This is a picture of the central region of a group of galaxies 300 million light-year away called Stephan's Quintet, taken by the Spitzer space telescope and a ground-based telescope in Spain.

The distant galaxy is generating a 'sonic boom' of cosmic proportions, astronomers have discovered, as one of the galaxies falls towards the others at high speed, ploughing through a cloud of hydrogen gas travelling at 540.6 miles per second - 100 times faster than the speed of sound.

That's all fine and dandy - but this is the interesting part: can you find the smiley face in the picture? (That's Petunia smiling, I think) Link

Two years ago, a 45 year old orangutan named Tondalayo lost her mate. Because of her age, she could not take another mate nor be moved to another zoo. Tonda had been depressed since, zookeepers introduced her to a stray tabby cat.

Zookeepers named the cat, T.K. — short for "Tondalayo's Kitty."

They play together, cuddle and sleep together each night. They have been together constantly for more than a month.

Link

If you're wondering why there has been no new post on Neatorama, it is because yesterday evening, Petunia, our basset hound passed away. She had been a very cute, loyal, and at times stubborn yet always charming and loving member of our family for nearly 10 years.

Petunia was diagnosed with cancer not long ago, and we tried to fill the last weeks of her life with as many walks and cookies as she wanted.

We are grateful that we had the little extra time to enjoy her wonderful company. We will always miss you, Petunia.

Love,
Alex and Tiffany.

PS. I will be back with new posts after a short break. I have enjoyed working on Neatorama, watching it grow quickly in readership, and most of all - reading all of your comments. This blog is dedicated to Petunia - mouseover to see her dream about her most favorite thing in the world.

A list of diseases of US Presidents throughout history: Presidential Diseases.

From the website:

"Bonobos are an icon for peace and love, the world's 'hippie chimps,"' said Sally Coxe of the Washington-based Bonobo Conservation Initiative. "To let them die off would be a catastrophe."

The animals are known for greeting rival groups with genital handshakes and sensual body rubs. Bonobo spats are swiftly settled -- often with a French kiss and a quick round of sex.

Unfortunately, bonobos are prized by Congolese for their tasty meat, and many villagers who are illegally hunting the wiry, wizen-faced apes don't realize how close their prey is to extinction.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/03/05/bonobo.disappearing.ap/index.html (Thanks David R!)

VixensMistress has a cool collection of dog cart photos and pictures, some depicting dog carts from as early as 1340 AD. Link (via The Presurfer)

In 2001, BMW produced a series of five short films for Internet release. They all star English actor Clive Owens (who wasn't well known in the US back then) and of course, BMW cars.

Back then, you can download high quality, full screen versions. I can only find low res versions now:

Ambush - directed by John Frankenheimer
Chosen - directed by Ang Lee (does anyone has this?)
The Follow - with Adriana Lima, Mickey Rourke and Forest Whitaker, directed by Wong Kar-wai
Star - with Madonna, directed by Guy Ritchie
Powder Keg - directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

The success of these films prompted BMW to produce 3 more in 2002:

Hostage - directed by John Woo
Ticker - with Don Cheadle, directed by Joe Carnahan
Beat The Devil - with James Brown, Gary Oldman and Marilyn Manson, directed by Tony Scott.

If you haven't seen them, they're worth the looksee. Thanks to Coolio's Blog for bringing this blast from the past.

The ancient Banaue rice terraces in the Philippines are being destroyed. By giant worms.

Cut into near-vertical slopes by the Ifugao people of northern Luzon, the water-filled levels curve around the hills' maze-like contours, their waters reflecting the pale green of freshly-planted rice stalks. But since the arrival of the olang, as the worms are known to the locals, terraces have been collapsing at an ever-increasing rate.

The worms can reach 18 inches in length and half an inch in diameter and are believed to have moved to the terraces as their original forest habitat was destroyed.

Link

Scott Huettel and colleagues at Duke University discovered that people use different areas of their brain when deciding things that are ambiguous and things that are risky.

"We were able to see individual differences in brain activation depending on the person's preferences or aversions to risk and ambiguity," said Scott Huettel, Ph.D., lead author and a neuroscientist with the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke University. "People who preferred ambiguity had increased activation in the prefrontal cortex, and people who preferred risk had increased activation in the parietal cortex. This opens up the possibility that there are specific neural mechanisms for different forms of economic decision making, which is a very exciting idea."

Link

That's right - that's a sweater made from handspun labrador hair, made by Patty Lee.

Chiengora (pronounced she-an-gora) is the name people are using for dog hair. Chien is French for dog and gora is from angora, the fiber the hair most closely resembles. Dog hair is now considered a luxury fiber along with mohair and cashmere (goat hair), and angora (Rabbit hair).

Checkout other clothes Patty made from dog hair: Link (via Look at This)

Snoozed through your regular alarm clock? You This alarm clock pops up four puzzle pieces and won't turn off until you put it back together. Turns out, even this simple puzzle is enough to wake your brain up.

Link (via Gizmodo)

Allya, a beluga whale at an aquarium in Hamada City, Japan, wows spectators by blowing bubbles at them.

"She has long been blowing water through her mouth when playing, so we thought that if there was a way to get air into her mouth, we would be able to get her to blow bubble rings," said keeper Daisuke Hirano.

Her new skill was displayed to the public last December and since then, her fame has spread. Locals even believe that those who are the target of Allya's "happy bubble ring kisses" will have happiness bestowed upon them.

Link

Go ahead, take a virtual drive of Seattle and San Francisco, courtesy of Microsoft's Virtual Earth Technology Preview. http://preview.local.live.com/ (hint use arrow keys, it's easier than using your mouse).

Do you think you have a squirrel problem?

Don't complain until you see this: http://www.geekbase.org/squirrelproblem/ (via Nothing to do with Arbroath)

Five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School built a car that can go from 0 to 60 MPH in 4 seconds, get more than 50 MPG, and get this - uses soybean oil as fuel!

The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year — rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop.

"We have a number of high school dropouts," he says. "We have a number that have been removed for disciplinary reasons and they end up with us."

One of the Fab Five, Kosi Harmon, was in a gang at his old school — and he was a terrible student. The car project has changed all that.

Link