[caption id="attachment_44063" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Even the Wicked Witch is no match for the Scarecrow!"][/caption]

Amazon sells the Contech Electronics CRO101 Scarecrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler. The normal purpose of such a device is to scare pets and wildlife (and maybe kids) away from your lawn or garden. However, many folks have their own ideas of how it should be used, as you'll see in the seven pages of customer-submitted images. http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/B000071NUS/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_all -via b3ta

"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." Sure, it's an old saw, but it's also literally true.

Between 1838, when the United States Patent Office opened its doors, and 1996, the year that Jack Hope wrote a story about the device for American Heritage magazine, more than 4,400 mousetrap patents were awarded in dozens of different subclasses, including "Electrocuting and Explosive," "Swinging Striker," "Choking or Squeezing," and 36 others. That's an average of more than two dozen patents every year for more than 150 years. What makes that number more spectacular is that 95 percent of those patents were given to amateur, or first-time inventors.

That's more patents than have been awarded for any other device, according to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History (NMAH), which is currently celebrating the mousetrap by displaying several different designs on the first floor of the museum in one of several long glass cases that greet visitors, both new and returning, when they enter the building.

Nicholas Jackson writes in The Atlantic about various mousetrap designs and how they represent the entrepreneurial spirit. Included is a gallery of some of the more interesting mousetrap patents recorded over the years. Link -via Look at This

Colin Greenhalgh adds monsters and somewhat-poetic captions to vintage postcards to make them much more interesting.

Meanwhile in Adventure Land, an imp lands a hand, scaring all the guests. Onlookers are captivated in fear, as he emerges from the murk, and lets lose a terrifying burp.

See a variety of such nonsense at his blog Monsters Abroad. Link -Thanks, Amy Dix!

Who has more bacteria in their navel -Carl Zimmer of The Loom or Peter Aldhous of NewScientist? The swabs have been taken, and the cultures were grown. You can see the results in petri dishes. It's part of the Belly Button Biodiversity Project led by Jiri Hulcr of North Carolina State University.

The project was conceived as a device to interest the public in microbiology, and to counter the common view that bacteria are nothing but causes of disease. "This fear is based on a lack of awareness that we live in a microbial world," says Hulcr, who notes that even some "self-described germophobes" have confronted their anxieties and given swabs.

Hulcr also aims to extend a scientific frontier: researchers are realising that the human "microbiome" - the diversity of microorganisms that inhabit our bodies - is a key influence on our health and physiology. The skin remains poorly explored territory, and the belly button is an ideal sampling point because it doesn't get as scrubbed and sprayed with chemicals as much other, more accessible parts.

See more navel microbes growing at NewScientist. Link -via Carl Zimmer

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Imagine an ice cream truck rolling into your neighborhood playing that tune -wouldn't you run to it as fast as you can? Admiral Snackbar, indeed! This is an advertisement for Star Wars Popsicles, one of many April Fool's Day items from Think Geek. Link

All children need toys, but not all toys are created alike. While most bad toys are simply a bit boring, these eleven are the absolute worst of the worst. In fact, you’ll notice a lot of these are so ridiculous that they have actually taken on a cult collector’s item status and now cost quite a pretty penny.

1. Toy Tazer

There are toy guns, toy bow and arrow sets, toy swords and more, but somehow a toy tazer still seems to take things a touch too far –particularly considering the “Police Electric Baton Shock” actually gives out real shocks.  On the upside, it’s only $3.50, so it’s much cheaper than most kid’s toys.

2. The Kaba Kick

Russian Roulette is a ton of fun, but it’s unfortunately completely permanent. If you want to practice the game without those deadly consequences, then you’d better go ahead and start out with the Kaba Kick and the more gentle pink hippo kicks that replace bullets.

3. Cleaning Trolley

It’s totally normal for kids to pretend to do grown up jobs, after all, some kids play house, some play doctor, some play superhero and some play with chemistry sets, but who wants to be a janitor? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like a better idea to push your kids towards an intellectual pursuit than a job in the cleaning industry.

The Playmobil Apple Store is a preschool geek's dream toy! It features the Genius Bar, kid's corner, sales floor, and a conference room -and comes with over 60 accessories! And get this -you can slip your iPhone in place behind Steve Jobs and animate his presentation! The Playmobil Apple Store is a new item introduced today at ThinkGeek. Link

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YouTube combines vintage footage, special effects, and modern memes to salute the viral videos of 100 years ago with this top 5 countdown. Somehow this video has 7,200 likes and a few hundred dislike, but only 489 views -but it's their website, so I guess they can do that. The YouTube page has links to the videos that inspired this compilation. -via Buzzfeed

Graffiti Cocktail Shaker - $19.95

Are you on the lookout for an unusual cocktail shaker for your next rave? You need the Graffiti Cocktail Shaker from the NeatoShop.  It's bound to be a big hit with your gang of extremely artistic friends!

Be sure to check out all the shockingly fun Cocktail & Barware available at the NeatoShop!

If the eggs of free range chicken taste better, what about those of hipster chicken? Well, while you ponder that, take a look at this modern chicken coop called nogg by Matthew Hayward and Nadia Turan.

Stylish, fox-proof, and ovoid? Check. Check and check. What more can you ask for? Link - via homedit

Photo: Geoffrey Cottenceau

When a sawmill did that to timber, you get lumber. But what happens when an artist made the object you see above from polystyrene and resin? Art, my friend, that is art. Behold, "Billon" by Vincent Kohler: Link - via Core 77

From the twisted mind of Tokyosexwhale (who mentioned that his name is actually derived from a real guy named Tokyo Sexwale. Laugh all you want, but Tokyo's the current Minister of Human Settlement in South Africa). Link

What good is all those fancy chemistry lab equipments if you can't benefit humanity, say by improving our cocktails? Analytic chemist Neil Da Costa decided to dissect the chemistry behind making the perfect Bloody Mary:

With gas and liquid chromatography, Da Costa isolated the wide variety of compounds that give the bloody mary its unique flavor. The drink covers much of the taste spectrum: sweet, salty, sour and umami — the savory taste of glutamic acid.

And, Da Costa says, the order of these sensations is appealing: first cool and refreshing, then spicy, and finally a sinus-clearing horseradish kick.

So what lessons can amateur bartenders glean from all this analysis? Make it fresh and make it cool, Da Costa says. Many of the ingredients are chemically unstable, so it's important to make your bloody mary from fresh ingredients and keep it iced to prevent deterioration.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/03/29/134931452/cocktail-chemistry-parsing-the-bloody-mary - via Nerdcore

Are you serious about winning pillow fights? Matthew Borgatti is, so he made this mace-shaped pillow for an upcoming flash mob pillowfight in New York City. He writes:

Surprisingly it took a good yard of cushion foam and two bags of poly-fill to do this one up right and get it nice and spherical. In other interesting news this may be the first dodecahedron I’ve ever constructed.

Link via Super Punch

Do we really need government? That's not an idle Tea Party-esque question in Belgium, where they've gone nearly a year without one:

Belgium tied Iraq on Tuesday for a very special world record: Number of days without a new government. (It's been 289 days since the inconclusive June 13, 2010, election.) Has living without a government made any difference to the Belgian people?

Not really. It's not quite accurate to say the country is without a government. In parliamentary systems like that of Belgium or the United Kingdom, the existing ministers remain in office when Parliament is dissolved in anticipation of an election. In the event that the elections are inconclusive, the ministers continue to perform their functions. They can't undertake controversial new initiatives, because they don't have a parliamentary majority to approve it, but they can accomplish administrative tasks.

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