When Chinese computer geek Hu Chuang, 26, logged off for the last time, his family decided to erect an appropriate gravestone:

Chuang, 26, from Chongqing, south west China, was so potty about computers his family had a headstone carved for him in the shape of a monitor giving his dates of birth and death.

Stonemasons also included a keyboard, mouse and a camera with a picture of tragic Chuang to complete the tombstone tribute.

http://austriantimes.at/news/Around_the_World/2011-01-04/29472/i-Bod:_Logging_Off via Great White Snark | Photo: Europics

Axe Cop is a webcomic drawn by a 30-year old artist and written by his 6-year old brother. So the stories are very wild and creative but presented with professional-grade artwork. In one recent episode, Malachi, the writer, and Ethan, the artist, switched roles. "The Moon Warriors Go Camping" was written by the 30-year old and drawn by the 6-year old. Link via Comics Alliance

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Here's actor Michael Caine on the ITV interview show Parkinson taking about impersonations and offering his own of a few actors, including himself as a GPS navigation computer voice.

Which actor would you like to have as your in-car navigator?

via Kottke | Show Website

Artist Luke Jerram once designed a projector wedding ring for himself. Before that, he made one for his bride, Shelina Nanji. It's made of silver and engraved with a 20-second message that is audible when played on a special phonograph:

100 lbf/in² of pressure was required to cut the silver ring, using a vibrating diamond stylus. The ring is also a homage to Thomas Edison who made the first sound recording machine - the phonograph in 1877.

Using the ring, I proposed to Shelina in a hot air balloon over Bristol in 2005. We've since got married and had 2 children Maya and Nico.

You can see a video of the ring being played at the link.

Link via Make | Photo: Luke Jerram

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This itsy bitsy puppy owned by YouTube user samcjung doesn't want to get up. He's far too busy dripping with adorableness.

via Geekosystem

Ben Butler sculpts and assembles deliciously shaped wooden sculptures, such as the above cedar piece entitled "Furrow". He has an exhibit that opens tomorrow at the Zg Gallery in Chicago.

Link via Dude Craft | Gallery Website

Actually, all of these cards by Owen Parsons could apply to gamers in general and not just people who play Magic: The Gathering. One nitpicking point: the gaming store employee depicted in these cards is unrealistically skinny.

Link via Nerd Bastards

Cartoonist Mike Hawthorne made this scene from a different sort of Archieverse -- one in which Archie Andrews and his gang are doing hard time. Here's a passage from Hawthorne's backstory for the comic:

Teen age pregnancy caused Archie's life to start to slide into the wrong direction. Veronica, coming from a wealthy family, was pressured into an abortion. Betty gave birth to Archie Junior. Archie would have to skip college, and take menial jobs to get by. Reggie would rub it in every chance he got, which would lead to a fight with Reggie. Archie would end up killing him in the process.

Jughead, not being able to bare the idea of his friend going to jail, tries to help Archie hide the body. When they're finally caught, both were given long jail sentences for Reggie's murder. In prison Jughead and Archie would expand on their volatile relationship.

Link via Popped Culture

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Real librarians sometimes silently cringe at the shockingly-poor reference interviews conducted by librarians on television and in the movies. But Andy Priestner, head business librarian at Cambridge University, isn't going to hide under the reference desk. He's come out swinging against Jocasta Nu, the librarian over the Jedi Archives depicted in the Star Wars franchise. As the above video illustrates, Nu really doesn't know how to discern and meet customer needs. Priestner writes at length about Nu's dubious use of space and access policies and concludes:

Those shelves and shelves of e-books and those access restrictions still bother me though, but wait… what’s this, I’ve just found out that librarian Jocasta was eventually killed by the young Darth Vader himself for not providing the information he wanted, clearly a very dissatsified library user, and on the evidence of the approach largely taken, who can blame him?

I'd like to add that the lack of clearly-posted Internet usage and unattended child policies in the Jedi Archives is just asking for trouble.

Link via blastr

Redditor WHOWANTSBEEF acquired a custom license plate that made good use of the subscript "Kids First". Alas, the state has revoked the plate and sent a detailed response explaining why. You can read the full text of their letter at the link.

Link via Super Punch

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A sea lion blocks the path that a penguin wishes to traverse. Does he go around the enormous beast? No. He walks right over the sea lion.

via The Presurfer

+1 for original thinking and creative use of body hair. Surely this is the epitome of playful elegance in body modification.

Link (main site is NSFW) via Great White Snark

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Once you've developed robots that can feed on human flesh, the next obvious step is to teach it to juggle. This amazing robot can juggle a ping-pong ball and, very briefly, two. Moreover, it accomplishes this feat without any external sensors. The robot can't see or hear the ball. Rather, it calculates where the ball will land:

How does the robot do this? The key elements are the shape of the paddle and how the robot strikes the ball. We used mathematical analysis to learn which shape and motion would make "sensorless" juggling possible. What we found was that a slightly concave paddle keeps the ball on the plate and that a decelerating motion keeps the ball in the air.

You can read technical details about this project, dubbed "The Blind Juggler", at the link.

Link via Geekologie

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If their hands are full of packages, how can people push the button to summon an elevator? Here's one simple, but ingenious solution: lower the button to foot level so that people can push it with their feet!

via CrunchGear

This unique revolver invented by John Walch in 1859. It has two triggers and two hammers to fire two rounds that were loaded into each chamber. James R. Rummel explains how it works:

The secret to the extra firepower is what is known as “superimposed loads”. Basically, the chambers are loaded with a powder charge with a bullet sitting on top, as is normal. Then another powder charge and bullet is loaded on top of the first.

The reason this doesn’t lead to an exploded gun and missing fingers is due to the unique ignition system. There are two percussion caps for every cylinder.

The gun is equipped with two hammers, and two triggers. Both hammers are cocked at the same time, but only the right-handed trigger is squeezed to set off the first shot. Then the left-hand trigger is squeezed, the left-hand hammer drops, and the second bullet goes flying. Cocking the hammers again will cause the cylinder to revolve as per normal.

Percussion caps are supposed to create a spark to set off the powder. Notice the ring of nipples to the outside of the cylinder? Those are the caps that are set off by the right-hand hammer, the hammer you are supposed to squeeze first. They don’t have a hole which goes directly into the back of the chamber, but instead channels the spark down a little tunnel. After about an inch, the tunnel makes a left hand turn and finally emerges into the chamber.

The hope is that the extra inch traveled will mean that the spark from the right-hand trigger will set off the powder charge in front, which will send the first bullet flying down the barrel while leaving the second bullet and powder charge untouched. The left-hand trigger will cause the left-hand hammer to drop, which will impact on the inner percussion cap, and hopefully cause the second charge to ignite.

http://hellinahandbasket.net/?p=5853 | Photos: Hell in a Handbasket

Previously: 20-Shot Revolver