(YouTube link)
This little guy looks like a Furby come to life! A commenter at YouTube identified this as the Spot-bellied Eagle Owl {wiki} which is native to southeast Asia. -via Arbroath

The 80s TV show MacGyver earned the name immortality as a synonym for a resourceful person who can solve any problem with only the objects within reach. It's also used as a verb for this process. Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will find out how much you remember about the show. I'm sure you will score better than I did! Link

There will be a lot of dyed eggs for Easter, but if you're going to eat them, you usually have to remove the colorful part first. Not so with these eggs! Jayne at Barefoot Kitchen Witch adapted the recipe for Chinese tea eggs to dye the edible parts of hard boiled eggs in bright holiday colors. You can serve them peeled in all their neon glory. Link -via the Presurfer

Tom and Ray Magliozzi are the stars of NPR's popular Car Talk, but they aren't the only people who make the show what it is. The website gives credit to a huge and interestingly-named staff. For example:

Alternative Fuel Consultant Amanda Livering Cole

Anger Management Coach Kirsten Hollered

Auto Seat Tester Fitz Matush

Bail Bond Provider Freida Gogh

Business Forecaster Luigi Bord

Door-to-Door Sales Annie Von Holm

Parts Inventory Manager Wayne Debach

Receptionist Sedona Tush

Link -via Bits and Pieces

Helmut from Austria and and Oliver from Switzerland took a train trip across Russia and into North Korea, without arranging their entrance point with the North Korean tourist agency. They took a route that was supposed to be "impossible" for tourists. In fact, the border personnel couldn't remember the last time Europeans traveled through their station.

Our two "translators" (they were about 30-40 years old) then wanted to see our passports. They thoroughly checked our visas and asked for where we were going and for what purpose (I answered by pointing on the Korean word next to the words "Purpose of entry" on my visa...). They asked for our nationality and I had the impression that they initially didn't exactly understand from what country I was from. I don't know how Austria is said in Korean language, and they didn't seem to know the Russian word "Avstriya". I finally tried to explain by drawing a map and saying that "Avstriya" is "nedaleko" (close) to "Germaniya"...
They sat quite a while with us and asked us also what was our job, what we knew about North Korea, how our media is reporting abouth North Korea, how we think about the United States, whether we have been there or were planning to go there, what we were thinking about Kim Jong Il and so on…of course we answered diplomatically.
However, they were always friendly and we had the impression that they were also very interested to talk with Europeans. Maybe it was the first time in their life they could do that.

The entire site is fascinating for train enthusiasts. If you are only interested in the North Korean part, you can skip ahead. Pictured is the Demilitarized Zone, which they visited from the northern side. Link -via reddit

The fast-paces time-wasting word game, indeed! DeepLeap is like speed Scrabble. Make words out of the letters you are given, but hurry before they disappear! Link -via BuzzFeed

Tomorrow will mark the 41st anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. LIFE magazine has published a set of pictures taken of the scene at the Lorraine Motel directly after the shooting. The photographs were previously unavailable to the public.

They were taken April 4, 1968, by Life magazine photographer Henry Groskinsky, who was on assignment in Alabama with writer Mike Silva when they learned that King had been shot in Memphis and rushed to the scene.

To their surprise, they had access not just to the motel but to King's room.

"I was very discreet. I shot just enough to document what was going on. I didn't want to make a nuisance of myself," the 75-year-old Groskinsky said in the caption to a photo showing a group of King's associates, including Andrew Young and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, assembled inside the room.

"It's very somber, and there I am with a flash camera. So I took a couple of pictures and just kind of backed off," Groskinsky said.

Link to story. Link to gallery. -via Fark

No, this is not a real space shuttle. It's made of Lego bricks!

Two Japanese LEGOsmiths used a whopping 65,000 bricks and 1,590 man hours to complete the stunning diorama, which even simulates a launch with flashing lights under the boosters and a vocal countdown. The only thing it doesn't do is lift off.

Part of the "Nasu Space Center," it appeared as a scene in Nasu Highland Park, an amusement park in Japan.

Link (with video). -via Digg

You knew it would happen, just like it happened last year. Think Geek added several fake products to its lineup on April Fools Day and now everyone wants a Tauntaun sleeping bag. They've added this to the listing:

ATTN Tauntaun Fanatics! Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license, nor do we know how much it would ultimately retail for. But if you are interested in ever owning one of these, click the link below and we'll try!

Link

Next time your boss catches you reading Neatorama instead of what your job description specifies, tell him/her about this study from the University of Melbourne.

Dr Brent Coker, from the Department of Management and Marketing, says that workers who engage in ‘Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing’ (WILB) are more productive than those who don’t.

“People who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t,” he says.

“Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos on YouTube, using social networking sites like Facebook or shopping online under the pretense that it costs millions in lost productivity, however that’s not always the case.”

http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/news/5750/

(image credit: Flickr use Valerie Reneé)

The Bubal Hartebeest was a magnificent, tough beast which was once domesticated by the ancient Egyptians as a food source and for sacrificial purposes. The creature was even mentioned in the Old Testament.

Although it once roamed throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East, the deep-rooted mythology which surrounded the animal was not enough to save it from European hunters who began hunting them for recreation and meat. The last Bubal Hartebeest was probably a female which died in the Paris Zoo in 1923.

Animals are going extinct at a much higher rate now than through most of the earth's history. Many species have disappeared since the development of photography. Take a good look, because this is all you'll see of these eleven species as they were. http://ecoworldly.com/2009/04/02/11-extinct-animals-that-have-been-photographed-alive/ -via Digg

Previously at Neatorama: Video of a Thylacine and an attempt to resurrect the Quagga.

Classic social programs dealing with long-term alcoholics are expensive and do not have a great success rate. In 2005, a controversial experimental program in Seattle began to put homeless drunks in their own apartment building and let them drink as they pleased.

A new study came out in JAMA this week detailing whether the concept of "Housing First," as it's known, had any impact (here's an AP piece on the study). The 98 street drunks whom the study tracked had cost the public $4,066 a month prior to entering 1811 and afterwards they cost $1,492 a month after six months in the facility and $958 a month after 12 months. That's a pretty big savings and, oddly enough, some of the residents began to drink less. Some even got sober. (Some also died.)

[...]

While this sort of program would have to replicated elsewhere to see if these savings hold, it sure is a vastly more humane way to deal with a chronic urban problem than in the past. It also has all sorts of implications for addressing homelessness among the mentally ill, chronic crackheads and junkies of every stripe. My own guess is that, for example, housing the mentally ill who are homeless instead of herding them into very stressful homeless shelters or leaving them to the streets would improve their mental health issues dramatically, with or without medications. There is something magical about having a roof over one's head, even a modest one.

The financial aspects of this experiment are not all that surprising, but is it really a good idea? Is it more ethical to spend time and money to try to save people from their own bad decisions, or to give them the dignity of living their lives the way they choose, however harmful? Does this kind of program send the wrong message? Or would it make our streets safer? http://www.furiousseasons.com/archives/2009/04/study_housing_homeless_drunks_and_letting_them_drink_saves_millions.html -via reddit

(image credit: Flickr user dno1967)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching, Germany presents a 24-hour webcast involving astronomical observatories around the world. Live streaming video will be available, plus links for each participating observatory and the times they will be online in Universal Time (GMT). The webcasts will start Friday morning at 5AM Eastern Daylight Time, or 9AM UT/GMT with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, then move around the world. The webcast is part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy project to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Gemini North Observatory)

How does a grown man accidentally swallow a pair of scissors?

Lin Kong had borrowed a four-inch-long pair of nail scissors to use instead of a toothpick to clean his teeth after a meal.

But as one of his friends told a joke, the 27-year-old laughed and swallowed the clippers.

As he tried to cough up the scissors, the points, which were facing upwards, dug deeper into his throat, causing serious damage.

Surgeons in Putian, China used local anaesthetic and surgically removed the scissors. Link -via Unique Daily

Mock Duck is "a delicious assortment of thrift store cookbooks", with scanned pictures and descriptions that will make your mouth water... NOT. This page is from a 1962 British cookbook called TV Suppers from Heinz.

Gaily coloured peppers almost make you forget you're eating beans again.

Pizza is topped with canned spaghetti and a lattice of anchovy fillets and processed cheese.

http://www.swankola.com/md/mockduck.html -via Everlasting Blort