Bridget

We’ve all been there: You receive a fragile packaged carefully wrapped in Bubble Wrap that’s just begging for you to start pinching the plastic between your fingers to create that joyous popping sound. The days of that sweet sound may be over as the biggest company in the Bubble Wrap game is revamping its signature product by removing its popping possibility.

The Charlotte Observer reports that North Carolina-based Sealed Air, maker of the iconic packing material, has created a new version called iBubble Wrap that loses its popping quality.

The new product is sold to companies in flat plastic sheets and then filled with special pumps. The company says iBubble Wrap – before inflated – uses about one-fiftieth as much space as traditional Bubble Wrap.

While the new wrap costs less than traditional Bubble Wrap, the custom pumps used to fill the material cost about $5,500.

Because the new version of the packaging material is laid out in connected air pockets, the filling migrates to other areas and doesn’t have the ability to pop.

Sealed Air says the new material is intended to cater to online retailers looking for less bulky ways to ship products all over the world, the Observer reports.

Sealed Air hopes to elate customers with deflated Bubble Wrap [Charlotte Observer]

The argument about whether cats are better than dogs has finally come to a close. Cats win. I mean, just take a look at these cats cosplaying as a character from Fallout -- how could you ever consider dogs better after seeing this? You're probably just jealous you might not ever get your claws on the real-life Pip-Boy if you haven't already preordered one. 

If you want to see cats wearing other cosplay head over to the Seattle Sea-Cats official Twitter. It is just purrrrr-fect. 

Read more...

cocktail hour! have a fun/safe holiday weekend, everyone. 

A "Tea" sign, which looms over Panda North in Brattleboro, Vermont, has already been the subject of an Environmental Court decision after the town tried removing it when the former steakhouse became a Chinese restaurant and the sign was changed from "Steak" to "Tea" by removing an "S" and a "K." It will once again be discussed at a Development Review Board hearing as the town contends that it is finally time to tear down the non-conforming structure. But the owners are not going without another fight. Brattleboro Zoning Administrator Brain Bannon has determined that the sign is in violation of the town's zoning code because it is not in good repair. Panels are missing, portions of the letters have broken away and the lighting fixtures are exposed to the elements, Bannon wrote in his violation notice.



Furthermore, the sign is both larger and taller than the current zoning code allows, and while it is "grandfathered" in as a nonconforming structure under the zoning code, the sign must be maintained, Bannon said. Bannon issued a violation notice to Panda North and the restaurant is appealing the notice to the DRB, which will hear the appeal at its July 20 meeting. Under the town's zoning code the sign is "grandfathered" in because it was erected before the most current zoning regulations were adopted in 1988. The town zoning code, however, requires that any "grandfathered," or nonconforming, sign that is damaged to the extent that the cost of repairing or restoration will exceed one-third the replacement value must be taken down. Bannon, in his letter, says the town considers signs and support structures separately, and given that half the sign panel is missing and portions of the text have broken away, the sign has sustained damage that exceeds one-third of its value.

Panda North could face fines of $200 per day if the sign remains and the appeal is denied. The sign was built in 1962 and originally displayed the word "Steak $5.99" before the letters "S" and "K" and the numbers were removed in 1990 shortly after the former steak house became a Chinese Restaurant. The town, back then, wanted Michael Lacroix, the then-owner of the property to remove the sign because steak was no longer being sold at $5.99. He instead changed the sign to "Tea." The town was not amused and took him to court, but an environmental judge found in 1998 that the "Tea" sign could stay. "I don't think the town ever got over that," said Bruce Hesselbach, a Brattleboro attorney who is representing Panda North. "They've been mad ever since and now they are going after it again." According to Hesselbach, the town needs to consider the complete value of the sign, including the supports, and not just use the sign when determining the value.



"When the (zoning code) uses the word "sign," it clearly means the entire sign including the frames and supports," Hesselbach wrote in the appeal. "Otherwise it would lead to the absurd result that the written part of the sign is allowed but the frame and supports have to be removed. The Environmental Court has already held that this sign could stay. The court did not rule that only the written part of the sign could stay." Hesselbach said his clients agree that the sign is in disrepair but he said Panda North wants to either repair the sign or replace it with a newer sign that reads "Panda North." "They did not want to get into another fight with the town, but they are being forced into it," he said. Bannon said he made his determination of the damage to the sign during a routine inspection, and he said the structure was both unsafe and an eyesore.. "As they long as they maintain the sign they can keep it," Bannon said. "But once it is damaged at one-third of its value it has to come down."

During a recent trip to Romania, I had the chance to shoot the abandoned casino in Constanta. As a pearl watching over the Black Sea where wealthy travelers and the elite flocked from all over Europe to play and dance all night in what used to be the most magnificent building of the country.

I hope my photographs will give you a glimpse of what was the atmosphere back in time!

More info: romainveillon.com

Perceptual Shift is the latest in my series of sculptural works that I refer to as expanded graphics, limited color graphics that are exploded and rendered in three dimensional space. This work is the first of its kind, it’s a 3D halftone. Black and white halftone images are traditionally produced using black circles on a white surface. This work moves away from the traditional picture plane using the white room as its canvas. The flat black circles have become floating black spheres. When viewing this piece a perceptual shift occurs as a seemingly chaotic array of black particles suddenly align to form a highly organized graphic image. To see the illusion, the viewer’s perception of three dimensional space needs to change and become perceived as flat. Once you see the illusion, it contains within it another illusion; one of another space and of volume.

For the past twenty years I have been rendering illusions of two dimensional images in three dimensional space. I began this body of work as a way to excite and capture the attention of the viewer by presenting an alternative way of experiencing space and image. The suspended sculptures are essentially mobiles for grown ups. They are vehicles for information and starting points for conversations. I aim to create rewarding visual experiences that leave the viewer contemplating their stance on important issues.

The imagery of the eye was inspired by information privacy and the mass surveillance and data collection being conducted by the United States government. I feel this is a very important issue that more people need to be talking and thinking about. Our government is violating our rights and no one seems to care.

Be sure to check out the music of my incredibly talented daughter Iris Isadora!

More info: mmike.com

Perceptual Shift

Front view

1,252 black wooden spheres suspended with translucent braided fibers | Currently on view at IMAGE Gallery in Brooklyn, NY until July 3, 2015.

Side view

Close-up

Opening Night

Process

Reading an online blog I came across blue salt fields in Australia. Photographer Simon Butterworth took aerial shots of them. Photos of blue salt fields look so surreal, like patterns of abstract painting.

It’s obvious that he is worth the appreciation and he was also shortlisted for the 2015 Sony World Photography awards.

More info: simonbutterworthphotography.com

Hey there, you little bored pandas,

Once upon a time there was a little copywriter (that is me, Stefan), who spilled a cup of coffee. What emerged from the depth of the darkest espresso available was a small monster. It looked at me and said: “Draw me, draw me, draw meeee!”

And then I drew. The next day I thought “Well, I could do it daily, just to be creative every day.” So I took a spoon and spilled some coffee on paper. My colleagues looked at me the way people look at people who go completely nuts. Well, they didn’t know.

Since then, after more than 480 coffee-monsters, I use better paper, some of the best coffee and some cool tools to make the monsters more perfect. Also, I write little stories for every single one which makes them a little more worthwhile. And the best part is: It makes people happy!

My favorite moment up until now was, when someone wrote me, that the monsters make her happy everyday. This is so cheerful and because of messages like that I do it again and again. It never gets old for me, because a spill is never the same. The coffeemonsters are my way of expressing my love for comics, coffee and randomness. So here they are, feel free to tell me what you think. :)

More info: thecoffeemonsters.com

Monster #468

For monster Jim there was only one thing going to be the peak of the week. The search for some cattle and eating it as a small snack.

Monster #432

Fiiiiiiiiiireeeeeee! This monster is clearly on fire. It has a burning arm and a flame as legs. It will roast it’s prey right away. Muhahaha!

Monster #480

This monster is so sweet, it would just eat you right away. And it really could because its friggin 30ft high and its preferred munchie are “humans”.

Monster #275

One morning coffee-frog Paul had to cross a road. And because the cars were fast that morning, he had to dance like he never did before to avoid them. Schubidu, like germans would say.

Monster #219

While Bobby was spectating what was going on behind his back, he decided to take a look on what was lying in front of him.

Monster #282

It’s like men watching beautiful women. Sometimes the eyes just pop out. Luckily people are no monsters and it doesn’t happen to them for real like it happens to this monster here.

Monster #447

The official @btconf monster!

Monster #479

Jumping around with Leo! Whoooo.

Monster #403

It tried to get up early but was late anyways. Argh!

Monster #19

Monster #346

Jumping on one finger. I wanna see you pull that off!

Monster #456

The sleep embraced him for too long. Almost four hours passed since he took the one-hour-sleeping-as-deep-as-a-crocodile-pills. But little did he know that the effect on coffeemonster-crocodiles was even more heavy.

Monster #466

The coffee went gone too fast and then it just happened out of nowhere. Fishorman lost his heart and tried to hold it in his chest. But he lost and the coffee went on without him but with his heart.

Monsters #477

Here is a piggy monster, ready to fetch a to be thrown ball. Go, piggie. Go!

Monster #343

4 eyes are better than two – because hunting humans is hard. Even for monsters like this one!

Monster #223

A little four-eyed coffeemonster playing with it’s small dog-monster. I bet it’s got an eye on everything.

Monster #435

This monster clearly has got a message for you: Fu!

Carmine Migliaccio, a comedian in Italy, has trained his cat to drop dead when shot with a finger. With a single bang, he  whimpers and crumples to the ground. Don't worry! He'll be up and playing with the keys in a moment.

(Video Link)

-via Laughing Squid

I’m quoted in this Refinery29 article (which was also reported on by the UK’s Daily Mail), talking about how taking on the office housekeeping work (planning parties, cleaning up the kitchen, ordering lunch) can hold you back. Here’s an excerpt:

“People don’t get high-profile projects, win promotions, or make a name in their field because they planned office parties or remembered all their coworkers’ birthdays,” says Alison Green, founder of Ask A Manager. “You only have so much energy and focus at work; spending on this sort of housekeeping means that you’re not spending it where it will actually benefit you. You want to be known as a great engineer / spokesperson / lawyer / whatever your job is — not as a great baker [unless that’s your job] or fill-in receptionist or office mom.”

“Too often, women find themselves always being the ones to take notes, clean up the kitchen, order lunch, and do other caretaking work, while their male colleagues in similar roles get to focus on doing work that’s more highly valued,” Green continues. “That can have very real and very long-lasting ramifications for who gets what projects, who gets what recognition, and who builds what reputation.”

…“One of the best things you can do…is to simply point it out,” she argues. “Speak up and say, ‘Hey, I’ve noticed that this work always falls to women. Can we change that?'”

stop doing the office housekeeping work was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

Mary Iverson fills natural and manmade landscapes with colorful shipping containers, objects haphazardly stacked on each other and taking up a majority of the otherwise tranquil scenes. The containers and boxes are cross-hatched with overlaid lines, connecting them a predetermined pattern seemingly known only by the artist.

Iverson explains her work by saying, “My paintings are colorful abstractions that spring from the theme of the industrial shipping terminal. The canvases feature mass accumulations of shipping containers and container cranes in various perspectives. My work employs a network of searching perspective lines and layers of interlocking, colorful planes and rectangles that suggest both deep space and flat surface.”

Part painting and part collage (the pieces often incorporate found photography), her artworks address what happens when globalization and the environment collide, material possessions doubling and tripling until they spill into the natural world around them. The Seattle-based painter gathers the bulk of her source imagery for her sketches through yearly trips to parks across the country, camping and photographing the landscape around her.

Iverson received her MFA in Painting from the University of Washington in 2002 and currently teaches painting and drawing at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, WA as a tenured faculty member. Iverson has two upcoming October exhibitions, one at Gallery FB69 in Munster, Germany and another at G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle. Check out more images of Iverson’s work on her Instagram here. (via Juxtapoz where she’s the cover artist for the August issue)

Today at the Aksys Games panel at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, the publisher and Zero Escape series director Kotaro Uchikoshi announced Zero Escape Volume 3.

This is the next entry in developer Spike Chunsoft's visual novel adventure franchise that currently spans Virtue's Last Reward and 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.

The title will feature dual-audio (both Japanese and English voice work), Aksys has confirmed.

Zero Escape 3 is targeting a summer 2016 release on Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita.

The Owl and Kitteh
Love to cuddle in a ball
What could be better

(Dan B. found this on RN24.)

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: BFFs, Friday Haiku, kittehs, Owls

Just in case you weren't impressed by a few pictures of what is allegedly one of a small number of prototypes units developed by Sony for Nintendo prior to Nintendo's surprise partnership with Phillips. And so birthed the PlayStation, all praises to it.

I like SSNES for its snakey sound, but Nintendo would never go for that, obviously.

It's wild that Lucario is hot enough shit to get a demeaning opening thwack on the god rat itself, Pikachu. I mean, Pikachu is granted a follow up upper cut and an unfinished electric attack, but it's still nice to see the yellow king get clocked.

Then there's the whole Biodome ring area and Machamp hugging a horse that fell in some paint. God, look at the individual hairs on these monsters. Getting Ratchet (of and Clank fame) levels.

Can you read Chinese? Then you might have a leg up on the rest of us in reading the delightful cat comics of Miss Cat Time Notes. I tried Google translate, but of course it does not detect text in comic images. No matter, many of the comics need no dialogue, and the rest are charming even when you can’t read the punch line. In the comic above, the kitties are visiting a shrine to their ancestors. Below, they get their nails done. there are hundreds more. -via Metafilter

Brooke Barker, an artist in Portland, Oregon, loves to draw and loves animals. She feels sorry for a lot of animals who lead a rough life. She illustrates those problems at Sad Animal Facts, which put an amusing spin on what our animal friends have to put up with.

-via Lost at E Minor

Any Amazon customer is likely aware that the e-tail giant knows a lot about them. That’s how it personalizes product suggestions and customizes the marketing e-mails it sends. But some Amazon users are now finding out that the site knows — or at least it thinks it knows — who your friends are, and is restricting their reviews accordingly.

Blogger Imy Santiago writes of a particularly odd experience with Amazon that resulted after she tried to review an e-book she’d recently read.

“Your review could not be posted to the website in its current form,” stated an automated message from Amazon, saying her review had violated the site’s review guidelines, but without saying where she’d gone wrong.

After another failed attempt to post the review — also denied without giving a specific explanation — Imy wrote to Amazon hoping to get some more details on why her write-up was being blocked.

“We cannot post your Customer Review… to the Amazon website because your account activity indicates that you know the author,” explained the response from the company. “Customer Reviews are meant to give customers unbiased product feedback from fellow shoppers. Because our goal is to provide Customer Reviews that help customers make informed purchase decisions, any reviews that could be viewed as advertising, promotional, or misleading will not be posted.”

According to Imy, Amazon is making an “erroneous and quite presumptuous assessment” in asserting that she knows the author of the book she’s trying to review.

In her appeal to Amazon, she concedes that the independent publishing community is a small one and that she may have had social media interactions with the author, but “knowing of an author online, and personally knowing an author in real life are two different things. By your definition it would mean that bloggers such as myself are being barred from reviewing books they legitimately purchased, which in turn contravenes with the notion that reviews for a verified purchase are highly encouraged.”

Imy says it is “unfair to the authors whose work I love, to be punished for a claim that simply cannot stand. I don’t know any authors on a personal level.”

Her appeal fell on deaf ears, as the response from Amazon simply restated, “We removed your Customer Reviews because you know the author personally.”

As to how the company came to this conclusion, we’ll never know.

“Due to the proprietary nature of our business, we do not provide detailed information on how we determine that accounts are related,” concludes the denial of Imy’s appeal. “We cannot share any further information about our decision and we may not reply to further emails about this issue.”

We’ve written to Amazon for comment on this story and will update if we hear anything back.

In November 2014, an adorable little hedgehog slid easily into a plastic measuring cup in order to be weighed by a kitchen countertop scale

image via reddit

via reddit, Daily Picks and Flicks

Bob the Golden Retriever lives a very happy life with his blended family that includes two cockatiels, four parakeets, two zebra finches, and one fuzzy hamster. They all appear to love one another, although the cockatiels tend to pick at each other from time to time.

A video posted by Bob (@bob_goldenretriever) on Jun 23, 2015 at 7:21pm PDT

images via Bob the Golden Retriever

via RocketNews24, Bored Panda

(Photo: Assaf Perez/IAA)

A family in Jerusalem, Israel found an incredible archaeological find beneath their living room floor: a huge, well-preserved, and ancient mikveh, which is a Jewish ritual bath. It's carved directly into the rock and lined with plaster. Pottery fragments suggest to archaeologists that it dates back to the First Century A.D. Haartez describes the find:

When they did call in the Israel Antiquities Authority, beneath the doors, the archaeologists found the carved stone staircase leaving to a big mikveh, 3.5 meters in length and 2.4 meters wide, with a depth of 1.8 meters.

The rock-hewn bath was meticulously plastered according to the laws of purity appearing in halacha. The staircase leads to the bottom of the immersion pool.

-via Messy Nessy Chic

The Twitter account for the New York Times learned a very important lesson today: Avocados are sacred, and as such, guacamole should not be despoiled by the likes of the pea, a food reviled by any kid ever forced to finish their vegetables before they could leave the table. Any suggestion otherwise is outright HERESY, according to the denizens of the Internet. The responses are numerous, the ire is intense, and discontent reigns. [@NYTimes]

Your plate arrives with a waffle, a grilled cheese, raw oysters—but it's not what you ordered. At the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto, that's the point, where resident artist Jacqueline Poirier, aka "The Crazy Plate Lady," has been hand painting dishware for the past three years.

READ MORE »

Stephen Colbert recently stepped in as the guest host of Only in Monroe, a Michigan public access talk show presented by MPACT. Colbert said he was growing impatient waiting for the theater for his new show, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, to be ready.

That show is scheduled to premiere on CBS on September 8, 2015.

Remember Cat Man from last fall? A retired dude from Kagoshima in Kyushu, Big J has become a celebrity of sorts for wheeling his huge Cat Family around the neighborhood. And now we’ve got some followup video for ya.

Susan M. found it here.

[*Note: Obnoxious Music Alert (IMO) at the :30 mark, you might wanna turn DOWN the speakers. -Ed.]

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Cats, The Big J

Amazon's started something new and interesting -- it's offering Prime members discounts on some games without explicitly stating that it's offering discounts on those games. Yeah, it's weird, but Prime members benefit which they're certainly not going to complain about.

The only indication of this trend is a text box on the item page that says "Members of Amazon Prime qualify for a lower price on this item when shipped and sold by Amazon." But, in order to actually see the discount, you have to add it to your cart; it doesn't show up before then.

We've done the leg work and gathered a bunch of the discounts. It seems to be a nice mix of pre-orders and already-released games. Games like Arkham Knight and Splatoon have fair savings considering how new they are. Then there are the pre-orders like Halo 5 and Black Ops III which likely won't see a better price reduction prior to launch.

Given how secretive this all is, we don't know when these deals will end. We also don't know when new offerings will be rotated in. Seems like you just have to have your head on a swivel. One thing's for sure, though: Prime memberships are more and more worth it all the time.

Here's the first batch of these elusive deals:

Read more...

In an interview, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes director Hiromasa Shikata explained why players can't choose to be a female character. "The story calls for this sort of legend/prophecy where heroes will come together to help solve a problem," he told IGN. "And in that, they are male characters. So, because the game is set with that as the story background, you cannot choose a gender; you are a male character."

When further pressed on the issue, Hiromasa stated, "We do have a lot of female staff members who are playing this game and enjoying it. It doesn't seem to be a big issue to them... And to be honest, Link isn't the most masculine of guys in the world, depending on how you want to project yourself into the character."

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Shovel Knight is one of those games that's so good, you want as many people as possible to hear about it, play it, and hopefully dig it as much as you do. To that end, some good news: Yacht Club Games is pushing for a retail launch on October 13, 2015 in North America and October 16 in Europe. There will be $19.99 physical copies for Wii U, 3DS, PS4, Xbox One and, in Europe, PC.

The studio promises "a lavish instruction booklet similar to the Kickstarter reward," on top of support for future content like the soon-to-be-released Plague of Shadows update. "We're in the home stretch and are polishing every detail, pixel, and potion right now," says Yacht Club.

More to come, too. Battle Mode, anyone? Expect options for characters, stages, and battle types. "Also... we've heard the cries of bringing more exclusive content to Nintendo platforms. It might not be quite what you expect... but keep an eye out for another MEGATON announcement soon!"

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Oh how the tides have changed. This time last generation, Sony was really struggling to keep up with the Wii or the Xbox with the PlayStation 3. But look at them now! (Almost) world domination!

VG247 has reported that the PlayStation 4 has a massive European presence, being roughly 70-90% of the EU console market. All of this is according to SCEE president Jim Ryan:

“We have a very significant market leadership… Well, we have market leadership in every country in Europe, and have very significant market leadership in continental Europe. Extremely significant. I don’t think market-share’s any less than 70%, and frequently greater than 90% in continental Europe.”

This success in Europe has let the company take more experimental titles seriously, Media Molecule’s Dreams being noted as an example. I also expect Sony’s support of indie titles in the last couple of years is supported by the PS4’s success.

I'm kind of curious to see exactly what the Xbox One market share in Europe really is the 10-30 suggested here. If so, Microsoft looks like they've got a bit of an uphill battle this generation.

Soon, Sony shall construct a mighty tower in the centre of Belgium, from which it can see all of its minions as they chug away at their Uncharteds and Horizon: New Dawn's. Shuhei Yoshida shall perch atop it, gazing upon his dominion. And we will all praise him.

Praise him. 

PlayStation 4 dominates Europe with ’70-90%’ of console market [VG247]

Phoo Chan, a talented California-based bird photographer whose photos have been featured by National Geographic, has captured an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime series of photos of a crow landing and riding on the back of a bald eagle mid-flight.

According to Chan, “Crows are known for aggressively harassing other raptors that are much bigger in size when spotted in their territories and usually these ‘intruders’ simply retreat without much fuss. However, in this frame the crow did not seem to harass the bald eagle at such close proximity and neither did the bald eagle seem to mind the crow’s presence invading its personal space. What made it even more bizarre was that the crow even made a brief stop on the back of the eagle as if it was taking a free scenic ride and the eagle simply obliged.”

As strange as this photo may be, it’s not the first time that such a rare and unexpected sight has been spotted by a photographer – check out the baby weasel that took a ride on this woodpecker!

More info: 500px | Twitter | Flickr