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Warning: May contain spoilers. It only takes these cats a minute to run through all the Harry Potter movies. I think they skipped some plot points, but what do I know... I haven't seen any of the films. -via Buzzfeed

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Performed by the group Brighter Lights, Thicker Glasses. Music teacher turned science teacher John Palmer wrote this song to help his students learn about the Cambrian Explosion. Some of them remember it ten years later! Link -via Boing Boing

There has not been a recorded sighting of the Bornean rainbow toad (Ansonia latidisca) since 1924. Now, researchers announce they have seen three of them in the Penrissen region of Borneo, and they have photographs to prove it.

Initial searches by Indraneil Das of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and colleagues took place during evenings after dark along the high rugged ridges of the Gunung Penrissen range of Western Sarawak. The first few months proved fruitless; so the team decided to include higher elevations in their search. And one night last August on of Das' graduate students, Pui Yong Min, found one of the three gangly toads up a tree.

If you want to see newly rediscovered frog, however, it's probably best to look at the photos, as Das has said he won't divulge the exact site of the rediscovery right now, owing to the intense demand for brightly-colored amphibians by those involved in the pet trade.

The effort was part of the global search for lost amphibians by Conservation International, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Amphibian Specialist Group, with support from Global Wildlife Conservation. The large search involved 126 researchers who scoured areas in 21 countries, on five continents, between August and December 2010.

Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: © Indraneil Das)

Caity Weaver at The Hairpin took a really close look at all the US state flags to find out what was unique about each of them. And turned those things into snark.

1. Sometimes state flags run out of red marker before they're finished. (Tennessee)

Check out what she said about your state. Link -via Metafilter

The winners of the very first Google Science Fair were announced on Monday. Congratulations to the top winners in each age group!

Lauren Hodge in the 13-14 age group. Lauren studied the effect of different marinades on the level of potentially harmful carcinogens in grilled chicken.
Naomi Shah in the 15-16 age group. Naomi endeavored to prove that making changes to indoor environments that improve indoor air quality can reduce people’s reliance on asthma medications.
Shree Bose in the 17-18 age group. Shree discovered a way to improve ovarian cancer treatment for patients when they have built up a resistance to certain chemotherapy drugs.

Shree Bose (center of picture) also won the overall Grand Prize, which comes with a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos Islands, and an internship at CERN. Shah and Hodge also won scholarships and internships at Google and LEGO. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

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

 It all happened over 50 years ago: January 6, 1957. The most famous act of "censorship" in television history. Elvis Presley was actually photographed, deliberately, from the waist up only. Why all the fuss over a then 22-year-old?

Well, It is almost impossible to overexaggerate the effect Elvis Presley had on America (and the whole world) 50 years ago. It is a bit hard for our generation to comprehend all the stir the young Elvis created. We live in the "I've seen it all" generation -nothing shocks us anymore. Female mud wrestling, the O.J. trial, the countless sex scandals, snuff films, serial murders, etc. etc. etc. We are all at the almost "impossible to shock" level on this crazy planet.

But in the very staid, conservative 1950s, where the world's top singers were Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, and Perry Como, Elvis came on the scene like a tornado. The hip-shaking, gyrating kid from Mississippi shook up the show biz world in a way no one else ever has, before or since. The Ed Sullivan Show was America's #1 favorite family variety show in 1956. A strange marriage of two colossal forces were soon to meet and become show business legend. Ed had previously declared he would never have Elvis on the show, but Elvis just got too big and Sullivan had no choice but to recant.

Elvis appeared on the September 9, 1956 Ed Sullivan Show, hosted by Charles Laughton, who referred to Elvis as "Elvin" Presley. A record audience of 60 million (an 82.5% rating) watched the show, the biggest TV audience of all time at that point.

Elvis also appeared a a second time on October 28, 1956. This time his sandy-blondish natural hair was dyed to his "bad boy jet black" shade, the Elvis look we're all so familiar with. Both appearances were huge, but the "historic" one was yet to come. Elvis' swiveling hips and gyrating body movements had caused a massive stir from these first two appearances, not to mention his concerts and other TV guest shots. TV critics, public school teachers, priests, ministers, and terrified parents all railed against this menace to the world's youth.

And so, for Elvis' third and final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, it was agreed: he would only be photographed from the waist up! Incredibly, the people in charge of the Sullivan Show must have thought this would make the legions of worried adults feel safer and more secure with "Elvis the Pelvis," while the kids of America could still enjoy watching even "half" of their sworn idol.

And so, on that fabled night, the King sang his songs and was indeed only shot from the waist up. Interestingly, and ironically, Elvis' last chosen song that night was a Gospel number. Yes, Elvis, the king of rock 'n' roll, was a deeply, devoutly religious man, and Gospel was always his favorite musical form. He read the Bible on a regular basis. He did not drink, Pepsi being his drink of choice. And he always addressed his elders as "Sir" and "Ma'am." Hmmm ...some menace.

After the legendary show, Sullivan came out and told the TV audience, "This is a real fine boy," as if trying to reassure the nation's adults. As we watch the black and white film clips of the early 1950s Elvis, we are almost amused. Is this what the fuss was all about?

Elvis' performance was definitely great, but "shocking?" Amusing, interesting, electric- yes, but shocking  ---ho hum. I guess it makes us wonder about something else, though. What the heck will future generations, fifty years from now, think when they watch films of us and the world we've become so accustomed to? And the way things are going, what will the world be like at that time?

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Catching up on the new posts at NeatoBambino today, I learned that:

1. Offending parents of small children is a great way to gain national publicity.

2. Some schools will no longer teach cursive handwriting, and the preferred alternative is not "typing," but "keyboarding."

3. I will never dance as well as this kid.

You'll probably learn even more than that. Link

In a story we brought you last week, a monkey grabbed photographer David Slater's camera and took several pictures, including this one of himself. This picture doesn't have a copyright notice, but two other pictures at Mail Online have a watermark from Caters News Agency. Techdirt finds that a little strange.

So here's the legal question: how did the copyright get assigned to Caters? I can't see how there's been a legal transfer. The monkeys were unlikely to have sold or licensed the work. I'm assuming that it's likely that the photographer, Slater, probably submitted the photos to the agency, and from a common sense view of things, that would make perfect sense. But from a letter-of-the-law view of things, Slater almost certainly does not hold the copyrights on those images, and has no legal right to then sell, license or assign them to Caters.

I don't think anyone is worrying about the monkey filing an infringement suit, but it is an interesting question. Link -Thanks, Marilyn!

Update: Caters News Agency contacted Techdirt, and asked them to take down the two pictures. Someone in the comments offered to pay for the monkey pictures with a picture of a spider. Link -Thanks, wernerna!

(Image credit: an unnamed Indonesian Macaque)

Every once in a while, a summer comes along in which you are desperate and will try anything to get rid of these flies. Luckily, that's not this summer for me. But you can imagine the situations that caused people to try out these methods. Maybe you could use a homemade fly trap:

- Sugar trap. I was optimistic about this one: Dumping a quarter cup of sugar into an open mason jar, then filling the jar halfway with water. The hypothesis is that the flies are attracted to the sugar, then fall into the jar and drown. But I guess the flies here laugh in the face of such low-tech devices, instead preferring to walk down the sides of the jar, sip the nectar and fly out. Two fell in, though. Bottom line: Doesn't really work.

- Dish soap trap. Instead of sugar, pour an inch of liquid dish soap directly into the jar, then add another inch of water. This worked nicely to trap flies. However, not all liquid dish soap fared well. A floral scent didn't attract flies to the trap, but a green apple scent beckoned the flies to their doom. Definitely go for a fruit scent. Bottom line: This works. Be sure to use a fruit-scented dish soap.

Other methods were tried and rated for their effective as well. Link -via Breakfast Links

(Image credit: Flickr user Refracted Moments™)

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A gumshoe has an overactive imagination in this short film by Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis from Cartoon Brew's Student Film Festival. -via Everlasting Blort

Photojournalist Prakash Hatvalne of Bhopal, India took this shot that won the Grand Prize in the 8th annual Smithsonian Photo Contest. You can see the winners in all the different categories, and find out how you can enter the 9th annual contest at Smithsonian. Link

WHAT BEGAN WITH LINCOLN...

Two years into the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln instituted the first federal draft, calling for an additional 300,000 Union soldiers. Bad idea. His 1863 Enrollment Act allowed citizens to buy their way out of service, which incensed poor Irish immigrants. After all, they were forced to fight while the privileged paid to sit on the bench. As a result, draft riots broke out in New York City, causing $1.5 million in damage and as many as 100 deaths. Ironically, Lincoln had to deploy troops to quell violence. In the end, his draft conscripted about 150,000 troops -a quarter of which were substitutes paid by wealthier draftees.

...ENDED WITH NIXON

With the Vietnam War in full swing in 1968, Richard Nixon campaigned for president on the promise that he'd end the draft. Once he was in office, Nixon commissioned Thomas Gates, Eisenhower's former secretary of defense, to study the feasibility of creating an all-volunteer military. In February 1970, the Gates Commission reported that the military could get by without drafting troops, but it took Nixon another three years to end the draft process altogether. During the Vietnam Era, between 1965 and 1973, a total of 1,728,344 men were drafted. There hasn't been another draft in America since.

IF THERE WAS A DRAFT TOMORROW (5 THINGS TO NOTE)

Hey, fellas, remember when you turned 18 and had to register for the draft? Well, if there ever is one, it would start with the Selective Service System (SSS) holding a lottery to determine who gets drafted and in what order. Basically, your birthday would act as your lottery number. Some standard rules apply:

1. Men who turn 20 during the calendar year are called first.

2. Once all eligible 20-year-olds are called, the process moves up to the 21-year-olds, and then to the 22-year-olds, and so on, until all the 25-year-olds are called.

3. The last to be drafted are 18- and 19-year-olds.

4. If your number is called, you receive a notice telling you where to report for exams. You then undergo physical, psychological, and moral evaluations.

5. Once you are declared fit for service, you must report to the Military Entrance Processing Station within 10 days. You will then be placed in training, which will last three to six months. All told, draftees are expected to serve for two years.

SECOND DRAFT: THE NEW AND REVISED LAWS OF CONSCRIPTION

If there's ever another draft, it won't follow the same rules as Vietnam. Some changes in conscription laws have already been made, and several more are in the works.

Staying in school won't keep the next round of draftees out of trouble. During Vietnam, many men evaded the draft by remaining in college for a long time (Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney, for example). But in 1971, Congress passed legislation to limit school deferments. Now, students a only defer until the end of the semester, although seniors may defer until the end of the school year.

Women will get lottery numbers, too. Congress hasn't legislated this yet, but since 1980, the National Organization for Women and other groups have been pressuring lawmakers to include women, claiming that the all-male draft is discriminatory.

If America activates the draft again, it would most likely create a specialized draft that targets linguists, medical personnel, and computer experts. In 2003, the Selective Service System stated in a memo, "While a conventional draft may never be needed, a draft of men and women possessing these critical skills may be warranted in a future crisis."

REAL EXCUSES YOU CAN USE TO DODGE THE DRAFT

You're entering the priesthood. Just beginning the long process of divinity school can get you a deferment.

You steal. A lot. And you've been convicted for it. While this won't guarantee an exemption, many convicts are declared "morally unfit" to serve in the military.

You farm. If your family depends on you -and there are no possible replacements (like your dad or brother taking over)- you can claim :hardship."

You are a state congressman. Congress (and the SSS) figures you're already doing enough to serve the country.

(Images by Flickr user Joe Mott)

__________________________

The above article by Eric Furman is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the September-October 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine.

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

From how to score a cocktail to where to scatter grandma's ashes, this is your ticket to the real Magic Kingdom.  

1. There Are Dead Bodies in the Haunted Mansion

(Image credit: Flickr user Joe Penniston)

The Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland is on e of the scariest places in the park, but not for the reasons you'd expect. In his 1994 book Mouse Tales, former Disney employee David Koenig tells the story of a tourist group that requested a little extra time on the ride so they could hold a quick memorial for a 7-year-old boy. Disney gave the family permission, but it turns out, the memorial was only half their plan. When the mourners were spotted sprinkling a powdery substance off their "doom buggies," the Haunted Mansion was quickly shut down until all the remains could be cleaned up. Amazingly, this wasn't an isolated incident. Stealthy ash scatterings have occurred all over Disneyland. Not everyone tries to skirt the rules, however. Every year, several families ask for permission. According to one Disney spokesperson, the answer is always no.

2. The Cats Own the Night

(Image credit: Flickr user Meredith P.)

Each night at Disneyland, after the sunburned families and exhausted cast members have made their way home, the park fills up again -this time, with hundreds of feral cats. Park officials love the felines because they help control the mouses population. (After all, a park full of cartoon mice is more enticing than a park full of real ones.) But these cats aren't a new addition to the Disney family. They first showed up at Disneyland soon after it opened in 1955, and rather than spending time chasing them away, park officials decided to put the cats to work. Today, there are plenty of benefits to being a Disney-employed mouser. When they're not prowling the ground, these corporate fat cats spend their days lounging at one of the park's five permanent feeding stations. Of course, Disney also goes to great lengths to manage its feline population. Wranglers at the park work to spay and neuter adult cats, and any time kittens are found, they're put up for adoption.

3. It's a Good Place to be a Flasher, Again

It's once again time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what the pictured item is? Can you make up something interesting?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many guesses as you'd like in separate comments. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: The mystery object is an anti-theft pocket watch attachment! When pulled by the chain the spikes would catch in the fabric of the pocket. You can see an explanatory graphic from the patent application at the What Is It? blog. The first commenter to give us the correct answer was kremer333, so he wins a t-shirt! The funniest answer was from The Professor, who wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop with this poem:

On Neato a picture that shows
A thingy that nobody knows
But this handy device
While it looks not so nice
Is great for just cleaning your nose!

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Screen Junkies gives us the greatest bank robbery ever to appear in the movies, which is a supercut, because it takes a lot of robberies to be the best! Some language NSFW. Link -via The Daily What