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Last week, a surveillance video of a drunk guy at a convenience store became quite popular. However, it was almost eleven minutes long and was, well, a store surveillance video. The guys at Mustache and Monocle re-edited it and gave it the silent movie treatment, making it much easier to watch, and just as funny. -via Gorilla Mask

A new species of golden orb spider has been found in South Africa. It is the biggest spider ever found that spins a web -and what a web it is!

The female of the new species of golden orb weaver spider has a body one and a half inches long with a leg span of five inches and weaves a web more than three feet wide.

The tiny male, however, has a leg span of just one inch. The variation of the Nephila species, named as Nephila Komaci, was discovered by US and Slovenian researchers in Africa and Madagascar

Nephila Komaci has a limited range and is believed to be an endangered species. Link -via Unique Daily

For a science fiction series, Star Trek had a lot of references to religion. Gene Roddenberry once said he rejected all religions, yet one or another of the Ten Commandments showed up in quite a few episodes. Beliefnet takes a look at some of those episodes.

In "The Apple" from the original "Star Trek" series, Captain James Kirk and his crew encounter an idyllic world whose ageless inhabitants feed a computer named Vaal.
It seems like a dandy setup to Mr. Spock, but Dr. McCoy argues that it can't be healthy to have all your needs met by a "hunk of tin" (perhaps shortly after polishing off a meal created by the Enterprise's replicator). Eventually, the Enterprise is forced to zap Vaal with its phasers, sending the binary being to an ignoble, smoky end.
The natives are seriously bummed, but Kirk cheers them up by telling them they can now work and struggle and get sick and die just like everyone else. Yay!

Link -via Digg

Police found a leech at the scene of a robbery in Tasmania eight years ago. They took a sample of the blood the leech had consumed. In 2008, Peter Alec Cannon was arrested on an unrelated drug charge. The DNA from his blood matched the blood from the leech!

Cannon would probably have got away with the crime had he not been charged with drug offences late last year, and asked to give a DNA sample - which matched that from the crime scene.

Detective Inspector Mick Johnston, who was involved in the police investigation from the start, said Cannon's conviction validated the use of DNA technology.

"It's a testament to DNA evidence and the legislation that allows us to keep such evidence in relation to unsolved crimes - this is a fantastic result," he said.

Link -via Boing Boing

(image credit: BBC)

There is something mysterious and intriguing about spiral staircases. Atlas Obscura looks at some of the most magnificent spiral staircases in the world, with lovely pictures and facts you might not know. For example, the staircase at the Vatican Museum, pictured here, is actually a double helix, with one staircase going up and the other coming down. Link -via Curious Expeditions

If scientists and police investigators can reconstruct a face from a skull, why can't we figure out what Skeletor looked like before he was a skeleton? David at Ironic Sans went to work, or to be accurate, his wife did, and recreated faces for Skeletor, Manuel Calavera, and Jack Skellington. Link -via Laughing Squid

A few people were lucky enough to be pan pals of a sort with Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh often added sketches or paintings to his letters, to illustrate what he wrote about. BibliOdyssey has a collection of these letter sketches, along with the letters that accompanied them. Link

A cat named Krillen survived 19 hours in a freezer in Te Kuiti, New Zealand. Sarah Crombie heard a faint meow when she approached the freezer, which hadn't been used since her partner Sid Sisson shut it the night before. He didn't realize that Krillem had jumped inside. The freezer was set to -18C, the coldest possible setting. She opened the lid and saw him on a bag of dog food.

"I raced inside to get Sid and as I came out, Krillen rolled off the bag in an attempt to get out, but he was that frozen he just rolled to the bottom of the freezer on his back," she said.

"At first we thought his eyeballs were frozen. I've never seen a cat with such big eyes."

Fortunately, Sid, 28, knew it was essential to raise the body temperature of hypothermia sufferers slowly. So he put the cat under his shirt and got into bed with him.

It took three hours under the covers for the cat to stop shaking. Krillen appears to have recovered without frostbite. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Bruce Mercer)

Sangbae Kim, a robot designer from MIT, is probably best known to Neatorama readers as the inventor of the Stickybot, a robot that can climb walls with feet modeled after a gecko's sticky feet. He also used the idea of scuttling cockroaches for a robot called the iSprawl.

Kim’s latest project is a robot inspired by the cheetah. The idea is build a prototype robot from a lightweight carbon-fiber-foam composite that can run at the cheetah’s speed of 70 miles per hour.

It’s an ambitious project. Current wheeled robots are efficient, but can be slow in rough terrains. For instance, iRobot’s PackBot, which is used by the U.S. military, can only travel at speeds of up to 5.8 miles per hour.

“Most wheeled robots today can do very well on flat surfaces, but they are slow,” says Kim. That’s why he’s looking to the cheetah for ideas. The cheetah has an extremely flexible backbone that gives extra speed or force to its running motion.

The project is expected to take about 18 months. Link

During president Richard Nixon's administration, he and his staff compiled a list of political enemies. How well do you know (or remember) this list? Take the challenge in today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. My memory isn't what it used to be; I only scored 50%. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/37434

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Noble used the opportunity of shooting a zombie movie last spring in order to propose to Claudia. Claudia was willing to help on the movie, but she had no idea the whole thing was staged for her benefit (the rest of the 20-person crew all knew). She said yes, which led to an October wedding complete with a Zombie Wedding Cake. Read more about the proposal at the YouTube link. -Thanks, Noble!

Flickr user noblerobinette was delighted with her wedding cake, a zombie scenario created by Mike's Amazing Cakes in Seattle. Even the attendants were modeled after the real people! See more views in her photo stream. Link-via Digg

This post at The Future of the Cookbook tells how Jell-O became “America’s Most Famous Dessert,” before it was even familiar! Jell-O's early promotional advertising included recipes, recommendations from doctors, and adorable kewpies. Link -via Everlasting Blort

I wasn't all that impressed with these swirling colors until I started playing with the sliding controls. You can change the size of the colored splotches, the amount of blur, the color change rate, and other dimensions until you find a very pleasing sequence of eye candy. http://bestiario.org/research/eyecandy/ -via Gorilla Mask

If you've ever wondered what's inside Hello Kitty, we now know there's a Valentine-shaped heart with a little bow as well as lungs that look at you and cute little intestines. Of course. Designer Dr. Romanelli made these for MediCom Toy Incorporated. http://inventorspot.com/articles/anatomically_correct_hello_kitty_not_what_youre_thinking_33598 -via Buzzfeed