Watching cars do an intricate group dance is nice, but it’s even better when something goes wrong! Push play or go to YouTube. -via the Presurfer

Our modern age has seen several designs for propeller-driven trains. And cars. And a bicycle. And even a sled! See them all at deputy dog. http://deputy-dog.com/2007/09/27/7-unusual-propeller-driven-vehicles/

It's an ad for insurance in Thailand, but that's not important. This made me cry. Push play or go to YouTube. -via BrandweekNRX

The 2007 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge awards are given by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science. This image is a CT scan of the structure inside the human nose, one of the winners in the photography category. See more winners at National Geographic. Link

Have you ever had the urge to play chess in the dark? Now you can! This chess set is illuminated with LEDs in the chessboard. Designed by Daan Van Tulder. http://judag.com/art-design/amazing-chess-with-led-set -via Geek Like Me

Joshua Budich has an extensive collection of Star Wars action figures. He made tiny pictures of each one, with a linked description, and posted it on his website. http://www.joshuabudich.com/SWCollection/ -via Metafilter

Flickr user manmadepants http://www.flickr.com/photos/borrowed/ uploaded this photo with the story that explains it.

I swear on my life this is 100% real. I was walking down the street looking for stuff to photograph and this guy is just sitting outside a coffee shop with this 80 year old woman and he is taking these little sofa things out of a bag. Then he opens another compartment in the bag and there are about five lizards like this guy. Then he would pose them and they would just sit there like this. Don't really know why.

Link -via Reddit

The Open School of Art, founded by artist Karoly Koffan, was a legitimate school, but also became a front to save Jews in Budapest during World War II. Lauren Krupa is collecting stories from teachers and students who worked to protect and save friends during the German occupation of Hungary in 1944 and 1945, in order to make a documentary film. Here is one such story:

Precise information from an informer led an officer of the Arrow Cross militia to search for a Jewish man who had slipped away from the ghetto at the studio of painter Lajos Szentivanyi. There was no time to arrange a proper hiding place, and the Jew simply concealed himself behind a screen in a room that was bad for hiding in, his yellow shoes peeking out beneath it. Fortunately, in the room was a spectacular nude painting that Szentivanyi was working on and from which the officer could not look away. Whether or not he saw the shoes, he stopped searching, spoke a few words to Szentivanyi and left.

Read more at Haaretz.com. Link -via Fark

Sandy at mental_floss has compiled A Disturbingly Long List of Celebrity Motorbike Crash-ups. 28 of them, to be exact! You may remember some of these from the news, but I bet you will be surprised by some. Link

Just for fun: Mt. Rushmore sings The Teddy Bears Picnic. Link -via the Presurfer

Here’s something you don’t see everyday. Picture found at Bits and Pieces.

If you’re going to die, do it differently! Neatorama has featured strange deaths before, and here are more people who have died in bizarre ways, like the women who was choked by a fish, or the man who’s head was twisted by a robot. Link -via the Presurfer

Khoi Vinh knows how his dog Mister President thinks. He contructed this flowchart to show how he (and other dogs) think. Makes plenty of sense to me! http://www.subtraction.com/archives/2007/0918_think_like_a.php -via Look at This

Those who only knew “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin from TV may forget that he was always involved in serious wildlife research. Just yesterday, a research paper was published listing Irwin as one of the authors. It involves the homing instincts of crocodiles. The short version is: you can take a crocodile as far as hundreds of miles away from its home, and he will find his way back. As Coturnix observes:

Can you imagine anyone doing this work without Steve Irwin? Who else would be able to grab a big croc, attach a satellite tracker, load it and unload it some hundreds of miles away, then follow their movements on the computer screen? Would you dare ask your grad students to do that?

Link to story. Link to research paper.

15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford was the first black student to attend a white school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Journalist Will Counts took this picture of Eckford’s entrance, with student Hazel Bryan shouting at her. 50 years later, Vanity Fair looks at what happened then, and what became of Eckford and Bryan and their relationship. Link to story. More pictures here. -via Metafilter