A round of mini golf while you contemplate the challenges of climate change? If that sounds fun to you, check out the "Putting Green" mini golf in Brooklyn, New York. The 18-hole mini golf course is a collaborative community project, designed by local artists and environmental groups.

Pictojam has the gallery: Climate Change-Themed Mini Golf Course in Brooklyn, New York

Image: Two Trees Management and Putting Green

I was always told that it's rude to eat in front of hungry people, unless you are feeding them at the same time. I was also taught not to hang around the neighbors at meal time, because they didn't want to feed me. So what do you do when a park bench is the only place to eat? This stop-motion animation by Rich Webber is quite short, and you might get a kick out of it. -via Everlasting Blort

With a wingspan up to 11 inches, the appropriately named Atlas Moth can attract unwelcome attention from predators. Fortunately, one of its evolutionary advantages is that the tips of its wings look like snake heads. The Natural History Museum in London describes how this feature helps:

The moth's Cantonese name translates as snake's head moth, because the tips of its wings look similar to the head of a deadly cobra.

When threatened, the moth will drop to the floor and writhe around, slowing flapping its wings to imitate snake head and neck movements and scare away predators.

-via The Fabulous Weird Trotters | Photo: Pixabay

I'm excited to announce our new sites: Pictojam and the re-born Homes & Hues.

Picto is focused on science, engineering, and tech stories (with a lot of fun stuff sprinkled in). H&H is geared towards home design and decor as well as the stuff you'd need for your house like home electronics and kitchen gadgets. These two are the first in a series of new niche content sites we'll be launching.

The Picto sites are built on a new platform, so things work a bit differently there (helloooo infinite scroll!) I hope you like the short video clip thumbnails on the grid - that's one of my favorite things about the new sites.

We'll continue to build the platform's capabilities as we fill the sites with new stories for you to read. In the meantime, I'd appreciate it if you'd tell your friends about Pictojam and Homes & Hues :)

Wildlife camera crew Samulin Matkassa were holed up in a bear bind in Finland when they happened to witness a bear brawl. Two  bears showed up near the team and their hidden cameras. Samuli Kiiveri, Olli Pietilä, and Tuomas Manninen were only expecting a glimpse of a single bear, but their expectations were blown away by what they witnessed: 

Shortly after arriving on the scene, two of the large bears decided they didn’t like each other.

“Two of the bears were pretty much the same size and they started to roar very loudly to each other and moments later they engaged in a fierce brawl,” the crew says. “According to experts, they wouldn’t fight so brutally over food only. It is about the dominance of the area, because females prefer stronger males.”

Locals later told the crew that there had only been a single report of a bear fight of this magnitude in the wildlife area over the past decade and a half. Luckily for Samulin Matkassa, they were able to capture the rare sight with multiple cameras and from super close range.

“The whole scene, starting with the extremely loud roars followed up by a big fight, was an experience that left the whole film crew speechless and even confused for a while,” Samulin Matkassa says. “Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Image credit: Samulin Matkassa 

With every instance of mankind’s success in exploring the deep recesses of space comes another instance of failure or disaster. Since humans are traveling in uncharted territory, there is a big risk in attempting to explore with our limited knowledge. Long-time planning  could reduce the risks, but it is understandable that not everything will go according to plan. World Atlas lists ten of history’s worst disasters that happened as a result of mankind’s continuous study of space. Check the full list here. 

Image credit:  NASA 

If you’ve played any of the previous iterations of the Ace Attorney series, then you know how over-the-top and sometimes ridiculous the court cases get. From cross-examining a parrot to looking for a Loch Ness Monster, it’s fairly obvious that if these cases made it into a real life court, no one would take it seriously. It’s still fun to play, though! The release of a new addition to the franchise introduces new gameplay concepts for both in and out of the courtroom. PCGamesN enlists the help of Isabel Davies, an associate at media law firm Wiggin to determine if The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles can hold a candle to real life court cases. Check her full analysis here! 

Image credit: Capcom 

Barkha Kumari encountered a street snack in India that intrigued her. The vendor was cutting paper-thin slices off of what looked like a log, but was obviously softer. This was Ram Kand Mool. But what kind of a plant did it come from?

“It’s a root. It can grow five feet deep and 300kg,” he explained, in response to my shock. He sources it, he said, from the neighbouring state of Kerala, from people who “get it from the forests.” He hasn’t seen anybody extract the root, but has seen the tree it comes from. “It’s like a climber. It gives flowers. It grows near the sea. It’s called Bhoochakara Gadda in south India and Ram Kand Mool up north.”

Can a root be this massive? Especially the root of a climber or vine? Before I could ask Google, my snack was ready. It was seasoned with salt, chili powder, and lime; my husband’s had sugar and lime. It was crunchy, juicy, and refreshing, but had no taste of its own.

The snack sent Kumari down a rabbit hole trying to identify the plant that this food came from. She quickly figured out that the vendor, and others, either did not know or did not want to divulge the exact source of the "root." So she consulted food scientists and botanists, who did not know, either.

Soon enough, I’d learn that my idle curiosity was, in fact, a mystery that has baffled and, at times, infuriated botanists for decades. This snack has been widely sold on the streets for decades—from the city of Haridwar in the north to Pune in the west and in several places in the south—and yet, somehow, no one seems to know what it is.

But Kumari kept searching and asking questions. She may have found the answer, but there are always more questions, which you can read about at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Kailash Mohankar)

New York City is a mecca for those who want to try out restaurants, and authentic Italian restaurants have been rising in popularity for the last decade or so. But how far can one stretch the definition of "authentic"? Food writer David Farley thought it would be an interesting experiment to take Italian tourists to an Olive Garden. You might be horrified by the ethics of this experiment, but through a friend, Farley managed to recruit an Italian couple who are living in New York temporarily and agreed to be taken to dinner at a surprise location. On the way, Marco and Giovanna speculated about which Italian restaurant they would be visiting.

That’s when I said, “ta dah!” and fanned my arm up at the Olive Garden logo, like I were a model standing next to a car on display at an automobile show. (This location has since closed, leaving the Times Square location the sole Olive Garden in Manhattan.)

Marco covered his face in disbelief. Giovanna said, “I’m not sure we’re going to survive this.”

We were seated in a large booth immediately. Nathan, our waiter, doled out the menus, which were big on photos and little on description.

My Italians scanned the menu. “This might as well be a Chinese menu,” Marco said.

 “True,” Giovanna said. “There is nothing remotely similar here to anything you would find in Italy.”

Read the adventure that the evening turned out to be, and more about the difficulty of recreating authentic Italian cuisine in America, at Trip Out. -via Kottke

(Image credit: Andreas Praefcke)

Some people are just overachievers. Brian May is the guitarist for Queen, and also has a PhD in astrophysics. We know he is an avid gardener, and in his spare time, he collects stereographs, photographs in pairs taken from slightly different angles in order to produce a 3D effect. But this story isn't about Brian May, it's about one of his stereographs. It was taken by photographer Henry Brooks and shows his wife Caroline and their daughter Caroline Jane posing in front of Stonehenge in the 1860s.

It was discovered by the curators of the Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy following a public appeal by English Heritage to find the earliest family photo taken at the stones.

"I've been fascinated by stereo cards since I was a boy and got one in a cereal packet," said the Queen guitarist.

"This is a fantastic early example and exciting because it's one of the oldest family snaps taken at Stonehenge.

"It feels even more evocative when set to music - a bit like a silent movie and we thought it would be great fun to recreate the image as a stereo view at Stonehenge and breathe new life into an old photo," he added.

And they did just that- set up a stereograph viewer at Stonehenge to view the picture accompanied by piano music by May, available through September. Read more about the image at BBC News. -via Nag on the Lake

To be more precise, Madeleine Ravier referred to her invention as a "bicycle for animals." She did not restrict the design in her 1907 patent to horses.

Ravier concluded that, as human locomotion is more efficient on a bicycle, animals likewise benefit by an appropriately adapted vehicle. Weird Universe quotes a translation of her patent:

What man did for himself he can do it for animals, or at least for some of them; There is a way to increase the efficiency of their limbs by the intercalation, between these limbs and the field of motion, of mechanical devices receiving the reciprocating motion of the limbs, transforming it into continuous rotary motion, and ending in rotating parts; and the result obtained can be used to make animals move man faster and farther than has hitherto been done by using them.

Redditor UNHOLYpuppetboy shares this photo of the book stacks of his local public library. It's the Merchants' Square location of the Carmel Clay Public Library in Carmel, Indiana. The main library of that system is under renovation, so the collection and its services were moved into a closed grocery store last October. The local NBC News affiliate described the changes last year:

That's right, the library is now in the old Marsh in Merchants' Square while the main library undergoes renovations. The library expects construction could take up to two years, with a focus on expanding the "teen" area. [...]

"Our books in the freezer section. That's a popular area," said Director Bob Swanay. "The children's area is in what was formerly the winery section of the store."

-via TYWKIWDBI

Hawaii is a popular tourist destination. This is advantageous for locals, as it provides them a livelihood. However, because of tourists not sticking to the rules set by locals, they tend to damage popular sites. Social media posts that show visitors touching endangered Hawaiian monk seals, hiking on forbidden trails or going off designated paths are just few of the several instances of foreigners’ faux pass against locals: 

Some residents are taking matters into their own hands, using social media as a tool to try to divert tourists away from sensitive areas as well as to educate people how to responsibly visit and interact with the wildlife and other natural wonders in the islands.

“When tourists come to visit these places, leave the geotag unavailable,” advises Melissa Akoni, who has become well known for her efforts to promote the responsible use of Hawaii’s resources.

[...]

The Honolulu Police Department said it issued more than 70 citations and made five arrests related to trespassers on the trail in the second half of June alone, Hawaii News Now reported.

“When it comes to Haiku Stairs, there is no middle ground,” Nathan Serota, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said in a telephone interview. “It’s illegal to go on the stairs. Period.”

Image credit: Civil Beat/2021

Get your shit turned into gold! A South Korean researcher has created a toilet that turns human waste into power. Where does the money come in, you ask? Well, it’s the bonus incentive. Every use of the special toilet scores you the currency developed by Urban and environmental engineering professor Cho Jae-weon. The virtual currency, called Ggool (‘honey”), can be used to buy items within Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST): 

The toilet first pumps your excrement into an underground tank, which means it uses less water right off the bat when compared to a traditional toilet. Microorganisms then break down the waste into methane, a usable source of energy.

In short, it’s a delightful new method of turning sewage into power.

“If we think out of the box, feces has precious value to make energy and manure,” inventor Cho Jae-weon, an urban and environmental engineering professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), told Reuters. “I have put this value into ecological circulation.”

The toilet could turn roughly a pound of solid human waste, the average amount a human poops in a day, into an impressive 50 liters of methane gas, according to Cho. That means it can generate half a kilowatt hour of electricity, enough to drive an electric car for three quarters of a mile.

Image Credit: Google Images|The Byte

He looks so happy! Animals, like humans, deserve to be spoiled on their birthdays, right? Especially if they reached a milestone in their life! Cornish Seal Sanctuary’s rescue seal Yulelogs celebrated his 32nd birthday with a giant ice cake filled with fish. Yulelogs’ birthday is a milestone for him, as male grey seals tend to only live around 25 years: 

Yulelogs was rescued back in 1989 as a tiny pup. The marine park that saved him eventually closed, and Yulelogs was released back into the wild.

"However, after such a long time in captivity, he had no idea how to feed himself and had become too used to humans," says the Cornish Seal Sanctuary on their website. "Three months after his release, Yulelogs was rescued by the RSPCA after receiving calls from concerned members of the public saying he had been chasing people with buckets on the beach, believing they contained fish."

Image credit: Cornish Seal Sanctuary