P. Wesley Tyler, Jr. captured this spooky image. What you're looking at a hole-punch cloud:

Hole-punch clouds are miniature snowstorms that can occur in thin, subfreezing cloud layers.

The lack of fine particles, such as dust, in the clouds means water droplets have little to condense around, so they don't turn to ice until the cloud hits about minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 36 degrees Celsius).

"Basically, the water molecules become sluggish enough at this temperature to form their own cluster of ice that produces an ice crystal spontaneously," according to ice microphysicist Andrew Heymsfield.

Link via Super Punch

Previously: Butterfly Hole-Punch Clouds

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An octopus seen off the coast of Blairgowrie, Australia, was able to enter and exit the narrow opening of a beer bottle. I can respect an octopus that can handle his beer.

via Geekologie

A company called Sonitus Medical recently acquired FDA approval for its new hearing aid system. It's called SoundBite, and involves two machines: one that slips behind the user's ear, and another that fits on the molars. Sound picked up by the earpiece is transmitted wirelessly to the mouthpiece, which vibrates the teeth. The vibrations can be understood by the inner ear as sound.

Link | Product Page | Photo: Sonitus Medical

The Buster Sword is a special weapon that appears in Final Fantasy VII. Flickr user Michaelcthulhu either made or commissioned a realistic version of one. In the linked video, he does his best to swing it like a functional weapon. The sword is for sale, so you'd better grab it before someone else does.

Video via Geekosystem

Literary theorist and columnist Stanley Fish has listed and described what he regards as the five greatest sentences ever composed in the English language. Among them is this selection from John Bunyan's 1678 work The Pilgrim's Progress. In my limited experience, I cannot think of any craftsman of the English language greater than Vladimir Nabokov, who wrote as though he was sculpting words from marble. And a selection from Nabokov is properly included in Fish's follow-up post in which the professor judged from reader-submitted suggestions.

What do you think is the greatest sentence in the history of the English language?

Link (and a Follow-Up) | Screenshot: edited image from the first edition

Lee Thomson has a copy of Gene Roddenberry's March 1964 pitch for Star Trek. There were many changes made before the first and second pilot episodes were filmed. The ship's doctor, for example, went by a different name, but was still known as "Bones". Sex kitten Yeoman Rand was called "Colt", and Roddenberry clearly had a larger role in mind for that character.

Link via Geekosystem

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Are you a sea captain in need of close companionship? Are you a landlubber who craves the crustiness of a grizzled old sailor? Well, there's a website now devoted to your needs.

The search form is interesting. It distinguishes between three genders: male, female, and sea captain.

Link via Marginal Revolution

At the Highland Resort Hotel and Spa near Mount Fuji in Japan, you can rent a room decorated to reflect the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Before you balk at the $450 per night price, keep in mind that it apparently comes with a girl dressed as Rei encased in plastic.

Link via CrunchGear | Photo: Highland Resort

A miswak is a tooth cleaning stick made from the Salvadora persica tree. It's traditionally used in Pakistan, India, and the Middle East in place of a modern plastic toothbrush. The bristles inside the plant, once exposed by cutting across the stem, are effective as a cleaning instrument. Leen Sadder, a design student, decided to make a modern version:

THIS aims to repackage and promote the miswak as an organic, biodegradable, portable, more beneficial substitute for toothpaste and a toothbrush. The biggest challenge was figuring out how to package and market the twig to a contemporary American audience, who would not be entertained with the idea of biting off the top of the stick in order to use it. The solution for this is a cigar-cutter-like cap that peels off the outer layer to reveal the natural bristles, and slices them off after use. It also protects the stick from germs and microbes.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/THIS-toothbrush/939513 via Gizmodo

A mountain climber in Scotland fell a thousand feet down a nearly vertical slope on a mountain called Sgurr Choinnich Mor. When a Royal Navy rescue helicopter arrived on the scene, its crew found him alive and well:

Lieutenant Tim Barker, the crew's observer, said: ''We began to hover-taxi down the slope and spotted a man at the bottom, standing up.

''We honestly thought it couldn't have been him, as he was on his feet, reading a map. Above him was a series of three high craggy outcrops.

''It seemed impossible. So we retraced our path back up the mountain and, sure enough, there were bits of his kit in a vertical line all the way up where he had obviously lost them during the fall.

''It was quite incredible. He must have literally glanced off the outcrops as he fell, almost flying.''

Link | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Mark Riccobono, who has been blind since the age of five, was scheduled to drive a specially-equipped car before today's NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway:

Riccobono's Ford Escape Hybrid is outfitted with laser range-finding sensors which passed information to his hands and seat. He made the trip around the mile-and-a-half road course with the support of hundreds of vision-impaired fans sitting in the bleachers.

"You can't imagine how, what a step forward this is for the blind and innovation and really gaining independence and new vision from the rest of the sighted community," said Sabrina Deaton with the National Federation of the Blind in Daytona Beach.

Link via DVICE | Photo: Gear Log

Previously: Students Build Car the Blind Can Drive

These socks by The Sanguin Gryphon contain untranslated passages of the 8th Century poem Beowulf:

Thus begins the immortal tale of the hero Beowulf, the bard summoning the attention of his audience. And so begin these socks, which give the text of the first page of the surviving manuscript, a copy dating to around 1000 CE. The writing flows from one sock to the other, so that you may read it uninterrupted.

http://www.sanguinegryphon.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22_100&products_id=3012%3Cbr%20%3E%3C/a%3E via Geekosystem

Gurkhas, the Nepalese elite soldiers in the service of Britain and some of its former colonies, sometimes fight with their traditional kukri knives (pictured). One retired Gurkha was carrying his knife when a train in India that he was riding was robbed by forty men. The robbers unwisely chose to not immediately surrender. The ex-soldier then killed three, wounded eight, and drove off the rest:

The band of about 40 robbers, some of whom were travelling as passengers, stopped the train in the Chittaranjan jungles in West Bengal around midnight. Shrestha-- who had boarded the train at Ranchi in Jharkhand, the place of his posting--was in seat no. 47 in coach AC3.

“They started snatching jewelry, cell phones, cash, laptops and other belongings from the passengers,” Shrestha recalled. The soldier had somehow remained a silent spectator amidst the melee, but not for long. He had had enough when the robbers stripped an 18-year-old girl sitting next to him and tried to rape her right in front of her parents. He then took out his khukuri and took on the robbers.

“The girl cried for help, saying ´You are a soldier, please save a sister´,” Shrestha recalled. “I prevented her from being raped, thinking of her as my own sister,” he added. He took one of the robbers under control and then started to attack the others. He said the rest of the robbers fled after he killed three of them with his khukuri and injured eight others.

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=27100 via MArooned | Photo: Canadian Content

Brazilian armsmaker Taurus caused a stir when it released "The Judge" -- a revolver that fires shotguns shells in addition to handgun cartridges. The Judge shoots .410 gauge shells as well as .45 Long Colt cartridges. "The Raging Judge", pictured above, goes even further in this approach, firing the much larger 28 gauge shell.

Link | Photo: Firearms Blog

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Axe Cop is a webcomic written by a 5-year old and drawn by a 29-year old professional cartoonist. This deliciously loopy premise has been turned into a short, high-quality live action movie by Peter Muehlenberg.

via io9 | Axe Cop