(Photo: Global Reactions)

In 1953, the general store and post office of Ochopee, Florida burned down. So local residents converted an irrigation pipe shed on a tomato farm into a temporary post office. It stayed there and remains in business to this day. 

(Image: Kris555000)

It serves residents of 3 counties and was once a bus stop. A single Postal Service employee works there, sorting mail into slots on the back wall. In addition to being a functional service point, the Ochopee Post Office is also a popular tourist attraction as it is the smallest Post Office in the United States.

This is 1 of 7 of America's smallest civic institutions rounded up by Atlas Obscura, including the smallest national forest (33 trees) and a police station the size of a phone booth.

It's pretty neat until you realize that from the Slinky's point of view, it's a human attempt to create a Sisyphean hell for all Slinkykind. Matthias Wandel's eternal Slinky escalator amuses us to no end and horrifies any Slinky that watches it.

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Wandel made his escalator with a looped wood chain of steps. He tried to use an electric drill to automate the task. But after failing to get the right speed, he opted for a simpler and more effective hand crank. Just turn at the right speed and the Slinky will never stop its labor.

-via Gizmodo

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So you want to start your own country. This is a reasonable life goal. What's the process? Joe Bereta of Epic How To gets you started on the major benchmarks of being a country. It's pretty hard at this point because almost all land in the world has been claimed by someone and it's difficult to forcibly take over a country with just yourself and your buddies.

One option that Bereta leaves out is purchasing territory from a government that agrees to relinquish sovereignty in addition to the land. A sufficiently desperate government (say, one that is losing a civil war) may be willing to do so for cash. Just take care of that chore and soon you'll have currency with your face on it. Good luck!

-via Blame It on the Voices

In space, no one can hear you complain that it's chilly outside. So throw another log into this wood stove that Burned by Design made. It's shaped like the head of the xenomorph from Alien. He comments on Facebook that "this should keep the neighbors cat out of the garden."

This is one of several geeky wood stoves that Burned by Design has made from old LPG tanks. Others include Darth Vader, R2-D2, Iron Man, and a stormtrooper helmet.

(Image: CCTV News)

Liu Haibin, 30, is an engineer who works in Xiamen City, China. His work takes him away from his family, which lives 730 miles away in Tengzhuo City. He dearly misses his 8-month old son in particular. So Liu built two matching seesaws equipped with motion sensors, cameras, and display screens. With them, Liu and his son and seesaw together in real time. The Daily Mail reports:

'I want to leave some good childhood memories for my boy.

'Hopefully he will remember when he grows up that his father has tried to make him happy.'

Speaking of his inspiration for the project, Liu added: 'Every time I think about my childhood, I remember my father coming home early to play with me on the seesaw.

'This memory always gives me strength, so I want to give my son memories that fill him with love.'

Going down the slide at the playground is so much fun! But the puppy isn't so sure. It looks a bit scary. So it's a good thing that Mommy is here to show how simple and safe it is.

When Puppy hesitates, Mommy does what's good for her and pulls her down by her leash.

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-via Gifsboom

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Everyone at this cove in Malta was having a grand time, jumping into the clear blue water for a swim. The dog watched closely and carefully pondered joining in. Why not? Jump, little terrier!

While in the water, it occurred to the pup to play a bit of fetch.

-via Blame It on the Voices

Simone Giertz is the chief technologist at Punch Through Design, a hardware design company in Minneapolis and San Francisco. Her latest project, the Toothbrush Machine, has a simple premise: “because knowing how to build something doesn’t always mean that you should.” To prove that, her useless machine stylishly and practically brushes the front teeth. It consists of a robot arm mounted onto a bike helmet. An Arduino controls the servo motors, moving the brush into position, and then back and forth as needed.

Researchers at Harvard University found that they could use fat cells to produce laser light. They inevitably chose pig fat because of the flavor. An MIT Technology Review article that was surprisingly not published on April Fools’ Day explains:

The team at Harvard University turning cells into lasers has tried it before. But last time they had to put the cells inside a special optical cavity to make them shine (see “Lasers Made from Human Cells”). Pumping light into a sphere can create the resonance that produces sharply defined laser light.

This time the team showed that some cells could lase on their own. They chose pig fat because each cell contains a large, nearly perfectly spherical ball of fat inside it. They added a glowing fluorescent dye and then started up the microlasers by shining in light through an optical fiber.

-via VA Viper | Photo: Nature Photonics

(Image: Taco Bell)

The 1993 movie Demolition Man teaches us that by 2032, Taco Bell will be the only restaurant chain left in the country. All restaurants will be Taco Bells, even the most luxurious dining establishments.

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22 years into that vision of the future, Taco Bell is already making progress. A new location in the wealthy Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago will offer liquor and local craft beers. And to make sure that only the proper sort of clientele gets in and stays in, the restaurant will have its own bouncer. Presumably the restroom will be equipped with 3 seashells.

-via Hopes & Fears

(Photo: Hair: Fashion and Fantasy by Laurent Philippon)

In its heyday, people in Rwanda wore the amasunzu in more than 30 different ways. It was a demonstration of elegance and refinement. The East African, a news source based in Kenya, describes how and why people grew it:

The style is designed by cutting some of the hair sideways, towards the middle, then leave it to grow.

“It is a style of elegance, hygiene; it reflected reality and maturity among girls,” said Epa Binamungu, a 60-year-old visual artist. “Most adolescent girls would use it to show pride; it showed that that a girl was a virgin.

“It was a style for the spinsters.”

It was also a way of beautifying the body. Rwandan etiquette is based on the body’s nature. This style was used to reflect important aspects such as might, hygiene and, for unmarried girls, virginity. It was also a way to show class; powerful leaders, nobles and the rich wore the hairstyle.

Although the amasunzu has fallen out of style in recent decades, it is currently experiencing a revival in popular interest.

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This video shows a man getting his hair styled in an amasunzu.

-via TYWKIWDBI

Should the roll flow over or under? That’s an old debate. Henry Franks, a product designer in London, wants to introduce a new toilet topic to argue about: where the toilet paper roll should be located.

His Bog Standard toilet seat offers a radically different perspective. You don’t have to twist or turn to reach the roll. It’s right in front of you. Provided that the seat will lock in the upright position for men, this is an ergonomically optimal placement.

-via Dornob

(Photos: Greta Gedminaitė)

Clinic 212, an ad agency in Vilnius, Lithuania, wants people to take care that our animals friends don’t get squashed when they cross human roads and pathways. To “show that we are not the only ones living in the city,” the agency made little road signs and crosswalks in the spaces that humans and animals share. 

Martynas Karpovicius came up with the idea when he saw a taxi driver almost run over a hedgehog. He and his colleagues responded on behalf of pigeons, cats, and ducks, as well as hedgehogs. You can see more photos and read about the project at the Huffington Post.

-via Lustik

"Pika? Pika Pika. Pika!"

Okay, I admit that it sounded a lot better in the original Shyriiwook.

Cosplayer Nana Bear, whose vast repertoire includes Storm, The Riddler, Princess Bubblegum, and She-Hulk, offers this fresh and original take by combining two of the most dangerous creatures in the multiverse.

-via Nerd Bastards

(Photo: US Army)

The story goes that on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was about to launch into space, becoming the first human being to do so. At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Gagarin took a bus to the launch pad. When he arrived, he sensibly decided to relieve his bladder one last time. So he peed on one of the bus's tires.

Specifically, Gagarin peed on the back right tire.

Ever since, Soviet and Russian cosmonauts faithfully peed on the back right tire of the shuttle bus before blasting off into space.

This is one of many unusual traditions that astronauts of the spacefaring nations have picked up. You can read about the rest at Atlas Obscura.