Paul Ezekial Fagan, a 10-year old boy in Tampa, Florida, vanished from his home last Thursday. Police searched the neighborhood on foot and in a helicopter while his frantic parents feared the worst.
Local news reporters drove into Paul's neighbhorood to report on the case. Among them was Cameron Polom of the local ABC station. At around 7 AM on Friday, Polom spotted a tired-looking child in some dense vegetation. The Today show describes the scene:
“He’s looking at me and I’m thinking, ‘Could this possibly be this kid? Is this really happening?’ It was a very surreal moment,” he told TODAY.com on Monday.
Polom, 29, said he called out to the boy and asked for his name. He then picked the boy up over the fence and walked him to nearby sheriff’s deputies.
Paul's family was overjoyed to see him back. The boy explained to them that he had left home because he needed some space from his younger brother.
In his youth, photographer Gray Malin once heard of a Scottish shepherd who dyed the wool of his sheep in order to make them more visible at night and thus less easily stolen. This story rolled around in his head for years until it came into fruition as the "Dream Series."
Malin dyed a flock of sheep bright, vibrant colors. Then he photographed them as they moved around. The results are magical in appearance, as though these animals have become mysterious cryptids passing into our world only temporarily.
Are these just on the secret menu? I doubt it. There's a wide array of wonderful foods served at McDonald's restaurants around the world that just aren't for sale in the United States. Jessica Misener of BuzzFeed rounded up 25 strange and wonderful dishes that are inspiring me to travel abroad.
Wait--did you read the terms and conditions before you clicked to agree to them? If you had, you might have spotted this passage:
In using this service, you agree to relinquish your first born child to F-Secure, as and when the company requires it. In the event that no children are produced, your most beloved pet will be taken instead. The terms of this agreement stand for eternity.
Oops! Well, the upside is that you now have free Wi-Fi access from F-Secure, a computer security company. Also, you won't have to spend as much money on Christmas this year.
They deleted the information, of course. But that didn't diminish their point: your electronic information isn't necessarily secure if you use free Wi-Fi.
The Aral Sea is--or was--a large body of water in Central Asia. It is divided between the nations of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. While the Soviet Union existed, the Aral Sea was entirely within its borders.
Two rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, were the primary sources of water for the Aral Sea. In the 1960s, the Soviets diverted the two rivers in an attempt to irrigate the nearby desert lands and make them arable.
The result was an ecological disaster. The Aral Sea gradually shrunk into three small basins connected by narrow channels. According to NASA satellite imagery, one of those basins has now completely evaporated, leaving the Aral Sea with only 10% of its original capacity. In the photo above, you can see an outline showing the approximate shape of the lake in 1960. The fields of blue are all that is left.
It was not always so. Prior to Soviet activity, the Aral Sea was a thriving lake that was a center for fishing and commerce. It was of such great importance that the Imperial Russian Navy maintained a fleet of warships there starting in 1852.
These warships were built in Sweden or elsewhere in Russia, then transported down rivers to the Aral Sea. They were based at the town of Raim, which is now a Kazakh town on a small lake about 30 miles away from the remains of the Aral Sea.
By 1880, this flotilla consisted of 6 armed vessels and several unarmed vessels. They provided mercantile security, conducted hydrographic surveys, and supported troops who campaigned in the area in 1868 and 1873. In 1883, the flotilla was disbanded, with some portions transferred to the Russian naval presence on the Amu Darya, a river that flows into the Aral from Afghanistan.
During the Russian Civil War (1917-1923), the Soviets briefly maintained a fleet of warships to combat Tsarist and British troops in the area. But with the Red victory, the need for a fleet evaporated. And, later, so did the sea on which it had sailed.
This beautiful and novel bridge design by Knight Architects and engineers at AKT III is designed to unfold across the water like a fan. It's their concept for a bridge over a canal in London.
The bridge would consist of five steel beams with hydraulic jacks and counterweights that form a walkway. LED lights illuminate the structure, providing an architectural spectacle during both night and day. You can view more images of it at Design Boom.
When she was in college, Dr. Nabiha Islam worked at a Dairy Queen in Markham, Ontario. Her boss, Yvonne Lavasidis, supported her great ambitions. Now that she's made it, Dr. Islam hasn't forgotten where she came from and who helped her along the way. So she wrote a note to Lavasidis, thanking her for caring and helping.
(Photo: Yvonne Lavasidis)
Lavasidis told the Today show that she tries to help student employees at her family's Dairy Queen follow their dreams:
"We're all university grads and we know what it's like to be a student," she said. "It can be difficult to manage life, school, and a part-time job to contribute to your family's income or help pay the bills. We like to create a positive environment. When they have exams, papers, tests, sometimes we help them study or give them days off when they need it. We try to be flexible that way."
Instructables member doddiezoomer is a technology schoolteacher "tasked with inspiring the next generation of designers." He's got the right stuff for that job! Doddiezoomer is great at merging fine craftsmanship and a geeky style.
We've previously seen his Darth Vader wood stove. More recently, he made this elegant wood stove from a steel gas bottle and boxes. The metal details nicely mirror those of R2-D2 and the burnished coat looks like he's had a few too many months on Tatooine without a bath.
Mamet Cave in Croatia is 675 feet deep and has an opening 200 feet across. Ivan Trifonov, a master balloonist who holds five Guinness World Record for ballooning, piloted a ballon into the interior of the cave. He used a balloon designed for this stunt, which took him about 25 minutes to complete.
On rare occasions, Britain's People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) awards a military decoration to an animal serving with that nation's armed forces. The Dickin Medal, as it is known, was established in 1943. At the beginning, it was mostly commonly given to pigeons that carried messages under fire. Many bomb-detecting dogs, such as this Labrador retriever, have also received this honor.
But only one cat.
That cat was Able Seacat Simon of the Royal Navy. He was the ship's cat on board HMS Amethyst, a frigate that was trapped on the Yangtse River in China for three months of 1949 during the Chinese Civil War. Simon was responsible for killing rats on the ship and maintaining morale.
At one point, the ship had been badly damaged and taken heavy casualties from Red Chinese artillery. Despite being sorely wounded, Simon kept working:
Simon was immediately taken to the medic, stitched up, and began a long healing process -- but the cat could hardly wait to get back to his military duties. The ship’s boilers and fans had shut down as a result of the onslaught, and the rats ran freely through the ventilation system; during Simon’s absence, they had infested food supplies, invaded living quarters, and made life a greater hell for surviving crew members.
Despite his injuries, Simon quickly got to business. His first night back, he had two confirmed kills, and within a few days’ time, he’d succeeded in clearing the deck of critters. But one foe remained: A gargantuan rat the crew had nicknamed “Mao Tse-tung.” For weeks, the scoundrel had avoided traps and gnawed his way through sealed food. Simon would have none of it. When the cat finally met his nemesis in the storeroom, he pounced, killed it, and proudly dropped it by the mens' boots. From then on, the crew hailed him as “Able Seacat Simon” -- the first (and so far, only) military title ever given to a feline.
When the Amethyst finally escaped to the sea, the Royal Navy awarded Simon a campaign ribbon. The PDSA bestowed a Dickin Medal on Simon. Sadly, he died before he could receive it. He was buried with full military honors at a cemetery in East London.
Fiona Wallis of Taranaki, New Zealand noticed that food that she had purchased for Tucker, her dog, glowed. Siouxsie Wiles, a microbiologist in Auckland, determined that there was bioluminescent sea bacteria inside.
She couldn't determine precisely which kind without DNA analysis, but since the dog food is kept in brine, which an ideal environment for the sea bacteria, it was the most likely culprit. The dog food seller, Jimbo's Pet Food, is investigating the matter. Wiles says that it shouldn't be dangerous, but that cooking the food would kill the bacteria.
It's not Goat Simulator, but an even more realistic game set in the Street Fighter universe. Insert two quarters to play. I recommend Angry Goat vs. Chun-Li for the most vigorous gameplay experience.
Captain Winky, Hulksy, Lalarine, and Spiderpo are ready for an adventure! They'll go by themselves, since Iron-Noo is too hungover to go with them. John Paolo Santos, an artist in Malolos, the Philippines, drew the four Teletubbies as Marvel superheroes.
This is Baby Ben, a calf born at Vale Woods Farm in Loretto, Pennsylvania. He’s named after Ben Roethlisberger, a quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Roethlisberger wears the #7 jersey on that football team. It’s this bull’s lucky number!
Carissa Itle-Westrick, one of the farm’s managers, says that’s it’s not the first time they've had an animal born with a stylish mark. They once had a cow that sported a Nike swoosh on her shoulder.
Redditor punkpixzsticks snapped this photo at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. This is Angus the tortoise, a regular at that annual event. We've previously seen him pulling an old fashioned cart around the fairgrounds. This year, he dressed up as a TARDIS and walked around the festival, collecting money for a local herpetological society.
This is only one of many costumes that he's worn over the years, including fairy wings and a kilt. You can view more of them here.
