GOOD

This is what happens when NASA engineers have a pumpkin-carving contest.

These jack-o-lanterns are out of this world.

 Tod Perry
10.31.18

NASA engineers are some of the most imaginative and intelligent people in the universe. So when they challenge each other to a pumpkin-carving contest, the sky’s the limit when it comes to creativity, humor, and pure engineering brilliance.

For the past seven years, the brainiacs at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California have held an “unofficial” pumpkin carving contest with some strict rules: they have one hour to execute their designs and are not allowed to carve, plan or compete during work hours.

“They do it all in their own time,” NASA mechanical engineer Mike Meacham said. “They go home, use their own resources, plan it out, and all we give them is a pumpkin.”

“Everyone gets so excited about this competition that has no prize other than bragging rights,” Iona Brockie, an engineer on the Mars 2020 rover, said. “It’s fun to see everybody bring the same kind of crazy energy that they do to making the flight projects to something as simple as a pumpkin carving contest.”

Slideshows

Hundreds of Auschwitz survivors return for the 75th anniversary of its liberation

via

Seventy-five years ago, on January 27, 1945, the Soviet Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.

Auschwitz was the deadliest of Nazi Germany's 20 concentration camps. From 1940 to 1945 of the 1.3 million prisoners sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million died. That figure includes 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans.

The vast majority of the inmates were murdered in the gas chambers while others died of starvation, disease, exhaustion, and executions.

Keep Reading
auschwitz liberation soviet army holocaust survivors world war 2 msnbc fox news cnn auschwitz 75 liberation
Culture

Gun enthusiast tells gun-owning Parkland dad and gunshot trauma surgeon, 'Stay in your lane.'

via Barry Schapiro / Twitter

The phrase "stay in your lane" is usually lobbed at celebrities who talk about politics on Twitter by people who disagree with them. People in the sports world will often get a "stick to sports" when they try to have an opinion that lies outside of the field of play.

Keep Reading
stay in your land parkland shooting gun rights virginia gun march dr barry schapiro fox news masnbc nra parkland dad
Culture

Japanese billionaire is giving away $9 million to his Twitter followers in a happiness experiment

via Stu Hansen / Twitter

In a move that feels like the subject line of a spam email or the premise of a bad '80s movie, online shopping mogul Yusaku Maezawa is giving away money as a social experiment.

Maezawa will give ￥1 million yen ($9,130) to 1,000 followers who retweeted his January 1st post announcing the giveaway. The deadline to retweet was Tuesday, January 7.

Keep Reading
yusaku maezawa andrew yang can money buy happiness business insider cnbc
Business