Milena, a 17-year old hairstylist from Germany, is a master of her craft. Working upon mannequin wigs, she creates intricate hair designs that appear to be almost magical. Her Instagram page includes video instructions on how to replicate her work upon a friend's hair--or your own, if you're exceptionally dexterous.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger (champion bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician) recently turned 73. To celebrate the occasion, Redditor /u/Radonlab carved this magnificent pipe showing the Governor in his most famous acting role: the Terminator.
Schwarzenegger is an active redditor known for his jovial interactions on that forum. He asked Radonlab to sell the pipe. Radonlab gave it to him, and Schwarzenegger responded with a photo of him using it!
-via Born in Space
Pictured above is a Robertson screw, invented by the Canadian Peter Lymburner Robertson and patented in 1907. It was brilliantly designed to avoid cam out and was far superior to other screws available at the time.
We Americans might still be using them widely if Robertson hadn't gotten into a dispute with Henry Ford. Road & Track magazine traces the history of the screw and the downfall of the Robertson:
But unless you’re Canadian, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Robertson screws. That’s because Henry Ford wanted to use Robertsons in all of his plants, and he wanted more control over how they were made. Robertson, by most accounts a stubborn man, wouldn’t agree. No deal was struck, and the Canadian lost an important part of his business. Meanwhile, other engineers worked on their own types of screw heads.
The eventual replacement for the Robertson was the now-ubiquitous Phillips:
A Phillips screw offers many of the benefits of a Robertson and can be driven by a traditional slotted screwdriver in a pinch. Phillips licensed his design to the giant American Screw Company, which got General Motors to use the screw in the 1936 Cadillac. Within the decade, almost all automakers were using Phillips screws.
A Phillips is, arguably, not a better screw than a Robertson. Consumer Reports once wrote that “compared with slotted and Phillips-head screwdrivers, the Robertson worked faster, with less cam-out.” However, cam-out was good for automakers increasingly relying on automation, as it meant screws wouldn’t be overtightened. Today the Phillips is the standard, except in Canada, where the Robertson remains popular, and in Japan, which has its own cruciform screw, the Japanese Industrial Standard.
Next time you strip out a Phillips, shake your fist at Henry Ford.
-via Instapundit | Photo: Safforest
This amazing video of uncertain provenance appears to show an aquarium loop that allows a pet seal to swim over the surface of the pool. It has my seal of approval. I want one, even though I don't own a seal.
-via Geekologie
Here is a story about the time I got in trouble as a kid for repeatedly using the word “whorehouse.”
— Andrew Farmer (@thatsajellyfish) September 1, 2020
When I was a little boy, I misunderstood something that my mother said and believed for far too long that human hair is made of peanut butter.
Children hear things that adults say, but don't necessarily understand them. When he was eight years old, comedian Andrew Farmer heard the word "whorehouse" and misunderstood it to mean "psychiatric hospital". He tells a funny and hopefully true story about the results.
-via Super Punch
Marquetry is the craft of creating decorative patterns and images in wood by the inlay and adhesion of different woods, grains, stains, and colors. Andrea Nyilas, a Hungarian artist, is a master of it. Here is a recent piece displaying the Borg Queen from Star Trek. There is no more Borg Queen because you don't cross Janeway.
Rastra are dip pens that composers use (or used in the past) to draw musical staff. They were common among European composers in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Some, such as the one above, survive as prized antiques. Rastrum is the Latin word for, appropriately, "rake".
-via TYWKIWDBI | Photo: Worthpoint
There are so many reasons to get naked (or, as we bloggers call it, "in dress uniform"). One is to avoid polar bear attacks.
Polar bears are dangerous, aggressive predators that view humans as food. That's why, in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago, carrying a gun is not only allowed, but mandatory. It's why people in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada leave their car doors unlocked and have built a polar bear jail.
There's something else that you can do: strip. The New York Post reports:
“Polar bears are very curious,” Sarah Woodall, a tourism destination manager for Visit South Greenland told me during my first trip to the country in 2015. To that end, if you should come face-to-face with one, back away (slowly at first), while peeling off your clothes one item at a time. The bears are very curious so they should stop, sniff, and perhaps play with each item as they come across it, leaving you free to run somewhere across the Arctic buck naked.
Suddenly taking your clothes off can also shorten the line at store cashier lines or the DMV.
-via Dave Barry | Photo: Anita Ritenour
At an annual kite festival in Taiwan, participants lost their grip on a long kite named "Joy Falls from Heaven." But the tail of the kite wrapped around the neck of a 3-year old girl and carried her aloft. The terrifying part begins at the 0:47 mark in the above video. Thankfully, the New York Times reports, she's okay:
The girl, who was identified by news outlets only by her last name, Lin, landed mostly unscathed at the Hsinchu International Kite Festival. She suffered abrasions around her neck and face, the mayor of Hsinchu, Lin Chih-chien, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. She was admitted to a hospital for a medical examination, he said.
-via Nag on the Lake
Two years ago, the DDB ad agency in Colombia created a series of bus stop advertisements on behalf of Hasbro's Play-Doh line. While waiting for your ride, you could take out the jar of Play-Doh and mold forms left for your convenience, including a monster (above), a robot, and an airplane.
-via Toxel
Sure you can just toss up some birdseed or even, if you'r feeling generous, some nuts for the neighborhood squirrels (a species that one exterminator described to me as "rats with good PR").
But Duke Harmon, a master woodworker, went much, much further. He built an elegantly refined bar that offers squirrels the opportunity to taste a vast variety of nuts in the most sought-after vintages. While enjoying the cultured and sophisticated ambiance, squirrels can try cashews, peanuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, walnuts, pistachios, and almonds.
I watch a lot of build videos in this job. Most are, to be blunt, painful to watch, even when the resulting work is beautiful. But Harmon is genuinely entertaining and a great video editor.
-via Technabob
Let my neighbors use my wifi pic.twitter.com/7mfmBRtRAa
— Pablo Rochat (@PabloRochat) August 27, 2020
Art director Pablo Rochat kindly provides his neighbors (and anyone walking by his home) with free WiFi access. The password is a little tricky, especially if you're trying to type it into a phone. But is is free.
-via Super Punch
This is really clever and I'll probably try it myself the next time my dog needs her nails trimmed.
Odile, a mastiff in Maldegem, Belgium, gets anxious during nail trimming. So a friend wrapped her head in plastic wrap, then applied a thick coating of peanut butter to the plastic. Odile was so distracted by the tasty treat that she barely noticed the work on her nails.
-via Born in Space
Sean O. is a master of cardistry: the flourishing movement of cards in complex movements, seemingly without effort but actually only through talent and long practice. In this routine, he twists a deck (I'm sure there's a proper technical term in the field) while tossing one card swinging around his back and returning into the deck.
-via Born in Space
The USCGC Kimball, which is based in Hawaii, held a swim call on Wednesday. That's when the ship halts and allows crew members to go for a swim in the ocean. They posted a rescue swimmer and watchmen because it's always a bit dangerous to conduct a swim call.
Why? Well, there are sharks in the area. And while about 40 swimmers were in the water, an 8-foot shark swam up to them. One coastie armed with a rifle fired shots at the shark very close to his shipmates. According to Good Morning America, everyone made it safely back on board--including the unicorn floatie that you can see drifting at the end of the video.
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