(Brightcove link)
Nice fireworks! What's the occasion? It's the grand opening of The Atlantis, a luxury resort on the man-made Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. To get a scale of the fireworks, keep in mind that the "trunk" of the palm island is five kilometers long!

One million fireworks – almost 10 times the scale of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony – lit up the Palm, with the organisers claiming the display was visible from space.

Even in Dubai, a part of the world renowned for excess, there had never been a party like it.

"We built something that's quite extraordinary. We've got to tell the world about it," said Sol Kerzner, the South African billionaire hotelier and casino tycoon.

The 1,539-room Atlantis took two years to build and cost £1 billion. Mr Kerzner admitted that the global economic downturn would have an effect on business.

The launch party cost £15 million ($30 million). Link

How do you improve upon a turducken (turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken)? Behold, the Turbaconducken. It's a turducken wrapped in bacon! Bacon Today has the step-by-step recipe with pictures. Link -via Cynical-C

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On the b3ta boards this was titled "Look what Mum's getting for Christmas!" It would be a nice little experiment to explain how steam power works to the kids. http://www.b3ta.com/links/Look_what_mums_getting_for_Christmas

A kitten with two faces was born yesterday at a veterinary clinic in Perth, Australia. A newspaper photographer was at the clinic to shoot pictures of greyhounds when the birth occurred, and took the opportunity to snap pictures of the newborn kitten.

Louisa Burgess, a veterinary nurse who helped deliver the kitten, told InMyCommunity.com.au that she had never seen such an unusual animal in her 12-year career.

"I have seen cats with two tails and extra legs, but not this,” she said.

Ms Burgess said the cat appeared healthy, but it would be closely monitored over the next few days.

"It has a full tummy and it survived the night so that is a good sign,” she said. "It seems content, it meows and purrs.

The kitten's two mouths meow simultaneously. In a radio interview (included with the story), it was revealed that the kitten has only one brain. http://www.theage.com.au/national/twofaced-kitten-born-in-perth-20081120-6cpv.html -Thanks, Jayne Howley!

(image credit: Mathew Poon)

This week, we've started to feature another layer in the Google Earth Gallery, showing several thousand panoramic views provided by 360cities.net. This layer contains exciting 360 degree panoramas from a variety of great photographs taken all over the world!

This screengrab is from the Synagogue of Dohány Street in Budapest, which does NOT do justice to the panorama. Link to story. Link to website. -Thanks, Jeffrey Martin!

Every time you reload the page, you'll get a different randomly-generated recipe. This goes a long way toward proving that machines can't cook. Here's what I got on the first try:

Coffee Surprise
Serves 5
You will need:

* 20ml coffee
* 3 slices of bread
* 20g sugar
* 20ml red wine
* 100ml tabasco sauce

Instructions:

1. pre-heat the oven to 230 C
2. fry the slices of bread until browned
3. microwave the red wine
4. fry the coffee
5. saute the slices of bread
6. spoon the coffee onto a warmed plate
7. saute the red wine
8. microwave the sugar
9. eat the slices of bread
10. slice the tabasco sauce
11. bake for 80 minutes and serve hot

Yum.

http://jamesoff.net/site/fun/random-recipe-generator/ -via b3ta

(image credit: bitzcelt)

How do you get your cables from one side of the bridge to another when your suspension bridge will be 560 meters above the river? The Siduhe Grand Bridge in China is nearing completion after four years of construction.

previous solutions have included: attaching the cable to a kite and flying it over (e.g. niagara falls suspension bridge), carrying one end by helicopter (e.g. akashi kaikyo bridge) and floating one end on a boat (e.g. brooklyn bridge). the brains behind the siduhe bridge decided to ignore all those options and break another record instead. they attached the 3200ft cables to rockets and accurately fired them over the valley, becoming the first people to do so.

http://deputy-dog.com/2008/11/rockets-help-build-bridge-higher-than.html

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The comedy duo Paul and Storm explain what to do with homeless nuns. -Thanks, Christophe!

Flickr user Vintage Lulu posted a lovely set of vintage geisha postcards from the late 19th and early 20th century. Link -via Everlasting Blort

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An unidentified Englishman and Frenchman jumped from 650 meters up in the Burj Dubai tower -the tallest building on earth- in May of 2008. Both were arrested shortly afterward. -Thanks, Adam Fuhrer!

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From the folks who brought you Digital Conversion. -via Grow-A-Brain

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Fanboys is set in 1999, when we waited with high expectations for The Phantom Menace. Three fans decide they can't wait and try to break into George Lucas' home to steal the print. This movie is now scheduled to be in theaters on February 6th, but that's just the latest of many release dates for a movie that has been years in the making. Wikipedia has the story. Link -Thanks, Christophe!

(YouTube link)
The Goblin Shark {wiki} has mostly pink skin and jaws that can protrude out of its skull like the creature in the movie Alien. In this video, the shark is trying to defend himself from a scuba diver. -via Ectoplasmosis

Find more information on this shark in a previous post at Neatorama.

What if there were only 38 states in the USA? In 1973, California State University geography professor George Etzel Pearcy proposed that the state lines be redrawn to better distribute population, urban areas, and tax base. Obviously, his plan did not come to fruition. Mental_floss takes a look at the 38 state map, the badly distorted Mercator Map, and the map that claims the Chinese discovered America in the article 3 Controversial Maps. Link

Who didn't love the Black Knight in the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Now you can get your own talking Black Knight with removable limbs!

You'll love to torture him with his tear-off and stick-on arms and legs and hear him say "Tis nothing but a scratch" or the famous "I'll bite your legs off!" quote. Character featured in Monty Python's The Quest for the Holy Grail, and now famous in the touring play Spamalot, this 14" "character" comes in a collector's edition box. Perfect for your favorite Monty Python fan-atic.

Link -via Unique Daily