See a series of classic Gil Elvgren paintings of women in various cheesecake poses, alongside the original photograph he worked from. Slightly NSFW. Link -via Nag on the Lake

A creation called Chilean CoPeepapo Mine Rescue won the grand prize at the annual Peeps diorama competition from The Washington Post. A video at the site looks at the details of the winning entry. You can see all the entries in this year's contest in a slide show. Link to video. Link to slide show.

Now you can literally curl up in the pages of a good book! Yusuke Suzuki made this bed with sheets forming the pages and pillows serving as bookmarks.

Link via Doobybrain | Designer's Website | Photo: Fubiz

The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Absolutely Absorbing Bathroom Reader. Contains spoilers, but you can skip to the end and watch the entire movie first if you like.

There are bad movies...and then there are BAD movies. Years ago the Medved brothers reintroduced stinkers like Plan 9 From Outer Space to the public in their groundbreaking books, The 50 Worst Films of All Time and The Golden Turkey Awards. The "Mystery Science Theater 3000" gave us a chance to watch the best of the worst on TV. Today there are millions of bad movie buffs... and Uncle John is one of them. Here's one of his favorite stinkers.

ROBOT MONSTER (1953)
Starring George Nader, Claudia Barrett, Selena Royle, John Mylong, George Barrows.

Background: Director Phil Tucker made this opus for less than $20,000. He couldn't afford to rent a real robot costume, but (fortunately for bad movie lovers) he knew a guy named George Barrows, who owned his own gorilla suit. "When [moviemakers] needed a gorilla in a picture," Tucker explained to the Medveds in The Golden Turkey Awards, "they called George. [He] got like forty bucks a day... [but] I thought, 'George will work for me for nothing. I'll get a diving helmet, put it on him, and it'll work!'"

It did work. Years later, Tucker's robot even won an award. Okay, it was a Golden Turkey Award for "The Most Ridiculous Monster in Screen History." But it was well-deserved. "Unlike many other cinematic robots," Ken Beggs writes in Jabootu's Bad Movie Universe, "[this one] has the appearance of a morbidly obese man in a shaggy gorilla costume, adorned with a deep sea diving helmet over his nylon-stocking bedecked noggin" -and the helmet was topped with a rabbit-ears TV antenna. You have to see it to believe it.

(YouTube link)

Note: Strange anomaly for such a seat-of-the-pants production: Robot Monster was filmed in 3D, and the music recorded in stereo. Even more surprising: the score was written by Elmer Bernstein, later one of Hollywood's most accomplished composers (he wrote the music, for example, for The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape).

(YouTube link)

Enjoy some music by cellist Kevin Olusola. He is an accomplished musician, but the senior at Yale University is majoring in pre-med and East Asian studies. Olusola spent a fellowship year in China to study the language, but also managed to perform a few concerts while there. Read more at his website. http://kolusolamusic.art.officelive.com/bio.aspx -via reddit

Metal Pen with Level and Screwdriver - $14.95

Are you looking for a fun gift for your favorite graduate? Get them the Metal Pen with Level and Scredriver from the NeatoShop!  This is the gift that all others can be measured by.  It will help your grad stay level headed in all kinds of screwy situations.

Be sure to check out all the cool Pens & Pencils available at the NeatoShop!

Scientists at the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Brain Science have unveiled a computerized atlas of the human brain that charts the underlying biochemistry of the mind. The online atlas will assist researchers to locate where  genes are at work in the brain. This tool could offer help for brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and autism and mental-health disorders like depression, among others.

This first edition of the atlas took four years to compile and, in its preliminary drafts, has already become a research tool for 4,000 scientists who have adopted it to probe brain biology. It builds on computer techniques that the Allen Institute developed during the creation of an interactive atlas of the mouse brain, which it released in 2006.

Link - Via Book Of Joe

Chess is very popular in Armenia. In a move to become globally known for prowess in the game, the government of Armenia has made the study of it mandatory for school children:

The authorities led by President Serzh Sarkisian, an enthusiastic supporter of the game, have committed around $1.43 million to the scheme - a large sum in the impoverished but chess-mad country.

Children from the age of six will learn chess as a separate subject on the curriculum for two hours a week.

Aivazian said the lessons, which start later this year, would "foster schoolchildren's intellectual development" and teach them to "think flexibly and wisely".

Do you think that the children will benefit from this time spent studying chess?

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/armenia-makes-chess-compulsory-in-schools/story-e6frfku0-1226039947579 via reddit | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user Andréia used under Creative Commons license

Here you see a skeleton knitting a scarf with yarn that is coming from her own bones! She is a knit-covered skeleton. Twilight Kallisti of Crafting Chaos made this artwork called Just One More Row using an educational skeleton model. See more pictures at the website. http://craftingchaos.com/2011/04/17/just-one-more-row/

Paris-based photographer Thomas M. made a set of pictures showing people as the default Facebook profile image. He writes "The aim of this project is to humanize the Facebook default avatar provided at the first login." Mission accomplished.

Link via Walyou | Artist's Website

If you want to say 'I'm a practical person' while still wearing high heeled shoes, these stilettos by Christian Louboutin should do the trick. It's just a pity that they're only in metric.

http://us.christianlouboutin.com/shoes/evening/police-100mm.html via Craft | Photo: Christian Loutoubin

Modern love is best expressed with bacon, but for the traditionalist, there are always bacon roses. Instructables user kaptaink_cg explains how to make them. You'll need a broiling pan, a mini muffin pan, marbles, and a drill. It'll be necessary to actually destroy the muffin pan, but it'll be worth it.

Link via Geekosystem

deviantART user dkart71 doesn't offer a lot of verbal detail about this work, but his level of artistic detail is impressive. His gallery is filled with similar pieces, including choppers and trikes.

Link

Yes, the Ghostbusters were there at the Second Battle of Dantooine. Check your history reference books if you're skeptical.

Link via Popped Culture | Photo: Columbus Dispatch/Jeff Hinckley

There are some minor differences between the activities of the Easter Bunny and the Easter Cthulhu, but both make the holiday memorable for children. Jason McKittrick made these chocolate Cthulhu figurines to mark the occasion.

http://ghost111381.blogspot.com/2011/04/chocolate-cthulhu-idol.html via Boing Boing