Pop Culture

SupermanFrench animation designer Andry imagined comic book superheroes in the act of walking their sidekicks to school. Aren't they adorable? Link -via The Mary Sue

Anne Marie Chaker's May 15 "Just One Thing" Wall Street Journal feature focused on Jonathan Wright — a professional gardener at the Chanticleer Public Garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania — and his indispensable Lesche Digging Tool (above). Excerpts follow. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Jonathan Wright is a self-identified "plant geek" with a soft spot for summer-flowering dahlias. His Lesche Digging Tool, which he says he never gardens without… [is a] 12-inch knifelike tool [with] a serrated edge, which makes it useful for cutting and dividing perennials or even twine. Mr. Wright says the Lesche knife is a good substitute for a trowel when tucking bulbs or small plants into the ground. The action is slightly different from a more labor-intensive digging motion: "I stab it into the ground and pull toward me," he says, creating a cavity in the soil that makes planting "three times as fast" — significant when there are, say, hundreds of bulbs on the to-do list.The knife's tip makes a handy wedge for lifting weeds or even pavers, which sometimes require resetting or weeding between. In the vegetable garden, the flat edge of the knife makes it easy to draw a straight line in the soil for seeding.The steel tool's maker is W.W. Manufacturing Co. Inc., a Bridgeton, N.J., supplier of rakes, spades and other gardening and landscaping equipment. A plate just below the handle "guards your hand from sliding down" onto the blade, says Ingrid Hawk, co-owner of the company, which was founded by her father, Walter Lesche, in the mid-1950s and known as Walt's Welding. Mr. Wright says he was given the tool when he started gardening at Chanticleer as a student fellow in 2001. "One of the gardeners said, 'Here, take this, it will be your new best friend,' " he recalls. Today, he is in charge of designing and planting terraces surrounding the mansion on the 47-acre property. "It did replace any other trowel or weeding tool I had," he says. Another benefit: The red handle makes it easy to find if he leaves it in the garden. But even if that doesn't work, "I've bought a backup," he says. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• $36.95.

©Michael AbrahamsonMichael Abrahamson makes amazing balloon sculptures. Browse his gallery to see startlingly realistic motorcycles, cartoon characters and even a full-sized couch that can support the weight of three adults. My favorite, though, is this xenomorph chilling at a pub.Link

(YouTube link)The annual Dance Off with the Star Wars Stars is back as Disney's Hollywood Studios launch their Star Wars Weekends. This year's dances include "Bad," "Fight for Your Right to Party," "Hey Ya," and since this is the first Dance-off since Disney bought Lucasfilm, a special appearance by Jedi Mickey. You can see all the numbers on video at Inside the Magic. Link

If you’re familiar with jailbroken iDevices, you probably might have heard of Jay Freeman, a developer known as Saurik, credited with the development of Cydia, an alternative application store platform for iPhones that are jailbroken. Recently, Saurik made headlines yet again with the release of the Cydia Substrate for Android platforms. Capable of working with Android 2.3 and higher versions of the operating software, the Cydia Substrate platform will enable easier customization of software, particularly at times when the source code isn’t easily available. Cydia Substrate also enables easy installation and removal of features, without having to resort to custom ROMS. The platform has been tested on several Android versions already as well as on a bunch of devices. Still under development, Cydia Substrate comes with a safety feature that disables modifications. The developer of this platform advises users to take utmost caution while using it to its best and as always, taking timely backups is crucial. That apart, Saurik has also brought the Winterboard theme engine to Android devices though this one requires root permissions and Cydia Substrate. [Via - Xda-Developers]

Don't Make Me Release The Flying Monkeys BangleFace it, some days you feel like a kind and gentle Dorothy and some days you feel like the mean wicked witch. Now you can have an accessory that quietly expresses the darker side of your split personality with the Don't Make Me Release the Flying Monkeys Bangle from the NeatoShop. This beautiful bracelet is hand carved, inked, and polished. It is inscribed with the text "Don't make me release the flying monkeys." The bangle comes with a handsome embroidered gift pouch. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Jewelry and fantastic Wizard Of Oz items. Link

Faced with the daunting prospect of having to sit through hours of commencement speeches, Dominique Zamora of Foodbeast came up with the perfect solution: she put a flask in her graduation cap.Luckily, the process for making this thing is painless enough. Just pop off the top button with a pair of pliers, Velcro in the bladder (I took mine out of the Wine Rack Bra, secure the whole mess with bobby pins and drink up.Head on over to Foodbeast to see how you can make your own (we're not responsible if you get thrown out of your graduation ceremony, mmkay?): LinkOh, alcohol. The cause of and solution to all of life's problems.

We already know that cats will steal anything that's not tied down. But what about the rest of the animal kingdom? The tendency to steal food is a beneficial adaptation for a species, and taking what another critter has is not really rare. For example: Flowers produce nectar to attract bees for pollination purposes, but bumblebees take nectar from flowers without pollinating the plants in exchange.Bees who’ve evolved with short tongues and thus can’t reach for the sweet nectar have learned to carve holes into the side of a flower in order to reach their reward. This phenomenon, first observed by Charles Darwin, gets a bee nectar without the bee pollinating the plant. More cannily, there’s evidence suggesting that bees aren’t born behaving this way—they learn how to thieve from other bees, a sad sign that bee society is being overrun by hoodlums.Read about seven thieving species at mental_floss. Link(Image credit: Flickr user Joe Penniston)