Beauto is a Roomba alternative that you building yourself.  It runs on 4 AAA batteries and can be hacked to become battle-bots or moving display cases for your favorite stuffed animal.  Product page (Japanese)

Last holiday season I was trying to think of a way to create a pop-up card, but figured it would just more work than I actually wanted to deal with.  I came across this howto on making pop-ups out of your very own photographs which seems easy enough.  I just might give it a try.

My little family is addicted to root beer.  I, personally, don't like ice cream in my drinks, however, I never pass up the opportunity for a frosty mug of 1919, IBC or A&W. 

In case you are a root beer float fanatic, you might want to whip up a batch of root beer float cupcakes.  I have no idea if these are good or not, but it's worth trying out.  [via BoingBoing]

Here is a simple howto on how to make your very own glowing tomatoes. 

Furoshiki is the Japanese technique of wrapping cloth used to transport clothes, gifts or other goods.  Over at Japan's Ministry of the Environment website they have provided a complete howto on how to use the different wraps in furoshiki.  [via digg]

A Japanese man made an ocarina out of broccoli.  The video is in Japanese so you'll miss out on some commentary, but he does play 'Angels We Have Heard On High' on the ocarina, which is pretty amazing given that it's a big head of broccoli.

Previously:
a cardboard box upright bass

This guy made his very own Coca-Cola can tuxedo coat and corsage for some special event.  Check out the photo series of the Coke tux in the making here.

Here is a nifty trick on cooling down room temperature soda pop within 2 minutes.  All you need is a large bowl, ice, water and a hand full of salt.  Place the soda cans into the bowl full of ingredients and let sit for 2 minutes.  Your soda will instantly be 40 degrees cooler.

After two weeks of brainstorming and three days actually making the cake, university student, Su-Yin, baked this amazing Mario cake for a friend's birthday.  More pictures here.

[via Neatorama]

Previous cake madness:
Nintendo! It's a cereal... and a wedding cake?, Mac Mini Birthday Cake, iPhone Birthday Cake

Mr. Woo is a man who lives with his wife and kids an hour outside of Beijing in rural China.  Having  no formal education or training, Mr. Woo creates amazing homemade robots out of rubbish he finds from scrap heaps. 

There is some danger involved, especially when he managed to burn his entire house down while creating one of his robots.  He has since built a new home, but his wife isn't too happy with his choice of hobbies. 

Burning down houses aside, Mr. Woo has built quite extraordinary robots.  He has even built a robot rickshaw which brings him and his wife to the market.  Now how can his wife stay mad at him after building a robot rickshaw.

[via meshly]