I don’t know about you guys, but I sure wouldn’t spend this gorgeous artwork on just anything. No, it would have to be on something awesome like a wookie cookie.

Link Via The Daily What

Once, the United States issued $5,000, $10,000, and even $100,000 bills. Why on earth would someone carry bills that big, especially back when they were really worth something?

Believe it or not, it wasn’t just to save space in fatcats’ wallets. When the Treasury started printing these giant bills, their main purpose was making transfer payments between banks and other financial institutions. Before sophisticated wire transfer systems were fully developed, it was apparently easier and safer just to fork over a $5,000 bill to settle up with a fellow bank. Once transfer technology became safer and more secure, there really wasn’t much need for the big bills anymore.

Mental_floss has the story on when and why such large bills were issued, what they looked like, and why they aren’t in circulation anymore. Link

Do toucans need their giant bills for peeling fruit, attracting mates, warning off predators, or something else entirely?

Glenn Tattersall at Brock University in Canada and his team of colleagues started photographing captive toucans with infrared cameras, which show warm areas as bright and cool areas as dark.

When temperatures rise, the scientists noticed that the toucans’ bills glowed with radiated heat as warm blood flowed into them.  When temperatures dropped, the blood flow would stop and the bills would go dark.

Paleontologists have hypothesized that some dinosaurs used bony head ornaments to shed heat in the same way, but due to a lack of live subjects they haven’t been able to prove this theory.

Images courtesy Glenn Tattersall, via National Geographic

Link – via news

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.