Johan Martin, a master pastry chef, is a specialist in Viennoiserie, a particular type of puff pastry. The Cordon Bleu school describes it as:
[...] the 'bridge' between pâtisserie and French bread. These goods are typically made with white flour and active yeast cultures, which cause the dough to rise quickly and achieve the perfect flakiness. Some are instead made using an enriched puff pastry.
Villu Jaanisoo is an Estonian sculptor who lives and teaches in Finland. His source materials include everyday discarded materials, such as tires. Elephant is a life-sized public sculpture made from them and erected in 2018.
Child prodigy Luca Yupanqui is launching her musical career early. She's 15 months old now, but her new album, Sounds of the Unborn, is a retrospective compilation from her time in the womb. Her parents, Elizabeth Hart and Iván Diaz Mathé, recorded her in-utero sounds and then digitally remixed them. CNN reports:
"The electrodes receive electromagnetic impulses that are translated into MIDI and then hooked up to synthesizers," Hart told CNN. The MIDI devices were placed on Hart's womb over 5 sessions, each one-hour long.[...]
In a release by Sacred Bones, Luca's music is defined as "the expression of life in its cosmic state -- pre-mind, pre-speculation, pre-influence, and pre-human."
Here's a sample from the album. As you can hear, Luca has a promising career ahead of her.
In the middle of the Japanese countryside, there's a train station. You can exit the train, but you can't go anywhere. There are no roads or paths away from the station and no one lives in the area.
Why does it exist? Spoon & Tamago tells us that the Seiryū-Miharashi Station was built solely to allow people to enjoy the natural beauty of the Nishiki River flowing through the forest. After you disembark and breathe in the mountain air, the next train will pick you up in about 10-15 minutes.
Food artist Erik Vernieuwe and photographer Kris De Smedt operate Burp, a food photography studio. Lately, they have been altering hot dogs to show famous scenes from movies and works of art. You'll recognize E.T., the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and others.
The full length nudes in the series are especially . . . strange.
There is a single bright spot in this crisis: if you're going to die, it's not because of one of those profoundly annoying Liberty Mutual ads. So in the instant that your consciousness vaporizes with your body, it will retain a bit of dignity.
How would a centaur ride a bike? As the anime series A Centaur's Life teaches us, a lot of design modifications are necessary for centaurs who live in a bipedal-majority world. But those changes can be done. Kyle Scheele becomes the center and centaur of attention whenever he rides this two-person bicycle that becomes serves as a costume.
This is one of Scheele's many creations with cardboard. It is, perhaps, not his most extraordinary. When he turned 30 a few years ago, he held a Viking funeral for his 20s.
I am informed that there was a significant football game last night. More importantly, the most prized television commercials of the year aired. CBS debuted a series of short ads featuring characters from Paramount's deep bench journeying together to the summit of the mountain on that company's logo.
The results are very funny, such as Spock jamming to SpongeBob SquarePants singing "Sweet Victory" by David Glen Eisley. Other stars appearing together include Patrick Stewart on air guitar, Stephen Colbert working the bar, Dora the Explorer, and Tom Selleck.
Amancay Murales, a firm in Buenos Aires, painted the bottom of a swimming pool to resemble Vincent Van Gogh's mystical Starry Night. It's an especially good choice given the watery appearance of the sky in the painting.
Oddity Central brings to our attention this amazing desert. It's called shiltarae bingsu. These fine noodles are actually made of shaved ice! Cafe Tiravento in Seoul, South Korea, makes it.
As I explored that restaurant's Instagram page, I found other amazing dishes that rival shiltarae bingsu as edible works of art.
My number #1 rule in life (Jordan Peterson has 12, but I have 20) is "Always wear shoes you can run in. You never know what the day may bring." That's why fashion designer Beate Karlsson now has my undivided attention.
What are your fashion needs? Do you need shorts that make you look like you have Kim Kardashian's posterior? Do you need shoes that look like giant human hands? Beate Karlsson has you covered.
Now I know that it's common to scoff at fashion designers' more... imaginative improvements to haute couture. They tantalize us with designs that never appear in stores. Well, I have good news! You can actually buy these shoes!
The Webb girls -- Demi, Dreux, and Dylan -- need their morning bottles. The WEBBlets scramble for their seats to receive breakfast as parents Terry and Kelli deliver. Service at this restaurant is prompt, but you have to know the protocols.
In 1967, Paul Grisham, a meteorologist in the US Navy, was unwillingly sent to Antarctica for a 13-month tour of duty. He found life at McMurdo Station to be tedious. Losing his wallet there was a notable event, although now, at the age of 91 and living in southern California, he can't remember doing so.
When a building at McMurdo Station was torn down, Grisham's wallet was found behind a locker. The San Diego Union-Tribune describes its contents:
Inside the recovered wallet was Grisham’s Navy ID, his driver’s license, a tax withholding statement, a recipe for homemade Kahlua and several items other so-called “ice rats” who worked at the station might recognize. There was a beer ration punch card, receipts for money orders sent to his wife for his poker winnings at the station, and a pocket reference card with instructions for what to do in the event of an atomic, biological or chemical weapons attack. There was never any cash, as there was nothing to buy at the station.
A team affiliated with Indiana Spirit of '45, an organization that honors and helps veterans, came across the wallet and tracked down Grisham. He was delighted to receive it:
“I was just blown away,” said Grisham, who lives in San Carlos with his wife of 18 years, Carole Salazar. “There was a long series of people involved who tracked me down and ran me to ground.
-via Debby Witt | Photo: Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune
Shall we take a trip to Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauo tamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronuku pokaiwhenuakitanatahu? That's a hill on the North Island of New Zealand named after a Moari hero. There are various spellings, the shortest of which is 85 characters and the longest is 105 characters. Atlas Obscura reports that the name translates as follows:
the hill of the nose-flute playing by Tamatea - who was blown hither from afar, had a slit penis, grazed his knees climbing mountains, fell on the earth, and encircled the land - to his beloved
