Listverse has pictures and descriptions of ten strange weapons developed by the Allies during World War II. Among them were sound mirrors, some of which still dot the British coast:

They are the long-forgotten acoustic reflectors, dubbed by locals as the “listening ears.” These lonely structures were built to protect harbors and coastal towns from airborne attacks. Serving as an early warning system, microphones placed at the focal point of the reflector enabled it to detect sounds from flying aircraft over the English Channel, at a range of 30 kilometers. Thanks to acoustic pioneer William Tucker, who helped the radar teams pinpoint enemy aircraft and their movements, the system helped a seemingly inferior, and nearly obsolete, radar system effectively detect German bombers and fighters, and to, ultimately, help win the Battle of Britain.

Link via First Things | Photo by Flickr user Between a Rock used under Creative Commons license

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK, holds a Roman multitool that dates back to the 3rd Century C.E. When unfolded, it has a fork, spatula, pick, spike, and knife blade.

Link | Photo: Fitzwilliam Museum

Edward Horsford takes photographs of water balloons being popped. The results create the impression of water hanging in midair:

"My camera is really the least important part of the shots," Horsford writes in an e-mail. The trick seems to be in the timing of the flash. He sets a timer on his camera to take a long exposure of 1 to 2 seconds, and if the flash fires within that time, he gets an image. He uses a special gizmo with a microphone that triggers the flashes when it picks up a certain level of sound (i.e., the pop of a balloon).

You can view eleven more photographs at the link.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2010/10/13/130536054/water-balloons via Ace of Spades HQ

In 1815, Cossacks returning from the Napoleonic Wars established a village in what is now the Chelyabinsk oblast of Russia. They named it Paris, and their descendants later erected a miniature Eiffel Tower. At the link, you can view several pictures of the site.

Link via The Presurfer | Photo: Victor Borisov

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Adam Gault, Stefanie Augustine, and Carlo Vega created this animated presentation of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The sound effects are particularly well done.

via First Things

Previously: The Gettysburg Address as a PowerPoint Presentation

Authorities at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the state of Washington have captured a rabbit that sipped water contaminated by radioactivity:

A radioactive rabbit was trapped on the Hanford nuclear reservation, but there is no sign any people were exposed to the animal.

Washington state Health Department workers with the Office of Radiation Protection have been searching for contaminated rabbit droppings.[...]

The rabbit trapped at the 300 Area caught the Health Department's attention because it was close enough to the site's boundaries to potentially come in contact with people - if it had been caught by a dog or if its droppings were deposited in an area open to the public.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/106768873.html via Ace of Spades HQ | Image: MGM

To be more precise, it's a flying, radio controlled scale model of shark. Sadly, it's not actually a shark that flies that you can control at will.

The Flying Shark from Nitro Planes has as a 33 inch wingspan and can fly at full power for four minutes. You can watch a video at the link.

Link via Gizmodo

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Instructables user Mangetout turned an aluminum drink can into a very nicely embossed metal box. In this video, he provides step-by-step instructions on how you can do likewise. Once you look at the finished product, you'll be amazed to think that it was originally an energy drink can.

Link via Make

Don't you hate it when stuff from your pockets gets lost in the cracks between couch cushions? The design firm Daisuke Motogi Architecture decided to make this a feature, rather than a bug. The "Lost in Sofa Chair" comes with many different cracks into which you can store books, phones, and other implements that you want nearby.

Link via CrunchGear | Photo: Daisuke Motogi Architecture

Artist Jessica Harrison made a set of ceramic and epoxy resin figurines that look like refined 19th Century ladies suffering from ghastly wounds. Pictured above is Grace. There are thirteen more examples at the link.

Link via Nerdcore | Photo by the artist

Previously by Jessica Harrison: Mouth Eyes

Three years ago, we featured the amazing papercut letters of artist Annie Vought. Since that time, she's added extensively to her portfolio.

The above image isn't a photograph of just a piece of paper. It's a letter written on paper, and then all non-inked areas cut out. This work is entitled "PS No more Calls for You from Sexy Girls."

Link via Dude Craft

Microsoft, concluding that taxi drivers may be a good source of directions for its online mapping service, gathered GPS data from 33,000 cabs in China:

Taxi drivers, in general, are far more knowledgeable about the cities in which they drive than Google could ever be alone. London cabbies spend years learning what's called "The Knowledge," a requirement to become a certified cabbie. Studies have shown that parts of cabbies' brains are larger than average as a result of The Knowledge.

Microsoft hit on a way to pick cabbies brains in China, pulling that knowledge into a database. They collected GPS data from 33,000 cabs, reports Technology Review. The software giant presented its findings at the International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems in California this week. The researchers say the routes produced by their system are faster than 60% of those suggested by Google Maps -- saving about 5 minutes, on average, on what would otherwise be a 30-minute drive.

Link | Photo via Flickr user Ivan Walsh used under Creative Commons license

Researchers led by Eberhart Zrenner of the University of Tuebingen, Germany, have developed an eye implant that is able to restore partial sight to people suffering from a form of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa:

One subject, 46-year-old Mikka Terho from Finland, was able to read large letters and a clock face, and differentiate between shades of gray a few days after the implant and his eyes eventually became adjusted to the light.

The chip, operated by a battery-powered cable implanted behind the ear, converts light into electrical impulses that act on the optic nerve. The device did not work on the other eight volunteers because it was implanted less deeply in the eye, according to the paper.

Link via io9 | Image: Zrenner, et al.

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This video, allegedly taken last September near Newfolden, Minnesota, shows a hunter in a tree stand. A black bear wanders by and decides to climb up the ladder of the stand to where the hunter sits.

via reddit

Previously: Bow Hunters Wed in Tree Stand, Clad in Camo

The blog The Price of Travel assessed the average rate for a 3-kilometer taxi ride in one hundred cities. The editors observed that, with some exceptions, taxis were almost the same level of automotive quality worldwide. Higher-quality cars did not necessarily correlate with higher rates.

These were the ten cheapest rates:

$0.90 – $1.58 Delhi, India
$0.97 – $1.28 Mumbai, India
$1.04 – $1.73 Cairo, Egypt
$1.14 – $1.71 La Paz, Bolivia
$1.17 – $1.87 Manila, Philippines
$1.22 – $2.03 Mexico City, Mexico
$1.23 – $2.94 Panama City, Panama
$1.23 – $1.68 Kuta, Bali, Indonesia
$1.24 – $1.86 Fez, Morocco
$1.29 – $1.94 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Link via Marginal Revolution

Photo of taxi in Mumbai by Flickr user Jody McIntyre used under Creative Commons license