Note: Okay, so all five don't actually crawl out -- one dude is already hanging on when the driver puts the car up on its side. Because the hiring process at Jiffy Lube is fiercely competitive in Saudi Arabia, this is a video of five guys removing and replacing two wheels of an SUV while its being driven balanced on the other two. Not how I spent my weekend, but I was also too busy to sit around inventing new ways to die or get paralyzed. That's more of a three-day weekend thing. Ooh ooh -- a zipline from my balcony to the nearest bus stop! Keep going for the insanity.

This is a series of upcoming Finish postage stamps featuring the iconic homoerotic art of Tom of Finland (aka Touko Laaksonen). I'm really digging that one face and butt design. That guy's all, "Peekaboo, I see you! Like my mustache?" I would love to get a piece of mail with that on it. Truthfully, I'd love to get a piece of mail period. You know when the last time I got a piece of fan-mail was? Fan-mail, LOL. One time I actually thought I did get a fan letter until I recognized my mom's handwriting. She loves me and cares about me. Thanks to IJJ and LupusYonderboy, who agree there should be far more nude postage stamps. Right? Maybe I'd start collecting again.

Because if children are our hope for the future, then that future is hopeless, some little nobgoblin called a SWAT team on some other kid that killed him playing Call of Duty multiplayer. *tightening bolt on rocketship* My God I need to get off this planet. Even if I explode on the lauchpad, at least I tried. And I want my tombstone to read, "BOO -- I'M A GHOST!"

Police received a call at about 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon from a person who identified himself as Rafael Castillo, a 17-year-old from Long Beach, N.Y. "I just killed my mother and I might shoot more people," the person said, according to police. The threat prompted Nassau County police to scramble helicopters and send a SWAT team to Castillo's home, leading to a two-hour standoff that involved more than 60 officers, some with guns drawn. When police arrived, they found Castillo's mother, 54-year-old Maria Castillo, making coffee in the kitchen. Castillo himself did not immediately respond because he was in his room still playing the game with headphones on. Castillo's mother said the time has now come for him to put down the "Call of Duty" controller. "The kid played too much," she told WPIX-TV. "Go work. He's 17, he can work.

Seriously? You're such a sad sport that somebody killed you in a video game that you're going to waste taxpayer dollars (not to mention the time and effort of a police force that could be responding to legitimate calls) sending a SWAT team to somebody's house? You're prime prison material. You know what I do when somebody kills me in a video game? What any normal person does: yells and slams the controller down and scares my roommates. "Keep it down in there, I'm trying to study!" I'LL F***ING TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB, DEREK. I'LL OPEN AN ETSY STORE AND SELL YOUR ARMS AS BACKSCRATCHERS. "What about my legs?" UP YOUR ASS. Keep going for a video news report.

This is the beanbag Iron Throne made by Isabell Kiko of Nerd By Night (but what are you by day?!). She even includes patterns and instructions if you want to make your own, WHICH YOU DO. Sure yours won't look as good and will start losing its beans immediately, but hey -- you tried. You made the effort. That's more than I can say about most people. Also: wow, you look great today. Keep going for a shot of Queen Isabell sitting in the thing with some sweet green paisley pants on (jealous!).

photography by prue ruscoe for home life.

there’s something so fresh looking about a bit of mid-century furnishings against a background of neutral white walls — vintage danish modern at its best. add a pop of lush green plant life to spaces full of natural wood furniture and rooms seem to get even more vibrant and alive. i love this look and wouldn’t mind a modern retreat somewhere in the california redwoods decorated around this theme. looks mighty peaceful and relaxing.

mid-century credenza, globe and mirror, via regina.

great entry space via, stadshem.

ikea’s saarinen-like doksta table and bentwood chairs, via fantastik frank.

wonderful bedside table of greenery, via lily.

smitten studio’s beautiful painted floors.

mid-century modern touches, via stadshem (above + below).

lena corwin’s beautiful old brooklyn home, remodelista.

a california house, via a cup of jo.

home of rebecca + bruce meissner, via our gathered home.

Do you have an outdoor space, but are looking for some interior design ideas to make the functional areas more stylish?   Here are 3 ways to add some design style!

1. Define your outdoor seating area so it feels like a room whether its with structures to define the walls or flooring underneath.   If you want additional seating try adding a retaining wall or built in seating.   And if you’re needing shade think about including a pergola like I did in my own backyard or another structure overhead. 

 

2. Think about how you can make functional areas or items fun whether you’re disguising the functional area or making it part of your design!

 

3. Layer in color and/or texture with throw pillows, area rugs, fabric window panels or oversized accessories such as lanterns and trays, bringing your inside color palette out.

For more information or fabulous photos on how to create stylish outdoor spaces, become a fan of Kansas City’s interior designer Karen Mills on Facebook here or or sign up for our weekly blog here!

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This is Poveglia Island, a 17-acre island "between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy." It was originally used as a dumping ground for dying plague victims. Then in 1922 a mad doctor opened a mental hospital there where he performed lobotomies with hammers and chisels, and eventually killed himself by jumping from the hospital's tower "after claiming he'd been driven mad by ghosts." I dunno, sounds like you might have been mad already, doc. And now it's for sale by the Italian government to help reduce its debts. I say we buy it, bulldoze everything, and build a happy fun amusement park with tons of rides...that kill.

The island has remained closed to visitors in recent years with access strictly restricted by the Italian government. It has become a draw for supernatural investigators searching for signs of the rumoured spirits, the most famous of which is a plague victim called Little Maria, who it is claimed stands crying looking out across the lagoon towards her home. One of the visiting presenters of the Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures claimed to have been possessed on a visit to the island. According to The Telegraph the plan for the decrepit building is to transform it into a luxury hotel, though a group of architects and planners have launched a campaign to buy the island in a bid to stop the further privatisation of the lagoon.

A luxury hotel? I don't think that's a good idea. I say just sink the island into the lagoon and build another one. One with less...history. Because history, as I may have mentioned before, was my second worst subject in school. So what if Lincoln crossed the Mississippi to go to war with the Frenchies, I want to learn things that are going to get me a HIGH PAYING JOB. I'm kidding, history is important. As philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Haha -- I just sounded smart, didn't I? That felt weird, I don't think I like it. *chugs beer, fails to break bottle over head* Aww yeah, BACK IN BUSINESS. Keep going for several shots of the hospital's luxurious interior.

This is a video from German watchmaker Nomos Glashütte of one of their modern watches being assembled. It was a treat to watch(!), mostly because I've always been fascinated with watchmaking (and collect vintage Doxas). Everything is so small. Did you know the jewels in a watch are actually bearings? For the longest time I did not know that. I always thought they powered the watch with like, alien tech. I thought winding a watch was just some conspiracy invented by the Watchmaking Brotherhood to hide the fact they're sitting on a treasure trove of alien secrets. I heard they're also responsible for neon signs and those microwave thingies at Subway that can toast a sub in like five seconds. Keep going for the video. It's nice.

Le site Kind Of Normal a imaginé des infographies amusantes appelées « TruthFacts » qui livrent des petites vérités sur notre quotidien, notre époque (digitale) et nos diverses habitudes ; des anecdotes dans lesquelles tout le monde peut se reconnaitre. Une sélection des différentes infographies est disponible dans la suite.

Whee!

A Portland, Oregon, woman is suing Walmart for $10,000 over a bottle of shampoo she says got her butt-length hair into such a tangled mess she was forced to cut most of it off.

Jennifer Fahey, 30, says she has had waist-length hair since childhood. She claims that within seconds of applying Equate Everyday Clean Dandruff Shampoo to her hair it was so knotted she was forced to cut all but about four inches off.

The lawsuit, which identifies shampoo manufacturer Vi-Jon as a defendant as well, requests $10,000 in compensation for “past, present and future physical and emotional pain and suffering, anxiety, humiliation and embarrassment, expenses for replacement hair, along with diminished and lost wages” as well as “loss of life’s pleasure and activities.” The bottle of shampoo, according to The Oregonian, runs about $3.44.

Walmart could not be reached for comment.

[The Oregonian]

BEEP BEEP! Do you hear that? It’s the taco truck, it’s coming this way. Drive it straight into my mouth! God, I love tacos. So much that, clearly, I’ve lost my mind. This is the Taco Truck Taco Holder designed by Carl Mitsch and soon to be sold over at Fred & Friends. Cute, but […]
Visit IncredibleThings.com for the full post.

My brunch arsenal, the dishes I’ve made enough times that they no longer cause any furrowed brows — a core entertaining principle here at House Smitten Kitchen (sigil: cast-iron skillet) — is as follows: bacon (always roasted in the oven, I mean, unless you were hoping to mist yourself with eau de pork belly*); some sort of fruit salad (either mixed berries and vanilla bean-scented yogurt or mixed citrus segments, sometimes with mint and feta); buttermilk biscuits; a pitcher of Bloody Marys, a bottle of champagne and a couple carafes of freshly-squeezed grapefruit or orange juice, blood orange whenever available; something sweet (our current favorite) and eggs. As I dictated years ago, everything that can be made in advance should be, thus pancakes, individually fried slices of French toast, omelets and even eggs baked in ramekins, adorable as they may be, are verboten. I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and it’s always the worst.

In the egg category, my favorite for ease and laze is this spinach and cheese strata, however, if I have even 15 additional minutes at my disposal (which, let’s be honest, I do, especially when I spend less time here) remains these baked eggs with spinach and mushrooms. We talked about it, oh, seven years ago, but it’s been so buried in the archives, literally three recipes deep with a single hideous photo, that I’m long overdue to unearth it. At the time, I was charmed by how incredible something so wholesome could taste. These days, I’d add to its list of charms: vegetarian, gluten/grain-free, as good for a weeknight dinner as it is a weekend brunch dish, and oh, did I mention that it looks like an Easter egg basket? That’s a recent development.

... Read the rest of baked eggs with spinach and mushrooms on smittenkitchen.com

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A shocking new report finds that in addition to waging war against the only planet capable of sustaining human life, we’re also attacking those who would seek to protect it. The survey, conducted by London-based Global Witness, revealed that between 2002 and 2013, more than 900 environmental activists were killed as a direct result of their work defending environmental and land rights. And these are just the known murders–actual numbers in the last couple of years are suspected to be higher. Why, in a time of high public concern about the environment, are we killing the very people working to stop its destruction? The answer, as always, comes down to money.

Read the rest of Killing the Lorax: 900 Environmental Activists Slain in the Past 10 Years

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The photo above may look like something from an exposé about cramped living quarters in Asia, but was actually taken right in New York’s Chinatown. Photographer Annie Ling brought her camera into 81 Bowery, a building where Chinese immigrant laborers were being housed in 64-square-foot cubicles, to capture the claustrophobic living conditions. Click here to see the rest of her haunting photos.

READ MORE >

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Because some artists are questionably even artists at all, French artiste Abraham Poincheval has been living inside a taxidermied bear for the past two weeks. Wow, what a groundbreaking performance piece. Call me when you're trying to sleep inside a LIVE bear for two weeks. Why is he even doing this? Survey says: probably some pretentious bullshit!

Since April 1, Poincheval has been partaking in the interactive exhibition at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, essentially chilling inside a taxidermy bear with a sparse amount of food and water. He has some additional survival materials in there, including a light, cushion, kettle and toilet of some kind. The piece is meant to test Poincheval's physical limits while allowing the artist to get in touch with his animal instincts.

Yeah bro, there's nothing quite like listening to your iPod and napping all day to really get in touch with your animal instincts. Nice cardigan, what are you, a killer tiger? I wish I had two weeks with nothing to do but catch up on my rest and relaxation. But, oh right -- JOB. If somebody wants to commission me to come nap in something for two weeks, you've got yourself a deal. Hell, I'll even take my chances in a sex dungeon or shark tank. Real talk. Keep going for a couple more pictures of the does anybody else really consider you an artist is it just something you insist on yourself?

Artist Miguel Chevalier transformed the entire floor of the former Sacred Heart of Casablanca Church into a mesmerizing pixelated Magic Carpet. His interactive installation uses sound and lights to create multicolored patterns and mosaics that adjust to the movement of visitors. This virtual carpet creates choreographed movements of light accompanied by echoing sounds of music by Michel Redolfi.


Read the rest of Miguel Chevalier Transforms a Former Church Into a Colorful Pixelated Setting for a ‘Magic Carpet’ Ride

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La Llareta (up to 3,000 years old; Atacama Desert, Chile)

Spruce Gran Picea #0909 – 11A07 (9,550 years old; Fulufjället, Sweden)

Welwitschia Mirabilis #0707-22411 (2,000 years old; Namib-Naukluft Desert, Namibia)

Antarctic Moss #0212-7B33 (5,500 years old; Elephant Island, Antarctica)

Jōmon Sugi, Japanese Cedar #0704-002 (2,180-7,000 years old; Yakushima, Japan

Underground Forest #0707-10333 (13,000 years old; Pretoria South Africa) DECEASED

Since 2004, Brooklyn-based contemporary artist Rachel Sussman has researched, collaborated with biologists, and braved some of the world’s harshest climates from Antarctica to the Mojave Desert in order to photograph the oldest continuously living organisms on Earth. This includes plants like Pando, the “Trembling Giant,” a colony of aspens in Utah with a massive underground root system estimated to be around 80,000 years old. Or the dense Llareta plants in South America that grow 1.5 centimeters anually and live over 3,000 years. This is the realm of life where time is measured in millennia, and where despite such astonishing longevity, ecosystems are now threatened due to climate change and human encroachment.

Sussman’s photographs have now been gathered together for the first time in The Oldest Living Things in the World, a new book published by the University of Chicago Press. Sitting at the intersection of art, science, and travelogue, the book details her adventures in tracking down each subject and relays the valuable scientific work done by scientists to understand them. It includes 124 photographs, 30 essays, infographics and forewords by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Carl Zimmer.

You can learn more about Sussman’s project in her 2010 TED Talk. (via Hyperallergic)

Update: Rachel Sussman was just named a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow.

Keystone XL Pipeline opponents have carved a massive 80-acre crop drawing in a Nebraska cornfield that sits directly in the path of the proposed project. Farmer Art Tanderup, who owns the land, drove the tractor that created the message based on a design by artists John Quigley and Richard Vollaire. The message reads “Heartland#NoKXL” and features a profile of a cowboy and Indigenous American in solidarity against the pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to Gulf Coast refineries for shipment to China.

Read the rest of KXL Opponents Carve Massive Anti-Pipeline Crop Art in Nebraska Cornfield

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Chef, a new comedy about an executive chef’s life and times following a dust-up with a critic, is coming out next month. From the looks of the trailer above, what makes it authentic isn’t Scarlett Johanssen as a hostess, the food critic’s beautifully expressed assholery (Oliver Platt is always amazing), the social media errors in judgment, Dustin Hoffman’s restaurateur hissy-fit, or all the food porn, it’s John Leguizamo shaking corn starch on his testicles. Whoever their kitchen consultant was deserves an Oscar!

TAKE ANOTHER BREAK

mymodernmet:

Lifestyle photographer Grace Chon recently turned the camera on her 10-month-old baby Jasper and their 7-year-old rescue dog Zoey, putting them side-by-side in the some of the most adorable portraits ever.

tastefullyoffensive:

Mario Kart IRL. [zdedwards]

If you’re like most homeowners, you’re investing more into your outdoor spaces this year or probably thinking about creating an outdoor space.  So where do you start and what’s hot for 2014?

As an interior designer I often end up designing the outdoor spaces for clients too, so I suggest beginning with your hardscape elements whether its flooring like pavers and decking or a structure like the pergola I designed for my outdoor space.

Remember while you’re planning your space, its important to consider the current outdoor living trends too.

 

According to the ASLA, American Society of Landscape Architects, over 95% of homeowners prefer a terrace, patio, or deck along with a maintenance free landscape.

Other hot trends include outdoor lighting for outdoor features, pathways, and hanging lights along with seating/dining areas, outdoor amenities such as a pool or fire pit, installed seating, and outdoor kitchens or grills.

I’m also seeing a huge trend in the return of bold color accents for pillows, rugs, and decor in fun patterns including ikat, chevron, geometrics, beach inspired, and ethnic styles.

Plus a trend towards container gardening with an emphasis on herbs or vegetables that can be used for cooking.

For more great ideas and photos, sign up for our weekly interior design blog here

Or become a fan of Kansas City’s interior designer Karen Mills on Facebook here!

 

 

 

 

 

I haven’t made a smoothie in a while and thought today would be a great day to try a new one.  My kids love my watermelon smoothies, they are really

Warning: Language.

A Compilation of some of the very best Westerosi aphorisms and other words to live by.

[Nerdwriter1 | Via TA]