The art collective Stoyn made molded ice cream treats of pop culture figures, including Marilyn Monroe and Donald Duck. It's unclear whether Mario, who is available in tequila sunrise flavor, is actually alcoholic. Link (Google Translate) -via Fubiz (Google Translate)

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If you find some artists' statements of philosophy a bit confusing, this video may help you understand them. Comedian Charlotte Young offers her own, which is helpfully subtitled in English. -via Blame It on the Voices | Young's Blog

Or, should I say, the origin of the word "Schtroumpf". This was the name that Belgian cartoonist Pierré Culliford gave to his little blue creations in the original French-language comics. Culliford invented the word while trying to ask for a dining companion to pass the salt:

Culliford, for some reason, could not remember how to say "sel" ("salt"). He was not having a stroke nor was he suffering from some sort other sort of significant neurological disorder, temporary or otherwise. Colloquially speaking, Culliford had a brainfart, and uttered a seemingly nonsense sentence: "passe-moi [pause, as he searched in vain for the right word] le schtroumpf." His dinner mate, Franquin, took the opportunity to mock Culliford, and replied -- as translated into English -- "Here's the Schtroumpf — when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back." The two, on vacation together, shared a laugh and found a new game; for the rest of the weekend, they continued substituting "schtroumpf" and derivations thereof for various words.

In most cases, this would be the end of the story. But Culliford's profession allowed him to use " schtroumpf" in a new, fabulous way. Culliford was a cartoonist better known by his pen name, Peyo. He was the author and illustrator of a comic, the story of Johan, a medieval page to the king, and his faithful sidekick, Peewit. Johan and Peewit (its subsequent English title) was regularly published in a French children's comic magazine. In October of 1958, Peyo introduced new characters to Johan's world -- tiny blue things called " schtroumpf" which, like Peyo and Franquin had earlier that year -- substituted the word " schtroumpf" at seemingly every opportunity.

It took a few decades, but by 1981, Le Schtroumpfs reached the United States, but under their Dutch name: the Smurfs.

Link | Image: Peyo

Chase Mitchell has pretty much nailed it in this piece, right down to the appropriate profile pictures. Read the rest at the link. Link -via QA Hates You

Assuming that Google Translate is handling the German properly, this is a picture of a trash can in Lucerne, Switzerland. The city government wants to discourage littering by drawing attention to public trash cans. So it put down little games, including mazes and hopscotch, around the cans.

Link (Google Translate) -via Swiss Miss | Photo: Manuela Jans/Neue LZ

Karl Hugo Erickson made a set of delightfully spooky pillows using the latch hook technique. The texture of the material seems to make them slightly unsettling (but in a good way). http://www.karlhugoerickson.com/2011/04/26/eye-pillows/ -via Craft

Matt of Bike Hikes has an interesting idea. He's put old seat belts inside the tires of his bicycle to make them more resistant to punctures:

The idea is very simple - put something between the tire and the inner tube to stop glass and other objects. So I found some old car seat belts left from a pair of messenger bags I made and I used them like a anti puncture band.

Do you think that it will work?

Link -via CrunchGear

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House is the public library of Derby Line, Vermont and Stanstead, Quebec. It sits right on the US-Canadian border. In fact, a black line across the floor marks the division:

You enter the lovely turn-of-the-century building in Vermont, but you check out the books -- your choice of English or French -- in Quebec. And, the librarian who assists you may be either a citizen of the United States or Canada, or both and, probably bilingual.[...]

The building and its facilities are governed by a seven-member board of trustees -- four Americans and three Canadians -- who serve without pay.

Link and Official Website -via Mark Steyn | Photo by Flickr user Kables used under Creative Commons license

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Allegedly, this video shows a Russian T-90 tank firing its 125mm gun. A specialized camera called a Photron, usually used in scientific research, captured the action at 18,000 fps. -via Gizmodo | Photron Website

Endoscopic surgery has used tubes for years, but now Japanese researchers have built a probe that can swim through the digestive tract:

The device, nicknamed the "Mermaid", is about one centimetre (0.4 inches) in diameter and 4.5 (1.8 inches) long and has magnetic driving gear that allows for precise control of its direction and location.

Doctors use a joystick to control the capsule's movements, watching them on a monitor screen. It can be swallowed for examination of the stomach or inserted rectally for the colon.

Robots roaming freely through the human body. What could possibly go wrong?

Link -via Geekosystem | Photo: AFP/Jiji Press

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Yung Lee went to the Anime North convention in Toronto and asked cosplayers to act out action scenes with him. He edited the resulting footage into some epic battle action. -via Topless Robot

Sallie Trout designed this bookcase for a house in Austin dubbed the Jackalope Ranch. If I understand the arrangement correctly, she took out a set of stairs and used the hole to create a very tall bookcase. It's accessible with a bosun's chair suspended by a chain from the ceiling. Link -via Boing Boing | Designer's Website | Photo: Trout Studios

Arguably, there's no such thing as too much sugar. Or at least that would be an assumption behind this delicious concoction by foodblogger Sugar Swings. Have a look at some of the inventive food crafts that she's made with Peeps. Link -via Distracted by Star Wars

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Victor Youk graduated from high school last Saturday. He was disappointed that his school firmly disallowed decorating mortar boards, so he figured out a way to rebel against the policy without getting caught -- at least until the ceremony was over.

Youk placed a tiny ultraviolet infared light in his cap. It blinked, in Morse Code, "Congratulations Class of 2011". The message is invisible to the human eye, but video cameras should pick it up.

Link -via GearFuse

Jon Salerno has a neat idea for a little home. It's built to be fitted with a car which becomes an additional room when it's parked underneath:

the fundamental structures of 'habitat' are a 100-square-foot cubic pod and a 32-square foot electrical vehicle, usable separately (as a microhome and car) or together, to create a 132-square-foot multi-level living space. the vehicle's four chairs are reconfigurable: arranged in a normal forward position for driving,but rotatable to face one another to create a small living room when the car is docked to the home.

utilizing solar and wind energy, the two structures each store and feed energy to one another, with adjustable solar panels lining the roof of the living structure.

Link -via DVICE