Artist Jason Freeny made this fully functional Rubik's Cube puzzle shaped like a brain. Presumably some knowledge of anatomy is essential to solving it.

Link via Super Punch

Previously by Jason Freeny:
The Anatomy of Nemo
Gingerbread Man Dissection

In the past, we've looked at somewhat fanciful efforts to improve the ammunition capacity of revolvers, including the use of feeding chains, superimposed loads, and stacked chambers. There's not much information available about this solution except that it's a single-action .38 that can fire 24 rounds.

Link via The Firearm Blog | Photo: Drefizzle

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Charlton Heston starred in three post-apocalyptic films: Planet of the Apes (1968), Omega Man (1971), and Soylent Green (1973). As an art project, Anthony Discenza took the entire run of each film and spliced them together at every tenth of a second while playing their soundtracks simultaneously. The result is both trippy and coherent.

via Blastr

It is said that Alboin (d. 572), King of the Lombards, had the skull of his enemy, King Cunimind of the Gepids, turned into a drinking cup. It was the ultimate sign of triumph against a defeated foe. This tradition, however, whether for practical or emotional purposes, now appears to date back almost 15,000 years:

Ice Age folk who lived in what’s now southwestern England gruesomely went from heads off to bottoms up. Bones excavated at a cave there include the oldest known examples of drinking cups or containers made out of human skulls, says a team led by paleontologist Silvia Bello of the Natural History Museum in London.[...]

Prehistoric cave denizens cleaned the skulls before using stone tools to shape the upper parts of the brain cases into containers, the researchers say.

Bello suspects that Ice Age Britons hoisted hollowed-out crania in rituals of some kind. Other human bones found near the skull cups show signs of flesh and marrow removal, a result either of cannibalism or mortuary practices. The striking similarities between the cave finds and historical examples of drinking cups made out of skulls further support a ritual role for the Ice Age receptacles, Bello says.

Link | Photo: Natural History Museum

Architect Didier Faustino made Double Happiness out of an old billboard in New York City:

Double Happiness responds to the society of materialism where individual desires seem to be prevailing over all. This nomad piece of urban furniture allows the reactivation of different public spaces and enables inhabitants to reappropriate fragments of their city. They will both escape and dominate public space through a game of equilibrium and desequilibrium. By playing this “risky” game, and testing their own limits, two persons can experience together a new perception of space and recover an awareness of the physical world.

Link via Flavorwire | Artist's Website | Photo: Broken City Lab

Yes, this is a completely real, playable game based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Charlie Hoey and Pete Smith made this wonderful gem. Just click on the link and follow the instructions.

Link (auto sound) via Topless Robot

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The people at Gamervision.com have really outdone themselves this time. Previously, they've brought us parodies of God of War and Super Mario Bros. Now they've gone all out and produced a truly convincing presentation of a worn-out VHS copy of The Legend of Zelda...the teen romance from the 1980s.

via Geekologie

Paul Weigand of Kansas argued with the court that the state statute requiring people to wear seat belts while riding in a car didn't specifically assert that the seat belt (not pictured) had to be attached to the vehicle in question:

An officer ticketed Paul Weigand during a winter traffic stop after making him get out of his car to prove the belt wasn’t connected to the vehicle. Weigand says he is terrified of becoming trapped in a burning vehicle. Plus, he says the law doesn’t specify that the seat belt has to be attached to his vehicle.

The judge disagreed and levied him a fine and court costs.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/10/2646775/kansas-judge-says-homemade-seat.html?story_link=email_msg# via Lowering the Bar | Photo (unrelated) via Instructables

When I saw this, my first thought was to email Alex and suggest that this awesome item be added to the NeatoShop. Unfortunately, designer Shunsuke Umiyama's brilliant idea has yet be mass produced. He writes:

Bubble Wrap is hidden on the back of the Tie!
Unpleasant boss's talk or boring meetings is a thing of the past,
you can just crush the bubble wrap.
This little function should ease your stress.

We have now reached the apex of human achievement.

http://www.microworks.jp/work/work17/work17_en.html# via OhGizmo!

This video game is guaranteed to move very slowly. Kimi Spencer and Marko Manriquez created an interactive mural that uses moss to depict Space Invaders:

Moss invaders comprises a living graffiti mural and a capacitive sound installation into one piece. The moss mural is made using laser cut stencils to mold a moss milkshake concoction of our own devising. The moss paste is "painted" onto the stencils to grow directly onto the brick wall surface. The sound installation aspect takes the moss invaders into the intergalactic realm. Each moss pad is a capacitive sensor which plays 8-bit musical sounds when touched.

Link via DVICE | Photo: Core77 | Previously: DIY Moss Graffiti

Sure, you can use your old 3.5" floppy disks as coasters or to prop up uneven table legs, but why not try something a bit more creative? Stanislav, a reader of TechEBlog, made a laptop bag out of a bunch of them.

Link via Geek Crafts | Previously: Floppy Disks as Art Medium

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M.C. Escher's Waterfall appears to show a stream of water fed by itself -- something of a perpetual motion machine. This clever video of mysterious origin creates the illusion of a functional model of that image.

via GearFuse

Does your wife wear soiled aprons around the house? That's a demerit. Is she slow in coming to bed? That's another demerit. She's not turning out too well.

In the 1930s, psychologist George Crane developed ratings charts that husbands and wives could use to offer each other constructive criticism:

Although most people who read the test today find it humorous and obviously dated, Crane did attempt to make it scientific. His method was to interview 600 husbands on their wives' positive and negative qualities. Then he listed the 50 demerits and merits that arose most frequently. Crane, did admit to using a personal bias in weighting the items that he thought were most important in marriage.

You can view the chart for husbands at the link.

Link via Glenn Reynolds

The lighting apparently doesn't head the bench itself, so it's probably more comfortable than the keyboard bench or retractable spike bench. Opulent Items sells a bench that can be lit with different colors. It's weather resistant, but you do have to plug it into an electrical outlet.

Link via Technabob | Photo: Opulent Items

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At a zoo in Saitama, Japan a group of capybaras are keeping warm and comfortable at an outdoor spa. One particularly adorable critter is just letting the water pour over his head.

via Urlesque