When he was a boy, John Weber, 70, was given an old cup by his grandfather. He assumed that it was just a worthless piece of brass and occasionally used it for target practice with his air rifle. Eventually, Weber decided to have it appraised, and experts concluded that it was a 2,300-year old Persian gold cup of enormous value. It sold at auction for £50,000 in 2008.

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2011/04/worlds-most-expensive-plinking-target-million-dollar-gold-cup/ via Say Uncle | Photo: Duke's Auctions

Austin Kleon, who calls himself "a writer who draws", leaves wet tea bags on sheets of paper and draws cartoons using the shapes that they make. He explained his creation process in an interview by saying:

“Not-knowing what image will show up is part of the game,” said Kleon. “You get to let your subconscious take over. It’s like a Rorschach inkblot test. You could show the tea stain to 100 different people, and they’d see 100 different images.”

Link via Althouse

The Denny's restaurant chain understands that everything can be improved upon with the proper application of bacon. That's why its chefs are now offering maple syrup sundaes with bacon bits sprinkled on top and between the layers:

Bacon makes a classic ice cream sundae even more awesome. We start with maple-flavored syrup, and a scoop of rich, creamy vanilla ice cream and then a generous sprinkle of our diced hickory-smoked bacon. Add another sweet layer of syrup and vanilla ice cream topped with even more bacon and a drizzle of syrup.

Be sure to look for other bacon-y goodies in our Bacon Store. Question: do you think that "Bacon" would make a good baby name?

Link via SnarkyBytes | Photo: Denny's

Saudi Arabia's proposed Kingdom Tower will rise to 5,280 feet. That's a full mile. If completed, this building in Jeddah will cost $30 billion to build and will contain apartments, hotel rooms, and offices in its 12 million cubic feet of space. The above graphic compares the structure to the Petronis Tower (center) in Malaysia and the Empire State Building (left) in the US. Currently, the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa, which is 2,700 feet tall.

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/04/09/040911-news-jeddah-skyscraper/ via Gizmodo | Image: The Daily

deviantART user ComputerSherpa created a periodic table as a means of organizing the major tropes that can be found in popular stories. Pictured above is one small selection. When ComputerSherpa offered this to his classmates for critique, one cleverly suggested that it be used as a dartboard.

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Flickr user George Kelly spotted this fellow at the recent SXSW conference in Austin promoting Creative Commons. In the spirit of that organization, he was glad to have his photo taken so as long as it was properly licensed.

Link via Walyou

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This is astoundingly adorable! The cat and the dolphins seem to genuinely enjoy each others' company.

via Super Punch

Crafter Moxie does a lot of great work, but this felted critter grabbed my attention and made me laugh. It's part of an ongoing series called "Hungry", featuring odd monsters finishing off human meals.

Link via Craftzine

Alek Komarnitsky learned that hummingbirds had nested at a local golf course and took several high-resolution photographs. Here are the two babies, almost ready to leave the nest. The housefly on the branch gives you a sense of the scale.

Link via American Digest

Purple Rain as a science fiction thriller? Sure! London-based Graphic designer Christophe Gowans took twenty-six musical albums and depicted them as novels, aging them to indicate use. You can view the rest at the link.

Link via Boing Boing | Screenshot: Mother Jones

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The video of twin baby boys having a long conversation in gibberish captivated the people of the Internet about two weeks ago. Here, actors Michael Chiklis and Patton Oswalt duplicate the scene, sound for sound and motion for motion. Warning: some foul language once the act starts breaking down.

via Gizmodo

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YouTube user peteqwerty51 made a steel guitar from a stainless steel sink. It plays rather well! This is his first sink guitar, and he's already planning improvements for the next one.

via Walyou

Aha! I knew it! Those aren't bearskin caps after all, as this ad for Eurostar by the Leg Agency proves.

Link via reddit | Agency Website

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Actually, the Segway would be a fairly sound vehicle for modern jousting, as this commercial for the State of Washington's lottery illustrates. But buying lottery tickets is probably not a likely route to this most excellent goal.

via DVICE

Michael Sacco of Fanboy has several pictures of cosplay competitions from fan conventions in the 1970s, including Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Marvel Comics. Pictured above is Wendy Pini as Red Sonja. Pini is a now comic book artist and with her husband was the creator of Elfquest.

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