This doghouse [was] made for [Marie Antoinette, Queen of France from 1774-1792] by the famous French furniture builder Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené.
It’s currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It’s made of beech and pine wood covered with gold and cushioned by silk and velvet.
It does have the advantage of putting into perspective some of the admitted excesses of some modern pet owners.
The Sumo Training School is located at the Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo stadium in Tokyo. New sumo apprentices must enroll; the six-month curriculum has two parts: sumo training and sumo education.
In the training portion, sumo apprentices learn the basic moves as well as how to behave while wrestling (customs and manners). The classroom section takes place in, wait for it, a classroom.
[I]t is divided into six sections: Japanese calligraphy, traditional singing, sports medicine, biology, social studies, and the history of sumo.
Trying to imagine this being done for, say football or hockey…failing, however.
Photos via .
Ozumou via Kotaku for more photos and the full story.
[I]n Memphis Tennessee, 1948, at the Keedoozle store, a vending machine concept developed by the man behind Piggly Wiggly, Clarence Saunders, who had patented the concept of the “Self-Serving Store” in 1917.
Keedoozle was a prototype for a store but didn’t last very long before it closed because the mechinery, much of which Saunders built himself, was not capable of handling any high traffic loads.
Not really that different from how it is done today, really, minus the automatic-ish conveyor belted resupply system.
Via Messy Nessy Chic for more photos and the full story.
The 10,000 doves released in a ceremony for China’s National Day underwent unusual scrutiny, each having its feathers and anus checked for dangerous materials, state-run media reports said, reflecting government jitters over possible attacks.
The symbols of peace were released at sunrise in Beijing‘s symbolic heart of Tiananmen Square in a ceremony for the Oct. 1 holiday to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Beijing domestic security police officer Guo Chunwei was quoted in the Jinghua Times as saying workers checked the wings, legs and anus of each pigeon ahead of time to ensure they were “not carrying suspicious material”.
The entire process was videotaped, and the birds were then loaded into sealed vehicles for the trip to Tiananmen Square, the newspaper said.
Um, I suppose one can never be too careful. Poor pigeons.
The “tranquility chair” is built in the shape of a larger-than-life fabric doll with a friendly face and a fetching hat, but more importantly, it has long arms that wrap around the user in an affectionate embrace.
“It makes you feel safe. Anyone can use it, but it is designed for older people,” said a spokesman for UniCare, which is selling the chair. “They are comforting for people who live alone – they can talk to them and hug them. They also play old Japanese music, which is nostalgic for older people.”
I have to say, the guy in the top photo seems about as enthusiastic about his “hug” as I would a clown trying to hug me.
Actually, never mind – if I was being threatened with a hug by a clown I’d be pulling out my falcata or crossbow. Possibly both. Just to be sure.
Via MSN News.
According to the medical diaries and journals of his personal physician Dr. Theodor Morell, [Adolf] Hitler was a nervous hypochondriac with an extreme drug habit.
Dr. Morell’s diaries, which have been locked away since 1945, [indicate that] Hitler was treated with Mutaflor for stomach cramps, barbiturate Brom-Nervacit, the morphine-based sedative Eukodal, bull semen for testosterone boosts and Pervitin, a pill containing crystal meth.
Well, a diet of crystal meth, bull semen, morphine and barbiturates might explain quite a bit of Hitler’s instability…
Channel 4’s “Hitler’s Hidden Drug Habit” documentary via Huffington Post.
Dazzle painting, in which ships were decorated with unpredictably zigzagging stripes, was the brainchild of British artist Norman Wilkinson, who developed the idea in response to the toll that German submarines were exacting on the British fleet.
By World War II, the technique was modified and then abandoned, as targeting systems improved and ships faced threats from the air.
One important point: the intent of the designs was not to make them invisible so much as to make accurate description of their facing and velocity more difficult, making them much challenging targets to hit.
Images via io9.
Via Slate for the full article.