Baron Karl Christian Ludwig von Drais de Sauerbrun of Germany patented a two-wheeled foot-driven vehicle on February 17th, 1818. It had no pedals, gears, or brakes. His invention was inspired by the shortage of horses, but didn't catch on for public transportation during his lifetime.

The two-wheelers really needed paved or at least smooth surfaces, of which there weren't many. It was also way too easy to fall off the contraption, and people's leather shoes were nowhere near as durable as a horse's iron shoes. What's more, the Laufmaschine also faced competition from another new invention: the railroads.

So, the utilitarian-inspired mechanical horse instead became a fancy toy for aristocrats and the rising bourgeoisie. The French called it a draisine, the English a hobby horse. The devices were often graced with equine figureheads, or even carved dragons and elephants.

Later innovators built on Von Drais' "running machine" over time to make the bicycle what it is today. Read the whole story at Wired. Link

(image credit: Flickr user Mark Stosberg)

Designer Bruno Frisoni presents a pair of shoes that will set you back $43,000!

The Dovima, as the shoe is known, is beautiful (and slightly creepy) thanks to the rose pink-dyed taxidermy birds perched delicately on each toe. Each stuffed bird also has a crystal-encrusted head and is further complemented by 24 ct gold-coated mesh, silk, ribbons, and crocodile-skin rosettes. Plus every pair comes with special protective crocodile or snakeskin platforms that attach before you wear them to keep the shoes from ever touching the ground.

Link -via J-Walk Blog

Gone With The Wind won eight Academy Awards in ...I'm not supposed to tell the year. This week, the Lunchtime Quizzes at mental_floss deal with our favorite movies. How well do you know Gone With The Wind? I only missed one question on this one, and that was because I hit the button too fast! Link

Jane and Keith Crane of Akron, Ohio created an eight-foot square Scrabble board for their yard!

He fashioned the board from pavers laid in a bed of sand — 225 of them, to be exact. He installed them all in one day and had the back pain to prove it.

Jane Crane painted the bonus square in the proper colors and made letter tiles from craft-store wood plaques. She took apart shelves and reconfigured the pieces to make tile racks, and pavers and tiles were sealed to prevent water damage.

Now Scrabble games at the Crane house are a physical as well as mental pursuit. The players have to get out of their seats to place their tiles on the board and pick new ones from the selection spread out face down in the grass.

http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/home_garden/30819604.html -via mental_floss

(image credit: Ken Love/Akron Beacon Journal)

Remember the Cat Cam? A cat in Seattle wore a camera one day a week for a year, and now those photographs have their own exhibit in an art gallery! Cooper the tomcat has 16 framed photos displayed at the Urban Light Studios in the Greenwood Collective through March 10th.

"We never thought we'd have an artist that is an American Shorthair cat," said Kevin Law, owner of the gallery and a professional photographer. "But after reading the PhinneyWood blog and seeing his photos, I was immediately blown away. He has classical compositions right out of a photo textbook. There may be no intent behind them, but they're beautiful artwork."

Link to story. Link to Cooper's blog. -via Fark

(image credit: Andy Rogers)

Previously: Fritz the Feline Photographer

Scientists have found an alternative use for cotton candy. It can be used to grow replacement human tissue!

First, you pour a thick liquid chemical over a wad of cotton candy. Let the liquid solidify into a chunk, and put that in warm water to dissolve the candy. That leaves tiny channels where the strands of candy used to be. So you have a chunk of material with a network of fine channels within.

Next, line these channels with cells to create artificial blood vessels. And seed the solid chunk with immature cells of whatever tissue you're trying to make. The block is biodegradable, and as it disappears, it will gradually be replaced by growing tissue. In the end, you get a piece of tissue permeated with tiny blood vessels.

The research was done by Dr. Jason Spector of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Leon Bellan of Cornell University. Spector enjoys cotton candy, but Bellan finds it disgusting. Link -via Geek Like Me

(image credit: Flickr user Indrani Soemardjan)

Retired USAF Major General Chuck Yeager is 86 years old today. From Wikipedia:

Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 13,700 m (45,000 ft). Although Scott Crossfield was the first man to fly faster than Mach 2 in 1953, Yeager shortly thereafter exceeded Mach 2.4.[1] He later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany and in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and in recognition of the outstanding performance ratings of those units he then was promoted to brigadier general. Yeager's flying career spans more than sixty years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, even into the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.

Learn more about Yeager at his official website. http://www.chuckyeager.com/yeageradventure/yeageradventure.htm -via the Presurfer

(YouTube link)
A brave little voodoo finds a way to save the day in this award-winning short from Joaquin Baldwin. See more of the winners of Aniboom's annual competition. Link -via I Am Bored

Flickr user hey mr glen found this awesome storefront that advertises what's inside. Bonus: the dials go to eleven! Link -via reddit

HealthAssist is beginning a series on fast food around the world, beginning with Europe. In Denmark, sausages resembling long hot dogs called røde pølser are dipped in ketchup, and bread is a side dish. In the Netherlands, french fries are most commonly dressed in mayonnaise. Of course, in Belgium you can buy waffles from a fast food stand. In Poland, enjoy Zapiekanki which resembles a pizza sandwich. In most of Europe, fast food means sausage. Link -Thanks, Karen!

A group of researchers are studying the biological basis of romantic love. No matter how much we talk about love from the heart (or other organs), they've found it really is all in your head.

In humans, there are four tiny areas of the brain that some researchers say form a circuit of love. [Dr. Bianca] Acevedo, who works at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, is part of a team that has isolated those regions with the unromantic names of ventral tegmental area (VTA), the nucleus accumbens, the ventral pallidum and raphe nucleus.

The hot spot is the teardrop-shaped VTA. When people newly in love were put in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine and shown pictures of their beloved, the VTA lit up. Same for people still madly in love after 20 years.

The VTA is part of a key reward system in the brain.

"These are cells that make dopamine and send it to different brain regions," said Helen Fisher, a researcher and professor at Rutgers University. "This part of the system becomes activated because you're trying to win life's greatest prize - a mating partner."

Link -via Geek Like Me

(image credit: Larry Young, PhD.)

The Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women is a Facebook group formed to protest the actions of an Indian group called Sri Ram Sena (Army of Lord Ram). Members of the group were arrested for attacking women in a bar in Mangalore last month. The attack was caught on video.

Pramod Mutalik, who heads the little known Ram Sena and is now on bail after he was held following the attack, has said it is "not acceptable" for women to go to bars in India.

He has also said his men will protest against Valentine's Day on Saturday.

The Facebook group urges its over 28,000 members to send pink chaddis (underpants) to Mutalik's office on Valentines Day in protest. Link to story. Link to website. -via Arbroath

The name of this geeky retro work of art is Big Blue.

Lego PC that SCREAMS 80s LEGO with what I think are the most recognized LEGO sets of the 80s representing Space, Castle, Town, with Touch Screen LCD, RF Remote, Blue NEON light, Spectrum Analyzer display, HDTV Tuner card coming soon. I call it BIG BLUE.

See lots more pictures at Brickshelf. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=174449 -via Gizmodo

Upload a picture, and see yourself turned into an much earlier version of human! From left to right, this is me as an Australopithecus afarensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Homo heidelbergensis. Oh, and as Homo sapiens, too. Link -via J-Walk Blog

ThunderCats was a cartoon series that debuted in 1985. How well do you remember them? Jason at mental_floss photographed his old action figures for Today's Lunchtime Quiz. Can you name the ThunderCat represented by each action figure? http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/22559