You're familiar with historical re-enactment groups who get together to stage battles from history. Here's one with a twist: a group of woman who portray the German Red Cross, or Deutches Rotes Kreuz (DRK) of World War II. Aachen Stadt I does not endorse the politics of the Nazi party; in fact they say right up front that they will not tolerate racist ideology. They participate in WWII battle re-enactments and attend educational events to tell about the role of the Red Cross. And they have a 2010 calendar for sale as well! Link -Thanks, Erin!

In a three-part post. you'll see dozens of beautiful illustrations from Iranian children's books of the past few decades. These works of art were gleaned from the International Children's Digital Library. The illustration pictured is by Mohammadrezaa Daadgar from the book As the Sparrow Says by Qeysar Aminpour. Link (links to the other posts are at the bottom of the page) -Thanks, Will!

Denver, Colorado is home to tens of thousands of stray cats. They form colonies and breed uncontrollably. Destroying or relocating the cats only opens up space for more cats to move in. Local animal welfare groups are trying a different approach, but the job is overwhelming. Kristin Des Marais and Amy Angelilli of the Rocky Mountain Alley Cat Alliance are among those battling the feral cat population problem.

Thirty thousand cats are euthanized every year in Colorado, double the rate of dogs. Many are homeless cats considered unsuitable for adoption. Working with RMACA, Des Marais and other volunteers are trying to reduce the kill rate by trapping ferals, spaying or neutering them, then returning them — in effect, transforming the entire colony from feral to sterile so that it will eventually die out on its own. But trap-neuter-return, or TNR, is a controversial solution, often unpopular with communities afflicted by the colonies.

"More often than not, people will call and say, 'Come pick up these cats,'" Angelilli explains. "They think we have a special vehicle we drive around and pick up stray cats and bring them to this utopia in the country. If people knew about TNR and why it works — but it needs to start before the population gets out of control. By the time people call us about the problem, they're usually so fed up that they just want the cats gone."

Link -via Digg

Can you get any more meta than a year end list that is a list of internet lists?

The internet is awash in lists. We're sure that somewhere there's a few billion government dollars being spent on why we humans have such a limitless appetite for all things numbered, but it's no wonder we adore them: they're fun, easily digested, often-trashy candy for the brain. But from the great swathes of pop-culture enumerations, some stand out like beacons in the foggy internet night.

Link -via Gorilla Mask

27-year-old Lin Rong re-entered Japan even though she had earlier been deported back to China. She wasn't caught until she was arrested on other charges, because her fingerprints were different. Lin had undergone surgery to have her left fingerprints moved to her right hand, and vice versa!

Local media reports said Ms Lin had undergone surgery to swap the fingerprints from her right and left hands.

Skin patches on her thumbs and index fingers were removed and then re-grafted on to the matching digits of the opposite hand.

Japanese newspapers said police had noticed that Ms Lin's fingers had unnatural scars when she was arrested last month for allegedly faking a marriage to a Japanese man.

Lin reportedly paid around $15,000 for the surgery in China. Link -via Boing Boing

(image credit: Flicker user chadmiller)

Last night a strange spiral lit up the sky over Norway, from Trøndelag to Finnmark, and many people took pictures.

The phenomenon began when what appeared to be a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain. It stopped mid-air, then began to circulate.

Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre - lasting for ten to twelve minutes before disappearing completely.

Russia denied any missile tests in the area. Link to story. Link to photo gallery. -via Metafilter

(image credit: Svein-Egil Haugen)

(YouTube link)

The night of the full moon in November is known as Loy Krathong Day in Thailand.

Loy is "to float" and Krathong is a "leaf cup" usually made of banana leaf as one often sees in the market. The leaf cup is used to hold something. Loy Krathong is, therefore, the floating of lights in a leaf cup. During October and November, all the rivers and canals in the lowlands are flooded and the waters in some places overflow their banks. The rainy season is now in a sense over. It is the time of rejoicing for the weather is fair after the rains.

In this video, 100,000 illuminated rafts fill the Mae Klong River. http://www.thailandlife.com/loykrathong.html

Campbell's monkeys have six basic sounds they make in the wild, but they can string these six sounds together in ways that mean many different things. Researcher Karim Ouattara spent 20 months observing six families of monkeys in the Ivory Coast and figured out what many sequences of calls mean.

With no danger in sight, males make three call sequences. The first - a pair of booms - is made when the monkey is far away from the group and can't see them. It's a summons that draws the rest of the group towards him. Adding a krak-oo to the end of the boom pair changes its meaning. Rather than "Come here", the signal now means "Watch out for that branch". Whenever the males cried "Boom-boom-krak-oo", other monkeys knew that there were falling trees or branches around (or fighting monkeys overhead that could easily lead to falling vegetation).

Interspersing the booms and krak-oos with some hok-oos changes the meaning yet again. This call means "Prepare for battle", and it's used when rival groups or strange males have showed up. In line with this translation, the hok-oo calls are used far more often towards the edge of the monkeys' territories than they are in the centre. The most important thing about this is that hok-oo is essentially meaningless. The monkeys never say it in isolation - they only use it to change the meaning of another call.

As complex as their language is, Campbell's monkeys can only communicate things that they see or experience in the present. Link

Although we are used to professional fakery, not all movie stunts are done with computers, green screen, or even stuntmen. Here are thirteen movie stars, past and present, and the stories of the dangerous stunts they've done themselves.

In his breakthrough role as Aragorn in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Viggo Mortensen performed all of his own stunts. Peter Jackson referred to Viggo, and two other stuntmen as “the walking wounded” due to all of the injuries they sustained while filming the trilogy. While filming a fight scene, Viggo actually had one of his teeth knocked out and had it repaired over lunch, and returned to work immediately afterward. However, his most dangerous stunts were actually performed in the movie Hidalgo, where he was to race at breakneck speeds on horseback – a stunt that the professional stuntmen would not even attempt.

With videos. Link -via Digg [Update 12/8/09 - warning: website may contain virus, probably a rogue ad]

The year end lists are coming fast and furious! Here's one you don't see year after year, since flash mobs have only recently been numerous enough to invite ranking. Each one has a video, so you can see whether they deserve the honor. Pictured is the promotion for Elf Yourself last month in New York City. Link

Any geek who is not quite sure if this is an appropriate time to pull out the iPhone can use this handy flowchart from Gizmodo. You can enlarge the chart at the link if you need to. Link -via Boing Boing

A staff photographer for New Yorker magazine referred to only as Platon set up a studio in the United Nations building this past September to get portraits of as many world leaders as possible. For five days he took photographs of each member of the General Assembly that came to his temporary studio. Those portraits are now posted in slide show form. Click on any of them, and you can hear Platon's story of how he got the picture, and his impressions of each president or prime minister. http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/2009/12/07/091207_audioslideshow_platon -via the Presurfer

Think back about the school-related movies of the 1980s to get ready for today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. You know the quotes, but can you remember which quote is from Back to School, Summer School, or Fast Times at Ridgemont High? I scored 80%, even though I've only seen one of the movies. Link

Just in time for Christmas gift-giving, the wolves you know and love are howling at the moon on a one-piece footed pajama set!

# The Official Three Wolf Moon Pajamas.
# Increases Sex Appeal*
# 3 Wolf Moon has been Featured on The Office, ABC News, & The Chicago Tribune
# WARNING! Wolves on PJs May Occasionally Come to Life*
# Chicks Dig Guys in Wolf Pajamas*

* Results may vary.

They feature a trap-door opening so that you never have to take them off! Only $44.95. http://www.pajamacity.com/3-Wolf-Moon-Fleece-Adult-Footed-Pajamas-with-Drop-Seat/productinfo/J635-WO/ -via Buzzfeed

Some people get rich, others set world records, but a few get started on something and just can't stop. Read about the man who wrote 200,000 books, the scientist with 3,200 patents, and Dr. Shrikant Jichkar, who holds 20 postgraduate degrees.

Jichkar, a politician in his native India, went to school and did pretty well, becoming an M.D. Then he became a lawyer. Then he did business administration and journalism. He got master's degrees in sociology, history, psychology, philosophy, English literature and others. At one point he even joined the police force, apparently just for kicks, as he resigned sometime later. Because that was just his professional life, he was also a photographer, painter and actor, but, again, just for kicks.

Link -via mental_floss