These incredibly lifelike paintings were created by John Pugh who calls his artwork "trick of the eye."

The Californian-born artist said: 'It seems almost universal that people take delight in being visually tricked.'

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If you missed out on the San Diego Comic Con this year, you weren't alone -tickets sold out months in advance, leaving a whole lot of people locked out. If you were one of the many who wanted to go and couldn't, or if you just are interested in the event, now's your chance to see one of the best parts of the con -the costumes. These pictures include my top 20 favorite costumes, but there are a whole lot more out there. If you're interested in seeing more convention pictures, be sure to use the links at the bottom of the article. There's always a lot of cross-over costumes at Comic Con and for some reason, they tend to mostly involve Star Wars. These guys were seventies Darth and Boba Fett. I missed out on the opportunity of getting a picture of another one along these lines, the storm troopper with a gold, disco-ball tiled helmet.

Here's another great Star Wars cross-over costume. While Chef Vader is good, it wouldn't have been half as good without the addition of Jar Jar's head on a platter. For some reason, it always seems even cooler when the costumed character is an older person. Here's a perfect example, and yet another Star Wars cross-over costume, this time a Jedi Holmes. Of course, Boba Fett wanted me to remind you that there are plenty of classic Star Wars costumes as well. Contrary to popular belief, there are actually a whole lot of very hot women at comic con. These evil cheerleaders are only the tip of the iceberg. Here's further proof that there are some major hotties at the con. This tailed pirate may not make sense, but I didn't hear too many complaints. This couple is here every year dressed in Alice In Wonderland gear. Next year though, there will undoubtedly be an increase in these costumes due to the upcoming Tim Burton film. This young girl designed and created this fantastic dress, which had already won her a masquerading award at an anime convention. These gentlemen showed up to represent one of the greatest things that ever came out of Mad Magazine, Spy Vs. Spy. There were a whole lot of Watchmen costumes this year, as it was one of the most recent and popular comic book movies before the convention. I think this Rorschach was one of the best at the event. If you don't recognize this guy, you won't be alone. He's dressed up to help promote his booth. A lot of people do this to get attention for their small-press comics. Another popular approach is hiring a "booth babe." Speaking of using costumes and babes to get attention for a booth, here's one combining the two. What a cute costume, what a sexy girl...you can bet they had a lot of traffic at their booth. Here's a more classic booth babe. While she's still in costume, it isn't anything nearly as off-the-wall as the cutie above. Still, I'd say she got her message across. Couple's costumes are always popular at the convention. Here's a great pair of X Men, for example. Ghostbusters always have a big presence at the convention, partially because once you make a huge proton pack, you aren't going to scrap it in the following years. This costume is actually a major rarity. While there are many Disney costumes every year, there's rarely a woman dressed up as anything besides Alice or a Disney princess. I'm a big fan of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, so this getup was one of my favorites. If you're a big fan of the male Disney characters, you'd likely enjoy this Jack Sparrow, who not only looked the part, but played it well. You may have a problem with his drinking Full Throttle while in costume, but just try and convince me that a real Jack Sparrow wouldn't be downing this stuff like crazy if he had it. Cobra Commander is always a hip choice, but he may be overdone next year after the new GI Joe movie comes out. Personally, I always am reminded of the Cobra Commander for president campaigns when I see these guys. Lastly, not all women dressed up at Comic Con have to dress sexy and here's a perfect example of a cute and sweet Harlequin costume. They're another popular one every year. Lastly, as promised, here are a few links for other Comic Con galleries: For a few great costume galleries, here's one on Geeks Are Sexy and my other pics this year.and for 2008, here's one by Rue The Day and one on the Official Star Wars Blog. There's even a few great Flickr sets of 2008 and 2007 costumes. As far as merch goes, here's a great post on things available there at Boing Boing Gadgets, one for the giant Stitch vinyl toys on display, and one for general stuff seen at the con. And one for things last year. Lastly, if you just want to see some more cute girls at Comic Con, there's one for that too.

It's hard not to love this fantastic time lapse footage of Disneyland's original construction.

Rare and unseen footage of Disneyland's construction narrated by Imagineers. Includes some amazing new footage of Walt Disney walking the site before construction even started and some never-before-seen timelapse footage of the park from groundbreaking until opening day. This film was on the way to deep storage and was found by a curious employee, otherwise there's a good chance we'd never get to see this.

Thank goodness that curiosity doesn't kill the Disney employee or we would have all missed out on this great find.

Link Via Boing Boing

These fantastic shots of water balloons taken with a high speed camera are just fantastic. Who knew water could look so fascinating?

They bring back memories of when you were a young scamp, mischievously dropping water bombs on hapless cyclists from overpasses, or soaking whole streets in drive-by drench-athons – but those days of innocence are gone now. So, it just leaves us to sit back and wonder at the beautiful physics of the things – as well as the devilish uses to which they can be put.

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Now that Walter Cronkite passed, Time decided to ask Americans who their most trusted newsperson was. The results were overwhelmingly in favor of Jon Stewart.

It's a sad statement that the most trusted name in news is actually a comedian. I'm not sure if it speaks badly about Americans in general or about the state of our news media.

http://www.timepolls.com/hppolls/archive/poll_results_417.html Via Good Magazine

A woman in North Carolina woman recently paid $4000 to save a five legged dog from becoming a freak show attraction. The owner was offered $3000 from a freak show operator in Coney island, when Allyson Siegel offered to up the price in order to help keep the dog from being little more than a spectacle.

Although the fifth leg didn't seem to bother the pup, Siegel intended to have it removed, but was shocked to learn it would cost another $2000 to do so. Fortunately, a Manhattan vet was so touched by Siegel's actions that he offered to remove the leg free of charge.

“She is beautiful, she’s not a freak, she’s a normal little puppy dog and she should be just like all the others,” Siegel said.

Precious was born with a fifth leg protruding from her stomach, between her hind legs. The extra leg has six toes.

Link Via Dogster Dog Blog

If you were impressed with the dog who wet nursed the red panda cubs, just wait till you read about the dog who adopted these tiger cubs. The page also has photos of a dog in the same area that adopted two lion cubs.

What I want to know is why are all these wild animal mothers being so negligent to their young in the first place. Thank goodness for these good natured dogs or these cubs would be in big trouble.

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If you love Mario, you may be interested in learning how to make your own Super Mario Mushroom from a radish.  Perfect for bento boxes or party treats, although, if you're like me, it's nothing you'd ever want to eat.

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In yet another sterling example of interspecies loving, here's a great video of a deer giving sweet kisses to an adorable kitty. I love how into it the kitty gets near the end.

Link Via Cute Overload

This Simpsons mosaic table is made of leftover tiles and places from a Target clearance sale and leftovers at the local home improvement store by craftster user redflag. She completely freehanded the pictures, which is pretty impressive. I like how suspicious Moe and Mr. Burns look.

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Instructables has a detailed set of how to's to let you convert your computer case into a taxidermy beaver. Nothing says quality technology like dead animals. It's pretty easy, just look at step one:

Purchase a beaver of your very own
There are lots of old taxidermy mounts out there - garage sales, antique stores, ebay are all good sources for older pieces. You'll probably want a high quality mount since you'll be removing the bulk of the internal structure, so better quality (ie not falling apart) probably means stronger.

http://www.instructables.com/id/S5I0DHGF1B3RBU4/

When rare red pandas in China were abandoned by their mother, zookeepers looked high and low for a wet nurse. The farmer's dog pictured was one of three candidates for the wet nurse position.

“No one knew she was pregnant. Her plump body and bushy hair disguised her protruding belly until the babies were born,” said Ha.

Link Via Ohmidog

Artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster have taken piles of trash and turned them into interesting abstract artworks depicting people or animals. The piece above is called White Trash (With Gulls), it is comprised of six month's worth of trash and two dead sea gulls. The image portrayed is a self portrait of the artists relaxing with a glass of wine.

Link Via YesButNoButYes

Ever wonder where the zoo critters get their names? Well, most of them are named by the keepers, but if you've ever wanted to name one yourself, particularly the baby tapir shown above, here's your chance. The Belfast Zoo is holding a naming competition for the little babe born on June 22, 2009.

All you have to do is send us your chosen name and up to 100 words explaining why you think it would suit our new tapir to namingcomp@belfastzoo.co.uk

Link Via ZooBorns

This little guy was found with a broken leg, but vets couldn't convince themselves to put it down, so instead they gave it a bionic leg made with steel pins, nuts and bolts so she could start walking around on her own.

Cathy Jackman, a diver, spotted the tiny blue bird struggling to keep afloat off Brixham in Devon.

She plucked the distressed budgie – nicknamed Captain – from the sea and looked after him until they returned to shore.

She said: "When I first saw him he was flapping and disappearing under the water. He nearly drowned as he couldn't take off or swim.

Link Via BoingBoing