Brett made a list of 50 things he wanted to do, and said he wouldn't go home until he accomplished all of them. Here are just the first ten:

Tube down a river
* Ride a horse through a covered bridge
* Sleep in a lighthouse
Learn survival skills
Enter a hot dog eating contest
Walk to the top of the Empire State Building
See a live taping of The Colbert Report
See a game at Fenway Park
Milk a cow on an Amish farm
Wade through a cranberry bog

* Not accomplished yet.

A year later, only eight of the items remain to be done! Each accomplishment is documented at Amtrekker. Link -Thanks, Jen!

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Another eerie Google tale from The Vacationeers, who brought you Google My Maps, Google Moon, and Google Maps. -Thanks, Steen Benjamin Petersen!

Talk about cute! Here is a collection of all kinds of baby animal pictures, arranged alphabetically. They get cuter once you get past the As. Pictured is a baby slow loris. Link -via b3ta

The ocean is a huge environment, and we've only explored small portions of it. Here are some sea creatures that range from beautiful to scary, and all are just plain strange. Pictured is the umbrella mouth gulper eel. Link

(image credit: John Kealy)

ColourLovers has a collection of very colorful nudibranch photos, and their color palettes, too!

Part of the mollusk phylum, Nudibranchs are the shell-less relatives of the snail and are known for their garish colors. These tiny sea creatures are usually only 2cm - 6cm in length and can be found worldwide. They are able to thrive in any depth of salt water from the deepest darkest ocean floors to warm shallow water.

Link -Thanks, Lex!

This MowerCycle was created by some DIY-genius out of an old bicycle and a broken lawnmower, we’re saying “DIY-genius” because his identity remains unknown - and this cannot be found at online do-it-yourself stores or something. Of course the efficiency of this is questioned since we assume riding a bike on grass isn’t the easiest thing to do, but the concept is brilliant!

Link -Thanks, Al!

If the mowercycle seems like too much work, how about using power tools? This bike is powered by a cordless drill! It will carry up to 250 pounds at about 15 miles per hour, and has a range of 2-6 miles, depending on the drill. http://www.dpxsystems.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ID=184 -Thanks, SenorMysterioso!

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Habanera {wiki}, the familiar aria from the opera Carmen, performed by your favorite Muppets. -Thanks, Andrew!

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This is not a Hollywood special effect. This is an actual video of the Earth and moon taken from 50 million kilometers away.

First, the setup. The Deep Impact spacecraft was the one that smacked a chunk of copper into a comet so that we could see what materials were below the surface. After the impact, the spacecraft kept going (with the mission renamed EPOXI), and it’s being used to do all sorts of interesting observations.

In late May, 2008, it turned its cameras back to Earth and observed us over the course of a several hours. During this time, from EPOXI’s point of view, the Moon passed directly in front of the Earth! The images were put together (by my old boss, Don Lindler!) into, well, one of the most astonishing animations I have ever watched. Ever.
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This is a view that is literally impossible from the ground. Only a spacefaring race gets the privilege of this view from a height.

Bad Astronomy Blog has more information, and links to even more. Link

Today, the ABC World News Webcast reports from the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles on new trends in video games. Virtual musician games are hot! Get a sneak peek at Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, and Wii Music. Link to the segment. http://www.worldnewswebcast.com/ to the entire webcast.

You may have thought Treebeard or the apple trees in The Wizard of Oz were creepy (I did), but real trees can be pretty creepy, too! Environmental Graffiti has a collection of the strangest, scariest, and even funniest trees caught on camera. Link -Thanks, Chris!

(image credit: doyle_saylor)

Previously at Neatorama: 10 Most Magnificent Trees in the World.

The Zižkov television tower in Prague, Czech Republic features crawling babies by artist David Cerný. They were attached in 2000 as a temporary exhibit, but people liked them so much, they are still there! See many more pictures at deputy dog. http://deputy-dog.com/2008/07/17/ever-seen-a-creepier-tower/

(image credit: the-tml)

Classic toys don't go away, they just go digital for a new generation. Wooly Willy, the classic metal-shavings toy from your childhood, is now available for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Decorate Wooly Willy, Hairdo Harriet, or you can upload your own image and add "hair"! Link -Thanks, Wesley Booker!

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To Snaggle Puss, Bubbles the orphan bunny is just another kitten in her litter. -via Arbroath

Office work came to a stop when it was time for ten baby ducklings to leave the nest.

"Something really amazing happened in Downtown Spokane this week and I had to share the story with you. [My colleague] Joel is a loan officer at Sterling [Savings] Bank. He works downtown in a second story office building, overlooking busy Riverside Avenue. Several weeks ago he watched a mother duck choose the cement awning outside his window as the uncanny place to build a nest above the sidewalk."

To get to the river, the ducklings had to fall ten feet, then cross two blocks of busy streets and sidewalks! Bank employees helped them out and took pictures, too. Link -via Cynical-C