The Sun loves us. It can't imagine living without us. And it won't.
Eventually, our star will age, expand into a red giant, and kill us. I'm not, strictly speaking, a "scientist," but I'm guessing that's scheduled for next month.
John Farrier's Blog Posts
Humans don't make any sense. They turn up their noses at treats that cats leave on the ground. They vanish for years at a time every day. They voluntarily immerse themselves in water--for pleasure! Thankfully, cartoonist Robert Brown explains their behavior in a series of cartoons for College Humor. You can read the rest here.
-via Tastefully Offensive
The approximately 8 cats that live in the house love to sunbathe. There's only a narrow strip of sunlight available on the floor. During the day, the sun moves across the sky and the sunbeam moves across the room. This video by Mitsuri Yasui shows the cats shifting position to keep up with the sunbeam.
-via Tastefully Offensive
Finnish artist Jarno Kotavuopio makes custom Nintendo consoles. He's made 2 in the form of toasters, including this beauty that features polished chrome fixtures, internal lights, and glowing buttons. As you can see in this video, it's completely functional.
With cartridge covers that look like actual toast, he'll have to be careful that no one tries to cook breakfast with one of his consoles!
(Photo: Eurobeat Kasumi)
DeviantART member Malicious Cosplay merged the worlds of Star Wars and Street Fighter with these two costumes. The bounty hunter Boba Fett is also the British brawler Cammy. Chun-Li wears her own colors mixed up with Princess Leia's iconic slave outfit from Return of the Jedi.
UPDATE 2/26/15: Rebecca Denfip, the model playing Cammy-Fett, stops by to identify herself. Thanks, Rebecca!
There’s a courtyard in the middle of several office buildings in Gliwice, Poland. The Zalewski Architecture Group developed a practical use for it by building a grass-covered looping walkway that reaches into the sunlight. The designer explains that it can offer workers a chance to clear their heads in fresh air:
There are ideas that arise from the need of a particular moment. Such a need – another hot day of summer spent in the office and a thought “if only I could go for a walk” – became inspiration for a project of a path suspended in the air, a balcony Walk-on. It is also one of the ideas to change a sad courtyard, that we overlook every day out of the office windows on the 3rd floor, to give the courtyard a bit of magic.
You can see more photos of it at Contemporist.
-via Inhabitat
(Image: BBC)
In 1902, a flood destroyed a wooden bridge in the town of Selkirk, Scotland. Residents tried to raise money to build another one. One proposal was to print and sell a collection of short stories called The Book o’ the Brig. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author who created the famous detective character Sherlock Holmes, enjoyed visiting the town. So he contributed an original story called “Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar.”
The project was a success and Selkirk got a new bridge. Doyle’s story helped. But it was never published anywhere else. Walter Elliot, a historian, received a copy of The Book o’ the Brig about 50 years ago. He placed it in his attic and forgot about it.
It was only recently that Elliot found the book and Doyle’s story in it. The world now has fresh, original Sherlock Holmes. You can read the entire story here.
(Photo: Alex Chinneck)
Alex Chinneck is an artist noted for his enormous, surreal sculptures, such as a circular chimney and a building with a sliding front wall. His latest work, which is titled Pick Yourself Up and Pull Yourself Together was commissioned by British automaker Vauxhall. It consists of a Vauxhall Corsa hanging 15 feet off the ground over a section of pavement that curves over itself. It was a complex technical challenge to create a funny illusion. Dezeen quotes Chinneck:
"While I am most excited by the hidden engineering and complex manipulation of concealed steel, others will simply enjoy the accessible theatricality of the illusion at play," Chinneck added.
Chinneck worked with structural engineers, steel benders, scenic artists, metal workers, carpenters, tarmac layers and road painters to create the artwork.
The entire piece was installed overnight in a parking lot in London. It will remain there until February 25 or gravity notices its error.
-via Juxtapoz
CORRECTION 2/24/14: The fisherman, who is named Jovan Stojanovic, is Serbian, not Russian. Read more at Blazenfluff.
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It’s cold out there. But a man’s got to eat, so it’s time to go fishing. So this very Russian man quite Russianly strapped a lit stove to his back. Don’t worry that he’ll get burned! He’s wearing a layer of cardboard between his coat and the stove.
-via Dave Barry
(Image: DC)
If you have to die, die in such a way that will be memorable—in a good way! You don’t want to be remembered as the guy who died in a fatal blogging accident or someone who was beaten to death by a Girl Scout after trying to steal her cookies. Die in a way that will make men of quality envy you: death by Batman.
Stephen Merrill, 31, of Winter Haven, Florida passed away last week. The cause of his death was unknown at the time when it was necessary to write an obituary. So his friend Brandon Moxam suggested “uppercut from Batman.”
(May each of us be so fortunate as to have a friend like Brandon Moxam.)
Merrill’s fiancée, Stephanie Vella, consented. ABC Action News quotes her as saying, “He would have been honored to have died by an uppercut from Batman.” As would we all.
Initially, the newspaper The Ledger would not agree to publish such a lighthearted obituary. But it eventually relented and published it. You can read the full obituary here.
Merrill’s family and friends remember him as a funny guy who loved comics. His memorial service reflected this. ABC Action News describes it:
His friends and family all wore superhero shirts to honor Merrill's love for comics. The celebration also included a Captain America's shield made from flowers and a quote on the program from one of his favorite movies, 'The Avengers.'
Vella says Merrill had qualities similar to Captain America. “Captain America was about helping others and so was Stephen. He left an impression on people if you ever came in contact with him, he was your friend.”
I will inform my wife that if I die and she is not under suspicion as the perpetrator, then she should list of my cause of death as “wedgie by the Wonder Twins.”
-via Uproxx
Once you have a car stereo system vigorous enough to make every other driver on the road hate you, place a copy of Lil John’s song “Turn Down for What” into the stereo. Within a few seconds, Lil John will cause that snow to explode right off your car.
-via Jalopnik
(Photo: Europics)
Ms. OPQRST UVWXYZ, 36, is an art professor at a university in Bogota, Colombia. She spent years struggling with Colombia's national government in order to secure her legal name change. A Colombian National Registry official now explains that her name change had not be held up for any legitimate reason and would proceed immediately. So Ms. Cyborg is now Ms. OPQRST UVWXYZ. The Daily Telegraph quotes her:
“I started looking for a name that nobody had in Colombia, or the world, so I thought ABCDEFG HIJKLMN OPQRST UVWXYZ,” she explained.
“I've changed my name so people wouldn't know it's me.
“It's not because I was disturbed by it, but because I wanted to always bring an element of surprise.”
It's a stunning time capsule that owner Nathan Chandler never expected to find. He's a furniture designer who purchased a house in 2010. The original owners had the place built and furnished. But for unknown reasons,* they never lived there. The kitchen has everything that a middle class American family in the 1950s could want. It's like stepping into a set from Mad Men.
The original appliances sit unused. Even the original product manuals are there. The antique dishwasher is especially charming. Check out Chandler's entire photo set here.
-via Visual News
*Pro tip: it's probably cursed.
(Photo: M. Elsevier Stokmans)
It looks like a statue of the Buddha. It is, in a way. But inside, there are the mummified remains of a human body. Tradition holds that they are a Buddhist monk who lived around the year 1100 AD. Last year, the statue left China for the first time. The Drents Museum, an art and history museum in Assen, The Netherlands, arranged for it to be viewed through a CT scanning machine.
-via TYWKIWDBI
Stuart and Cedar Anderson are a father and son team of professional beekeepers. They've developed a new type of beehive that they call Flow. The Flow hive is built with partially formed cells. When bees take up residence in it, they make use of this pre-existing cell network. With the turn of a spigot, the cells split open, dumping their honey down a channel. There's no need to open the hive and scrape off honey off individual frames. They can fill two large jars of honey very quicky using a Flow hive.
-via Colossal
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