Genetically Engineered Mini Rhino

On the 22nd of August, 1872, the Fort Wayne Daily Sentinel printed the following opinion about the supposedly numbered days of dogs and cats as pets:

"Dogs have nearly had their day, and so have cats. The household pets of the future will be snakes. To be sure, their introduction will meet with opposition, but prejudice will soon wear away. A Mr. Mann, an English music teacher, has been arrested for keeping snakes loose about his house, and allowing them to crawl into the domiciles of his neighbors. Upon the trial it was shown that Mr. Mann's two little children play with and fondle a young Brazilian boa, and Mr. Mann himself asserted that "these creatures are becoming sought after as pets by many private persons, so that it is difficult to buy one at all now."' The spectacle of a Fifth Avenue belle sweeping down Broadway, leading a pet snake by a silk cord fastened to a silver-plated collar, will be the next sensation." 

While the writer's prediction never came to fruition, it's safe to say that the sight of a "Fifth Avenue belle" toting Bergdorf's bags and leading her fancy-collared snake by a silk leash on the streets of Manhattan would, indeed, be a sensation. 

Read this article at Gizmodo's Paleofuture to learn about more strange pet predictions of the past, from mini rhinos to robotic dogs to miniature horses. 

Image Credit: The Kids' Whole Future Catalog, Random House, 1982

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BatDad is back at Neatorama with this Vine compilation for Father's Day. He may be BatDad, but that doesn't mean his wife and kids are cutting him any slack. Via Geeks are Sexy.

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The Pyramids of Giza. One of the classic seven wonders of the world.  Awe-inspiring, mysterious monuments to a model of early civilization. But let's face facts: they ain't made of Nutella.

Watch this video from the guys at Epic Meal Time and let them school you on the eighth wonder of the world: a pyramid made of Nutella and Rice Krispies Treats. This pyramid isn't the final resting place of an ancient Pharaoh — even better. Here lies a delectably crispy bacon mummy (in a s'mores sarcophagus, to ensure spiritual purity).

How did these mere mortal men move the heavy Rice Krispies bricks into place on this nearly 73,000-calorie, 2,490-fat-gram snack? Who cares?! Epic Meal Time! Via Unique Daily.   

   Coco Liu
   Chicago, Illinois
   2nd Place, Trees Category

Famed photographer Ansel Adams once quipped, "The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it." Examples of Adams' sentiment abound in the winning shots of the 2014 iPhone Photography Awards. The contest is now in its seventh year and follows seventeen categories including animals, architecture, flowers, food, landscape, nature, news/events, seasons, travel and trees. View all winning entries here. 

  Juana Chaves
  Madrid, Spain
  2nd Place, News/Events Category

   Jill Missner
   Ridgefield, Connecticut
   3rd Place, 2014 Photographer of the Year Category

   Yilang Peng
   Milwaukee, Wisconsin
   1st Place, Architecture Category 

Spain-based illustrator Marilen Adrover takes an artistic jaunt into Legendary Heroines Gone Wild territory with her delightfully scandalous portraits of characters such as Snow White and Goldilocks in police custody. These feminine offenders stare shamelessly into the Camera of The Man, displaying bold, decidedly unrepentant expressions. I hope you left the dwarves alone, Snow White.

Via Beautiful Decay
Images Credit: Marilen Adrover  

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We featured Ron Brinkman's Box of Infinity on May 21st. Meet its Grand Daddy, on exhibit through the 21st of June at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery on Christie Street in New York City. This structure of mirrors is the work of artist Lee Bul, originally from Seoul, Korea and regarded as one of the premier Korean artists of her generation, with work shown in the top art museums worldwide.

This video from The Creators Project, which features several of Bul's pieces, shows the mirrored "maze" at 1:45. Called "Via Negativa," it is constructed of mirrored glass panels that form a seemingly infinite space by reflecting its interior. The outer surface of Via Negativa is lined with mirrors printed with text from a book on self awareness by Julian Jaynes. Bul talks about the meaning behind the artwork and her hope that it provokes those who view it to contemplate their identities. Via Unique Daily.   

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A mystery revolving around the death of a nine-foot-long great white shark off the coast of Western Australia is the subject of a documentary to air June 25th and 26th on The Smithsonian Channel. Remains of the great white washed up on shore months after the shark was killed. A satellite tracking tag that the shark had been fitted with surfaced as well.  

Information retrieved from the tracking device showed the shark was subjected to depths and conditions consistent with a larger predator, possibly another great white shark. The sensor on the tracking device was deprived of light for three weeks before it washed onto shore. The remains of the shark also showed signs of bleaching, possiblly from exposure to stomach acid.

Read more at CNN and watch the Smithsonian documentary for their analysis. 

Two rare Nepalese Red Pandas that were born during March of this year at Hamilton Zoo in Hamilton, New Zealand are now old enough to explore their enclosure like the curious cubs they are. Hamilton Zoo curator Samantha Kudeweh explained the health concerns the keepers had about the cubs soon after they were born:

"Initially the cubs weren’t gaining as much weight as they should have so we started supplement feeding. That worked really well and now the pair are fit and healthy and enjoying hanging out with their extended family."

Kudeweh said that while it's difficult to tell the sex of this species early in their lives, the zoo is relatively certain the two cubs are females. She added that if the zoo staff members are correct about the sex of the cubs, it will be a nice addition to their family, which includes three male cubs born last year.

Red Pandas, which look more like raccoons than giant pandas, are typically found in the Himalayas, ranging from Nepal to China. Their diet consists primarily of bamboo leaves, but also includes bird eggs, blossoms, leaves and berries. The species is threatened more and more by loss of habitat and humans hunting them for their pelts.

Read more about Red Pandas at the Hamilton Zoo website. Via Zooborns. 

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This amusing video from NPR explains how spiders "tune" their webs in a similar manner as a musician tunes a stringed instrument. Spiders may tighten or loosen the silk strands of their webs to achieve variation in the way each strand vibrates. The sensors in the spider's legs "read" the vibrations to gain information, such as the location of an insect newly trapped in the web. The spider's web must be "tuned" in a certain way in order for the process to work. Scientists learned this information during research recently published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Learn more in this article at NPR online. Via Twisted Sifter. 

Ubud, Bali is no stranger to hotels with beautiful water features. Here is another entry to add to the list: a hotel suite with a tempered glass floor under the bedroom.

The Bambu Indah hotel in Ubud has 13 suites they call houses, and for good reason: each structure is over 100 years old and once served as a bridal house for a Javanese nobleman who was expected to provide a home for his new bride. The houses were dismantled, relocated to the hotel grounds and then reconstructed and restored.

The bedroom of the suite shown here, appropriately named "Udang House" (Shrimp House), is built on a shrimp pond. The suite itself is built over the source of the fresh spring that supplies the hotel's natural pool. Additional perks of the Udang House include an indoor/outdoor shower and a bathroom with a glass tiled roof. I wouldn't mind "roughing it" in this suite for a few days, how about you?

Visit the hotel's website to see more. Via Twisted Sifter.

Images Credit: Bambu Indah hotel.  

 Terrace


View of Surrounds

 Bathroom

 

               Australopithecus

The conclusions drawn by researchers in a study conducted at the University of Utah include that male human cranial structure, particularly that of the jaw, has evolved to minimize damage during physical altercations. 

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Have you ever thought you could perform a stunt that's worthy of Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks? How about performing the same stunt using a pole vault for an added layer of complexity?

Australian athlete and pole vaulting title holder Joel Pocklington has pieced together this entertaining video of pole vaulting tricks that are amusing as well as impressive. Via Unique Daily.

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Tim's Vermeer, directed by Teller of Penn and Teller fame and starring his partner Penn Jillette, focuses on a man's obsession with the photorealism of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer's seventeenth century paintings. Tim Jenison, an inventor and computer graphics professional from Texas, was fascinated by the paintings of Vermeer, which are so realistic that everything from skin tones to a multitude of natural and man-made surfaces seem more akin to photographic rather than painted representations.

Jenison was interested in whether Vermeer may have used a camera lucida or similar device using lenses and mirrors during his artistic process. Jenison's mission to recreate Vermeer’s painting The Music Lesson led to a five-year-long, complete reconstruction of the background of the painting. His research was filmed and the footage became the documentary Tim’s Vermeer, which was released today on Blu-ray and digital download. Via Colossal.

Exeter between Seven Mile and Penrose from 2009 (above) up to 2013 (photos below)

Tumblr site GooBing Detroit uses Google's Street View archive to create dramatic visual comparisons of changes in American city streets. It's no surprise that the site's primary focus has been on the longtime ailing urban areas of Detroit, Michigan. These photos arguably provide more stark images than that of any magazine or news feature, in that they are random, unadulterated shots, photographed dispassionately, without a slant or point of view.

See the wealth of material that GooBing Detroit has compiled by visiting the website. Via io9.

Images Credit: GooBing Detroit.  

Venture Out RV Resort
Mesa, Arizona

One of the many phenomena astronauts experience is the Overview Effect, which is a term for the major change in their perspective that occurs after they view Earth from space. This new cognitive awareness is the inspiration for project Daily Overview. From their website, Daily Overview describes its mission:

"From our line of sight on the earth's surface, it’s impossible to fully appreciate the beauty and intricacy of the things we’ve constructed, the sheer complexity of the systems we’ve developed, or the devastating impact that we’ve had on our planet. We believe that beholding these forces as they shape our Earth is necessary to make progress in understanding who we are as a species, and what is needed to sustain a safe and healthy planet.

As a result, the Overviews (what we call these images) focus on the places and moments where human activity—for better or for worse—has shaped the landscape. Each Overview starts with a thought experiment. We consider the places where man has left his mark on the planet and then conduct the necessary research to identify locations (and the corresponding geo-coordinates) to convey that idea."

This ambitious project features one image per day. See more of Daily Overview's captivating collection of images at their website. Via Twisted Sifter.

Images Credit: Daily Overview. 

  Central Park
  New York City, New York

   Agricultural Development
   Loxahatchee, Florida 

 Spaghetti Junction
 Madrid, Spain