The Crown Estate of England has made arrangements to purchase the world's largest wind turbine.

It's a 7.5-megawatt monster to be built by Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, Calif. Now the Royal Turbine is getting even bigger: Clipper has revealed to Fortune that Her Majesty's windmill has been supersized to ten megawatts, producing five times the power generated by typical big turbines currently in commercial operation. The giant's wingspan stretches the length of two soccer fields. At 574 feet, the turbine soars over Big Ben and roughly equals 111 Queen Elizabeths (the actual queen) plus one corgi stacked on top of one another.

The turbine is expected to be anchored offshore and put into use in 2012, when it will have the capability to power 3,700 homes. Link -Thanks, bob!

Facebook and Twitter help you keep track of every move made by your friends. But is this a good use of your time? ABC News talked to Clive Thompson, who wrote about the phenomena for the New York Times, what he calls "ambient awareness". Link to segment. Link to entire webcast. Link to New York Times article.

Chester A. Arthur was the underrated 21st president of the United States. You you know anything about him? You would if you read the mental_floss article about him Satturday! Now he's the subject of today's Lunchtime Quiz. I aced it, because I read something on him over the weekend. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/18591

Seeing a toddler ski is precious, but this kid is serious! 2-year-old Gustav Legnavsky of Wanaka, New Zealand will compete in the halfpipe event at the junior nationals next week. He will be the youngest skier at the competition.

At an age when most children are putting their parents through the terrible 2s, Gustav is instead taking on the 5.7m-high walls of the Cardrona superpipe.

His parents, Pete and Bridget, said the super active toddler had a sports box at home, rather than the average toddler's toy box.

He can already ride a bike - without trainer wheels - has his own skateboard, likes to roller-blade around the house, and plays golf.

"He's not a uniquely talented kid or anything," Mrs Legnavsky claims.

She puts Gustav's development and early interest in skiing down to the "interesting lifestyle" the family leads, which gives him opportunities many other children do not have.

Gustav's father is a ski coach and his mother is the manager of a ski field. Link -via Fark

(image credit: Jan Vokaty)

Stretch limousines are nothing to write home about anymore. So limousines services are going the extra mile to stand out. Dark Roasted Blend takes a look at some of the crazier limousines, with a peek inside some. Yes, this one is a Corvette. Link

As new words are included in dictionaries, old words are sometimes dropped, not for room, but because they are no longer in use. Compilers of the Collins Dictionary have a list of words they are considering dropping from the new edition.

Dictionary compilers at Collins have decided that the word list for the forthcoming edition of its largest volume is embrangled with words so obscure that they are linguistic recrement. Such words, they say, must be exuviated abstergently to make room for modern additions that will act as a roborant for the book.

Readers who vilipend the compilers’ decision and vaticinate that society will be poorer without little-used words have been offered a chance to save them from the endangered list Collins, which is owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, has agreed that words will be granted a reprieve if evidence of their popularity emerges before February, when the word list is finalised.

Did you understand that? If so, you may want to vote on your favorite words to keep in the dictionary. Link -Thanks, Jayne Howley!

(Metacafe link)
You might think the earth is big, but watching this may make you feel small! The music is Rubber Bullet by Stakka and K Tee. -via Digg

If you want to visit a ghost town for Halloween, make your plans now! Cult Case has an overview of seven of them, including Helltown, Ohio.

Also known as Boston, Ohio, many ghostly encounters have been reported in the cemetery and other sites located within the boundaries of the township. Satanists would sacrifice animals in an old Presbyterian Church off of Boston Mills Road, just to make it that much creepier. One of the many rumors that have been tossed around report a chemical spill, which lead to a huge python wandering around the woods of the area.

Link -Thanks, Jon Jason!

(Live Leak link)
Paul Otlet {wiki} was a visionary who specialized in documentation and information organization. The ideas he laid out in 1934 eventually became what we call the internet. -via reddit

A major helium leak has shut down work at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

In order to fix the problem, the machine will have to be warmed up from its operating temperature of minus 271.3 degrees Celsius (minus 456.3 degrees Fahrenheit), spokesman James Gillies said.

"Because the LHC is a superconducting machine that works at very low temperatures, in order to get in and fix it we've got to warm it up, then we go and fix it, and then we cool it down again, and that's a process that's likely to take two months," he said.

The $9 billion machine was only in operation for ten days before the leak shut it down. Link -Thanks, Carrie!

A spot of green in a desert is always beautiful to see, even when you aren't desperate for a cool, refreshing break. Environmental Graffiti has a collection of pictures and information about 18 such oases all over the world. Pictured is the Umm Al-Maa, one of the Ubari Lakes in Libya. Link -via the Presurfer

Plant Me Pets are biodegradable latex figurines with seeds for eyes. When you are through playing with them, you can bury them head first in potting soil and grow your own pumpkins, melons, and tomatoes! This is one of a list of "Herb-n Art Toys" (toys that will grow plants in a small space) featured at ToyCyte. http://www.toycyte.com/herb-n-art-toys -Thanks, Jason!

Astronomer Mike Davis bought some land in a remote part of Arizona where he can observe the skies far away from light pollution. He is also far away from the electrical grid. Solar panels are expensive, so Mike made his own! How he did it is interesting, but you still must have some electrical know-how before you try it yourself. Link -Thanks, chris tackett!

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

(Atom Films link)
Don Hertzfeldt created Ah, L'Amour in 1995 as an 18-year-old student at the University of California Santa Barabara. It was his first film. Ah, L'Amour has been posted here a couple of times, but the embedded video was always pulled do to licensing rights. Now Atom Films has obtained those rights, so you can enjoy it! http://www.bitterfilms.com/index2.html to Hertzfeld's site. -Thanks, Katherine!

Arrr! Every September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day! You can get up to speed by visiting the official site for holiday resources. See the pictures at Flickr. Read up on the history of the holiday. See how they celebrate in Australia, Britain, and around the world. Join the pirate discussion at Fark. See some music videos on piracy. Or look at pirate kittens. If you don't know how to talk like a pirate, try this handy translator. Arrrr! Uodate: There's even a commemoration on Mars!