Trending in China reports on an innovative approach some tech companies are taking to enhance employee morale: in-house cheerleaders. These are pretty young ladies who are hired to flirt with the engineers and programmers in order to make the work environment more appealing. The premise is that the workers will be more productive as a result.
Neatorama is not a tech company--at least in the popular sense of the term--but surely the effect would be the same, right?
-via Kotaku
(Photo: vmiramontes)
Yawns are contagious. Or at least they're supposed to be.
So here's a quick test: yawn. If the person next to you--whether a stranger of someone you've known and loved all of your life--doesn't yawn, then he might be a psychopath.
That's how I'm misinterpreting a new study by researchers at Baylor University. They found a positive correlation between people who don't yawn when other people do and scores on questionnaires for psychopathic characteristics. Shaunacy Ferro writes for Mental Floss:
The higher the participants rated on measures of cold-heartedness, the less likely they were to catch another person’s yawn. Granted, people are less likely to feel empathy with a stranger they’re watching in a video than with someone they know, and the sample size was pretty small, so Baylor University probably isn’t full of a bunch of raging psychopaths. And not yawning when others do it doesn’t mean you should run off for a psych evaluation. "But what we found tells us there is a neurological connection—some overlap—between psychopathy and contagious yawning,” study author Brian Rundle says.
-via Joe Carter
Australia is currently being consumed in a milkshake arms race as cafes and bakeries try to one-up each other in increasingly extreme and bizarre milkshakes. You want a milkshake with a huge Nutella-filled donut on top? You got it. You want a milkshake topped with 4 different types of brownies? Dig in.
These chefs were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.
Which leads us to this creation. It's 1 of 3 preposterous milkshakes made by food photographer Alana Dimou. She warns us:
Here are three flavours of my own: S’Mores Chicken, Bacon Burger and Coles Baked Fresh Today Bakery Aisle. Be inspired. Eat marshmallows and chicken. Milkshake flavours are irrelevant now, the duty falls upon whatever lies on top. May God have mercy on us all.
-via That's Nerdalicious!
(Photo: Turkish Airlines)
Some people become flight attendants. But, truly, Erkan Geldi was born for this kind of work. His mother gave birth to him midair while on a Turkish Airlines flight from Izmir, Turkey to Frankfurt, Germany in 1990. Now he's a steward for that same airline. Road Warrior Voices interviewed Geldi about his career choice:
RWV: What did you study and when did you start as a flight attendant?
EG: I have a bachelor’s diploma in teaching English from Bakılesir University and began work as a flight attendant last year. During the interview process, they asked me why I picked this occupation. I replied that actually the occupation chose me! When my father’s friends came to visit, they would always say, “Hello, little pilot!”
-via Nag on the Lake
Etai Rahmil is an artist in Oakland, California who specializes in glassblowing. For his series Symphony of the Seasons, he made glass versions of trumpets, as well as the hands which play them. They are delicate, precise, and seemingly magical in their execution. You can almost hear the music flow with the glass.
-via My Modern Met
(Sephko)
This was your father's lightsaber. He killed several dozen kittens with it. Don't point it at your face and you'll be fine.
Later, Luke Catwalker would attribute the loss of his paw to a great duel against a mighty opponent. Obidog never revealed the truth.
(Photo: Brian M. Cassidy)
If you know the whereabouts of this dearly loved cat, please inform his owners immediately. They're especially worried as he's not one to wander around--an indoor cat, really.
-via Lost at E Minor
(Photo: Tim Shortt/Florida Today)
Ann and Ken Fredericks of Satellite Beach, Florida were married 60 years ago in Nyack, New York. Ann's grandmother baked their cake, which is a dark fruit cake, then had it iced by a baker. They ate most of the cake at the wedding reception, but saved the top layer.
On their first anniversary, they ate a small portion of that cake.
And on their second anniversary, they ate another.
Now, 60 years after they got married, they're still eating a little slice of that same wedding cake. They wrap the cake in plastic wrap, place it inside an old coffee can, then place the can inside a room-temperature closet. Florida Today (auto-start video) reports:
The Fredericks get a kick out of teasing their children. They said they've offered all three a bite of the cake over the years, but it has always been refused.
"They won't taste it," Ken said.
"And we tell them, it tastes fine," Ann said. "They always say, 'Oh, there's not that much. You two keep it for yourself.' I don't know, we may have to be buried with it."
After the annual bite, the cake, which is now about 4-by-3 inches big, will be wrapped in Saran and nestled back into its coffee can with a yellowed slip of paper that reads: "Top tier, Ann's wedding cake."
"We're hoping we can do it again next year," Ken said.
"It has lasted us 60 years, and so has the marriage," Ann said, "which is much more important than the wedding cake."
-via AP
(Photo: Ena's Soap)
It's the perfect gift for any occasion: breast milk soap.
Ah, human breast milk! You can make just about anything with it, including cheese, jewelry, ice cream, and lollipops.
Hand soap made from breast milk is becoming a stylish luxury product in China. The craze can be traced back to a woman named Qi in Wuhan, which is in central China. As a new mother, she produced more milk than her baby could consume. So she stocked up 10 liters of it, bought a soap making kit off the internet, and produced a line of fancy soaps under the brand Ena's Soap. The Daily Mail reports:
There are currently close to 1,000 online outlets in China selling either breast milk soaps or soap-making kits.
Many of the breast milk soaps are shaped into flowers, hearts and Hello Kitty.
Ms Qi says that the soaps not only mark the first time a woman becomes a mother but is also a nice gift for friends.
A recipient of the gift, named only as Ms Ding, said: 'This is the most unique gift I've ever seen'.
-via Marginal Revolution
(Image: Disney)
Groot, a tree-like creature in the Marvel superhero movie Guardians of the Galaxy, says only one thing: "I am Groot."
When 4-year old Sawyer Dunlap saw the movie a year ago, he connected with Groot in a special way. Sawyer has the dyspraxia, which inhibits his ability to speak. Groot has helped him overcome this obstacle. Sawyer's father, Josh Dunlap, recently wrote on Facebook:
When Guardians came out Sawyer could only say about three words and would communicate to his mother and I by other means. When he saw Groot, something clicked inside him and he connected with him on a level I haven't seen. He began to mimic him and he would use the word "Bah" for a lot, but after he saw the film, he would change the tone in which he said it to convey a different meaning. He would also start saying Groot for many things as well. Since that, he was finally able to go to a speech class and it has helped amazingly. I just wanted to thank you though, for a script and movie that was written so well that a four year old, three at that time, could connect with someone who had the same language barrier.
-via Popehat
Embassy Gardens is a housing development in progress in London. The design includes a pair of 10-storey apartment buildings. You will be able to walk between the two of them--or just swim!
The pool, which will rest 115 feet above the ground, is 90 feet long, 10 feet deep, and 19 feet wide. People will be able to see straight through the 8-inch thick glass walls. You can view more artist's conceptions at Contemporist.
This is the Dashcaster, a custom electric guitar made by DeviantART member engineer2004. He's offering it up for auction on eBay. All proceeds will go to the Shriners Hospitals for Children. The bidding has already gone up to several hundred dollars.
The basswood body is carved perfectly to look like Rainbow Dash, right down to her feathered wings. The neck is made of maple and the fretboard with rosewood.
Release the kraken and roll for a sanity check! Nvenom8 Designs made this 20-sided die that screams out from the abyss should you botch your roll. It lacks the flat sides of a traditional die, but it lands clearly enough on its many tentacles. It's about 3 inches across and can be manufactured in steel which is presumably cursed.
-via Dude I Want That
The Earth loves the Moon. But she also likes space. Would a little space be a bit too much to ask for? The Moon acts like her whole life revolves around the Earth. That kind of relationship is not a necessity (Venus has no moons--well, at the moment).
Behold a natural cat person! This little baby goes berserk with joy when she sees a cat. She doesn't know quite what it is, but she connects with the cat in a unique way. She has found her great purpose in life: to be a cat owner.
-via Huffington Post
