Here's a cute photo essay based on the book Fairy Tales Can Come True (Just Not Every Day!). Stock advertising photos from the 40s and 50s make it much more than just a marriage manual! Link -via the Presurfer

Money is too obvious and weapons are dangerous, so what is the CIA using to bribe information from Afghan warlords these days? Viagra!

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

Viagra is only one of the enticements the CIA uses. The drug doesn't have a particular appeal for younger men. Link -Thanks, Justin!

Scouting New York is an occupation blog that's also a gorgeous photoblog.

I work as a film location scout in New York City. My day is basically spent combing the streets for interesting and unique locations for feature films. In my travels, I often stumble across some pretty incredible sights, most of which are ignored every day by thousands of New Yorkers in too much of a rush to pay attention.

As it happens, it's my job to pay attention, and I've started this blog to keep a record of what I see.

Not only does he record interesting locations in photographs, he also researches the architecture and other details for your edification and enjoyment. One post has several closeups of this building, which features gargoyles and other embellishments that are not visible from the ground. Link -via Metafilter

John Henry Faulk told this Christmas story on NPR in 1974. They published it on the web in 2005. It's still a wonderful story.

The day after Christmas a number of years ago, I was driving down a country road in Texas. And it was a bitter cold, cold morning. And walking ahead of me on the gravel road was a little bare-footed boy with non-descript ragged overalls and a makeshift sleeved sweater tied around his little ears. I stopped and picked him up. Looked like he was about 12 years old and his little feet were blue with the cold. He was carrying an orange.

Read the rest at NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5028755 (via Metafilter)

Whether you believe it or not, this is a pretty neat story.

A 14-year-old girl with a history of serious health issues lay dying of pneumonia in a hospital room. But as her mother waited for the girl to take her last breath, an image of bright light appeared on a security monitor. Within an hour, the dying girl began a recovery that doctors are at a loss to explain.

But Colleen Banton, the girl's mother, has an explanation. “This was an image of an angel,” she told NBC News in a story reported Tuesday on TODAY. She credited the apparition with saving the life of her daughter Chelsea.

Link -Thanks, Cassie!

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Milan Simon Tuttle is five years old and has been playing basketball for a year and a half. She's short, skilled, and adorable! -Thanks, Laura!

Scientists thought the pygmy tarsier was extinct, since the last live sighting was over 80 years ago. Eight years ago, one was accidently trapped and killed in Indonesia. But recently, scientists have caught three live pygmy tarsiers and observed a fourth in the Lore Lindu National Park on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

The pygmy tarsier, or Tarsius pumilus, weighs about 50 grams (1.7 ounces), and has dense fur, large, protruding eyes. In addition to seeming as a living, breathing version of the Furby, it also appears as though it ought to have had appeared in the 1984 movie "Gremlins."

Unlike other primates, the pygmy tarsier -- endemic to a specific area of Indonesia -- has claws instead of nails on its fingers. It is half as big as the Philippines tarsier, which has similar features.

The trapped animals were fitted with radio tracking collars and released. Link -Thanks, Thembi!

(image credit: Texas A&M University)

See a larger species of tarsier up close here.

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Take a look at the G-speak spatial operating environment by Oblong.

Some of the SOE's core ideas are already familiar from the film Minority Report, whose characters performed forensic analysis using massive, gesturally driven displays. The similarity is no coincidence: one of Oblong's founders served as science advisor to Minority Report and based the design of those scenes directly on his earlier work at MIT.

It sure looks cool, but personally I don't understand the advantages of this system over typing or using a mouse. Link -Thanks, carfeimao!

Professor John Hart of the University of Michigan created nanoscale likenesses of president-elect Barack Obama that are each smaller than a grain of sand! The "nanobamas" were made to raise awareness of nanotechnology.

Each one contains about 150 million carbon nanotubes stacked vertically like trees in a forest. A carbon nanotube is an extraordinarily strong hollow cylinder about 1/50,000th the width of a human hair.

"Developments like this are an excellent way to bring the concepts of nanotechnology to a broader audience," said Hart, who made the portraits with his colleagues by working late on a Friday evening. "Also, we thought it would be fun."

The 3D likenesses are made of carbon and are half a millimeter wide. Link -Thanks, Sid Morrison!

Today is World Toilet Day! The World Toilet Organization invites you to become informed and get involved to promote global water issues and sanitation. 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper toilets. The international charity WaterAid has ways you can help, and some fun stuff like potty games and printable posters. Link -Thanks, Actor 212!

PJM at Old Picture of the Day dropped out of the rat race and became a high school teacher.

I can remember my first day of class, I had one class made up of a particularly tough group of students. These students did not have a history of academic success, and struggled in a number of areas, and with a number of issues. On the first day, I threw out the text book, and told the students I was going to teach them to do something useful, and that they would accomplish something that they could be proud of, and that they would be recognized for.

What they did was create a website called Picture Indians. The students learned about web design and coding, copyright laws, and photo restoration. Take a look and maybe send an email to the students to let them know what you think of their project. Link to story. Link to website. -Thanks, Alannah!

Legomaniacs, you can do more than just build things from Legos! Display your passion in your home with furnishings made from Lego bricks, home products from the Lego company, and products that have that familiar (if not company-sanctioned) shape. See a roundup of these products at mental_floss. Shown is a sofa you could assemble from interlocking blocks sold by a French company. Warning; having all these items in your home at once may scare away members of the opposite sex. Link

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John Cleese, Eric Idle, and the rest of the Monty Python gang have decided to fight back against the unauthorized uploading of their material to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/montypython -via Metafilter

Over the years, you've seen James Bond use amazing gadgets you wish you could have yourself. Walyou has a rundown of 15 such spy gadgets that exist in the real world! As someone said in the comments, even if you have absolutely no reason to spy on anyone, you'll want to own these. My personal favorite is the Com-Bat, a small robotic plane that resembles ...well, you see it here. Link -Thanks, Eran Abramson!

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Bicycle + Guitar Hero = Bike Hero. This took some work! Kevin says he went through many takes before getting it right. The music is Prisoner of Society by The Living End. -Thanks, David Ross!