Two lions at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, Mfisha and Mr. Big, have become parents to five lion cubs. Three females and two males were born December 29, 2012. One female cub is receiving round-the-clock medical care. She's smaller than her siblings and couldn't compete for food. When she gains weight, she will join her family again.
See more pictures of the cubs at Zooborns. Link
(Photo credit: Henry Doorly Zoo)
This luxurious house called Villa Vals is built directly into a hillside in the village of Vals in the Swiss Alps. A collaboration between architectural firms Christian Müller and SeARCH, it features four bedrooms that are surprisingly flooded with natural light and have beautiful Alpine views. A thermal springs spa is nearby. The exterior is partially made of quartzite collected from the springs and surrounding area. There is a private hot spring in the home, as well as a hot tub and patios. The environmentally-friendly house is thermally insulated and has a heat pump, heat exchanger, radiant floors and uses hydroelectric power generated by a local reservoir.
See more pictures of the Villa Vals in the gallery above, and check out nine other beautiful underground dwellings at Homedit. Link -via Unique Daily
(Image credits: SeARCH, Iwan Baan, Salottobuono)
Eighth grader Matt DeMember made an unbelievable shot that just beat the buzzer in a youth basketball game at Greenridge Baptist Church in Maryland. Not only did he get a great reaction from the crowd, but later ESPN tweeted the video. It's a kid's dream come true!
-via HuffPost Sports
Portland, Oregon-based illustrator Kate Bingaman-Burt began taking photos of everything she purchased in 2002. In 2006, she sketched one thing she purchased every day, a project on which her first book Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today? was based. Book number two, What Did I Buy Today?: An Obsessive Consumption Journal, will be released in the Spring of 2013.
Bingaman-Burt's intention is to make an artistic commentary on conspicuous consumption. In an interview with The Great Discontent, she talked about a time in which she was a designer for a gift company and was expected to sell the product line at trade shows:
"When I wasn't selling, I would sit and watch people and try to figure out why they would be drawn to one product over another. I think that's where the fascination of understanding people's emotions behind purchasing different objects started.
I wanted to figure out why we put so much emotion onto objects. That's when I decided to study graphic design and consumerism. I wanted to intensely focus on one area and use design to talk through some of the things I was thinking about."
See more of the artist's work at her website. Link
(Image credits: Kate Bingaman-Burt)
This photo illustrates just how much the massive coast redwood trees in Northern California dwarf a human in terms of size. This fallen tree is located in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The 53,000-acre park features 17,000 acres of coast redwoods, including four of the tallest trees on record in the world.
Learn more at Twisted Sifter. Link
(Image credit: thecynicroute)
When we last checked in with Xiao Liwu, the panda cub at the San Diego Zoo, he was showing new dexterity during his 20th medical exam. Now the cub is six months old and allowed to roam his new outdoor zoo enclosure with his mother as he goes on public display today for the first time.
Xiao Liwu, whose name means "little gift" in Chinese, is shown here exploring his new surroundings as a crowd of photographers and videographers records the event. At one point, the cub approaches his mother and climbs up her back while she's eating. Instead of sharing her food, she promptly knocks him off. First rule of Panda Cub Club must be "Don't mess with Mama's food."
The folks at RocketNews24 reviewed Domino's new "luxury" pizza in Japan. Topped with Kobe beef, onions, potatoes, cheese and steak sauce, one pizza will run customers 5,800 yen, or about $66 U.S. The reviewers' verdict?
"The beef here really is sublime! From the first bite, the pure tastiness of the ingredients sets off a chain reaction inside the cerebral cavity. Before you know it, you find yourself entering into a state of pizza ecstasy.”
Ultimately, potential customers will have to decide whether they think "pizza ecstasy" is worth 66 dollars a pop.
Read the full review at RocketNews24. Link -via Foodbeast
The first video of Machine Perception Lab’s robot baby has been released. According to an i09 article:
"Named Diego-san, it's an exaggerated representation of a one-year-old child that stands 4 feet 3 inches tall (130 cm) and weighs 66 pounds (30 kg). Its body consists of 44 pneumatic joints and its head contains about 27 moving parts. And as the video shows, its facial expressions are unbelievably life-like.
In order to simulate the reactions of a real child, Diego-san has had high definition cameras implanted in its eyes, allowing it to see people, gestures, and expressions. Then, through the use of an AI modeled on human babies, it can "learn" from people in the same way that real baby does."
The robot freaks me out a bit. If I turned a corner and saw two of them dressed identically and standing at the end of a hall, I'd run the other way, only able to wheeze out "Redrum!" How about you? Link
This stunning video by filmmaker Bryan Smith shows the full moon's majestic rise behind free climber Dean Potter as he walks a highline at Cathedral Peak in Yosemite National Park.
Seven-year-old Malan Selleck-Castaneda loves to go to the Denver Zoo, where her mother Teresa has held a membership for eight years. The lion cubs, donated to the zoo by the royal family of Qatar, are Malan's favorite animals. She explained her love for the cubs:
"I'm a little kid and they're little kids."
Recently, one of the cubs took an interest in Malan as well. This photo shows the cub imitating Malan's gesture as she peers at him through the glass. It makes one wonder what the cub would do if he were not behind his enclosure.
Read more about the cubs at the Denver Post. Link
(Image credit: Teresa Castaneda)
This table made by Jay Watson Design is one on which you're guaranteed to leave fingerprints. Made of solid oak painted with thermochromic paint, its surface temporarily changes color when heat is applied.
See the designer's website for further information and pricing. Link
