Awesome Flickr photoset by Ronn (aka skinny coder) on video game scenes in Lego. Link

Parkour or free running is an extreme sport (not to mention a dangerous one, too) founded by David Belle, in which traceurs (those who practice parkour) go from point A to B like a freakin ninja.

Wikipedia Entry (and the link within for Parkour websites)

Some parkour videos: David Belle in Super Mario Parkour | Run Escape Jump | Russian Climbing | Urban Ninja

Igor has the biggest collection of full, unopened cigarette packs in the world. He has collected them since 1976 and has got over 20,000 packs now. For more, see: Link

Infants are acute listener - they perk up more to people talking than to white noise. And we've all heard that infants recognize and react to the mother's voice.

But research by Athena Vouloumanos, a psychologist at McGill University, sheds a surprising result:

The McGill research group measured a newborn's level of interest in sounds by giving them sterilized pacifiers that measured the frequency and intensity of the baby's sucking.

"There are all kinds of suckers: soft suckers, hard, rapid and slow. When they suck hard, they get to hear a sound, and when they're aroused they suck hard," Vouloumanos said.

The team tested babies that were 10 to 96 hours old by playing recorded sounds of human speech and alternating with recordings of monkey calls. The researchers chose to use rhesus monkey calls because they have a similar vocal tract to humans.

The babies sucked the same for both sounds.

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060217_baby_listen.html

Washington at 19?

The real George Washington may not look like the guy on the dollar bill. Jim Rees of historic Mount Vernon said that Washington and the artist who painted him actually didn't like each other!

"You might say that portrait might be an example of an artist's revenge," Rees says. ... 'What did this guy really look like?'"

So Rees commissioned a group of scientists and artists to recreate Washington at age 57, then age-regress him back to 45, and 19.

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392742

Yes, it's a real store in Warrington, Pennsylvania. Here's their website: Link

From the website:

Even if you can't afford the $20 million for a launch into Earth orbit, you can still put a little piece of yourself into space for as little as $35.

Several companies have entered the market to provide relatively low-cost space experiences for the common folk — by launching mementos, hair samples or even mortal remains to the final frontier.

Link

Raphael Ritson-Williams of the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, Florida discovered a new species of saltwater flatworm that kills in a unique way:

By engulfing its prey or covering the victim's trapdoor, the flatworm presumably seals its quarry in a pocket of toxin-laced water

Link

John built his own roller coaster in his backyard - it goes:

Over the tool shed, under the elm tree, and around the rose bushes - all in 30 seconds.

Link to The Next Big Thing (via Make Blog)

Cueva del Fantasma, Spanish for "Cave of the Ghost", is so big that two helicopters can fly into it and land inside (Did you see them in the pictures above?).

Recently, scientists discovered new species of poison dart frogs there! http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060221_ghost_cave.html

No, that's not photoshopped - it's a real photo of bodybuilder Greg Valentino, who has a 27-inch arm in his peak. He was featured in the recent The Learning Channel documentary on steroids and bodybuilding.

From a very honest 2002 interview with T-Nation on using steroids, its side effects, and going to jail for dealing steroids.

GV: My arms are so big and my shoulders were so broad, they were filming me when I came out of the police station. They do these spoofs about the local news on the Daily Show and they showed me and said, "What do you think this guy was arrested for? Hint: It wasn't estrogen!" Then they showed me on tape and said, "Local police found that this guy was doing steroids. No shit! What, did you think he was storing nuts for the winter in those arms?"

...

T: Do you think you motivate people?

GV: No, I think I disgust people. I get rotten e-mail from all over the world from people that tell me I suck, I look like shit, I ruined my physique… Then again I do get people who are awed by it, the fact that I'm a freak. Anyway, I know I disgust people. I know I'm the laughing stock of bodybuilding. I know that and that's okay with me.

A tale on how steroids can really screw you up bad. Real bad. A very interesting read: Chris Shugart interviews Greg Valentino

Douglas H. Smith of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues created a new way to engineer nerve structures in a petri dish.

Smith's group showed that they could grow axons by placing neurons from rat dorsal root ganglia (clusters of nerves just outside the spinal cord) on nutrient-filled plastic plates. Axons sprouted from the neurons on each plate and connected with neurons on the other plate. The plates were then slowly pulled apart over a series of days, aided by a precise computer-controlled motor system.

Link

Catherine doesn't just pick up a can of Raid like the rest of us, she executes 'em roaches. Check out more of Catherine's gross, er ... engrossing insect-centric art: http://www.catherinechalmers.com/home.cfm (via Jaf Project)

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Keio University in Japan, in collaboration with Burton Inc. have created a plasma laser device to create 3D images in the air!

Link (via Daily Tech)

Police arrested and accused Franklin Paul Crow of Marion County, Florida, of beating his roommate to death with a claw hammer. Why? Because there was no toilet paper left...

Crow told investigators that the men were fighting about the toilet paper over the weekend when Matthews pulled out a rifle.

Crow said he then began beating Matthews with the sledgehammer and claw hammer, according to an affidavit.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/02/21/toilet.paper.ap/index.html