Scientists create 'dry water'

"It may sound like a contradiction in terms, but scientists have created ''dry water''."

Video: Muppet given place in history

"Kermit was created by Jim Henson in America over half a century ago and made his first public appearance on Washington TV show 'Sam and Friends' in 1955.

The Smithsonian already has a familiar Kermit the Frog puppet from 1969, made famous on 'Sesame Street' and 'The Muppet Show', but the original Kermit was more lizard-like, and a duller green. His body was made from an old coat thrown out by Henson's mother.

Some of the other early Muppets donated to the museum include the puppets that inspired Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch, as well as Sam from 'Sam and Friends'. The group also includes Henson's oldest surviving puppet, Pierre the French Rat.

The puppets mostly mimed on the show and would lip-sync to popular music."

Video: Muppet given place in history - Telegraph

Why working at home is both awesome and horrible - The Oatmeal

more here The Oatmeal

R.E.M.- Drive

Stunning and Incredible Artwork (37 pics)

"What you're about to see may look like just a bunch of uninteresting ordinary items that don’t deserve any attention. But in reality, these are the sculptures that were hand craved from one block of wood and hand painted!

Randall Rosenthal manages to make his work look very realistic. And apparently, as impressive as his art is, it also costs an impressive amount of money. For example, this box with money cost 25 thousand of real dollars.."more here

Izismile - Pictures, videos, games and more

Move It

What's all the fuss? It's just a cat

A woman who enraged animal lovers across the world by dumping a cat in a wheelie bin said today she 'thought it would be funny'.
But Mary Bale, 45, has received death threats, and a Facebook page set up to track her down has attracted more than 18,000 members.
Miss Bale was caught on video picking up four-year-old tabby cat Lola before throwing her into the bin and closing the lid.
But she claimed the outcry had been blown out of all proportion.
She said: 'I don't know what the fuss is about. It's just a cat.'
read more
 Mail Online

Monkey adopts kitten

A young long tailed macaque monkey has been spotted in a forest protectively nuzzling and grooming a ginger kitten and making sure no harm came to it. The extraordinary sight was captured by amateur photographer Anne Young while on holiday at the Monkey Forest Park, in the Ubud region of Bali, Indonesia
more here

Crazy?

Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?

Dogs, Rodents May Prevent Future Epidemics

"Disease-detecting dogs and mice may be trained to sniff out bird influenza and other deadly illnesses before they spread, suggests new research reported today at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society."read more
Dogs, Rodents May Prevent Future Epidemics : Discovery News

When Horses Walked on Water to Transport Humans : Discovery News

The word 'horsepower' today describes the output of engines, electric motors and other machinery, but naturalist Mark Fraser takes us back to the word's more literal meaning, when horses really did power many human machines and activities.

One such activity was boating.

Ultimatum

BigFun.be

Catholic Shampoo

 "Shopping in a local grocery store, two nuns happened to pass by the beer, wine, and liquor section.

One asked the other if she would like a beer.

The second nun answered that, indeed, it would be very nice to have a beer, but that she would feel uncomfortable about purchasing it.

The first nun replied that she would handle that without a problem.

She picked up a six-pack and took it to the cashier.

The cashier had an obviously surprised look, so the nun said, 'This is for washing our hair.'

Without blinking an eye, the cashier reached under the counter and put a package of pretzel sticks in the bag with the beer.

'The curlers are on me.'"

What Would Happen If Sharks Disappeared?

"Shark populations worldwide are under enormous pressure due to overfishing.
So what happens to an ecosystem when apex predators like sharks disappear?"
watch video
Animals: What Would Happen If Sharks Disappeared? : Video : Discovery News

If God Started Tweeting

BizarroBlog

Japanese artist Yasuhiro Suzuki has created a motorboat designed to look like a giant zipper

"Describing his creation, the artist said: 'This work is a boat modelled after a zipper tab.

'As the vessel glides through the water, the wake looks like a zipper coming undone, suggesting the image of the sea opening up.

'The Zipper Ship will travel to and fro between Takamatsu and Megijima [in Japan] and will also carry passengers.'

Suzuki first showed off his unique vessel at the recent Setouchi International Art Festival in Japan."

Yasuhiro Suzuki: Japanese artist opens up the seas with a boat shaped like a giant ZIP | Mail Online

iCat

'Ground Zero mosque'? The reality is less provocative

 "Things seem awfully heated in America right now; so heated you could probably toast a marshmallow by jabbing it on a stick and holding it toward the Atlantic. Millions are hopping mad over the news that a bunch of triumphalist Muslim extremists are about to build a 'victory mosque' slap bang in the middle of Ground Zero."The planned "ultra-mosque" will be a staggering 5,600ft tall – more than five times higher than the tallest building on Earth – and will be capped with an immense dome of highly-polished solid gold, carefully positioned to bounce sunlight directly toward the pavement, where it will blind pedestrians and fry small dogs. The main structure will be delimited by 600 minarets, each shaped like an upraised middle finger, and housing a powerful amplifier: when synchronised, their combined sonic might will be capable of relaying the muezzin's call to prayer at such deafening volume, it will be clearly audible in the Afghan mountains, where thousands of terrorists are poised to celebrate by running around with scarves over their faces, firing AK-47s into the sky and yelling whatever the foreign word for "victory" is.
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Charlie Brooker | 'Ground Zero mosque'? The reality is less provocative | Comment is free | The Guardian

The Top 10 funniest jokes from the Fringe Festival

1. Tim Vine: ''I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again.''
2. David Gibson (as Ray Green): ''I'm currently dating a couple of anorexics. Two birds, one stone.''
3. Emo Philips: ''I picked up a hitchhiker. You gotta when you hit them.''
4. Jack Whitehall: ''I bought one of those anti-bullying wristbands when they first came out. I say 'bought' - I actually stole it off a short, fat ginger kid.''
5. Gary Delaney: ''As a kid I was made to walk the plank. We couldn't afford a dog.''
6. John Bishop: ''Being an England supporter is like being the over-optimistic parents of the fat kid on sports day.''
7. Bo Burnham: ''What do you call a kid with no arms and an eyepatch? Names.''
8. Gary Delaney: ''Dave drowned. So at the funeral we got him a wreath in the shape of a lifebelt. Well, it's what he would have wanted.''
9. Robert White: ''For Vanessa Feltz, life is like a box of chocolates - empty.''
10. Gareth Richards: ''Wooden spoons are great. You can either use them to prepare food, or if you can't be bothered with that, just write a number on one and walk into a pub.''"
Tim Vine wins best joke at Edinburgh Fringe - Telegraph

Lovely Day

Lovely Day from Michelle Ryan on Vimeo.

The Presurfer: Lovely Day

'The web is dead, long live the internet.'

"According to the latest cover story in tech bible Wired, 'The web is dead, long live the internet.' The headline is attached to a feature by the magazine's editor-in-chief, Chris Anderson, outlining what he calls the abandonment of 'the open, unfettered web... for simpler, sleeker services'. It has generated a huge reaction online.

Are we heading for a less romantic digital world, in which open-ended surfing of the web is replaced by an ordered world phone 'apps', tailored to individual preferences? A world in which 'gated digital communities' – whether comprising virtual gamers or fitness fanatics – organise themselves ever more efficiently but ignore the wider web-based possibility of the unexpected."

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Are phone Apps killing the web's original spirit of fresh discovery? | Technology | The Observer

Grave Diggers

In 1975, “on a crisp scarlet-ocher November afternoon at Edson Cemetery in Lowell, Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg visited Jack Kerouac’s grave, trailed by a reporter, a photographer, a film crew, and various others (including the young playwright Sam Shepard). Dylan had performed the night before at the University of Lowell, on a tour of New England with a thrown-together troupe of new friends and old, including Ginsberg, which called itself the Rolling Thunder Revue. Ginsberg, who became excited when the tour buses reached the city, met up with some of Kerouac’s relatives and drinking buddies and tried to immerse Dylan’s entourage in Kerouacian lore.” Sean Wilentz describes the scene in “Bob Dylan in America,” his upcoming meditation on the singer, which is excerpted on newyorker.com. At the cemetery, Wilentz writes, Ginsberg recited “poetry from Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues, including “54th Chorus”— invoking specters, fatigue, mortality, Mexico, and John Steinbeck’s boxcar America, while he and Dylan contemplated Kerouac’s headstone.”
Goings On: Culture Pick: Grave Diggers : The New Yorker

A notice on the wall of a Buddhist temple

via

How to draw an owl.

via

Can You Keep a Zebra as a Pet?

Two zebras escaped from their owner's home near Sacramento, Calif., on Saturday and tore through the city streets until police corralled them. The animals belong to Michael Mustangi, a trainer and "professional cowboy." This case raises a number of Explainer-worthy questions, to wit:

Can anyone own a zebra?