Amongst a pack of bottlenose dolphins in Calcasieu Lake in Louisiana, this pink dolphin stands out. It’s a rare albino dolphin, unrelated to the species of pink dolphin found in the Amazon. Link -via Arbroath

Along with fireworks, parades, and picnics, another Independence Day tradition is Nathan's Famous July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest, held annually since 1916. This year’s competition will pit new world record holder Joey Chesnutt against six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi (who is recovering from wisdom tooth surgery). The last time an American won the event was in 1999. $20,000 and the “mustard belt” are up for grabs today in Coney Island. The event will be broadcast live at 12:40PM by ESPN. Link

Sweden has found another way to recycle. Almost all alcoholic drinks smuggled into Sweden illegally that the government seizes are now turned into biogas to run public vehicles. Last year 700,000 liters (184,000 US gallons or 154,000 UK gallons) were converted to biogas for buses, trucks, and one train. Link -via Arbroath

The FuelVapor alé is a sportscar with three wheels, but two of them are in the front! It runs on fuel vapor instead of liquid gas, so it uses about one-third the normal amount of fuel for a car of its kind, supposedly 92 mpg. And the emissions are very low. Top Gear says the FuelVapor alé will be on sale in 2008. No word yet on how much it will cost. Link

Alan Weisman, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Arizona, wrote a book entitled The World Without Us, imagining a scenario where all the world’s people suddenly dissapeared. What would happen to the earth?

According to Weisman, large parts of our physical infrastructure would begin to crumble almost immediately. Without street cleaners and road crews, our grand boulevards and superhighways would start to crack and buckle in a matter of months. Over the following decades many houses and office buildings would collapse, but some ordinary items would resist decay for an extraordinarily long time. Stainless-steel pots, for example, could last for millennia, especially if they were buried in the weed-covered mounds that used to be our kitchens. And certain common plastics might remain intact for hundreds of thousands of years; they would not break down until microbes evolved the ability to consume them.

Link -via Gothamist

(While the Scientific American site is down, here's the link to the Gothamist article.)

Dr. Serge Voronoff was a pioneer in the field of organ transplant who was lauded as a genius in the late 1800s. His experiments included grafting monkey testicles into men, monkey ovaries into women, and human ovaries into monkeys. The purpose of the testicle transplants was “rejuvenation” and to slow the aging process, which didn’t quite work out. Link -via Look at This

The prehistoric South American bird Argentavis magnificens had a wingspan of 23 feet! That makes this bird about the same size as a Cessna light aircraft. Scientists think Argentavis was too big and heavy to flap its wings, but could fly by taking advantage of thermals and updrafts. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/07/02/bigbird_ani.html?category=animals&guid=20070702170030

Read the fine print on the side of this condom package carefully. The folks who designed the box didn’t! -via Bits and Pieces

A hemp field in Utting, Germany has been plowed with the image of a castle. It’s one of the many castles built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who obsessively built distinctive castles during his reign in the 19th century. If you look closely, you’ll also find a portrait of the king in the green field. Link -via Arbroath

This guy nodded off and the TV cameras focused in on him, putting his embarassment on the jumbo screen. Push play or go to YouTube. -via Bits and Pieces

This is an advertising campaign for the Neunkirchen Zoo in Germany. The promotion team walking the dog handed out discount coupons for the zoo, with the slogan “Come to the zoo before the zoo comes to you.” The campaign resulted in a 15% attendance increase over an average month. Link -via the Presurfer

This has nothing to do with football! Since the US Mint started the state quarter series, there is quite a variety of designs on our twenty-five cent pieces. Can you identify the states by the quarters? Link

STL Loftstyle, a furniture store, has an article about both furniture that discourages the homeless and furniture that helps the homeless get a night’s sleep. Pictured is the ParaSite project, which uses exhaust from HVAC units to keep a sleeper warm on the street. http://www.stlloftstyle.com/urban-furniture.html -via Reddit

Artists Cheri Pann & Gonzalo Duran live at the Mosaic Tile House in Venice, California. Purchased in 1994 as a fixer-upper, they began the mosaic tiles in the bathroom. They liked it so much, the project continued room after room! It’s still not finished, but you can see pictures of some of the rooms. Link -via Grow-A-Brain

Take a look around at a public park before you travel! Virtual Parks is a site by photographer Erik Goetze, featuring 360-degree panoramas of beautiful parks and preserves in the western United States and elsewhere. Link -via Ursi’s Blog