When Deepak Singh was growing up in India, his father would sometimes take him and his siblings to the village where he grew up. He wanted his kids to understand how rural poor people lived in order to appreciate the everyday luxuries they enjoyed.

One of Singh's strongest memories of those experiences is how his grandmother's village made extensive use of unprocessed cowpats as a fuel. Villagers carefully collected them, patted them by hand into circular forms, then dried them on ovens. The smell of burning cowpats was pervasive and Singh still remembers it vividly.

Would you like to experience this primitive form of fuel used by the desperately poor? You can, thanks to the very modern information processing and product distribution services of Amazon.com. Singh writes at NPR that it's a popular product in Indian cities:

I learned that cow dung cakes can now be ordered on the Indian Amazon website. Out of curiosity, I ordered 6 pieces. It cost me 236 rupees, about $4. I called the local office of Amazon and spoke to Jaideep, who was very courteous and happy to answer my questions. He said, "Sir, this is a new product that Amazon is selling and they are getting a lot of orders from folks in urban areas where it is not so easy to find cow dung cakes." When I asked him what people wanted it for, he said, "They use it for religious purposes only."

I had never imagined one day I would order cow poop online — poop that I had once seen my grandma collect from her barn and dry on her wall. I am eagerly waiting to receive my six pieces of round-shaped cow dung cakes in the mail. I wonder what would my grandma think of it if she were still alive.

There are several Amazon.com purchasing options for cowpats. The reviews for the one pictured above are a hoot:

(Video Link)

In the hands of a master, an excavator is a sight to behold. An expert driver can do amazing things with a digger, such as lighting a cigarette, loading the digger on a truck without a lift, and extracting himself from a deep ditch. These pilots have skills worthy of great respect.

But not this guy.

Short of someone dying--which thankfully did not appear to happen--it would have been impossible for this stunt to have a worse outcome.

-via Geekologie

(Photo: Adam Wiseman)

Mexican artist Pedro Reyes and his wife, fashion designer Carla Fernández, are renovating and redesigning their home in Mexico City. Among the features that they're putting in place in the old Brutalist house are Reyes's own Mano-Sillas chairs. Each one looks like a hand opening up to offer you a place to sit.

(Photos: Labor Gallery)

My favorite part about these unique chairs is that the fingers and thumbs are articulated. You can move them around to express particular gestures fit for different occasions.

-via Khool

Przemek Krawczyński's gourds are radically different from any that I've ever seen before. From his studio in Lodz, Poland, he takes the dried fruits and crafts them into beautiful lamps that cast mesmerizing shadows on every surface of a room.

(Fowl Language Comics/Brian Gordon)

I've heard my kids have this conversation on the right almost verbatim. And I've had the one on the left in my head many times. Is it awkward? Do they think that I'm awkward? Do they actually want to be with me or are they just being pleasant in order to have a calm working environment? Oh, no, now they're reading my weird facial expressions!

Food blogger Through the Eyes of My Belly offers up her first blog post and boy is it a doozy! She carefully wrapped bacon strips around foil molds, then baked them solid. She then coated the interior with chocolate and filled them with a mixture of milk and Kahlúa.

I like that combination! Peppermint schnapps might also be a good choice for this unusual and edible shot glass.

-via Foodiggity

(Video Link)

Alhambra Guitars, a Spanish manufacturer of classical guitars, recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. To mark the occasion, it invited Rafael Aguirre to perform before a live audience at the Palau de la Música de València.

Aguirre offered this lively medley of Star Wars music, beginning with 20th Century Fox's trademark theme and running through familiar favorites, from the Imperial March to the Throne Room award ceremony.

I've heard this music played many times, but never with this zesty flavor.

-via Nerd Approved

(Photos: Nemo's Garden)

To grow, plants need stable temperatures, exposure to sunlight, water, and protection from parasites. While scuba diving off the coast of Italy, Sergio Gamberini had an idea about how he could provide all four: he could build greenhouses underwater.

Thus was born Nemo's Garden. This project has erected lightweight offshore greenhouses. The plants are close enough to the surface of the water that they receive sunlight. The seawater evaporates inside the canopy to provide fresh water. And predatory insects can't reach the plants.

This sustainable form of agriculture can make previously unused coastal areas agriculturally productive. Nemo's Garden offers large greenhouses like the ones you see above, as well as smaller, hobbyist greenhouses that house single plants.

-via NotCot

With hamburger buns, hot dog buns, salami, provolone, and what looks like some pumpernickel bread, you've got a tasty lunch. And you've got Pluto, too!

Erin Jang is an artist and graphic designer in New York City. She's also a mom, which certainly makes meals fun for her son. She assembles ingredients into popular Disney characters. You can find them on her Instagram feed.

(Unreleated photo by Eli Christmas)

In retrospect, it should have been an obvious outcome.

Firefighters in Fort Worth, Texas responded to a report that a grain elevator was on fire. When they opened the doors, they found inside a man juggling batons that were on fire. The Star-Telegram quotes firefighter Lt. Kyle Falkner:

“When they got up there they saw a guy juggling flaming batons in the grain elevator,” Falkner said.

He said the man didn’t have a reason to be there.

“They put his torches out,” he said.

Falkner said there was no damage to the building.

-via Dave Barry

Stelios Mousarris, a furniture designer in Cyprus, was inspired by the twists and turns of the science fiction movie Inception to build this coffee table. An entire city lies inside its interior of wood and steel. He calls it Wave City.

This is only one of several of Mousarris's surreal designs, such as this chair that look like an animated and flying carpet.

-via Contemporist

Japanese Twitter user @masamasan recently visited an acupuncture clinic that is covered from floor to ceiling with merchandise and images from the anime series Is the Order a Rabbit? I've seen the show. It's pretty good and not the slightest bit creepy, but the designer of this acupuncture clinic has managed to undo that, ah, limitation.

I suspect that some non-otaku might find it unsettling. You can see more photos at Rocket News 24 and judge for yourself. Keep in mind the difference between anime fans and non-fans.

(Photo: Manila Social Club)

This isn't a simple cake donut from your local shop. The Manila Social Club, a restaurant in the trendy Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, offers only the finest donuts for the most elite tastes. Chef Björn DelaCruz made this donut with a Cristal champagne frosting, filled with an ube mousse, and coated in 24 karat gold. Each one costs $100.

In an interview with First We Feast, DelaCruz explained why he devised this novel take on the humble donut:

We have this doughnut program where we make doughnuts every Friday, and you can only order them online on Thursday. The reason why we do this is because we’re not a doughnut shop. The Golden Cristal Ube Donut came along because there is a brewery in Bushwick called Braven Brewery, and we know the owners Marshall and Erik. We both started our businesses around the same time. We had a doughnut event where I unveiled a doughnut with icing made with Braven White IPA, dusted with gold. That was the beginning of the golden doughnut [idea].

The reason that gold leaf and Cristal were added was because I love all different champagnes. I wanted to add something [to the menu] for the new year to celebrate how long we have been going. I didn’t know people would go and order a dozen [of these] at a time! But then again, it is New York, and there are people willing to put down a grand for a dozen doughnuts.

Danielle Clough is a fiber artist in Cape Town, South Africa. She creates vividly colorful works of embroidery that are often quite different from traditional samplers.

Lately, she's been embroidering images of flowers on old tennis racquets, adding a fresh take on the concept of the embroidery hoop.

(Photo: vanz)

Laurie Anderson, a performance artist, once had a marvelous dream: "I have this fantasy where I look out, and the whole audience is dogs." 8 years ago, she did so outside of the famous Sydney Opera House. Now she's bringing that experience to the dogs of New York City. Tonight at 11:30, she will perform music that only dogs will be able to hear. Joshua Barone writes for the New York Times:

Dogs and their owners are invited to sit on the red steps of Duffy Square while she performs music that, to passers-by in Times Square, may not sound like much because of the low frequency. Humans can tune in with wireless headphones — there are 350 total — that will be given out beforehand.

What song titles do you think would be most appropriate at a concert for dogs?

-via Joe Carter