Cockroaches, wasps, rats, mosquitoes, and E. coli bacteria. All horrible creatures, right? Maybe not so much. Cracked spells out how each of these things benefits us and the planet we live on. It might not make you feel good about them, but maybe you will understand them a little bit better. Link -via Gorilla Mask

The elephant is the national symbol of Thailand. But lately, citizens have been going crazy for pandas. Zookeepers feel that the elephants aren't getting enough attention, and made their point by painting the elephants to look like pandas!

Slathering them in white watercolour paint, the keepers at the Ayutthaya Elephant Kraal then paraded the five elephants before schoolchildren in an effort to remind Thailand that its elephants have needs, too.

The furore was sparked after the nation became fascinated with the birth of a female panda cub to pandas Lin Hui and Xuang Xuang at Chiang Mai zoo.

The Bangkok Post also reported that a 20 million baht (£355,800) snow house was being built for the panda family at the zoo.

Link -via Unique Daily

When is a video not a video? Some consider Vaslav Nijinsky the greatest ballet dancer ever, but there is no known film footage of Nijinsky, who retired at age 29 in 1919. He would not allow his company to be filmed. However, YouTube has Nijinsky dance videos. How can that be?

Because, it turns out, these aren’t films. They are computer-generated artifacts, made by Christian Comte, a French artist who has a studio in Cannes. Reached the other day, Comte acknowledged his authorship. “These films are animations of photographs, achieved thanks to a process that I invented,” he said. “I work as an alchemist in animated cinema.” He uses still photographs and, by employing a computer to alter them—tilt a head, move an arm—fills in the gaps between successive shots. That’s why his “Faun” footage is so much longer than his other footage. He had all those de Meyer stills. This is basically no different from the way Steven Spielberg got the dinosaurs to run around the jungle in “Jurassic Park.”

Link -via Boing Boing

The Battle of Little Bighorn happened 133 years ago today. George Custer and his men were certainly outnumbered, but their defeat may have also been assured by the Lakota and Cheyenne warriors' superior weaponry.

If the Indians were, in fact, better armed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer may have contributed to the situation by declining to include Gatling guns in his van. Because he was setting off on what amounted to a search-and-destroy mission, he argued that the Gatlings were too cumbersome and would only slow him down.

At the point where he was surrounded and outnumbered by a ratio as high as 9-to-1, he probably regretted making that choice. In such a dire situation, the Gatling gun would have considerably reduced the enemy’s numerical advantage and may have even proven decisive in turning the tide.

The Lakota and Cheyenne warriors did join the battle with a number of Henry and Spencer repeating rifles, which provided a higher rate of fire than the single-shot Springfield Model 1873 carbines carried by the cavalry troopers.

In the end, several factors led to the deaths of the 197 men under Custer, each stemming from his underestimation of his adversaries. Link

A shelter in Australia takes care of the world's cutest baby fruit bats during tick paralysis season. http://www.uniquedaily.com/baby-bat-caring-center/ (embedded YouTube video)

I just love the way the announcer says "bebes"!

(YouTube link)
Maybe there is a little envy in this cat, but he sure is affectionate. The laughter from the spectators is a bonus. -via Buzzfeed

Archaeologists have unearthed a well in Cyprus that is believed to be between 9,000 and 10,500 years old, making one of the earth's oldest water wells. Debris at the bottom of the well includes the skeleton of a woman.

Pavlos Flourentzos, the nation's top antiquities official, said the 16-foot deep cylindrical shaft was found last month at a construction site in Kissonerga, a village near the Mediterranean island nation's southwestern coast.

After the well dried up it apparently was used to dispose trash, and the items found in it included the poorly preserved skeleton of the young woman, animal bone fragments, worked flints, stone beads and pendants from the island's early Neolithic period, Flourentzos said.

Link -via Digg

(image credit: Cyprus Antiquites Department/AP)

As of 2010, the Pontiac brand name will no longer be used. Over the last 50 years, there have been almost 30 Pontiac models sold in the US. How many can you name in ten minutes? Anything over ten is considered a winning score. Let's just say I barely won. Link

Thanks to movies and a series of insurance ads, we tend to think of the extinct hominids known as Neanderthals as hairy, stooped, club-wielding caveman. Modern science knows a lot more about Neanderthals now, but the old stereotypes persist. You may be surprised at how like us the Neanderthals really were. Link -via Unique Daily

(image credit: Reconstruction by Kennis & Kennis/Photograph by Joe McNally, National Geographic)

Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal is waiting for his chance at a world record. Magar is only two feet tall and weights ten pounds! But he can't be classified as the world's smallest man until he officially becomes an adult.

Excitedly awaiting his 18th birthday in October of this year, Khagendra and his family are in contact with Guinness to take the official crown from 2ft 5in He Ping Ping of China.

Weighing only 10lbs, Khagendra has become something of a celebrity in his native Nepal, where politicians have joined the clamour to see him recognised as the smallest man in the world and villagers have dubbed him 'little Buddha'.

Doctors believe Magar's size is due to a malfunctioning pituitary gland, but no definitive diagnosis has been reached. Link -via Buzzfeed

English Russia has a collection of record album covers from the 70s and 80s. Looking through these, I get the feeling that I've seen these before, just with different faces and a language I understand. Link -via Metafilter

Mike Giepert noticed that Mac dock icons are often letters, and you can line them up to spell words. So he posted one and asked his readers to send in others. There are 14 screenshots of various words posted so far. I don't have a lot of programs on my dock right now, but I will look through my applications to see what I can "line up" when I get some free time. Like that will ever happen. Link (via Buzzfeed)

(Cartoon Brew link)
Space explorers go to Alpha Nine to check out the monster, which turns out to be what you've secretly thought space aliens were really all about. This animation was Jake Armstrong's thesis film at the School of Visual Arts. -via Dark Roasted Blend

Captain's uniforms of every military branch of the various countries that served in World War II, modeled by the same guy!

"My hobby deals strictly with World War II militaria & insignia.

However, rather than collecting the actual items, I collect and use high resolution photos of them to create Photoshop images that show myself in the uniform of a Captain (or equivalent rank) in whichever armed force and branch of service those insignia were worn by.

Link -via Metafilter

In an update on last week's story, 18-year-old Kimberley Vlaminck, the girl with 56 stars tattooed on her face, has recanted her story. She had blamed the tattoo artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, for overdoing the three small stars she requested and said she fell asleep during the procedure.

But the 18-year-old has finally confessed she did not fall asleep, that she wanted all the stars and was "fully aware" of what Mr Toumaniantz was doing.

Ms Vlaminck told a Dutch TV crew: "I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them. But when my father saw them, he was furious. So I said I fell asleep and the that the tattooist mad made a mistake."

Toumaniantz says he will now get written consent from clients before inking any tattoos. Link -via Arbroath