A whoopee cushion is an inflatable device that emits a flatulent-like sound and, if properly filled, aroma. Using one on some unsuspecting fellow is a traditional gag at job interviews, funerals, and first dates. Onur Armagan makes excellent use of limited apartment space with one. Note that it is not, despite his claim, actually the world’s largest whoopee cushion, which is almost 20 feet long and is capable of nearly Alex-level emissions. Yet this one still makes a satisfying sound.
Be sure to watch to the end of the video to see the reaction of the resident cat. Then add in the comments what you suspect the cat is thinking.
Two streams in Tenorio Volcano National Park in Costa Rica merge to form the Rio Celeste. One of them has large quantities of sulfur and calcium carbonate, which gives the river a beautiful blue tint. There is a remarkably sharp dividing line when these two streams merge that is known as Los Teñideros, which means "the dyers."
With a little bit of paint and 2 rolls of tape hanging from a wall, Christoph Niemann creates a convincing 3-dimensional image of a bicycle. It's part of an ongoing experiment called Sunday Sketches in which Niemann mixes everyday objects and conventional artistic media. The results are quite clever.
The parrot merrily dances on the refrigerator. He's got a rhythm in his soul that he can only dance out. But there's more! His moves are even more impressive with Riverdance music added:
Dai Aoki, a dog trainer in Waterloo, New South Wales, Australia, does a pretty good handstand. And to improve the act, so does his dog! His Border Collie neatly lifts his body up, resting on only his front paws and nose. Now try this wherever you are and see if you can do the same.
Abu-Obeid and her boyfriend--the deeply impressed man holding the camera--make up the band TeraBrite. You can see their music videos on their YouTube channel.
I bet that Leo and Ruth Zanger of Quincy, Illinois have to send a lot of birthday cards! The couple has had 12 children during their 59 years of marriage. Those children have, so far, given them 53 grandchildren. Those 53 grandchildren have given them 46 great-grandchildren. One of those great-grandchildren gave them 1 great-great-granddaughter, which brings the total grandchildren up to a whopping 100!
Family get-togethers are a huge undertaking, but the family has gotten used to them. The Herald-Whig reports:
Most of the family lives in the immediate Quincy area. When they get together, it not only means renting out a church hall. It also involves about 50 pounds of ham or 10 turkeys.
The family has a well-honed routine for who supplies what and how often.
"Everyone takes their turn (in helping with food), and they all try and outdo each other," Donna said. "We are always getting together for something."
The unofficial "mandatory" get-togethers are Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day. And don't worry, there are plenty of other "excuses" for them to gather.
Mike Whiteside looked over his desk and noticed that the head of his co-worker in the next cubicle looked like it was part of the animal wallpaper on his screen. Thus Desk Safari was born. People take photos of office mates with their heads in just the right position to complete animals pictured on their computer monitors. Sometimes office politics can make the place like a zoo, and sometimes graphic placement can make it seem like a literal zoo.
It is a solution to the eternal shopper's dilemma: do you want to buy a table or a skirt? Hussein Chalayan offers Afterwords, a series of furniture designs that you can wear. It's an expression of the experience of refugees who fled their homes quickly and thus carried essential household objects with them. The wooden rings cascade out to form a shapely hoop skirt.
According to Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones, George Lucas offered Muppets creator Jim Henson the role of Yoda. Henson declined, suspecting that he wouldn't have enough time for a project as ambitious as Star Wars. Puppeteer Frank Oz got the job instead. But Henson still consulted with the Star Wars crew in building the Yoda puppet. You can see more photos of him working on The Empire Strikes Back at The Making of Star Wars.
Much of Texas has been drenched with rain for the past few weeks. That poses a problem at the Horner Ballpark of Dallas Baptist University. The field is too wet to be useful for regular play. So on Friday, the university hired a helicopter and pilot to dry the field by blowing on it with its wings. You can see a video of the helicopter at work here.
But if you want sharp fashion, then place your personal items in the maw of this shark purse. At 28 inches long, it has plenty of room to swallow everything you care about and should be its own deterrent against thieves.
A sequel to the thrilling 1996 alien invasion movie Independence Day is in the works. It will be awesome even if (or especially if) it consists of nothing but Will Smith punching an alien in the face for 2 straight hours.
In anticipation of the release of the sequel next year, Uproxx compiled 6 fascinating bits of information about the first movie. Among them is the reasoning behind President Whitmore's inspiring speech before he personally led the allied assault against the alien vessels. The producers wanted the movie studio to purchase the title "Independence Day" from its owners:
When Bill Pullman’s President Whitmore gave his rousing pre-battle speech near the end of the movie, he wasn’t just rallying the troops against the alien invaders. He was also rallying them against 20th Century Fox’s marketing department.
Devlin and Emmerich were dead set on calling the movie Independence Day from the beginning, but Fox wasn’t having it. This is why the movie was called “ID4″ in so much of the promotional material leading up to release. Well, that and Fox didn’t want to have to buy the rights to the title from Warner Bros., who owned them at the time (they had released a movie with the same title back in 1983). According to the movie’s DVD commentary, the filmmakers added the line to the speech in hopes it would encourage the studio to buy the rights.
Mariana Villarreal is a waitress at a Hooters in Roswell, Georgia. She recently lost her grandmother to kidney failure. So when she heard that Don Thomas, a regular customer, had lost his kidneys to cancer, she offered one of hers:
"I said, 'Well I have two kidneys, do you want one of mine?'" said Mariana Villarreal, a waitress at Hooters.
"My reply was, 'I will accept it,'" Don said. [...]
"I wasn't able to do anything for my grandma," Mariana said, "If [Don] can live two more years, happy as he's ever been, that's fine with me. That's not up to me. I did my part, now it's God's turn to keep him alive."
The surgery took place on Friday. Doctors report that it was completely successful. You can read more at NBC 11 (warning: auto-start video).
The Battle of Verdun consumed most of 1916. Over 10 months, 300,000 Frenchmen and Germans died. Another 750,000 were wounded. There was a constant monsoon of artillery shells. It permanently changed the landforms of the area. After the war, it was dangerous to live there because of the vast amounts of unexploded ordnance, including poison gas shells. Stepping on the wrong spot or plowing a furrow in the wrong field meant death.
So France closed off much of the area, which became known as the Zone Rouge or "Red Zone." It gradually shrank over the years, but approximately 65 square miles remains off-limits to most human activity. Vegetation has filled in many of the craters. Wild animals, especially boars, are common. Last year, National Geographic explored this forbidden zone that remains scarred by war a century later. It quotes historian Christina Holstein:
Holstein believes the Zone Rouge will never be fully cleared of its unexploded ordnance.
“They reckon that they have 300 years work ahead of them before they have cleared the whole battlefield,” she says. “And they never will.” […]
“I suspect that what might happen is that certain areas are cleared a bit more and perhaps you get a 'discovery trail' or something like that so that people can walk around some of the main sites and get some information,” she says.
Holstein also thinks that the Zone Rouge’s light human footprint over the last 100 years might actually be one of its greatest assets.
“Because it has been abandoned and covered with trees, it is a microcosm of something that happened a hundred years ago,” Holstein says. “It is a bit like Sleeping Beauty. Things have just gotten frozen in time.”
