Click on the raindrops to make a melody, which will loop for you in this interactive page from Lullatune. Click the green clock for a metronome if you like. I managed to make a pleasant tune and played it for quite some time while I surfed the ‘net. Link -via Arbroath

How much weight you gain may depend on when you eat, according to a new study that looked at the timing of meals in mice. Scientists at Northwestern University fed two groups of mice the same amount of high fat food, but one group ate during regular waking time, while the other ate during what would normally be their sleeping period. The second group gained twice as much weight as the first group!

"For a long time we questioned whether or not eating patterns had anything to do with gaining weight," says obesity expert Dr. Louis Aronne of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He points to previous observational research suggesting that people who skip breakfast in favor of massive meals in the evening hours tend to be overweight. "We had no proof that it's a real problem," says Aronne, who was not involved in the study. "If an experiment like this is replicated in humans, it might clarify for us just how much time of day matters when it comes to obesity."

It is not yet clear whether the difference is due to hormone production or the disruption of sleep patterns. Link -via Digg

A grocery store with 500 flavors of soda? You betcha, and the owner of Galco's Soda Pop Stop in Los Angeles knows his sodas. In this video, learn about Romanian rose soda, the best-tasting diet soda, why glass bottles are better, and other fascinating facts about soda pop. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

Previously mentioned in: Four Neat Things About Los Angeles.

It’s been locked up since 9/11, but Ransom Riggs of mental_floss managed a visit to the Mojave Air and Spaceport and took plenty of pictures. The inactive airport is used as a parking lot for planes and also a junkyard of planes that will never be flown again. The result is a collection of photographs that are urban decay with an aviation slant. http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/33186.html

Like The Last Supper or the Abbey Road album cover, Stonehenge is such an iconic image that people the world over recognize it, even if it's made of bamboo or old refrigerators. Web Urbanist has collected 20 Stonehenge recreations from all over. Some try to faithfully resemble the original in England, others are art pieces using recycled materials. Pictured is Phonehenge in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Link -via Interesting Pile

On September 11 2006, more than 3,000 bloggers joined together to honor the victims of 9/11 by remembering their lives as individuals. The project helped to put a face on each person instead of seeing them as a large group of people. You can access a list of those posts with links here. Project 2,996 will be repeated this year. If you would like to post a tribute on your own blog on 9/11, sign up now. Link -via Holtie’s House

People of Walmart is a user-generated image blog with a niche that’s as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Honestly, when you’re talking about the world’s largest discount store, where you can find almost anything you need 24 hours a day, it’s a wonder you don’t see more people shopping in whatever they slept in. Only the funniest submissions are published. Link -Thanks, Bill!

Scientists have detected a black hole 12.8 billion light-years away, which means it was around when the universe was very young. This one is a billion times the size of our sun! The light from the black hole (or more correctly, from burning objects being sucked into it) has traveled so long to get to earth that its wavelengths have shifted. The process, known as redshift, help astronomers to calculate the huge distance to objects in space.

To see the supermassive black hole, the team of scientists used new red-sensitive charge-coupled devices (CCDs) installed in the Suprime-Cam camera on the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea.

CCDs are used in many light detecting gadgets from photocopiers to bar-code readers. In astronomy they are used to collect analogue information (such as light or an electrical charge from a distant object) and convert it into digital information that can be analyzed by computer software.

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(image credit: University of Hawaii)

This Cracked Photoshop competition asked what science classes would be like if science were as it is portrayed in movies. This CPR poster is only one of the top 19 funny images. Don’t skip reading “The Benefits of Electrocution”. Link -via Digg

Steve Valdez of Tampa, Florida had a check written to him from his wife. He took a check to her bank to cash it. Bank of America requires a thumbprint to cash a check from anyone who does not hold an account there. The problem is that Valdez was born without arms. The bank refused to cash the check.

According to Valdez, when he gave the teller the check, she said "Obviously you can't give a thumbprint." But Valdez says the manager refused to cash the check unless he did.

When Valdez told the manager giving a thumbprint would be impossible, she suggested he either bring in his wife or open an account. Valdez says that's not the way the bank would treat someone without prosthetic arms, and he refused.

A spokesman for Bank of America said that the bank should have made accommodations for Valdez. Link -via J-Walk Blog

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It was a simple slip of the tongue, but the bride’s and groom’s nerves turned the ceremony into a real hoot! -via Buzzfeed

Denise Woodage of Reading, England told a court that the sight of her neighbor naked put her off men and sausages for life. 53-year old Paul Darlow was arrested for indecent exposure after Woodage saw him naked in his garden.

The 54-year-old, who is mum to Hazel, 26, told the Post she was now anti-men as a result of seeing Darlow’s “pale and hairy” body in the November chill and is now on anti-depressants.Mrs Woodage, who does not work, first saw the 53-year-old flashing in March 2008. She complained to police and they installed CCTV.

In November 2008 – after capturing Darlow on film flashing his bits yet again – he was arrested and charged with indecent exposure.

He initially denied the incidents but during his trial, before Judge Zoë Smith, he confessed to touching himself outdoors

Darlow was sentenced to six weeks jail time. Link -via Arbroath

Italian artist Lyle Rowell rides slowly on a 1,900 pound mechanical animal that breathes fire! It walks on two front legs and rolls on two back wheels. He calls it Lrry.

The contraption is the product of four months of Rowell “crawling around in the scrap and dirt” to gather parts that he liked. He took an engine from an old Volkswagen Bug–like Citroën and stuffed it into two chopped-up and welded-together motorcycle frames. Aside from propane for Lrry’s fire breath, Rowell was able to scrounge up nearly every part, all the way down to the linkages and sprockets.

The beast spits fire from the back end, too. http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2009-08/fire-breathing-robo-beast (with video) -via Metafilter

(image credit: Elle Dunn)

Research shows that playing the video game Tetris can improve your brain’s efficiency and will thicken some areas of the cortex. Neuroscientist Richard Haier had adolescent girls play Tetris for three months and looked for changes in their brain scans.

Three months of Tetris playing had two distinct effects on the brains of research subjects: Some areas in the brain showed greater efficiency (the blue areas in the diagram above), and different areas showed thicker cortexes, which is a sign of more grey matter (red). This, says the doctors who undertook the study, shows that focusing on a “challenging visuospatial task” like a videogame can actually alter the structure of the brain, not just increase brain activity [Wired.com]. But surprisingly, there was no overlap between the regions that became more efficient and those that thickened. Haier says more research must be done to determine how different areas of the brain interact during game playing

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How do you get a family of duckling out of the pool? All they need are the right tools! -via Arbroath