Rest for awhile is a helpful design concept that adds a small perch for people to sit on as they ascend or descend the stairs. Created by Chinese design firm Shenzhen Jinwei Innovation Design Company (SJDC), the project allows people with mobility issues to have a break as they climb the stairs. The company plans to market the project in Asia, Australia, and Europe, as My Modern Met detailed: 

Though Rest for awhile was designed with the elderly in mind, it’s also a welcome pit stop for someone with a physical disability that might require frequent rests or simply anyone who doesn’t have the stamina for climbing. Anyone who has had to go up and down a few flights can attest to the fact that even those who are in decent shape would be happy to take advantage of the bench if it were provided.

image via My Modern Met

You see wonderful wildlife pictures on the internet, but for every "perfect" picture, there are hundreds that didn't quite make the grade. For those that might have been discarded, there's a Facebook group called Crap wildlife photography. Some are just awful, some are blurry, and some are downright hilarious. There are a lot of pictures that would have been great a millisecond before or after. And some come with a story.

You'll have to join the Facebook group to see all it has to offer, but you can see a ranked list of their best images at Bored Panda.

In case you want a concrete reminder that things could always be worse, you might want a nuclear explosion lamp, available from Etsy seller Evil Incorporated. It's made from wood, metal, plastic, and cotton, airbrushed for realism. If you have neither the money nor the patience to have one shipped from Poland, you can make your own by following a guide at Instructables. This lamp is a guaranteed conversation-starter! -via Geekologie

A man from Windsor, Connecticut, decided to create massive cat towers for his cats. Rob Coutu created two massive towers providing his cats, a red tabby and a Savannah cat, both entertainment and comfort. Coutu shared with Bored Panda that his Savannah cat likes the towers so much that she doesn’t want the tabby cat to use them. The Internet is loving his design, as some are willing to pay for the cat towers’ building plans! 

image via Bored Panda

What do you do when people in your town refuse to social distance? If you are in Indonesia you organize a group of volunteers to wander the streets pretending to be ghosts.

The village on Java island has deployed a cast of "ghosts" to patrol the streets, hoping that age-old superstition will keep people indoors and safely away from the coronavirus.

"We wanted to be different and create a deterrent effect because 'pocong' are spooky and scary,” said Anjar Pancaningtyas, head of a village youth group that coordinated with the police on the unconventional initiative to promote social distancing as the coronavirus spreads.

Known as "pocong", the ghostly figures are typically wrapped in white shrouds with powdered faces and kohl-rimmed eyes. In Indonesian folklore they represent the trapped souls of the dead.

When the threat of ghosts didn't work well enough to keep people indoors the group got even more creative. Now the troop of actors is encouraged to jump scare people who fail to social distance.

Via - CNA

Photo - Reuters

View this post on Instagram

“What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing you did mattered?” - Phil Connors Welcome to Coronavirus 2020, where every day is Groundhog Day. #chalkart #groundhogday #covid #chalkyourwalk #chalkthewalk @punxsyphil #streetart #streetpainting #groundhog #billmurray #fcaa #covid19 #chalk @blickartmaterials @cbspittsburgh

A post shared by Erik Greenawalt (@thechalkingdad) on Apr 5, 2020 at 5:45pm PDT

Are you starting to feel like you are stuck in one place and every day is exactly the same? Thank goodness artist Erik Greenawalt is here to break up the monotony with his amazing and beautiful sidewalk art.

Via - Instagram

Bathrooms were a fairly new concept in the 19th century. Most people did their business in an outhouse, sometimes shared with other households. Wash basins were for bedrooms or maybe the kitchen if you had one. The rise of the bathroom only started when municipal water and sewer systems began to be built, but even then, progress was slow because those systems are expensive. Early bathrooms were furnished with wood, as other rooms were, including a wooden cabinet over a toilet, or a chamber pot if you didn't have a sewage system. But while water systems were spreading, so was the knowledge of germ theory.

The cover of a 1912 sales pamphlet from the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company (later renamed American Standard) features renderings of American bathrooms dating back to 1875. Though only 37 years had passed between the design of the two rooms, they are starkly different: the former covered in wood, and the latter not all that different from bathrooms as we know them today. “Ideas of sanitation and hygiene apparently unknown but a few short years ago have become so imbred [sic] in our daily lives,” the pamphlet reads, “that were we for any reason, compelled to forgo them, we would feel that we had retrogressed for centuries, instead of the only twenty-five to fifty years in which present day sanitation and hygiene have come into being.”

During that era, medical professionals realized — and then convinced the public — that indoor toilets connected to the public sewer system were far more beneficial to stop the spread of infectious disease. And as tuberculosis and influenza continued to kill indiscriminately among the classes, bathroom design evolved to help stop their spread.

So the use of porcelain instead of wooden furnishings was developed to make a bathroom easier to clean. But that wasn't the only way germ theory influenced the form of the modern bathroom, and the process still goes on. The next step predicted is a sink in a home's entryway. Read about how disease prevention inspired bathroom design at CityLab. -via Damn Interesting

With the world’s current situation, it’s a surprise that there’s a new diet craze in town. The new diet craze is called the Pegan diet, created by functional medicine doctor Mark Hyman, MD. The diet is a cross between paleo and vegan. The diet suggests you stick to eating organic, no or less GMO foods, food without any preservatives or MSG, and no dairy products on your diet. Honestly, I'm good with eating whatever’s available.  But if you’re curious about the Pegan diet, check out Grateful’s full piece on the topic. 

image via wikimedia commons

Details about Samsung’s new wireless headphones have leaked ahead of their official announcement of the product. These new wireless headphones are expected to be called the Galaxy Buds Beans, or just the Galaxy Bean, because of its likeness to kidney beans.

A new report out of South Korea claims that the Galaxy Buds Bean will have a feature that many Samsung fans wished the Galaxy Buds+ did: Active Noise Cancellation. The report also claims that these new earbuds will be priced under $150.

More details about this report over at SamMobile.

Via DesignBoom

(Image Credit: DesignBoom)

An original COVID-19 song (by my beautiful and talented daughter), shot on the streets of Istanbul. Enjoy!

A Bunny that plays guitar?! Due to staying inside for quarantine, Bini the Bunny and his dad have been very busy with indoor activities, and Bini learned how to play Señorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello on his new ukulele.

Via Nag on the Lake

Let's talk about expletives, without using expletives. If you want to use them, get your swear jar ready. Tom Scott is not so much talking about swear words themselves, but the habit of slipping a swear word into a middle of another word, which you hear everywhere these days, but is not exactly new. That kind of English construction doesn't have rules you learn in school, but there are rules anyway.

This photo was submitted by Lora on Awkward Family Photos. The photo was taken by Lora’s mom and shows her [Lora] 2-year-old daughter seemingly reading William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist. Unfortunately, the photo was shot when the kid was about to blink, resulting in this hilarious (but creepy) photo.

Okay, kid, time to put the book away.

Last month, Lionel Vytialingam was at the grocery store getting groceries when he heard blaring horns. Turning to where the sound was coming from, he then noticed a small dog “weaving in and out of traffic.” Alarmed, he rushed in his car and began to follow the dog down the street.

“She had no idea what she was doing or where she was going,” Vytialingam told The Dodo. “There were cars and bikes going along the street and she was walking right into them like she thought they were family.”

When he got finally close to the dog, Vytialingam pulled over, and outstretched his arms. The dog, upon noticing, approached him.

As the dog approached, Vytialingam noticed a soggy note folded over a rubber band around her neck. 

“I'd never come across a flimsy paper note tied around a dog's neck that way,” Vytialingam said. “I hoped it would be some form of contact information — some way for me to get the little dog back to some home that was looking anxiously for her.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t — what he found out was a heartbreaking paper note written in the dog’s voice.

"I broke down in tears," Vytialingam wrote on Facebook. "Probably wasn't a good sight for all the passing vehicles."

After reading the letter…

Vytialingam scooped up the little dog and placed her in his car. At home, it took Siggy a few hours to warm up to Vytialingam, but once she did, she wouldn’t let him out of her sight. 

More about this story over at The Dodo.

(Image Credit: Lionel Keith Vytialingam/ Facebook)