John Milkovisch spent 18 years and 39,000 cans of beer replacing the building material in his house with aluminum beer cans! Its one of the many stories in the article Alternative & Crazy Home Construction Materials : Beer Cans, Tires & Cardboard. Link -via Look at This

Dr. Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy discusses how the weirdest aliens Hollywood could dream up are still based on life as we know it on Earth. The clip is from of the UK show Cosmos: A Beginner’s Guide. Link

This 1964 promotional film for Florida State University stars an aspiring young actor and student named Jim Morrison before he and Ray Manzarek formed The Doors. Push play or go to YouTube. -via Metafilter

These bedsheets are printed with a ruler, so you can see how close you are to your partner, or how much of the bed he or she is hogging! The zero is in the exact middle. Link -via Swiss Miss

A Chinook helicopter is tied down for a ground resonance test. Those who know say they are more stable in the air. Push play or go to Live Leak. -via Arbroath

The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland is a natural phenomenon that looks manmade! Around 40,000 columns of basalt left by volcanos have peculiarly geometric shapes. Legend attributes the formations to the Irish giant Finn McCool, who traveled over it to fight his Scottish enemies. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

Hear snippets of the sounds made by twenty different common “singing” insects, such as katydids and crickets. I recognized several from my own backyard! You’ll also want to explore other parts of the Songs of Insects site. Link -via I am Bored

You might think that having a robot solve your Rubik’s Cube takes the fun out of the toy. But robots are cool, and Straydog Scraps has eight different puzzle-solving robots, with videos. Link

After a four-year effort, conservationists have the first photographs of the elusive Chinese mountain cat, taken by remote cameras triggered by body heat.

"These [new camera-trap] pictures will call attention to one of the rarest and most beautiful small cats," said Jim Sanderson, a cat specialist with the Wildlife Conservation Network who has studied the animal for the last four years.

"Until now, even cat specialists had only seen this animal as skins or in less than perfect shape in zoos," he said.

No one knows how many of the shy high-altitude cats are left in the wild. Link

The Ecosphere is a sealed globe containing algae, shrimp, and gravel. You control the temperature and the amount of light it receives, otherwise, the system can sustains itself for several years! An abrasive magnet can be used to clean the inner surface, if neccessary. Useful as a learning tool or as a very low-maintenance pet. http://www.eco-sphere.co.uk/ -via Dump Trumpet

If you’re looking for something to do this Labor Day weekend, head down to Morgan City, Louisiana for the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival!

Deep in the heart of Cajun Contry, every Labor Day Weekend, tens of thousands of people celebrate at Louisiana's oldest chartered harvest festival. The festival has been honoring those who have worked tirelessly through rain and shine...and sometimes even hurricanes, to provide the area's economic lifeblood for over half a century.

Link -via Everlasting Blort

Maps for Us is a site where readers can submit maps for Americans who don’t have maps. It doesn’t matter what kind of map. They have a map of the Hundred Acre Wood, a map of the game Clue, a map showing how many deer were hit by cars in Kentucky, and even a map of the Voyager mission! From the “About” page:

From South Africa to Iraq, the world is alarmed at the recent polls that show a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map. We personally believe that it a crisis of epic proportions that US Americans are unable to do so, because some people out their in our nation don’t have maps.

And we believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere…like. Such as. And we believe you should donate maps to this cause.

http://mapsforus.org/ -via the Presurfer

PS: I am keeping a list of links inspired by Lauren Upton at Miss C Recommends.

I think you need to go see this ad for Cadbury chocolate. I’m not telling you anything else about it, except that it made me smile. Link -via Metafilter

Durian is a delightfully psychedelic fractal animation by Thomas Williams with music by Steve Nalepa and Mileece. http://diatom.tv/node/69/play -via Militant Platypus

This Vampyroteuthis infernalis, or vampire squid {wiki} has a weird-looking eye, but it looks even weirder when he closes it! Link -via Reddit