You probably won't be able to recreate these eyeballs just by watching the video, because the products shown won't be familiar outside Japan, and they glossed over the all-important part of creating the pupil and iris. From what I can tell, it's a gelatin recipe with raspberries inside. You'll get a kick out of how they are used! -via Everlasting Blort
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
When you read about the huge cost (in money and lives) of building railroads through the roughest parts of America, you have to wonder what it would be like to travel those routes. The guys at For 91 Days found out when they rode bikes on the 15-mile Hiawatha Trail in Idaho.
The Hiawatha Trail opened up in 2001 as part of the Rails to Trails initiative, which seeks to restore life to decommissioned train tracks across the country. The Milwaukee Road Railway Company had constructed these tracks between 1906 and 1909, recruiting laborers from around the world to work on an unprecedented line through the rough and largely unexplored Bitterroot Mountains. The men worked in unimaginably dangerous conditions, and the result was an engineering marvel: tunnels, bridges and the first long-distance tracks to be electrified. Eventually, passengers were able to travel west along the rails in the fabulous Olympian Hiawatha: a domed, double-decker car which connected Chicago to Tacoma. Eventually supplanted by air travel and semi-trucks, the route saw its final train in 1980.
See pictures of the high bridges, dark tunnels, and awesome scenery at For 91 Days. There's a video, too! Link -via the Presurfer
I'm not sure what they were trying to do here, or what was supposed to happen, but there's a good reason for wearing goggles in chemistry class. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
The Free Art Society staged the third annual Massive Mad Hatter Tea Party in Tompkins Square Park in New York on Saturday. Hillary Reinsberg took plenty of pictures of creatively costumed characters from the world of Alice in Wonderland. See her collection of images at Buzzfeed. Link
(Image credit: Hillary Reinsberg)
C Merry has a dog named Oscar Madison. Oscar was rescued from the streets and his back legs don't work, so he gets around on a set of wheels. Now, how do you dress up a dog on wheels for Halloween? Merry was inspired to make Oscar into Max, the dog who belonged to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas! Poor Max was forced to dress as a reindeer and pull a sleigh full of stolen toys and Christmas trees. Oscar pulls this intricately-decorated handmade "sleigh" attached to his wheels. His sister Tiki is dressed as Drogon, the black baby dragon from the TV show Game of Thrones.
You can see closeups of the details of Oscar's costume at Flickr. Tiki's costume, too!
Previously from C Merry: Happily Ever Over
In February, we introduced you to Jaimie Mantzel and his Greatest Toy in the Universe. At the time, the toy didn't even have a name, much less a manufacturer. But things move fast, and the company Wow! Stuff is shipping a line of toys based on Mantzel's prototype in time for Christmas. His model is called the "Attacknid." It's the first of a series called "Combat Creatures."
It all started with one man trying to bring his little bot to toy stores, but it's quickly turned into an entire toy series, complete with an absurd back-story (robots fight over depleted oil reserves on an alien planet) and a marketing overhaul. The name "Attacknid" itself was chosen out of over 10,000 suggestions the distributor received in just one week after Mantzel announced a contest in his video. Wow! Stuff has released the Attacknid first, but has stated that other designs are planned for the Combat Creatures brand as the company expands it into a full line of battling robots.
Attacknid is only available in the UK now, but should roll out in the US in 2013. Read more at gizmag. Link
Only available in Japan, and only for a limited time. Unless it's a big hit, of course.
Starting next Friday, and for a limited time only, Burger King Japan customers can treat themselves to a seasonal BK Pumpkin Burger — two slices of fried kabocha squash (AKA Japanese pumpkin) stacked atop bacon, lettuce, a beef patty, and a generous helping of a special sauce made from sesame seeds, peanuts, almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts.
Even the bun is pumpkin-shaped, and asking for a "pumpkin bomb" will get you eight extra slices of kabocha.
Link -via Daily of the Day
DeviantART member Dusty Abell created this poster with 123 individual characters, creatures, and crafts from Star Trek: The Original Series. It was a labor of love.
The trinity of Kirk/Spock/McCoy were the backbone and soul of the show for me. Individually they represented three distinct qualities whose interplay made for fascinating viewing..........Kirk the ethical leader, Spock the logical sounding board and McCoy the emotional confidant. The stories, both serious and whimsical captivated me, the production wowed me and the acting was always entertaining. I've included at least one, sometimes more, character, entity, starship or structure from every episode of the original series, 80 in all including the pilot, in this piece. I hope Trek fans enjoy this as much as I did making it, I'm pretty proud of it.
How many characters, creatures, and crafts can you name? If you become stumped, Abell has posted a key here. You can enlarge it to see better at the DeviantART page, or hit the download button for a super mega large image. If enough people are interested, Abell may make some prints available for sale. Link -via io9
How did they make the velociraptors in Jurassic Park look so terrifying? They were real guys inside suits! John Rosengrant, who was the lead raptor in the film, shows how they came up with the technique from concept to film. Now that would be the ultimate Halloween costume. Read more at the Stan Winston School of Character Arts. Link -via The Daily What Geek
That bunch of celery you bought at the grocery store? It might turn into an eternal supply of celery if you have any gardening luck at all. Sheryl at Chickens in the Road cuts off the bottom end of the whole bunch and plants it. The roots and stalks start regrowing immediately!
It will grow a brand new top to be cut and used. After re-growing celery, you can cut and plant the bottom again for more new growth from the top.
I plan to start planting my cut celery bottoms in small pots or trays late next winter so that I have a few dozen to plant out into the vegetable garden in May. I wonder if I can grow it in a sunny window all winter!
Have you ever tried this? Link -via Bits and Pieces
Flickr user riptheskull has a great account name, and a wonderful collection of Halloween ephemera. Check out the collection of Halloween greetings people could send to each other on postcards 100 years ago. There are over 1,600 in the set! Link -via Buzzfeed
(Image credit: Flickr user riptheskull)
Cosmic neon animation illustrates the music video for the song "Miami Vice" by Fancy Mike. If you remember the '80s TV cop series Miami Vice at all, you probably remember it in neon colors. Video by Alexandre Louvenaz. -via Andrew Sulllivan
A look into the nature of the past from Doghouse Diaries. If you're not familiar with George Santayana, you can find out more about him at Wikipedia, including more quotes. And no matter how you view history, it's still good advice to learn from your mistakes -or someone else's. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
The Denver Zoo had a scare on September 3rd when its Malayan tapir went into labor. It was the first tapir birth for the zoo.
Rinny, the zoo's female tapir, was having trouble while giving birth to a calf last month and a staffer freed the newborn from the mother's amniotic sac. After successfully helping to extract the calf, zoo members aided the newborn by performing "mouth to snout rescue breaths," the zoo said in a media release Friday.
The staff helped the calf get liquid out of his lungs and breathe.
"It's always a little scary when something like this happens, but thankfully we all have great resources and training," said Rebecca McCloskey, an assistant curator with the zoo.
The calf is a male the zoo named Dumadi. He is now thriving. Link (with video) -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Denver Zoo)
YouTube cat mixer ignoramusky offers a compilation of cats whose reach exceeds their grasp. The use of the tune "Ride of the Valkyries" makes this compilation all the more effective. The very last kitten is the best, even though (or maybe because) the kitten does not "fail." -via The Daily What
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