For the third year in a row, the Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, Canada is putting together 600 pounds of gingerbread, 1,000 pounds of icing, 2,000 chocolate wafers, 750 cookies, and 4,900 pretzels to make a gingerbread house you can stand up in! It will take about two weeks to complete, and then patrons will be invited to dine inside -but you'll have to make reservations in advance, as it will have only one table. The $20 reservation charge will go to help abused children through a local charity. Manager Keith Simmonds says the structure is extremely popular -and yes, people do occasionally snag a bite of it.

He said it happens about every five minutes.

"We do a lot of repairs on the fly and overnight. We try to keep people off as much as we can, but it's part of the fun. I mean, it is a totally edible structure."

Once the house is finished in early December, it will accept reservations for one table of six. Families will be able to order off the same menus offered in other restaurants inside the lodge, including breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets. And of course, there's a dessert menu -- separate from what's seen on the surrounding walls.

The gingerbread house will remain up until January. Link

I had to laugh when I saw this picture of an old Mac Classic used as a stand for an iPad! It's part of the list called 8 Amazing Uses of an iPad. http://www.crescentelectronics.co.uk/blog/8-amazing-uses-of-an-ipad/ -Thanks, Dave E!

Architects from the firm SHSH built a temporary pavilion building in Brussels from recycled material -30,000 beer crates! With lighting, the yellow crates give off a golden glow inside and out. See more pictures of this structure at The Design Blog. http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/pavilion-built-from-30000-recycled-beer-crates-is-a-golden-delight/ -via Dark Roasted Blend

Is schizophrenia caused by genetics or environment? The answer may be both, but in a way you'd never imagine. The culprit may be a virus! The good news is that you don't have to worry about catching this virus. The bad news is that we all carry it in every cell of our bodies.

Sixty million years ago, a lemurlike animal—an early ancestor of humans and monkeys—contracted an infection. It may not have made the lemur ill, but the retrovirus spread into the animal’s testes (or perhaps its ovaries), and once there, it struck the jackpot: It slipped inside one of the rare germ line cells that produce sperm and eggs. When the lemur reproduced, that retrovirus rode into the next generation aboard the lucky sperm and then moved on from generation to generation, nestled in the DNA. “It’s a rare, random event,” says Robert Belshaw, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford in England. “Over the last 100 million years, there have been only maybe 50 times when a retrovirus has gotten into our genome and proliferated.”

But such genetic intrusions stick around a very long time, so humans are chockablock full of these embedded, or endogenous, retroviruses. Our DNA carries dozens of copies of Perron’s virus, now called human endogenous retrovirus W, or HERV-W, at specific addresses on chromosomes 6 and 7.

This virus was long thought to be "junk DNA", which makes up a fair amount of our genetic material, but doesn't affect us. The new line of research says that this virus, if it is activated at a certain age under the right conditions, may cause changes to human immune systems that lead to the development of not only schizophrenia, but multiple sclerosis and possibly other diseases. The story of how this discovery came about is a fascinating read at Discover magazine. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user ynse)

SMITH Magazine has a site where people tell stories in exactly six words. One section is a collaboration with the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) to share stories about coming home from the war. Link -via Breakfast Links

This game is pretty simple: just zap the insects and watch Butch Mushroom eat them. The real fun is in the colorful but ridiculous graphics! Link -via KTAR

(YouTube link)

A tribute to our Armed Forces for Veteran's Day from PostSecret, featuring postcards from military personnel and their families. -via Urlesque

Today is the holiday we call Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day in Canada, but it was once Armistice Day, a day commemorating the end of World War I. How much do you know about the holiday and its history? Find out in today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I scored 80%, better than the current average of 59%. Link

Vietnamese herpetologist Ngo Van Tri noticed something strange about the tanks of lizards at the small diners in the village of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. They were all female, which is odd for the species Leiolepis ngovantrii, which is what they were thought to be. So he called a friend and fellow scientist at La Sierra University in California.

Dr. Lee Grismer and his son, Jesse Grismer, a doctoral candidate, flew all the way to Hanoi and then faced a grueling two-day motorcycle trip out to a restaurant where the owner promised to set aside a stash of the creatures for study.

But there was a little problem, says Grismer.

"Unfortunately, the owner wound up getting drunk, and grilled them all up for his patrons... so when we got there, there was nothing left."

Faced with an empty tank and nearly dashed hopes, the men asked around at other cafes in the area for the local delicacy, and hired children to track down as many of the lizards as they could find.

What they received were 60 females -of a previously unknown lizard species that reproduces without males! Still, Grismer was obliged to eat some lizards to show proper etiquette to the local restaurant. How does it taste?

"You take a bite out of it and it feels like something very old and dead in your mouth," he said.

Link -via Fark

(Image credit: Lee Grismer/La Sierra University)

(video link)

A 275-foot smokestack was demolished and fell the wrong wrong way today in Springfield, Ohio. The tower brought down power lines and crushed equipment. There were no injuries, but 8,000 people were left without power. Link -via Metafilter

Selfy the Self-Making Bed




Railroads reduced travel time to days; airplanes to hours. But in today's fast-paced world, time-savers are measured in minutes and seconds. Behold the arrival of "Selfy," the bed that makes itself, which reportedly saves you a full 15 seconds a day. That adds up to 105 seconds a week, or 98 minutes a year -precisely the length of time you would need to watch the 1986 film Short Circuit, starring Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy. See how Selfy helps you make the most of your time?

Dust Mop Slippers




Dust mop slippers are booties with cotton fibers on their soles that are designed to pick up any dirt or dust collecting on your floor. (We're guessing your floors are pretty filthy if you're the type to buy this sort of thing.) Curiously, getting drunk may actually leave your apartment in better shape.

The Pet Petter

(YouTube link)

For 20- and 30-somethings, caring for a dog is often a meaningful step toward parenthood. But saddled with long and inflexible work hours, many in this age group just don't have the time. That's where the Pet Petter comes in. Developed by Kentuckian Anthony Steffen, the Pet Petter literally lends dog owners a helping hand. As a robotic arm swings back and forth, the contraption will coo sweet nothings into your doggie's ear.

The Cruzin Cooler




Beer, the muse of lazy technology, must have inspired the Cruzin Cooler, a motorized scooter attached to a cooler. In their mission statement, the inventors claim that the cooler "combines two basic necessities of life: the ability to have cold food or a beverage handy along with the means to get somewhere, without walking." You might be wondering, wouldn't a device like this encourage drinking and driving? It's likely. In June 2008, a man driving a Cruzin Cooler in New York was arrested and charged with DWI.

_________________________________

The article above, written by Adam Rosen, is reprinted with permission from Scatterbrained section of the Mar/Apr 2009 issue of mental_floss magazine.

Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff!

Think a minute -when did the first remote-control robot hit the market? It was way back in 1957 in Japan. This is a Radicon Robot, still in good shape 53 years later. It sold for almost $9,000 on eBay! But it is far from the most expensive collectible antique toy in this list of the 15 Most Expensive Vintage Toys Ever Sold On Ebay.com. http://www.tonkatruck.net/15-most-expensive-vintage-toys-ever-sold-on-ebay-com/ -Thanks, Danny!

If you've ever received a disappointing, odd, or incomprehensible gift, you can make yourself feel better about it by checking out the blog Why Did You Buy Me That? (subtitled "a collection of the worst gifts ever received"). It might make your gift look better. If it doesn't, take a picture and submit it! Link -via Metafilter

Holy Juan spotted this sign in a public restroom. There's always a downside to doing the green thing, but if you're good at sound effects, you can get away with it! Link

(YouTube link)

It's a river of people! Over 40,000 runners participated in the New York City Marathon last weekend. Thanks to time-lapse videography, you can watch most of them get started. -via Buzzfeed