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Chemical engineers at Kanto Gakuin University in Japan have developed a new type of charcoal that, when used in their machine, removes the odor of dirty diapers from the air.

Now this is obviously intended for use on adults in hospitals and nursing homes, but the researchers have also designed a home use model that could come in handy for the real stinkers that babies can leave.

But honestly, I've never had a problem changing dirty diapers. It's cleaning dirty potties that makes me nauseous.

Link -via Gizmodo

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It's dangerous to go alone. Take this nursery. Cole Bradburn wanted his child to grow up inspired and emboldened. That's why he decorated the whole nursery with images from The Legend of Zelda:

As soon as I found out we were having a child, I knew I wanted their room to inspire adventure, creativity, and exploration. Having a place to like that to grow up in would be amazing!

When I was a boy, the Legend of Zelda series embodied those values for me, and the beautiful cel-shaded art style from Wind Waker/Spirit Tracks seemed to be the perfect fit for a young hero’s room.

Link -via Kotaku

My daughters are 3 and 2. When I come home from work, they often scream "Daddy!" and run to the door to meet me. I love it.

And I savor these moments to steel myself for the inevitable time when they grow to hate me. For Sarah Eyre's daughter, that was the tender age of 15:

We aren’t a shouting-match sort of family, but things got out of hand and culminated with my daughter storming out the door, shouting, “You’re a f-----g b---h, I hate you!” She ran up the street to her best friend’s house, leaving the gate and my jaw hanging in her wake.

Eyre devised an ingenious method for diffusing the tension. First, she called up a local bakery:

“I need to buy a cake today,” I said. “and I’d like it to read, ‘You’re a f-----g b---h, and I hate you,’ please.”

There was silence on the other end.

“Hello?” I asked.

“You’re serious?” they asked.

“Yes. Would you need a deposit? I’d need it for this afternoon.”

There was a pause. “The cakes we have ready in the case aren’t big enough for that.”

“Oh. OK. I guess just, ‘I hate you!’ would be good enough.”

How did the girl respond when her mother presented the cake? Read Eyre's description at the link.

Link -via Offbeat Mama

Here's a great party idea for kids/the elderly! Instructables member Steve Moseley cut a circular hole in the bottom of a bucket. Then he marked out the spots for a Twister mat. Using several colors of marking paint and the bucket as a stencil, he created an outdoor Twister game.

Link -via Craft

This young lady just graduated from high school. Her father had a special graduation present for her. It was a copy of Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go!...and much, much more:

But then he told me "No, open it up." ...On the first page I see a short paragraph written by none other than my kindergarten teacher. I start tearing up but I'm still confused. He tells me "Every year, for the past 13 years, since the day you started kindergarten I've gotten every teacher, coach, and principal to write a little something about you inside this book."

He managed to keep this book a secret for 13 years, and apparently everyone else in my life knew about it! Yes the intended effect occured... I burst out in tears. Sitting there reading through this book there are encouraging and sweet words from every teacher I love and remember through my years in this small town. My early teachers mention my "Pigtails and giggles," while my high school teachers mention my "Wit and sharp thinking.." But they all mention my humor and love for life. It is astounding to receive something this moving, touching, nostalgic, and thoughtful.

I can't express how much I love my Dad for this labor of love.

View more pictures at the link.

Link -via The Agitator

If you're going to take your baby on the autobahn, then you'd better have a stroller up the job. Dawid Dawod designed this stroller to resemble the lines, shapes and colors of a Porsche 911.

Link -via Born Rich | Designer's Website

Kara Koskowich of Lethbridge, Alberta made a nerdishly awesome prom dress out of her old math homework assignments. She looks different than most of the other girls, but Kara is okay with that:

“For me, it's not a big, spend your money, you have to look this nice, you have to fit into this mould of grad,” Koskowich said.

The creative teenager said she thought any dress she could construct would be more interesting – and less expensive -- than the dresses she saw in stores.

“It's supposed to look like an explosion,” Koskowich said.

Watch a video at the link in which Kara explains how she made the dress.

Link -via Oddity Central | Photo: CBC

Forget Chuck E. Cheese's. A new indoor gun range in Lewiston, Texas has two rooms that parents can rent for kids' birthday parties:

A new gun range opening this summer in Lewisville, Texas, will have two rooms available for hosting children's birthday parties. Owner David Prince tells WFAA that the Eagle Gun Range will be available for children as young as eight years old.

"The age limit is eight years old. You have to be tall enough to get above the shooting table," Prince said. "They're not gonna be left unattended. Parents are gonna be one-on-one, or if there's not enough parents we'll have range safety officers here to show them how to do it safely."

Link -via MArooned

Commercial surrogacy -- that's bearing a child for money -- is illegal in the United Kingdom. That's why many British women are hiring surrogates in India to bear their children:

It is estimated that 2,000 births to surrogate mothers took place in the country last year, with most experts agreeing that Britain is the biggest single source of people who want to become parents in this way. Britain may account for as many as 1,000 births last year in India. In contrast there were 100 surrogate births recorded in Britain last year. [...]

* Doctors who spoke to this newspaper told of British women who have babies through surrogates to avoid being pregnant and childbirth, raising fears of a “wombs to rent” culture;

* Women in India are being paid up to £6,000 to donate eggs and carry babies, something British women are banned from doing;

Link -via Marginal Revolution | Photo: johnny.hunter

Shouryya Ray, a 16-year old from Germany, began learning calculus when he was 6 years old. Now he's solved a ballistic mystery which has puzzled mathematicians since Sir Isaac Newton first posed it:

Shouryya Ray worked out how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance, The (London) Sunday Times reported. [...]

Newton posed the problem, relating to the movement of projectiles through the air, in the 17th century. Mathematicians had only been able to offer partial solutions until now.

If that wasn't enough of an achievement, Ray has also solved a second problem, dealing with the collision of a body with a wall, that was posed in the 19th century.

Both problems Ray resolved are from the field of dynamics and his solutions are expected to contribute to greater precision in areas such as ballistics.

Link -via Alphecca | Photo: Calcutta Telegraph

Andrew Liszewski of Gizmodo writes, "There needs to be an adult version of this transforming seesaw bench." I couldn't agree more. Some people like standing desks or walking desks. I want a desk mounted on a seesaw.

Oh, yeah, and my kids would love this, too. But one of the little joys of being a parent is getting to play with toys again without people giving you odd looks.

Link (Google Translate) -via Gizmodo | Designer's Website

Omsk was a fortified border town from the beginning of its history. The passage of time has not altered that character. Even the playgrounds are heavily defended, in this case by a T-34-85. Government officials discarded old Soviet tanks, welded them shut, then left them in the playground as the greatest possible toys that young boys could hope for. View more pictures at the link.

Link (Google Translate) -via io9

Anthony Smith, a 4-year old boy in Salem, New Hampshire, needs to wear his "blue ear" -- his hearing aid. But he stubbornly refused to do so because superheroes don't have hearing aids. So his grandmother, Lou D'Allesandro, emailed Marvel Comics and asked for help.

First, Marvel employees dug through their archives and found a 1984 cover of West Coast Avengers that shows a hearing impaired superhero wearing a hearing aid. Later, they created the above cover image to fit Anthony's needs precisely:

Then another email arrived from Marvel, this one with Anthony as his own superhero, Blue Ear, drawn by Nelson Ribeiro of Marvel.

"Thanks to my listening device, I hear someone in trouble," Blue Ear says.

Then in comic book letters, it says, "When DANGER makes a sound, the Blue Ear answers the call."

No surprise, that went over big - with everyone. [...]

"It's just so captivated Anthony and his little buddies," Christina said. The only downside is that Anthony and his friends want their hearing devices to look like Blue Ear's.

Link -via Fashionably Geek

Italian doctors implanted an artificial heart that weighed only 11 grams, making it the smallest ever used. It kept the child alive long enough to receive a human heart:

"In March, the smallest artificial heart in the world was implanted at the Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome," Antonio Amodeo, a senior hospital official, said in a statement.

"The device, a titanium pump weighing only 11 grams and that can endure a flow of up to 1.5 litres per minute, was used in an emergency case of a 16-month-old infant suffering from dilated myocardiopathy with a serious infection of the ventricular assistance device that had been implanted previously."

Link -via Gizmodo

Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user o5com

He's only 15 years old, but he may soon save thousands of lives. Jack Andraka of Crownsville, Maryland won first place at this year's Intel Science Talent Search. He did so by devising a simple dipstick test that can detect pancreatic cancer cheaper and better than any other currently in use:

Jack created a simple dip-stick sensor to test blood or urine to determine whether or not a patient has early-stage pancreatic cancer. His study resulted in over 90 percent accuracy and showed his patent-pending sensor to be 28 times faster, 28 times less expensive and over 100 times more sensitive than current tests.

News Story and Press Release -via The Agitator

Photo: Intel