The Make-a-Wish Foundation contacted actor Ron Perlman on behalf of Zachary, a young boy who wanted two things: to meet and become Hellboy. Perlman reprised his titular role in the Hellboy movies by going through the long makeup application process and appearing in character. Later, the same makeup artists turned Zachary into a little demon with facepaint and prosthetic appliances. You can view more pictures of their day together at the link.
Beth Schaleben bought a used wood and steel table. It was functional, but not attractive. That changed with the application of dozens of vintage yardsticks. Now it's an eye-popping piece of household furniture.
Mayumi has a great idea for adding some humor to your backyard cookouts. To make these dog hot dog buns, all you have to do is shape the dough before baking and add black beans for the eyes and noses.
If you're ever in Singapore's Changi Airport, check out Art+Com's "Kinetic Rain." This art installation consists of 608 aluminum and copper balls suspended from steel cables. Computer controls move them in a dance through the air, forming patterns and shapes. The video is mesmerizing.
If you're a prisoner of war and you'd like to freak out the guards, you could start by building a model guillotine out of animal bones. If that isn't enough, it's time to step up your game and use human bones. That's what one French prisoner of war during the Napoleonic Wars did for this model of HMS Victory. You can read more about it from io9's Keith Veronese at the link.
David Novotny can bring the sights on his Smith & Wesson 1911PD on target with the speed of a sonic rainboom, thanks to his new custom grips. They're inscribed with the cutie mark of My Little Pony's Rainbow Dash.
Plastic life emerged in this desert near the mining town of Broken Hill, Australia. LEGO's marketing division for Australia and New Zealand planted 15 life-sized LEGO trees and flower beds. View more pictures at the link.
Stop scrolling and watch this video. It's the funniest and awesomest thing you'll see all day.
When he was 12, Jeremiah McDonald made a video message for his future self. Now, 20 years later, he sticks the tape into his VCR and has a conversation with himself. Both are kind of disappointed with each other. Content warning: foul language.
Your defense is tomorrow and you haven't prepared?! What were you thinking? Your entire career is riding on your performance!
Here, read Luke Burns's FAQ on the subject:
Q: Do I have to kill the snake? A: University guidelines state that you have to “defeat” the snake. There are many ways to accomplish this. Lots of students choose to wrestle the snake. Some construct decoys and elaborate traps to confuse and then ensnare the snake. One student brought a flute and played a song to lull the snake to sleep. Then he threw the snake out a window.
Q: Does everyone fight the same snake? A: No. You will fight one of the many snakes that are kept on campus by the facilities department.
Q: Are the snakes big? A: We have lots of different snakes. The quality of your work determines which snake you will fight. The better your thesis is, the smaller the snake will be.
Let us not forget that Alex, the founder and owner of Neatorama, has not one but two doctoral degrees. And in the natural sciences at that. For his dissertation defense, he had to fight two snakes simultaneously. If you ever meet Alex, he'll gladly tell you about it. Here at the office, we've all heard the story. Many, many, many times.
That's not a tattoo, but ink from a gel pen. Chinese artist Pinpin Co spends about five hours decorating each of her subjects with whimsical patterns. The ink rubs off or washes away. But for a short time, her human canvases bear extraordinary markings.
Chickens, which outnumber humans, have become what two Smithsonian magazine writers call "the ubiquitous food of our era." As part of its exploration of the history of chicken as a source of food for humans, the magazine asked photographer Timothy Archibald to dress raw chickens as personages from human history. He selected, among others, Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln, Queen Elizabeth and Albert Einstein. Pictured above is that dominating figure from a dubious version of Chinese culinary history, General Tso.
Daniel Kim is nothing if not ambitious. His goal is to revolutionize personal transportation by combining the best elements of a car and a motorcycle. The result of his work is the prototype C1--an enclosed motorcycle that uses gyroscopic stabilizers to remain upright:
Cars, by Kim’s reckoning, are most often a waste of space and, for the most part, they’re terribly inefficient. Motorcyles are far more efficient but they’re dangerous.
The C1 is gyroscopically stabilized – sort of along the lines of a Segway – so it can’t tip over. It delivers 1,300-foot-pounds of torque and has about 200 miles of range or, as Lit employee Ryan James put it, “three times the range with one-third the battery requirement” of electric cars. A regenerative braking system helps goose the range and airbags protect the occupants.
Mike Hastings of Jerilderie, Australia passed away at the age of 71. He was a forklift driver by trade. But according to one understanding of British history, he should have sat on the royal throne in place of Elizabeth II:
He made international headlines in 2004 when a documentary team from Britain's Channel Four conducted extensive research into the monarchy and concluded his ancestors were cheated out of the crown in the 15th century. [...]
Hastings was a descendant of England's House of York, whose dynastic struggle with the House of Lancaster became known as the Wars of the Roses and was dramatised by William Shakespeare.
The British documentary's historian Michael Jones found documents in France's Rouen Cathedral that he believed showed King Edward IV, who ruled with a brief interruption from 1461 to 1483, was illegitimate.
Jones believes that Edward's father Richard of York was fighting the French at Pontoise when he was conceived, while his mother Cecily was 200 kilometres (125 miles) away at Rouen, allegedly in the amorous arms of an English archer.
If true, the crown should have passed on to Edward's younger brother George, the duke of Clarence, who was a direct ancestor to Hastings.
Evil, chum, is a deceptive cutie mark on the rump of Ponyville's underworld. Our mission is to harness it with the bridle of justice. Etsy seller PoniesofDooom has prepared us for that noble task.
