Alison Moritsugu is an artist from Hawaii who lives in Beacon, New York. For her log series, she composed idealized images of nature onto the cut surfaces of rough hewn logs. Moritsugu explains:

In my log paintings, I examine the contrivances found in landscape paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries. These landscapes, by artists such as Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Edwin Church, were deeply rooted in the political constructs of the time and depicted the land as a bountiful Eden, a limitless frontier ripe for conquest. I take these images out of their familiar context, the framed canvas, and paint directly on wood slices with bark intact. These landscapes appear as an homage to the idyllic art of the Hudson River School yet, by viewing the painting’s surface, the cross section of a tree, any sense of nostalgia or celebration of nature is countered by the evidence of its destruction.

Several of her log paintings will be on display from Nov. 12 - Dec. 12 at Littlejohn Contemporary Art in New York City.

Agent 007 has travel all over the world while working for the UK's Secret Intelligence Service. The latest film, Spectre, takes James Bond to Austria, Italy, and Morocco. These may be great journeys for us, but for Bond, it's just another day at the office.

The Guardian offers an interactive map that shows where James Bond has traveled over the course of his 23 movies. It does not include space, where Bond spent some time in Moonraker. And, of course, it does not include any of his travels that remain classified.

-via Marilyn Bellamy

While attending the PAX Prime convention in Seattle in August, David Ngo shot these three ladies who are ready for an elegant evening at an 80s arcade. Thalia Cosplay wears Pac-Man, Peachy Molly wears the Tetris dress, and Mél Dee invades your space with her enormous Space Invaders gown. Mél Dee made these lovely dresses, which hopefully didn't cost too many quarters from the arcade consoles.

(Video Link)

It's time for mandatory affection at Chai Lai Orchid resort in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Allie doesn't know that yet, but Ele the baby elephant will teach her. This is how you cuddle. At just 2 weeks old, she's already an expert.

Hopefully Allie will return for even more cuddles when Ele is full grown!

-via Tastefully Offensive

(Image: Columbia Pictures/Marvel Entertainment, via ComicBook)

Two actors have donned the red mask in recent years: Tobey Maguire in 2002 and Andrew Garfield in 2012. To honor their work, scientists recently named two real webslingers after them.

The Filistata maguirei and Pritha garfieli are newly-discovered species that live in Iran. Marusik et al. note in the journal Anthropoda Selecta that "They are venomous but do not pose a risk to humans." Of course not! They're our protectors.

-via Nerd Bastards

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I remember that after one of my pet rabbits died, the other rabbit, in a shocking display of strength, ripped the door off her cage and went out looking for him. She scoured our apartment, searching for her lost mate. She was, in her own way, mourning him.

Or am I just projecting? Joe Hanson, a biologist and the host of the PBS program It's Okay to Be Smart, reviews the evidence. For a long time, scientists assumed that only humans could mourn because only humans could intellectually grasp death.

But now it's clear that crows, chimpanzees, and elephants mourn in some capacity. Zoologists noticed that when one elephant under observation died, her family stopped and lingered near her for a while. For several days, five other groups stopped by and visited her body--even when doing so placed them in danger from predators.

They're called boaterhomes. I use the plural form because, surprisingly, this isn't a one-on-a-kind vehicle. There are many of them. Like the saucer separation procedure in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a boaterhome drives to the shore, then detaches a fully functional cruising boat.

This particular model, the AutoBlog tells us, is a 1987 Watercraft Sports King that rides a 1986 Ford E-class van. All it needs is helicopter wings to offer a full menu of transportation options.

(Video Link)

-via Geekologie

Don’t send that résumé off yet! First, run it through Kittify. This online application by Daniel Landry turns your words into a series of cat-themed puns and references. Here, for example, is the Gettysburg Address. You could also use the application to tweak a seductive love letter, an especially menacing death threat, or a simple shopping list.

Please leave comments—but first, run them through Kittify.

-via Incredible Things

Which is a better household companion: a cat or a baby? Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal runs through the arguments, clearly favoring cats.

What he doesn’t mention is that babies don’t stay that way forever, as cats do. Eventually, babies become teenagers. That’s when the fun begins, right?

Nota bene: you can also get a dog.

Content warning: potty humor.

On June 8, 1972, Nick Ut of the Associated Press photographed the napalm bombing of a Vietnamese village. 9-year old Kim Phuc, hit by the caustic gel, stripped her clothes off and fled in terror. Her expression of pain and horror became an iconic image of the Vietnam War.

Phuc grew up and traveled to Cuba. While her plane stopped for refueling in Canada, she defected. She later became a Canadian citizen and served as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace.

Now 52, Phuc has never fully recovered from the horrendous damage that napalm did to her body more than four decades ago. She recently traveled to Miami to visit a high-end dermatology clinic that can heal many of the scars that cover her body. The AP reports:

Late last month, Phuc, 52, began a series of laser treatments that her doctor, Jill Waibel of the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute, says will smooth and soften the pale, thick scar tissue that ripples from her left hand up her arm, up her neck to her hairline and down almost all of her back.

Even more important to Phuc, Waibel says the treatments also will relieve the deep aches and pains that plague her to this day.

For this story, the AP assigned a photographer that Phuc already knew: Nick Ut, the man who first photographed her in 1972 and rescued her:

Ut remembers the girl screaming in Vietnamese, "Too hot! Too hot!" He put her in the AP van where she crouched on the floor, her burnt skin raw and peeling off her body as she sobbed, "I think I'm dying, too hot, too hot, I'm dying."

He took her to a hospital. Only then did he return to the Saigon bureau to file his photographs, including the one of Phuc on fire that would win the Pulitzer Prize.

During World War II, millions of Americans who had never travelled beyond their own states were, in short order, trained and sent far away to foreign lands filled with people very different from themselves. So the Army published a series of guidebooks that taught the Americans how they should conduct themselves in ways that would leave the natives with the right impression. These books included the nations of France, Britain, Australia, Germany, Iran, and Iraq.

(Images: US Army/Amazon.com)

They included helpful pointers on etiquette. For example, don't slap an Iraqi on the back. You may think of it as a friendly gesture, but the average Iraqi won't. You can read more about these guides at Atlas Obscura.

-via VA Viper

(Photo: Donovan Shortey)

There she is, Miss Navajo. In 2012, Leandra Thomas, who is pictured above, won that coveted title. There's no swimsuit competition at this beauty pageant conducted by the Navajo Nation. Contestants wear traditional garb and have to demonstrate a facility with the language and essential skills. For example, Miss Navajo knows how to butcher a sheep properly. Laurel Morales wrote in 2012 for NPR:

One petite woman struggles to lift an enormous, slippery stomach out of her sheep. Judges circle and scrutinize.

Immediately after the women finish, they must answer impromptu questions in Navajo, like, "What are you supposed to do with the sheep's head?"

One contestant answers, "Wrap it in aluminum foil and put it on the fire."

The crowd boos in response because they don't like her answer — and because she switches to English. The event is intended to show whether these women can multitask, stay calm under pressure and most importantly, first-time contestant Wallitta Begay says, prove their understanding of Navajo customs.

-via Messy Nessy Chic

This year, redditor aubra_cadabra and her friends chose Robin Williams. From left to right, you can find Williams's roles in Mrs. Doubtfire, Mork & Mindy, Jumanji, Popeye, Hook, Aladdin, and The Birdcage. This assembly won them Best Group Costume in a costume contest for the fourth year in a row.

In previous years, the group went as Johnny Depp, Jim Carrey, and Will Ferrell:

Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr calls his installation Vacanze Romane, which translates into English as Roman Holidays. He displayed it in the Italian city of Pisa. One Piaggio Vespa joins another in an endless ride through an eternal city.

-via Messy Nessy Chic

Inspired by a Photoshopped image of Donald Trump wearing a man bun circulating the internet, the graphic design website Design Crowd invited people to Photoshop other politicians wearing man buns. Here's Vladimir Putin, the apparently perpetual president of Russia, by forum member lionx. You can find many others here, including Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon, Barack Obama, David Cameron, and Kim Jong-un.

-via Tastefully Offensive