Om nom! Cassius the Croc, the world's largest crocodile in captivity, turned 110 this week. Just be thankful that you are not the cake:
Far North Queensland keepers of the world's largest saltwater crocodile in captivity sang the old croc Happy Birthday before giving him the 20kg meat cake topped with candles.
"He destroyed it in about 30 seconds," Marineland Melanesia croc wrangler Billy Craig said. "It's one of the biggest meals he's had - we decided to spoil him."
A classic skit. Some people have no idea how offensive they are until you turn it around on them. And the real kicker is that turning it around often doesn't even get the point across. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Trolltunga is an odd rock protrusion jutting out over Ringedalsvatnet, a lake in southern Norway. The name means "the troll's tongue." Would you be willing to sit on the end? He promises not to eat you.
Sugar isn't always sweet, especially when Darwin's involved. Entomologists at North Carolina State University showed that when glucose is used in roach-bait poison, cockroaches evolve to dislike sweets:
Glucose sets off bitter receptors in roach taste buds, causing roaches to avoid foods that bring on this taste-bud reaction. This aversion has a genetic basis and it eventually spreads to offspring, resulting in increasingly large groups of cockroaches that reject glucose and any baits made with it.
In normal German cockroaches, glucose elicits activity in sugar gustatory receptor neurons, which react when exposed to sugars like glucose and fructose – components of corn syrup, a common roach-bait ingredient. Generally, roaches have a sweet tooth for these sugars. [...]
Glucose-averse roaches that were forced to taste glucose refused to ingest the sugar, akin to a child who spits out her bitter-tasting food.
A hedgehog in Bude, Cornwall, England, was taken to the vet because he was so big and round that he couldn't walk or curl up. Veterinary staff were puzzled, because the huge hedgehog was of normal weight. An x-ray revealed that the animal was, indeed, inflated. Veterinary surgeon Adam Revitt said he had never seen a case of "balloon syndrome" before.
Balloon syndrome occurs when bacteria gets into a wound and gives off gas that becomes trapped under the skin, Mr Revitt explained.
He added: "This is the first case I had ever seen. It is uncommon. There are very few things published about it.
"Without the treatment it couldn’t breathe and would probably have died."
Revitt used a syringe to slowly deflate the hedgehog over about five minutes. The animal is now on antibiotics and is recovering nicely. Link -via Arbroath
If Klein Bottles - which have neither an inside nor an outside surface - aren't confusing enough for your, check these glass Klein bottles made by Alan Bennett for the Science Museum in London:
A single surface model made by Alan Bennett in Bedford, United Kingdom. It consists of three Klein bottles set inside each other to produce, when cut, three pairs of single-twist Mobius strips. A Klein bottle has no edges, no outside or inside and cannot be properly constructed in three dimensions. (Source)
A single surface model made by Alan Bennett in Bedford, 1995. It consists of a sphere with three interlinked loops the equivalent of three interconnected Klein bottles. (Source)
A single surface glass vessel made by Alan Bennett in Bedford, United Kingdom. It consists of a triple loop Klein bottle which when cut gives a pair of five-twist Mobius strips. (Source)
Erin Bradley's Park Slope Family Circus imagines Bil, Thelma, Billy, Dolly, Jeffy and P.J. not in Scottsdale, Arizona, but a wealthy neighborhood of Brooklyn. They're rich enough to afford absurdities.
Father's Day is right around the corner. Are you looking for the perfect gift for your Star Trek loving Dad? Get Dad the Live Long and Prosper Star Trek Photo Frame from the NeatoShop. This fantastic frame features Spock and the U.S.S. Enterprise. The opening is in the shape of the Sarfleet insignia. The frame holds a 4 x 6 photo.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Star Trek items.
M.C. Escher's tessellated lizards will look great on your floor! The tiles for the bathroom floor pictured were custom-designed, but you can contact the company Arbore about making some for you. Link -via Boing Boing
Eventually, someone will break your heart. Don't wait until s/he has ripped it out of your chest and stomped on it before developing a contingency plan. Be prepared with Melanie Chernock's first aid kit. It contains chocolate, vodka, tissues, bubble bath, a candle and a music CD with appropriate songs.
Maru, the internet's favorite cat, turned six years old yesterday. As is her custom, mugumogu posted a retrospective of Maru's best moments from the past year in a birthday video. Link -via Cute Overload
w00t! If you love Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series on Neatorama, you'd love this: they're having an awesome Father's Day Sale, where the entire Uncle John's store is 30% off from May 20th to July 16th, 2013. They must be off their rockers! Thanks for letting us know, Mana!
Check out the latest Uncle John's Bathroom Readers article on Neatorama:
Guys, she doesn't want you to solve her problems or even just suggest possible solutions. Just listen and empathize as best you can. In this hilarious short film, Jason Headley offers great relationship advice.
What happened after the movie ended? Old Red Jalopy collaborated with Next Movie to envision what would logically happen after the credits rolled.
As you can see above, Willy Wonka's chocolate factory would've been closed by the authorities for sure. Willy himself is probably hiding somewhere in Loompaland to avoid lawsuits.
To celebrate YouTube's eighth anniversary, Dane Boe put together a retrospective of viral videos to the tune of Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire." You might recognize all the clips, most of them were posted here at Neatorama over the past eight years. -via Viral Viral Videos
No ordinary plate will do. The photography duo Nicky & Max photographed food presented in the elegant Bauhaus style. Their simple shapes, colors and forms result in lovely images of fine food. You can see more photos from their series at the link.
Etckt had great success with their Periodic Table of Star Wars (the Original Trilogy), so, just like Lucas did, they followed that up with the prequels. And just like the prequels, this new periodic table has more special effects.
Each element cell is now a cube (rendered as hexagons), with all the pertinent information, and elements/characters categorized as Jedi, Sith, royalty, politicians, droids, etc. Of course, Anakin Skywalker heads the table, along with Qui-Gon Jin. You can see more details and the full-size version by clicking the image at Etckt. Link-Thanks, Matthew Gallagher!
Celebrate a love worth becoming mortal for with the Aragorn & Arwen Salt & Pepper Shakers from the NeatoShop. This beautiful set is made of glazed ceramic and feature hand painted details. Magnets hold the two shakers together.
At the age of 80, Japanese mountain climber and adventurer Yuichiro Miura reached the summit of Mount Everest on Thursday. But he may not hold that title for long:
There are reports that Nepalese climber Min Bahadur Sherchan, 81, is planning an assault on the world’s highest peak next week, despite some recent intestinal problems.
Sherchan frustrated Miura’s record-setting ambitions once before when, in May 2008, Miura conquered the mountain at the age of 75, only to arrive a day after Sherchan's ascent at age 76 years and 340 days.
This is Miura’s third ascent of the 29,028-foot peak. He also earned the oldest climber title in 2003, at age 70, a milestone broken four years later when fellow Japanese climber Katsusuke Yanagisawa ascended at age 71.
But at least for now, Miura is expressing nothing but satisfaction at his accomplishment.
"This is the best feeling in the world,” an entry said on his Facebook page. “How could I have come so far at the world's oldest age of 80, I’ve never felt like this in my life. But I've never been more exhausted than this." [...]
The veteran adventurer also hit the spotlight in 1970 when he became the first person to ski down Everest with help from a parachute, a feat documented in the 1975 Academy Award-winning documentary "The Man Who Skied Down Everest."
This video from RTÉ Radio 1 shows a cat in County Offaly, Ireland, suckling ducklings along with her own kittens. Isn't that amazing? Well, from what I can see, the ducklings are not nursing, although they may give it a try after seeing the kittens do it. After all, ducks don't suck. But they sure are craving some snuggling from the mama cat! What really is amazing is that a video from a radio network has no audio. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Remember that time you gave that long and tearful toast at your brother's wedding, only to find out later that you had a huge chunk of spinach stuck in your teeth? Or the time you stole that basketball and shot that brilliant last-second 3-pointer into the other team's basket? Or what about when you built that giant highway bridge for the city and it suddenly collapsed one day? On second thought, that last one is its own special kind of embarrassing. And one for which you'd probably trade a million spinach-toothed moments. So take comfort in knowing that, if nothing else, your bad hair day didn't put anyone in danger or make the nightly news.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge is Falling Down
Tacoma, Washington, 1940
While buildings and bridges are made to bend in the wind, the engineers behind the Tacoma Narrows Bridge might have benefited from heeding a different aphorism: everything in moderation. Stretching 2,800 feet above the riverbed, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was (at the time) the third-longest suspension bridge in the world, behind the Golden Gate in San Francisco and the George Washington in New York City. Its sleek design incorporated a roadbed only 39 feet wide, making the bridge far more slender and light than its contemporaries. But it was also a lot more flexible.
The simple fact is that any structure built without enough "give" is more likely to break in a strong wind. There's no shortage of mathematical formulas for calculating how flexible a structure should be. Yet, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was only one-third as stiff as common engineering rules dictated. Even in modest winds, the roadway oscillated up and down several feet, quickly earning it the nickname Galloping Gertie.
While drivers found the undulations unsettling, the bridge seemed steady enough from the outset—at least to everyone except University of Washington engineering professor Bert Farquharson. Worried that it was far too flexible, Farquharson began studying the bridge in an attempt to uncover what sort of retrofits might improve its stability. As part of his investigation, he showed up at Tacoma Narrows on the morning of November 7, 1940, to film the movement of the bridge. His timing was eerily coincidental. As he was shooting, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge began heaving, and soon collapsed.
The Moral: It's o.k. to be a stiff. Materials like wood, metal, and concrete vibrate when they're struck—whether it's your fork hitting a wine glass (causing it to ring) or wind pushing across the roadbed of a bridge. If sustained, the vibrations can build to dangerous levels. It's like pushing someone on a swing; when they reach the back-most point in the oscillation, the same light push over and over will make the swing go higher and higher. You don't have to push harder each time; you just have to push repeatedly at the right moment. Similarly, if wind pushes a roadbed steadily for long enough, it can oscillate higher and higher, creating what's known as resonance.
Rhiannon's cake is delicious, right down to the core. She made it for her sister, a teacher, who wanted to show her students how the Earth is structured. The baking challenge was to bake a hemisphere within a hemisphere within a hemisphere. At the link, you can read about how Rhiannon did it.
Meet the Lyre Sponge, a large harp- (or lyre-) shaped carnivorous sponge in the deep waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. The vertical branches, capped with a balloon-like ball, maximize the surface area of the sponge for capturing planktons.
See that and 9 other neat new species discovered just last year over at LiveScience's Top 10 New Species of 2013 (don't miss the monkey with the blue butt!): Link | Image Gallery
Jason Marlin of ars technica was struck by a bolt of lightning. He was apparently okay enough to write about it right away.
Yesterday, I was sitting in my studio office—basically a converted garage—while a thunderstorm brewed outside. After wrapping up a conference call with some of Ars' finest, I was getting ready to dive back into work when the storm really picked up. "Ahhhh," I thought as I leaned back in my chair to stare out at the strange greenish light against a purple-clouded backdrop. "So beautiful!"
At that moment—and this part is a little foggy—a bright arc of electricity shot through the window and directly into my chest. I'm not sure whether the arc originated from the sky or the ground, but it knocked me out of my chair. I hit the concrete floor and bounced back up to my feet, which were shuffling at top speed into a bookshelf. I remember thinking, "OK, going to die now. Do not fall down. Do not pass out."
I've read that being struck by lightning is akin to a being hit by a huge defibrillator. I'm not sure about that—but it did feel magnitudes worse than the time I touched an electric fence as a kid.
The paramedics urged him to go to a hospital for tests, but he declined. Read the rest of his first-hand account and the aftermath. Link -via Digg
His hands are full, but this hero is ready for anything. Question: what happens if his Hulk legs get angry while his Tony Stark head wants to kick back and relax?
This picture of a giant spider on the M3 in Hampshire, which is a highway in England, was captured by a CCTV camera. As you can see, cars are speeding away from it as fast as they can. Link -via Arbroath
When activated, this zoetrope at the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory in Melbourne, Australia shows ducks jumping in and out of the water. Note: for display purposes only; do not eat.
Father's Day is coming? Are you looking for the perfect gift for your golf loving Dad? Get him the BBQ Golf Tool Set from the NeatoShop. The tools in this fantastic 5 piece set feature golf club shaped handles. The set also comes with a golf club shaped carrying bag for keeping those tools neatly organized.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Kitchen Stuff.
A hedgehog in Bude, Cornwall, England, was taken to the vet because he was so big and round that he couldn't walk or curl up. Veterinary staff were puzzled, because the huge hedgehog was of normal weight. An x-ray revealed that the animal was, indeed, inflated. Veterinary surgeon Adam Revitt said he had never seen a case of "balloon syndrome" before.
w00t! If you love Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series on Neatorama, you'd love this: they're having an awesome Father's Day Sale, where 
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Jason Marlin of ars technica was struck by a bolt of lightning. He was apparently okay enough to write about it right away. 
