Japanese Bug Fights is a website that showcases videos of different species of bugs in battle, including both insects and arachnids. Users are invited to submit videos. The rules:

1. Two Bugs to a fight
2. Bug fights go on as long as they have to
3. No outside weapons in Bug Fights

Link -via Gorilla Mask

A Norwegian-US science expedition to the South Pole of Inaccessibility found a bust of Vladimir Lenin waiting for them. The South Pole of Inaccessibility is the point in Antarctica that is furthest from the coasts, and rarely visited. A Soviet team had visited the area in 1958 and built a cabin. They perched a bust of Lenin on top of the chimney before they left several weeks later.

"Today the bust is clearly visible from many kilometres away, and remains as they left it on the chimney, although the cabin itself is buried under the snow," the explorers say.

The actual South Pole is 878 kilometers from the Inaccessibility Pole. Since a moving glacier covers Antarctica, the location of the South Pole is recalibrated and moved every few years. Link -via Fark

This German neurosurgical set is dated to the early 19th century, when brain surgery meant boring holes with hand drills and slicing parts of the brain that doctors didn’t quite understand.

Around the central trepanning brace there are two fixed hand held trephines, two detachable handles and trephines attachments, a scalpel, Hey saw, elevator, brush, scissor handled spreaders, a starter trephine and two raspatories.

If it wasn’t labelled, I would have guessed this was a set of instruments of torture. Link -via Retrospectacle

When you’re working on beer by the liter, be careful not to toast too heartily! This once-in-a-lifetime photo is from Flickr user Slake B. http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakesamic/2151717824/ -via J-Walk Blog

MC Hammer is set to launch a new video site called DanceJam.

The Web site, scheduled to debut in mid-January, will try to upstage YouTube and become the Internet's hub for sharing and watching dance videos. DanceJam then hopes to make money by grabbing a piece of the rapidly growing Internet advertising market, which is expected to rake in $27.5 billion in 2008, according to eMarketer.

Hammer has been a technogeek since the early days of Silicon Valley, but he didn’t see the entertainment value of the internet until he saw what YouTube was doing. DanceJam is expected to launch later this month. http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/M/MC_ENTREPRENEUR?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-01-02-08-27-21 to story. Link to Hammer’s blog.

(photo credit: Jeff Chiu/AP)

Could you pass eight grade science? Take the quiz! I did well, partially because I help my fifth-grader study these exact things for her science class. http://www.justsayhi.com/bb/science -via Geek Like Me

Mark Khaisman is a Ukranian artist and architect living in Philadelphia. His mixed media works were made by applying packaging tape to plexiglas panels! http://www.inliquid.com/artist/khaisman_mark/khaisman.php -via Dump Trumpet

Ryan and Andrea of Rattle-n-Roll create baby announcements styled after rock-n-roll gig posters! They’ll make announcements to send out, and posters for your nursery or as keepsakes. Pick your template and colors, or they can custom-design yours. Link -via Grow-A-Brain

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Jeremiah suffers from polio, but he developed a dance routine that will impress you! He makes his living performing in Uganda. -via Cynical-C

Much better than drawing on your palm, this map of London was printed on a lady's leather glove. George Shove created these to help visitors find their way around during the Great Exhibition of 1851. Link -via Ectoplasmosis

Not only are they celebrating a new year, twins Betty Richards and Jenny Pelmore are celebrating their 100th birthdays!

Born half and hour apart in Manchester on New Year's Day 1908, the pair have barely been apart since and now live within a mile from each other in Cornwall.

The pair have survived five different monarchs, still both enjoy driving and even took up Spanish lessons at the age of 97 to keep their minds active.

Mrs Pelmore is an accomplished painter whilst her sister only recently stopped keeping bees.

Link -via Arbroath

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Isn’t it beautiful? -via Living the Scientific Life

Pro Traveler lists ten of the biggest, fastest, and scariest rollercoasters in the world. Just imagine, someone had to ride all these and more in order to rank them. Have you ridden any of these? Link

Crystal Island, the world’s biggest building, is set to be built in Moscow within five years. The plans are for a 27 million square foot interior! The cost? Four billlion dollars.

The statistics for the project are absolutely staggering; floor area alone will be four times the size of Pentagon in Washington DC. The incredible 1500 ft. tall multi use structure will feature 900 apartments, 3000 hotel rooms, an international school for 500 students, cinemas, a theater, sports complex and much more. There will also be a 16,500 space underground parking lot for all the visitors. The Crystal Island visitors will be able to enjoy panoramic views of Moscow on the viewing platforms located 980 ft. above ground.

Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

Every New Year in Germany and Scandinavia, it’s a tradition to watch Dinner for One, a comedy sketch written by British author Lauri Wylie for the theater in the 1920s. It’s also known as The 90th Birthday, or Der 90. Geburtstag. In the routine, Miss Sophie has outlived her friends, so her butler plays the part of each at the birthday dinner, which means he must drink multiple toasts! It’s one of 6 New Year Traditions from Around the World at mental_floss. Link