Flickr user manmadepants http://www.flickr.com/photos/borrowed/ uploaded this photo with the story that explains it.

I swear on my life this is 100% real. I was walking down the street looking for stuff to photograph and this guy is just sitting outside a coffee shop with this 80 year old woman and he is taking these little sofa things out of a bag. Then he opens another compartment in the bag and there are about five lizards like this guy. Then he would pose them and they would just sit there like this. Don't really know why.

Link -via Reddit

The Open School of Art, founded by artist Karoly Koffan, was a legitimate school, but also became a front to save Jews in Budapest during World War II. Lauren Krupa is collecting stories from teachers and students who worked to protect and save friends during the German occupation of Hungary in 1944 and 1945, in order to make a documentary film. Here is one such story:

Precise information from an informer led an officer of the Arrow Cross militia to search for a Jewish man who had slipped away from the ghetto at the studio of painter Lajos Szentivanyi. There was no time to arrange a proper hiding place, and the Jew simply concealed himself behind a screen in a room that was bad for hiding in, his yellow shoes peeking out beneath it. Fortunately, in the room was a spectacular nude painting that Szentivanyi was working on and from which the officer could not look away. Whether or not he saw the shoes, he stopped searching, spoke a few words to Szentivanyi and left.

Read more at Haaretz.com. Link -via Fark

Sandy at mental_floss has compiled A Disturbingly Long List of Celebrity Motorbike Crash-ups. 28 of them, to be exact! You may remember some of these from the news, but I bet you will be surprised by some. Link

Just for fun: Mt. Rushmore sings The Teddy Bears Picnic. Link -via the Presurfer

Here’s something you don’t see everyday. Picture found at Bits and Pieces.

If you’re going to die, do it differently! Neatorama has featured strange deaths before, and here are more people who have died in bizarre ways, like the women who was choked by a fish, or the man who’s head was twisted by a robot. Link -via the Presurfer

Khoi Vinh knows how his dog Mister President thinks. He contructed this flowchart to show how he (and other dogs) think. Makes plenty of sense to me! http://www.subtraction.com/archives/2007/0918_think_like_a.php -via Look at This

Those who only knew “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin from TV may forget that he was always involved in serious wildlife research. Just yesterday, a research paper was published listing Irwin as one of the authors. It involves the homing instincts of crocodiles. The short version is: you can take a crocodile as far as hundreds of miles away from its home, and he will find his way back. As Coturnix observes:

Can you imagine anyone doing this work without Steve Irwin? Who else would be able to grab a big croc, attach a satellite tracker, load it and unload it some hundreds of miles away, then follow their movements on the computer screen? Would you dare ask your grad students to do that?

Link to story. Link to research paper.

15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford was the first black student to attend a white school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Journalist Will Counts took this picture of Eckford’s entrance, with student Hazel Bryan shouting at her. 50 years later, Vanity Fair looks at what happened then, and what became of Eckford and Bryan and their relationship. Link to story. More pictures here. -via Metafilter

Keep your feet toasty warm this winter in slippers that resemble Darth Vader or Yoda! A sweet geeky gift from Think Geek. Link -via Dump Trumpet

Does he get points for effort? No? Maybe he should take another semester! Push play or go to YouTube. -via Cynical-C

One of the very few copies of the Magna Carta is going to auction. The only copy in America has been on display in the National Archives, but is owned by Ross Perot, who bought it in 1984 for 1.5 million dollars.

The Perot Magna Carta dates to 1297 and was endorsed by King Edward I. The National Archives said that of the 17 original versions that still exist, 4 are from the reign of John; 8 are from Henry III; and 5 are from Edward I. Mr. Neilson said that some jurists consider the Perot Magna Carta to be the most important one because it was the one that was entered into the statute books in England.

Sotheby’s is expected to auction off the document in December. It may bring as much as 20-30 million dollars! Link -via Metafilter

In honor of the release of Halo 3, pranksters from MIT dressed up the statue of John P. Harvard in Harvard Yard with an assault rifle and a Spartan Helmet! Link -via Reddit

Recently, the D.I.Y. Qee Project: BART Tour took place at the Showroom NYC, featuring Bart Simpson's three-dimensional shape reimagined by over 100 international artists, designers, and illustrators.

Each artist was given a blank 10-inch D.I.Y. Bart Simpson Qee Figure to start with. The Village Voice has a gallery of images from the show. There are a LOT of zombie Barts! The show travels to London and Beijing next. http://www.villagevoice.com/gallery/0739,38bart,77858,30.html -via YesButNoButYes

Did you ever wonder what kind of tire would make the longest leap off a ski jump? Me neither. But this Japanese TV show not only answers the question, it makes the competition quite entertaining. Push play or go to YouTube. -via the Presurfer