Friday Fun Links

Duetto buffo di due gatti means The Cats Duet in English. Here are two versions, from a boys choir and a couple of kittens.

Maurice Sendak talks about Where the Wild Things Are. Plus a look at the new film version, with which he is pleased.

5-year-old Wesley performs Folsom Prison Blues at the 2009 Spring Coffee Shop Jam in Seattle. (via Videogum)

13 Most Unfortunate Personal Names, plus more contributed by readers. Some people take naming their baby less seriously than most of us.

Le Wrath di Khan: Robot Chicken presents Star Trek II as opera. Spock has never been so emotional, or unintelligible.

It Almost Makes Sense Now. William Shatner performs Sarah Palin's farewell speech as poetry.

Jake Bronstein set the world record for longest whisper chain, passing a message through 59 people. The successful message was a marriage proposal to his girlfriend!

A 1954 version of Ghost Busters, starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, and Fred MacMurray. A masterful mashup of 17 movies and TV shows.

Cheetah Racing

They don't look like they're even breaking a sweat. (via Unique Daily)

9 Mysterious Ape-men from Around the World

Most of us in the US are familiar with the cryptid Sasquatch (or Bigfoot) and its Asian counterpart the Yeti (or Abominable Snowman). Those are far from the only mysterious giant apes or hominids lurking in either deep forests or our imagination. In fact, such rarely-seen animals are reported all over the world. Let’s take a look at just a few of their lesser-publicized cousins in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Recommended Reading

An adorable dog goes blind and learns to negotiate the world all over again. Similar stories are in the comments.

A story about a homeless man in California found its way to his children in Texas. Now after 12 years, he is finally home.

Born at 23 weeks gestation, medical science saved her babies against her wishes, one for a few days, the other for eight years of severe disabilities. Who should have the final say on extraordinary medical intervention?

The art of the excuse note. Frank McCourt turned his student's forgeries into a creative writing assignment, since they were already overly creative.

Children Full of Life. An extraordinary 4th grade class in Japan, where Mr. Kanamori encourages children to write about and share their feelings. Once you start watching, you won't want to stop. (via Metafilter)

Uranium mining has contaminated a large part of Navaho land. Fifty years later, the residents are finding out how bad it really is.

My new favorite recipe blog: How To Cook Like Your Grandmother. I'm trying the brown sugar buttercream frosting tonight!

Transparent aluminum is here. Scientists who watch Star Trek movies have created what they call a completely new state of matter. (via Geek Like Me)

Jason Bought a Hatchet

Song by Giggle Party. Animation by Damien Weighill and Stephen Wake. (via Everlasting Blort)

Funny Links

The Rubix Cubewich: a sandwich that's a Rubik's Cube made of pastrami, salami, cheese, and all-around deliciousness. I want one NOW! (via Neatorama)

They had to reshoot the end of Back to the Future for the beginning of the sequal, since there was a new actress playing Jennifer. Now you can see a side-by-side comparison.

Cat ladders, a blog chronicling cats ladders found around the world.

Adrenaline junkie skates down 860 metre roller coaster.

An unequal relationship. What's even funnier than the comic is how the commenters are discussing the math instead of the point of the comic. Then again, maybe that IS the point of the comic.

The 7 Professors You'll Have in College. I graduated thirty years ago and still remember all seven. (via Gorilla Mask)

Teaching Grandma English. NSFW.

Where Are They Now? The Cast of Night Court.

I Can Only Imagine

Footage from the Dick and Rick Hoyt story cut to "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me.

9 Notorious Squirrels

My husband talks about his days as a long-haul truck driver and the pet squirrel who kept him company (and startled many a driver at truck stops). His stories remind me of the many squirrels I’ve encountered in movies, television, and the internet. Read about them in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Recommended Reads

One Giant Screwup for Mankind. NASA put a man on the moon, then lost the videotape. It's probably in the warehouse right next to the Ark of the Covenant. (via Dark Roasted Blend)

100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About. Mine certainly know what cash is, since for ask for it constantly!

5 Horrifying Apocalyptic Scenarios (That Have Already Happened). It's happened before, so odds are that something bad will happen again sometime.

A succinct synopsis of World War II. On Urban Dictionary, but don't be afraid to read it.

Do people take out payday loans because they're desperate—or because they don't understand the terms? A study shows that making the terms clear discourages such loans, but only for people who can scrape by without them.

How Five Gangsters Met Their Makers. Live a violent life; die a violent death -in most cases.

How to make your own colored soap bubbles. The ingredient shopping is the hardest part of the recipe.

7 True Stories That Prove The Airlines Hate You.

Best of Maru 2008

For those who can't get enough of Maru. See new videos and pictures at Maru's blog.

Elephant Soccer

Friday Fun Links

7 Ridiculously involved College Pranks. Silly, juvenile stuff that you wish you'd thought of first.

Get Off My Phone! Glenn Beck's radio rant is remixed to include vampires.

Explaining Post-Modernism with Cats. I understand now, but the cats understand better.

43 weird things said in job interviews. Or, how to make sure you don't get hired.

Way better than a hokey dance exhibition at a wedding reception, this joyous processional involves the entire wedding party. I bet it will make you smile, too.

Sleeping with a wombat. All together now... Awwww!

The 10 Craziest Competitive Eating Moments. You may want to watch this after your breakfast.

The weirdest news stories of the week.

Really Weird Bird Anatomy

The closer you look, the weirder Mother Nature appears. Some birds that look absolutely common on the outside have anatomical features that will surprise you, like a trombone in the throat or a tongue that wraps around the eye. Read about them in this article I wrote for mental_floss.

Informative Links

A dramatic loss of genes from the Y chromosome could mean it may be gone in about a thousand years. However, geneticists believe that men will continue to be men, even without it.

Amazing Ambushes from the Macroscopic Universe. The nefarious ways these insects go about trapping their prey will make you thankful you are as big as you are.

Animal researcher Shaun Ellis teaches an orphan wolf cub to howl. The cub's response is too adorable for words.

The 10 Worst Evolutionary Designs. Wired looks at ten body parts that could've used some intelligence in their design.

7 Fatal Injuries (That People Somehow Survived). With graphic descriptions that are not for the squeamish.

In January of 1960 two men climbed aboard an experimental deep sea bathysphere and dived to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. It was the first (and last) time human beings ever traveled to the deepest part of the earth's oceans -seven miles down!

There was plenty of stress in the 19th and 20th centuries, and people were happy to throw everything nature and medical science could provide to relieve it. That included cocaine, heroine, opium, amphetamines, and of course, plenty of alcohol for all ages. (via the Presurfer)

20 Fascinating Ancient Maps. War maps, demographic maps, William Clark's hand-drawn map, and the island of California.

What rap music sounds like in 30 different languages. In case you don't know, Wolof is spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania.

MySpace

(via Bits and Pieces)

Fun and Funny Links

One truly strange story of kinky sex and attempted homicide.

This is how you draw a crowd at Dance Dance Revolution. (via b3ta)

Dance-Off with the Star War Stars 2009. The annual Disney celebration has Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers doing MC Hammer.

A Russian hobbyist put together a diorama of World War II action figures assembling a terminator to fight the Germans. The title of the post is Laughter is Stalin's Secret Weapon. (via Metafilter)

What men are really thinking. Letting women think they are simple minded is much easier than discussing their thoughts!

Lithuanian composer Mindaugas Piečaitis wrote a performance for Nora, the Piano Playing Cat, and debuted Catcerto on June 5th. Nora played with the Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra through the magic of video recording.

If you got your chance to go on a national news program for an interview, would you have the cajones to pull this off? The result is way more attention and fame.

From Slate magazine, a masterful edit showing how modern news outlets would cover the first man on the moon. Even Twitter gets some airtime. (via Buzzfeed)

Squirrel Fight

(via Everlasting Blort)

Dancing on Crutches

For most of us, using crutches to get around would be an excuse to sit on the side of the dance floor. A select few take those crutches and outshine everyone around them. In this article I wrote for mental_floss are the stories of four men who have two things in common: they use a crutch or two, and they are very, very good dancers.

Informative Links

Achieving US citizenship the hard way. The most prized passport in the world comes through a bizarre process you have to experience to believe.

5 Surprising Divinity School Dropouts. Surprising because you know them by the very different careers they took up instead.

The Wonderful World of Big Science. A look at ten of the biggest collaborative projects that changed (or are changing) the world.

How E. coli Sees The Future. The little bug causes a lot of grief, but you have to admire any organism with so many survival mechanisms.

The Evolution of Cats: Sabertooth vs. Regular.

Masturbation in the animal kingdom.

Meet Phineas Gage. This newly discovered picture may be the only existing photograph of the man who survived being impaled through the brain with an iron pole. (via Neurophilosophy)

5 Spies with Bigger Balls Than James Bond. True stories that Ian Fleming couldn't use because no one would believe them. (via Gorilla Mask)

Links for Fun

If Spammers Wrote Cialis Ads. Way funnier than it sounds.

The 101 Muppets of Sesame Street, in celebration of the series' 40th anniversary. Roll over each for a short biography.

It there weren't occasional slow news days, we wouldn't have the delight of seeing a report on a squirrel stuck in a yogurt cup.

Top 10 Most Unusual State Fair Foods. Chicken-fried Bacon, anyone?

Dancing paper clips on a train in Japan. No special effects; the train is powered by electricity, which sends a magnetic pull through the floor. (via Boing Boing)

They've finally combined snow skiing and water skiing. You ski down a hill and onto a lake and see how far you can go before sinking.

What really happens when you try to recreate Tetris in real life. (Thanks, PAgent!)

Sleeping Around Craigslist: Two middle-aged women discover that casual sex can be anything but casual. (via YesButNoButYes)