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The answer to yesterday's trivia is "you or your brother". Joel gets eight points and is eleven points away from the magic number of 100, where I donate to his favorite charity.
The untold story of the world’s biggest diamond heist.
Portraits of insects up close. I have this thing for jumping spiders. One year I had one as a constant traveling companion on the dash of my car for several months. Now one is in my shower every morning, and I delicately pick it up and move him to the corner of the bathroom. The next day he’s back in my shower. I’m really afraid I’ll accidentally wash him down the drain one day.
Trivia (8 Biomes points): What’s the closest relation the son of your father’s brother’s sister-in-law could be to you (no googling)?
Gawker is putting together a series of Walmart employee stories. Volume 3 is titled “Welcome to Hell”.
How old is your country? Click a nation to see its age.
Pet corner: Little boy and his big dog.
Octopus lamp made from found objects.
I first became acquainted with cartograms during the elections, when electoral maps were used to resize states based on population (showing that even though electoral maps made the country appear mostly red, it was actually overwhelming blue). Here’s a cartogram that shows relative electricity usage in the U.S.
The story of kudzu, an invasive vine that covers 7 million acres of the American south.
This year’s crop of cicadas was known as the Brood Two Emergence, and here in RI it was a big dissappointment. The last member of the emergence just died. I heard a few in the mornings, but that’s about it. PBS News Hour has a great piece on the 17-year cicada.
Infographic: The college textbook shakedown.
Thirteen states have an official state amphibian. Rhode Island doesn’t have one, but I’d like to nominate the spring peeper.
Now we’re cookin’: The Burger of the Week Club introduces us to the lasagna bun burger.
The can’t stand ya dress.
Ben & Jerry’s has an actual graveyard for their discontinued flavors.
True facts about mole rats.
Today’s long read is a fascinating story about the former sushi chef of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who escaped from the country and now lives in Japan under an alias.
I once owned sheep, and it took me fifteen years before I could eat lamb again. I’ve never owned a guinea pig, but there’s no way I’m eating that.
The Arrested Development wiki.
Play! Cut the rope.
The Empire State Building was built during the Great Depression. And I don’t care how desperate for work they were, these guys were nuts. Over 30 people have died by jumping over the years. Only five died in its construction.
Stuff you should know when it's 100 degrees out: The chemistry of snowflakes.
Superman catches a shoplifter stealing bacon.
Albino Monday: A rare leucistic golden redpoll spotted in the Goldstream Valley near Fairbanks. He looks like an Angry Bird.
In today’s long read, Ross Andersen ponders the extinction of humanity, interviewing scholars whose jobs are to anticipate the end of our species.
Learn about the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.
Today, someone in India sent the world's last telegram.
Buy your Jughead crown button beanie here.
Underground power boxes keep blowing up little sections of London’s streets.
Before and after composite portraits of drug abuse.
Winners of the 2013 best amateur underwater photography contest. This was the overall winner.
Bill Maher destroys the myth that Reagan was too mainstream to fit into today’s Republican party.
See where you fit on this political quiz. Under all three catagories (economic, social and overall) I”m overwhelmingly liberal.
Animal of the week: A woodchuck eating an ice cream cone.
Fifty reasons you despised the Bush presidency.
What would happen if the oceans were sucked down a drain in the Challenger Deep? The answer is it would take thousands of years, and The Netherlands would conquer the world.
Picasso's women in real life.