Obvious Plant, an ongoing project by Jeff Wysaski of the humor site Pleated-Jeans, recently executed project "Better Book Store Sections," which expanded the horizons of a bookstore's offerings without the expense and trouble of adding titles to their inventory. Instead, Wysaski suplemented the number of tags categorizing the books on the shelves. In doing so, he cracked the world of booklearnin' wide open.
See more bookshelf labels by Obvious Plant here.
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Nissan has recently revealed a version of their electric car, the Leaf, that is painted with a glow-in-the-dark paint. The coating, called "Starpath," promises 8-10 hours of glow and a finish lasting 25 years. The paint is also unusual in that is is completely organic. Glow-in-the-dark Leafs have yet to be mass produced and offered for sale.
See pictures of the glowing Leaf and learn more on the glow-in-the-dark coating and its inventor here. Read about the 2015 offerings of Nissan's Leaf at their website.
Grant Snider of Incidental Comics (previously at Neatorama) presents his take on love, as analogous to a shower. Makes sense in more ways than one, does it not? No time of year like the present to reflect on such a concept. Many of Grant Snider's comics are available in poster form at his shop. Check it out; there are some wonderful prints.
One doesn't have to be an artist to explore how minimalist drawings can be instantly effective in terms of communicating ideas. Playing a game of Pictionary presents one example after another of such efficient communication using nothing more than simple drawings.
Nick Barclay is a Sydney, Australia-based designer who frequently employs an elegant and artistic yet minimalist aesthetic to express far more complicated concepts, such as a series of sparse illustrations he made to signify various states of depression.
The images shown here are from Barclay's series of illustrations of popular films using only circles and colors as modes of expression. I've cropped the bottom of each poster that says what film each image represents. See if you can guess these movie titles, and then visit My Modern Met to see the answers as well as the full series of posters. Order prints and see Barclay's other work at his website.
A rare Amur Tiger cub at Germany’s Zoo Berlin was allowed to greet visitors last week. The female cub, called Alisha, was the lone survivor of her litter of three born to couple Aurora and Darius. Zoo staff made the decision to hand raise Alisha after the death of her littermates, which likely saved her life. She is now in fine health.
See additional pictures of Alisha and learn more about Amur tigers at Zooborns.
Image: Zoo Berlin
Saiga Antelope | Source: Global Animal
The wonderfully odd creature pictured above is the critically endangered saiga antelope, native to the Eurasian Steppe region. The saiga's unusual nose filters out dust generated by the movement of its herd and warms the air it inhales in the cold winters of its habitat. Hunting and loss of habitat has caused a severe decrease of the saiga population by as much as 95% in the last 15 years.
The gharial, pictured below, is native to India and once inhabited most of its river systems. Now, with only an estimated 235 gharials left in the world, the species is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. This 350-pound, 20-foot long reptile is threatened due to loss of habitat and overfishing by humans.
See 28 other animal species that could become extinct in our lifetime here.
Gharial | Source: Global Animal
The Saturday Night Live retrospective article linked below highlights both skits and scandals from the past forty years. Some of the items in the article will be familiar not only to fans of the show, but to everyone who's kept up with entertainment news over the years. One example is the Ashlee Simpson lipsync snafu, which at the time was music news broadcast far and wide.
The video above shows the "More Cowbell" sketch with Christopher Walken, and below is the classic Chris Farley/Patrick Swayze Chippendales skit. Two more SNL moments that, if you've seen them, you likely never forgot them.
See thirteen other memorable SNL moments here.
President Jimmy Carter was brought up on a peanut farm, which is fairly common knowledge. Yet the young Carter was also an incredibly enterprising young man. Prior to leaving home to be educated at Annapolis and the Naval Academy, Carter gained much experience in the way of business and investing.
After saving money from various ventures such as transporting produce, selling hamburgers and hotdogs and collecting scrap iron, young Carter took his father's advice about investing his savings in bales of cotton. He waited four years to sell his purchase of five bales, which made him such a profit that he was able to purchase five rental properties. The real estate investment not only made money for Carter well into WWII, but it also made him a landlord at only 13 years of age.
Read about the odd jobs of nine other presidents — from executioner to janitor — here.
Bored Panda editor Dovas put in an incredible amount of effort to propose to his girlfriend Elena, whom he refers to as "the love of his life." The gold and green tourmaline ring shown in photos above and below was cast from his own hand-carved design. He even made the box with which he presented the ring to Elena during a walk in the woods.
See photos and descriptions of each step in this labor of love and read about Elena's reaction to the proposal at Bored Panda. See more of Dovas' work on his Facebook page.
Sure, capybara hot tubs (or as one Neatorama reader calls them, "Rat Soup") have been documented on Neatorama in the past, but not on video (although one can be seen on video hot showering). Thus, this footage filmed at Saitama Children's Zoo in Higashi-Matsuyama City, Japan is really pushing the boundaries in terms of cabybara leisure activity. What's next, Capybara Hot Tub Time Machine? Who knows where this will end? -Via Tastefully Offensive
This is Cărtureşti Carusel (“The Carousel of Light”), located on a trendy street in Bucharest, Romania. The city of Bucharest is sometimes referred to as "Little Paris" due to the elegance of its architecture, and this lovely renovated building is a great example.
The store, which houses more than 10,000 books as well as 5,000 albums and DVDs, boasts six floors. It features a bistro, multimedia space and modern art gallery, and will be a location in which cultural events are hosted.
See more beautiful pictures here and at the store's Facebook page.
Sea otters are social animals who, once mated, are practically inseparable. The pair mates for life, eating and sleeping together. They "hold hands" while floating in the water so as not to drift apart. Cheers to the perfect animal role models for this weekend of romance. -Via Tastefully Offensive
The Saturday Night Live special to commemorate the show's 40th anniversary is set to air this Sunday, and there's been much hype about the incredible list of guests from the worlds of music, acting and comedy who will be appearing on the show.
In this atmosphere of reflection by those who participated in SNL's history, former producer Michael Shoemaker, who departed the show after 20 years in order to produce Late Night, recently began posting a number of candids taken during his tenure.
Check out Shoemaker's Twitter feed to see this great collection of photographs as well as descriptions of each.
Via Vulture | Images: Michael Shoemaker
In this episode of Kids React, the unfortunate little tykes are being subjected to Spam. Obviously some people like the stuff or it wouldn't be on the market, but I've never met a Spam proponent in person, nor have I tried it. After hearing the sound of the gelatinous substance sliding out of the can courtesy of this video, I have no regrets about not being adventurous in that regard. Any Spam fans reading this? Sing its praises, as well as what your preferred method of preparation is, in the comments. -Via Viral Viral Videos
Iowan Nancy Franck was in a Cedar Rapids hospital for over a week after having cancer surgery. While Nancy was away, Sissy and Barney, her miniature schnauzers, were at home being cared for by her husband Dale. But 11-year-old Sissy evidently decided early one morning that it had been too long since she had seen her mom. When Dale took the dogs out at 1:30 AM last Saturday, Sissy ran off, and Dale was devastated.
Little did Dale know he had no reason to worry. Sissy walked 20 blocks to Mercy Medical Center and entered the automatic doors at the entrance, proceeding to roam the halls looking for Nancy. Dale told television news station WJLA that Sissy had never been to the hospital before, but once she rode in the car with Dale when he dropped Nancy off at work near the hospital, though he didn't take the same route Sissy did on her walk.
Read more on this sweet story here.
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