The world's shortest and tallest men, He Pingping of China and Sultan Kosen of Turkey. Pingping died this week at the age of 21.
※ Big Picture is probably one of my very favorite photo blogs. Every week they create a list of ~30 higher-res pictures on a theme. Very few weeks have I not enjoyed flipping through this well-sourced list of awesome. This week’s is on record breakers, and there’s a surprising amount of food-related records being broken.
This week, SO COOL Friday is a bit short but I’m messing with an alternate format using bullets instead of large titles to demarcate separate items.
※ Another from Big Picture (I didn’t plan this, btw) comes the best photos of the Seed Cathedral in Shanghai I’ve seen. The Seed Cathedral is composed of long acrylic rods with seeds imbedded in the end. It’s sort of a tribute to life. If you want to see more, click through to Boston and the Cathedral is at the very top with a few extras at the very bottom. (via Boston)
※ The Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy hands out hundreds of dollars to people with the most creative philanthropic ideas, even if it doesn’t always go as planed. The San Francisco Chronicle tells the story of a good Samaritan handing out umbrellas and getting them turned down! Free umbrellas! People are too cynical wet these days. (via Mental_Floss)
※ I really loved BBC’s Planet Earth. Like, really loved. They’re doing a follow-up show (no Sir. David Attenborough though. They’ve swapped him for the women’s talk show host clearly superior Oprah Winfrey) in the same style called Life, which starts this sunday on Discovery at 8p e/p. This video is of the Stalk-Eyed Fly which has a very interesting method of changing its body shape after it’s metamorphosed into an adult from a larva. WARNING: some people may be mildly grossed out by this. Super tame, just a bit unusual. ALSO: biology is amazing. (via Mental_Floss)
Ben Etherington 