A Beholder is a monstrous creature in the game Dungeons & Dragons. Natalie Sideserf of Sideserf Cake Studio in Austin, Texas (previously), made this cake in the image of a Beholder. While it does not look quite as malevolent as its reputation implies, it is apparently much sweeter on the inside. You can see a detailed video on how she made this Beholder cake at Laughing Squid.
The biggest shark ever was Otodus megalodon, now extinct, which could grow up to 50 feet long. And there may as well not even be a second place, as that's twice as big as any other shark. How did this shark get so big, and what makes it so different? For one thing, O. megalodon reproduced with eggs like other fish, but it does not lay eggs. Rather, the eggs hatch inside the mother, who gives birth to them later on. That allowed for larger baby sharks, but wasn't the best environment for some of them.
A new study, published today in Historical Biology by DePaul University paleontologist Kenshu Shimada and colleagues, suggests that cannibalism in utero may have helped set up the rise of the largest meat-eating shark of all time. The researchers suggest that a biological connection existed between having large, hungry babies, a metabolism that ran warm and increases in size—with the appetites of baby sharks driving their mothers to eat more and get bigger, which led the babies to get bigger themselves.
It's not that unborn sharks developed a taste for meat by eating eggs and sibling in utero, at least not that alone. Read about the evolutionary forces that could have driven megalodon to such great size at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Smithsonian Institution)
September 30. Haverhill, Massachusetts. A woman who temporarily cares for animals in need of homes was in the process of transporting an emu named Kermit to a farm in Maine. Suddenly, a gust of wind opened the gate where Kermit was being held, and the emu took its chance and ran away.
Haverhill police spokesman Capt. Stephen Doherty said a call came in at 9:16 a.m. for an "emu running toward Walnut Square (School)."
The bird later took strides on its long legs over to nearby 17th Avenue, where it was met by police and animal control officers, eyewitness Brianna Smith said.
Fortunately, the authorities were able to capture Kermit safely, thanks to their secret weapon: a pear.
The bird calmed down after being given a pear from a nearby pear tree and was carried to safety.
Now that’s what I call negotiation.
Well, what do you think?
(Image Credit: Eagle Tribune)
Sure, you already follow him on Instagram and listen to his podcast. But now you can watch live, streaming video thanks to a camera invented by Vikram Iyer, a doctoral student at the University of Washington.
It's a remarkable technical achievement. Not only is the image sensor tiny, but it's mounted on a swinging arm that matches the direction of the insect's head, thus presenting a more realistic depiction of a bug's view of the world.
To save on battery life, the camera only turns on when an accelerometer is triggered and thus remains dormant when the beetle doesn't move. As a result, the camera can capture video for up to six hours.
How is this useful? Iyer described his invention as more useful for robotics than entomology. King 5 News quotes him:
“If you need to build a robot that can fit into small spaces, you need a way to navigate around that environment,” said Iyer. “And vision is one of the major ways people solve these problems.”
At the core, he said it’s essentially a tiny computing platform ready to be modified for different uses.
-via Dave Barry | Image: Science magazine
Matt Benedetto, an inventor in Vermont, specializes in gadgets with little to no practical value. But every now and then, he makes something actually useful. These spring-loaded crutches, for example, help him get around while his broken foot heals. He'll surely bounce back soon now that he's healing.
Maci Curran is 17 years old, and she is 6' 10" tall. She will be included in the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest legs of any woman, and the longest legs of any teenager.
Her left leg measures 135.267 cm (53.255 in), while her right leg measures 134.3 cm (52.874 in).
Maci’s family, from Cedar Park, Texas, are relatively tall but none of her other siblings or parents quite match her height.
Standing at 6 ft 10 in tall, her legs actually make up 60% of her total height! She wanted to go after this record title to inspire tall people everywhere to embrace their height.
In the picture above, she is standing with her mother, the only one in the family who isn't tall. She has always towered over her classmates, which gives her an advantage on her high school volleyball team. Read about Curran and see a video at the Guinness World Records site. -via Boing Boing
Almost all citrus fruits came from three Asian plants: the mandarin, the pomelo, and the citron. The oranges, limes, and lemons we have are products of careful crossbreeding between these base fruits and their hybrids. Then there's the grapefruit. It developed from the various citrus fruits imported to the West Indies, in some haphazard manner that history hasn't properly recorded. Even the origins of the word grapefruit is shrouded in mystery, although there are several theories of how the grapefruit was named.
This is largely guesswork, almost all of it, because citrus is a delightfully chaotic category of fruit. It hybridizes so easily that there are undoubtedly thousands, maybe more, separate varieties of citrus in the wild and in cultivation. Some of these, like the grapefruit, clementine, or Meyer lemon, catch on and become popular. But trying to figure out exactly where they came from, especially if they weren’t created recently in a fruit-breeding lab, is incredibly difficult.
A Frenchman named Odet Philippe is generally credited with bringing the grapefruit to the American mainland, in the 1820s. He was the first permanent European settler in Pinellas County, Florida, where modern-day Tampa lies. (It took him several attempts; neither the swamp ecology nor the Native people particularly wanted him there.) Grapefruit was Philippe’s favorite citrus fruit, and he planted huge plantations of it, and gave grafting components to his neighbors so they could grow the fruit themselves. (It is thought that Phillippe was Black, but he also purchased and owned enslaved people.) In 1892, a Mainer named Kimball Chase Atwood, having achieved success in the New York City insurance world, moved to the 265 acres of forest just south of Tampa Bay he’d purchased. Atwood burned the whole thing to the ground and started planting stuff, and soon he dedicated the land to his favorite crop: the grapefruit. The dude planted 16,000 grapefruit trees.
Grapefruit, though, is wild, and wants to remain wild.
What's weirder than the history of grapefruit is the nature of the fruit itself, due to its strange chemistry. Read how grapefruit can be uniquely dangerous at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Stella Murphy)
Hey, it’s an eco-friendly option! The demand for Indonesian coffin maker Natianingsih‘s rattan coffin increased by 50 percent in early 2020. Some Europeans are choosing to bury their loved ones with rattan coffins, a more environmentally-friendly casket than the traditional wooden caskets. Watch South China Morning Post’s full piece on the rise of popularity of these eco-friendly caskets.
The Supreme Court of Ireland has ruled that the bread baked and sold at Subway cannot be legally defined as bread. The reason? It has too much sugar.
The ruling came in a tax dispute brought by Bookfinders Ltd., an Irish Subway franchisee, which argued that some of its takeaway products - including teas, coffees and heated sandwiches - were not liable for value-added tax.
A panel of judges rejected the appeal Tuesday, ruling that the bread sold by Subway contains too much sugar to be categorized as a “staple food,” which is not taxed.
“There is no dispute that the bread supplied by Subway in its heated sandwiches has a sugar content of 10% of the weight of the flour included in the dough, and thus exceeds the 2% specified,” the judgement read.
The judgment has stated that the law makes a distinction between “bread as a staple food” and “fancy baked goods.”
Subway disagreed with the characterization in a statement.
“Subway’s bread is, of course, bread,” the company said in an email. “We have been baking fresh bread in our restaurants for more than three decades and our guests return each day for sandwiches made on bread that smells as good as it tastes.”
What are your thoughts about this one?
(Image Credit: Cxshawx/ Wikimedia Commons)
I don’t know if this is an intended pun or not, but this sure is clever and cute. It makes me wonder where the bee’s wings went, however.
What do you think?
Image via Engrish.com
Is it a glimpse into the future? Hyundai’s lowkey scary four-legged robot car concept called Elevate is something straight out of a sci-fi movie. The company has announced a new studio that will work on “ultimate mobility vehicles,” including the Elevate. New Atlas has more details:
New Horizons Studio will bring together Hyundai's expertise in vehicles, robotics and intelligent mobility in order to push the boundaries of vehicular engineering to "reimagine how vehicles might traverse the world." And that world definitely isn't limited to mere road, track and level trail, but also applies to "unconventional and off-road terrain, including places where vehicles have never roamed before."
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Hyundai calls the Elevate concept the first UMV on which New Horizons will work. As imagined during initial concept phase, the Elevate has four electric-driven wheels attached to robotic legs. It can travel as a pod-like electric car, but its real magic happens when terrain becomes impassable ... or so it seems. The Elevate extends its legs to walk, climb and stretch over obstacles. The legs have five degrees of motion, including wheels that rotate 360 degrees in relation to the "ankle" for precise micro-movement. Hyundai said the Elevate could climb up to 5 feet (1.5 m) of vertical wall and step over 5-foot gaps.
Image via the New Atlas
This McGillMedia post gives a glimpse of the old Japanese lumber growing technique of Daisugi. It's like a giant bonsaï.
Maybe a better solution for modern and responsible forest management ?
Master pie artist Jessica Clark-Bojin (previously at Neatorama) is challenging members of the Instagram piecrafting community to devise a #MonsterPie for Halloween. One of her own contributions is this frightening Jack-o-lantern pie that offers more than a hollow interior. Her whole Instagram page is worth exploring, as she has already become internet famous for such works as Dark Crystal and baby Yoda pies.
-via Design You Trust
Alright, say you have the funds, resources, and the opportunity to go on a vacation amidst the pandemic. Of course, you’d rather have a safe getaway, right? The Diamanten Cabin in Oppdal, Norway might be a good option. Also called as “the diamond,” the visually enigmatic cabin was designed and constructed by A38 Arkitekter:
Nestled nearby traditionally vibrant timber cabins, the Diamanten Cabin is unassuming in size, with a total of only a single, open room.
However, The Diamanten’s artistry is found not in its size, but in the way it appeals to the landscape and vernacular structures that cradle it. The frame of the cabin is structured so that the roof cascades gracefully in the direction of the massive mountain that frames its larger community. The cabin’s transparent pitched roof provides a vista point for the expansive valley’s horizon that rests just ahead of it. The minimal, yet sturdy cylindrical foundation emphasizes the designer’s devotion to environmental harmony as the single-room home borrows minimal physical space in its conception, maintaining the natural state of the surrounding land.
Image via Yanko Design
A few years ago, the National Aquarium of New Zealand instituted a Naughty Penguin of the Month award, in which we all got to know the aquarium's penguins as the individuals they are. If you have a favorite penguin, you'll want to vote in the third annual Penguin of the Year competition! Even if you don't have a favorite penguin already, you will soon. Click on a picture at the contest page to read about each of the 14 contenders, and then place your vote. Follow the progress of the competition at Twitter or Facebook. -via Metafilter
