Kendra Arch plucked this carrot straight out of her garden. And by that I mean her kitchen. She sliced a frozen pound cake into wedges, which she then coated with melted orange candy. The green stem is made from taffy and the soil in the jar is actually crushed Oreos. So you need not fear accidentally consuming any natural food products while eating this cute dessert.

Link -via Tasteologie

Quilting just wasn't enough. Last September, 101-year old Mary Hardison of Ogden, Utah paraglided with an instructor, thus becoming the oldest woman to ever do so. Her motivation? Keeping her young, freewheeling son in his place:

Hardison said she wanted to paraglide because her 75-year-old son began doing it as a hobby.

"I didn't want him to get too far ahead of me, so I decided that I'd go too," she said Tuesday.

Fear never entered the equation for Hardison, who previously rode all of the adult rides at Disneyland to celebrate her 90th birthday.

Hardison said she was shocked to learn her flight had become a world record.

"To me, I was just going on a little ride," she said. "I had no idea I'd break a record."

Link -via Stuff | Photo: AP/Jeremy Castellano

Since his screen debut in 1928, Mickey has not aged thanks to the dark arts taught to him by Walt Disney. But what would happen if he did not have access to overly-trusting interns and the ghastly secrets of the Illuminati? Darick Maasen made this latex sculpture that shows an elderly Mickey Mouse ready for retirement.

Link -via Blame It on the Voices

Previously by this artist:
Bebop Taxidermed Boar Head
Taxidermed Koopa Paratroopa

Mayuka Nakamura, an art student at the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, recreated warships of the old Imperial Japanese Navy in sushi. The series is an extended pun on a popular type of sushi roll dubbed the battleship. This, I think, is a model of the Kongo -- a battleship that sank in World War II.

Link (Google Translate) -via Kotaku

It won't fit inside my cubicle here at Neatorama but, with a few modifications, it could become my cubicle! It's on sale in the Olympia, Washington area for "$150 or best offer". I suspect that the best offer is going to far exceed that number.

Link -via reddit

Sheriff Woody Pride in Toy Story had Andy's name inscribed on his boot. The owner of this tattoo reports that it hurt a lot to get this imitation. But at least he has the satisfaction of publicly affirming his love for Toy Story wherever he goes.

Link -via Faith J | Photo: Rob

For its show entitled "Threat", the American Design Club asked artists "You’ve just heard something in the other room. What would you want to grab to defend yourself?" There were many funny responses, including this decorative bottle by Sara Ebert. It breaks into a shank. View the works of other contributing artists at the link.

Link -via Nag on the Lake | Photos: Kendall Mills

In retrospect, I think that I made an inferior choice when selecting my wife's engagement ring. But then these rings developed at Keio University in Japan were not available at the time.

[Yes, it's clearly an engagement ring. Observe: third finger, left hand.]

PYGMY robot rings blink according to different settings, including voice recognition, finger activity and remote control. They are, sadly, not yet on the market. So you may need to delay your wedding. In the meantime, watch a video of them in action at the link.

Link -via Technabob

This cute little coffee shop is Brad Frank's Coffee Bug. It's built around a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle. Frank tows it around fairs and festivals. Photographer Keely Marie Scott spotted it in 2010 at an antique fair in Round Top, Texas. If you're playing punch buggy, it's worth two punches.

Official Website -via Bren Mason | Photographer's Website

Cow eyes are a great convenience food. Like pizza rolls or jalapeno poppers, you can just microwave a few when you want a snack. They were among the exotic dishes served at the 108th Explorers Club Annual Dinner in New York City this past Saturday. Others include hog mask, scorpions and jellyfish. Read the full menu at the link.

Link | Photo: Paul Adams

Pip Foweraker is a thoughtful, careful man, so he spent considerable time contemplating what he would like to have as his first and possibly only tattoo. His friends advised against the whole idea. After all, what will it look like when he's old? Tattoos are, practically speaking, forever. So Foweraker established a general principle to address this problem:

...the best solution would be to get a tattoo so over-the-top awesome, and filled with personal meaning and satisfaction, that it would be literally impossible for me to ever regret getting it.

Careful reasoning led him to conclude that the ultimate tattoo -- one that would be impossible for anyone to regret -- would be one showing a tyrannosaurus rex and Optimus Prime giving each other a high five. You can find his detailed argument at the link, which I think you will agree is flawless.

Link -via reddit

José Balta's reign as the President of Peru ended with an assassin's bullet on July 26, 1872. So perhaps this was a fitting weapon for him to own during a dangerous age. The French gunmaker Lefaucheux, Casimer & Eugene made this unique knife that includes a pinfire revolver in the handle. It fires six 7.65 mm rounds and was presented to Balta in a case that resembles a coffin.

Link -via The Firearms Blog | Images: Rock Island Auction Company

Stephanie at Lick My Spoon has a great idea for dessert while grilling with friends. Take a banana and slit it lengthwise. Fill in the slit with chocolate chips, coconut shavings or little marshmallows. Wrap the banana in aluminum foil and set it on the grill.

Link -via Jenny Landis

When a mental health hospital closes, how do you mark the occasion? For ninety-one years, the staff at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center helped society's outcasts. In 2003, it was time to move to a new facility. So the administrators hired artist Anna Schuleit to create an installation that would mark the occasion. Her response, entitled "Bloom", consisted of thousands of flowers covering the floors of the old building. Read about the reactions of staff and former patients at the link.

Link -via Boing Boing | Official Website | Artist's Website

Good morning, Neatoramanauts. From 1966 to 1973, the innovative television show Mission: Impossible presented the adventures of the Impossible Missions Force. This top secret American agency found stolen nuclear bombs, exposed counterfeiters, rescued captured spies and foiled criminal plots at home and abroad. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to learn things that you might not know about the show.

1. The show was inspired by the criminal heist movie Topkapi and was originally entitled Briggs’ Squad. In the early drafts, the team members were semi-reformed criminals who had served together in a special forces unit and proven unable to re-adjust to civilian life. Barney was a compulsive gambler and card cheat. Cinnamon was a drug addict. Rollin Hand was a thief. Willy Armitage beat women while working as a strip club bouncer. The series creator, Bruce Geller, cleaned up their backgrounds to make the show more appealing.

2. The self-destructing tape scenes were usually shot all at once, once a year for each season. The tapes didn't actually disintegrate. A special effects technician created that impression by blowing smoke through a tube into the recorder.

3. The voice on the tape belonged to Robert Johnson, an accountant turned voice over artist. For the pilot episode, he was paid $125. Since the pilot sold, he kept coming back and, for several years, would record his part every few weeks. His character was never identified during the series.

4. After learning about the mission, Dan Briggs or Jim Phelps would return to his apartment to select agents from a portfolio. The rejected photos in these agent selection scenes were usually pictures of crew members or their wives. In the screenshot above, Dan Briggs is looking at a photo of Bruce Geller. Even though he created Mission: Impossible, Geller doesn't get to go on this mission.

5. Steven Hill played Dan Briggs, the IMF's leader at the beginning of the series. Hill had an abrasive personality at that time. He repeatedly clashed with directors and producers, and they ultimately fired him at the end of the first season.   Hill was eventually able to overcome these issues and become a successful actor, most famously playing the role of District Attorney Adam Schiff on Law & Order.

6. In the meantime, directors settled on Peter Graves to replace Hill as Jim Phelps, the new leader of the IMF. Graves came from an acting family: his brother, James Arness, played Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke.