On Saturday night, police in Springfield, Colorado pulled over a driver for speeding. As the officer walked toward the driver's car, he saw that a dog was in the front passenger seat. The clever driver had a cunning plan, which he unfortunately executed in plain view of the approaching officer: he switched seats with the dog!

Perhaps if the officer had not seen the switch, the driver might have avoided arrest and let his dog take the fall for his traffic violation.

Surprisingly, the man was intoxicated. He was arrested and taken to jail. As for the dog, the police say, "The dog does not face any charges and was let go with just a warning."

-via Associated Press | Photo: Pixabay

Last Friday, Scott Haraguchi was enjoying a pleasant day of fishing from his kayak about a mile off the southern coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Then, suddenly, he heard a whooshing sound coming toward him. A huge tiger shark rammed into his kayak, attempted to get a meal, and then slunk off.

Haraguchi tells KITV News that he suspects that the shark thought of his kayak as a wounded seal--easy prey for a hungry predator. The next day, the sighting of a 20-foot shark led to the closure of a nearby beach at a Marine Corps base, although it's unknown if it's the same shark that Haraguchi met.

Dezeen introduces us to the Fog-X, a recent invention of Swedish engineer Pavels Hedström.

Think of this invention as an early stillsuit design focused on the needs of people in cold, arid environments. The jacket breaks down into an emergency tent and a vapor collection panel that extracts drinking water from fog. It pairs with an app designed to help users locate foggy areas while in the wilderness--assuming that you can get signal. He successfully tested Fog-X in the Atacama Desert of Chile, which is one of the driest places in the world.

Hedström hopes that, when Fog-X arrives in the consumer marketplace, it it will be priced at about €400 ($438 USD).

-via Nag on the Lake | Photos: Lexus Design Awards

Another working day in Antarctica.. 😯

🎥 IG: tomaszkurczaba pic.twitter.com/S6cvvwvmze

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) May 12, 2023

King George Island, which lies just north of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, is the home of the Polish Antarctic Expedition's main base. By Antarctic standards, it's a rather pleasant place noted for its easy access for visitors and pleasant weather.

Tomasz Kurczaba is a photographer there. He spends what idle time he has swimming in the brisk waters, sunbathing, hiking, kayaking, and hanging out with local wildlife.

Although he makes Antarctica look like an enjoyable vacation destination, it is rather cold and windy at times. In this video, Kurczaba shows a colleague trying to enter the base and close the door after herself.

In 1992, researcher Sir Mix-a-Lot released the results of his examination of the human female figure in a study titled "Baby Got Back." Sir Mix-a-Lot concluded that a round and heavy female bottom was of surpreme interest to heterosexual men such as himself.*

But a 2010 study written by Barnaby J. Dixson, now a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia, and his colleagues suggests that Mix-A-Lot's opinion is not as widely shared as the general public may think.

In their literature review, Dixson and his co-authors discovered that many previous studies tracked the eye movements of men when they saw women. These studies noted when men looked at the breasts, midriff, and hips of women. But the flaw in these studies is that they men looked at women from the front. How would reversing the view impact the male gaze?

In their study, Dixson and his colleagues asked men to look at images of women with a rear view. The researchers collected data on what parts of the female anatomy men initially focused on and which parts their gaze lingered on.

Although Sir Mix-a-Lot may have driven his scientific curiosity at the buttocks, the majority of men participating in this study found the women's midriffs to be of greater interest.

Image: VEVO

*It is, of course, this groundbreaking research that led to Mix-a-Lot gaining his knighthood.

Writer Anjali Enjeti was recently scheduled to fly from Houston to Atlanta when her Delta flight was delayed for a novel reason: there was a swarm of bees on one of the wings of the plane. She tweeted the adventure, which is, as appropriate from a professional novelist, worth a complete read.

The swarm was spotted before the passengers boarded, which is fortunate because a resolution to this saga took a long time. Enjeti watched and photographed events from a terminal window. Airport personnel considered hosing off the bees. They also summoned a beekeeper and a pest control expert, neither of whom were allowed to remove the pests.

They also tried to blow the bees off which vehicle exhaust. The bees stayed in place. So the airline decided to give the departure gate to another plane and move this plane. When the flight crew turned on the engine to move the plane, the bees left.

This delay caused a lot of problems for passengers. If the airport officials had simply summoned Samuel L. Jackson, they plane might have left on time.

-via Super Punch

Morning rose over the sleepy town of Old Bridge, New Jersey. It's a quiet community. But what secrets happen in the dark of night would be revealed to all: there had been a dumping during the twilight hours.

Near a creek in the woods, some unknown criminal representing shadowy forces that quietly rule our lives had dumped 300-400 pounds of pasta.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the pasta of the elbow and spaghetti varieties. It had been cooked prior to being dumped at the site. City workers cleaned up the pasta. But they don't know who is responsible for it.

Or perhaps they're just not talking about what they do know.

-via Emily Bloch | Photo: Nina Jochnowitz

The driver of a school bus in Warren, Michigan was struggling to stay conscious. She started to pull over, but passed out before she could finish. Then the bus continued drifting forward into oncoming traffic.

Our hero is Dylan Thomas, a 13-year old seventh grader who ran forward, gently pressed down the brake, downshifted the transmission, and steered the bus to a stop. Then he immediately asked for other students to call 911.

It's a remarkable scene. Dylan kept a cool head the whole time and performed a complex procedure to save the lives of fellow students and, possibly, other motorists. Get this kid a CDL.

-via Born in Space

It's not quite the Manhattan Project or Area 51, but the Swiss take their cheese very seriously and want to protect the trade secrets that make their cheeses famous and sought after around the world.

As a consequence, Tom Scott wasn't able to see all or possibly even most of the Agroscope facility. But he was able to pry out of the food scientists why Swiss cheese has (or at least used to have) many holes inside. It's not because of the traditional explanation: bubbles of carbon dioxide formed during the fermentation process.

The Swiss scientists were able to discover the reason why their cheese were gradually become less hole-y about thirty years ago. In short, the milk was too clean and a certain contaminant wasn't getting into the milk and flavoring the resulting cheese. Now that particular contaminant has not be added in intentionally.

Some birds inspire respect, if not awe. We Americans revere the bald eagle. Owls are associated with widom. Cardinals are beautiful. Peacocks are lovely to behold. Chickens are tasty.

There is a place for all birds in a human-dominated world.

Except for the seagull, of course. They're sometimes referred to as the "rats of the sea." They have unpleasant associations with stealing human food and pooping on us and our property. There's even a zoo in the England that is hiring people to drive them off.

But some people like seagulls enough to imitate them and imitate them perfectly. The Dutch Review proudly informs us that a Dutchman has won an annual seagull imitation contest held in Belgium. In this video, you can see a costumed Jarmo Slutter sing the song of the sea while in costume.

-via Marginal Revolution

The toy company Mattel says that it wants to make sure that all children can feel represented within their line of Barbie dolls. The Associated Press reports that in order to serve the needs of children with Down Syndrome, it has produced a Barbie doll who has Down Syndrome.

Mattel worked with the National Down Syndrome Society to design this doll, which wears a dress with blue flowers and butterflies. These images are associated with awareness for Down Syndrome. It also has a necklace with three chevrons representing three copies of the 21st chromosome, leg braces, and physical characteristics often found in people who have Down Syndrome.

Image: Mattel

Commemorative plaques are useful cultural artifacts because they give us, the visitors, a sense of the importance of a place, tying us to that location in both the present and the past. This is why people create them, often at great expense, and erect them in public view.

Heritage Toronto values the proud history of Canada's largest city. Its commemorative plaques can be found throughout the city. The creation and establishment of a commemorative plaque is itself a notable event, so this particular plaque commemorates itself, which was unveiled to the public on October 10, 2018--a date of great historical importance. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the only recursive commemorative plaque in Toronto.

-via Annie Rauwerda | Photo: Read the Plaque

Yes, that's billion with a b. The good people at the World Mosquito Program have a vision for the future of our world and it involves the mass production of mosquitoes on a previously impossible scale.

Nature reports that the WMP's new facility will produce the mosquitoes and release them into urban areas in Brazil over the next 10 years. These modified mosquitoes carry the Wolbachia pipientis bacterium which prevents them from transmitting viruses. The plan is that these mosquitoes will breed with wild mosquitoes. Over time, the enhanced mosquito population will reduce the infection rate for dengue, which infects 2 million people in Brazil every year.

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: James Gathany

The study of human breast movement is a topic of great interest to many people. Careful, repeated, and sustained observation of this phenomenon is an essential field in physics as a pure science. As an applied science, the knowledge gained from the exhaustive study of this movement can be used for the development of sports bras.

Douglas Powell is an expert on breast movement. He's a doctoral student in biomechanics and the director of the Breast Biomechanics Research Center at the University of Memphis. UPI reports on a recent study that Powell and his colleagues have published about sports bras.

The study had 12 women with bra cup sizes ranging from B to D run on a treadmill with sports bras rated with low and high support, as well as bare-chested.

The study concluded that uncontrolled breast movement during running impaired the knee joints, causing pain as well as reducing performance. The women wearing high support sports bras exhibited a 7% improved running performance.

-via Instapundit | Photo: Andrea Piacquadio

Don't worry about the exhibit quality at the zoo going down. These humans in bird costumes are meant to frighten away seagulls, not attract human visitors.

Blackpool is on the Irish Sea, so the Blackpool Zoo attracts a lot of seagulls, which are a nuisance. They steal food from not only the human visitors, but also the animals in their enclosures. So, the BBC reports, the zoo wants to hire people who will dress as predatory birds and drive off the seagulls. It's looking to hire people who are "outgoing" and "comfortable wearing a bird costume." Is this a good description for you?

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Blackpool Zoo