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

These hoodies have faces printed on them! You can get a hoodie with the face of a gorilla, skull, Elvis and others. Guaranteed to turn heads. Link -via b3ta

When my cat scratches, he just tears up the sofa. This kitty has a career ahead of him. Ignore the mess in the background. Push play or go to YouTube. -via Arbroath

Bunk Strutts didn’t fall for that story about a boy doing a handstand at Four Corners. It was a clever cover-up for the fact that the child was abducted by aliens! Link

Instructables has step-by-step instructions for making your own Rheopectic slime.

The slime we made is a Non Newtonian fluid and is rheopectic which means it shows an increase on its apparent viscosity with time under a constantly applied stress.

In other words, the more you play with it, it will become more viscous (even you can make a ball with it and it bounces) and we you stop (the shearing force is gone) it starts flowing (see the video, first you will see it flow when no shear force is present (you can also leave it in a table an see how it flows), then I applied a shear force on it and made it a ball that bounced.

This recipe is not safe for children under 5, who might eat it. Link

Test your Visual Recognition Memory for faces, objects, and names. I scored slightly below average on all three tests. The test is simple to understand and takes about 15 minutes, unless you blaze through it like I did. Link -via Dump Trumpet

Found at Best Pic Ever. http://bestpicever.com/pic-645-Panda-needs-a-friend -via Reddit

Who is this? See the comments if you don’t know. Some very good Photoshop users made portraits by using the left side of one person’s face, and the right side of another. Cover half the face with your hand to recognize who it is. Some of these faces blend rather well; others, not so much. I was a bit freaked out when I saw the Bill and Hillary Clinton combination and saw a resemblance to Paul McCartney! Or maybe that was just me... Link -via Dump Trumpet

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories took a RFID credit card apart to see what was inside. The works are so small, they will fit into almost anything (Windell is asking for suggestions). Then he modded it into a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser! Link

Ten people died this year at a kite-flying competition in Pakistan. The Dakar Rally has been responsible for 48 competitor deaths. Pole vaulting has the highest death rate of any American sport! That’s just the beginning of the carnage in the Mental Floss article 6 Sports Too Deadly for Gym Class. Link