It's possible to make real money in virtual worlds, as one user of the MMOG Entropia Universe recently experienced. He sold a set of virtual real estate properties for $335,000:

Jacobs, who goes by the in-game name of Neverdie, has made a number of high-profile transactions over the past few years, from the $25,000 sale of his in-game items, to his purchase of a virtual asteroid for $100,000. The purchase of the asteroid, in 2005, was believed to be the most expensive virtual item sale in history. That record was broken by the 2009 sale of the Crystal Palace Space Station for $330,000.

The recent sale, confirmed by Jacobs to the fansite, amounts to a value of $335,000. Jacobs sold a number of bio domes, a mall, stadium and a club to Kalun.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/virtual-property-sale-record-broken via Geekologie | Image: MindArk

Relative to bodyweight, the male tuberous bushcricket has the largest testicles of any animal on Earth:

The sperm-producing organs account for 14 percent of the body mass of males of this bushcricket species. The previous record holder's testicles—belonging to the fruit fly Drosophila bifurca—tipped the scales at about 11 percent of its body mass.

"I was amazed by the size of the testes—they seemed to take up the entire abdomen," said study leader Karim Vahed, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Derby in the U.K.

Link | Photo: Richard Richards/University of Derby

Perry Watkins makes custom cars, such as one that looks like a dining room set. His latest project was to build the world's smallest street legal car, and the result has been certified as such by Guinness World Records. The "Wind Up" car is 41 inches high and 26 inches high. It can drive 37 miles an hour and has a seat belt:

Watkins set out to break the world record before he started building it. He researched details of the current record holder as well as the legal requirements that apply to the construction of motor vehicles.

Watkins used a coin-operated children's ride, which he repainted, for the body and repurposed a chassis from a Shanghai Shenke quad bike. He used rear tires and wheels from a Honda Monkey motorcycle. The front wheels were custom-made to fit tires from a 1939 Brockhouse Corgi paratrooper’s mini motorcycle.

Link via The Presurfer | Photo: AP/Martin Meissner

In Korawan, a remote area of India, there's a bank that allows people to deposit goats as savings, or borrow goats on credit. Local coordinator Subedar Singh explained how it works:

"Wives of these people help them in crushing stones and breed two-three goats for additional income," Singh said.

"Though the area is best suited for goat breeding, no effort was made to establish it as a full fledged business activity," he said.

"We provide goats to women having interest in taking up breeding as a full-time activity as loan. When a goat gives birth to kids, generally two to three in numbers, one of them is deposited with the bank again," Prema explained.

Goats in the bank are medically examined every week.

"In case a goat dies, then it is either replaced from the market or from the bank depending upon the availability," Prema said.

Link via J-Walk Blog | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Pete Markham used under Creative Commons license

A housing development in Zaragoza, Spain, will name its streets after classic video games. Last Saturday, residents dubbed one road "Avenida de Super Mario Bros.":

Other planned roads in the neighborhood include streets named for "Sonic the Hedgehog," "Space Invaders" and "The Legend of Zelda."

Video games won out over more traditional options in an online poll that residents used to pick their street names, said Antonio Almudi Miranda, president of the Arcosur neighborhood association.

"We are people who grew up living with video games. We know them very well," he said. "I'm 25. I'm the same age as Mario."

Link via Nerd Bastards | Photo: CNN

A study using CT scans suggests that Neanderthal brains, like that of modern humans, grew steadily into adulthood. But unlike modern human brains, Neanderthal brains did not change shape as they grew. This may explain why Neanderthals had a similar brain size, but less intelligence:

Scientists have shown that Neandertal brains are about the same size as ours. Yet our Paleolithic brethren are not known for having been great scholars. To probe this cognitive conundrum, researchers took CT scans of 11 Neandertal brains, including one newborn. And they compared these images to those of modern humans.

They found that baby braincases are similar in size and shape, regardless of their parentage. All are elongated, most likely to smooth passage through the birth canal. But modern human baby brains grow more globular in the first year of life, changes that reflect a massive wave of neural development. That phase change is absent in Neandertals, whose brains retain that extended newborn shape throughout their lives.

Link | Photo by Flickr user Matt Seleskey used under Creative Commons license

Erik van Loo designed bedding that looks like the shabby sleeping conditions that the homeless in Germany face. Proceeds from sales go to benefit homeless children in that country through an organization called "Kids Off Road" -- or that's how Google Translate is rendering the name.

Link (Google Translate) and Link (Google Translate) via Geektoplasm | Photo: Design 3000

I'm not sure if this should be called a set of motorized skates, a motorized unicycle, or something else. At any rate, the FlyRad pulls the user around while wearing roller skates. It can reach speeds of 25 MPH and travel 31 miles on a single charge:

Users can “ride” the vehicle in a number of ways including sitting, standing, squatting or hands free. Riders can even switch positions on the go. In standing mode the device is held much like a jackhammer which tows the rider along, while in sitting mode the rider sits on the saddle with a pair of skates acting as the vehicle’s front wheels.

Since steering is controlled by the skates, the rider can let go of the handle bars altogether to give the sensation of flying that presumably gives the FlyRad its name. When ridden in this way the FlyRad stays in place by transferring the rider’s weight onto a couple of pads attached to the bottom of the handlebars that push down onto the rider’s upper legs.

Video at the link.

Link via DVICE | Official Website | Photo: Gizmag

Polish artist NeSpoon made doilies, left them up on Oak Beach (Poland), and photographed people interacting with them:

The effects of my work aroused great interest. Many people made pictures of the installations, they moved them around from place to place, they were even used for the construction of beach camps. Small children with great joy played around them.

These objects made of lace, though very delicate, survived on the beach over a week.

Content warning: these pictures are from a European beach, so some of the pictures may be NSFW by American standards.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Oak-Beach/599056 via Dude Craft | Artist's Blog | Photo by the artist

Why? Do you really need a reason? Well, in this case, it may a useful activity. There's a new chip available that can be used by mobile devices to diagnose sexually transmitted diseases:

People who suspect they have been infected will be able to put urine or saliva on to a computer chip about the size of a USB chip, plug it into their phone or computer and receive a diagnosis within minutes, telling them which, if any, sexually transmitted infection (STI) they have. Seven funders, including the Medical Research Council, have put £4m into developing the technology via a forum called the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Jacky Cheong used under Creative Commons license

Art students in São Paulo, Brazil, made a sculpture of a monkey out of 10,000 flip-flops. It was created for the recent Pixel Show, a major art and design fair.

Link via Geekologie | Fair Website | Photo: Zeutch.com

(Video Link)

The band OK Go is known for its innovative music videos. The group's latest video for the song "Last Leaf" consists of stop-motion animation on pieces of toast. It was directed by Geoff Mcfetridge and sponsored by Samsung, which provided the camera.

Link via Geekosystem | Director's Website

During the early years of the Cold War, Britain proposed placing nuclear mines along the eastern border of West Germany. These could be detonated when Warsaw Pact armies crossed, destroying them and deterring follow-on forces from invading Western Europe. But there was a problem with the mine design. It tended to freeze during the winter and become useless. So the British military considered nesting live chickens on the bombs. The body heat from the chickens would keep the vulnerable components of the bombs from become disabled:

Scientists working on the project realised that the bomb could fail in winter if vital components become too cold, so they explored ways of keeping the inner workings warm. One proposal put forward consisted of filling the casing of the nuke with live chickens, who would give off sufficient heat, prior to suffocating or starving to death, to keep the delicate explosive mechanism from freezing. Despite the potential importance of chickens to the project, the mine was codenamed 'Blue Peacock'.

The plan was never carried out.

Link via Dan Lewis | Photo by Flickr user MonkeyMyshkin used under Creative Commons license

Researchers at the University of Bonn have found that people with a certain gene are more likely to be altruistic. The researchers took a genetic sample from study participants, and then asked them to participate in a quiz on memory retention. For this, participants were given five Euros, and invited to donate that amount to a charity. Prof. Martin Reuter described what happened:

"Students with the COMT-Val gene donated twice as much money on average as did fellow students with the COMT-Met variant," explains Reuter. This is the first time that researchers have been able to establish a connection between a particular gene and altruistic deeds. However, it was already known from studies on twins that altruistic behavior is also partly influenced by our genes.

Link via Hit & Run | Photo by Flickr user meddygarnet used under Creative Commons license

Artist Kim Rugg specializes in re-arranging shapes and text on paper. We've previously posted about her discovery that Royal Mail stamp reading machines would take any shaped stamp, so as long as they had the correct colors. Rugg responded by making her own usable stamps.

More recently, she rearranged the letters in the lines of text on the front page of a newspaper so that they were in alphabetical order. The linked video is an exploration of that project, as well as Rugg's other experiments.

Gallery Link and Video Link via Boing Boing | Photo: Mark Moore Gallery