Do you get creeped out every time you see a Furby? Have you had nightmares about that scary little talking toy walking into your bedroom while you're sleeping and whispering gibberish into your ear before it strangles you to death? No?
I might need to see someone about my recurring Furby nightmare, but while I do that you should watch Furby being crushed to bits by a hydraulic press, it's so satisfying!
It's not always to see a person's skills improve as they perfect their craft, but it's really easy to see an illustrator's improvement because their original drawings look like crap compared to their later works.
And with the abundance of tutorials and instructional material online some digital artists are able to increase their skill levels in mere months, which makes for an even more amazing before and after picture.
The 'Draw This Again' Challenge encourages artists to revisit one of their earlier artworks to show how far they've come over the years (or months), the side-by-side comparisons showcasing their remarkable improvement.
Hot on the heels of that amazing trailer for Star Wars: Episode VIII- The Last Jedi comes these cool set photos shared by writer/director Rian Johnson, photos which show the filmmaker's process and what he saw on set.
Rian carried an old camera with him at all times during filming, and whenever he saw a cool shot he captured the scene in black & white, which gives these behind-the-scenes images a classic look befitting Star Wars.
Rian shared these photos, as well as many color shots from the set, during a panel at Star Wars Celebration 2017 in Orlando, and he claims to have shot thousands of pics during filming. Sounds like the makings of an awesome coffee table art book to me!
The humble cinder block has proven it's more than just the component of a sturdy wall- it's a building block with handy holes in the middle that make it way more useful than its square cousin the brick.
You can't use a pyramid of bricks as a planter, but stack a bunch of cinder blocks in a somewhat pyramidal shape and you've got a really cool looking Pyramid Planter that's perfect for succulents or strawberries.
But cinder blocks don't have to stay outside, they can be used to make a pretty cool looking cubby futon or bookshelves that are simple yet super fun(ctional).
But cinder blocks are best when used to make outdoor furniture, like benches, patio tables or this swanky planter bar, since they stand up well to weather and always look stone cold cool.
Many words in the English language have strange origin stories, but those words created by simply spelling a pre-existing word backwards have a very straightforward reason for existing- wordplay.
The Brits turned Yob into a cool slang term for a lad who's up to no good, a well flipped word that rolls off the tongue and easily gets its meaning across without explanation.
And when Dylan Thomas set his play Under Milk Wood in a Welsh town called Llareggub ("bugger all" spelled backwards)- now that was bloody brilliant!
It's not hard to conjure up an explanation for why the sorcerer in Fantasia is named Yensid- the character was modeled after Disney and symbolizes his "magical" imagination.
And if you're long in the tooth like Yensid you may need help with irregularity, so those who wanted to hear nature's call on a daily basis would take Serutan, nature's way to “provide peristaltic stimulation.”
Posting the same old photos on Instagram won't help you wow your friends and followers, and the pics we put up in our homes are starting to pale in comparison to all those cool shots we see online.
But many people have no idea how to take their photo editing to the next level, and creating a double exposure image like the one above seems impossibly hard.
However, once the power of Photoshop is unleashed nothing is impossible, and as photographer Ted Chin shows us in this simple tutorial creating mind-blowing double exposure effects is a snap with Photoshop's masks.
Fans are quick to say an artist or musician is a "genius" when they create on a higher level than the rest, but John Coltrane proved he was a genius with both his playing and his ability to put the workings of his incredible mind down on paper.
This hand-drawn diagram, known as the Tone Circle, is Coltrane's take on the circle of fifths, which incorporates Coltrane's innovations and shows where his mind was at while he played.
Coltrane clearly had a mind for mathematics, and although he didn't speak in public about the "intensive theoretical work behind his most famous compositions" he did speak about them at length with his friend Yusef Lateef:
Coltrane gave the drawing to saxophonist and professor Yusef Lateef in 1967, who included it in his seminal text, Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns. Where Lateef, as he writes in his autobiography, sees Coltrane’s music as a “spiritual journey” that “embraced the concerns of a rich tradition of autophysiopsychic music,”...
...Musician and blogger Roel Hollander notes, “Thelonious Monk once said ‘All musicans are subconsciously mathematicians.’ Musicians like John Coltrane though have been very much aware of the mathematics of music and consciously applied it to his works.”
Alligators have a gruesome complexion and a mouth full of pointy teeth so most animals find them intimidating, especially animals that fit inside a gator's mouth.
But horses don't give a crap about the alligator's fearsome reputation, and if one of those smily faced savages tries to get too close to a horse they're asking for a good stompin'!
The alligator looked like it was minding its own business, but I think the horse had the right idea because you never know what a gator might do when they start feeling a bit peckish.
Tipping should be compulsory, and when a customer is served they should gladly fork over a tip to show their appreciation, but some people are so miserly with their tips it's just plain sad.
Maybe they're unaware that the federal tipped minimum wage is a meager $2.13 an hour, or that most baristas and fast food workers are working for minimum wage, so that dollar tip helps out a lot.
In order to make sure those overworked folks in the various service industries get the tip they deserve here's a short guide to tipping:
Wait staff should be tipped 15-20% or more, because they make less than minimum wage in some states
Bartenders usually get a buck a drink
Picking up fast food or a drink from a barista? Tip them a buck at least, and be generous if you have a large order
Delivery drivers are supposed to get $5 per order, or 15-20% on a larger order
Valets or parking attendants should get at least $2 when they bring you your car
Bathroom attendants get a tip if they hand you anything, but if they're just running security in the can you don't have to tip
Salon and spa workers should get a good 15-20% tip, especially if you want them to do a good job!
Tipping hotel staff is a bit tricky, but it's usually a dollar or two to bellhops, shuttle drivers and door staff, $1-5 per night for housekeepers and a $5-10 tip for a helpful concierge
Taxi drivers should get a 15-20% tip, plus a couple of bucks if they help you with your bags
There's not much you can do with newspapers in terms of recycling except mash it all up with some water and create a pulp, but newspapers can be reused in a million different ways.
Make that a million and one, because Japanese artist Chie Hitotsuyama uses old newspapers to make these wonderfully expressive animal sculptures.
Chie uses rolled up newspaper and glue to make her fantastic menagerie, building each sculpture up layer by layer to make sure each animal looks as realistic as possible:
To maintain scientific accuracy, she carefully observes photographs and videos of the chosen animal, then creates a base for the sculpture. She picks the newspapers according to color, and twists them into thin rolls that are densely applied, one after the other. "By gluing paper rolls one by one, I can form beautiful contours and curves, and the shapes of the animals emerge," the artist tells us. "If I'm creating a big animal, like a dugong or walrus, it takes approximately three months to put down all of the strips of paper, and finish the whole process."
This accuracy is even more impressive when you consider the scale and massive girth of some of her pieces, but big or small I really love them all!
Crabs don't get to enjoy any produce while they're sidling along under the sea, so when they come up for air and hit the beach they head straight to the nearest surfside fruit shack and chow down.
But the spoiled little crab in this video gets to eat bugs, potato chips and fruit whenever he wants, and he enjoys spending the afternoon leisurely shoveling banana into his maw.
And in case you were wondering what other types of fruit this little crab enjoys here's another video from another day, when that cute little pet crab got his claws on a slice of watermelon.
Many travelers dream of staying in one of the dozens of castles across Europe that rent rooms, but when they find out how much it costs to stay in these historic places their royal dreams come tumbling down.
But what if I told you there are 13 castles in the UK alone which cost $100 or less per night to stay in, would that resurrect your royal dreams?
Believe it or not, you can stay in some of Britain's coolest castles, like the majestic Clytha Castle in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales (above) or the spartan Martello Tower in Aldeburgh, Suffolk "built to keep Napoleon out" for under a hundred bucks a night.
The mighty Martello Tower will set you back $46 per person per night for four nights and sleeps 4, while Clytha Castle costs a mere $33 per person per night for four nights and sleeps 6.
Now it's not a castle per se, but how much would you imagine it would cost to stay in beautiful Wessex Manor in Dorset?
If you said $35 a night for seven nights you're either a great guesser or you've done your research!
Wessex Manor sleeps 20 guests, so grab your posse and head to this idyllic manor for a week you'll never forget:
Nestled amongst 23 acres of delightful countryside, this Grade II-listed Victorian Manor home would make for an elegant week away. The property features walled gardens, an orchard, a stone outbuilding, a stream, and sheep! Drink champagne and pretend you own everything in sight. For a few precious days, you do.
The internet has proven that globally one type of user can be found more than any other- the "profane and prolific online contrarians" better known as internet trolls.
These sad little souls get a thrill out of making others feel bad or uncomfortable online, and even though most of them wouldn't have the cojones to say that vile crap IRL online they're fearless Internet Warriors. (NSFW language)
The Internet Warriors is a short documentary created for The Guardian by director Kyrre Lien, who traveled all over the world to speak to trolls in their own caves and find out what makes them troll so hard:
Why do so many people use the internet to harass and threaten people, and stretch the freedom of speech to its limits? …Online platforms are their favourite tools to express the opinions that others might find objectionable in language that often offends. Do they behave in the same way when they come offline?
You know what's really cool about eBay? You can buy virtually any kind of collectible on there, including a Chinese version of the Russian T54 tank which was used in the Gulf War.
When Nick Mead plunked down $40,000 and bought that awesome T54 tank on eBay for his "corporate action activity specialists" business Tanks-A-Lot he wasn't expecting to bring home a shiny new combat vehicle.
The T54 had been used in the Gulf War, and its engine and tracks were rebuilt by the previous owners, so Nick and his mechanic decided to inspect the vehicle's diesel tank when they struck gold.
Five gold bullion bars to be exact, weighing twelve pounds each and worth an estimated $2.5 million, which Nick believes Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait stashed there after looting the gold.
“They must have cut a hole in the fuel tank and rammed it full of gold bars,”
Nick turned the gold over to the London cops, who gave him a receipt which he keeps in a safety deposit box, and he's staying pretty positive about letting go of those gold bars:
“Even if I don’t get any of the gold back I will still have my beautiful tank.”
Kids say such cute things it's impossible to stay mad at them for long, and if we could somehow bottle their cuteness many of the world's problems could be cured with a daily dose of kiddie cute.
But rather than bottle his 5-year-old daughter Harper's essence artist Martin Bruckner takes all the endearing, zany and just plain crazy things she says and turns them into cool illustrations.
Martin calls the project "Spaghetti Toes" after the conversation he, his wife and Harper had that inspired the illustrations:
His wife told Harper, “Please don’t put spaghetti between your toes.” Bruckner commented on how ridiculous that statement sounded. Later that night he caught himself telling Harper, “Did you drop the cheese in the tub again?” From then on, he decided to note down all the weird things they said, and Spaghetti Toes was born.
