Slavenka & Obi

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Croatian Handball Team Reaches Semi Finals After Miracle Win Against Poland

January 27, 2016, will be remembered in Croatia as the day when our handballers achieved the impossible in Krakow, Poland during the EHF EURO 2016 championship. Croatian team needed a landslide win by at least 11 goals against Poland in order to reach the semi-finals and even the most devoted supporters didn't believe it was possible given that we came into the final main round day as the most unlikely team from the four contenders in the Group 1 race for the medal-round ticket.
Against all odds, determined “cowboys” stunned the hosts winning 37:23 with

President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović cheering from the stands among Croatian fans.

Study reveals that exercise alone won't cause weight loss

Exercise alone is not enough to lose weight because our bodies reach a plateau where working out more does not necessarily burn extra calories, researchers have found.

Wait, what: a perfume that slims and sculpts?

They say that a good perfume can make you feel a million pounds, but what if it could help you lose a few too? Velds' Prends-Moi promises to do just that.

Dogs Sleeping, Please Do Not Disturb.

maddie on things

"Man, I'm pretty."

Animal Soul by Robert Bahou

Nano prefers to communicate in meows

We probably all feel a bit like a sleepy housecat when we have to get up for work in the morning.
This Norwegian woman has taken that feeling to the next level. Nano claims she realised she was a cat when she was 16 years old, and has adopted feline mannerisms since. The 20-year-old has opened up about her life as a puss, describing how she has a superior sense of hearing and sight which allows her to hunt mice in the dark. continue

BeckerHarrison, Holy Shit

With Holy Shit, opening tomorrow on 29 January 2016, galerie Hiltawsky presents the first exhibition in Germany by London-based artist duo BeckerHarrison. The show features 17 black & white photographs from their eponymous series, which was produced during Easter and Passover celebrations in Jerusalem. Their visual commentary on the coexistence of the three world religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is both subtle and ironic.

Like you

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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

It's Mozart's 260th Birthday Today

It was 260 years ago today that Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart—or just Mozart if you’re short of breath—waltzed into the world and set a new precedent for the word "prodigy": wrote music by age six, first symphony composed at age nine, appointed assistant concert master for the Royal Court of Salzburg by 17. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Posthumous painting by Barbara Krafft in 1819 Mozart’s early genius developed into a prolific career of what would become classical standards—one of which being Symphony No. 40 in G Minor.

Animated Heart Piece by Lonac in Croatia

Sometimes You Just Need A Hamster Eating A Carrot Under A Blanket

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Rare White Giraffe Survived Her First Year

The calf, called Omo after a popular brand of detergent, is leucistic, meaning she lacks much of the pigment carried by a typically-colored giraffe. Unlike albino animals, Omo does have some color: her mane is rusty-red, the tuft of her tail black and her eyes are the dark pools of most giraffes, fringed by long, pale lashes. Albinism, caused by complete pigment loss, is marked by very pale eyes that appear pink or red because of blood vessels showing through, writes Liz Boatman for Berkely Science Review. Leucism is low pigment, which is why Omo's eyes are still dark, and the faint pattern of a giraffe's spots still speckles her sides.

There's a Secret World Under the Snow, and It's in Trouble

As much of the U.S. East Coast continues to dig out from last week’s historic blizzard, it’s easy to think of snow as a disruptive force that causes normal life to come to a standstill. While that might be true for large cities and the people who live in them, it is not true for wildlife—especially wild animals that have long made their homes in the fields and forests.
Those creatures have evolved to live with snow in winter and are adapted to its presence.
They have learned to thrive in its depths and use its protective cover for shelter and food.
The problem is that climate change is due to bring strange changes to winter all around.
Places not expecting any snow may get it in large amounts at surprising times.
Meanwhile, places expecting lots of snow may not see any all winter, or may not see it until very late in the season. Scientists are discovering that this may mean big changes for a lot of creatures—not just the distant polar bears struggling to stay afloat on crumbling ice floes up north, but also for lots of the creatures living in our own backyards. Porcupines, frogs, shrews, voles and even woolly bear caterpillars all may struggle if the snow that they have long lived with all winter begins to change.

No Shovel Needed

A special concrete mix, studded with electricity-conducting ingredients, could help airports and other places run on time during inclement weather — such as the weekend blizzard that paralyzed the U.S. Northeast. So the Federal Aviation Administration is funding research to make this costly conductive concrete more affordable. The new formula being tested at University of Nebraska-Lincoln uses byproducts from the coal and steel industries to reduce costs 60 percent compared to earlier trials, according to professor of civil engineering Chris Tuan.

Remember when Stanley Kubrick ‘faked the moon landings’?

Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory – and the claim that the US government faked the 1969 moon landings is a particularly persistent one.This week, Oxford physicist Dr David Grimes announced a formula for calculating just how unlikely it is that such a big secret could stay hidden for so long. According to his workings (which assume that everyone employed at NASA was in on the secret), the fake-moon cat would have been out of the bag within four years. continue

To Remember and Never Forget

The world is marking Holocaust Memorial Day today, remembering the millions of people who were killed in Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

The Fifth Continent, Robert Walker

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

"I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I’m doing."

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'Who am I, and where have I been, and where am I going?'

Picture: Julian Stratenschulte

Getting in Touch With Nature

When Rachel Bujalski moved out of her apartment and into a boat in Los Angeles, she had no idea that two years later, on her 28th birthday, she would be hoisting herself 80 feet up a redwood tree in Arcata, California. Yet there she was, photographing a man using a compostable toilet in a tree house, all in the name of documenting alternative lifestyles.

Paleontologists Discover Adorable Horned Dinosaur Baby

In 2010, while looking for fossils along Alberta’s Red Deer River, paleontologists stumbled across part of a skull peeking out of the Cretaceous rock. Excavation revealed more and more bones, adding up to a nearly-complete skeleton, articulated and intact down to skin impressions on the ribs and the delicate ring of bones that were once encapsulated in the dinosaur’s eye. All cleaned up and now described by Phil Currie and colleagues, the dinosaur has turned out to be a baby Chasmosaurus – the smallest and most complete baby ceratopsid yet found.