Funny helmets

Protect your real bald head and brain while riding your motorbike with this crazy helmet.

 Igor Mitin, creative director of the brand agency GOOD! created these fun product design of "experimental" motorcycle helmets with custom prints. We love the bald head motorcycle helmet above, but are impressed with the rest of the collection, which won the 2011 Red Dot Design Award
 View more over at Good.kz

From Athene's Theory of Everything

 You'll find whole vid at bottom of this post that I have rewrite from and to say about it I can't much, expect that I really liked this part which btw, as an idea, it doesn't sound too new, but only the fact that here it was explained through neuroscience distinguishes it from what we often observe in everyday life.
 

                                            Image: Texture Neuron Spark Digital Art And Gns Neusenz HD Wallpaper

Part 1. Social Neuroscience 

"Specific neurons and neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, trigger a defensive state when we feel that our thoughts have to be protected from the influence of others.
If we are then confronted with differences in opinion, the chemicals that are released in the brain are the same ones that try to insure our survival in dangerous situation.
In this defensive state, the more primitive part of the brain interferes with rational thinking and the limbic system can knock out most of our working memory, physically causing 'narrow-mindedness'.
No matter how valuable an idea is, the brain has trouble processing it when it is in such state.
On a neural level, it reacts as if we're being threatened, even if this threat comes from harmless opinions or facts that we may otherwise find helpful and could rationally agree with.    
But when we express our self and our views are appreciated, these 'defense chemicals' decrease in our brain and dopamine neurotransmission activates the reword neurons, making us feel empowered and increasing our self-esteem. Our beliefs have a profound impact on our body chemistry, this is why placebos can be so effective."

Ping-Pong Door

Designed by Tobias Fränzel, this new concept door becomes a table tennis table when necessary. You only flip the inner panel down to create an instant table.

 Another creation from the Milano Salone fair. The Ping pong door is something which you can expect to see at Google office. It looks like a normal door from one side and the reverse side has a ping-pong table. The image after the jump will give you a better idea of how a door transforms into a ping-pong table.
 (According to AT, the images are by Marcel Koehler.)

Eucalyptus jacksonii- Red Tingle tree of South-West Australia

    This amazing photo made by Michael Schwab best shows the size and greatness of this tree 

  The Red Tingle (Eucalyptus jacksonii) of south west Western Australia is one of the tallest trees in the state and can measure up to 24 metres round at the base and grow to a height of 75 metres and live for up to 400 years.

 Image: Base of Red Tingle (Eucalyptus jacksonii), buttressed and hollowed out by fire, with a wooden pathway built for tourists

The trees often have shallow root systems and grow a buttressed base. Forest fires often act to hollow out the base of the trees creating a large cavity. The distribution of the species has been shrinking due to climate change over millions of years. They are now found primarily in Walpole-Nornalup National Park (35° S) and in a few isolated sites outside the park in the Walpole area.
The red tingle is often compared to the other two species - the Yellow tingle Eucalyptus guilfoylei and Rate's tingle Eucalyptus brevistylis are smaller.

Eucalyptus tereticornis buds, capsules, flowers and foliage, Rockhampton, Queensland by  Ethel Aardvark

Red tingle

Eucalyptus jacksonii

Red tingle is one of the two largest species in the state, with heights up to 70 m and diameter of 4.5 m in large individuals, but typically up to 55 m height and 2 m diameter. The dense compact crown forms a heavy canopy. The occurrence is similar to that of yellow tingle, along the lower reaches of the Deep, Frankland and Bow Rivers west of Albany. Red tingle grow best on moderately rich, well-drained loams or sandy loams, in tall open forest associated with yellow tingle, Rate's tingle and karr

 

The Giant Tingle Tree, Walpole. WA by Amanda Slater

 

 The Walpole-Nornalup National Park is the only place where the red tingle tree (Eucalyptus Jacksonii) is found.

"The Giants" are the giant yellow (yellow tingles are smaller) and red tingle trees which are only found in this particular area of Walpole and Nornalup in the Walpole Wilderness Area. For more information check  here

Where is Sambath the Snake Boy now?

 After making a G+ post about Sambath Uorn and his Chamreun piton snake I wished to get update on info about them as photos are pretty much old (Sambath is now 14/15 years old) so I searched the web with not much success, except that I find out about wedding ceremony being held. Not for Sambath but Chamerun: 

Old villagers decided to wed the two pythons after a boy, who was believed to be spirit-possessed, said Krong Pich wanted to marry Chamreun, or "people in the villages will suffer illnesses and bad luck," Neth Vy said. article

                                                                                                                                 Jan. 2011

A "spirit-possessed"??

 Snake boy in Cambodia by Sandvand on Flickr.

Old article: 

Sambath Uon, 7, plays with  Chamreun (lucky in Khmer language), a 4.8-meter long, 120kg female python, in his village of Sit Tbow in Cambodia. Chamreun first arrived at Sambath’s home when the boy was 3 months old, and refused to leave despite the boy’s father carrying it back to the forest three times. Since then Sambath and Chamreun have been inseperable and even sleep together. The villagers even believe the snake has healing power because of its human-like qualities. “I love the python. I love the python like my sister,” said Sambath as he rested his head on the snake. The pair have even become local celebrities as their neighbours and residents from the province come by to watch the unusual pair huddled together on the floor

 Snake boy in Cambodia by Sandvand on Flickr

Except for the wedding of Chamerun  and Sambath being allegedly  "spirit-possessed", no new information I could find about them... it looks like one of those stories that becomes "orphan" once the rating drops.

 In 2008, an ABC Australia television show allowed viewers to enter the home of a precarious and dangerous human/nonhuman animal relationship. At the time, Uorn Sambath was 7 years of age and, according the the program, enjoyed nothing more than to roll around and on top of his 15 foot,  265 pound female Burmese Python named Chamreun, which means “lucky” in the local language

 PHOTOGRAPHY BY SANJIT DAS/BARCROFT MEDIA

I hope some information will turn up, sure would like to know where is he now and if by any chance you find out, please be sure to let me know!

Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, before it's gone

During the early 20th century residents of Fort Bragg, California chose to dispose of their waste by hurling it off the cliffs above a beach. No object was too toxic or too large as household appliances, automobiles, and all matter of trash were tossed into the crashing waves below, eventually earning it the name The Dumps. In 1967 the North Coast Water Quality Board closed the area completely and initiated a series of cleanups to slowly reverse decades of pollution and environmental damage. But there was one thing too costly (or perhaps impossible) to tackle: the millions of tiny glass shards churning in the surf. Over time the unrelenting ocean waves have, in a sense, cleansed the beach, turning the sand into a sparkling, multicolored bed of smooth glass stones now known as Glass Beach. The beach is now an unofficial tourist attraction and the California State Park System has gone so far as purchasing the property and incorporating it into surrounding MacKerricher State Park.

Photo by Travis Burke of Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, California. Beautiful underwater picture of sea glass and sea anemones. Please don't be one of those people that takes a trashcan or plastic bag there to collect the glass. It's tacky and you'll get caught by the park rangers or by photographers who will apparently post pictures of you online. 

Find Travis Burke on Facebook and Instagram.

 The uranium oxide used to colorize some decorative wares is very low in radiation, but very high in fun: placed beneath a black light, this piece glows beautifully. It was the handle to some decorative piece. The other name for this glass is Vaseline Glass, because the company used to put Vaseline into jars of this color to attract customers.

 Photo by BuzzFarmers

 Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, California was a dump until the 1960s but was cleaned up in the 1990s and early 2000s. Glass from bottles and other items, worn smooth by the ocean waves, color the coastal beach. You're not supposed to take the glass home, but many ignore the rules. As a result, Glass Beach may soon lose any sign of its namesake.

 

 

Sparkly Sea Glass by meganpru

Glass instead of sand by Kara Burgman

“Everybody is taking the glass and collecting it, so there’s not as much as there used to be,” said a clerk at Fort Bragg’s tourist information office.
In fact, even though removing sea glass from the beach is prohibited, rangers from California State Parks, which owns the beach, see people taking the smooth, pebble-like glass pieces home in Ziploc bags and buckets all the time. They try to stop people who fill up canisters as large as trashcans with sea glass, but there’s only so much they can prevent, they say.
The locals will tell you that the beach used to be covered in a foot of sea glass so smooth you could walk on it with bare feet, but these days there are sections of the 38-acre beach where glass is difficult to come by. Many say their only hope is to spread the word about the beach and what’s threatening it, crossing their fingers that people will begin minding the signs that say “glass collecting prohibited.”
For many, the destruction of Glass Beach is ironic, as it was the human penchant for destruction that created the beach in the first place. Without human waste, the beach would never have existed.

Dear Photograph

Dear Photograph (dearphotograph.com) is a project that started when Taylor Jones posted a couple of family pictures on his blog, little did he know that ‘Dear Photograph’ will eventually grow into a huge Internet nostalgia forum with 20,000 visits a day. These family pictures were based on a principle of matching an old photo with the present day setting. Taylor held his brother’s old photo up against the current settings of the room and snapped a new one. After posting it online, the idea went viral attracting thousands of similar submissions from all over world.

Below are some of my favorite Dear Photographs.

 Dear Photograph, I was astounded, but I hadn’t had time to consider what I was seeing. Mark Yokoyama

Dear Photograph, I still remember every moment I spent with you that summer. You always thought we were just friends, but to me, you always meant so much more. A year and a half later and now you are my valentine. Happy Valentine’s Day!Your Boyfriend, Louis

Dear Photograph, Wasn’t my Grandpa the most elegant miner in town? Twenty seven years have passed since he stood there holding me and wearing his uniform with such pride. It’s that moment in time I will cherish and remember always. Miss you so much Grandpa, Ida

Dear Photograph, I learned to walk on that bridge and now my son begins his journey. -Ioic

Dear Photograph, I remember when my Dad taught my niece how to ride her bike. Today she stands tall and this photo is what I now hold close to me. Dad passed away, suddenly, eight weeks ago and Christmas and New Year’s Eve just didn’t shine the same without him here. Miss you, Yvonne

Dear Photograph, I know you are my ancestors sitting there in front of the house I grew up in and where my family still lives today. Even though we have lived in different times and a generation or more apart, I somehow feel closely connected to you both. -Gitte