Remember the "Inmate Thriller" video played out by 1,500 dancing inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines?

Well, after 16 million plus people watched their video on YouTube, they're now famous ... Intelligent Travel has the back story of the Inmate Thriller phenomenon:

Garcia was first brought into the Cebu prison in 2004 to boost morale after a series of riots took place. Under Garcia’s influence, dozens of jail guards were fired for corruption, and a new exercise regimen was implemented. Out of this routine sprung the dance program.

The results have been nothing but beneficial. In addition to putting the inmates on the map, dancing “gives the inmates something to do, something they can be proud they’re part of,” says Pepe Diokno, a University of the Philippines film student, who spent time at the Cebu facility while filming his documentary, “Dancing for Discipline.” The inmates agree that prison conditions have improved, and the amount of attention brought on by their performances doesn’t hurt either. “Because our families have seen us on TV and the Internet, things are better,” says inmate Marfury Barberan. “They don’t worry so much about us and don’t think so much that we have no more hope.”

Link - Thanks Marilyn Terrell!

Shortly after the discovery of radium in 1898 by Marie Curie and her husband Pierre, everyone wanted to put it in their products. Behold one of the strangest use of radioactivity ever: the radioactive radium chocolate! It was made by Burk & Braun, Germany, and sold from 1931 to 1936 for "its rejuvenation power."

More strange vintage products containing radium: Link [in French] - via Fogonazos, thanks Aberron!

I've got some old, torn-up jeans that I don't know what to do with (short of throwing them away), so it's quite nice to find this post at Life Hackery of 25 ways to recycle your old denim jeans.

I like this one the most: 14. Make a unique denim bulletin board, though I doubt I'm crafty enough to make it!

Here's the Link - see if you can add any more ideas to the pile - Thanks Kurt!

Seventy-seven-years-old grandma Keiko Wakabayshi isn't nicknamed the "Samurai Granny" for no good reason - she's recently been hired to train Italian soldiers in hand-to-hand combat!

Miss Wakabayshi, who stands exactly 5ft tall, looks tiny compared to her charges who are mostly over 6ft.

But the pensioner is a trained master in an array of martial arts disciplines including jujitsu, jojitso, kenjitso, judo, kendo and karate.

She wipes the floor with soldiers of the Folgore brigade at their barracks in Livorno on a daily basis.

Link (Photo: Barcroft Media) - Thanks Geekazoid!

In their iconic TV series Mythbusters, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage busted a lot of rumors and urban legends - but even their vaunted scientific method couldn't make the official Mythbuster website at Discovery Channel easy to navigate.

So enters MythBusters Results, a fan-made website that lists summaries of all the "myths" the duo have busted or confirmed over the years: Link - Thanks Jake!

Here's something you don't normally hear about: the state of Florida is actually buying land to restore the Everglades.

Under the deal, Florida will buy 292 square miles of cane fields from U.S. Sugar (which will go out of business within 6 years as part of the deal) and convert them to restore natural water flow to the Florida Everglades:

[Florida Governor Charlie Crist] said the purchase provides "a critical missing link" that will restore the flow of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades, the massive South Florida marshland.

"It is as monumental as the creation of our nation's first national park, Yellowstone," he said. "This represents -- if we are successful, and I believe we will be -- the largest conservation purchase in the history of Florida."

Link | A more detailed article at International Herald Tribune (Photo: GazzaS [Flickr]) - Thanks Travis Saunders!

There's a bunch of cell phone charger alternative (like solar chargers or using batteries) but this one is unique: it's a phone charger powered by dance!

Orange today unveiled a prototype phone charger which harnesses the kinetic energy of your dance moves to allow you to make calls.

The device - which weighs 180grams and measures about the same size as a pack of cards - will be strapped to peoples arms and tested at Glastonbury Festival this week.

As the dancers moves their arms along to the music – a specially designed system of weights and magnets creates an electrical current which provides a top-up charge to a connected mobile phone.

Link - Thanks Charles Hog and CheeseDuck!

Photo: Street Attack Original Source: ahhhitshayley [Flickr]

I can only guess that this is somehow related to Eddie Murphy's new movie "Meet Dave," but it's still surreal to see his large head motoring down the highway ...

Link (Delinked - sorry guys, the source I got the photo from turned out to have scraped it from Flickr) For Original Source see credit under photo | Nationwide "Head" Trip at ComingSoon.net - Thanks Street Attack!

Museum staff cleaning elephant skin.
Photo: Thane L. Bierwert, American Museum of Natural History (1933)

The American Museum of Natural History has just launched a new web exhibit called "Picturing the Museum: Education and Exhibition at The American Museum of Natural History." The exhibit features about 1,000 photographs from the massive archive of the museum, spanning from the late 19th- to late 20th century.

Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy blog, who also worked as a scanner and a retoucher on this project, wrote to us:

The photos themselves are amazing--dramatically lit and composed,
as well as often unintentionally surrealistic, and offer a nice peek into what
the museum used to look like, behind the scenes glimpses of the fabrication of the dioramas, and the animal artists at work. Jawdropping stuff--really!

... and we wholeheartedly agree! The stuff is fantastic: Link - Thanks Joanna!

deviantART user RETROnoob (AKA Lee Vidal) created a series of artwork using photoshop called "Retro Reality," where characters from old video games are mixed into realistic backgrounds and settings.

I particularly like this "Retro Tower Donkey Kong" - check out the entire gallery here: Link - Thanks Math!

Welcome to the no-so-friendly skies. Here is an astonishing story about kids and their moms getting kicked off the plane for being unruly.

Two-year-old autistic toddler Jarret Farrell wasn't a happy traveler - and nothing his mom tried to calm him down worked. And what did the airline do? They kicked them both off the plane!

"[The flight attendant] kept coming over and tugging his seatbelt to make it tighter, 'This has to stay tight.' And then he was wiggling around and trying to get out of his seatbelt. And she kept coming over and reprimanding him and yelling at him" Farrell told ABC News' Raleigh-Durham affiliate WTVD.

Farrell said that a pilot came into to the cabin and told Jarret, "You have to get in your seat, young man." Farrell said she started crying then, which just exacerbated Jarret's behavior. "He just melted down. He saw me getting upset. He was upset. He was on the floor rolling around," Farrell told WTVD.

That's when the pilot turned the plane around and headed back to the terminal, where Farrell and her son were escorted off the plane.

Link (with video)

Something a little different for today's collaboration with What is it? blog - it's a true "what the heck is it?" meaning we don't know what the doodad pictured above is for!

This device has been sitting on someone's mantle for years, and if you know what it is for (with proof - article, patent no. or photo of it in use), then you'll win a free shirt from Neatorama's online shop! If no one gets it right, then funniest/most creative entry will win instead.

Contest rules are simple: Enter your guess in the comment area, one guess per comment, please but you can enter as many as you can think of. We usually discourage URLs, but for this game, we actually encourage it (you'll need to link to the proof anyhow). First one to tell us what it is for wins the shirt, or if nobody does, then the funniest guess gets it. Good luck!

This is the story of birth, life, and death ... told with (unusual) beds!

Cribs and Cradles

Make sure your baby gets the right start with this $15,000 carriage crib!

... or if that's too rich for you, how about these round cribs from Petit Trésor? At less than one-tenth the price, they're a bargain!

But if you're a bad baby, here's the crib for you, an installation piece called Mama Tried by Jack Daws:

Kid's Beds

What? A regular bed for Daddy's little girl? Never! Not when you can have this $47,000 Cinderella pumpkin-shaped carriage bed from Posh Tots:

... or for the boys, how about a pirate ship bed from V.I.P. Kids? Just £3750.00 ...

Beds for the Young Adults

Enough about kids' beds, here are some fantastic beds I wouldn't mind owning ... Of course when you're a young adult and single, this bed by Dominic Wilcox is really all you need ...

Dominic Wilcox's Bed (1999)

Or if you're too busy working on your career, here's a computer desk / bed combo for you:

The Computer Bed by FlyingBeds - via Freshome (many more modern beds there)

With sky-high housing prices, a lot of young people start out having roommates. But that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice style, here are a couple of beds that fit this particular stage in your life:

DocXL, Sofa/Bunk Bed combo

The mattresses are on teak platforms suspended by heavy ropes.
Photo: Jean Allsopp for Coastal Living - via Curbly

Beds for the Young and Restless

And now, a bed for the, um, romantic period of your adult life ...

The Home vs. Visitor Bed

Springy bed made with recycled suspension springs.
Very comfy (erhm, for sleeping of course, what were you thinking?)

Bed for Couples

Then onto having your own place, and perhaps a significant other and a more mature taste ...

The Tree Bed by Shawn Lovell Metalworks

Cloud bed by Courtney Skott

Floating Bed

After a while, you've started to build some assets ... and along with money comes paranoia (or is it just prudence?) So here's the perfect bed/tank combo:

Quantum Sleeper

... and after a while, comfort is all that matters, so here's an electric adjustable bed from Relax The Back (I so want this, but my wife vetoed this idea because she knows that I'll just make it go up and down while she's trying to sleep ... She's a smart woman!)

The Last Bed

Photo: Claudecf [Flickr]

The tomb of Charles Pigeon, the inventor of a non-exploding gas lamp (I suppose that's very important), in Cimetière de Montparnasse, signifies eternal rest for him and his wife.

Photo: Sonny Radio - via Look At This

What do you think the dog is smiling about?

With sky-high gas prices, we're all for carpooling but Abraham Gniwosch of Tottenham, London, took the concept to its extreme: he stuffed 13 people (mostly kids) in a Volvo stationwagon!

In the back there were two women with infants on their laps, the other six passengers, all young children were either sitting or standing in the centre section of the back seat. None of the passengers was wearing a seatbelt.

The defendant denied his action was dangerous saying he had been driving sensibly at no more than 20 mph. "I'm not a quick driver, I'm a slow driver," he said. "I've been silly in what I've done, but not dangerous."

Link (with video re-creation of the feat) - via metafilter, thanks Paul Cooper!