This is Olav the Wolf, a sculpture made from scrap lumber by Copenhagen artist Thomas Dambo (previously at Neatorama). It was commissioned for the Copenhell 2015 music festival. They asked him to make a large, evil wolf, so he made it appear as if it were emerging from the underworld- and named it after a friend who helped him build it. The sculpture had lights inside, so it glowed red during the entire festival. Then by tradition, it was torched on the final night of the festival.
Robochallenge 2015 in Vienna featured a free-for-all with 18 robots going against each other in the same ring- the last one standing wins! The actual battle begins about 2:30 into the video, but the introduction of each robot first is kinda cute.
Robots get wrecked, flipped, and thrown completely out of the ring! I was totally distracted by Wedgie, valiantly trying to turn himself upright. Can you guess which one wins in the end? -via Digg
There’s a lot being said about climate change these days. Most people (and most scientists) think it’s happening now; some say it’s a myth. Wherever you stand on the issue, we can’t help but wonder what you would have thought if you’d been around in 1815.
It all started with a volcano. On April 5, 1815, Mount Tambora blew its top. The massive eruption lasted ten days and completely ravaged the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. Residents who managed to survive the mountain’s initial fury— and the ensuing tsunami— became victims of deadly lung infections caused by all the ash and toxic fumes in the air. The eruption, which was one of the most powerful in recorded history, ejected more than 10 cubic miles of volcanic material. The islands were blanketed with it, causing crops across Indonesia to fail, and creating a massive food shortage for Asia throughout the spring and summer months.
But that was just the beginning. Mount Tambora’s outburst was only one of many in a string of uncharacteristically high volcanic activity around the globe. The ash from Tambora combined with the enormous amounts of dust and debris already floating in the atmosphere from eruptions in the Philippines, Japan, and the Caribbean. This meant bad news for farmers.
When there’s that much dust, gas, and debris in the air, it gets in the way of sunlight. All that volcanic material started affecting the weather and quickly impacted temperatures around the world. The first areas to get hit were in Asia. Cooler than usual weather caused thousands of Chinese farmers to lose their livestock, particularly water buffalo— beasts of burden on which they depended for harvesting crops. Not that there was much of a crop to harvest: The frigid temperatures ravaged rice fields; even trees started dying off. Heavy monsoons in India led to a massive outbreak of cholera, a water-borne disease, that reached as far away as Moscow.
Ooh, look at the steampunk ghostbuster! I’d love to know how long it took to procure and assemble all those parts. Montreal Comic Con happened earlier than usual this year, but that didn’t stop the most dedicated and talented cosplayers from showing their stuff. There were planety of mashups, aliens, and mutants.
Yan from Geeks are Sexy was there, and took tons of pictures. He assures us a good time was had by all. The most interesting 37 costumes are posted in a gallery at Geeks Are Sexy, with more scheduled to come.
Beauty blogger Em Ford of My Pale Skin recently posted some pictures of herself without makeup. Like most young people, she has acne. The reaction to the pictures put her through the wringer, and when she put makeup on to show the difference, commenters put her through the wringer again! So she made the video You Look Disgusting to tell the story concisely in images.
I wanted to create a film that showed how social media can set unrealistic expectations on both women and men. One challenge many face today, is that as a society, we're so used to seeing false images of perfection, and comparing ourselves to unrealistic beauty standards that It can be hard to remember the most important thing - You ARE beautiful.
You are beautiful - no matter how flawed you feel, no matter how upset you may about the way you look or how hard you find it to make friends, or be confident. Believe in yourself, and never let anyone tell you're not beautiful - not even yourself.
Is there any wonder that young women have so many body image issues? Sure, you can say that she shouldn’t put pictures of herself on the internet, but there are plenty of young women who don’t, but still relate to what goes on in this video. -via Viral Viral Videos
I always consider it a treat when I catch the 1981 movie Stripes on TV. When it hit theaters, it had a very few stars and a bunch of unknowns. Now it is full of stars. The film was born from Ivan Reitman’s concept of “Cheech and Chong join the army” and blossomed from there. All these years later, it’s time to learn something about what went into the making of Stripes.
1. HAROLD RAMIS AND COLUMBIA PICTURES DID NOT WANT HAROLD RAMIS IN THE MOVIE.
With the knowledge that the studio didn’t want him, and more comfortable with writing at that point than with acting, Ramis was reluctant to play Russell. He even had Dennis Quaid (P.J. Soles’ husband at the time) read for his part. Bill Murray stepped in and insisted that he only wanted to work with Ramis.
4. THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT LIKED THE SCRIPT.
So they gave the crew a ton of access, including allowing Ivan Reitman and company to shoot in Fort Knox and letting real troops play extras.
Well, that’s just a taste. You can get the full list, with links to longer explanations, at mental_floss. That’s the facts, Jack!
Dylan Henry recorded a homeless man playing “Come Sail Away” on a piano in Sarasota, Florida. The slightly out of tune piano was on public display as a project of the Sarasota Keys Piano Project from the Arts and Cultural Alliance. It was decorated by artist Viktorija Bulava.
You have to wonder how long it's been since he's had a chance to play. Henry met the man again the next day, and found out his name is Donald Gould. In an interview Gould, we find out he played a clarinet in the Marine Corps, then learned many other instruments in college. He worked in the building trades, and has been unemployed since the crash of 2008.
Their opinions are varied… well, they all hated it except for two sisters who were probably pretty hungry at the time. And they don’t mind to tell you exactly what went wrong. -via Buzzfeed
Before the interstate highway system caused travel services to be clustered around exit ramps, American roadways were a lot kitschier. Anyone with roadside real estate and imagination could compete for tourist dollars just by being strange and different -and by giving out postcards to spread the word. Hundreds of these vintage postcards are collected at Cardboard America. You can spend your weekend looking through their archives, or see an overview of the best at Messy Nessy Chic. -via Digg
Would you be interested in a thrill ride like this? It looks a bit like Jodie Foster’s space vehicle in the movie Contact. The new ride is called called Tourbillon, and it’s in operation in Switzerland. No word yet on whether riders end up traveling through a wormhole. I think I’ll pass, but that’s only because I pass on all thrill rides these days. Then again, if the wormhole thing works, you might be able to talk me into it. -via Geeks Are Sexy
It wouldn’t be a real holiday without the Unipiper serenading us in costume, would it? Brian Kidd got into his Uncle Sam getup for the occasion, and rode his extra-tall unicycle around Portland while playing the flaming bagpipes.
Can you read Chinese? Then you might have a leg up on the rest of us in reading the delightful cat comics of Miss Cat Time Notes. I tried Google translate, but of course it does not detect text in comic images. No matter, many of the comics need no dialogue, and the rest are charming even when you can’t read the punch line. In the comic above, the kitties are visiting a shrine to their ancestors. Below, they get their nails done. there are hundreds more. -via Metafilter
Press and Drag to Make Wind is a cute little web toy. No, it has nothing to do with farts, but there’s no title, so I used the available text. And those are the only instructions. And the lion does appreciate; you can tell by his smile. It must be a hot day in whatever virtual world he lives in! -via Metafilter
Mark Dice went to the beach in San Diego to find out what people know about the historical events we celebrate on the Fourth of July. No doubt there were people who had perfectly accurate answers, but they did not make the cut. It’s still sad that he found so many Americans who couldn’t answer the questions. I have a suspicion that alcohol may have been involved. -via Viral Viral Videos
