How does he do it? How is this even possible?

Belgian tattoo artist Inal Bersekov has both great talent and skill. His tattoos look like perfect duplicates of photographs, such as Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photo of two people kissing in Times Square at the end of World War II.

You can watch this process video giving a brief overview of how Bersekov works his magic.

DeviantArt member Fantasio composed this haunting image of old, long-abandoned starship left to molder in a forgotten corner of a faraway world. We know not what became of Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise, but we can only assume the worst.

Fantasio composed this image as part of a series showing similarly abandoned machines, including an AT-AT, an AT-ST, and the Iron Giant (warning: artistic nudity).

I was too old for Pokémon when it came to the USA in the late 90s and this has apparently been to detriment of my cognitive development. Jennifer Ouellette explains at Arstechnica that scientists have concluded that when young children spent a large amount of time learning to recognize the hundreds of different Pokémon, they altered their brains:

[...] a new paper has just appeared in Nature Human Behavior, concluding that people who avidly played the game as children have developed a unique cluster of brain cells devoted to recognizing the hundreds of different Pokémon species.

It's well known that human beings are remarkably adept at visually recognizing faces, words, numbers, places, colors, and so forth thanks to a constellation of regions—small clusters of neurons about the size of a pea—in the temporal lobe, located just behind the ears. Those regions show up in the same place in most people, despite differences in age, sex, or race. There's even a so-called "Jennifer Aniston neuron," (aka the "grandmother cell") discovered by a UCLA neuroscientist in 2005, whose primary purpose seems to be to recognize images of the famous actress. Similar neurons have also been found for other celebrities like Bill Clinton, Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, and Kobe Bryant.

I missed the Pokémon era, but somewhere in my brain there must be a cluster of cells lovingly devoted to my childhood crush, Donna Douglas.

Photo credit: Monsieur Gordon

Twitter user @ksobny brought this image to my attention. It tantalizingly suggests that, at some point, there was a Japanese-language version of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical novel Thus Spake Zarathustra and the cartoon character Hello Kitty.

According to the library database WorldCat, this 126-page book published in 2014 offers:

Extracts from Japanese translation of Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen accompanied by illustrations of Sanrio's character Hello Kitty.

The book is available in both Chinese and Japanese. WorldCat says that the San Francisco Public Library and Los Angeles Public Library systems have both. I couldn't find them in the SFPL online catalog, but I could find a Chinese one in the LAPL online catalog.

Twitter user @ahptik suggests, "the restroom requires a sacrifice." But I think that I can read the emotions from my own baby care days. There has been a poop explosion (where the mass of poop exceeds the mass of the baby--a mysterious but real phenomenon) and although the baby is satisfied with the result, the parents are rushing to contain the disaster.

-via David Thompson

This amazing creation by redditor Rosiebelleann is a vanilla cake filled with pineapple curd. The outer layer of meringue has been sculpted and toasted to the appearance of the rind of a pineapple. Chocolate shingles take the place of the pineapple leaves.

In the comment thread, pink_ego_box says that the idea dates back to an era when pineapples were very rare in Europe:

If I remember correctly they commented on how pineapples were super expensive a few centuries ago (exotic fruits rarely survived the Atlantic trade routes on sail boats) so people bought one to serve at dinners to show how rich they were. Bakers then invented a cake visually similar to what was fashion at this time for those who couldn't afford a whole pineapple.

It's so beautiful that it might take me a few seconds to work up the nerve to eat it.

What? I should kill everyone and float away? Sorry, the voices.

Keely Madison (NSFW) brought the horror of the Pennywise from the 2017 production of It to the psychosis of Harley Quinn from DC's Suicide Squad.

Photo by @perfectfive.

There are no cardinal directions to tell where I am from. I am from everywhere. I am from Sudan, Chad, France, and the United States, and a little city called Utica, New York....I am from Masalit, English, and Braille. Masalit is not written or read. I am making history at this moment when I say 'talim'. This translates to 'education' in English. It is historical because it is the first time a Masalit word has ever been written, read, and recorded in Braille.

Ahmat Djouma, a student at Mohawk Valley Community College, gave this moving speech before the 2019 conference of the Achieving the Dream Network, an organization of community colleges. He grew up in Sudan and then Chad while blind and speaking a language, Masalit, that has no written form. His long journey, which he hopes will lead to a career in law or government, is only just beginning.

Why are the Big Brother posters in Nineteen Eighty-Four so intimidating? Perhaps because there are clear links between human behavior and the presence of watching eyes, or even just the appearance of watchful eyes.

Some scientists have already found that people in cafeterias are more likely to pick up their trash if there's a poster with eyes in the room. Others found that people are more likely to pay into honor boxes if images of eyes are clearly present.

In 2012, scientists at the Newcastle University (UK) published a study of human responses to donation boxes at supermarket checkouts. They found that people were far more likely to donate if the scientists had glued googly eyes onto the buckets:

In an 11-wk field experiment in a supermarket, we displayed either eye images or control images on charity collection buckets. There was no normative requirement to donate in this setting, and most people did not do so. However, the presence of eye images increased donations by 48% relative to control images. 

-via Caleb Howe

Artist Michael McLane is an inspired master of his craft. He's made many geeky stained glass lamps in the past, including lamps inspired by Transformers, Captain America, Judge Dredd, and Halo.

His latest creation is this lamp that looks like the BB-8 droid from Star Wars. Although it doesn't roll around (well, at least won't stay intact if you do), the head can be moved so that our little guy is looking in different directions.

Designer Lisa Marks of the Georgia Institute of Technology refers to her invention as Algorithmic Lace. It's a bobbin lace fabric is that curved instead of flat as it's being made, permitting her to create bras for the needs of individual mastectomy patients. In an interview with Cool Hunting, Marks explained what properties it presents to women who have undergone mastectomies:

Thinking about who needs the most variation, who needs the most customization, and there are just so many women with breast cancer. About 50% of women that have a mastectomy choose to not have reconstructive surgery. We might not realize it walking down the street but there’s a very large number of women who are using external prosthetics (which are) very heavy and use a lot of irritating adhesive. Scar tissue is really sensitive and can’t tolerate underwires and things that normal bras use. When you’re trying to put something on your body, and then you have to make it fit, and it’s not really for you, I can imagine that’d wear on your confidence.

-via Motor1

Instructables member Pam Harris is a master woodworker who makes ornate furnishings using, among many other tools, a bandsaw. This marvel is a box filled with twisting drawers that somehow fit together perfectly smoothly.

A process video is embedded below. One interesting part is how she applies the suede-like lining, which is actually painted on. Skip to the 18:05 mark to see Harris opening and closing the drawers in the finished product.

In the bright, shimmering utopia that is the future of the human race, we will be able to enjoy a vast variety of food-like substances. Prof. Louwrens Hoffman of the University of Queensland, Australia, says that the world of tomorrow includes the opportunity to eat sausages that use maggots as meat. The New York Post reports:

“An overpopulated world is going to struggle to find enough protein unless people are willing to open their minds, and stomachs, to a much broader notion of food,” says meat science professor Dr. Louwrens Hoffman. “Would you eat a commercial sausage made from maggots? What about other insect larvae and even whole insects like locusts? The biggest potential for sustainable protein production lies with insects and new plant sources.” [...]

“In other words, insect protein needs to be incorporated into existing food products as an ingredient, he says. “One of my students has created a very tasty insect ice cream.”

In terms of other sustainable sources of protein, Hoffman also brings up kangaroo meat — ideal because they don’t require grasslands for grazing. They are also supplementing chicken feed, which is currently made mostly of grains, with black fly larvae, with promising results.

Yummy! I'm up for some insect ice cream.

-via David Burge

In our experience, when Thai ad developers go to work, they produce spectacular stories of love, compassion, and heroism. We should all watch Thai TV just for the commercials!

In this ad for Chaindrite termite spray, we see a tragic hero who feels the call to adventure. He sojourns from his native land to seek food for his people. Although he comes within sight of victory, he is cut down by the dark magic wielded by the humans. Weep for fallen, for one day, their fate shall be ours.

-via Robby Bevard

Never mind what Marvel and DC are up to! For the hottest, most exciting comics, you need to head over to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Three new thrilling comic books there explain monetary policy, the history of the Federal Reserve System, and banking.

You can download PDF versions from the site. Middle schools and high schools in the USA can also request 35 free print copies. These come with lesson plans, worksheets, and classroom discussion guides.