Make sure you watch until he starts begging for tips.
HT: Susan Gertson

From the 1950s.

They could just post an “out of order” sign on the escalator, but it wouldn’t be as much fun. HT: American Digest.

See the other 49 here.

500 hoppers invade Barcelona.

With their alien-like appearance and giant size these balloon sculptures might be a bit scary for a children’s party.

But after painstakingly constructing each one over three days artist Jason Hackenwerth probably doesn’t want kids playing with them anyway.

The extraordinary figures, which look like monsters from the depths of the ocean or creatures from another planet, are in fact highly complex sculptures made of nothing but thousands of common party balloons.

Oliver Yeh is the kind of guy who cooks up ideas so kooky, so out-of-this-world, that even his fellow MIT students tend to roll their eyes when they hear them.

But that never stops him.

His latest concept — to launch a camera into near-space using a weather balloon, a cell phone, hand warmers and a drink cooler — fell flat when he sent out an e-mail message to dozens of his classmates, asking for help.

Unfazed, Yeh managed to find one friend willing to chip in. And on September 2, the go-it-alone pair floated a balloon-camera high enough into the atmosphere to photograph the curvature of the Earth and the deep black of space, all on a lunch-money budget of $148.

“For me, it was just about not being afraid to do what I love to do,” said Yeh, a 20-year-old MIT senior studying computer science and electrical engineering. “Before, people were just kind of like, ‘That’s a crazy idea; there he goes all over again.’ (Yeh once convinced a friend to float the Charles River with him on a raft made of plastic bottles.)

“I didn’t have a lot of people who wanted to do it with me, so I’m really glad I stuck it out and succeeded in what I wanted to do.”

Terrified Duan Qiongxiu jumped out of her skin when she came across the mutant reptile.

Scientists are now studying the slithering creature to see how it managed to grow a foot — complete with four clawed toes on its stomach.

Duan, 66, of Suining, southwest China, said: “I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw.”

She was so scared she grabbed a shoe and beat the beast to death before preserving its body in a bottle of alcohol.

Guess she wasn’t all that rattled.

CLICK FOR PHOTO.

Can’t let the date go by without a comment.

They seem like a fun bunch. I stumbled over this video and couldn’t keep from smiling, along with approximately 21 million others.

A variation on Boggle.

We spent a couple days in San Francisco — the lefty city where you cannot make a lefthand turn — and chose the Hotel Tomo for it’s unique decor and bargain (for SFO) rates. It’s a Best Western doing a best eastern turn.

This brought to mind this classic John Belushi/Richard Pryor samurai hotel bit. Chevy Chase is the straight man.

Then, for no good reason at all, we bring you this video from the Japanese surf band, the Royal Fingers.

Someone’s having fun with Photoshop. There are 59 images in the gallery.

Just because it’s cute.

…buy a 4×3 foot Fresnel lens and see what they can burn with it.

This one’s a must see.

German police said an elderly man was so annoyed at hearing the same serenade over and over that he called authorities to report his neighbors – only to discover the culprit was a musical greeting card on his own windowsill. Police said Tuesday the 82-year-old from Goslar in central Germany told officers he was sick of the music, which would come at irregular intervals and at all hours.

Upon further investigation, police found the musical greeting card on his windowsill, where occasional breezes opened the card just enough to play an irritating tune.

It can be done. NeoNeocon has the details.

An online app uses algebra to help you make big decisions.

Then, if you’re a fan of American Idol and want to see the odds of who gets the axe next, try out DialIdol.com. Designed to let you automate your voting, it also returns data on which contestant’s number has the most busy signals, and thus his/her ranking.

It predicted last night’s bottom three and loser perfectly.

Viral ads are so cool, people pass them along. Here Minicooper spoofs virals within their own viral.

An 18-year-old has secretly painted a 60ft drawing of a phallus on the roof of his parents’ £1million mansion in Berkshire. It was there for a year before his parents found out. They say he’ll have to scrub it off when he gets back from travelling.

Just like the Red Arrows, they soar through the sky in perfect formation leaving a trail of smoke in their wake.

Unlike the Red Arrows, this daredevil crew do it without aeroplanes.

They are skydivers wearing just a helmet and £1,000 body suit with flaps of material between the legs and under the arms to act as wings.

The team leap from a plane at 13,000ft and fly inches apart as they glide to earth at 120mph with smoke canisters strapped to their ankles.

Not on my bucket list.

A former bookkeeper embezzled $9.9 million, forcing her company to make layoffs while she bought 400 pairs of shoes that she kept in a room-sized closet that contained a crystal chandelier and a plasma television, authorities claimed.

Annette Yeomans, 51, surrendered at the Vista jail on Friday and was booked for investigation of grand theft and embezzlement.

She was being held Saturday at the San Diego County jail in Vista on $10 million bail. It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney.

She spent at least $240,000 on 400 pairs of shoes, $300,000 on designer clothing and 160 purses valued at $2,000 each, investigators alleged.

A bedroom in her San Marcos home was remodeled into a clothes closet and boasted a granite-covered center island, crystal chandelier and 32-inch plasma television, Varnau said.

A more budget-conscious crime from Georgia:

A Camden County inmate has been arrested trying to sneak back into jail.

Sheriff Tommy Gregory said Saturday that 25-year-old Harry Jackson of St. Marys had broken out of the jail and strolled to a nearby convenience store, where he broke in and stole about 14 packs of cigarettes.

Gregory said authorities at first thought they had separate incidents – a jailbreak and a burglary. The jailbreak was discovered when a door that had been secure earlier was found unlocked.

The jail is supposed to be a smoke-free environment.

Not to mention escape proof.