Ball of Whacks - $29.95

Another new item at the NeatoShop is the toy called the Ball of Whacks. It consists of 30 magnetic pyramidal pieces -just imagine all the weird shapes you can make out of them! A great stress reliever or boredom-fighter at work or at home. Also available in black.

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You'd be surprised at how many book stores across the country (and probably around the world) have cats living in them. It makes sense -people who enjoy books usually enjoy cats as well, often at the same time. In this mental_floss article, you'll meet a dozen of the many bookstore cats who have their own fans, locally and online. Pictured is Asimov, resident cat at Seek Books in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Link

Recently-unearthed documents from the the German Foreign Office reveal a World War II dog story destined to eventually become a movie. A dog in Finland named Jackie could do a Hitler salute so well that the Nazis considered it a gross insult.

The dog, Jackie, was a mutt owned by Tor Borg, a businessman from the Finnish city of Tampere. Borg's wife Josefine, a German citizen known for her anti-Nazi sentiments, dubbed the dog Hitler because of the strange way it raised its paw high in the air like Germans greeting the Fuehrer with a cry of "Heil Hitler!"

On January 29, 1941, German Vice Consul Willy Erkelenz in Helsinki wrote that "a witness, who does not want to be named, said ... he saw and heard how Borg's dog reacted to the command 'Hitler' by raising its paw."

Borg was ordered to the German embassy in Helsinki and questioned about his dog's unusual greeting habits.

He denied ever calling the dog by the German dictator's name, but admitted that his wife called the dog Hitler. He tried to play down the accusations, saying the paw-raising had only happened a few times in 1933 — shortly after Hitler came to power.

The German Foreign Office was ready to arrest Borg for insulting Hitler, but no one wanted to testify against the man. Link -via Metafilter

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Lord of the Potty Dance! This Czech troupe is talented. There was no need at all to inset a Riverdance video. -via the Presurfer

You knew some presidents were hams (cough*Clinton*cough) and some no doubt ate ham, but I bet you've never seen a gallery of all the president holding hams! Click on a president (or a ham) and you'll be taken to a larger picture and interesting trivia about that president. Link -via J-Walk Blog

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Not only is this super cool, it's homemade! Instructables user chr posted the entire process, with pictures. This project is entered into a contest where the rules were "Make something awesome". I think he did. Link -via The Daily What

Dilbert PVC Figure Set - $24.95

Say hello to Dilbert, Dogbert, Boss, Wally, Alice and Catbert! It's a half dozen of your favorite characters from the Scott Adams comic Dilbert in one set of PVC figurines. The perfect inspiration for your cubicle, available now at the NeatoShop!

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Artist Kasey McMahon (previously at Neatorama) created an "infographic" with 22 reasons to explore outer space. I put quotes around the word infographic because even though that's the word she used, this is really more of a art poster, and there's no links to unrelated sites like many of the infographics you've seen. http://atypicalart.com/space/

The newly redesigned US $100 bill is more colorful than any US currency you've seen. There a lot of new security features to impede counterfeiting, including a blue ribbon embedded in the front with a watermark, a color-shifting bell, raised printing, tiny printed words in tiny spots, and more. Note: actual bills will not have a "specimen" watermark as this picture has. Take a tour of the differences at NewMoney, a government website devoted to US currency. Link -via J-Walk Blog

NASA is preparing to auction off souvenirs, paperwork, and hardware from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects. Of course, items from the Apollo 11 mission will command higher prices, such as the American flag shown, which went to the moon in the summer of 1969.

Remarkable flight-flown printed fabric American flag, 6 x 4, flown aboard Apollo 11 during its historic flight to the moon. Flag is affixed by its corners to a 10 x 12 certificate stating “This flag traveled to the moon with Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing, July 20, 1969,” and signed in black felt tip by astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Armstrong has also added an inscription that reads, “To Rooster with sincere best wishes from Apollo 11.” Rooster Andrews was the owner of a very successful sports shop business in Texas, a keen space collector, and a friend of the astronauts.

Bidding will begin on January 13th. Link -via Bad Astronomy

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Robocop the cat can't help himself -there are too many things running around in the washing machine! -via Cynical-C

The headline is Cracked's way of saying that humans have introduced invasive species to places where they wrecked the ecosystem. Some of these were accidental; others were caused by the silliest of reasons.

In the late 19th century, a group called the American Acclimatization Society released about a hundred starlings in New York City's Central Park as part of a project to introduce all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's plays into America. Even knowing nothing about starlings, you may recognize this as an idea that is both baffling and terrible.

Of course, the birds just took over.

The released birds went on to reproduce like mad, increasing their numbers to somewhere around 200 million. By all accounts, starlings are natural terrors. They will force other birds out of their nests and eat their eggs. They swarm in those massive flocks, just eating absolutely everything they can fit in their beaks, stealing food from other species and wreaking havoc on agriculture.

And that's just the first of eight stories! Contains NSFW text. Link

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This animation is a 3D rendering of Mortimer's Cave, one of many available at the Nottingham Caves Survey. You'll also find photographic virtual tours of caves, movies, images, and a Google map to find more of the 450 specific caves in Nottingham. You could get lost in here! Link -Thanks, John James!

Neatoramanaut lonewolfe13 won a t-shirt in the What Is It? contest. The Support Cloning shirt he selected from the NeatoShop lent itself well to this photography art project. The shirt fits all five of him! Link

33.3 rpm is the speed at which a turntable ran to play record albums. It is also the theme of the 33.3 Art Show, in which 33.3 artists rework classic album covers (the .3 artist is a 4-year-old). Shown is Whipped Cream and Other Delights by Herb Alpert, illustrated by Tammy Duncan. See them all at the show's website; click on an image to read the story behind it. Link -via BoingBoing