A skunk named Mr. Bumble was turned over to the RSPCA when his owners could no longer handle him. The skunk, who loves bacon sandwiches, weighed in at 14 pounds! Mr. Bumble is now at Tropiquaria Animal Park in Watchet, England and is on a weight-loss regimen.

Park owner Chris Noisier told the BBC: "We're now working on dieting him down to what he should be and clearly bacon butties are not a normal part of a skunk's diet in the wild.

"We're putting him on the vegetarian option at the moment. It's very much like a human weight watching issue.

"He is getting to meet lots of new people so there's lots going on in his life and I suspect it's making up for the lack of his old favourite food."

Link -via Buzzfeed

When you pay a visit to your county or state fair, or when a carnival comes to town, you may get a chance to ride on one of Michael Jackson’s amusement park rides. The rides were sold to amusement companies around the country and have been refurbished and put back into use.

"It was a blast!" said Benny Vasquez, a Visalia, Calif., welder who was regaining his bearings after a dizzying turn on the Spider, an arachnid-shaped contraption with blazing green bulbs lining its black legs. "It's exciting for people to be able to sit on something that he owned."

Over the years, Jackson acquired about 18 rides for his 2,600-acre ranch in Santa Barbara County. Some gradually were swapped out for newer models and hit the carnival circuit without fanfare. But most stayed in place even after Jackson, acquitted on child molestation charges in 2005, left Neverland for good.

Several big amusement companies purchased what remained in 2008, repainting and sprucing up rides run down by weather and lack of use.

Link -via Fark

(image credit: Tomas Ovalle/LA Times)

See inside Godzilla, Gamera, and a couple of other movie monsters in poster form. If I could only read Japanese to find out where their weak spots are, then I, too, could save the world! http://www.kontraband.com/pics/19684/The-Anatomy-Of-Japanese-Monsters/?gpage=1#show -via Digg

Upodate: These are from the book An Anatomical Guide to Monsters by Shoji Otomo with illustrations by Shogo Endo, from 1967. More information can be found at Pink Tentacle, including partial translations. -Thanks, algomeysa!

Hmmm, this t-shirt outlet might not be the place to buy gifts for loved ones, but if you are a fat guy and proud of it, you’ll find a shirt to love. There are also shirts for big women and for women who love fat guys. Link -via Buzzfeed

(YouTube link)

This ad for Freebord skateboards has skateboarders flying down the streets of San Francisco in the dark to connect glowing Tetris shapes. I have to wonder where the awesome outtakes are!-via Digg

Most of us think of sweet produce as fruit and not-sweet garden foods as vegetables, with the exception of the tomato because that’s been argued over so much. But which plant foods are scientifically fruits, and which are vegetables?

A fruit — a ‘true fruit’ — is one where all tissues are derived from the plant ovary and this alone. This includes peas. Whereas strawberries, for example, also include some of the flesh from the peg that holds the ovary, disqualifying them from fruit status. The apple gets its carpels involved as well as the ovary, leading to a kinky pome. ‘True berries’ are also ‘true fruits’, but not the other way round. Grapes, currants (red and black), elder- and gooseberries are all proper upstanding berries which will not deceive you or smuggle themselves into your house in pies before stealing your silver while you sleep.

Whatever you call them, you should have five servings a day, and eat a variety of different whatever-they-ares. Link -via Scribal Terror

Andy Woodruff noticed that Ohio has 88 counties, the same number as keys on a piano. So he went to work on a map application that assigns a note to each county. You can play a song on the map (a couple of songs are plotted out for you) or reassign the notes based on census data such as population, number of rental houses, or median age. You can even hear what a route from one place to another sounds like! Link to map. Link to the story behind it. -via the Presurfer

A 13-year-old macaw flew fifty feet up into a tree and was too scared to fly down. Emma Hooper of Botley, England believes that Cleo flew away because she was distressed at moving to a new home. When the RSPCA refused to come, Hooper called to rent a hydraulic lift, but was told it wouldn’t be available until the next day. Hooper stayed by the tree all night long.

"I felt so helpless. It was awful, the worst feeling in the world.

"I took out a chair and blanket but I was getting strange looks from people driving by.

"They looked very confused when I said my bird was stuck up in the tree.

"I ended up driving my car around the corner and parked next to the tree. It was warmer and I felt safer but I still got no sleep.

The cherry picker arrived at 7:30 AM, and Cleo was finally brought down. She had spent 16 hours on the same branch. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: SOLENT)

(YouTube link)

Dogs will occasionally follow children home, especially when the child encourages it. In this case, the dog bonded to Suryia the orangutan and the facility is now stuck with Roscoe. This cute clip is from the National Geographic show Unlikely Friends. -via Huffington Post

Families differ on how they give their kids money. Kelly writes about how her family does it, and the many questions that go along with allowances.

* Should the allowance be given freely OR tied to chores?
* Should I only pay for extra chores?
* How much money should I give my kid?
* Should I let them spend it on what they want OR should I force them to save a portion of it?
* Coins, bills, or a savings account?
* How often should I give him/her allowance?

Personally, I give the kids a set amount every week, in order to teach them by trial and error how to handle money. The amount is less than their friends get, which forces them to think hard about how they spend it. Their allowance is not tied to performing family chores, but occasionally I give a bonus to someone who has been extra helpful (only as a surprise). How does your family handle children and their money, or how do you plan to do it? Link -via Consumerist

(image credit: Flickr user Pingu1963)

This diagram (actually an Euler diagram {wiki}) sorts out professional baseball team names. Even more interesting is the accompanying list of links and explanations for every team name included. Link -via Jason Kottke

People love watching unbelievably intricate contraptions designed to perform simple tasks. Days to design and build, a minute or two to use (depending on how many times something goes wrong), and possible YouTube stardom are involved. Eat Me Daily has collected videos of ten Rube Goldberg contraptions that use food, make food, or deliver food. Link -via Metafilter

The breakfast aisle at the grocery is full of cereals with silly names, but some from the past are real winners. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you are challenged to distinguish real cereal names from some that were just made up for the quiz. I am almost ashamed to admit I scored 90% on this quiz! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/35672

The Blood Lamp only works once, and you need to add of a drop of your blood to activate it! The idea is to stop and think about how badly you need light before you use it. Designer Mike Thompson created the lamp in order to draw attention to how much energy we waste. http://www.miket.co.uk/blood_lamp.html -via Dark Roasted Blend

Nothing draws attention like oversized objects, and when you’re traveling along the highway, hungry people notice big food. During the 1930s, buildings that look like something else popped up all over to draw in travelers, and many still exist. See 24 examples of appetizing architecture in this collection. Shown is the Big Duck in Flanders, New York. Link -via the Presurfer