The 143-year-old Quanjude roast duck restaurant in Beijing has closed for six months of renovations, but the oven will stay on. The restaurant ovens have never been extinguished since it first opened in 1864, in which time it has served over 115 million ducks!

"The electric board will stop tracking the ducks, but the stove has been burning for about a century and a half, and the fire will never die out," Jiang Junxian, chairman of the board of Quanjude Group Co. Ltd. said in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

He said the restaurant will keep embers burning in an ancient cooking vessel that will be kept on-site during the renovations. According to Jiang, special staff will be assigned to add fuel each day to keep the fires burning.

Link -via Arbroath

(YouTube link)

From 1963, the first TV ad featuring the character Ronald McDonald. {wiki} You might recognize NBC weatherman Willard Scott under the makeup. -via Random Good Stuff

This piano piece was created by assigning notes to the digits 0 through 9 in the constant known as pi. Pi has no repetitive patterns, so the piece sounds random, but has a mathematical beauty all its own. Link -via Everlasting Blort

Spluch has some pictures of towels folded into cute animal shapes, including this monkey. Link

BMW designed a ficticious luxury private jet for Boeing that that can function as a second home. The design was unveiled at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2007 in Hamburg last week. http://tekenstein.com/bmw-designed-787-vip-business-jet -via A Welsh View

New footage of Nora, the Piano-Playing Cat. The "call and reponse" section is priceless! I think Nora has grown to love the camera as well as the piano. Push play or go to YouTube. -via Metafilter

Artwork from the Workplace features things created by people who are bored at work.

Of course not all jobs are constantly tedious through and through, but only a bunch of precious few jobs are exent of periodical boredom. And it is when boredom kicks in that something beautiful happens: people seek refuge from despair in drawing away, or making unexpected sculptures, writing rhymes… That is the Artwork from the Workplace.

Submissions are welcome. Link Thanks, jonkysit!

Jim Henson and Frank Oz tackling the Computer Age. Push play or go to YouTube. -via the Presurfer

Update: Anita Bath has more details. This funny computer video, titled Coffee Break Machine, was created by Jim Henson in 1967 as an IBM training video. At the time, the monster was named "Arnold the Munching Monster".

The 101st anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthqake was last Wednesday. There was a ceremony to mark the occasion, but only one earthqake survivor was healthy enough to attend: 104-year-old Herbert Hamrol. Hamrol said work is one of the secrets to his long life.

He still holds down a job rearranging the merchandise at Andronico's supermarket in the Sunset District two days a week.

"I like what I do and they like me,'' he said. He said he'd worked for Andronico's for 50 years, more or less, and he plans to be back on the job today as usual. "The retirement benefits are good there,'' he said.

Link to story. Link to video from last year. -via Metafilter

There may be as few as a couple dozen Borneo rhinos left in the world, making it one of the world's rarest animal species. The first still photograph of a Borneo rhino was taken only last year. Now, a World Wildlife Foundation project has captured the first video footage of the Borneo rhino. Link -via Arbroath

Yes, there are places you can mail a letter underwater. Gadling lists five of them. Link -via Dump Trumpet

What do you get when you combine Legos, robots, and videogames? WiigoBot is a Lego NXT Wii Playing Robot that can bowl a perfect game! Push play or go to YouTube. BattleBricks has more on Wiigobot with pictures and a link to building instructions. Link -via Metafilter

I don’t know, either, but there are some suggestions in the comments at Flickr. Link -via Reddit

This updated version of the Mah Nà Mah Nà {wiki} song features WoW characters trying to pronounce l33t terms. Yes, I laughed! Push play or go to YouTube. -via Fuzzytopia

Skulls in Culture takes a look at how mankind has regarded and portrayed human (and non-human) skulls through the ages.

Skulls do more than just protect the brain — they also stimulate the mind. Often symbols of mortality and power, they have been employed in human ceremony, ritual, and art for tens of thousands of years. From the ancient animal skulls in Paleolithic burial sites to the curlicued cattle skulls that float like spirits over Georgia O’Keefe’s canvas mountains, cultures around the world have turned to skulls to express ideas about both life and death.

http://www.calacademy.org/exhibits/skulls/skulls_in_culture.html -via J-Walk Blog