Imagine you're on a warm New Zealand beach, walking your dog, minding your business, when farther along the sand you spot a--no, it's not a... it is a penguin! Christine Wilton was doing exactly that on Peka Peka beach discovered a young Emperor penguin. "It was out-of-this-world to see it," she said, " … like someone just dropped it from the sky."

Conservation experts say the penguin is about 10 months old and stands about 80 centimetres high. Colin Miskelly, a curator at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, said the bird was likely born during the last Antarctic winter. It may have been searching for squid and krill when it took a wrong turn.

Miskelly said emperor penguins can spend months at a time in the ocean, coming ashore only to molt or rest. He doesn't know what might have caused this particular one to become disoriented.

Miskelly said the penguin appeared healthy and well-fed, with plenty of body fat, and probably came ashore for a rest.

However, Miskelly said the penguin would need to find its way back south soon if it were to survive. Despite the onset of

the New Zealand winter, the bird was probably hot and thirsty, he said, and it had been eating wet sand. "It doesn't

realize that the sand isn't going to melt inside it," Miskelly said. "They typically eat snow, because it's their only liquid."

However, he said the bird was in no immediate danger from dehydration because Emperor penguins can also drink salt water in the summer.

Peter Simpson, a program manager for New Zealand's Department of Conservation, said officials are asking people to stand back about 10 metres from the creature and to avoid letting dogs near it.

Other than that, he said, officials plan to let nature take its course. Simpson said the bird could live several weeks before needing another meal.

Link | Image: Richard Gill, Department of Conservation/Associated Press

I'm having a hard time deciding which is worse, here: the fact that BeautifulPeople.com, a dating site built on a set of arbitrary aesthetic standards, even exists, or that people join it. At any rate, there are fewer official Beautiful People as of today; according to The Guardian, the site was infected with the Shrek virus last month, disabling the screening application to allow just any old person in. Today, BeautifulPeople.com started culling those new members undeserving of membership, a move that the company claims is an upholding of standards.

"We have to stick to our founding principles of only accepting beautiful people -- that's what our members have paid for," BeautifulPeople.com's Greg Hodge told The Guardian. "We can't just sweep 30,000 ugly people under the carpet."

The website works on a system under which members are able to rank applicants on a beauty scale. The decision to reject 30,000 cost the company more than US$100,000 in refunds and Hodge sent a regretful email to the distressed dumpees.

Hodge said the company was investigating the cyber attack, adding he suspected a disgruntled former employee may have planted the virus.

The ugly members cull is not the first time the site has courted controversy, news.com.au reported. In January this year it asked 5,000 users to reapply after they posted pictures of themselves looking chubbier than usual celebrating the festive season.

And earlier this month it sparked controversy in Ireland by declaring that Irish men were among the world's ugliest.

Link | Image

Once upon a time, British sculptor David Goode was the youngest ever waxwork modeller for Madame Tussauds. He spent most of his career studying the human form, but lately he's taking that study into Middle Earth by bringing life to some of the elves, imps and orcs of J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination. Using the centuries-old lost wax method, Goode has been casting bronze elves and such since 1994. Check out more of his work on Kuriositas. Link

Image: David Goode

Books make for great decorative touches around the house, no doubt. But as the Kindle Uprising advances, fewer and fewer print books are being sold and, hey, maybe someday you'll need a great title to slip under the side table lamp and there will be no book. For this highly unlikely situation, Italian artist Emanuela Ligabue has you covered. Her collection of wooden-blocks-turned-books is kind of quirky and interesting, though I confess that I'd paint my own fake books before buying one. Check out more of Ligabue's designs on Flavorpill. Link

Image: Emanuela Ligabue

If you spend your days writing Trojan code or sending malware to thousands of hapless email address owners, you'd better steer clear of the Land of the Rising Sun. Otherwise it could cost you $6,200 in bail or three years in jail.

[T]he bill that criminalizes the creation or distribution of computer virus was finally enacted last Friday by Japan’s parliament. The law also includes provisions regarding punishment that will be meted out to people who have been caught sending pornographic images to random people.

These laws are meant to crack down on the dirty web of cybercrime; however, some parts of the law border on infringing the privacy of communications as it allows data to be obtained or subpoenaed by authorities from servers for investigation when necessary.

Japan is the first country to enact and implement such a law. Hopefully, we’ll be able to gauge the effectivity of passing the law a few months down the line.

Link | Image: Dvice

The Seasteading Institute is positive that someday in the future, we'll have to migrate away from land and into renewable-energy powered floating cities. So sure, in fact, that they ran a competition for seastead designs for permanent, stationary structures that would allow for long-term ocean living. From the off-shore floating research laboratory shown above to a Jetsons-esque enclosure, WebUrbanist has a detailed round-up of the five winning entries.  Link

Image credit: Team 3DA

(Watch on Vimeo)

Sure, just about everyone who reads has a book light. But do you have a light made of a book? Don't be sad; neither do I... yet. This video shows the process (rather quickly) on how to build your own cool lamp. For the tutorial, check out Grathio Labs. Link

via Make Online

Historians of the future have their work cut out for them when it comes to decoding some of our current artwork and photographs, I'm sure. What will they think of the LOLcats? Probably something like what we think of these old photos over on Retronaut: Huh. WTF. See more general weirdness, including apparent side-show performers and the Wonder Spot. http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/06/historic-wtf-part-3/

In the 70s and 80s, Polaroid's founder, Edwin Herbert Land, provided prominent artists with custom-made cameras and film not available to the public. Big names like Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe and Ansel Adams were fans of the limited-edition technology and used it often, resulting in the 44,000-piece collection of Polaroid masterpieces now owned by Vienna-based WestLicht Museum of Photography. They're displaying 350 of the photos now in Austria, but if you can't catch a flight in time to check it out, Flavorwire has a preview. Link

Image: Patrick Nagatani/ WestLicht Collection

Oh, how I wish these weren't abandoned. Sanzhi Pod City in Sanzhi District, New Taipei City, Taiwan, looks like something straight out of the Jetsons. The complex of pod apartments was built in 1978... or, almost built. The funding went awry and now all that's left are these futuristic-looking ruins. Retronaut has a great gallery of the place if you'd like to see more. http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/06/abandoned-pod-city/

Image credit: Cypherone

It's no secret that some notable authors were also notable imbibers. I'm not going to name any names, but I know a fair number of people who prefer the Hemingway approach to writing. While I can't recommend that route personally, I am interested to know that Oscar Wilde was a fan of absinthe. Whether it's whiskey (neat, please) or a very dry martini, Flavorwire has rounded up a nice gallery of famous authors' favorite drinks. Link

Move over, Edward Nino Hernandez, there's a new smallest man in town. Junrey Balawing of Zamboanga del Norte, who turns 18 today, measures only 24 inches from head to foot lying down and just over 23 inches standing up.

Balawing, the eldest of four siblings, is not only the shortest living man, but the shortest living man in history, the Guinness World Records said.

No monetary prize will be given for Balawing and all other Guinness world record holders.

Balawing unseated Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal who is 26.4 inches tall.

Municipal administrator Allan Selda earlier said the local government is preparing to celebrate for the record with balloons and a cake for Balawing.

Link | Image: AP

Before the advent of Photoshop, being a photmontage artist was a fairly complicated endeavor. For John Heartfield, a German citizen who chose to speak out against the National Socialist Party through his work, it was even more difficult.

Born in 1891 as Helmut Herzfeld he saw the horrors of the First World War first hand. Although propaganda was rife and rabid on both sides he made the extraordinary move of anglicizing his name in 1916, in the middle of the war, to protest against such nationalism.

That, of course, was just the beginning. See more of Heartfield's photmontage series and read the history of his life and work on Kuriositas. Link

Image credit: Smabs Sputzer

(YouTube link)

As far as at-home science experiments go, this one is both kid-friendly and non-explosive. It's a great way to illustrate non-Newtonian flow and magnetic attraction to kids, but it's also cool enough to keep grown-ups hanging around to see what happens. For the full instructions for making your own magnetic putty, check out the post on instructables by user mikeasaurus. Link

via GeekDad

Thanks to the animated film, Madagascar, most children and their parents are familiar with the Ring-Tailed lemur. But there are many species--most endangered--that deserve a little attention, too. BTW, "group" is the official collective noun for lemurs, but I think it should be something different, like "prank" or "chatter". How do I go about getting that changed?

Lemurs are a varied bunch; some are loud (the Black and White Ruffed) and some take diet tips from the giant panda (the Golden Bamboo). From the Red-Ruffed (above) to the papyrus-munching  Lac Alaotra Gentle lemur, the Ark in Space has a great round-up of pictures and info about King Julien's closest relatives. Link

Image credit: Bubblegum