A bacon sandwich is good anytime, but August s the best time for BLTs, when local tomatoes are at their peak. At the fifth annual Tomato Fest in St. Louis, Tom Coghill and 90 volunteers put together a BLT that stretched 179 feet, two inches, breaking the world record for the biggest bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. They used 500 pounds of bacon, 1,280 pounds of tomatoes, and 100 heads of lettuce. Link -via Digg

Who could ever forget such memorable films as Eegah, Sssssss, Phffft, and Ghost in the Invisible Bikini? The great majority of the movie-going audience, it seems. Bad movie titles go with bad movies most of the time, but every once in a while there's a gem with a real stinker for a title. Good luck finding one! Link -via Unique Daily

Italians scientists have developed a new artificial bone made from wood should be an improvement over the plastic and metal that are now used for implants. Derived from organic material, the new bone substitute will promote faster healing.

To create the bone substitute, the scientists start with a block of wood -- red oak, rattan and sipo work best -- and heat it until all that remains is pure carbon, which is basically charcoal.

The scientists then spray calcium over the carbon, creating calcium carbide. Additional chemical and physical steps convert the calcium carbide into carbonated hydroxyapatite, which can then be implanted and serves as the artificial bone.

Link -via Digg

The more astronauts we had, the less likely their names stay in your memory. Twelve men walked on the moon, but few of us can name those whose mission number was higher than eleven. In today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you'll be given names that could be a pro golfer, or could be an Apollo astronaut. Can you sort them out? I surprised myself by scoring 92%, or 11 out of 12. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/31214

Must Pop Words is a straightforward but addictive clear-the-board game mixed with a word game. As letters drop, you type in any words they can form, which will clear those letters. Don't let the screen fill up with letters! I scored 3576 on the first try. Link -via the Presurfer

Betty A. Lichtenstein of Norwalk, Connecticut was lauded as "nurse of the year" at a fancy dinner in 2008. Now an investigation finds that Lichtenstein wasn't even a nurse!

An investigation then determined that Lichtenstein never had a license, yet had administered injections and given medical advice to the doctor's patients, according to the warrant.

The doctor's and his employees' belief that Lichtenstein was a nurse was reinforced when in November 2008 she was honored as "2008 Nurse of the Year" by the Connecticut Nursing Association.

The investigation determined, however, that the Connecticut Nursing Association does not exist and that Lichtenstein used $2,000 of her own money to stage the dinner, according to the warrant.

The doctor who employed Lichtenstein was asked to speak at the event. Lichtenstein was arrested in May on unrelated charges involving prescription drugs. http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-nurse-fraud-0807.artaug07,0,160045.story -via Arbroath

Just about the only thing that can make a cute baby animal cuter is to be born with markings that say "love". See five creatures who have their heart showing, including this ox with a forehead heart. Link

(image credit: L.A.Times)

You know about these famous landmarks, but do you know where to go to see them? In this Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss, you'll be given a landmark and you decide where it is. It's a bit harder than you might think. I scored 77%. Link

Translation Party is where you can type in an English phrase and have it translated into Japanese and back again, several times until it gets as funny as it can be. I tried "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" and you can see what the final result was. Link -via the Presurfer

Today (August 6th) is the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, by the United States. The blast killed an estimated 70,000 people immediately, with possibly that many again dying of radiation in the years afterward. The Big Picture has a collection of photographs from the time to commemorate the anniversary. Link

(image credit: US National Archives)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is apparently concerned with more than raising crops, has announced that the estimated cost of raising a child born in 2008 from birth to age 18 is $221,190. If you adjust for expected inflation before the child reaches adulthood, that figure is $291,570. Your mileage may vary.

The report by USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion notes that family income affects child rearing costs. A family earning less than $56,870 per year can expect to spend a total of $159,870 (in 2008 dollars) on a child from birth through high school. Similarly, parents with an income between $56,870 and $98,470 can expect to spend $221,190; and a family earning more than $98,470 can expect to spend $366,660. In 1960, a middle-income family could have expected to spend $25,230 ($183,509 in 2008 dollars) to raise a child through age seventeen.

When you consider the income levels in these calculations, it doesn't seem all that bad. Many families spend more than that on a house. Then again, the child's shelter expense is the biggest item on the total bill, comprising 32% of the total. Link -via J-Walk Blog

(image credit: Flickr user Matt Stratton)

The International Olympic Committee will decide by October which city will host the 2016 Summer Games. The finalists are Chicago, Madrid, Rio, and Tokyo. The design blog idsgn has the proposed logos for each finalist and some runners-up. Which design do you think is best? Link -via Buzzfeed

Whaling was a profitable industry throughout the second half of the 19th century. One sperm whale could net a ship up to three tons of spermaceti, or whale oil, which was used for lamp oil and in many other products. The sperm whale has the largest teeth of any animal; one tooth can weigh seven pounds! While at sea, sailors would pass the time by etching artworks into the teeth, originating an art form called scrimshaw. The Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine has a collection of whale tooth scrimshaw, several examples of which you can see at Curious Expeditions. Link

Scientists from the the Tokyo University of Science used mouse stem cells to grow a new tooth that worked like a charm in a mouse's mouth. The cells were grown in a lab dish until a tiny tooth "bud" formed. It was then transferred to the jaw of a mouse where a tooth had been removed. The new tooth erupted through the gum in about five weeks, and was fully grown in seven.

The researchers, who repeated the experiment many times, also showed that the new, bioengineered teeth were fully-functional.

Dr Kazuhisa Nakao said: 'Every bio- engineered tooth erupted through the gum and had every tooth component such as dentine, enamel, pulp, blood vessels, nerve fibres, crown and root.'

Importantly, the rodent recipients had no trouble eating.

If the technique can be used in humans, dentures may eventually be obsolete. The tooth shown in the picture also had a green fluorescent gene so it could be seen easily. Link -via Digg

When Aidra Frazier and Ernest Leitch of Buhl, Idaho got married on July 4th, they wanted a theme for the wedding. Independence Day wouldn't do, so they went with the video game Katamari Damacy. Link

Link to more pictures.

(image credit: Kristin Shultz)