The Make-A-Wish Foundation asked seriously-ill child Erik Martin what he'd like for his wish. Erik said that he'd like to be a superhero. So the Foundation and the city of Seattle made him into a superhero called "Electron Boy". Staged adventures with costumed villains allowed Erik to live out his dream. Now his alter ego's life has been turned into a comic book by Capstone Comics. Author Rob Bass wrote:

What really got me about the whole story was what it proved, right out there where anybody could see it, pure objective truth, that our imaginations are pure and boundless and can take us anywhere that we let them, no matter how much these bodies might fail us, that even if you're born without a right atrium and ventricle in your heart and no spleen and all your organs on the wrong side of your body and are extremely sensitive to the touch and you beat cancer once when you're eleven and then it comes back again when you're thirteen, you can overcome all of that, because you still have the power to do anything, become just who you've always dreamed of being.

Proceeds from the comic go to benefit Erik's family.

Link | Image: Capstone Comics

A toddler and her mother visited the mall in Robinson Township, Pennsylvania. The mother turned her head for a moment, and when she looked back, her little girl was inside a prize-dispensing claw machine. Rescue workers removed her without any problems:

“We pried the door off and I brought the child out and lifted her up and said, ‘here’s my prize,'” said Chief Paul Kashmer.

The child was removed safely from the claw machine and suffered no injuries.

“We got inside and sure enough there was the cutest little girl you ever seen, sucking a bink inside a toy machine with all the other toys,” said Kashmer.

Kashmer said the child never cried and even seemed to be enjoying herself.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: WTAE

See this kid dunking on a regulation rim? He's only eleven years old! Adrian Moore of Conroy, Arkansas won't be eligible to play college ball until 2016, but he's already been offered a scholarship at Baylor University.

Link via Deadspin

Previously: Pro Soccer Team Signs 11-Year Old

Cartoonist Caldwell Tanner imagined covers from science fiction versions of five famous children's books.

The sleeper must awaken.

http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1811404 via Popped Culture

Previous Posts about Caldwell Tanner

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Zebra Imaging makes detailed holographic maps. Here's a video of a toddler exploring one and getting confused by the optical illusions that it creates.

via Super Punch | Company Website

Doctors at a hospital in Berlin created a MRI machine that allows a woman to give birth while being scanned. They hope that this machine will allow them to learn more about the mechanics of childbirth:

The new machine will enable the researchers to study in greater detail how the baby moves through the mother’s pelvis and down the birth canal – issues that have long been studied and debated. The hospital’s Institute for Radiology and Obstetrics Clinic will work closely together on the project.

Among other benefits, it should help researchers to understand why about 15 percent of pregnant women need a Caesarian section because the baby does not progress properly into the birth canal.

http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20101207-31649.html via Geekologie | Image: The Local

Actually, it's a just a "Deep Space Fighter Bed and Galaxy Mural", but it's clear that the TIE Fighter from Star Wars was the inspiration for the design. This is a custom-made bed by Posh Tots, a company that makes luxury furniture for children. You can view five more images at the link.

Link via Born Rich

Previously: From Cradle to Grave: The Story of Life Told with Beds

Thomas Perkins is an Emmy Award-winning animator. He's also a father, and he draws pictures on the lunch bags of this three children. At the link, you can find his blog devoted to the medium.

Link via Super Punch

Previously: Lunch Bag Art

Helen Osborne of Leicester, UK, gave birth in the backseat of her car after she was stuck in a traffic jam on her way to the local hospital. The entire scene was caught on a closed-circuit video recording:

Closed circuit television operators who witnessed the birth were so marked by the event they witnessed that they tracked the couple down and presented them with a video of the birth.

Mr Sullivan said: "It has to be the ultimate birth video and one which we’ll treasure forever.[...]

In the footage, a motorist in a silver Land Rover is seen pulling in front of the couple's Peugeot and lending Mr Sullivan his mobile phone. The father-to-be called the emergency services who talked him through the birth.

A passing off-duty police officer and a patrol car arrived on the scene and directed traffic around the couple's car.

Video at the link.

Link

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YouTube user JAMagicFilms took a picture almost every day during the first ten years of his/her daughter Natalie's life. The mostly consistent color coordination was a nice detail.

via reddit

Artist Amanda Vissell made four posters to inspire girls to be self-reliant and strong. I want this one for my girls' room.


Link via Boing Boing

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CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Its facility in Geneva, Switzerland, includes the Large Hadron Collider. To explain what they do there, the physicists at CERN have published a pop-up book called Voyage to the Heart of the Matter.

Link via GeekDad

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Aaron and Melanie Richman were relocating from Colorado to Missouri when they stopped for gas. They left their six month old baby inside the car while talking to the people who were driving the rental truck full of their belongings. That's when a carjacker decided to take their car:

The Richmans both ran towards the car and Aaron tried to push Melanie into the car, but instead she smashed out the passenger side window with her elbow. Aaron was able to climb inside the vehicle, while Melanie was dragged for a short time before letting go of the outside of the car.

Inside the vehicle, police said, Aaron hit and kicked the driver as he tried to save his child. The beating caused the carjacker to crash the car and then he fled the area on foot.

http://www.kctv5.com/news/25904899/detail.html via Buzzfeed

The NeoNature infant incubator by the firm Design That Matters isn't so much a particular design, but an approach to building incubators. The focus is on how to use certain parts from many different cars to consistently build usable incubators:

The greatest design challenge for the group has been resisting standardization. “As soon as you say, ‘You can only use a 4Runner’s headlight,’ the value goes out the window,” Mr. Prestero said. This problem might ultimately determine what aspects of NeoNurture’s approach will translate to mass production.

“Dashboard fans for circulation, signal lights and door chimes for alarms, the battery — those pieces aren’t so difficult to source locally,” Mr. Prestero continued. “A headlight filament might use a different gas, though, and that’s when it gets complicated.”

Whatever form a production version takes, NeoNurture has already posed a compelling — and empowering — argument. “I don’t know where you get a replacement incubator filter in a remote Nepalese village,” Mr. Prestero said, “but you likely can find someone there who can replace a car’s air filter. That’s where this idea really has virtue.”

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Design That Matters

Previously: Backpack Neonatal Incubator

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At first I thought, "This is a hoax." But then Zach created, on camera, a detailed painting of Leonardo from The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

via Geekologie

Previously: 8-Year Old Artist Sells Paintings for Tens of Thousands of Dollars