Imagine you've spent months, or maybe even years, planning your wedding, scheduled for April 2020. What can you do? You celebrate in isolation, knowing that love is all that matters. This short film is from Toronto filmmaker Ali Joy Richardson, with cinematography by Neil Silcox, and it appears that it might even be a true story. -via Metafilter
Entrepreneur Danielle Baskin has the right idea. You want to see your own face all of the time? Well, you're not on Zoom all the time yet.
Give that a month.
Until then, Baskin has a solution: strap a mirror to your head. Then people who talk to you face-to-face (assuming that those sort still exist) will always be able to look at themselves.
Metal Art of Wisconsin is a sheet metal art company that produces a vast array of sculptures and useful appliances guaranteed to boost your testosterone and patriotism, including steel American flags, freedom cabinets, and laser-etched scrolls. Among their manliest of works is this jeep-shaped fire pit to warm your outdoor and off-road parties.
-via Geekologie
Artist Alya Chaglar and her 3-year-old daughter Stefani is the kind of cuteness we all need to see. Why? Their photos show lovely optical illusion photos using nothing but fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
Want to folow their journey? Check out @seasunstefani on Instagram!
- via My Modern Met
Photos and Videos by @seasunstefani
Do you wonder if that can of oil from months ago may still be used? Is it safe to use the stocks if they've expired already, even if they still taste and smell fine? This article from the New York Times tries to shed light in this matter.
Here’s the first thing you should know: Expiration dates are not expiration dates.
Food product dating, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls it, is completely voluntary for all products (with the exception of baby food, more on that later). Not only that, but it has nothing to do with safety. It acts solely as the manufacturer’s best guess as to when its product will no longer be at peak quality, whatever that means. Food manufacturers also tend to be rather conservative with those dates, knowing that not all of us keep our pantries dark and open our refrigerators as minimally as necessary. (I, for one, would never leave the fridge door open for minutes at a time as I contemplate what to snack on.)
Then the article proceeds to give a guide on how certain foods may last,
Let’s start with the things you definitely don’t have to worry about. Vinegars, honey, vanilla or other extracts, sugar, salt, corn syrup and molasses will last virtually forever with little change in quality. Regular steel-cut or rolled oats will last for a year or so before they start to go rancid, but parcooked oats (or instant oats) can last nearly forever. (Same with grits versus instant grits.)
Illustration by Jonathan Carlson
When Kristin Chalela Bagnell happened to pass by her glass door, she chanced upon what may perhaps be the most wholesome thing you’ll ever see today: a groundhog standing outside her glass door, vibrantly munching his slice of pizza.
Bagnell said the groundhog stood outside her door for more than an hour while enjoying its meal, and didn't seem to mind being watched by the woman and her two dogs, Maggie and Moses.
Enjoy your slice of pizza, Mr. Groundhog!
(Image Credit: Kristin Chalela Bagnell/ Facebook)
Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day? Does skipping it have negative effects on your body? If it does, is skipping breakfast really the reason why people are unhealthy?
In this video, Discover Magazine dives deep into the topic of breakfast and provides answers for the questions above.
(Video Credit: Discover Magazine/ YouTube)
“Please get out of bed and put on some clothes!”
This is Broward Circuit Judge Dennis Bailey’s plea for attorneys who show up in court hearings via Zoom.
“It is remarkable how many ATTORNEYS appear inappropriately on camera,” Bailey said in the letter. “One male lawyer appeared shirtless and one female attorney appeared still in bed, still under the covers.”
Bailey isn’t making any exceptions for lawyers lounging in the Florida sunshine, either.
“Putting on a beach cover-up won’t cover up you’re poolside in a bathing suit,” he wrote.
Bailey also calls out the lawyers who are not focusing on the trial and are instead occupied by other things.
“Often, lawyers are not looking at their screens but down at their files, their outlines and notes, or simply out the window, and cannot see the judge is hollering “Stop! Stop!” because an objection has been made and the audio stays with the witness rather than obeying the judge,” he said.
(Image Credit: Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool, File)
Somebody once told me Starfleet is gonna roll me
I ain't the best emitter in the shed
She was looking kind of dumb with her long blue antennas
In the shape of an "L" on her forehead
Okay, Smash Mouth's original lyrics for "All Star" were better. Thankfully, the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation did not alter them as they performed the song in this montage by Alexis Deveria.
-via reddit
This carpet on an Indian airport seems to be so tasty that those who go there cannot resist to take a bite out of the fine synthetic material. In response to this, authorities have put up a sign which prohibits everyone to eat the carpet.
Via Engrish.com
Oooh, look at that! If you are going to wear a face mask in public, you may as well impress everyone -and scare everyone into staying at least six feet away! This leather Cthulhu mask would have been reserved for special occasions only a couple of months ago, but now you can justify wearing it every day! It's just one of the items that creative people are offering to make social isolation a little less bleak. Find greeting cards, candles, art, toys, and more that are both useful and uplifting in a roundup at Rue the Day.
(Image credit: UchronicTime)
One fairly common ingredient in home remedies of the 17th century was snails. There were plenty of recipes for snail medicine, like this one for snail water to treat "green wounds, fits and convulsions."
Take shell snailes, take them out of their shells and wash them in white wine & take out [the] green stuff [that] is within them, take a quart of snails so prepared, & as much green angelico stalks sliced thin, 2 handfuls of Jerusalem cowslips, & 2 handfulls of coltsfoot, &a good capon all the flesh must be cut from the bones & cut into bits, but no fat, put all these into new milk, let the milk cover these things about two inches, let them steep twelve hours & still them in a cold still with a gentle fire, put up your still close, drink this with white sugarcandy and rose water. lay hartstoung in [the] bottom of your still. 1
The snails in this recipe aren't as gross as the raw chicken and milk steeping for 12 hours. It's no wonder one had to take it with candy and rose water. As to its efficacy, well, in the 1600s people just tried anything they could find. Read about other medicinal concoctions made from snails at Early Modern Medicine. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Neelix)
Goat 2 Meeting is a new service offered by Silicon Valley animal sanctuary Sweet Farm. When you want--when you need--a llama, goat, or other farm animal to attend one of your virtual meetings, you can get one. The consultation fee is $100, which is a bargain, considering the expertise and insights that llamas and, even more so, turkeys, can offer your firm during these difficult times. Business Insider reports:
Since Goat 2 Meeting opened up in mid-March, more than 300 requests have been made, Sweet told Business Insider. Sweet Farm's animals have already made appearances in meetings for Fortune 500 companies and tech startups, she said. In one virtual happy hour for a law firm, lawyers brought their kids along to the video call to meet the animals and get a virtual tour of the farm.
People can pay anywhere from $65 to $250 for various interactions with the animals, which include goats, sheep, pigs, cows, turkeys, and llamas — by far the most popular choice. For $65, you get a 20-minute virtual tour of the farm for up to six call participants. For a bigger meeting, you can pay $100 for a 10-minute animal cameo or $250 for a 25-minute virtual tour.
-via Marginal Revolution | Image: Sweet Farm
Okay, time for a feel-good break! Robert Jones is back after a long break from video editing, with a new dance compilation. Characters still dance in movies the way they always did, so this video shows joyous dancing clips from the movies of the past twenty years. -Thanks, Robert!
We've read a lot about the similarities and differences between the coronavirus epidemic and the Spanish flu epidemic 100 years ago. Then, as now, public figures argued over the benefits of isolation, the use of face masks, and other issues. Many people did wear masks, and even had their pictures made in them. The five women in this photo wore masks, and included their cats Tommy and Golly, also wearing masks.
The photo is part of the collection of Dan Eskenazi, the curator of Seattle’s Giant Shoe Museum. Eskenazi’s friend Pat Dorpat, a columnist and historian, found that four of the five women lived together in a still-standing house on 43rd Street in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle. One can imagine the ladies—bored roommates during a seemingly endless epidemic—trooping outside in their glorious hats, then slipping the inglorious masks over Tommy and Golly’s heads. The photographer who snapped their photo captured a moment of levity in the middle of a scourge.
From what we know of cats, you can imagine that the project had to be done in a hurry. While photos of cats wearing face masks are rare, this isn't the only one from that era. And there was serious speculation about whether household pets could spread the flu virus. Read about cats and dogs and how they fared during the Spanish flu epidemic at Atlas Obscura.
