(Image: KSL News)

From 1948-49, West Berlin was blockaded by the Soviet Union, which hoped to force the three Western occupying powers out of the city. In response, the air forces of the Western powers delivered essential supplies, including food and fuel, by air. The year-long Berlin Airlift kept West Berliners alive and free.

One of US Air Force pilots who participated in the deliveries was Lt. Gail Halvorsen. He wanted to provide some joy to the beleaguered children of West Berlin, so he began secretly dropping pieces of candy from tiny, handmade parachutes over the city, just before landing. Thus Halvorsen became known as the Candy Bomber.

That was 67 years ago. Halvorsen is now 92. He still flies now and then, including on Friday afternoon, when he dropped 1,000 chocolate bars on children in a park in Orem, Utah. 

The airdrop was made as part of a 3-day celebration for the Fourth of July. Halvorsen was a guest of honor at that celebration. When asked what the holiday means to him, Halvorsen replied, "The Fourth of July reminds me that if you want happiness in life, you serve others."

-via Popehat

What's all this doomsaying about libraries becoming obsolete? We know that libraries will thrive in the future because they're present in 23rd Century. In fact, Star Trek shows at least 3 librarians at work in the distant future.

In the original series episode "All Our Yesterdays," Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to a seemingly vacant planet orbiting a star about to go nova. They discover that they are in a library. Despite the desperate circumstances, the librarian, who introduces himself as Mr. Atoz, is ready to help them.

Lifelong character actor Ian Wolfe, who plays Mr. Atoz, does a remarkably good job of carrying out a reference interview under conditions of extreme stress. He is friendly, welcoming, an advocate for the utility of libraries, and maintains the confidentiality of his patrons.

Brooke Barker, an artist in Portland, Oregon, loves to draw and loves animals. She feels sorry for a lot of animals who lead a rough life. She illustrates those problems at Sad Animal Facts, which put an amusing spin on what our animal friends have to put up with.

(Photo: j0be)

He is imminently logical and fascinating. He's the interstellar man of mystery. He's Spock, the half human, half Vulcan science officer on board the USS Enterprise. Spock has inspired generations of trekkies to imitate him, including for cosplay. For example, here's Betty Page Spock by Madeline Masquerade next to Rosie the Riveter Kirk. Let's look at even more great Spock cosplays.

My kids love to eat McDonald's Happy Meals. For them, the best part of each one is the toy inside. What will it be? It's always the first thing that they check.

The prize is almost always a small plastic toy. That's fun sometimes. But if you're past childhood (in the legal or psychological definition), then it may not be enough. BuzzFeed suggests 12 Happy Meal toys that McDonald's could market to adults--and specifically 20-somethings. These include an app that reminds you to call your parents, a jar of Nutella, and a neck pillow.

Flickr member MANDUH HUG'n'KISS refinished a coffee table for a Batman fan. It's beautiful! When Justice is having company over for afternoon tea and snacks, this is exactly where they will be served.

-Thanks, Clarissa!

Tom Lynall is a jeweler in Birmingham, UK. Lately, he's been exploring the emerging field of pencil tip sculpture. He's gotten fantastic at it! These perfectly sculpted emojis are even smaller than they appear on your phone screen.

Lynall is a master of precise, detailed work at a nearly microscopic scale. You can see an even better demonstration of his skill in this whole landscape carved into pencil lead:

(Photo: WLOX)

Biloxi Junior High School in Biloxi, Mississippi has a row of 189 lockers along its eighth grade English hallway. For security reasons, they've remained unused for over 15 years. Now they're back in service. This time, they will promote reading.

During the summer, teachers and volunteers have been repainting the lockers to look like book spines. The book selections reflect a wide variety of reading levels and interests. Their hope is that this project will inspire students to read more. WLOX quotes teacher Elizabeth Williams:

We want students to come back to school in August and walk on the hallway and be absolutely amazed with what we've done and be curious. We want that to be the driving spark for reading in our classrooms," said Williams. "Seeing it in person is a completely different experience, and that's what we're hoping for the students. We're hoping the students come and they become completely immersed in a collection that we feel is the best of the best of every genre."

-via Tor

(Video Link)

Japanese household bathrooms are very different from what you might find in a typical American home. They are far more multi-functional and high-tech. For example, the bathroom is divided into three sections: there's a shower/bath area and a toilet area, which are separately accessible from a sink and vanity area. Consequently, three people can use the same bathroom at the same time!

The shower and bath area is a thing of wonder. There's a deep bathtub that is heated continuously with controls that can be activated from different parts of the house. I want one of those!

In this video, a young girl shows how the different parts of the bathroom function. It's part of a series of videos in which she introduces Westerners to Japanese bedrooms, toilets, and kids' homework, among other aspects of modern Japanese life.

-via Core77

(Photo: Ron Knight)

The chestnut-crowned babbler bird (Pomatostomus ruficeps) is a small bird native to Australia. Researchers think that its chirps and calls are radically different from those identified in other birds. The babbler bird vocalizes words. The BBC reports:

Co-researcher Dr Andy Russell from the University of Exeter said: "It is the first evidence outside of a human that an animal can use the same meaningless sounds in different arrangements to generate new meaning.

"It's a very basic form of word generation - I'd be amazed if other animals can't do this too."

Dr. Russell and his colleagues found that the chestnut-crowned babbler makes two distinct sounds, dubbed A and B. Combinations of A and B in different orders seemed to express concepts that other members of the species could understand:

In flight, they used an "A-B" call to make their whereabouts known, but when alerting chicks to food they combined the sounds differently to make "B-A-B".

The birds seemed to understand the meaning of the calls.

When the feeding call was played back to them, they looked at nests, while when they heard a flight call they looked at the sky.

-via Marginal Revolution

Carmine Migliaccio, a comedian in Italy, has trained his cat to drop dead when shot with a finger. With a single bang, he  whimpers and crumples to the ground. Don't worry! He'll be up and playing with the keys in a moment.

(Video Link)

-via Laughing Squid

(Photo: Therapy Pets Unlimited)

You've heard of therapy dogs and maybe the occasional therapy cat or rabbit. But how many of you have heard of a therapy tortoise? Wasabi, a 42-pound African spur tortoise is a certified therapy pet with Therapy Pets Unlimited. Her owner, Lia Chicarella, wraps Wasabi in dresses to cover up her diaper. This provokes delight and wonder when she visits nursing homes and schools as part of her work. The Huffington Post reports:

These days, Wasabi visits with folks in nursing homes and schools, and is a "regular" at the Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore. At all these places, Wasabi spreads comfort and delight, and provokes a lot of reactions like "OMG!! Look at the size of that TURTLE!! Why is it wearing a dress?" [...]

They're often thought of as moving rocks -- but in fact tortoises like Wasabi grow to be very large, live for decades and are very smart.

"She's not a goldfish in a shell. She is an intelligent animal. She can learn. She has and shows emotions," says Chicarella. "People underestimate the intelligence of tortoises. I am not saying she's going to be doing long division anytime soon but she knows her name and usually comes when she's called."

(Video Link)

His name is Uzeyer Novruzov. He's the Ladder Dancer. Give him a ladder and a tune, and he'll dance up a storm.

Novruzov recently appeared on America's Got Talent and danced to Al Hirt's Green Hornet theme. His act begins at the 1:44 mark, but I suggest watching the entire video because his awkward pre-performance shtick is hilarious.

-via Miss Cellania

Russell Powell, an artist in California, paints detailed portraits on the palm of his left hand, then presses that hand against paper to produce beautiful and unique prints. Every print that he creates bears his indelible and individual mark. It's an original approach to printmaking and portraiture. You can see more examples of his work at his Instagram page.

-via My Modern Met

These aren't just prints made to look like art from Edo Japan. They're actually made in both the antique style and technique, using old printing methods.

Lucasfilm commissioned artist Masami Ishikawa and a traditional printer to develop several amazing images, lifting scenes from all six movies and reproducing them in a novel way. You can see more prints and a production video at Kotaku.