Invisible Dogs Appear in Brooklyn!

(Photos by Katie Sokoler, who seems to lead a very interesting life.)

Yesterday, 2000 invisible dogs invaded the streets of Brooklyn. Whether they were real or not is anyone's guess, but their owners had gathered in the Cobble Hill neighborhood at the request of the fine folks at Improv Everywhere. (The same people behind everyone's favorite stunt, Frozen Grand Central.)

If you would like to own an invisible dog of your own, they can be purchased on Amazon! For under $5! (No, I don't work for the company that makes them.)

Question: Do invisible dogs leave invisible poo? Something to ponder, my friends. Don't let your heads explode.

What IS It?

One guess per person. No cheating!

It's a SHOE. I'm impressed that so many of you knew what it was!

The Lamp That Runs on Human Blood

Mike Thompson has designed a single-use lamp (shown above) that runs on human blood. The project was designed to help people realize just how precious energy is. More here.

Also precious and icky? Spider silk. Click here to see the largest piece of cloth ever woven out of the excretions of arachnids.

Don't Step on the Art!

I need to travel to London as soon as possible to visit my daredevil, girl-genius niece, Francesca. When I get there, I plan to keep an eye out for the street art of Slinkachu. He's responsible for the "Inner City Snail" project I wrote about a while back. But he's probably best known for his Little People art. (Shown above.) The idea is that tiny people have been brought to London and left to fend for themselves. They go about their daily lives without attracting much notice from the rest of us.

Slinkachu creates the tiny artworks, photographs them, and leaves them behind for the residents of London to find! (The pictures at the bottom were were taken during a recent trip to Italy.) Imagine peering into the gap left by a missing brick and finding THIS . . .




As you all know, I'm a big fan of leaving artworks and secret messages behind for others to discover. And while most of us probably can't replicate Slinkachu's fabulous tiny sculptures, it seems like this idea might easily be "borrowed" and brought to your own hometown.

On a Lighter Note

I had to put up something amusing after that last post! And oddly enough, it's kinda related. I saw this old ambulance on the street the other day. Any Brooklyn people out there know what this is all about?

The Blue Hill Horror

Right after I uploaded my post about the snake with a foot (see below), reports of another unfortunate creature began to surface.

On September 12, four teenagers were hanging out near Cerro Azul in Panama when they spied an unusual beast leaving a nearby cave. When it began to climb across some rocks toward them, they freaked out and began throwing sticks and stones at it. (I'd just like to point something out here: There were FOUR of them. And ONE creature. Draw your own conclusions.)

The beast died, fell in some water, and later washed ashore where it was photographed by locals.

Anyway, the creature's appearance is pretty unusual. You can see pictures (and read more) at Cryptomundo. The photos aren't gory, but they are pretty sad, if you ask me. So only the hard-hearted should take a look.

There's a Moral to this Story

Okay, so a snake with a foot (above) was discovered in China recently. Sixty-six-year-old Mrs. Duan, who lives in the town of Suining, was sleeping soundly when, she says, "I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw."

Let's stop for a moment. Go ahead and oooh or ahhh or scream in terror (depending on how you feel about snakes with feet). That isn't the point of this post. The point is what happened next.

According to this story, "Mrs Duan said she was so scared she grabbed a shoe and beat the snake to death before preserving its body in a bottle of alcohol."

Why? The "terrifying" snake was sixteen inches long and the width of a finger. Why, when faced with an unfamiliar creature, do people often opt to beat it to death? I just don't understand.

When I discover Bigfoot (and I will). I'm not telling anyone. (Except you guys, of course.)

New to Me: Aerogel

A few facts about my recent FABULOUS discovery (which I made here) . . .

Aerogel (shown above) is the lightest solid known to exist. It weighs only three times as much as air.

It's also called frozen smoke because of its hazy blue appearance.

It holds 15 entries in the Guinness Book of World Records.

When handled, Aerogel feels like styrofoam.

It's chemically similar to glass, and shatters like glass, yet is incredibly strong and can support thousands of times its own weight.

Aerogel is awesome.

I Was Amused

Crosswalk hack by Ryan Laughlin

Why Not Try Something Different?

First a disclaimer. I don't drink soda. Ever. I haven't for years. But after watching the video below, I just might start.

OK, probably not. (If I'm going to add extra calories to my diet, they're going to be in cheese form.) But I do admire the hero of the video I've linked to below. He's a store owner who got bored selling the same old ordinary sodas. So he decided to offer all the lesser-known sodas he could find. Coffee sodas. Cucumber sodas. Banana sodas. Sodas made from flowers. Today his store features more than 500 flavors in all. But not Pepsi.

What's really awesome is that many of the products are still made by the same families that have been making them for 100+ years! (One brand is actually made and bottled by one mother and her three grown kids.) Now that I think of it, maybe I will try that coffee soda, after all! It's made in Brooklyn--and has been for the last 114 years!

See the video here. It's a little long, but totally entertaining I think.

Goodbye, Summer Odors

Last week, the New York Times website featured one of the coolest maps I've ever come across. (And you KNOW how I feel about maps!) It's an interactive exploration of Manhattan's summer smells.

If you've read Kiki Strike, then you're probably familiar with some of New York's less appealing summer scents. (If not, spare yourself and don't ask.) But this map by Jason Logan charts the good (orange blossoms and hot dogs) and the not-so-good (dog poo and heavy cologne) neighborhood by neighborhood.

Take a look here. I love the idea of different kinds of explorations and different kinds of maps!

First Day of School?

Today marks the first day of school for many kids here in New York (and the rest of the US). So . . . how's it going so far? Send us your stories whether they're triumphs or tragedies!

Nope, I'm Not Dead

I'm just taking a little break. Gotta go wish my granny a happy 90th birthday. I'll be back after Labor Day!

P.S.: Happy belated birthday, Justine!