These unofficial spring break merit badges can be sent to your friends via Facebook. The Lobster badge is for someone who didn't use enough sunscreen. The one on the right is called Icarus, for your friend who went after someone who was too hot for them and was then shot down. See all ten badges at MyEdu. Link -Thanks, A S!

A farmer in Pitesti, Romania was distraught to find his ostrich had been stolen by rustlers. But he needn't have worried -this ostrich may be part homing pigeon, because she escaped and found her own way home!

Owner Florin Diaconescu, 47, was very relieved to see her return back to the farm and was amazed at how she had managed to return by herself.

'I had given her up as gone forever,' he explained.

'But I saw this cloud of dust heading towards the farm and she came running into the yard as fast as her legs would carry her.'

The bird was reportedly running at about 40 mph when she arrived at the farm. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Reuters)

Peter R. Mason is the "Post Pop Art Man". He creates large images by using recycled postage stamps as pixels! Mason's latest work is a portrait of Prince William and Kate Middleton on the occasion of the upcoming royal wedding. See portraits of world leaders and celebrities, as well as still lifes and landscapes all done in stamps at his website. Link -via the Presurfer

It's once again time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what the pictured item is? Can you make up something interesting?

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 another picture showing a close-up detail, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: To be honest, this week it was hard to tell which answers were honest guesses and which were trying to be funny! just a guess was the first with the correct answer: this is a measuring device for a horse's neck, so collars can be custom-sized. The funniest answer prize goes to The Professor, who called it "Occam's Hooky-Thing" that wasn't quite as successful as Occam's Razor.

This picture and others from the same sequence are everywhere on the internet today, but rarely is there any source or context attached. These are stills from the movie Rescued from an Eagle's Nest.

(YouTube link)

Rescued from an Eagle's Nest {wiki} is a 1908 film by D.W.Griffith. It featured cutting-edge special effects that were frightening to audiences. -via Dangerous Minds

Vietnamese-American artist Giang Dinh creates wonderful paper sculptures using a wet fold origami technique. It's hard to believe his animal creations were once a single sheet of paper! http://giangdinh.com/giang/fold_animals.html -via Metafilter

Today is the fifth anniversary of the first non-automated Tweet ever sent over the new Twitter social networking site. On March 21st, 2006, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sent this Tweet:

inviting co-workers

Exciting, huh? Dorsey had been working on what would become Twitter for five years by then -it was first called Twttr.

As the story goes, Dorsey elaborated on his idea during a casual Mexican lunch at that San Francisco hotbed of startup DNA, South Park.

Coding began March 13, and eight days later a machine-generated tweet was issued from Dorsey’s account (No. 12):

just setting up my twttr

While this is widely considered the world’s first tweet, Dorsey is adamant that “inviting co-workers” (his Odeo colleagues) was the first, and so is Twitter.

Link

Can you figure out what movie each of these mathematical equations represents? I couldn't. There are a lot of good guesses in the comments at Spiked Math Comics, but no definitive answer list. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

Artist Clint Wilson interpreted the movie O Brother Where Art Thou? in the style of an ancient Grecian vase. I love it! Link -via Nag on the Lake

Reddit member captaincripple lost a leg in a motorcycle accident a year ago. He asked the forum for design suggestions for his prosthetic, and decided to go with a Terminator theme. He unveiled the finished leg today. The artwork is by Stuart Vimpani of Brisbane, Australia. Link

A fire alarm alerted police to a break-in at Paesan's Pizza in Rotterdam, New York about 1AM Friday. They found Timothy J. Cipriani wedged in an air duct with his legs dangling over a fryer in which the oil was still hot!

Cipriani allegedly told police he was trying to crawl inside the pizza parlor when he became trapped in the narrow vent. He was charged with burglary and possession of burglar tools.

Brown said a second person may have been involved, but disappeared before officers arrived.

Cipriani broke into the restaurant by first scaling a nearby tree and traversing the roof, Brown said. Once on the roof, he used a hammer to smash open air ducts.

Police took several photographs at the scene and shared them with reporters.

Police took 30 minutes to free Cipriani, who was taken, still covered in grease, to the Schenectady County jail. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Rotterdam Police Department)

German artist Susanne Karg makes awesome little felted caves for cats to snuggle up in. Some are for sale through Etsy. See more pictures at A Polar Bear's Tale. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

(vimeo link)

A particularly steep hill caused grief for many competitors at the BUCS Cycling Championships at Moelfre Hall Downhill Track in Wales. If you think the hill doesn't look all that steep in this video, notice the angle of the spectators. Bonus: Banana Splits music by The Dickies. Link -via Metafilter

It sounds like a simple pun to accompany a funny picture, but Vader's Dark Side Roast Coffee is a real product. It's just one of 17 Weird Examples of Star Wars Merchandise listed at Oddee (some of which are available in the NeatoShop). Some will make you laugh, and others might make your wish list! Link

Here's a tale of an eBay sale that grew and grew. British diver D.H. Morgan posted a wetsuit for sale. In his colorful description, he emphasized that the suit had never been peed in -and posted a picture of a bear at a urinal to somehow drive that point home. The bear picture made the auction go viral, so he changed it to a charity auction (language warning).

This listing for my urine-free wetsuit is getting a lot of unexpected attention which is nice but I'm feeling I should do something positive with all the 'f*cking energy man', so I've decided to give 90% of the money it makes to the Red Cross to aid their efforts in Japan. That sounds all 'oh look at me I'm so nice I'm giving to charity' doesn't it... yeah well p*ss off.

But what! There's more!

Just got off the phone to XCEL wetsuits in Hawaii, who are very kindly donating a BRAND NEW 2011 Drylock wetsuit to the auction, it will remain a 3/2 (summer) but will be available in a range of sizes to suit the winning bidder. So now, in addition to the original p*ss free suit, you'll also get a brand spanker, but still no bears or doors, just TWO wetsuits free of urine, one old and knackered (m) and one lovely and new (any size).

After that, the auction snowballed. Different companies have added a lot more merchandise, like a watch, boots, surfboard, books, and concert tickets. Morgan created a separate website called bears don't wear wetsuits to handle questions and correspondence about the auction. As of this writing, the bidding stands at £9,300.00, which is $15K US. Link -via Metafilter