Poe the Clydesdale is an impressive 6' 8" tall and his owner, Shereen Thomspon, is seeking to have him admitted into the Guinness Book of World Records. Poe weighs over 3,000 pounds and stands at 80.8 inches high. The current record holder is shorter by a mere .8 inches.
The giant horse eats 10 pounds of grain and drinks 75 gallons of water per day. "He is extremely popular, but his size always means people keep a cautious distance from him -- although they shouldn't, as he is a real puppy," Thompson said.
If you and your four-legged best friend are looking for a new city to move to, consider one of the top five most dog-friendly cities according to Food and Wine Magazine. Those listed are Boston, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco and San Diego. Reasons for their choices can be found on the site.
Link Via Ohmidog! Image Via Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
Web Urbanist has a really amazing set of 23 landscape photos on the site right now. These four are my personal favorites, but the entire collection of images is absolutely stunning. You're really missing out if you don't click the link.
The best thing about this bird stealing Doritos from the store is how human he looks while doing it. He enters and looks around very casually, grabs the loot, walks out a little faster, and then runs when he gets out of the store. It's like he watched a human shoplift chips first.
These terribly awesome monsters are products of the mind of New York artist Jason Hackenwerth. He makes both wearable balloon suits and balloon sculptures. Each creature takes about 8 hours to make, totally worth it in my opinion.
Depending on how you feel about Nintendo and tattoos, you may love or hate this huge collection of Nintendo Tattoos. Some of them have some really great artwork, others...not so much.
It might not be comfortable or all that functional, but this shopping cart chair is just undeniably cool. It can even work as a wheelchair if necessary. Instructables can tell you how to make one of your very own.
Someone alert This Is Why You're Fat, because this sexy dessert certainly will help you pack on the calories...but oh man does it look delightful. I must admit, if I were to choose the next food trend after bacon, I'd totally chose s'mores --although s'mores with maple bacon would be good even with the current food trend.
What would you guys choose for the next food trend?
Life Magazine has a hilarious post up featuring what they consider to be the 30 dumbest inventions of all time. When you look through the list, filled with things like the shower hat to the right, you actually start to get an appreciation for things like the Snuggie.
Almost all of the inventions are from the sixties or before, so it's not too shocking that many of them involve cigarettes, including a method for a couple to share a smoke and one for a person to smoke a whole pack at once -oh joy!
Talk about junk in your trunk (sorry, but I just had to). An Italian man was arrested after a routine police stop ended up with authorities seizing over 1700 animals in his trunk. Included in the bust were 216 parakeets, 300 white mice, 150 hamsters, 30 Japanese squirrels, six chameleons and over 1,000 terrapins, a type of turtle.
It seems he was going to sell the rare critters, but they have instead been given to local zoos.
This little girl's Colonel Sanders Halloween costume is too precious. Her mom not only made the entire outfit, but she also made the wig out of wool yarn and the effect is pretty priceless.
If you've ever thought that New York's Fashion Week is taken way too seriously, then you might be like the Snuggie marketing team. Yes, they actually introduced new fabrics and colors, but the reasons behind the show has a lot more to do with silliness than displaying the new products. The host of the show was Ross The Intern from The Jay Leno Show.
There was only a dozen or so attendees at the event, but the tongue-in-cheek message will outlast a lot of the here today, gone tomorrow couture fashions on display elsewhere in the city.
There's something amazing, yet terrifyingly creepy about this fantastic 1882 deep sea diving suit. It is currently on display in the Musee de la Marine in Paris.
Modern musicians are frequently believed to be stupid airheads who couldn't hold down any "real" job. But in reality, there are a lot of intelligent rock stars. Some musicians are even geniuses - and not just when it comes to music composition. These musicians are not only intelligent, they have also used their knowledge to get college degrees or in their secondary professions.
Brian May: Queen
Brian May of Queen isn’t your average rock and roll supernova. He was named the 39th Greatest Guitarist of All Time by Rolling Stone, but he’s also great at something else – astrophysics. May graduated from the Imperial College of London with an honors degree in physics and Mathematics. He then went on to obtain a doctorate in both departments, when Queen exploded into rock and roll stardom. While he gave up his schooling for the band, he did not stop working with physics and published a few academic papers while in the group. More recently, he printed a book entitled Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe in 2006. In October of 2007, he completed his Ph.D. in astrophysics. His thesis was titled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud. The month after, he was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. Source
Greg Graffin: Bad Religion
Greg Graffin was an anthropology and geology double-major from UCLA. He went on to obtain a master’s degree in geology from the school and then earned a Ph.D. in zoology from Cornell University. Throughout this entire time, he was singing and touring with Bad Religion, a band he helped form when he was only 15. Although he’s still playing with Bad Religion, Graffin also teaches Life Sciences at UCLA. He has also written two books, one a series of correspondences between himself and historian Preston Jones titled Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant? A Professor and Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity, the other is being released in 2010 and is titled Anarchy Evolution. According to a recent Twitter post, he is also be involved with an upcoming television series, called “Punk Professor.” Source Image Via The Toad [Flickr]
Milo Aukerman: Descendents
Anyone familiar with the punk band The Descendents knows of the nerdy caricature that has come to serve as the band’s logo. That drawing is based on the band’s lead singer, Milo Aukerman. Fans may also recognize the name of the group’s first album, 'Milo Goes to College.' The album was named because Milo was actually going to college at UCSD at the time. His affection for learning caused the band to go on a number of temporary hiatuses while he returned to school. Eventually, Aukerman earned a Ph.D in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Even after graduation, the band continued the cycle of reuniting and separating as Milo kept returning to the band and then his career in biochemistry. The group is currently dormant, but with their history, most fans still hold out hope that Milo will come back soon. Sources #1, #2
Tom Scholz: Boston
Tom Scholz is the founder and guitarist for a little band called Boston. But before he ever even started the group, he received a master’s degree at MIT in the field of mechanical engineering. He was working as a senior product design engineer for Polaroid when he decided to try his hand at rock. After Boston took off, Tom created his own music technology company, Scholz Research & Development in 1980. In 1995, he sold the company to Dunlop Manufacturing, who continued to produce the company’s most famous product, the Rockman guitar amp. The amp was designed by Sholz himself and still is manufactured with his signature on each unit. Source
Dexter Holland & James Lilja: The Offspring
The lead singer and co-founder of the Offspring, Dexter Holland graduated as valedictorian of his high school before he moved on to college. He then moved on to USC where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in biology and Master’s degree in molecular biology. When the Offspring took off, he actually left his doctoral program in Molecular Biology at USC in order to focus on the band. Unrelated, but also interesting, Holland is also a licensed pilot and hot sauce entrepreneur. His hot sauce, Gringo Bandito, has even been picked up by Albertsons. Dexter isn’t the only smart guy who’s played in the band though. James Lilja played drums with the band for a few years before returning to his medical calling – in gynecology. If you thought it was strange to have a punk rock professor in LA, just imagine visiting a rock star gynecologist in San Jose. Sources #1, #2, Image of Dexter Via Jack Shepler, Rock Music Review [Flickr]
Philip Taylor Kramer: Iron Butterfly
After leaving Iron Butterfly, bassist Philip Taylor Kramer obtained a degree in aerospace engineering. He then began working on the MX missile guidance system for a US Department of Defense contractor. After that, he began working on facial recognition systems, advanced communications and fractal compression systems for CDs. In 1990, he opened a business, Total Multimedia, with Micheal Jackson’s brother, Randy, where they specialized on data compression techniques for CDs. Kramer also worked on a project started by his father that would discredit Einstein’s theories. Part of his research involved a transmission project that could result in communications that went faster than the speed of light. His disappearance in 1995 sent conspiracy theorists aflutter and remained a complete mystery for four years. It started when he drove to the LA airport to pick up an investor who never showed up. Kramer then made a number of phone calls from his cell phone, including one to the police where he said, "I’m going to kill myself. And I want everyone to know O.J. Simpson is innocent. They did it." He was never heard from after this and the mystery ended up appearing on Oprah, America’s Most Wanted, Unsolved Mysteries and a Skeptic magazine article depicted the number of conspiracy theories surrounding his disappearance. His body was finally uncovered in 1999, when photographers looking to shoot old car wrecks at the bottom of Decker Canyon in Malibu discovered his minivan with his remains inside. The death was officially ruled a suicide based on his phone calls made that day, but conspiracy theories still rage on. Source
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter: Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers
The guitarist for such classic bands as Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers is also a self-taught expert on weaponry systems. After a lengthy studying period at home, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter decided to demonstrate his knowledge on the subject by writing a five-page paper that proposed the ship-based anti-aircraft Aegis missile be converted into a missile defense system. After he gave the paper to California congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Baxter’s career as a defense consultant began. In 1995, he was elected chairman of the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense, a position he still holds. Through work with that project, he was awarded consulting contracts with the Missile Defense Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, U.S. Department of Defense, Science Applications International Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. He has also joined the NASA Exploration Systems Advisory Committee. Baxter believes his unique way of looking at terrorism is what has allowed him to do so well in the industry, "We thought turntables were for playing records until rappers began to use them as instruments, and we thought airplanes were for carrying passengers until terrorists realized they could be used as missiles. My big thing is to look at existing technologies and try to see other ways they can be used, which happens in music all the time and happens to be what terrorists are incredibly good at.” Next time you're wondering if the country is doing everything it can to keep you safe, remember that someone nicknamed "Skunk" is on top of it. It may not help comfort you, but at least you might giggle about it. Source Image Via NASA (yes, that NASA)
A few other educated musicians of note:
-Lionel Richie has a degree in economics from Tuskegee. -Art Garfunkel has a Masters from Columbia in both history and math. -Tracy Chapman has degrees in anthropology and African studies from Tufts University, where she was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts. -Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave has a degree in social studies from Harvard. After leaving the music world, he settled down and began teaching history. Source #1, #2
If you enjoy delicious-looking cakes or ones that look adorable, this mole rat cake is not for you. If you like the occasional bizarre and unusual cake on the other hand, than you might join me in saluting this monster treat. I have to wonder if the cake inside is red velvet with raspberry filling to help make it even more disturbing.
