Dogs are awesome athletes, and they don't care what they look like while they're getting the job done. Because it's Friday, how about enjoying a collection of funny pictures featuring these great athletes in motion at Environmental Graffiti. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Kiwi-Wings)

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Stephen J. Anderson wired up electronics and everyday objects to make his own kitchen synthesizer. It looks a little dangerous, don't you think? This music starts at 2:20. -via Buzzfeed

Before you go worrying about Friday the 13th, see what a great excuse for a party it is! On December 13, 1940, Chicago's Anti-Superstition Society held a Friday the 13th party at the Merchants & Manufacturers Club of Chicago. A good time was had by all. LIFE magazine was there, so there are plenty of great pictures of members breaking mirrors, spilling salt, and lighting three on a match. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: William C. Shrout/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

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Sound Artist Diego Stocco is at the CES convention in Las Vegas. Sudden inspiration came from the resonant sound of a trash can, so he recorded this impromptu performance on his iPhone. -Thanks, Diego!

My Monster Family Car Stickers | $9.95

It's a set of family car stickers shaped like monsters! The My Monster Family Car Sticker set from the NeatoShop features Franken-dad, Mummy mom, Werebrother, Vampsister, Baby from the Black Lagoon, Dogberus and Cyclop Cat, ranging from 4" tall down to 1.5" tall. Simply peel and stick the vinyl stickers, and you can remove them with no residue mess. Monsters designed by artist Mike Jacobsen. My Zombie Family car stickers are available, too, at the NeatoShop!

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Forbidden Planet Jigsaw Puzzle | $16.95

Putting together this 1,000 piece Forbidden Planet Jigsaw Puzzle from the NeatoShop brings the reward of seeing the movie poster from the 1956 science fiction classic -and the reward of having a good time with your family and friends! The final size is 20"x27". It makes a great gift, too! Check it out, as well as the other neat jigsaw puzzles available at the NeatoShop.

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Block Crayon - School Pack | $16.95

How neat is this -building blocks made of crayon, so your little ones can color and build at the same time! The Block Crayon School Pack from the NeatoShop comes with 24 stackable crayons in the shapes of both cubes and sculpted animals. Block crayons make a great gift for any toddler or preschooler! While you're at the NeatoShop, check out the fine selection of other baby toys and arts and crafts sets as well.

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Frog Snuggle Sack and Cap | $35.95

Now isn't this absolutely adorable? The Frog Snuggle Sack and Cap from the NeatoShop will be the hit of the baby shower, and the nursery, too! The snuggle sack is light-green, textured polyester with sunny-gold tummy sprinkled with polka dots; a meadow-green jumper like fit at the top; dark-green froggie feet, and a jumping-frog applique that says "sLEAPy BABY" The matching froggy-face cap has big eyes and a smiling mouth with a stretchy pink tongue. Check out the ladybug version and the night owl sleep sack, too, at the NeatoShop!

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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

In 1932, Jerome Howard, soon to be universally known as "Curly" joined The Three Stooges comedy team. Curly was replacing his older brother Shemp as the third stooge, joining his older brother Moe and frizzy-haired Larry Fine. In 1934, the team signed with Columbia Pictures and began churning out the series of comedy slapstick shorts that were to bring hilarity to the entire world. His "Woo-woos" and "Nyuk-nyuks," as well as his incredible gift for physical, inventive, surreal comedy, make Curly Howard "everyone's favorite Stooge."

From 1934 to 1944, Curly Howard and his comedy partners made 80-odd of the funniest shorts in the history of movie comedy. But by 1945, something appeared obviously wrong with the brilliant Curly. He was having a harder time than usual learning and remembering his lines (Curly was always a bad study, anyway). His once graceful, quick movements now seemed slower, more lethargic, and his voice had lost its high-pitched vitality, now sounding deeper and more like a strained croak. In early 1945, Moe Howard made an appointment for his kid brother at the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. The hospital test results proved shocking: Curly was suffering from high blood pressure, hypertension, a retinal hemorrhage, and obesity.

Curly loved the good life, drinking, hanging out at clubs, seeing and dating as many beautiful women as possible. Moe, trying to help his beloved brother settle down, tried to fix Curly up with a glamorous beauty named Marion Buxbaum. Always a sucker for a pretty face, Curly married Marion after only two weeks. Curly was soon to discover that Marion was not a very nice person and was only after his money. The marriage proved a disaster, and the unhappy couple divorced after only three months together. In the divorce proceedings, Marion said of Curly: "He used filthy vile language, kept two vicious dogs, he shouted at waiters in cafes, struck and kicked me, put out cigars in the sink."

These specious accusations were disputed by all who knew Curly as a jovial, good- natured, good-hearted fellow. Curly, always a free spender, had spent a fortune buying gifts for Marion and the divorce really shook him up. He had his first stroke soon thereafter, in early 1946.

Curly's great vigor and boyish vitality, his comedy trademarks, sank lower and lower. Instead of resting after his stroke, as Moe requested, studio head Harry Cohn kept Curly churning out new Three Stooges shorts. Sadly, this final handful of Curly shorts show him looking very old and worn, his previous starring roles are greatly reduced, and indeed, they do put a bit of a black mark on his otherwise classic body of amazing comedy performances.

Curly's appearance became worse and worse until finally, while filming his 97th Three Stooges short Half Wits Holiday, on May 6, 1946, the straw finally broke the camel's back. Curly was supposed to participate in the film's final, climactic pie fight, and Moe spotted Curly sitting in his chair on the set. "Come on, Babe,' he said ("Babe" was Curly's nickname among his close friends). Moe found Curly slumped over in his chair with tears running down his face: Curly had suffered another stroke.

Six daleks, labeled as "Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne engines" from the space shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis are invading being shipped to Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to be refurbished for use in NASA's new project, the Space Launch System (SLS). Link -via io9

(Image credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis)

This adorable old picture would have made a great postcard. It is part of a collection of photographs of Dutch life published in the 1906 book De Aarde en haar volken (The Earth and Its People). See more at IllustratedPast.com. Link -via Everlasting Blort

On April 7, 1994, pilots Captain David Sanders and Captain Jim Tucker took off in a FedEx cargo jet from Memphis. Andy Peterson was their flight engineer. Also aboard was Auburn Calloway, a FedEx flight engineer who was just hitching a ride. But getting a ride wasn't his entire plan, which became evident only a few minutes into the flight.

Auburn Calloway had swung a hammer with great force into the top of Andy Peterson’s head several times in rapid succession. Jim Tucker turned to see what the commotion was about just as one of Calloway’s hammers landed a crushing blow to the left side of the co-pilot’s skull, driving bone fragments into his brain. Having temporarily incapacitated 2/3 of the crew, Calloway turned his attention to the pilot. Captain Sanders managed to deflect some of the hail of hammer strikes, nevertheless several blows penetrated his confused defenses and rendered him bleeding and disoriented.

Calloway withdrew back into the galley as the mauled crew members attempted to disentangle themselves from their seats with sluggish limbs and excruciating pain. The instrument panels were spattered with blood and all three men bled profusely from head wounds. Co-pilot Jim Tucker, unable to get out of his seat, repeatedly urged “Get him!” to his more mobile crew mates. Engineer Andy Peterson could barely hear due to a loud ringing in his ears.

Before Sanders and Peterson could mobilize, Calloway reappeared holding a spear gun.

Flight 705 never made it to its destination in California, but did not crash. How the crew managed to land the plane while sustaining terrible injuries is a story told at Damn Interesting. Link

NASA posted a map detailing the "Aboveground Woody Biomass" in the continental United States (in other words, trees).

Josef Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) recently worked with colleagues at the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey to create such an inventory for the United States. The map above was built from the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (NBCD), released in 2011. It depicts the concentration of biomass—a measure of the amount of organic carbon—stored in the trunks, limbs, and leaves of trees. The darkest greens reveal the areas with the densest, tallest, and most robust forest growth.

Over six years, researchers assembled the national forest map from space-based radar, satellite sensors, computer models, and a massive amount of ground-based data. It is possibly the highest resolution and most detailed view of forest structure and carbon storage ever assembled for any country.

Forests in the U.S. were mapped down to a scale of 30 meters, or roughly 10 computer display pixels for every hectare of land (4 pixels per acre). They divided the country into 66 mapping zones and ended up mapping 265 million segments of the American land surface. Kellndorfer estimates that their mapping database includes measurements of about five million trees.

Since I live in the greener part of Appalachia, this explains why I went to Colorado and expected to be really impressed with the Rockies, but was puzzled at the lack of trees. Link -via Buzzfeed

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The line from Apocalyse Now has been used and reused and adapted in so many other movies that YouTube member dondrapersayswhat made them into a supercut. Contains NSFW language. -via The Daily What

There are all kinds of reality-based television shows built around what people do: their workday, their obsessions, their love lives -so why don't television producers reach out to the world of gamers? Unreality has some suggestions for show premises that would draw in gamers, if the production is entertaining enough to make them put down their controllers! Link