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

Buzzfeed collected pictures of the 50 best costumes spotted at the London Marathon last week. This carrot ranked #7. Can you imagine running 26 miles like this? Link

Ron Gordon, the California teacher who founded and promoted Square Root Day reminds us that Thursday is another math holiday, Odd Day! The calendar date (as written by people in the US) will be 5-7-9, which only happens once a century. Odd Days happen six times a century. It's a day to take the opportunity to do something odd. In celebration, there's another contest, with $579 up for prizes. Get all the details at the Odd Day website. Link -Thanks, Ron!

Jo Stephens of Cornwall had planned a home birth, but when her labor pains started, no midwife could come. And the ambulance wasn't going to make it in time, either. Luckily, her husband Marc had been watching YouTube videos just hours before on how to deliver a baby.

A few hours earlier, Mr Stephens has been reading up on home births and how to cope with anything unexpected.

"The videos gave me peace of mind. I think I would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier."

The Stephens delivered a 5 pound, 5 ounce boy they named Gabriel. Both mother and child were later taken to a hospital where they were pronounced healthy. Link -via Gizmodo

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In this ad, 13,500 people sing Hey Jude together in Trafalgar Square in London on April 30th. Participants talk about the experience in a related video. -via Viral Video Chart

Previously at Neatorama: The T-Mobile Dance

Wolverine has his retractable claws, but real-life technology is catching up with comic book super heroes. Dvice lists eight awesome things you can implant into your body. If someone could have all of these, they would rival any pop culture super hero! Shown is a prosthetic speech implant, which can turn your thoughts into audible communication.

In the future: Turn a prosthetic speech implant up to 11 and you've got yourself a sonic scream, à la Banshee. Make it waterproof and you're just as "super powered" as Aquaman Sammy "Squidboy" Paré. Special throat mics already allow for sub-vocal communication, but implants would take that a step further, perhaps facilitating the ability to speak where we normally wouldn't be able to.

Link -via Digg

I love this! The Wilkerson M21 Flat-Panel TV is a modern flat screen TV set with the look of a mid-20th century console. It's just one of 16 unusual TV designs featured at Now That's Nifty. Link -via the Presurfer