A post shared by Christy Cassano (@christycassano) on Sep 20, 2018 at 3:47pm PDT
Wedding photographer Christy Cassano of Portland, Oregon, posted this cute pic of llamas Rojo and Napoleon the Alpaca from Mountain Peaks Therapy Llamas and Alpacas. Turns out, you can rent wedding llamas to help celebrate your nuptial!
Since Mountain Peaks is based in southern Washington, they are only able to travel as far as Portland, Ore., but they do about 20 to 30 bridal events every year.
“I definitely see a huge demand in animals of all types to take part in weddings, which is wonderful because they are so therapeutic and so lovable. They add a whole new element to a wedding," Joy said. ...
Joy believes that having animals at weddings helps lighten the mood and can bond all of the strangers who attend weddings.
Visually, the Surf Lakes concentric wave device is immediately striking ... Its rustic, creaking and noisy activations reminded this reporter of a wild theme park ride, complete with huffing, hissing and spluttering condensate explosions that served both to illustrate the immense pressures required to lift the 1400-ton “plunger” and the power and engineering feats that have occurred beyond the practical imagination of conceptualist and Surf Lakes Founder, Arron Trevis.
This horse will have the best costume on Halloween for sure!
Michael Corrie of Mike's Tiny Shop created this amazing AT-AT Walker costume for a Clydesdale named Moana.
Corrie said that he was approached by Moana's owner, Brianna Dickmon-Fry, about the project:
"About eight months ago, she asked if I could make this costume, as I've been making prop replicas and costumes for about five years," Corrie says. He agreed, "not realizing what it took to costume a 2,000-pound Clydesdale.
He posted his work on Facebook. While many praised his effort, several wonder whether doing such a thing was animal cruelty.
"Best thing about draft horses," Mike writes, "They (do) not care. Her comfort and safety were paramount in all of this. Early on, when we tested the components ... if she had not liked them we would have abandoned the project."
Well, wonder no more: this short clip shows you how a clever contraption called a Gabion machine makes the hexagonal net. Watch closely as the wire-feeding cylinders split in half.
A post shared by Craig Alan Studio (@craigalanstudio) on Oct 3, 2018 at 12:37pm PDT
Painter Craig Alan creates amazing paintings of people, made from lots of tiny people. As you can see in this Joker painting, Alan puts in a LOT of detailed work.
Take a look at more of Alan's "Populus" series of artwork over at his Instagram.
Mad inventor Colin Furze doesn't let a little bit of chilly rain stop him. Instead, he invented a gas heated umbrella: a stainless steel canopy with built-in a patio heater.
Previously on Neatorama: More mad inventions of Colin Furze.
That's not just any old Great Dane depicted in the statue by artist Jean Doyle. It's "Just Nuisance" (yes, that's his name - we'll get to that later), the only dog ever to be officially enlisted in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy.
Just Nuisance served in Simon's Town, South Africa, for five years. When he died in 1944, he was buried with full military honors.
Wait, you say: how can a dog be officially enlisted? And what's with his unusual name?
Glad you asked. Let me explain.
First, the name. Just Nuisance was a friendly Great Dane that hung around the Simon Town's Naval Base. He grew to be a massive dog - some say about 6.6 ft tall when he stood on his hind legs - and he loved to sleep on top of the gangplanks of docked naval ships. Because of his size, the dog presented an unusual obstacle for sailors trying to get on and off the ship. So they affectionately called him "Nuisance."
Now, onto the how he got enlisted in the Royal Navy.
Okay, so Nuisance liked to follow sailors board the train out of town, and the sailors liked having the dog around for the train ride. But not the train conductors. They complained that the dog paid no fares, so they wanted to get rid of him or put him down.
The sailors didn't like that idea - but they didn't want to keep paying the dog's fare. Someone came up with the clever idea of enlisting the dog. As a member of the armed forces, he could travel on the train for free.
In his enlistment paperwork, his surname was put down as "Nuisance," but as he has no first name, they wrote in "Just."
That's the story of Just Nuisance, the only dog ever to be enlisted in the Royal Navy.
Car companies use crash test dummies to test how a car crash would impact the human passengers inside ... but what happens if they want to simulate a car hitting a moose?
This one uses a 790-pound moose surrogate made from a stack of 114 rubber discs, which mimic the density of a moose and are strung together with steel parts and wire. When struck by a Volvo traveling between 43 and 56 mph, this pseudo-moose will hit the windshield first, then roll up and over the roof in a fraction of a second, annihilating everything it touches along the way.
Until you can actually live inside Disney World, this house will just have to do for a die-hard Disney fan. It even comes complete with an alligator feeding station, or as they like to call it, a slide into a backyard pool.
Riley the Golden Retriever lives on a busy residential street in Studio City, Los Angeles, California. Plenty of people pass by his house every day, so Riley has a great idea: he props himself over the fence and drop a ball so passers-by will play ball with him!
In collaboration with the Tikki Hywood Foundation, wildlife photographer Adrian Steirn documented the "Pangolin Men," a group of remarkable men who are dedicated to protect the pangolin, which happens to be the world's most trafficked animal.
The pangolin is the only mammal that has scales - unfortunately, that unusual feature caused them to be illegally hunted and killed.
Steirn's work helped spotlight the plight of the animals, and how a dedicated group of people are working to protect and to rehabilitate rescued pangolins.
Students from University of Cape Town, South Africa, have created "bio-bricks" made from human urine.
The world’s first bio-brick grown from human urine has been unveiled by University of Cape Town (UCT) master’s student in civil engineering Suzanne Lambert, signalling an innovative paradigm shift in waste recovery.
The bio-bricks are created through a natural process called microbial carbonate precipitation. It’s not unlike the way seashells are formed, said Lambert’s supervisor Dr Dyllon Randall, a senior lecturer in water quality engineering.
In this case, loose sand is colonised with bacteria that produce urease. An enzyme, the urease breaks down the urea in urine while producing calcium carbonate through a complex chemical reaction. This cements the sand into any shape, whether it’s a solid column, or now, for the first time, a rectangular building brick.
Pee-nomenal, you say? But that's not all! It turns out that the process of converting human urine into bricks also create nitrogen and potassium, which can be used as commercial fertilizers.
Photo: Department of Civil Engineering’s Dr Dyllon Randall and his students, Vukheta Mukhari and Suzanne Lambert
Japan Maritime Self Defense Force in the Sesabo region has got a new mascot: pink sea cucumber.
Why pink sea cucumber, you ask? @mondomascots explains "[it's] because sea cucumbers don't run, don't hide, and have a thick skin which is good for protection from enemies."
Here's an unusual story: a Toronto woman was charged with fraud and pretending to practice witchcraft after she allegedly defrauded an elderly man. She told him that he needed to sell his house to get rid of evil spirits and gave her the proceeds.
York region police say the 67-year-old victim met with a psychic who used the name Evanna approximately five years ago. “Evanna” allegedly convinced the man that in order to get rid of evil spirits in his home, he had to sell the house and transfer the money to her account, where it would remain until the spirits were gone.
Police said the money was never returned and the victim was asked for another $6,000, which the psychic said she would burn in order to ward off the evil spirits.
