It's So True That Animals Love Belly Rubs. Here's The Proof, In Case You Need It

♠ Posted by andrea in animals,cat,cute,dog,kitty,puppy

Imagine this: you've just woken up, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping...and you have a massage scheduled for today. It's like the coffee smells a little stronger, your sheets feel a bit more luxurious, and everything is right in the world. All because you know you're going in for a massage.

Well these animals all feel the same exact way...about belly rubs.

1. "Belly rubs are better than roller coaster rides! Wooo!"

Reddit / TinaSlays

2. "YES. YES. YES. YES. YAAAS."

Reddit / How2Post

3. "Who said you could stop?"

Reddit / sashimicat

4. Ahh, nothing like some good backyard belly rubs!

Instagram / motojenn

5. He feels like he can fly when he's getting tummy scratches!

Reddit / okk-

6. Didn't think turtles could feel their belly rubs through that shell? Me either...

Reddit / jacks_deformity

7. "No one can resist the power of this belly!"

Reddit / biscuitfool

8. "You are never allowed to let go!"

Reddit / colleenpettit

9. No one forgets their first belly rub.

Reddit / helloCastrooo

10. "...Do I really have to ask?"

Reddit / sunboolt

11. "Ohhhh yeah, that's the spot!"

Reddit / brown_monkey_

12. "The amount I love you is equal to the number of pets I get on my tum."

Reddit / RuggedlyHandsome

13. It's kind of impossible to just get the tummy on this teeny monster.

Reddit / Capt_BubbleBeard

14. This otter is loving it so much, he might just fall asleep.

Live Door

15. This the the most polite acceptance of pets I've ever seen.

Reddit / kar48

16. Piggy belly rubs are arguably the cutest belly rubs out there.

Reddit / FatPlatypus

17. Gonna use this picture for your Tinder profile, kitty?

Reddit / russspruce

18. What do you mean you've never seen a dog who loved belly pats so much she stood on two feet?

Instagram / thedogsavant

19. "Just because I'm cold-blooded doesn't mean I'm heartless!"

Instagram / jojo_cullen

20. When you're in a state of pure joy, sometimes it's hard to control your facial expressions...

Reddit / Jeremya35

21. This is just the kind of vicious bear your camp counselors warned you about.

Reddit / pork_pie_hat

22. "Human, when I do this in front of you, it means you're supposed to rub my belly..."

Instagram / tbriery

23. That's either terror or utter happiness on his face. Frankly, I don't care which it is.

Instagram / briannaleigh22

24. What I would give to hear the little squeaks from her at this very moment.

Instagram / aimeelanny

25. I can't stand how much this fox can't stand how much he loves the attention.

Imgur / bellafelis

26. "Rise 'n shine, dad. It's time for my daily 5 a.m. belly rub."

Reddit / Amaedoux

27. He can't go to sleep unless his belly is rubbed 105 times.

Instagram / heatherpony

28. He thinks he needs to turn himself into a pretzel to get his tummy tickled. No one is allowed to tell him otherwise.

Reddit / Davo1073

(via Bored Panda)

Yep, these little guys are definitely having really great days, all thanks to some very relaxing belly rubs! Kind of makes me want to throw down a chunk of cash for a good massage, too!

Read More

These Seem Like Totally Ordinary Objects...Until You Try To Pick Them Up

♠ Posted by andrea in art,artists,creativity,everydayitems,everydaythings,foodart,stonework

When looking at these images, you might not exactly see what makes these objects so special. A bottle of ketchup? A work boot? What's the big deal?

Well, if you were able to try and pick one up, you'd know immediately. These aren't your average everyday items -- they're actually the carved stone sculptures of artist Robin Antar. They've been carved, polished, and painted to look just like the real thing — and they're pretty convincing.

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

Antar's work shows how stone, hard and rigid, can be manipulated to resemble soft, malleable materials like cloth and plastic. She developed a method of carving about 20 years ago that allows her to achieve this level of detail. Even more impressive is that she can complete this work with limited sight, due to retrolental fibroplasia in both eyes. Still, she's not letting that stop her.

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

Antar's motivation comes from a desire to capture the ephemera of the modern age -- the candy wrappers, the flip flops, the condiments that make up such a strangely large part of our culture -- and leave it as "historical evidence" for people in the future. "Will a bottle of Heinz ketchup exist in 2100 CE?" she muses.

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

Creating these realistic sculptures requires studying their real-life counterparts in great detail. Antar then selects the stone she feels fits the item best. Sometimes, the stone is chosen to match the color of the subject. Other times, the sculptures are painted or stained.

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

For the clothing, real laces and other details are also included.

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

For some sculptures, Antar uses the color of the stone to reflect the real-life object, like these gin and scotch bottles.

Robin Antar

The gin bottle is made from green marble, and the scotch bottle from honeycomb calcite. Both have bronze detailing as well.

This jar of Hellmann's mayonnaise is one of the pieces Antar is most proud of.

Robin Antar

Made from white travertine, it emulates the luminous quality of the mayo and the glass. (An actual jar of mayonnaise is shown next to the sculpture.)

Robin Antar

Robin Antar

The process is labor intensive, but Antar doesn't mind. "When I see friends scrutinize the carved hat on the table, endless hours of chiseling and sanding, staining, and mounting are all worth it," she says. 

Of course, dealing with brand names can get a bit tricky, but Antar even sees the positive in that. "I achieved my goal when the U.S. government [wrote] to tell me I cannot copyright a work of art because it too closely resembles the product that I chose to record in stone," she recalls. "The day I received that letter was one of the happiest days of my life." If that's not an affirmation that your work is perfectly realistic, we don't know what is.

Robin Antar

To avoid legal issues, Antar decided that she might as well team up with brands to replicate their products. This 3,500-pound marble chip bag, for example, is still looking for a patron company.

(via Visual News)

Antar does much more than replicate food and clothing in stone. Other works include abstract sculpture, paintings, and items reflecting her Sephardic Jewish heritage. Her work can be seen on herwebsite, as well as on her blog.

Read More

This Unassuming Graveyard Outside Of Chicago Has A Dark And Tragic History

♠ Posted by andrea in chicago,circus,graveyard,indiana,tragedy,tragic

You wouldn't expect to find a mass grave outside Chicago holding the remains of 86 clowns, acrobats, strongmen, and other circus performers. Yet these poor souls really do reside here, and they met their end in a tragic accident on the rails outside of Hammond, Indiana. Many of them died instantly in what was soon discovered to be a completely preventable accident, and this tragic site serves as the conclusion to their sad story.

In the early morning hours of June 22, 1918, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus were headed by rail to Hammond, Indiana, when technical difficulties forced the conductor to stop the train.

Cult Of Weird

Unbeknownst to the members of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, the engineer for the train behind them was asleep at the wheel. Sixteen-year veteran conductor Alonzo Sargent had fallen asleep while driving an empty military transport train. Sargent blew through all of the automatic signals and flares warning him of the stopped train up ahead.

It's believed that the impact killed most of its victims within the first 30 seconds. Those who managed to escape the wreckage watched in horror as the train's kerosene lanterns ignited what was left of the two trains.

Cult Of Weird

For the next several hours, rescuers fought the blaze and pulled bodies from the wreckage. Another train carrying Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus performers had safely arrived in Hammond ahead of the doomed train. Those on the second train only learned the fate of their colleagues hours later.

In the aftermath of the crash, the Showmen's League of America purchased a 750-plot section of Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.

Cult Of Weird

Most of the victims' remains were charred beyond recognition. Those that they were able to identify were buried under their stage names.

Today, visitors to the Woodlawn Cemetery can find the mass grave of circus performers by the elephant statues.

Cult Of Weird

(via Cult Of Weird)

It's easy to throw the word "tragedy" around these days, but what happened to these folks really is a tragedy. We can at least hope that most of those who died did so without suffering. I can't imagine a worse fate than being trapped in a burning wreckage.

Read More