Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman had a backroom tour of the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, Alberta where he perused a natural history collection of nearly 70,000 items donated by a generous… Read the rest of the article: Secrets of the Royal Alberta Museum

Wal-mart stores are depicted as disease-green blobs in this neat animation of the retail giant's spread across the US. Nathan says: "This is similar to the Walmart infection video you… Read the rest of the article: Cool animation of Wal-Mart's spread across US

Mark Statford says: Justin Parpan and Josh Parpan run a little store called Goblin Fish Press that's chock full of great kids toys, prints and shirts. All with a sort… Read the rest of the article: Monster toys, prints, and shirts from Goblin-Fish Press

This giant tree in Limpopo, South Africa is home to a tavern, the Big Baobab Pub. The 6,000-year-old baobab tree, on Sunland Farm, has a 155 foot circumference and walls… Read the rest of the article: Bar in a tree

Avi Solomon says: "Peter Ward, paleontologist, dives at night to meet the Nautilus, a wondrous creature which has survived for 500 million years." Peter Ward dives to meet a wild… Read the rest of the article: Peter Ward dives to meet a wild Nautilus

Brett Burton says: "Police in Ozark, MO tasered a 16-year-old boy after he fell 30 feet from a bridge. Officers said he refused to comply with them and they had… Read the rest of the article: Parents question why Ozark police used stun gun on kid with broken back

It's hard to argue with Todd Lappin's Cardinal Rule of Elemental Photography: Photos always turn out much better when you have a camera on hand to take the picture. No… Read the rest of the article: Todd Lappin's Quinceañera ceremony photos

The Orwell Prize will mark the 70th anniversary of the Orwell Diaries by serializing them, one day at a time, on a blog — reminiscent of the way that Phil… Read the rest of the article: Orwell's diaries in blog form

Watch this episode in Flash above, or download here: MP4 link In episode 2 of our new BBtv WORLD series, Xeni reports in from a K'iche Maya village in the… Read the rest of the article: BBtv WORLD: Migration, and a Mayan Sweat Bath. (Guatemala)

McSweeney's Short imagined monologues presents, "Mom, Dad, I'm Into Steampunk" by Marco Kaye. No, I won't take off my topcoat. And that's exactly my point. I understand your confusion. The… Read the rest of the article: Mom, Dad, I'm into Steampunk: an imaginary monologue

A new Rand Corporation report comprehensively surveys the ways that terrorist groups have been disbanded in the past: "Military force was rarely the primary reason a terrorist group ended." Instead,… Read the rest of the article: To destroy Al Qaeda, we must end the war on terror: Rand Corporation

Harriet Burns, the first woman Imagineer, died this week at 79. She was part of the teams that built Sleeping Beauty's Castle, the Matterhorn, Submarine Voyage, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki… Read the rest of the article: RIP Harriet Burns, first woman Imagineer

Gawker posted this photo of a dead beast of some kind. This is an actual monster, some sort of rodent-like creature with a dinosaur beak. A tipster says that there… Read the rest of the article: Gawker reports on "monster" washed ashore

I went for a walk in Sebastopol CA this evening and took some photos (crappy photos with my iPhone, sorry) of front yards that have gardens instead of lawns. They… Read the rest of the article: People who have killed their lawns

Kevin Kelly writes about software created by Dmitri Bitouk and Neeraj Kumar of Columbia University that "de-indentifies" people in photos to protect their privacy. Face swapping software finds faces in… Read the rest of the article: Face swapper software protects privacy

On his blog, Erik Knutzen, co-author of the terrific self-sufficiency guidebook, The Urban Homestead, writes about the ethics of raising chickens in the backyard for eggs. Eric pointed to "Why… Read the rest of the article: Homegrown Evolution blog on the ethics of raising chickens

Dettman says: "Some kid dressed up as the Joker was caught stealing movie posters from a theatre's lobby and was consequently arrested for it." Holy hooligans! Phony 'Joker' arrested in… Read the rest of the article: Kid dressed as The Joker arrested for supervillainous crime of poster theft

The new issue of Smithsonian includes a concise interview with avant-garde multimediatrix Laurie Anderson. In it, Anderson talks about pop music, her tenure as NASA's artist-in-residence, Andy Warhol, and some… Read the rest of the article: Laurie Anderson interview in Smithsonian

My favorite caricaturist, Drew Friedman, drew this fine portrait of our fearless leader for Vanity Fair. It's titled "No Joke." For more of Drew's terrific portraiture, check his his books… Read the rest of the article: Drew Friedman: George W. Bush as The Joker

The MonkeyLectric LED light system, invented by Instructables.com co-founder Dan Goldwater, turns spinning bike wheels into a psychedelic experience. Over at Boing Boing Gadgets, Brownlee has written a magnificent essay… Read the rest of the article: LED lighting system for bikes