Love iced cream cones but hate the iced cream? Then you'll love these Cupcake cones on Instructables with plenty of instructions (naturally) to make your own sweettreats at home.

Delicious, clever, and surprising, these cupcakes impersonating ice cream cones are sure to delight!

Now that's a quote that I can't begin to dispute.

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Being born a Jill, I always have had an involuntary relationship with the name “Jack.” For a few months in high school, I even dated a Jack. I was thrilled when we broke up because I no longer had to hear the nursery rhyme every day. But what is it about the name that has made it so dominant in our society? Why is it such a popular name?

All this and more can be revealed when you just admit that “you don’t know Jack.”

Image Via Computationally.Irrational [Flickr]

About the Name:

The name Jack came from a Middle English word, “jakke,” used to refer to any male, particularly those of the lower classes. Many people mistakenly believe the name comes from “Jacques,” which came from the names Jacob and James. English speakers associated the name Jack with John much more often than these other names, so the similar sounds are purely coincidental.

In the UK, the name is the most popular name for male babies between 2003 and 2007. In England, it has been the top name since 1994. The name is much less common in America, ranking in the top 30-40 names of male babies, but it is still much more popular than it was around 20 years ago, when it was closer to the 175th ranking.

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Phrases:

"Jack of all trades" has been used for centuries and refers to a person who could do a variety of tasks. The use of the word “Jack” was only included because it was still being used as a generic term for ‘man’ at the time. It was not originally a negative expression, but at some point, people started adding on the phrase “master of none,” which made for a whole new meaning. It can now refer to either phrase and, as a result, can be bad or good depending on the context.

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Image Via Joel Mark Witt [Flickr]

Because Jack was so often used to refer to social underlings, it was eventually used to refer to useless objects. Eventually, it began being used as a term for very little. The phrase “you don’t know jack” (with or without the expletive) has been used for decades to say someone knows very little. Yes, it seems to be a bit of a double negative, but expressions are commonly created and spread without any consideration for proper grammar.

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A Few Facts About A Few Famous Jacks:

Jack Black is the son of two rocket scientists and a college friend of Tim Robbins. He often jokingly refers to Philip Seymour Hoffman as his “nemesis” because the two frequently audition for the same roles.

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Jack Nicholson worked as a gofer at Hannah Barbara animation studios when he was young; when they offered him an animation job, he turned them down, saying he wanted to be an actor. Aside from being a good artist, he is also a great singer, as documented by his performance in Tommy. Fortunately, he stuck with acting and is tied with Walter Brennan for the title of male actor with the most Oscar wins.

Source Image ViaMharrsch [Flickr]

Jack Lemmon was not only a great actor, but also a great, self-taught pianist; he wrote the theme for the 1980 movie Tribute. When he first started acting, studio head Jack Warner wanted him to change his name to “Jack Lennon” so critics wouldn’t have the chance to say that his performance in a given film was a lemon. Jack convinced him the name would be compared to Lenin, which was even worse.

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Jack Kerouac was born to French-Canadian parents and did not learn English until he was six. He originally started writing On the Road in French and actually has two unpublished novels in the language as well. He was enrolled in the US Merchant Marines during WWII, but was honorably discharged on the grounds of psychiatric issues. At one point, he was arrested for helping a friend, Lucien Carr, hide the evidence after murdering a stalker.

Source Image Via Tompalumbo [Flickr]

Jack products:

The Jack in card decks was originally a knave card. The name wasn’t changed until the mid-nineteenth century, when card manufacturing became a big business and the companies realized having “Kn, Q, K, A” abbreviations were too confusing. They opted for the use of “J” instead. In the UK, they still commonly refer to the “Jack” card as a “Knave.”

Source Image Via Tadson [Flickr]

Jack Daniels opened his distillery in Moore County, Tennessee in 1866. When the state enacted prohibition in 1910, the factory reopened in St. Louis, Missouri and Birmingham, Alabama, but none of the alcohol made in these factories was ever sold due to quality control issues. The Tennessee ban on alcohol wasn’t repealed until 1938, but even today, the county the alcohol is produced is still a dry county.

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Jack In The Box started out as a burger joint in San Diego named Topsy’s. The locations all had a circus theme, which is where the Jack In The Box name came from. When the company started losing major market shares in the early 80’s they killed off “Jack” and moved to create more upscale fast food for yuppies. After their e coli scare in the early 90’s though, the company almost went bankrupt, but was saved, largely due to the resurrection of their famed Jack character.

Source Image Via Thomas Hawk [Flickr]

A Few Famous Fictional Jacks:

Jack Skellington, most widely remembered for his lead character in Nightmare Before Christmas, is a reoccurring character in Tim Burton films, appearing in Sleepy Hollow, James and the Giant Peach and Beetlejuice. Although his talking voice is done by Susan Sarandon’s ex-husband, Chris, his singing voice is done by Danny Elfman.

Source Image Via Veronica Bautista [Flickr]

Captain Jack Sparrow was originally supposed to be a much more minor character, who was merely intended to guide Will Turner through the movie. Johnny Depp’s performance was so well received though that the character’s entire role was reprised and he became one of the most adored characters of the movie. In fact, a back story was later created for him and turned into a children’s book series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow.

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Storybook Jacks:

Jack and The Beanstalk is based on an old oral story of Jack the Giant Killer. While many of the tales try to moralize Jack’s behavior, the most popular version leaves Jack as kind of a jerk who robs someone, manipulates his wife and then kills him…all on the grounds that the man is a giant.

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Jack Be Nimble was a nursery rhyme that never made sense to me as a child. Interestingly, it seems to be one of the few with a very clear meaning, as jumping over candlesticks was a game and fortune telling method in the mid-nineteenth century. If one could clear the candlestick without putting out the flame, they were said to have good luck coming their way.

Source Image Via ABakedCreation [Flickr]

The famed Jack and Jill rhyme originally was Jack and Gill and there are a variety of stories involving the origins of the song. Also, although we normally only hear the first verse of the song, there are actually four commonly accepted verses. The full rhyme goes:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.

Up Jack got and home did trot
As fast as he could caper;
And went to bed to mend his head
With vinegar and brown paper.

Jill came in and she did grin
To see his paper plaster;
Mother vexed did whip her next
For causing Jack's disaster.

Now Jack did laugh and Jill did cry
But her tears did soon abate;
Then Jill did say that they should play
At see-saw across the gate.

Source Image Via gfpeck [Flickr]

Artist Junior Fritz Jacquet crumples and folds toilet paper rolls until they make faces displaying anguish, happiness, disgust and more. Once they're folded right, he adds just a bit of color to help bring out their color and then they're ready to go.

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Web Urbanist just put up a nice collection of art installations on buildings. They're all great designs, particularly the tentacle piece above:

An artist calling himself ‘FilthyLuker’ installed inflatable octopus tentacles in the windows of an unnamed building in June of 2009, making it appear as if the building is being devoured by a bright green kraken that somehow emerged from the sea and got stuck inside.

Does anyone know where this building is?

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If you missed Comic Con, you missed more than just the costumes of course. You also missed the array of personality types that seem to pop up at these large-scale geekfests.You may think you know about the attendees, based on the stereotypes, but really, there's a lot more too it than you thought.

The Stereo-typical Geek

These are the kids that smell like they haven’t bathed in a week and still get giddy over the concept of seeing a girl “IRL.” While revolting to everyone around them, they still think they’re total studs and try to chat up the illustrious booth girls somehow hoping their Jedi mind tricks will actually help convince the girl they are cool. Even if you don't see many of these geeks, you most certainly will smell them, as this sign helps demonstrate.

The Twilight Fans

These are the newest breed at the convention and their presence actually worried organizers. There was even talk of organizing things so the panels and booths these tweens were expected to visit would be super far away from the things the geeks were expected to be interested in. Fortunately, these fans actually blended in just fine and were largely the same as the Harry Potter fans that have become a fixture at the convention. While it's impossible to say how long these fans will stay in the scene, it will most certainly not be a problem having the around.

The Booth Babe

These are professional hotties who actually have no interest in anything geekish, particularly comic books, video games and even shows like "Heroes" or "Chuck." While they would normally never be willing to be seen with the average people visiting these conventions, they’re happy to chat with them and pose for photos as long as there is a nice check of at least $200 a day in it for them. In more recent years, the standard booth babes have been reduced, thanks in part to Suicide Girls, who tend to have far more of an interest in these type of activities. In fact Suicide Girls even had a pre-Comic Con collection of Cosplay shots just to emphasize the girls' natural geekiness.

The Cross-Over Costumer

Like Star Wars and Sherlock Holmes? Why not be Jedi Sherlock? What about cooking and Star Wars? Chef Darth Vader of course. One of the most famous crossover fans is Elvis Storm Trooper (to the left), who not only has his own website, but also travels to as many conventions as possible every year. Of course, he always makes it to the San Diego Comic Con every year.

The Star Wars Fans

Comic Con has always been a huge supporter of Star Wars, and not only because it’s a scifi classic. You see, George Lucas actually gave a preview of the movie to fans in 1977 before the movie was released and before the convention was even a big deal. The cult following was inevitable.
Of course, modern day Star Wars fans at the convention tend to be extreme. There are fans who make up their own characters as part of their own fan fiction and there are people dressed as characters who were only shown for a matter of seconds in the film.

The Trekkies

Image Via Stately English Manor

Despite the stereotypes of comic conventions loaded with Klingons, the Trekkies were actually a dying breed for the last ten or so years. But not this year. Since the newest movies are always a major inspiration for costumes (last year The Dark Knight was huge), Star Trek fans were everywhere this year. Interestingly, it was easy to spot the old-school Trekkies, who had only put their gear on the shelf for a few years, and the new-school Trekkies.

The Guy Way Too Into His Character

These guys can be more than a little scary. While a lot of people get into character and enjoy acting their roles, there always seems to be at least a few costumed villains that seem to be living out their character's lives. Unfortunately, there's no psychological test given to people dressed up as villains prior to entry.

So far no one's been severely injured, but it's only a matter of time.

The Weirdo Hippie Guy

This guy's a rare breed, but there always seems to be at least one of them at the Convention. They all seem to have taken a few too many acid hits. No one, particularly these guys themselves, actually understands why they are so interested in showing up at the convention every year, but the overall accepting attitude of the attendees makes it a welcome place for these "unique" individuals.

The Steampunks

Steampunk inventions and costumes have been featured many times on Neatorama, but the number of posts is nowhere near the number of steampunks at Comic Con. These guys have always been at the convention, but this last year they've really stepped up their numbers. If you're interested in learning more about the steampunks at Comic Con this year, there is a great article over at KPBS.

The Lolitas

I have to admit, these are some of my favorite Comic Con fans because I just can't get enough of the outfits. Just like the steampunks, lolitas have always been around at Comic Con, but their numbers really shot up this year. While many people associate the lolitas with gothic culture, the ones at the convention are more of the Japanophile sort and frequently flock to Giant Robot and other Japanese toy booths to see the newest and hottest imports from their country of choice.

These incredibly lifelike paintings were created by John Pugh who calls his artwork "trick of the eye."

The Californian-born artist said: 'It seems almost universal that people take delight in being visually tricked.'

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If you missed out on the San Diego Comic Con this year, you weren't alone -tickets sold out months in advance, leaving a whole lot of people locked out. If you were one of the many who wanted to go and couldn't, or if you just are interested in the event, now's your chance to see one of the best parts of the con -the costumes. These pictures include my top 20 favorite costumes, but there are a whole lot more out there. If you're interested in seeing more convention pictures, be sure to use the links at the bottom of the article. There's always a lot of cross-over costumes at Comic Con and for some reason, they tend to mostly involve Star Wars. These guys were seventies Darth and Boba Fett. I missed out on the opportunity of getting a picture of another one along these lines, the storm troopper with a gold, disco-ball tiled helmet.

Here's another great Star Wars cross-over costume. While Chef Vader is good, it wouldn't have been half as good without the addition of Jar Jar's head on a platter. For some reason, it always seems even cooler when the costumed character is an older person. Here's a perfect example, and yet another Star Wars cross-over costume, this time a Jedi Holmes. Of course, Boba Fett wanted me to remind you that there are plenty of classic Star Wars costumes as well. Contrary to popular belief, there are actually a whole lot of very hot women at comic con. These evil cheerleaders are only the tip of the iceberg. Here's further proof that there are some major hotties at the con. This tailed pirate may not make sense, but I didn't hear too many complaints. This couple is here every year dressed in Alice In Wonderland gear. Next year though, there will undoubtedly be an increase in these costumes due to the upcoming Tim Burton film. This young girl designed and created this fantastic dress, which had already won her a masquerading award at an anime convention. These gentlemen showed up to represent one of the greatest things that ever came out of Mad Magazine, Spy Vs. Spy. There were a whole lot of Watchmen costumes this year, as it was one of the most recent and popular comic book movies before the convention. I think this Rorschach was one of the best at the event. If you don't recognize this guy, you won't be alone. He's dressed up to help promote his booth. A lot of people do this to get attention for their small-press comics. Another popular approach is hiring a "booth babe." Speaking of using costumes and babes to get attention for a booth, here's one combining the two. What a cute costume, what a sexy girl...you can bet they had a lot of traffic at their booth. Here's a more classic booth babe. While she's still in costume, it isn't anything nearly as off-the-wall as the cutie above. Still, I'd say she got her message across. Couple's costumes are always popular at the convention. Here's a great pair of X Men, for example. Ghostbusters always have a big presence at the convention, partially because once you make a huge proton pack, you aren't going to scrap it in the following years. This costume is actually a major rarity. While there are many Disney costumes every year, there's rarely a woman dressed up as anything besides Alice or a Disney princess. I'm a big fan of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, so this getup was one of my favorites. If you're a big fan of the male Disney characters, you'd likely enjoy this Jack Sparrow, who not only looked the part, but played it well. You may have a problem with his drinking Full Throttle while in costume, but just try and convince me that a real Jack Sparrow wouldn't be downing this stuff like crazy if he had it. Cobra Commander is always a hip choice, but he may be overdone next year after the new GI Joe movie comes out. Personally, I always am reminded of the Cobra Commander for president campaigns when I see these guys. Lastly, not all women dressed up at Comic Con have to dress sexy and here's a perfect example of a cute and sweet Harlequin costume. They're another popular one every year. Lastly, as promised, here are a few links for other Comic Con galleries: For a few great costume galleries, here's one on Geeks Are Sexy and my other pics this year.and for 2008, here's one by Rue The Day and one on the Official Star Wars Blog. There's even a few great Flickr sets of 2008 and 2007 costumes. As far as merch goes, here's a great post on things available there at Boing Boing Gadgets, one for the giant Stitch vinyl toys on display, and one for general stuff seen at the con. And one for things last year. Lastly, if you just want to see some more cute girls at Comic Con, there's one for that too.

It's hard not to love this fantastic time lapse footage of Disneyland's original construction.

Rare and unseen footage of Disneyland's construction narrated by Imagineers. Includes some amazing new footage of Walt Disney walking the site before construction even started and some never-before-seen timelapse footage of the park from groundbreaking until opening day. This film was on the way to deep storage and was found by a curious employee, otherwise there's a good chance we'd never get to see this.

Thank goodness that curiosity doesn't kill the Disney employee or we would have all missed out on this great find.

Link Via Boing Boing

These fantastic shots of water balloons taken with a high speed camera are just fantastic. Who knew water could look so fascinating?

They bring back memories of when you were a young scamp, mischievously dropping water bombs on hapless cyclists from overpasses, or soaking whole streets in drive-by drench-athons – but those days of innocence are gone now. So, it just leaves us to sit back and wonder at the beautiful physics of the things – as well as the devilish uses to which they can be put.

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Now that Walter Cronkite passed, Time decided to ask Americans who their most trusted newsperson was. The results were overwhelmingly in favor of Jon Stewart.

It's a sad statement that the most trusted name in news is actually a comedian. I'm not sure if it speaks badly about Americans in general or about the state of our news media.

http://www.timepolls.com/hppolls/archive/poll_results_417.html Via Good Magazine

A woman in North Carolina woman recently paid $4000 to save a five legged dog from becoming a freak show attraction. The owner was offered $3000 from a freak show operator in Coney island, when Allyson Siegel offered to up the price in order to help keep the dog from being little more than a spectacle.

Although the fifth leg didn't seem to bother the pup, Siegel intended to have it removed, but was shocked to learn it would cost another $2000 to do so. Fortunately, a Manhattan vet was so touched by Siegel's actions that he offered to remove the leg free of charge.

“She is beautiful, she’s not a freak, she’s a normal little puppy dog and she should be just like all the others,” Siegel said.

Precious was born with a fifth leg protruding from her stomach, between her hind legs. The extra leg has six toes.

Link Via Dogster Dog Blog

If you were impressed with the dog who wet nursed the red panda cubs, just wait till you read about the dog who adopted these tiger cubs. The page also has photos of a dog in the same area that adopted two lion cubs.

What I want to know is why are all these wild animal mothers being so negligent to their young in the first place. Thank goodness for these good natured dogs or these cubs would be in big trouble.

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If you love Mario, you may be interested in learning how to make your own Super Mario Mushroom from a radish.  Perfect for bento boxes or party treats, although, if you're like me, it's nothing you'd ever want to eat.

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In yet another sterling example of interspecies loving, here's a great video of a deer giving sweet kisses to an adorable kitty. I love how into it the kitty gets near the end.

Link Via Cute Overload

This Simpsons mosaic table is made of leftover tiles and places from a Target clearance sale and leftovers at the local home improvement store by craftster user redflag. She completely freehanded the pictures, which is pretty impressive. I like how suspicious Moe and Mr. Burns look.

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