The scene near Mars Bluff, S.C. after a B-47 bomber
accidentally dropped an unarmed nuclear bomb.

On January 24, 1961, something not at all funny happened in the skies over Goldsboro, N.C. The wing of a B-52G bomber began to leak fuel and exploded, destroying the plane and releasing its payload of two thermonuclear bombs. (One usually does the trick, but the plane carried two on board "just in case.") The first drifted to earth beneath a parachute. Its twin, however, crash-landed in a swamp. Thankfully, neither exploded – which is lucky, considering the bombs had gone through three of the four steps toward activation.

Of course, there were complications. The bomb that crashed proved to difficult to recover. Workers could only drag part of it out of the mud, leaving a chuck containing nuclear material buried 150 feet down. It’s still there today, and so is the government. U.S. officials bought the patch of swamp and continue to regularly check the radiation levels. As of now, it doesn’t look like locals will be catching three-eyed fish anytime soon.

As it turns out, though, the Tarheels were just keeping up with their neighbors to the south. In February 1958, two Air Force bombers collided in the air over Savannah, Ga., forcing one of the planes (carrying a nuclear-capable bomb) to crash into the Atlantic. Only a month later, a B-47 bomber accidentally dropped an unarmed nuclear bomb near Mars Bluff, S.C. Frighteningly, such "broken arrow" events were all too common in that era. Five of them occurred in 1958.

[From July-Aug 2005 issue of mental_floss magazine, featured in Neatorama with permission] – for more mind-boggling trivia and fun facts, visit mental_floss website and blog.

Tim Hunkin illustrated this neat little mathematical technique of multiplying numbers between 6 and 10. Give it a try: Link | See also another method at: Dr. Math

The Internet has got everything, including a website dedicated to television test cards. Wait, what are test cards?

In the early days of television, there was a need to test the response of cameras then in operation. This was done by use of a special pattern, drawn on to a large piece of card, which the camera then pointed at. Hence the name "Test Card". In the UK, this name has stuck despite most of the patterns now being produced by other means, either transparencies, monoscope or electronically generated. North America has tended to use the term "Test Pattern". Very early, simple patterns used in Britain were sometimes known as "Test Graphs". Test Cards were often 3ft wide, to enable lots of detail to be drawn in. Later versions used clever photographic techniques to produce the final result.

Link

Dutch artists Niels van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe made these chairs, aptly titled "Poodle."

Link (don’t miss: Soft Stove and Moulded Mole)

Wake up to the soothing sounds of Super Mario Bros with this alarm clock shaped like the classic NES controller!

Link – via SciFi Tech

How do you cook a stew for 30,000 hungry guests? With a backhoe, of course!

As the centerpiece of a PR campaign to spur consumption of local agricultural products, the soup was made entirely from local ingredients, including 3 tons of taro potatoes (satoimo), 1.2 tons of beef, 3,500 blocks of konnyaku (yam paste), 3,500 leeks, 50 bottles of sake, 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of sugar, 700 liters (185 gallons) of soy sauce, and 6 tons of water. After the stew boiled for 4 hours, 2 backhoes were used to scoop it into smaller cauldrons for easier serving. The soup was reported to have a refreshing soy sauce flavor.

Link

From the website:

Forget Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago. Rocky’s greatest victory was against the Philadelphia Arts Commission.

After months of debate, the commission finally voted in favor of returning an eight-and-a-half-foot statue of the Italian Stallion to the grounds of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, though not atop the steps the big-screen boxer–and thousands of inspired tourists–so famously climbed.

Just in time for Rocky Balboa the movie, which hits theaters in December!

Link | Previously on Neatorama: Rocky Balboa (Rocky VI) Trailer

Cat Head Theater presents … Hamlet, played by cats (specifically, cat heads!) Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Exploding Aadrvark

Leave it to The Smoking Gun to compile a list of murderous, criminal, no-good senior citizens: Florida’s Felonious Fogeys | Grandpa Needs a Shiv: Fogeys, Part II – via Miss Cellania

This handy soap “tape” allows you to take a strip of soap that cleans and dissolves as you wash your hands!

Link – via Cribcandy.