Imagine that you're a jailer in the Nineteenth Century. You have to open an occupied cell, perhaps to transfer a prisoner or deliver a meal. To open the cell, you need your hands free. But that would leave you unarmed. The solution is a key gun: a gadget that opens the cell while the jailer remains armed. You can view five more examples at the link. Link -via Gizmodo | Photo: David Galbraith

2,226 people assembled at a park in Mahwah, New Jersey, to form the largest smiley face composed of human bodies. This is nearly triple the current record, which was set earlier this year in Croatia:

Though officials from the Guinness Book of World Records were not on site, photos and counts from the night will be submitted to the record-keeping agency, and the record will be declared official after the counts are verified, Mahwah Police Chief James Batelli told Patch.

Link -via Geekosystem | Photo: Chris Costa

Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles is hosting an exhibition that includes the work of Robert Brandenburg. This artist buys cheap paintings at garage sales and adds details here and there. Take a guess about what he added to the picture above. Link -via Super Punch | Artist's Website

Previously: Artist Buys Cheap Landscapes, Adds Monsters

Kerry Howley, an art student at Middlesex University, put together a jewelry collection made from human hair. In reference to how people think about hair, she's entitled it "Attraction/Aversion". Howley writes:

The necklaces are made of human hair, a material we are familiar with and take pride in. However once off of the body it becomes an innate source of aversion. I wanted to see if I could make discarded hair attractive again.

Link -via Nerdcore | Artist's Website

When you take your stand along the gummy worm's path, you must remain utterly still. You must think like a patch of yellow sprinkles.

Crafted from a 2-foot-long gummy worm, Haribo gummy bears, black licorice string, yellow sprinkles, and rock candy crystals! A scene from the great science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Here we see the giant gummy worm on the desert planet of Arrakis.

This piece was commissioned by Candy Warehouse, an online candy retailer.

Link -via io9 | Company Website

The Combustion Institute, an organization of scientists and engineers who study fire, hosts an annual art competition for photographers of fire. You can view the five winning selections, including this one by Nelson Akafuah and Kozo Saito:

[...]this fire whirl was created by igniting benzene, a simple petrochemical, then mirroring and rotating the resultant image to produce a distinctive "S" shape.

Link -via Make

Brilliant! I don't want to see Bruce Wayne cut off his ear, but if that is the necessary price of this tattoo coming into existence, it is worth it. This inking is the work of the Dominika Gardocka i Skorpion Sosnowiec tattoo studio in Poland. http://fyeahtattoos.com/post/7077519590/this-is-my-brand-new-tattoo-called-starry-night | Previously: Gotham Starry Night

After the YouTube incident, it should have been obvious that someone had put a hit out on Nyan Cat. And really, I mean, his body was a pop tart. You can't be that delicious and expect to live very long. redditor Vosson finally did the deed. Link -via Diary of a Death Starlette

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Matt Mulholland, a vocal artist, recreated the soundtrack and sound effects from the lobby shootout scene in The Matrix. The only instrument that he used was his own mouth. Pew pew! Artist's Website -via Geekologie

Kim Hyun's creative process begins with plaster casts of her subjects. From these, she makes sculptures composed of dice held together with wires. Google Translate renders the title of the exhibit as "Dice Cast Dice Cast." Link (Google Translate) -via Colossal | Photo: Neolook

World of Fourcraft is a new computer game that lets Foursquare users in New York City participate in a version of the classic world conquest board game Risk:

Users decide which team they are on by swearing allegiance to one of New York City’s five boroughs. Checking into a neighborhood on Foursquare is the online game’s equivalent to placing plastic man on a country in the board game. An algorithm decides who owns each neighborhood using the number of people who have checked into it on each team. There are currently about 100 players.

Link and Official Website -via Geekosystem | Image: World of Fourcraft

This is why Garfield has to be a cat. Jon doesn't have to work so hard to be neurotic. But what type of animal would Odie be? Link -via Super Punch | Image: Patrick Alexander

For a month, Cunicode, design agency in Barcelona, designed, manufactured, and brought to market a new coffee cup design every 24 hours. You can view them at the link. My favorite is the Klein bottle cup (although I wouldn't want to drink out of it). http://cunicode.com/one-coffee-cup-a-day/ -via Swiss Miss

Brilliant! This court in Munich would be an amazing place to play basketball. Or better yet, to watch NBA professionals try to do so. Here's how it's designed:

A regulation-sized basketball court was erected on the grove-like forecourt of the school building of the occupational school. The court consists of a soft orange-red tartan covering and two normed baskets and seems to be forced over the grid of the lamps that have been set up. The playable court has been “morphed” as in a 3D program on a computer and looks like the grounds of a rollercoaster, with heights and depths and calm and dynamic zones. The resulting paradox, which moves between a normative set of rules and pleasurable, anarchic change, requires creative engagement for its use.

The court was designed by an art collective called Inges Idee. You can view three more photos at the link. Link -via Yahoo News | Photos: Markus Buck

Craftster user TroubleT made this wonderful Father's Day gift for her husband, a Portal fan. They're a rather clever and appropriate use for embroidery hoops, don't you think? http://geekcrafts.com/portal-hoops/ -via Geek Crafts