Looks like some people had a great time at a party. Tons of cupcakes, sweets, and ... what are those yucky ashtrays and cigarette butts doing on the table?

Turns out, those are edible ashtrays by Miss Cakehead and Nevie Pie Cakes. They also came up with this one below, which includes blackened cancer lung cookies. Yum! Or Yuck! Or ... both? Yuckm!

Link - Thanks Miss Cakehead!

This blogger is trying to find the town of Tecuci, Romania, under the snow! For some reason, the Google translation renders the town’s name as Tecumseh. There are more pictures of the huge snowfall at the site Criserb. Link -via Buzzfeed

Happy Valentine's Day, Neatoramanauts! (Or to those who are married, Happy Tuesday!)

I thought that this clever "match art" by Russian IT Specialist Stanislav Aristov, which went viral last year (but as often the case, not attributed to him), is appropriate for today. See more beautiful examples of what you can do with fire, smoke, and matches at Stanislav's website: Link

See also: Fascinating Matchbook Art over at Dark Roasted Blend - Thanks Avi!

Just because the video games in the Mario Bros. franchise feature Mario and Luigi as good guys doesn’t mean that the other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom don’t see them as total jerks.From their penchant for destroying brick structures to their cold blooded turtle kicking tactics, the Mario Bros. just might be the enemy after all.

These propaganda posters from the Mushroom Kingdom urge you to take action against the moustachioed plumbers, and they ask the question the Shy Guys are afraid to answer- “The Koopas are fighting, why aren’t you?”

Link  –via Super Punch

In the world of fine art there’s always someone trying to radically change the game with their artwork. While this can lead to some  innovative and interesting pieces, it can also turn things into one big mess, and forced innovation causes artists to lose sight of how important traditionalism can be to maintaining artistic integrity.

Enter Barry X Ball, a sculptor who’s decided to take it back to the old school by sculpting portraits and figures out of marble. He crafts these incredible works of art while paying attention to fine details, such as the natural flow of the veins in the marble and the retention of natural edges and form whenever possible.

You can check out a selection of Barry’s marble works at the link below, works which somehow manage to be traditionally beautiful and utterly surreal at the same time.

Link  –via Beautiful Decay

Found via Arbroath - does anyone know where this was from?

Can’t see it? Neither can I! Under all that foliage is St. Andrew’s Church in Bircham Tofts, England. It was abandoned in the 19th century when parishes were consolidated, but you can still get in, if you know how. There are photos of the interior stonework as well as more exterior shots at Urban Ghosts. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Gary Troughton)

What started as an art form practiced by prisoners and tramps has become a really cool way for crafty folks to show off their modeling skills by building awesome structures, and sculptural works of art, out of a million or so little pieces of wood and lots of glue.

Hit the link to peruse a gallery featuring eight matchstick art masterpieces, full of fine detail and fantastic constructs, just don’t light up anywhere near these highly flammable works of art or you can kiss them goodbye!

Link

French photographer Cedric Delsaux sees a different setting for the Star Wars saga when he looks through the lens-a post-apocalyptic wasteland full of ruined buildings and bleak landscapes.

It’s the kind of place that seems perfect for devotees of the Dark Side, a world which leaves most droids feeling a bit lost. Here’s a bit on how this photo series came to be:

In his series ‘The Dark Lens’, Delsaux first set out to highlight the decay of the post-apocalyptic modern world, but found the landscapes too plain.

That was when he incorporated notable scenes and characters from Star Wars, with the help of CGI maestro Pierrick Gueneugue, bringing to life two distant worlds.

We’ve featured the works of Cedric Delsaux here on Neatorama  over the years (Link and Link), and now he’s back because his series The Dark Lens has been put together in a book, which features a forward by George Lucas (link).

What an interesting way to put a spin on a sub-genre and sci-fi series which are in danger of becoming an artistic cliche. And I quite like the idea of Darth Vader lording over the reconstruction of a massive skyscraper (Death Star Towers, maybe?), while Jabba the Hut is holed up in some rat infested slums, conducting his dirty business from the shadows.

Link  –via DesignTAXI

However, that thing standing next to him has to be a cyborg, a real life cybernetic organism, although I’m pretty sure it must be quite underpowered since it’s been constructed out of Mac parts.

In true Macborg fashion it won’t be compatible with 80% of the world, it will be impossible to fix once broken, and don’t even think  about upgrading- if you want more memory you’re just going to have to break down and buy a new one every four or five years.

But it sure is shiny, and clean looking, with lots of white and silver bits and a fruit shaped logo, that counts for something, right?

Link

Zombie-themed wedding photos not for you? How about this Archie Comic-inspired one instead? That's what Bryan and Anne did for their engagement photo shoot.

Mike Lavarez of Visionary Photography Hub explains over at My Modern Met:

"Bryan and Anne wanted something unusual and beyond real. Summing up their core connection – being spontaneous, fun and outgoing – they fell into the perfect notion of comics. Infusing acting, photography and comic illustration, we bring them into the bright world of Riverdale with Archie and the gang."

Surprisingly, everything was drawn by the company's graphic artist, except for the diner setting which was shot at Johnny Rockets. "Photoshop was used and as well as a pen tablet for the illustrations," Lavarez explained to us. The greatest challenge in creating these scenes belonged not to the graphic artist, however, but to Jervy Santiago, the photographer. "He had to consider the rules of perspective in every layout," he said. "The point of views had to be consistent since we wanted everything to look dimensional with a cinematic flair (a storyboard was involved for each angle). It had to look like they were actually with Archie and his gang."

Link

Photo: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera captured a boulder on the Moon that decided to go on a little journey. Looking at the track, you'd think that this happened recently. Well, in geologic times perhaps:

The lonely journey of this large boulder is apparent from its track in a sloping regolith surface. A casual glance might suggest that it happened last week, or even that its rolling might resume at any moment. However, closer inspection will detect a few craters that clearly superpose and therefore post-date the track, showing that this 9-meter diameter boulder stopped rolling some time ago. Impacts are used in this way to provide a relative sense for the timing of events on planetary surfaces across the solar system. The procedure assumes a steady flux of impacting bodies in each size range, with smaller impacts being much more frequent than large impacts.

Though long ago to humans, however, this boulder's journey was made in geologically recent times. Studies suggest that regolith development from micrometeorite impacts will erase tracks like these over time intervals of tens of millions of years. If rate estimates are accurate, this boulder track might not be older than 50-100 million years. Eventually its track will be erased completely.

That's how a lunar rock roll, dudes: Link

Meet Agata Oleksiak (aka OLEK), a “New York-based Polish artist” who’s the world’s first crochet street artist. Her works have been seen all over New York and London, and she’s bringing a bit of crocheted color to the world with her psychedelic yarn works and twisted gimp-esque crocheted bodysuits.

Head to the link to see some of her awesome guerilla artworks, from a crocheted car to the Wall Street Bull and some seriously twisted yarn covered rooms in-between. Olek seems hell bent on making the world a warmer place, one bright pink skein at a time.

Link  –via DesignTAXI

Ted Lott builds houses, but not like any house that you've ever seen. In this piece titled "Sit Stay," he took an old armchair frame and turned it into a foundation for a miniature house.

Designboom has more photos: Link | Ted's official website (Don't miss his artwork Mobile Home)

There’s a lot to look at in these beautiful paintings by Audrey Flack, and I can’t help but wonder if she used the house of a hoarder as the inspiration/reference for her paintings.

It’s like a little adventure for your eyes, a tour of mystical terrain that takes you to some strange places and provokes a myriad of thoughts.

There are many stories being told by these works, the brilliant colors of life, beautiful shading and skilled rendering of multiple surface types playing off one another and further selling the realism.

Even though these pieces were painted in the 1970s, they look fresh to this day, and I’m sure digging that mystical vibe. Check out more of Audrey’s masterpieces at the link below, it’s a great way to feed your head.

Link  –via Beautiful Decay

These Victorian style portraits of Star Wars characters by Terry Fan lead one to believe that C3PO is powered by steam, and that droids actually enjoy wearing three piece suits. Everyone knows that these things are untrue, of course, but it’s a romantic version of the Space Opera that hasn’t been fully explored yet, so let’s just go with it.

In this series you get Darth Vader looking quite dapper, Yoda with a top hat that somehow makes his head look even smaller (and his ears even bigger), C3apo as a gentleman about town and Boba Fett fresh from overseas service in the military. These portraits  look like they were taken a long long time ago, in a place that’s not so far away after all…

Link  –via Rampaged Reality

And on the Seventh Day, God rest after a nice cup of coffee. We've featured Karen Eland's coffee art on Neatorama a while ago, but it's always neat to revisit and see her newest creations: Link | More neat coffee pics and art over at Dark Roasted Blend - Thanks Avi!

Did your father say that he walked to school when he was your age? In the snow? Uphill? Both ways?

Well, that ain't so hardcore. In the Netherlands, kids have to pedal their school bus:

Built by Tolkamp Metaalspecials, and sold by the De Cafe Racer company, the bicycle school bus (BCO in Dutch) is powered entirely by children and the one adult driver (although there is an electric motor for tough hills). Its simple design has eight sets of pedals for the kids (ages 4 to 12), a driver seat for the adult, and three bench seats for freeloaders. The top speed is about 10 miles per hour, and features a sound system and canvas awning to ward off rainy days.

Read more at Co.Exist: Link

Watch out for these guys when you’re out on the race track in your Kart, because they might puncture your tires with their sharp spikes and bad attitudes. Created by DeviantARTist Dragonfly929, they’re the most punk rock father and son duo I’ve seen since the trailer for The Other F Word and they’re out for a bite of Italian.

Bowser is such a bad boy that he must get lots of love from the ladies, so why is he always after the Princess? And isn’t little Bowser Jr. adorable? I guess male pattern baldness starts at an early age for these guys, no wonder they’re so angry!

Link  –via Obvious Winner

The future of waste receptacle technology is here, and it has an LCD screen that can tell you how your stocks are doing today, how long it will take you to get home on public transit, and what the weather looks like for tomorrow.

It’s bombproof, offers a free Wi-Fi  connection, and it appears that the only thing that hasn’t improved is how it handles waste.

One hundred of these computerized trash bins are going to be placed in London’s financial district before the 2012 Olympic Games begin in July, so if you’re heading to London this summer you can stop by and say hi, then you’ll have a great story to tell your grandchildren!

Link

Confucius has never looked so creepy! Sculpted by Zhang Huan in waaaay more than life sized scale (32 feet tall!), this is one version of the Chinese philosopher that you’ll want to steer clear of when it’s feeding time.

It’s so startlingly realistic that I have to wonder if Zhang hired a giant figure model for reference while sculpting. I kinda want to climb on top of giant Confucius’ head and pretend I’m Remy from the Pixar movie Ratatouille.

Link  –via Geekosystem

Have you ever wondered what hero (or villain) you have the most in common with, based on the moral choices you make in your life? Then this alignment chart should clear some things up, or show you that your fate lies in the realm of supervillainy.

Based on the nine basic alignments found in Dungeons and Dragons, this chart is pretty much spot on in my opinion, at least in terms of where the comic book characters chosen for this chart fit in to the spectrum.

I range between Rorschach and Deadpool myself, which character do you take after in terms of alignment?

Link  (much bigger version with legible text)

Photo: Combo-pictures/Flickr

Hadouken not withstanding, I agree with urban artist COMBO that Muhammad Ali would totally best Street Fighter's Ryu. But I'm not so sure about E. Honda. It's not so easy to defeat a fat man in undies. Via Twisted Sifter

These sleeping positions may be awkward to us, but cats are liquid, so they settle in just fine anywhere. The real reason you should check out this collection of cat pictures is because they are both funny and adorable. Link 

Aric S. Queen was on a quest to be the first person at the ancient Inca city of  Machu Picchu, Peru, on January first. However, that involves some high-altitude walking uphill first thing in the morning, and he despaired as other hikers passed him by. But at the gate, serendipity gave Queen the opportunity to go first.

Ten-plus years of travel, forty-plus countries, countless marvels, but this is the only place I cried at seeing.

One photo was snapped from my phone — those four seconds were the maximum amount of time I wanted to take my eyes off of it.

For 30 seconds, I sat in silence – not even realizing what I had just done.

It took the sound of footsteps behind me to bring everything back to the present. And it took the sounds of voices to realize that when I had first gotten up – there were none.

An estimated 1.2 million people this year, and I was visitor no. 0,000,000,001.

Read Queen’s story and see a video of the adventure at Intelligent Travel magazine. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Aric S. Queen)

Maria Popova of the always neat Brain Pickings has a great review of The Art of Medicine: Over 2,000 Years of Images and Imagination by medical historian Julie Anderson and science writers Emm Barnes and Emma Shackleton.

The iconic image above is the classic 1926 illustration by Fritz Kahn titled Der Mensch als Industriepalast / Man as Industrial Palace

Lots of people love playing with tape, but Rebecca Ward has elevated sticking-tape-on things into an artform.

Take a look at her geometric installation, featured over at My Modern Met:

The tape artist redefines the space she's working in with her evenly spaced parallel and interweaving stretches of bright lines that form three-dimensional shapes. Taking her architectural pieces around the world, Ward has shown her installations from a gallery in Texas to a Kate Spade flagship store in Tokyo.

Link | Rebecca Ward's official website

Resistance is futile. You KNOW you want it. Behold, the Bacon Shake from Jack in the Box.

The SFist writes:

So, Jack in the Box created a Bacon Milkshake. Why? Because you secretly want one, that's why. Shame on you. The noted fast food chain, it seems, wanted to create bacon-tinged buzz. This will probably do the trick. It's all part of a new ad campaign that asks: If you like bacon so much, why don't you marry it? SFist called our local Jack to ask more about the porky dessert. When we asked if it had real bacon in it, the store manger explained, "Real bacon? Ugh no. It's just a flavored shake, flavored with syrup, I think."

We haven't been this intrigued since the advent of the Jumbaco.

Link | Here's their not-so-glowing review of the Bacon Shake (you know you'll still want to try one anyway) - via BuzzFeed

Can't get one at your local Jack in the Box? Soothe yourself with neat bacon stuff from the NeatoShop's Bacon Store

Anatomical Heart Pencil Holder - $19.95

This Valentine's Day, give your loved one your heart ... Your Anatomical Heart Pencil Holder from the NeatoShop, that is.

This sculpted heart can serve as a vase for flowers or pencils and pens. It's an unforgettable Valentine's Day present that your loved one can use every day.

Link | View more Valentine's Day gifts | Unusual Pencil Holders

Now this is an interesting idea for a photo series-combine recently taken portraits of people with photos from when they were children, but instead of using Photoshop photographer Bobby Lee Adams uses a well placed tear down the middle of the face.

I was amazed at how similar they look when compared to their childhood selves, quite the difference from the other series that have been going around the interwebs lately (soldiers/drug addicts before and after). I guess everyone in this gallery has had a relatively trauma (or addiction) free life!

Check out more of these fused portraits at the link below, I’m gonna go do this with some of my own pics!

Link  –via DesignTAXI

Image: Tony Talbot/AP

Look closely. See it?

The "pig" in the cow logo was added by a Vermont prison inmate who makes the decals for the state police cruisers:

According to the Burlington Free Press, who originally reported the story, Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn said the disclosure of the incident made him chuckle.

"This is not as offensive as it would have been years ago. We can see the humor," Flynn said.

He said the artist has talents that could be used elsewhere. "If that person had used some of that creativeness he or she would not have ended up inside."

Link

Look at the size of this moth -it’s 11 inches across! This is the Atlas moth, the largest moth species in the world. The wings have transparent “windows” that are not holes, but translucent tissue. See many more pictures of this gorgeous moth at Environmental Graffiti. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user fabianfred)

Illustrator Tim Doyle had a rather clever premise in mind while creating the pieces for his debut art show “Unreal Estate”- give various locations from pop culture an artistic makeover.  Here’s what Tim has to say about this series:

“Unreal Estate” is a collection of locations that many of us know and have been to on a weekly basis at times, but we can never actually visit. These places are in our memories- transmitted and entrenched there through a cathode-ray tube. Some of us have been going to these places for decades- some of these places were taken from us, way too soon.

Man, giving the Kwik-E-Mart a realistic edge makes it look even scummier than it does on The Simpsons!

Link  –via JazJaz

Doctors from the Texas Heart Institute have successfully replaced a patient’s heart with a device that keeps the blood flowing, thereby allowing him to live without a detectable heartbeat or even a pulse. Here’s how it works:

The turbine-like device, that are simple whirling rotors, developed by the doctors does not beat like a heart, rather provides a ‘continuous flow’ like a garden hose.

Craig Lewis was a 55-year-old, dying from amyloidosis, which causes a build-up of abnormal proteins. The proteins clog the organs so much that they stop working, according to NPR.

But after the operation, with the ‘machine’ as his heart’s replacement, Lewis’ blood continued to spin and move through his body.

However, when doctors put a stethoscope to his chest, no heartbeat or pulse can be heard (only a ‘humming’ sound)—which “by all criteria that we conventionally use to analyze patients”, Doctor Cohn said, he is dead.

This is proof that “human physiology can be supported without a pulse”.

With all the talk of replacing human organs with those of an animal and electronic hearts, it’s surprising that medical researchers overlooked taking a trip to the plumbing section of the hardware store for replacement parts!

Link

Now THOSE are some horns! Alex Wild of Myrmecos blog found this wasp with some serious antennae in Australia, and got it identified within 24 hours by tweeting it: Link

Previously on Neatorama: When Army Ants Attack by Alex Wild

What? You're going to put your selfwinding Audemars Piguet chronograph (just don't call it a "watch") in a regular old watch winder? That just won't do!

But don't worry, Zannetti is here to save the day with this: Box of Time Dragon watch winder. If you have to ask how much, obviously you can't afford it. Now if only there's a pen that will go with that ...

Link

You're looking at a "supergiant," a type of amphipod found at the Kermadec Trench off New Zealand, at an ocean depth of over 4 miles. Deep sea amphipods are not unusual, but they're usually only about 3/4" to 1" long. As you can see in the photo above, the supergiants are a lot bigger:

Alan Jamieson, from the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab, said: "It's a bit like finding a foot-long cockroach."

"I stopped and thought: 'What on Earth was that?' This amphipod was far bigger than I ever thought possible."

The strange animals were found using a large metal trap, which had been equipped with a camera, housed in sapphire glass to keep it safe from the high pressures of the deep sea.

Link

This picture was taken yesterday in Mirabel, Quebec. There was some discussion of its location at reddit, where we are assured that in France, stop signs say “Stop” instead of “Arret.” Link -via reddit

(Image credit: benim ergani)

This Photoshop disaster looks as if someone noticed it was 5PM and went home, fully intending to finish the job the next day, but hit publish out of habit. See the entire screenshot from the J. Crew online catalog (which shows where her hair ended up) at PSDisasters. Link

Whiteboard artist Bill Taylor proves that a little time “wasted” at work can be a beautiful thing. He spends less than ten minutes a day, over up to six weeks time per piece, recreating classic artworks by Picasso, Lichtenstein, Banksy and Escher, among others.

And when he’s finished he just wipes the board clean and starts all over again, after taking a photo of the finished piece, of course. I wonder how he keeps his co-workers from messing up his masterpieces?

Link  –via Flavorwire

This ain't your neighborhood Barnes & Noble, that's for sure! Flavorwire has the gallery of 20 most beautiful bookstores in the world. (The one above is the El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Take a look, before Amazon puts them all out of business! Link

An “image enhancement engineer” explains how he cleans up images of outer space so we can make out the details. His most common challenge? Photobombers. -via Buzzfeed

If you’ve ever wondered what the Angry Birds look like after they take down those dastardly pigs, these illustrations by deviantARTist Scooterek should fill you in on what they look like after battle. Their medical bills must be through the roof, good thing their game is so popular!

Link  –via Rampaged Reality

Scientists have known what is contained in the Earth’s core for about 75 years now, but that hasn’t stopped sci-fi authors and artists from doing some wild speculation of their own.

These images by Japanese sci-fi illustrators are really far out, and I’m sure you’ll agree that the Earth’s core would make the awesomest setting ever for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, or a great video game premise-Astronauts Vs. The Earths Core.

Just don’t go looking for science, because these sci-fi illustrations are mostly fiction.

Link

Ricardo Montalbán on the set of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan meets an inflatable replica of his co-star in the series Fantasy Island. Pop culture occasionally gives us these strange juxtapositions. Link -via @JohnCFarrier

What you’re seeing is not a casting call for Gandhi: The Musical, nor is it a collection of Mahatma Gandhi clones popping out of some strange moustachioed alternate dimension, but rather the making of a world record!

To mark the 64th anniversary of Gandhi’s passing, 485 kids gathered together to celebrate their fallen leader by dressing up like him, complete with glasses, moustache and bald cap, and in doing so set a world record.

I wonder if any of the students who took place in the world record costume party went on to become Groucho Marx impersonators?

Link

National Geographic has a gallery of really neat rare photos from the Project Gemini Online Digital Archive. This one above is of astronaut Buzz Aldrin (the first man who peed on the moon, btw), who took this self-portrait while spacewalking during NASA's Gemini XII mission in 1966.

Can't beat that background: Link

For the eighth consecutive year, Animal Planet will host The Puppy Bowl at 3PM (Eastern Time) on Super Bowl Sunday. The halftime show will star kittens from a shelter. See a series of adorable photographs taken during the taping of the halftime show at Buzzfeed. The kittens are all up for adoption. Link

(Image credit: Amy Sly)

Photographer Senén Llanos and dancer and yoga enthusiast Marién Enid began a tradition in 2005 of taking a photo of Marién against the backdrop of the last sunrise of the year. They get together every year, whether their quest is successful or not. The result (so far) is not only a series of pictures showing Llanos’ progression as a photographer, but it is also a chronicle of a friendship that survives time and distance. The story that accompanies the photographs is well worth a read. Link -Thanks, Senén!   

Is this the latest fashion style, or are these poor models being held hostage by some cult leader fashion designer and forced to strut up and down the runway? Maybe they’re trying out for the henchman position, and they’re competing for who looks best in the costume.

The truth is these are a few of the outfits from Thom Browne’s latest designer fashion line, and he admits that the line was influenced by science fiction.

The two outfits pictured above are actually the most tame in the collection, so do yourself a favor and hit the link to see the rest of these far out fashions. It’s like looking through images from the Henchman’s Ball.

Link  –via Laughing Squid