Neurophilosophy has posted a roundup of unusual penetrating brain injuries, with properly horrifying x-rays. Most of these cases were self-inflicted wounds, and all of the patients survived! Warning: not for the squeamish. Link

Rolling Stone has an in-depth article explaining why Pink Floyd adopted a flying pig as a symbol, and how it became the most famous rock and roll prop ever. The pig made its first appearance on the cover of the 1977 album Animals. Roger Waters tells the story of the photo shoot:

The first day was that beautiful sky, but the pig escaped. The rope broke and it drifted off, up into the flight path at Heathrow. Then the next day, we flew another pig, and it was a bright blue sky, and so the photographs weren't nearly as interesting as they had been from the day before. So in fact we stripped the pig from the second day into the photograph from the first day that didn't have a pig in it because it had already escaped. And that is what appeared on the album cover.

The pig has been escaping ever since. The latest incident was at the 2008 Coachella festival. Link -via Metafilter

Vertical gardening is taking off all over the world. Living walls are not only a statement, they’re works of art! They are also cooling and calming, they freshen the air, and some produce flowers and vegetables as well. Pictured is the courtyard wall of the Pershing Hall Hotel in Paris. See pictures of all 15 at Environmental Graffiti. Link -via Digg

Over the past couple of years, NASA has been watching flashes of light on the moon. It’s not a new phenomenon; they began observing the moon’s surface to prepare for the future lunar mission project. The explosions are caused by meteoroids hitting the moon. Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, says the flashes can be photographed with a backyard telescope.

That first detection—"I'll never forget it," he says--came on Nov. 7, 2005, when a piece of Comet Encke about the size of a baseball hit Mare Imbrium. The resulting explosion produced a 7th magnitude flash, too dim for the naked eye but an easy target for the team's 10-inch telescope.

A common question, says Cooke, is "how can something explode on the Moon? There's no oxygen up there."

These explosions don't require oxygen or combustion. Meteoroids hit the moon with tremendous kinetic energy, traveling 30,000 mph or faster. "At that speed, even a pebble can blast a crater several feet wide. The impact heats up rocks and soil on the lunar surface hot enough to glow like molten lava--hence the flash."

It doesn’t just happen during meteor showers. There are always pieces of natural space debris colliding with the moon. Link -via Geek Like Me

Typo Hunt Across America is the blog of the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL). They spent the last couple of months not only finding and pointing out typos on public signs, they also corrected them or tried to get them corrected (with varying degrees of success). Now the League is asking for your stories of public typo correction. Therefore, I found myself checking this post over and over in case they find a typo here! Link -via Metafilter

This bar in Gruyere, Switzerland was designed by H.R. Giger, the artist who designed the alien in the movie Alien. Spooky! Link -via Bad Astronomy Blog

Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss deals with a subject I’m not at all familiar with, but you might be.

It’s still early in the Major League Baseball season, but some teams have already been ravaged by injuries. Before fans of the Brewers or Yankees start to feel sorry for themselves, though, remember an even more star-crossed team: Mr. Burns’ collection of all-star ringers brought in to play for the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant’s softball nine. Do you remember what ultimately sidelined each player?

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/15111

Guess what: they’re all in Europe (unless you want to argue about the location of Georgia). Some of them run a mile or more deep into the earth, although to actually go a mile deep, you’d have to trek or rappel for miles and miles. The world’s deepest cave for now is 7188 feet (2191 m) deep, although with research, that record can always be broken by those who feel the need to explore the “bottomless pits” of the world. Link -via Geek Like Me

(image credit: Plamen Stoev)

Nearly 3,000 people, including US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, were in attendance as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performed last night in Tel Aviv. The star of the show was a cat who snuck in to enjoy the festivities. ddhttp://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=82730&refresh=true -via Arbroath

Brandon Pinto spills the beans on what it’s like to portray Captain Jack Sparrow at Disneyland. They told him no flirting, no mentioning alcohol, and no facial hair. Huh?

It took over an hour to get Disney’s suit on. In the dressing room there is one long makeup table and a wall with a long mirror. I think over 100 character actors were there. You had face characters like Jack, Aladdin, the Mad Hatter, and you had fuzzies, the characters in costumes. The face characters and the fuzzies dressed apart. There was a ranking system in the dressing room: If you were a princess, you pretty much got that long mirror wall. For some reason the Jacks always ended up in the back corner.

As Jack, I had four hour-long sets a day. We worked in New Orleans Square. I would find a place I liked, and the hosts would set up my line. A host is someone who helps run the line of people that forms to meet you. They’re basically your security. When we started, Disney thought they wouldn’t give us a host. They thought we’d mingle. I laughed at that. I said, “I don’t mean to be the guy that knows it all, but from Renaissance Faires I can guarantee you this character will have the park’s longest line.” Disney had invented a Jack Sparrow autograph the three of us learned, and immediately the line for autographs was gigantic. The Jacks ultimately got two hosts.

The women were the most excited about seeing Captain Jack, and some were potential problems. Working for Disney isn’t easy, but hey, it’s show business! Link -via reddit

(image credit: Mark Hanauer)

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Have you ever seen a starfish move? I haven’t either. This time-lapse video shows they don’t quite walk on their arms they way you’d expect! Note: The first scene shows barnacles and tiny snails. -via Ursi’s Blog

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An orangutan looks for work in the entertainment industry, but things are tough all over. This is a viral for Levi Strauss from Benzo Theodore, who also did the “jumping into your jeans” video. -via Dropkick Monkey

There’s an instruction guide for every human activity imaginable. Some are quite unnecessary, others are written in fun. And some people even buy them! See the list of The 10 Craziest How-To Books You Never Knew Existed. http://www.listanity.com/the-10-craziest-how-to-books-you-never-knew-existed/ -via the Presurfer

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Accident or malicious prank? Someone tied a rope in the wrong place, or failed to untie it, or something. Oops. -via Arbroath

How well do you remember the guests on Sesame Street? Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss asks you which news anchors and reporters made a guest appearance on the PBS kid’s show. I didn’t even finish the quiz, since I was already... let’s just say I was already in school when Sesame Street premiered in 1969. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/15050