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The revolutionary movements of the Middle East, explained by the cast of the game Angry Birds in a retro-animation cartoon set to the tune of the Three Little Pigs. Does that make it all clear now? Of course, the real story isn't over yet. -via Buzzfeed

Shaun Sanders leads us through the different way US cities treat pedestrians, illustrated with pedestrian crossing signs. See the rest at Hipmunk Link -via Laughing Squid

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In honor of Pixar's 25th anniversary, YouTube member NkMcDonalds put together a video montage of twelve feature films and 20 short subjects you know and love. -via Slashfilm

Previously: The Beauty of Pixar

A scientist in Russia, Vladimir Obryvkov of the Voronezh State University of Agriculture, found a stray five-eared cat and brought it home to his family.

The scientist, who has been studying animal anomalies for years, took the cat to X-ray its unusual ears but decided to take her home to his children.

Obryvkov said that the cat named Luntya also has big paws but her behavior does not differ from that of normal cats.

He also said that he wants to mate his new pet with a four-eared cat living in Vladivostok to create a new breed of these fluffy animals.

There may be a market for a breed with multiple ears, but who has time to scratch them all? Link -via Arbroath

Jeff Martin of 360cities has produced the largest indoor photograph ever: a 40-gigapixel, 360-degree image of the main hall of the 868-year-old Strahov monastery library in Prague, Czech Republic. Almost 3,000 images were shot over five days and then stitched together to make the mega-picture. You can take a tour of the picture, swing all the way around, and zoom in on interesting details. Link to image. Link to story. -via The Daily What

(Image credit: Image credit: Flickr user francesca!!)

Got milk? Well, you wouldn't if it weren't for these world-churning events.

MILK

You can't spell "milk production" without g-o-a-t-s. Well, technically you could, ..but not historically. Goats were most likely the first dairy animals ever domesticated. Archeological evidence suggests that ancient peoples in what is now Iran and Iraq were selectively breeding these four-legged eating machines as far back as 8,000-9,000 B.C.E. And, while they may not look like much to us modern Americans, the logic behind goat keeping is impeccable. Small, sturdy, and able to eat just about anything you put in front of them, they're easier creatures to keep healthy, happy, and milk-producing (particularly in cool, mountainous climates) than their larger relatives like cows and sheep. Several breeds have hair that can be shorn and used for clothing. And, like all milk animals, they're an excellence nutritional value for what you have to put in.

Ruminants, the class of animals from which humans get all their dairy products, have a gigantic four-chambered stomach that allows them to happily digest dry stalks, fibrous vines, and leaves that other animals (humans included) write off as inedible. Their secret: lots and lots of chewing, in addition to partial digestion and regurgitation, then more chewing, followed by a healthy dose of specialized tummy bacteria. Unlike, say, pigs, which eat basically the same food as people and are only useful as meat, ruminants don't compete with their owners for sustenance. Further, the milk they produce over several years provides far more nutrition than the meat a single animal could ever hope to put out. In fact, it only takes a couple of goats to keep a whole family of people fed for a year.


The extinct auroch.

As the concept of domesticating and milking animals spread from the Middle East, farmers adopted local beasts as their milk-giving ruminant of choice. Depending on things like climate, geography, and population, various regions favored yaks, buffalo, cows, and sheep. All have their own special adaptations that make them better for certain environments and needs. Cows, for instance, were domesticated from long-horned wild aurochs around the same time and place as goats. Since at least 3,000 B.C.E. they've been bred primarily for their milk, which is richer than goats' and due to their size, more abundant. However, as heavy eaters with a grass diet, cows really work best in temperate climates. Modern European cows are much smaller than their auroch ancestors, primarily because in captivity, the winter food supply was far less abundant. There is one notable exception to the ruminant rule, however: the camel. The only milkable domesticated animal that isn't a ruminant, camels were particularly adapted to arid, desert regions, and as such, their milk has been a staple food in parts of Africa since 2500 B.C.E.

Ottawa artist Dan Austin makes awesome robots out of old appliances and other recycled bits of this and that. On the left is Kenmore, who is built from a floor polisher and a flower pot, among other things. On the right is Hunter, who is a 6-foot tall floor lamp! His "tentacles" are actually adjustable lights. You can also meet Betsy, Norm-Al, Bell, Bolivar, the Kaiser-Bots, and more in Austin's Flickr set. Link -Thanks, Vivian!

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Jason Pitts asked Lianna to the prom during third period class last week in an romantic way that made me smile from ear to ear. The lyrics are available at the YouTube link. -via Buzzfeed

This snake takes a pretty picture! The Ruby-Eyed Green Pit Viper (Cryptelytrops rubeus) is a newly-discovered species that lives near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and in Cambodia. National Geographic has more picture of the snake, including its attempt to eat an entire frog that's as big as the snake. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Jeremy Holden)

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The uncanny valley is about to get creepier, thanks to this realistic-looking animatronic eye developed by Dan Thomson of Visionary Effects. Will this be used for movie effects, Disneyland presidents, artificial girlfriends, or working robots? Maybe all of those things! -via Laughing Squid

Now this is strange. When you write on word processing software, online or not, you can justify, align left, align right, or center your text. But why center your text when you can centaur it? That's exactly what this generator does. Paste in your block of text -you have to paste a lot of words, so you may have to repeat yourself to see how it works- and then his the centaur button at the bottom. Voila! Your text is then centaured correctly! Link -via The Daily What

The estate at Witley Park in Britain has been a private home and a public facility at different times. What is visible above ground is nice enough, but the secret underground and underwater construction is a treasure. Deep passages lead to the rumored "ballroom under the lake", which, as it turns out, was originally built as a billiard room, but it wasn't the only glassed-in room. Guests can watch fish swim around them -or they could at one time or another. Link -via Metafilter

Also see: more pictures at Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cybergibbons/sets/72057594107271287/with/128621401/

Stephen put a lot of hard work into studying a "a particular cardiac arrhythmia" for his PhD. He is deservedly proud of achieving his diploma, but wanted something more interesting to display on his wall. This artwork is made up of words from his dissertation. Cool! Link -via reddit

Have you been to NeatoBambino lately? The new Decipher the Doodle contest is up, in which you have a chance to win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop by examining a drawing by a 4-year-old and figuring out what it is supposed to mean. You can win with the first correct interpretation (according to the 4-year-old), or you can win for the most entertaining but wrong answer. Only a portion of the doodle is shown here. Link

It's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what the pictured item is? Great guesses win prizes!

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: The first correct answer came from Blake. This is a truth window {wiki}, built into a wall of a house to show what the wall is made of (straw, in this case). Read more about them at the What Is It? blog. The funniest answer came from Iago, who said it was Rumpelstilskin's personal wall safe. Ha! Both winners get t-shirts from the NeatoShop. But you really should read all the comments because we had a ton of funny answers!