Dark Roasted Blend has a fascinating roundup of all kinds of automated musical instruments, homemade and historic, robotic and artistic. Link

A one-year-old Jordanian cat named Nimra has a litter of four kittens and seven chicks! The cat took over the chicks after the mother hen died. Link -via Fark

A digital clock and calendar powered by food! This fruit powered digital clock and calendar combines micro-electronic technology with the natural electrical potential of a fresh fruit or vegetable. The Fruit Clock uses the original scientific principles on which all modern electrical storage batteries are based. Just add a fresh orange, apple, lemon, lime, pear, banana, or any another convenient fruit or vegetable to the supplied components in this kit and you have the perfect synthesis of nature’s own electrical power resource and the accuracy of a digital clock.

Link -via Everlasting Blort

This is a pretty neat illusion. It couldn’t have been easy to produce on video! Push play or go to Live Leak. -via the Presurfer

Oddee profiles ten people who have made a name fighting crime or otherwise helping others while wearing superhero masks and/or capes. Pictured is Superbarrio, protector of low-income neighborhoods in Mexico City. Link -via Gorilla Mask

Japanese illusionist Princess Tenko was seriously injured in a sword trick gone wrong on stage. She was supposed to escape a box pierced by ten swords, but instead was pinned inside. The swords broke her cheek and several ribs. However, she continued the show for 30 minutes before seeking medical help! Link -via Arbroath

This is a compilation of many online videos of children trying their first lemon. Babies don’t hide their feelings! Push play or go to College Humor -via Gorilla Mask

CNN has a flash map showing how the percentages of overweight and obese people have changed over the past couple of decades. Link -via Fark

Baseball parks are always looking for a way to sell more tickets, but sometimes a great idea turns out to be a disaster, often because of overwhelming response, sometimes because of unforeseen consequences. Read about five of the worst at Mental Floss. Link

.
Ryan Walker and two companions are driving to Mongolia in an ice cream truck as part of the Mongol Rally. They are also delivering ice cream along the way.

The Mongol Rally is a charity event limited to 200 teams and this year all the places were snapped up in under one minute. Participants travel a third of the way around the world from London to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, in about four weeks, in a vehicle with a one-litre engine or less.

10,000 miles, 20 countries, in 30 days. When they reach the end of the race, the vehicle will be sold for charity, so the team is not quite sure how they will return to England. Link -via Fark

Travelers beware! You could run into “express kidnapping” in Mexico, extortion roadblocks in Nigeria, or amateur retirees in Russia. Forbes has tips for avoiding such problems in this slideshow. http://www.forbestraveler.com/2007/07/07071301_slide_1.html?thisSpeed=undefined

United Airlines has unveiled their new international business class seats. They recline to form a 6’4” bed! Of course, each has its own video screen and stereo setup. Link -via J-Walk Blog

My Faux Paws is a bridal shop for dogs. http://www.myfauxpaws.com/bridal.htm -via Everlasting Blort

The wizards at WETA made this awesome Warthog for Neill Blomkamp’s upcoming series of Halo Shorts.

Um. The dudes at WETA made a Warthog. I don’t mean that they made a big plastic thing that looks like a Warthog. I mean they built a fully-functioning, four-wheel steering, powerful, off-road vehicle with a machine gun on the back. At the correct scale. If you live near Wellington, New Zealand, you might even see some crazy machine-shop dude from WETA fishtailing around your base, ahem, I mean neighborhood.

Link -via PAgent’s Progress

DRD (Diagnostic Repair Drones) are little characters from the sci-fi series Farscape. They are produced from the space ships called Leviathans for repairing and keeping up maintence. These robots are up to 14 inches long and 10 inches wide with a numberous ammount of tools and sensors for their different tasks. They seemingly have their own personalities even though controlled through computer.

The plush version shown here won’t repair anything, but they are cute! Not available yet, but you can pre-order these for $19.99. http://www.trollandtoad.com/p152945.html -via Maximum Verbosity