Just in time for Halloween, here is a collection of excellent pumpkin carving designs. The designs, by well-known sculptor Ray Villafane - who rose to prominence while teaching K-12 art in Michigan and whose work has been featured on the Food Network and has been displayed anywhere from Hollywood to the President’s Quarters in the White House- range from staid to spooky, but are always a treat to look at this time of year.
Courtesy Villafane Studios

Ah, the 1950's. It was a far more innocent time than now. A small house with a white picket fence. I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners on TV. Ike was president. And there were whiskey dispensers in the cafeteria at work. As this picture below demonstrates, the 1950's really did have the kind of "man's world" elements depicted on Mad Men.

Via blackandwtf

This awesome video is a demonstration of what will no doubt be a kid-craze this holiday season. These are
Air Swimmers, inflatable remote controlled Clownfish and Sharks. With four AAA batteries and between about $30.00 and $60.00, you can have fun scaring your kids, acting like a big kid (that's me), or annoying the neighbors. Check out the awesomeness below!

A Japanese art collective that goes by the name of  ChimPom has found an interesting solution to a Tokyo rat infestation: they killed the rats and turned them into exhibits as taxidermied Pikachus. After some difficulty in trapping them and ending their verminous existence, they painted them yellow, placed the signature Pikachu red dots, and ran wire through their tales to "pose" them.
The idea to do this was prompted by the presence of the so-called "super-rats" of Tokyo, so known for their supposed immunity to rat poison. So, the ingenious and strange ChimPomer's decided to help solve the super-rat issue while doing what ingenious and strange Japanese artists do: attack problems while simultaneously making reference to ubiquitous animated characters.
More at HuffPo

In yet another spooky surveillance twist comes news that the Department of Homeland Security is perfecting plans for the installation of street lights in a town near you - a small Michigan town will be the first - that have cameras, motion detectors and even a speaker system for the barking of adverts and "civic announcements". The creator of this system is Intellistreets, which advertises itself as providing "infinite control for all forms of security, energy management, data harvesting and digital media". It won't be long before, as in Britain, we have the voice of Big Brother drone from the speakers "We are watching you". If you are having trouble believing that this is actually happening in Britain, read this. They are just a few years ahead of

Full story here.

Here is an awesome video that shows the opening to the 1970's Japanese version of Spiderman. Comes complete with funky 70's soundtrack, plenty of awesome moves from Spidey, and since we are in Japan, ends with obligatory Mecha sequence. Enjoy!

Spanish photographer and artist Rafa Zubiria has created two series - Zooo and No Way Home - of surreal, floating images that are well worth examining. The beauty of the images is tinged with a dreamlike quality that is worthy of Lewis Carroll's written imagery or Salvador Dali's visual oddities. The very imaginative series by Rafa Zubiria can be found here.

A terminally ill taxi driver in Britain saw an advertisement for a documentary that was soliciting those near death for a very strange request - they wanted to film the mummification process perfected by the Ancient Egyptians. Alan Billis decided to reply to the ad, and after his recent passing, Channel 4 in Britain filmed Mr. Billis being mummified, the first man in 3000 years to be mummified in the manner of the Egyptians. Mr. Billis explained his decision to his wife and three grown children, who subsequently gave their blessing to his desire to leave his body to science.
After his death in January, his internal organs were removed and preserved in jars, with the exception of his brain and heart. The process of mummification then began, where over several months he was wrapped and prepared for what should be a preservation of several millennia. Full story here.
Below are pics of Mr. Billis in the various stages of mummification.

I am not a fan of dolls or clowns. Never have been. They both give me the creeps. This may be one of the reasons why I fear dolls. Prepare to watch 30 seconds of pure creepiness from the 70's.

A very creative and enterprising student at Kingston University in London has designed a washing machine that looks like an arcade video game. Lee Wei Chen's design, which he call the "amusement washing machine", is a video game console on the top half, and a washing machine on the bottom half. He connected the circuitry of both in order to create the fun hybrid machine, so that the functionality of the wash cycle is dependent upon the progress one makes in playing the game portion.
"Players put three pound coins into the machine and are given three lives - this also turns the washing machine on. If players fail to progress beyond a certain level without losing their lives, the washing machine responds by refusing to move onto the next stage of its cycle and the player has to add more money."
Via Oddity Central.