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Darth Vader -- or, as I strongly suspect, a man impersonating Darth Vader -- walked into the mayor's office in Odessa, Ukraine last week. He cited a law that granted free land to any citizen who wished to claim it. Vader indicated that he planned to build some sort of spaceport or base and submitted an application. They gave him the usual bureaucratic run-around:

"The application has been registered and will be considered," a spokeswoman for the mayor's office told Reuters.

"We are not on the dark side, we are light-side people," she added.

http://news.yahoo.com/darth-vader-claims-land-plot-ukraine-163738077.html -via Flavorwire

Sarah of the food blog Snippets of Thyme stayed at a bed & breakfast in Dingle, Ireland. Breakfast included soft boiled eggs kept warm in adorable little sweaters. The duck feet on the cups only added to the cuteness.

Link -via Tasteologie | Bed & Breakfast Website

There's not much to be said in favor of the North in winter, but the coffee houses are superb. Take the advice offered in Justin Lawrence DeVine's Game of Thrones chalk advertisement.

http://sticksstonesandherringbones.tumblr.com/post/12494433336/when-you-play-the-game-of-lattes-you-win-just-a -via The Mary Sue

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If you can do this, make sure that you put it on your resume because the ability to shove snakes into your nose and then pull them out of your mouth is not a common one. It is, however, a highly sought-after skill, as performer Liu Fei has no doubt discovered.

Link -via Geekosystem

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Yeah, Fred the cat answers the phone. But like that roommate you once had, he doesn't take a message or a callback number. The cat's human writes:

We first suspected that he answers the phone when my sister called home, "someone" answered and she heard a meow. When she told us we realized that there was no one home at the time. Eventually we got to see it for ourselves and this is the prove that he does it.

People are saying that he does it to stop the sound. Well, that's exactly what I do too. So let's call it answering the phone.

-via Ace of Spades HQ

The obvious problem with people texting in their sleep is that it adds yet one more distraction behind the wheel. And doctors are seeing a lot more of it:

Sleep expert Dr. Marcus Schmidt says he's starting to see more cases of sleep texting.

"Four out of five kids that have cell phones sleep with the cell phone in the bedroom, next to their bed and only one in ten actually turn it off," Dr. Schmidt said.

He says sleep deprivation can trigger common motor behaviors during sleep, including reaching for the phone when it goes off.

Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Flickr user proudcanadianeh

This is why I like thick, soft crusts over thin, crunchy ones. They're so much more comfortable. Extra cheese is nice for that gooey feeling around my limbs, too. Etsy seller brookish7 made this sleeping bag with all of our favorite toppings for her BFA thesis.

Link -via Nerdcore

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It's just blissful to watch these two friends interact. Lucy is a Portuguese Water Dog and Whiskey Brown is a Quarter Horse stallion. They work and play together, even once to chase a wild hog.

-via Blame It on the Voices

The site is in Italian, which I've run through Google Translate, but as I understand it, the LEAP (Living Ecological Alpine Pod) is a ski cabin design. Heavy-lift helicopters move prefabricated modules into position, which are then bolted together. The modules are interchangeable, so you can select which sections you need for your mountain cabin.

Link (Google Translate) -via American Digest | Photo: Fuoriserie Sas

Paula Durham snapped this shot for National Geographic's upcoming photography contest. It's entitled "Good Morning" and shows an elephant named Jabulani and his human, Stavros Chakoma. They live in South Africa and seem very happy together.

You can view other contest submissions at the link.

Link -via Super Punch | Photo: Paula Durham

Previously: NatGeo Traveler Photo Contest

No, the room heater isn't broken. It's just that cold. Every year, the Hôtel de Glace is erected in Quebec City, Quebec out of 500,000 tons of ice and 15,000 tons of snow. It includes up to thirty-six rooms that guests can rent as well as a combination dining room and chapel.

Link -via My Modern Met | Official Website | Photo: Luc Rousseau

We must sadly continue to wait before the production and release of a Dalek spoken word poetry album. Until that day comes, this visual presentation will have to suffice. Tomasz Stasiuk took the most common words used by or about Daleks, such as "Obey" and "Stairs" and used them to compose an illustration of one. You can view a similar illustration of the TARDIS at the link.

Link -via Kuriositas

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"Hey, let's build a robot modeled after a giant snake from the age of the dinosaurs!" Brilliant idea. Next: give it artificial intelligence and the ability to refuel from biomass. That's what the team behind the Titanoboa is probably doing. At least, they're not explicitly denying it. That's a warning sign.

Project Website -via io9

I love to try unusual types of meat -- alligators, frogs, ostriches and more -- so this is totally the club for me. The Gastronauts is an organization in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C. that brings people together to eat weird items:

At their last gathering in New York they ate balut, which is a Philippine snack of boiled fertilised duck egg.

''There's a reason why people eat this stuff,'' Calleo said. ''In many cases, cultures have had hundreds of years to make the food palatable or even exquisite.''

While no one is forced to eat anything, he said the goal is to ''try to try'', which reflects the group's spirit of culinary adventure. [...]

At the October Gastronauts dinner at a Yemeni restaurant Bab Al Yemen in New York, Nicole Murray, an assistant editor at an education company, extracted a piece of eyeball from a cooked lamb skull and brought it toward her mouth as those seated around her cheered.

''It's kind of jelly-like,'' she said, during her first Gastronauts dinner.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

Link | Official Website | Photo: Gastronauts

The architects at AllesWirdGut Architektur took an old steel mill in Luxembourg and converted it into a public park while leaving some of the original infrastructure in place. The results have a lovely Brutalist feel.

I know: a lot of people despise Brutalism. But it's an acquired taste that I've acquired. You can see eight pictures of the park at the link. I especially like this clever bench design -- perfect for enjoying the outdoors while staying out of the rain.

Link -via Colossal | Photo: Roger Wagner