Move over, M.C. Escher! There's a new tessellation guy in town and he does it with somethign far better than ink and paper.

Artist and weaver Theo Rooden of the Netherlands decided to experiment with creating tessellation patterns with Pringles potato crisps.

It's a good choice of medium, as I've mentioned before, it's always good when you can eat the results of your experiments.

We've been told over and over again how smart crows are, but they still astonish us now and then. Logically, we know that flying should be more thrilling than anything humans can do, but we all know in our hearts how much fun it is to slide down a snowy hill. This crow has commandeered a piece of trash to act as a sled! Or, more accurately, a snowboard since he stands up on it. He flies up to the top of the snow bank, then slides down on his snowboard. When the snowboard gets away, he chases after it before some other crow can get it.

Give them a little time, and the entire flock (or murder) will be raiding the garbage for flat pieces of plastic. Then they'll organize their own X games to compete with each other. After all, crows are pretty smart. -via Nag on the Lake

Cats normally look dignified and downright majestic in their luxurious fur coats. But occasionally, a cat needs to be shaved for medical reasons, like surgery or a skin condition. That's when we get to see the fat, wrinkles, and lumps that a fur coat hides. Or in some cases, a really skinny cat is revealed underneath all that fluff. I once had a cat I thought was big until she was shaved, and then realized that she was 90% hair. In these seven images, exposed skin can make a cat look like he forgot to put his pants on, or rolled up his sleeves for some reason. They are blissfully unaware of how funny they look to us, except for cat number seven who is daring us to say anything about his condition. Or maybe he looks at his humans that way all the time. Let's hope these kitties recover from whatever caused this outrage and that their fur grows back to normal soon. -via Boing Boing

Most of my life, I assumed that the way you could tell alligators from crocodiles is that alligators lived in Florida and crocodiles lived in other countries. But there are crocodiles in Florida, and in fact there were once a lot of Florida crocodiles. The crocodile population has declined a lot in comparison to alligators, mainly because of encroaching human development on the seashore. But crocodiles still hang on in Florida, with most of the remaining animals living in the canals near the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami. The cooling canals transfer heat away from the power plant, and the warm waters created a whole new ecosystem. This warm, salty water with no humans living on the shores is the perfect place for crocodiles and the creatures they feed on.

Ans now that we know about these crocodiles living near a nuclear facility, how long will it be until we get a movie about killer mutant Florida crocodiles? That won't be any good for the crocs' survival.

In the hands of a skilled mixologist, a flaming drink can be a floor show in itself. Making and serving such drinks are a ritual, a ceremony in honor of the person who ordered it. But besides that, cocktails that have been kissed with fire are more than the sum of their parts. After the pyrotechnics, the drink is warm and has a certain caramelized flavor that it wouldn't have otherwise.

If your experience with fiery drinks is limited to flaming shots, you are in for a treat. Atlas Obscura takes a good look at several classic flaming cocktail recipes, including Charles Dickens' punch, which is like a boozy lemonade that's been cooked just enough to make it special. Then there's the hot ale flip, which doesn't exactly involve flame, but cooking a drink with a hot poker fresh from the fire is, uh, flamboyant enough. Or consider the show-stopping Blue Blazer, mixed cup to cup while on fire, and the decadent flaming coffee drink café brûlot. Read about all these, plus the real secret behind getting alcohol to stay lit at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Tom Head)

It's a scary operation, and you may have even tried it yourself at one time or another. It's the kitty transplant. Cats don't always want to go to the place you want them to be, so the transplant has to be done very carefully. Specifically, the cat must be kept in the same position as it is being transplanted. Will the cat take root where it is transplanted? There's no way to predict, and the odds are against it. Adverse reactions range from a violent action during hte procedure to merely wandering off afterward. But if you're lucky, the cat will flourish in its new spot. In this recreation, Abram Engle turns to an expert for advice about getting his orange cat Kurt to relax in bed instead of his usual cat basket. Let's listen in as they attempt a kitty transplant, and sweat it out waiting to see if the operation was a success. (via Nag on the Lake)

When Germany was defeated by Allied forces in 1945, the nation was in chaos. Hitler was dead, his generals either fled or were arrested, and most government agencies were barely functioning. The nation was partitioned into zones, with the American zone comprising 40,000 square miles containing 16 million Germans. What was left of the German police force was diminished by the war and distrusted by the citizens, while corruption, black market trade, and banditry ran rampant. Meanwhile, almost all US soldiers were heading home.

To deal with the situation, the US launched the US Constabulary. It was an elite service meant to cover a large area with as few law enforcement officers as possible. Soldiers were trained at an American police academy in Germany, and then given quite a bit of leeway in enforcing the law. But because of that, each member of the Constabulary was held to the highest ethical standrads. They were trained in the delicate art of winning the German people's trust while resisting the temptation to enrich themselves in the postwar chaos. The members of the US Constabulary were called "Circle C Cowboys" because of the insignia they wore, a yellow circle with a "C" and a lightning bolt. They also wore distinctive yellow scarves that made them instantly recognizable by the Germans. The Circle C Cowboys served as law enforcement in postwar Germany for years, but began drawing back their numbers in 1948. By 1952, the program ended as Germany began to stand on its own feet. Read about the Circle C Cowboys at Military History Now. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: US-Army and Deutsches Historisches Museum)

Shinichi Furuya is a researcher in the field of the physiology of musicians, as well as a pianist. He wants to optimize piano playing, driving pianists to their physical limits. Do do so, New Scientist reports, Furuya and his colleagues have developed a machine that can improve the finger speed of users.

The exoskeleton wraps around the hand and jerks each finger up to four times each second and moves them in motions specific to piano playing. When tested on pianists, a mere 30-minute session with the device substantially improved finger speed. Brain scans indicated that the pianists had greater motion control after this training.

-via David Thompson

Colorado has the highest lighthouse in the United States and this is a photo of it.

But wait--why does Colorado have a lighthouse at all? It's landlocked.

Well, the Frisco Bay lighthouse is located close to the Dillon Reservoir outside of Denver. The site has an elevation of 9,017 feet, thus making this structure, which is a mere 26 feet all, the highest lighthouse in the United States.

It's actually functional, not just a decoration, as it provides a beacon directing recreational boaters to the nearby marina. K99 News reports that it was built when the reservoir was constructed in the 1960s.

-via Terrible Maps | Photo: CodeJeffrey

YouTuber Photo Owl Time Lapse brings us an up close and personal view of what happens to a watermelon as it ages. He carved a hole into the melon, removed a large part of the fruit and juice, and installed a GoPro camera. He also drilled a hole to provide light for the video.

The first thing that happens is due to gravity. We find out that even a watermelon that has been drained retains a lot of water, which pools at the bottom. Then over time, gasses form and bubble up and mold and other fungus moves in. Meanwhile, the juice stagnates and the upper part starts to dry out. We can enjoy it because we aren't subject to the smell. Eventually, the top of the fruit collapses and the camera is drawn back. But the rotting goes on for twice as long -for 128 days in all! By that time the putrid juice is drying up, but it's so toxic that it peels the paint off the inside of the container. Let's hope this happened nowhere near the videographer's living quarters. -via Boing Boing

The year 1975 was just yesterday, but it was also 50 years ago. That was back went you could go into a record store and watch the staff open a case of new vinyl albums with artful and easy-to-see covers. Some of the new releases had been eagerly awaited, like Physical Graffiti. Led Zeppelin's sixth album contained the titled track to their fifth album, Houses of the Holy. It was just the kind of thing they'd do. Other albums were surprisingly good, like Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run. He must've been really young when he recorded it, and it was his third album.

One that I'd looked particularly forward to was the new Queen album, A Night at the Opera. A fellow I admired (who I eventually married) introduced me to Queen with their album Sheer Heart Attack a year earlier. The first single from A Night at the Opera was a nonsensical operatic tune named "Bohemian Rhapsody." Oh, I see now that you're having trouble believing those albums are 50 years old. Well, they will be sometime this year, and so will 17 other classic albums that were released in 1975 that you can read about at Mental Floss.

Have you ever heard of a depressed fish? The Kaikyokan aquarium in Shimonoseki, Japan, closed to the public last month while the facility undergoes renovations. But that doesn't mean the fish and other aquarium animals aren't still there. A large sunfish that lives in a solitary tank began acting strangely. He quit eating his usual jellyfish diet, barely swam, and banged his head against the walls. The fish appeared to be sick. Caretakers couldn't figure out what was wrong, but suspected he might be lonely without the crowds of people filing through to see him every day. They couldn't bring in visitors during the renovation work, but they did the next best thing, by hanging clothing and cardboard cutouts of people on the side of the tank! What's even more impressive is that the scheme works. The fish has started eating again, and all seems to be well.  -via kottke

Neodymium magnets are immensely powerful--so much so that getting one accidentally stuck up your nose may require a hospital visit.

Grant Slatton, a software engineer, used the magnetic force of a set of magnets to good effect to build a levitating bed. When the magnets are set in opposition to each other--five in the frame and five in the base--they can hold his bodyweight in the air.

The guidewires keep the bed hovering in the proper spot. The magnets, Slatton explains, must be very close to each other to maintain repulsion.

Slatton appreciates the fame the bed brought him when he first shared it on the internet in 2012. But he also notes that the bed wasn't particularly comfortable.

Just yesterday we had a mini-tutorial on cholesterol, and now we find out a possible consequence of too much of it, featuring that hapless superhero Florida Man.

As reported in the journal JAMA Cardiology, a man in Florida was on a carnivore diet for eight months. He was eating cheese by the pound, butter by the stick, and hamburgers with added fat. His motivations weren't clear, but he reportedly lost weight and improved his "mental clarity." But when he noticed a painless yellow discharge from his hands, he went to a Tampa hospital. It was cholesterol oozing from his skin! His cholesterol level was more than 1,000 mg/dL (high cholesterol is anything over 240 mg/dL). He was diagnosed with xanthelasma, which is when the body is so overloaded with cholesterol that it, yes, oozes out. Read more details on the case at Ars Technica.

(Image credit:  JAMA Cardiologym 2024, Marmagkiolis et al.)

To advertise the release of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar on its streaming service, Netflix created this really neat billboard in Los Angeles that looks like the sarcastic robot TARS. No word on its humor or honesty setting.

Via vienna.pitts