Fifteen Reasons Why Mister Rogers was the Best Neighbor Ever lays out a pretty convincing case. For example:

Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people don’t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she’d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!

I never watched the show, since I was in school, but now wish I’d known him. Link

The University of Tokyo LEGO Club has completed a LEGO replica of the campus’ clock tower. Here’s an image of the real building. Link (in Japanese) -via The Brothers Brick

* Buy good quality, thick-sliced bacon.
* Prepare the brown sugar and cayenne pepper topping.
* Arrange bacon on a broiler pan.
* Cook for 20 minutes at 300-350°F.
* Turn bacon, apply topping, and cook another 20-30 minutes or until done.

Link -via J-Walk Blog

After a leopard in the bed and a cheetah in the car, wouldn’t you rather be lion in the bathtub? This image of a circus lion getting a wash was found at Wisconsin History. Link

Sleeping in your own bed in Israel, the last thing you might expect is for a leopard to jump in with you!

Clad only in his night clothes, Arthur Du Mosch lunged at the big cat and grabbed its neck, pinning it down for 20 minutes until help arrived.

"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," the 49-year-old said. "I wasn't thinking, I just acted."

Link -via Arbroath

An ad for the Czech automobile Å koda Fabia {wiki} features the car made of cake! Militant Platypus has the recipe and the video. http://www.militantplatypus.com/blog/archives/3726

Swim at Your Own Risk is a blog detailing shark attacks, attacks by other marine animals, and generally all the awful things that might happen to you at the beach. Although the odds of attack for each beachgoer are very low (you’d more likely be killed by lightning), this site could be useful for persuading your family to go camping in the mountains. http://www.swimatyourownrisk.com/ -via Grow-A-Brain

From Wikipedia:

The ballot text reads "Do you agree with the reunification of Austria with the German Empire that was enacted on 13 March 1938, and do you vote for the party of our leader Adolf Hitler?," the large circle is labelled "Yes," the smaller "No."

Link -via Reddit

Part of the Star Wars Celebration IV in Los Angeles last week was The Vader Project. DKE Toys distributed Darth Vader helmets to 66 participating artists to embellish in their unique styles. http://www.starwars.com/community/event/celebration/news20070516.html to story. Link to gallery of helmets. -via The Official Star Wars Blog

Flickr user PaperRelic creates collages of ephemera, which you can see in this collection.

At the beginning of January 2005 my love for paper evolved into a love for collage. This photoset is a place I post some of my work - some are cut x paste, others digital... but all are made with mostly vintage and antique paper.

Link -via Everlasting Blort

Photojournalist Mark Resnicoff posted an extensive essay and photographs of his 2006 visit to Chernobyl, twenty years after the nuclear accident that shut the city down. http://nikongear.com/Chernobyl/Chernobyl_1.htm -via Look at This

Toogle Image Search finds an image of your search term, and builds it with the term in ascii. I entered my own name, and got back an image of myself wearing a Star Trek uniform. I entered Neatorama and got back the above image, which is obviously a barbecue grill. It might not be all that useful, but fun. Link -via Dump Trumpet

Pippy sees something and wants it. No matter what it is. Push play or go to YouTube. -via Arbroath

An account of a date at the L'Enclume, featuring the “Underground Menu”, which turned out to be a five-hour, 24-course experience.

The chef Simon Rogan is possibly the most innovative chef in the UK, pushing forward concepts and ideas in molecular gastronomy more than anyone except Ferran Adria. It's safe to say that I was more excited about this meal than anything I've eaten since the Fat Duck.

http://howithappened.com/2007/05/underground-menu-at-lenclume.html -via Grow-A-Brain

Wake up with the pleasant tinkling sound of a wind chime. You can hear it in a video at the product site. Link -via Ursi’s Blog