(Infinite Monkey Business/Demitrios Haldes)
And if you want it back, you'll have to pay. Leave $50,000 in unmarked, non-sequential $100 bills by the potty at naptime. And if you go to Mommy or the police, you'll never see the nose again.
-via Tastefully Offensive
(Photo: DeeperThought)
It was once a futuristic symbol of entertainment. Now it's an obsolete relic from the past. DVD players and digital recording and playback devices have replaced the old VCR console. Now that machine has reached its end. Funai, the last manufacturer of video cassette recorders, is ending production this month. Popular Mechanics reports:
The reasons for Funai's halting VCR production aren't surprising: they've cited declining sales and difficulty finding parts, which translates to "nobody's buying them anymore." Just because nobody's buying doesn't mean that nobody's using them, of course. VCRs and VHS tapes have garnered a cult fan base, with people coming to appreciate the lack of sharpness in quality as a type of warmth, or nostalgia. This has inspired a trend of appreciation towards older formats. Indeed, as the VCR ends its initial run, Kodak is looking to revitalize the Super 8 under the tagline "Analog Renaissance." So if you're going to miss the VCR, just wait 20 years.
-via Glenn Reynolds
(Photo: Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune)
This is Jason Haney, a construction manager working on a project for Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana. He and his co-workers like to entertain the kids who look outside their windows. Last winter, they built a snowman. More recently, they decided to make a Waldo figure from the Where's Waldo? books.
Haney made the 8-foot tall figure from plywood and he and his daughter painted it. Haney and his co-workers hide it in the framework of the new building under construction until a kid spots it. Then they move Waldo somewhere else and start the game over.
(Photo: Hedi Prescott/Beacon Health System)
The South Bend Tribune reports that kids love it:
Arrihanna Williams, 7, and another child enjoyed watching as the crane above the hospital moved a big load of materials. When asked, Arrihanna was quick to point out where Waldo was standing from the playroom window.
Down the hall, 9-year-old Neveah Garza was in contact isolation and unable to leave her room. But her window overlooked the construction site and she enjoyed watching the men at work.
“Poor guys, they have to work in the sun,” she said.
In the past, she’s hunted for Waldo in library books and on an online site, she said, explaining how that worked. But it was a bit of a challenge to find the character at the building site.
“Mom found him first,” she said, pointing down at the site. “See he’s down there, by that fan thingy.”
-via Nerd Approved
This gem of a truck is on sale in Lynchburg, Virginia. For only $1,800, you can get a truck with a truly perfect camouflage paint scheme. It blends into the background, including the shadows, like it's not even there.
It's got 74,000 miles on the odometer, though. So although the paint job is "like new," the engine isn't.
-via David Burge
What makes this rolling hospital bedside cabinet by Kinnier Dufort unique is the rounded edges and joints. There are fewer hidden crannies and junctions that are hard to clean. Hospital workers can disinfect every part of it easier than conventional bedside cabinets, making it more likely to free from infectious pathogens. You can photos of it at Core 77.
Robert Lian, an airline pilot, got tired of dragging his rolling luggage through airports with his hands. He wanted to be able to use his hands while walking with bags. So in 2014, he invented My Hitch. It's like a trailer hitch for your body.
First, put on a belt or tight-fitting pants. My Hitch won't work if you're naked or wearing loose clothes. Then slip the plastic hook into the back of your pants, put the handle of your bag over the other end of the hook, and start walking.
-via Gizmodo
(Photo: Balmuda)
Truly perfect toast is expensive. You need more than just top-tier bread. You also need to cook it the right way. And the Balmuda from Japan is the best machine for the job.
At $230, it's expensive by toaster standards. But it comes with a novel approach to toasting: adding water. Bloomberg reports on how Gen Terao invented it:
It was at a company picnic on a rainy day, warming bread on a grill, that company founder Gen Terao and his band of product designers accidentally made great toast. After the showers stopped, they tried to reproduce it in a parking lot and realized that water was the key. Thousands of slices later, they figured out that steam traps moisture inside the bread while it's being warmed at a low temperature. The heat is cranked up just at the end, giving it a respectable crust.
-via Core 77
A fun-size human appeared just outside the polar bear enclosure at the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri. It was the perfect snack. So the polar bear dove into the water and tried to snatch him. Alas, the glass got in the way. Keep trying!
-via Telegraph
(Photo: Will Kutz)
This is "Trash Can," a sculpture by Will Kurtz that was priced at $8,000. It consists of an overflowing trash can and a sculpture of a raccoon. The piece was on display at Art Southampton in New York City. Two weeks ago, it was among several sculptures arranged in an exhibit. Alas, before the show opened, cleaners, mistaking it for an ordinary trash can, emptied out all of the trash.
None other than actress Brooke Shields, who was curating the show, saved the day. Page Six reports that she noticed the problem before the opening:
But when Shields and artist Kurtz showed up for the VIP preview Thursday at Nova’s Ark Project, the artwork trash can had been emptied. The actress and the artist were forced to go rummaging in the real trash to recover his valuable work.
Nick Korniloff, founder and owner of Art Southampton, told Page Six, “We had works from Warhol to Banksy on display this weekend. We have a very aggressive cleanup crew because we like to keep the event pristine. They are trained to recognize and not take out any art, but unfortunately they looked at a trash can, and threw the contents away. The raccoon was left standing there next to an empty can.
-via Weird News | Photo: watchwithkristin
It's hot in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Arnold the bulldog wants to cool off in the kiddie pool. Even though it's empty, he's good. He'll just swim around in the air, dragging his body along the bottom.
-via Tastefully Offensive
(Photo: Chris Yarzab)
The Greater Manchester Police Trafford South (UK) reports that yesterday, a man attacked an 86-year old woman in a grocery store and demanded her money. She refused and instead pulled a package of bacon out of her shopping cart, then beat him over the head with it. The police state on Facebook that:
The offender then retreated and made off from the supermarket. #BeatOffWithBacon
Oh, bacon: is there anything you can't do?
-via First We Feast
This is Perch Light, a lamp series by Umat Yamac, a furnishings designer and architect in London. They're made of paper folded to look like origami birds. The birds are balanced on perches that are either attached to a wall or a floor stand.
Our Institutions are private property - playing #PokémonGo there is trespassing. pic.twitter.com/ijSncfZzES
— Correctional Service (@CSC_SCC_en) July 19, 2016
The officials of the Correctional Service of Canada appreciate your interest in playing Pokémon Go. But you should stay outside of the wire, even if you see a Mewtwo or a Articuno. Let the prisoners take those, no matter how rare they are.
-via Jeremy Barker
(Photo: Tama66)
In the early 16th Century, the brilliant Leonardo da Vinci was in Venice. That wealthy city was in dire straits, as its navy had been badly defeated by the Ottoman Empire. There was serious reason to think that the city itself might fall to the Turks. The Ventian government needed solutions and there was no better mind to develop them than Leonardo's.
Among the many ideas he sketched in his notebooks was a complete design for an underwater diving apparatus, a reconstruction of which is pictured above. Cara Giaimo describes the suit at Atlas Obscura:
The most complete plans show a leather suit and facemask, with goggles and an inflatable wineskin to enable sinking and floating. Two hollow breathing tubes, made of cane and reinforced with steel rings, lead from the diver's mouth up to the surface of the water—some incarnations show them attached to a floating disc, while others have them leading to a pocket of air trapped by a diving bell. There is even a special pee pouch for the diver, ensuring he can stay down there regardless of whether nature calls.
Some historians think this suit was part of an elaborate plan to attack the Ottoman ships from below, in order to sink them or release prisoners. Others, including McCurdy, say it more likely dates back further, to da Vinci's time in Milan, in which case he may have intended it to attack Venice instead. (It was a time of tumultuous alliances.)
Jade Stoner, 7 years old, was killed in a car accident. Seeing through her agony, her mother Debbie Stoner donated her daughter's organs.
Jade's heart went to Nellie-Ma Evans, a baby born with cardiomyopathy. She wouldn't have survived without a heart transpant.
That transplant was successful. Nellie-Ma is now 11 years old. Debbie Stoner recently met her. She placed her ear on Nellie-Ma's chest and listened to the sound of her daughter's heart, still beating 10 years later. Stoner described the experience to the Telegraph (auto-start):
"The first time I’d heard Jade’s heart beating was when I was pregnant with her at my ultrasound scan and it sounded just as strong," Mrs Stoner said.
"I knew her heart was no longer Jade’s because she’s no longer with us but it was a part of her.
"Although I lost the most precious thing in my life, she is continuing to live on, in a way."
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