For more very cool illusion pics, see Planet Perplex's awesome collection: http://www.planetperplex.com/en/gallery.html.

Seriously, folks - stop means stop in Park Ridge, Illinois.

Police believe their stop sign strategy is working. But they are worried the novelty of the new signs will wear off. They plan to keep drivers guessing and will move the new signs around the city.

The new "stop means stop" signs cost $20 each.

Link

For more cool pics of lenticular clouds, see: Link

This schlieren image shows the two spherical shock waves of a .44 magnum. Gary Settles of Penn State University will tell you all about shock waves here: Link

Nathan Sawaya, a professional Lego artist, built this model of Hans Han Solo frozen in carbonite with about 10,000 Lego bricks!

Link (via The Green Head)

Dr. David Keegan and Dr. Susan Bannister pulled a McGuyver when they improvised using a Super Soaker Max-D 5000 to treat their patient's ear wax!

Neither a formal ear syringe, nor a syringe of any kind was available on the island. The day was very hot, and no one was particularly in the mood to boat to Honey Harbour and then drive 45 minutes to Midland, just on account of ear wax. One of the owners of the property was consulted in his capacity as a professional engineer and the owner of a superbly stocked tool shed (rivalling a mid-sized Canadian Tire). He was not able to offer any substitute contraption of his own but suggested we approach his 4-year-old grandson to see if we could use his pressured water cannon.

Link (via Fawn Jotter)

Wojtek's Pikes Peak Photo website has many more amazing photos: Moon & Sky | Sun

Cambridge and Birmingham Universities researchers are collaborating to create the world's smallest internal combustion engines.

If they succeed, the micro-engine will outlast today's NiCad and Li-ion batteries by as much as 20 times longer!

Research in Europe started at the University of Birmingham in 1999 and resulted in a patented fabrication process and several prototype micro-engines. The proposed collaboration project between the two Universities intends to produce a micro combustion engine, with platform of 5 x 15 x 3 mm in overall dimension and the expected indicated power output at 11.2 W at a speed of the order of 50,000 rpm.

Link

Max Kurz, a professor at the University of Houston, wants to know why penguins waddle but don't fall (unlike humans).

"Compared to other terrestrial animals, penguins have an excessive amount of side-to-side, waddling motion," Max Kurz, UH Health and Human Performance professor said. "If humans waddle too much they fall, but penguins somehow overcome this. They may have an elegant movement strategy for stability that we're unaware of."

Kurz hopes that learning about the penguin's distinctive waddle will help those with walking challenges, such as the elderly, those with leg or foot injuries and toddlers learning to walk. The research findings could even allow the development of more mobile robots.

Link

Spanish scientists Jose Antonio Lorente Acosta of the Granada University is conducting a genetic test to see whether Columbus was not a Genoan merchant, but a Catalan pirate instead!

While historians have mostly reckoned Columbus was an Italian born in 1451 in Genoa, a persuasive counter-lobby argues that the mariner who pioneered the Spanish conquista was in reality the Catalan Cristofol Colom, who airbrushed his past to conceal activities as a pirate and conspirator against the king.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10363541

A fogbow is formed by much smaller droplets of water than a rainbow. These droplets are too small to reflect and refract sunlight, so instead diffraction of light is dominant. Since a fogbow is broader than a rainbow, the colors overlap to produce a whitish bow.

Link to Earth Science Picture of the Day fogbow archive (awesome site, highly recommended) | more fogbow pics

Spanish explorers Ramon Larramendi, Juanma Viu and Ignacio Oficialdegui set a new world speed record by crossing the Antarctic using a "polar catamaran" pulled with giant kites!

Link

Jackie Brown, an activist who dressed up as Aunt Jemima, was arrested after disrupting the City Council meeting in Jacksonville, Florida.

Brown, president of the Jacksonville Coalition of Black Contractors, said the law treats blacks like "slaves" because it does not provide enough opportunities for minority contractors.

Link