South Korea — What seems to be a large aquarium with violent waves created by the water inside it turns out to be just a huge anamorphic illusion designed by District. It doesn’t make a sound, however, which would have made the illusion more convincing. But I guess, considering that the illusion was set up in a busy area, the sound would have annoyed the people nearby.

The digital media company created the public project utilizing the world’s largest advertising screen that spans 80.1 x 20.1 meters. As shown in the video, the deceptive aquarium looms over the outdoor area and splashes repeatedly into the sides.

(Image Credit: Colossal)

Honestly, you can do this in every language, but you have to know the language. It's akin to "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo," which takes way too much bandwidth to parse. Meanwhile, your uncle mows your tuna. -via Everlasting Blort

What do the Slow Mo Guys do during quarantine? Gavin Free grew a beard. Then he looked around at what was at hand to film in slow-motion with his ultra-high-speed camera, and saw his cat Smee. And so we learn that while cats might not be as graceful in slow motion as they would lead us to believe, they are pretty interesting to watch.

Warning, this video features time travel.

-via Digg

If you've ever wondered how they come up with so many names for pharmaceuticals, this quiz is a clue that maybe they got them from Middle-Earth. I did quite poorly on the quiz, since I know little about either subject. Maybe you, a LOTR fan, will fare better distinguishing between Antidepressants and Tolkien Characters. -via Boing Boing

Monopoly is a classic board game known for destroying relationships. A lot of people play it for the thrill of acquiring wealth and property. The bad side of the game is some players would be driven to insanity by the high rental rates by the winning player(s). The core aspect of Monopoly is something we shouldn’t teach to kids. Alicia Clifton  believes that the game isn’t something we shouldn’t let kids play: 

Nonetheless, I nagged my parents to play Monopoly with me and I remember their faces hardening like concrete as they’d succumb to my request. They truly detested playing Monopoly with me — as an adult I now know why.

Some will argue that Monopoly provides children with valuable life skills, like being astute with money and making good investment decisions. Suggesting parents should play with their children to teach them about the real value of money and to learn how to be ‘good losers’.

This may be somewhat true. However, taking a closer look at what Monopoly represents, its origins and the franchise more broadly, it’s emphatically obvious the game underscores what is so very wrong with society. Even though my children are yet to be conceived, I know they deserve to be enlightened to make their future world a place that is fair and habitable.

Clifton lists the reasons why we shouldn’t let our kids play the board game on Medium. 

image via wikimedia commons

Looking for more choices for your beverage? If you’re a minor, stick with non-alcoholic beverages, please. But for those who are of legal age and love a good drink to pair with their choice of snack, Uproxx consulted their favorite bartenders on the best whiskeys to pair with any snack: 

Peter Ruppert, beverage director at Short Stories in New York City

As far as just having something to accompany snack food, Red Breast Irish Whiskey is a complex but still down to earth whiskey that just sort of fits itself into any occasion.

Piero Procida, bartender at The London West Hollywood in Los Angeles

I’ll try not to do anything too over-complicated here. In other words, if you are being simple then stay simple — go with something like a blended Scotch, not only because it’s typically cheaper but also because there’s such a wide array of flavors in these whiskies. My personal favorite is Johnnie Walker Black. It’s not too expensive and it’s still a good quality scotch to enjoy with something like snacks. Blended scotches are slowly making a comeback and this one is incredibly versatile.

image screenshot via Uproxx

Toronto Zoo is now offering a new experience to its visitors: drive-thru zoo visits. The zoo has developed an “innovative new interim plan” to offer a safe drive-thru experience that meets the province’s reopening requirements. CTV News has more details: 

“The pre-booked driving route would allow guests to see the Zoo’s animals from the comfort and safety of their own vehicle along a 3.4 kilometres route,” the zoo said in a statement.

The public will be able to pre-purchase tickets online once it gets approval to reopen, the zoo said.

The zoo, located near Meadowvale Road and Old Finch Avenue, north of Sheppard Avenue East, has been closed since March 14 due to the COVID-19 crisis.

It has taken a financial hit due to the closure. In April, the zoo laid off 118 non-permanent employees and paused summer hiring.

image via Toronto Zoo

What would you feel if a stranger waved at you on Messenger? Some will cringe, and some will respond casually. Somehow, it all depends on a lot of factors -- culture, personality, timing, profile picture, etc.

Some are more conservative and some are more adventurous and open. For this couple, their waving paved a way for a future wedding.

Translation:

Gian: How are you?

Kate: Just okay. Have we met?

Gian: Not yet. I just saw you on my newsfeed then I messaged you. I just hope to get to know you :)

After their first conversation, they became good friends and eventually developed romantic feelings for each other. Since they were from different parts of the world, they had to have a Long Distance Relationship (LDR).

Despite their set up, they got married two years after.

For some brave souls who tried to reach out to your crush via messenger, how was your experience?

(Image Credit: Kate Garcia-Axalan)

Over the past weeks, Kindle deals have been all over the place. Personally, I got to buy around four ebooks, and I got a few more free ebooks! It turned out that Amazon was doing something with those discounts - they tried to make us buy more digital contents so we would buy less products that need processing and shipping.

Yep, Amazon actually tried to make you buy less and if you want to know more, here's how they did it.

(Video credits to CNBC via Youtube)

Just pump the handle to mechanically open and close the seam in the center. Asaf Gitelis, a vice president in the Israeli company that invented it, told Reuters that this will change the mask-wearing experience in restaurants:

“Then you can eat, enjoy, drink and you take out the fork and it will be closed, and you’re protected against the virus and other people sitting with you.”

The company said it plans to start manufacturing the mask within months and had already submitted a patent. It said it would likely sell at a 3 to 10 shekel ($0.85 to $2.85) premium above the price of the simple pale blue medical masks many Israelis wear.

Restaurants in Israel are, at the moment, open only for takeout and delivery. This mask could change that limitation.

-via Design You Trust | Photo: Reuters

Try sitting in this chair without falling over. It's not that hard. Rasmus B. Rex designed it to look tilted, but it's quite stable. Appropriately, it's called 9.5°.

He explains that it makes the chair more stable, as the angle removes the need for a stabilizing rod. I'm not sure of the physics of that argument.

-via Toxel

We’ve seen our fair share of enemy bases in different tv shows and films. Here’s a question: out of all the structures in the world, what do you think would be an evil villain’s secret lair? Tumblr user evilbuildingsblog thinks it’s Taipei 101. While the structure does look dark and avant-garde, there’s a reason behind its odd architectural feature. Well, I’m not gonna deny that it does look like someone’s evil lair. 

image via evilbuildingsblog

If you've ever watched Bruce Lee swing his nunchaku, or nunchucks, in a movie, you you have to admit it looks awesome ...in the hands of Bruce Lee. You and I are more likely to hurt ourselves trying to imitate those moves. Once you've tried swinging those things, you have to wonder how effective the weapon would be in real life compared to say, a stick. Would it be worth all that training? Were they ever used in combat? To answer that question, we have to look at the history of nunchucks.

To begin with, going back to the earliest known references to this particular staple of certain martial arts, it turns out nobody is quite sure who invented it, not because its origins are thousands of years back or anything like that- but simply because up until the likes of Bruce Lee, it wasn’t really a terribly popular weapon of choice, and its history isn’t well documented as a result of its relative obscurity.

So who do people think invented it? It turns out even if you consult educational tombs of knowledge concerning use of nunchucks, as we did, you’ll find about as many stories as there are books covering the sticks with a little extra in the middle.

A recurrent theme in the most commonly touted origin stories, however, is that its invention was spurred owing to a lack of other weapons, and thus it was an improvised weapon created from and altogether more innocuous item meant for other purposes before someone realized if you swung it- hey- you could really hurt someone (or yourself).

Read some of the various origin stories and what we really know about the history of nunchucks, which all seems to come down to something like "a weapon you can use if there's nothing else available" at Today I Found Out.

When you saw the logo at the right, did you still recognize it as a McDonald's logo? Was the hollow part a hindrance to see the brand?

If not, then the design company Ecobranding is on the right path in its mission to save ink (and therefore save the environment)!

“Naturally, one logo isn’t too expensive to print because it doesn’t need much ink,” they write, “but printing a single logo on a billion bottles? That’s huge!” By making small changes to the branding—such as “hollowing out” a once-solid shape—Ecobranding says they can save 10% to 40% in printing costs, with the essence of an identity remaining the same. “Printer ink costs two times as much as Chanel N°5. Limiting the use of ink can save millions on a global production.”

Which logo is your favorite? I like the H&M one!

Images by Ecobranding

We've heard of people who risk their lives just to take selfies, and now, there's this guy named Mark Laita who risked his life to take portraits --- not of himself but of colorful serpents. The twist is, while doing so, he got bitten by one!

While photographing a black mamba at a facility in Central America, the deadly snake struck. “It was a very docile snake,” he recalls. “It just happened to move close to my feet at some point. The handler brought his hook in to move the snake, and he inadvertently snagged the cord from my camera. That scared the snake, and then it struck where it was warm. That happened to be the artery in my calf.” Miraculously, though the blood soaked through his socks and shoes, he survived the bite.

Considering the black mamba’s venom is deadly and can potentially make a person collapse within 45 minutes, Laita is extremely lucky. In fact, he was so preoccupied with the shoot, he didn’t realize he’d been bitten until the handler told him. After 20 minutes of feeling ok, he decided not to seek medical attention—something herpetologists later told him was a big mistake because something could have happened even hours later. It was only the next day he realized he’d actually snapped a photograph of the bite as it occurred.

For Laita, it's a once in a lifetime thing, and he seems happy about his experience! Though he isn't sure how he survived, he was truly thankful.

“It was either a ‘dry bite,’ which is rare, or I bled so heavily that the blood pushed the venom out,” he explained in a publicity interview. “All I know is I was unlucky to be bitten, lucky to have survived, and lucky again to have unknowingly snapped a photo of the actual bite!”

(Photos by Mark Laita via My Modern Met)