Posts filed under ‘Break Time’
Little Monsters
OK folks, it’s break time and if you’re a dog lover like me you’re going to crack up at these photos of dogs underwater by Seth Casteel, the proprietor of Little Friends, Lifestyle Pet Photography.
From the dogs’ perspective, of course, the main thing isn’t how you look for the camera, it’s getting that freakin’ ball!
Photo: LittleFriendsPhoto.com
Photo: LittleFriendsPhoto.com
Are these hilarious or what? I love them. What a great idea.
See more at the link above.
Some People Will Do Anything to Get Hits on YouTube
Some people will do anything to get hits on YouTube, including this crazy guy but I’ve gotta say, he looks like he’s having fun.
The description? “Ice skating and shit in Norway.” Enjoy.
(H/t Dyle.)
Time-Lapse Fungi Growth
A time-lapse video of fungi growing? Sounds strange, I know, but take 28 seconds out of your day and watch it. It’s beautiful!
18 hour time lapse movie of the fungus Pilobolus sp. growing on dung. Images taken at 2 minute intervals.
Stunning Photos of Earth at Night
It’s rum and Coke time, also known as break time, and holy cow people, here are some phenomenal photos from NASA of the Earth at night. Go here to see all of them.
These are my two favorites:
Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt at Night from Space – 10/28/10
I love this one of northeastern Africa because wow, the importance of the Nile River can’t be ignored.
Florida at Night from Space – 10/31/10
And this one of Florida is beautiful because the outline of the state is so clear.
Again, check all the photos out at the link above. Really neat.
You Wouldn’t Believe How Big Your Small Intestine Is
It’s break time and here’s a fun fact that blew my mind:
The small intestine is made up of three segments, which form a passage from your stomach (the opening between your stomach and small intestine is called the pylorus) to your large intestine:
- Duodenum: This short section is the part of the small intestine that takes in semi-digested food from your stomach through the pylorus, and continues the digestion process. The duodenum also uses bile from your gallbladder, liver, and pancreas to help digest food.
- Jejunum: The middle section of the small intestine carries food through rapidly, with wave-like muscle contractions, towards the ileum.
- Ileum: This last section is the longest part of your small intestine. The ileum is where most of the nutrients from your food are absorbed before emptying into the large intestine.
[...]
How can the small intestine digest so much? Looking at the small intestine as a pipe, it seems hard to believe that an organ so narrow could do such a big job. However, looks can be deceiving. The absorptive surface area of the small intestine is actually about 250 square meters (almost 2,700 square feet) – the size of a tennis court!
That’s unimaginable. But hey, who am I to question the people at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center?
Wow. Just wow.
There are 2,200 Species of Praying Mantises?
Take a three-minute break from politics folks. It’s going to be a long year. Let’s pace ourselves.
Did you know there are approximately 2,200 species of praying mantises? I didn’t. And man-oh-man, some of them are r-e-a-l-l-y strange:
Photo: Igor Siwanowicz
Photo: Igor Siwanowicz
As I’ve said before, Mother Nature knows sure knows how to mix and match colors! Wow.
Who needs a color consultant when you’ve got this kind of artistry?
See the slide show here.
How Fido Keeps His Feet From Freezing
It’s break time (mostly for dog lovers — sorry kitty people).
As you can tell from the picture above, I’m a dog lover. (That would be Mr. Albert or “Al,” our now four-year-old English Setter when he was a pup, immediately after he swallowed a mouthful of mud.) And, being a dog lover, this explains something I’ve wondered about over the years:
Domestic dogs' paws are well suited to the cold
[...]
Arctic foxes and wolves are well known for their adaptations that help them to regulate a constant body temperature in cold conditions.
revious studies showed that the canines can keep the tissue in their feet from freezing even in temperatures of -35C.
Dr Hiroyoshi Ninomiya and his team at the Yamazaki Gakuen University in Tokyo, Japan, set out to discover if this ability was also common to domestic dogs.
Using electron microscopes, the researchers were able to examine the internal structure of dogs’ paws.
They found that the very close proximity of the arteries to the veins in the footpad meant that heat was conducted from one blood vessel to another.
So when blood in the paw’s veins cooled on contact with the air or ground, warm blood pumping from the heart – through the neighbouring artery – transferred its heat.
The blood was therefore “warmed up” before it returned to the body – preventing the dog’s body from cooling down, whilst also keeping the paws at a constant temperature.
[...]
“When we found that dogs also have such an excellent system in their paws, we were excited.”
Anatomist Dr Sarah Williams from the Royal Veterinary College says the evidence could be a revelation for dog experts.
“Up until now, it was not considered necessary for domestic species to posses such a specialisation.
“This discovery has interesting evolutionary implications, and may suggest that the ancestors of the domestic dog lived in cold climates [in order] to bring about such an adaptation.”
Cool interesting.
X-Ray Vision
OK folks, it’s break time!
Check out this fun, fascinating slideshow: The X-Ray Vision of Nick Veasey.
It’s well worth your time.
Here are two of my faves:
Twenty Years in Shanghai
Hey kids, it’s break time!
Look at these amazing “before” and “after” pictures of Shanghai. The top picture was taken a mere 22 years ago — in 1990 — and the bottom picture was taken in 2010.
Is that mind-blowing growth or what?
(Via.)
Holy moly.
Make Life Easier!
It’s break time!
Check out these 25 tips to make life easier, more organized and to turn some items you thought had only one use into items with two or three uses. There are some very, very clever suggestions here.
Some examples:
Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone / iPod in a bowl – the concave shape amplifies the music.
Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags.
Look up! Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the floor.
The Beautiful Eyes of Reptiles
Had enough of politics this week? Ready for tomorrow night’s who can be more extreme than the next guy show debate? Oy.
Yipe! It’s break time!
I suggest this slide show of the beautiful eyes of reptiles.
Mother Nature has such a way with color combinations.
My Favorite Commercial of All Time
Break time!
This is my favorite commercial of all time. The music, the majestic horse; it brings tears to my eyes.
Too bad it isn’t aired anymore. I’ve missed it and just now thought to look it up on YouTube.
The Dolphin Jetpack
It’s break time, and I want one of these!
Franky Zapata uses a flyboard to zoom in and out of the water and leap through the air.
(Via.)
I bet it’s loud as hell, which would be a negative.
100-Year-Old Letter to Santa Found in Irish Chimney
Ok, it’s break time folks and in keeping with the season, we have this:
Photo: Eric Luke
IT MAY have been slightly scorched over the years but a letter to Santa written 100 years ago, which was later discovered in a Dublin fireplace, has the magic of Christmas written all over it.
On Christmas Eve 1911, a brother and sister, who signed their names, “A or H Howard”, penned their personally designed letter to Santa with their requests for gifts and a good luck message at their home in Oaklands Terrace, Terenure (or Terurnure, as the children spelled it) in Dublin.
They placed it in the chimney of the fireplace in the front bedroom so that Santa would see it as he made his way into the Howard household in the early hours of the morning.
The letter was discovered by the house’s current occupant, John Byrne, when he was installing central heating in 1992.
Since then, he has retained it as a souvenir of another time and place but with the stamp of childhood innocence which still exists today.
The message to Santa was warm but explicit.
“I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee.”
“At that time, the fireplaces were made of brick with a shelf on either side,” said John Byrne who works in the building industry.
“The letter was found on one of the shelves.”
Such simple desires compared to what kids want these days. And I love the “Good Luck!”
Dallol, Ethopia — the World’s Weirdest Landscape
It’s break time!
Don’t ask me how I stumbled upon this but man, am I glad I did. This is the weirdest, most beautiful landscape I’ve ever seen. Look at those colors!
I’m putting it on my To See & Do Before I Die list:
In the North East of Ethiopia lies the Danokil Desert. At its heart is a volcanic crater, Dallol, little known and seldom visited but quite extraordinary.
Surrounding the volcano are acidic hot springs, mountains of sulphur, pillars of salt, small gas geysers and pools of acid isolated by salt ridges. It makes for one of the most bizarre landscapes on planet Earth.
Learn more and see more spectacular photos here.
Time Lapse: Dandelion Flower to Seed Head
Hey it’s time for an intermission, a/k/a it’s break time!
The beauty of the lowly dandelion is revealed when one takes the time look.
(Via.)
Savor the Moment
It’s break time!
I could learn a thing or two from Casper here about savoring every single moment:
Enjoy.
(Via.)
Image of the Day
Check this out:
Using an innovative fabrication process developed at HRL [Laboratories, LLC], researchers created a “micro-lattice” structure of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers, 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.
Dr. Bill Carter, manager of the Architected Materials Group at HRL, lays out the vision for these micro-lattice materials by drawing parallels to large structures: “Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, are incredibly light and weight-efficient by virtue of their architectures. We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the materials level and designing their architectures at the nano and micro scales.”
Wow.
America’s Fakest Family
Time for some snark: I saw this magazine cover at the grocery store a few hours ago:
AMERICA’S FAKEST FAMILY!
DESTROYED BY GREED
God I love it.
Trippy “Bridge” in the Netherlands
It’s break time!
Check out this trippy “bridge” that allows people to cross water surrounding a fort in the Netherlands:
No, your eyes are not deceiving you – the waters have indeed parted! This incredible “sunken” bridge located in the Netherlands is giving visitors a unique way to access a beautiful 17th Century Dutch fort. Designed by RO & AD Architects, the Moses Bridge literally parts the waters that surround the fort, allowing pedestrians to pass through. The bridge is made from sustainable Accsys Technologies Accoya wood, which is both FSC and PEFC certified.
Very cool. More here.
This is a No-Politics Break Time
Mr. SayItAin’tSoAlready and I are big (well, when it comes to donations, tiny would be a better word) supporters of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesberg, Colorado:
The Wild Animal Sanctuary rescues primarily lions, cougars, tigers and bears. Their mission is:
To Prevent and alleviate cruelty to animals which are abandoned or that are subject to deprivation or neglect by providing care and boarding for such animals.
America has a “Captive Wildlife Crisis!” There are estimates as high as 30,000 captive Great Cats, Bears and Wolves living in substandard conditions throughout the US. In fact, after illegal drugs and weapons, the exotic animal trade is the third largest source of illicit profits in America…and in the world…today!
The Wild Animal Sanctuary, TWAS, is all about saving animals who are victims of America’s “Captive Wildlife Crisis!” We criss-cross the United States and Mexico, rescuing captive exotic and endangered large carnivores who have been abused, abandoned, exploited or illegally kept. We have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to 42 states (to some states many times) on rescue missions… and down into Mexico over the years as well… saving animals from dreadful circumstances, and bringing them back to live in the wide open space of large acreage habitats where they have plenty of space, exceptional diets and proper veterinary care, for as long as they live.
We’ve visited their 720 acre reserve on the eastern plains of Colorado several times and though the rescued animals don’t have miles and miles and miles upon which to roam as they would in the wild, the conditions are far better than the environment the animals came from.
Anyway, their “News/Winter 2011″ brochure came in the mail today. This beautiful picture of a mountain lion is on the cover and well, I thought I’d share it:
What a gorgeous animal.
Cute Alert — Horse and Doggie Meet
OK folks. It’s break time and cute alert time all in one.
Check out this darling video of a little dog (a Pug?) and a New York City police horse meeting.
(Via.)
The World’s Most Beautiful Parking Garage
OK folks, it’s break time. Enough of politics for a minute. Check out this building in Kowloon Bay, China — slide show here. The part you’re looking at is the approximately six-story parking garage at the lower level of the 28-story tower.
I think parking garages are probably the most hideous structures ever built. But this one is so pretty and so fun to look at.
Break Time Video
Damn, I can’t figure out why I can’t upload videos posted on Vimeo. Drives me nuts.
Anyway, you’ve got to check out this video of starlings swirling over the River Shannon in Ireland.
Amazing.
Beautiful.
I hope I’m lucky enough to see something like this before I die.
Cat Hugs a Kitten Having a Nightmare
Take a break from politics and watch this cat — presumably the mom — hug a kitten that seems to be having a nightmare.
Adorable.
(Via.)
Motorcyclist Saves Little Calf
It’s break time folks and we have a wonderful, heartwarming video for you here.
Seriously. Take three minutes out of the craziness of life and watch it:
Look at This Beautiful Creature
It’s break time folks. Stop for 30 seconds (or 60 or 120) and take in the beauty of this amazing creature. Look at those feathers.
Wow.
(Via.)
We Must Listen to the Himalayan Glaciers
Wow. I recommend this 4-minute-long video interview of David Breashers (see below). He is wonderful and his photographs are a must-see.
Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers
Stunning images from high in the Himalayas – showing the extent by which many glaciers have shrunk in the past 80 years or so – have gone on display at the Royal Geographical Society in central London.
Between 2007 and 2010, David Breashears retraced the steps of early photographic pioneers such as Major E O Wheeler, George Mallory and Vittorio Sella – to try to re-take their views of breathtaking glacial vistas.
The mountaineer and photographer is the founder of GlacierWorks – a non-profit organisation that uses art, science and adventure to raise public awareness about the consequences of climate change in the Himalayas.
A sample of what you’ll see:
Photo: BBC / David Breashears
Look at Hobbiton Now!
Remember Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings? Take a look at it now. It’s a darling little town for sheep:
This morning, we’re gushing over these adorable little lambs wandering around the idyllic rolling countryside of New Zealand. This beautiful setting is actually Hobbiton from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy which was shot on the Alexander Family Farm in Matamata. Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ home was buried in these hills but now the sheep have claimed them as their own, taking advantage of the underground earthen habitats.
More photos here. (God, what a gorgeous place.)
