I love a good omelet and I’ve been known to gobble down boiled eggs from tme to time, but Century Eggs? No freaking way!

Known also as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg or thousand-year-old egg, the Century Egg is a Chinese delicacy used in many traditional dishes. Fresh duck, chicken or quail eggs become Century Eggs after weeks, sometimes months of preservation in a mixture of clay, ash, lime, salt and rice. The process of “cooking” Century Eggs is believed to date back 600 years, when someone apparently found some old eggs preserved in a pool of slaked lime. Upon tasting them, he decided to produce some more, but this time with some added salt.

After the preservation is complete, the hull mixture and egg shell are removed to reveal the now dark-brown egg-white and a dark-green, creamy and pungent yolk.  It’s the alkaline that raises the ph of the egg from 9 to 12 or more and gives it a strong smell of ammonia and sulfur.

Century Eggs are consumed either raw, or as ingredients in other Chinese foods. There are those who associate them with smelly cheese, pungent but really delicious. Sadly there are others (myself included) who just can’t get past the disgusting colors and smell.

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What can you do with an old Ford Capri bought on eBay? Cover it in small toy cars and turn it into an art project, of course.

Young James Ford has spent the last two years working on General Carbunkle, a homage to General Lee, the legendary race car from The Dukes of Hazard. He thought of an original way to pay tribute to this popular ride and decided he was going to cover it in red and orange toy cars.

Ford relied on toy donations from all over the world, in order to complete his project, but did impersonate a toy-shop owner to get his hands on 2,000 toy cars. In the end he estimates he used between 3,500 and 4,500 cars, mostly T-birds and Double Decker buses.

Ford intends to auction the General Carbunkle on eBay, so his project can come full circle.

via Creative Review

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He may not have the supernatural abilities of comic-book superheroes, but Captain Australia is prepared to watch over the safety and tranquility of citizens all around the world.

I received a rather interesting email the other day, from a person who actually met Captain Australia. It seems our superhero isn’t too tech-savvy and needed an internet-ready computer set-up. When asked where the product should be delivered, Captain Australia said he is unable to provide contact information, as he can’t risk revealing his secret identity. The guy didn’t pay much attention at first, but when a dude dressed in a green-yellow costume came to pick up the computer, he was stunned. They’ve done business several times since then and it seems Captain Australia takes his superhero tasks very seriously.

As you can imagine, I was intrigued by this story, so I accessed Captain Australia’s website. That’s right, even superheroes have their own virtual homes these days. I was able to identify the Australian superhero’s four main goals:

1) To prevent crimes through acting as a deterrent by actively patrolling and thus intimidating the criminal element.

2) To intervene when I see criminal activity, or to solve crimes that I become aware of.

3) To inspire normal people to be better, by demonstrating a level of moral excellence that I hope will serve as an example to the people I meet.

4) If all else fails, I can accept simply amusing or shocking people – having ordinary citizens lighten their hearts by amusement or surprise.

Captain Australia’s symbol is an @, worn as a tribute to using the internet to channel his message globally, and because it looks like a combination of the c and a letters (Captain Australia). Our masked vigilante has a videographer following him during his patrols, to document his adventures as an inspiration for people everywhere and as possible evidence for criminal prosecution.

Australia’s number 1 superhero (and very possibly its only one) says he’s not in the same shape as he was when he first started out, but he’s working hard to remedy this. He does however posses a series of gadgets and abilities (Photoshop is not one of them, as you’ll see bellow) to help him protect the citizens.

So next time you’re in trouble just shout out for Captain Australia, who knows, he might actually show up.

Thanks Jacklord!

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It does make more sense for some rich dude like Bruce Wayne to roll in an over-the-top limousine than in a crappy old Batmobile.

The Dark Knight’s limo was spotted on the streets of New York, but strangely enough, he wasn’t the one driving it. Sadly, apart from the fact that its started out as a normal limousine (probably a Corvette C4), the photos and video below, there isn’t much info on the awesome Bat-limo. If you know something I don’t, do share.

via CarScoop and Autogespot

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Everyone loves the feeling of waking up on Christmas morning, knowing there are presents under the Christmas tree and all the traditional goodies on the table. Well, Mr. Christmas gets to experience that every day.

44-year-old Andy Park has earned himself the nickname Mr. Christmas for celebrating the happiest day of the year on EVERY day of the year. It all began on a sunny day in 1994, when, despite the nice weather, Andy was feeling down and bored. He decided to go home and put on all the Christmas decorations and pretend it was really Christmas. That actually made his day a lot better, so he decided to do it all again the next day, and the one after that, until he became hooked on Christmas.

Mr. Christmas buys himself presents which he opens the next day, has mince pies and sherry for breakfast, a whole roast turkey for lunch, complemented with sprouts. So far Andy estimates he’s gobbled through 5,450 turkeys, 7,360 mince pies, 2,350 Christmas puddings and 62,050 sprouts.

But the credit crunch affected even Mr. Christmas and he had to cut back from one bottle of champagne a day to one every two days, a smaller turkey. He also buys just one Christmas tree instead of the usual two and puts up fewer twinkling lights. But he’s not going to let something as minor as a financial crisis ruin his celebrations.

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It’s amazing what a passion for cars and amateur radios can create.

Scott’s 1985 Plymouth Colt can simply be described as HAM radio heaven. He has mounted HAM radios, police scanners and other video devices all throughout his vehicle and it’s really quite amazing how he can still find his way around them when he just needs to drive it.

the HAM radio enthusiast says it’s amazing what you can listen to when you’re inside his Radio Active Colt, but I fail to see how you can actually listen to anything when all those things are turned on. According to one of the photos I found the 1985 Colt sells for just $500 while the HAM equipment is worth $25,000.

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A bunch of people running in the streets in speedos, or how a small holiday stunt turned into a national phenomenon.

The Boston tradition known as the Santa Speedo Run began on a Saturday, in December of 2000, when 5 friends decided to do something completely crazy to spice up their weekly routine. The best they could come up with was running through Boston wearing nothing but speedos, Santa hats and fake beards. They tried to get another 20 runners involved, but one week later, at race time, it was still just the five of them.

But they kept their courage and went through with what the plan. People shopping on Newburry Street started screaming and cheering while the five naked Santas ran by. And that, in short, is how the Santa Speedo Run was born.

It has come a long way since then, turning into an annual charity event that raises money for various charities, and inspiring similar displays in other American cities. Anyone can enter the Santa Speedo Run as long as they raise the minimum $250 for charity and aren’t afraid to strip down to their speedos at race time.

Photos via Boston.com

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Announced for over a year now, the world’s largest underwater museum recently received its first exhibits.

The seabed of the Mexican Caribbean is now host to a series of life-size sculptures on display in Mexico’s Underwater Museum. But they are just a few of the 400 statues that will be lowered down to the bottom in the following months.

Located in the National Marine Park, the Underwater Museum aims to raise environmental awareness by creating an artificial reef. Scientists hope the statues will attract young algae that will color them vividly.

Photos by Jason de Caires/BARCROFT MEDIA

via Telegraph.co.uk

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American artist Walton Creel found a way of deweaponizing the gun by taking away its destructive power and using it to create art.

Walton Creel is not the first artist in the world to use guns in his art. As he states on his official site, others have taken high resolution photos of bullets piercing a target or melted down guns and shaped them into something completely different. But he knew he wanted to deweaponize guns by taking away their destructive power and using it as a “tool of creation”.

The Alabama-based artist came across the concept of creating art by puncturing holes and though it was just what he had been searching for. Using painted aluminum sheets instead of canvas, he figured out how far apart the shots are to be fired in order to create a nice pattern. The power of the shot knocks off a little paint and “fuses the image together”.

via Cool Hunting

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From the creator of the internet-famous Hamburger Bed comes an even cooler sleeping installation, the Millennium Falcon Bed.

Kayla Kromer caused quite a stir on the interwebs, with her tasty-looking Hamburger Bed and now she’s back with every Star-Wars fan’s dream bed. Apart from the incredible design, the Millennium Falcon Bed features working headlights, hidden compartments for your every day needs, starfield projection and even cockpit space for you favorite Star-Wars action figures.

I’m definitely not the world’s biggest Star-Wars fan, but I’d love to own one of these…

Kayla Kromer via Neatorama

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Jacob Yarmuth, possibly the world’s biggest Stargate fan, spent $70,000 on a state of the art Stargate-themed home theater.

Featuring a fiber-optics starscape ceiling that shows galactic clouds and comets passing every few minutes, air pocket doors and faux finished walls complete with backlit panels, the Stargate Atlantis home-theater looks like it came right off the filming set. The circular screen is a perfect replica of the stargate and has a 10-foot diagonal.

Yarmuth equipped his futuristic screening room with two Sony megachangers able to accomodate 800 DVDs, Atlantic’s THX speakers seres, two Polk Audio in-wall subwoofers and a JVC light amplifier for HD imagery. Oh, and the airpocket doors are triggered by motion sensors.

Maybe he and Gary Reighn, owner of the Star Trek home-cinema should get together sometime, I’m sure they’d have a lot to talk about.

via Electronichouse

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San Francisco has been rendered by many other artists before, but never quite like this.

Scott Weaver always dreamed he would build the world’s largest toothpick model and 34 years ago he started working on it. Fast-forward to present day and he still hasn’t fulfilled his dream, but he did create one of the most impressive toothpick sculptures in the world.

“Rolling through the Bay” is a 9 feet tall, 7 feet wide and 2 feet deep toothpick model of san Francisco that features 4 pingpong ball rolling tracks and several entry points. That’s right, it’s the tracks that make this wooden masterpiece so unique. That’s how Mr. Weaver began his adventure in the world of toothpicks, by building abstract models and rolling pingpong balls on them. It just got out of hand at some point and turned into this amazing model.

Though “Rolling through the Bay” does feature some of the most iconic sights in San Francisco, like the Bay Bridge, Golden State Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, Alamo Square or the Cable Car tour, Scott Weaver says it’s just his view of the city and unlike more traditional models, his has rolling pingpong balls.

The toothpick model of San Fracisco took over 3,000 hours of work to complete and over 1,000,000 toothpicks. Luckily, a pack of 750 toothpicks costs just 99 cents, so Weaver can’t say his hobby is too expensive. Ripley’s Believe It or Not offered Scott $40,000 for his unique model, but he isn’t ready to part with it just yet.

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Face it Jurassic Park fans, you’d kill to own one of these. On second thought, who wouldn’t want to spend the night in the mouth of a T-Rex, right?

The dinobed was created by 3Murphys‘ husband, but unfortunately there isn’t any info on how it was built. It’s clear to see the guy has some real talent because that beast seems ready to come out of the wall and tear you to shreds.

It looks like a child’s bed, but I wonder if that isn’t a little to scary for children…Well, if the kid’s wets his bed a few times, I’d be ready to take that dinosaur bed off your hands.

via Geekologie

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Hundreds of contestants, from top cross-running athletes to  couch potatoes gathered in Peats Ridge for the first Mud Run race in Australia.

On December 5, over 750 Aussies showed up in Glenworth Valley to participate in one of the dirtiest races on Earth. Each of the two available courses (one 6 km, the other 12 km long) featured mud pits, bog-holes, mud rivers, grasslands and creek crossings.

The 2009 Mud Run in Peats Ridge was meant to be a competition for everyone, so any person over 12 years-old was free to register and because there was no time-limit they could run or walk the entire race. Competitors were encouraged to enter the Mud Run for a chance to help their favorite charity.

Getting down and dirty Down-Under, now that’s got to be a memorable experience.

via Zimbio

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It looks like something out of a nightmare in the daytime, but at night the Christmas Truck really gets people into the holiday mood.

Kris Marshall sells GMC trucks around Dallas and Iowa and he decided to turn his old pick-up into something outrageous that would draw attention. A moment’s inspiration turned into one of the most popular rides in the West, the Christmas Truck.

All Marshall needed to create his twinkling wonder on wheels, was a generator,  a few strands of Christmas lights and some duct tape. And that’s basically how the Christmas Truck was born. It has between 50 and 70 light strands, each featuring 50-100 light bulbs. That ads up to a total of over 3,000 lights.

Its maker knows the Christmas Truck is totally illegal but says most of the cops just look at it and smile. He only got a few tickets for improper use of lights.

via Jalopnik

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