If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you’ve probably seen towel origami. The stewards or cleaning crew take a large bath towel and fold it into fun shapes (typically animals), and sometimes accessorize it to look more realistic.

On some cruises, towel creations are often a bit rushed and shoddy, but I thought these animals were atypically great.

These have been around for hundreds of years, but Carnival Cruise Lines has been credited for making them popular again (they even sell a how-to book).

What has always amazed me is that they’re all created from a single towel.

OK, quick … what is the first thing you think of when you see this picture:

A Ninja, right? It’s supposed to be a monkey, but I like the idea of cleaning crews toiling away folding up Ninjas a lot better.

If you want to learn how to make your own, here is Royal Carribean’s Towel Folding How-to (for non-commercial use only). All pics via Spluch.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, about the internet, and about websites.
“You know,” she said, “I ought to make a website about–”

And here I interrupted her, because I am a total jerk. “You know,” said I, “you might as well not. I promise, whatever website you’re thinking of, already exists.”

“No,” said she, “Mine would be–”

“–The exact same as another website,” I repeated. “You underestimate the internet. There’s a website for literally everything. Everything.”

Everything, I said, though I didn’t honestly believe it in my heart, not fully. But, one crazy boring evening and a random Google search later, Stuff On My Cat reared its head. It’s just a collection of pictures of…stuff, sitting on top of cats. And I knew then that my prideful claim had been painfully, terrifyingly correct.

This, my friends, is the the beginning of the end of the internet. I mean, once you’ve reached stuff on cats (it’s just stuff on cats, people!! STUFF on CATS), you really don’t have that much farther to go. I mean…stuff on cats?!

Stuff. On cats. I’m going to go outside and remind myself what the sun looks like. I hear there’s fresh air out there…

I should probably be embarassed, but I love captioned pictures (apparently called image macros or lolpics) such as this:

I know, I know, these have been around FOREVER. You’ve probably seen them all in your e-mail, or overused in forums or on MySpace. But I can’t help it, I still love them. Here’s my favorite:

I even had that as my desktop background for a while. I’m a sucker for middle school humor I guess. If there was a central repository of these pictures, it would probably be half filled by cats:

If there’s anyone else out there who likes these pictures, speak up. Otherwise I might start worrying about my sanity. If you have seen any funny ones, send us a link!

Over the past few months, my 2 year old has decided to start using the potty. His primary motivation? Elmo’s Potty Time, a maddeningly repetitive online game that he can play for hours nonstop.

Too bad I don’t speak Japanese though, as I think he’d have fun with this toilet training book:

The idea of “Hitori de Unchi” (approximately meaning “I poop by myself”) is to show different creatures successfully using the toilet. For example, who better than a cat to teach proper bathroom etiquette?

Talking poop isn’t reserved for the cat either, the poop always gives the pooper some props afterwards:

I love the muscle-flex, nice touch. The full name of the book is “Hitori de Unchi dekirukana zero ichi nisai no hon akachiyan no asobi ehon bo do butsuku” – does anyone know what this means?

Book Link [YesAsia], pics and translation via Knitting While Intoxicated

If you’re hiking through Italy’s Northern mountains over the next 20 years, don’t be surprised if you run across this 200 foot tall pink bunny:

An art group from Vienna designed this massive toy, claiming it was “knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool”. Sounded like complete you-know-what until I saw the bunny for myself via satellite. I’m sure Italy’s taxpayers are proud.

The intent of the project was to make climbers smile and provide them somewhere to lay back and relax:

Interested in climbing on this bunny? First consider:

1. Who wants to lay on a plush doll that’s been in the rain for 20 years?
2. How fun is a dead bunny that is a casualty of a skydiving accident? They designed it to look like it had fallen from the sky … complete with an open mouth and organs strewn to the side

I’ll stick to taking pictures from the side. via the Cellar IOTD.

He’s only six years old, knows five words, and can be had for only $7,500 at the homestead. Although I don’t generally like websites with soundtracks that start up unexpectedly, this one has some classic bluegrass songs.

I’ll pitch in $10 just to see the bull dance. You know. The Watusi. The ’60’s dance. What? He doesn’t? Okay, gimme a HullyGully bull instead. My $10 is still on.

“They Twist, and I’ll Twist;
“They Shimmy, and I’ll Shimmy;
“They Fly, and I’ll Fly…”

Random Watusi trivia from Anita:

Turns out the Watusi were first imported to the U.S. in the early 1900’s, and are the primary cattle seen inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Unlike most cattle, both the male and females typically have horns:

Wondering how big the horns can get? The largest ever are those of “Lurch”:

Lurch holds the world record for largest horns – they weigh over 100 pounds each, are over 3 feet in circumference, and measure eight feet from tip to tip. I’ll bet he could use a back rub after carrying those around! Here are a few more pics of lurch.

In Japan, everything can be accessorized. Kind of like the U.S. in the Eighties, just with fewer commodore 64’s and cuter cartoons.

This year’s must have accessory? This little piece of golden poop:

OK, OK, I don’t know if it’s exactly the “must have” accessory of the year, but the manufacturer has already sold over 2 Million of these poop charms, each for the sole intent of attaching to your cell phone.

For only a few dollars, you can purchase your own at Rakuten. It even looks like they come in nice little displays:

Unless you’re Japanese, I’m not sure how you would go about the purchase, but I’ve done my duty. As the old saying goes: “I can only lead you to the poop, the rest is up to you.”

And for that guy in your life who might want a sportier poop charm, try the poop catcher’s mitt:

Now that’s what I call manly!

via Gizmodo

When I was a kid, my brother collected comic books. I was never really a fan of the stories (except Superman and Richie Rich), but for some reason I loved the advertisements. The more sensational the better – I wanted it all.

Here are a 10 crazy vintage comic book ads I recently stumbled across. Many of these I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I actually bought (or at least tried to).

Cheap land for sale

Who wouldn’t want some prime Texas real estate? I was about six when I saw a similar advertisement and tried convince my parents to advance me four weeks allowance so I could be a rancher.

I had dreams of cows and wealth (Dallas was my second favorite TV show, primarily because it aired right after Knight Rider), but obviously no concept of measurement. Via comicvine

Comic book weapons (click either pic for full-sized ad)

Something tells me a kid couldn’t buy this nowadays. Actually, I’ll bet an adult couldn’t either, at least without being added to a terrorist watch list. Via comic coverage

The holy grail of kids’ toys back in the Sixties. The Polaris Nuclear Sub fired rockets/torpedoes, had working controls, and dove deep to help you search for pirate’s treasure. Fun for girls and boys, wow!

The only problem was that the sub was made from cardboard and rubber bands. Thank goodness they were discontinued well before I was born, the disappointment would have been devastating.

Has anyone ever seen one of these? If so, I’d love to hear about it. I’ll even pay for a picture of the actual sub – my curiosity is driving me crazy. Via psubs

The Superman Phenomenon

In the mid-seventies, celebrities started popping up in superhero comics. Superman vs. Muhammed Ali was my favorite. It was quite possibly the silliest comic book ever (a boxer giving Superman a black eye?), but I loved it.

This one never made sense to me. Be a friend to superman by buying Kryptnotastic rocks? Kids were supposed to buy them to keep the rocks out of the hands of villains. Makes a tiny bit of sense, but why wouldn’t the government just destroy them all or send them into space?

I convinced a couple kids on the school bus to buy them for protection in case Superman was exposed to red Kryptonite and came after them. They felt this was a logical reason, and received this upon ordering:

Painted green rocks – they lost 3 weeks allowance, I got a great laugh. Then they went back to arguing whether or not Superman would come out of retirement to raise the Titanic.

Pics via x-entertainment

Hypnotize your friends

My parents were psychologists, so I was always trying to convince them to teach me hypnotism. The hypno-coin was supposed to be my shortcut to fame and fortune. Another waste of two weeks allowance. I tried to hypnotize my brother into trading some of his garbage pail kid cards for my hypno-coin, but even that wouldn’t work.

X-Ray glasses

After I bought these glasses, my older friends tried to convince me I just didn’t know how to use them right, and would “ooh” and “ah” when wearing them and looking towards neighbors houses. I never saw anything terribly revealing, but did give myself quite a few headaches.

Free Cash

Yes, I fell for this too. I probably spent around $3 to get a worthless catalogue and $1 Million in cheap cutout $10,000 bills. Fun.

This and next ad via Tom Heroes

Quail Eggs

Why Quail eggs? Why not Chickens or even Turkeys? Did these actually work? I remember seeing Live Miniature Dogs (a “no way!” from mom and dad) and Sea Monkeys (another waste of three weeks allowance), but never incubators for Quail. I would love to hear from anyone who tried to hatch a mail order Quail as a kid.

Bizarre Adult Products

If you read comic books, you probably noticed lots of products that were certainly not marketed towards kids. How many kids had irritated eyelids? Or jock itch? And would women really peruse comic books to buy slimming bras?

If you were a comic book fan, what were your favorite advertisements?

In recognition of the ever widening American posterior, Florida officials are planning for the inevitable future by building the world’s largest toilet:

I interviewed the manager of the Goldan Corral buffet across the street, who could barely subdue his excitement:

“From adding tableside troughs to widening our toilet stalls every two years, the Golden Corral does everything possible to serve the needs of our herd … er, I mean, guests.

But now with the opening of the world’s largest toilet across the parking lot, we can spend more time focusing on developing new entrees, such as twice fried frosted butter sticks, and less on extracting our patrons who often get stuck in our bathrooms.”

Don’t believe it’s real? Check out Google Maps.

via The Register

The following pets are very quiet, don’t demand a lot of attention, and won’t damage the furniture. Plus, you won’t have to clean up their little Number Ones and Number Twos, and they even feed themselves!

“Jabba” strikes a thoughful pose. He likes a good story, especially one with a “Charlotte” in it.

Look! Barney’s laughing! “Little Miss Muffett” cracks him up every time.

Awww. Lulu is sleepy. Sing her a song, something about a waterspout. She likes that one, and will be fast asleep in no time.

Furthermore, they are completely harmless, unless you fall asleep and they crawl down your throat and into your ear canal via the eustacian tube where they make their way up to your brain to control your every move for the next 48 hours before you die a slow painful death as a zombie, eaten from the inside out. Or not.

How can you not love something as furry, adorable and self-sufficent as these little guys?

More cute photos at Dark Roasted Blend.