Love, love, love this Doctor Who TARDIS-themed cake topper! Seems like someone creative simply put together a store-bought bride and groom wedding topper with a TARDIS! Link Via That's Nerdalicious

Check out the NeatoShop for neat Doctor Who stuff

Marlo Thomas wrote the story of a group of nine women in West Tennessee who decided to honor their grandma by doing something for their neighbors in need. They pooled a little cash each month, and started a tradition of anonymous giving. That was 35 years ago.

And then the women started listening. They’d eavesdrop -- all with good intentions, of course -- at the local beauty shop or when they were picking up groceries. And when they heard about a widow or a single mom who needed a little help, they’d step in and anonymously pay a utility bill or buy some new clothes for the children.

“We wanted to help as much as we could,” Mary Ellen said, “without taking away from our own families, so we became coupon clippers. And we’d use green stamps. Remember those? We’d use green stamps and we’d make sure to go to Goldsmith’s department store on Wednesdays. Every week they’d have a big sale and you could spend $100 and walk away with $700 worth of merchandise.”

The Nanas would find out where the person lived and send a package with a note that simply said, “Somebody loves you” -- and they’d be sure to include one of MaMaw Ruth’s special pound cakes.

The more people they helped, the bolder they became.

“We gave new meaning to the term drive-by,” Mary Ellen said with delight. “We’d drive through low-income neighborhoods and look for homes that had fans in the window. That told us that the people who lived there didn’t have air-conditioning. Or we’d see that there were no lights on at night, which meant there was a good chance their utilities had been turned off. Then we’d return before the sun came up, like cat burglars, and drop off a little care package.”

The "9 Nanas" kept their works secret from even their husbands for decades, but now that the secret is out, they've expanded their business of spreading happiness. Read the whole story at HuffPo. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Happiness Happens)

Think about the romantic ambiance that these tiles could add to a pool, hot tub or bathtub! If It's Hip, It's Here has rounded up promotional images from five companies that make tiles that glow in the dark. Some of the photos demonstrate the elaborate nighttime designs that these tiles make possible.

Link -via Nag on the Lake

This awesome array of retro rayguns are made from found objects by Kevin Skinner, aka Budget Raygun.

The only thing that could make these retro-futuristic styled rayguns any cooler is if they actually fired energy beams and made pew!pew! noises. 

The future was so much cooler in the past!

Link  --via JazJaz

Design students Alex Cabunoc and Ji A You visited Cerro Verde, a slum outside of Lima, Peru, as part of a challenge from the Design Matters program at Art Center College of Design, which focuses on social innovation.

When they first arrived in the slum, the pair were shocked at the amount of time Cerro Verde’s inhabitants spent collecting the water needed to perform the most basic tasks. “So much time, energy, and resources are used for basic water chores like cooking and cleaning,” remembers Cabunoc. "It leaves little time for other activities that might help one get out of poverty.” In particular, washing clothes is a major timesuck--it can eat up as much as six hours a day. There are major physical challenges involved with doing a simple load of laundry, too: lugging heavy buckets of water from a clean site, for example, or finding a way to dry the clothes before they get moldy.

One of the many ideas that came out of the trip is GiraDora, the foot-powered washing machine.

GiraDora is a blue bucket that conceals a spinning mechanism that washes clothes and then partially dries them. It’s operated by a foot pedal, while the user sits on the lid to stabilize the rapidly churning contents. Sitting alleviates lower-back pain associated with hand-washing clothes, and frees up the washer to pursue other tasks. It’s portable, so it can be placed nearby a water source, or even inside on a rainy day. It reduces health risks like joint problems, skin irritation, and mold inhalation. Most importantly, it uses far less water and cleans clothes faster than conventional hand-washing.

The students have received a small grant to develop their design through a pilot program. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

Photo: Hannah Stonehouse/Stonehouse Photography

Photographer Hannah Stonehouse took this marvelous photo of her friend John Unger swimming with his dog Schoep, who at 19 years old, now has arthritis and has trouble sleeping. Unger found that the water helps the dog's pain and takes the dog to Lake Superior to lull him to sleep. The photo has gone viral on Facebook, and it's easy to see why.

John Lundy of Duluth News Tribune has the back story of the man and his best friend: Link - via Huffington Post and PetaPixel

Sixteen-year-old cancer patient Maga Barzallo Sockemtickem has been in the hospital for nearly a month after undergoing bone marrow transplant, and missed her cat terribly.

So the staff at Seattle's Children Hospital's oncology unit asked its Facebook fans to send pictures of cats ... and received some 3,000 photos in response. The hospital staff created a slideshow - complete with purring sound - for Maga.

People are awesome.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via NPR's Shots

When redditor InGordWeTrust found an opportunity to have some fun with the Fairmont hotel staff, they went above and beyond the call of duty.

When I booked the hotel, they had a spot for special instructions. So I wrote down, "Pre-made pillow fort, and a vanilla Coke."

You can see the completed fort in a gallery at imgur. He also received a snack tray with a coupon for two vanilla Cokes and a memorable personal note. Link