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VonSkippy thought that the Duck Herding video could be improved with a musical soundtrack. Since he’s such a sweet guy, I went right to work and talked my brother into remixing it.

The game Untangle challenges you to simply fix the lines so that they do not cross. Simply? Ha! Sure, it starts out simple, but rapidly becomes a mind boggler. Link -via YesButNoButYes

Tom O’Conner wrote the online children’s book Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House? to help children understand the stay-at-home server. Yes, it’s an ad for Windows, but it’s cute. http://www.stayathomeserver.com/book.aspx -via the Presurfer

Can your perception of your exercise habits change your weight? Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer performed an experiment with hotel maids. She found that the maids didn’t consider what they did as exercise, although their daily work activity exceeded recommendations. Half the maids were told their activity levels met the surgeon general's definition of an active lifestyle. One month later, the group that had the information was found to have lower weight, lower blood pressure, and smaller waists! However, there was no indication of changes in the group’s overall activity.

Essentially, what Langer is talking about is a placebo effect. She says that if you believe you are exercising, your body may respond as if it is. It's the same as if you believe you are getting medication when you are actually getting a sugar pill — your body can sometimes respond as if a placebo is actually working.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17792517 -via Reddit

15-year-old Boy Scout Mohamed Jaisham outdid himself for his good deed of the day -he saved the life of his president! At the opening of an environmental project, a man stepped out of the crowd with a knife wrapped in the country’s flag. As he reached toward Maldivian president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Jaisham wrestled him to the ground and took the knife away!

“I have been saved thanks to Mohamed Jaisham and Allah,” President Gayoom said in a national radio address after the incident.

Jaisham, who wore his Boy Scout uniform for the event, suffered an injury to his hand. The president received a rip in his shirt. Link -via Arbroath

In this tongue-in-cheek posting, the 2008 presidential candidates are each linked with his/her Star Wars equivalent. Darth McCain, Hillando Clintrissian, Mitt Skywalker, and Grand Moff Giuliani included. Link -via the Presurfer

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How you get your ducks in a row in India. Or as close to a row as you can, with this many ducks! -via Arbroath

The Japanese appliance company Amandana has added whimsical warnings to their normal product warning illustrations. You cannot control your girlfriend with a remote control. You cannot fly your calculator as a kite. You cannot insert a parking ticket into your desktop music player. You cannot make yourself disappear with your humidifier. And you cannot trap monkeys with your DVD player! Gizmodo has a gallery of lots of these. Link -via Dump Trumpet

Most food items an be made more appealing with the addition of googly eyes, and now you can eat them, too! Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories made them and posted the instructions. And as a bonus, there’s the recipe for this edible Flying Spaghetti Monster. Link

Have you ever thought about owning a piece of real estate history?

On August 15, 1969, a farmer named Max Yasgur addressed one of largest assemblies ever to gather when he addressed the crowd at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in the name of peace, love and music.

Mr. Yasgur, now a cultural icon, allowed 40 acres of his 1,100 acre farm in upstate New York, to be used for Woodstock, thus making the musical and cultural event of the century possible.

Today, the home, barn and lands of the world’s most celebrated farmer can be yours, as the “For Sale” sign has gone up on the original homestead of Max Yasgur.

$8,000,000 and it’s yours. http://www.joshpeproperties.com/details.php?p=19 -via Metafilter

One of the three Chinese pigs bred in 2006 (previously at Neatorama) has given birth to eleven piglets after mating with a normal boar. Two of the piglets inherited the gene for Green Fluorescent Protein from the mother.

"The mouths, trotters and tongues of the two piglets glow green under ultraviolet light, which indicates the technology to breed transgenic pigs via cell nuclear transfer is mature," Liu Zhonghua, a professor at Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, was quoted as saying.

The first generation of glowing pigs was produced by injecting Green Fluorescent Protein while they were embryos. Link

(image credit: Reuters)

You are probably aware of the annual hajj, or pilgrimage, to the city of Mecca, but did you know about Mount Athos, which bars women? Or Sri Pada, the mountaintop that is sacred to four religious groups? Or the cathedral which is supposed to contain the Ark of the Covenant? Check out the mental_floss post "10 Gorgeous Pilgrimage Sites Even Atheists Can Admire!" This picture shows Sri Harmandir Sahib, a Sikh site in Amritsar, India. Link

Dark Roasted Blend has a collection of the coolest lamps and light bulbs around, including this bulb that has lighted electric fireflies inside! Link -via Dump Trumpet

Xavier Enigma’s Next Physics Game. Draw your own shapes and let gravity take its toll. Circles are near impossible, but levers are easy. Link -via Fark

(note: this picture is just a screengrab of my attempt -follow the "link" to get to the game)

In 1983, at age 61, Australian farmer Cliff Young entered the 875-kilometer endurance race from Sydney to Melbourne, the world’s longest and toughest ultra-marathon.

“See, I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or four wheel drives, and the whole time I was growing up– until about four years ago when we finally made some money and got a four wheeler– whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 head, and we have 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d catch them. I believe I can run this race; it’s only two more days. Five days. I’ve run sheep for three.”

The athletes left Young in the dust -at the beginning. Over five days, Young overtook every single runner to win the race! His secret? He didn’t realize all the other runners were stopping to sleep each day! Young also didn’t realize there was a $10,000 prize, which he immediately gave away to the other runners. Cliff Young became a national sensation, and now almost all the runners of the annual race run straight through without sleeping. Link -via Reddit