What does a Storm Trooper do when he's not trooping storms? Everyday things we all do, according to these dioramas made with Star Wars figures! Link -Thanks, Erin Broadley!

See more of Wai Fong Fung's Star Wars scenes at Flickr.

In honor of Barbie's 50th anniversary, DesignBoom features an extensive photo gallery of the process of designing Barbie dolls over the years. http://www.designboom.com/snapshot/cat/24/view/1077/making-of-barbie.html -via Buzzfeed

Biomimicry - The practice of developing sustainable human technologies inspired by nature. Sometimes called Biomimetics or Bionics, it's basically biologically inspired engineering.

After all, who is a better designer than Mother Nature? See 15 examples of technology inspired by nature, from Gecko Tape, which sticks the same way a gecko's feet stick to a wall, to planes and spacecrafts that heal their own ruptures, like our skin does. Link -Thanks, Kiltak!

Check out 23 examples of how geek culture has invaded the streets and made graffiti infinitely more interesting. http://www.kontraband.co.uk/pics/15790/Geeky-Grafiti/?gpage=1#show -via Gizmodo

Plenty of celebrities are using the micro-blogging platform Twitter. Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss asks you to match 15 celebrities with a tweet they left (tweets are the short entries on Twitter). I couldn't, but I may have to start following a few new friends on Twitter! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/22409

Remember the story of how some Japanese firms base their hiring on a person's blood type? An insurance company based in Salzburg, Austria is hiring people based on their astrological sign! Twenty part-time jobs were offered to those born under the signs of Capricorn, Taurus, Aquarius, Aries and Leo. Anti-discrimination groups protested, and government authorities are looking into the matter.

The company is, however, sticking to its guns and a spokesman explained that the move was based on statistical research rather than superstition.

'A statistical study indicated that almost all of our best employees across Austria have one of the five star signs.

'We only decided to continue with that system and hire the best workers,' the spokesman said.

An investigation by Austrian authorities showed that there was nothing illegal in choosing the employees according to their star signs, as there was no discrimination according to existing laws about gender, age, racial and other equality.

Link -Thanks, Bill!

(image credit: Flickr user Atelier Teee)

Bibliodyssey has beautiful scans from the book 'Grand Alphabet Amusant' by E Morel, published in France in 1890. Some of the scenes picked to illustrate letters may make you scratch your head! Link -via Everlasting Blort

Dark Roasted Blend has a roundup of art robots and ray guns made of anything and everything. These are just adorable! This little guy was created by Mike Rivamonte; the post features robots from ten different artists. Link

Check out this neat interactive graphic of Twitter chatter during the Super Bowl. You can move the slider to see what people were tweeting during each minute of the game. Mouseover to find out what part of the country tweeted these words. Select subjects on the left to focus on the type of tweets. The screenshot here is from ...well, you can guess. Link -via Digg

The tunnel under Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn was New York's first subway tunnel. It was built in 1844, then abandoned in the late 1850s. For over a hundred years, the tunnel seemed to be only a rumor, until an teenage urban Indiana Jones named Bob Diamond decided to unearth the tunnel once and for all. Link

This one should be easy! Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss challenges you to name all 50 United States in 5 minutes. Spelling counts. Even though I never learned the "Fifty Nifty" song, I did it in one minute and 44 seconds. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/22332

(YouTube link)
Farmer Paul Coppin tried an unusual tactic to rid his farm of rabbits. He disguised his tractor so he could sneak up on them. Rather than tell you what he disguised it as, I'll let you see on the video. Link -via Arbroath

I just love these miniature artworks by Portland artist Alexandra Peterson! She draws the picture, mounts it on wood, then seals it with "encaustic", which is a type of varnish she makes herself.

My encaustic media is a carefully controlled combination of all natural beeswax and damar resin. Damar resin is from trees that grow in the East Indies. When melted and mixed with the beeswax, it produces a harder, more durable material, with a distinct luminous quality.

See more at her Etsy shop. Link

Peterson is also giving away one of her drawings at her blog. Link

Bubble Spinner is not that difficult. You can work out your strategy after only a minute or two, but the rest of your day may be sacrificed to this simple game. The object is to cluster three or more of the same colored balls together to make them disappear. Yes, you've seen games like that, but this one moves around on you! Link -via Buzzfeed

(YouTube link)

Now, no matter what you think of rock-and-roll, I think you have to keep a nice open mind about what the young people go for; otherwise the youngsters won't feel that you understand them.

Buddy Holly was one of the hottest rock-and-roll stars of the late 50s. He chartered a plane from Clear Lake, Iowa to Fargo, North Dakota, two stops on the Winter Dance Party tour. It took off around 1AM on February 3rd, 1959. That was 50 years ago today. The plane encountered a snowstorm shortly into the flight and crashed, killing the pilot, Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson AKA The Big Bopper. The date became known as The Day The Music Died. Link