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You’re looking at the Limited Edition Mystery Masterpiece pen, the result of a collaboration between Montblanc and Van Cleef & Arpels. To celebrate their centennials in 2006, the two companies made a total of nine pens, each with 840 diamonds and over 20 carats of gemstones. The pen is valued at $730,000, making it the world’s most expensive writing instrument.
Link – Thanks Sinthyia!
Ah, the French … Gerbe, one of France’s leading hosiery makers, is launching a new line of pantyhose for men (complete with front opening):
Gerbe, which is based in eastern France, said this week that the country’s first hosiery line for men would go on sale in March "due to increasing demand from male clients."
The pantyhose comes with a larger belt than for women as well as an opening, with "Men opaque", "sheer" or "satin" available in four models of tights, with and without feet, and three models of feel-good knee-high hosiery made to help drain toxins and massage tired limbs.
Link | Expatica Article – via Frogsmoke
In "The Last Summer" Magnum photographer Peter Marlow documented the Concorde’s last days.
Chana and Simon Taub are in the middle of a bitter divorce. Out of stubbornness, both refused to leave their house, so a judge ordered the house to be split in two by a wall partition!
Chana, 57, got the garage, front door, spiral staircase, three bathrooms, second-floor kitchen, four bedrooms and a nursery on the third floor.
That left Simon, 58, with a side entrance into the first-floor living room and bathroom, along with a second-floor dining room, which he could only access by walking up his neighbor’s stairs outside, climbing over a railing on his balcony and entering through a window. To his wife’s dismay, Simon paid construction workers to build a spiral staircase on his side, allowing him to get from his living room to his dining room.
Links: LA Times [Subscription required] | Denver Post
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Satoshi Kamiya is one of the world’s most amazing origami artist. Here’s a YouTube clip of Satoshi making the red dragon model from a single sheet of paper (it took him 6 hours to fold):
Links: YouTube Clip | Satoshi’s website – via Programming Designs
Previously on Neatorama: Extreme Origami by Satoshi Kamiya
Graham Jeffery of Sensitive Light took this amazing photo of a fly in flight. Lots more to see at his gallery: Link | Hoverflies gallery – via reddit
Photo: Eriko N. Bond
That’s Takeshi Yamada in front of his 6-feet long Fiji Mermaid, a creative taxidermy project shown at the Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn, New York in 2006:
I was particularly inspired by the series of artworks on display at the circus sideshow tents, which are called “gaffs”. “Gaffs” are man-made objects simulating artifacts of wonder and oddities (some are completely fictional, such as “Fiji Mermaid” and “Jackalope”), with details great enough to fool the eyes and mind of the audience as real things at the circus sideshow tents behind the vividly painted large banners.
More on Takeshi Yamada’s creative taxidermy art (he created over 250 gaffs, including the Fiji Mermaid, Jackalope, and Chupacabra): Link
Apparently, this is a new way to carry your dog while riding on a motorcycle: Link – via Shurebit
2Bangkok has a room-by-room photo-tour of an abandoned Russian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. The building comes with a secret metal-lined dungeon and a padded room. Link – via Look at This
Watch this Kool-Aid commercial starring Oscar [wiki] winner Bugs Bunny [wiki].
Click Play or go to Link [YouTube] .
Keith Johnson is a professional Soap Bubbler. That’s right, he earns his living making bubbles. In fact, he spends 85% of his workday blowing bubbles in schools and cultural centers throughout the Northeastern United States.
These aren’t just any bubbles though. Keith can do things with bubbles that are just amazing. Like create tall bubble stacks (as shown to the left), bubbles that completely envelop an adult, bubbles within bubbles within bubbles, and endless other variations.
You can see more neat bubble creations (and videos) at Keith Johnson’s BubbleArtist.
USC Students building a giant house of cards, er … house of giant cards.
As a final project for a class offered by University of Southern California School of Cinema – Television, students created a "massively multiplayer" game. They decided to take the term literally, and played with massively-sized playing cards instead!
Giant-sized playing cards offered a mix of the exotic and familiar. Everyone recognizes the two of clubs, or the Ace of diamonds; but to see them four feet by three feet, walking across campus? Students debated whether to make up new games, new cards, new rules. While they had some fun exploring different possibilities, students decided that the simplicity of a deck of 52 cards would be inviting, while the giant scale should be suitably mindblowing and thoroughly challenging.
The cards are designed to be so large that no one person could expect to carry more than one or two. For a full game of poker, you’d need three or four other people to help you manage a hand, and keep it hidden!
Link | Flickr Photoset – via Deep Fun
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The Cat Castle is a modular cat playground featuring 2 Cozy Fur Condos that serve as "lookout towers" and cozy shelters, 11 Plush Fur Hammocks for resting, perching and sleeping. Link – via BornRich
Brazilian artist Walmor Corrêa paints a fantastically imaginative anatomy of mythical creatures. Link – via Otomano
Sue Stipanovich invented the BreezeGuard car window dog cage to let dogs be dogs and enjoy the fresh air from a car window, but without any worry that they will jump or fall out. Link – via Strange New Products
Frank Buchwald makes some very awesome lamps: Link – via TechEBlog and Gizmodo
Transformers [wiki] is the name of a line of toys produced largely by Takara and sold outside of Japan by Hasbro from 1984 onwards. A Transformer is an intelligent machine that is able to “transform”, reconfiguring itself into a common and innocuous form, such as a car, aircraft, or animal. The taglines “More Than Meets the Eye” and “Robots in Disguise” reflect this ability.
This is a collection of classic Transformers toy commercials all dubbed in Japanese (around 7 minutes long). Most excellent!
Click Play or go to Link [YouTube] . There’s also a second part here .
Question > Can anyone translate some of the Japanese in the ads? DÅmo arigatÅ [wiki] !
Are you a fan of package designs for Japanese snacks?
Click here for more neat snack characters.
Found at Jean Snow .
Found at Honeyee .
Question > Does anyone have any info on this unique building?
