Open Electronics designed and built a robotic lawn mower that is powered entirely by solar energy. It operates autonomously within an area defined by an underground wiring system. When it encounters an obstacle, it changes direction and keeps moving. When it enters a shaded area, the mower draws energy from a battery that charges from the solar panels. You can find complete schematics, including circuit diagrams and code, here.
-via Hack A Day
Last month, Jeff Miller and Meg Strouse of Thrillist attended the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, California. They partook of the outlandish foods that have become central to county and state fairs, trying out delights such as deep fried pecan pie and bacon-wrapped Jack Daniel's churro.
What got my attention and made my mouth water are these corn dogs sold by Pickle O' Pete. They're made by coring a whole pickle, sliding a hot dog inside, dipping the combination in corn dog batter, then deep frying. Delicious!
Tomato sauce, cheese, pasta, and meat are a filling meal. But Garfield needs to polish off his supper with a bit of dessert. Ashley, the CenterCutCook, has just the recipe for him. The crust is made of an entire package of crushed Double Stuf Oreos, followed by the creme, then chocolate pudding, then Cool Whip, then mini chocolate chips.
-via Thrillist
The eleventh episode in the sixth season of Friends is called "The One with the Apothecary Table." It's 22 minutes long. But YouTube user Tunglebrek removed all of the jokes and almost all of the laugh track so that it's just 2 minutes, 43 seconds long. The plot remains entirely coherent with two clearly discernible story arcs (an A story and a B story).
He's also done similar work with an episode of The Big Bang Theory (1 minute, 28 seconds) and an episode of Seinfeld (3 minutes, 3 seconds). What other shows would you like to see subjected to this treatment?
-via 22 Words
What makes this antique restoration perfect is that the chair almost seems originally designed to look like Finn. It wasn't, of course, but redditor reallylovely saw how its forms perfectly fit as a kawaii version of Finn.
She saw the old chair at an antique shop and saw in her mind the image of Finn on the back. She painted it with acrylic, including glow-in-the-dark paint on Finn's socks and hood. For the seat, she used a pre-existing piece of Adventure Time fabric, but also embroidered details on Jake's face herself.
-via Geek Crafts
#Facebook is not a Law Enforcement issue, please don't call us about it being down, we don't know when FB will be back up!
— Sgt. Brink (@LASDBrink) August 1, 2014Yes we got calls #facebookdown That is why I sent out my previous msg to prevent them. Unk number received on 911 or reg number TY #LASD
— Sgt. Brink (@LASDBrink) August 1, 2014Pls. No questions about when #Facebook will be back up, we do not know... Thx! #LAPD
— LAPD Communications (@911LAPD) August 1, 2014I know that losing access to Facebook can feel like an emergency. You can certainly experience emotional heartbreak as a result of its sudden, inexplicable departure from your life. But police departments would like for you to know that it is not a crisis that they can resolve. Just shelter in place until Facebook resumes normal operations.
Tragically, this emergency lasted a full half hour before Facebook came back online. During that time, well . . . let's just say no one will forget the carnage of August 1, 2014.
Look around you--right where you are now. Ask yourself if you have all of the skills and supplies necessary to endure a social media outage.
If not, then it's time to get ready.
-via Ace of Spades HQ
XiaozuoZ, an artist in Hubei Province, China, created these striking images of SpongeBob SquarePants characters. Perhaps he was inspired by the new SpongeBob movie, which will be released next year. But even if the movie is his inspiration, his take on the character designs is unique.
Patrick Star
Squidward Tentacles
Eugene Crabs
Sandy Cheeks
-via Rocket News 24
James Kerr, AKA "Scorpion Daggger," is an artist who specializes in collages and animated .gifs. When he combines the two, the results are comical. Lately, he's been splicing together images from Renaissance paintings to show unexpected scenes.
-via Juxtapoz
David Bowen is a robotic sculptor. By that I mean he makes robotic sculptures, not that he himself is a robot--at least to the best of my knowledge. And not that there's anything wrong with being a robot--I'm no robophobe, mind you.
But I digress. Bowen made a robot that plays a piano. He installed it at the L'Assaut de la Menuiserie, an art gallery in Saint-Étienne, France. A camera mounted on the roof of the building noted the presence of clouds. As clouds flowed over, the robot played keys, thus playing a naturally occurring music in the sky.
-via FastCoDesign
Omid Asadi, an artist from Iran, carefully cuts away naturally fallen leaves into highly realistic scenes. His discovery of this medium began when he noticed that other people casually step on what he regards as naturally beautiful:
I started to think why nobody paid attention to these beautiful leaves and trod on them, because of their name - if they were called flowers we wouldn’t tread on them at all!
He's developed this craft with not only refined, precise detail, but also an imaginative eye for the possibilities of the medium.
It's all the elegance of a fine Japanese restaurant with the convenience of a state fair food stand. This is the spicy tuna corn dog, a creation from the Culinary Bro-Down. The first step is to get tuna rolls from "your cheapest, dirtiest local supermarket." Don't worry about food safety because you will deep fry any parasites into submission.
Next, shove a wood stick inside. Then roll it in a batter made of cornmeal, furikake, ginger, and sriracha. Deep fry and serve. You can use chopsticks, but you won't need to because it's a corn dog.
-via Foodiggity
Hilla Shamia, a product designer in Israel, developed an amazing technique for combining the natural and the synthetic. She places blocks of wood inside molds, then pours in molten aluminum. The liquefied metal flows smoothly into every crack, filling it and providing support when it cools. You can see more pictures of her work at Colossal.
(Photo: Real langurs photographed by strudelt)
Gray langurs are large monkeys that are common in India. They're often kept in the capital, New Delhi, to guard government buildings from smaller animals. 4 years ago, I noted that they would be used to beef up security for the Commonwealth Games. Alex commented:
Then when those monkeys run rampant, then India would have to get even larger monkeys to chase them off ... and so on and so on.
His observation was prescient. The langurs have become a menace, particularly to the government officials who work in the district where the langurs live. They sometimes attack humans, steal food, and destroy utility cables. Animal rights activists are also concerned about the welfare of these monkeys.
So the city government is taking action. It hired 40 men to dress up as langurs. They will chase, bark, and hiss at the monkeys until they have re-established order in the capital.
But Alex's point remains: what does the government plan to do once these monkey men become a threat?
The goat wants to eat from the crabapple tree, but he isn't tall enough to reach it. A donkey helpfully serves as a ladder.
A question for the donkey: are you getting a cut of the payoff? You could earn some crabapples this way.
-via David Thompson
Does your dog get exited about a trip in the car? Does your cat like the roam around the neighborhood? Does your rabbit refuse to come out from under the bed? Yes, your animal companions are natural explorers. When they have shuffled off this mortal coil, why not offer them the chance to explore the farthest reaches of space?
Celestis Pets, a company in Houston, Texas, wants to offer that opportunity. For years, this company has already sent human remains into orbit, including those of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek. Now it plans to do the same for beloved animals. Getting Fluffy into Earth orbit costs $4,995. Going interstellar costs $12,500. How they manage that one is a mystery to me.