Because of the way many curses are coded, you can only get rid of one by selling the cursed item online. This is why you occasionally see people trying to unload unholy items on Craigslist or eBay, such as this cursed sword.

eBay seller wfatzinger has a 2007 MacBook that is in fairly good condition except that it's haunted. He didn't buy it that way. It was a normal MacBook until it became haunted while wfatzinger was spending too much time in cemetery next to an abandoned insane asylum. He describes at great length how it because haunted and the practical effects of this haunting in the item description:

Well, I took the computer home (still in perfect working condition) and, folks, this is when things started to get downright weird. First, I noticed that ALL of my songs in iTunes had become scary or haunted. Second, the desktop background was changed to a scary photo. The following week, we (my wife, Barbie, and I) noticed some of our stuff around the house had been mysteriously rearranged. One night, we went out to dinner with my wife’s parents and their friends and some people from my wife’s work and some of their parents. When we came home, my baseball cards were all out of order and my wife’s rare American coins were in total disarray. To make matters spookier, I occasionally saw the computer levitating. In some cases the screen and keyboard would open and shut quickly, as though the computer were attempting to speak. […]

Notable Facts: Not only was there a full moon on the night I left the laptop in the graveyard, but there were also reports of an eerie green fog in the area, which people said caused them to feel a sense of intense nostalgia. I later read that there was an anomalous electrical storm near that selfsame evening. Furthermore, there were police reports of a terrifying old crone capering through a contiguous neighborhood, setting trash cans ablaze and chanting incantations or curses, laughing and shrieking and brandishing a sharpened axe with a pentagram carved into the hilt. I’m NOT a computer expert, so I’m not sure which of these anomalous entities might have precipitated the haunting, but I thought it best to include all here.

The auction is open for another 4 days. The computer comes with 4 GB of memory and a Certificate of Haunting, so you should probably put in a bid.

-via The Mary Sue

I did my best to track down the artist responsible for this image. I was unsuccessful. That's sad because a work of this greatness should earn the highest accolades from the human race.

Now take a seat. You've missed the beginning of the show. The Enterprise D-Lites (Picard on the flute, Riker on the trombone, and Worf on the triangle), but you're in time for the main act.

How does this image inspire you? What story or caption can you write for it?

-via Steven Ross

(Photo: Matt Gardner/Daily Union)

Why did ancient Wisconsinites build the mysterious Icehenge on Rock Lake? Was it for religious rites? Astronomical research? Communicating with aliens? We may never know, unless we talk to the five guys who built it. Kevin Lehner and four of his buddies used ice cutters, chainsaws, and tongs to build this massive homage to Britain's Stonehenge. The blocks weigh about 200 pounds each.

The men have been doing this on Rock Lake near the town of Lake Mills every year for several years. It began as a religious act after a local tribe was defeated by a rival foreign tribe:

The men have built ice sculptures in the past, but this year's motivation was a little special.

"There may have been some anxiety over that Packers loss in Seattle. '06 and had to release some anxiety somehow."

Perhaps the gods, pleased by this extraordinary act of piety, may respond by granting them victory in future battles.

You can see more photos of Icehenge here.

-via Nerd Approved

(Photo: Jonas Löwgren)

Nine chimpanzees who grew up in a Dutch safari park would issue what BBC News calls “an excited, high-pitched” sound when asking for apples. In 2010, when they arrived at their new home in a zoo in Edinburgh, Scotland, they found that phrase ineffective. Scottish apes apparently use “a disinterested grunt.” But within 3 years, these chimpanzees were grunting the Scottish way. This indicates that chimpanzees can use grunts as human words--changeable expressions representing concepts:

The findings, reported in the journal Current Biology, suggest that when chimp grunts refer to objects, they can function in a surprisingly similar way to human words - instead of simply being governed by how the chimp feels about the object.

Indeed, our ability to learn new "words" from our peers might date back to a shared ancestor with chimpanzees, some six million years ago.

Of course, we'll only know that they're true Scotsmen if they wear their kilts regimental style.

-via Adrienne Crezo

(W Magazine/Raphael T. Harris/WorldRealEstate.it)

Three small limestone islands off the Amalfi coast of Italy are known as La Galli or The Sirenusas (The Sirens). Tradition holds that it was here that Odysseus of Homer’s Odyssey encountered the tempting songs of the Sirens. Now the islands hold privately owned resorts and luxury homes. Some of the wealthiest people in the world own seaside homes on these islands or spend time at the expensive rental estates there.

When viewed from the right angle, one of those islands looks like a dolphin.

-via Messy Nessy Chic

(Video Link)

On Christmas Day of last year, Okaloosa County, Florida Sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of a car fire. Officers Joseph Trimboli and Eric Keyes were wearing body cameras which recorded the encounter. They found an intoxicated and incoherent man inside a car that was burning and filling with smoke. The cops smashed open the driver’s window and pulled him out of it. Paramedics took him to a hospital, where he was treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns.

(Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)

On Thursday, Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley presented Deputies Trimboli and Keyes with medals of merit in recognition of their work on that Christmas Day.

-via Daily Telegraph (warning: auto-start video)

(Photo: Michael Zahniser)

The wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) is a resilient creature. You can find it as far south as Alabama and as far north as Alaska and northern Canada. It's the only frog that lives in the wild north of the Arctic Circle.

How does an amphibian survive the harsh winters of those frozen lands? It freezes. Scientists working in Alaska found that local wood frogs can freeze solid for up to 7 months. When the ice melts, the frogs thaw and, amazingly, are still alive! Deborah Netburn wrote about this phenomenon last year in the Los Angeles Times:

"On an organismal level they are essentially dead," said Don Larson, a graduate student at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks who studies frogs. "The individual cells are still functioning, but they have no way to communicate with each other."

Larson is one of several researchers who published their findings in the Journal of Experimental Biology. They found that the frogs produce a lot of glucose during the winter, which keeps their cells viable:

Nicholas Gurewitch rarely updates his brilliant webcomic Perry Bible Fellowship. You can go through the archives and laugh, over and over again. But sometimes, at special moments, you can read new, freshly baked PBF. When you can do so, always seize the opportunity.

The Lady and the Unicorn is a series of 6 tapestries woven in Flanders in the early 1500s. 

The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych painting series by Hieronymus Bosch that allegorically depicts innocence, sin, and redemption.

The French art company Boom-Art (warning: NSFW) and the surfboard manufacturer UWL Surfboard (warning: NSFW) together made these images into stylish wave riders. You can buy one for about $2134 USD.

(Video Link)

Last October 19, skydiver Forest Pullman and his passenger jumped out of an airplane at 13,000 feet of elevation over Thailand. They were having a good time for a few seconds. But right after they jumped, the pilot turned the plane around 180º and flew right at them. At the 0:15 mark in this video, the plane hits part of their chute and comes within a few feet of hitting them.

Pullman captured the entire event on a GoPro camera. His passenger seems unaware of how close they came to dying.

-via Daily Telegraph (warning: auto-start video)

They're not Federation credits or gold-pressed latinum, but if you're in the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu, you can use these coins as legal tender. On one side of each dollar coin is the face of Elizabeth II, the Queen of Tuvalu. On the other is either Captain Kirk or the USS Enterprise. The Perth Mint of Australia offers these collectible coins made of almost pure silver.

-via Tor

P.S. If you know of a bank that will exchange quatloos for US Dollars, please let me know promptly. I need a good rate or I'm going to take a big hit unloading these thralls.

Cafes where you get to pet animals while you eat are all the rage, especially in East Asia. There are cat cafes, dog cafes, owl cafes, and goat cafes, among others. On February 19, the Year of the Sheep in the Chinese zodiac begins, so one clever restaurater in Seoul is bringing sheep into his cafe.

(Video Link)

In the South Korean culture, On Demand News informs us, sheep symbolize "kindness, humility, and respect for parents." Many Koreans visit sheep farms at this time. Lee Kwang-ho, the owner of the Thanks to Nature Cafe, saw this tradition as a great opportunity to draw in customers.

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

(Image: Marvel Studios)

In the 2012 movie The Avengers, some of the greatest heroes of the Marvel Universe join forces to battle an alien invasion from a wormhole that opens in New York City. At the end of the film, the heroes rejoice in their triumph, which is a reasonable reaction. But most of them aren't property owners in New York City. People who are did nothing but suffer in that film because the city was thoroughly ravaged during the battle.

The Kinetic Analysis Corporation is a company that performs assessments of disasters. At the request of The Hollywood Reporter, Chuck Watson and Sara Jupin used computer models to calculate how much financial damage New York City suffered during the movie. They determined that the total cost is about $160 billion:

Although many buildings in the fight's East Midtown arena suffered extensive structural damage, most were limited to the more superficial destruction of windows, facade and some interiors. Those buildings that had their tops crushed, though, would be especially costly and time-consuming to fix, as would be Grand Central Station, through which a warship crashed.

"The extensive damage to Grand Central Terminal could prove highly disruptive, depending on the subsurface damage to the subway system," KAC notes. "Although such damage is unlikely, as the 9/11 events showed, collapsing buildings can cause significant damage to subsurface infrastructure such as gas, communications and electrical systems. Detailed site surveys will be required to assess the state of the subterranean infrastructure."

I found this article via The Geek Twins, with whom I had a lively discussion on Twitter. I have strong opinions on these matters. In short, if you live in the Marvel or DC universes, don't live in a large city. Don't live in a city where there are superheroes. If a superhero begins operations in your city, move. Superheroes attract supervillains and supervillains will kill you or destroy your property. Superheroes are nothing but trouble, so avoid them as much as practically possible.

Ryan Bruxvoort designed a home for sparrows that are ready to set new, higher standards for elegance. He tells Design Boom:

my goal is to create a shelter that compliments its environment while at the same time attracting sparrows to inhabit it. ultimately I wish for this to culminate into a form that shows empathy for the sparrow, in a serene, carefully crafted manner. this led to the development of a delicate, almost fragile look that has been constructed in a manner that affords tremendous structural integrity. this light yet resilient quality of the house is to be reflective of the sparrow itself.

Bruxvoort's birdhouse consists of maple panels cut into 65 strips for the outside covering and 24 blocks for the interior structure. 2 strips of wood veneer help hold it together.

This natural wonder is located in Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. I think that it is specifically the 177-foot South Falls, one of the 10 waterfalls in that park. Photographer Jared Decker climbed inside a cave behind the waterfall and snapped three shots, which he stitched together into this beautiful image. It is as if Nature herself has an eye and she gazes back at you.

You can buy a print of this photo at Fine Art America.

-via Colossal