おもしろい pic.twitter.com/0mON48Gt2H
— 中国最新情報(xChina) (@xChina4) November 9, 2020
This video from China shows kids playing a novel game. The two teams do shuttle runs back and form to a giant gameboard, where they take turns playing tic-tac-toe. Because it's both a physical and mental challenge, you could describe it as chessboxing for kids.
-via Super Punch
Île de Ré is an island off the western coast of France. It is often plagued by mosquitoes which bite the legs of the asinine residents. To protect them, the local humans dress the donkeys in pants. BBC News informs us that donkey caretakers in other parts of the world, including Greece and Canada, have adopted this clever practice in their own nations.
-via Messy Nessy Chic | Photo: Jiel Beaumadier
The famous toy artist Dan Polydoris is back with more funny action figures inspired by unexpected sources. Most recently, at Gallery 1988, he exhibited several mint on card figures with characters from The Simpsons. With each one, there is one needful element missing. For Mr. Burns, it's his lifelong companion Waylon Smithers.
Here is entrepreneur Emani Outterbridge of Philadelphia. She's standing in front of her invention, the yarn vending machine. Outterbridge is a master crochet artist and offers professional consultations in that craft. While recovering from a broken foot, developed the idea of a vending machine that dispenses yarn skeins. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
While recovering, Outterbridge used the time to consider ways to earn money. A vending machine wouldn’t require her to pack orders and deliver in a cast. So she set out to raise money to finance three vending machines. She spread word of her campaign on social media, inviting people to shop from her site or to donate. It worked. Outterbridge raised $10,000 and launched her first machine last week, selling about 100 skeins of multicolored yarns.
-via My Modern Met | Photo: Emani Milan
The race is called "Ironman" for a reason. It's brutal. Competitors must run a full marathon, bike 112 miles, and swim 2.4 miles. Chris Nikic, pictured above, is an ironman because he completed one on Sunday. This 21-year old man from Maitland, Florida is the first person with Down Syndrome to finish an Ironman. The Orlando Sentinel describes the obstacles he had to overcome to accomplish this ultimate athletic challenge:
Chris Nikic had his first surgery, to repair two holes in his heart, at 5 months old. He still needed a walker at 3. [...]
He began swimming as a kid in his parents’ back-yard pool and at 16 tried his first “sprint” triathlon — a dramatically shorter version of the Ironman. But he lost two years of training because of repeated surgeries to reconstruct his ear canals, which, in people with Down syndrome, are prone to chronic infections.
When he restarted, he could barely swim a single lap or run 100 yards without stopping.
But Nikic persisted and, as a result, inspired everyone involved in helping him achieve his goal:
“Because this is a first for us, we had to work out some logistics,” said Beth Atnip, Ironman’s vice president of global operations. “But I’ve met Chris, and he is so impressive. His heart is so big. And I think this will open doors for a lot of other folks who maybe just thought it was impossible.”
-via Super Punch | Photo: Chris Nikic
For Remington Robinson, an artist in Boulder, Colorado, the palette is part of the work, so he leaves it in place as part of each finished painting. The final work is a beautiful landscape painted inside an Altoid mints tin.The image rests on a wood panel that he has attached to the lid with velcro. You can see more of Robinson's works on his Instagram page.
Every pie from Liz Joy's kitchen tells a story. She's an award winning dessert designer (a profession that I had never heard of before but can instantly admire) who markets herself as an artist who can bring unique sugary flavors to particular events and brands. You can see more of Joy work on Instagram or watch an interview about her work here.
Tadas Maksimovas, an artist and art director, used 10 years of his own hair growth to string a violin while the hair was still on his head. Then Eimantas Belickas, a violinist, performed on this somewhat cumbersome but creatively designed violin. At the end, rather than unstring the violin, Maksimovas sacrificed his locks for the good of the art and music worlds.
The 1985 Mississippi public television production Tomes & Talismans is a wonder to watch.
As a librarian, I can really appreciate it. One of my principles of collection development is that it should be possible to rebuild human civilization up to the level of 19th Century America from the information contained in the print collection of any mid-sized library. I have used this principle to argue for retaining old, uncirculated books, such as general encyclopedias of science and engineering, which would be essential for the reconstruction of a destroyed human society.
Thus Tomes & Talismans strikes a chord with me. The 13-episode series, which you can watch for free here, depicts an Earth conquered by alien colonizers called the Whipers. Humanity has chosen to evacuate to another star system. One librarian has remained behind in order to ensure that her library's collection has been preserved and its organization scheme made comprehensible to future generations.
I have watched only the first episode, but it appears that the show tells a dystopian science fiction story while teaching viewers how to make find available information in typical public libraries.
-via reddit
In this low-resolution remake of Pinocchio, a pair of kayakers off Avila Beach, California were almost swallowed by a humpback whale. The whale was feeding on fish and krill when it breached the surface of the water, taking two women, Julie McSorley and Liz Cottriel, with it. KSBY News reports that they were underwater for a few seconds before their kayak righted itself and the whale moved on.
Content warning: NSFW language.
-via Dave Barry
For years, entrepreneur Terence Jackson, Jr. of Southfield, Michigan pursued his dream: to build a mobile bowling alley to entertain people at parties and corporate events. Despite the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, he was able to launch his project this summer. He says that Luxury Strike Bowling is the only trailer of its kind in the world: a completely mobile 2-lane bowling alley.
The body of a dragonfly is shaped something like a helicopter. And it does hover in midair. So, yes: dragonflies grow into full-size helicopters. It makes perfect sense. The largest helicopters grow into Mi-26 heavy lift choppers.
-via Born in Space
This past June, Mie University in central Japan graduated its first ninja. That's right, Genichi Mitsuhashi, who is pictured above, holds a master's degree in that field. He's chopping wood because farm work was part of a ninja's lifestyle. The Japan Times quotes him:
“I read that ninjas worked as farmers in the morning and trained in martial arts in the afternoon,” he said.
So Mitsuhashi grew vegetables and worked on his martial arts techniques, in addition to copious ninja study in the classroom.
About three students per year enroll in this program, which was created in 2017. It is focused on the history of ninjas, not the practical skills of ninjas. That didn't stop Mitsuhashi from studying on his own, though.
-via My Modern Met | Photo: AFP/JIJI
Tony DeMatteo of Churchville, New York loves Halloween. Every year, his Halloween celebrations get bigger and better. He's been on a pirate theme since, three years ago, his daughter asked for a Pirates of the Caribbean-style Halloween. This year, he went all-out with a mock ship that is 50 feet long and 20 feet tall. It took him only a week and $3,000 in materials to build. CNN describes his amazing project:
"I have no background in this, I just do it for fun for my kids, and that's what makes it so great," Tony DeMatteo told CNN. "It's also been a rough year for a lot of people so we decided this would be a perfect opportunity to put a smile on people's face and just give them a sense of normalcy."
The father of three said he was motivated to build the pirate ship by his children, whose faces "light up with excitement" whenever they see Halloween decorations.
-via Dave Barry
