This amazing amphibious RV is manufactured by a company aptly named Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International LLC. They also make amphibious Hydra Spyder sports sedan, the unsinkable Hydra Terra bus, and more...

Link (via Ursi's Blog)

How far would you go to feed your children? For the mother worm Boulengerula taitanus, the answer is: pretty darn far - they would let the baby worm eat their flesh!

The mothers of Boulengerula taitanus create a nutrient-rich fatty outer layer of skin after laying their eggs. When their offspring hatch, the babies scrape this layer off with specialized teeth. ...

The researchers brought the burrowing animal into the lab to investigate, videoing 21 mothers with broods of between two and nine young. In the week after their babies hatched, mothers lost about one-seventh of their bodyweight - which showed up as skin cells in the stomachs of young. ...

As to why the mothers let themselves be flayed, Wilkinson suggests that making a fatty layer of skin may be cheaper for the mother than giving her eggs a large yolk. And if a baby dies, he notes, the mother's investment in the egg is wasted - but she might be able to save her skin and use it again.

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060410/full/060410-7.html

Weird and wacky tales from the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake:

One man, long paralyzed from the neck down before the earthquake, regained the ability to move when a looter tried stealing his bags from beside him in a park, where he was placed by friends after rescue. Enraged, the man’s first act of mobility was to crack the criminal over the head with a plank of wood.

As San Francisco threatened to descend into lawless mayhem, Mayor E.E. Schmitz enforced a shoot-to-kill policy against looters. Taking the orders too far, one officer shot a thirsty horse who was “looting” water leaking from a broken hydrant.

Forty-six workers at the U.S. Post Office defied orders to evacuate and battled the fire that threatened their building with mail sacks soaked in water. Incredibly, not a single piece of mail was lost in the blaze, although many of the addresses to which they were destined no longer existed.

Despite being packed with one of nature’s fuels, another building to survive the quake and fire unscathed was A.P. Hotaling’s whiskey warehouse. The odd miracle prompted a local poet to create this famous ditty:

If, as some say, God spanked the town,
For being frisky,
Why did He burn the churches down
And save Hotaling’s Whiskey?

Read the entire list: Link

Art Not Oil: A True Portrait of an Oil Company has some thought-provoking artworks on -what else - oil and car companies, and war.

Don't miss the works of an anonymous "subvertiser" who subversively changed the outdoor ads of various companies, George Osodi's Fuel Explosion photo (graphic), Stig's Shell Skull, and more.

Link to Gallery

Would you believe that there were over 400 submissions to this year's Pioneer Press Marshmallow Peeps Diorama contest?

Contestants expressed pathetic thanks to the Pioneer Press for enabling their Peeps obsession and begged us to continue the contest under future new ownership.

Some created blogs devoted to documenting diorama construction and held in-house diorama competitions in their workplaces.

And they confessed their membership to the cult of Peeps without shame.

Link (via Miss Cellania)

What do you see living inside of Good? Found at Optical Illusions Etc. (Thanks Walt!)

From the website:

This tiny device laser-projects a keyboard on any flat surface... you can then type away accompanied by simulated key click sounds. It really is true future magic at its best. You'll be turning heads the moment you pull this baby from your pocket and use it to compose an e-mail on your bluetooth enabled PDA or Cell Phone. With 63 keys and and full size QWERTY layout the Laser Virtual Keyboard can approach typing speeds of a standard keyboard... in a size a little larger than a matchbook.

Link (Thanks David R!)

For more of Krista's paintings, see: Link (Thanks Rob Nelson!)

In 1951, British explorer Eric Shipton took this photo of Yeti footprint in the Himalayas.

The prints were 13 inches long and 8 inches wide. Shipton said that the prints were too large to be a bear's and too fresh to have been enlarged or distorted by melting.
Shipton was quoted as saying: "What really made my flesh creep... was that where we had to jump crevasses you could see clearly where the creature had dug its toes in."

Link (Thanks Tim Mosley!)

This is the latest art installation of the infamous British guerilla artist Banksy. Link (via Collision Detection).

Previously on Neatorama: Banksy's Banksus Militus Ratus | Grafitti Art

Dubbed "the world's coolest marathon", this 26.2-mile race took place in the chilly (-23 °C!!!) North Pole. Who won?

In the men’s division, Collins and Carsten Kolle (Germany) forced the pace at the outset, crunching through the hushed indomitable surroundings and matching each other stride for stride over the initial 10km. A polar bear was spotted but fortunately it was one of the other competitors donning a costume. Despite the scare, Collins was relentless in his efforts and went on to win by a comfortable margin in a time of 4.28.35 on the toughest ever terrain for the race.

Meanwhile, in a perfectly judged effort, Marcel Kasumovich (Canada) overhauled the German for second place with France’s Philippe Moreau and Herve Taquet finishing together in 4th position.

The women’s race saw Alison Hamlett (England) set a new world record for the event, finishing ahead of 2006 Antarctic Ice Marathon winner, Wendy MacKinnon (Scotland), with Ireland’s Caitriona Strain in third place. Hamlett’s time of 5.52.56 was good enough for sixth place overall.

Link (via Information Junk)

Check out these cute sculptures made with Oreo by elementary school kids: Link (Thanks Yayo!)

From Earth Picture of the Day archive:

This nearly circular rainbow was observed from atop of Wendelstein Mountain (1.835 m or 6,020 ft) in Germany in March of 2000. Because we're used to seeing rainbows as graceful arcs and not circular structures, we're tricked into believing that they end when they appear to come in contact with the horizon. However, as viewed from aloft, especially from an airplane, rainbows are indeed circular structures. In the 1600s, Rene Descartes demonstrated that the rainbow is a complete circle with a radius of approximately 42 degrees, centered about the antisolar point (point in the sky opposite the Sun). The dome of the Wendelstein Observatory is seen as lower left.

http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=296928

See more of Gil's fantastic photos at: Link

Using cormorant to fish is an ancient practice in Japan and China. In Japan, cormorant fishermen puts a tethered steel ring around the bird's neck (to prevent them from swallowing the fish). One fisherman usually handles ten to twelve birds at a time.

In China, the cormorants are more like beloved pets to the fisherman - he would train the bird to catch the fish and release it to him instead of swallowing it.

Toad with Lizard Tail. This toad with a 16-inch lizard-like tail was caught in Kampung Bekoh, Malaysia.

Chiew Ah Chan said she was cleaning the house at about 8.30am yesterday when she saw the unusual toad trying to hop out from a drain.

She quickly told an Indonesian worker nearby to catch it. ...

The family will release the toad into the jungle in the next few days.

Some people believe that the strange toad has the power to bring them luck at the lotteries:

Several of them who “got a number from the toad” for numbers betting on Monday won consolation prices totalling RM40,000 the following day.

A villager Seah Boon Thong said although the number 3071 only won them consolation prizes, the toad had brought them luck. He however did not say how many villagers had won.

The villagers went to Chiew Ah Chan's house where the toad was found on April 11 and “got” the number by placing numbers in a box and shaking it near the toad until four numbers fell out.

The Star Article 1 | Article 2

As if that's not enough, another weird animal was captured in Malaysia: a two-tailed lizard:

Farmer Ahmad Mustafa caught the unusual green lizard with a split tail near his house last month in the northern state of Penang, the New Straits Times said in a report accompanied by a photograph of the strange reptile.

Fed a diet of worms, the lizard is now 5.9 inches long "and it has found a special place in Ahmad's heart," the Times said.

http://www.happynews.com/news/4132006/unusual-lizard-and-toad-found-in-malaysia.htm