Remember the story of Beauty, the Alaskan bald eagle who lost her beak? National Geographic has an update on her story, as well as six other animals who have received artificial limbs and other body parts. Link
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
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When Dave Carroll and his band Sons of Maxwell wanted to complain about the way United Airlines handled their guitars, they tried going through the proper channels. A year later and no resolution, there's nothing else to do but write a song about it. There's also a text version with all the details. Since this video was released Monday, United Airlines has changed its tune and wants to talk to Dave Carroll about his guitar, and has scheduled a call to him today. Link -via Digg
Dark Roasted Blend takes a look at the flags of nations and empires that no longer exist. The double eagle is a recurring motif, found in the flags of the Byzantine Empire, Imperial Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Yugoslavia. Pictured is the Russian flag that was in use until the 1917 revolution. Link
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This ad celebrating the 50th anniversary of the PEN camera series required over 10,000 still photographs. It follows a user over 50 years. -Thanks, Chicomathmom!
Afraid of monsters under the bed? Your fears are confirmed when you have this rug from Jellio in your bedroom!
Place it under your child's bed and they're sure to have the coolest room on the block. Or just place it in the middle of a room to reveal a monster who's actually a little afraid of you.
http://www.jellio.com/store/boogiemanRug.html#
This Michael Jackson tribute features hundreds of people from all over the world (and some animals and objects) attempting to recreate the Moonwalk. Most don't quite succeed, but I have to admit I spent more time than I should have watching them. http://www.eternalmoonwalk.com/ -via Metafilter
The world's first fantasy magazine, Der Orchideengarten, was published in Germany from 1919 to 1921. The 51 issues featured artistic though sometimes disturbing cover art. Will at A Journey Round My Skull has obtained the first 14 issues and has scanned and posted the covers. Link
Artist Olivier Otten invites you to manipulate him in a series of interactive videos called Self-control Freak. You have to figure out how on your own. Link -via Everlasting Blort
The more we find out about the Apollo moon missions, the more we find they were operating closer to the edge than anyone outside of NASA knew. In an excerpt from Buzz Aldrin's new book, "Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon", he tells about a crucial circuit breaker he and Neil Armstrong found broken on the floor of the moon lander. Aldrin rigged the circuit by inserting a felt-tip pen, and hoped it would work during their liftoff.
Link -via Digg
The liftoff from the moon was intrinsically a tense time . The ascent stage simply had to work. The engines had to fire, propelling us upward, leaving the descent stage of the LM still sitting on the moon. We had no margin for error, no second chances, no rescue plans if the liftoff failed. There would be no way for Mike up in Columbia to retrieve us. We had no provision for another team to race from Earth to pick us up if the Eagle did not soar. Nor did we have food, water, or oxygen for more than a few hours.
Link -via Digg
From the title of today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, regular Neatorama readers might think you'll be asked to identify the tattoos of celebrity's faces people wear to show their fandom. But no, in this quiz you are asked to identify a celebrity from the tattoos they have themselves. I scored 50%, surprisingly because I didn't even know the celebrities, much less their tattoos! Good luck. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/27988
The Minneapolis StarTribune hosted their first annual Hot Dog Dressing Contest for Independence Day. The weiner winners included the pictured entry entitled "Dog Gone" by Mel Ferrer and Joanne Haas. You can see all the dressed dogs in their slide show. http://www.startribune.com/galleries/49629097.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUoaK7D_V_eDc87DUiacyKUUr -via Buzzfeed
In 1971, Juliane Koepcke was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed 91 people over Peru. She fell two miles and landed in the rain forest. The 17-year-old Koepcke then walked for ten days through jungle terrain to find help.
Koepcke is now a librarian in Munich. Read the whole story and see a video interview at CNN. Link -via reddit
As she travelled downstream, Koepcke discovered more wreckage from the plane -- and found some of the crash victims.
"I found another row of seats with three dead women still strapped in. They had landed head-first and the impact must have been so hard that they were buried almost two feet into the ground.
"I was horrified -- I didn't want to touch them but I wanted to make sure that my mother wasn't one of them. So I took a stick and knocked a shoe off one of the bodies. The toe nails had nail polish on them and I knew it could not have been my mother because she never used nail polish."
Juliane continued through the rainforest, wading through jungle streams infested with crocodiles, piranhas and devil rays.
Koepcke is now a librarian in Munich. Read the whole story and see a video interview at CNN. Link -via reddit
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This is a music video for "Hibi no Neiro" (Tone of everyday) by Sour. The people in it are fans of the band, and the whole thing was shot on webcams all over the world. At first, you think that using fans and webcams would be the cheap and easy way to produce a video, but then you see the result and realize how challenging this must have been to coordinate and edit. -via Metafilter
90-year-old Rachel Veitch of Orlando, Florida has been driving the same 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente since it was new. Now she has racked up 557,000 miles on the odometer -and it's still going great!
If the engine ever goes out, Veitch may be in trouble, because they are no longer manufactured. Link -via the Presurfer
Unlike her three husbands, Veitch says, the Mercury has "never lied to me, never cheated on me, and I can always depend on her."
Veitch is on her seventh Midas muffler, and thank you, gentlemen, for the lifetime warranty. She's had three sets of Sears shock absorbers, also through a lifetime warranty. And though the number seems high, she claims to have had 16 free batteries, courtesy of J.C. Penney and Firestone.
"She's demonstrating the perfect way to take care of a car," says Mike Hardie, director of global quality and productivity for Ford Motor Co., and that's what makes her a menace.
"If everyone did that," he says, "we'd never sell another one, so don't spread it around too far."
If the engine ever goes out, Veitch may be in trouble, because they are no longer manufactured. Link -via the Presurfer
Three new species of diniosaur have been found in the Australian outback. Two plant-eating species were nicknamed "Clancy" and "Matilda". The third dinosaur is a carnivore dubbed Australovenator Wintonensis, but nicknamed Banjo.
The bones will eventually go on display to the public. Link -via Fark
The meat-eating Banjo has been dubbed Australia's answer to the feared Velociraptor.
“The cheetah of his time, Banjo was light and agile,” said Queensland Museum paleantologist Scott Hocknull, who is among the scientists being credited with the discoveries.
“He could run down most prey with ease over open ground. His most distinguishing feature was three large slashing claws on each hand. Unlike some theropods that have small arms (think T. rex), Banjo was different; his arms were a primary weapon.
“He’s Australia's answer to velociraptor, but many times bigger and more terrifying.”
The bones will eventually go on display to the public. Link -via Fark
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