Interesting

Company Makes Custom Stuffed Toys Out of Children's Drawings. Child’s Own Studio does something pretty neat: If you supply the studio with a drawing a child made, the studio will produce a stuffed toy using the child’s drawing as the blueprint. Are you an overprotective parent who will stop at nothing to make sure your child is both safe from possibly iffy design choices, but also one who makes sure their child gets exactly what they want at all times always?

Child’s Own Studio actually prefers you, stating that the more directions provided, the better. On the site’s official FAQ, it is noted that there isn’t a set price, and the studio will provide a quote once the child’s drawing is received, though standard U.S. and Canadian shipping will cost $15. The toy ends up being around 12 to 14 inches long on average, and the toy takes about 2 to 4 weeks to make once the payment is received, though rush orders are possible, there will be an extra fee for that. (Child’s Own Studio via Hacker News) Relevant to your interests. Twine: The Revolutionary Box That Can Make Your Appliances Tweet. The day when your washer emails to say your clothes are clean and your basement tweets when it’s flooding is closer than we thought, and it doesn’t look at all as expected. Instead of multiple connected appliances, such a system relies on a tiny WiFi-connected box called Twine.

Twine's functionality is "programmed" through a website that allows users to compose action rules in plain English. One might, for example, compose the rule, "WHEN moisture sensor gets wet THEN tweet, 'The basement is flooding! '" Programming the device is about as difficult as playing Mad Libs. Options are endless.

The battery-powered box contains sensors for temperature and vibration, a magnetic switch and a moisture sensor. Pretty much anything else can also be added to the contraption. Twine's creators, MIT Media Lab grads David Carr and John Kestner, consider the device to be the "first time that a connected object has managed to cross in to the world of consumer relevance. " How will this change the world? China’s deserted fake Disneyland. By David Gray Along the road to one of China’s most famous tourist landmarks – the Great Wall of China – sits what could potentially have been another such tourist destination, but now stands as an example of modern-day China and the problems facing it. Situated on an area of around 100 acres, and 45 minutes drive from the center of Beijing, are the ruins of ‘Wonderland’.

Construction stopped more than a decade ago, with developers promoting it as ‘the largest amusement park in Asia’. Funds were withdrawn due to disagreements over property prices with the local government and farmers. So what is left are the skeletal remains of a palace, a castle, and the steel beams of what could have been an indoor playground in the middle of a corn field.

Pulling off the expressway and into the car park, I expected to be stopped by the usual confrontational security guards. 25 clever ideas to make life easier. Via: amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com Why didn’t I think of that?! We guarantee you’ll be uttering those words more than once at these ingenious little tips, tricks and ideas that solve everyday problems … some you never knew you had! (Above: hull strawberries easily using a straw). Via: apartmenttherapy.com Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings and scrapes. Via: unplggd.com Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or computer screen with WD40 (also works on walls). Via: athomewithrealfood.blogspot.com Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box by securing with a rubber band. Via: marthastewart.com Overhaul your linen cupboard – store bedlinen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be no more hunting through piles for a match.

Via: realsimple.com Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone / iPod in a bowl – the concave shape amplifies the music. Via: savvyhousekeeping.com Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags. Via: iheartnaptime.net. 7 Movies That Put Insane Work Into Details You Didn't Notice. Easter eggs are usually kind of a bum deal. Sure, when you finally find one it's like having a secret conversation with your favorite director ... but he's kind of a jerk, the conversation is one-sided and it's usually all about how much of a loser you are for spending a hundred hours sifting through the special features on your Firefly DVD just to find something Joss Whedon slapped together in five minutes. What follows are the direct opposite of that: These are seven instances where the creators poured their blood, sweat and several other more unsavory fluids into creating something and put it right in front of your face ... and you didn't even notice. Now who's the jerk, huh?

#7. Se7en When making Se7en, David Fincher knew that the movie's strength relied on "John Doe" being as deeply unsettling as possible. There's something unsettling about that word scrawled in blood on the floor, but we can't put our finger on it. No, seriously, like a total goddamn maniac. And you don't stop ... #6.

The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth. It doesn't matter whether or not you believe in ghosts, there are some places in which none of us would want to spend a night. These places have well earned their reputations as being so creepy, tragic or mysterious (or all three) that they definitely qualify as "haunted. " Places like... Aokigahara is a woodland at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan that makes The Blair Witch Project forest look like Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood. It probably has something to do with all the dead bodies scattered around. What Niagara Falls is to weddings, Aokigahara is to suicide. More than 500 fucking people have taken their own lives in Aokigahara since the 1950s.

The trend has supposedly started after Seicho Matsumoto published his novel Kuroi Kaiju (Black Sea of Trees) where two of his characters commit suicide there. Also skulls. Besides bodies and homemade nooses, the area is littered with signs displaying such uplifting messages like "Life is a precious thing! Winchester Mystery House Oh, bitch...! 5 Ways To Hack Your Brain Into Awesomeness. Much of the brain is still mysterious to modern science, possibly because modern science itself is using brains to analyze it.

There are probably secrets the brain simply doesn't want us to know. But by no means should that stop us from tinkering around in there, using somewhat questionable and possibly dangerous techniques to make our brains do what we want. We can't vouch for any of these, either their effectiveness or safety. All we can say is that they sound awesome, since apparently you can make your brain... #5. So you just picked up the night shift at your local McDonald's, you have class every morning at 8am and you have no idea how you're going to make it through the day without looking like a guy straight out of Dawn of the Dead, minus the blood... hopefully.

"SLEEEEEEEEEP... uh... What if we told you there was a way to sleep for little more than two hours a day, and still feel more refreshed than taking a 12-hour siesta on a bed made entirely out of baby kitten fur? Holy Shit! 11 Unusual Household Uses For Food Items That Will Save You Money. Photo: charles chan * The next time you find yourself in need of a household product like stain remover, shower cleaner or ant deterrent, check the pantry before heading to the store. You might just find what you need, in the form of a common kitchen ingredient. From a green perspective, going the DIY route eliminates some of the harsh chemicals in your home, reducing your family’s exposure to them. It can also save you money. In a pinch, using cinnamon or cayenne pepper could save you the $5 needed to buy a set of ant traps. Post your own tips below, and try these household uses for common foods: Baking soda * Jan Patterson of Cotati, Calif., uses it to remove “stubborn sticky stuff of any kind” from furniture and other household items.

. * Add vinegar, and the mixture works well as a drain cleaner, says Leslie Reichert, a.k.a. . * “Use it as your first treatment when you spill fruit juice or wine,” says lifestyle consultant Joshua Duvauchelle. Bananas Beer Cayenne Pepper Cinnamon Honey Ketchup Tea. Of All The People in All the World. Of All The People In All The World, a traveling art exhibit in the UK, uses grains of rice to bring the large numbers behind world populations to the grasp of the average human being.

In the exhibit, one grain of rice equals one person and those grains of rice are put together to represent all kind of statistics from the small (such as the number of people who have walked on the moon) to the large (the population of the United States as seen below). Link. Amazing Fact Generator - StumbleUpon. Hands | Connections | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Tipping Etiquette Around the World | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News... - StumbleUpon. The secret world of Disneyland. Disneyland may look like a straightforward theme park. But there's a secret world hidden behind the balloons, castles and cotton candy - a place where wild cats roam the park at midnight, Mickey Mouse hides in the wallpaper, and movie stars sip martinis behind closed doors. Feline security It's not easy keeping the grounds of Disneyland utterly spotless, as well as free of unwanted pests. Every night after closing time, 200 feral cats are released into the park to help keep the rodent population under control. Though Disney doesn't comment on the matter, rumour has it that the feline taskforce dates back to 1957, when renovations to Sleeping Beauty Castle revealed a colony of more than 100 stray cats.

After unsuccessful attempts to chase them out of the park, Disney decided to put the cats to work instead. Hidden Mickeys At Disneyland, the round-eared Mickey Mouse emblem is everywhere. Cocktails behind closed doors Trick of the eye Things are not always as they appear at Disneyland. Lots of Jokes - Did You Know? Q. Why do men's clothes have buttons on the right while women's clothes have buttons on the left? A. When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid's right! And that's where women's buttons have remained since. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Mary liked this a lot and when returned to Scotland (not a very good idea in the long run), she took the practice with her.

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