Ayhan Tomak, a Turkish sculptor who specializes in wood, has many fascinating pieces on his website, his Instagram page, and his DeviantArt page. But I'm particularly struck by his mirror backings. They exhibit incredible fluidity--like they encapsulate shimmering pools of water in constant motion.
Capuchino Cosplay offers this fresh take on Marvel cosplay. Here is a Rococo-style rendition of Captain America and Iron Man. The pair of heroes are ready for the masquerade ball.
Custom dicemaker RitualCast of Ketchikan, Alaska says that this ominous street art recently appeared downtown. And there's evidence that the situation has become even more dangerous: packets of googly eyes have been mysteriously appearing around the city.
-via Super Punch
Plaincourault Chapel is a medieval church in France. It holds a 13th-century fresco depicting Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Between them is what we generally recognize as the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which Eve ate from and convinced Adam to do so as well. But in this fresco, it looks more like a bunch of mushrooms. Could it have been a hallucinogenic mushroom? After all, a "mind-expanding drug" fits in neatly with an enlightenment we call the knowledge of good and evil.
It’s this tree that has attracted visitors from around the world to the sleepy village of Mérigny, some 200 miles south of Paris. Tourists, scholars, and influencers come to see the tree that, according to some enthusiasts, depicts the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria. Not everyone agrees, however, and controversy over the fresco has polarized researchers, helped ruin at least one career, and inspired an idea—unproven but wildly popular, in some circles—that early Christians used hallucinogenic mushrooms.
There are quite a few possibilities attached to this idea. Least likely is that, while the Bible definitely calls it a tree, the oral tradition that the Bible drew from may have included mushrooms in the story. More likely, the 13th-century artist may have surmised that possibility. Or did the early Christians use mushrooms themselves? But does the fresco even depict a mushroom, since the entire painting is stylized? Maybe it was just a poor attempt at a tree. There are plenty of academics who have argued about the fresco, which you can read about at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Aranthama)
A hundred years later, movie fans are aware of Rudolph Valentino as the biggest male sex symbol of his era. They may not be as familiar with his second wife Natacha Rambova.
Many considered the Hollywood couple to be “lavender lovers,” a name given to a male-female pair who marry for convenience and to conceal the true nature of their stigmatized sexual orientation. Whether it was a marriage of convenience or a romantic affair, Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova became one of Hollywood’s power couples of the 1920s. He was Hollywood’s first sex symbol. She was a spiritualist costume designer who dabbled in acting but would later abandon her career to become an Egyptologist. Both talented performers, the couple starred in films and toured the world in dance troupes. Rambova even became Valentino’s manager during the height of his film career. Yet, despite their success in Hollywood, the pair could never seem to escape controversy or scandal. One thing is sure, Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova’s relationship was never conventional.
Valentino and Rambova set themselves up for gossip and scandal from the beginning, as he was still married to his first wife when they wed in Mexico. But considering the way Hollywood engineered what was known about their stars in those days, rumor is most of what we have. Read about this lives of the reluctant Hollywood sex symbol and the talented woman who fought misogyny her whole life at Messy Messy Chic.
If you know English pretty well and love word games, then you'll want to try the Divergent Association Task. Yes, it's a research task, but it's fun, too. Your job is to think of ten English nouns that are as different from each other as possible. Try to think of words that have no association at all. It's harder than you might think, but I did pretty well for a first try.
Your score is 90.0, higher than 96.37% of the people who have completed this task
I will post my words and their scores in the comments, in case you want to avoid any influence before you try it yourself. -via Metafilter
PS: In looking for an illustration for this post, I first searched for "fish on a bicycle" and found that was quite common. My next idea was "cow kayak," and lo and behold, the perfect image came up.
The year 1899 saw a shocking news story from Australia, in which a dead man won a bicycle race. For this to be at all plausible, you must know that 23-year-old James Somerville was very much alive at the start of the race, but died on the last stretch where he led the field of 50 competitors.
At the start he quickly forged ahead, closely followed by another crack rider named Percy Cliff. They left 48 riders away in the rear and shot around the track almost wheel to wheel. When within 25 yards of the tape Somerville, who still led by half a wheel, was seen to relax his hold on the handlebars. His pedals whirled around, however, and he pluckily held his position. Five yards from the tape Cliff put on a tremendous spurt and struck Somerville’s hind wheel, shooting the machine with its then almost inanimate burden, like a rocket under the tape.
The crowd yelled wildly, but silence ensued when Somerville, after crossing the tape, plunged head foremost from the machine. When picked up he was dead. Physicians who examined his body said he must have had an attack of heart failure on the last lap. Jackson [MI] Citizen Patriot 25 February 1899: p. 1
It was in all the papers, so it must be so, right? It turns out that in the month between the time the race was held in Australia and when the story was published in the US, a lot of details were dropped, assumed, and embellished. Read the true story of James Somerville, who both died and won the race, but not as it was reported, at The Victorian Book of the Dead. -via Strange Company
(Image source: Flickr user James Vaughan)
The Braizer family of Silverton, Oregon, had a collie named Bobbie. In August of 1923, the family took a road trip to Wolcott, Indiana, to visit relatives, and naturally took their beloved pet with them. But a pack of dogs chased Bobbie off at a gas station stop in Wolcott. The heartbroken family searched for a week, and placed ads in the local paper. They eventually returned home without Bobbie, thinking they would never see him again.
To everyone’s surprise, Bobbie did return, six months after he had disappeared. He hobbled back into Silverton one February day in 1924, ragged, dirty and scrawny with his toenails worn down to nothing. Unbelievable as it may seem, the two-year old puppy had walked 2,550 miles all by himself to get home.
The news of Bobbie’s incredible feat soon spread across the nation, and the Braizer family was flooded with fan mail, some addressed to Bobbie himself. Some people claimed they had seen Bobbie at various places and were able to identify him by his distinguishing features.
The publicity surrounding the dog's feat led to a recreation of his journey, since he had interacted with quite a few people along the way, including a stay with a Portland woman after being injured. Read about Bobbie's incredible journey and his legacy that's still celebrated almost 100 years later, at Amusing Planet. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Flickr user Rick Obst)
This unique blown glass piece designed by Jim Rokos and made by glass artist Jochen Holz is called My Other Half. The glass with the lowest level will fill up, so it's necessary to coordinate your drinking with a partner. Rokos designed it as part of a project that he calls Blindspot, which is about how people work together (or don't) as couples.
-via Toxel
Oleg Chernyshenko's feat is so extraordinary that I was inclined to think that the video was fake until I discovered similar accomplishments on his Instagram page. According to the Daily Mail, Chernyshenko completed this series of backflips at Cape Kiwanda, Oregon while his brother ran down the hill recording it.
-via The Awesomer
When surfboards have ceased to be useful on the waves, Claire Marie, an artist in Western Australia, gives them new life. She reinvigorates the boards with vibrant seascapes harkening to past adventures on the water.
Marie explained to My Modern Met that each painting is personalized to the past of the board:
“It’s the small details in the artwork that makes each commissioned surfboard unique and personal but the surfboard itself also holds its own memories from the time it has spent out in the waves,” she continues. “On the back of each board is a small handwritten note which gives a little insight into the story of the board and the artwork.”
The new Star Wars-themed hotel opening at Walt Disney World in Florida next year is more like a fantasy camp experience. Attached to the new Galaxy's Edge theme park, the hotel called Galactic Starcruiser will offer accommodations, meals, and a two-night immersive Star Wars experience for the whole family. It will cost you, though.
The lowest announced pricing tier is $4,809 for two guests. That includes a standard cabin, food and drink (except alcohol, which is extra) and an experience that includes activities such as lightsaber training, bridge crew training and a planet excursion to Batuu (a.k.a. the Galaxy’s Edge park). A family of four can expect to pay a minimum of $5,999.
There are no prices yet listed for the hotel’s upgraded rooms, dubbed the Galaxy Chess Suite — which includes two windows, instead of one, looking out into “space” — and the Grand Captain Suite (three space windows!), but one assumes those prices are most impressive. There are other add-ons too such as Captain’s Table seating rather than eating at communal tables in the “Crown of Corellia Dining Room.”
And that's why people are already calling this resort Canto Bight. If you're willing to pay for it, I'm sure you can extend your stay to four nights or more (or you could send your kids to Space Camp for a week at a fraction of the price). Read more about Disney's Galactic Starcruiser and see the trailer here. -via reddit
In its 3rd season, “When Irish Eyes Are Crying,” Detective Gina Calabrese (Saundra Santiago) falls for an Irish philanthropist—played by Liam Neeson—who turns out to be a former IRA member and current terrorist. pic.twitter.com/tVnjUxRl65
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
The TV series Miami Vice ran for five seasons back in the 1980s. It was extremely popular and had quite an influence on music and fashion, if not drug-smuggling itself. The bad guys changed every episode, so there was a parade of guest actors each week. Some were already stars, while others were up-and-coming actors who are much better known today, almost 40 years later. Daniel Holland put together a Twitter list of those stars, with screenshots as evidence. In fact, you didn't even have to be an actor to play a drug dealer on Miami Vice.
Frank Zappa was known for many things but acting wasn’t really one of them. That’s why it was such a surprise to see him on Miami Vice. Here he plays an intimidatingly persistent character hell-bent on recovering a large sum of money. pic.twitter.com/1t41j61VoM
— Daniel Holland🎗 (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
Some you may remember, others may surprise you. See the whole thing at Twitter, with additional contributions in the replies, or at Threadreader. -via Laughing Squid
Watch a bobcat frolicking with her kitten on the roof of a home in Phoenix, Arizona. It was all fun and games for a minute or so, but then she noticed the homeowners recording her through a window. That's where it get weird. Imagine a wild predator staring at you with dilated eyes, just inches away. Sure, there's glass to protect you, but her gaze is enough to make one's stomach twist a little, even on video. -via Boing Boing
How shall we protect our property from people stealing packages away from our front doors? Stage magician and science educator Jason Latimer reasoned that the best way is to convince thieves that there are no packages to steal. He built a box with a mirror that reflects the side wall of his house. As a result, when viewed from the front, the box appears to be a transparent table.
-via The Awesomer
