Today (June 16, 2006), NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (better known by its acronym APOD) turned 11 years old (and served over 400 million space-related images so far!).

Herman Serrano made this fantastic collage from past APOD images to celebrate this milestone.

See larger pic: Link

Apparently, many dogs are nearsighted - hence the need for prescription eyeglasses. But how to tell when you've got the prescription right?

"Since a dog can't be asked to read letters on a chart, a dry, odorless bone is dangled in front of him. If he shows any interest, the optician knows that the test lenses are right"

From April 1939 issue of Popular Science: Link - Thanks Charlie!

Grab a rake, do some art, fly a kite, then take an aerial photo of your rake art. See more at Lenny & Meriel's photostream: Link [flickr] via grow-a-brain.

Ah, no wonder us Americans are getting fatter and fatter. Here's the motorized Cruzin Cooler:

Cruzin Cooler combines two basic necessities of life, the ability to have cold food or a beverage handy along with the means to get somewhere, without walking. With modern technology, the Cruzin Cooler is light-weight and comes in various sizes and is available in gas and electric models, with a 10 mile range on electric models and 30 miles on the gas models. The cooler is light enough to be driven to a location and then picked up and carried.

http://www.yachtsee.com/cruzincooler.htm - via Weird News

See more amazing black and white photography of Gérard Laurenceau: Link - via Look At This ...

See more creative job ads here: Link - via The Presurfer

Art graduate student Lauren Porter, 22, used 12 miles of yarn to knit herself a full-size Ferrari. "I get men admiring the racing lines and old women admiring the stitches," she said.

Link | Another view - via UniqueDaily

We, like, found it at MissCellania.

A "mummified sea monster" was recently put for sale on eBay (where else?) with this following description:

I was taking my usual walk down a local beach here in Tampa Florida when I came upon this very strange fish on the shoreline. There was a crowd of seagulls nearby but no matter how hungry they seemed to be they would not get near this sea monster. After making sure it was dead, I picked it up to further examine it. Nearby, a woman, who was the only other person on the beach this day, asked out loud if it was a dead shark. Clutching the strange sea creature in my hand, I walked towards her so she could have a better look at this freak of nature. As I got closer to her, she told me to stop. With a look of horror on her face, she quickly turned and left the area.

Afterwards I decided to take it home with me. I measured this cryptid creature at 20 inches long. I decided to list this weird & wonderfull fish on ebay to share it with the world. I guarantee that this creatures flesh, teeth, jaw and skull are REAL 100% once living, organic flesh and bones. Though mummified, this unknown species of fish has been cleaned and treated with taxidermy chemicals to preserve and reduce any fish odor to a mininum.

The winner to this auction will recieve the exact same fish pictured below. This auction is not a joke and there is no trick photography here. One does not find Sea Monsters up for auction very often. Think of the stories you could tell to friends, customers or crowds. Such a creature deserves to be in a museum for many people to enjoy.

I smell a fish... Link

Qiao Yubo's unusual pregnancy photo was the most emailed photo on Yahoo a day ago and made the rounds on the Net like wildfire:

Qiao Yubo, who is pregnant with at least five babies, has her waist measured by her husband, right, in Songyuan, in China's northeast Jilin province, Saturday June 11, 2006. Qiao, who is 1.67-meters tall, has a waistline measurement of 1.75 meters, five months into her pregnancy. Qiao's excessive bulk is causing difficulties in getting around, with taxi drivers too afraid to take her in their cars. Her clothing is all custom-made and she eats up to seven meals a day.

Turns out, Yubo's bundle of joy is actually just a bundle of clothes:

However, when a hospital in the capital city of Changchun offered a free medical check-up, the woman and her husband taken flee from a window, thus unfolding the true story behind, reported Jinlin News.

When the doctors finally found her in a washing room in her sister's house, Qiao knelt down, cried out, and told them she was not carrying quintuplets, Mr Li, chief of the hospital, told the newspaper.

Calming down, Qiao pulled out the staff she had been cramming into her belly, including three bed quilts, a dozen sweaters, shirt, cushions, hats and so on, Li said.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-06/15/content_618114.htm

You should always cut those plastic six-pack rings before throwing it away, here's why: a turtle in the Ozarks is terribly deformed by living trapped in one of the rings. Let this be a lesson for your kids not to litter.

Link [video clip]

Z. Ryan Tian and colleagues at the University of Arkansas have developed long nanowires that can be folded into 3D nanostructures like cups, bowls, and tubes:

"Humans have used paper made from natural fibers for thousands of years," said Z. Ryan Tian. "With this technology, we are entering a new era."

Tian and his team used a hydrothermal heating process to create long nanowires out of titanium dioxide and from there created free-standing membranes. The resulting material is white in color and resembles regular paper.

Further, the material can be cast into different three-dimensional shapes, with different functions. The researchers have created tubes, bowls and cups using this process. These three-dimensional hollow objects can be manipulated by hand and trimmed with scissors, the researchers report.

Link - via Ron Piquepaille's Technology Trends

Mark Jenkins, who made weird tape sculptures, also made this sculpture of an "embedded" man in Washington DC. In the video clip above, the fun part is watching people's reaction to the piece.

It reminds me very much of Terry Allen and Philip Levine's Corporate Head for Business statue in LA.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

As if it's not bad enough that you can avoid the exercise of walking by riding a segway, now you can sit down while zooming around too!

Link

Frog Embryos Hatch Early to Escape Predator. In this amazing strategy for survival, frog embryos will hatch early to escape from an egg-eating snake by recognizing the vibrational cues of such attacks!

Research by Karen Warkentin at Boston University:

The hatching response to egg predators depends on physical disturbance of eggs...

Dangerous and benign disturbances overlap in both frequency and temporal pattern elements. However, they can be distinguished using a combination of features. Embryos use at least two temporal pattern elements, the duration and spacing of vibration events, as well as a frequency cue, the presence of frequencies within a certain low range, to assess risk. These components are all necessary for a vibrational cue to induce hatching. Additional features of vibrations appear to further modulate the escape hatching response.

http://people.bu.edu/kwarken/KWLabResearch2.html (Don't miss the video) - via Olgui