You’ve probably seen the Lamp/Lamp from designer Hironao Tsubui. It sells for ¥2,100, or about $20. But you can make your own version with a steady hand and the proper glue! http://www.vvank.com/?page_id=9%22 -via the Presurfer

That’s about as blue as a building can get.

The borough of Delfshaven, Rotterdam, asked Schildersbedrijf N&F Hijnen to come up with a plan for a block of derelict buildings, which will eventually be demolished. The agreement with the neighbourhood is that the block will remain blue as long as there isn't a new plan for the area.

This was once one of the most unseen blocks of houses in Rotterdam, and by applying a layer of only 2 micron of blue paint onto it, it became Rotterdam's most photographed one.

Link -via Dump Trumpet

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I’m impressed. -via mental_floss

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If you are going to the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, you want to be there on drill day. Zookeepers train for escaped animal emergencies once a year, but they can’t use real animals for drills, so they dress up as zoo animals! A recent drill featured two escaped “zebras”.

Some 150 zoo workers, policemen and ambulance crew played their part, wearing hard hats and wielding sticks and nets in an attempt to capture the escapee.

The fake zebra finally fell to a fake tranquiliser gun.

Link -via Arbroath

Now you can party like it’s MCMXCIX! Or MIM, if you don't want to spend as much. If you’re tired of people making fire extinguisher jokes as you blow out the candles at your birthday party, try Roman Candles. And there’s a small chance that some people might not know that L is 50. Link -via Grow-A-Brain

io9 has a guide for how TV and movie producers should treat hardcore science fiction fans. For example:

Fans love inconsistencies. Fans claim to hate contradictions in long-running stories, but actually that stuff is catnip to them. If Londo Mollari says he has seven penises in one episode and then refers to his twelve penises in another episode, the fans will spend hours coming up with explanations for the discrepancy.

Ain't it the truth? The debate over Star Wars inconsistencies has kept forums alive for years. Link -via Fark

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Those of us of a certain age will remember seeing this late at night when some TV stations used it as their sign off. It’s from J. Alan Wall’s TV Sign-Offs, a collection of achived footage from the days when stations went off the air at night. Afterwards, you would get either static or a test pattern (two terms that you don’t hear much anymore). Link -via Fark

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Phun is fun! Phun was created as a MSc project by Emil Ernerfeldt (who also created the music) for supervisor Kenneth Bodin, HPC2N/VRlab, Umeå University, Sweden. The program is free to download. http://www.acc.umu.se/~emilk/ -via Viral Video Chart

Dave Steward of Fort Madison, Iowa was fired from his job after seven years because he posted a Dilbert comic strip on an office bulletin board. In the offending strip, Dilbert compared company decision-makers to “drunken lemurs”. Management checked surveillance tapes to find out which employee was responsible. The story became national news after the company fought Steward’s claim for unemployment benefits. Now Dilbert creator Scott Adams is incorporating Steward’s story in his comic strip. A series of strips on the case begins today.

In one of the strips, Adams gives his take on Steward's dismissal.

Catbert: "Wally, I have to fire you for posting a comic comparing managers to drunken lemurs. You won't be eligible for unemployment benefits unless you can prove you were stupid as opposed to malicious. Can you prove you're stupid?"

Wally: "Is there another explanation for working here?"

Steward, who is still unemployed, says he will keep the strips in a scrapbook. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080220/NEWS/802200382 to story. Link to daily Dilbert strip. -via Fark

(image credit: Scott Adams)

Steve James is serious about the environment. He built his own home near Dumfries, Scotland out of natural and recycled materials for a total cost of about £4,000.

"Actually, you could make it for less than that," James says. "I'd cut the wood myself next time instead of going to the sawmill. That would knock off a thousand." He finds the whole concept of mortgages quite amusing.

The walls are made of straw bales, and the roof is turf with flowers growing on it. It has a rainwater collection system, a composting toilet, and a woodburning stove. With the help of friends, he built it in about ten months. Now he’s helping other people learn about alternative building methods. Link to story. Link to James’ website. -via Metafilter

Would you believe a dog that hitches a ride on a ski lift? A four-year-old collie named Guinness does just that at Glenshee Ski Centre in Scotland.

He is owned by Graham McCabe, managing director of the ski centre, who said: "Guinness is slightly mad and very cheeky, but also extremely clever."

Mr McCabe said: "He has actually figured out how to work the release mechanism and go up the mountain whenever he wants.

"He will hang on for a while and go up for as long as he feels like it. He either goes all the way to the top or gets bored and drops off into the snow and runs back down to get another one.

Though not very good at waiting his turn, Guinness is quite popular with skiers and snowboarders who visit the center. Link to story. Link to video. -via Arbroath

Dark Roasted Blend has a photo collection of playground sculptures that might give you nightmares. I’m sure they aren’t too frightening to the children who see them everyday, but at first glance you wonder, “What were they thinking?” Link

Aardvarchaeology has a nice article about abandoned treehouses.

These sites and their formation processes reflect children's psychological characteristics. Kids have little sense of order, short memories and strange rationality. They also have no idea that childhood is brief and transient. They will happily fill their treehouses with junk without any thought that they might one day stop coming there.

And when they stop coming, everything is left wherever it dropped the last time they played with it. Link

As Earth is unique in our solar system, so is our moon. Luna is the only planetary satellite formed by the impact of two protoplanets. What would be different if there was no moon? It acts as a gyroscope to keep Earth from wobbling too much as it spins. It washes the shore with tides. It also slows the planet’s rotation. Damn Interesting takes a look at Life Without the Moon. Link

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is 40 years old today, and still airs on PBS, although beloved host Fred Rogers died in 2003.

From Wikipedia:

The first broadcast of Misterogers' Neighborhood was on the National Educational Television network on February 19, 1968. When NET ceased broadcasting in 1970, the series moved to PBS. The show would be renamed to its more-familiar three word title, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, in 1971.

Here are some other links in honor of the occasion:

15 Reasons Mister Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever.

Mister Rogers addresses the US Senate in 1969.

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood official site at PBS.

An anniversary broadcast from NPR today.