Why do lions have a loud, deep growl and house cats a high meow? It's not because of the relative size of the animals, but the relative size of their territories:

Dr Gustav Peters and Dr Marcell Peters at the Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum in Bonn, Germany analysed the average frequencies of long-distance calls made by 27 different species of cat.

These included the great or "roaring" cats, such as lions, tigers and jaguars, which are able to roar due to the specialised structure of their throats.

They then looked for any relationships between the cats' calls and their size, and the habitats in which they live.

Cat species that live in more open types of habitat, such as lions, servals and cheetahs, have deeper calls.

Cats living in dense habitats, such as wildcats, clouded leopards and the little known marbled cat, communicate at a higher pitch, the researchers found.

Link via reddit | Photo by Flickr user Tambako the Jaguar used under Creative Commons license

Igor Barbashin and Daria Volokhova designed the "Shattered Clock." Numbers break apart and form together. The hour number that is the least broken represents the closest hour to the current time. The minute hand tells you, well, the current minute. So it's 3:55. The designers write:

The "Order in Chaos" clocks - is a vivid illustration of the self paradigm to overcome the anarchy in you and connect with the universe. This clock is an example of a strange relationship between order and chaos.

Link via Gizmodo

Gimme is a robot/sculpture designed by Chris Eckert that follows people around, asking for money:

My newest art machine, Gimme is an automated panhandler that follows a viewer (or multiple viewers) around the room while relentlessly requesting donations.

Link via Make

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The Imponderables, a comedy troupe, made this parody of The Bourne Ultimatum casting Waldo of the Where's Waldo? books as the central character. His identity was erased. His past was stolen. His whereabouts are unknown. Can they find Waldo?

via Geekosystem | Official Website

Previously:
Where's Waldo? On Google Street View
Werner Herzog Reads Where's Waldo
9 Surprising Things Found in Where's Waldo? Books

Yes, there's a musical version of the science fiction movie Jurassic Park. It was written by Phillip Malcom and Aaron Holmes. The play has been occasionally performed since 2009 by college students in Lincoln, Nebraska. It's about an hour long, and you can watch it in the links below.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

via Nerd Bastards | Official Website

Jon Cohen of the science fiction blog blastr gathered yearbook photos of 26 movie stars from that genre, such as Mark Hamil (left). Others include Chris Pine, Harrison Ford, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Zachary Quinto.

Link

Last year, Dr. Elena Bodnar won the Ig Nobel Prize in Public Health for her Emergency Bra. Having seen first hand the devastating effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, she designed it to filter out the radioactive particles found there. In the event of a similar emergency, just remove the bra and break it into two usable air filter masks.

Dr. Bodnar is thought to be currently working on a "counterpart device for men", although the configuration is unknown.

Link via Say Uncle | Official Website | Photo: Ebbra.com

Artist Steve Bialik created six prints that re-imagined the Star Wars universe in the Edo period of Japanese history (1603-1868). On the left, you can see Jabba with Leia, and on the right, Admiral Ackbar.

Link via Super Punch | Artist's Website

Previously: Samurai Star Wars in Edo Japan

Allison Nelson has opened "A Snack in the Face" -- a bakery in Ames, Iowa that specializes in caffeinated goods. Each brownie that she sells contains 200 milligrams of pure caffeine:

"It's exactly what grandma used to bake – no high-fructose corn syrup, no partially hydrogenated soybean oil," Nelson told the newspaper. "We're not wrapping up caffeine in a health bar here. We're wrapping it up in a home-baked treat. Isn't it about time you have caffeine and it tastes good?"

Nelson and her husband, Wes, originally started out with 400 milligrams of caffeine in their brownies, according to the paper, which is about the equivalent of a large cup of Starbucks-brewed coffee. But that amount proved to be a little too potent.

"I'm lying there, staring at the ceiling at 2 a.m. and saying, 'I think that's too much,' " Wes said.

Link via MArooned | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user dichohecho used under Creative Commons license

An archaeological dig at a 17th Century site in Peru has uncovered a letter that contains words from a previously lost language. The language appears to be related to Quechua, an indigenous language of the Andes still spoken today. Jeffrey Quilter, a Harvard archaeologist, proposed a possible origin for the language:

He said it could also be the written version of a language colonial-era Spaniards referred to in historical writings as pescadora, for the fishermen on Peru's northern coast who spoke it.

So far no record of the pescadora language has been found.

The letter, buried in the ruins of the Magdalena de Cao Viejo church at the El Brujo Archaeological Complex in northern Peru, was discovered in 2008.[...]

"I think a lot of people don't realize how many languages were spoken in pre-contact times," Quilter said. "Linguistically, the relationship between the Spanish conquistadors and the indigenous was very complex."

Link | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user quinet used under Creative Commons license

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In the past few years, astronomers have detected many planets orbiting other stars. This led some to wonder what our solar system would look like to alien astronomers on the same quest, using similar technology. They concluded that the key to finding planets around our sun at a distance would be Neptune. This planet's gravity has significant effects on the Kuiper Belt -- the region of gas and dust surrounding the outer limits of our solar system. Christopher Stark of the Carnegie Institution for Science explained:

Through gravitational effects called resonances, Neptune wrangles nearby particles into preferred orbits. This is what creates the clear zone near the planet as well as dust enhancements that precede and follow it around the Sun.

“One thing we’ve learned is that, even in the present-day solar system, collisions play an important role in the Kuiper Belt’s structure,” Stark explained. That’s because collisions tend to destroy large particles before they can drift too far from where they’re made.

Link via Geekosystem

Barry Lee built a drag racing car that is powered by six Makita circular saws. He entered it into an annual contest in Britain in which participants build racing vehicles from household tools:

DIY fans from around the world are strapping themselves into the speedy cars powered by the engines from everyday tools such as leaf blowers, disc cutters and chainsaws.

The mini dragsters can reach speeds of up to 112kph (70mph) on a 100m (320ft) strip because of their lightweight bodies.

Link via DVICE | Photo: SWNS

Designer Ed Swan made this table layered with different colors of paint. It was put on display at a recent exhibit in London. Visitors were given sandpaper and invited to sand away layers to create patterns and images that they liked.

Link via Make | Designer's Website | Photo: Core77

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"Layering" is a when a bartender mixes drinks (or components thereof) on top of each other in a container without mixing them. Here's a video of one skilled bartender layering and pouring nine cocktails.

via Geekologie

A bear attacked a dog in Frenchtown, Montana. The dog's owner fended off the bear using a zucchini:

When the woman, whom police did not name, tried to separate the animals, the bear bit her in the leg.

Maricelli says the woman reached for the nearest object at hand on the porch's railing — a large zucchini that she had harvested from her garden.

The woman flung the vegetable at the bear, striking it and forcing it to flee.

Link via Say Uncle | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Jagger used under Creative Commons license