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In his Life of Julius Caesar, the Greco-Roman historian Plutarch described a time when the future dictator of Rome read a biography of Alexander the Great. It saddened Caesar because he felt he had accomplished so little in his life compared to Alexander:

. . . when he was at leisure and was reading from the history of Alexander, he was lost in thought for a long time, and then burst into tears. His friends were astonished, and asked the reason for his tears. "Do you not think," said he, "it is matter for sorrow that while Alexander, at my age, was already king of so many peoples, I have as yet achieved no brilliant success?

Surely even the greatest among the living today must feel the same upon seeing this man chop through boards that are on fire while simultaneously playing an electric guitar.

-via Technabob

(Steve Patrick Adams)

Your family deserves better than the chuckles and whispers that will follow from an icicle death on a warm day. Find a better way, such as a fatal blogging accident or being crushed to death under your collection of My Little Pony toys.

Now you know. Consider yourself warned.

According to a 2012 census by the US Department of Agriculture, there are 2,621,514 goats in the United States. Christopher Ingram of the Washington Post notes that that's more goats than the combined human populations of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C.

In Sutton County, Texas, goats outnumber humans 14 to 1. And most of those goats are raised for meat. What will happen when the goats realize this?

-via The Presurfer

Now that's a knife! Eetu Summanen, a blacksmith in Finland, made this Damascus steel knife. The handle is made from the jawbone of a roe deer. You can find more of his blacksmithing work here.

-via The Soul Is Bone

(Photo: Alice Echo News Journal)

If you're preparing to visit the United States for the first time, you might want to read up on traditional American cuisine. You can probably find some burger joints scattered throughout the country to keep you fed. But to experience true American food, you should get away from the tourist areas and eat like the natives.

When on Earth has a helpful guide to 10 American foods. They are commonplace in American restaurants and supermarkets, but foreigners often think of them as strange. Try them! You'll enjoy fried rattlesnake, bull testicles, pickled pigs' feet, and akutaq, which is a Native Alaskan dessert consisting of polar bear fat, seal oil, snow, and berries. Dig in!

Raphael Orlove of Jalopnik proposes that this woman is the reincarnation of escape artist Harry Houdini. This dashcam footage from Taiwan shows a bicyclist crossing a street. A car hits the front of her bike. She's within a few inches of getting hit herself. But she neatly steps off the bicycle with perfect poise.

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The Norwegian design firm Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter recently renovated and occupied a Nineteeth Century villa in Oslo as its new studio. Much of the second floor consists of large sheets of glass supported by study timbers. It's similar to the vertically glass house in Shanghai in that you can easily look up and down at your co-workers.

-via Fubiz

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The Japanese toy line Konapun includes scale model kitchens that people can use to make food. In the past, the food has been fake. But the company also manufactures a stove so realistic that you can cook a proper, albeit very small, meal on it.

In this video, YouTube member AAAjoken prepares scrambled eggs, sausage, and coffee using Konapun utensils and a stove. He serves them on two plates and cups on a tiny kotatsu.

-via Nag on the Lake

Redditor dfreshv is brilliant! Take a peanut butter Oreo, a strawberry/raspberry Oreo, remove a cookie end from each, combine what's left, and you've got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Make a bunch of them and that's a full and reasonably healthy meal.

-via That's Nerdalicious!

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If you were in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday, then you died. I hope it was quick and relatively painless. Temperatures spiked at selected areas around the city. Whereas Chandler was a pleasant 63°F, Cave Creek and other suburbs faced temperatures as high at 2,960ºF (1,627ºC).

So everyone in those areas is thoroughly dead and baked. Despite the magnitude of this tragedy, Cory McClosky, a meteorologist with Fox 10 News, was calm, cool, and collected. This guy has nerves of steel.

-via Boing Boing

Gergely Bogányi, a Hungarian pianist, spent 10 years developing what Kelcee Griffis of My Modern Met calls "the piano of the future." It's a beautiful form, but the Bogányi piano is more than just a thing of beauty. Internally, it's a rethinking of the machine that produces sounds different from modern pianos. Marton Dunai writes for Reuters:

Nearly all 18,000 components were rethought. The two wide, curved legs double as sound deflectors. Thanks to an intricate mechanism, the strings apply minimal pressure on the sound board, made of over 20 carbon composite layers. The cast-iron frame boasts an all-new design. […]

Karoly Reisinger, CEO of the New York piano repair shop Klavierhaus, was "mesmerized" at a sound he said brought lyrical qualities back to the piano after a century of power-focused development.

"In this design you will be able to hear the 1850-1860 era qualities, lyrical, bell-like, precise – and also the modern instrument that our time is used to, which is clarity," he said.

Four-time Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Gerald Clayton felt he had played a slick new type of instrument.

"The sound almost feels as if you're in a bubble, it's so clear," he said. "It's a new sensation."

-via Inventor Spot

(Photos: Core77)

Saunas are a big deal in Finland. In fact, the word sauna is of Finnish origin. So for Finns, luxury accommodations must include a hot steambath. Skybox 408 at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki offers guests a bar, gourmet food, and a 20-person sauna.

Guests can strip down and watch hockey from the privacy of one-way glass windows. Renting it costs €2,500 per night, which is about $2,822 USD.

Derek Klingenberg is a farmer and YouTube celebrity in Kansas. When we last saw him, he was summoning his cattle by playing Lorde's "Royals" on a trombone. But Klingenberg is a Renaissance man--he's not limited to one form of art. He knows both music and the visual arts. He demonstrates his talent for the latter by herding his cattle in such a way that they form a smiley face. An aerial drone captured his impressive craftsmanship.

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-via Tastefully Offensive

For more than three decades, Fred Rogers was our neighbor. Through his television programs, he was a special friend who helped children grow up healthy. If you were a child during his era, you got to visit his neighborhood through the screen. Now you can do so in real life. The Heinz History Center in Rogers’s own city of Pittsburgh has several items from his set on public display.

(Photos: Senator John Heinz History Center)

Among them is King Friday’s castle, the Great Oak Tree, Mister Rogers’ living room, and several of his puppets.

-via Daily of the Day

P.S. A few months ago, I read Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom for Parents and Children from Mister Rogers. I highly recommend it. This book helped me clarify who I want to be as a father.

(Photo: Inami Wood Carving Collective)

The Inami style of wood carving dates back to Eighteenth Century Japan. The master craftsmen there make the finest sculptures and other implements rendered in wood. In addition to more traditional uses for their craft, the artisans also make bodies for electric guitars. They are breathtakingly beautiful, especially the guitar bodies shaped like dragons. You can view more of them at Rocket News 24.