(Photo: ChardeeMacD)
It's almost time for Starbucks's pumpkin spice lattes! We're all excited because everything is better with pumpkin spice, including M&Ms, Peeps, and hamburgers. Ray's Maplewood Auto Service in Maplewood, Minnesota is getting in on the action with its unique pumpkin spice-flavored motor oil. Your engine will never be the same after it's had its first oil change with it.
-via Tastefully Offensive
You may search for meaning, but you will find only emptiness. And pandas and rainbows. They're as real as anything else, which is nothing.
Nihilista Frank is a funny tumblr blog filled with bright, cheerful images of happy animals, rainbows, and despair. It combines the best of the iconic Lisa Frank band of decorations with the unrestrained bleakness of existence.
-via The Mary Sue
In the margins of a college notebook, Brian de Vera doodled a little man dancing. It's the shortest of flipbooks--just two images per move--but totally effective. What his character lacks in form he makes up for in enthusiasm.
-via Gifsboom
In the distant past, armies in India often used elephants in battle. Trained war elephants were like living tanks, smashing through and breaking up enemy infantry formations. They were all the more deadly when equipped with tusk swords, such as this one owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The 2-foot long blade would slip over an elephant's tusk, giving that already deadly natural weapon greater reach and piercing power. It's one of only 9 known to survive to this day.
-via The Soul is Bone
Elena Sidorova, a furniture designer in Moscow, developed the flOP, a combination bed and chair. When it's time to sleep, flip the chair open. Compartments inside contain a mattress, pillows, and sheets. It would be ideal for an office chair.
-via Contemporist
What is that horrible monster chasing me?! No matter where I go, it goes, too!
What's worse is that as I cry for help, my family actually laughs at me! I'm surrounded by sadists.
-via 22 Words
This is the Click-Clack Table Tennis Table, a unique luxury ping pong table for specific tastes. It's regulation size, including the net. But the net and the table supports are railroad tracks. Holding them up are huge slabs of oak and hickory that used to be railroad ties.
It's made by Railyard Studios, a company that salvages wood and steel from railroads to make bespoke furniture. This particular table was recovered from the Tennessee Coal & Iron Company. The markings on the steel and wood indicate that they were made in 1904 and 1921, respectively.
-via My Modern Met
Dave Trott is an advertising executive with 4 decades of experience in the industry. He's interacted with famous and powerful people, sometimes just for his amusement. In his book Creative Mischief, he shared his recollection of a prank that he played on another ad executive who disapproved of the novel The Exorcist.
-via Nag on the Lake
Italian designer Paolo Ulian has a great idea for a cookie design! His thimble-shaped cookies are ideal for dipping in chocolate, caramel, and syrup. It's a tidy, efficient way of getting these drippy foods in you rmouth. Ulian is, as you can see, suggesting Nutella. I definitely won't argue with this choice!
The great task of the photo series Humans of New York has been to humanize strangers. The project asks ordinary people to tell their stories. By doing so, they cease to be 2-dimensional figures that pass through your life. These strangers become real and, as the title suggests, fully human.
That's nice, but it's also necessarily racist. More than humans live in New York City. There's a thriving orc community. And it consists of more than just recent arrivals from Mordor. Orcs have been in New York City for generations. And they struggle--sometimes with the systematic oppression of human-dominated society, as well as just ordinary problems of life, like personal relationships.
Harry Aspinwall, a truly great documentarian, shares their stories in Orcs of New York. Read and try to understand the orcs who are your neighbors.
British action star Jason Statham plays complex roles. His characters do a lot more than just punch people. Sometimes, for variety, they kick people, too.
But on the whole, Statham is a punching guy. This video by Burger Fiction compiles every punch he has ever thrown on film--including while voice acting in animated films. That comes out to 264 punches thrown in 4 minutes and 24 seconds, which is precisely 1 punch every second.
Note that this is different from Jason Stratham in real life, who punches a guy only once every 2.4 seconds.
That poor guy.
-via VA Viper
Why would you just throw a log on the fire? Making firewood isn't just a matter of chopping down a tree and drying out the logs. It's a traditional craft that, sadly, has been largely lost in modern times.
Jesse Horn, the owner of Smoke & Flame in Vancouver, has not only recovered that craft, but perfected it. No matter how long it takes, a log never leaves his workshop until he's washed and shaped it into the ideal piece of firewood. CBC Radio reports:
In his tiny shop in Vancouver, BC, he and an apprentice labour over perfect bundles of kindling, twigs, moss, and logs which sell for upwards of $1000 each.
According to Horn, people are not at all shocked by the sticker price: "My customers want to know that they're burning quality and they are happy to pay a little bit more to achieve that."
This is, of course, a satire. There's no artisanal firewood studio in business . . . yet. The CBC comedy news program This Is That created this video to lampoon the rise of artisanal versions of everyday products.
-via Ace Spades HQ
On Monday, a large meteor fell over Bangkok, Thailand in the middle of the day. It exploded before reaching the ground, creating a stunning display. The incident was captured on several dashboard cameras. Despite fears that it was an exploding airplane, astronomers have confirmed that it was a bolide, which is an exploding meteor. The Sydney Morning Herald (auto-start video) reports:
But Thailand's Astronomical Society confirmed it was a rare phenomenon called a "bolide" or exploding meteor that came with a thunderous roar across the sky near Bangkok on Monday.
Society president Prapee Wiraporn said the meteor was extraordinary because it was very bright and seen in daytime.
"This is a natural, normal phenomenon because small meteors fall to earth every day but what we saw was similar to one over Chelyabinsk in Russia two years ago," she said.
-via Bruce Martin
In the original script for the Disney movie Frozen, Queen Elsa is a villain, not a hero. It was after writing her signature song "Let It Go" that the producers realized that they needed to rework her character.
But they didn't have to change the story. As BloodBlitz Comedy demonstrates, Elsa is easily cast as the villain with a bit of digital editing. Now, when she sings "Let It Go," she's telling Anna something much more sinister.
-via Pleated Jeans
If there's no space in a shelter--or the shelter isn't safe--then the homeless need quick, portable, and durable housing alternatives. Professional architects have used their skills to develop solutions that are reachable by homeless people around the world, such as the WheelLY--an emergency housing concept by the Italian design firm ZO_loft. It consists of an aluminum frame and 2 polyester resin tents.
When not in use, the owner can fold up and roll the WheelLY around.
This is 1 of 20 housing designs made specifically for the homeless. You can read the rest at When on Earth.
