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'Recycle artist' to build 10 giant trolls across the US this summer in global art project

Danish rapper-turned-artist Thomas Dambo spent the last nine years building 100 enormously endearing trolls around the world, each with its own unique name, story and Earth-loving message.

Giant wooden troll sitting on the ground building rock towers

Courtesy of Thomas Dambo

The original Isak Heartstone troll sculpture in Breckenridge, Colorado

When we think of a "troll" in the internet age, we usually picture some sad sap wasting his one wild and precious life making inflammatory statements and luring people into inane arguments online.

But out in the physical world, some very different kinds of trolls are luring people away from their computers and out into nature. These benevolent trolls tower over humans with their enormous size and have an important message to share.

Also, they look really freaking cool.

Danish "recycle artist" Thomas Dambo has spent the past nine years building dozens of giant trolls all around the world. Each one is made entirely of recycled materials, and each is unique, with its own delightful name and origin story. Hector the Protector, who lives on the water's edge in Puerto Rico, came first in 2014. When Hector was first built, he was holding a rock to throw at anyone who threatened to hurt the island. After being damaged in Hurricane Maria, Hector "learned from his violent ways" and was rebuilt holding a lantern instead of a rock to guide sailors coming in during a storm.

Now there are at least 100 different trolls residing on nearly every continent.

Dambo has even created an entire elaborate folklore involving these trolls. For instance, legend has it that a global gathering of trolls that happens every 211 years, and in the last gathering, the trolls became angry with the humans who have stopped listening to nature and have been harming the Earth. They ultimately decided the best course of action was to eat the humans to save the planet.

But a group of six young trolls believed the humans were just young and ignorant, and because they "only live around eighty circles of light," they can't grasp the big picture. These young trolls decided to form a gang to save the humans and help them learn instead of destroying them.

Perusing Thomas Dambo's website makes it clear that these trolls are not just cool art sculptures, but living parts of an ongoing story that involves all of us, both in a literary sense and a literal one. The lore puts a fun and fantastical spin on the very real issue of humans being out of touch and so often in conflict with nature.

Take a look and listen to this brief tale about seven trolls and the magical tower they built to help the humans see more clearly.

And this magical world just keeps expanding. In the summer of 2023, he's bringing his troll installations to the U.S. with his "Way of the Bird King" tour. Dambo and a group of 22 builders will be traveling from coast to coast creating 10 new trolls out of more than 1,000 discarded wooden pallets.

“It's always been a dream for me to go on this coast-to-coast road trip, especially when I was a rapper touring around Denmark in a big bus," says Dambo. "So in some way, this feels like my big American breakthrough. My hope is that these sculptures not only showcase the beauty of repurposed materials, but also inspire people to reconnect with nature, spark their imagination, and foster a greater sense of environmental responsibility."

Artist Thomas Dambo of Denmark

Courtesy of Thomas Dambo

The first four trolls to be created on the tour will be:

6/28 Hainesport, New Jersey — a female troll named Big Rusty

7/5 South Londonderry, Vermont — a male troll named Lost Finn

7/21 Germfask, Michigan — a male troll named Benny Beardfisher

8/4 Cripple Creek, Colorado — a female troll named Rita Rockplanter

After that, Dambo and his team will head to the Pacific Northwest, where six more trolls will make their homes. Exact dates are still to be announced, but these trolls will be built in that region: Ole Ole, Pia Peacekeeper, Iduns Flute, Jacob Two Trees, Oscar the Bird King and FiFi Feet Splinter.

If they are anything like the trolls that currently live in Denmark, China, France, South Korea, Australia, Chile, Ireland and other places (including a handful of locations in the U.S.—you can find them all on the Troll Map here), they will surely draw people's attention. (But hopefully not too much attention. Poor Isak Heartstone, a troll in Breckenridge, Colorado, that was built as part of an arts festival, had to be destroyed and rebuilt in another location because too many tourists wanted a troll selfie with him, which caused complaints from locals.)

Thomas Dambo troll sculpture

Isak Heartstone 1.0, a troll in Breckenridge, Colorado, that had to be rebuilt in a different area due to too many tourists.

Thomas Dambo

Check out a few other trolls from Dambo's ongoing "Trail of a Thousand Trolls" project.

Troll sculpture in Denmark

Troll Ben Chiller in Denmark

Courtesy of Thomas Dambo

Troll sculpture with leg extending over a river

Troll MamaMimi in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Courtesy of Thomas Dambo

Some of Dambo's trolls interact with the human world:

Troll pulling a boat on land

Troll Kaptajn Nalle in Copenhagen, Denmark

Courtesy of Thomas Dambo

It takes a team of people to bring the trolls to life.

Artists building a troll

Troll ManeMor being built in Denmark in 2023

Courtesy of Thomas Dambo

What a wonderful, whimsical way to bring attention to how humans and nature interact.

You can find more about Thomas Dambo and his magical world of Earth-loving trolls on his website, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

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Gen Zer asks Gen X how they got around without GPS and the answers are perfectly accurate

"We're old. Older than Google, too."

Photo credit: Canva

Gen Zer asks how people got around without GPS, Gen X responds

It's easy to forget what life was like before cell phones fit in your pocket and Google could tell you the meaning of life in less than .2 seconds. Gen Z is the first generation to be born after technology began to move faster than most people can blink. They never had to deal with the slow speeds and loud noises of dial up internet.

In fact, most people that fall in the Gen Z category have no idea that their parents burned music on a CD thinking that was peak mix tape technology. Oh, how wrong they were. Now songs live in a cloud but somehow come out of your phone without having to purchase the entire album or wait until the radio station plays the song so you can record it.

But Gen Z has never lived that struggle so the idea of things they consider to be basic parts of life not existing are baffling to them. One self professed Gen Zer, Aneisha, took to social media to ask a question that has been burning on her mind–how did people travel before GPS?

Now, if you're older than Gen Z–whose oldest members are just 27 years old–then you likely know the answer to the young whippersnapper's question. But even some Millennials had trouble answering Aneisha's question as several people matter of factly pointed to Mapquest. A service that requires–you guessed it, the internet.

Aneisha asks in her video, "Okay, serious question. How did people get around before the GPS? Like, did you guys actually pull a map and like draw lines to your destination? But then how does that work when you're driving by yourself, trying to hold up the map and drive? I know it's Gen Z of me but I kind of want to know."

@aneishaaaaaaaaaaa I hope this reaches the right people, i want to know
♬ original sound - aneishaaaaaaa

These are legitimate questions for someone who has never known life without GPS. Even when most Millennials were starting to drive, they had some form of internet to download turn-by-turn directions, so it makes sense that the cohort between Gen Z and Gen X would direct Aneisha to Mapquest. But there was a time before imaginary tiny pirates lived inside of computer screens to point you in the right direction and tales from those times are reserved for Gen X.

The generation known for practically raising themselves chimed in, not only to sarcastically tell Millennials to sit down but to set the record straight on what travel was like before the invention of the internet. Someone clearly unamused by younger folks' suggestion shares, "The people saying mapquest. There was a time before the internet kids."

Others are a little more helpful, like one person who writes, "You mentally note landmarks, intersections. Pretty easy actually," they continue. "stop at a gas station, open map in the store, ($4.99), put it back (free)."

"Believe it or not, yes we did use maps back then. We look at it before we leave, then take small glances to see what exits to take," someone says, which leaves Aneisha in disbelief, replying, "That's crazyy, I can't even read a map."

"Pulled over and asked the guy at the gas station," one person writes as another chimes in under the comment, "and then ask the guy down the street to make sure you told me right."

Imagine being a gas station attendant in the 90s while also being directionally challenged. Was that part of the hiring process, memorizing directions for when customers came in angry or crying because they were lost? Not knowing where you were going before the invention of the internet was also a bit of a brain exercise laced with exposure therapy for those with anxiety. There were no cell phones so if you were lost no one who cared about you would know until you could find a payphone to check in.

The world is so overly connected today that the idea of not being able to simply share your location with loved ones and "Ask Siri" when you've gotten turned around on your route seems dystopian. But in actuality, if you took a few teens from 1993 and plopped them into 2024 they'd think they were living inside of a sci-fi movie awaiting aliens to invade.

Technology has made our lives infinitely easier and nearly unrecognizable from the future most could've imagined before the year 2000, so it's not Gen Z's fault that they're unaware of how the "before times" were. They're simply a product of their generation.

This article originally appeared last year.

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Garbage man shares exactly how much he makes and now everyone wants to get their hands dirty

Now I see why sanitation jobs are so hard to come by.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

What did you want to be when you grew up? A doctor? Lawyer? Firefighter or brain surgeon? Maybe you achieved those dreams (congrats!) or maybe your idea of "success" changed radically as you got older. Reality is, if you can earn a living wage doing work you don't hate, with some decent benefits and time off, you're doing pretty dang well in life.

Not too many kids would say they want to grow up to become garbage collectors — and, in fact, there's a pretty strong stigma against the job — but they might rethink that if they knew how good of a career it actually is. One garbage collector was recently interviewed on TikTok where he was asked: "Can you make like six figures with overtime?" His response: "Oh, easily man."

The man who works for CR&R, an environmental services company in California, said "Starting pay is about $29 an hour, some drivers are making like $33." He says he and the other drivers routinely pull 12 hours days, working from 5am to 5pm, with overtime kicking in after 8 hours.

60 hours a week x $33 per hour puts him over $100k in pay before taxes and before factoring in the overtime pay. Now, those are long hours (very long), and hard work, but there are plenty of careers out there that demand the same hours and hard work and don't pay nearly as well. (Try working in an Amazon warehouse for about half the salary.)

The worker was then asked if he would recommend a career as a garbage collector to others. "Honestly, I would man just cause the pay is pretty competitive and the hours, there's a lot of work here. If you're into working overtime and everything like that..." you can do really well. Plus..."Really good benefits, I can't complain."

Watch the whole interview here.

@laneape.co
Spoke with @theonlymemoo, a CR&R driver making $28-$33/hr 🚛 He says the job has long hours, good benefits, and he recommends it. Crazy story? A coworker found a body in a trash enclosure right before the holidays. Could you handle this job? ⬇️ #TruckDriverLife #WasteManagement #CareerInsights #WorkLifeStories #garbagedisposal #sanitation #garbageman #garbagetruck #garbageart #dumpster #dumpsterdive #trashtalk #drivers #driverjobs #drivingjobs #wasteman #doublebubble #overtime #overtimehours #trades #tradesman #tradesmen #sixfigureincome #trucker #truckerlife #truckersoftiktok #truckers #truckertok #truckerslife #truckertiktok #truckerhat #truckergirl #truckerwife #trucking #truckinglife #truckin #truckinaround #truckingindustry #truckinglifestyle #truckingaround #truckingcompany #truckingfamily #cdl #cdllife #cdldriver #cdlschool #cdltruckdriver #classB

Other sanitation workers were quick to verify: Being a garbage collector is tough work, but it definitely doesn't stink.

Some commenters pointed out that making $100k per year in California isn't much, but the one nice thing about working in sanitation is that you can do it almost anywhere, and it's a solid career pretty much everywhere you turn.

"42$ an hour in Seattle I made 155k last year lots of over time," one user wrote.

Someone commented that he makes $50/hour as a garbage collector in San Francisco. A user from Houston claimed $30/hour. A man from Illinois quotes $43/hour.

garbage truck picking up trash on the street Photo by Ewoud Van den Branden on Unsplash

Garbage collectors who work for the city can also get government benefits and retirement, plus these workers can get union representation to protect their jobs, salaries, and benefits. There's also plentiful opportunity for overtime which can be worth 1.5x the usual hourly wage. But perhaps most importantly of all, what the job may lack in flash in sizzle, it more than makes up for in real-world impact.

Who wouldn't want to make our streets and communities cleaner!?

In a recent Reddit thread, a 24-year-old asked if he should be embarrassed about his job as a trash collector. The top response read: "Dude, I work for a health insurance company that makes it's profit by denying people life saving care. I'm ashamed of my job. You have nothing to be embarrassed about, you do honest work that benefits your community. I would love to tell people I worked in sanitation."

Blue-collar jobs where you get your hands dirty, so to speak, are widely viewed as less desirable than high-paying white collar jobs like computer programmer, consultant, or accountant. But that's starting to change.

Data shows more and more young people are going directly into the workforce or trade school and foregoing volatile technology-based careers.

Working for the postal service, driving for UPS, collecting garbage, or getting into a skilled trade like electrical or plumbing may not be glamorous, wealth-making careers; but if you're willing to work hard, they can provide you a really nice standard of living.

That's how jobs should work! If working 60 hours per week isn't for you, that's OK and understandable — but if you don't mind sacrificing for long hours, there should be a solid reward at the end, and at least in the case of garbage collectors, it sounds like there is. If you're looking for a career change and the ship has sailed on you becoming a world-renown rocket scientist, it's probably not too late to get your Class B driver's license and start picking up trash.

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'90s kid shares the 10 lies that everyone's parent told them

"Don't swallow that gum. If you do, it'll take 7 years to come out."

via 90sKid4lyfe/TikTok (used with permission)

90sKidforLife shares 10 lies everyone's parents told in the era.

Children believe everything their parents tell them. So when parents lie to prevent their kids to stop them from doing something dumb, the mistruth can take on a life of its own. The lie can get passed on from generation to generation until it becomes a zombie lie that has a life of its own. Justin, known as 90sKid4Lyfe on TikTok and Instagram, put together a list of 10 lies that parents told their kids in the ‘90s, and the Gen X kids in the comments thought it was spot on.

“Why was I told EVERY ONE of these?” Brittany, the most popular commenter, wrote. “I heard all of these plus the classic ‘If you keep making that face, it will get stuck like that,’” Amanda added. After just four days of being posted, it has already been seen 250,000 times.

Parents were always lying #90s #90skids #parenting

@90skid4lyfe
Parents were always lying #90s #90skids #parenting

Here are Justin’s 10 lies '90s parents told their kids:

1. "You can't drink coffee. It'll stunt your growth."

2. "If you pee in the pool, it's gonna turn blue."

3. "Chocolate milk comes from brown cows."

4. "If you eat those watermelon seeds, you'll grow a watermelon in your stomach."

5. "Don't swallow that gum. If you do, it'll take 7 years to come out."

6. "I told you we can't drive with the interior light on. ... It's illegal."

7. "Sitting that close to the TV is going to ruin your vision."

8. "If you keep cracking your knuckles, you're gonna get arthritis."

8. "You just ate, you gotta wait 30 minutes before you can swim."

10. "If you get a tattoo, you won't find a job."

This article originally appeared last year.

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Education & Information

Got yellow armpit stains or ring around the collar? Here's a trick to make them look new.

Get rid of those embarrassing stains without tossing the shirt.

Photo credit: Canva

This hack promises to get rid of yellow armpit stains

There's nothing quite like getting a new shirt for a job interview and sweating straight through it. Even if you're not nervous, it's not uncommon to sweat through your shirt leaving perfect outlines of your armpits on the outside of the fabric. But if you're required to wear a collared shirt on a fairly frequent basis, you know how annoying armpit stains and ring around the collar can be.

You wash and scrub, pulling out all the tips and tricks you can think of the get the stubborn stains out but they only lightly fade. The armpits are still clearly yellow with a faint smell of B.O. while the dark ring around the collar makes you question your shower habits. It can feel like an impossible thing to rid your shirts of but it can be done, no dry cleaner needed.

Everyone's favorite "Laundry Queen," Melissa Pateras has a really easy trick for getting those stubborn areas clean. The best thing about her hack is that it involves products that you likely already have in your house.

gif of David Beckham sweating David Beckham Sweat GIF by First We FeastGiphy

After one of her followers reached out asking about getting rid of armpit stains in shirts that also held on to unpleasant odor, Pateras had a quick solution. Instead of just telling the user what to do, she demonstrates the process step-by-step. She pulls out a white button up shirt that is lightly stained around the collar and in the armpit region, laying it on a white towel.

"Then you're going to completely cover the stains with some hydrogen peroxide, making sure that you're applying it straight from the bottle because it's light sensitive. That's why the bottle's brown because if it's exposed to light, it'll be ineffective," Pateras explains.

gif of Maytag man Sma Sexiest Man Alive GIF by MaytagGiphy

In the video she demonstrates on a white shirt, but according to Clotheslyne, hydrogen peroxide can be used on colored clothes as well. To be safe, though, try adding it to an inconspicuous area first to check for discoloration. If it doesn't cause that piece of fabric to become discolored then you can proceed to with use.

Hydrogen peroxide is not the end of the hack for Pateras; the second step is pulling out the Dawn dish soap. "Once you've applied the Dawn to the stain, you're just going to take your finger and very gently rub it in. Once you've done that you're just going to get some baking soda and sprinkle it on, making sure to cover it completely. Once the stain is completely covered, get a brush. It doesn't matter what brush you use, you can even use a toothbrush for this but I like a power brush cause it's a lot less work," Pateras says.

@melissadilkespateras Replying to @👩🏽Daniela & Annsleigh🧑🏽 #laundrytok #cleantok #stainremover ♬ original sound - Laundrytok | Melissa Pateras

Again, if the item is not white it's best to test all steps in a small inconspicuous area first. Nobody wants white armpits on a blue shirt, and since all materials are not made at the same quality, it's probably best to do a test every time you're trying it on a different item of clothing.

After using the brush to gently scrub the stains, Pateras advises to allow it to sit for five minutes before adding more peroxide and scrubbing once more. The treated item sits for anywhere from an hour to overnight before you toss it into the washing machine like normal. An eager viewer gave the trick a try and excitedly reported back with a shirt that looks like it was recently purchased.

@natmanzoc stitch with @Laundrytok | Melissa Pateras who is DOING THE LORD'S WORK #fashionhacks #laundrytok #thrifted #whiteshirt #diy #diyfashion ♬ original sound - nat 🌈🫠 thrifted style & diy

"I need to talk to you guys about this. Okay, so you see this white shirt? You see how the collar looks nice and clean? You see how there are no discernible stains in the underarm area? Yeah, that's cause I did exactly what this person told me to do," the woman says referring to Pateras. "I have tried so many things trying to get stains out of my white shirt. Shout, OxiClean, all kinds of sh-t."

The woman, who goes by Nat on TikTok, says she thought her shirt was beyond saving but this hack now has it looking nearly brand new. So if you've been struggling with getting armpit stains out of your shirts, give this hack a try and see how it works out for you.

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Unearthed BBC interview features two Victorian-era women discussing being teens in the 1800s

Frances 'Effy' Jones, one of the first women to be trained to use a typewriter and to take up cycling as a hobby, recalls life as a young working woman in London.

Two Victorian women discuss being teens in the 1800s.

There remains some mystery around what life was like in the 1800s, especially for teens. As time marches on, we're moving further and further away from the Victorian era and what life was like for the people living through it. Thankfully, though, relics have survived that are not just historical treasures, but connections our human family now since passed. In this rediscovered 1970s clip from the BBC, two elderly women reminisce about what it was like being teenagers during a time when the horse and buggy was still the fastest way to get around.

While cars were just around the corner from being the common mode of transportation toward the end of the 19th century, it's pretty wild to imagine what these women experienced. Frances "Effy" Jones explained how, at age 17, she was encouraged by her brother to check out this new machine in a storefront window. Turns out that machine was a typewriter and, after being trained on how to use it, Jones would sit in the store window typing while people outside gathered to watch. Before long, classes began popping up for women to learn how to use a typewriter, starting a new movement for women of that era.

The second woman, Berta Ruck, told the BBC that she would get into a bit of trouble at boarding school for drawing instead of completing school work. This talent took Ruck to art school in London where she rode buses around town, attempting to avoid mud getting on her long skirt. But Ruck explained that it never worked and she would spend hours brushing the mud from her skirt before wearing it out again. I'm sure you're thinking, buses? They weren't the buses we would see nowadays. These were double-decker horse-pulled carriages. It may be hard to imagine, but life was just as vibrant and bustling then as it is now. Check out the video below to learn more:

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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