Elephants are expensive to feed and care for, and many of India’s elephants earn their living with years of hard work. Then after the elephants are too old for labor, they are often neglected or cast aside due to their maintenance costs. But a new retirement home is opening on a thousand-acre preserve at Kottur, Kerala. The government will pay a nominal fee to buy elephants too old for work and provide them with room to roam and proper veterinary care.

"We want them to enjoy their last years after being such good workers without worrying where their next meal will come from," said V.S. Verghese, Kerala's chief wildlife warden who is in charge of the scheme.

"They'll get special treats like big slabs of rice, a course sugar called jaggery, and honey. And vets will be on hand."

The first 30 elephants are scheduled to move in this month. Link -via Fark

Abdolhadi Mirhejazi of Dubai has built a one-horsepower vehicle, but it’s not your average horse and buggy! This fully-enclosed cart has the horse in back, walking on a treadmill. The treadmill not only powers the car, it charges a battery which can take over when the horse is tired.

Mirhejazi also discovered the horse can power two LCD advertising screens mounted on the sides of the Naturmobil

"Bearing in mind the originality and uniqueness of the idea, Naturmobil was designed and built to achieve the maximum level of attention from its audiences," said his marketing manager, F. Minooeifar.

Mirhejazi plans to exhibit his Naturmobil in Pittsburgh, California in June. http://www.xpress4me.com/news/uae/dubai/20007183.html -via Arbroath

Nitpick compensates for his limited fighting ability by pouncing on points that are only marginally relevant to the discussion. For example, if his opponent in a sports forum conflict casually mentioned the Cubs' 4-2 victory in the 1908 World Series, Nitpick would quickly counterattack with something like, "4-2 !? Any moron knows the Cubs won the Series 4-1! Someone so ignorant about baseball history can't possibly know anything about salary caps!" Even if the minor point is conceded by his opponent Nitpick will return to it whenever the battle turns against him. Though weak, Nitpick is very tenacious and will never admit defeat. Nitpick is a close ally of Artful Dodger.

Illustrator Mike Reed began caricaturing the personalities that forum users display during flame wars some years ago, and the collection has expanded over time. There are now 89 distinct warriors! Surely you will recognize some of these from your own experience. Flame Warriors should be required reading for all users before participating in any online forum. http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/index.htm -via Everlasting Blort

Good Times Adventures employee Brian Mislansky and his dog Lulu were the only ones inside the business’ building in Breckenridge, Colorado when an explosion caused it to collapse. Mislansky was rescued four hours later and was hospitalized. He is expected to recover from his injuries. Lulu was found eight days later! Building owner Brian Holt heard a whimper as he was looking through the rubble. He called out Lulu’s name and heard her yelping.

It took Lulu's rescuers nearly an hour to dig down to her. The dog was huddled 15 feet down, in a crawl space.

"She basically had a two-story building on top of her," Holt told the newspaper.

Lulu was checked by a veterinarian who said she was remarkably well, suffering only mild dehydration and some trauma to her left eye.

The springer spaniel was later taken to visit Mislansky in the hospital. The cause of the explosion is under investigation. Link -via Two Kitties and a Puppy

Wrongcards are ecards that say things normal ecards don’t. Like “Get well soon, because I’m not going back to jail for necrophilia” and “four out of five mental health professionals agree that i'm no danger to anybody.” They also have some lovely Mothers Day ecards, like the oh so sentimental one you see here. Link -via Shiny Shiny

(Metacafe link)
When Brad and Amy got married, her friends and family put together an elaborate production number as a toast, totally without her knowledge.

We are not sure how this was kept secret by everyone involved but it was truly an incredible production. Check out Amy’s utter shock when people start springing up from the crowd to join in the fun in this heartwarming tribute to Amy and Brad on their special day…

And it was all captured on video. http://amcvideo.com/weddings_blog/?p=30 -Thanks, PAgent!

Update: Thanks to zondron for the Metacafe link!

(YouTube link)
Flapping lips are a lot funnier in slow motion. And the music just adds to it! -via b3ta

Bat Conservation International (BCI) is an organization dedicated to our flying mammal friends. They are mobilizing in response to a bat affliction known as white-nose syndrome {wiki} that has killed thousands of bats.

Entire bat species are potentially at risk if scientists cannot solve this puzzle soon. White-nose syndrome (WNS), named for a white fungus found on the faces of some affected bats, has been reported since the winter of 2006-7 in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and possibly Pennsylvania. Mortality rates of up to 95 percent have been documented in some populations hit by WNS. Five bat species are affected by the syndrome, with little brown myotis hit the hardest. Endangered Indiana myotis also are taking losses.

The cause remains elusive. (Few scientists believe the fungus is the source of WNS.)

BCI is co-sponsoring a meeting of scientists in June to discuss white-nose syndrome. You can help by joining BCI or by making a donation. Or just read to find out more. Link -Thanks, Thor!

(image credit: josdiiri)

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Synchronization of 5 coupled metronomes in Lancaster University.

Pretty neat. -via Cynical-C

15 Historical Events That Fascinate Us brings us the short version of the most puzzling pieces of our history. The wonders of the ancient world, rumored treasures no one has found, lost civilizations, technology that shouldn’t have been possible at the time, these mysteries capture our imagination and our curiosity. http://frikoo.com/15-historical-events-that-fascinate-us -via the Presurfer

Scientists at UCLA have succeeded in reprogramming stem cells from mouse skin to become functioning cardiac cells. This is the first trial to find that partially differentiated, or iPS cells that don’t involve embyos or eggs can be made into the three types of cardiac cells needed for heart repair. Senior author of the study Dr. Robb MacLellan says the results are encouraging.

“I believe iPS cells address many of the shortcomings of human embryonic stem cells and are the future of regenerative medicine,” said MacLellan, an associate professor of cardiology and physiology. “I’m hoping that these scientific findings are the first step towards one day developing new therapies that I can offer my patients. There are still many limitations with using iPS cells in clinical studies that we must overcome, but there are scientists in labs across the country working to address these issues right now.”

Further studies at UCLA will try to determine whether human cells can be reprogrammed as well as the mouse cells. http://www.physorg.com/news128768372.html -via Digg

(image credit: Dake)

(College Humor link)
Someone in the comments at Digg suggested that after this and the radio-controlled car doing the Mario theme, the next video should be the Halo theme done by cat yodeling. -via Digg

They’re big, they’re buoyant, and when they fail, they might stay right where they are for many years. Dark Roasted Blend has a whole fleet of shipwrecks and abandoned boats for you to see. Link

Unlike so many lists you see on the internet, this one encompasses cinema history more than thirty years back. Cultcase looked at classic films to find the toughest (male) characters in cinema history. No special effects, just tough guys written and acted that way. Each has a video clip. You’re sure to find at least one you’re not overly familiar with, and some you may remember as awe-inspiring or nightmare-inducing. Link -via Geek Like Me

100 pictures, arranged in a 10x10 grid, showing the biggest news stories of the hour.

Each hour is presented as a picture postcard window, composed of 100 different frames, each of which holds the image of a single moment in time. Clicking on a single frame allows us to peer a bit deeper into the story that lies behind the image. In this way, we can dart in and out of the news, understanding both the individual stories and the ways in which they relate to each other.

10x10 runs with no human intervention, autonomously observing what a handful of leading international news sources are saying and showing. 10x10 makes no comment on news media bias, or lack thereof. It has no politics, nor any secret agenda; it simply shows what it finds.

You can pull up clickable headlines by clicking on the pictures or the one-word headlines on the right side at the site, but the pictures are not explained. This screenshot was taken at 11PM Wednesday (the time in Italy). Link -via YesButNoButYes