ViralHog shares this charming incident. 14-year old Hudson was practicing his basketball skills in the driveway of his home when a Federal Express delivery truck stopped in the neighborhood. In just a few seconds, the driver parked his truck and dashed out across the street.
Hudson intuitively understood what was going to happen. He passed the ball to the driver, who quickly dribbled up and dunked. He thanked Hudson and ran back to his truck. There's no conversation; just two guys who grok each other for a few seconds while shooting hoops.
Josy Peukert and her husband, Benni Cornelius, lead unconventional lifestyles. They have such a strong affinity for nature that Josy decided that the best type of "free birth" for her was to deliver in the crashing waves of a beach. The New York Post reports on their unique childbirth story.
The couple moved from Germany to Nicaragua. Peukert chose the beautiful Playa Majagual as the site of her fourth childbirth.
Peukert's first birth, which she describes as "traumatic", took place in a clinic. The second was at home. For the third, even having a midwife present was too invasive for her. For this pregnancy, Peukert decided to have no medical interventions or even prenatal doctor's appointments.
When the child came to term, she and her husband, Cornelius, headed to the beach. Cornelius brought towels and a bowl to catch the placenta. Their son, Bohdi, is a healthy 7 pounds and 6 ounces.
No, it's not the world's worst Transformer, but an impressive suit of plastic armor (+2 to AC, -3 to Dex) cut and assembled by Kami Robo, a Japanese artist famous for making robot figures out of anything, as well as robot-themed art in a wide variety of media.
24 traffic cones went into this suit, which is remarkably flexible. I'm not sure how the user breathes and it's likely to get very hot quickly. Here's a photo of Kami Robo standing next to the suit, which appears light enough to carry easily.
Malcolm Gladwell is a public intellectual famous for his novel takes on human society. His books, which include Outliers: The Story of Success and Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know, are widely-discussed bestsellers.
Gladwell is a busy man, so he has personal assistants. In a recent blog post, he says that for many years, he would ask applicants for that position if they could drive a car with a manual transmission. If the answer was no, then they were disqualified.
Why? It's not because they will need to drive stick while on the job. It's because he's looking for the type of 22-year old person who would want to learn that "marginally useful skill." Gladwell explains that the young person who can use a manual transmission has certain useful personality traits:
One reason is that they like knowing how to do things that most people do not. Another is that they realize that the most fun cars in the world to drive are sports cars, and the most fun sports cars to drive are the ones with manual transmission, and they like the idea of being able to turn a rote activity (driving) into an enjoyable activity. I want to work with the kind of person who thinks both those things.
It's an interesting idea, but as one commenter at Ann Althouse's blog points out, it assumes that the average 22-year old has access to a car (let alone a sports car) with a manual transmission, which I think would be fairly unusual in the United States. Gladwell would certainly be disqualifying a lot of otherwise capable 22-year olds who could have other ways of demonstrating the same characteristics.
The latest project from Bufalino's studio in Lyons, France is this ping pong table. It's built around a bicycle for easy transportation between or even during games. It comes equipped with training wheels. I don't think that's because of his limited bicycling skills but the sheer weight of the table.
Bufalino rides it here in Esch-Sur-Alzette, a town in Luxembourg known for its vibrant art scene. He reports that he's already returned to France via bike, but not necessarily this bike.
Intima, a company that makes menstrual products, such as environmentally-friendly period cups and Kegel muscle training devices, would like to normalize conversations about periods. Yahoo! News reports that the company has launched a cereal with little bits shaped like a human uterus. The cereal is, appropriately, raspberry flavored and stains milk red.
Period Crunch comes in boxes with diagrams of the female reproductive tract and conversations starters about menstruation. Intima argues that cultural forces prevent many women from talking comfortably about periods. Chatting about menstruation over breakfast could be a way to overcome these inhibitions.
What's going on here? The cat is pawing at the clock, which seems innocent enough. But his human, Japanese Twitter user @MikasaLove611, insists his intentions are nefarious.
The cat has learned that the human does not present food until it is 9 o'clock. The clock must have a particular appearance for the human to provide food.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc. By altering the appearance of the clock, the cat can move forward to 9 o'clock, or at least convince the human that it is now feeding time.
Time Cat could use his powers to be a superhero. But Time Cat is a cat and is thus unconcerned with the affairs of humans who are not directly involved with feeding him.
Her latest creation gets us ready for the summer heat with a bikini made from Canon camera cases. The straps provide all of the elastic flexibility that you need if you haven't gotten beach body ready yet. The built-in pockets are no doubt helpful, as one still needs to carry sunscreen, keys, and money while on the beach.
They're icons of a great era in the history of New York City and a staple of film scenes from the Big Apple. And now they're gone. The city government began removing payphones in 2014 and replacing them with kiosks that offer Wi-Fi and mobile device charging. There are now 2,000 such kiosks across the city.
That conversion project is in its final phase. CNBC reports that the final payphone kiosk at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Fiftieth Street in midtown Manhattan has been removed. It will be placed on display at the Museum of the City of New York as part of an exhibit on life in that city before the computer age.
Let's say that you need to transport your pet somewhere, such as the veterinarian's office or the local public library. You would like to keep both of your hands free to, say, open doors or fight off the undead. You could wear a pet carrier backpack, but those look dorky. A far more distinguished look is this pet carrier made by Ari Serrano who creates streetwear for modern needs.
Nicole Pesce is a concert pianist of the highest caliber. She's been at work since early childhood, having memorized over 500 songs by the age of 7. Now, as an adult, she's personally composed over 300 and is famous for her comedic performances reminscent of the late Victor Borge.
In this concert delivered in 2011, Pesce imagined what the classic tune "Happy Birthday" would sound like if it had been written by famous classical composers. She mixes up that song with Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", Chopin's "Military Polonaise", Brahms's "Lullaby", Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", and a Mozart piece that I can't name.
For the final bit, Pesce imagines Mozart performing it while very drunk. Quite athletically, she plays the piano while upside down. Pesce takes her inspiration from a particular scene in the film Amadeus.
Rejection, whether is from a job or a date, can be painful. But sometimes, when it happens, the person turning us away can be kind about it.
David Attenborough, a British broadcaster most famous for creating and narrating nature programs, such as Life on Earth, has a public reputation as a gentleman. He does not casually cut down people who seek his aid.
James Mielke, a producer for the video game design studio Limited Run Games, once attempted to enlist Attenborough as a voiceover artist for the game Jupiter & Mars. That's an underwater, immersive VR experience, so Attenborough would be an ideal narrator.
Attenborough thanked Mielke for the invitation, but demurred. He doesn't do fiction narration in order to maintain a specific public image. But he let Mielke down gently.
Japanese YouTuber Kurahito Craft made a completely functional and sturdy cushion entirely out of wood. the screenshot above illustrates how. By cutting notches into opposing sides of the columns, he used the material's natural flexibility to create springs. When all 60 wood springs are bound together and capped, they combine into a flexible cushion that doesn't break under pressure.
To put his design to the test, Kurahito stood on the assembled cushion with his full bodyweight, as well as gradually reduced the number of springs down to only four. So as long as the springs are prevented from flipping sideways, they hold up well.
In the days before MP3 players, building a music library required physical media. One popular option for decades was vinyl records. You needed a good collection to entertain yourself and guests.
It was so important that even the White House had one.
The Washingtonian shares the story of John Chuldenko, one of the grandsons of former President Jimmy Carter. He heard from former First Lady Rosalynn Carter that the White House possessed a little known record collection. As a music enthusiast, he had to learn more.
Thus began Chuldenko's discovery of the forgotten vinyl library. He used his connections and his research skills to track down this library and its history.
In 1973, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) curated and donated a collection of 1,800 records to the White House. It was their representation of the music of America. Then the RIAA updated the collection in 1981 with even more records. But, over time, it was neglected and forgotten in the vast archives of the White House.
In 2010, Chuldenko got the opportunity to examine this collection. He brought along a film crew in the hope of recording footage for a documentary:
“With every box, there was this new treasure inside,” Chuldenko recalls. “I knew what was in there on paper, but it’s different when you actually hold these records. They had never been played. It was like walking into a record store in 1979. They were absolutely pristine.”
At one point, they decided to listen to a politically charged punk-rock landmark: the Clash’s self-titled 1977 debut. “I’m so bo-o-ored with the U-S-A!” Joe Strummer snarled—a chorus that had almost certainly never rattled the walls of the presidential residence prior to that moment. “We put that on,” Chuldenko says, “and it was just like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m playing the Clash . . . in the White House!’ I mean, what an incredible protest record. And it’s not like I brought it myself. I am playing the White House’s copy.”
Chuldenko recorded this event, but never got enough funding to create the documentary. He still has the footage, though. Hopefully, with increased attention, he may be able to produce it. Or, better still, a current or future President could open up the collection for a loud party.
As Alex is fond of reminding me, it is because of me and me alone that Neatorama has a virtual dress code. Pants are mandatory and said pants must "extend to at least the knees and not be skin-tight". The incident that led to the proclamation of this dress code could have been avoided if I had access to this custom application by YouTuber Everything Is Hacked.
He previously made a keyboard-like interface that can be controlled with facial expressions and, in fact, used it to make this particular Zoom modification. The application detects the area of your body below the waist and superimposes virtual pants upon it. You can change the color of your virtual pants but, the programmer stresses, you cannot turn sideways without the virtual pants virtually falling off.
As a backup plan, consider wearing pants and virtual pants during your work Zooms.
