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Lady Finds Chinese Worker’s Plea For Help Inside Product Bought At K-Mart

A clever Chinese worker smuggled the note above into a Halloween decoration which was later bought at a K-Mart store in Oregon, and the woman who discovered the note felt compelled to share it with the world. Whether this note is a fake or not is still being debated, but Sophie Richardson from the Human Rights Watch claims: We’re in no position to confirm the veracity or origin of this…. I think it is fair to say the conditions described in the letter certainly conform to what we know about conditions in…labor camps…. If this thing is the real deal, that’s somebody saying, “Please help me, please know about me, please react.” That’s our job. Link –via 22Words

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Lady Finds Chinese Worker’s Plea For Help Inside Product Bought At K-Mart

Rare Guinea Pig Hybrid Breeds

Behold the mighty guinea lion, a savage beast that kills with the power of cuteness. Adventurous animal lovers will discover many more examples of guinea pig-animal hybridization at the link below, but don’t let their adorability fool you- these cuties are packing a mean set of chompers! Link

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Rare Guinea Pig Hybrid Breeds

Caterpillar Automaton, c. 1820

( Video Link ) Henri Maillardet (b. 1745) was a master maker of automata. This caterpillar, which is less than three inches long and is covered with diamonds, pearls, emeralds and enamel, remains fully functional. Watch it inch across the surface of the glass just like a real caterpillar. It’s an amazing piece of miniature mechanical craftsmanship. Link -via Richard Kadrey

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Caterpillar Automaton, c. 1820

Scholars: English Is a Scandinavian Language

Two linguists argue that modern English isn’t really a West Germanic language, most similar to modern German, Dutch and Frisian, but a North Germanic language, such as Norwegian, Swedish and Danish: Their research and conclusions are brand new and break with those of earlier linguistic professors who believe English is rooted in “Old English,” also known as the Anglo-Saxon language believed brought to the British Isles by settlers from northwestern and central Europe. Faarlund claims Scandinavians settled in the area long before French-speaking Normans conquered the British Isles in 1066. Faarlund and Edmonds also contend that Old English and modern English are two very different languages. “We think Old English simply died out,” Faarlund told Apollon . “Instead, the Nordic language survived, strongly influenced by Old English.” Scandinavian settlers, Faarlund notes, gained control towards the end of the 9th century of an area known as Danelagen, which forms parts of Scotland and England today. Faarlund stressed that “an extremely important geographic point in our research” is that the East Midlands in England, where he says the modern English language developed, was part of the relatively densely populated southern portion of Danelagen. Edmonds and Faarlund also contend that sentence structure in what developed into modern English is Scandinavian, not western Germanic as previously believed. Both today’s Scandinavian languages place the object after the verb, for example, unlike German and Dutch which place the verb at the end of a sentence. Possessive forms can also be the same in both the Scandinavian languages and English, which also can end sentences with a preposition and split infinitives. While that’s sometimes frowned upon in other variations of modern English such as American English, Faarlund argues it’s not possible in German, Dutch or Old English. Link -via TYWKIWDBI | Image: Dik Browne

A Field Guide to Tech Facial Hair

According to Wired, the secret to success in the field of programming is facial hair. Notable exceptions include women, of course, and Mark Zuckerberg. Of course, it may also be because those who are the best at what they do can get away with wearing their hair any way they like in the workplace. IT workers fall into different facial hair categories, some of which are shown here. There are twenty types of beards and/or mustaches illustrated in all, so if your profession is not represented here, you can see the rest at Wired. Link (Image credit: Kelsey Dake )

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A Field Guide to Tech Facial Hair

The Patron Saint of the Internet

Pope John Paul II nominated Saint Isidore of Seville to be the patron saint of the internet, although the Vatican has not officially designated him so …yet. These things take time. Why St. Saint Isidore? Saint Isidore wrote a 20 book opus Etymologies, also known as the Origins, in which he tried to record everything that was known. Published after his death in 636, it was for a thousand years considered the encyclopedia of all human knowledge. Written in simple Latin, it was all a man needed in order to have access to everything he wanted to know about the world but never dared to ask, from the 28 types of common noun to the names of women’s outer garments. It was a tool by those seeking wisdom much like the internet is used now. There’s even a prayer asking St. Isidore for guidance while surfing the net. Link -via mental_floss

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The Patron Saint of the Internet

Energy from a Single Orange

Every time you bite into an orange, you are tasting the results of the sunshine that went into the plant. The same sensation comes with other fresh ripe fruits and vegetables. In the orange battery, citric acid reacts with the zinc in nails inserted in an orange to release light energy. But the glow you see is not all that bright -photographer Caleb Charland, who made the battery, said the photograph required 14 hours of exposure! Still, this beautiful picture was worth it. Link -via Colossal

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Energy from a Single Orange

Who Needs to Dissect Frogs When You Can See Right Through Them?

The glassfrog couldn’t be more aptly named. After all, his entire underbelly is translucent like glass. Amazingly, that’s not the only unique thing about these beautiful creatures. They’re also one of the handful of critters where the father actually handles all aspects of parental care. “Females flee as soon as they have delivered the eggs. Then males stay during weeks in close proximity of the egg clutch, improving its survival probability by maintaining it wet and, sometimes, scaring away predators,” says evolutionary biologist Juan Manuel Guayasamin. As a result, the males are also highly aggressive with one another, often fighting for hours. Link

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Who Needs to Dissect Frogs When You Can See Right Through Them?

The Edible Deodorant

Candy is dandy and liquor is quicker, but edible deodorant doesn’t only taste sweet, it also makes you smell like roses! Here’s Deo Perfume Candy, the brainchild of food company Beneo : This form of nutricosmetics (nutritional supplements which can support the function and the structure of the skin) is down to the ingredient geraniol, an acrylic monoterpene-alcohol, which is a colourless liquid that can be found in plants such as rose, lavender and vanilla. Geraniol is a natural antioxidant and its fragrance, once consumed as a candy, leaves the body through its pores, creating a naturally sweet smell that can last for hours. Oddity Central has the story: Link (Photo: New Hope 360 )

Ancient Egyptian D20 Die

Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art When ancient Egyptians play Dungeons & Dragons with this D20 die above, we betcha they played with real dungeons! The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a nifty collection of the Ptolemaic Period (304 – 30 B.C.) dice, carved out of serpentinite rock: Link – via CNET’s Crave

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Ancient Egyptian D20 Die