Best of the internet - April (part 2)
GPT does better when you tell it it is smart! I found this really cute, because people are the same way -- they produce much better work when encouraged.
An artist who makes realistic animal sculptures out of cardboard. I love this guy's work, especially the fact that the sculptures are all life-sized. Imagine having this little pangolin curled up on a chair in your living room, looking at you. Almost like a pet.
London rocket -- a type of flower that sprang up over London immediately after the Great Fire of 1666.
Historic apple cultivars. A guy devoted his life to bringing back strains of apple trees in abandoned orchards, apples that would have otherwise been lost to time. Many apples already have been lost -- foods we will never eat again.
Portraits made from ice sheets. An artist named David Popa makes large portraits like this one on sheets of ice in the Baltics, then waits as the ice floe breaks apart and drifts. The portraits are made with powdered charcoal, white chalk, and ochres -- natural materials.
Voxel art is a thing. It's like pixelated, 3D sculpture art, but it's digital. This artist, Shin Oh, creates very tender, nostalgic pixel rooms of small Malaysian shops to express her love for such pillars of the community.
Wikipedia rabbit hole of the day:
The fact that butterflies will drink the tears of turtles. The turtles aren't really crying, they're just secreting salty fluid from glands near their eyes to balance their salt content when on land. The butterflies are in it for the nutrients -- they are doing (lacryphagy). I wonder if it tickles, having a butterfly land on your face, and how the turtles feel about the matter. In the photo it looks like they're smiling.
This photo won the Wikimedia Picture of the Year award in 2014. They're still taking votes for the 2022 Picture of the Year -- go vote for your favorites! While the contest is open, voting means free access to some amazing photography.