Itsuo Kobayashi is a master of his crafts, which include both cooking and drawing. For decades, he worked at restaurants, lovingly crafting each dish for his happy customers. He made careful notes about these meals and illustrated over 1,000 of them in a notebook.

Although Kobayashi is now medically retired from front line cooking, he still prepares and draws meals from home. Lately, he's been offering them as little pop-up books. You can almost smell the flavors and feel the steam rising from these hot dishes. You can see more examples at Colossal.

The schools in Broadview Heights, Ohio are closed. But the children are still gathering--while maintaining proper social distancing--to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in unison. The pandemic has not dampened their patriotism. Local teacher Jennifer Mahnic offers this video.

-via Ian Miles Cheong

It took me a while to figure out how Mederos executes these marvelous paintings. Does he paint on bubble wrap? Does he paint portraits and then overlay sheets bubble wrap? Or does he paint the impression of bubble wrap on the canvas?

As far as I can tell, it's the latter. Darian Mederos is a master of hyperrealism. He can render nearly photographically accurate paintings, but chooses the added challenge of adding an impression of bubble wrap to obscure them. You can see more of his work on his Instagram page.

-via So Super Awesome

A woman in St. Louis visited Antiques Roadshow with a Buddha idol that she had purchased from a garage sale. She had paid between $75-100 for it. Robert Waterhouse, an Asian art specialist, appraised it at $100,000-125,000.

Waterhouse knows his field, but he had to evaluate the piece in just a few minutes. When specialists like him had more time to study the idol, they appraised it much higher. When the owner sold it, the final price was over $2,000,000!

You can see her reaction at the 3:15 mark.

-via Geekologie

The rapiers of the 17th and 18th Centuries were elegant weapons for a more civilized age. Gentlemen among both the Sith and Jedi would use them in formal duels. To wear one was a mark of distinction, so it is good that Saberforge, a company that manufactures lightsabers, now offers a lightsaber rapier.

I, however, am not a gentleman and would prefer something blunter, like the lightsaber battleaxe. Hack at your enemy when he doesn't expect it.

-via Geek x Girls

It's lunchtime at Ocean, Inc. and Seagull just wants to eat his lunch in peace and quiet. He's been dealing with whiny and angry customers all day. The boss has been on him all morning about missing TPS reports. Seagull's only relief is half an hour of quiet time when he can eat his fish.

Beluga is that guy at work. All day is playtime, especially lunchtime. Beluga is aggressively social. It's not that he can't take a hint, but simply won't.

All this clip by Jan-Olaf Johansen in Hammerfest, Norway needs is a laugh track.

-via Super Punch

The motion of the ocean can carry you only so far. In the deep blue sea, female narwhals are on the prowl for males with the biggest tusks. Zackary Graham, a researcher at Arizona State University, and his colleagues recently published their research on tusk size as a factor in sexual selection:

Like walruses and elephants, male narwhals (Monodon monoceros) grow tusks; these are modified teeth. In narwhals, the left tooth erupts from their head, reaching more than 8 feet long in some individuals. The tusk grows out in a spiral pattern, giving the appearance of a sea-dwelling unicorn. [...]

When comparing individuals of the same age, sexually selected traits often exhibit disproportional growth — that is, for a given body size, sexually selected traits are often larger than expected in the largest individuals. Importantly, they compared the growth (or scaling) of the tusk to the scaling relationship between body size and a trait that is unlikely to have sexual functions. To do so, they used the tail of the narwhals, called the fluke.

"We also predicted that if the narwhal tusk is sexually selected, we expect greater variation in tusk length compared to the variation in fluke width," Graham said. This is because many sexual traits are highly sensitive to nutrient and body condition, such that only the biggest and strongest individuals can afford the energy to produce extremely large traits.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Narly the Narwhal t-shirt now on sale at the Neatoshop

Instagram user Etoni Mama is a master of kyaraben--the Japanese art of character-shaped foods. Her whole feed is fascinating, but I'm especially impressed by her creative use of eggs. Whether they're fried sunny side up, over easy, or boiled, her eggs look like memorable characters adding joy to your meal.

Would you like for a cat to barf all over your shoulders and chest? I bet you would if the barf had all of the colors of the rainbow!

On Ravelry, Amanda Julien offers this crochet pattern. Let the joy of your sick cat regurgitate itself on you when you need some flair.

-via TYWKIWDBI

Ante Brännbacka, who holds a 6th-degree black belt in an Okinawan style of karate, offers tips on how to defeat the coronavirus. Spear hand attacks, axe kicks, and even simple knee strikes ably deflect our infectious enemy.

Still a white belt? Don't worry--just bowing instead of shaking hands will help you.

Nicole McLaughlin offers you so many options that you may not have thought feasible. Honestly, I don't brush my teeth after lunch at work because it's not practical to carry around a toothbrush and toothpaste. But it would be practical if I could keep those necessary implements conveniently mounted on a shoe.

Lately, I've been planning a small professional conference for librarians and searching for a fun activity that everyone could enjoy. After all, there are only so many presentations on andragogical assessment scaffolding that people will want to attend. I need something spicier--like axe fighting!

The Warlord Combat Academy in Irving, Texas offers the realism of full-contact sparring with heavy, steel weapons. You get armor, too, which is helpful. Classes include the use of the longsword, the Hungarian saber, and the lightsaber.

-via Geekologie

Well, it looks like stained glass. It's actually an adhesive sticker that fits smoothly into the dimensions of an airplane window.

This is an invention by Danielle Baskin, the merry prankster who recently left signs for magical items up at her local Costco. She advises using these stickers to aid praying while airborne.

-via Super Punch

Would you like to stick you head out of the train as it passes through the station or tunnel? Swiss Rail designers would like to gently remind to remain inside the vehicle in a way that does not decapitate you, which would impair the tourism industry. Think of the broom in your face as being a prompt more subtle than a tunnel wall.

-via Super Punch | Photo: Elicia Donze

For five days, Italy has been under national lockdown. Most citizens must remain in their homes in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

But that separation hasn't stopped their joyful hearts from sharing a sense of community in other ways. In many cities, people are stepping out onto their apartment balconies to sing together.

What song would you sing with your neighbors under these circumstances?

-via Rod Dreher