Wouldn’t it be wonderful to discover a secret room in your house that you didn’t know about? It happens, and sometimes it’s not so wonderful. One couple found a room that had been sealed up because of harmful mold! Others are delighted by such a discovery. And if you don’t have one, you can have a secret room added, or build your own! Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

Last Friday evening, the news editor of The Gadsden (Alabama) Times, Greg Bailey heard a noise behind the stove in his house. The whole family heard the noises, which his wife Helen identified as a cat. The noises were there the next morning, so after investigating every other possibility, Helen knocked a hole in the wall. Then another.

She stuck her hand in and felt around, then drew back in horror.

“I grabbed a tail,” she said, as both of us conjured up visions of a very large rat.

Helen reached in one more time ... and drew out, by its back this time, a tiny (as in fitting into the palm of your hand) cream-colored male tabby kitten. It was dirty, flea-bitten, hungry, scared ... and I wished I had a camera handy to record the look on Helen’s face. I knew at that instant we had another member of the family.

They had the kitten checked out by a vet and patched the hole with duct tape.

I was out shopping a couple of hours later, when my cell phone rang. It was Ryan. “Dad, Mom just pulled another cat out of the wall. “Welcome to the family,” I thought.

The kittens, estimated to be around three weeks old, are being fed formula and kitten food. They have been named Boo and Waldo. Helen Bailey says she doesn’t need anything else for Mothers Day. http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20080511/NEWS/74610976/1049/LIFETIMES -via Fark

(image credit: Gadsden Times/Marc Golden)

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Just for fun, here are some of the best things Jay Leno has found in print. I’m so glad online writing can be corrected! -via Gigglesugar

Damien Weighill wil draw your face and put it on his blog!

Real people don't read your blog.

A fact that I wasn't made aware of when I signed up for these things; It now seems so obvious.

If you are reading this and you do happen to be a real person then why not send me a photo (one which includes your real face) and I will draw a picture of you and post it here to serve as everlasting proof that sometimes facts are wrong.

Damien is in Japan until June, but will return and begin drawing again. I was hooked when the first portrait I saw was Juan Carlos drawn as Maneki Neko! You can send in your picture, too. Link -via Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

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How much can a hamster stuff into his cheeks? More than you’d think! -via Arbroath

Stack your books on the wall supported by... nothing! They appear to be floating. Complete instructions for making your own can be found at WikiHow. http://www.wikihow.com/Create-Invisible-Shelves -via the Presurfer

(image credit: VideoJug)

It’s hard to buy something different for Mom when she 1) already has a lot of things, 2) doesn’t ask for anything, and 3) you’ve bought her all the traditionally sentimental gifts you can think of over the years. Trueroots has some suggestions for geeky gestures that will surprise Mom on Mothers Day. And they don’t cost much, either. http://www.trueroots.us/blog/2008/05/08/top-5-relatively-quick-and-geeky-last-minute-mothers-day-gifts/ -via Digg

Arthur Shapiro is an associate professor at Bucknell University, Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience. Now that academic obligations are winding down for the school year, he’s started a blog about optical illusions called Illusion Sciences. He posts illusions, then explains why they fool the eye (or the mind). There are also links to further research. This particular illusion is called Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Go to the site to see the flash version “move”. Link -via J-Walk Blog

The NmG (No More Gas) car from Myers Motors is an electric car that can go 75 miles an hour! Plug it into a 110 or 220 volt outlet and charge it up for a few hours. The three-wheeled vehicle holds one person and has a range of only 30 miles on a charge, so it’s designed for commuting to work. The tiny size makes it easy to park, too. The NmG will be registered and insured as a motorcycle, although it is fully enclosed. Priced at $36,000. Link -via the Presurfer

Not all comic book chracters are loveable or honorable, or even fathomable. The comics wouldn’t be interesting is they were! But some are so over the top, they’ve made Cracked’s list of the six creepiest. Pictured is a character called Inner Child from Doom Patrol. It’s not even number one! Link

Have you ever considered planning your vacation around the places that made nuclear history?

The Traveler's Guide to Nuclear Weapons illustrates 160 important homes, offices, laboratories, factories, mills, and bomb detonation sites in the United States. Scaled maps, photos, tour schedules, and site telephone numbers provide atomic tourists with all they need to visit these historic locations, vicariously or in person.

Link -via Everlasting Blort

(image: National Archives)

The Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss tests your knowledge of movie sequels. There are 12 sequels, but only six of them are real. Can you decide which one are the fakes? I only scored 50% on this one, well below the average. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/14741

ProTraveller looks at 17 theaters and auditoriums that survive from ancient times.

It's hard to believe that some of these theatres are close to 3,000 years old, and it's amazing that they're even still standing. The amount of engineering knowledge that our ancient ancestors had developed is just as mesmerising especially when some of these auditoria rival present-day outdoor theatres in terms of acoustic properties.

On the one hand, it’s difficult to imagine drawing such large crowds in times when there weren’t as many people as now. On the other hand, there were few other forms of entertainment, so most likely everyone went to every performance. Pictured is the Aspendos Theatre in Turkey. Link -Thanks, Andy!

This sign confuses me. Does it confuse you? Submitted to ilovebacon.com. http://www.ilovebacon.com/050808/h.shtml -via Geek Like Me

Esquire’s list of things every man should master contains some good advice, and some surprises.

11. Swim three different strokes. Doggie paddle doesn't count.

14. Chop down a tree. Know your escape path. When the tree starts to fall, use it.

27. Play gin with an old guy. Old men will try to crush you. They'll drown you in meaningless chatter, tell stories about when they were kids this or in Korea that. Or they'll retreat into a taciturn posture designed to get you to do the talking. They'll note your strategies without mentioning them, keep the stakes at a level they can control, and change up their pace of play just to get you stumbling. You have to do this -- play their game, be it dominoes or cribbage or chess. They may have been playing for decades. You take a beating as a means of absorbing the lessons they've learned without taking a lesson. But don't be afraid to take them down. They can handle it.

29. Understand quantum physics well enough that he can accept that a quarter might, at some point, pass straight through the table when dropped.

Sometimes the laws of physics aren't laws at all. Read The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone, by Kenneth W. Ford.

30. Feign interest. Good place to start: quantum physics.

Link -via Gorilla Mask

(illustration: Leif Parsons)