(Photo: Robert Treufeldt)
The Ämari Air Base in Estonia was once a busy hub of the Soviet Air Force. There’s a cemetery in a forested area of the base. Eric Grundhauser of Atlas Obscura reports that during the Soviet occupation of Estonia, some pilots were buried beneath the vertical stabilizer fins of their aircraft. Grundhauser writes that “the effect almost looks as though a squadron of the ships are burrowing through the ground with their fins above the surface like sharks.”
Upon which I call dibs. This mansion in Westlake, California has 6 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms within its 15,835 square feet. There’s also a tennis court and a pool. The interior rooms, beyond the one designed to look like the planet Hoth from Star Wars, include other marvels . . .
It’s always been like this. Ronald upheld the honor of the family while the Joker tore it down. Even when they were kids, it fell upon Ronald to clean up his little brother’s messes. Eventually, he stopped doing it for his brother. Only love and respect for his mother would keep him going. But even that motivation will fade in time.
Artist Rocky Davies drew this drama-packed cartoon. He also designed several t-shirts now on sale in the NeatoShop.
-via Geek Art Gallery
(Photo: Jenn Harris/Los Angeles Times)
PizzaMan Dan’s is a pizzeria chain in southern California. The owner, Dan Collier, gets around in this custom classic Corvette. That’s a pepperoni pattern with $1.50 for every additional topping. He exhibited it at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas this week. Hopefully he also lets his drivers use it for quick deliveries.
-via Foodiggity
You need another living creature to fill the hole in your life or relationship. Should it be a dog or a child? Rob Fee of Mandatory runs through the differences in the two experiences. You could also get both. Eventually the child will be able to walk the dog. But for some reason, people will flip if you appoint the dog as babysitter.
-via How to Be a Dad
(Photo: Denver Post)
Cleopatra, a leopard tortoise in Golden, Colorado, suffers from pyramiding. This means that the scrutes of her shell did not grow evenly, but pushed up, forming pyramid-like structures. The pyramids make her vulnerable to other tortoises, as well as make it difficult for her to right herself if she gets flipped over. Holes that formed along the borders also make her susceptible to infections.
Roger Henry, a design student at Colorado Technical University, responded by building her a protective outer shell. He spent about 600 hours developing a design that would fit precisely over her shell. Then he built it with a 3d printer. Cleopatra has adapted to it well and is enjoying a healthier lifestyle as a result.
(Photo: Gary Stefanski)
-via Huffington Post
Aegon Targaryen--Aegon the Fluffy, the call him--subdued all the warrens of Westeros. Then all of the Chief Rabbits of the land surrendered their carrots. He used them to erect the enormous Carrot Throne.
Wallace the rabbit once delivered beer to members of the court using a purpose-built cart. But no longer. He played the game and played it well. Now he sits in the Carrot Throne. And occasionally snacks on it, too.
-via Huffington Post
(Photo: ESPN)
In the United States, professional sports are highly competitive. But designing the foods served at games may be even more competitive. Stadiums and ballparks across the country strive to offer extreme, one-of-a-kind foods to fans. These foods served at the concession stands include calorically gifted delights, such as horse collar sausages, bratwurst lollipops, and bacon donut hot dogs.
The current champion in this ever-shifting field is the deep fried nacho stick. Miller Park in Wisconsin, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, offers Inside the Park Nachos. This delicious concoction consists of a stick of beef covered with refried beans, rolled in crunched Doritos, then deep fried and covered with sour cream and cheese.
It’s a practical food to eat while watching a game because you can eat it one-handed. It’s considerably less messy than handling a tray of nachos. You can read more about the Inside the Park Nachos at ESPN (warning: auto-start video).
-via That’s Nerdalicious!
JoeJoe the capybara lives like a human household pet. He even rides through pet stores in a shopping cart. He epitomizes the chill lifestyle. This is well-demonstrated in this video of him relaxing in a tub of water while baby ducks play on his back.
Either Nature has blessed you with an unadorned head or you have removed those unsightly follicles from your pate. No matter how you came to live the bald lifestyle, you’ll need to wash your head. That’s a bit tricky in the very low gravity that astronauts on the International Space Station contend with.
Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut, shows us how he cleans his head without spraying water everywhere. Enormous globs of water adhere to his bare dome and remain in place until he wipes them away with a towel.
-via Twisted Sifter
It’s a prank by the great Obvious Plant, who obviously planted this flyer at his local 24 Hour Fitness gym. It’s 1 of 3 that he’s played on the impressively patient gym staff. Trainer Chuck M. has a brilliant idea for staying in shape. Humans didn’t evolve to sit at desks or ride bikes. Our primitive ancestors didn’t have crossover machines. They got their exercise in everyday life by chasing and being chased by wild animals. So get in shape the natural way.
(Photo: unknown)
Have we learned nothing from Spider-Man? When humanity’s knowledge outstrips its wisdom, we end up with superheroes or supervillains, both of which are trouble. Move the spider farm someplace else. Here, there’s a vacant lot next to the old chemical weapons dump. That'll be fine.
-via reddit
(Photo: Collect Space)
This is not the actual sandwich. This corned beef sandwich sealed in acrylic is a memorial to a particular incident on the Gemini 3 spaceflight. 50 years ago this past Monday, pilot John Young snuck a corned beef sandwich onto the spacecraft, which was then launched into Earth orbit. This was contraband, but Young as a practical joker.
This joke, though, was a bad idea. When he bit into the sandwich, Young learned something important: corned beef sandwiches fall apart easily--especially in zero gravity. Crumbs floated around the cabin. It got him into trouble. Discovery reports:
"A couple of congressmen became upset, thinking that, by smuggling in the sandwich and eating part of it, Gus and I had ignored the actual space food that we were up there to evaluate, costing the country millions of dollars," Young wrote in his 2012 memoirs, "Forever Young."
Nonetheless, Young got to claim the title of having eaten the first corned beef sandwich in space. He also got to eat corned beef in space again when he commanded the first Space Shuttle mission in 1981. This time, he ate it in the form of cubes.
-via First We Feast
(Image: NASA)
Clocking in at 11 years and 2 months, it's a truly awful marathon time. But it's the first marathon ever completed on the surface of another world. On Tuesday, NASA's Opportunity rover crossed the 26.219 mile mark during its sojourn across the red planet.
The previous record was held by the Soviet Union's lunar rover Lunokhod 2, which traveled 23 miles in 1973.
Opportunity landed on Mars on January 25, 2004. It's spent the past 4 years crossing the 14-mile wide Endeavour crater. NASA planned to use it for at least 3 months. Despite breakdowns, Opportunity continues to explore Mars and relay data back to Earth.
-via Jeff Zentner
Redditor Mneneon has a birthmark covering his entire right hand. In a brilliant and beautiful use of it, Mneneon added geographical lines to turn it into an entire fictional world. He toys with the idea of using it to build a world for a fantasy novel, but doesn't see himself as a writer. That hasn't stopped other redditors from coming up with story ideas, such as this one by the appropriately named that_gave_me_an_idea:
