I'll bet that if these tourists ever go out on the water again, it'll be in a steel-hulled ship!
They were just offshore at Mossel Bay, South Africa, looking at seals that live in the area. A 12-foot Great White Shark approached their boat--then bit into it! His teeth easily punctured the rubber pontoon, deflating it. The boat operator prudently headed to shore immediately.
-via Gifsboom
Ukranian artist Nikita Drachuk uses the lampworking glass technique, which involves only colored glass rods, a torch, and hand tools, to shape images of animals. They have the same vibrant colors that nature provides and remarkable precision, considering the fragility of the material.
When Rich McCor travels, he cuts paper silhouettes and holds them up in front of famous landmarks. He then takes photos at just the right angles to show the landmarks doing unusual things, such as the Eiffel Tower launching into space or Big Ben becoming a wristwatch. He tells the Daily Mail:
I would love to somehow make this hobby into a career, and if it involves travelling to places to shoot these images then that would be a dream come true.
(Artist's Interpretation by NASA/Mark A. Garlick)
NASA's Kepler 2 telescope orbits the sun. It has the largest telescopic mirror outside of Earth orbit, which permits it to acquire detailed images of solar systems far, far away. Recently, astronomers used it to observe an asteroid 570 light years away. That asteroid is being torn apart by the dying star that it orbits. This is the first time that astronomers have ever observed the destruction of a solar system. The Guardian reports:
Scientists spotted chunks of shredded planet swinging around the white dwarf every 4.5 to five hours, placing them in an orbit about 520,000 miles from the star, about twice the distance between the Earth and the moon.
“This is something no human has seen before,” said Andrew Vanderburg at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “We’re watching a solar system get destroyed.”
This event could reveal what the ultimate end of our solar system would be like:
A similar fate may well await our own solar system. When the sun dies in five billion years, it will expand and engulf the inner planets, toasting Mercury and Venus, and potentially Earth too. But if Earth survives that cosmic trauma, it may find itself being shredded as it spirals into the white dwarf that the sun becomes. “We might be seeing how our own solar system could be disassembled in the future,” said Vanderburg.
-via ClarkHat
In the Pixar movie Up, Carl and Ellie Fredricksen have a touching and heartfelt love story from their youth into their old age. It inspired pianist Jason Lyle Black to make this video to honor the sixtieth anniversary of his grandparents' marriage.
In real life, the couple has always played piano duets. So Black remixed theme music from Up and had his grandparents play it. The video is filled with references to Up, including a tennis ball-footed cane and a dog who gets distracted by squirrels. Black himself appears at the end of the video, dressed in Russell's Wilderness Explorer uniform.
-via Huffington Post
(Photo: Natgal)
The Bagel Store is a bakery in Brooklyn. Can you guess what you can eat there? Yes, bagels! Lots and lots of them in a vast variety of breads and spreads. It has 30 types of bagel, including cotton candy and candy corn flavors, and cream cheese spreads that include funfetti and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
This shop is the brainchild of Scot Rossillo, a man who bills himself as the "Worlds Premier Bagel Artist." You can see more photos of the marvels that he prepares on his Instagram feed.
-via Foodiggity
Lady and the Tramp
Robbie Driscoll isn't just a children's entertainer who can bend balloons into vague animal shapes. He's a true artist who can apparently make anything with balloons.
Back in 2013, he decided to make a balloon sculpture every day of the year. He's still doing it. Driscoll's latest theme is movie scenes in a series that he calls Twisted Cinema. You can follow his progress on his Facebook page.
Spider-Man
(Image: Mary Beth Nelson)
Sesame Street Workshop wants to reach out to children with autism and their parents. It now offers an array of resources for this condition, including a new character. Julia is a friend of Elmo and Abby Cadabby. She's in a new online storybook that is designed to teach children how to interact with other kids who have autism. People magazine talked to Sesame Street executive Jeanette Betancourt:
"This is what makes our project so unique," says Dr. Betancourt. "When we explain from a child's point of view that there are certain behaviors, such as slapping their hands or making noises, to express excitement or unhappiness, it helps younger children to understand how to interact with their autistic peers. It makes children more comfortable and therefor more inclusive."
-via Huffington Post
If you or a loved one has been arrested, then you need the "talons of justice." Bryan Wilson, a lawyer in Fort Worth, Texas, is the bearer of those talons. He calls himself the "Texas Law Hawk." As this ad demonstrates, if you've been arrested for DUI, he will show up while doing wheelies on a motorbike and lay down some law on the cops.
The Main Street Quartet doesn't just sing modern songs in barbershop harmony. It weaves them into a complex and perfectly performed stand-up comedy routine.
Their whole composition is called "Good Old Days." In it, the members explain that today's songs will become oldies soon enough and, eventually classical music.
Their performance includes Britney Spears's "Oops! I Did It Again," Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk," Meghan Trainor's "All about That Bass," and Psy's "Gangnam Style."
But their pauses for comedy riffs are even funnier than their singing!
-via 22 Words
It says "tasty pieces" but note the fine print: "irregular pieces." You know the parts of the pig that go into hotdogs right? Same thing here. This ain't mermaid brisket.
Writer and internet personality Rusty Blazenhoff made this can and others like it several years ago. She explains that her town of Alameda, California was once known as the "Coney Island of the West." Neptune Beach in Alameda was a popular resort in a bygone era. She's branded this can of mermaid meat to reflect this history.
Yes, please, please, please visit to talk to Cathy so that we don't have to! We know more about her ferrets than we ever wanted to.
Jeff Wysaski of Obvious Plant visited book drops of the Los Angeles Public Library system and left branded signs giving precise instructions to drive-by patrons.
Random thought: a smart corporate marketing executive would hire Wysaski to leave signs around company facilities. It could be good and cheap publicity.
(Photo: Kimberly Vardeman)
And as a Texan, I could not be more proud!
Dan Solomon of Texas Monthy researched this phenomenon. He found that this Norwegian term is several decades old and has its origins in old Western movies that have come to be symbolic of Texas. Solomon quotes Norwegian Tumblr user Qnneli:
The expression itself has to do with associations. It’s something that brings to mind chaotic, crazy conditions, like the “wild west,” and at least back when the expression was coined, the “wild west” held very strong Texas associations. Hell, even when I was a kid in the 80s, I thought that all American cowboys came from Texas, and that’s just how it was. Texas = land of the cowboys. And rodeos. And the wild west. A Western movie? Probably from Texas.
"Texas" is usually as an adjective. Solomon writes:
Usually, when the word “texas”—as an adjective, most often without capitalization—appears in Norwegian, the context involves the phrase, “det var helt texas,” which translates to, roughly, “it was totally/absolutely/completely bonkers.” You wouldn’t call a person “totally texas”—it usually describes a chaotic atmosphere.
In truth, Texas is not totally texas. But we're working on it.
-via Dave Barry
It doesn't make sense to you or me, but to 4-year old Iris Gill, her local CVS convenience store and pharmacy is a "happy place" comparable with Disney World. For the past two years, she watched as the facility was built and then opened. She loves to visit.
So her mother, Sarah Fortune, threw her a CVS-themed birthday party. Iris's cake was with decorated with the CVS colors and typographic style. Party favors included white mints dispensed in prescription medicine bottles. Grown-ups got to drink Cranberry Vodka Splash (CVS, get it?) punch and everyone got to shop at the little toy register that Sarah set up for Iris and her friends. You can see more photos at Sarah Fortune's blog.
Back to the Future day is upon us. So we all need to be riding hoverboards, wearing steel planters on our heads, and watching Jaws 19 in theaters. You can also mark the occasion by getting inked with images of one of the greatest movie franches of the 20th Century. You will definitely impress 1985's Marty McFly if you are sporting this photorealistic tat by Josh Bodwell. It's 1 of 24 perfect tattoos that people added to their bodies to show how much they love going back to the future.
