Korean artist @nanankang offers a delicious take on a classic. Johannes Vermeer's iconic 1665 painting Girl with a Pearl Earring is immediately recognizable in cereal form.

-via Colossal

The six scents are sesame seed bun, ketchup, onion, ground "beef", pickles, and cheese. If you light them all, you have simulated the experience of eating a McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburger. Fox News reports that this is one of many products on sale from McDonald's to promote its lifestyle.

Our own company, Neatorama, really should do the same thing by selling a line of candles, each of which smells like a particular author. Burn them together for the supreme Neatorama olfactory experience.

-via Aelfred the Great | Photo: McDonald's

The girl who is third from the left is Brayden Lawrence. She loves to shop at Target. In fact, she loves it so much that when it was time for her birthday party, she asked for one at a Target store with a Target theme.

Brayden and her friends got employee uniforms, walkie-talkies, name badges, and a cake decorated with the retail chain's colors. CBS News (warning: auto-start video) talked to Brayden's aunt, Rikki Jackson:

The attendees then went on a scavenger hunt to find items in the store, but had to put everything back after, "since that's what employees do," said Jackson. The family even gave the pint-sized "employees" gift cards to spend on an "item of their choice." [...]

"She had the time of her life," said Jackson. "She hasn't stopped talking about it since! All she kept saying to my sister Jessica yesterday was 'Momma, you did that!'"

While Target doesn't normally host children's parties, Jackson said in a tweet that the store's manager gave the family "special permission" for the bash. The manager's kindness clearly made an impression on Lawrence.

-via Super Punch | Photo: Rikki Jackson

Do you see the pair of tits in the above photo? Pretty nice, right? Well, they're not Japanese great tits (Parus major), which use syntax. They're Eurasian blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), which scientists find fascinating for other reasons.

After carefully observing these tits for a long time, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology concluded that the females among normally monogamous birds sometimes stray and mate with male birds other than their social mates. ITV reports:

Scientists found that birds which often foraged together in the colder months were more likely to end up as breeding pairs or partners outside of their couple.

They say many socially monogamous bird species engage in sexual behaviour outside their pair bond, often resulting in chicks. [...]

They studied blue tits that typically form monogamous pairs, but frequently mate outside their pair.

First-author of the study, Kristina Beck, said: “As most extra-pair sires are close neighbours, one could think that extra-pair paternity in blue tits might simply be the result of coincidental meetings between neighbours, and not a social preference for specific mating partners.”

About half of all nests contain at least one young with a genetic father other than the social one, and up to 15% of all offspring are sired by extra-pair males.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: David Aiken

The challenge for Dr. Nicholas Senn, a US Army surgeon during the late 19th Century, was how to quickly assess abdominal gunshot wounds before the invention of x-ray machines. Was the path of a bullet a flesh wound, or had it penetrated the intestines, thus requiring a more complicated surgery?

His solution was to pump hydrogen gas up the patient's rectum*, then hold a flame to the wound. If the gas ignited, that indicated that the gunshot wound had indeed damaged the intestines.

To test this method, Senn first pumped gas up his own rectum to see what it would feel like. Then, in separate experiments, he performed the surgery on animals that had suffered gunshot wounds. You can read his book on the subject here.

Dr. Senn's methods were apparently successful and he went onto other medical accomplishments. Kaushik Patowa of Amusing Planet writes:

Although the first human patient, a 27-years-old black man with a 38 caliber pistol shot wound to his stomach, did not survive, the procedure itself was a success and eventually found use in military surgery to detect bowel wounds in soldiers. Dr. Senn’s methods only became obsolete when X-rays became standard diagnostic tool.

Nicholas Senn was a pioneer in surgical medicine. Aside from his work on gastrointestinal perforation, Doctor Senn was involved in experimental research on acute pancreatitis, plastic surgery, head and neck oncology, and the treatment of leukaemia with x-rays. He strongly supported the early operation for appendicitis, which was not the practice of the time. He also stressed the importance of first aid, first introduced to the military by the German surgeon Friedrich von Esmarch in 1870. Senn frequently quoted the German dictum, “The fate of the wounded rests with the one who applies the first dressing”.

*"Rectum? 'Pert near killed him!"

A King Cake is a cake traditionally eaten by communities in the United States that celebrate Mardi Gras. The sugary purple and yellow cake is consumed on the Christian feast day of Epiphany, which is often celebrated on January 6. Inside the cake is a tiny figurine of a baby. The lucky person whose slice of King Cake contains that baby is the honorary king of the day.

Learn from my mistake: the royal position is purely ceremonial and lacks any power whatsoever, so do not make any dictatorial commands upon friends and co-workers.

Anyway, Calandro's grocery store and the Burgersmith restaurant, both culinary institutions of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have joined forces to offer the Mardis Gras Mambo Burger. This bacon cheeseburger is wrapped around twisted King Cake dough. You can read more about it courtesy of local news reporter and meteorologist Steve Caparotta.

-via Rod Dreher | Photo: Burgersmith

Violinist Dagmar Turner needed to have a brain tumor removed. She was very concerned that the surgeons at King's College Hospital in London might accidentally damage the brain tissue which controlled fine motor movements. So the surgeons allowed her to play her violin while they operated on her. The Washington Post reports:

The scene was a testament to the success of a once-contentious procedure now embraced in hospitals around the world. Surgeons working close to parts of the brain that control important functions such as speech or movement routinely keep patients awake to best determine where tumor gives way to something vital. [...]

Turner went under general anesthesia while they opened her skull. But the brain itself does not have pain receptors, and she was wide-awake for the tumor’s removal, playing Gershwin, Mahler and more.

-via USA Today

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have invented a disposable diaper that automatically detects wetness caused by urine and alerts caregivers that it's time for changing. A press release describes how it works:

The sensor consists of a passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, that is placed below a layer of super absorbent polymer, a type of hydrogel that is typically used in diapers to soak up moisture. When the hydrogel is wet, the material expands and becomes slightly conductive — enough to trigger the RFID tag to send a radio signal to an RFID reader up to 1 meter away.

The researchers say the design is the first demonstration of hydrogel as a functional antenna element for moisture sensing in diapers using RFID. They estimate that the sensor costs less than 2 cents to manufacture, making it a low-cost, disposable alternative to other smart diaper technology.

-via Walyou | Image: MIT

As master of the mascara brush, Aaron Storms creates unique and original eye makeup designs. What is so interesting about his work is geometric forms executed with precise, sharp lines. Vivid colors pop out to add flair to any face.

Ben Zaehringer of Berkeley Mews would like to consider you for a relationship, but neglected to fill out the necessary form first. You can still write in his name when it's time for the prom if you have not moved on to another candidate relationship by that point.

Steve Irwin (1962-2006) was a famous wildlife expert, conservationist, TV show host, and daredevil known as the "Crocodile Hunter" for his dangerously close encounters with wild animals. His son, Robert Irwin, now 16 years old, is walking his father's path, even hosting his own animal encounters show.

On Twitter and Instagram, Robert occasionally recreates iconic photos of his father, such feeding Murray the crocodile. You can see a curated list of other photo remakes at My Modern Met.

A fellow named Slab went with this friends to The Amble Inn on Corindi Beach in Australia. After taking a swallow of his beer, Slab found a lifeless gecko inside. Heroically, he pulled the intoxicated gecko from his beer, placed its head inside his lips, and breathed life back into its tiny lungs.

The grateful gecko stayed with Slab the whole evening and went home with him.

Content warning: foul language.

-via Dave Barry

Like all morally decent and physically attractive people, I enjoy pineapple on pizza. Ideally, genetic engineering will make this Maximumble cartoon a reality. Better yet, it may permit me to make a pizza with a single pineapple slice a the crust. After adding tomato sauce and cheese, let this optimal pizza be topped with an additional slice of pineapple.

Fire up the old excavator because it's time for the bowling league to meet. Bolt a couple car seats onto a piece of sheet metal, such as an old car hood, then swing for the pins. That's how the good people of Chase, Michigan get in their winter fun.

What I can't figure out from the video is how the release mechanism works. How is the strap released under control?

-via Geekologie

Jafar the snake is shedding his skin, which makes a melodious popping sound as the skin sloughs off. It's quite pleasant, actually.

What is truly horrifying is the entire Instagram channel of Jafar's human, @pacinthesink. Having a pet snake is kind of cool.

Having pet cobras is bizarre. And, if I understand the videos correctly, @pacinthesink allows his/her cobras to roam the house uncaged. This is something that I would not do, but I am, I suppose, a timid soul.

-via Twisted Sifter