Tips and Tricks To Make Clothes Last Longer

With the advent of fast fashion, the quality of clothing available on the market has been greatly affected, as quality is sacrificed for quantity and profit. Because of this, our garments today only last for a season, or maybe even less. Add to that the fact that we use washing machines and dryers, which are factors that significantly affect the lifespan of clothing.

QDT lists six tips that could make our clothes last longer. Check them out over at the site.

(Image Credit: JillWellington/ Pixabay)


He Just Landed The World’s-First 1080-Degree Turn

In 1990, then 22-year-old Tony Hawk completed the first 900-degree turn. Fast forward to around three years ago, when Gui Khury also did what Tony Hawk achieved back in 1990. Back then, Khury was still eight years old. With this information, we know that Khury is a skateboarding prodigy, and that he would probably achieve greater feats in the future.

This week, Gui Khury became the first skateboarder to ever land a 1080-degree turn on a vertical ramp.
[...]
“I was like, oh my God, what did I just do?” Gui Khury told Reuters. “I was just like OK, I landed it. Now I am going to celebrate.”
Gui later told reporters that he celebrated by sharing a bowl of macaroni and cheese with his family.

Keep it up, kid. Make the skateboarding world proud.

(Video Credit: Guardian Sport/ YouTube)


Roomba Modified as R2-D2

Well, actually, it's not Artoo. This is R9-D9, the local housekeeping droid. He's often confused with his far more famous cousin, which causes him much consternation.

Still, he's impressive in his own way, too. Unlike Artoo, he doesn't serve drinks or save the galaxy. But he does vacuum and mop the floor. Matthew Scott Hunter made him out of a knock-off Roomba, a trashcan, and an assortment of household items. R9 really makes all of those sound effects and rotates his head realistically. He's an excellent piece of household engineering.

-via Geekologie


A Furiosa Prequel is Coming

The next Mad Max movie won't have Mad Max at all. George Miller's next film will center around Furiosa's backstory, starring an actress who is younger than Charlize Theron.

Speaking to the New York Times, Miller confirmed that he has begun the casting process to find a younger actress to play Furiosa, working from a script that he’s had written since the production of Mad Max: Fury Road. He wrote the script so that Theron and the other characters would have knowledge of their backstories.

“It was purely a way of helping Charlize and explaining it to ourselves,” Miller said.

Miller had hoped that he’d be able to get Theron to reprise the role, using de-aging technology that has become prevalent in Hollywood, but in the end, he decided against it.

A prequel will probably mean that whoever plays Furiosa may be able to retain both arms for the film. Read more about the plans for Miller's next apocalyptic film at io9.


This Ancient Temple Has A Geometric Pattern

This is Göbekli Tepe, a structural complex around 11,500 years old, found in Upper Mesopotamia. While it seems like a bunch of rocks oddly placed across each other, archaeologists from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Israel Antiquities Authority found something interesting about the relationships of these rocks: they have an underlying geometric pattern.

Considering this sprawling temple complex was constructed around 11,500 years ago – before the widespread development of agriculture, and some 6,000 years before the construction of Stonehenge – that’s quite the feat.
The findings of the new research were recently published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.

Like other strange ancient structures, the Göbekli Tepe is thought to have been of ritual significance.

More details about this over at IFL Science

(Image Credit: Teomancimit/ Wikimedia Commons)


Are Ghosts Haunting the British Museum?

The British Museum welcomes around 17,000 visitors every day, or at least it did last year. There are 94 rooms open to the public, plus a lot more space devoted to storage and curation of the eight million or so items in its collection. At night, when the visitors are gone, strange occurrences baffle security guards.   

Sometimes it’s the doors. To complete a full circuit of the museum more than 3,000 doors need to be opened and closed. Some of these, particularly ones that seal off the major galleries, are cumbersome to shut. But when bolted, they won’t open again without a tussle. Except when they do. Take the Sutton Hoo gallery, which houses treasures from an Anglo-Saxon ship, among them a ferocious-looking helmet believed to have been worn by Raedwald, king of the East Angles, in the seventh century. On one occasion a guard bolted the double doors and moved on to the next room, only to be informed by a CCTV operator that the doors stood wide open again. Video footage of the gallery showed them moving spontaneously.

Sometimes it’s a sudden drop in temperature, like the unnerving patches of cold air that linger next to the winged, human-headed bull of Nimrud at the entrance to the Assyrian galleries. Sometimes it’s the sound of footsteps, or music, or crying, where no obvious source can be found.

And sometimes it might be the objects themselves. One night a security guard was passing through the African galleries in the basement and paused for a moment before the figure of a two-headed dog. The guard believed that this 19th-century wooden Congolese fetish, bristling with rough iron nails, possessed some mysterious power. On this particular night he felt an irresistible compulsion to point his finger at it. As he did so, the fire alarms in the gallery went off. A few days later the guard returned to the gallery with his brother, who also pointed at the two-headed dog. Again the alarms sounded.

These are just a few of the many stories of unexplained phenomena at the British Museum. Are the artifacts rebelling? Maybe Indiana Jones was wrong when he said "It belongs in a museum!"  -via Metafilter

(Image credit: DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0)


The Carouser and the Great Astronomer

We've seen time and time again how famous people are either related to or friends with other famous people. Even more interesting are the stories of how those people crossed paths before either found fame, such as Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve being college roommates. Here's another of those stories, which is told in a fascinating way that blurs their true identities until later in the tale, although you might be able to guess along the way.

The two men in the coach were both 28 years old, born within a few months of each other in 1571. Frederik was Danish and Johannes was German, and for different reasons they now found themselves jostled together, in early June of 1600, traveling from Prague to Vienna.

Frederik had been deeply shaken by recent events that had sentenced him to exile and the mother of his child to be walled up for life in her father’s moated castle. Whirling through Johannes’s head were mathematical formulas he was convinced would prove God’s ultimate intention for a six-planet universe. Unknown to either of the travelers, a man in London was working on a text that would make one of them famous. The other’s hopes would be dashed, though he would also become famous—more so, indeed, than his traveling companion—but for reasons that would surprise him.

The travelers did not know each other before that trip, nor did they ever meet again. But they were both immortalized, in very different ways. Read that story at Nautilus. -via Damn Interesting


Now That's What I Call Polka!

In 2014, Weird Al Yankovic released his song "NOW That's What I Call Polka!" It was a medley of pop songs played in polka style. In 2020, 14 different animators collaborated to give the song a cartoon video. The songs are animated by:

“Too Fat Polka” – Jawaddles

“Wrecking Ball” – Rizatch

“Pumped Up Kicks” – liquid_jim

“Best Song Ever” – Billy Crinion

“Gangnam Style” – AdamX

“Call Me Maybe” – Danielle Weller

“Scream and Shout” – ComicDud

“Somebody That I Used to Know”- Claclalalaa

“Timber” – KaiPiez

“Sexy And I Know It” – Jack D. Evans

“Thrift Shop” – Steve Dorian

“Get Lucky” – Bimmling, Jan and KukoMitzu

Weird Al was tickled with the result. -via Laughing Squid


How Scooby-Doo’s Origins Are Related to the RFK Assassination



The scaredy-cat great Dane Scooby-Doo and his human buddies have been solving mysteries for over 50 years now. The series Scooby-Doo, Where are You! first aired on September 13, 1969. No one knew that the concept would still be popular into the 21st century. The characters never age, the basic plot is used over and over, and the look has gone from hip to passé to nostalgic in that time. But people still love Scooby and friends.

Scooby-Doo has appeared in a whopping 16 television series, two live-action films, 35 direct-to-DVD movies, 20 video games, 13 comic book series and five stage shows. Now, with “Scoob!,” the Mystery Incorporated gang will appear in a CGI feature-length film, which, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is going to be released to video-on-demand on May 15.

What many people don't know now is how much of a game-changer the show was in 1969. To understand that, you have to go back in time to see the series in its context among other kids' shows to see what was different about Scooby-Doo. That's where senator and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy came in, which you can read about at Smithsonian.


Alien Facehugger Mask

Last month, we saw a filmmaker use a facehugger as a mask. Now, you can, too! Order this facehugger mask with or without a tail, cat not included, from Well Done Goods. They also have face masks featuring the visage of Cthulhu and the hotel carpet from The Shining. That's the way to wear your geekness! -via Geeks Are Sexy


Real-Life Cartoon: Coyote Chases Roadrunner

Life imitated art because Wile E. Coyote once again failed to catch his prey.

Michael Bogan, a zoologist at the University of Arizona, captured this video in Tuscon on May 9. CBS News (auto-start video) reports that the coyote was curiously lacking any fine equipment from the Acme Corporation, such as the anvils that are commonly used to capture roadrunners.

-via Dave Barry


True Facts: BatFishes



You know what bats are, and you know about fish. Then there's the batfish, which is not at all like a bat, and not much like a fish, either. The batfish walks around (yes) and breathes through what look like eyes or mouths in its armpits. Armpits? On a Fish? Let Ze Frank explain the batfish to you in his own inimitable way.


How To Draw Totoro In Less Than A Minute

Anime film producer Toshio Suzuki teaches us how to draw Totoro, one of Studio Ghibli’s iconic characters, in less than a minute. He also teaches us the secret of drawing the said character, and that is by drawing its eyes far apart.

See the full video over at BBC.

(Image Credit: BBC)


In the Midst of War, He Gave the World Electrifying Fairytales

British-French illustrator Edmund Dulac created lovely Art Nouveau illustrations for decades. He interpreted the works of the Brontë sisters, Hans Christian Andersen, Edgar Allan Poe, and Omar Khayyam, among others. However, that wasn't the plan that his father had for his life.

Dulac was born in Toulouse, France in 1882. Having completed studies in law, he was going to spend the rest of his life as lawyer when he had a change of heart.

Cher Journal: Well, trouble brewing again. Mon père… Furious upon opening my law books, and seeing page upon page of wizards, mermaids, and unicorns painted by me over “the sacred words.” On explaining to him that these creatures are more real and dear to me than le droit privé [private law], father’s promptly turned the color of a freshly boiled lobster.
    Edmund, June 3, 1900

During World War I, Dulac suffered from lack of paid work, but drew anyway to support the Red Cross and other relief efforts. Read the story of Edmund Dulac and see many of his gorgeous illustrations at Messy Nessy Chic.


Man Feeds a Remote Alaskan Town with a Ship and a Coscto Card

The town of Gustavus, Alaska isn't accessible by road. If you want to go there, you have to travel by ship or plane. The 446 residents are at the end of a fragile supply chain that has been imperiled by the coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, Toshua Parker, the owner of the only grocery store in town, bought a 96-foot long ship a few years ago to make sure that he could supply his customers.

Since the state shut down the ferry service, Parker has been making a weekly 7-hour trip to and from the Costco in the state capital of Juneau. He loads up his ship with groceries and resells them to his customers in Gustavus. The Hustle tells the story of his store, dubbed "Toshco":

“It’s an art form, not a science,” says Parker. “The town might have a 100-gallon swing in demand for milk from one week to the next without any explanation of why. One week, nobody wants whole milk; the next week, everyone wants 2%.”
Toshco employees have been on the phone nonstop, taking down special orders from Gustavus residents — everything from washing machines to baking powder.
Oftentimes, Parker maxes out on the rations Costco imposes at the store to protect against panic buying.

Parker has to be creative in order to keep Gustavus residents supplied:

“Thinking outside of the box [is] the secret to success,” says Parker’s father, Lee. “You start by brainstorming non-traditional sources — vendors that most folks may be surprised even have toilet paper in their inventory. Then you get on the phone and start calling everyone around the country until you find a place to buy a pallet. Some of Toshua’s finds are brilliant. And because of that, Toshco has TP when the rest of the world has empty shelves.”

-via Marginal Revolution | Photos: Sean Neilson


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