This artist, who goes by the name Haroshi, fell in love with skateboarding at an early age, and is still active in the sport. He found a way to repurpose old skateboards, turning them into the glossy, colorful art pieces shown here. The skate decks are stacked, cut, shaven and polished to create both 3-D sculptures as well as wall pieces.
The series pictured here is entitled "Harvest." See more of Haroshi's works on his website, and keep up with him via social media on Facebook.
-Via Visual News / Images Credit: Brandon Shigeta
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This cat named Bobo (previously at Neatorama) loves to be vacuumed, according to his owners. He lies there, seemingly relaxed, as the vacuum runs over him. If Bobo likes it, it's a win/win for his people, since vacuuming him is likely to eliminate a lot of cat hair that would otherwise be scattered around the house. I wonder if they are trying to get his younger sister Nikita on board? Keep up with Bobo and Nikita on Facebook. -Via Tastefully Offensive
Approximately 15 miles east of Yellowstone National Park sits a structure known as the Smith Mansion. This rambling, five-story house built out of salvaged, wildfire-damaged pine was the passion of an eccentric engineer named Francis Lee Smith, who built the structure single-handedly.
Smith began the project in approximately 1980, intending on building a log cabin home for his family that blended in with the glorious Wyoming wilderness. His family lived in the house for a while, despite there being no electricity except that provided by an extension cord connected to a generator. A wood stove was the only source of heat. The family dining table was a large tree stump, with smaller stumps as chairs. Smith built no separated bedrooms in the house; instead, he, his wife and two children slept in sleeping bags on the floor.
This arrangement satisfied Mrs. Smith for a few years, until her husband's constant work on the house instead of family time pushed her too far. She divorced him in the early 1980s, took the children and moved to another city. A dejected Smith poured everything he had into the house, building addition after addition, without blueprints from which to work. In 1992, Smith lost his life to his obsession when he fell from a balcony while working on the house and died from his injuries.
Smith's chaotic building of a house with no planned ending is reminiscent of possibly mentally unstable personalities such as Sarah Winchester, heiress to to the Winchester gun fortune, who kept building her San Jose mansion until she died in an effort to assuage the spirits of those shot by Winchester guns. Yet Smith's ex wife and daughter both claim his furious construction was not the result of mental illness. Smith's daughter Sunny Larsen is currently the owner of the structure and is attempting to raise money for its rehabilitation. Visit her website and view the video below to learn more.
Visarute Angkatavanich, a photographer based in Bangkok, Thailand, makes these beautiful captures of Siamese fighting fish (often commonly called bettas). These fish are native to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, although wild Siamese fighting fish aren't brightly colored like the ones bred to be aquarium pets. In the wild, they can be found in canals and other freshwater pools.
Angkatavanich skillfully captures the grace, allure and temperament of the agressive bettas, with their fins and tails flowing as they appear to confront the viewer, unafraid. As someone who kept bettas as well as large aquariums of freshwater fish (including close relatives of the Siamese fighting fish, gouramis), for about ten years, I think these are fantastic representations of the species.
Limited edition prints of Angkatavanich's work are available through La Lanta Fine Art. -Via Colossal.
Raymond Alan "Big Al" Brownley, a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, passed away at age 82 on September 21, 2014. Yet this colorful character lives on via his wonderfully descriptive, lengthy obituary, which someone who obviously held him dear took a lot of time to compose. Big Al's obituary is far from typical, but through its candor and honesty, his spirit emerges, evoking memories of my beloved, gruff relatives of times past.
The following are excerpts from Big Al's obituary, the full text of which can be found here.
"He despised canned cranberry sauce, wearing shorts, cigarette butts in his driveway, oatmeal, loud-mouth know-it-alls, Tabasco sauce, reality TV shows, and anything to do with the Kardashians...
But Big Al had many loves, too. He loved his wife, Agnes Bargo Brownley, who preceded him in death in 1990. He also dearly loved his children and grandchildren. Famously opinionated and short-tempered, Big Al handed these qualities down to his daughter, Jill Ann Brownley of Phoenix, Arizona, a sharp-tongued character in her own right...
He also loved milk shakes, fried shrimp, the Steelers, the Playboy channel, Silky's Gentleman's Club, taking afternoon naps in his recliner, hanging out at the VFW, playing poker, eating jelly beans by the handful, and his hunting dogs-his favorite being Holly Hill Rip Van Winkle, a loyal beagle that answered to the nickname of Rip...
Big Al was world-renowned for his lack of patience, not holding back his opinion, and a knack for telling it like it is. He was highly proficient at cursing. He liked four-letter words just about as much as four-wheel drive pick-up trucks. He was a connoisseur of banana cream pie and a firm believer that ham sandwiches should only be served on Mancini's bread. He always told you the truth, even if it wasn't what you wanted to hear. He was generous to a fault, a pussy cat at heart, and yet he sugar-coated absolutely nothing...
His fondness of spaghetti Westerns was only surpassed by his love of bacon, beer and butter pecan ice cream... Quite a teller of tales, Big Al's elaborate stories often were punctuated with the phrase, "And that's when I kicked his ass." He enjoyed outlaw country music: Waylon, Willie, Hank, Johnny. He was also on a first-name basis with the Four Horsemen of liquor: Jack, Jim, Johnnie and Jose...
With his love for gardening and passion for hunting, Big Al was locally sourcing his food for decades long before it was the "in thing" to do. While a necessity in his youth growing up during the Depression, this passion for being self-sufficient was carried throughout his whole life. This Depression baby was ahead of his time with "being green," as evidenced by the approximately 87 "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" containers stacked neatly in his kitchen cupboard. The biggest challenge was actually finding the butter in his refrigerator with 13 containers of leftovers that all looked the same."
I can only hope that when I die, someone will remember me as vividly and fondly. Rest in peace, Big guy. Via New York Magazine
Who among us doesn't like to enjoy a nice frozen treat from time to time? JoeJoe the capybara (previously at Neatorama) is certainly not pooping on the popsicle party. He munches a red popsicle with gusto, barely pausing to swallow. This is a capybara who knows what he likes! Popsicles and puppies are two of JoeJoe's passions, as seen in the video below of the patient capybara playing with a bunch of adorable, rambunctious pups. Cap life is sweet.
Photographer Julieanne Kost captured these gorgeous images while flying over San Francisco. These photos are not color enhanced with image editing software; the color seen here is brought about by algae microorganisms in salt ponds.
The ponds near San Francisco are run by a company called Cargill, Inc. The shallow, man-made ponds produce salts from sea water or other brines. The water is eventually placed into larger ponds, where it is drained via evaporation so that the salt can be harvested. The entire process takes approximately five years. Read more about salt harvesting from ponds here and here.
See more beautiful photograhs from this series at Kost's Behance site. -Via Colossal
Images Credit: Julieanne Kost
Wolverine
Redditor IHunt posted a Reddit thread sharing his/her drawings on Starbucks cups, which are completed during lulls at work. The creative doodler transforms the mermaid girl into all kinds of cool characters. The poster didn't reveal any personal facts, so readers are left to wonder about the mysterious person behind these caffeine-fueled creatiions. Via Elite Daily.
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Lindsey Loree had more on her mind than a fun game of Magic: the Gathering when she interrupted her boyfriend Eric's Lego fun to ask him to play the game with her. Her request didn't seem to Eric to be anything out of the ordinary, as he had been teaching her to play for six months. But what happened during their game was nothing ordinary. As Eric told the story (his account is here and her account is here),
"We’re in the middle of the game and both hovering around ten life. She’s looking awfully giddy and I’m thinking she’s got some power card that’ll spell doom for me. So I play Time Spiral. She was not happy. We reset and on her turn she smiled and threw a card on the table. What I felt next was confusion. What was that card? Five white for a sorcery and the picture was some dude kissing a girl? There’s no card like that. Well, there is now."
What Lindsey handed him was the card below, asking Eric to marry her.
Quite a game changer! He goes on with his story,
"Of course I said yes. I made a joking fuss about how her cards were sleeved and mine weren’t and how it’d be really hard to shuffle them. Then she gave me a ring pop, to make it official.
Now, there was a little cheating on her part. I Time Spiraled the card back into her library and while I was shuffling she dropped it in her lap to make sure it was in her next hand. But I suppose that can be forgiven given the circumstances."
Way to be flexible with the rules when necessary! Congratulations to the happy couple. -Via Geekologie.
New York City-based artist Anthony Petrie created these cool art prints “Ghostbusted" (variant edition) and “Metroplasm,” based on characters from the movie Ghostbusters (below). Petrie also made this Ghostbusters-themed New York City subway map (above), which I think may be my favorite of the three. The posters were created for a Ghostbusters art show hosted by Gallery1988 in Los Angeles and Sony Pictures in commemoration of the movie's 30th anniversary.
Petrie is a highly acclaimed illustrator who names Marvel, Paramount, AMC and Nickelodeon as clients, among many other notable companies. The artist states on his website that he "has an unhealthy obsession with zombies," the evidence of which can be seen in his portfolio.
Visit Petrie's website to buy prints or products and to see more of his work.
Some of the most beloved comic book superheroes have a power that is similar to actual biological mechanisms found in the animal kingdom. See some amazing animal abilities reminiscent of Aquaman and Spiderman, among other comic book heroes, in this PBS It's Okay To Be Smart video, partially shot at Dragon's Lair Comics & Fantasy in Austin, Texas. -Via Science Dump
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Movie merchandise items are not typically well-made, desirable pieces. It's fairly rare that something seriously cool comes along. Often, when the hype of a blockbuster movie is at fever pitch, the merchandise doesn't have to be much but a cheap bit of plastic to be novel. Once the novelty wears off, such a trinket generally ends up in the trash.
Yet this Rocky action figure is a special case. This finely crafted and useful plastic meat slab, along with bloody butcher's coat, is not only something one would be proud to display, but it's an item that truly embodies the fighting spirit of an underdog who goes on to triumph. The layers of meat— er, meaning — are plentiful.
See 49 more bizarre examples of movie merchandise and tie-ins here.
These two cheetah cub sisters, born on September 1, are being hand raised by the staff at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, because their mother was unsuccessful in raising her two previous litters. Eileen Neff, lead keeper of the cubs said,
"Every baby's different, but these cheetahs really seem to be developing quickly in our eyes. They are great eaters and they started playing when they were just three or four days old. They could barely walk at that time, so it was pretty interesting seeing them tumbling around with each other."
Like all animal ambassador cheetahs at the San Diego Zoo, these cubs will be paired with domestic dogs as companions, which keeps them calm and well socialized. Read more about the San Diego Zoo's cheetahs here. Via Zooborns.
Global warming: a topic that is often hotly contested. Science video blog Veritassium has compiled this video to present some facts for perusal. At the very least, it might be handy to bookmark for when the holidays hit and you're looking to cool down the arguments between your relatives who are political polar opposites, before they come to blows. -Via Science Dump
PBS' It's OK to be Smart produced this interesting video informing us what is and isn't physically realistic or possible in the space battles we've watched in media presentations. These are not just opinion statements; they are all deductions made according to the laws of physics. It turns out pretty much everything we've seen on screen in terms of space battles are "as wrong as Jar Jar Binks." Hollywood creating unreaslistic expectations? Unbelievable! -Via Geeks are Sexy.
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