Art Nouveau is a whimsical, elaborate style in architecture. Structures designed in the style of Art Nouveau often look more like a sculpture in a museum rather than an actual building. Designers using this style consider the windows, textiles, murals, sculpture, furniture, and artwork as part of one composition. My Modern Met created an infographic that shows different structures that can be classified as Art Nouveau. If you have no idea what Art Nouveau architecture looks like, check the infographic here! 

Image credit: Theodor Vasile

They don’t kidnap human babies, don’t worry. However, naked mole rats apparently kidnap each other’s babies and turn them into slaves. These mammals have massive colonies with over 300 workers-- that’s a lot! These animals, like ant or bee colonies, have one queen that is the only one who reproduces. The colony’s workers are actually made up of stolen babies: 

In the early 1990s researchers caught and released naked mole rats to track them for a long-term field study in Kenya. They found 26 colonies expanded their burrows into neighboring colonies. Individuals from 13 of the invaded colonies were never seen again.

A year after checking one of these colonies, they found two pups in an invading colony looked to have been from an invaded colony, but the team couldn't be sure it wasn't just a mistake.

"We just didn't have the tools to make sure that I hadn't totally screwed up," evolutionary biologist Stan Braude from Washington University told New Scientist. But genetic analysis of the tissues they collected has now confirmed what they witnessed.

"The pups kidnapped by colony QQ became non-reproductive workers," the team wrote in their paper, "hence their life effort would be categorized as slavery, in the same sense as slave-making ants."

Naked mole rat kidnapping behavior had previously been witnessed in the unnatural conditions of a laboratory, but this is the first time it's been confirmed in the wild.

Image credit: wikimedia commons 

I want this guy’s collection. Imagine the time, effort, and money to collect all of those games! Antonio Romero is now the holder of the Guinness World Record for the largest video game collection in the world. The Texas resident has a total number of 20,139 games and over 100 systems (both regular and collector’s editions): 

It took the folks at Guinness a whopping eight days just to count them all, which sounds ridiculous until you see it for yourself. What first appears to be one impressive game room keeps extending further and further, filling room after room from floor to ceiling—a true nerd paradise . . . “Nerd-vana,” if you will.

In the end, we’re not quite sure if Antonio deserves admiration or psychiatric help, but we’re totally jealous either way.

Image credit: Guinness World Records

I know that these photos look like the next meme craze to go viral on the Internet, but cats are cute. Giant cats? Also cute! Frandsita Muafidin reimagines a world with giant cats, which is reflected in his works posted online. Muafidin Photoshops cats into feline titans, placing them into real-life images of different locations around the globe. Check more of his works on his Instagram! 

Image credit: Frandsita Muafidin

Meet the TACS ATL (Automatic Twin Lens), a new camera-inspired watch created by TACS. At first glance, the watch resembles a classic twin-lens reflex camera (which is what its design was based on). The new model is a new addition to the watchmaker’s Lens Series, which are composed of different photography-themed designs: 

TACS writes, 'First released in the late 1920s, twin-lens cameras were widely used by photojournalists and correspondents to document World War II in Europe thanks to its robust and periscopic design. It was said that the inventor came up with the idea for the camera during World War I on a trench while peeping through a periscope.'

The watch was designed over two years and no consideration was spared during the design process. The dial in the center of the watch face looks like a twin-lens reflex camera, complete with a leather design. You can see through where the lenses would be to see the inner workings of the camera. Other features include a rotating bezel ring with etching like a lens's depth of field scale as well as hour and minute indexes. The crown is inspired by vintage focusing knobs and the crown protector looks like a camera strap's eyelet slot.

Image credit: TACS 

In an interesting turn of events, an unknowing teenager who rescued a bumblebee ended up with a new companion! Lacey Shillinglaw spotted the bee with a crumpled wing lying on the road while she was walking her dog. The 13-year-old decided to scoop up the bee and tried to put the insect in a safer spot: 

But it refused to stay put, buzzing back over to Lacey and crawling all over her, and after an hour she gave up and headed home with the creature perched on her shoulder.

And despite repeated attempts to leave her outside, the buzzy friend has refused to leave Lacey's side ever since.

It is always by her side in the house - sleeping on her bedside table - and has followed her to the shops and on a family trip to the bowling alley.

Lacey, from Coventry, West Midlands, said: “Betty is totally amazing - I’ll remember this forever.

“I thought she would fly off on the first day but she just never did.

“I’m so happy and I just love spending my time with her.

“She’s so fluffy and I love our friendship.”

Image credit: Laura Pashley / SWNS

Soulja Boy is known for making outlandish claims online. His announcement of being the new owner of video game company Atari is still shocking, though. The rapper revealed on Instagram that he was the owner, and that the company was going to buy the rapper’s gaming business for a cool $140 million. However, Atari has said the opposite: 

I just signed two deals with Atari. I’m the owner. The first rapper to ever own a video game company. 

It looked like a match made in heaven. A struggling gaming firm had found a celebrated entrepreneur with the industry credentials to return it to past glories.

Unfortunately, cracks have already appeared in the relationship.

In a tweet apparently referencing Soulja Boy’s comments, Atari said the title of CEO “belongs to Wade Rosen.”

Image credit: via TNW 

Meet Mystique, an incredibly intelligent 29-year-old male humpback dolphin. Did I mention that this special dolphin is a treasure hunter? In exchange for food or rewards, the friendly mammal offers an employee or any other person who approaches him with curious items from the sea: 

"What we have to do is give him a fish in return.

"We haven't trained him, but he has trained us to do this.

"He gets under it [and] if he drops it too far out, or we say 'come on, that's not good enough', then he gets underneath it and brings it to us."

The items have included bottles, big bits of timber, shells, and wood, which are brought in on his beak.

"We swear he has a collection waiting to bring to us," Lyn McPherson said.

Image credit:  Barnacles Cafe and Dolphin Feeding

This feat would have been amazing if not for its environmental implications. For the very first time (in recorded history), it has rained at the summit of Greenland’s ice sheet. This was most likely caused due to the massive heat waves that the country has been experiencing, with temperatures at the glacier’s summit rising above the freezing point: 

"There is no previous report of rainfall at this location, which reaches 3,216 meters (10,551 feet) in elevation," NSIDC reported, noting the amount of ice lost in one day was seven times more than the daily average for this time of year.

On August 14, 2021, temperatures rose above freezing on the summit of Greenland, fueling a rain event that dumped 7 billion tons of water—the heaviest since records began in 1950. pic.twitter.com/EyTDhS80f5

— National Snow and Ice Data Center (@NSIDC) August 18, 2021

"Greenland, like the rest of the world, is changing," University of Colorado Boulder glaciologist Ted Scambos told The Washington Post. "We now see three melting events in a decade in Greenland - and before 1990, that happened about once every 150 years. And now rainfall: in an area where rain never fell."

"Like the heat wave in the [US Pacific] northwest, it's something that's hard to imagine without the influence of global climate change."

Image credit: Annie Spratt

It’s a majestic sight, and it provides shade-- how nice! Spanish crochet teacher Eva Pacheco and her students created a massive crochet canopy that covers a shopping corridor in  Alhaurín de la Torre. The canopy, which was established as a project three years ago to bring a sustainable shade to the area, is made up of multiple crocheted squares: 

[...]Since then, Pacheco and her students have continued adding to their creation—using recycled fabric in a variety of vibrant colors—so that it now covers almost 500 square meters (5, 381 square feet).

As people walk underneath the ongoing masterpiece, they can admire a variety of different patterns, including geometric, floral, and abstract. Not only does this covering provide shade for shoppers, but it also decorates the street with whimsical art.

Image credit: Alhaurin de la Torre.

DeviantArt has noticed the amount of artworks posted on their site being stolen and sold as tokens online. In order to protect their users, the company has begun to fight against these thieves. The online art gallery has launched an AI-powered tool that raises alarms when one of its members’ artwork is found to be stolen and sold by someone else as a NFT: 

Liat Karpel Gurwicz, chief marketing officer of DeviantArt, told Motherboard that the expansion of DeviantArt’s protection tool to cover NFTs came after a devastating period for the community. Qing Han, a “well-known and beloved” artist best known as Qinni, passed away in February 2020 and had her art stolen and sold as NFTs. “And it was at that point that we felt that we needed to look into what we could do to offer our artists protection, beyond just our own platform,” Gurwicz said.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens,  are cryptographic signatures stored on the blockchain that are supposed to prove ownership of the digital work in question. Its immutable record of ownership and provenance has convinced crypto investors to pay huge sums of money to claim ownership to a jpeg. Even if it’s just a rock jpeg based on free clipart.

[...]

DeviantArt said in a blog post that artists can focus on creating because its AI will do the detective work and “scan public blockchains and third-party marketplaces for potential art infringements.” The platform will also deploy an army of human moderators so as not to leave the final word to AI since automated image detection technology can so easily mess up. If a near-identical match is detected, users will get a notification on the site.

Image credit: Vice 

It’s true that the more advanced our technology becomes, older people have a harder time adapting with them. While there’s no questioning their ability in digesting and consuming information, the pace at which technology advances gets too fast for them to cope up with. They try their hardest, and that’s what matters, right? Sometimes, their efforts result in some ...hilarious instances. It is funny and cute, and is in no way a slight against them! Bored Panda compiles some top moments when old people get outwitted by modern technology. Check the full piece here! 

Image credit: Bungalowbeast

Sound baths are a great way to focus during meditation. With the current situation over our heads, sometimes we feel the need to relax and destress. Sound baths and sound therapy are used in meditation to help people focus and stay present, bringing them back to the moment, as Tara Atwood shares to Lifehacker: 

“Sound healing therapy uses aspects of sound and music to improve physical and emotional health and well-being,” she says. “Rich, audible tones and invisible frequencies are heard and felt, and our bodies naturally resonate with the frequencies emitted into the space, restoring normal vibratory frequencies from out-of-harmony parts of the body, mind, and soul, while encouraging a deep state of relaxation and healing. The frequencies of sound and audible tones have deep effects on our breath, blood flow, cellular movement, biorhythms, thoughts, and our brain waves.”

Atwood uses ancient Tibetan singing bowls and pure quartz crystal alchemy bowls for her sound baths, but you can start a little smaller. She said you can even use your voice to hum and create vibrations.

To learn more about sound bath meditation, check Lindsey Ellefson’s full piece here! 

Image credit: JD Mason

You can call it a secret, but it’s really a hidden gem. Montana has a whopping 55 state parks, and not all of them can be well-known. There are still a few hidden gems that attract fewer crowds. Only In Your State details one of Montana’s ‘secret parks,’ Clark’s Lookout State Park. The eight-acre park is located a mile north of Dillon, Montana: 

The park has hiking trails, picnic areas, cultural and heritage information, and some of the best views in the area. And while there's no camping allowed here, you're welcome to spend the entire day enjoying it. In 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition made its way here (hence the name).

Image credit: Sheryl M / TripAdvisor 

Nicole McLaughlin has mastered the art of turning food items into clothes. From cupcakes, to toast to sandwiches to old candies, the designer was able to spin eclectic wearable items that invoke nostalgia and promote sustainable utility. McLaughlin has no fashion background; she taught herself how to sew and opted for recyclable or edible materials as ‘fabrics’:

But so much more exists behind the balloon slippers and air-freshener vests. Nicole McLaughlin is trailblazing the future of sustainable waste behind-the-scenes, working with mega brands to change the way fashion is created. To get some insight on her simultaneously delectable and altruistic projects, CR sat down with Nicole for a broad chat on all things sustainability, design, and social media.

Check out the full interview with McLaughlin here! 

Image credit: Nicole McLaughlin