Sure, the furniture and furnishings from Design Toscano are expensive. But if you want to decorate your home, office, or school in a way that's memorable, it's the store to shop at. Can you telepathically command all crabs? Then this chair belongs in your supervillain lair.
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The American cartoon G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero depicted a US special forces team fighting a terrorist organization called Cobra. The purpose of the cartoon was to sell toys based on the figures and machines featured on the show.
Consequently, many of the vehicles and weapons were, from a practical standpoint, ridiculous. Adam Elder of Mel Magazine interviewed several veterans and experts on military equipment about the flaws and benefits of G.I. Joe designs. Here's Sergeant Major Daniel Sebby's evaluation of the Rolling Thunder, which is pictured above:
Oh God, what the hell is this? First of all, the thrust from those vertical rockets would burn up the vehicle. Then you have all those missiles on a turntable. What do you think’s gonna happen when you fire a missile, with the exhaust, to the missiles behind it? Same with the yellow rockets on the underside. And that little 6×6 go-kart: completely superfluous to the mission. Mounting a missile on the barrel of a tank gun? That’s dumb. They tried to make this thing a tank, a ballistic missile launcher and some sort of equipment carrier. Too many missions for one vehicle. Yeah, this thing is so wrong.
-via Super Punch
Yeah, I know that it's hard. There are days when you just don't want to. But you have to follow your dreams. So get up, get out, and get back to ovulating!
Does that make sense to you? It does to InspiroBot, an AI that provides inspiring posters appropriate for both the home and the workplace.
What's the definition of a musical instrument? That's a question with an open answer if you consult Spanish musician Xavier Lozano. He specializes in turning everyday objects, such as rifles and bicycle wheels, into playable flutes. In the above video, he's performing with an old street barricade better than I've ever seen anyone else do.
-via The Awesomer
When tourists visit Pisa, Italy, they usually prioritize visiting the famous leaning bell tower there. Likewise when tourists flock to Groom, Texas (population 574), they seek out the leaning water tower.
Atlas Obscura tells us about Ralph Britten, the owner of a truck stop along Route 66. In about 1980 (the date is uncertain) he bought an old water tower and had it erected next to his facility. He intentionally tilted it so that passerby would think that it was about to fall over:
This helped his business immeasurably. It would catch the eye of every passing motorist on the route for years, many of them becoming terrified that the tower was in the process of collapsing. This played right into Britten’s hand. Worried route-takers often swerved off the road and into his truck stop, shouting “watch out! That tower’s about to fall!” Britten responded that it had been like that for years, and then asked them to sit down and buy food and a drink.
Britten’s manipulation of the tower did, however, require sufficient knowledge of physics. If the water tower were completely empty or completely full, its center of mass would be directly in the middle of the can, making it topple when slanted. So Britten filled it only partially, so that the low level of water would place the can’s center of mass near its base, directly above the two supporting legs, keeping it aloft.
Photo: Steve Hardy
Alternative title: How to Start a Kitchen Fire.
Mackenzie Carpenter plays a cooking guru who will burn down your house if you follow her instructions, especially the suggestion that you walk away after starting the toaster.
I'm curious about an egg packet, though. Perhaps this could be done in a toaster oven.
-via Swiss Miss
Lucky, a Siberian Husky, has a job: to guard this jewelry store in Chang Ma, Thailand. To test her protective abilities, owner Worawut Lomwanawong arranged for a disguised police officer to simulate an armed robbery of the store.
Lucky slept through the entire incident. Newsweek reports on the owner's disappointment:
[...] Worawut tried to rationalize why Lucky might not have reacted to the "robber." He said it could've been because the dog recognized the policeman who was posing as the crook. "I found it very funny to see that she didn't even try doing anything and continued to sleep," he said, adding that he was delighted to see the video go viral.
Worawut also mentioned that the local authorities wanted to do security tests for jewelry stores, and his was chosen for the study. He added that it was the "first serious security test" for his storefront.
-via Super Punch
Spain-based street artist David Villaécija has chosen the perfect spot for a camera mural. In an interview last year, Villaécija explained the magical experience of an evolving piece of art, such as this one:
Another factor, would be the illusion and magic, as well as the adrenaline sparks that accompany you during the beginning, development and liberation of the idea … until a point arrives in that that magic fades and that is where you know that the final.
-via Street Art Utopia
Mia Stålnacke, a photographer, lives in Sweden---an ideal location for photographing the aurora borealis. Her Instagram feed is filled with many images of the Northern Lights and, occasionally, the more terrestrial wonders of Sweden.
This photo suggests a celestial horse riding through the sky. Who shall attempt to ride it?
Filipe de Castro, an architect in Brazil, can find creative energy from objects lying around his home and office. Would you like to live in a house shaped like a baby rattle? Would you like to work in a building that resembles a chocolate sundae? de Castro has options for you.
Italian furniture designer Fabio Novembre calls his design "Adaptation." It urges users to adapt to the uncertainties of life. He explains:
Often we take the comfort acquired for granted, laying down as if it belonged to us forever. But this is a world where there is no revenue of a position, where is important to always find a new balance.
Adaptation is a seating system confronted with the uncertainties of our time, with the precariousness of the structures, suggesting that just a little adaptative [sic] capacity is needed to continue to live and to smile. History teaches us that those who cannot adapt are doomed to extinction.
I'd adapt by propping up one side with bricks.
-via The Awesomer
Rain Noe of Core77 says, "It's really sad that this exists, but this is the world we live in."
Well, I think that it's pretty awesome! The Smash My Trash trucks have crane arms mounted on the back and spinning, toothed barrels that reach into dumpsters and compact the trash inside.
The idea is that humanity needs an emergency repository of reproductive materials in the event that it becomes extinct on Earth. A facility beneath of the surface of the moon could provide a safe shelter for a restart of the human race, as well as other preserved species from Earth. The New York Post reports on the project proposed by Jekan Thanga and his colleagues:
The so-called “ark,” according to Thanga’s presentation, would then cryogenically preserve various species in the event of global disaster. “We can still save them until the tech advances to then reintroduce these species — in other words, save them for another day,” he said. [...]
The pits also are the perfect size for cell storage, according to Thanga. They go down 80 to 100 meters underground and “provide readymade shelter from the surface of the moon,” which endures “major temperature swings,” as well as threats from meteorites and radiation.
-via Dave Barry | Photo: Jekan Thanga et al.
I feel like I'm suffocating by just watching this video.
This particular deathtrap is located in the Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area in western Texas. Can the explorers squeeze through the entrance and, more importantly, back out again? Let's find out. What's the worst that could happen?
The best part of this video is the dialog, as the joking cavers give their stuck friends helpful and unhelpful hints. It gets especially good when one caver decides to go in headfirst.
-via Born in Space
We need two things in life: food to eat and books to read. The Traveler Restaurant in Union, Connecticut offers both. Buy a meal and you get to pick a book from the thousands available on the eatery's shelves. Atlas Obscura describes the experience:
On the shelves edging the tables are westerns, cookbooks, pulpy paperbacks, children’s books, and romance novels. The vibe is decidedly comfortable diner meets community book sale. Owner Marty Doyle, an avid reader, started bringing books into his restaurant in the mid-1980s as a way to thin his oversized collection and find new homes for old books. Now, after finishing a meal, diners take time to wander the stacks looking for their perfect new read.
Over the years, Doyle also collected a number of autographed photos from many well-known authors including John Updike and Michael Crichton, and these are also on display at the Traveler. Under new ownership since 1993, the restaurant’s books are now mostly donated by area libraries and community members, and the take-home amount has been upped to three books a person.
Photo: Traveler Restaurant
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