The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Universe.

In 1872, Leland Stanford offered photographer Eadweard Muybridge $25,000 to perform an experiment. Muybridge wasn't sure he could do it, but with so much money at stake, he took on the challenge.

When a horse is running or trotting, do all four hooves ever leave the ground at the same time? That was the basis of the wager that Leland Stanford, former governor of California and founder of Stanford University, made with some friends. This was the subject of much controversy in horse racing circles at the time. Most people believed that a horse always had one hoof in contact with the ground, but Stanford thought otherwise. Because a horse's legs are moving so fast, it's impossible to tell just by looking, so Stanford needed a way to slow down the movement so it could be studied.

THE CHALLENGE

In 1872, Stanford offered Eadweard Muybridge, a world-famous landscape photographer, $25,000 to find the answer. Muybridge had no idea if he could successfully set up and perform an experiment to settle the dispute, but he figured he'd give it a go.

THE EQUIPMENT

In most 19th-century cameras, the picture was taken when the photographer removed the lens cap for several seconds in order to expose the film and capture an image. The subject had to remain perfectly still during this time or the resulting photograph would be blurred. In order to capture very fast action like a galloping horse, the exposure time would have to be very short.

THE SHUTTER

Muybridge invented a fast shutter mechanism that relied on a small piece of wood with a hole drilled in it that slid past the lens. The wood was positioned so that a pin held it in place, covering the lens. When the pin was removed, gravity would cause the wood to drop and as the hole moved past the lens, the film was exposed for a fraction of a second.

Bibliodyssey has a collection of 22 masks from designer Cornelis Floris and engraver Frans Huys published in the year 1555. Modern Halloween mask designers have nothing on these guys! Link

Theresa Knudson was inspired by Jan von Hollenben's Dreams of Flying photographs and created dream photos of her cat by arranging various backgrounds. Fluffy is a trusting and patient cat! See more pictures at Pawesome. http://www.pawesome.net/2011/03/the-science-of-cat-sleep-favorite-things/

(Image credit: Flickr user Theresa Knudson)

Mark Anderson of Andertoons set out to make a Lego spaceship that resembled each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. It took two years to accomplish this goal, but he did it! Now all those spaceships are posted for your enjoyment. Link -Thanks, Mark!

It's time for the Name That Weird Invention! contest. Steven M. Johnson comes up with all sorts of crazy ideas in his Museum of Possibilities posts. What should we name this one? The commenters suggesting the funniest and wittiest names will win a free T-shirt from the NeatoShop. Put on your thinking cap and leave an entry in the comments.

Contest rules: one entry per comment, though you can enter as many as you like. Please make a selection of the T-shirt you want (may we suggest the Science T-shirt, Funny T-shirt, and Artist-designed T-shirt categories?) alongside your entry. If you don't select a shirt, then you forfeit the prize. Good luck!

Update: Scott-O had a winning entry with the name First Eye'd Kit, and nik said he'd call it the Emergen-See Kit. Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!

If you haven't studied dinosaurs since you were an elementary school student, you have some catching up to do! As paleontologists find more and different fossils, our body of knowledge about the prehistoric reptiles has changed. Take the Stegosaurus, for example. What we thought we knew just a few years ago is different from what we think we now know.

Fossil footprints and detailed studies of its anatomy have proven that Stegosaurus didn’t drag its tail on the mud, but actually walked erect, like an elephant, with its tail held horizontally, parallel to the ground. Its back wasn’t as arched as they had us believe, and the neck was not carried horizontally as usually depicted, but upright, like a bird’s.

Also, the tail spike cluster (known among paleontologists as the “thagomizer”) didn’t actually point upwards, but sideways. This made the tail a much deadlier and more efficient weapon; to stab an attacking predator, Stegosaurus only had to swing its tail horizontally; punctures matching the Stegosaurus’ tail spikes have been found in the bones of predatory dinosaurs from the same age and place, proving once and for all that Stegosaurus wasn’t any less dangerous than the ankylosaurs that would evolve later.

And that's just the first of ten dinosaurs we once thought we knew. Link -via the Presurfer

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan who have seen a triple disaster: earthquake, tsunami, and an explosion at a nuclear power plant. I don't recall an earthquake as powerful as 8.9 in my lifetime -this week's quake is reportedly the worst in Japan's history. In between updates on the news from Asia, you might want to take breaks and catch up on Neatorama's exclusive content from the past week.

Jill brought us another post for National Craft Month called 30 Great Geeky Cross Stitches.

And on Friday, she had another article in our series on Disney rides with Neatorama Facts: It’s A Small World.

The Balloon Man was all about the guy who invented latex balloons, from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.

The Annals of Improbable Research asked the burning question Time for a Shave: Does Facial Hair Interfere With Visual Speech Intelligibility?

From mental_floss magazine, we learned about The Hidden Meanings of Tattoos.

In the What Is It? game this week, Abbey had the correct answer in the very first comment -this is a hand-forged key. Scroll down the answer page to find out more. Galen gets the award for the funniest answer: Chuck Norris’ mustache comb! Both will get t-shirts from the NeatoShop.

From the Museum of Possibilities, Steven Johnson gave us the Name That Weird Invention! contest. First prize went to Alexandru Popa for “The Hairmet.” Second prize was won by Manticore for “The Mullmet.” Both t-shirts from the NeatoShop!

And we saw the return of Mal and Chad's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy! from comic artist Stephen McCranie. Congratulations to winner Scott-O, who filled in the speech bubble with "Who would have thought picking a nose on Mt. Rushmore could be so rewarding?" He wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!

There are more ways to get your Neatorama fix: If you aren't checking our Facebook page every day, you're missing out on extra content, contests, discussions, and links you won't find here. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what's going around the web in real time.

Don't forget to set your clocks forward one hour before going to bed tonight. Daylight Saving Time begins at 2AM Sunday for most of the United States. Oh, and today is Alfred Hitchcock Day, although I don't know exactly why. Coming up next week: Pi Day on Monday and St. Patrick's Day on Thursday!

J. Wilson is a beer blogger who is observing Lent the old-fashioned way -on beer. Wilson read about German monks who fasted and sustained themselves with "liquid bread," or the beer they brewed themselves in the 1600s.

"The idea came to me a couple years ago, and it didn't really make sense then, my wife quickly pointed out," said Wilson, 38, adding that he worked 13 hours a day in a restaurant back then. "I did not live the life of a monk at that time."

But with preparations that began in August, including bulking up from his normal 140 pounds to 160 since Thanksgiving, Wilson says he was ready to give it a go. He says he already was down to 157 pounds by Thursday.

Wilson is limiting himself to four 12-ounce beers a day, and says he will consult with a doctor. Link

Cuban-American artist Elsa Mora created this lovely miniature dollhouse featuring artist Frida Kahlo. You can see pictures of the details, as well as a similar work called Frida Kahlo's Studio and other dollhouse projects in her dollhouse gallery. Link -via Everlasting Blort

To help us understand earthquakes after the big one in Japan, Smithsonian has republished an article about how scientists study earthquakes of the past to predict and prepare for future quakes. Past disasters left clues behind, like dead cedar trees in Washington state.

In one of the more remarkable feats of modern geoscience, researchers have pinpointed the date, hour and size of the cataclysm that killed these cedars. In Japan, officials had recorded an “orphan” tsunami—unconnected with any felt earthquake— with waves up to ten feet high along 600 miles of the Honshu coast at midnight, January 27, 1700. Several years ago, Japanese researchers, by estimating the tsunami’s speed, path and other properties, concluded that it was triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake that warped the seafloor off the Washington coast at 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on January 26, 1700. To confirm it, U.S. researchers found a few old trees of known age that had survived the earthquake and compared their tree rings with the rings of the ghost forest cedars. The trees had indeed died just before the growing season of 1700.

Although earthquakes still cannot be predicted accurately, the body of data is growing that may lead to better forecasts. Link

(Image credit: Brian Smale)

Many who are shocked and saddened by the devastation in Japan don't know anyone in the country. But we all know Maru. Link -via Buzzfeed

Sculptor and nature lover Aimée Baldwin creates realistic stuffed birds without any bird parts! These are made with

hand-cut crepe paper feathers over individually-shaped foam and paper-mâché body, with wire legs, sculpted claws and beaks, and taxidermy glass eyes*

*(glass eyes are the only pre-fabricated part of the birds)

Her gallery of works includes extinct birds, which a regular taxidermy artist cannot pull off. Link -via Boing Boing

Alexander Graham Bell is best known for his work on the telephone, but that was far from his only interest. The Library of Congress preserved Bell's handwritten notes and sketchbooks for our perusal. They are filled with ideas and experiments, although the handwriting is, to put it kindly, sometimes hard to decipher. The Atlantic has a gallery of some of the more interesting sketches, like this airplane that resembles a Sierpinski triangle.

Link | The Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers -via Metafilter

UK's Royal Mail released a new set of postage stamps this week featuring famous wizards, witches, and enchanters from legend and literature. The eight stamps depict Merlin, Morgan le Fay, Aslan, the White Witch, Nanny Ogg, Rincewind, Volemort, and Dumbledore. See them all in a gallery at The Guardian. Link -via The Daily What

The "notificator" was coin-operated and left a message for only two hours. It probably did not catch on due to competition from the much-cheaper "bulletin board." http://www.dephx.com/2010/11/twitter-in-1935.html -via reddit