Justin Lebon and his fiancée Michal Ott love Monopoly. They usually play with an old and worn out set that Lebon has had since high school. To propose marriage to his girlfriend, Lebon decided to make a special set just for them. It has custom properties named for places and events important to their relationship.
For the actual board, Lebon commissioned his friend Mark Becker, who is a woodworker. Becker used wood from an icebox dating back to the early 1900s to make this beautiful set, which he delivered to Lebon on Christmas Eve.
Dick Lauth, 23, is a self-taught welder and artist in the Chicago area. His craft is a practial one essential to keep our modern society functioning. It's also an opportunity for him to create amazing works of art that seem to give life to steel.
Tattooing has become a refined art practiced by masters and present on hundreds of millions of people. In the United States, 38% of people from the ages of 18 to 29 have been inked. These are works of art that, unlike the sculptures of Michelangelo or the paintings of Renoir, couldn't be preserved--until now.
The National Association for the Preservation of Skin Art is dedicated to saving your inked skin after you die. It argues that these precious works of art don't have to disappear as a body decays underground or is burned with cremation. Preservationists can remove tattooed skin and make it permanently presentable. Claire Voon reports for Hyper Allergenic:
The process is open to only members — 18 years old and up — of the nonprofit association, who pay an initial fee in addition to yearly dues. Those ready to pass along their dermis for posterity identify the piece they wish to preserve (which cannot be inked on the face or genitalia) and designate a beneficiary; within 18 hours of one’s passing, the beneficiary then alerts NAPSA who will overnight send a removal kit and paperwork to the funeral home. The embalmer has to then remove the tattoo — or tattoos — within 60 hours, place it in a “nontoxic temporary preservation compound,” and send it back to NAPSA, who will preserve the tattooed skin and return it to the beneficiary within three to six months. According to NAPSA, most funeral homes and embalmers are willing to follow through with the fairly easy removal process, although the organization also has a master embalmer who is building a network of funeral home providers for the service.
Abigail Kingston of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania will get married soon. When she does, she'll wear a precious dress that has been passed down in her family since 1895. She will be the 11th woman in the family to wear it, thanks to careful restoration work.
Traditionally, the mother of the bride keeps the dress until another woman is ready to wear it. Kingston first saw it at a family wedding when she was 5. She immediately fell in love with the dress and knew that she had to carry on the tradition. Lehigh Valley Live quotes the mother of the current bride:
"It is a magical wedding dress because she is the 11th bride to wear it," Leslie Kingston said. "Who would think anything would last that long?"
The dress has not been meticulously preserved. Over its lifetime, it has only been dry-cleaned once. Worn by brides of all shapes and sizes, lace was used to patch up wear and tear. Sometimes it was used as an unfortunate embellishment.
"Each bride could do what they wanted to do it," Abigail Kingston said.
The Kingstons knew they wanted to restore the dress to its original design worn by bride No. 1 Mary Lowry Warren when she walked down the aisle Dec. 11, 1895, in Buffalo, New York. Warren is the bride's great-great-grandmother.
"We wanted to make it the way it was," Leslie Kingston said.
Andy Shrinkage takes old skateboard decks, removes the trucks, and turns them into beautiful and unique lamps. With light bulbs in place of wheels, each lamp looks like a skateboard jumping over you in the night. You can see more at his eBay page.
It's a halberd--an ancient weapon. But it's not for show. The Swiss Guardsman who carries it is a trained expert in its use, as well as a variety of modern firearms. The tiny Vatican City, which consists of a 110 acres, has several hundred highly trained soldiers and policemen who are masters of their lethal crafts. Tyler Rogoway of Jalopnik gives us a close look at the Pope's own warriors: the Swiss Guard and the Gendarmerie Corps:
Although many would think the Vatican is protected by a token force of spear-slinging cosplayers, this is not the case. Although the Vatican does not like to discuss it, many plain-clothed officers are nearby the Pope when he is moving about. This especially includes when he travels abroad. These Swiss Guard officers pack the best weaponry available, namely tricked-out Heckler & Koch MP7 personal defense weapon (PDW) that fires armor piercing small caliber rifle rounds. This weapon is extremely popular with elite units ranging from SEAL Team Six to presidential protection units around the globe. It is also compact enough to be packed in an underarm-sling that can be concealed underneath a sport coat.
In a powerful ad by the Wieden + Kennedy agency, Nike urges you to keep running. Even if you're dead last in the race, you can finish the race. You can become a runner simply by persisting.
The problem with most lazywear designs is that they don't go far enough. If you're at work and your boss is yapping at you about something, then you need something to cover your eyes and block him from view. The Dame Gi has you covered--literally.
Tourists travel far and wide to see the beautiful Longqing Gorge north of Beijing. There, you can ride a boat, a cable car, or go bungee jumping. If you'd like to get the top of the mountain, ride the dragon. This escalator is 258 meters long. It only goes up. If you want to go down, then you have to ride a toboggan, which looks equally fun. You can see more photos at Atlas Obscura.
It's every Trekkie's (realistic) dream: to live in a house that looks like a Starfleet starship. This 5-bedroom house in Friendswood, Texas, a suburb on the southeastern side of Houston, is the perfect fulfillment of that dream. The dining room looks like a classic Trek setting. The bathroom looks like the Enterprise engine room from The Wrath of Khan. The enormous home theater looks like a combination of the bridge and chapel from the original series.
Tiny Town Studios built this amazing house. In addition to the Trek-theme rooms, it has a bedroom that looks like it belongs in a fantasy castle, as well as more conventional rooms for your guests who lack proper taste. You can read more about it at the Houston Chronicle.
Papa Dog loves his puppy, even though he's not blood kin. It takes a pack to raise one, you know. So he makes sure that the vulnerable infant stays warm while napping.
On the left is Marvel superhero Wolverine. On the right is a Wolf's mona monkey (Cercopithecus wolfi) photographed by Lessy Sebastian. Comic Book Resources points out that they're almost mirror images! If Marvel ever creates an alternate universe in which the X-Men are lower primates, then the Wolf's mona monkey is ready for a starring role.
The villains of the classic Disney animated films really should have read the Evil Overlord List. Item #4 is immediately relevant to the Evil Queen in Show White: "Shooting is not too good for my enemies." The Queen should have found the quickest, easiest means of dispatching her enemy. She didn't and paid the price for her overly-complicated plan.
Paul Westover and Andrew Bridgman present to us If Disney Villains Were Smart. 6 cartoons illustrate how Cruela de Vil, Jafar, Gaston, Ursula the Sea Witch, and Cinderella's stepmother might have prevailed if they had been just a little bit brighter.
The starboard engine nacelle extends to the wall, providing a handy shelf. The whole thing is made of cardboard, wood popsicle sticks, and fibreboard. He shaped and glued the pieces together, then stained the finished product with a cherry-colored combination stain and polyurethane.
