Every year, the world's top animal stuffers and fish carvers meet up to show off their skills and compete for cash prizes.  Emily Graslie of Brain Scoop works at the Field Museum in Chicago, but she was excited to attend the World Taxidermy & Fish Carving Championships in Peoria last month. Warning: contains dead animals.

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Graslie can't contain her enthusiasm as she wanders among freeze-dried fish, animals made from completely different animals, recreations from scenes in nature, creatures in funny poses, and animals the judges had to look up to see what they're supposed to look like.  -via Mental Floss

The Rock of Gibraltar, which guards the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, is honeycombed with caves, tunnels, and chambers. After World War II, a rumor spread about a secret military installation in which six men spent a year sealed inside during the war. It was just a rumor until the chamber was found in 1997! Over the next ten years, the real purpose of the chamber came to light. It was Operation Tracer.

Rear Admiral John Henry Godfrey, the Director of the Naval Intelligence Division of the British Admiralty, suggested that they establish at Gibraltar a covert observation post which would remain operational even if Gibraltar fell into enemy hands. This observation post would be located in a hidden chamber within the Rock of Gibraltar with two small openings to watch for movements on the harbor. Six men were selected to be sealed inside the cave, and while there were enough supplies to last one year, there was to be no way out of the chamber, and if any men were to die they were to be embalmed and cemented into the brick floor. Only if Germany was defeated within the first year would they be released.

The cave was built, and six men were trained, but Operation Tracer was never put into service because Hitler turned his attention away from the Mediterranean. Read about the plans and see pictures of the cave at Amusing Planet. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Flickr user Rob)

For a long time, I thought the only difference between olive oil and standard vegetable oil was the price. But would you ever find yourself dipping bread into plain vegetable oil, even with spices added? Olive oil is special, and Reactions, from PBS Digital, is here to tell us why.

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In this video, we get a chemical explanation for olive oil's benefits, plus glimpse into the manufacturing process and some advice on using your oil. My advice: Start any meal by sautéing onions and garlic in olive oil. After that, it really doesn't matter what you add, it will be good.

Younger people may know about Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow, but hardly anyone born after 1970 remembers Lowell Thomas, or even knows about him. He was the first superstar journalist of the broadcast era. Thomas brought global news to so many Americans through an era that saw the development of radio, newsreels, typewriters, airplanes, and TV -and he embraced each new technology. That helped him become the biggest broadcast news personality of his day, and the size of his audience caused him to take journalism very seriously. Professor of journalism Mitchell Stephens has a new book out called The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism, and talked to Smithsonian about how Thomas changed the profession.    

Sensationalism was a major part of journalism in the early 20th century, but Thomas helped reshape this. How did he manage that?

The early 20th century was a time when a lot of people “improved” stories. It was a less fact-obsessed world than the one we live in and therefore a less accurate world. Lowell was a pretty sensational journalist in Chicago himself. Lowell got caught making something up in Chicago, but he learned a lesson.

When he got his great gig, hosting what at the time was a network radio newscast, he was aware of the responsibilities that went with it. He helped pioneer a more sober style of journalism. Lowell quickly realized that there were people among his hundreds of thousands and then millions of listeners who would write letters and complain to his network if he got things wrong. Because [the radio broadcast] had so many listeners and he was such a dominant figure, what happened there also spread to other iterations of radio, then TV, then newspapers. Lowell contributed to the fact obsession that journalists have today.

Read the rest of the interview at Smithsonian.

Now that was easy, wasn't it? Too bad such a small effort is too much for so many. Just a simple affirmation of what you already think can go the distance to make someone else feel good. And look at the last panel- it will do you good, too! This is the latest from Lunarbaboon.

There are plenty of other comics at Lunarbaboon that you don't see here, so if you enjoy them, you might want to bookmark the site. Or you could check out artist Chris Grady's book, Lunarbaboon: The Daily Life of Parenthood. 

Where does a 380-pound gorilla dance? Wherever he wants to. Zola the gorilla lives at the Dallas Zoo. He's 14 years old, but he has a sense of fun that other gorilla adults don't often show. He especially likes his pool. Zookeepers say the pool is not just for fun, it's for enrichment. You say tomato, I say tomato.

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The video was so delightful that folks immediately added a soundtrack. The resemblance to a certain 1983 movie was evident to Derek Mozer.  

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Of course, you've seen Zola dancing before. We featured his break dancing five years ago when he lived at the Calgary Zoo. -via Metafilter

In addition to developing the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell did extensive research in aerodynamics. He experimented with a tetrahedral structure for kites to lessen the weight-to-surface ratio to enable humans to fly.  

Bell began his experiments with tetrahedral box kites in 1898, eventually developing elaborate structures comprised of multiple compound tetrahedral kites covered in maroon silk, constructed with the aim of being to carry a human through the air. Named Cygnet I, II, and III (for they took off from water) these enormous tetrahedral beings were flown both unmanned and manned during a five year period from 1907 until 1912.

You can see a gallery of pictures taken during that time at the Public Domain Review.

-via Nag on the Lake

For decades, many young girls were ushered through puberty with the help of fan magazines aimed at exactly what they wanted- a dreamboat boy. Of course, those boys were TV actors or pop musicians, with a public persona carefully crafted by their management, their network or record company's public relations department, and the magazine's themselves. But it worked.   

Super Teen, Tiger Beat, Bop, 16. From the 1960s to the 1990s, these glossy, primary-colored magazines that looked like the inside of a 13-year-old girl’s locker door sold hundreds of thousands of copies each month and provided gleefully superficial insight into the non-threatening sex symbols of their respective eras. Jason Bateman was photographed cradling a Teddy Ruxpin; Matt Dillon could be seen eating pizza like any normal person. Readers were often referred to in the second-person to better help them visualize an innocent evening with their celebrity crush. ("Are YOU the Kind of Girl Adorable Tim Hutton is Looking For?")

The incredible popularity of teen idol magazines was largely due to the work of Charles Laufer, who recognized an exploitable readership. Read the story of how that happened, and how teen magazines worked, at Mental Floss.

The Sonoma Marin County Fair in Petaluma, California, crowns the World's Ugliest Dog every year. And most years, a Chinese crested has won the title. But not this year! Congratulations to Martha, a 125-pound Neapolitan mastiff who took the top honor on Friday. Martha is notable for her loose and droopy skin, and her lack of enthusiasm for the contest. Why show off when you can lay down and take a nap?

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The dog, from nearby Sebastopol, was rescued when she was nearly blind from neglect by the Dogwood Animal Rescue Project in Sonoma County, where the contest was held. After several surgeries, she can now see again, Zindler said.

The only animal in this year's contest too big to be held by her handler, Martha beat out 13 other dogs, most of them the kind of older, smaller dogs who win here.

Martha won $1500, a trophy, and a trip to New York City. Read more about her at CBS News. Gizmodo disagreed that Martha was the ugliest dog in the contest, so they posted a gallery of their top five picks, in which Martha only placed fourth.

Symba was surrendered to the Human Rescue Alliance a couple of weeks ago when his owner went to a nursing home. Symba is 6 years old and weighs 35 pounds! The shelter in Washington, DC, put him on a diet and hoped to find a new owner who would continue the program. Publicity helped, and Symba has been adopted by Kiah Berkeley and Peter Sorkin.

“He is lovely. He is a really sweet guy,” Berkeley, 31, told ABC News of Symba’s personality.

The engaged couple heard about him like everyone else: on the news.

“There were a bunch of news stories about him,” she said. “We love cats. My fiancé and I had two cats already. I have a particular affinity for very large animals and he obviously was a really sweet, loving guy. Very cute.”   

Read Symba's story at ABC News. Keep up with Symba on his weight loss journey at his Facebook page.

-via Fark 

(Image credit: Humane Rescue Alliance)

Learn about the importance of vaccines with parody rap song performed by eighth graders! No wait, really, this is not what you'd expect from that first sentence. It is actually very well done. The new lyrics are set to the tune of "My Shot" from the Broadway musical Hamilton.

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The song was researched, written, sung, shot, filmed, and edited by students of the Nueva School (previously at Neatorama) in California. The eighth graders are members of the Science Rap Academy.   -via Digg

If you've been wondering what legendary rock guitarist Eric Clapton has been doing lately, you need to look toward Iceland, where he's been doing a bit of fishing.

Clapton, while on a fly-fishing trip to Iceland last week, landed a 28-pound salmon on the Vatnsdalsá River, setting the record for reeling in the biggest salmon of the summer. The massive fish measured 42.5 inches. Working with Vatnsdalsá guide Sturla Birginsson, Clapton had to run over half a mile downriver after hooking the monster, and spent two and a half hours reeling it in. The local fishing association enforces a strict catch-and-release policy on the Vatnsdalsá River, but Clapton was able to snap a picture of his record-setting catch before setting it back into the river.

Clapton has always liked fishing, but after recovering from drug addiction more than 30 years ago, Gary Brooker of Procol Harem got him hooked on fly-fishing as an alternative. Since then, Clapton has even designed his tours around the availability of fly-fishing. He's been traveling to Iceland to Iceland to fish for salmon since 2000. Read about the guitarist's fishing habit at Men's Journal.  -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Sturla Birginsson)

Jürgen Horn and Mike Powell have a postscript from their 91 day stay in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City). It's a gallery of the many dogs and cats they've photographed during their stay!  

We judge a city based on a few critical factors: cuisine, transportation, museums, nightlife… and the cuteness of its street cats and dogs. And that last one is a category in which Saigon scores high. Check out some of the creatures we’ve met during our 91 days in the city. Which would you take home? You can only choose one!

There are more dogs than cats in the collection, with some puppies and kittens thrown in for good measure, at For 91 Days.

Deric Ó hArtagáin of TV3 was giving a weather report Friday morning on the show Ireland AM when some weather happened to him.

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His comrades back at the studio could not contain their laughter, although they might have felt a little guilty about it. You could say they were blown away, but not as much as Ó hArtagáin. Ó hArtagáin was a good sport about it. Let me type that name again: Ó hArtagáin. -via Tastefully Offensive

If you have a backyard pool, you've probably dealt with the horror of finding dead animals in it at one time or another. If they fall in, the sides are too steep and slippery for squirrels to climb out, and there's no solid surface for frogs to jump from. That's where the Frog Log comes in. The "critter saving escape ramp" is a floating platform attached to a ramp that anchors at the side of your pool. Small creatures, such as snakes, chipmuncks, or ducklings, can climb onto the platform from the water because it is edged with netting. The ramp also has netting for a firm grip. It's a lifesaver for the animal and you don't have to remove dead bodies before your refreshing dip. See a video at Geekologie that shows frogs, a salamander, a mouse, and a skink all escaping a pool using the Frog Log.