Closing Of State Aviary Facilities Puts Hundreds Of Mentally Ill Birds On The Streets

"Due to budgetary constraints, the State of Rhode Island was forced to shutter a number of its aviary facilities Sunday, resulting in hundreds of mentally ill sparrows, pigeons, chickadees, pelicans, kestrels, and penguins being put out on the street. "These birds are incapable of making the decisions necessary to navigate through everyday life," Providence Aviary administrator Margaret Lyons said as a disturbed grackle pecked at a spot on the ground where there was clearly no food. "With nowhere to go and no one to look after them, they roam the streets, sleep on telephone wires, and fly uncontrollably and repeatedly into large-frame plate-glass windows. Frankly, it's irresponsible and inhumane to release a kiwi that hears voices into a world where it could be a danger to itself or to others." Gov. Lincoln Chafee has promised swift action, stating that he would close the state's cat shelters in order to rectify the situation."
 The Onion

The Brain on Love

"When two people become a couple, the brain extends its idea of self to include the other; instead of the slender pronoun “I,” a plural self emerges who can borrow some of the other’s assets and strengths. The brain knows who we are. The immune system knows who we’re not, and it stores pieces of invaders as memory aids. Through lovemaking, or when we pass along a flu or a cold sore, we trade bits of identity with loved ones, and in time we become a sort of chimera. We don’t just get under a mate’s skin, we absorb him or her. Love is the best school, but the tuition is high and the homework can be painful. As imaging studies by the U.C.L.A. neuroscientist Naomi Eisenberger show, the same areas of the brain that register physical pain are active when someone feels socially rejected. That’s why being spurned by a lover hurts all over the body, but in no place you can point to. Or rather, you’d need to point to the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in the brain, the front of a collar wrapped around the corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibers zinging messages between the hemispheres that register both rejection and physical assault. Whether they speak Armenian or Mandarin, people around the world use the same images of physical pain to describe a broken heart, which they perceive as crushing and crippling. It’s not just a metaphor for an emotional punch. Social pain can trigger the same sort of distress as a stomachache or a broken bone.
 But a loving touch is enough to change everything."
 By Diane Ackerman /NYTimes/ more
 

Would It Kill You to Say Something?

Lolcats

Balloon Drama

 "Three people were brought to safety by fire service rope rescue crews after a hot air balloon crashed into power lines, leaving its basket suspended 13 metres (45ft) above the ground.

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue service said the balloonists had been transferred to the care of the ambulance service following the rescue operation close to Bozeat, near Wellingborough, although they are not thought to have suffered serious injuries.

A brigade spokesman said specialist working-at-height teams had been deployed to the incident, which was reported to the emergency services at 6.10pm on Sunday.

Rescue teams were sent to the scene immediately, but had to wait several hours for confirmation that the power lines were no longer live before helping those stranded in the basket."
 The Guardian

James Cameron hits the world's floor -- and returns

Yesterday Cameron became the first person to make a solo dive to the ocean's deepest point -- a portion of the Mariana Trench known as "Challenge Deep." Cameron piloted a "vertical torpedo" of a submersible he dubbed "Deepsea Challenger" to the bottom of the trench, 35,756 feet down, then spent three hours filming and taking samples before safely returning to the surface.
  via CNET News / more

Simple but effective

The simplest ideas are often the best and this Chinese road sweeper is no exception.

James Cameron Begins Descent to Ocean's Deepest Point

"After years of preparation and days of uncooperative weather conditions, James Cameron, at approximately 3:15 p.m. ET (5:15 a.m., local time), began descending solo to Earth's deepest, and perhaps most alien, realm, according to members of the National Geographic expedition. If all goes to plan, within two hours of his submersible's launch, the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker should become the first human to reach the Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep alone—and the only one to explore it in depth, in person."
  Ker Than for National Geographic News / more

The value of life in Afghanistan

The families of 16 Afghan villagers killed this month by a rampaging American soldier were given $50,000 by the United States for each of their slain relatives, Afghan and American officials said. The payments were made on Saturday by American military officers at the office of the governor of Kandahar province, where the killings took place. Those wounded in the violence were each given $11,000, said Haji Agha Lalai, a member of the Kandahar provincial council. more
 

Ana Vidović - Alcazar De Segovia

Words that you are not supposed to use when arguing with a woman

via

Mature dialogue

via

Paying for digital copies with digital copies

via

Cyanide & Happiness

Explosm.net

ICY and SOT – stencil artists from Iran

ICY and SOT – more

via 

immature owl imitates

A Little Owl imitates a ceramic insulator on a telegraph pole. The bird was spotted by wildlife photographer Mircea Costina in Dobrogea, Romania.
 

Take On Me by A-Ha, North Korean Style

These musicians from North Korea have become an unlikely internet sensation after posting a video of their latest performance on YouTube. more
 

No need to thank me…

Funny Animal Captions 

You Will Not Believe What This Huge Mural Is Actually Made of

"This isn't just a black and white painting of calm seas—it's actually not a painting at all. This mixed media mural is composed of half a million fish hooks.

The 26-foot-long piece by Cuban artist Yoan Capote, dubbed Isla, was fabricated by intertwining and nailing over 500,000 fishing hooks onto plywood to create the dark areas—the white bits are oil paint. Even with 30 assistants working in continuously rotating shifts, the piece took over six months to complete."
via Gizmodo / more

Homemade vortex cannon.

see video
 

Animal Art by George Boorujy

via Wired.com / more

Paint me like one of your French girls

via
 

The Stars as Viewed from the International Space Station.

The Stars as Viewed from the International Space Station. from AJRCLIPS on Vimeo.

Giant 'UFO fragment' falls from the sky in Siberia

A giant "UFO fragment" has fallen from the sky near a remote village in Siberia, Russian media have reported.
 

"It was a magical, almost spiritual moment."

American bison de-frosting, by Mervin D Coleman, USA.

  The best of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition /more
 

Cultural cold war

In Peter Duggan's redrawing of art history, he imagines how MI6 might have responded to the CIA's real-life decision in the 1950s to secretly promote abstract expressionists during the fight against communism.

Can Dutch 'birdman' really fly?

Dutch engineer Jarno Smeets claims to have achieved birdlike flight with a set of man-made wings in a video that has rapidly spread around the internet.
 

Smartphone