Rob Draper is a calligrapher, illustrator, and graphic designer in the UK. Put a pen in his hand and he'll impress you with his wizardry using it. Last year, we told you how he was doing magnificent calligraphy on disposable coffee cups. Lately, he's also been writing on food. You can follow his work on Instagram.
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(Photo: unknown)
Bladder stones are hard crystalized masses that form inside the bladder. This type is called a jackstone calculi because it's shaped like a toy jack. The abstract for an article in the Indian Journal of Urology desribes them:
They are almost always composed of calcium oxalate dihydrate consist of a dense central core and radiating spicules. They are usually light brown with dark patches and are usually described to occur in the urinary bladder and rarely in the upper urinary tract.
Do you think that there's one inside you right now?
-via The Soul Is Bone
Brylie the dog understands the importance of "me time." To stay healthy, you have to be serious about resting. After a busy work week, she heads to the pool with her teddy bear, climbs into a raft, and pushes off into the water.
-via Tastefully Offensive
Leo Burnett designed this promotional item for the Yoga+ Yoga Center in Shanghai. Can you bend that far? I mean the straw.
-via Toxel
You don’t need electricity with this simple but effective design. The weight of the car pushes the gate open. A cattle grid prevents animals from trying to escape the same way.
-via Laughing Squid
(Photo: My Mini Factory)
Jeremy Clarkson is the host of Top Gear, a popular British television show about cars. He’s known for having a, shall we say, vigorous personality. The BBC recently suspended him from the show after he allegedly hit a producer.
Maybe the BBC should just force Jeremy Clarkson to undergo a regeneration, rather than canceling the show.
— Rosanjin Scholar (@Popehat) March 11, 2015At the time, news reports indicate, Clarkson was very hungry after a long day of filming. This is what made him irritable.
To mark the occasion, the staff at the 3D printer manufacturer CEL designed and printed Jeremy Clarkson heads that can be used with the classic children’s board game Hungry Hungry Hippos.
In 2011, the Gut Aiderbichl animal rescue organization in Austria rescued several chimpanzees which had been caged in an indoor laboratory for up to 30 years. Some, having been born there, had never seen the outside world.
Gut Aiderbichl prepared an open air environment for the chimpanzees, then moved them to a cage adjoining it. When it was ready, they opened a door between the two. The curious chimpanzees began to explore a bright new world. It’s not the wilderness to which they can never return, but it is a better life. You can follow their progress here.
-via Lost at E Minor
The man wanted to record himself playing a guitar (badly). He wanted the cat to vacate the chair. This was reasonable. But throwing and shoving the cat was not. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the cat promptly dished out some feline justice.
-via The Presurfer
A dumpster in New Haven, Connecticut caught on fire. Like any sensible person, Tom Lavery whipped out his phone to take a selfie video. This distracted Lavery and his friend from what was going on around them. The inevitable result followed.
-via BuzzFeed
(Photo: Michelle Joni)
When we were in preschool, we were in an enchanted paradise and we didn’t even know it. It was a simple, joyful life back then: finger painting, crayons, Play-Doh, crafts, storytime, snacktime, and naptime. You can experience it again at Preschool Mastermind, a preschool for adults in New York City. It’s a project founded by Michelle Joni, who is pictured above. ABC News reports:
"I realized all the implications of what we learn in preschool," said founder Michelle Joni, who said she went to school for childhood education and always wanted to be a preschool teacher. "People come here and get in touch with their inner child. It's magical."
"One person's here because they want to learn not to be so serious," she said. "Another's here to learn to be more confident." But some are there just to have fun. […]
Next week there's a field trip. Then the last week of class is "parent day" when the students bring two adults of their choice to class. One woman is actually bringing her parents.
-via Jim Treacher
Comic book artist Stjepan Sejic is a great resource for comic book readers. He frequently explains why certain tropes in comic books take place even though they don’t make sense. For example, last year, he explained why women’s body armor can be so skimpy, yet totally effective.
In another short comic, he explains how Batman seems like a biologically normal human, but appears to have superhuman abilities. The answer: he’s a Time Lord from Doctor Who! Read the whole thing. It’s funny and totally makes sense.
-via Geek Tyrant
You don’t have to go to the grocery store to get a potato. Oh, there are other ways of getting potatoes. But what if you want only one potato? Then you need to talk to the people at Mail A Spud, a business that claims to let you mail a whole 8-ounce Russet potato to someone you love. There’s no packaging—just a potato covered with stamps to cover the cost of shipping.
-via The Presurfer
(Maps via the Daily Telegraph)
In the early Fifth Century, the Romans left Britain permanently. This left the Britons vulnerable, so the Anglo-Saxon tribes invaded. The somewhat Romanized British peoples fought back, giving birth to the legend of King Arthur. But they were ultimately defeated and much of Great Britain fell under the rule of these Germanic nations.
Then, in 1066, the Normans came and gradually ended Anglo-Saxon independence. It’s been almost a millennium since William the Bastard landed on the beach near Hastings. But according to genetic researchers at Oxford University, many of the British peoples remained in place. They took DNA samples of 2,039 people whose grandparents were born within 80 kilometers of each other. When compared, the researchers found that genetic clusters form around the same general areas of the old Anglo-Saxon and Celtic kingdoms. Sarah Knapton writes for the Daily Telegraph:
A hummingbird can hover in place in a strong wind, remaining stationary even when the wind speed constantly varies as much as 15%. In contrast, the typical aerial drone can stay steady only when the wind speed varies up to 7%.
Researchers at Harvard and RMIT University in Melbourne wanted to understand why in order to improve drone design. So they placed hummingbirds in a wind tunnel. They found that hummingbirds, which beat their wings 40 times a second, can vary the angle and position of their wings and tails to a wide degree and implement these changes within a single wingbeat. You can read more about this study at the New York Times (warning: auto-start video).
-via The Presurfer
On most nights, when it’s time for bed, I get down on all fours and my daughters climb on my back. They ride the Bedtime Train to their room. We don’t have a Daddle, but the girls still enjoy it.
Kids love to climb, especially over people they love. Atsushi Shiraishi, a design student at Tama Art University, invented this tool to make it even more fun. It’s called the Athle Titti, which is a combination of the Japanese words for athletic and father. You can see more photos of it at Spoon & Tamago.
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