Albrecht Dürer's The Rhinoceros: The Most Influential Animal Picture Ever?

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Albrecht Dürer had a showman's instincts for killer subject matter. When history's greatest print-maker decided to create an image of the rhinoceros that had visited Lisbon in 1515, it became one of the most influential animal pictures ever.

The Science Behind Smiling

On The Origin of Species is Darwin's most famous work, but he also wrote a much lesser known book titled The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, where he claimed that all humans show emotion through similar behaviors.

This view is one that psychologists today generally agree with, affirming that certain expressions of emotion are common to all of us, regardless of race, culture, or age. One of these universal facial expressions is a smile.

The Phantom Atlas - The Greatest Myths, Lies And Blunders On Maps

The Phantom Atlas is an atlas of the world not as it ever existed, but as it was thought to be. A world where California is an island paradise drifting free from North America, where monstrous creatures terrorize the Nordic waters, and lost cities of gold shimmer in the depths of jungles and oceans.



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Clear Enough

(via Bad Newspaper)

Cheltenham Badlands In Caledon

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The Cheltenham Badlands is an area in Caledon, Canada, consisting of bare, windswept red hills and gullies displaying spectacular colors that alternates from bright clays to red scoria, streaked with narrow greenish bands.

The impressive landscape was originally formed at the base of an ancient sea over 400 million years ago. All these years, the reddish Queenston Shale was covered by a layer of limestone, sandstone, sand and gravel, until the early 1900s, when poor farming practice and overgrazing caused the shale to get exposed.

Gnome

After returning home from a day of collecting nuts, a gnome finds a caterpillar struggling to reach for leaves outside his house. The good-natured gnome helps the caterpillar and gives it some leaves to gnaw on. But when it's bedtime for the gnome, he only needs to deal with the gnawing sound.



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(thanks Cora)

10 Eye-Popping Facts About Vision

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There's more to vision than just looking at stuff. The gift of sight is a complex marvel of mysteries and incredible feats. From colors only certain people can see to color nobody can see, the remarkable adaptations of the deaf to the dreams of the colorblind. These are just some of the things that make the window of the soul worth gazing into.

These Tiny Animals Have Some Really Weird Shapes

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Most of us don't bother to look amazing unless we know we'll be seen. Not so for the dazzling creatures of the microscopic world. Just take a look at these tiny wonders.

Intel's 500 Drone Light Show

Last year Intel put 100 drones in the sky and broke a world record. This year they set a new challenge: 500 drones. Watch their new world record performance in action.



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(thanks Cora)

The Devil's Tower: A Mysterious Sightseeing Spot

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Located in the Black Hills in Crook County of Wyoming, the Devils Tower is definitely among the most interesting sightseeing spots in the USA. It's a giant volcanic rock, with a height of 1,267 feet above the ground and 5,112 feet above sea level. So what makes it so unique?

How Far Back In Time Could You Go And Still Understand English?

If you had a time machine, how far back could you go and still understand English? At what point in history would you not be able to understand the English language?



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(via Laughing Squid)

Botswana

Botswana is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. Take a look at the Serowe Rhino reserve, Moremi National Park, Chobe River and Chobe National Park and the amazing Okavango Delta.



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(thanks Cora)

Polygons: The Flat 4-In-1 Measuring Spoon

Polygons is a Kickstarter project. Polygons is the origami-like measuring spoon that lays flat and folds to 4 different sizes to fit your cooking and baking needs. Polygons folds to whatever size you need depending on the way you pick it up.

Why? - Answers To Everyday Questions

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Why is blue for boys and pink for girls? Why are there bunnies and eggs at Easter? Why do you get hiccups? Why does wet fabric appear darker?
These and more answers to everyday questions.

Pack Of Mongooses Invade The Green During Game Of Golf

The Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa was brought to a short standstill after a dozen mongooses invaded the green just as players were about to take their putts.



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The Science Of Supermoons

image credit: Jordan Confino

On Monday, 14 November, the moon will be the biggest and brightest it has been in more than 60 years. So long as the sky is clear of clouds, it should be a great time to get outside and gaze at it or take some photos.

It's what is commonly called a 'supermoon' - a phenomenon that occurs when a full moon coincides with the moon being the closest it gets to the Earth on its orbit. What makes this one special is that the moon is going to be even closer to the Earth than it normally gets.

Google Maps Streetview Player

The Google Maps Streetview Player will take in either a starting point and end point, or a provided file of a route and provide a playthrough of the Google streetview images that are available. Via 'advanced options' you can pick your travel mode: driving, bicycling, transit or walking.

(trhanks Cora)

Flying Over Iceland

Aaerial footage shot over Iceland during September.



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(thanks Cora)

Interesting US President Facts

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As candidate for the Socialist Party of America, Norman Thomas ran for office of President of the United States 6 times - 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944 and 1948 - without success. Forty-three other men had more influence, taking up the 44 presidencies since George Washington was inaugurated as President of the United States in 1789.

There have been 44 presidencies because Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, 1885–1889 and 1893–1897, thus he served as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Here are some more interesting president facts.

Castle Stalker: An Isolated Scottish Land Of History

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From its strange setting to the mountains background and its historical design, Castle Stalker is definitely one of the most interesting places to visit in Scotland.

The building, which is located on a small island called Loch Laich, has been there since 1388 and holds the history of many kings, secret deals and impressive architecture.

Ski Patrol Dogs Of Snowmass

Meet Gray, Piper and Caleb, the four legged members of the Snowmass Ski Patrol handled by Nathan Garfield, Dan Berg and Susan Carollo. These avalanche rescue dogs always seem to be wearing a smile, whether they're putting up boundary ropes or training year round as search and rescue dogs.



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(thanks Cora)

Funny Vintage Photos Show People's Expectation Before Mobile Phones

Before the first handheld mobile cell phone was demonstrated by Motorola in 1973, people had ideas to show their expectation for them. Here is a small collection of funny vintage photos capturing people with their mobile phones in the past.

New Rubik's Cube World Record

Mats Valk, a 20-year old Dutchman solved a Rubik's Cube in a new world record. He pulled off the feat in 4.74 seconds.



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Good Motto

(via Bad Newspaper)

Anyone For A Snowball Fight?

Nature makes its own collection of snowballs on the Arctic shore of the Gulf of Ob. Like thousands of white cannonballs dumped on the beach, you think these have to be manmade. But the giant snowballs are entirely natural.

It was ten days ago that the villagers of Nyda, just above the Arctic Circle, started noticing the phenomenon. Some are the size of tennis balls. Others almost as large as a basketball.



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Why Did Kamikaze Pilots Wear Helmets?

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For anyone who may not know World War II history, kamikaze pilots were Japanese suicide pilots who deliberately flew their planes into Allied warships. These attacks took place during the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of the war. Kamikaze planes were often filled with bombs and explosives, so as to do more damage. But why did they wear helmets?

Novae

Novae is a movie about an astronomical event that occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star's life, whose dramatic and catastrophic death is marked by one final titanic explosion called supernova.

By only using an aquarium, ink and water, this film is also an attempt to represent the giant with the small without any computed generated imagery.



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Your Name As An Infographic

Type in your name and you'll get some neat facts and stats about your name in the form of an infographic. It's possible that your name isn't in the database.

Why The Heck Do Animals Live In Our Houses?

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If you own a pet, chances are you've found yourself pinned in place by a sleeping furry companion on more than on occasion. Have you ever stopped, for a moment, and wondered just what the heck they're doing there?

Not how you came to be conquered by saucer-like eyes and a wet nose, but rather, how we ended up with animals living in our houses (and sleeping on our laps) to begin with?

Onbashira Matsuri, Nagano

The Onbashira Festival (Honored Pillars Festival) is a festival held every six years in the Lake Suwa area of Nagano, Japan. The purpose of the festival is to symbolically renew the four shrine buildings at the Suwa Grand Shrine by felling sixteen fir trees, preparing them as honored pillars and transporting them down a mountain to the shrine, where they are erected at the four corners of each building.

Festival participants ride the onbashira as they are slid down the mountain, dragged to the shrine, and raised, and the festival has the reputation of being the most dangerous in Japan due to the number of people regularly injured or killed while riding the logs.



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(thanks Cora)

Weird And Fascinating Deep-Sea Creatures

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Although blue is the color most often associated with the world's oceans, black is a far more apt descriptor for nearly 90 percent of our planet's waters. Descending beneath the surface, the seemingly endless, light-flooded blue quickly fades, leaving nothing but utter darkness.

Here, the largely unexplored and perpetually dark deep sea begins - a hidden, dreamlike world filled with fantastically weird creatures: gliding glass squid, flitting sea butterflies, and lurking viperfish.

10 Strange, Yet Beautiful Natural Phenomena

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People have marveled at nature's beauty since they came into existence. Not knowing what was happening, these people of old came up with some truly magnificent stories, trying to give a sense to the world around them.

Today we are blessed with more knowledge about the world, but nevertheless this doesn't diminish the magic taking place before our very eyes. If anything, it only makes nature more interesting. Here are 10 such natural occurrences, explained by our most prized of storytellers: scientists.

Archaeological Discoveries We Still Don't Understand

When it comes to defining the world around us, we humans tend to think we've figured it all out. Since the Enlightenment, the Scientific Method has reigned supreme in our quest for knowledge. Here are some archaeological discoveries we still don't understand.



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The Most Picturesque And Best Preserved Medieval Streets In England

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Besides of being incredibly picturesque and beautiful, these medieval cobbled streets are the 'road' to England's history. From the Roman age to the Tudor times, these streets have been named the most significant and historically important in the country.

(via Nag on the Lake)

Five Small Hygiene Steps For Big Change

The Global Hygiene Council has made a video that shows five small steps to help reduce preventable infections and improve the health of children worldwide.



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(thanks Mike)

How To Land The Space Shuttle... From Space

Let's say you're traveling at about 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 km/h) in low earth orbit, your main engines are out of fuel, and it's your job to guide the spaceship through a fiery re-entry without burning up or skipping out of the atmosphere, navigate to your landing site, and arrive with just enough energy to make an unpowered landing on a runway which is halfway around the planet from where you started.



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(thanks Cora)

The CareCrow

The CareCrow is a fun Indiegogo project by Art Vandelay. He says: For centuries, farmers have used scarecrows to make birds of all shapes, sizes, colour and creed feel unwelcome, unwanted, discarded from society. It's something that has always made me feel deeply uncomfortable and I knew this was my calling. So I invented the 'CareCrow.'

Packed inside the CareCrow is a speaker system programmed with a multitude of bird songs and mating call. Simply press the button and birds (both big and small) will flock all over the CareCrow.

Spilt Milk: 12 Udderly Abandoned Dairies And Dairy Farms

image credit: Thomas Hawk

These abandoned dairy farms moldering away 'til the cows come home.
Here are 12 abandoned dairies and dairy farms.

7 Of The Strangest Objects Seen On Mars

The possibility is a subject of interest to astrology. Is there life on Mars? We don't know yet. But there sure are some strange objects on the red planet.



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Mistaken Maps

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The history of map-making is full of educated guesses. As late as the 19th century Africa and Australia contained vast, unexplored interiors. Cartographers often used experience and logic to infer the lay of the land. Unsurprisingly, they were frequently wrong.

12 Hair-Raising Facts About Troll Dolls

image credit: Tomi Knuutila

Troll dolls seem to make a comeback every decade or two. And while children of the '90s might remember collecting the wild-haired dolls with gemstones for bellybuttons or topping their pencils with the miniature figures, children of the '60s were collecting their own versions.

And now, with the new Trolls movie hitting theaters, it's time for everyone's favorite potbellied, grinning fuzz-tops to rule the toy aisle once again.

Creative Weapons Of The Medieval Era

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(via Everlasting Blort)

The Placebo Effect: Is There Something In It After All?

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The placebo effect remains one of the most baffling mysteries in medicine. The idea that a useless sugar pill or harmless saline injection could result in a measurable improvement in a patient's symptoms, sometimes as good as taking an active drug, has been so hard to explain that some have even doubted whether it can be real.

The Shattered Remains Of Afghanistan's Versaille

image credit: Bruce MacRae

The ferocity of Afghan resistance to foreign rule has been recorded down the centuries, from Alexander the Great to our own modern times. Yet it is not only outsiders who have been the focus of the ire of the Afghan people.

The first Afghan ruler who endeavored to modernize Afghanistan on a western model, Amanullah Khan, was eventually forced to flee his own country. His once opulent palaces are now testimony to the conflict and violence which have dogged this complex country for more than a century.

Human Population Through Time

It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion - and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. But growth has begun slowing, as women have fewer babies on average. When will our global population peak?



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Canned Cat

(via Bad Newspaper)

Diver May Have Found 'Lost Nuke' Missing Since Cold War Off Canada Coast

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The Canadian navy will be heading to the coast of British Columbia to investigate claims that a diver may have come across 'the lost nuke' -a Mark IV bomb that went missing after an American B-36 bomber crashed in the region during the cold war.

Diver Sean Smyrichinsky was wrapping up a day of diving near Haida Gwaii, an archipelago west of the coast of British Columbia, when he stumbled across what may be the remains of the world’s first known 'broken arrow' - the code name for accidents involving American nuclear weapons.

Colors Of New York 2016

New York has streets bustling with nightlife, non-stopping lights and subways, ferries and streams of people. The gigantic city is a big melting pot of all sorts of colors.



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(thanks Cora)

Once-Majestic Cities That Sank Beneath The Ocean

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No great metropolis stands forever. Eventually, every city falls. Some due to war, others to disaster. But the saddest and most poignant ruined cities might be the ones which have been swept under the ocean. Here are some of the most beautiful submerged cities.

A Brief History Of The Chain Letter

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History can be maddeningly unspecific about certain things, particularly chronology. But when it comes to the history of the chain letter, it’s very possible that Jesus was the first to author one.

A typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients as possible. There are two main types of chain letters: Hoaxes and urban legends. The price for not being on board? Usually awful luck. Or death.

'Alright Dan'

Everybody loves 'Alright Dan'.



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(thanks Cora)

12 Biting Facts About Gila Monsters

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Its gnawing, long-lasting bites are incredibly painful, it's the largest native lizard in the United States, and its venom inspired a popular diabetes 2 medicine. Meet the Gila monster.

Fairy Doors Of Ann Arbor

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Fairies have invaded the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan. That's what long-time resident Jonathan B. Wright, a graphic designer, wants you to believe. It all started in 1993 when Jonathan Wright was renovating their 100-year-old family home, and on a whim, decided to install a tiny door in the house to entertain his kids.

The door opened into a tiny room with an equally tiny staircase and railing leading up to a second door. The children's delighted response prompted him to build more.

Grappler Police Bumper

When a suspect is speeding to avoid capture, they have control. When the net meets the tire, law enforcement regains that control.



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(thanks Cora)

Why Are We Still Using Bad Maps?

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At first glance, it seems simple. Just take the globe, peel off the outer layer and lay it flat. Congratulations, you have a map. But not so fast: spheres do not unfold easily into rectangles. Or any two-dimensional shape, for that matter.

One projection, the AuthaGraph World Map, faithfully represents all oceans and continents including the neglected Antarctica. It's not a perfect map and Hajime Narukawa, the creator of the AuthaGraph map, had to cheat a little bit.

Otherworldly Destinations Here On Earth

image credit: Bernard Spragg

President Barack Obama published an op-ed in October 2016 recommitting to his goal to send humans to Mars by the 2030s. It's enough to give Earthlings a bad case of interplanetary wanderlust, but you can’t book your tickets just yet. For budding space tourists eager for a celestial-body experience, here are some terrestrial destinations with distinctively off-planet flavor.

Unsatisfying

You know those unsatisfying situations: the frustrating, annoying, disappointing little things of everyday life, that are so painful to live or even to watch. Do you recognize them?



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What Is Gluten?

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There is a menace in our supermarkets. And it is nothing short of a dietary WMD: A Weapon of Mass Diarrhea. Its name is gluten. Gluten is a mixture of proteins found mostly in wheat, but also in barley, rye, and oats.

These grains make up many of our breads, pastas, granolas, noodles, tortillas, and beers. That's trouble for many people who suffer from celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder in which gluten causes the body to attack the small intestine.

A Dozen Interesting Facts About Roses

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There are over 100 species and thousands of cultivars of roses. They vary in color, shape and size and all but one rose species have 5 petals. Here are a dozen interesting facts about roses.

The Dancing Plague Of 1518

Everyone loves a good boogie, but what if you couldn't stop. What if you danced to death?! That is exactly what happened in Strasbourg in 1518.



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10 Unsolved Mysteries About Satan

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Satan has become one of the most popular figures in modern religion and pop culture, but his appearances in religious texts tend to be brief and somewhat confusing. As a result, there are a number of mysteries about the Devil that we won't clear up any time soon.

9 Amazing Facts About The Pentagon

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The Pentagon, home to the U.S. Department of Defense, is a remarkable building - and has been since ground was broken on its Arlington, Virginia site 75 years ago, on September 11, 1941.

Within three months, the U.S. would declare war on Germany, Italy, Japan, and their allies, and by 1945 the Pentagon would be home to the most powerful military in the world.

44 Magnum Vs Gel Block

A marksman shoots a Magnum .44 into a block of ballistic gel. In a slow-motion replay, you can see the aftereffects, in which the block has a case of gas, then suffers an attack of fiery indigestion, and then farts, through its newly-created 'digestive canal'.



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(via Neatorama)

Do What In A Blanket?

(via Bad Newspaper)

14 Notorious Female Gangsters In History You Wouldn't Want To Mess With

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The world has always been a scary place and these women did nothing to make it better. They are robbers, gang queens, fraudsters and much more. Men have generally dominated the world of crime, but not many have gripping stories like the women of the crime world. Here are 14 famous notorious female gangsters.

K9-Online

Many sighted people have never considered how difficult it can be for a person who is blind or partially sighted to navigate the internet. But one of the most common understandings of blindness is that a guide dog can help a person who is blind to navigate the world. With this insight in mind, AMI is using a humorous approach to discuss the serious issue of media accessibility.



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(thanks Fernando)

The World Of Playing Cards

Playing cards have been with us since the 14th century, when they first became a part of popular culture. Over the centuries packs of cards, in all shapes and sizes, have been used for games, gambling, education, conjuring, advertising, fortune telling, political messages or the portrayal of national or ethnic identity.

Their popularity is undoubtedy due to the imaginative artwork and graphic design which is sometimes overlooked, and the 'then & now' of how things have changed.

(via Everlasting Blort)

What Fossil Teeth Reveal About Ancestral Human Diets

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When scientists want to know what our ancient ancestors ate, they can look at a few things: fossilized animal bones with marks from tools used to butcher and cut them; fossilized poop; and teeth. The first two can tell us a lot, but they're hard to come by in the fossil record. Thankfully, there are a lot of teeth to fill in the gaps.

Eight Apps We Would Make If We Had Time

Mario and Fafa from Glove and Boots have some great ideas for new apps.



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10 Ways Your Image Of The Samurai Is Wrong

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Samurai are one of the most revered and respected warriors in history. Unfortunately, due to the distortion of years of myth and legend, the actuality of the Samurai and who they were has become greatly confused in the eyes of the average person.

It turns out though, that while much of what we know of them isn't true, they were actually way more cool than anyone previously thought. The samurai were an incredible type of warrior, and the facts behind them only serve to highlight their skills and their expertise in matters of war.

The Ghost Fleet Of Mallows Bay

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In Southern Maryland, about thirty miles south of Washington, D.C., the Potomac River forms a shallow bulge called Mallows Bay. The central attraction of Mallows Bay is its so called 'ghost fleet' consisting of the rotting and rusting remains of nearly 230 ships.

The ghost fleet was part of an unprecedented shipbuilding program undertaken by the U.S. to assist its European allies during the First World War. When America entered the war, the allies had an acute shortage of vessels. Nearly half of all ships leaving for combat were getting sunk by German torpedoes.

Everyday Objects In Macro

Daily objects in super macro. Can you identify the magnified objects?



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(via Laughing Squid)

Video Of 'Black Seadevil' Anglerfish

Deep-sea anglerfish are strange and elusive creatures that are very rarely observed in their natural habitat. Fewer than half a dozen have ever been captured on film or video by deep diving research vehicles. This little angler is known as the Black Seadevil and it lives in the deep dark waters of the Monterey Canyon.



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7 Things You Didn’t Know About Clowns

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Depending on who you ask, clowns are either harmless fun or the stuff of nightmares. But no matter where your opinion falls, there's a lot going on beneath the face paint of this surprisingly old profession.

Dutch KLM Jumbo Jet Boeing 747 Blasts People Into The Sea

Princess Juliana International Airport is an airport on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, located on the Dutch side of the island. The airport is perhaps best known for very low-altitude flyover landing approaches and takeoffs due to one end of its runway being extremely close to the shore and Maho Beach.



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Otto Lilienthal - The Glider King

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When we look back to the dawn of aviation, we can trace these sweeping changes back to a few pioneers. When we think of the 'fathers of flight,' we immediately picture the Wright Brothers. But they weren't the first to bear that title.

German pioneer Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896) was. Although he never successfully flew a powered plane, he was the first to build and fly winged aircraft. His gliders are the ancestors of today's airplanes and gliders. And his research on the flight mechanics of birds forms the basis of modern wing design.

The Mysterious Cart Tracks Of Phrygia Valley

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In the Phrygian Valley of Turkey are numerous so called 'cart tracks' that crisscross across the landscape. These tracks are cut into the bedrock and are evenly spaced, as if made by the wheels a vehicle. The deepest ruts are three feet deep.

The lack of precise dating has led some people to believe that these cart tracks are petrified ruts made millions of years ago by an ancient alien civilization driving heavy vehicles over the terrain that was still covered with volcanic ashes.

The History Of The Emoji

The Museum of Modern Art in New York just acquired the original 176 character emoji set, from the late 90s, for its permanent collection. One of its creators, Shigetaku Kurita, tells how and why he came up with the characters, and when he knew they had taken over the world.



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10 Horrifying Mental Asylums

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Despite their original benevolent intent, mental asylums have become synonymous with abuse and malpractice. For one, the practice of lobotomy originates in the world of psychotherapy and institutionalization.

American reformers became to investigate the mental institutions system and made light of the inhuman treatment of patients. Here are the 10 most horrifying mental asylums in the United States.

Why Do We Get Goosebumps When Listening To A Song?

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Close your eyes and try to remember the last time a piece of music made you come goosebumps. It is likely that at that time you also felt a shiver throughout the body, starting from the head and radiating down the spine.

An estimated 86% of the people experienced this feeling listening to a song, although some people are more prone than others to react this way. Why?