These socks by The Sanguin Gryphon contain untranslated passages of the 8th Century poem Beowulf:

Thus begins the immortal tale of the hero Beowulf, the bard summoning the attention of his audience. And so begin these socks, which give the text of the first page of the surviving manuscript, a copy dating to around 1000 CE. The writing flows from one sock to the other, so that you may read it uninterrupted.

http://www.sanguinegryphon.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22_100&products_id=3012%3Cbr%20%3E%3C/a%3E via Geekosystem

Gurkhas, the Nepalese elite soldiers in the service of Britain and some of its former colonies, sometimes fight with their traditional kukri knives (pictured). One retired Gurkha was carrying his knife when a train in India that he was riding was robbed by forty men. The robbers unwisely chose to not immediately surrender. The ex-soldier then killed three, wounded eight, and drove off the rest:

The band of about 40 robbers, some of whom were travelling as passengers, stopped the train in the Chittaranjan jungles in West Bengal around midnight. Shrestha-- who had boarded the train at Ranchi in Jharkhand, the place of his posting--was in seat no. 47 in coach AC3.

“They started snatching jewelry, cell phones, cash, laptops and other belongings from the passengers,” Shrestha recalled. The soldier had somehow remained a silent spectator amidst the melee, but not for long. He had had enough when the robbers stripped an 18-year-old girl sitting next to him and tried to rape her right in front of her parents. He then took out his khukuri and took on the robbers.

“The girl cried for help, saying ´You are a soldier, please save a sister´,” Shrestha recalled. “I prevented her from being raped, thinking of her as my own sister,” he added. He took one of the robbers under control and then started to attack the others. He said the rest of the robbers fled after he killed three of them with his khukuri and injured eight others.

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=27100 via MArooned | Photo: Canadian Content

Brazilian armsmaker Taurus caused a stir when it released "The Judge" -- a revolver that fires shotguns shells in addition to handgun cartridges. The Judge shoots .410 gauge shells as well as .45 Long Colt cartridges. "The Raging Judge", pictured above, goes even further in this approach, firing the much larger 28 gauge shell.

Link | Photo: Firearms Blog

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Axe Cop is a webcomic written by a 5-year old and drawn by a 29-year old professional cartoonist. This deliciously loopy premise has been turned into a short, high-quality live action movie by Peter Muehlenberg.

via io9 | Axe Cop

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Uhhh....

Allegedly, this is called "Project Popcorn" -- a Russian version of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Crow and Tom Servo were replaced with a penguin and a dog.

via Topless Robot

It kind of looks like the planets in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, doesn't it? Photographer Chris Kotsiopoulos created this picture out of many photographs taken over the course of a day in Athens, Greece:

I began the shooting the morning of December 30, 2010, taking photos with my camera on a tripod facing east. The day portion of this shoot is composed of a dozen shots covering the landscape from east to west as well as the Sun's course across the sky, from sunrise to sunset. I recorded the Sun's position exactly every 15 minutes using an intervalometer, with an astrosolar filter adjusted to the camera lens. In one of the shots, when the Sun was near its maximum altitude, I removed the filter in order to capture a more dramatic shot that showed the Sun's “glare.” After sunset, I took various shots with the camera facing west-northwest in order to achieve a more smooth transition from the day portion to the night portion of the image. The night portion is also composed of a dozen landscape shots but this time from west to east. After the transition” shots, I took a short star trail sequence of approximately half an hour duration, with the camera facing northwest. At 7:30, I turned the camera to the north and started taking the “all-night” star trail shots -- lasting almost 11 hours. After accomplishing this, I then turned the camera to northeast and shot another short half an hour star trail sequence, and then finally, with the camera now facing east-northeast, I took a series of night-to-day transition shots.

You can view a larger image at the link.

Link via Geekologie | Artist's Website

Dutch puzzle maker Oskar van Deventer designed this mindblender. It's like a Rubik's Cube, but has 17 cubes on an edge instead of 3:

When Oskar heard of the world records being set for twisty puzzles, like the 7x7x7, 9x9x9 and 11x11x11 by Panagiotis Verdes from Greece, he wanted to try his hand at setting a new record himself. With sponsorship from his close friend Claus Wenicker, Oskar set about designing and testing a number of prototypes, and his third attempt was printed successfully with Shapeways. Sorting and dyeing all 1539 pieces took Oskar 10 hours of work, followed by 5 hours of assembling. The result is an oversized (140 millimeter, 5.5 inches) and fully functioning "Over The Top" 17x17x17 puzzle.

It currently sells for just over $2,000.

Link via Technabob | Photos: Shapeways

Through uncertain methods, San Francisco-based artist Jason Mecier convinces celebrities to donate personal trash to them. He turns the individual contributions into portraits of each celebrity:

He uses junk and discarded items donated by top stars, so yes…that Trojan condom box in the top left corner of Tina Fey‘s portrait actually came from Tina herself. Mecier has spent over 10 years creating outrageous portraits and is now so popular that stars contact him directly and pay $1,500 for a portrait, which he gladly makes from a bag of their junk that they provide.

Celebs who have asked for the portraits include Chris Rock, Pink, Tori Spelling, and Chelsea Handler, whose portrait includes empty vodka bottles, a Snuggie box, Martini glasses, bottle opener, buttons, batteries, chapstick, dice, pens, badges and movie tickets.

Link via Crackajack | Artist's Website

Previously: Jason Mecier's Food Art

After his sister died of brain cancer, Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto began constructing enormous, detailed labyrinths. They're temporary installations made out of ground salt and reflect a special significance that his culture places on that mineral:

In Japanese culture salt is not only a necessary element to sustain human life, but it is also a symbol of purification. He uses salt in loose form to create intricate labyrinth patterns on the gallery floor or in baked brick form to construct large interior structures. As with the labyrinths and innavigable passageways, Motoi views his installations as exercises which are at once futile yet necessary to his healing.

http://halsey.cofc.edu/exhibitions/2006/05_fon/09_yamamoto01.html via Dude Craft | Artist's Website

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Elizabeth Joy Roe and Greg Anderson are two master pianists who composed and performed a concert series called "Star Wars Fantasy". It remixes and overlays the scores from classic Star Wars in a particularly lovely fashion. The above video is one sample that emphasizes the Cantina Band theme, but weaves in others.

via Great White Snark | Official Website

Photographer Tom Falconer creates and captures images of frozen bubbles. Goli Mohammed of Make interviewed Falconer and asked him how he does it:

For frozen bubbles I usually wait until it is (at the warmest) 10 below freezing (22 F) and even at that temp they will take a few minutes to freeze. Again it needs to be extremely calm, because you'll need to blow the bubble then catch it on the wand or some kind of wet surface and wait for it to freeze. As it freezes the thick swirls in the bubble will stop moving, and little fingers of ice crystals will creep across the surface. They don't freeze into something that will shatter, they tend to be somewhat rubbery and will eventually collapse on itself.

Link via Make

Zoe D. Katze, Ph.D., C.Ht., DAPA, is a fully credentialed psychotherapist. Her owner, Dr. Steve K. D. Eichel -- who has a real Ph.D. -- was tired of finding fakes passing themselves as psychotherapists thanks to diploma mills. So he decided to get his cat credentialed:

A reporter from a major magazine wrote to "Dr. Zoe D. Katze" for input on an article she was writing on hypnosis for childbirthing. She had stumbled across Dr. Zoe's name on the American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists' website. I had to tell her the truth.

Dr. Zoe D. Katze, Ph.D., C.Ht., DAPA, is a cat. In fact, she is my cat.[...]

Dr. Katze's credentials look impressive. She is certified by three major hypnotherapy associations, having met their "strict training requirements" and having had her background thoroughly reviewed. She holds a Diplomate in psychotherapy from an association that claims to promote the highest standards among psychotherapists.

Link via io9 | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user Edward Townend Photography

The firefighters in Luoyang, Henan Province, China, have an awesome new tool to use against fires. It's a water cannon that can shoot 3 tons of water 120 meters away. One source says that it's powered by a fighter jet engine. The total cost was about $456,000. You can watch a video of the machine at the link.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/video-chinas-new-jet-propelled-water-cannon | Photo: GizChina

Well, no. Although it does look like NASA is improvising in the light of a thriftier budget. What's actually happening is that engineers put a model lander on modified skateboards to move it around during testing:

The lander prototype was placed on modified skateboards and a customized track system as a low-cost solution to control movement during final testing of the prototype’s sensors, onboard computer, and thrusters. The functional test focused on ensuring that all system components work seamlessly to sense, communicate, and command the lander's movements.[...]

The lander prototype will aid NASA’s development of a new generation of small, smart, versatile landers for airless bodies such as the moon and asteroids. The lander's design is based on cutting-edge technology, which allows precision landing in high-risk, but high-priority areas, enabling NASA to achieve scientific and exploration goals in previously unexplored locations.

Link via DVICE | Photo: NASA

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The rabbit goes over log, then under the log, then through the log, and then back over the log. Or something like that. You could also just use Seth Goldstein's "Why Knot?", a kinetic sculpture that ties ties.

Link via CrunchGear