(Photo: Maria Ramey)

This massive instrument is, believe it or not, a flute. Specifically, it's a subcontrabass flute. It plays notes 3 full octaves below that of a concert flute. It typically measures 17.7 feet long. That's a lot! So it's not surprising that it's necessarily bent into a triangle shape, bringing it down to 7.7 feet when stood up straight. It weighs 33 pounds, so it's not ideal for a marching band.

This is 1 of 8 unusually large musical instruments rounded up at Mental Floss by our own Miss Cellania, including a pipe organ that has 7 keyboards and more than 1200 stop keys.

-via The Presurfer

(Photo: AKB)

The architecture firm Atelier Kastelic Buffey (AKB) developed the Story Pod--a free, lending library that sits in a park in Newmarket, Ontario. During the day, it opens and unfolds into an array of shelves and benches. Exposed and covered areas let visitors select the right amount of shade for reading. 

At night, the Story Pod is closed and locked, fitting neatly into 8 by 8 by 10 foot space. Lights, powered by solar panels on the roof, provide illumination to nighttime visitors to the park.

It's such an inviting design!

-via Contemporist

(Minimumble/Chris Hallbeck)

Just make sure that you don't restore your brain to factory settings or you'll lose a lot of important files, such as human language and printer drivers.

Got your own hardware problems? Turn off your computer, take a nap, then turn it back on again. You'll feel a lot better.

The Meowgaroo Suit is the conclusion to humanity's long quest to perfect clothing fashion. We now know how the human body is supposed to be clad. Unihabitat's cat suit, which is an expansion of its cat-carrying hoodie, makes you look like a cat, what with the ears, tail, and paws. It's so realistic that you may be mistaken for an actual cat--right up until the moment when other cats begin crawling out of the cat-sized cat pockets in your cat suit.

Thanks to this brilliant invention, there will no longer ever be a need for you to not have a cat with you.

-via Kotaku

The selfie stick is an ingeniously designed weapon disguised as a narcissistic indulgence. When you see someone carrying one, you're not looking at someone who is vain, but a living weapon ready to destroy any threat.

Fox News tells us that the M-Profi Combat Sports Center in Moscow, Russia has developed a martial art called monopod fighting. A trained monopodist responds to an attacker by smashing the selfie stick into vulnerable areas, such as the groin or throat, or uses it to trip, entangle, or throw an opponent to the ground.

(Video Link)

This Russian language video shows monopodists in training. Watch them respond to surprise attacks with amazing dexterity--often caught on camera, thanks to the selfie stick.

-via Atlas Obscura

Dave Delisle developed this clever design concept for a living room set. It would be the ideal setting for parties, except that the planchette keeps moving around the carpet, spilling anything that's placed on top. It would be helpful if Delisle could ensure that the spirits only speak when spoken to.

-via Dangerous Minds

The root message of this commercial is that people who own the Nvidia Shield tablet computer are cool--so cool that they can jump out an airplane with a parachute and a living room set and remain completely calm about the experience.

This ad features professional skydiver Jeff Provenzano. He and a cat strap into parachutes and fall out of an airplane while seated in a luxurious living room arrangement that includes a TV, a couch, and a tuba. Provenzano watches TV and plays video games while plunging down to the ground at a frightening speed. 

(Video Link)

The cat, despite not getting the chance to play, seems to be in good spirits when he arrives on the ground.

-via Nerd Approved

Redditor alanpep says that this chart is how his mother plans for Thanksgiving dinner. It's magnificent! 

The mother, who breaks wide open the J in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, is the right person to plan and execute a complex operation. An orderly schedule with all responsibilities assigned and tools scheduled will lead to a precise Thanksgiving dinner for 22 people.

It will not surprise you to learn that she is, by profession, a logistics analyst.

Imgur member guitarfarts writes, "My buddy built a life-size TIE Fighter in his front yard for Christmas." It's magnificent! And I really appreciate that, in this day and age, people are remembering the true spirit of the Christmas season: obedience to Emperor Palpatine.

-via Geek Art Gallery

You own a selfie stick, so people are inevitably avoiding you. Lifelong friends act like they're strangers. Your cat is even more indifferent than usual.

The selfie boyfriend arm hardly seems like a step up. Its purpose is to trick people to believe that you're not alone, but no one is fooled.

Enter the solution: the selfie arm. Mansun, an artist in Japan, invented a fake arm that functions as a very, very long selfie stick, but without the usual social stigma. It fits neatly within a custom shirt. You can see more photos here at his site (translation)

-via Laughing Squid

(Video Link)

In the famous Monty Python sketch embedded above, the students did not take their self-defense instructor seriously. He went to great pains to teach them how to defend themselves against attackers who were wielding various types of fruit. In this class, John Cleese's character showed them precisely how to deal with a banana-armed assailant.

But police officers in Carbon County, Pennsylvania were not as careless as Cleese's students. When they pursued accused shoplifters through a Walmart, they faced the horrifying spectacle of banana projectiles. WNEP news describes the desperate encounter:

Troopers report Rehrig threw a bunch of bananas at an employee and left the store with a television and a vacuum cleaner.

The officers escaped injury--thanks to their training--but the accused shoplifters escaped the scene.

-via Dave Barry

Rachel and Daniel are cosplayers. Daniel thoughtfully arranged for a photoshoot for her in her Ariel costume. But he also had a surprise planned. He showed up at the scene dressed as Prince Eric. While Rachel sat on the riverbank in her mermaid fin, Daniel dropped to one knee, pulled out a shell-shaped ring box, and asked her to marry him.

It's so dreamily romantic! You can see more photos at Offbeat Bride.

(Photo: Daniel Durnin)

Artist Daniel Durnin designed this unique recreational vehicle for the urban waterways and bikepaths of London. To enjoy the WaterBed, hook it up to a bicycle and tow it to a stream or canal. The plywood, canvas, and aluminum structure is very light--just 150 pounds. Slip it into the water or go inside while still on the trail. The interior is spacious enough to lie down in. You can raise or lower the awnings or open the back window, if you wish.

Rocket News 24 introduces us to this lucky rabbit owned by Japanese Twitter user @goen0414. She won't be living a hard, cold life in the wild this winter. She's got a knitted bunny hat to keep her ears warm. And that's only the beginning of what this pampered bun enjoys . . . .

(Photo: Bonhams)

The Los Angeles salesroom of Bonhams, an auction house firm, is offering what it claims is the largest meteorite sculpture in the world. It is Yorick, a sculpture named for the dead jester that Hamlet spoke to in Shakespeare's play.

Artist Lee Downey carved it from one of the many meteorites that lay scattered around Gibeon, Namibia. It arrived on Earth about a thousand years ago some four billion years after the metal was formed in space.

I'd love to see a forensic scientist do a facial reconstruction of this skull. Let's see what Yorick looked like when Hamlet knew him.

-via Junkculture