This is startlingly like the 3D projections in the original Star Wars trilogy. Early, sure, but I used monochrome monitors in high school, and I’m typing this on a 2×27″ dual monitor setup right now. Things improve.

Wow. Here is a full-detailed step-by-step set of instructions on how to build your own, self-contained, pocket-sized espresso maker. This includes everything — including a custom-designed alcohol furnace. Wow.

Joe Forkan’s paintings of characters and scenes from The Big Lebowski are also based on classic works of art. The one above, for example, is based on Caravaggio’s 1601 painting, Supper at Emmaus. Writes Forkan:

[Supper at Emmaus] illustrates a dramatic moment from the story of Jesus’ resurrection. I was interested in Caravaggio’s take on the story because of his depiction of the moment of discovery, when the disciple’s “eyes were opened”, and for his symbolic use of the still life to reinforce the central idea of his painting.

(snip)

In my painting, I was looking to create a kind of visual and narrative tension between the figures, the dramatic space, and the still life, one that is suggestive of a larger narrative, and that hopefully moves beyond the specifics of the Jesus story, the Lebowski story, or the Caravaggio story, but retains a shifting, if uneasy relationship between all three, in addition to where I am trying to go with the content and the formal elements.

This is just one of a “cycle” of paintings that he’s done, and I urge you to check out his blog for more — including details of an exhibition that he had. And, for about $30, you can get a limited edition print of the exhibition’s poster.

Come on — $30 is like five White Russians, max.

I guess anyone can declare anything day at any time now? Okay, then tomorrow is Intergalactic Send-Me-A-Dollar Day.

But I guess I can’t be too churlish about sandwiches. They’re almost a perfect food — you can put anything in between two slices of bread, and depending on what you use, you’re done! You don’t need a plate or cutlery or anything.

To celebrate National Sandwich Day (which nation?) you could have just eaten a sandwich. Or made a sandwich for someone else. We apparently celebrated and didn’t even know it! Or, if you missed it completely, you can visit Foodbeast, and see what they had.

One thing was a sandwich infographic, embedded after the jump:

Amy found this video this morning. It sort of reminded me of that scene in Jurassic Park (“They’re moving like birds. They DO move like birds!”) but because it’s real, it’s a little bit more magical. Although composted of individuals, the flock seems to move as a single living organism.

A two-and-a-half-year-old article in the Telegraph explains the reasons behind the flock’s swooping patterns:

It’s all about safety in numbers – none wants to be on the outside, none wants to be first to land …. Impenetrable as the flock’s movements might seem to the human eye, the underlying maths is comparatively straightforward. Each bird strives to fly as close to its neighbours as possible, instantly copying any changes in speed or direction. As a result, tiny deviations by one bird are magnified and distorted by those surrounding it, creating rippling, swirling patterns. In other words, this is a classic case of mathematical chaos

After carving pumpkins, of course Amy and I roasted the seeds into a delicious snack. But now that the trick-or-treaters have come and gone, I’d like to know what I can do with the rest of the Jack-o’Lantern. I mean, it seems like it’s pretty good pumpkin flesh, still in there.

Of course, Google has a ton of answers — ranging from “nothing, beware of bugs” to what looks like a pretty good brownie recipe. There’s also a slideshow here with some other ideas, including catapulting it or donating it to a farm.

I’ve got an uncarved one sitting in my porch, waiting to be baked into oatmeal, but I’ve also got two Jack-o’Lanterns that I think I just might roast and puree. I know, that’s kind of punting the question — but the pumpkin puree can be frozen, and used for other things down the road, from soup to hummus.

Some of my more adventurous readers, however, might like to turn theirs into a pinhole camera:

NPR has got the whole story. Cool!

As long as you have gravel, the Zombie Rooftop Slingshot will be your friend.

(via Gizmodo)

Amy and I try to find couple costumes, so unless we go as Mr. and Mrs. Zipperface, this idea’s not for us. But I was struck by how realistic it looks, and how simple the project basically is. It’s just a regular zipper, glued to his face, blended in with makeup, and fake blood underneath.

He’s got a more detailed set of instructions at the YouTube page.

Novum 11/11 – Making Of Cover from Paperlux on Vimeo.

The BBC has a sweet tool that lets you chart yourself into the world’s population explosion. It’s awesome! Try it yourself here: What’s your number?

After they hook you with that, some other simple demographic questions will show you more about your country, your life expectancy, and that rate of growth or shrinkage of the population elsewhere in the world.

In the time I tooled around their site, the world’s population grew by more than 600 people. Whoa.

(via Gizmodo)

I appreciate this website not only for its message, but also for the slick, easy-to-use survey it uses to get that message across.

Although you answer less than a dozen questions, you have the ability to finely grain your answers. And they seem pretty up-front and detailed about their methodology.

I was surprised to find that 45 people apparently worked to produce the things that I own. I wasn’t surprised to hear that most of them were in China. I was surprised to see the south-eastern U.S. get a dot. And Australia.

Find out how many slaves you have working for you.

I once heard a great interview with, uh, someone from Mad on the CBC, and I actually sat and listened to it in the car until it finished — but I can’t remember who it was with. Sigh. Getting old, I guess.

But I happened across this spread from a vintage edition of Mad, and for me it perfectly captures the best part of the magazine — using ironic detachment to skewer the ironically detached. Essentially, the whole page is a set of rules to not conform! Brilliant!

Take a look at the full version, here:

Holy crap! What a great idea!

Of course, I don’t own a waffle iron, but I suspect that I soon will, especially now that I know this.

And ESPECIALLY since I traced the idea for waffle-fried eggs to a blog called Waffleizer — apparently dedicated to answering the question “Will it waffle?”. Here are a bunch of things that, yes, will waffle.

The idea was picked up by the Novice Chef Blog, and thence to Craft and to Neatorama and to Gizmodo. They are all recipes for a waffled croque madame, but since I’ve never had a croque madame in my life, I’m just going to stick with awesome fried eggs.

Original source: Recipe: Waffled croque madame – Waffleizer.