(Photo: Malcolm Manners)

Arkive describes the Nile monitor:

The Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus) is not only Africa’s largest lizard but also one of the continent’s most voracious predators (3). Stout-bodied and powerful, this formidable reptile has an elongated snake-like head, sharp claws, and a long, compressed tail which it uses to great effect when under threat (3) (4) (5).

These dangerous predators can grow up to 2 meters long. So, naturally, people want to keep them as pets.

Wildlife experts in the United States are worried. They're looking at Florida, the Australia of America, which is already packed with animals that want to kill you, including alligators, snakes, and spiders. It's also the adopted home of many invasive species, such as cane toads and Burmese pythons.

Florida is prime real estate for invasive reptiles and amphibians. And pet Nile monitors, should they ever escape or be set free by terrified owners, would like the place. Then they could sweep across the United States. Ed Yong of The Atlantic talked to biology doctoral student Stephanie Dowell:

It can survive through the cold and frosty winters of southern Africa by hibernating. If it got into the U.S., Dowell’s simulations predict that it could make itself comfortable across the eastern and western seaboards, especially if the climate continues to warm.

“If, for example, we decided to crack down on the trade in West Africa, and the exploitation shifted to south Africa, that lineage could spread very quickly,” says Hekkala. “Its invasiveness is much greater. It is so pre-adapted to the North American climate that it could spread almost to Chicago, even without climate change.”

-via Dave Barry

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I watched this video on both my desktop computer and a smartphone. The difference is striking. When played on my iPhone, this music video appears to hijack the phone, taking over its utilities and interface to illustrate the song. It's especially surreal at 2 minutes in, when a human finger appears and interacts with the phone.

This is "Run and Run," a new music video by the J-Pop girl group Lyrical School. The song itself is vibrant, but it's the video that makes it so arresting.

The above video link is for YouTube. You can also watch it on Vimeo.

-via Spoon & Tamago

It's called Track N Go. AD Biovin, a company that manufactures snowmobiles and related equipment, developed the system. It converts 4-wheeled drive vehicles, such as conventional trucks and SUVs, into tracked vehicles that go over and through snow as easily as snomobiles.

The company says that the installation takes only 15 minutes. Just drive into one set of tracks, then the other. Secure them to the truck with chains, attach the track tensioner to the wheels, and flip in the snow deflectors. The motion of the wheels drives the tracks.

-via Gizmodo

*alarm goes off*
Ugh, this again.
*remembers breakfast is a thing*
Well, alright then.

— Chris Hallbeck (@ChrisHallbeck) April 21, 2016

Lots of things are things now. For example, micro braids for hair are now a thing. At a certain point in time, they transitioned from not a thing to a thing.

But when did a thing become a thing? That is: when did it become popular to describe an emerging, popular trend as "a thing"? Alexander Stern writes at the New York Times:

Speakers and writers of American English have recently taken to identifying a staggering and constantly changing array of trends, events, memes, products, lifestyle choices and phenomena of nearly every kind with a single label — a thing. In conversation, mention of a surprising fad, behavior or event is now often met with the question, “Is that actually a thing?” Or “When did that become a thing?” Or “How is that even a thing?” Calling something “a thing” is, in this sense, itself a thing.

The linguists at the University of Pennsylvania's Language Log have been able to trace the expression back to 2002:

I don't have time this morning for a serious search, but on a quick scan, the first possible example that I've found is in a web forum query from November of 2002:

What actually 'is' a flame?  is it the em radiation emitted by burning gas? Or what? Is a flame actually a 'thing'.

Anything can become a thing. But, specifically, what things would you like to see become things?

-via Ace of Spades HQ

When I voted, this morning, I was accused of wearing a “political campaign” button. Here’s the offending button: pic.twitter.com/DSJ41ezR4g

— LibrarianShipwreck (@libshipwreck) April 19, 2016

As a Starfleet veteran, Twitter user @LibrarianShipwreck sometimes wears a Next Generation-era communicator badge shaped like the Starfleet insignia. Her patriotism got her into some trouble at the polls.

-via Billy Hoya

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The little fella still hasn't left his egg shell. Instead, he's carrying it around as extra armor around his own shell. It's sturdy and fashionable.

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

(Photo: Jayel Aheram)

You can travel around the world and find some of America's most famous restaurant chains, such as McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken. But the market works both ways. Dan Gentile of Thrillist writes that 9 non-US restaurant chains have penetrated the American market and are poised for great growth.

Among them is Jollibee, a Filipino chain with at least 750 locations worldwide, including 32 in the United States. It's a fast food restaurant that offers cuisine novel to Americans:

Jollibee's already developed a cult following at its 30+ American locations, and our country's hunger for Asian fusion, combined with a love of wacky marketing, means that Jollibee's signature style of bizarro fast food has a good shot at catching on.

Artist Jake Parker imagined the most famous ships and vehicles of Star Wars as, well, perhaps not monsters, but at least terrifyingly non-human. The X-wing fighter looks like something dragged out of the swamps of Dabogah and the incomplete Death Star like an Ewok science experiment gone wrong.

You can buy this print at here or view detailed images at Geek Art.

(Photo: Jon Mountjoy)

Was the breakfast dish named after the infamous American traitor Benedict Arnold? No, not at all. 

Perhaps it was named after Pope Benedict XIII, who was put on a strict diet of eggs and toast? Nope.

Atlas Obscura says that the origin of eggs benedict remains, well, obscure. But the best explanation is that, in 1894, New York City stockbroker Lemuel Benedict staggered into the Waldorf Astoria Hotel restaurant in search for a cure of his hangover:

The story goes that Lemuel went to the Waldorf Hotel one hungover morning in 1894 and asked for “some buttered toast, crisp bacon, two poached eggs, and a hooker of hollandaise sauce.” (A "hooker" is what we now call a "glug" or a "slug.")  

This odd combination became a popular dish in American cuisine.

Jason Borders is an artist in Portland, Oregon. Several years ago, while driving through the desert, he came upon an elk carcass. In an interview two years ago with Kentucky.com, he explains that he loaded it into his car with some degree of risk:

"I loaded most of it in my Honda Civic," Borders says, laughing. "I almost got arrested doing this."

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At a basketball game on Tuesday, the Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics. During the game, the Kiss Cam panned around, looking for romantic couples. It found the perfect relationship: a woman and her pizza.

The unidentified lady joyfully stuffed not one, but two slices of pieces into her mouth.

This is a love story for all time.

-via Matthew Caverhill

Appropriate for a wedding cake, this edible model of the Voyager is moving forward at warp speed. You can tell from the lighted engine nacelles, which is only one of the fantastic illuminations provided by Cara Mia Cake. The deflector dish and exterior windows also light up the surrounding darkness of space. You can see more photos at Between the Pages.

Fallen Furniture is a studio in Bath, UK that takes old aircraft parts and turns them into luxurious pieces of furniture. This chair made from the cowling of a Boeing 737 engine is among them. Its polished aluminum cover brightens up a room. And despite the weight, it's perfectly balanced, so it spins easily.

-via Home Crux

When you're only allowed to eat one cookie, then you need to stretch the definition of "one". Joe Castro, the head chef at Quest Nutrtion in Los Angeles developed Cookieception and photographed it appropriately with a background of Cookie Monster blue. You can find his recipe here.

The obvious next step would be to use this giant cookie as a topping for a larger cookie.

-via Thrillist

Would you like to watch the trailer? It's 7 hours and 20 minutes long. It was shot in one take and is substantially longer than the teaser released last year, which is a mere 1 hour and 12 minutes long.

Ambiancé is the new film project by Swedish director Anders Weberg. He bills it as the world's longest film, although The English Patient feels longer. Weberg plans to screen Ambiancé once on all 7 continents starting on December 31, 2020, then immediately destroy all copies of it--presumably for artistic reasons.

-via Ace of Spades HQ