Bowen, Australia, a town about 700 miles from Brisbane, is seeing in influx of eastern tarantulas, also known as "bird-eating spiders". Dozens of spiders have crawled out of gardens and have made their way into public areas of the town.

While not deadly like other Australian spiders, the eastern tarantulas are venomous and can grow up to 6cm (2.4in) long with a leg span of 16cm (6.3in). Despite their common name, they do not eat birds, but can kill a dog with one bite, and make a human very sick.

They are also known as whistling or barking spiders for the hissing noise they emit when they are disturbed or aggravated at close range.

Audy Geiszler, who runs a local pest control service, caught one this week that more than covered his hand after he killed it.

“I think I’m going to mount this one in acrylic to show people how big it is. It’ll make a great paperweight.”

Link -via Arbroath

In any building, it's always good to know how you're going to get out in case of an emergency. As we all know now, it's not always easy in a skyscraper, or even a building with a few floors. Several innovative systems have been developed for these events, including the Evacuchute, a parachute designed to be used for jumping out of tall buildings. See it in action as well as some other ideas in The World Of High Rise Office Escape Systems. Link -Thanks, David!

Make a YouTube video into a multiframe presentation with YooouuuTuuube. Enter the video's URL and set your specifications, than watch your creation. Here's an example, using a song Neatorama readers may remember. Link -via Metafilter

Traditional concrete will only take so much pressure before it breaks. A team led by Victor Li of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has developed a new type of concrete that bends under such pressure and can repair itself! The self-healing concrete develops many hairline fractures when bent, distributing the pressure over its area. The tiny cracks will seal themselves with calcium carbonate when exposed to rainwater and carbon dioxide. With this new material, bridges can be constructed without expansion joints. Buildings made of it will also be safer during earthquakes. Link -via Unique Daily

Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is another edition of Spellbound, where you are challenged to spell names that aren't quite standard. This round is harder than it seems. You'll be given a picture of a popular TV actor or actress, and you have to spell their stage name correctly. I had a harder time remembering the names than I did spelling them! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/25286

Amos Avery had a very good reason for making a booger ball.

When my daughter Ellen was four I started teasing her that I was saving all of my boogers in a big booger ball. I don’t know why I told her that except that it was fun to watch her make that “grossed-out” face that kids make when they smell something bad or see a squished cat on the road. She always begged to see it so finally I told her that she couldn’t see it now but I would give it to her for her eighteenth birthday. Well, guess what – she’s turning eighteen and I’ve got to come through with a booger ball!

And he did! Not only that, but he photographed the process and posted it with instructions so we can all make our own booger balls. Link -via the Presurfer

Due to fear of swine flu, Afghanistan has quarantined its pig. Yes, the nation's only pig, normally on display along with other exotic wildlife at the Kabul Zoo.

The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.

"For now the pig is under quarantine, we built it a room because of swine influenza," Aziz Gul Saqib, director of Kabul Zoo, told Reuters. "We've done this because people are worried about getting the flu."

Link -via YesButNoButYes

(College Humor link)
College Humor brings us the long-awaited sequel to the Font Conference. It's Helvetica vs. Arial with help from their peeps in a fight to the death! -via Geeks Are Sexy

Imagine that your mail comes delivered by a mule, or maybe by a missile! These are just a couple of methods the US Postal Service has used, tested, or considered in it's 234-year history. http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/reader_rides/4316104.html -via Digg

(image credit: Smithsonian National Postal Museum)

A little-known leaflet by Upton Uxbridge Underwood circulated in 1913 judges men in a different way, not by their works, but by their fabulous facial hair.

His masterpiece, The Language of the Beard, an epicurean treat confected for the delectation of fellow bon vivants, vaunts the premise that the texture, contours, and growth patterns of a man's beard indicate personality traits, aptitudes, and strengths and weaknesses of character. A spade beard, according to Underwood's theories, may denote audacity and resolution, for example, while a forked, finely-downed beard signifies creativity and the gift of intuition, a bushy beard suggests generosity, and so on.

See 15 poets and their beards described and rated. Pictured is the highly-rated beard of Sidney Lanier. Link -Thanks, peacay!

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This cute mouse is too smart for a classic mousetrap! Extra points to the videographer for effective use of music. -via Buzzfeed

Rich pointed out that today is Star Wars Day {wiki}. The reason we celebrate on this day is explained in this graphic found at The blog of a Sci-Fi Geek. Link

You may have heard that newspapers are dying, but people still buy them every day. Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss asks you to name the top ten newspapers in the United States as computed by daily circulation. You have three minutes. I only got eight of them. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/25193

Lisa Smiley made dalmatian cupcakes for a five-year-old's birthday party. They are too cute to eat! She also made (and posted pictures of) cupcakes with little firefighter's hats and hoses on top. Link -via Everlasting Blort

When Pooja Chopra was an infant, her father ordered her mother Neera to kill her. Instead, Neera left her home and husband with her two daughters and never looked back. The baby girl, who might have never seen her first birthday, won the Miss India World pageant last month.

“When my mum walked out on my dad, she said to him, ‘One day this girl will make me proud’. All my life I’ve wanted my mum to be proud of the decision that she chose me,” Pooja said last week.

Neera has been thrust into the limelight by her daughter’s success. She has been dubbed Mother India and has already been approached by one Bollywood director who wants to film her story.

Pooja Chopra's father remarried and never supported his first two daughters. Chopra has become a symbol of the campaign to end the preference for boys over girls in India. Link -via Arbroath