The MESSENGER mission took this picture on January 14th just after its closest approach to Mercury -about 17,000 miles away. This is the previously unmapped part of the planet that was missed by the Mariner 10 probe, which flew by Mercury three times in 1974 and 1975. NASA says that enhanced and color pictures will follow. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/status_report_01_15_08_2.html -via Wired Science

Koalas, like some other animals, often have blue eyes as infants. But at nine months old, Frankie’s eyes never turned brown. He is therefore the world’s only known blue-eyed koala. His caretakers were so worried that they had his vision tested, and found that he sees just fine. Frankie, named for Frank Sinatra, is a resident at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast of Australia.
Link (with video) -via Unique Daily

If you loved the lush images of Samorost, but don’t have the time or patience to play the game, Amanita Designs has the animation Plantage for your viewing pleasure. Link -via Dump Trumpet

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Corey Delaney, also known as Corey Worthington of Melbourne, Australia threw a party while his parents were gone. It got out of hand, 500 people showed up, and eventually involved the police. Corey appeared on a news show to talk about it, but the desire to remain cool trumped his remorse. Gawker has a timeline tracking how the video became an instant worldwide viral hit. Link (warning: post contains an autoplay radio show near the bottom)

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James Earl Jones is larger than life in whatever role he plays. In this mashup, the audio from Coming to America is used for Darth Vader. Ahaa! -via I Am Bored

When we are little children, we know that most all the classic nursery rhymes and fairy tales are horrible stories (at least before they've been Disneyfied). Then we get over it and forget the awful imagery, until we become parents and see the fear they invoke in our children. For those of you between those two realizations, here’s 10 Popular Nursery Rhymes That are Incredibly Depressing, Terrifyingly Violent and Disturbingly Tragic for Children. Link -via J-Walk Blog

Have you ever wondered about the song "15 Men on a Dead Man's Chest"? The chorus originated in Robert Louis Stevenson's story Treasure Island.

Fifteen men on the dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

But how could you fit that many men on a chest, whether the torso of a corpse or the luggage that belonged to him? Because the dead man's chest is an island in the Caribbean! Dead Chest Island {wiki} has no fresh water or trees, and little vegetation. The story is that pirate Edward Teach (also known as Blackbeard) marooned a mutinous crew on the island, with only a cutlass and a bottle of rum each. Thinking they would kill each other, he was surprised to find fifteen survivors when he returned a month later! Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

Before the 1972 TV show In Search of Dracula, few people outside of Romania had heard of Vlad the Impaler. Even now, many think of the 15th century ruler as the inspiration for the Dracula character. He wasn’t a vampire, but he was a horror.

When political envoys refused to remove their customary skullcaps in Vlad’s presence, he said “In all fairness, I want to strengthen and recognize your customs” and had the hats nailed to their heads. The forests of Transylvania were growing thick with the impaled, and the unnerved turks dubbed him "Kazikli Voyvoda", the Impaler Prince.

Curious Expeditions has many more examples of his cruelty and iron hand in the story of the real Vlad Tepes. Link

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This ad from Hewlitt Packard features a group of office workers performing Mozart on coffee cups and office equipment. I waited in vain for someone to spill water on a laptop. -Thanks, Jan!

The volunteer's face muscles contract, and his body begins to convulse. His breathing becomes spasmodic, and he makes a series of involuntary, repeated vocalizations. For one informative moment, the EEG's mechanical scribblings flap rapidly from margin to margin, providing a nugget of neurological gold.

The affliction under study is surprisingly common among humans. Though the episodes are usually transitory, they will occasionally erupt as intense, prolonged outbursts where bodily fluid containment is placed in jeopardy as the hapless victim collapses into a moist, quivering, rhythmically-vocalizing mass. Alarmingly, the phenomenon is highly contagious, and in extreme cases, it can even lead to death.

What dreaded syndrome could this describe? It’s laughter! Damn Interesting takes a look at the scientific study of gelotology, the physiological response to humor, and the things that makes us laugh.

A: "Did you hear about that series of illogical events that occurred involving a duck? They turned out to be congruent in some unexpected way!"
B: "Har har! Please excuse me while I breathe spasmodically and become moist!"

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Today kicked off a year of 50th anniversary celebrations for the little blue creatures called Smurfs. The Smurfs originated in Brussels, Belgium.

The late cartoonist Pierre Culliford, best known by his pen name, "Peyo," first introduced the tiny blue figures in a comic strip in October 1958. He called them Schtroumpf and they became known worldwide as the Smurfs.

The Smurfs, forest dwellers who live in little white-capped mushroom homes, developed their own "Smurf" language in which nouns and verbs were interchanged.

Their debut on U.S. television in 1981 launched their global rise to stardom and made the Smurfs a household name. A Smurf is a Pitufo in Spanish, a Schlumpf in German, Nam Ching Ling to the Chinese, a Sumafa in Japan and Dardassim in Hebrew.

You can expect a year of re-released Smurf entertainment and merchandise, plus a new feature film planned for next year. Link -via Fark

Reina Mia Brill creates strange but loveable knitted wire sculptures of all kinds of fantastic creatures. This one is titled “If You Keep Making Faces”. From the artist’s statement:

I begin with drawings that are translated into a wood skeleton, constructed to convey a posturing as well as offer gravitational support. A process of wrapping and layering with foil over the frame provides shape and density to the figures. They are then completely covered with a stuffed nylon skin. Using old-fashioned knitting machines, I create a flexible mesh wire fabric that is meticulously stitched onto the skin--layer by layer--over faces, horns, and even the crevices of toes until the essence of each creature breathes life.

Link -via Everlasting Blort

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100 people, arranged in order of their ages from one to 100, all play a drum. It’s much more fascinating than it sounds. The film was produced by Lenka Clayton and James Price. -via Arbroath

mental_floss also has a video by the same folks with people in order of the length of their love relationship. Link

This Japanese site sells happy little cat costumes that are guaranteed to make your kitty sad. Link -via Cynical-C

There are laws that say mattresses, pillows, and other bedding must have a tag stating its composition. This pillow had the tag, and the manufacturer was honest in saying they just don't know what's in there! This was submitted to Consumerist.

I had a pillow that says 'contains textiles of 100% unknown kind' on that tag that says 'Do not remove under penalty of law'. Kind of defeats the purpose of the tag, and I'm wondering what is in my pillow. Used underpants? Human hair? It does say 'all new materials' but that might just be 'new to me.'

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