Can a woman’s hair really support a man’s weight, as in the story of Rapunzel? Can a carpet ever fly? And how would you steal someone’s voice, like Ursula does in The Little Mermaid? It turns out that some of that magical stuff is actually possible -except for that “happily ever after” part, of course. Link -via Bad Astronomy Blog, where you’ll find some more suggestions for this topic.

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So that’s how they do it! This video shows how morning glories find and twine around any support they can. One frame was shot every ten minutes. Link -via Arbroath

WonderCon 2008 runs through today the Moscone Center West in San Francisco.

Thousands of fanboys and girls head to WonderCon each year for an insider's look at superhero flicks, comic book characters and sci-fi shows, but only the most dedicated get decked out in cosplay gear and homemade armor.

Wired has pictures of a dozen attendees who came in costume. Having attended such conventions myself, I suspect that for each featured character, there were dozens who didn’t make the cut. http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2008/02/gallery_wondercon?slide=1&slideView=8

(image credit: Jon Snyder/Wired)

Retro Sabotage is a collection of classic arcade games with a twist. I would tell you what the twist is, but it’s different for each game. The Pac Man games made me laugh! The Tetris game called Compromise is a challenge I may have to work on for a long time. http://www.retrosabotage.com/ -via Metafilter

Kevin McKinney built a treehouse for his two daughters on top of an 8 foot wide Giant Redwood stump. The house has a cantilevered porch, observation deck, sink, closet, and interior stalactites! McKinney is documenting the ongoing project in photographs. http://www.paralleldesign.com/mckinney/kevin-01.htm -via reddit

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Charles McCowan parked his truck in front of a convenience store, leaving his dog Max inside. When he came out, the truck was gone! McCowan called police to report the theft. Officers found the truck in a parking lot across the street with the 80-pound boxer still inside. Security video shows the car had rolled backwards across five lanes of traffic! Apparently, Max had knocked the truck out of gear. Link -via Arbroath

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of the year. The finalists for the annual award have been announced by The Bookseller. They are:

I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen
How to Write a How to Write Book
Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues
Cheese Problems Solved
If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs
People who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood

I’m still giggling over the description of the Pygmy Love Queen book. The titles that almost made the shortlist are also intriguing. Now the public can vote at The Bookseller site. The winner will be announced March 28th. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/53656-oddest-book-titles-prize-shortlist-announced.html -via Metafilter

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If you watch this karate chop shown slowly enough to really see what happens, you may decide not to take up martial arts. -via Cynical-C

The Oscars will be awarded this Sunday night, for the 80th time. Movie Poster Addict has compiled all 79 posters for movies that have won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. I’m sorry to say that I have only seen 39 of them. Cimarron (pictured) won in 1931. Link -Thanks, deadmen!

You’ve probably seen the Lamp/Lamp from designer Hironao Tsubui. It sells for ¥2,100, or about $20. But you can make your own version with a steady hand and the proper glue! http://www.vvank.com/?page_id=9%22 -via the Presurfer

That’s about as blue as a building can get.

The borough of Delfshaven, Rotterdam, asked Schildersbedrijf N&F Hijnen to come up with a plan for a block of derelict buildings, which will eventually be demolished. The agreement with the neighbourhood is that the block will remain blue as long as there isn't a new plan for the area.

This was once one of the most unseen blocks of houses in Rotterdam, and by applying a layer of only 2 micron of blue paint onto it, it became Rotterdam's most photographed one.

Link -via Dump Trumpet

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I’m impressed. -via mental_floss

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If you are going to the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, you want to be there on drill day. Zookeepers train for escaped animal emergencies once a year, but they can’t use real animals for drills, so they dress up as zoo animals! A recent drill featured two escaped “zebras”.

Some 150 zoo workers, policemen and ambulance crew played their part, wearing hard hats and wielding sticks and nets in an attempt to capture the escapee.

The fake zebra finally fell to a fake tranquiliser gun.

Link -via Arbroath

Now you can party like it’s MCMXCIX! Or MIM, if you don't want to spend as much. If you’re tired of people making fire extinguisher jokes as you blow out the candles at your birthday party, try Roman Candles. And there’s a small chance that some people might not know that L is 50. Link -via Grow-A-Brain

io9 has a guide for how TV and movie producers should treat hardcore science fiction fans. For example:

Fans love inconsistencies. Fans claim to hate contradictions in long-running stories, but actually that stuff is catnip to them. If Londo Mollari says he has seven penises in one episode and then refers to his twelve penises in another episode, the fans will spend hours coming up with explanations for the discrepancy.

Ain't it the truth? The debate over Star Wars inconsistencies has kept forums alive for years. Link -via Fark