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In China and Vietnam, more than 10,000 bears are suffering a horrible existence in establishments known as bile farms. These places regularly — and painfully — extract bile from the animals, which is used as an ingredient in traditional medicinal mixtures. The bile extraction causes severe infections in the bears, who are often kept in cages so small they are unable to turn around or stand. Many are caged as cubs, never knowing a life other than in these cruel circumstances, which persist despite effective medicinal alternatives.

According to Animals Asia, an organization dedicated to ending bile farming,

"Bears may be kept caged like this for up to 30 years. Most farmed bears are starved, dehydrated and suffer from multiple diseases and malignant tumours that ultimately kill them." 

Smudge the moon bear cub is a happy exception to the dismal story of bile farming. The cub was rescued from a Nanning, China bile farm by Animals Asia's Peace by Piece initiative. Animals Asia converted the farm that had possession of Smudge and other moon bears into a bear sanctuary and education center. To assist in the effort to end bile farming, visit Animals Asia's website. Via Laughing Squid.

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What happens when Pete Holmes introduces Mortal Kombat "finishes" to the laws of physics? Hint: they aren't so mortal. In fact, with enough chiropractic adjustments, they might just render the enemy IMmortal. Don't forget to bend your knees and engage the core! Via Laughing Squid. 

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The latest video offering from AsapSCIENCE asks viewers "Can you trust your ears?" The video provides examples of illusions such as the McGurk effect, which occurs when visual cues alter and "trick" the brain's processing of auditory input, leading to misconceptions about what was heard. The Tritone Paradox and the Shepard Tone Illusions are other auditory phenomena discussed. Watch the video and test your ears to see how trustworthy they are.  

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Dr. Robert Provine, behavioral neurobiologist at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, has been studying social and neurological origins of laughter for 20 years. In this Vimeo Staff Pick from the Vimeo channel of The Atlantic, Dr. Provine explores laughter in humans and other species from a variety of perspectives. Read more about the scientific study of laughter in this article at The Atlantic.

       Coffee Creamer Lids Swap Meet

Meet a number of people who will be thoroughly unsympathetic in response to the sob story about how your membership in the high school chess club lost you a prom date. Swiss photographers Ursula Sprecher and Andi Cortellini captured images of people who belong to interest clubs that are offbeat. The photographers' series, entitled Freizeitfreunde (Hobby Buddies), playfully poses members of organizations such as the Santa Claus Group and the Coffee Cream Lids Swap Meet. The photographs have been turned into a book, a bound testament to the notion that, eventually, we all find "our people."  Via Beautiful Decay (NSFW, artistic nudes).

Images Credit: Ursula Sprecher and Andi Cortellini

      Santa Claus Group

   Swiss Garrison (Serving the 501st Legion) 

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The races known as the Barkley Marathons are considered to be some of the toughest in the United States, if not the world. There are 60-mile and 100-mile versions of the Barkley. Participants of the 100-mile race climb over 59,200 feet of rugged, mountainous terrain in Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg, Tennessee.

In its 28-year history, only 14 runners out of approximately 800 have finished the Barkley within the 60-hour time limit. Barkley Marathons registration is limited to only 35 runners, openings which generally are taken within one day. 

This video by Denver-based filmmaker Brendan Young informs viewers about the race. Founder Gary Cantrell came up with the idea for the race after watching a news item on a failed prison escape by James Earl Ray, assassinator of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Via Laughing Squid. 

 

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A Japanese artist, who uses the name Satsuma professionally, works with the aid of a wise assistant. One of his pets, a Northern White Faced Owl, perches on his hand as he draws on his tablet. There's nothing like wide-eyed appreciation of one's craft!

Northern White Faced Owls have an interesting characteristic: they change their posture as a defense mechanism when confronted by other animals in the wild. If their enounter is with a smaller animal, the owls puff their feathers in order to appear larger. When they come upon a larger animal, they pull in their feathers, elongate their body to appear thinner and narrow their eyes to slits.

Via Colossal   

These three Koala joeys at Sydney, Australia's Taronga Zoo first peeked out of their mother's pouch in 2013. Females Milli and Sydney are 18 months old, and the male, Tucker is 12 months. The zoo staff says the trio spends their days snuggling together in the trees. According to their keeper, Laura Jones,

"Tucker is usually the poor guy on the bottom. I think he goes to sleep first and then the girls find a comfy spot on top of him. He seems to quite like it at the moment though, as it may remind him of cuddling with his mum."

The zoo staff says the three joeys have banded together ever since being separated from their mothers.

After a gestation period of only 35 days, the female Koala gives birth to one to two joeys. The hairless, blind babies immediately seek the warmth and comfort of their mother's pouch, which faces backwards and has strong muscles to keep them secure. A Koala joey stays hidden in the pouch for six months.  At 12 months, the joey emerges from the pouch permanently. At the age of 18-24 months, Koalas are independent and spend most of their time resting in the upper canopy of trees.

Strangely enough, the Koala is one of the only animals known to have evolved a smaller brain in order to preserve energy in the species. They are nocturnal animals that spend 18-20 hours sleeping each day. With the vast majority of their time alive spent napping and cuddling, Milli, Sydney and Tucker may have a smaller brain than their ancestors, but it sounds like they have the right idea about how to live!

Images Credit:Taronga Zoo
Via Zooborns




 

Robert Morris is a sculptor and conceptual artist who is orignally from Kansas City, Missouri. Morris is currently based in New York and represented by the Leo Castelli Gallery. His work has been exhibited at some of the most revered art museums in the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris.

The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City has incorporated a new installation by Morris into their Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park, in celebration of its 25th year in operation. Called The Glass Labyrinth, the transparent maze is created to be interactive. From the museum's website,

" Glass Labyrinth acknowledges... prehistoric markings on stones and cave walls, ancient Greek myths, and Christian metaphors for pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem. Thus, it transcends time and space to remind us of the power of deeply felt archetypes. In form and material, however, this labyrinth is a departure from the more familiar circular and rectangular labyrinths of old. Triangulated and constructed of glass plate walls capped with bronze, it speaks to this moment in the language of modern architecture and design–streamlined, dynamic, transparent, and elegant."

According to this article at Fox4 News Kansas City, the "62-foot by 62-foot by 62-foot, 7-foot-tall labyrinth" weighs upwards of 400 tons. Read more about the exhibition at the The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Via Laughing Squid
Images: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 

 

 

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CineFix, in this latest edition of 8-Bit Cinema, presents cult favorite Donnie Darko in all its pixelated glory. If this clip — complete with 8-bit Tears for Fears — doesn't make you smile, I sincerely doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

 

Photographer Sophie Gamand, originally from France, is currently based in New York City. One aspect of culture that fascinates her is the relationship between dogs and their owners. From Gamand's website,

"A big city like New York, a place not primarily designed for animals, seems to emphasize the idea that the nature of our favorite companions has been engineered to fit the human lifestyle. Are dogs still animals? Or are they the new children of a human community that is increasingly disconnected?

With her work, Sophie Gamand explores the human through dog photography."

Gamand's projects include:

• The Wet Dog, a photo series of dogs during bath time, a portion of which is shown here. Photos from this series will be the basis of an upcoming book to be published by by Grand Central Publishing in autumn of 2015 
• Dog Vogue, a photo essay of dogs dressed to the nines by noted pet couturier Anthony Rubio, in which Gamand examines the world of New York animal fashion design and the competitive animal owners who buy the merchandise
• Metamorphosis, an ongoing project about the various stages of the dog grooming process, a "symbolic exploration of the domestication of dogs"

Metamorphosis was a finalist in the GIF category of the New York Photo Festival in 2014. The Wet Dog series won first place in the Portraiture category of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards.

Wet Dog prints are available here. Learn about all of Gamand's projects at her website. Follow her on social media via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  

Images Credit: Sophie Gamand; used with her permission.  
Via Colossal.

 

 

  

"The Aviator"

By 1929, photographer Harry Whittier Frees had gained such success through sales of his animal photographs for use in post cards, children's books and advertising materials that he published a book called Animal Land on the Air. In it, Frees describes his experience of painstakingly creating his elaborate scenes of animals in costume, usually using multiple props,

"Rabbits are the easiest to photograph in costume, but incapable of taking many ”human“ parts. Puppies are tractable when rightly understood, but the kitten is the most versatile animal actor, and possesses the greatest variety of appeal.

The pig is the most difficult to deal with, but effective on occasion. The best period of young animal models is a short one, being when they are from six to ten weeks of age. An interesting fact is that a kitten’s attention is best held through the sense of sight, while that of a puppy is most influenced by sound, and equally readily distracted by it. The native reasoning powers of young animals are, moreover, quite as pronounced as those of the human species, and relatively far surer."

Unlike Potter's famous early taxidermy photos, Frees used live animals and also wrote in Animal Land on Air that his photographs were "made possible only by patient, unfailing kindness on the part of the photographer at all times."

It's easy to understand why Frees is the subject of Internet and magazine articles of late and of old: his work was visionary in that he put his finger on the photo trigger as well as on a part of future American popular culture — from advertising to Internet memes — when he specialized in images of cute animals and their capacity to make humans feel good.

 "When Bedime Comes"


 "Ready for a Dive"


 "The Outing" 

     Kiss/Kiss

Ript Apparel has taken popular album covers from various eras and genres and added the faces of characters from pop/geek culture. The result is a series of well illustrated and often amusing parodies. Ript's site states that their album cover creations are available only until May 31st, after which they are "out of print forever." They offer the artwork in album cover form and on a variety of other products, including bluetooth speakers, headphones, coasters and laptop sleeves. See more including a video about their album parody cover sleeves at the Ript website. Via Elite Daily.


     Rage Against the Machine/Evil Empire

    No Doubt/Tragic Kingdom


     Guns n' Roses/Appetite for Destruction


    Blink 182/Enema of the State

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Did you ever, when, say, confronted with a decision whether to nab the last cupcake or flirt with an attractive person other than your significant other, feel an unknown, unstoppable force pulling you in the wrong direction? Well, relax, you're in good company. So does the Milky Way. Alltime10s touches on such a force and more in their video "10 Incredible Facts About the Galaxy." See more AllTime10s lists on their YouTube channel. Via Laughing Squid.