“Our motto is ‘You never know!’”

What happens to the lost luggage you don't retrieve? If you were flying in the US it probably ends up at the  Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama.

"Only about half of a single percent of checked bags do not arrive at their final destination, and within a week, around 98 percent of those bags have been safely reunited with their owners. If a bag’s owner cannot be found after 90 days, however, the center purchases the bags through a salvage agreement with the airlines."

It's a 40,000-square foot space chock full of anything you can imagine, from fax machines to Sam, the taxidermy ram. Apparently some people schedule annual family vacations around it.



More: Smithsonian

Kuriositas Curator Cancer Charity Fundraiser

Robert-John Evans, curator of the wonderful Kuriositas blog, is turning 50 but he doesn't want birthday cards. Instead he is asking people to donate the price of a birthday card and stamp for Cancer Research UK in memory of his father, Roland Evans who died of lung cancer.

You can donate here. I did.

Happy birthday Robert-John!

The History Of Big Ben

On this day in 1859 the iconic clock in the clock tower attached to the Palace at Westminister first began to keep time. It was the largest timepiece the world had ever seen.



Via Dr. Caligari's Cabinet

The Grand Overlook Hotel

London-based filmmaker Steve Ramsden noticed how directors Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick frame their shots in a similar way. He used footage from Kubrick's The Shining and Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel to produce this parody of the two films. He calls the mashup The Grand Overlook Hotel.



Via Blog on a Toothpick

Traditional Quiltmaking Meets Contemporary Art

The Found/Made exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles includes vintage quilts and also those that use classic techniques to produce an exciting contemporary art form.

Ben Venom

Therese May

Ben Venom

The show features works by Ben Venom, Clay Lohmann, Joe Cunningham, Luke Haynes, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Sarah Nishiura, and Theresa May.

More:  Hi-Fructose Magazine
Thanks Bruce!

Vintage Photographs Of Daily Life In 19th Century Japan

A gorgeous collection of hand-tinted albumen prints dating back to Edo-era Japan are on display at the London Photograph Fair. They were taken by Italian-British photographer, Felice Beato, considered to be one of the world's first photojournalists, and give a rare glimpse into Japanese everyday life in the mid 1800s.

All images: Felice Beato, 1865 © : Galerie Verdeau, Paris/The London Photograph Fair

Many more prints at The Independent

Harvey Uses Advertising To Find A Home

Harvey wants a forever home and this ad by Thinkbox demonstrates the power of TV advertising to make his dream come true.



See how Harvey made out in his new home at Miss Cellania

Children's Letters to Frankenstein

This post first appeared on Something Awful in 2008 but I'd never seen it before and I thought it was cute.

Read 6 more Children's Letters to Frankenstein



Via

Toothsome Jewelry

After the tooth fairy has visited don't toss your children's baby teeth - turn them into something beautiful!  When Queen Victoria's daughter lost her first milk tooth her husband, prince Albert had the tooth made into a special brooch with the tooth forming the blossom of a thistle, the symbolic wildflower of Scotland.

If you have lots of children a necklace of their molars would be a conversation starter at your next cocktail party.

Actress Susan Sarandon crafted the bracelet (below) from the pearly whites of her three children.

Via TYWKIWDBI

Police Dog Comforts Child Sex Abuse Victim During Testimony

Caber, a seven-year-old yellow Labrador assigned to British Columbia’s Delta Police Trauma unit, helped comfort a child sexual abuse victim during her testimony in the first instance of its kind in the country. The presence of the dog in the courtroom allowed the girl to get through her highly traumatic and emotional testimony during which she clung to his leash.



More:  The Independent

Every Day Is April Fool’s In Nutrition

Was your Facebook feed humming last week with the news that chocolate helps weight loss? I know mine was.

People trust science to provide reliable information and to sort through the array of conflicting studies that are out there — salt is bad, salt is good, protein is good, protein is bad, fat is bad, fat is good. People also love chocolate. So when a study by Johannes Bohannon, Ph.D. showed that chocolate helps weight loss he had an audience who were willing to accept his conclusions as gospel. Alas it was too good to be true.

Here's the interesting story of how John Bohannon Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. 

Thanks Bruce!

1010's Giant Optical Illusion

German street artist 1010 is a master of the 3D technique but he usually paints on walls. This time he's created a huge piece near a highway in Paris. It took seven days and 400 litres of paint to complete the work.

Link

Thanks Bruce!

Mat Collishaw's Mind Blowing 3D-printed Zoetrope

UK artist Mat Collishaw and Sebastian Burdon took six months to complete this trippy 3D-printed zoetrope composed of over 350 character figures plus props and environmental elements. Called "All Things Fall" it is based on Peter Paul Rubens’ early 17th century painting “Massacre of the Innocent."

All Things Fall - 3D printed zoetrope by Mat Collishaw from Sebastian Burdon on Vimeo.

More: STASH MAGAZINE
Via

Belcher Mosaic Co Stained-Glass Windows

 In the late 1800s the Belcher Mosaic Glass Company sold lovely stained-glass windows with sample designs, leaning heavily on natural motifs.

"To make its windows, the New York company assembled small pieces of glass—"not larger than one half-inch across"—into the desired pattern, arranging them around larger pieces of glass used for some of the elements of the designs. The whole mosaic was then sandwiched between two larger sheets of asbestos. The artisan poured in a liquid metal alloy, which would snake its way between the pieces and bind them together."

The Belcher Company went out of business in the late 19th century but here are some examples of their beautiful work from their 1886 catalog:

More here

Portmeirion, A Fairytale Village

The beautiful village of Portmeirion  in Gwynedd, North Wales was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village. It is now owned by a charitable trust.

Click here to view Portmeirion in 360 degrees

BBC article

Via: VisitBritain Blog 

The Mysterious Grotto of Shells

In 1835 a labourer was digging a field near the English seaside town of Margate when suddenly his spade vanished into the ground. A young boy was lowered into the void via a length of rope to see where the spade might have gone. When the boy was pulled back up he reported an amazing discovery: a temple adorned with of shells, 4.6 million of them!

When was this underground wonder built and why? There has been much conjecture over the years. Mick Twyman of the Margate Historical Society suggests that the grotto may have been built by the Knights Templar or their associates sometime in the middle 1100s. But no one knows for sure.



(Details on visiting the Grotto here.)


More: Kuriositas

Via PFRC

Swimming With Jellyfish in Palau

13 million golden jellyfish live in Jellyfish Lake in Palau. A snorkeller shot this video of the jellyfish population migrating from one side of the lake to the other and then back again. Their daily migration follows the sun’s arc across the sky.

Music: Nuvole Bianche by Ludovico EinaudiVia: Colossal

10,000 Years of Artificial Cranial Modification

An example of the "Toulouse Deformity"
Photo: Didier Descouens/WikiCommons CC BY-SA 3.0

Artificial cranial deformation, also known as head flattening, is the practice of altering the natural shape of the head through force. The earliest written reference to artificial cranial deformation comes from Hesiod, a Greek poet who lived between 750 and 650 B.C. It was once a common practice in many widespread cultures around the world and still occurs today in a few places, like Vanuatu, an island in the South Pacific. Until the early 1900s artificial cranial deformation was common amongst the French peasantry. Known as the "Toulouse deformity" a baby's head would be tightly bound and padded, to protect it from accidental impacts.

Photo: Didier Descouens/WikiCommons CC BY-SA 3.0

More: Atlas Obscura

Via Frogsmoke

Hand-Crocheted Playground

Nova Scotia textile artists, Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam and Charles MacAdam, have created a huge colourful playground of hand-crocheted hanging nets.

The installation, called Harmonic Motion, can be seen and played on at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio.

images: Roberto Boccaccino

More: CBC News

What Does Billion-Year-Old Water Taste Lie?

Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar of the University of Toronto bravely tasted water that has been sequestered 1.5 miles underground for between 1 and 2.6 billion years. How does she describe the experience? Salty, viscous and orange coloured.

I don't think I'll be mixing that with my whiskey anytime soon.



More: TreeHugger

Thanks Bruce!

Photographer Takes Stunning Photos With Old-school Camera

Oleg Oprisco is a photographer from Lviv, Ukraine who shoots fairytale like scenes with an old $50 film camera. The photos are remarkable for their dreamy quality and for the fact that they have not been digitally manipulated.

More: Onemorepost

100 Years of Cocktails in under 2 Minutes

Cheers, dears!



Via

Saint-Pierre et Miquelon

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is the only remaining territory of the former colonial empire of New France that remains under French control. The islands are situated off  Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula.

Saint Pierre et Miquelon from Eric Thomas on Vimeo.

I've always wanted to visit but getting there is difficult and flights are expensive so I don't know if it's in the cards for me. 

Via Curiosites de Titam

Classical Paintings In Modern Settings

In his 2 Reality series Kiev Ukraine-based artist Alexey Kondakov photoshops images from classical paintings into modern settings.

More: Bored Panda

Via Mr. Nag

Vintage Life Hacks.

Around the turn of the last century tobacco manufacturers began including collectible cards in their packages. Gallaher’s Cigarettes printed a special series of 100 cards that included useful and helpful tips for everyday situations and problems. Some are still useful today while others are obsolete. Here are a few examples:

HOW TO MAKE CORKS FIT

HOW TO SEPARATE GLASS TUMBLERS

HOW TO STOP A RUNAWAY HORSE

The entire 100 card collection is part of the New York Public Library’s George Arents Collection and was recently digitized.

More: Album on Imgur

Via Blort

The EcoCapsule Lets You Live Off The Grid Anywhere

I think I've just found my ideal vacation home. It's the Ecocapsule.

These portable, flexible use dwellings designed by Bratislava-based Nice Architects let anyone live off the grid for up to a year. Each unit is equipped with solar panels, a retractable wind-turbine, and a design that captures rain water. Inside, you’ll find a kitchenette with running water, a flushing toilet, and hot shower and 8sq m of living space.

More: Bored Panda

Via

Italy's Abandoned Architecture

Matt Emmett of Forgotten Heritage Photography recently traveled to Northern Italy to explore abandoned sites: factories, villas, churches and asylums. He captures the beauty of decay in places where time has stopped.

Inside an industrial tower in Northern Italy, looking straight down to the base of the tower
to looking up slightly to the central skylight. (Photo: Forgotten Heritage Photography)

Medical suite equipment left behind in an abandoned asylum.
(Photo: Forgotten Heritage Photography)

A fresco-adorned room within an abandoned castle.
(Photo: Forgotten Heritage Photography)

More: Atlas Obscura

Sleep In Anti-Gravity

Would you like to experience what it feels like to sleep in space? As part of a project called KSEVT Hotel architecture students at the AA Visiting School Slovenia have designed a ‘levitating’ suit suspended from ropes so you can find out what it feels like to sleep in ‘3D.’

It looks mighty uncomfortable to me.



More: Urbanist 

Terry Sawchuk, The Face Of Hockey

Hall of Fame goalie, Terry Sawchuk, started tending goal pre-1966, when players weren't required to wear masks or head protection of any kind. In 1966 LIFE magazine hired a professional makeup artist to recreate many of the facial injuries Terry had sustained during his sixteen years in the game for an article titled “The Goalie Is the Goat”.

Link

 Via

Make Your Own LEGO Gummy Candy

Cute but if I wanted to spend $18.10 I'd probably invest it in a bottle of wine, not a Lego Mold.

Via: Blog on a Toothpick

Glasscapes

Stone Ridge Glass founders Lucie Boucher and Bernie Huebner work out of a studio in their home in Waterville, Maine. Their Glasscapes are a cross between high-end art glass and light sculpture. Many of the designs are interactive, with fully manipulable glass sets.

Central Park South

Fog City

Early Snow on Mount Katahdin

Via Coudal

Mont Blanc Panorama Is World’s Largest Photograph

Photo zoomed all the way out

An international team led by Italian photographer Filippo Blengini used a Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 II IS, a Canon 70D DSLR and a Canon Extender 2X III on a special robotic mount to capture 70,000 photographs of Mont Blanc in every direction over 35 hours of shooting. The resulting image would be as large as a football pitch if printed out at 300dpi.

Check out the interactive viewer on the project’s website.

Zooming in shows everything from an eagle in the far distance to the construction site of a futuristic cable car station.

This infographic breaks down the shoot

More: Telegraph