Construction crews near York, UK, found the body of a man who died a violent death 2,500 years ago. Inside the skull was an almost completely intact brain, carefully preserved thanks to the soil in which the body was buried:

The Heslington remains, along with others O'Connor has discovered, appear to have been buried quickly after death in wet environments where the absence of oxygen prevented the brain tissue from putrefying. But while the oxygen-free environment seems key, it is not possible to rule out other factors like certain diseases or physiological changes, such as those that accompany starvation, that might predispose the brain to being preserved this way, according to O'Connor.

After being deposited in the water-logged pit, the Heslington brain began to change chemically, developing into a durable material and shrinking to a quarter of its size.

Link via Nerdcore | Photo: York Archaeological Trust

Previously: 800-Year Old Brain with Intact Cells

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In 1969, Jim Henson of later Muppet fame shot a short pilot film for Johnny Hart's comic strip The Wizard of Id. By the time that Publishers-Hall Syndicate expressed an interest in such a show, Henson was already busy with Sesame Street and other projects, so it never went forward. Do you think that it would have succeeded?

http://www.henson.com/jimsredbook/2011/03/22/3221969/ via io9

Do you love America? Do you want to show it? Then you do it with cats, I tells ya, cats! Not dogs, not ferrets, not emus or llamas, but cats and nothing else.

Link via Jalopnik | Photo: The Clearly Dope

Yes, we've seen steampunk mice before, but none that come with a pre-installed brain! Builder Peter Balch notes that "Every self-respecting Victorian Scientist needs a brain in a jar." I couldn't have said it better myself. You can see in-process photos at the link as well as an explanation of how he built it.

http://www.peterbalch.btinternet.co.uk/MousePunk.htm via Technabob

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Here's a clever commercial for Dirt Devil brand vacuum cleaners by the ad agency The Raft. Apparently, it'll clean more than just one type of rug.

Link via Copyranter

Existenz has photos of a decidedly odd children's book called Elephant Elephant: A Book of Opposites by Francesco Pittau and Bernadette Gervais. Opposing concepts are presented with a pair of elephants, such as one that is on fire and one no longer on fire. The pages for "open" and "closed" are really freaky.

Link via The Agitator | Amazon Link

Moses Lanham, Jr., who bills himself as "Mr. Elastic", can turn his feet 120° backwards. He's journeying to Rome to attend a show hosted by Guinness World Records. There, he hopes to win the record for walking with his feet backwards:

His second record attempt will clock how fast he can walk 20 meters with his feet turned backward. Lanham is aiming for a 30-second jaunt.

Both will be newly created records.

While it sounds like something that would crack a few bones, Lanham insists it's completely painless and requires no warm-up routine. "A lot of times when I'm sitting down I'll put my feet in a twisted position because it's more comfortable for me," he said.

Link via Geekosystem | Photo: Moses Lanham, Jr.

The Green Machine was a classic toy from the 1970s. It steered from the rear using levers, thus allowing riders to make very sharp turns. Parker Brothers Choppers built this Green Machine for adults. It's powered by an 80 cubic inch Harley-Davidson engine and steers from the rear, just like the original.

“We had a Green Machine lying around the shop and we figured it would be a cool idea,” said Parker Brothers’ Jeff Halverson, who did 50 mph on this beast. “It rides crazy and is fast as hell. If it wasn’t for the rear tires we could have had it DOT approved.”

Instead of the Department of Transportation, however, Parker Brothers is looking for approval from the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest wheel on a motorcycle trike.

Link via Joe Carter | Photo: Parker Brothers Choppers

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Horse boarding is a sport in which competitors ride off-road skateboards while being pulled by horses. The objective is to stay upright at high speeds and over rough terrain:

Professional stuntman Daniel Fowler-Prime, 31, invented the sport five years ago after he strung a rope between his off-road 'mountain board' and a horse.

Now he has developed the daredevil stunt into a fully fledged sport and is looking forward to hosting the UK's first ever horse boarding championships this summer.

Adrenaline junkies stand on a mountain board while gripping a rope and attempt to maintain their balance as the horse is spurred into a gallop by its rider.

The rush of acceleration provides the greatest thrill, with riders reaching speeds of 35 miles per hour in just five horse strides.

Link via The Presurfer

The Nostalgic Chair by OOO My Design pays homage to great old music by making cassette tapes useful again. It comes with a Walkman attached and appears to be assembled with just zip ties.

Link via Technabob

Orismar de Souza, 35, of São José de Piranha, Brazil, built a functional car out of junk. He actually shaped the body himself out of sheet metal using a hammer and chisel. The engine 125cc engine is from a motorcycle, and the other parts were gathered from junk yards in his area. After four years of work, off and on, he was successful:

"Nobody believed, everybody laughed at me," Souza told Globo.com. "I was very humbled by this, but I won and I built my car alone with my own hands. "

By December, Souza was able to replace the motorcycle engine's kickstarter with a car ignition, and add in a gearbox with reverse. The mostly Fiat shrimpmobile can reach 50 mph on the highway, and Souza has been able to use it to find a home and a job in the local sugarcane fields.

Link | Photo: Divulgação/Wagner Batista da Silva/Arquivo Pessoal

Staring at each other all day without interruption. What's not to like? I'm not sure how the noses are going to work with this design from the design firm Auge.

Link via NotCot

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Festo, maker of so many marvelous machines that move like animals, has created the SmartBird. It's a robot that moves like a bird, specifically, a herring gull:

This bionic technology-bearer, which is inspired by the herring gull, can start, fly and land autonomously – with no additional drive mechanism. Its wings not only beat up and down, but also twist at specific angles. This is made possible by an active articulated torsional drive unit, which in combination with a complex control system attains an unprecedented level of efficiency in flight operation. Festo has thus succeeded for the first time in creating an energy-efficient technical adaptation of this model from nature.

Link via Geekologie

In the 1960s, the prominence of The Lord of the Rings series was rising, so the publisher of The Hobbit decided to release a 30th anniversary edition. Maurice Sendak, the children's author and illustrator most famous for Where the Wild Things Are, was among the artists considered to illustrate The Hobbit. J.R.R. Tolkien looked at samples that Sendak had submitted, including the one above, and promptly rejected him:

As Sendak noted passages for possible illustration and sketched in the margins of his copy of the book, the publisher prepared the art samples for Tolkien’s approval. The editor mislabeled the samples, however, identifying the wood-elves as “hobbits,” as Sendak recalled to Maguire. This blunder nettled Tolkien. His reply was that Sendak had not read the book closely and did not know what a hobbit was. Consequently, Tolkien did not approve the drawings. Sendak was furious.

Link via blastr

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Capoeria is an Brazilian martial art developed by African slaves out of dancing styles. I studied it for a year in college. It's a simply beautiful form of dance, although relatively impractical for self-defense. This cat, however, seems to do fairly well for himself while defending from a classic capoeira pose.

via Urlesque