This is a pretty amazing painted portrait which looks like it could be a photograph. Artist Dru Blair created the work in 2005, and he shares step by step images as well as the interesting story behind it. He says “This is a painting completed in February 2005. It was a Portrait Class project that I decided to finish in my spare time after the workshop. It probably took a total of around 65-75 hours to complete. The main colors are blocked in at the beginning, but refinement is withheld until the very end.”

The KKK has some horrible and destructive philosophies, but the robes are usually pretty well-made, and Ms. Ruth is one of the reasons why. “Coming from five generations of Ku Klux Klan members, 58-year-old “Ms. Ruth” sews hoods and robes for Klan members seven days a week, blessing each one when it’s done. A red satin outfit for an Exalted Cyclops, the head of a local chapter, costs about $140.” View the full photo essay at Mother Jones.

The only digital camera swim mask is another interesting product combination from Hammecher Schlemmer. “The 5 MP camera can operate to a depth of 15′, making it ideal for use when snorkeling or in swimming pools. The masks eye pieces are made of tempered glass and have integrated crosshairs that allow you to line up shots easily; simply press the shutter button to take pictures or videos. An LED inside the mask tells you if you are in still picture or video mode.” It would be nice if you could use it on deeper dives than 15 feet, but this is still a great idea.

Here’s an interesting story and great pictures of a German firm cleaning the Space Needle in Seattle from KOMO TV news website. “Crews with the cleaning company Karcher GmbH & Co. are only working at night after the restaurant and observation deck close, but they put in a few extra hours on Thursday to allow people to witness the process. Three daring high angle cleaners hit the Needle with water that measured precisely 194 degrees. Even though the sprayers use half the flow of a garden hose, the water shoots out at 3,000 pounds per square inch — more than enough power to send the guy behind the hose flying. It’s a big job with a huge challenge — the crews aren’t using any soap. That’s because what they spray up ends up going down to the Seattle Center and the EMP. Splotches of grime run from the beams under the restaurant all the way down to the base.” Follow the link to see more pictures.

This is a fun idea for a blog which is both thought provoking and kind of funny. Blank is like blank gives a simile in each post, along with a humorous explanation. The author calls them analogies, but unlike the analogies you remember from the SAT test (trunk is to elephant as snout is to pig), I think these are better classified as examples of simile. There are some good ones, like these examples.

Raising a baby is like being lactose intolerant: You can’t enjoy the same things most people do, and your friends are kind of weirded out by it.

A world where Will Smith is the last human alive is like a bowl containing one M&M: Maybe it’d be better if it was empty.

Using a semicolon is like barbecuing: I’m never quite sure I’m doing it correctly.

Wikipedia is like hearing a great story in a bar: You hope it’s true, but never bother confirming it.

In 1901, a lightbulb was installed at the hose cart house in Livermore California. Except for a 22-minute period during a move to a new firehouse in 1976, the bulb has remained lit continuously the entire time. “Hanging 18 feet above the floor at the end of a black cloth-covered cord, the little light with the filament the width of a No. 2 pencil lead is unprotected by any lampshade. Firefighters won’t even dust it. Touch it, jokes one captain, and you get your fingers chopped off.” The light bulb has a website, but unfortunately, it looks like it’s currently down, showing just a plain page with an email address.

Joe D shares his refaced U.S. currency collection as a Flickr set. His description says “I’m surprised how much everyone likes this. It’s just something I’ve been toying around with every now and then. It all started when i would draw glasses or beards on money with the counterfeit pen on the registers at work and just grew in to a hobby.” Even though there is nothing extraordinary about the art, it’s still fun to see these well-known portraits in a whole new way.

I spent many hours mashing the two buttons on the original Nintendo game controller, so this project really brings back some memories. Kyle Downes talks about creating it and shows off the pictures at his blog called Ultra Awesome. If I were skilled enough to create something this cool, I would fire up some Ice Hockey, some Legend of Zelda, and then I’d use it to input the Contra cheat code. That is ultra awesome indeed.

Here’s a creepy do-it-yourself project that you can get your kids to help you with. First, rip the limbs off of their favorite doll. If you wait until they misbehave, you can explain that the doll did something very naughty, and that’s why it’s arms and legs need to be violently torn from it’s body. Then attach them to a piece of wood, hang it on the wall, and use it to store your scarves, hats and coats. All kidding aside, Natasha at Design Sponge describes the craft project quite well, and there are some people out there who would probably like to have this hanging in their house.

Art can be functional, thought-provoking, aesthetically pleasing, or any combination thereof. In the case of the walking bike, created by Max Knight, it’s more about looking cool than working well. However, there is a video showing the bike in action, so it does technically work, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing one of these on the Tour de France next year.

In 1999 Nicholas White was trapped in an elevator in New York City’s McGraw-Hill building for forty-one hours. There was recently a story written about his ordeal in New Yorker magazine, and it includes a time lapse video showing him rushing about the compartment, prying open the doors to see only the bare concrete walls, and eventually accepting his fate and falling asleep on the floor, as shown in the screen capture here.

There is something satisfying about opening a package and finding a nice new sheet of bubble wrap just asking to be popped. The magic of the World Wide Web has now made it possible to replicate the experience virtually. It’s true that it’s not quite the same, but if you’re like me, you can entertain yourself for almost 5 minutes with the bubble wrap flash application.

It seems like everyone has their home brew cure for the hiccups. I usually just try to drink a bunch of water in short small sips which seems to work eventually. The Growing Happiness blog claims to have the very best cure for hiccups, and they say that it’s as simple as drinking warm water, and the hiccups will disappear in 15 seconds. I haven’t had the chance to try it yet, but it seems like just another tale of “here’s what works for me.” Looking at the comments on the post, many people are saying that they have a better solution than warm water, so I don’t think this is the end of the debate.