They look like balloons, but these animals are actually made of blown glass. Chris Ahalt, an artist in Minnesota, made them. They're held aloft with wire. The sculptures sway slightly in order to simulate the real movements of balloons in a breeze. It's a playful concept that, Ahalt explains, reflect the innocent joy of childhood:

Balloons, to me, suggest celebration, children and wonder. The iconic animals that I pick appeal to those child-like sensibilities as well.  Most of us grow up with a favorite animal, and the idea of turning ones favorite animal into a balloon seems a fitting marriage that is hard to dislike.

Ahalt is a student of what he calls the Venetian approach to glassblowing. He studied in that city under the tutelage of Cesare Toffolo, a master of that school of glassblowing.

-via Lustik

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Some people seem to be born with an uncanny sense of space, shape, and color. Others work hard and put in years of practice to develop their craft. In this case, it must be both, because the results are incredible! Artist Heather Rooney takes an image that we’re all too familiar with now and recreates it in pencil before our eyes in this time-lapse video. -via Daily of the Day

Artist Sipho Mabona took a 50x50-foot square of paper and folded it into a ten-foot-tall origami elephant! The feat took him (and a dozen assistants) four weeks to complete. The finished origami elephant is now displayed at the KKLB art museum in Beromünster, Switzerland. See videos of the planning process here. See more pictures of the finished elephant at My Modern Met. -via Laughing Squid

(Image credit: Philipp Schmidli)

See also: Sipho Mabona’s rhino.

You’ve been told that an elephant never forgets. That memory can save their lives, particularly when it comes to knowing which humans are a threat and which aren’t. University of Sussex professor of animal behavior Karen McComb tells us about an experiment that shows us once again how intelligent elephants are.

McComb and colleagues went to Amboseli National Park in Kenya, where hundreds of wild elephants live among humans, sometimes coming in conflict over scarce water. The scientists used voice recordings of Maasai men, who on occasion kill elephants in confrontations over grazing for cattle, and Kamba men, who are less of a threat to the elephants. The recordings contained the same phrase in two different languages: “Look over there. A group of elephants is coming.”

By about a two-to-one margin, the elephants reacted defensively — retreating and gathering in a bunch — more to the Maasai language recording because it was associated with the more threatening human tribe, said study co-author Graeme Shannon of Colorado State University.

“They are making such a fine-level discrimination using human language skills,” Shannon said. “They’re able to acquire quite detailed knowledge. The only way of doing this is with an exceptionally large brain.”

There were also recordings of women’s and young boy’s voices saying the same thing in the two languages, which did not cause a reaction in the elephants, possibly because women and children don’t normally kill elephants. Read more about the experiment at Time. Read more about elephant research at Dr. Shannon’s website. -via Marilyn Terrell

(Image credit: Dr. Graeme Shannon)

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Keller Laros was diving off the coast of Kona, Hawaii on January 11, 2013. A bottlenose dolphin swam up to him and hovered. Laros could spot the problem immediately: there was fishing hook and line stuck in his left side. With scissors and a pliers, he carefully untangled and removed them.

-via Glenn Reynolds

(Photo: Woodley Wonder Works)

I can answer with an unhesitating yes, but apparently some people are wary of the idea. The acclaimed Chef Edward Lee has developed an obsession with pig milk. To his knowledge, there is little history of modern Americans consuming pig milk, largely because full-grown sows are dangerous. In an interview with Modern Farmer, Lee explained, ". . . if you get kicked by a goat, you’ll get bruised. Get hit by a 250-lb. sow, you’re dead."

Still, Lee is persistent. He's trying to develop a method to sooth lactating sows and get close without startling them. He's fresh tasted pig milk. Lee says that it's tasty:

Yes, a bit. It was very viscous, warm, tart. It doesn’t taste that different from cows milk straight out the teat. Most milk tastes gamey when raw. It’s after pasteurization that the real flavor comes out. All the subtleties come out when you make cheese with it. Reducing it and itensifying it and concentrating the flavors. That’s when you notice the differences.

I look forward to trying the cheese that he develops.

I've been speaking to @BarackObama about the situation in Ukraine. We are united in condemnation of Russia's actions. pic.twitter.com/7Rk2k8iOIK

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) March 5, 2014

When UK Prime Minister David Cameron posted on Twitter a photo of himself talking on the phone to President Barack Obama about the tense situation in Ukraine and looking super serious doing so, he inadvertently started a chain reaction of parody photos.

Comedian Rob Delaney jumped in:

.@David_Cameron @BarackObama Hi guys, I'm on the line now too. Get me up to speed. pic.twitter.com/xhmJG5KpxT

— rob delaney (@robdelaney) March 5, 2014

Then Sir Patrick Stewart came on board:

.@robdelaney @David_Cameron @BarackObama I'm now patched in as well. Sorry for the delay. pic.twitter.com/elLQcKcV3w

— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) March 5, 2014

... and hilarity ensued, when more Twitter users piled on with #Davecalls

Manuel Juraci is a beekeeper in Itatira, Brazil. There are a lot of beekeepers in the small town, but Juraci is one of the most successful, and one of the reasons is that he has Boneco the donkey to help haul the honey. Boneco can accompany his master on his rounds safely in his custom-made beekeeping donkey suit! Read about Boneco, and a beekeeping dog as well, at Gizmodo. -via Everlasting Blort

Here’s lovely garden of cacti and succulents, on the tops of cupcakes! Alana Jones-Mann made them, and will show you how you can do it yourself. Make your favorite cupcakes, cover them in a bed of “sand,” and mix up some cactus-colored icing. Of course, you’ll do this to impress people, but warn the person who grabs the tall cactus about the toothpick inside that keeps it upright. But if your guests think they are too pretty to eat, your job is done, and you can eat them yourself later! -via Blazenfluff

(Photo: Marvin Muller)

In a battle of snake versus crocodile, who'd win*?

Witness Tiffany Corlis observed a 10-foot snake (probably a python) and a crocodile's fight to the death at Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia, and took these amazing snapshots of the battle.

(Photo: Tiffany Corlis)

Corlis told the BBC, "We saw the snake fighting with the crocodile - it would roll the crocodile around to get a better grip, and coil its body around the crocodile's legs to hold it tight. The fight began in the water - the crocodile was trying to hold its head out of the water at one time, and the snake was constricting it. After the crocodile had died, the snake uncoiled itself, came around to the front, and started to eat the crocodile, face-first."

(Photo: Tiffany Corlis)

The fight, according to snake expert Bryan Fry of University of Queensland's School of Biological Science, is actually not unusual. Water pythons, Fry said, usually target smaller animals and rodents and have been known to attack small fresh water crocodiles. "Crocs are more dangerous to catch but easier to sneak up on, "Fry mentioned to Brisbane Time, "The problem is they are risking being injured or killed, so they have to be judicious."

Paul Gauguin once remarked that the reason he became a great painter was because of all the suffering he has endured, so we're confident that Latvian photographer Kaija Straumanis is on her way to become a great artist by the looks of her photography series "Stuff Being Thrown at My Head."

Like it said on the tin, Kaija photographs herself, capturing her facial expressions at the moment of impact of being hit in the head by various objects.

You’ve invested in cat food and a laser pointer, now that kitten should earn his keep by helping you not have to get up from your comfy chair. CresidentBob posted this picture to help you turn your life around. Now if he can only train the cat to plug his mobile device into the charger on the floor…  -via reddit

The Academy Awards ceremony is a party, an honor, and a fashion show. But most of all, it is a TV show, and every effort is made to make it look good on TV. That’s why around 300 people are recruited to be seat-fillers. Their job is to make the camera shots of the audience look good- and that means no empty seats. When a movie star, director, or one of their guests gets up to visit the bar or the bathroom, a seat-filler takes his place until he returns. Vanity Fair talked to an Oscar seat-filler and got the particulars on what the job entails.

Dress code: Basically, “You have to look like you’re a guest at the Oscars.” Men have been known to buy new suits. Women buy dresses for the occasion and have their hair and makeup professionally applied, as if they were invited to the show as official guests. “The difference,” our mole tells us, between the actual guests and the seat-fillers, however, is easy to spot at the end of the evening. Since seat-fillers have to start at around nine A.M. “they don’t look as top-notch as they originally did” by midnight.

Strict rules: “We weren't allowed to talk to anyone other than other seat-fillers,” our source recalls. Which means that even if you are seated next to Jennifer Lawrence, who you know, deep down, was put on this planet to be your best friend, you cannot even squeak hi to her. You’re not a short-term substitute date for guests—you’re more of a mannequin meant to make it seem as though audience members haven’t ditched the show for the bar.  

There’s more, including the process for getting the job and how much it pays, at Vanity Fair.  -via Digg

(Image credit: Flickr user Pasha C)

Police in Hermantown, Minnesota, responded quickly and saved a man's life after his snow fort collapsed on him. And his dog. Josh Toms and his dog Leo were inside the snow fort he built when the roof fell in, trapping both of them with little breathing room. The weight of the snow kept Toms from escaping.

Outside the fort was Toms’ son, Ian. "It was like, really, really scary because I didn't know what was happening," Ian said.

Ian then remembered what Toms had told him an hour before: "You first call 911 and then you come back and you start shoveling. But I was like, 'don't worry this never happens.'"

But this time it did.

Ian said "I was like ‘oh, he's just going to stand up,’ but he didn't stand up. So I ran inside to call 911."

Within 15 minutes, police arrived and pulled both Toms and Leo from the snow. -via Arbroath

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A drill team from the Royal Thai Navy performs during a Royal Thai Armed Forces Day event in the Sattahip District of Thailand on January 18th. The impressive choreography is set to "The Final Countdown" by Europe. The choice of "It's a Small World" may seem a bit strange to American ears, but it probably doesn't have the same Disney connotation to those who haven't been to the theme park. -via Daily Picks and Flicks