Theo Gray (featured previously at Neatorama) cast this fish out of a metal you rarely see made into sculpture -mercury! To keep the shape, he had to cool it to –320°F (-212°C) with liquid nitrogen. When mercury is cooled that much, it acts like tin or other metals we are more familiar with. http://www.popsci.com/mercuryfish -via Boing Boing

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Corey McKenna created this unique stop-motion video as an invitation to his wedding to Rachel. The music is M79 by Vampire Weekend. More detailed directions are in another video. Do you think anyone will show up? -via Arbroath

People around the world are marking the 20th anniversary of what became known in China as the June 4th Incident. In April of 1989, students and intellectuals gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of communist party secretary Hu Yaobang, who advocated government reform. The gathering grew into an anti-government protest and lasted until June 4th when government forces cleared the square. Official Chinese records say 241 died in the incident, but the Chinese Red Cross initially put the figure at 2,600. Frontline aired a 2006 documentary about the protest and its aftermath called The Tank Man. That episode is now available online, along with a timeline and other features. Link -via Metafilter, where you'll find more links

Anthony Gardiner of Wellington, New Zealand bought an engagement ring for his girlfriend, but she turned him down. He can't return the ring and doesn't want to keep it as he considers it bad luck, so he's staging a treasure hunt!

Anyone keen to pick up the ring, valued at NZ$5,000 ($3,268), will need to be in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, on Saturday to join the hunt, the Dominion Post newspaper reported.

Clues to the ring's whereabouts will start being posted on social networking site Twitter (http:/twitter.com/donoogle_com) at 8 a.m. local time on Saturday (2000 GMT on Friday).

Link to story. Link to Twitter feed.

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Harrison Ford has it all over Tom Selleck, if you ask me. If you are too young to remember Magnum, P.I. then you may not realize how closely this mashup follows the original opening sequence. So watch this side-by-side comparison.

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-via YesButNoButYes

The founders of Curious Expeditions and the defunct Athanasius Kircher Society have teamed up to start a new website called Atlas Obscura, "A Compendium of the This Age's Wonders, Curiosities and Esoterica." or in simpler terms a guide to world's most unusual places. Users are invited to suggest odd places and add to information about existing entries. Many of the weird and wonderful places you've read about on Neatorama are listed. The example pictured is the Kindlifresser, or “Child Eater” of Bern, Switzerland.

The disturbing sculpture is no modern work of art, built in 1546, it is one of the oldest fountains in the city of Bern.

Strangely, no one is exactly sure why it’s there. There are three main theories.

There are 277 strange places already listed, which gives me a lot to read about! Link -Thanks, D!

Wired has a recipe for an exploding drink called the Manhattan Project. You can try to make it taste like a Manhattan, but its not really necessary. The point is that there will be a delayed-reaction explosion to surprise your guest. Link

Hairstyles in the 18th century were regimented, over-the-top, and difficult to achieve, especially for women. The styles calmed down a little mid-century, but that didn't last long.

However somewhere from mid 70-ies the hairstyle started “growing up” again. It emerged into a complex structure and was was as high and unimaginable as ever before. Ingenious women used almost everything they could find to make their headdress ,including most popular belts, jewelry, fabrics, flowers, fruit. Of course, their own hair was not enough to make such a piece of art and they used the hair of their servants and even the horse’s mane.

Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

Three US soft drink companies own more brand names than you probably were aware of. In today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you are given eleven soda names. Can you identify whether it is a product of Coca-Cola, Pepsico, or Dr Pepper/Snapple? I failed this quiz miserably, probably because I don't drink soda pop. Give me another cup of coffee! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/26113

Improv Everywhere made lasting memories as they threw a surprise wedding reception for a random couple getting married at City Hall. There are lots more pictures, details, and video at the website. Link -via I Am Bored

Saddam Hussein's palaces in Iraq are now being used as temporary quarters for US military personnel. Photographer Richard Mosse captured the disconnect between the old residents and the new in a series of pictures. See the photographs and read an interview with Mosse at BldgBlog. Link -via the Presurfer

(image credit: Richard Mosse)

The Bay Area R2 Builders showed off four fully-functioning R2D2 units at Maker Faire. They cost around $10,000 to build, and take a couple of years of work. http://www.wired.com/video/builders-construct-10000-fully-functional-r2d2/24892334001 to video report. Link to website.

Steve Herzfeld confronted the decisions that haunt most of us eventually. His elderly parents needed round-the-clock care, but he couldn't afford the quality of nursing home he wanted for them in Florida. So he sent them to Puducherry, India!

Looking back, Herzfeld says the main thing he would have done differently would have been to hire staff before their arrival: it took him five difficult weeks to find a nurse.

But once staff had been found, he could give his parents a much higher standard of care than would have been possible in the US for his father's income of $2,000 (£1,200) a month. In India that paid for their rent, a team of carers - a cook, a valet for his father, nurses to be with his mother 12 hours a day, six days a week, a physiotherapist and a masseuse - and drugs (costing a fifth of US prices), and also allowed them to put some money away.

Could this be the wave of the future? Herzfeld, whose parents died a few years after moving to India, knows this plan would not work for everyone, but he admires the caring way that his parents were treated in India. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Steve Herzfeld)

Keeping bees is illegal in New York City. That doesn't mean there are no beekeepers in the city; they just keep their bees hidden on rooftops. Now a resolution to legalize beekeeping is on the table, and many are interested in starting a new hobby.

Beekeeping classes in New York City were brimming with students this spring, partly because of publicity after a city council bill was introduced to legalize beekeeping.

On one Sunday in April the student beekeepers gathered for a live demonstration of hiving.

Afterwards they got two boxes; one with about 20,000 live bees, and another smaller one with the queen bee inside.

National Geographic has a video report, including an appearance by an underground beekeeper who is allergic to bee stings! Link -via Digg

Some TV infomercials play so often that you can't help but memorize their slogans. Others, not so much. Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will test your memory on 12 products "as seen on TV". I scored 67%, even though I only knew one answer. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/25941