The Trends in Japan blog posted an amazing photo taken yesterday at the Tokyo Summerland wave pool. Follow the link to see the whole photo and an insane video of… Read the rest of the article: Insanely crowded pool

Queensland, Australia farmer David George, 53, scaled a tree to escape threatening crocodiles and ended up spending seven nights there. Injured and dazed after falling off his horse in the… Read the rest of the article: Man spends 7 nights in tree to escape crocs

Neuromatrix is a new educational vidgame out next week that's designed to teach people neuroscience. It's marketed to ages 10-15. The developer, Morphonix, writes that they "are developing a series… Read the rest of the article: Vidgame to teach basic neuroscience

Street Anatomy posted a gallery of several fantastic anatomical tattoos. Link (via MAKE: Blog)

Over at Wired.com, BB pal Gareth Branwyn looks at the history of the hovercraft, from mid-1950s Popular Mechanics covers (image left) to Survival Research Laboratory's Pulse-Jet Hovercraft, the "loudest robot… Read the rest of the article: Gareth Branwyn on Hovercrafts

The Russian region of Ulyanovsk holds an annual Day of Conception where people are given time off work to make babies. The aim is to boost the birthrate in an… Read the rest of the article: Conception Day contest in Russia

In the current issue of the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik has a beautiful essay celebrating the surrealist science fiction author Philip K. Dick. Gopnik is a fantastic writer himself, having… Read the rest of the article: Adam Gopnik on Philip K. Dick

Kasey Kazee was arrested for robbing a liquor store in Ashland, Kentucky on Friday. He allegedly disguised himself by wrapping duct tape around his face. He also apparently pulled his… Read the rest of the article: Robber disguised face with duct tape

New studies of dust that form lifelike structures suggest that extraterrestrial life may not be carbon-based at all. Researchers at the Russian Academy of Science, the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial… Read the rest of the article: Inorganic life?

For my birthday, my pals Michelle Hansen, Sabine Szylko, and Ed Szylko gave me a fantastic gift: Archie McPhee's Box O Fun. The cheap little plastic toys may seem kinda… Read the rest of the article: Archie McPhee's Box O Fun

Surrealist clothiers Imaginary Foundation are now shipping these long-awaited hooded sweatshirts with allover printing. Available in your choice of a cloud design or blueprint to some magical, mystery device. They're… Read the rest of the article: Imaginary Foundation: cloud and blueprint sweatshirts

On Slate, Jessica Vitkus, author of AlternaCrafts, challenges our presidential candidates to fight for the crafter vote. To that end, she presents a handful of sample political projects for both… Read the rest of the article: Craft the Vote! politically-themed crafting projects

In the new issue of Cabinet Magazine, Joshua Foer, secretary of the Athanasius Kircher Society, presents a short history of miniature writing. From the article: 1665 C.E. Robert Hooke titles… Read the rest of the article: History of miniature writing

Two of my patron saints as pitchmen. At left, Timothy Leary's 1993 print ad for The Gap. A copy is currently up for auction on eBay. At right, a still… Read the rest of the article: Leary and Burroughs advertisements

Juanita Marie Jones, 53, of Rochelle, Georgia, called police after realizing the crack cocaine she bought was bunk. According to an Associated Press article, she was hoping the cops would… Read the rest of the article: Woman complains to cops about fake drugs

Knowing my appreciation for artist Marcel Duchamp, Dave Praeger sent me this: "In my book "Poop Culture: How America is Shaped by its Grossest National Product" (published by your friends… Read the rest of the article: Poop Culture and Duchamp

No matter how scrambled a Rubik's Cube may be, it can be solved in 26 moves or fewer — by a supercomputer anyway. The previous record was 27 moves, but… Read the rest of the article: Rubik's Cube solvable in 26 moves or less

Threatened by modernization and Chinese imperialism, Tibetan folk music is sadly vanishing into the dustbin of global culture. In an effort to preserve the traditional tunes, students at Qinghai Normal… Read the rest of the article: Tibetan Endangered Music Project

A masterpiece by Monster Crochet's Lady Linoleum. Link

Danny Anderson and his son beheaded a 5-foot rattlesnake on their property in central Washington state. Then, they beat it over the head. But the snake still had its revenge.… Read the rest of the article: Headless rattlesnake bites man