John Diamond's 1792 design for the Capitol was topped with a weathercock. Jim Allegro and Doug Michels wanted to build the National Sofa across the street from the White House so that hundreds of people could watch the President on an enormous television. John Russell Pope proposed that the Lincoln Memorial take the form of a step pyramid. Throughout the history of Washington, D.C., architects have proposed both grand and eccentric building ideas. View a slideshow at the link of some of these that were thankfully never built.

Link -via NotCot | Image: National Archives

It is a called a cherpumple, and it represents all that remains good and right in this fallen world. Pastry chef David Lowery made this 21 lb. 10 oz. concoction for guests at the Grand Geneva Resort in Wisconsin. I feel a rekindling of hope for the human race because we can still do great things like this. http://www.charlesphoenix.com/2011/09/sunday-brunch-cherpumple/ -via That's Nerdalicious! | Photo: David Lowery

The phenakistoscope, invented in 1823, was an early animation display device. It presented a series of stills in sequence, much like a modern animated GIF. Pieterjan Grandry took a popular GIF file and adapted it for a phenakistoscope, which he calls the GIF Player.

When you make a cat GIF and post it on reddit, remember that you're standing on the shoulders of giants.

Link -via Technabob

Amazing! It may look like a low resolution photograph, but the original image is composed of more than two hundred thousand nonpareils in six different colors. It took Joel Brochu eight months of work with jewelry tweezers. They're attached to a board with double sided tape and glue.

Link -via Dude Craft

(Video Link)

The octopus crawled out of the sea and deposited a crab in front of the humans. YouTube user tuantube thinks that this was a friendly gesture. It wasn't. Like a cat leaving a dead mouse before you, it's a simple message that expresses "You're next."

-via Geekologie

You can find this sculpture at the Minneapolis Art Institute. If you use this rack, make sure that your chain is sturdier than a string of paperclips.

Link -via Colossal | Museum Website | Photo: Flickr user Ardent Eye

While she was a struggling young artist in San Francisco in the early 1980s, Susan Kare picked up a typeface design gig for an up and coming company called Apple Computers. She designed the first proportionally spaced digital font, and it greatly pleased Steve Jobs. So Kare stayed on and designed many graphic elements for the Macintosh interface, including popular icons still used today. At the link, Steve Silberman tells her story and shares pages from her sketchbook. Jobs didn't accept some of her more whimsical icons, such as a squashed spider, a jumping frog, and a high-heeled cowboy boot.

Link -via American Digest | Kare's Website

Burial in the United States is increasingly expensive, so some people have made their final plans with thrift in mind. That's where Minnesota woodworker Randy Schnobrich steps in. He teaches traditional coffin building over a three-day, $700 course. Many of the participants are building coffins for themselves:

“A lot of people cringe at the idea of building their own casket,” Schnobrich says. “They see it as morbid. They think, ‘Boy, that must be kind of weird.’ But for some folks, they want to have a hand in, an intimate connection with the end of their life. Instead of just being a bystander, you can be involved in at least this aspect of your death.”

Marilyn Bader’s friends have seen her casket in her bedroom and said, “Isn’t that a little weird, having your casket in your bedroom?” But Bader, a widow who makes her living as a health care researcher, shrugs off such talk. “It’s something I made,” she says. “I’m proud of it.”

What I find fascinating about this story is that some of Schnobrich's students begin the project when they're dying. The act of building their coffins helps them emotionally process their mortality:

A retired teacher in her mid-60s named Carla made her coffin shortly before she died of cancer. Carla was undergoing chemotherapy before the coffin-making class. Schnobrich said she was so fatigued that he set up a futon in the workshop so Carla could nap when she needed to. At times, she had so little strength that Schnobrich had to help her push screws into the casket with a cordless drill.

“She was extremely motivated and wanted to do as much as she could,” Schnobrich recalls.

Link | Photo: Jon Kalish

Woodley the dog was sitting in the driver's seat of his human's bus-sized motorhome when he dislodged the parking break. He then went for a ride:

His owner, Richard McCormack, 62, said: "He sits next to me when I'm driving and in the driver's seat when I'm not.

"The handbrake is on the dashboard and he's seen me release it many times.

He was just copying me. "He's tried it on before."

Mr McCormack parked his massive mobile home in Winnellie Rd, which runs down a slight hill, and popped into a yard to inquire about repair work.

He was gone only a couple of minutes, but that was enough for Woodley to go for a spin.

"I came out and saw the bus going down the road. I couldn't believe it," he said.

Woodley's getaway was -- this time -- unsuccessful. After the motorhome moved about two hundred yards, McCormack was able to jump inside and stop it.

Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Patrina Malone

For a discreet and understated way of expressing class, put Charly Molinelli's coffee table in your parlor. It looks better than a crushed '86 Buick Regal in a cardboard box, but only slightly.

http://molinellidesign.com/2011/05/08/crashed-ferrari-table/ -via Born Rich

You'd swear that American artist Sandy Skoglund uses Photoshop, but this is a real image of a scene that she carefully staged. How did she do it, and who's going to clean up afterwards? Visit the link to view more examples of her amazing work.

Also, what's the singular form of "Cheetos"? I can't find a definitive answer.

Link -via Flavorwire | Artist's Website

Previously: Sandy Skoglund's Picnic on Wine

Sarah Hoke Thomson's brilliant Halloween costume brought a Roy Lichtenstein painting to life. The more ambitious among you should try this with Jackson Pollock paintings.

Link -via Fashionably Geek

redditor NoKarmaForKindness crocheted a sushi roll that looks good enough to eat. It doesn't actually smell like fish, but presumably it can be altered to do so.

Link -via Craft

"If the pigs were gathering in Eisley, I felt the drug culture should be represented as well. And there was a certain bent appeal in the notion of running a savage burn on one Mos Eisley hotel, and then just wheeling across town and checking into another. Me and a thousand ranking stormtroopers from all over America. Why not? Move confidently into their midst." Artist Anton Marrast remembers an earlier, more countercultural version of Star Wars.

http://www.grape-frogg.com/2011/11/20/fear-and-loathing-on-tatooine/ -via Colossal

Plano, Texas is home to a unique museum: the Cockroach Hall of Fame. Exterminator Michael Bohdan has created many dioramas of costumed cockroaches at work and play. You can rent the facility for a birthday party for that special someone in your life. But I have an even better idea for this museum: host the annual Neatorama staff teambuilding retreat.

Link -via Dave Barry | Museum Website | Image: KDFW Fox