Sunday Links

World Peace

It’s April Fools Day tomorrow so I thought I’d post this massive list of hoaxes.

10 technologies that won't exist in 5 years: What people choose to work on determines what new technologies are made. 

The sound a 3.9 metre crocodile makes when he’s being relocated, 

Extreme dishwasher loading, a group to discuss the finer points and details of efficient, correct and ingenious dishwasher loading and stacking. via everlasting blort

Which languages are most difficult for a native English speaker to learn?

“Surprisingly, I was rarely bombarded with violent or pornographic messages. Mostly, I deleted spam.” Death and typos: my six strange years screening online obituary comments 

 Ben Franklin's Daily Schedule

Chair necessities This Instagram account posts only the patterns and colours of Parisian bistro chairs.

The most common housing structures in LA, from eclectic beach houses, and classic mission revival to the cozy California bungalow. (everlasting blort)

Do you really want to spend your one wild and precious life putting marshmallows in jars? Good news: you don’t need to decant your groceries.

NASA artists create eclipse art 

Modern suburban neighbourhoods do not have to be car-centric and crappy. I liked this video about good urbanism in small towns and cities in the Netherlands. 

Cows jump for joy when they see grass for the first time in  6 months! via everlasting blort 

My 'Homeric Retching' Vladimir Nabokov ate some bad ham and lived to tell about it in graphic detail.

Dogs in Advertising: Housed in the Kennel Club’s basement art gallery in London is an exhibition looking back at the history of doggy goods.

Beatniks Under the Microscope - Calgary Herald 1959

This cat knows premium ice cream and is not prepared to give it up. via

One of my secret vices is taking virtual walks and I love it when I come across a destination I’d like to take a real life walk around. Procida, in southern Italy is not as touristy as Capri and Cinque Terre but just as breathtakingly beautiful.

Sew your own vintage Tube Map

You think your neighbour looks like a Republican? You may be on to something.  (via the new shelton wet/dry)

I’ll leave you with this adorably enthusiastic mini horse  via Blort

Music For Sunday Morning: Khruangbin - May Ninth

Blooming Peony

(Kraftfuttermischwerk)

The NPCs of Hardly Working

Hardly Working sheds a light on the characters that normally remain in the background of video games: They are non-player characters that populate the digital world as extras to create the appearance of normality.

Hardly Working from TOTAL REFUSAL on Vimeo.

STORM CHASING ARGENTINA

Two storm chasers storm drive through Argentina’s Tornado Corridor in search of a supercell thunderstorm. 

via FB pal Hal

The Best of BOLLARDS

I am a runt and I can’t see low bollards over the hood of my vehicle when I’m parking. I usually err on the side of caution and end up a meter back from them with my back end sticking out into the lot. So far I’ve avoided one of these scenarios:

images:World Bollard Association™.

(Tacky Raccoons)

The defense mechanism of the bombardier beetle

Bombardier beetles are known for the defense mechanism that gives them their name: when threatened, they eject a hot noxious chemical spray from the tip of the abdomen with a popping sound.

via bookofjoe

Dog Goes Grocery Shopping With a Little Red Basket

Every day DuoDuo, a service dog in Taiyuan, China, goes shopping for her human at a farmers market carrying red basket that holds money for goods.

Laughing Squid

Pysanky

The process involves applying melted wax to the eggshell in a design, then dipping it into different coloured dyes, layer by layer.

 

Making a pysanky egg
byu/VariousBasket125 inoddlysatisfying

Via everlasting blort

Seasonal Stress Disorder Of The Easter Bunny

 

The Bauhaus in the Tropics

Developed amid British colonisation in the 1940s, Tropical Modernist architecture adapted the simple designs and functional philosophy of Bauhaus for the climate of West Africa. Is it time for a revival?

Teenager buys a bowling alley to save her town

This bowling alley doesn't look like anything special, but the story on the inside is something else entirely.

via TYWKIWDBI 

Photo Of The Day

ASPEN: © Robert J. Ross / World Nature Photography Awards

via TYWKIWDBI 

Invisibility Shield

The Megashield uses a precision-engineered lens array to bend light around you, making it look like you vanished into thin air. 

Mighty Fluffy Tail

 

Thanks, Mr. Nag!

The Vohrawad Mansions of Sidhpur

© compass.tourism

The grand Vohrawad mansions would not look out of place somewhere in Europe, but they are in Sidhpur, in the Indian state of Gujarat. Their  opulence transports visitors back to an epoch of great wealth and multiculturalism in India’s eclectic history. Built in a distinctive European style, the Vohrawads have gabled roofs, ornate balconies, pilasters, columns and decorated doors and windows. 200 years ago this was an upscale neighbourhood but today it is mostly deserted and has fallen into decay.

© untilthenexttime_

© compass.tourism

© compass.tourism

See more: Messy Nessy

JOANA

Spanish director Antoni Sendra AKA Podenco made a lovely film about his daughter.

A Rotoscope of more than 2.000 hand painted frames.

“What is the most George Costanza-esque reason you broke up with someone?

Slow walker, fork slider, oral violator...

(Miss Cellania)

The wonderful world of woodpecker diversity

There are more than 230 species of woodpeckers from all over world.

(The Kid Should See This)

Kedi

For thousands of years cats roamed Istanbul freely. They’ve wandered in and out of people’s lives, becoming an essential part of the communities that make the city so rich.

 

Link to full film

Pocket full of kryptonite

Today’s Tedium reminds us that there were a lot of alternative rock songs about Superman in the 1990s and early 2000s. This one by Crash Test Dummies was a huge hit in Canada:

More Superman Songs

(via perfect for roquefort cheese)

A Quiet Girl - Trailer

Adopted Montreal filmmaker Adrian Wills discovers, on camera and in real time, the startling truths of his complex beginnings in Newfoundland.

See full film: NFB

The Last Telephone Box Painter in London

When Robert Pammen, an old school painter from London, saw telephone box near his home that was looked run he decided to give it a fresh coat of paint...

(Kraftfuttermischwerk)

Miss Barton’s Famous Cakes

On a dark and stormy night, two detectives come knocking on Miss Barton's door...

Real Foods We Don't Eat, and Why

(Neatorama)

500 Days In The Wild (Trailer)

Award-winning director and cinematographer Dianne Whelan is the only person to complete this epic journey of discovery—hiking, biking, paddling, snowshoeing and skiing across Canada on the world’s longest trail. (And she did it solo)

 

sunday links

World's Smallest Frog (and tiniest vertebrate) It’s a cutie. (image above)

Birth seasonality Some birth months are much more common than others; meaning that birthdays aren’t spread equally over the year. I think it would be awful to be nine months pregnant in the sweltering heat of August. Others obviously don’t feel the same way.

View-Master CAROL

Amsterdam cat keeps city safe.

“It had to be something great. The memory has to last until next year.” Fanesca, a labor-intensive soup, served only once a year

How a Michelin Star is awarded: Michelin Guide Inspectors recount a year of visits to Le Gabriel, France’s new three star restaurant for 2024.

Miranda's Last Gift  When David Frum’s daughter died she left her Cavalier King Charles spaniel behind. We have been blessed with several of these dogs over the years and this story broke my heart.

Why the label on Angostura bitters is larger than the bottle.

Dearest Layla The letter a smitten Eric Clapton wrote to Pattie Boyd when she was married to George Harrison.

The Dioramas Of Petticoat Lane

"I refuse to believe that giraffes, which are camels with necks two meters long, exist and that unicorns do not exist."A compilation of scientifically proven facts that we find difficult to believe 

Bees move into temporary quarters while National Trust house in Wales gets new roof

The Monster Under the Sink In the middle of the 20th century, the small town of Jasper, Indiana did something that no other city had done before: they made garbage illegal.

The World Happiness Report and Rankings 2024

My Movie Theater: They did insist on serving glasses of beer and Toblerones rather than corn dogs, but they had popcorn, too…

These swinging pendulums are as close to an unhackable way of creating the random numbers that secure the internet as can be devised.

Imagine 2200: The 2024 climate fiction contest collection. 

Cabbage has apparently become the coolest menu item.  I hated my grandmother’s cabbage which had the taste and texture boiled out of it, leaving only a vile smell behind, but Smitten Kitchen’s cabbage and farro soup gave me a new appreciation of the maligned vegetable.

One way to get a taste of neuroscience: “While mouth pipetting one night in the lab, Suovaniemi ‘almost swallowed a piece of rat’s brain.’” via

Bastard Chairs of Hong Kong.

Music For Sunday Morning

Angry Middle-Aged White Man Can’t Take A Joke

Over the years most Canadian political leaders have taken a skewering by comedy show This Hour Has Twenty-Two Minutes in stride but not Pierre Poilievre. The leader of Canada’s official opposition party reinforces our opinion of him as a humourless ball of nasty. He has never once in his life been employed by the private sector yet he criticizes the reporter for taking a salary from our public broadcaster. 

Eternal Ascent - 3D Artist Montage

One hundred 3D artists interpret the same animation in a variety of styles.

Via Web Curios

Happy Caturday

 

Vintage French postcard, 1913.

Around The World in 1896

Original footage from the Lumière Brothers has been colourized and upscaled by Lost In Time to give us a new view of the world in 1896.

(Open Culture)

turning toys into tales

This Thai designer creates scenes where tiny people deal with everyday objects. 

See more: Design You Trust

A vist to Bhutan

I've always been curious about Bhutan, the last great Himalayan kingdom, with its unspoiled landscapes and monasteries. The country’s goal is sustainable development with tourist numbers capped at 200,000 a year from 2023 to protect its natural resources and fight climate change.

 

ASL Signs of Spring

 

It’s World Poetry Day

Here's a poem by Louise Glück, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2020. She died last year at the age of 80. She is one of my favourite poets.

 

The Ways in Which Artists Die

Death of Artists (2024), a new book by Jim Moske, who spent much of his career in the archives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, assembles a  revue of artist obituaries from 1906 to 1929, tracing the tragic, poetic, and ironic ways in which artists die.

Read more

Office Tower with Spiraling Gardens

“The Star,” designed by Foster + Partners, is a new vertical creative office campus on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, wrapped in spiraling gardens, giving the project its distinctive image and introducing generous outdoor areas throughout. 

Read More:  ArchDaily

The Restoration of Utrecht's Catharijnesingel canal

More than 40 years after parts of the canal that encircled Utrecht’s old town were concreted over to accommodate a 12-lane motorway, the Dutch city of Utrecht restored its 900-year-old moat. In an attempt to recast its residents’ relationship with the car, Utrecht’s inner city is again surrounded by water and greenery rather than asphalt and exhaust fumes.

 

The Spectrum of Intemperance

I don’t drink punch yet I am often idle and peevish…

Link

Every Optical Illusion Explained in Eight Minutes

The Paint Explainer shows how your brain receives information and creates your  perception.

(Laughing Squid)

Guinea Pig Parsley Eating Contest

Challenger Wilbur is determined to beat reigning champ Milo in the much anticipated Guinea Pig Parsley Eating Contest. With each contestant weighing in at 2 pounds 12 ounces, the race is certain to be a close one.

(Kraftfuttermischwerk)

Planetary Vibrations, the eerie song of an Eclipse

MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES

Musica universalis is a theory that proposed that the orbital revolution of each planetary body resonates with a tone or “hum,” that while inaudible, can be felt energetically or “heard” by the soul. LightSound is an Arduino-based device that converts light intensity to sound via a light sensor and MIDI board so that blind and visually impaired individuals may experience astronomical events like solar eclipses. 

(Atlas Obscura)

Turtles Use Teamwork to Help Out Their Overturned Buddy

Turtles helping each other in times of need
byu/mcflymikes inaww

via Laughing Squid

The Macro Detail of Butterfly Wings

These images of butterfly wings by photographer Linden Gledhill were taken at 7-10x magnification. The gorgeous patterns are made by tiny scales, similar to those found on reptiles.

See more: Moss and Fog

A Walk Through A Rainforest Biome

I’m getting some garden inspiration from this walk through the Eden Project’s rainforest biome. The project, built on an old clay quarry, features the world's largest greenhouse. Inside the artificial biomes are plants that are collected from all around the world for people to come and visit.

The 15 Greatest Documentaries of All Time

The Cinema Cartography presents a collection of 15 documentaries they consider to be the greatest of their genre.

via Open Culture

Miracle Face-Bra

Radio and Television Mirror - July 1948

Weird Universe

How to play the Çifteli

The Çifteli is an Albanian plucked string instrument with only two strings. David Hilowitz found one in a thrift shop and taught himself to play it.

via Memo Of The Air 

The Founder of the Red Cross Created a Diagram of the Apocalypse (1887)

Henry Dunant was known for two things – being the co-founder of the Red Cross movement and winning the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. He also drew the image above, the first of a series of four diagrams of The Apocalypse which he thought was imminent.

(Open Culture)