Cooper Griggs

More gifts.

Santa’s Midlife Crisis (comic by Bizarro Comics)

(via tastefullyoffensive)

(via peterfromtexas)

““The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life’s meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.””

- Carl Sagan

Photo by Paul & Margery Zeller

Photo by Paul & Margery Zeller

Photo by SneakinDeacon

As the story goes, Ernest “Mooney” Warther was a boy growing up in Ohio when he encountered a man who taught him how to carve a pair of working pliers from a single piece of wood—using just 10 cuts. Whether it was that single epiphany, or the machinations of his incredibly inquisitive mind, Warther would quickly become one of this most notable wood carvers in America.

Warther’s most significant carving before he changed his focus almost exclusively to locomotives, was a tree created from 511 interconnected pliers using the same technique he learned as a child. The piece required some 31,000 cuts and each branch can fully articulate like a functional pair of pliers all the way down to the base of the trunk. Watch the video above to see Warther’s son David demonstrating the technique (seriously, it’s almost miraculous at the end, well worth a quick watch).

If you want to see more of Warther’s work, there’s an entire museum in Ohio where you can also view is wife Frieda’s meticulously organized collection of 100,000 buttons. (via Atlas Obscura)

Update: An earlier version of this post stated the person in the video above is Ernest, when in fact it’s his son, David. (thnx, Natalia!)

bright-end-of-nowhere:

The only two reactions to this realization.

Going All Out
#ChristmasLights #seasonsgreetings #orangecounty #california #lights #winter #fun (at Newport Beach, California)

Alaskan flat tire.

krxs10:

in case yall been sleeping here’s a reminder that we just shut down Mall Of America, the largest mall in the USA, to protest the wrongful deaths of young black men by police.
#blacklivesmatter

5 Life Lessons from 5 Years of Traveling the World:

"Because once you learn that the vast majority of the planet doesn’t care who you are or what you’re doing, you realize that there is no reason to not be who you want to be. There is no one to please. There is no one to impress. Most of the time, it’s just you, yourself and the stories you invent in your mind."

bombtune: Perspective.

and this:

You realize that much of what you believed to be unique in your home country is often universal, and that much of what you thought was universal is often specific to your home country.

You realize that humans are by and large the same, with the same needs, the same desires and the same awful biases that pit them haplessly against each other.

You realize that no matter how much you see or how much you learn about the world, there’s always more — that with every new destination discovered, you become aware of a dozen others, and with every new piece of knowledge obtained, you only become more aware of how much you really don’t know.

Have you seen

“You wake up a little late because you drank a little too much and you taste the regret in your mouth. You’re not sure if it’s the cheap alcohol or a reminder of how much you loved her because you did love her, didn’t you? She put the sun in the sky every morning and one day you stopped showing up to see. So she packed up, found someone that would appreciate the light, someone who saw her as more than a shoulder to lean on. And you might have another girl in your bed but you’ve never felt more alone. You still love her, don’t you?”

- why’d you let go? darlingidonotcare (via darlingidonotcare)

(via tastefullyoffensive:Charlie the Venus Flytrap Wishes You a Merry Christmas)

(via gifsboom)

hoi an, vietnam: city of lanterns

each evening the beautiful venice-like city of hoi an becomes a spectacle of lights when the lanterns are lit. what was a daytime town of flood-muddied sunflower and ochre colonial buildings becomes a dazzling warm glow of red, orange, and green globes that make the city seem to float.

Tesla's automated battery swap stations that boost cars with a fully charged power pack instead of a slow charge are finally becoming a reality. First shown off over a year ago, the company announced today that it's ready to start a pilot program for...

stunningpicture:

Its not a model. Actual image of floodwaters in the village of Jeram Perdas, Malaysia.

(via tastefullyoffensive:local-lynx)