NewScientist does a weekly column "highlighting extraordinary animals" in the form of a blog called Zoologger.

This week they examine the Lion's Mane Jellyfish, which if you include the tentacles, can stretch to over 30 meters long! (That's roughly the same size as a blue whale.)

A pretty neat creature indeed.

I'm usually the first to shrug off Star Wars related nerdaphernalia as lame and/or overdone, but this one struck me as pretty funny.

Don't bother watching the intro (starts with a twitter post), but definitely check out the clip offered up on the site. It seems nerds around the world were pretty hard at work on this.

SUPERWIND!

A striking galaxy buzzing with energetic star formation takes center stage in a new photograph that showcases an unusual "superwind" of out-flowing gas, researchers say.

The starburst galaxy NGC 4666, located about 80 million light-years away from Earth, is a hotbed of intense star formation, which is thought to be caused by gravitational interactions between NGC 4666 and its neighboring galaxies, one of which is visible in the lower left of the new photo.

Heavy drinkers outlive non drinkers.
People who have 1-3 drinks a day outlive those who drink 4+ drinks a day and the 4+ a day drinkers outlive none drinkers. It's time to get our drink on.

Darius McCollum has been arrested for stealing a bus in New Jersey and driving it to JFK international airport.

The story gets better though, apparently Darius started his love affair with transit crime at the tender age of 15, when he commandeered a subway train and drove it to the World Trade Center. Since then, he has accumulated 26 more arrested, most of which involve impersonating transit officials.

It is believed that McCollum may suffer from autism or Asperger's syndrome.

Choice cuts from the article:

"Elizabeth McCollum said she moved to North Carolina 20 years ago with her only son, who would pick up and leave for New York because he missed the trains.

....His mother said that by the time he was 8 he had memorized the city subway system, by far the biggest in the country, and could direct a person to any point on it without consulting a map or guide."

Criminal acts, mental disorders, and public safety aside, I do applaud this guy for following his dreams.

The Arcade Fire's video for "We Used To Wait" is an interactive web browser based experiment.

Even though in ten years I"m sure this will seem as impressive as a dancing baby does today, I think it's a really cool experience to have right now.

It was built in HTML5 and is best viewed with spazdaq's favourite browser; Chrome.

We are soft-wired NOT for aggression, violence, self-interest & utilitarianism but for empathy, sociability, attachment, affection & companionship.

Rifkin gives a neurological and historical explanation for... our hope.

Mark Zable has entered his version of deep fried beer in a state fair in Texas.

His quote: “It tastes like you took a bite of hot pretzel dough and then took a drink of beer.”

Good enough for me.

An article on how money was wasted during the rebuilding effort in Iraq.

In summary:

1. Don't bother rebuilding till the fight is over because security for your rebuilding effort adds 30% to the cost.
2. Ask the Iraqi people if they really need that bridge to nowhere before you build it.

One of my favorite comments at the end of the article was... 'we're wasting it over there so we don't have to waste it over here'.

A guy by the name of Glen McCracken is trying to reach level 70 with a single kill. He is leveling up rather by securing flags in Domination, but also plays Demolition and Team Deathmatch as well. Right now, Glen is level 11, with 272 deaths and zero kills.

"I've already hit Prestige five times. I thought it would be something interesting to do," Glen told Game Informer. "It definitely gives you a different perspective on the game, and it's fun and challenging."