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What could be better than a surly-looking rainbow-maned unicorn greeting you each time you turn on your phone?

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What if your sparkling Twinkletoes unicorn decided on a more natural summer look? Artist Reptanglian (AKA, M. Peña) has provided an answer with her work "Super Natural Unicorns". Each unicorn is airbrushed and hand-painted to look a bit more like the animal kingdom, and you can even purchase one. (Which one arrives to you is a surprise!)

Hmmm... A magical creature that wishes it was a bit more normal? Dr. Bruce Banner should tell these unicorns how successful that strategy is.

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This Saturday, 5.19.12, Kegasus returns to InfieldFest at Preakness, the Baltimore horse-racing event. And this year, he's brought an assistant: UniCarl.

It seems that moderation and tact are not on the forefront of these creatures' minds, but if you like beer + rock-n-roll you'll all get along just fine.

If you don't, there are probably some mint juleps and giant hats you can enjoy at the races. Well, as close to mint juleps and giant hats as Baltimore gets. 

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Last Friday, we introduced you to the unicorn-monikered zombie-slaying gun. Today, we've discovered new evidence of why unicorns and zombies may not be wearing each others' best-friend necklaces.

In his new book Zombies Hate Stuff, Greg Stones provides visual depictions of why zombies are not too keen on a variety of things, including dodgeball and technology. It's not often that unicorns are included on a list of hated things, but as you can see from the illustration above they definitely made this one.

In defense of the unicorn, this situation isn't a walk in the meadow: Getting something stuck on one's horn certainly makes for a rotten day of compromised aerodynamics.

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The zombie-blasting gun above was created by zombie apocalypse experts Guns & Gardens. Adorned with whimsy, this chainsaw/Smith & Wesson hybrid will pack a punch to the undead while keeping you the coolest kid on the block. If your block places a premium on rainbow stickers.

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Last year, artist Adam Connor created the piece above for our Unicorn-Art-Mix charity art show to benefit filmmaking-and-youth nonprofit Sailbear Labs and celebrate the release of the humorous how-to guide Raising Unicorns.

Today, Adam Connor's piece is featured on both Archie McPhee's Geyser of Awesome and Wired's Tumblr.

Yay Adam!
And yay interspecial love!

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Want to be a rhino? A unicorn? A pegacorn? This t-shirt supports all your ambitions!

We would like to say proceeds go to helping this world achieve its dreams of transmogrification, but we couldn't find evidence of that on the site. Maybe it's a secret donation. After all, the shirt condition is listed as "self-actualized".

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via sockittome.com

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These are the Sock It to Me knee-high unicorn socks. For only $9, you can adorn your foot and leg with awesomeness!

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If you thought the "cutie marks" on the tushes of My Little Pony were creative, prepare to have the barn doors of your horizons blown to smithereens! Jodi Moisan and Mari Kasurinen have taken MLP art to a whole new level, as you can see in the photos above.

Warning: Do not skip immediately from #1 to #5. You'll thank us later.

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Muscles to smile, muscles to frown

A long time ago I heard the adage that it takes something like 43 muscles to frown but only 17 muscles to smile, ergo, we should just smile because it's easier. It wasn't until my first anatomy class in college that I realized these numbers couldn't possibly be right. As far as I can tell, there are only about 36 named muscles of facial expression, and they're not all involved in smiling and frowning. Here they are in alphabetical order (a "2" in parentheses means the muscle is bilateral, "1" means it's unpaired):

Auricularis anterior (2)
Auricularis posterior (2)
Auricularis superior (2)
Buccinator (2)
Corrugator supercilii (2)
Depressor anguli oris (2)
Depressor labii inferioris (2)
Depressor septi nasi (1)
Frontalis (1)
Levator anguli oris (2)
Levator labii superioris (2)
Levator labii superioris alaeque nasi (2)
Mentalis (1)
Nasalis (2)
Orbicularis oculi (2)
Orbicularis oris (1)
Platysma (1)
Procerus (1)
Risorius (2)
Zygomaticus major (2)
Zygomaticus minor (2)

So which ones are responsible for smiling and/or frowning? I could hazard a guess, but I'll defer to Dr. David Song, a plastic surgeon and Associate Professor at the University of Chicago Hospitals, who was interviewed for a Straight Dope article: Does it take fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown? Counting only the muscles that make significant contributions, he concludes that smiling takes one more muscle than frowning (12 vs. 11). That doesn't necessarily mean that smiling is harder to do. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I suppose you could compare the masses of "smiling muscles" vs. "frowning muscles" to get a rough estimate of energy consumption (assuming the muscles all consume energy at the same rate per unit mass).

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All those cute Facebook posts and forwarded feel-good emails may be wrong: According to the post above from the blog Anatomy Notes, it may actually be easier to frown than to smile.

Unicorn advocates, we need to ramp up our joy initiatives in order to subsidize the smile effort! First duty: Increase cupcake intake!

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Keep practicing, friend. At the very least, you'll have amazing posture.

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"I am king of the cupcake!" this unicorn exclaims from its sky blue perch, the wind blowing through its rainbow mane. Yes, it pays to be this unicorn, made of sugar and sitting on the best seat possible - except that you may get eaten.

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Who knew a dog could become a unicorn? About.com did! Check out the tutorial at the link above to make your own balloon unicorn!

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We confess: We skipped over Cate Fitt's thought-provoking essay on unicorns and rainbows to check out the pics of what to add to our Etsy wish list. The items above are some of our favorites, but there are plenty more to be found at the link above!

As for Cate's essay, we beg to differ with both her professor and the conclusion. Here is our rebuttal:

Unicorns, by their nature, defy cliche. Those who do not should resign their role as these majestic creatures and step into the unemployment line reserved for tired jokes and caricatures: Ally McBeal's dancing baby, the pseudo-phrase "Wazzzzzuuuupppp?", Michael Jackson circa 1994. Unicorns will remain as real as their work, creating wonderment and whimsy throughout the galaxy. As long as imagination and possibility are alive, so will be the unicorn.

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Investigative reporter and HelloGiggles.com humorist Eliza Hurwitz delves deep into the world of what she calls "Phony Ponies", and what we call fauxnicorns: Unicorn impostors.

Browse the photos at the link above to see the gallery of culprits she has collected. Our favorite? A very depressed looking bulldog. He would put the Unipug to shame.

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...even though they're wearing lampshades on their heads.

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Where's the unicorn we mentioned in this post's title? You're looking at her! This is a picture of Abigail B. Titcomb of Three Floyds Brewery. According to the head brewer there, she's a "black unicorn" - a woman beer-brewer.

She even has her own brew at the brewery: Das Kleine Schwarz Einhorn.
Translation: The Little Black Unicorn.

Well done, Ms. Titcomb! Keep shattering glass ceilings with that magical horn. <:-)

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Those fantastically funny ladies at Comediva have flipped the script, showing us not the interests of a unicorn-obsessed Pinterest enthusiast, but the interests of a unicorn itself!

Only one question we have regarding the items pinned on here: Where is the hoof chute for the ultimate unicorn pedicure?

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