The role that eventually won her an Oscar almost wasn’t given to her. Shearer’s own husband initially did not want to cast her in The Divorcee because he didn’t believe she had the sex appeal. She took it upon her self to organise a boudoir photo shoot to convince him that she could be cast as the sensual lead in The Divorcee.
Her character in the film was that of a wife who discovers her husband’s affair and seeks to settle the score with an adulterous tryst of her own, challenging the double standards of marriage. In the pivotal pre-code film, Shearer played Jerry to be a sympathetic character, someone strong and rather than a bitter and vindictive woman.
She was “the exemplar of sophisticated 1930s womanhood,” wrote film historian Mick LaSale, “exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards.” Norma was able to help change the way women were viewed on screen and with The Divorcee, among other films, she helped pave the way for the likes of Mae West and Jean Harlow.
Shearer showed Hollywood that style and daring (and acting skills) mattered more than a perfect face. Read about Norma Shearer's life and her effect on cinema at Messy Messy Chic.
(Image credit: MGM)
The fjords of Norway are beautiful, but with varying widths, depths, and complicated geography, they aren't easy to navigate. The ocean around them isn't all that easy, either. To make traveling by water faster and simpler, the country has greenlit a massive project to build the world's first full-scale ship tunnel. The Stad Ship Tunnel through the Stadhavet peninsula, expected to be completed in 2026, will be a mile long and large enough to accommodate a cruise ship! This video explains why it's needed and how it will be done. -via Nag on the Lake
David Butler would rather not appear in his fiancée's Zoom meetings. Or, perhaps, his fiancée would prefer that he not show up. Either way, he donned a morph suit that Zoom will use to digitally remove him from the background as he passes by.
-via Geekologie
Back in the day when newspapers were just about the only form of daily entertainment, New York papers printed stories that may or may not be true to fill pages, and no one complained as long as they were entertaining. The 1895 hijinks of a goat and his cat friend were just more fodder for the morning edition. A goat, "who had been living on tomato cans, nails, and broken glass for months," smelled the papier-mâché icicles that were being installed above the new ice skating rink. The goat could not reach them, and set out to enlist the help of Dolph, a cat who was renowned for doing tricks on stage.
The goat ran down Lexington Avenue and stopped in front of Mr. Falk’s house, where he bleated a special signal to summon his feline friend. Dolph saw his goat friend through the window and exited the basement door to join him. “There was consultation and then off the two started, and a few moments later halted in front of the ice palace.”
The goat gave Dolph a few instructions, and the cat took off, scrambling up the felt-covered walls toward the ceiling. He then dodged into a hole that marked the uncompleted part of the sub-ceiling. According to The Sun reporter–who noted that details of the story were not all necessarily true–Dolph bit off a few icicles for his goat friend.
After satisfying his friend’s hunger, Dolph decided to satisfy his curiosity by prowling around between the two ceilings. Meanwhile, workmen continued building the icicle sub-ceiling, eventually sealing the hole through which Dolph had entered.
This unlikely explanation led to Dolph being trapped in the ceiling for eight days, which may be true enough. Less likely was the epilogue about the goat and cat no longer speaking after the incident. Read the story and how it turned out at The Hatching Cat. -via Strange Company
For those of you who have been craving some juicy Apple information, we have some big news to share. Your waiting is finally over! Last week Siri, everyone’s favorite virtual assistant, let it slip that on April 20th Apple will hold the Spring Loaded event. Since then rumors have been thrown left and right. Here are some things to expect (and hope for).
iPad Pro
With the iPad Air having a better chip and worse camera setup, most are wondering if a new iPad Pro is going to drop. That would make the Pro the definitive iPad.
There is a big rumor that the new iPad Pro will have a chip comparable to the M1. That would make it a great alternative if you are looking for a powerful work-from-home machine. If the iPad Pro also ends up being 5G compatible, that machine will also be a great work-from-anywhere device. Here’s hoping that happens!
Some experts also expect the iPad Pro to have a new mini-LED screen and Thunderbolt. The mini-LED screen would allow for less burn in and deeper blacks. Thunderbolt would make for better display connectivity. This is one rumor I think might actually be true.
AirTags
The forever rumoured AirTags (which are tracking keychains using similar technology to Find My iPhone) are a possibility, but I give this bit of gossip a big maybe. One of the most reliable leakers said that nothing “particularly innovative” is going to be at this event.
Let’s hope we are both wrong. I would love to see AirTags.
Image: MacRumors
MacBook Pro
The MacBooks are infamous for their lack of ports, and the design is due for a refresh. Video editors everywhere are hoping for a new model with a SD card reader. This, however, doesn’t sound like a very Apple-y thing to do. Apple is known for their less-is-more strategy.
SD card reader or not, leakers are sadly hinting that we won’t hear much about the MacBook Pro at this event.
Image: MacBook Pro 2014
Apple Pencil
An update of Apple’s popular drawing tool would pair nicely with an announcement of a new iPad. It makes sense for the company to create something else to market to artists who will be investing in fresh devices with the improved displays. There is even an image circulating online that claims to be a leaked photo of said pen. The picture suggests that the new pencil might go back to its glossy plastic origins. I would take that rumor with a big grain of salt.
Image: Mr. White
AirPods
The popular wireless listening device hasn’t gotten a refresh since 2019 (which seems like a million years to a tech company). My unconfirmed hopes are that Apple will come out with multiple silicon tips, an option for foam, and no stems. I also hope, but doubt, that they will be fully compatible with Windows and Android. If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t take this bet.
And More!
There is certainly room for a lot more surprises. Possibilities include a new iMac, hinted at by the curve of the spring loaded logo being the same as the Hello from the original Macintosh. Who knows! Maybe the whole Siri leak was intentional, and we’ll be getting an entire Siri interface redesign (IDK). Expect the unexpected, get your bots ready to scalp all the new gadgets. Tune in on April 20th, 10:00 AM Pacific!
Spry Fox had its players in mind when developing the exploration and adventure game called Cozy Grove. The game has ghost bears! If that isn’t enough for you, note that the game does not beg the player to consistently play the game for 24 hours. Cozy Grove won’t make you miss a special event when you don’t play for a full day (or every day- I’m looking at you, Animal Crossing). The Next Web’s Tristan Greene shares his review on the recently-released title:
Most players will find the game’s combination of task-based quests and character interaction take up about 30 or so minutes a day. Once you’ve done everything you can do, you’ll have to wait about a day to do more quests.
On first inclination, this feels a bit like a rip-off. You pay your hard-earned money for a game and its developers essentially tell you to play on their terms. But then I realized Spry Fox wasn’t trying to sell me any shortcuts, loot boxes, or other crap.
From what I’ve been able to discern, Spry Fox intended for players to experience the game in small bites over months at a time rather than exhaust its content in a week of marathon play sessions.
Honestly, I might check this game out for myself.
Image via The Next Web
