How do you make an animation? You make a bunch of drawings and then run them together. Whether it's a low-tech flipbook, 24 frames of film, or digital video, the principle's pretty much the same.

Except when it's not.  Turns out there's more than one way to, um, animate a cat.  Or a spinning globe.  Or a jumping stick-man.

Check out this series of amazing mini-cartoons by video illusion whiz Brusspup (pro tip — things get really cute at the one-minute mark with the arrival of a special guest):

Take a stroll down the aisles of your local toy emporium, and you'll notice the majority of products have a few things in common.

For one thing, they're nearly all plastic. And for another, they're nearly all packaged with vast amounts of cardboard, shrink-wrap, zip-ties, and other landfill-clogging waste. Environmentally friendly? Forget about it.

It doesn't have to be that way, though. Plenty of toys will give your kids an appreciation of green concepts without destroying the environment in the process. Maybe it ain't easy being green, but snag yourself one of these top-selling hits and it'll certainly be fun.

(Credit: Hasbro)Since time immemorial, kids have been running about the house shooting at things that aren't there.

This fall, they'll have an excuse.

Or they will if they're fortunate enough to own a couple of the latest blasters in the NERF Lazer Tag line.  Much like every other NERF gun in existence, they're brightly colored, futuristic toys that are just a coat of black spray-paint away from being a prop on an ill-fated sci-fi TV show set.

But unlike typical NERF guns, propped where you'd usually expect the rear sight to be is a hefty smartphone case, like an Otterbox that's spent some serious time in the weight room. It holds an iPhone (3GS, 4, or 4S) or a comparatively recent iPod Touch, and puts that device's camera and screen to work livening up your gunplay.

When was the last time you found a prize in your box of breakfast cereal?

Chances are it's been at least a year or two. More likely it's been ten or twenty. Once ubiquitous, the humble cereal-box toy has nearly disappeared from the aisles of grocery stores around the world, putting a quiet end to a story that's very nearly as old as breakfast cereal itself.

As it happens, both the prizes and the foodstuff began in the same place and with the same famous family.

It might be commonplace to say food is an art form, but some take the saying more literally than others. And food doesn't get much more artistic -- visually, at least -- than when it's in Bento form. A Japanese technique dating back to the 16th century, Bento is undergoing a resurgence in the age of Flickr and Facebook as chefs around the world show off their artistic skills. We've collected some of the niftiest Bento boxes floating around the web -- designs so fine, you couldn't bring yourself to eat them.

Click to see the slideshow.

(Credit: Getty Images)

By Kyle Hightower, Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — One of the top young Scrabble players in the country has been kicked out of the game's national championship tournament in Florida after he was caught hiding blank letter tiles, organizers said Tuesday.

John D. Williams, Jr., executive director of the National Scrabble Association, said that a male player was ejected from the 350-player event in Round 24 of the 28-round event.

The cheating was spotted by a player at a nearby table, who noticed the ejected player conceal a pair of blank tiles, which can be used as wild card letters. When confronted by the tournament director, he admitted to it, organizers said.

Malaysian T-shirt designer Chow Hon Lam has a gift for playful, ambiguous compositions. In addition to distributing his shirt designs via his website Flying Mouse 365, Lam has done exclusive designs for Nike, and a number of his prints have been featured in the book "The Art of Illusion" by Brad Honeycutt and Terry Stickels.

Below, check out a selection of Lam's work. Every image has a secret, hidden trick, or clever double meaning. Can you spot it?

Midnight Walker -- courtesy of Chow Hon Lam

(Credit: Duncan Yo-Yos)

You can Walk the Dog. You can probably Rock the Baby. Maybe you've even been Around the World a few times. But no matter how sharp your yo-yo skills might be, you're bound to be impressed by the talent on display over the past weekend in Orlando, Florida, where the 2012 World Yo-Yo Championship just wrapped up.