Minecraft fans probably already heard about Mojang's fancy new digs (above), complete with leather-wrapped goodness and a Minecraft-style conference room. Just look at Notch, all suave under the moody light.
Cool as it is, Mojang's office is hardly the most innovative of workplaces. Thankfully, Weburbanist took the time to round up 18 more crazy office interiors that will make you want to apply for an internship. Link
If collecting digital assurances that people enjoy your online company isn't validating enough for you, you're in luck.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab have created a vest that hugs you every time a friend "likes" one of your Facebook posts. The Like-A-Hug vest is linked to your Facebook account and automatically inflates inward when you receive a "like."
The vest allows you to reciprocate, of course: to return the favor, just squeeze it with your arms until it deflates. Link
45 years ago, Scrooge McDuck passed away at the age of 100. "But what about Duck Tales?" you ask. Well, so did Robyn Penacchia at Death+Taxes, who also had a few other questions:
To this day, I am still confused about the fact that, in this town of anthropomorphic ducks (Duckburg, duh), there were non-anthropomorphic ducks that the anthropomorphic Ducks sometimes fed at the park, with absolutely no acknowledgment that they were one and the same species, or that the other ducks were technically naked by anthropomorphic Duck standards.. I’m also pretty unclear about why the only other anthropomorphic species in Duckburg were dogs.
Following this and a few other leads, Penacchia came to the obvious conclusion: Scrooge was a vampire. While that seems like a statement we'd need Disney to comment on, there are other, truer facts here about the residents of Duckburg, their family, and what Donald does when he visits Europe. Link
It's the 25th anniversary of The Princess Bride, and since everyone is chattering about the cast reunion and planning their post-debate viewing parties, now seems like as good a time as any to brush up on your Andre the Giant trivia. Here's one fact to get you started:
Despite Andre's character Fezzik's almost-superhuman strength, back problems prevented him from actually lifting anything on the set of 'The Princess Bride.' In the scene where Buttercup jumps from the castle window into Fezzik's arms [shown above], Robin Wright was attached to wires so that Andre didn't have to actually catch or hold her.
Check out the rest — including the star's rumored daily caloric intake and the ballsy way Mandy Patinkin helped him learn his lines — on GuySpeed. Link
Interactive fiction is nothing new — we've had it since Choose Your Own Adventure books rolled out. But an ebook available now for the iPhone and iPad is taking interaction to a new level: Readers have to travel to specific locations to unlock portions of the story.
The Silent History is divided into two parts: Testimonials and field reports. The testimonials, which are divided into six volumes of 20 chapters each, are automatically unlocked as the story unfolds each day. But the field reports require an unprecedented level of interaction: They can only be read by traveling to specific locations, and readers are encouraged to write and contribute their own localized installments.
Call it gimmick marketing or innovative storytelling, but one thing is for certain: people are talking about The Silent History, and some early readers are already addicted to the chase. The Week has more about how the book works, and how people are already changing the story's narrative. Link
The photo above was released this week by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in Ft. De Soto, Florida. It's hard to see here, but the woman is riding a wild manatee. Did you know that riding a manatee is illegal? I didn't, but then I don't often encounter manatees. According to Florida state law, "It is unlawful for any person at any time, by any means, or in any manner intentionally or negligently to annoy, molest, harass, or disturb or attempt to molest, harass, or disturb any manatee." Doing so is a second-degree misdemeanor.
After the photo circulated, Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez turned herself in, claiming that she had no idea that encountering a wild animal and hopping on for a ride was a criminal offense.
Gutierrez was not arrested or charged, but the charges were referred to the state attorney's office, according to the Times.
Authorities say the penalty for the woman could be up to 60 days in jail and a possible fine of $500.
Authorities don't believe any manatees were injured.
Link | Photo: Pinellas County Sheriff's Office
I remember a time when Power Rangers weren't even able to morph without being suddenly transported to an undisclosed location and replaced with a crew of body doubles. Now they can do the Robot — in sync. Maybe I'm old. But maybe the Power Rangers shouldn't be doing the Robot. Or any of the rest of this. I'll just quote Rob Bricken from Topless Robot here: "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go find a lawn to tell children to get off of." Link
It doesn't get more awesomely bad than this, Neatoramanauts. You're watching the final scene of a 1974 Turkish film called Kareteci Kiz (Karate Girl), about a girl who becomes a cop to get revenge on the guys who killed her father and husband. My favorite part is the bit where he turns around and has no wounds on his back, then she shoots once and he suddenly has two bullet holes in his back. From one bullet. While screaming in monotone. This is just so bad, but I admit that I've watched it five times already. Link
Look at that cute little wombat, just scratching his haunch during a break in some very important digging. So cuddly. Too bad he's a Van Damme-kicking daath machine. The wombat looks cuddly and slow, but when confronted by a predator, he dives head-first into a hole, leaving his hind end exposed.
Here’s the catch: The wombat’s behind is made of cartilage, and impenetrable by teeth. Once the attacker is hooked on, the wombat uses it’s [sic] bizarrely powerful hind legs to kick the animal in the head. Until it’s dead. It kicks dingoes to death.
For more of nature's surprisingly hardcore killers, check out the list on GuySpeed. Link
Photo: Andrew G Young
After a few weeks of feeling under the weather, the essayist and poet Charles Lamb (above) sent a letter to his friend Bernard Barton to inform him of his condition. An excerpt reveals that Lamb was either gazing directly into the light at the end of the tunnel, or seriously overreacting.
I acknowledge life at all, only by an occasional convulsional cough, and a permanent phlegmatic pain in the chest. I am weary of the world; life is weary of me. My day is gone into twilight, and I don't think it worth the expense of candles. My wick hath a thief in it, but I can't muster courage to snuff it. I inhale suffocation; I can't distinguish veal from mutton; nothing interests me. 'Tis twelve o'clock, and Thurtell is just now coming out upon the New Drop, Jack Ketch alertly tucking up his greasy sleeves to do the last office of mortality, yet cannot I elicit a groan or a moral reflection. If you told me the world will be at an end to-morrow, I should just say, "Will it?"
Two weeks later Lamb wrote again to Barton to apologize for being dramatic. He lived another ten years, so it was either the slowest-moving killer cold ever, or not that big a deal. Read the rest at Letters of Note, where Lamb reveals his methods for trying to cure this "insurmountable day-mare." Link
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Ordinarily, I would change the headline from the original post, but this one certainly can't be improved.
A statue of the god Vaiśravaṇa known only as the 'iron man' was (ahem) collected by Nazis from Tibet during an exhibition in 1938. This week, its origins were confirmed to be extraterrestrial: The Iron Man is almost certainly carved from a piece of the Chinga meteorite.
In a paper published in Metoritics & Planetary Science, the team reports their analysis of the iron, nickel, cobalt and trace elements of a sample from the statue, as well as its structure. They found that the geochemistry of the artefact is a match for values known from fragments of the Chinga meteorite. The piece turned into the ‘iron man’ would be the third largest known from that fall.
Given the extreme hardness of the meteorite – “basically an inappropriate material for producing sculptures” the paper notes – the artist or artists who created it may have known their material was special, the researchers say. Buchner suggests it could have been produced by the 11th century Ben culture but the exact origin and age of the statue – as opposed to the meteorite it is made from – is still unknown. It is thought to have been brought to Germany by a Nazi-backed expedition to Tibet in 1938-39. The swastika symbol on the piece – a version of which was adopted by the Nazi party – may have encouraged the 1938 expedition to take it back with them.
The Chinga meteorite was first recorded from remains discovered in 1918, though this sculpture obviously predates those samples. If the Iron Man is in fact carved from a remnant of the Chinga, it will be the only rock from outside Earth's atmosphere that has been carved into a human figure. Link | Photo: Elmar Buchner for Nature
"Superpod" isn't a phrase you see used often, but it's appropriate here. Mike Horn and Chase Jarvis were filming a segment for Polyform when the 110-foot boat they were sailing off the coast of Cape Town was suddenly surrounded by thousands of dolphins. It's gorgeous on film, but the real-life experience left the crew in awe, as Jarvis explains in the video. Via Death+Taxes
We've featured San Francisco artist Steven J. Backman here before — he's built an entire career out of assembling toothpicks into bridges and buildings. But these are a little different: Using tiny pieces of a single toothpick, backman has recreated the Eiffel Tower, Burj Khalifa, the White House and other iconic structures, adding only saint-like patience and a bit of glue. Check out the full gallery on his website. Link -via WebUrbanist
This was so close to reaching the Internet trifecta: cats, Star Wars and bacon. Looks like that rumored pork shortage hit a galaxy far, far away.
Video by WorldWideInterweb
If you're having trouble spotting the "5or 6 disk like [sic] shapes" in the photo above, that's probably because you've seen clouds before. But Billy Ray Cyrus was either convinced he was spotting an extraterrestrial meet-and-greet, or trying really hard to maintain his image of being not super-smart. But Mr. Mullet himself isn't the first celebrity to spy a suspicious shape in the skies. TruTV rounded up 14 more. Link
