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What of The Empire Strikes Back were a 3D movie from the 1950s? It would look somewhat like this. A list of the video sources can be seen at the YouTube link. -via The Daily What

A mouse doesn't have to have experience with a cat to be afraid, be very afraid. But they must have the nose to pick up the chemical signals of danger.

Mice have a specialized organ in their noses that picks up chemical signals, called the vomeronasal organ, which helps them detect pheromones emitted by other mice. These mice pheromones have a direct effect on behavior–most obviously in the realms of mating and fighting. In this new study, published in the journal Cell, neurobiologist Lisa Stowers decided to investigate whether the vomeronasal organ was capable of picking up signals from other species as well.

The reseachers took normal lab mice and mutant mice with inactive vomeronasal organs and presented them with cotton balls laced with predator smells, including cat saliva and rat urine. The normal mice backed into the corners of their cages as if trying to escape a predator’s attention, but the mutant mice showed no signs of concern. The mutants were so relaxed that they didn’t even react when a live but anesthetized rat was placed in their cages.

By process of elimination, the scientists were able to isolate some proteins that spelled "cat" to the mice's vomeronasal organs. Link

This would be dangerous if it were a real ad. Link -via Nag on the Lake

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A Russian short film from 1946, way before computer generated effects! -via Dark Roasted Blend

Rachael Robinson of Toft, Lincolnshire, England married Duncan Turner while they were on vacation in Canada. For the ceremony, she wore a dress made completely of recycled materials, including 13 feet of bubble wrap!

Primary school teacher Rachael originally had the white dress made for her by parents of pupils for a term time recyclable materials fashion show last month.

But when fiancé Duncan popped the question while on holiday in Canada days later, she knew exactly which dress she would be wearing for the official ceremony.

The dress is made from sheets of carefully stitched bubble wrap, attached to an inner cloth lining, and finished off with white foam packaging material and Haribo sweets.

The couple had a second, more traditional ceremony for the families back home in England. http://swns.com/bubble-wrap-wedding-dress-is-pop-of-the-cloths-for-recycled-bride-171045.html -via Unique Daily

Reddit member caesararum wrote a beautiful essay speculating on what it's like to be Voyager 2, the space probe launched in 1977 that is still sending back data from beyond the edge of our solar system (but showing signs of age). The prose is obviously from someone who is not only well-versed in Voyager's mission, but also in awe of it. Here is a small portion:

It is 1989, and you have done well, but you are not done yet.

There will not be another planet, not even a single additional source of heat nor velocity from here on out. Your energy budgets are recalculated, your mission extended. By now, the thousands of people who were once committed to getting you off the ground have largely moved on; some have died, some have found new careers... and a select few still listen. You faithfully make your way towards the outer edges of the system, growing colder, losing even the power necessary to keep yourself warm. In 1998, the decision is made that you no longer have the energy to operate your sensors; the last of your eyes are closed, forever. Your designers, perhaps optimistically, chose well when selecting your instrumentation - a number of packages remain relevant even beyond the orbits of the last of the gas giants. By now, though, it has been two decades since your departure, and technology has not halted in its progression. Computers have advanced, entire architectures have come and gone, and the systems able to understand what you have to say gradually fall apart. There are few machines left in the world that can even understand your language, and they are kept together solely for your sake. Perhaps it is pride, perhaps curiosity, that motivates men to maintain the vigil; whatever the case, you continue to do the only things you know. Detect, transmit.

The full text is part of a comment thread with additional information in subsequent comments. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

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Nothing is going to stop this young lady! In the comments at YouTube, her parents say that this was really just a one-time affirmation, but that Jessica, now 12, is a straight A student and an athlete. -via Holy Kaw!

Stanley Kubrick directed 13 feature films over five decades. Can you name them all? Can you come close? Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss asks you to do just that, in three minutes. I didn't come close, but I kicked myself when I saw the answers! Link

It's hard to believe that twenty years have passed since Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, passed away on May 16, 1990. A half-dozen authors at GeekDad got together to post remembrances and a tribute to the Muppetmaster. Matt Blum says:

I was seventeen when I heard Jim Henson had died. It seemed impossible: he was Kermit, and Kermit was always there. He was only a few years older than my parents, so what kind of world was it where someone that young and that brilliant could die? I was, truly, as sad as I would have been if a friend had died suddenly, and felt the loss as keenly. I was angry, too, when I heard that he had died of untreated pneumonia, angry that he hadn’t gone to the doctor. Angry that the Muppets would never be the same.

I’m not angry any more, but the sadness is still there. I feel it every time I see — or, more accurately, hear — any of the characters he used to play. I don’t envy Steve Whitmire his job: how hard must it have been to pick up Kermit the first time after Henson’s death, put his hand inside the sleeve, and try to sound as much like Henson as possible? I’m glad that the Muppets, and Henson’s former characters, are still around. But they will never quite be the same.

Oh yes, there are videos as well. Link

(Image credit: Alan Light)

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This five-month-old dog hears a fart machine and immediately checks to see if she produced it. -via Arbroath

Several studies of American men and women find that if you ask people to identify their favorite color, women tend to select colors closer to red, and men on average tend to select colors around blue. The reason behind this difference is up in the air, but there are several theories. A recent academic paper proposes a new theory to add to the list, the ecological theory:

The authors here propose that humans prefer colors like blues and greens because those colors and ecologically healthy (blue skies, clean water, healthy vegetation), and do not prefer colors like brown because it's associated with stuff that is ecologically unhealthy (like crap and things that are rotting).

Then they went about testing the theory by correlating color preference with objects that were judged favorable or unfavorable by the test subjects. Although the ecological theory incorporates parts of several other color theories, the data seems to support this idea more than previous theories. Link

Aren't you glad we can just cover those legs with jeans these days? This strange ad from the August 1953 issue of Mechanix Illustrated is one of many old ads featured at the blog Centuries of Advice & Advertisements. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

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A simple song and a not-so-simple video by Andy Martin. Read about the making of this animation at his blog. Link -via The Litter Box

An incident in Detroit raises several questions about street art. Renowned British graffiti artist Banksy visited a crumbling factory in the city and painted a wall.

Discovered last weekend, the stenciled work shows a forlorn boy holding a can of red paint next to the words “I remember when all this was trees.” But by Tuesday, artists from the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios, a feisty grassroots group, had excavated the 7-by-8-foot, 1,500-pound cinder block wall with a masonry saw and forklift and moved the piece to their grounds near the foot of the Ambassador Bridge in southwest Detroit.

The move -- a guerilla act on top of Banksy’s initial guerilla act -- has sparked an intense debate about the nature of graffiti art, including complicated questions of meaning, legality, value and ownership. Some say the work should be protected and preserved at all costs. Others say that no one had a right to move it — and that the power and meaning of graffiti art is so intrinsic to its location that to relocate it is to kill it.

The gallery defends its action by pointing out that the artwork would have been destroyed soon along with the building. Others respond that Banksy may have intended for that to happen. And then there's the fact that the context gave the painting it meaning in the first place. One could say that while Banksy broke laws against trespassing and vandalism, the gallery is guilty of theft. The property owner hasn't said anything about it yet. No one yet knows who, if anyone, stands to profit from the incident. Link -via Metafilter

(Image source: Banksy)

The book Geekspeak: A Guide to Answering the Unanswerable, Making Sense of the Insensible, and Solving the Unsolvable by Dr. Graham Tattersall poses, and answers, those questions that no one else seems to address -until now. Can you tell how heavy a bus is by looking at it? What size wings does an angel need to fly? What are the best words to use in a personal ad? How much could sea levels rise?

Geekspeak is an essential tool that will help you exercise your brain and solve the unsolvable, make you sound intelligent so you can impress your friends, and enable you to better understand the fascinating world in which we live in ways never thought possible before.

This is one of those books that makes being a geek fun (which geeks already knew) and makes real-world math accessible to those who might avoid it otherwise. To give you a taste of Geekspeak, we have obtained permission to reprint a chapter for your perusal. Fly Wheels looks at measuring biological power in mechanical terms in order to compare the two.