The great task of the photo series Humans of New York has been to humanize strangers. The project asks ordinary people to tell their stories. By doing so, they cease to be 2-dimensional figures that pass through your life. These strangers become real and, as the title suggests, fully human.

That's nice, but it's also necessarily racist. More than humans live in New York City. There's a thriving orc community. And it consists of more than just recent arrivals from Mordor. Orcs have been in New York City for generations. And they struggle--sometimes with the systematic oppression of human-dominated society, as well as just ordinary problems of life, like personal relationships.

Harry Aspinwall, a truly great documentarian, shares their stories in Orcs of New York. Read and try to understand the orcs who are your neighbors.

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British action star Jason Statham plays complex roles. His characters do a lot more than just punch people. Sometimes, for variety, they kick people, too.

But on the whole, Statham is a punching guy. This video by Burger Fiction compiles every punch he has ever thrown on film--including while voice acting in animated films. That comes out to 264 punches thrown in 4 minutes and 24 seconds, which is precisely 1 punch every second.

Note that this is different from Jason Stratham in real life, who punches a guy only once every 2.4 seconds.

That poor guy.

-via VA Viper

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Why would you just throw a log on the fire? Making firewood isn't just a matter of chopping down a tree and drying out the logs. It's a traditional craft that, sadly, has been largely lost in modern times.

Jesse Horn, the owner of Smoke & Flame in Vancouver, has not only recovered that craft, but perfected it. No matter how long it takes, a log never leaves his workshop until he's washed and shaped it into the ideal piece of firewood. CBC Radio reports:

In his tiny shop in Vancouver, BC, he and an apprentice labour over perfect bundles of kindling, twigs, moss, and logs which sell for upwards of $1000 each.

According to Horn, people are not at all shocked by the sticker price: "My customers want to know that they're burning quality and they are happy to pay a little bit more to achieve that."

This is, of course, a satire. There's no artisanal firewood studio in business . . . yet. The CBC comedy news program This Is That created this video to lampoon the rise of artisanal versions of everyday products.

-via Ace Spades HQ

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On Monday, a large meteor fell over Bangkok, Thailand in the middle of the day. It exploded before reaching the ground, creating a stunning display. The incident was captured on several dashboard cameras. Despite fears that it was an exploding airplane, astronomers have confirmed that it was a bolide, which is an exploding meteor. The Sydney Morning Herald (auto-start video) reports:

But Thailand's Astronomical Society confirmed it was a rare phenomenon called a "bolide" or exploding meteor that came with a thunderous roar across the sky near Bangkok on Monday.

Society president Prapee Wiraporn said the meteor was extraordinary because it was very bright and seen in daytime.

"This is a natural, normal phenomenon because small meteors fall to earth every day but what we saw was similar to one over Chelyabinsk in Russia two years ago," she said.

-via Bruce Martin

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In the original script for the Disney movie Frozen, Queen Elsa is a villain, not a hero. It was after writing her signature song "Let It Go" that the producers realized that they needed to rework her character.

But they didn't have to change the story. As BloodBlitz Comedy demonstrates, Elsa is easily cast as the villain with a bit of digital editing. Now, when she sings "Let It Go," she's telling Anna something much more sinister.

-via Pleated Jeans

If there's no space in a shelter--or the shelter isn't safe--then the homeless need quick, portable, and durable housing alternatives. Professional architects have used their skills to develop solutions that are reachable by homeless people around the world, such as the WheelLY--an emergency housing concept by the Italian design firm ZO_loft. It consists of an aluminum frame and 2 polyester resin tents.

When not in use, the owner can fold up and roll the WheelLY around.

This is 1 of 20 housing designs made specifically for the homeless. You can read the rest at When on Earth.

Lazy J's Bluegrass is a Texas Longhorn steer with a horn spread measuring nearly 9.8 feet across. Joe Sedlacek of Greenleaf, Kansas, the owner, has reason to be proud. Bluegrass took the Guinness World Record for the widest horn spread at a competition held by the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association.

Sedlacek says that the past 5 to 6 generations of Bluegrass's lineage have had very long horns. He missed a Guinness World Record last year by only a half inch. Another year's growth was enough to secure Bluegrass the title.

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It's been a long, hard summer. Even bears enjoy relaxing in hammocks to drip off some of the stress. That's probably why this bear family wandered into the backyard of Carol Harrington in Washington Borough, Warren County, New Jersey. She's seen them occasionally in the 13-14 years that she's lived there. But they've never been so interested in her patio furniture!

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

(Photo: Mike Persons/Booksmith)

The Alabama Booksmith in the suburbs of Birmingham is a rarity: all of the books it sells have been signed by the authors. Neil Gaiman, Harper Lee, Sue Grafton, Kazuo Ishiguro, Philip Roth and other famous authors have all contributed. The shelves are filled with books that are not only loved, but also personalized by the authors. Brian Barrett of Atlas Obscura talked to owner Jacob Reiss:

“If a book is not important to us, we don’t buy it,” says Reiss. “When we select a book, we’re as strong in depth with that title as any chain of stores.” There are also no interior shelves so book covers line the walls with plenty of space to roam, making Alabama Booksmith feel more like a boutique art gallery than a mini-Barnes & Noble.

(Photo: reynermedia)

Is your boss telling you to do actual work before 10 AM? If so, he's effectively torturing you by forcing you to work outside of your natural circadian rhythms. That's the conclusion of Dr. Paul Kelley of Oxford University, an expert on sleep. The National Post quotes him:

“This applies in the bigger picture to prisons and hospitals,” he added. “They wake up people and give people food they don’t want. You’re more biddable because you’re totally out of it. Sleep deprivation is a torture.” […]

Lack of sleep has been found to affect performance, attention and long-term memory and to encourage drug and alcohol use. It also leads to anxiety, frustration, anger, impulsive behaviour, weight gain, high blood pressure, lower immunity, stress and mental health conditions.

-via Dave Barry

Ice cream with whipped cream, berries, and syrup, all inside a structure that looks like a giant cake. This is where you want to relieve yourself. Or pig out. Or both.

The Oita Toilennale 2015 is a public art festival devoted to public toilets. The artists who contribute use nature's call as their central theme. Among the 10 major projects is "Melting Dream," an ice cream-like toilet building by Minako Nishiyama, Mika Kasahara, and Yuma Haruna.

The Fukishima nuclear accident 4 year ago inspired the project. With this structure, the artists are commenting that beneath a sweet structure, Japan is beginning to crumble.  You can see more photos of it at Spoon & Tamago.

This sparkly liqueur based on gin is surely the drink of choice for those of us with a grudge against the one-horns. Firebox isn't clear how much content is pure unicorn tears, but $61.59 a bottle, I'd hope for at least half. Edible silver flakes inside remind you of what those monsters did to us when they said we could use them as an employment reference, then said terrible things about us when prospective employers called. Drink up.

-via You Bent My Wookie

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The people of Britain need to know the weather they're facing when going out in the morning. If you live in the town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlll­lantysiliogogogoch in northwestern Wales, then you'll have sunshine and warm temperatures.

At 58 characters long, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlll­lantysiliogogogoch is the longest place name in all of Europe. Can you pronounce it? Liam Dutton, a weatherman with Channel 4 News, can. Watch it pour off his tongue with ease in this weather report. Dutton told the Daily Mail that he even pronounced it correctly on the first try.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlll­lantysiliogogogoch might be easy for Dutton. Perhaps he should next try the longest place name in the entire world:  Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, New Zealand. That's 85 characters long.

(Photo: Arvada Police Department)

Mary walked into the police station with a simple request: to hug an officer.

Upset at what she perceives as an uptick in violence against police officers in the US, the 83-year old resident of Arvada, Colorado walked into the Lake Arbor station and asked to hug an officer to thank the police for their work. Officer Steiner was on hand to do his duty. He and his colleagues were emotionally overwhelmed by the moment. KDVR reports:

She walked to her local police station, picked up the phone and told the lady who answered why she was there.

"That I wanted to express my appreciation to what our police people are doing," Mary said.

And after she waited for a minute, "This policeman came out, and, well, the minute he came out, I gave him a hug and told him how much I appreciated what the police people are doing."

-via Huffington Post

If you insist on eating vegetables--what Ron Swanson correctly calls "the food that my food eats"--then this is the right way to prepare them. Instructables member Peter Brown devised a means to infuse vegetables with bacony awesomeness. He encased a whole strip of bacon inside a block of epoxy resin, shaped that block into a tool handle, then drove a vegetable peeling bit into one end. The result is an appealling peeler, but possibly frustrating if you feel a sudden need to eat bacon.