When zoologists previously attempted to return a panda bear cub to the wild, the cub did not survive. They suspect that other wild pandas killed him. So this time, the researchers at China's Wolong panda preserve limited human contact as much as possible. They even dressed in panda suits while returning cubs to the preserve:

In a new strategy, earlier this year conservationists released four pregnant Pandas into a protected area of Sichuan forest in order to prepare their future cubs for life in the wild.

In these pictures researchers at Wolong's Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center take the temperature of a four-month-old cub before carefully returning him to the 'wild' where he is monitored by 24-hour CCTV.

Link via Jim Treacher | Photo: Reuters

Italian sculptor Franco Recchia builds models of cities from components of old computers. Pictured above is a representation of Central Park in New York City made from circuit boards. At the link, you can view other sculptures of New York City, Boston, and Pittsburgh.

Link via Dude Craft | Photo: Agora Gallery

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"Shop Vac" is Jonathan Coulton's song about life in a suburban paradise. This music video for it features the clever typographic animation of Jarrett Heather. Words and corporate logos flow across the screen as the narrator embraces a lifestyle of prosperity symbolized by the Shop-Vac in his basement workshop.

via Urlesque | Jarrett Heather | Jonathan Coulton

Previously: "Skullcrusher Mountain" by Jonathan Coulton

Bill Watterson is now famous for his Calvin & Hobbes cartoons. But several years before that strip began, he was a contributor to the student newspaper of Kenyon College. There he studied political science from 1976-1980. At the link, you can view a selection of his cartoons from that time.

Link via Geekosystem

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The folks at Springfield Arsenal in Lorton, Virginia acquired a 16th Century cannon that would be fitted onto the end of a pole. It has three barrels. Presumably the musket nipple on the side of each barrel would be slapped against a hard surface, causing the gun to fire. At 2:55, they fire it with 75 grains of black power and a .69-caliber musket ball in each barrel.

via Make

The Electrical Engineering Institute at the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne, Switzerland, has developed a camera that can see 3D images in all directions. The design is based on insect eyes, which are hemispherical and contain many individual photoreceptors. Potential applications include gaming, media production, and robot navigation systems.

Link and Video via DVICE | Photo: GearLog

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People who bag groceries for a living have to work quickly and efficiently without breaking anything. Not everyone is good enough to make it as a bagger, but some are superb at the task. And they can enter the world of competitive bagging. The above video is a trailer for Read, Set, Bag!, a documentary about this sport.

Link via Brian J. Noggle | Competition Website | Film Website

For a year and a half, the Norton family's home on Staten Island was used to shoot scenes for the movie The Godfather. It has eight bedrooms, a pub, and an asking price of $2.9 million. The gates featured in the film, however, were put up by the production crew and were never a regular part of the house. You can view a video of the house at the link.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Image: Paramount

Dennis Upper had trouble finding content to write about for his article on writer's block. You can view a larger image at the link. Be sure to read the comments by his first reviewer.

Link via Volokh Conspiracy

A condo in the Cole Valley neighborhood of San Francisco was made from an old fire station. The pole that allowed firefighters to descend to the bottom floor is still there. It's to the right of the fireplace in this photograph.

http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/8-Carmel-St-94117/home/1416512 via Gizmodo | Photo: Redfin

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Christiaan Van Vuuren became an Internet sensation in February by composing a rap video while in hospital quarantine for tuberculosis. This was followed by a second video before Van Vuuren was released from the hospital.

As a promotional stunt, the makers of an Australian energy drink hired him to set a record for the world's longest rap. He claims that it lasted nine hours and twenty minutes. The above video is taken from the end of his effort.

via Urlesque

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The Z-Saw is a tool that has a little piston built into the handle. As the user pulls back and forth, the piston compresses and then blows a small puff of air at the material that the user is cutting. This way, the cutting line isn't hidden by sawdust.

Link via Make

Graphic designer Alex Freeman made posters that display, with only basic colors and shapes, the first six incarnations of the Doctor on Doctor Who. At his Flickr photostream, you can also view minimalist book covers that he's designed for Star Wars novels.

Link via Technabob | Freeman's Photostream

An issue of Life magazine published on July 23, 1945 includes an article about a secret weapon proposed by some Nazi scientists toward the end of World War II. It was a huge mirror that, if placed in orbit, would focus sunlight on enemy nations and burn them:

Plausible schemes to build a station in space were engineered on paper long before the war. European rocket enthusiasts, including Dr. Hermann Oberth, who may have been the designer of the V-2, had planned to use the space station not as a weapon but as a refueling point for rockets starting off on journeys into space. ... The only major obstacle: constructing a rocket powerful enough to reach a point where a space station could be built. If the modern German scientists had been able to make such a rocket, they might have ben able to set up their sun gun. Whether the sun gun would have accomplished what they expected, however, is another matter."

The German idea of using the sun as a military weapon is not new. There is an ancient legend that Archimedes designed great burning mirrors which set the Roman fleet afire during the siege of Syracuse, in which Archimedes later died. This legend, and the German plan for building may be proved physically impossible by a simple axiom of optics. This is that light cannot be brought to a sharp, pointed focus with lenses or mirrors unless it comes from a sharp, pointed source. Since the sun appears in the sky as a disk and not as a point, the best any optical system can produce is an image of this disk. At very short focal lengths, the image is small and hot but as the focal length is increased the image becomes progressively bigger and cooler. At the distance the Germans proposed to set up their mirror (3,100 miles) the image of the sun cast on the earth would be about 40 miles in diameter and not hot enough to do any damage.

Link via blastr | Image: Life

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The fire department of Cottage Grove, Wisconsin decorated one of their trucks with Christmas lights. It plays "Wizards in Winter" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The lights are synchronized with the music.

via The Presurfer

Previously: Christmas Light Hero