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A new tmid-season premiere trailer for the highly awaited remainder of the sixth season of The Walking Dead."I thought, living behind these walls was possible. I was wrong."..(Read...)

We’re picking five games each week using the Supercontest lines.

Last week your hero (Jason) sewed up his 2nd straight winning season over Cinesport’s Noah Coslov with a 3-2 effort. Noah went 2-3 and there’s no way he can catch Jason. For the season:

Jason 42-38
Noah: 35-43-2

We should have picked all 16 games to give him a chance, right?

Remember to factor in playoff positioning, NFL draft positioning, coaches with jobs on the line, and of course, injuries. As always, Oddsshark has some trends you can dig through to help you with your card.

Noah’s picks:
Vikings +3 at Packers
Eagles +3 at Giants
Lions +1 at Bears
Chargers +9 at Broncos
Panthers -10.5 vs Bucs

Jason’s picks (note that we’ve got two head-to-head)
Packers -3 vs Vikings
Giants -3 vs Eagles
49ers +3.5 vs Rams
Chiefs -6.5 vs Raiders
Bengals -9 vs Ravens

After a strong first 14 weeks in the Supercontest, Jason struggled through December again. A 3-7 two-week collapse did him in. Last week’s 3-2 means that he could match last year’s 48 points … if he’s able to go 5-0. Two years ago, he finished with 41 points.

Illinois artist Jiyong Lee uses a special glass technique called cold working to create his unusual segmented sculptures inspired by the growth of cells. The artworks, part of a series called Segmentation, are created without glass blowing or kilns, but instead through a labor-intensive process of cutting, sanding, laminating, and carving. Lee shares about his work via his artist statement:

The segmentation series is inspired by my fascination with science of cell, its division and the journey of growth that starts from a single cell and goes through a million divisions to become a life. I work with glass that has transparency and translucency, two qualities that serve as perfect metaphors for what is known and unknown about life science. The segmented, geometrical forms of my work represent cells, embryos, biological and molecular structures—each symbolizing the building blocks of life as well as the starting point of life. The uniquely refined translucent glass surfaces suggest the mysterious qualities of cells and, on a larger scale, the cloudiness of their futures. The Segmentation series is subtle and quiet yet structurally complex.

To be clear, the images you see here are photographs of Lee’s work and are not digital renderings. His extraordinary attention to use of color and translucency in each object creates surprising optical effects. You can learn a bit more about Lee’s work in the video below from the Corning Museum of Glass and see some of his recent sculptures at Duane Reed Gallery. (via Faith is Torment)

Over the past few months, London-based designer and illustrator Seb Lester (previously) shared a number of hand-lettered logos on Instagram. Using only calligraphy pens, some minor preparation coupled with years of experience, the identities for brands like Coca Cola, Converse, and the New York Times seem to spring forth, perfectly formed, from his exquisitely controlled hand. Lester just released this video featuring ten of his favorite attempts. See many more here.

Norwegian visual artist Andreas Lie merges verdant landscapes and photographs of animals to creates subtle double exposure portraits. Snowy mountain peaks and thick forests become the shaggy fur of wolves and foxes, and even the northern lights appear through the silhouette of a polar bear. Lie is undoubtedly influenced by his surroundings in Bergen, Norway, a coastal city surrounded by seven mountains. Many of these are available as prints and other objects on Society6. (via Beautiful/Decay, Blu)

While exploring the shores around St. Joseph, Michigan last week, photographer Joshua Nowicki stumbled onto a bizarre phenomenon: dozens of small sand towers rising out of the beach, some over a foot tall. The strange layered sand castles are formed when blasts of wind slowly erode layers of frozen sand, much like how a river might slowly create a canyon. Nowicki returned yesterday to shoot more photos, but found that sunny skies were enough to melt them away. You can see more of his photography here. (via EarthSky)

“Here’s your assignment, Inspector Gadget: Use your powers of Eighties cartoon awesomeness to help Dr Clites defeat the dastardly Mayo Twins in their plot to take over the Iron Builder contest. Use the seed part in any way you can to outdo them. Bring along a small child and a talking dog, for when you inevitably get into trouble. Regards, Chief Quimby. THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF DESTRUCT.”

This 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle contains exactly 1,000 different colors arranged in the form of a CMYK gamut and is guaranteed to drive you insane. The creator of the 1,000 Colors puzzle, Clemens Habicht, suggests the puzzle is actually easier than traditional image-based puzzles. When faced with a field of color, he says the placement of every piece becomes almost intuitive.

The idea came from enjoying the subtle differences in the blue of a sky in a particularly brutal jigsaw puzzle, I found that without the presence of image detail to help locate a piece I was relying only on an intuitive sense of colour, and this was much more satisfying to do than the areas with image details.

What is strange is that unlike ordinary puzzles where you are in effect redrawing a specific picture from a reference you have a sense of where every piece belongs compared to every other piece. There is a real logic in the doing that is weirdly soothing, therapeutic, it must be the German coming out in me. As each piece clicks perfectly into place, just so, it’s a little win, like a little pat on the back.

The 1,000 Colors puzzle ships from Australia and costs about $33 (about $58 with shipping to the U.S.). (via Boing Boing)

AP Works's Trick Mat is a placemat that mimics spacetime curvature; no word on whether or how it can be purchased, alas (though you could probably make a pretty good disposable facsimile with an inkjet printer and some vector-art software). (via Super Punch)

Can you answer the quiz questions from the episode where the girls lost their apartment?

When you look really closely at record grooves, like at 1000x magnification, you can see the waveforms of the music itself. Sooo cool.

This video shows how the stylus moves through the grooves.

As Lisa Simpson would say, "I can see the music!"

Update: Here's a great visual explanation of how you get stereo sound out of a record. (via @pcnofelt & @marcrobichaud)

Very useful context, from @ebolaphone.

In an age of the ubiquitous 3D printer, it’s easy to forget the joy and beauty of handmade craft. Take, for example, the 400-year old Japanese art of creating kokeshi dolls. These traditional wooden figurines were said to have been originally made as souvenirs to sell to people visiting the local hot springs in Northern Japan. Although there are about 10 different styles, each doll is made with an enlarged head and cylindrical body with no arms or legs.

In the video, produced by tetotetote, an organization highlighting the arts and crafts of Sendai, Japan, Yasuo Okazaki woodturns solid blocks into the head and body using just a few tools. Okazaki’s “Naruko” style of making the dolls was passed down to him from his father and features stripes at the top and bottom of the body and bangs with red headdresses. I don’t think there’s anything more soothing and hypnotic than the sights and sounds of watching these dolls emerge from a spinning block of wood.

If you're at all interested in cooking at home, you've likely got one of Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbooks on your shelf: Jerusalem, Plenty, and Ottolenghi. I don't cook much myself, but from everything I've heard from friends, this guy is a wizard with vegetables. Now Ottolenghi is out with a new cookbook: Plenty More.

Yotam Ottolenghi is one of the world's most beloved culinary talents. In this follow-up to his bestselling Plenty, he continues to explore the diverse realm of vegetarian food with a wholly original approach. Organized by cooking method, more than 150 dazzling recipes emphasize spices, seasonality, and bold flavors. From inspired salads to hearty main dishes and luscious desserts, Plenty More is a must-have for vegetarians and omnivores alike. This visually stunning collection will change the way you cook and eat vegetables.

Great piece about how Lufthansa cares for those who need medical attention while flying.

On a Lufthansa flight, making a public call for any medical professionals on the plane is a last resort. The airline prefers to be far more discreet. After all, does the whole plane always need to know that somebody on board is having a problem? To accomplish this, Lufthansa launched the Doctors on Board program for physicians.

Doctors on Board allows Lufthansa to identify doctors long before an emergency occurs. By doing this, the cabin crews can personally and discreetly summon the doctor if their skills are needed during a flight. In order to find doctors who could potentially participate in this program, the airline scoured the data from its Miles and More frequent flier program. By doing this, Lufthansa was able to identify 15,000 doctors who regularly fly the airline. Of those, 10,000 opted to join the program.

Participation in the Doctors on Board program carries with it several benefits. The doctors are issued a handbook about aviation medicine, as well as receiving news and information via both the internet and postal mailings. They are insured by Lufthansa for any care that they provide during a flight. They are also rewarded with 5,000 Miles and More award miles and a discount code for €50 off of their next flight, plus they receive a special bag tag identifying their participation in the program. Finally, they are given the opportunity to participate in a course on aviation medicine and on-board emergency handling, for which they are paid an additional fee.

This is real customer service: thoughtful, anticipatory, active, thorough. (via @marcprecipice)

Vlad Lisin’s outrageous imagination produced this stunning motorbike, which he says was inspired in part by Treasure Planet. I can’t get over how cool that diver’s helm looks on a retro-future cyclist, and the larger-than-minifig scale is exceptionally well done here.

Tiggelaar with Atlas 2.0 (10th place) / Photo by Malou Evers

Photo © Omroep Brabant

Klein-Zundertse Heikant with Horsepower (1st place) / Photo by Werner Pellis

Klein-Zundertse Heikant with Horsepower (1st place) / Photo by Malou Evers

Molenstraat with 737 (13th place) / Photo by Malou Evers

Photo © Omroep Brabant

Poteind with Proud (11th place) / Photo by Werner Pellis

Photo © Omroep Brabant

Photo © Omroep Brabant

Photo © Omroep Brabant

Photo © Omroep Brabant

Yes, it’s that time of year again for the world’s largest flower parade, Corso Zundert in the Netherlands! Located in the small town of Zundert at the Belgian border, the annual parade features 20 giant floats created by various districts within the city. To encourage a wide breadth of creativity the parade never has a theme, leaving teams free to design whatever they want as long as the floats fit the within 20 x 10 meters and are completely adorned with dahlia flowers.

This year the parade saw everything from a deconstructed 737 airliner to a guitar-playing cephalopod, with the first place prize awarded to the brawny flexing horse float, Horsepower.

If you want to explore a bit more, there are more photos of the 2014 event courtesy Omroep Brabant, and you can also see our Corso Zundert coverage in 2013 and beyond.

You're likely familiar with the modified Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs with the giant WIFI added to the bottom; now comes Sam Wiss's important addendum.

This Neil Cicierega design-fiction from 2013 proposes a brilliant idea for a Google autocomplete easter-egg, where typing "Google autocomplete is not working correctly" would autocomplete to a long, wonderful list of Borges-ian non-sequiturs, each more wondrous than the last. (via JWZ) Read the rest

In the days before running water, towns used to place an eel or two in the well to keep the water supply free of bugs, algae, and other critters. A Swedish well-eel that lived to be at least 155 years old died recently. Eels generally live to be around seven years old in the wild.

Åle was put in the well in the fishing village of Brantevik on the southeastern tip of Sweden by eight-year-old Samuel Nilsson in 1859. This was a common practice in a time when running water was rare (Stockholm only got public water mains in the 1850s; it took more than a century after that for waterworks to be installed in smaller towns) and a good eel could keep the home's water supply free of bugs, worms, eggs, algae and any other number of critters. European eels will even eat carrion, so they're extremely helpful additions to a well.

This particular eel has been a star for close to a hundred years, garnering articles in the paper, TV news stories and documentaries, even making an appearance in the Swedish Tom Sawyer, Bombi Bitt and I written by Fritiof Nilsson Piraten in 1932. Thomas Kjellman, current owner of the cottage, remembers Åle from when he was a boy. His family bought the house in 1962 with the understanding that the eel came with the property.

Luckily the family has a backup eel which is around 110 years old, swimming around in what is apparently a Fountain of Youth for eels.

The Dodgers announced Vin Scully would return to the broadcast booth for his 66th straight season last night during Los Angeles’ game with Atlanta. Well, they didn’t just announce it, the Dodgers had a pre-recorded clip of a fake press conference with Yasiel Puig, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Justin Turner (?!?!) ready to go to unveil the news. In turn, the fans at Dodger Stadium then saluted the broadcast icon with a standing ovation.

Scully, as is his wont, downplayed it and eventually settled back behind the mic saying, “all i can say is thank god, and please god for another year, but let’s get back to work now.”

This serves as another reminder Fox still has time to use Scully during its World Series broadcast, even if it’s only a small cameo role. Scully himself says he wouldn’t want to do this since it would cause a distraction, but most baseball fans probably wouldn’t mind in this particular case. Or maybe they would since it’s 2014 and everyone likes to complain and argue about every little piece of minutia. Either way, it would be an easy way for Fox to build up some goodwill with baseball fans.

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Headline winner, today’s Inky pic.twitter.com/dzCkAgeJ4j

— Mike Jensen (@jensenoffcampus) June 17, 2014

John Brooks is America’s new favorite soccer player after he scored the game-winning goal against Ghana in the USMNT’s opening game of the World Cup. And what better nickname for Team U!-S!-A!’s new hero than, “Johnny Futbol?” Well played, Philadelphia Inquirer. Though I’m guessing Brooks hasn’t been enjoying Brazil in the same manner that Johnny Football would.

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In celebration of Father's Day, Grant Snider of Incidental Comics drew this comic about..(Read...)

Big news in the fight for security and privacy in the US: the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals this week ruled that a warrant is required for cell phone location tracking.

Read the rest