This gives you an idea of how difficult it was to make progress in a war that spanned five years. There’s a date and casualty counter in the corner. Push play or go to YouTube. -via Reddit

I don’t know how feasible the idea of a single-story -storey skyscraper with one continuous corridor is, but it’s fascinating to think about. The building would be built in a spiral. If you walked around the spiral once, you’d be a level above or below where you started, taking neither stairs nor elevator. http://absidea.free.fr/wordpress/index.php/helix-a-1d-skyscraper-with-a-single-corridor/ -via Reddit

This chart tracks what baseball teams are paying their players vs. their winning record. You can move the date at the top (at the site) to follow how the teams are doing through the baseball season.

A steep blue line means that the team is doing well for its money, which reflects well on the team's General Manager. A steep red line implies that the team is throwing away money. The thickness of the line is proportional to the team's salary relative to the others.

Link -via J-Walk Blog

Pimp That Snack! has step-by-step instructions for creating your own Rubik’s Cube Cake! Link -via Grow-A-Brain

The Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest was recently held during the Vision Sciences Society meeting in Florida. The Leaning Tower Illusion from Frederick Kingdom, Ali Yoonessi and Elena Gheorghiu won first place. You may think the tower on the right is angled a bit further, but the two photos are identical! See the top ten illusions at the contest site. Link -via Ursi’s Blog

A restaurant situated inside a top security prison in Italy opened just two months ago, and is already so popular that officials are considering opening other branches.

Serenaded by Bruno, a pianist doing life for murder, the clientele eat inside a deconsecrated chapel set behind the 60ft high walls, watch towers, searchlights and security cameras of the daunting 500-year-old Fortezza Medicea, at Volterra near Pisa.

Under the watchful eye of armed prison warders, a 20-strong team of chefs, kitchen hands and waiters prepares 120 covers for diners who have all undergone strict security checks. Tables are booked up weeks in advance.

Link -via Arbroath

Did you ever wonder how Disney World got supplies to each park area without delivery trucks? You never see a garbage truck in Frontierland, either. A former Disney Cast Member explains the tunnel system installed underneath Walt Disney World. http://www.ekday.com/blog/files/8036d653b430ffa276d8767dde659c06-28.html -via Grow-A-Brain

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories and Because We Can collaborated to create this coffee table that responds to touch with twinkling LED lights.

They are normally dim and constant-- the most you'll see in a dark room is a faint glow of twinkling like the night sky. When you set your glass down on the table, however, the table "sees" the motion that induces a slow ripple starting in that location that spreads out to other areas of the table as it dissipates. The overall effect is a bit like touching a pool of water, in that your local disturbance turns into an overall gentle rippling, and eventually settles down.

Link

Seventeen tons of silver and gold coins have been found in a shipwreck off the British coast. The cache could be worth up to half a billion dollars! Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. made the find, but company spokemen will not give the exact location of the unidentified colonial-era ship. Link -via Simply Left Behind

How to make a hovercraft out of a leaf blower. Push play or go to YouTube. Link to instructions. -via Arbroath

Mathematicians Pictures is a unique gift shop catering to mathematicians and math geeks. Some greeting cards, t-shirts, and posters are hard for a non-math person to follow, but this American Pi mug should appeal to everyone. Link -via Grow-A-Brain

Photographer and fisherman Corey Arnold has an awesome photo esssay on his experiences as an Alaskan fisherman, considered one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs in America. http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=606&Itemid=92 -via Metafilter

A competitive bodybuilder explains his diet in depth. Push play or go to YouTube. -via Knife Writer (Thanks, Jan!)

(You may need to push "permalink" to hear this over the Deflector game)

Sideshow World is an online museum and archive of the circus and carnival sideshows of the past. You’ll find pictures, stories, and links about performers and exhibits, and daily updates. Link -via the Presurfer

Irene Sendler posed as a nurse and smuggled 2,500 children out of the Warsaw ghetto, saving their lives during the Nazi occupation in World War II. Now at age 97, Sendler is starting to reap the rewards of her actions as Poland recognized her heroism during a ceremony in March. Read her amazing story at Yahoo News. Link -via Scribal Terror