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The first film appearance of some of your favorite stars. You probably didn't notice them at the time, because they, um, weren't movie stars at the time. Link -via The Daily What

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AMC is on a winning streak with the hit series Mad Men and The Walking Dead. What happens when you mashup the two shows? Nothing that makes any sense, but it's an opportunity for a string of obvious but still funny gags. There's also a "behind the scenes" video. -via Bits and Pieces

You know that trope you see on TV and movies all the time, where a woman takes off her glasses and suddenly becomes stunning? That doesn't really happen, does it? A group of people tried it out. See the results at Magical Deductions. Link -via Metafilter

 

A few years ago, we brought you a story of twins born to mixed-race parents, who looked alike except for widely different skin tone. Now Kian and Remee are seven years old, and the two girls still look very much alike, except for the colors of their eyes, hair, and skin. Their mother Kylee remembers the day they were born:

‘I noticed that both of them had beautiful blue eyes,’ she said.

‘But while Remee’s hair was blonde, Kian’s was black and she had darker skin. To me, they were my kids and they were just normal. I thought they would start to look the same as time went on.’

Time, however, only accentuated their differences. Kian’s eyes changed colour and her skin got darker. Remee’s complexion got lighter and her curly hair stayed blonde. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kylee found herself fielding questions about whose children they were, or who Kian’s fair-haired friend was, when she pushed them in their side-by-side buggy.

‘People would ask me why I dressed the children the same,’ Kylee said. ‘I’d just say: “because they’re twins,” and leave people to work it out. It kind of irritated me at first, but everyone in my area got to know they were twins and accepted it. It was only strangers or outsiders who didn’t know.’

The girls go to different classes at school and have different interests, but they are best friends as well as sisters. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

You know the US presidential election season has really started when Mattel launches their Presidential Barbie line. This year's models come wearing a pink power suit designed by Chris Benz and somewhat sensible wedge shoes, although Barbie's feet are still made for high heels. Link -via Buzzfeed

The old "Do Not Enter" sign just didn't do the trick. You have to wonder how many problems they had before deciding to post a sign to spell it out for everyone. Then again, if people using GPS don't read signs, will this help at all? Link

Bald is beautiful! Mattel has announced that they will development a Barbie doll without hair especially for girls dealing with hair loss, whether from chemotherapy or another cause, in themselves or a family member. The dolls should come out in 2013.

Although “Mattel has a policy of not forwarding unsolicited product ideas to our design teams,” it seems like New Jersey resident Jane Bingham with her friend Rebecca Sypin, who launched a Beautiful and Bald Barbie Facebook page last December, sparked the idea. The social media move went viral. Bingham and Sypin reportedly met in a pregnancy chat room. Both Bingham and Sypin’s daughter lost their hair to chemotherapy. So they hoped the doll could be used to help children cope and understand what other family members are facing, like Bingham’s 9-year daughter learning to understand her mother's condition. And for children battling cancer like Sypin’s 12-year old daughter, it’s a reminder that hair isn’t what makes them special.

Reportedly, it’ not Barbie, but it's a female friend who will be hairless. The friend will have wigs, hats, scarves and other accessories children can put on the doll. (And what’s a Barbie Doll without accessories?)

The dolls will not go on the market, but will be donated to children's hospitals and other charity outlets in the US and other countries. Link -via Breakfast Links

Have you had your portrait taken with the Easter Bunny yet? After seeing these pictures of the many ways it could go wrong, you might want to rethink your plans. Link -via the Presurfer

Believe it or not, this is more than a Tyrannosaurus sculpture. It's also a radiator! Yep, an energy-efficient cast iron heat exchanger designed by Anton Schnaider of Art. Lebedev Studio. Just hook it up to your pipes and turn the tap on its ankle. This one is heating up someone's mittens as well as the room. Link -via Laughing Squid

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A red panda cub at the national Zoo in Washington has discovered a beam of light. Honestly, it doesn't matter what a red panda does, we will watch it because they are the cutest animal on the planet. -via Arbroath

Last week we read about a science birthday party in which one of the featured dishes was "spherical honey." Now we know how they did that. You can supposedly make many different kinds of food into spheres.

The entire unfortunate experience is due to two compounds, sodium alginate and calcium chloride. Sodium alginate is a long polymer already in a great deal of foods. It's used in pie fillings and milk shakes as a thickening agent. Its long chains of sugars stretch through the medium and tangle together, making the liquid around it thick. Sodium alginate is harvested from the long strands of kelp that grow in the Pacific ocean. An important part of the extraction process is removing all the calcium from the string of alginates. Why? This allows the strings to move freely and independently of each other. Calcium ions react with the sugar molecules in the chains and bind them together. This could harmlessly loop one string, which wouldn't make too much of a difference. But when two strings, and then more, get attached to each other, the entire string tangle fuses and solidifies into a gel.

Read the rest of the science at io9, but be warned that the author thinks this is a bad idea, so you may lose your appetite. Link -via Boing Boing

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Tom Scott immediately saw the need for a parody of the Google Glass Project. Honestly, a lot of people saw the opportunity, but he produced it, in a hurry. -Thanks, Ray!

Previously from Tom Scott: Spider-Man, Star Wars Weather, and Rats.

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The 2001 film Monsters, Inc. gets the Pogo treatment! Sounds from the Pixar movie were remixed by Nick Bertke, and the video was edited by goldpikpikcarrots.  -via The Daily What

Volker Kraft of Saalfeld, Germany has an Easter egg tree with 10,000 colored eggs hanging from it! He and his wife Christa, with the help of their children, use real eggshells with the insides blown out, dyed and decorated and hung with care.

Kraft’s apple sapling sported just 18 eggs when he first decorated it for Easter in 1965. The number increased year by year; and by last year, the sturdy tree was festooned with 9,800 eggs, artfully decorated with everything from sequins to sea shells.

This time, Kraft has reached 10,000 — and he says he’s stopping there.

“There will be no increase because I do not have storage capacity anymore,” the 76-year-old retiree says. “I would have to sleep with the eggs otherwise.”

The tree has become a tourist attraction over the years. Link

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They've made vodka with some pretty strange flavors already, but this sounds like someone threw a dart at a chart to come up with the idea. Van Gogh Vodka, already known for a variety of flavored vodka, announced their new PB&J product with a press release, reprinted at Bar Biz magazine.

Van Gogh is proud to introduce their own take on the classic PB&J, transforming its timeless flavor into a delightfully smooth peanut butter and raspberry jelly flavored vodka. Master Distiller Tim Vos selected raspberry flavored jelly after taste-testing peanut butter sandwiches matched with various jellies. "For me, the raspberry jelly came out the best," he says. "It is fresh, fruity and mingles very well with the oily structure of the peanut butter."

Would you try it? Link -via Fark