We've previously featured artist Peter Gronquist's work, namely a pimped-out wheelchair and a Pac-Man grenade. Among his other products are rifles altered to reflect various fashion labels. These have been interpreted by art critics in sophisticated, intellectual ways. But in an interview, Gronquist dismissed these explanations:

I actually came up with a ton over the years that I’ve been developing, the original being: “Wouldn’t it be funny if…?” The short list includes: our culture’s glamorization of violence, rampant consumerism, war profiteering and how people will put designer brands on literally anything and think that they are automatically awesome. I really just wanted to make something completely ridiculous. Then people gave me money for them. So I made a ton of them because I’m a whore. I find that it’s a parody of myself because I also like ridiculous things sometimes for no logical reason. I’m a victim of the rampant consumerism that I parody. It’s all very confusing.

Link via Secret Threads | Interview

This chandelier made out of tampons was made by artist Joana Vasconcelos in 2001. "The Bride" was displayed in 2005 at the Arsenale, a museum in Venice, as part the Venice Biennale, a major art exhibition that occurs every two years.

Link via GearFuse | Artist's Website | Photo: Fashion Indie

(YouTube Link)

Okay, I made up the last bit. But these fish have been altered to grow far more muscular than normal trout:

The bodybuilder stature of the trout comes from turning off myostatin, a protein that normally slows muscle growth. Researchers had known of a natural myostatin mutation that allowed for 20 to 25 percent more muscle growth in Belgian blue cattle, but did not know if the same would apply to the different mechanism of muscle growth in fish.

Terry Bradley, a fisheries and aquaculture expert at the University of Rhode Island, worked with a group of grad students for 500 hours to inject 20,000 rainbow trout eggs with different DNA snippets designed to block myostatin.

About 300 eggs ended up carrying the gene for more muscle growth, and eventually produced fish that mostly have the six-pack ab appearance -- even though the fish don't have standard abdominal muscles. A big dorsal hump adds the appearance of muscular shoulders.

Photos at the link.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-03/transgenic-trout-six-pack-abs-could-arrive-your-dinner-plate via io9

(YouTube Link)

5 Second Films is an ongoing project by Brian Firenzi. Each film consists of two seconds of opening credits, five seconds of story, followed by one second of ending credits -- the perfect format for people with short attention spans. The video above contains the twenty films that Firenzi considers to be his best. Content warning: NSFW language.

via reddit | Official Website (self-starting audio)

A woman in New Zealand sold two glass vials at auction for the equivalent of $1,983 USD. She claimed that they contained souls that she had exorcised from a house in the town of Christchurch:

The "ghosts" were put up for bidding by Avie Woodbury from the southern city of Christchurch. She said they were captured in her house and stored in glass vials with stoppers and dipped in holy water, which she says "dulls the spirits' energy."

She said they were the spirits of an old man who lived in the house during the 1920s, and a powerful, disruptive little girl who turned up after a session with a spirit-calling Ouija board. Since an exorcism at the property last July led to their capture, there has been no further spooky activity in the house, she said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gZcRMmgZmOZTNldpQPlDec0zMP1QD9EAS3603 via io9 | Photo: flickr user Nancy Wombat, used under Creative Commons license

Fast Company has a gallery of fourteen works of art created from drinking straws, including this sculpture by Brooklyn-based artist Annie Varnot. We've previously featured one of the works in the slideshow: Scott Jarvie's chair made from straws.

http://www.fastcompany.com/pics/think-you-drink-art-drinking-straw | Artist's Website | Photo: Fast Company

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The Pharaoh's Serpent is a traditional pyrotechnic and chemical display in which mercury thiocyanate is set on fire, producing what looks like a very rapidly growing vine. It has since fallen out of favor due to the toxicity of mercury, but sodium bicarbonate produces a similar effect. The video above is a demonstration of this visually stunning chemical reaction.

via Urlesque

Police in West Cape May, New Jersey, are investigating mysterious knitted cozies that are appearing on on trees in the town during the night:

But not everyone is keen to stop the mysterious knitter - and the mayor and many residents admit they have been enthralled by the rainbow of colours.

Susan Longacre takes a walk each morning in Wilbraham Park, where several tree branches have been covered in the handiwork of the Midnight Knitter.

"I think it's wonderful" she told the newspaper.

Link | Photo: US Department of Homeland Security

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Memoirs of a Scanner by Mindfruit Films was shot with just an office image scanner. It's only a minute long and composed entirely of still shots, but it has a coherent plot. Directed by Damon Stea.

via Gizmodo | Studio Website

Cartoonist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal (previously featured on Neatorama) has a new comic up. It's filled with strange factoids about beer. Did you know that the Pilgrims on the Mayflower landed on Plymouth Rock instead of proceeding to Virginia because (in part) they ran out of beer?

Link

In 1934, electrician and hobbyist Frank Skroback built the first airplane that could be driven on a road. Or the first car that could be flown. It has six wings and an overall width of seven feet, so it can fit inside a lane. The plane will be auctioned at Red Baron's Antiques in Atlanta on March 13.

Link via DVICE | Photo: Red Baron

Doctors told Belinda Waite of Bampton, UK that she had Irritable Bowel Syndrome. After she went into labor and three hours before her daughter was born, Waite was informed that she was instead pregnant:

Miss Waite was staying with her partner Wyane Boyles, 28, when she unexpectedly went into labour.

Their baby daughter Louise Boyles was born at home weighing 8lb 14oz by Wayne's mum Syliva.[...]

On February 6th - the night before Louise was born - Miss Waite again went to hospital with pains throughout her body.

At 10pm doctors confirmed she was three months pregnant - in fact she was nine months pregnant - and Louise arrived four and a half hours later at 2.30am.

Link | Photo: Nick Irving/Daily Telegraph

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The comedy duo BriTaNick created this trailer for a hypothetical movie that would be guaranteed to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. All of the dialogue is replaced with common movie tropes.

via Urlesque | Official Website

The Inverse Graphing Calculator takes words and converts them into equations that would express them graphically:

The Inverse Graphing Calculator (version beta-1) is like a backwards graphing calculator. Normally, you enter an equation into your calculator and then get a graph of the curve. The way the IGC works is, you type something you'd like as your curve, like 'Hello World' or 'I love you'. The IGC produces an *equation* which has this phrase as its graph!

Link via Geekologie

Artist Chris Domino made this cuckoo clock inspired by the horror movie The Shining. Every hour on the hour, Jack Nicholson's head pokes through the door and says "Here's Johnny!" Then the Shelly Duval figure screams.

Link via Nerdcore