Four years ago, we featured Josh Hardar's curvaceous bike designs. He's greatly developed and refined that theme since that time. This particular one, named "Teardrop", comes with a 80cc engine and hand-spun aluminum wheels.

Link via Dude Craft

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There's always a better way to build a mousetrap. Or, in this case, an aluminum can crusher. I dunno -- I figure that there's got to be a cheaper way than this solution.

via Jalopnik

Glen Burkhalter, a gourd artist of Lacey Spring, Alabama, creates some impressive pieces, including gourds with spiral and knotted stems and others engraved to look like globes:

When his extra large handle dipper gourds are about one feet long, Glen Burkhalter wraps them in pantyhose. Then, he waits for about two months until the gourds are fully grown. After he removes the pantyhose, he has a gourd-handle that resembles a really long unicorn horn.[...]

Jim Story, recognized by the American Gourd Society as a “gourd-growing legend,” once challenged Burkhalter to tie two knots in one gourd — a mission Story had tried hundreds of times but could not accomplish.

Burkhalter tied the first knot when the gourd — another extra large handle dipper gourd — was only 6 inches long. At this point, the shell is malleable, but the gourd is too short to tie a double knot.

Day after day, Burkhalter would see this gourd and, instead of tying the second knot, he would bend the stem just a bit each day until it grew into a second knot.

http://www.jou.ufl.edu/pubs/onb/F06/index.php?id=38 | Photo: University of Florida

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A deer fell through the ice covering a frozen lake. A helicopter pilot came in close to observe and reasoned that he could use the force generated by his blades to blow the deer onto the ice and to the shore. And he was right!

via reddit

Nicola Shilson made this image for the UK Face & Body Painting Convention in Telford. Her gallery is at the link. It includes some really nice images of paintings composed on the bellies of pregnant women.

Link via Walyou

Nature photographer Bobby McLeod captured this excellent shot of a tiger sleeping under a light blanket of snow. His gallery is filled with other great wildlife photos.

Link via Doobybrain

Dominic Wilcox finds it difficult to use his smartphone while taking a bath, so he invented this simple but brilliant solution: the Finger-nose. He can strap this plaster attachment onto his head and navigate his phone without using his hands.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Dominic Wilcox

In the 1960s, Harley-Davidson was struggling. Honda, with its line of popular scooters, was not. So Harley-Davidson tried to break into this market starting in 1960. The "Topper", powered by a 165cc two-stroke engine, was marketed as a recreational and utility vehicle, useful for fun excursions and package delivery. It even came with a sidecar option for people or cargo. The line never took off, though, and Harley-Davidson ended the experiment in 1965.

Link | Images: Modern Vespa and Motorcycle Info

Rachel Blackman made this Optimus Prime model out of scrap metal for the Fremont Solstice Festival. Kind of dieselpunk, don't you think?

Link via Walyou

The Spalding Building in Portland, Oregon, has perhaps the most formidable-looking bicycle storage facility in the world. It consists of repurposed bank vaults:

Tenants of the 12-story structure can lock their rides up in one of two vaults converted to bike storage in the ex-bank part of the building (and scrub down in the nearby showers after the commute).

Actually, they're just for show. The steel doors can't lock. That would probably be too dangerous for users.

Link via NotCot | Photo: BikePortland.org

Previously: Bicycle Lock Climbs Lamp Post to Escape Thieves

Japanese artist Takayuki Hori created a lovely series of origami animal figures with printed skeletons. When displayed under the right light, they look like folded x-ray images. Here's how he does it:

each translucent sheet is first printed with either the images of fragments of an animal's skeleton, or, on some pages, human-made discarded objects that are often ingested by the animals in the wild. using the ancient tradition of folded paper, hori assembles the pages into a three-dimensional model. once the paper is folded, the printed components are united as a whole, telling the visual story of the animal's plight to survive in an increasingly polluted and hazardous ecosystem.

Link via Geekosystem | Photo: Design Boom

Miss Cellania noted the odd hats that Princess Beatrice of York and other ladies wore to the British royal wedding. What isn't widely known is that Beatrice actually modified her hat to make it a bit less ostentatious. There's a whole Tumblr blog devoted just to the odd headgear that she's worn in public.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've just blogged about the hat that a woman wore at a wedding, so I have to go surrender my man card now.

Link via Super Punch

Computer scientist Haym Hirsh wrote this puzzle. See if you can figure it out:

I am in one of the great capitals of Europe. I just learned that Bob, Carl, and I are in countries that share physical borders with each other. The official language of Bob’s country is Dutch, and Carl’s is Portuguese. It is 9:00am local time for both Bob and Carl.

Now: What is Hirsh's local time?

You can view eight other good puzzles by Hirsh at the link.

Link | Hirsh's Website | Photo by Flickr user pobre.ch used under Creative Commons license

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Until today, I'd never heard of the comedian and songwriter Allan Sherman (1924-1973). He was the Weird Al Yankovic of the 50s and 60s, composing and performing parody songs to millions of television viewers.

This song, "Good Advice", is a real hoot. It turns out that Sherman was responsible for the great inventions and discoveries of the modern age. Who knew?

More Information via TigerHawk

We've previously featured some of Vincent Bousserez's photographs before, but this one in particular made me laugh.

In my home, we joke about pacifier gnomes stealing and hiding pacifiers, but maybe -- just maybe -- they're actually real. You can view a slideshow of Bousserez's work at the link and make up your own mind.

Link | Artist's Website