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How many different songs can you include in a mashup and make it sound good? Chris from Ithaca Audio proves that if you know what you're doing, the answer is "all of them." The tune is available as a free download. Link -via Buzzfeed

Starry Night is a painting by Vincent Van Gogh that has proved to be an enduring iconic image. Painted in 1888, the scene shows a night sky filled with stars swirling over the French countryside, which includes a view of the village of Saint-Rémy. Since 1941, the painting has been at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But everyone wants their own copy, or some version of Starry Night. We've seen a lot of them.



Suzy Myers used quilled paper to recreate Starry Night. You can see the process and closeup views at her site.

Back in April, Mattel unveiled a set of "fine art Barbies." The collection includes a Da Vinci Mona Lisa model, another honoring Gustav Klimt, and this Barbie honoring Vincent Van Gogh with a Starry Night dress. See them all at If It's Hip, It's Here.



Tabitha Ballard made an award-winning cake that reproduces the Van Gogh painting.

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The game Labyrinth looks really difficult, but Alon Moss of New York completed it -with two balls- in world record time, just 2 minutes, 37.8 seconds. Link -Thanks, David!

Ranker listed the most immediate internet reactions to Steve Jobs' death, including the good, the bad, and the tasteless. Laughing Squid also posted a roundup of tributes. Randall Munroe, who normally posts a new comic at xkcd on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, posted this extra in memory of Jobs. Link

This photo shows a replica of Bocydium globulare, the Brazilian Treehopper. It's a real insect -scout's honor! See more pictures of this treehopper and other bizarre bugs at Dark Roasted Blend. Link

(Image credit: Alfred Keller for Berlin's Naturkundemuseum)

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Being a medical doctor is prestigious, but it's not easy. Dr. Diego, Dr. Harry, and ZDoggMD sing about their work in this parody of "Tonight Tonight" by Hot Chelle Rae. Read the stories that inspired the song at ZDoggMD. http://zdoggmd.com/2011/10/doctors-today/

Once again, it's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you tell us what this thing is? Or make a wild guess?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog.

Update: the pictured object is, indeed, an early TV remote control. This one is really neat in that it doesn't need batteries! Read more about it and see a video at the What It It? Blog. Yes, it was an easy one this week, and our first commenter, Benjamin Abbitt, had the right answer (but did not select a t-shirt). Most people guessed TV remote, but a few went for the funny answer. A t-shirt goes to Ceri for this one: "It's Captain Kirk's first phaser, an early version, before the design was more refined. The buttons are for tickle, shake, stun and kill"

If your mother told you never to play with your food, she probably didn’t grow up in any of these towns. Whether the food is being worshipped, chased, sculpted, or thrown, we’ve found 10 spots around the world where picking at your plate isn’t just acceptable, it’s encouraged.

1. Italy’s Orange Battle

(Image credit: Flickr user tristam sparks)

Every year, townspeople in Ivrea, Italy, celebrate the three days before Lent by pelting one another with oranges. According to legend, the feudal lord of medieval Ivrea was so stingy that he gave his peasants only one pot of beans every six months. In protest, the villagers would throw the beans into the streets. Over the years, the beans were replaced by oranges, which grow plentifully throughout Southern Italy. The custom now known as the Orange Battle involves revelers standing on parade floats and launching the fruit at fellow participants. And it’s not uncommon to see a little blood mixed in with all that orange juice. Visitors can join in, but you’ll probably want to bring some goggles and a helmet.

2. Cheese Rolling at Cooper’s Hill

(Image credit: Flickr user Will De Freitas)

Each spring, a large wheel of cheese is rolled down a steep hill in England, and dozens of British men go tumbling after it. They risk sprained ankles, broken bones, and massive bruising. The big prize? The winner gets to keep the cheese.

While no one knows exactly how or why the first cheese race took place, local legend pegs the tradition on the ancient Romans. The event hasn’t always been smooth rolling, though. It hit a rough patch during World War II, when rations made dairy difficult to come by. Instead of sprinting after a full hunk of Double Gloucester, contestants raced after a tiny slice placed inside a wooden wheel. A far greater threat to the competition came in 1997, when so many competitors were injured that authorities implemented some major changes. The following year, the cheese was allowed to roll down the hill, but no one could run after it. Thankfully, the toned-down version of the sport lasted just one year. In 1999, authorities introduced a few more safety measures and then let the cheese chasing resume. The games at Cooper’s Hill have been going strong ever since.

3. The Lopburi Monkey Festival

Founder and former CEO of Apple Steve Jobs has died after a seven-year battle with cancer. He was 56.

The hard-driving executive pioneered the concept of the personal computer and of navigating them by clicking onscreen images with a mouse. In more recent years, he introduced the iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad tablet -- all of which changed how we consume content in the digital age.

More than one pundit, praising Jobs' ability to transform entire industries with his inventions, called him a modern-day Leonardo Da Vinci.

"Steve Jobs is one of the great innovators in the history of modern capitalism," New York Times columnist Joe Nocera said in August. "His intuition has been phenomenal over the years."

Jobs' death, while dreaded by Apple's legions of fans, was not unexpected. He had battled cancer for years, took a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as chief executive in August because he could "no longer meet (his) duties and expectations."

CNN has the highlights of Jobs' eventful life in the obituary. Link

(Image credit: Apple)

A couple of years ago, someone discovered that websites hungry for content are willing to post infographics. Spammers latched onto the idea, because infographics are easy to create, and an easy way to get links on all kinds of websites. They don't have to be particularly artful or accurate to get posted, and therefore became less so over time. Alberto Antoniazzi made this infographic that explains the current state of infography in very clear terms. See the full-size version at Flickr. Link -via Laughing Squid

(Image credit: Flickr user albyantoniazzi)

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Two cute flower girls at a wedding do their thing. One sister strews flower petals in the pathway. The little sister then has to pick them up because her littering, mess-making sister dropped them on the ground! -via SayOMG

This post is not about the Wall Street protesters, well, yes it is, but not about the Occupy Wall Street protest of 2011. A century ago, people were not any happier about what went on in New York City's financial district.

On September 16, 1920, an explosion at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in downtown Manhattan killed 39 people and wounded hundreds more. It would be the deadliest terror attack on American soil until the Oklahoma City bombing 75 years later. Despite its proximity to the attacks on New York on September 11, 2001, the Wall Street bombing of 1920 has more in common with the public sentiment at the Occupy Wall Street protests in lower Manhattan today—with one notable exception. Today’s protesters are committed to nonviolence. The anarchists of yesteryear were not. They largely failed in their attacks on capitalism and Wall Street—and their tactics turned public sentiment against their cause.

That bombing was the culmination of decades of violence on Wall Street, which involved suicide bombs, union-busting mercenaries, and gunfire. After the 1920 bombing, cooler heads prevailed, and everything was hunky-dory on Wall Street ...for about nine years.  Link

Yes, these are Bat Nuts, but they are also called Water Caltrops, Buffalo Nuts, and Devil Pods. The starchy inner nut is eaten raw, boiled, or powdered and added to other foods. It's just one of a list of The World’s 10 Most Unusual Nuts. Would you rather try some candle nuts or tiger nuts? Read about these and more at WebEcoist. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user FotoosVanRobin)

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Here is a Disney Studios reference test film synched with the finished scene from the 1951 film Alice in Wonderland. You also see the animators at work, capturing the mood and the movements of the actors. -via The Daily What

How much do you know about slime molds? These one-celled creatures live in our forests, but are so different from species we normally encounter that they seem almost extraterrestrial.

Slime molds are a remarkable lineage of amoebas that live in soil. While they spend part of their life as ordinary single-celled creatures, they sometimes grow into truly alien forms. Some species gather by the thousands to form multicellular bodies that can crawl. Others develop into gigantic, pulsating networks of protoplasm.

While naturalists have known of slime molds for centuries, only now are scientists really starting to understand them. Lab experiments are revealing the complex choreography of signals in some species that allows 20,000 individuals to form a single sluglike body.

Not only do they clump together, but they exhibit what might pass for a single-cell-type of intelligence. In order to act as one body, the individuals will connect, move, and even sacrifice their lives for the benefit of the colony. Carl Zimmer gives us some fascinating insight into what slime molds can do at the New York Times. Link -via The Loom

(Image credit: Flickr user myriorama)