Molly Lewis made these nesting dolls as a present for her boyfriend. They depict all eleven Doctors from Doctor Who and a TARDIS.

Link via Technabob

(YouTube Link)

YouTube user kakashi Julia spotted these baby turtles at a shopping mall in Malaysia. They're remarkably agile climbers.

via Geekosystem

This is a unique single-action revolver patented by Henry S. Josselyn in 1866. Information on this gun is scarce, but it would appear to fire twenty rounds without reloading simply by cycling a new round on the flexible chain after each discharge. At least one example of this firearm is retained by the Smithsonian Institution.

http://hellinahandbasket.net/?p=5849 | Patent Information | Photo: American Heritage Magazine

(Video Link)

At blastr, Adam-Troy Castro compiled videos of little-known performances by Star Trek actors in television shows and movies outside of Star Trek. Among them is this oddity featuring Kate Mulgrew, who played Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager. Mulgrew held the title role in Mrs. Columbo, a mystery show about the wife of the famous detective played by Peter Falk. It lasted thirteen episodes.

Link

Lowbrow artist Mike Bell made this fanciful depiction of the Bride of Frankenstein in imitation of Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. As you can see at artist's website, the Bride is a favorite motif of Bell.

Link via Nerdcore | Artist's Website (warning: sound)

(Video Link)

YouTube user guinness0507 created a mask that displays shifting black and white shapes, like the one that superhero Rorschach from Watchmen wears. Thermochromatic paint applied to a t-shirt changes from black to white as the user's breath heats it above 86º F.

via GearFuse

Previously: How Rorschach Stole Christmas

A French-led research team has sequenced the DNA of Theobroma cacao, a tree used in making chocolate. Specifically, they ascertained the genetic code of one type that is used to make gourmet chocolate. This development may allow scientists to genetically engineer these chocolate-producing trees to resist diseases and parasites, thus increasing the availability of top quality chocolate:

Currently, most cacao farmers earn about $2 per day, but producers of fine cacao earn more. Increasing the productivity and ease of growing cacao can help to develop a sustainable cacao economy. The trees are now also seen as an environmentally beneficial crop because they grow best under forest shade, allowing for land rehabilitation and enriched biodiversity.

The team's work identified a variety of gene families that may have future impact on improving cacao trees and fruit either by enhancing their attributes or providing protection from fungal diseases and insects that effect cacao trees.

Link via Fast Company | Photo via Flickr user Peter Pearson used under Creative Commons license

Long Bin-Chen, a New York-based artist originally from Taipei, sculpts books. He's especially fond of depicting the Buddha, such as this sculpture made out of phone books. The artist explained that this is an effort to make the Buddha meaningful to the West:

Since colonial times, Westerners have taken Buddha heads from the Buddha statues in Asia and brought the Buddha heads back to the West. Today, while one finds so many Buddha heads in Western museums and galleries, equally many Buddha bodies in Asia are headless. The Buddha head is an important cultural image from Asia. Yet, by and large, it is misunderstood in Western societies. In this project, I chose the most beautiful Buddha head I found at a museum to use as a model and created this Buddha head from New York City telephone books. The Buddha Head contains the names and numbers of millions of New York residents. The Head will represent a caring Buddha, a Buddha from the East who has come to take care of the West.

Link via Dude Craft | Photo: New York Optimist

Etsy seller Rachel Rae Case makes art from human belly button lint and fingernail clippings. Pictured above is one example made from the latter:

This piece is a primitive human-like figure who seems to be dancing or chanting. It's strange anatomy: pelvis, revered leg bones large, protruding jaw and curling fingers make it one of the more detailed Human Ivory pieces I've made.

Link via Geekologie

Researchers led by physicist Pupa Gilbert of the University of Wisconsin at Madison examined how sea urchins are able to maintain razor-sharp teeth throughout their lives without any apparent means of sharpening them. Their findings could lead to the development of knives that never need to be sharpened:

"The sea urchin tooth is complicated in its design. It is one of the very few structures in nature that self-sharpen," says Gilbert, explaining that the sea urchin tooth, which is always growing, is a biomineral mosaic composed of calcite crystals with two forms -- plates and fibers -- arranged crosswise and cemented together with super-hard calcite nanocement. Between the crystals are layers of organic materials that are not as sturdy as the calcite crystals.

"The organic layers are the weak links in the chain," Gilbert explains. "There are breaking points at predetermined locations built into the teeth. It is a concept similar to perforated paper in the sense that the material breaks at these predetermined weak spots."[...]

Knowing the secret of the ever-sharp sea urchin tooth, says Gilbert, could one day have practical applications for human toolmakers. "Now that we know how it works, the knowledge could be used to develop methods to fabricate tools that could actually sharpen themselves with use," notes Gilbert. "The mechanism used by the urchin is the key. By shaping the object appropriately and using the same strategy the urchin employs, a tool with a self-sharpening edge could, in theory, be created."

Link via DVICE | Photo by Flickr user mattk1979 used under Creative Commons license

To protect the country from an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte, Britain built 103 towers along its southern shore to spot and slow down a French invasion force. The Martello towers, as they were called, had walls 30 feet tall and 13 feet thick. Some survive to this day, and industrial designer Duncan Jackson decided to convert one into a house:

It was the undulating new plywood roof, swooping over three-quarters of the battlements, that did most to turn Tower Y into a modern home. This elegant parasol not only provides a dramatic ceiling for the top floor living space, kitchen and dining area, it also allows mesmerising 360-degree views of the Suffolk coast: on one side tractors plough fields; on the other, vast ships plough the last leg of journeys from, say, China to Felixstowe.

Here is a special place to cook, entertain, or just while away the day. Stroll out onto the terrace and you feel as if you've walked from the bridge of a modern liner out on to its deck, where you stand bathed in light and sucking in sea air. Only the two spiral staircases beckoning from the sides suggest that, below decks, there's another dimension: a cavernous, circular brick chamber, with oak floors set around a vast central brick column. Here, lit by windows set into those deep walls, is another ravishing living space.

You can see pictures of this luxury home at the link.

Link via io9 | Photo: Piercy Conner Architects

Unusual Locomotion is a website about odd off-road vehicles. Among those featured is the screw-driven Riverine Utility Craft built by Chrysler in 1969. It could reach speeds of 46 kph over marshy ground.

Link via The Presurfer

deviantART user Nansei made this sculpture, entitled "Let's Go Surfing Instead", of a skate park on a skateboard, and then placed it in a skate park for photographing. The scene includes miniature graffiti.

Link via Dude Craft

Theresa Rohrer made these He-Man and Skeletor plushes for her four-year old nephew. They look so happy together, don't you think?

Link via Super Punch | Artist's Etsy Store

In 1896, the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, received a bottle with a piece of paper inside. It was added to the collection. But until recently, the paper was left inside, unread. Curator Catherine Wright recently opened it, discovered that it was a coded message, and asked two professional crytologists to break it. The message was addressed to Confederate Gen. John Pemberton (left), the commander of forces defending Vicksburg, Mississippi:

"You can expect no help from this side of the river," says the message, which was deciphered by codebreakers.

The text is dated 4 July 1863 - the day Vicksburg fell to Union forces.

At the link, you can view a photograph of the bottle and the message.

Link via Glenn Reynolds | Image: National Park Service