A man named Andrew Shannon visited The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin on June 29, 2012. Once inside, Shannon walked up to a Monet painting worth $12 million and punched a hole clean through the canvas. Immediately afterward, Shannon screamed at those in the museum who witnessed the incident, telling them to stay away from him because he had a heart condition. Shannon claimed later that he "felt faint" and had fallen into the painting.

A museum security guard restrained Shannon immediately after the incident, finding a can of paint stripper on him in the process. Security cameras caught the crime on video; after a jury viewed the footage last month, they deliberated for only 90 minutes before returning with a guilty verdict. Shannon was sentenced to five years in jail for defacing the painting, entitled Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat and created in 1874. 

When Andrew Shannon's home was raided by police, they found other stolen art pieces worth nearly $150,000. Some of the thefts dated back to the 1980s. A source at the Dublin Crown Court told the Irish Mirror,

“Shannon was a big threat to society, He has a corrupt perversion of the mind, [he is] a complete sociopath."

Restoration experts set to work on the process of repairing the painting, a complicated operation that took 18 months. The lengthy reconstruction began with laying the painting flat, paint side down on a layer of tissue to protect it. The canvas was removed from the frame and the torn section had to be aligned and rejoined in a painstaking, multi-step procedure involving a high-powered microscope.  

Read about the repair in detail and see photos of each step, as well as the finished restoration, here.

Images: The National Gallery of Ireland 

The best portrait photographers often aren't just skilled in the art of photography. Often they also have a knack for making their subjects feel comfortable enough to be themselves and perhaps even be vulnerable for the camera.

London-based photographer Andy Gotts is known for his portraits of celebrities. In this series, Gotts gets celebrities to let their guards down enough to make spontaneous goofy faces and poses during the shoot. The result is endearing and makes these stars appear as what they are — human. 

Visit this link to see more photographs of celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch and others. Visit Gotts' website and Facebook page to see additional works.  

The image above is an example of what was shown to the audience during the changing of film reels in the days of silent pictures, circa 1910. Called lantern slides, these gentle reminders of movie audience etiquette were made of glass. A collection of these images is available in the book Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture.

See more lantern slides from a century ago here. 

YouTube Link

Hilarious commercials like the one featured here were created in an attempt to convince fragrance consumers of the 1970s and 80s that the product would turn their lives from sedate to sexy. Do any of these jingles bring back memories? Or do any fragrance names give you olfactory flashbacks?

See 14 more commercials, one cheesier than the next, at Mental Floss.

Most of us have seen the internet meme that pokes fun at Tyrannosaurus Rex — its arms in particular. Countless humorous images feature the dinosaur in situations where arm length or strength is needed for one reason or another. T. Rex always comes up embarrassingly short.

At approximately three feet long, T. Rex arms were short for its 40-foot long body, yet they were anything but weak or useless. Studies indicate that its arms were likely used to grip prey and give the creature a boost from off the ground. Research also suggests that each T. Rex arm could lift approximately 450 pounds. 

Read more facts about Tyrannosaurus Rex, including a discussion of whether one could be resurrected from remains, here.  

Image: Wikimedia Commons 

The concept of the videophone has captured the public imagination ever since the telephone was developed. In 1876, shortly after the telephone was patented in the United States by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, an imaginary device called the telephonoscope was dreamed up in magazines. In 1891, Dr. Bell made conceptual notes about the idea, which he called the "electrical radiophone." According to the New York Times, he later remarked that 

"...the day would come when the man at the telephone would be able to see the distant person to whom he was speaking."

While limited versions of the concept were developed from the 1930s on, in popular culture, the device remained a series of commercially unsuccessful prototypes and a futuristic means of communication used in film and television for many years to come. 

Learn more and see a treasure trove of vintage images in this article. -Via The Presurfer
 

Fisherman working the deep sea off Victoria, Australia recently caught a 6.5 foot long frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus), a first for the area. This eel-like shark's ancestry dates back 80 million years and it is sometimes referred to as a "living fossil." The species is thought to be a possible explanation for sea serpent stories of old. The frilled shark prefers deep water; because of that preference, captures of it are exceedingly rare. The specimen shown here was caught at a depth of 2,297 feet.

Read more about this rare catch and see additional pictures here.

Images Credit: SETFIA

 

YouTube Link

Russet is a 3-year-old English Bulldog who, according to her owner, "enjoys napping, destroying furniture and eating treats." She's also single and looking for a boyfriend (no chihuahuas). Male pups in Denver give her a buzz. Perhaps the new couple can discuss techniques on getting big  bones through little doggie doors. -Via Tastefully Offensive

Image: Buena Vista Pictures


Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums certainly has some memorable scenes. Who could forget Gene Hackman showing his grandkids the fun of taking risks? Part of what makes the film a success is its great ensemble cast. Hackman, Danny Glover, Angelica Houston, Bill Murray, Owen and Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Stiller are all featured, as well as some spotted mice. A business venture of young entrepreneur Chas, the Dalmatian mice are a symbol of his early success. How did Anderson and crew acquire the spotted mice? The answer is they didn't. The spots on the mice were drawn on with Sharpie markers. No wonder Chas went on a downward spiral.

Read 27 other facts about The Royal Tenenbaums here.  

At the Café by by Édouard Manet


Ah, beer. Or, in the immortal words of Homer Simpson, "Mmm... beer." Who among us doesn't like an ice-cold mug of the stuff every now and then? Yet according to Mental Floss, those who talk "ice cold" beer should bite their tongues. Beer should be served at 44 degrees Fahrenheit (though the perfect temperature varies according to the type of beer). The logic behind that rule is that taste bud sensation is deadened at any colder temperature.

What's your favorite beer? Let's hear your pick in the comments. In the meantime, visit this article to read more common misconceptions about beer. 

Image: Wikipedia

A Redditor recently posted these cool pictures of the latest Canadian passport. When held under black light, bright, multi-colored designs appear, mingling with the one-colored, subtle designs that can be seen by the naked eye. While it's typical for passports to have features revealed by ultraviolet light for security purposes, this one is especially intricate and brilliant. As one Redditor put it, "It's like a party on every page."

See pictures of each page of the Canadian passport held under UV light here. 

Via Visual News | Images: Reddit

Kim Kardashian

Old-school ASCII art gets a colorful update by rapper and artist Yung Jake, who created these celebrity portraits using emojis. He uses emoji.ink, a website in which people can create images using emojis. Extra creativity is packed into every inch, as the emoji not only has a color and shape, but a meaning; a context that can be put to use as well. 

See more of Yung Jake's portraits here, and look for future works on his Tumblr and Twitter.


Larry David

YouTube Link

Meditation is an activity often suggested to those having problems with pain, stress, depression, anxiety and other struggles of the human condition. It's easy for some to disregard the activity as new-age nonsense, but is there more to it? AsapSCIENCE explores the study of meditation, considering the findings of relevant scientific research.

The Woods Within

Artist Rob Gonsalves was born in Toronto, Canada. In his early years after college, he worked as an architect and painter of murals and theater sets. He eventually began painting full time. Influenced by Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, René Magritte and M.C. Escher, Gonsalves' surrealist painting style features perspective illusions that are carefully pre-planned. The artist refers to his style as "Magical Realism," and describes it via his website as "an attempt to represent human beings’ desire to believe in the impossible."

Gonsalves' work has been used as the basis of three children's books, Imagine a Night, Imagine a Day, and Imagine a Place. 

See 25 of Gonzalves' amazing works in this article, visit the Huckleberry Fine Arts website to see his full collection and to purchase prints, and follow him on social media at his Facebook page. 


 Wilderness Gothic

Autumn Cycling

Vimeo Link

John Edmark’s kinetic sculptures are expertly constructed of laser-cut wood and other moving parts to create the mechanized wizardry shown here. In Edmark's artist's statement at his website, he explains the importance of mathematics to his artistic philosophy:

"Much of my work celebrates the patterns underlying space and growth. Through kinetic sculptures and transformable objects, I strive to give viewers access to the surprising structures hidden within apparently amorphous space... The works can be thought of as instruments that amplify our awareness of the sometimes tenuous relationship between facts and perception...

I employ precise mathematics in the design and fabrication of my work. I do this neither out of a desire to exhibit precision per se, nor to exalt the latest technology, but because the questions I’m trying to formulate and answer about spatial relationships can only be addressed with geometrically exacting constructions. Mathematical precision is an essential ally in my goal of achieving clarity."

See more of these pieces on Edmark's Vimeo page. -Via Colossal

YouTube Link