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Michael König edited a sequence of photographs taken from the International Space Station (ISS) between August and October into a time-lapse video of an orbit over the earth. The altitude is approximately 350 kilometers. The music is "Do Dekor" by Jan Jelinek. -Thanks özi!

No matter how busy we are with family on Thanksgiving, we always find a way to watch a little TV around the holiday, and that includes Thanksgiving stories on our favorite series. Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will test your nostalgia for those shows. You'll be given a Thanksgiving plot, and you guess what show its from. It's not that hard; I scored 9/11 (82%) even though I hadn't seen even half these shows. Link

This is the kind of hard choice we'd all like to have. Overachieving Yale quarterback Patrick Witt can't be in two places at once, but either place could have a great deal to do with the rest of his life.

Witt, a 22-year-old senior from Wylie, Texas, has a scheduling conflict next Saturday. At about the same time he's expected to lead Yale in his career finale against visiting Harvard in the 128th edition of "The Game," Witt is also supposed to be at Emory University in Atlanta as one of 212 finalists for the Rhodes Scholarship. His interview in front of a selection committee is Saturday morning. Kickoff is at noon. The interview can't be rescheduled. This is a problem—albeit a good problem.

The NFL is looking at Witt, who leads his team in completions and is second in passing yards. He also has a 3.91 GPA, which is rare for a star athlete. What would you do? Link -via TYWKIWDBI

After you think about it, see what Witt has decided to do. Link

(Image credit: Ron Waite, Photosportacular)

Any size hot dog can be a bun-length hot dog when you spiral-cut them! Instructables member dreamberry shows us how, using a drill bit and a knife. Commenters suggested using a bamboo skewer instead of a drill bit, so you can boil, grill, or deep-fry the dog in no time. Link -via Laughing Squid

PS: Once you master the technique, you'll want to try the double-spiral cut. Link

Tuvalu, in the South Pacific, is made up of nine small islands with a population of 11,000. It is estimated that the entire atoll will be uninhabitable in about 50 years due to climate change. Already the citizens are feeling the effects, as high tide floods the neighborhoods like never before. Sixty-four-year-old Ioane Malologa said,

"I have already advised my children. I got four daughters and one only son. ... They've been well educated, and now they all got jobs in the government. Well that'd be okay for their life at the moment but ... I have advised them -- it is better to migrate."

This sentiment is not held by all. Though encouraging his children to migrate, Malologa himself wants to stay in Tuvalu. While most Tuvaluans have family living abroad, largely in New Zealand and Fiji, many people I met there wanted to stay in Tuvalu as long as possible. But in a country where land is precious and scarce, coastal erosion, flooding, and increasingly severe weather patterns, eking out a living here is now difficult.

Read more and see a gallery of photos at The Atlantic. Link -via Look At This

(Image credit: Amelia Holowaty Krales)

This Twaggie was illustrated from a Tweet by @IGotsSmarts. Now, that would be a GPS system worth paying for! Link

Jason Hull finds vintage flash cameras at garage sales and flea markets and converts them into night lights! He removes parts that don't show in order to make them lightweight and then adds a plug-in and different types of lights. Hull is considering opening an Etsy shop when he has enough lights made. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Jayfish)

There are only around 70,000 people of the Sami culture remaining in the arctic areas of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The Gaup family are some of the few who still herd reindeer for a living. National Geographic presents photos and a video by Erika Larsen, who spent three years living with the Sami reindeer herders. Link

(Image credit: Erika Larsen)

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A view of the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates was recorded from 4AM to 4AM over the weekend. The time-lapse shows shadows moving with the sun, one tiny little cloud that wanders over, the fountain show seen as flashes of light, and strangely ominous music. -via Geeks Are Sexy

A monument to communism sits in the middle of Bulgaria in Buzludzha National Park. Like many oversize Soviet-era constructions, it is falling into ruin. But what's amazing about this building is that it is only 30 years old! Kuriositas has a look inside at the once-glorious architecture with its massive propaganda artwork and the poor condition it has fallen into only ten years after its abandonment. Link

(Image credit: Wikipedia user Infobgv)

Zach Anner, who we followed through his quest to get his own TV show on the new Oprah Winfrey Network, is getting ready for the premiere of his series, Rollin' with Zach. The series premieres on Saturday, December 3rd at 12 noon ET.

The inspiring Rollin' With Zach is centered around Zach Anner, a 26-year-old who has cerebral palsy, feeding his self-proclaimed "obsession" with travel on the show. Anner, who uses a wheelchair, participates in activities like rock climbing and sailing on the show.

"You really just have to have a good attitude, challenge yourself, and you can accomplish great things," he says.

The theme song for the show was written and produced by John Mayer. See the promo video at People. Link -via reddit

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Paul's birthday gift to Emma is a story told in picture book fashion. It starts off slow but gets really interesting as it goes along. I hope Emma liked it as much as I did! -via Nag on the Lake

(Image credit: Wikipedia user Salix alba)

In 2002, a reclusive Russian genius named Grigori Perelman put an end to more than 100 years of suffering in the mathematical community. He solved the most difficult math problem of the 20th century -the Poincaré Conjecture. Its siren call had lured generations of mathematicians to intellectual graves. It first, its simplicity would seduce them, and they'd become convinced the answer was near. But as years passed, they'd be left with nothing to show for their lives' toil but dead ends. By the time Grigori Perelman proved the Conjecture, the solution was worth $1 million.

THE MAN BEHIND THE MADNESS

Henri Poincaré

In 1885, all of Europe was talking about Henri Poincaré, a 30-year-old genius who'd mathematically proven why the solar system holds together. When a hole appeared in his calculations, he plugged it up by essentially inventing chaos theory: Kings were tripping over themselves to make him a knight· and Sweden gave him a small fortune in prize money. To this day; Poincare holds the record for the most physics Nobel Prize nominations, though he never actually won one.

But his most legendary achievement was something no one noticed until much, much later. At the turn of the century: Poincaré invented an entirely new field called algebraic topology; and today, it's one of the most complicated and vibrant branches of mathematics. Think of it as a twisted version of geometry, in which shapes stretch, bend, and fold inside out. Poincaré's goal was to classify objects by identifying their basic form, much the same way botanists classify new species of plants. In the process of creating topology, Poincaré tossed out a conjecture that seemed to be true. It was a side note to a larger problem, and he figured he'd work out the details later. Little did he know; his side note would become one of the greatest challenges in the mathematical world.

THE VICTIMS

Poincaré's conjecture seemed simple enough. It claimed that any object without a loop is essentially a sphere. Think of a knife made out of Play-Doh. Without punching a hole in it or closing a loop, can you squish it into a ball? Yes, of course. Now picture a pair of Play-Doh scissors. No matter how hard you try, you can't crush it into a ball without closing up the finger holes. It's impossible. Poincare believed that objects like the knife were related to spheres, while objects with holes and loops in them were not.

Poincaré thought the conjecture would be easy to prove, and he even published a solution. But then, he saw a flaw in his work and retracted it. After his death in 1912, the question lay dormant for decades, until an Oxford professor named J.H.C. Whitehead rediscovered it in the late 1930s. J,H.C. (known to his students as "Jesus, he's confusing") also published a solution. But he, too, found a mistake and retracted it. However, his work sparked interest in the problem. By the 1950s, the Poincaré Conjecture was one of the best-known challenges in the math community:

Christos Papakyriakopoulos

That's when two Princeton students, Edwin Moise and Christos Papakyriakopoulos (commonly known as Papa), decided to try their hands at it. Moise in particular looked like the guy to do it. Young and brash, he liked to announce his next big problem like a batter calling his shot. Twice that included one of the toughest problems in topology; and twice he returned with the solution. Then, he set his sights on Poincaré.

Papa was vastly different. A self-taught political refugee from Greece, he was famous for his odd, obsessive nature. Legend has it that when he came to Princeton, he checked into a motel and never checked out. He never even unpacked his bags. He simply fell into a routine that he followed every day; down to the minute, which always included a midday nap on top of his desk.

Throughout the 1950s, the two geniuses dueled with each other over Poincaré. Papa would announce a proof, and Moise would shoot it down. Then Moise would announce a proof, and Papa would shoot it down. This went on for years, while neither man worked on almost anything else.

Some writers can just sit at their desks and bang the keys. Others need to get naked and climb a mulberry tree before they're sufficiently inspired. Right now, we're only interested in the latter.



1. Take Orders from a Dog

Sometimes the only thing standing between an artist and true greatness is the lack of a good pet. German composer Richard Wagner relied on his spaniel, Peps, to guide him through the creation of Tannhäuser, an epic opera about the struggle between sacred and profane love. Peps had his own stool next to Wagner's piano, and whenever Wagner was having difficulty with a passage, he'd take direction from his pooch. In the process, Peps would go berserk when something didn't agree with his ear, and Wagner would tweak the opera to please him.

2. Turn Hatred into Motivation

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen despised Swedish playwright August Strindberg, but he couldn't have written some of the greatest works of modern drama without him. The two traded jabs for well over a decade at the turn of the 20th century: Strindberg accuse Ibsen of copying his work, claiming that Ibsen's Hedda Gabler ripped off his Miss Julie; Ibsen countered that Strindberg was psychotic. And Ibsen may have had a point -Strindberg was given to catatonic spells and often lashed out with a knife at invisible enemies behind his back. Ibsen loathed Strindberg so fiercely that he hung a portrait of his nemesis over his desk, which he used as a particularly masochistic form of inspiration. Ibsen would tell visitors, "I cannot write a line without that madman standing and staring down at me with those crazy eyes."

3. Smell the Success

German writer Friedrich von Schiller composed the 1785 poem "Ode to Joy," which Beethoven later set to music in his Ninth Symphony. What inspired Schiller's passion for happiness? Rotten apples. The poet insisted that he needed the smell of putrefying fruit in the air to write, so he kept his desk drawer well stocked.  But here's the weird part: Schiller may not have been (completely) crazy. In 1985, researchers at Yale University found that the scent of spiced apples can lift a person's mood significantly and stave off panic attacks.

4. Play Dead

When poet Dame Edith Sitwell was a little girl growing up in Victorian England, her parents would lock her into an iron frame to straighten out her spine. Sitwell hated them for it, and she rarely spoke to her parents later in life, even as she became increasingly famous for her poems about the London Blitz during World War II. The countless hours that Sitwell spent locked inside of that iron frame may have had a peculiar effect on her mind. As an adult, to cultivate a state of tranquility, Sitwell would wake up every morning and lie down in a coffin. After a few hours, she'd feel calm enough to write.

5. Get a New Hairdo

Ancient Greek orator Demosthenes found early in his career that he had trouble staying on task while studying or writing -it was just too tempting to throw on some sandals and go to town! But Demothenes found a clever way to make himself work: When he felt wanderlust, he'd shave off half of his hair. Knowing that he looked far too ridiculous to leave the house Demosthenes would be able to concentrate on his writing for a couple months at a time -or at least until his hair grew back.

6. Lay Everything Bare

Clothes can be such a distraction. Victor Hugo, the celebrated French author of realist novels that would become sentimental musicals (Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame), conquered writer's block by shutting himself in a room, completely naked, with just a desk, a pen, and paper. He ordered servants not to give him clothing until he'd finished working.

To write his final novel, Ninety-Three, Hugo took his nudity outdoors. Every morning, he'd stand in the buff on his roof and pour a bucket of water over his head. Fully refreshed, he'd then go into a glass cage, which he called his "look out" and write standing at a podium, naked.

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The article above, written by Ethan Trex and Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the September-October 2011 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!

Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff!

Afraid of spiders? Maybe it's because of all those stories you've heard about their creepy ways. Some of those stories hold no water, according to science writer Kim Hosey. She's got a good list of busted spider myths.

The daddy long-legs does not "have the most potent venom to humans, but its mouth is too small to bite humans." They're not venomous. Still, how would we test this, exactly? Extract the venom and kill a bunch of people on purpose?

No spider ever laid eggs in someone's skin, mouth, or beehive hairdo. Spiders are not waiting in airplane toilet seats to bite your butt.

Millipedes do not have a thousand legs. If it's roundish and has two pairs of legs per segment, it's a millipede.

For the love of god, it's venomous. Poisonous is when it's ingested or inhaled. Venom is injected into your bloodstream or deeper tissues. Most venom isn't even poisonous. And I am picturing you eating spiders when you say they're poisonous.

Read more at Arizona Writer. Link -via Not Exactly Rocket Science