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The Miss Mexico pageant competition is underway, and all 32 contestants are required to model a costume that reflects the national character. While some have the Vegas showgirl vibe we are used to from the Miss Universe pageant, many are stunning in other ways.

See all 32 contestants in their costumes in a ranked list at Bored Panda. The pageant finale will take place on October 31st.  

(Images from the Miss Mexico Organization at Facebook)

We produce tons of plastic waste annually. With this being the case, it is only normal for us to see plastic everywhere, and it is only normal that we feel the negative environmental effects that it causes. Fortunately, there are those who try their best to mitigate these effects, like Fernando Llanos and architect Oscar Mendez, the creators of Conceptos Plásticos (Plastic Concepts).

[Conceptos Plásticos] is based on the transformation of plastic residues and rubber in pieces like blocks, which are used for housing construction.

‘The objective of plastic concepts is to answer to different problematic that affect the community nowadays, contributing at the same time with the reduction of the pollution that plastic residues have on the environment and his incident on the global warming,’ said Ricardo Rico, business manager, Conceptos Plásticos.

Conceptos Plásticos empowers communities of recyclers around the world, starting in Colombia all the way to Africa. To create the LEGO-like building blocks, they use plastics that not everyone recycles and others that are difficult to dispose of. Each type of plastic gives the bricks a different property, so they are mixed in different ways to obtain the desired product. The resulting bricks are easy to assemble, durable and inexpensive. They are also stronger than traditional construction materials; are thermo-acoustic, meaning they can be used in both hot and cold weather; they are also anti-seismic; and do not spread flames.

Learn more about their project over at DesignBoom.

Awesome!

(Image Credit: Conceptos Plásticos/ DesignBoom)

If you and your friends want some elbow room for the holidays, then nothing suits your group better than renting a whole ski resort. Not only do you get a big lodge where you can spend some winter nights in, you also get an unlimited amount of snow for snowball fights.

Plus, in some cases, splitting the fee among a group may not cost you much more than a day ticket at a larger mountain. Not every resort offers this option, of course, but select ski areas—usually smaller hills that may close for a day or two during the week anyway—do allow full-resort buyouts for private groups midweek.

Outside Online shares with us their favorite hills for rent. They also inform us of the price range. Check them out over at the site.

(Image Credit: Beaver Mountain/ Outside Online)

Maps are helpful tools that let us navigate to unknown places, or get information about other areas that we aren’t that familiar with. They exist in different forms, and some are more difficult to understand than others. This one however, is just horrible. The map is well-constructed, and the information is easy to understand, but it's just very scary. Anthony Fauci, the head of  the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released a map that shows emerging diseases that pose a threat to our health, as Gizmodo details: 

The paper, released over the weekend as a preprint in the journal Cell (meaning it may be revised before its final publication), is intended to lay out the environmental and human factors that led to covid-19 erupting on the world stage in late 2019. Fauci’s co-author is David Morens, senior scientific advisor at Office of the Director at NIAID. It’s an educational read, delving into how newly emerging diseases like covid-19 and familiar enemies like influenza can become so dangerous to humankind.

Image via Gizmodo

Here's a great idea for family fun, at least for IKEA customers. The furniture company has released plans for converting their furniture into indoor forts! The instructions take you step-by-step in turning a vattviken into a cåve, a few stefans into a cåstle, a landskrona into a förtress, an ölmstad into a höuse, a mulig into a cåmpingtent, and a tjusig into a wigwåm. If that make no sense to you, it will all be clear when you see the diagrams at Bored Panda.

Hungry monkeys were fighting over one banana in Thailand. Due to COVID-19, the number of tourists in the country declined, and they are the ones who usually feed the monkeys. The monkeys were from two ‘rival gangs’, a gang from the city, and the other from the temple areas. The monkeys were never seen to be that aggressive as they fought for the banana, as DailyMail details: 

Footage shows hundreds of monkeys crossing a road and then chasing a single monkey which has got hold of a banana. 

At first the primates are seen running independently as they appear to look for food. 

But then the noise of their cries increases dramatically as dozens chase a single monkey which seems to have a banana. 

They are seen jumping on it and others as they fight over the food. 

Even locals who are used to seeing the monkeys were shocked by their ferocity.

Onlooker Sasaluk Rattanachai captured the scene from outside a shop where she works.

She said: 'They looked more like wild dogs than monkeys. They went crazy for the single piece of food. I've never seen them this aggressive.

image credit: ViralPress via DailyMail

Toward the end of 2019, East Africa was met with unusually wet weather. This contributed to the massive outbreak of locusts, pests that destroy crops and can be a serious threat to food security in the region. Currently, hundreds of millions of desert locusts swarm in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. The number is one of the biggest numbers seen in over 25 years.

See the photos over at The Atlantic.

(Image Credit: Ben Curtis/ AP)