David Traver of Anchorage, Alaska won the World Beard Championship on Saturday with his 20.5 inch beard. 300 competitors were in Anchorage for the 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships, and about half were competing for the beard award. Traver's beard was dyed several colors and woven into a snowshoe shape.

With his beard stylist, Ledjha Carson, Traver months ago started brainstorming a beard shape that was "out of the box," he said. They considered eagle wings, moose antlers and a sled dog team before settling on the snowshoe. It took Carson 90 minutes to weave it the day of the competition.

"She wanted it right. She was very meticulous," he said. "But my neck is still stiff."

Traver, who is 43 and works as a driver for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, got into facial hair competition locally about 10 years ago with the Mr. Fur Face competition during Fur Rendezvous. After that, he got involved with the South Central Alaska Beard and Moustache Club, which bid to bring the international championships to Anchorage this year -- beating out Liechtenstein. He dedicated his win to his father, David Traver, who died in September

Traver is willing to shave off his award-winning beard to raise money for his favorite charity, Covenant House. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: ACVB / Rebecca Coolidge)

A seven-legged calf was born in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on Thursday.

Veterinarian Lee Meyring delivered the animal and called its condition a birth anomaly.

“I’ve been in practice for 14 years, and I’ve only seen one other calf with a fifth leg,” Meyring said. “And so this one’s definitely the most bizarre I’ve seen. It’s just a twinning process that had an incomplete splitting of the embryo, then the fetus.”

The mother seemed to be OK, Lynn said. The calf lived only 10 minutes, she said. One of the seven legs had two hooves. The calf had two spines but just one head. The veterinarians don’t plan to examine its organs.

They have, however, contacted Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Warning: article contains a picture of the dead calf. Link -via Unique Daily

(image credit: Matt Stensland)

We've featured quite a few science tattoos on Neatorama, but this is one for the books! Do you know what these equations represent? Find out at The Loom. Link

Now that Terminator Salvation is in theaters, Cracked has attempted to create a timeline that explains how the various time-travel plots work. Some things to remember:

1. Time travel in a Terminator movie is like plumbing in a porno: a very loose excuse to get to the action.
2. Anyone expecting accuracy is missing the point (and having much less fun than everyone else).
3. With that said, here is our attempt to construct a sensible time line of the franchise.

Note: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is not included in this project. Link -via Digg

Have you ever received a disconnect notice for owing a balance of $0.00? Rich and Alisa got one from Comcast. They're not quite sure how best to resolve the problem. The entire letter is posted at Consumerist. Commenters suggested sending a check for $0.00, or sending a check for a few cents and then demanding a refund. Link -via NYC Educator

Cake Wrecks has a collection of awesome Lego cakes. Some are Lego creations that look like cakes, but most are cakes that resemble Lego creations, including three awesome wedding cakes. This birthday cake by blogger jumpinmonkies was made from 125 cake bricks, with each connector stub individually added! Link -via b3ta

The Berlin Zoo has unveiled three new jaguar cubs born April 16th. The two males and a female are named Jumanes, Atiero and Valdivia. The L.A. Times Blog has more adorable photographs. The picture shown is a portion of a larger picture you don't want to miss! Link -via Buzzfeed

(image credit: Gero Breloer/Associated Press)

Sales of the "Three Wolf Moon Shirt" are up 2300% after word got out that it was getting priceless customer reviews on Amazon. Hundreds of reviewers are vying to be the funniest. The first one says, in part:

This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that's when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women. The women knew from the wolves on my shirt that I, like a wolf, am a mysterious loner who knows how to 'howl at the moon' from time to time (if you catch my drift!). The women that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called mehth. I told them no, because they didn't have enough teeth, and frankly a man with a wolf-shirt shouldn't settle for the first thing that comes to him.

It gets better from there. The manufacturer is not exactly pleased with the reviews. Link to story. Link to reviews. -via Fark

Have you ever had one of those days where everything goes wrong and you just can't get where you're trying to go? That's the idea behind this collage-style animation by Thomas Markovsky. Link -via Everlasting Blort

Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss might be difficult. It was for me! You'll be given ten well-known men, all with the same first or middle name. Do they spell it Alan, Allan, or Allen? I scored just 40%, and I thought I knew these guys! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/25726

Here's a site that can keep you busy for a long time! This virtual tour of the White House has current floor plans of each floor and section of the building as well as ground layouts -PLUS historical floor plans from various eras in its history. Click on the rooms to see photos of what's inside, and how the room looked in the past. Each page has more information, such as which president and First Lady slept in twin beds or separate rooms. I learned about the "bachelor suite" used by young men who courted Woodrow Wilson's daughters, and how Zachary Taylor's slaves had to climb a ladder to get to their attic rooms. Link -via the Presurfer

Note: I had some trouble with the "Residence Overview" page. You may have to hit your back button to get out of that one.

Dark Roasted Blend has a photo-heavy roundup of interesting bridge construction, beginning with views of several bridges being built across huge gorges in China. The bridge shown is part of the Jinji Expressway. Also see large, artful, and scary bridges from around the world, plus links to earlier posts in the series on bridges. Link

12-year-old Nicholas Rossi fell off his bike in Maryborough, Victoria, Australia. His parents rushed him to the local hospital, where Dr. Rob Carson saw the child's brain was bleeding. The hospital did not have the equipment for brain surgery, so he ordered a drill from the maintenance department in order to open the skull and relieve the pressure.

Michael Rossi says his son would have died if Dr Carson had not acted quickly.

"He came out and he saw us and he said he's only got one shot at it, and one shot only," he said. "[He said] 'I'm going to drill into Nick's head and try and relieve the pressure'."

"And he said if we can relieve the pressure he's going to reach Melbourne via air ambulance in a lot better shape than if we don't try something.

"Dr Carson told me all he can remember saying is, 'Get the Black and Decker'."

Carson consulted with Melbourne neurosurgeon David Wallace by phone, who talked him through the procedure. Rossi was up and walking around within a couple of days, and has since made a full recovery. Link

Because Star Wars created a demand for movie toys (and none existed when the movie premiered), toy companies now make them available before they know whether the movie is a hit or a bomb. This makes for lots of wasted product when a movie tanks. Topless Robot has ten examples they should have seen coming. I had no idea there were action figures for Battlefield Earth! I want one, just for the kitsch value. Link -via Digg

Of course you are familiar with Transformers, He-Man, and G.I. Joe, but there was also M.A.S.K. If you remember this show, you'll do well on Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. Link