Ruth Butterworth of Brisbane fought a python to save her kitten’s life. She was calling Tuffy to come inside when the snake encircled the cat and started to crush it.

"I just started punching the thick part of the snake where it was about the size of my arm," Ms Butterworth said. "I wasn't looking, I just kept punching until it let go."

The snake bit Ms Butterworth twice before it released Tuffy, who ran indoors. It wasn't until Tuffy was safe and Ms Butterworth fell backwards to get away from the snake that she realised she had broken her wrist and been bitten.

The same python had killed her mother’s cat just days before. Link -via Digg

(image credit: Peter Wallis)

The eye you see here is a planetarium, L’Hemisfèric in Valencia, Spain. The bottom half is its reflection in the water. See more pictures of it and La Géode, a spherical IMAX theater in Paris in the post Extremely Impressive Shiny Balls. http://deputy-dog.com/2008/03/08/extremely-impressive-shiny-balls/

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Acrobats and contortionists from The Great Chinese State Circus perform Swan Lake on the TV show Wetten dass...? You’ve never seen ballet like this. -via Grow-A-Brain

Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead tonight! Daylight Saving Time begins tonight for most of the United States and Canada. The expansion of the period we use DST is due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005; although studies show the effect on energy consumption is negigible, if not counterproductive. DST will last until the first weekend in November, which is almost two-thirds of the year. European Summer Time begins the last Sunday in March and runs til the last Sunday in October. Nations in the southern hemisphere who observe the practice have been on DST for months, and will soon go back to standard time as their fall approaches. Wikipedia has more on Daylight Saving Time history and practices around the world. Link

Universe Today looks at the possibility of humans traveling to Mars. One of the major roadblocks to such a mission is arranging for a return flight. A one-way mission would eliminate a lot of research and expense, but is it ethical?

Even though explorers in the past traveled, for example, to the south or north pole, knowing they might never return, and thousands of immigrants moved to the US in the 18- and 1900's, knowing they would never see their homeland again, the human psyche has seemingly changed enough that a one-way ticket off the planet is not acceptable. According to psychologist Molly Dooley from Springfield, IL, it might take a major crisis on Earth for humans to seriously consider such a mission. “Usually it’s the disenfranchised that are willing to take those kinds of risks," she said. “When our present situation no longer works for us, we become more willing to take risks. The difference between the folks who are interested and those who aren’t is their attachment to their current situation."

The article raises some interesting questions, and the commenters add more insight. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Javad Moghimi/Fars News Agency)
Dark Roasted Blend has a collection of strange and funny photographs of police and military training, operations, and vehicles. This is one of several pictures of Iranian female police. Link

The Becohanger by Wannabeco is a new clothes hanger made from environmentally-friendly carboard. It is completely biodegradable, and may replace wire hangers in Britain.

"Each year 100 million wire coat hangers are put into UK landfill where they take centuries to degrade - it is this we are trying to prevent," said Alexander Beattie, Head of marketing at Wannabeco.

"We have worked out a way to alleviate this problem as well as provide an innovative and ecologically friendly media space for our advertising clients".

Yes, the hangers will be paid for by advertisers, and distributed to dry cleaners. The ads will be printed with environmentally-friendly ink. Link -via Fark

The Greek gods Hermes and Aphrodite had a child named Hermaphroditus. You can pretty much gather where the story leads from that alone. The legend of Hermaphroditus doesn’t quite explain why some people are born intersexual, but it’s an interesting tale. Link

This 3-way chessboard was purchased in the Czech Republic. The pieces move in the same way as normal chess, but that becomes a little weird in the center of the board, where six “squares” ajoin. The first person to checkmate either of the other two wins. The biggest problem I see is finding two people who want to play with you! http://meignorant.com/3-way_chess -via the Presurfer

(image credit: Joachim Pietsch)
Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat, high in the Andes mountains in Bolivia. In the rainy season when it is covered with a thin sheet of water, it reflects the sky.

Due to its large size, smooth surface, high surface reflectivity when covered with shallow water, and minimal elevation deviation, Salar de Uyuni makes an ideal target for the testing and calibration of remote sensing instruments on orbiting satellites used to study the Earth.

The salt flat contains an estimated ten billion tons of salt, in a layer ten feet thick. See more pictures and videos at Fogonazos. Link -via Reddit

The object of the game Whack Your Boss is to find all 17 ways to beat your supervisor up. Warning: lots of cartoon blood. http://www.attuworld.com/whack_your_boss -via Gorilla Mask

Residents of a French village are under orders not to die, because the cemetery is full!

In an ordinance posted in the council offices, Mayor Gerard Lalanne told the 260 residents of the village of Sarpourenx that "all persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish."

It added: "Offenders will be severely punished."

The manner of punishment was not specified. The order came after an administrative court ruled against the aquisition of private land to annex the existing parish cemetery. Link

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Cats prefer all-access housing arrangments. Simon Tofield, creator of Cat Man Do, has a new animation about a cat who wants in. -via Metafilter

Movie monsters are getting bigger and tougher over time, and it may take new technologies to defeat them. Danger Room takes a look at the new and improved monsters, and the weapons the military should use to defend humanity.

It's difficult to make accurate assumptions about 500 foot-tall fictional monsters whose very existence violates the laws of physics. But it's liable to have skin, scales or other outer with protective blubber or equivalent covering several feet thick. This will absorb anything except apart from an armor-piercing round. Flesh, like water, can stop virtually any projectile within a few feet – that's why you need something very exotic like a supercavitating round if you want to go through a lot of it. Those supercavitating Russian APS underwater assault rifles might be handy here... but you'd need a lot of rounds to have any effect.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/monster-mash-ko.html to part one, http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/how-to-stop-a-5.html to part two. -via Metafilter

Wilhelm Staehle created Victorian scenes by superimposing silhouettes over paintings, and gave them somewhat subversive captions. Link -via the Presurfer