(Photo: Otter)

Europeans first experienced pineapples on Columbus's first expedition to the Americas. This uniquely delicious fruit became a prized import from the New World. Sailors would often leave them at the entrances to their homes in Europe as a way to announce their return. Thus the pineapple became a symbol of exotic luxury and worldly travel.

In the United States, the Dunmore family of Scotland is most widely known for the 4th Earl of Dunmore, John Murray, who was the last British governor of Virginia. He was a commited Loyalist who commanded troops in battles against the American rebels.

In 1761, his family built this home in Falkirk, Scotland. It was a gift to Lady Susan, the wife of the Earl of Dunmore. The garden home served as a rural retreat. Nestled between two greenhouses stands a rotunda that looks like an enormous pineapple.

The Dunmore Pineapple, as the home is now known, has been carefully preserved. You can even rent it as a vacation home.

-via Atlas Obscura

Twice a year, Tokyo hosts Comiket--one of the largest fandom conventions in the world. On December 29 of this year, 150,000 people attended. On the 30th, 170,000 people showed up.

That's a lot of human bodies to move around. Managing crowd control safely on this scale is a refined science that looks like an artform when properly performed. This video from 2011 demonstrates why.

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Here's one hour of human sardine processing displayed in photos taken every 5 seconds. That's really fast!

-via Twisted Sifter

(Photo: Mike Drake)

Remember that your fingernail and toenail clippings aren't a waste product. They're "human ivory." You can turn them into art, as Mike Drake of Queens, New York has. For the past 11 years, he's collected his clippings and embedded them inside beautiful paperweights. He sells the decorative orbs for about $300-500 each.

Drake first began this work by diligently bagging his clippings, gathering approximately 1,040 in the first year. Then he mixed them into a ball of green-tinted acrylic. The result was a lovely and tasteful conversation piece. The Huffington Post quotes him and describes paperweights that Drake has made with prosthetic eyeballs:

"I like the jade color because it gives off an emerald quality," he said.

Nail clippings aren't the only bizarre paperweights Drake makes.

In 2011, he helped raise money for a veteran's hospital by making paperweights using prosthetic eyeballs that once belonged to soldiers.

 "Each eyeball came with a story about how the vet lost his eye," Drake said.

-via Oddity Central

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In the upper right corner of the security camera footage, a woman dressed in yellow speaks to someone on a motorcycle. A man passes by and grabs her butt.

The woman responds instantly, punching the man so hard that he flies through the air, landing roughly on a display of store merchandise. According to news reports, he didn't regain consciousness for two hours.

The Independent reports that this scene is from Inezgane, Morocco, where street harassment of women is an ongoing problem--but presumably not for this lady.

-via Ace of Spades HQ

As the cake turns, it changes color. Also, I get hungrier. How?

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YouTube user CharlotteSometimes doesn't explain, but commenter Nyphetamine Blue says that it's done by airbrushing color onto the icing from different directions. The ridges help delineate where one color begins and another ends. Turning the cake exposes alternate sides of the ridges.

-via Gizmodo

This engineering wonder merges ancient technology with the most modern.Thingiverse member Mojoptix designed a sundial that displays the time in 20 minute increments from 10 AM to 4 PM.

How does it work? The gnomon is perforated with holes that display the numbers only when light shines from particular directions. You can download the files here and print your own.

Paul Lukas is a journalist in New York City who obsessively focuses on the minutiae of life, such as cereal box design. His latest focus is on grommets. For his project dubbed Gromm It, he places them inside food and photographs the results. The grommets become portals to the interiors of common foods, creating a striking visual appeal.

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Many years from now, when we are old and gray, we shall tell our grandchildren of the primitive times of our youth. We will tell them that once it was necessary for a medical technician to insert cameras into our bottoms in order to take pictures inside.

They will marvel at these tales because in the future, robots will be able to inch their way through our colons like worms. This video from the System Integration Laboratory at Okayama University in Japan shows how this impressive locomotion system works. 

Presumably the next stage of colonoscopic development would give these robots artificial intelligence so that they make independent decisions and act autonomously.

-via Geekologie

That is: eventually. There's no rush. But when my time comes, the right way to store my remains after my burning my body in a pyre while I am dressed in a Darth Vader costume is with one of these urns offered by Urns for Ashes. My preference is for the Vader urn. But if it is possible to commission a custom urn, then a ceramic Jar Jar really captures the true me.

I've never seen a pew like this one. It's an original artistic concept by Cindy Chinn of Chester, Nebraska. Read from left to right, it summarizes the story of Jesus's crucifixion. In three sections, it shows his trial in Jerusalem, his execution on the hill of Golgotha, and his resurrection with an empty tomb. A stained glass panel in the center draws attention to the cross.

Here's what makes this amazing sculpture even awesomer: it's a lamp. Chinn built lights inside to illuminate the glass.

via Lost at E Minor, which notes that Chinn makes impressive pencil carvings that are also worth your time.

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When I do stuff like this, my wife rolls her eyes and tells my kids that "Dad is being Dad again."

The best Dad Being Dad moment of the day comes from YouTube user Wheatbreat. The hole in the rock was filled with daddy longlegs. So he reached in, grabbed a big handful, then dropped them outside.

He notes that "I never even touched the back of the hole- endless spider supply!" That's the best kind.

-via Geekologie

(Photo: Daniel N.)

R2-D2 has wheels and thrusters. C-3PO has legs. But how does BB-8 from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens move? As a technical question, that's really unclear--until now.

All you need is a cat. Are cats in the Star Wars universe? Never mind. An Ewok child will do the job, too.

-via Tastefully Offensive

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YouTube user Useless Duck Company noticed that his friends were having lots of babies. He wanted to offer them a gift that was both unique and practical. The result of his efforts was an automatic baby soother. The whole thing is controlled by an app that you can load on a phone.

When the baby wakes up in the middle of the night, press the music button. That activates music from a speaker in your baby's bedroom. If that doesn't work, press the rocking button. A pneumatic piston rocks the baby's crib until he stops crying.

Be sure to watch until the end of the video.

-via Gifsboom

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On Christmas, Mark Nutt introduced his 88-year old grandmother to virtual reality. He slipped a Google Cardboard interface (an iPhone in a cardboard frame) over her head and turned it on.

She doesn't just enjoy the experience. Her mind is utterly blown! She screams with joy to the point that it's disturbing.

And that's just Google Cardboard. Just wait until she experiences a professionally-developed horror game in Oculus Rift!

-via BuzzFeed

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Scarlett needed a paintbrush. Miko's tail was handy, so she went right to work. Lance Ellis, their father, filmed them getting creative. Miko is incredibly patient with this unorthodox use for his signaling device.

Question: which breed of dog offers the best tail paintbrush?

-via Tastefully Offensive