National Flags Made out of Food

Vietnam







Italy






Brazil


For more visit here.

Alice and Kev the homeless Sims

This is an amazing social and psychological experiment. Creating homeless sims and seeing how their story progresses. Really rather interesting, the introduction to the concept is below and the link to the website here.

Welcome to the tale of Alice and Kev.

This is an experiment in playing a homeless family in The Sims 3. I created two Sims, moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining money, and then attempted to help them survive without taking any job promotions or easy cash routes. It’s based on the old ‘poverty challenge’ idea from The Sims 2, but it turned out to be a lot more interesting with The Sims 3’s living neighborhood features.

I have attempted to tell my experiences with the minimum of embellishment. Everything I describe in here is something that happened in the game. What’s more, a surprising amount of the interesting things in this story were generated by just letting go and watching the Sims’ free will and personality traits take over.

Ancient Grillz

Gem-studded teeth were popular among people (mostly men) from all walks of life in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, purely for decorative purposes, a new study shows. As far back as 2,500 years ago, skilled dentists could drill teeth using obsidian drill-like devices, which are capable of penetrating bone. They may even have used some kind of herbal anesthetic. Then they attached the gemstones using plant resin adhesive. The ancient drillers knew enough to avoid the pulp inside teeth, and so managed to avoid an infection or broken tooth.

via

Caboodle Ranch

Caboodle Ranch a 100 acre cat sanctuary created by Craig Grant in 2003 that is located Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. It is now home to over 500 happy cats.

Cats should be able to roam free, and at Caboodle Ranch, that’s what they do. We are in the middle of 100 acres of wildlife. The cats follow me through the nature trails that I put in and maintain, they climb in tree forts that I’ve built and hide in underground dens I’ve dug for them.

Caboodle Ranch is currently facing some financial hardships. If you would like help out the ranch and it’s feline residents thrive, you can make a donation or buy some merchandise.

photo via Caboodle Ranch

Craig feeding his cats their favorite treat, Entenmanns Softee donuts.

photo via Caboodle Ranch

For the latest on Caboodle Ranch, check out their blog and Twitter account.

The Cat House on the Kings is a similar cat sanctuary located in California.

orangehouse aside: the last time I saw so many kitties in such concentration was here oh, and here.

via

A walk through time

I really like this idea, especially when it incorporates people. To see more click here.

via

Egyptian Parking Invention

Just to think I learned the old fashioned way by living in the city for 20 years. Damn.

Larry Flynt Returns His Mail

In the late 90s, Bill Geerhart (a grown ass man and pop-culture historian) posed as a little kid and wrote to Charles Manson, the Unabomber, Richard Ramirez and other killers; as well as nonmurderous celebrities like Larry Flynt, Alan Greenspan, Dick Cheney (well, allegedly nonmurderous), Clarence Thomas, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, asking for advice on tough topics like dropping out of school and saving up for a speedboat. Radar Magazine posted their correspondence. Click on letter to see full image.

Richard Ramirez

(Oh hey, personalized stationary…)

To: Billy
From: Richard Ramirez
Received: January 21, 1999

Billy,
Greetings. Got your letter. What school do you go to? Who’s your friend? You should stay in school. Send pictures.
Richard

Billy’s follow-up letter in 2008:

To: Billy
From: Richard Ramirez
Received: February 22, 2008

Bill,
Greetings. Received your letter. Glad to hear my letter to you in ‘99 made a difference. When do you graduate? Yeah, get me a subscription to Radar Magazine. What is it about? Know any Asian girls willing to correspond? Send pictures. You can photocopy 5 on 1 page or send ‘em singular. Nothing scenic though. Send some of girls in bikinis. Do you go clubbing? Seen any good movies? Saw 3:10 to Yuma the other day. It was an OK Western. Didn’t do too good at the box office though. Do you have family? I’m youngest of five. That’s all for now. Take it E/Z write when you get a chance.
Your friend,
Richard

Charles Manson

To: Billy
From: Charles Manson
Received: December 15, 1998

Find out why the L.A. Times hasn’t sent my newspaper —Charles Manson.
P.S. O-yes HI BILLY
Easy easy EASSY

(Manson also attached the mysterious picture of a barn, above.)

I bet you don’t remember this —you dont [sic] even know where its [sic] at. HAHA. I got you there.
Charles Manson
Easy BILLY

Ted Kaczynski (aka “The Unabomber”)

(Always the voice of reason.)

Larry Flynt

Alan Greenspan

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Clarence Thomas

To: Billy Geerhart
From: Clarence Thomas
Received: January 10, 1995
Dear Billy:
Thank you for your recent letter. I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to write to me. As you have requested, I’m including a copy of my official photograph. Best wishes for a successful school year.

Sincerely,
Clarence Thomas

Handwritten below: I like the Egg McMuffin. Actually, I like almost everything there.

via

Hospital Food around the world

From Poland

From France


From Japan


From Australia

More interesting food choices here.

What's in a Name?

Native Names, the Interactive Map. Graphic: Oliver Uberti, National Geographic

A lot of places in the United States have their names derived from Native American words (I’m looking at you, Punxsutawney!). But do you know what they actually mean?Our friends over at National Geographic have put together this really spiffy interactive map of the United States, with the translated meaning of the towns, lakes, and other localities.

via

Condometric

You know who will never need to use this?

Party Music

I did not know there was genera of music for this.

via

New Shakespeare

Via Cnn

A portrait painted 400 years ago and kept anonymously in an Irish home for much of the time since is now believed to be the only painting of William Shakespeare created during his lifetime. The image reveals a wealthy Shakespeare of high social status, contradicting the popular view of a struggling playwright of humble status, according to Stanley Wells, a professor who chairs London's Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Wells, a distinguished Shakespeare scholar, arranged for three years of research and scientific testing which confirmed it was painted around 1610, when Shakespeare would have been 46 years old.

"A rather young looking 46, it has to be said," Wells said. Shakespeare died in 1616.

The Cobbe portrait -- named after the Irish family that owns the painting -- shows Shakespeare with rosy cheeks, a full head of hair, and a reddish brown beard.

The most common portrait of Shakespeare is a gray image showing a bald Bard with a small mustache and beard, and bags under his eyes.

The identity of the man in the portrait was lost over the centuries -- until Alec Cobbe saw a portrait from Washington's Folger Shakespeare Library. That painting, which fell into disfavor as a Shakespeare portrait about 70 years ago, turned out to be one of four copies of Cobbe's portrait.

The portrait "shows a man wearing expensive costuming, including a very beautifully painted ruff of Italian lacework which would have been very expensive," Wells said.

"It establishes, for me, that Shakespeare in his later years was a rather wealthy, a rather well affluent member of aristocratic circles in the society of his time," Wells said.

"There's been too much of a tendency to believe that Shakespeare, being the son of a glover, coming for a small town in the middle of England, that he necessarily retained a rather humble status throughout his life."

Wells reads even more into what he sees in Shakespeare's newly-found face.

"I think it's plausible as a portrait as a good listener, of somebody who would have been capable of writing the plays, clearly the face of a man of high intelligence," he said.

"It's the face of a man, I think, who betrays a good deal of wisdom in his features. But, of course, as somebody (King Duncan) says in Shakespeare's story Macbeth, 'there's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.'"

It should be noted that Shakespeare's King Duncan paid a price for judging Macbeth to have the face of an honorable man. Macbeth later murdered the king.

The public can read Shakespeare's face from the original painting at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon where it goes on display for several months starting April 23.

The portrait then returns to the Cobbe family, which inherited it when an ancestor married England's Earl of Southampton -- a friend of Shakespeare who likely commissioned its painting.

HBO's Grey Gardens

FROM THE VILLAGE VOICE, BY MICHAEL MUSTO, ON FEBRUARY 3, 2009 "The squalid yet strangely uplifting story of the Beales—the mother/daughter duo who went from being Jackie Kennedy's fancy shmancy cousins to living in filth in a decayed Hamptons mansion filled with raccoons—rises again. The original Maysles brothers' documentary was made into a musical, which was then the subject of another documentary, and now it's an HBO movie starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore as the two generations of wackiness whose willingness to expose their squandered show biz aspirations afforded them a whole new chance to claw at the spotlight."

Hmm, I'm thinking see the original (if you haven't already). It's an amazing delving into the psyche of this mother/daughter relationship. I'm hoping HBO will delve into more of a background on the ladies. Because after you watch the documentary from '75 you are left wondering- "how did that happen". Can't wait to check it out.

This is fun

Do you ever wonder what is going on in your old home town? Wonder no more with this interesting and informative link from the newseum (http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/) Not only can you see the front page of any newspaper across the united states but you can also keep up with Europe, Asia and the Middle East among others. Clicking on the map will take you that city's newspaper, click again and read the front page. Technology is cool.