Sea slugs aren’t exactly creatures you’d consider to be adorable, but Japan’s Twittersphere has just rediscovered what is probably the cutest sea slug ever – Jorunna parva, a sea slug that looks like a fluffy bunny.
This tiny sea slug’s bunny ears are actually rhinophores, or chemosensory scent/taste organs that help them detect chemicals in the water and make their way across the ocean floor. They can be found from the Indian Ocean to the Philippines to Japan, where photos of them have become popular.
James Doran-Webb, the incredibly talented driftwood sculptor whom we wrote about previously, has expanded his work from majestic horses to terrifying driftwood dragons that seem prepared to terrorize the village folk in the surrounding countryside.
Doran-Webb has created two epic dragon sculpture. The first, perched on a dead tree, is called ‘The Wyvern in the Baobabs’ (a wyvern is a type of dragon with two legs and two wings). The other, ‘Wyvern’s Folly,’ is perched on a gazebo made from reclaimed steel and recycled water bottles.
Doran-Webb works in the Philippines, creating amazing, powerful sculptures of creatures like these dragons using found driftwood and steel frames to make sure that they can support their own weight.
For when you’ve had enough of the weatherman, which is like, always. The Tempescope is a cool invention that lets you know of tomorrow’s weather forecast by actually simulating sunshine, rain, fog, and even lightning indoors.
Created by Japanese designer Ken Kawamoto, the device features a small box that gathers weather information online and then simulates that forecast using a combination of LED light, water, and ultrasonics (for the fog). Great if you’re too lazy to get up off the couch and look out the window.
DIY experts can help themselves to Kawamoto’s open source version for the Tempescopeby accessing it at ‘OpenTempescope’. Others will have to wait a bit longer as the Tempescope team is still getting ready to launch a Kickstarter campaign later this year.
…we present a novel single-sheet structure that self-folds into a centimeter-sized mobile robot that subsequently walks, swims, and dissolves. The robot is controlled using an external magnetic field exerted by embedded coils underneath the robot. Equipped with just one permanent magnet, the robot features a lightweight body yet can perform many tasks reliably despite its simplicity. The minimal body materials enable the robot to completely dissolve in a liquid environment, a difficult challenge to accomplish if the robot had a more complex architecture. This study is the first to demonstrate that a functional robotic device can be created and operated from the material level, promising versatile applications including use in vivo.
Whether you’re in the group that loves or in the group that hates the Hobbitmovies, there’s no denying that these were pretty big films that made A LOT of money! Even though the movie was called The Hobbit, most of the attention was focused on the dwarves and their epic quest to retake the Lonely Mountain from the dragon, Smaug. We spent three movies watching these dwarves fight for what was rightfully theirs, so it’s hard not to get attached to some of them.
But have you ever wondered what happened to the dwarves after all was said and done? Dwarves live for a while, so where were these characters during The Lord of the Rings trilogy? The answers for some of them might not be exactly what you wanted to hear!
Let’s dig in!
The Fate Of The Dwarves
Oin
Forty-eight years after being settled in the Lonely Mountain, Oin made his way back to Moria to reclaim the realm for the Dwarves. It was five years later that the orcs attacked, and when he could not escape over the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, Oin tried to exit through the Hollin Gate. It was there he was killed by the Watcher in the Water, a creature that Frodo and the rest of the Fellowship would later encounter.
Gloin
Ah yes! Gimli’s father. His life was much longer and more peaceful than his brother’s. He remained at the kingdom under the mountain and was also sent at the Council of Elrond when the Fellowship was formed. He would later die naturally at the age of 253.
Dwalin
Dwalin was a smart one. He decided to stay at the Lonely Mountain where he lived out the rest of his life, dying at the ripe, old age of 340. He lived through the war of the ring, but it was never revealed if he or Gloin ever took part in it.
Balin
Good ol' Balin. In the Hobbitmovies he was always one of the most liked Dwarves. In fact, he ended up leading an expedition to Moria where he later became The Lord of Moria for some time – until the orcs attacked and he was killed by one of their archers. Remember that Tomb in Fellowship of the Ring? Yup. That was Balin’s tomb.
Bifur & Bofur
Bifur has an axe in his skull, I think he’s had to deal with enough stuff in his life to be bothered with anymore violence. He also stayed back in the Lonely Mountain and lived out his life. His age at death is unknown. Ditto for Bofur. He also lived out his life in the mountain.
You know, for a place called the Lonely Mountain, it doesn’t seem quite so lonely there, does it?
Bombur
Bombur, like many of the others stay behind in the Lonely Mountain and enjoyed the rest of his life…a little too much. Bombur had grown SO FAT that it eventually took the strength of six dwarves to lift him to the dinner table.
Dori & Nori
Dori and Nori also stayed in the mountain where they grew their wealth and lived rich, and happy, for the rest of their lives.
Ori
Like Dori and Nori, Ori – the lovable idiot – also stayed in the mountain where he lived out his life peacefully with a wife and children.
EXCEPT THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN!
Ori actually joined the expedition to Moria and after burying Balin he was killed by the onslaught of orcs that attacked. Remember that morbid diary entry Gandalf read in the Fellowship of the ring? That was Ori’s diary.
BONUS ROUND
Bard Bowman
Bard rebuilt his ancestral town of Dale at the foot of the Lonely Mountain. He eventually became its king, establishing and maintaining good relations with the dwarves, where he lived peacefully and his son Bain succeeded him after his death.
Tauriel
I should save this for when I do my Hobbit 'Based On' video eventually, but I need to vent it here. Kili never fell in love with an Elf, much less meet Tauriel because she wasn’t even a character in the book. Peter Jackson created her just for the movie so he could force in an awful dwarf/elf forbidden relationship to emotionally manipulate the audience (it didn't work). Evangeline Lily was great in her role, but her character felt unnecessary and only weakened the story in my opinion.
--
So there you have it, the fate of the dwarves! The adventures that happened inThe Hobbit definitely impacted what would eventually take place in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, mainly due to it being how Bilbo found the ring of power. While, at times, there were unnecessary moments in the films, there were also moments that captured the magic of Middle-Earth and made you want to be part of it!
South Korean police arrested a 54-year-old man on suspicion of catching up to 600 stray cats around his neighborhood, boiling them alive, skinning and gutting the carcasses and then selling the meat to locals for use in a special medicinal soup.
The Korea JoongAng Daily reported on the incident on May 21, writing that the Pusan Police Department arrested the man on May 21 on charges of violating Korea’s animal protection laws, although the case appears to still be under investigation.
The man is accused of luring neighborhood stray cats with food, then capturing them and throwing them – alive – into a vat of boiling water in his home. He would then, police allege, skin and butcher the cats and store the meat in his freezer until buyers came around.
The accused apparently engaged in this activity for a period of a little over a year starting in February, 2014 – killing up to 600 felines in that time.
Police, the JoongAng Daily reports, were quoted as saying that a rumor has been doing the rounds in South Korea – presumably among the elderly community – which purports that cat meat, if boiled in a soup, helps to relieve arthritis. They advised Koreans to avoid illegally obtained cat meat, the JoongAng Daily notes, as it is unregulated in South Korea, unlike other more common meats such as beef and pork.
Now, since I can picture the comments section for this story quickly becoming a roiling cauldron of outrage, let’s note that, this individual’s heinous crimes aside, each country has its own cultural taboos when it comes to the consumption of certain animals and one country’s adorable pet may be another country’s delicious stew ingredient. Hell, I would gladly eat (frankly quite delicious) horse meat every single day if I could, but that’s illegal in some countries. The JoongAng itself also reported as early as 2010 that cats, which were apparently once shunned by the Korean public, are becoming increasingly popular pets in Korea, so these Eastern medicine beliefs about cat meat are sure to fall by the wayside sooner or later if they haven’t already.
That said, animal cruelty should never be condoned and we hope the 18 live cats – apparently destined for the pot – police found in the man’s dwelling find a good and caring home.
Source: JoongAng Daily via Hamster Sokuhou
This “Kettle” Rod Is a Brilliant Energy-Saving Way to Make Tea
Do you use an electric kettle to make tea? Then you’re using way too much water and too much power heating an overfilled vessel. But! We found this cool new Kickstarter project that saves energy and looks sleek in a kitchen.
It kinda looks like a thick, chic Frisbee, and it’s a pretty ingenious idea. Instead of heating a big kettle, you plop your mug on the device, and heat only the amount of liquid you’ll drink right then and there. This saves water and energy, since smaller amounts of water (or whatever) is heated at a time.
It’s called Miito, and it describes itself as “the sustainable alternative to the electric kettle.” It’s already raised over $340,000—more than double its goal.
The Kickstarter page quotes sustainability strategist Leyla Acaroglu’s TED Talk: “One day of extra energy use [from overfilling electric kettles] is enough to light all the streetlights in England for a night.”
You can also use it to warm up bowls of soup, glasses of milk, mugs of hot chocolate, whatever. Here’s how it works: Put your filled tea cup on the small induction patch on the “kettle,” which is entirely cool to the touch. Slip in an induction rod. The induction patch heats the rod, boiling the liquid from within.
It sounds like the device won’t be wireless, at least at first, which is kind of a bummer. But if it means nuking stale coffee won’t involve a loud microwave caked with sauce stains, we’re all for it. Take my money and start heating my single serving of English breakfast, please.
A gargoyle on a historic 13th Century abbey has caused a social media sensation with its resemblance to the monster from the Alien films.
A photograph of the gargoyle at Paisley Abbey, which looks like one from the 1980s movie, has gone viral on Facebook and Twitter.
The Reverend Alan Birss said most of the gargoyles were replaced during a refurbishment in the early 1990s.
He thinks that one of the stonemasons must have been having a bit of fun.
Mr Birss, minister at the abbey, said that 12 medieval gargoyles which had been on the abbey for hundreds of years had to be taken down in 1991 because they had "crumbled and were in a very bad state".
The purpose of the grotesque figures was to take rain water away from the roof in the days before down pipes.
Just one of the original gargoyles was left outside the abbey to show how they would have looked, although there are medieval grotesques inside the building.
Mr Birss said a stonemason from an Edinburgh firm was contracted to create the new gargoyles.
"I think it was a stonemason having a bit of fun," he said.
"Perhaps the film was fairly new when they were carving this and if he was thinking of an alien perhaps the alien from the film was his idea of an alien.
"I'm sure he wasn't deliberately copying the alien in the film. It was just a concept of an alien."
Mr Birss said an internet search showed that someone had pointed out the similarity as far back as 1997.
"But it obviously did not pick up and take off then like it has now," he said.
Church officer Matthew McIntosh said: "It is a beautiful building. Paisley gets a bad press but the abbey is the jewel in the crown.
"People will be surprised and delighted by everything they see outside and inside."