The story of the botched restoration of the fresco Ecce Homo spawned a lively round of Photoshoppery and other meme-making activities. Buzzfeed has a roundup of some of the funniest. Oh, and the Mr. Bean episode that Alex referred to in the original article? That's included, featuring the new masterpiece. Link
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"Sit still, son, we're makin' a video!" Greta seems to think that Lee needs a little grooming. Or maybe a lot. Commenter Auden declared this the result of "Johnson & Johnson No Tears Fancy Feast Child's Tasty Head Shampoo." -via Metafilter
YouTube member adnmusic "improved" the video of Joe Rinaudo playing his 1926 Photoplayer by requesting a polka version of the Guns 'n' Roses song "Sweet Child of Mine." A simple joke, but I had to laugh! -via Buzzfeed
Flavorwire has compiled a collection of wonderful places to relax, unwind, and take in the scenery while you release the stress of your life. There are spas set up in boats, mountaintops, islands, jungles, and other neat spots all over the world -even under the ocean! Me, I'd want to try out this hot springs spa called The Blue Lagoon in the lava fields of Grindavik in Iceland. How about you? Link
Now that we're done with the Olympic Games, we can finally focus on the important thing: the 2012 Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu, Finland. American (USA! USA!) Justin "Nordic Thunder" Howard won gold, edging out fellow countryman Matt "Airistotle" Burns who won silver.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] to admire his skillz.
Photographer Tim Tadder of Los Angeles, California, sure knows how to make a splash. He's discovered the simple formula for an "exploration into water weirdness" with the use of water balloons. Now, all he needed was a few baldies:
Water Wigs is a dynamic set of images using exploding shaped water balloons lit with a triad of colors, to create incredible splashes on the heads of bald men. The result is interesting and arresting "wigs" of water. Enjoy!
Colin Rich's majestic time lapse video shows lights filling the darkness as the sun sets over Los Angeles. The background music is taken from an M83 album. An old woman says in French:
It is late. I am looking for my other home, taking an unfamiliar path: a small trail near the factories and the city, cutting through the forest. I can barely see nature when suddenly, night falls. I am engulfed by a world of silence, yet I am not afraid. I fall asleep for a few minutes at the most, and when I wake up, the sun is there and the forest is shining with a bright light.I recognize this forest. It is not an ordinary forest, it is a forest of memories. My memories. The white and noisy river, my adolescence. The tall trees, the men I have loved. The birds in flight, and in the distance, my lost father.
My memories aren't memories anymore. They are there, with me, dancing and embracing, singing and smiling at me.
I look at my hands. I caress my face, and I am 20 years old. And I love like I have never loved before.
-via American Digest
Like the Captain says, "If someone tries to kill you, you try and kill 'em right back." A man in Nepal understood this rule and took revenge on a snake that bit him:
Nepali daily Annapurna Post said Mohamed Salmo Miya chased the snake, which bit him in his rice paddy on Tuesday, caught it and bit it until it died.
"I could have killed it with a stick but bit it with my teeth instead because I was angry," the 55-year-old Miya [...]
Link -via Life's Little Mysteries | Photo: The Bode
The Carmichael Collective has a delightful photo series featuring naughty pooches with real behavioral issues all dressed up as Napoleon. Not only are the pictures just precious, but the descriptions of the dog's misdeeds are simply wonderful.
Link Via Laughing Squid
Gruesome and awesome. Those are probably the two thoughts that came to most people's mind when they saw the 'Slice' skin cake, made by Edinburgh, UK, cake designer Gillian Bell.
It's a little known fact that owls love petting. In fact, in Caesar's case, it actually helps him fall asleep.
Also, in case you're wondering, Caesar isn't a pet, he was rescued and has since been released back into the wild.
Hey, did we tell you how we know why people brag? Y'know because we're pretty smart and all, and we read the Wall Street Journal, like all smart people do.
Anyhoo. Here's why:
People brag for all sorts of reasons, she says: to appear worthy of attention or love or to try and cover up our deepest insecurities. To prove to ourselves that we're OK, that people from our past who said we wouldn't measure up were wrong. Or simply because we're excited when good things happen to us.
And talking about ourselves feels good. According to the results of a series of experiments conducted by Harvard University neuroscientists and published in May in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the reward areas of our brain—the same areas that respond to "primary rewards" such as food and sex—are activated when we talk about ourselves. We devote between 30% and 40% of our conversation time to doing just that, according to the study, which didn't focus on boasting specifically, but on self-disclosure.
In one experiment, the researchers offered people small amounts of money to answer questions about themselves or others. They generally were willing to forgo earnings in order to talk about themselves.
Elizabeth Bernstein explains further why bragging is getting worse now that people have Facebook: Link
The rich are different than you and I. For one, their kids are much better dressed. Well, much more expensively dressed anyways. Meet the sartorial one-percentlings:
Juliet Sandler dresses in the latest $650 dresses and $400 shoes from Parisian fashion house Lanvin. Juliet is 3.
Her mother, Dara Sandler, says she dresses her daughter in the latest fashions because Juliet is a reflection of her — even though her daughter can't spell the names of the designers, let alone pay for their clothes.
"I dress my daughter exactly the way I dress myself," says the 33-year-old Manhattan mother, who spent $10,000 for her daughter's summer wardrobe. She plans to spend a few thousand dollars more for fall.
Top fashion designers are pushing more expensive duds for the increasingly lucrative affluent toddler demographic. [...] Some designer houses like Oscar de la Renta and Marni say they're careful to keep the clothes appropriate for kids. But there are plenty of miniature versions of the adult looks that raise eyebrows because of their eye-catching prices and sophisticated styles.
Anne D'Innocenzio of AP has the story: Link (Photo: Anthon Unger/AP)
The president keeps a bowl of apples in the Oval Office, which ends up in a lot of photographs -forty of them in this collection gleaned from the White House Flickr photostream. You have to wonder if anyone ever eats one of the apples, or slips one in their pocket. And who's in charge of making sure the bowl is full of fresh apples? I keep a fruit bowl on the dining room table, and it constantly needs a refill. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user The White House)
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