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

Arrange two watering cans so that they overflow into each other. Fill them both, then add water to one of them. The excess water will flow into the other, then back again.

I'm not a science person, but video seems fishy to me. If real, wouldn't this be a perpetual motion machine?

-via Laughing Squid

This dog in Brazil knew exactly where to go. Google Translate renders the Portuguese video description as follows:

Injured dog enters veterinary clinic alone and receives treatment in the interior of Ceará

Street animal had a wound on his paw and was diagnosed with a tumor after entering the establishment located in the Center of Juazeiro do Norte.

I have been unable to confirm this story from other sources. But let us not permit an absence of verifiability to stand athwart cuteness of this degree.

-via Laughing Squid

Men are more likely to help a woman in need if she has erect nipples. That's the conclusion of a study led by Dr. Rebecca Burch of the State University of New York in Oswego.

For this study, the researchers asked 421 heterosexual college students to look at photos of women. For each woman, there were two versions: one with erect nipples and one without erect nipples. How likely were they to loan the women $100 or help them fix a broken-down car? The men were more likely to help the women with erect nipples. PsyPost reports:

The researchers found that men perceived women with erect nipples as more deserving of help compared to the same women without erect nipples. This was particularly true when the help involved greater interaction with the woman, such as tutoring her or stopping to provide aid if her car had broken down.

Male participants also expected women with erect nipples to behave more altruistically toward them and were more willing to include them in their social circle.

Female participants, however, were less likely to help women with erect nipples:

Female participants, on the other hand, were not more willing to help women with erect nipples compared women without erect nipples. The researchers also found that nipple erection made women less willing to include another woman in their social circle.

“Do women interact with women with nipple erection differently? Our research shows that they do; they want to avoid them,” Burch explained.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Stock Snap

Greg Frehr, an artist in New York City, makes SwingTables. These table sets are designed to keep active people involved in conversation by encouraging them to move around, swinging back and forth. In an interview last year, Frehr explains:

They help people with ADHD concentrate on the work at hand, use movement to get creative juices flowing, and have a unique ability to bring people together for meetings or socially – there is something special about sitting next to a co-worker, friend, or stranger on a swing that brings out a shared child-like joy. 

The model photographed above is a mere $6,450.

-via The Awesomer

This is Aogashima, an island about 220 miles off the coast of Japan. It takes its shape from the four calderas of its volcano.

That's an active volcano. Although it hasn't erupted since 1785, that eruption killed half the population. Still, the 170 people who live here are a hardy lot and are not inclined to let the occasional (by the standards of geological history) cataclysm disrupt their plans.

TYWKIWDBI points out that Aagoashima is governed by the city of Tokyo. I have verified this claim elsewhere. So it's technically correct (the best kind of correct) to say that that this photo depicts Tokyo.

Photo: Charly W. Karl

Dolev Elron, a fashion design student at Shenkar College in Israel, offers these unique jeans. Stare into the butt and experience all times and locations in the universe simultaneously.

Who wants to make the first black hole joke in the comment thread?

-via Ugly Design (although, in this case, it's actually a cool design)

Photo: Amit Zantkern

Walker 'stunned' to see ship hovering high above sea off Cornwall https://t.co/oWx6YnLvOR

— The Guardian (@guardian) March 5, 2021

This scene from the southwest coast of England depicts a "superior mirage." It's a type of optical illusion that appears under particular weather conditions. When there's a layer of cold air on top of a layer of warm air, light refracted through it distorts. The Guardian explains:

Because cold air is denser than warm air, it has a higher refractive index. In the case of the “hovering ship”, this means light rays coming from the ship are bent downwards as it passes through the colder air, to observers on the shoreline. This makes the ship appear in a higher position than it really is – in this instance, above the sea surface.

TL;DR version: sorcery.

-via TYWKIWDBI

When you buy a ticket for for one of Qantas's mystery flights, you know from where you will depart, but the airline keeps your destination a secret. All that you know is that Qantas has definite plans for you when you land and those plans will be surprising. Fox News reports:

The three mystery flights will depart from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to a destination outside of the "major capital cities," but still within a two-hour distance. Activities upon arrival could include a winemaking course or a gourmet lunch, and even a visit to one of Australia’s "tropical island wonders," Qantas describes. Once passengers touch down, they’ll have a day to explore at their leisure before flying home.

And while Qantas hasn't specified where passengers will land, the airline is giving a few hints. Those taking off from Brisbane can expect to enjoy "country hospitality" along with food and wine, while those leaving from Melbourne will likely be doing some hiking, or browsing through local farmers' markets. Passengers leaving from Sydney, on the other hand, will be enjoying "long lunching on the beach" at a tropical destination.

That's what Qantas claims. Has anyone actually returned from one of these mystery flights?

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Colin Brown Photography

Two weeks ago, we considered Mike Batz's brilliant proposal that the croc shoe design be used for underpants. Matt Benedetto of Unnecessary Inventions realized the necessity of making this dream real. He calls it Gator Briefs:

Introducing the newest addition to the Gator Collection, this stylish pair of underwear is equipped with all your favorite accessories from the sport strap, breathable holes, and ribbed accents.

You can watch a YouTube video of the creation process.