Similar to how a conductor, using gestures, directs an orchestra in a musical performance, this man masterfully directs the chickens by strategically placing bird seeds in places where he wants the chickens to be. The result is this giant stickman holding a ball in his hands, which is similar to the “Hadouken” pose made by characters in the Street Fighter games.

Just like most street artists, the creator behind this bird art performance remains anonymous. However, whoever it is deserves the praise they’re currently getting from the Internet—both for their idea and for their effort in making it happen. The gif has amassed over 66k up votes on Reddit and most six million views on Gfycat.

Strangely—if you look closely at the video—you’ll spot what looks like a turkey joining in with the flock.

Watch the whole video over at My Modern Met.

Magnificent!

(Image Credit: Gfycat/ My Modern Met)

The British Air Ministry knew before the Second World War that the Ruhr Valley and its dams, the Mohne dam, the Sorpe dam, and the Eder dam, were “important strategic targets”. These dams not only protected the area from being flooded, but also regulated water levels and generated hydropower, too. And so, during the war, they knew that they had to do something about them.

On the night of 16–17 May 1943, a squadron of the Royal Air Force conducted a daring mission deep into German territory to destroy two dams in the Ruhr valley, the industrial heartland of Germany. The subsequent flooding destroyed two hydroelectric power plants and several factories and mines, crippling Germany’s steel and coal production. The mission was codenamed Operation Chastise.

While the operation was successful in destroying the dams, its impact was “not enough to change the course of the war.”

Learn more about this operation, as well as the squadron formed for the mission, the Dam Busters, over at Amusing Planet.

(Image Credit: The National Archives UK/ Wikimedia Commons)

One of the advantages of living in an RV or a tiny house is that you’ll have an ever-changing view (provided that you move from place to place from time to time). To maximize this advantage, this tiny house called the Ala Köl has wide windows, which not only offers the people living in it a wide view of the outside, but also lots of natural light. Also, to minimize the known disadvantage of RVs and tiny houses — lack of elbow room — the Ala Köl only has a simple but neat interior.

The Ala Köl tiny house is named after a lake its owners once visited together while traveling in Kyrgyzstan. It features a modern exterior design and is based on a double-axle trailer. It's finished in cedar and aluminum, with a spruce frame.

Learn more about this over at New Atlas.

(Image Credit: Baluchon/ New Atlas)

Aside from the turkey over at the dinner table, Thanksgiving is also a season for one of the most loved spices in the world: cinnamon. It is a spice that we usually add to our coffee and our bread rolls. Today, cinnamon is widely available across the world. But centuries ago, people in Europe desperately tried to get their hands on this aromatic condiment, with some people, like Gonzalo Pizzaro, being so desperate that they resorted to horrific methods.

More than 2,500 years ago,... cinnamon—native to east and southeast Asia—was available in the Mediterranean. But it was very expensive. Its origin was mysterious to people there. The ancient Greek author Herodotus told his readers that cinnamon was brought to Arabia by large birds who used it to build nests high in the mountains. To harvest it, he explained, people tricked the birds into flying large joints of oxen into their nests, which broke under the weight of the meat.

This may have been an extremely silly story, but, for the next 2,000 years, no one in Europe knew where cinnamon actually came from. Given its high value as a medicine, a component of incense used in religious practices, and a flavoring, Europeans looked for it everywhere.

Learn more about this story over at JSTOR Daily.

(Image Credit: ulleo/ Pixabay)

When we think of animal beauty pageants, we think usually of dressed-up dogs and horses. If anything, we would hardly think of chickens being in animal beauty pageants, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t put on a show. In fact, I say that they do better compared to pups and ponies. Don’t believe me? Then check out pictures of fabulous chickens of Ernest Goh to see what I am talking about, over at Sad and Useless.

(Image Credit: Sad and Useless)

Turns out this kid was not stuttering after all. He was singing acapella, apparently, and Charles Cornell just made the perfect accompaniment for him. Listen to the beautiful music on this video.

(Image Credit: Charles Cornell/ YouTube)

All we need after this are the wind doggo and the fire doggo, and maybe balance will return to this world, and with it, peace and harmony.

Cute!

(Image Credit: 9GAG/ Facebook)

It’s Thanksgiving once again, and that means that turkey will be served at the dinner table once more. And of all the many things that you can talk about at the dinner table, such as football, or childhood memories, nothing would be more appropriate than talking about turkeys, because they are the star of the season. But what could we say these large birds? For one, we can discuss how to determine the bird’s sex. However, this might not be something that should be talked about over dinner.

According to Discover Magazine, you can tell male and female wild turkeys apart by looking at their poop. This is a byproduct of the bird's cloaca, or the multipurpose orifice used for both waste disposal and reproduction.

In female turkeys, this tract is stretchy and spacious to accommodate any eggs that pass through it. When females expel their droppings (which contain both urine and feces), the matter has room to swirl into a coil shape.

The size and shape of the male cloaca is a bit different. Because they don't need to lay eggs, the tract is more confined. There's also a phallus near the end of the cloaca that makes the space an even tighter fit for any passing waste. Without the extra room to coil, male turkey poop comes out in a longer J shape.

So I guess let’s just talk about football. That’s much better.

(Image Credit: Dimus/ Wikimedia Commons)

When given a chance, some cats sneak out of their houses to go on a little adventure during the day and then return at nightfall. But have you ever wondered where the felines go? Aoife McAleer has also pondered the same question and she decided to look for answers by buying a GPS collar, which she put on her cat Jagger.

Turns out, Jagger was too clever to have one owner to provide regular pets and snacks. In 24 hours, this cat visited about five houses on her way and returned home like nothing happened, but this time, she was caught.

“I knew that she visited a few houses (in fact one household actually named her Peter) and she would always come home after her adventures each day, but I was interested to see where exactly she visited and was super shocked to see she visited many houses and it looks like she was fed at many also. More interestingly, she actually stayed there for some time,” Aoife McAleer told Bored Panda.

[...]

Unfortunately, Jagger passed away last Monday due to complications in her kidneys. McAleer told us that a few houses Jagger was a regular guest in also miss her and have even messaged her.

We can still celebrate Jagger’s life, however, by knowing about her story over at Bored Panda.

(Image Credit: eefskol/ Bored Panda)

New Orleans, 2018. Baby Boone Anthony’s great day at the park with his parents turned into a fantastic day when they passed by a brass band playing live jazz. It was probably on this day when he realized how fun it is to make music.

The ensemble, Where Ya At Brass Band, was playing on percussion, sousaphone and trumpet in Jackson Square in the Louisiana city, where they were attracting quite the crowd.

Unable to resist sharing in the musical joy, the one-year-old grabbed his slide whistle and toddled over to the group.

“Our little one-year-old baby boy went out there and ‘performed’ with an outstanding band in front of a huge crowd on Jackson Square,” his mother, Stefanie Coleman Anthony, said in a Facebook post.

[...]

Stefanie reshared the video in February this year, saying: “It’s been 2 years. My sweet boy Boone was born to play! Happy viral day buddy!”

Wholesome!

(Image Credit: WAFB Channel 9/ Facebook)

One of the essential things that you have to consider when you are traveling is making sure that your phone will not run out of battery power. This is why there are battery packs: they ensure that your phone has power in the time of need. 

There are many power banks available in the market. Some can charge your smartphone into full power once, and then there are others who can do that twice. And then there’s the ToughJuice.

Boasting 30,000mAh of power, you can charge your smartphone up to 10 times, your tablet twice, or even fully juice up your MacBook on a single charge.

Now that’s powerful.

(Image Credit: ZeroLemon/ Boing Boing)

When thinking of strange-looking creatures, the things that will probably come to your mind are those in works of fiction, legends, and myths, such as centaurs and mermaids. Aliens might also come into mind. But it seems that we need not look beyond reality in order to look for strange-looking creatures, as there are many who live among us. We just need to look deeper, literally.

Gizmodo compiles photos of 12 bizarre sea animals. Check them out over at the site.

(Image Credit: NOAA/ Gizmodo)

This is the northern common cuscus. It is an herbivorous marsupial native to northern New Guinea and the surrounding islands. For many of us who see this animal for the first time, we would see it as cute and adorable. But for many people in Indonesia, Timor Leste, and Papua New Guinea, the cuscuses are not just cute animals. For them, these animals are good sources of fur and protein. Aside from that, they can also be great companions.

“They like to wrap their tail around you and curl around,” says Shimona Kealy, a researcher at Australia National University who, as a Ph.D. student, once handled young cuscuses. “My supervisor was trying to take a photo, and I was just there being like, ‘Can’t we take it home?’”

Kealy doesn’t endorse capturing baby cuscuses. But, as she explains, “that’s a really common thing throughout Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea.” People hunt them, and if they catch a mother, they keep the young. “You’ll see young boys that run around the village, and [the cuscus] will just sit on their shoulder.”

But why do researchers like Kealy seem to be so interested in the relationship between humans and cuscuses? What could we learn from this relationship?

As it turns out, quite a lot. The relationship between humans and cuscuses goes back millennia, preceding the agricultural revolution. And the depth of that relationship challenges some of our most fundamental beliefs about human history.

Learn more about this over at Atlas Obscura.

(Image Credit: Daderot/ Wikimedia Commons)

Germany — At some point in our lives, we all dreamed of going into an adventure by ourselves. This dog, perhaps, is at that point of his life. Last weekend, he managed to sneak away from his home in the village of Ziegenbach. As he went on his little adventure, the dog then met a group of cyclists who interacted with him. What he didn’t expect was that these cyclists would be the antagonists in his journey.

Concerned the dog was lost, they called the cops — staying with the pup until officers arrived to "arrest" him.

The dog was loaded into the police cruiser, where officers snapped a photo of themselves smiling in the company of their adorable detainee.

But not everyone was so pleased.

Evidently, as the dog decided to slip away from home to start his exciting adventure, he'd failed to consider that there could be consequences — and that he might end up in police custody.

When reality set in, it seemed to have hit him like a ton of bricks.

"The dog's look is priceless," Middle Franconia Police later wrote.

Hopefully, he will not be sent into prison. He will just be returned to his owner.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Polizei Mittelfranken/ Facebook)

With the recent lockdowns that have been implemented in many places across the world, museums and cultural institutions have been temporarily shut down. Because of this, various institutions have decided to digitally archive artworks and historical objects.

A recent addition is Van Gogh Worldwide, a massive collection of the post-impressionist artist’s paintings, sketches, and drawings.

And this can only mean one thing: you can now view over a thousand of Van Gogh’s artworks online for free!

From landscapes to self-portraits to classic still lifes, the archive boasts more than 1,000 artworks, which are sorted by medium, period, and participating institution—those include the Van Gogh Museum, Kröller-Müller Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands Institute for Art History, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Each digital piece is supported by details about the work, any restorations, and additional images.

Awesome!

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)