Modern Terrarium Simulates Different Climates to Allow Any Plant to Thrive Indoors

In every plant parent's life, there comes a time when they feel a little adventurous. Once they've mastered common houseplants and succulents, they want something a little more colorful, or maybe something exotic for a challenge. But not everyone can replicate the tropical and humid conditions some flora demand at home. Luckily, there are modern hi-tech terrariums that can work wonders and be aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

The AIR 60 Terrarium by biOrb is a stylish spherical terrarium with a capacity of 16 gallons. It can turn your favorite plants into a decorative piece that matches any room, all while providing the ideal conditions any plant needs to survive. Instead of regular glass, this terrarium is made of acrylic, which is 10 times stronger, 50% lighter, and has a 93% transparency rating.

Unlike an old-fashioned terrarium, which is basically just a fish bowl, AIR 60 can replicate the conditions found in tropical climates. It comes equipped with auto lighting, humidity, and airflow systems to simulate the temperatures and humidity the plant would find in its native environment outdoors. There are six LED lights at the top within the dome that work on a 24-hour cycle, imitating day and night, to encourage natural growth.

In addition to the AIR 60, biOrb has an 8-gallon terrarium aptly called AIR 30. It may be half the size, but its just as effective. It can also simulate three climate settings to fit your plants needs: tropical for plants that require high humidity, semi-arid for cacti and succulents, and medium for temperate plants. To prevent them from growing and bending towards just one light source, the top cover houses an array of LED lights that you can program for 8-hour, 10-hour, 12-hour, or 14-hour light cycles.

Whether you consider yourself a green thumb or a plant newbie, these terrariums can help make sure your plants thrive within the micro habitat. They can sense when the humidity drops and gently adjust the air within the sphere using advanced misting and fan settings.

One of the biggest known issues with regular terrariums is that they beco...

La Causa (2020), Saint-Merri Church, Paris, France. All images Aryz

In vibrant blocks of color, Catalan artist Aryz creates multistory murals and diorama-like artworks that radiate within their surroundings. Known for his saturated chromatic installations (previously) that fill the sides of apartment blocks or stand as panels in grand interiors, the artist emphasizes an outsized sketchy style as if the pigment were applied with giant crayons or pastels.

Aryz often reveals a grid-like structure redolent of paintings underdrawings, but rather than cover the structure, he creates distinct compartments containing a variety of textural and compositional elements. While much of his work emphasizes a flat two-dimensional plane, murals like El Entreacto expand the grid and incorporate three-dimensional depth with shadows and cartoonish details that glitch or cut off.

Often featuring figures in early 20th-century garments, Aryzs dramatic scenes involve lions and circus performers, airplanes, or injured figures, evoking associations with early cinema and the First and Second World Wars. The murals locations provide incredible backdrops for the artists theatrical interior scenes, nodding to the rich history of crumbling old chapels or cavernous sites like Saint-Merri Church in Paris that have been damaged and reconstructed over many centuries.

Find more on his website, and see videos of his process on Instagram. (via Booooooom)

Artist Constructs Portraits of Famous Faces by Stacking Thousands of Books

There are many different methods to organizing your library. While some people prefer to sort books by title or author's name, others find enjoyment in arranging covers by their color. Well, artist Jordi Prat Pons takes this approach to another level by constructing massive portraits of famous faces, including one of Vincent van Gogh with the well-placed spines of 2,400 books.

Pons has been creating collage art for over 30 years, finding particular inspiration in working with paper and books. Many of his materials are donated by his followers, while others he sources through donations and thrift stores. After receiving about 8,000 books, he began working on the Van Gogh portrait during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking advantage of the lockdown, I started an installation paying homage to one of the greatest individuals in the world of art, Vincent van Gogh, he tells My Modern Met. Vincent was writing all his life letters to his brother Theo and years later a book was published titled Letters to Theo. I would like to thank Vincent for everything he has given to the world of art and what he has given to the world in general. I wanted to send him some letters to thank him for everything.

Pons neatly stacked dark-colored books, ranging from black to burgundy to blue, to render the darkened background. Most of these texts are placed in horizontal piles, but occasionally, he has to account for the mismatched sizing by placing books vertically. These moody colors frame the portrait of Van Gogh himself, which Pons creates with a palette of pale yellows, reds, and whites. As a result of his careful placement, the image looks remarkably similar to the Dutch Post-Impressionist from afar. Pons has even made a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and a c...

The Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe (CCA) on April 6 announced that it would be closing to the public for good. The institution in a press release pointed to the Covid-19 crisis, shifts in film

Discover Your Monumental Match: Which Famous Landmark Are You Most Like? [Quiz]

This quiz was generated with the help of ChatGPT. Content was then revised and fact-checked by My Modern Met.

It's Thursday, and that means we've got a new quiz for you. This week, we thought that it would be fun to travel around the world and soak in some of the most famous monuments in history. Whether it's the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel Tower, these landmarks are so well-known that they seem to have their own personality. And so that's why we decided to come up with a fun personality quiz that will match you with the monument that most suits you.

Are you dark and mysterious like Stonehenge? Or are you known for your strength and tenacity like a gladiator in the Colosseum? Let's find out when you take the time to answer a few short questions. Whether the results get you to book your next trip or let you see yourself in a new way, it's all in good fun.

Related Articles:

Discover Your Inner Artist: Which Famous Artist Are You? [Quiz]

Discover Y...

Jack Nicholson is a Hollywood legend and his reputation as a ladies man has been common knowledge for decades.

The movie star, who is now 85-years-old, also has six children.

 

View this post on Instagram

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UK duo SNIK bring their ethereal portraiture and signature halftone style to South East London with their first new work on the street in over 2 years While The World Decays.

Continuing to explore themes of beauty in decay and ephemerality in the natural world, SNIK work with loose expressive colour that is layered with intricate hand-cut stencils and spray paint.

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Photo by Katie Kwok, BArch 23

Conceive and achieve unique works of art, design, or architecture this summer at Pratt Institutes School of Continuing and Professional Studies by registering for one or more of our Summer Intensives, while either earning college credits or Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Whether youre seeking educational and/or career advancement, you can develop or enhance your creative skills and apply time-tested methods to create original final projects for your portfolio.

All offerings are designed for all levels of experience. Choose between participating online* in real-time from the comfort of your home with access to Pratts rich digital resources, or join us in person to gain direct access to our cutting-edge facilities while enjoying the arts and cultural opportunities in New York City. You will be part of a vibrant community and network with other peers and professionals in the creative fields at the renowned Pratt Institute this summer.

You can receive a 35% tuition discount for up to five Summer Credit Intensive courses when you register by our early deadlines: May 1, 2023, for Summer Session 1 credit intensive courses, and June 1, 2023, for Summer Session 2 credit intensive courses.

The regular Summer Credit Intensive registration deadlines are May 19, 2023, for Summer Session 1 and June 19, 2023, for Summer Session 2. There is no tuition discount for noncredit Summer Intensives.

Early registration is encouraged to secure your seat in your course(s) of choice. After the deadlines, students may be admitted if space remains in th...

If theres one thing you hate to hear as a parent, its those little voices saying Im bored!

Whether its over a shorter school break, the long summer days, or just a weekend with a bunch of downtime, we all need a grab bag full of tricks to get us through.

Here are a few ideas to have tucked away the next time your own kids need a hand.

The Offbits

Image Credit: Offbits

These are open-source constructions toys that allow kids to build using their imagination. It should engage their minds and hands at the same time!

Level Up by Greenlight

In 1955, the United States was entering the final stages of McCarthyism or the Second Red Scare. During this low point in American history, the US government looked high and low for Communist spies. Entertainers, educators, government employees and union members were often viewed with suspicion, and many careers and lives were destroyed by the flimsiest of allegations. Congress, the FBI, and the US military, they all fueled encouraging Americans to look for Communists in unsuspecting places.

In the short Armed Forces Information Film above, you can see the dynamic at work. Some Communists were out in the open; however, others worked more silently. So how to find those hidden communists?

Here in the twenty-first century, many of us around the world think of Japan as essentially unchanging. We do so not without cause, given how much of what goes on there, including the operation of certain businesses, has been going on for centuries and centuries. But the political, cultural, religious, economic, and ethnic composition of the civilization weve long known as Japan has, in fact, transformed a great deal over the course of its existence. Some of the most dramatic changes occurred between the third and thirteenth centuries, the span of time covered by the video above.

How Japan Began comes from Voices of the Past, a Youtube channel previously featured here on Open Culture for its videos on a first-hand account of the destruction of Pompeii, an ancient Chinese historians description of the Roman Empire, and how the first Japanese visitor to the United States and Europe saw life there.

Listen, yall, I love a good zombie story as much as the next person. That said, Id really prefer not to live through a zombie apocalypse in my lifetime.

I just dont have it in me.

Scientists apparently have no such qualms, because instead of killing a virus that melted out of the permafrost with fire, theyve decided to bring it back to life.

Image Credit: iStock

The French medical and genomics researcher behind the gamble, Jean-Michel Claverie, hopes that his experiments could actually work to stop one of climate changes most worrisome outcomes.

Hes spent his career studying giant viruses, which can be seen with regular microscopes. He and others believe that as the permafrost melts, these viruse...

Judith Eisler has been painting film stills for more than two-and-a-half decades. While such a procedure places her in the discourse of appropriation, when an artist engages with a single subject over

Food delivery has been around for a few years now, and a good amount of people are making a decent side (or main) income bringing food from restaurants to people at home.

Did you know, though, that sometimes multiple restaurants are operating out of one kitchen and the name out front is likely one that you know?

People in the know refer to these as ghost kitchens, and define them as restaurants that have no physical presence of their own and are available for delivery only.

Image Credit:...

Precursor 1 (2022), dyed plywood, 14 x 18.25 x 9.5 inches. Photo by Lance Brewer. All images Bayne Peterson, courtesy of the artist and Kristen Lorello, NY, shared with permission

As artist Bayne Peterson sketches the voluptuous and sinuous shapes of what will become his vibrant wooden sculptures, he takes cues from organic movement. Im thinking less, what does nature look like? and more, in a general sense, what would nature do?' he says. His geometric works echo both generative and reductive biological processes, bulging and surging in asymmetric forms that accentuate the relationship between negative and positive space.

Evoking growth, replication, and deterioration, Peterson references geometric principles when structuring his works. He begins with an initial drawing, cuts dyed and raw wood, and then splices the segments into checked patterns, stripes, and radial motifs. Each work undergoes a hefty round of sculpting with rough hand tools like rasps and files before the soft, supple curves emerge. My process (of) shaping and sanding feels very much like erosion, and I also think of my sculptures in relation to geology, with the layers of dyed wood being like layers of sediment, he shares, likening the lines to topographic maps.

The resulting sculptures contrast the vivid patterns with the natural grain of the raw material, and many are comprised of two larger forms stacked or slotted together. Because Peterson prefers irregular motifs and undulating forms, the works shift in perspective depending on the position of the viewer. One of the most fun parts of making sculptures for me is the challenge of making a static object seem animated, he say...

Naming kids used to be easy. People opened the religious text of their choice and picked one, right? Then their kids and their grandkids all named their own kids variations on the same thing, because tradition and honoring family, right?

Well, people today arent cool with not being, well, cool and your child having the same name as four other kids on the playground is definitely lame.

That said, it seems as if some folks are just trying way too hard to make normal-sounding names sound different and edgy (or at least be spelled that way).

If you want to avoid both of these pitfalls when christening your little bundle of joy, here are 35 names that sound effortlessly cool.

35. Tallulah

Image Credit: iStock

Native American in heritage, this name means jumping wate...

That vast repository of American history that is the Smithsonian Institution evolved from an organization founded in 1816 called the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. Its mandate, the collection and dissemination of useful knowledge, now sounds very much of the nineteenth century but then, so does its name. Columbia, the goddess-like symbolic personification of the United States of America, is seldom directly referenced today, having been superseded by Lady Liberty. Traits of both figures appear in the depiction on the nineteenth-century firemans hat above, about which you can learn more at Smithsonian Open Access, a digital archive that now contains some 4.5 million images.

Anyone can download, reuse, and remix these images at any time for free under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, write My Modern Mets Jessica Stewart and Madeleine Muzdakis. A dive into the 3D records shows everything from CAD models of the...

TikTok parents, Ty and Haley Kelly, routinely post videos about their lives for their 1.2 + million followers.

Typically, their videos show an active family with young children having adventures and lots of fun.

Image Credit: Instagram

But recently, a family trip to Disney World started a backlash so severe, they not only had to delete the questionable clip, but they also had to create another one to apologize for their actions.

In the now deleted video, Ty and Haley outfitted their 3-year-old named Kannon in shoes padded enough to help him meet the height guidelines for motion simulator ride Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and the child-friendly Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster. If Kannon hadnt warn the padded shoes, he wouldnt have made the height requirements to get on these rides.

The Kellys did not expect the backlash and critical comments about how irresponsible they were after the video posted, and they subsequently deleted it from both their TikTok and Instagram accounts. Soon they posted another video where they addressed their actions and explained why they deleted the related content, but that video has now been deleted too.

 

...

Students across the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence walked out today, April 12, in solidarity with custodians, groundskeepers, and movers, who have been on indefinite strike since Monday, April 3. The striking workers, members of Teamsters Local 251, began contract negotiations with RISD in June 2022 but progress has been stalled since February 16 over...

TikToker Reveals Potato Peeler Hack to Make the Most Out of the Common Kitchen Tool

Photo: Screenshot from TikTok

Potato peelers are common kitchen tools, and  its design appears to be pretty intuitive. All you have to do is slide the blade down the surface of a vegetable to gently get rid of its skin. Despite sounding like a really simple process with a very basic tool, it looks like many of us have been missing out on the real potential of these utensils. A TikToker named Jenni (jenniabs), known for posting about dinner recipes and kitchen tools, has shared a trick regarding potato peelers that will blow your mindand even save you some time in the kitchen.

In a video captioned, Kitchen tools 101, the cooking influencer asks viewers if theyve ever wondered why potato peelers swivel back and forth. It turns out theres functional reason for this. You can not only go down but forward when you're peeling so that you can peel the entire thing super fast without having to actually lift up the peeler off of the vegetable, she explains, as she swiftly peels an entire sweet potato in a matter of seconds.

Do you peel the old school way like this? Or do you you swivel back and forth? she asks her audience. The video has since gone viral, eliciting funny and amazed comments. I've always gotten mad 'cause I thought mine was just always loose, wrote one follower. Another said, This is why we need cooking classes in high school! Others pointed out that the swivel feature also makes it accessible for both right and left-handed people.

Some of her followers also raised their concerns about peeling something towards one's body or the dangers of accidentally slicing yourself, but she was quick to respond why it's ne...

Los Angelesbased auctioneer Michael Barzman is facing up to five years in prison, having admitted to playing a major role in the forgery of twenty-five works falsely credited to Jean-Michel Basquiat

Fed up with new instances of vandalism to Italys preserved monuments, buildings, and artwork, Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano proposed a new law at a Cabinet meeting yesterday that would impose fines ranging from 10,000 (~$11,000) to 60,000 (~$66,000) for those responsible for damages moving forward.

The law, which addresses the destruction, dispersion, deterioration, disfigurement, soiling, and illicit use of cultural patrimony, seeks to allocate the fines for the repair, restoration, and clean-up of the vandalized sites and objects. The Council of Ministers approved the bill unanimously on Tuesday, April 11, making its adoption into Italian law in Parliament extremely likely under Prime Minister Giorgia Melonis far-right government.

Sangiuliano stated that it...

MIAMI Together Nadege Green and Marie Vickles gave life to Give Them Their Flowers. This exhibition at the Little Haiti Cultural Center Art Gallery is the first of its kind. It pays homage to Miamis Black queer history by merging historical research, archival imagery, artifacts, oral histories, video, and portraits of Black LGBTQ+ Miamians over the age of 45. The show presents works by Miami artists Vanessa Charlot, Kendrick Daye, Woosler Delisfort, Hued Songs, and Loni Johnson. 

I sat down with Green, a writer and community historian, and founder of...

Nothing really prepares one for the experience of entering the Huckleberry Explorers Club (HEC), a small museum in a duplex in Detroits burgeoning Core City neighborhood whose ground floor houses a general store full of secondhand oddities for sale at throwaway prices. The project is a collaboration between author and artist Stefany Anne Golberg and her husband, Morgan Meis, who met nearly two decades ago during college in New York City. But the concept of the Huckleberry Explorers Club is Golbergs own and predates the physical location, or even the couples move to Detroit in late 2015.

It began out of my longstanding habit collecting things that arent collectible, including experiences and photographs and in creating little writings, and also a sort of terror that I have of discarding things, said Golberg on a tour of the museum with Hyperallergic.

Golberg gestures to a ring affixed to a cardboard stand in a cardboard niche of a cardboard wall. The museum falls somewhere between a meerkat habitat and grotto: a cozy, low-lit womb of custom displays for Golbergs ephemera.

Despite Haruki Murakamis global popularity, only recently have film adaptations of his work gotten real prominence, with acclaimed movies like Burning (2018) and the Oscar-winning Drive My Car (2021). Now an animated film takes an omnibus approach, combining half a dozen of his short stories into one hazy, beguiling new tale. The first feature from director Pierre Fldes, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman ably captures Murakamis combination of low-key magical realism, sexual neurosis, and loneliness.

The screenplay is a clever act of remixing. Rather than a simple anthology of vignettes, each inspired by a Murakami story, this narrative combines them into episodes in the lives of three interlinked characters. Komura, the main character in the story UFO in Kushiro, thus also lives out the events of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman and The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesdays Women. Katagiri, the lead of Super-Frog Saves Tokyo, is his coworker, and now also takes part in Dabchick....

Brad Pitt Let His 105-Year-Old Neighbor Live on His Sprawling Estate Rent Free

Photo: arp/Depositphotos

When you buy a house to live in, you typically expect to be the new (and only) resident of an empty estate. But in the case of actor Brad Pitt, purchasing a home to add to his sprawling estate included the former owner, now turned extended house guest. The man, John, who sold the home to Pitt, was an elderly person in his nineties. Pitt allowed him to stay in the homerent-freeuntil the man died at 105 years old.

If this generous arrangement sounds unusual, its worth noting that this wasnt the only house on Pitts estateit was one of many. The A-lister purchased the 1.9-acre property in 1994 from actor Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. According to her, there were over 20 homes along the edge of the property, and when one would come up for sale, Pitt would buy it. Johns abode was in that group of houses, although Pitt didnt make him move.

He [Pitt] was very, very kind to the husband, Peterson says. His wife passed away and the husband, John, lived there. I know that Brad allowed him to live there without paying anything until he died. While Pitt probably didnt expect the man to live for as long as he did, it was very kind of the actor to permit someone to live out the rest of their years in a place they were familiar with. And better yet, John didn't have to worry about the financial responsibilities of owning a home, such as paying property taxes.

Pitt recently sold the property, which is in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, for about $40 million.

Brad Pitt bought a house to add to his sprawling estate and let the former owneran elderly man in his ninetieslive rent-free until the neighbor's death at age 105. Here's a peek at Pitt's property, which he recently sold for about $40 million.

Conceive and achieve unique works of art, design, or architecture this summer at Pratt Institutes School of Continuing and Professional Studies by registering for one or more of our Summer Intensives, while either earning college credits or Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Whether youre seeking educational and/or career advancement, you can develop or enhance your creative skills and apply time-tested methods to create original final projects for your portfolio.

All offerings are designed for all levels of experience. Choose between participating online* in real-time from the comfort of your home with access to Pratts rich digital resources, or join us in person to gain direct access to our cutting-edge facilities while enjoying the arts and cultural opportunities in New York City. You will be part of a vibrant community and network with other peers and professionals in the creative fields at the renowned Pratt I...

A common sugar substitute may be linked to blood clots and heart attacks, a recent study finds.

The journal, Nature Medicine, published the research saying erythritol, typically found in keto diet products is associated to stroke, blood clots, heart attacks, and even death.

Keto diets exclude high carb processed sugar, honey, and maple syrups, so many dieters rely on erythritol for a sweet taste in their treats.

The study reported that individuals with the highest erythritol levels in the blood showed twice the risk for these health issues. The individuals did have pre-existing risk factors for heart disease.

...

Stranger Things Actress Millie Bobby Brown Gets Engaged to Boyfriend Jake Bongiovi

Photo: imagepressagency/Depositphotos

Wedding bells are ringing for Millie Bobby Brown. The Stranger Things star has announced her engagement to boyfriend Jake Bongiovi. Brown announced the news with a black and white picture on Instagram, where she is being held by Bongiovi and a ring can be seen on her finger. The 19-year-old actress captioned the image with lyrics from Taylor Swift's Lover: I've loved you three summers now, honey, I want 'em all.

It is reported that the couple started dating in summer 2021 after they were seen holding hands in New York City. However, they didn't go public about their relationship until March 2022, when they appeared together on the BAFTAs red carpet. Brown then took Bongiovi as her date to the premiere of the latest season of Stranger Things. When asked about how she met Bongiovi, Brown said, We met on Instagramthe old Instagramand we were friends for a bit, and then, what can I say?

If the last name of Brown's beau rings an 80s rock bell, you're not mistaken. Bongiovi is the 20-year-old son of musician Jon Bon Jovi (whose real name is John Francis Bongiovi) and karate instructor/restaurateur Dorothea Hurley. An actor like Brown, he is slated to make his film debut in Sweethearts, a romcom directed by Jordan Weiss.

Bongiovi also seemed to share the news, posting two images seemingly taken on the same day as Brown'sjudging by the outfits with the caption, Forever. While neither of their posts explicitly announce their engagement, the big ring on Brown's finger and their choice of the romantic phrases surely gives it away.

Actress Millie Bobby Brown has seemingly announced her engagement to boyfriend Jake Bongiovi.

<div class="oc-video-wrapper"> <div class="oc-video-container"> <p><a href= "https://www.openculture.com/?post_type=post&p=1107994"><img border="0" src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yHKFKLbyi3Q/maxresdefault.jpg" width= "800"></a></p> </div> </div> <p>Before Foo Fighters, before Nirvana, before even Dain Bramage, Scream and other bands, Dave Grohl played in the Springfield, Virginia punk band Mission Impossible. Above, we have footage of Grohl, only 16 years old, giving us a preview of performances to come. The camera puts Grohl center stage around the 1:30 mark.</p> <p>This July 1985 footage was captured by Sohrab Habibion, who documented shows from the 1980s DC punk scene. His recordings now reside at the <a href="https://www.dclibrary.org/punk">Punk Archive at the DC Public Library</a>. Likewise, you can stream them on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@habibion">his YouTube channel</a>. Among other things, you can watch vintage performances by <a href= "https://www.openculture.com/2022/01/75-post-punk-and-hardcore-concerts-from-the-1980s-have-digitized-put-online.html" rel="bookmark" title= "Permanent Link to 75 Post-Punk and Hardcore Concerts from the 1980s Have Been Digitized & Put Online: Fugazi, GWAR, Lemonheads, Dain Bramage (with Dave Grohl) & More">Fugazi, GWAR, the Lemonheads, Dain Bramage (another Grohl band) & more. Stream them online.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture

Rusty-Spotted Is One of the Worlds Smallest Wild Cat Species Weighing Only 3 Pounds

Photo: jonnysek/Depositphotos

When you think of wild cats like leopards and cheetahs, you expect them to be large. Larger, at least, than a domesticated house cat. But not rusty-spotted cats. These creatures are one of the worlds smallest wild cat species, weighing between 2.2 and 3.5 pounds and measuring up to 20 inches long. Thats smaller than most adult house cats!

Although these tiny cats look like domesticated felineswith markings similar to the Bengal breedtheir body is slender and smaller than their domestic counterparts. Their fur is brownish-gray with rusty streaks that run from their heads to their paws. (The reddish-brown spots are how the species got its name.)

Rusty-spotted cats are found in South Asian, including places like India, Sri Lanka, and the Bardia National Park in Nepal. Their habitats vary; the cats have been found in both dry and moist forests, bamboo forests, wooded grasslands, and rocky hills. They are fierce hunters who look for rodents and small birds. Theyll even climb trees to look for their prey up high, in addition to on the ground.

This species isnt endangered, but it is considered Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The reason is mostly due to habitat loss as human populations in India and Sri Lanka continue to grow. Protecting land from development will give the rusty-spotted cat the chance to thrive, along with other animals who live in its environment.

The rusty-spotted cat is one of the world's smallest cat species.

The Rusty Spotted Cat is the smallest wildcat, only 3.5lbs, this one is an adult.
by u/Marineguilt in...

THAT GLITTERING CHRISTMAS at Holy Cross Mortuary in Culver City, California, toward the end of 1999it was the last Christmas of the twentieth century. The cemetery is a massive site with rolling

Come On, bronze, 26 x 24 x 12 inches. All images courtesy of CASART, shared with permission

With a flair for dramatic contortions of the human body, Spanish artist Isabel Miramontes (previously) casts elongated limbs and impossibly stretched torsos in bronze. Many of her elegant sculptures depict androgynous figures with no discernable gender or clothing who are caught in the midst of movement.  Expressive and exaggerated, the figures evoke the distinct tension between corporeal limitation and liberation.

In Come On, for example, one subject attempts to pull another from their collapsed position on the floor, while other works feature characters with segmented bodies or heads attached to an upper arm rather than a neck. The latter emphasizes the ephemeral aspects of both motion and the flesh, showing that each will ultimately disappear into memory.

Explore more of the artists recent works at CASART and on Artsy.

This survey traces the curatorial work undertaken by Jill Morgan and her all-woman teamincluding Lubaina Himid, Sarah Edge, and Maud Sulterto develop a radical program of exhibitions at Rochdale Art

Ocean Cleanup Has Removed Over 220 Tons of Plastic Out of the Pacific Ocean

One non-profit organization is making progress toward its goal of ridding the oceans of plastic by 2040. With its latest haul from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), The Ocean Cleanup has now removed over 220 tons (200,000 kg) of trash from the sea. It's a stunning achievement that should be applauded, particularly when one realizes that the entire project began thanks to a simple idea by a teenager.

Dutch inventor Boyan Slat is the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. Now 28, he was just 16 years old when he wondered why it was so hard to keep plastic out of the ocean. That simple question led to big ambitions, and over the years Slat and his team have tested and improved a mechanism for hauling large quantities of trash from the seas.

System 002/B is the current model at work and has just completed its first haul of 2023. The nearly 7 tons (6,260 kg) of plastic that is extracted pushed the organization over the 220-ton mark. And while this is great progress, there is sadly much more trash where that came from. The GPGP covers an area twice the size of Texas and a 2018 research paper estimated that it contained 87,500 tons of plastic.

So while The Ocean Cleanup has made great progress, there is still a long way to go before the GPGP disappears. Of course, we can all do our part to ensure that there is less plastic around to end up in the ocean. This starts with habits at home and doing away with single-use plastic. While many governments have already banned items like plastic drinking straws and non-biodegradable shopping bags, everyone can do their part. Whether that means purchasing a reusable water bottle or switching to an eco-friendly toothbrush, every little bit helps.

After its first haul of 2023, The Ocean Cleanup has extracted over 220 tons of plastic from th...

Solo of Raven (2021), hand-cut paper and paint, 109 x 60 inches. All images Antonius Tin-Bui, courtesy of moniquemeloche, shared with permission

Intricately cutting single sheets of paper by hand, Antonius-Tn Bui (previously) reveals intimate portraits of friends, family, and the diverse narratives that shape identity and community. The Vietnamese-American artists subjects are delineated by elaborate geometric and botanical patterns evocative of Southeast Asian decorative motifs and are often portrayed among clusters of traditional porcelain vases, some of which contain large voids as if a piece has broken off. Among the vessels and patterns, Bui details figures enmeshed in their surroundings as words and interiors tenderly acknowledge the queer Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

Bui describes their identity as ever-glitching queer, non-binary, and Vietnamese-American, and...

For more than a year, Dianne Gordon of Michigan walked almost three miles to and from her full-time job after her car couldnt be repaired.

But something happened one day that changed her life.

Photo Credit: YouTube

Last January, Gordon was making the cold trek home from work when she stopped at a gas station to buy a snack. Thats when something strange caught her eye.

I looked down on the ground and found a plastic bag with a large sum of money in it.

Turns out the 65-year old grandmother of two was holding $14,780 cash.

When she realized what she had in her hands, she knew what she had to do.

This doesnt belong to me. I need to call a police officer.

When the police arrived, they examined the bag and found cards congratulating a coupleon their wedding day.

The money was gifted to the bride and groom by their wedding guests earlier that very day. Apparently, the valuable bag was accidently dro...