(vimeo link)

There's a lot going on in a small garden pond! Mirko Faienza blends beautiful macrophotography and music in My Father's Garden. -via Metafilter

Artist Shauna Richardson produces trophy animals by crochet! She has been commissioned to produce three giant crocheted lions to be displayed at the 2012 Olympic games in London. http://www.dazeddigital.com/view/default.aspx?Category=22&ArticleID=6452&PageNum=1 to interview. http://www.shaunarichardson.com/studio/studio-1.php to artist's site. -via Everlasting Blort

Lawrence and Kerryn Munro were walking with their dogs along the White Umfolzi River in South Africa. When they stopped to dip their feet in the water, a ten foot long crocodile grabbed Lawrence by the ankles!

Mr Munro, 33, said: "It was a matter of seconds. I grabbed hold of the rocks and started kicking the croc with my right foot. He let go and grabbed again, getting hold of both feet. I tried to get to my rifle, but I had been dragged closer to the water and couldn't reach it. Kerryn grabbed under my arm and around my neck and started pulling. Eventually the croc let go.

"My two-way radio had come loose and fallen into the river during the struggle so we couldn't call for help," he told the Mercury newspaper.

After pulling her husband free, Mrs Munro ran to the Makhamisa Base Camp for help. Mr Munro was airlifted to hospital in nearby Richards Bay, where he underwent operations to repair tendons in his right foot.

Kerryn Munro, who is five months pregnant, is resting up after the incident. Link -via Digg

(image credit: Flickr user Pandiyan)

You never know when you will be called upon to act the hero. For Andy Ingham of Canterbury, England, that time came as he was dressed as a gorilla! Ingham was promoting his gym business by handing out free passes and bananas to passers-by on February 18th. Meanwhile, police were chasing a suspect over a bridge. A female officer tried to arrest the man, but he pushed her down on the bridge and fled.

Mr Ingham said: “When you are in a gorilla suit it is quite hard to see out of it to begin with. You actually have to hold someone’s hand as you walk along otherwise you fall over.

“If I had been able to see I would have rugby-tackled him, but I also had my hands full of bags. So as he ran towards me I jumped in front of him and gave him a really good kick in the legs to try and trip him up so someone else could jump on him.

“He stumbled and nearly fell over and tried to run off down the road, at which point he was apprehended by the rest of the police and taken away.”

The 24-year-old suspect was charged with assault and resisting arrest. http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news/Gorillaman-swings-to-the-rescue-of-woman-cop-newsinkent33403.aspx -via Arbroath

(image credit: Jenny Armstrong)

(YouTube link)

Om nom nom! This wild bunny lives only temporarily at a Animal Advocates wildlife rehabilitation center in Los Angeles. It will be released back to nature when it's old enough. Don't miss the washing up at the end! -via Cynical-C

Some of the prisoners liberated from Auschwitz in 1945 recreated the scenes of their lives there in art. An online exhibit places those artworks side-by-side with photographs of Auchwitz taken many years later.

In 1979, The Auschwitz Museum Archive reproduced selected pieces of art and sent them to writer/photographer Alan Jacobs.
After years of related work and many more trips, Jacobs, and his son Jesse, returned to the camps in 1996 to find and photograph the identical scenes depicted in the art. Krysia Jacobs then devised a way to present them as you see here. They are the result of work over a 24 year period.

An explanatory text, which may be disturbing, accompanies each image. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Mieczyslaw Koscielniak/Auschwitz Museum Archive)

The US has its share of strange town names. If you've made a few road trips, you've no doubt encountered some of them. Test your knowledge of these strangely-named cities in this Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss. I scored 67%. Note: be sure to read the questions carefully! Link

A British military pilot managed to get twenty passengers to the ground despite a bullet between his eyes. Flight Lieutenant Ian Fortune was ferrying the wounded from a battle between American troops and the Taliban in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. As he was taking off with a full load of casualties, a bullet ricocheted through the helicopter and struck Fortune in the face.

Further rounds then struck the helicopter's automatic stabilisation system, shutting it down and making it extremely difficult to fly.

Despite blood streaming into his eyes, Flight Lt Fortune battled with the controls for eight minutes and managed to get the casualties back to Camp Bastion.

TV Presenter Mike Brewer was on the helicopter when the incident happened. He told Sky News:

"It was terrifying. We came under fire just as the ramp was closing. Then just after we'd taken off the Chinook suddenly lurched from side to side and we heard the pilot had been shot.

"The only reason we didn't plunge straight back into the desert was because of the sheer bravery and skill of Ian and the rest of the crew. They're all heroes."

Lt. Fortune is expected to recover from his injuries. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Chinoook-Pilot-Shot-Between-The-Eyes-Manages-To-Fly-Casualties-To-Safety-Ian-Fortune-Afghanistan/Article/201003115567655?lpos=World_News_News_Your_Way_Region_8&lid=NewsYourWay_ARTICLE_15567655_Chinoook_Pilot_Shot_Between_The_Eyes_Manages_To_Fly_Casualties_To_Safety%3A_Ian_Fortune_Afghanistan -via Fark

(YouTube link)

Barman made a cool helicopter from the movie Avatar out of Lego pieces for the February competition at Brickshelf. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=420825 to pictures. -via Wacky Owl

Noah Dziobecki adapted the children's book Goodnight Moon and set it in the Star Wars universe for his son's birthday. Now his illustrations are available to download and print for yourself -free! Instructions for assembling the book are included. Link -via Boing Boing

The Academy Awards will be given out Sunday night. Every year we compare this year's winner with past winners and find they have certain similarities. The first page at the link lists the roles most likely to win an Oscar. Continue with the slide show for overwhelming evidence of each scheme's success. Link -via YesButNoButYes

The game Sushi Cat doesn’t demand a lot of skill (at least until you reach the higher levels), but it’s so cute and funny you have to keep playing. How much sushi can one fat round cat eat? It's basically like playing pinball with a balloon. You can leave and return to the same level. In between some levels, there's a cartoon about a lovelorn cat. Link -via Metafilter

In the same vein as Sketchy Santas, the new blog Easter Bunnies Will Steal Your Soul has pictures of terrifying rabbits and/or terrified children posing with that seasonal lagomorph we all know. http://www.easterbunnieswillstealyoursoul.com/ -via Urlesque

Just this week, the school my children attend got a $500 grant from an environmental agency. The school decided to buy all the students metal water bottles so they could bring water from home and consume fewer bottles of water at school, thereby saving plastic. My immediate reaction was "What's wrong with the drinking fountain?" National Geographic asks that question as well: Which is better for children, bottled water or tap water? The production of bottled water uses lots of resources and the bottles just go to landfills.

But switching to tap water could be a bad idea in some schools where the risk of lead contamination from old pipes—known to affect physical and mental development—is high, particularly in large urban areas such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

For instance in September 2009, the Associated Press published a nationwide investigation showing that the drinking water in schools in 27 states is contaminated with lead and other toxic substances from lead-soldered pipes generally installed before 1985.

Some school don't test the water because of the high cost of replacing pipes. They find it more cost-effective to serve bottled water, or even soft drinks to children. Link

(image credit: Flickr user Isobel T)

Imagine a sport where you can finish a drink in the midst of a race of only a few feet. Turtle racing has become a trend in metropolitan bars like Bucky's Grill and Pub in Indianapolis, where the first turtle race was held last month.

Depending on the crowd, four to five of these exciting turtle races are held every Saturday night around 10 p.m. Every drink purchased gets the buyer one raffle ticket. Come race time, the tickets are drawn to see who is assigned as an honorary jockey to each of the six turtles. (The turtles, by the way, have clever names like Salisbury Strutter, Bermusa and Butkus.)

First place gets a T-shirt that reads "My turtle got lucky at Bucky's," and last place gets a complimentary shot. In some cases, coming in last place is probably harder than coming in first.

The only person to actually handle the turtles is a licensed reptile handler. Link -via Buzzfeed

(image credit: Wendy Rose Gould)