CNN has a flash map showing how the percentages of overweight and obese people have changed over the past couple of decades. Link -via Fark

Baseball parks are always looking for a way to sell more tickets, but sometimes a great idea turns out to be a disaster, often because of overwhelming response, sometimes because of unforeseen consequences. Read about five of the worst at Mental Floss. Link

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Ryan Walker and two companions are driving to Mongolia in an ice cream truck as part of the Mongol Rally. They are also delivering ice cream along the way.

The Mongol Rally is a charity event limited to 200 teams and this year all the places were snapped up in under one minute. Participants travel a third of the way around the world from London to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, in about four weeks, in a vehicle with a one-litre engine or less.

10,000 miles, 20 countries, in 30 days. When they reach the end of the race, the vehicle will be sold for charity, so the team is not quite sure how they will return to England. Link -via Fark

Travelers beware! You could run into “express kidnapping” in Mexico, extortion roadblocks in Nigeria, or amateur retirees in Russia. Forbes has tips for avoiding such problems in this slideshow. http://www.forbestraveler.com/2007/07/07071301_slide_1.html?thisSpeed=undefined

United Airlines has unveiled their new international business class seats. They recline to form a 6’4” bed! Of course, each has its own video screen and stereo setup. Link -via J-Walk Blog

My Faux Paws is a bridal shop for dogs. http://www.myfauxpaws.com/bridal.htm -via Everlasting Blort

The wizards at WETA made this awesome Warthog for Neill Blomkamp’s upcoming series of Halo Shorts.

Um. The dudes at WETA made a Warthog. I don’t mean that they made a big plastic thing that looks like a Warthog. I mean they built a fully-functioning, four-wheel steering, powerful, off-road vehicle with a machine gun on the back. At the correct scale. If you live near Wellington, New Zealand, you might even see some crazy machine-shop dude from WETA fishtailing around your base, ahem, I mean neighborhood.

Link -via PAgent’s Progress

DRD (Diagnostic Repair Drones) are little characters from the sci-fi series Farscape. They are produced from the space ships called Leviathans for repairing and keeping up maintence. These robots are up to 14 inches long and 10 inches wide with a numberous ammount of tools and sensors for their different tasks. They seemingly have their own personalities even though controlled through computer.

The plush version shown here won’t repair anything, but they are cute! Not available yet, but you can pre-order these for $19.99. http://www.trollandtoad.com/p152945.html -via Maximum Verbosity

Which strange stories are actual recent news items, and which are plots from the cartoon series Scooby Doo? I scored 80% on this mental_floss quiz, not because I’m a Scooby fan, but because I read all the weird news stories! Link

Law of Cat Acceleration
A cat will accelerate at a constant rate, until he gets good and ready to stop.

Law of Cat Embarrassment
A cat's irritation rises in direct proportion to her embarrassment times the amount of human laughter.

Law of Milk Consumption
A cat will drink his weight in milk, squared, just to show you he can.

Law of Furniture Replacement
A cat's desire to scratch furniture is directly proportional to the cost of the furniture.

Law of Cat Composition
A cat is composed of “Matter” plus “Anti-Matter” plus “It Doesn't Matter”.

There are lots more laws. They make perfect sense to cats and people who live with cats. Link -via the Presurfer

Image found at I Can Haz Cheezburger.

As you go through airport security, you find out that the scissors in your purse are too big. You can leave the security line and mail them, or take them to your car (which could be quite a hike), but you’d have to go to the back of the security line and start all over again. Most people voluntarily surrender any contraband items to avoid missing their plane. This Wall Street Journal article looks at what various states are doing with the items that are confiscated. Link -via Look at This

A recording by philosopher Alan Watts, {wiki} set to animation by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Push play or go to YouTube.

This quiz doesn’t require you to have a degree in forensics, and you won’t be graded, but each question links to a full explanation of a different aspect of forensic science. The quiz is a companion piece to the BBC documentary How to Commit the Perfect Murder, which is now available online. Link -via Ursi’s Blog

Tyler Hudson is the son of a professional musician, and has played drums since he was a toddler. This video shows his progress through the years. Push play or go to YouTube. Link to Hudson’s website. -via Videosift

Currently standing at 1,680 feet, the still-uncompleted Burj Dubai tower in Dubai is now the world’s tallest building. The previous record holder is Taiwan's Taipei 101 at 1,667 feet. Developers won’t say what the finished height will be, only that it will be over 2,275 feet. The $1 billion skyscraper is expected to be finished by the end of 2008. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/07/22/dubai.building.ap/index.html -via Fark