nmb

Hooded seal pups need super fatty milk. Elephants like green bottles. That’s what I’ve learned from the Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals. Though maybe I picked up on some of the wrong details…

(What the baby elephants actually like is the low-protein formula in the green bottle.)

(via LII)

The claim was that it just showed up one day, the idea by its lonesome, and nobody the lesser for it. I could’ve told you it was a lie; did, but you didn’t listen. An idea like that someone doesn’t just “misplace.” It’s only moved by force. By violence.

This occurred on the Russian Soyuz-11 mission in 1971, when a seal leaked upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere; upon landing all three flight crew were found dead from asphyxiation.

Death and dying, over at NewScientist. Their self-proclaimed “Death Special.”

(via BoingBoing)

A graphics-rich daily exploration of superfund sites across the country.

(via Tawny Grammar)

Visit the Museum of Fantastic Specimens, in English.

(via MAKE)

(2006) dir. Andrew Currie - w/ Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly as a boy’s best friend, Dylan Baker as a man who has problems with zombies, K’Sun Ray as a zombie’s best friend, and others, in roles such as: Zombie Grandpa, Zombie Paperboy, Human Milkman, Dr. Hrothgar Geiger, and Poacher Driver (Zombie Poaching apparently being a lucrative career choice).

Synopsis: It’s the future, kind of, in an alternate sort of universe where it’s like the 1950s except for the part where space-dust has turned all the dead people into zombies, and a giant corporation has harnessed zombie power for the good of humanity. Also, you’re not allowed to have hand-guns till you’re 13 (until then, you have to make do with rifles–you think I’m kidding, but I’m not).

Review: Expecting to be mildly amused, I was warmly surprised by this movie. Morbidly heart-warming and coy, this is no great epic, but there are moments of surprising depth. It’s a stretch to apply the word “realistic”, probably, but there are scenes in which you realize that Fido (the titular zombie, played by Billy Connolly), despite being dead and all, is more human, and more compassionate, than some of the non-zombie characters. Performances all around are pretty swell–particularly Carrie-Anne Moss’s, which surprises particularly when compared to some of her better-known roles. All in all a comic, satisfying romp.

Rating: [••••] out of [•••••]

Mildly frightening robot cat. Just don’t let it eat the robot chicken.

(Somewhat surprisingly, not that robot chicken.)

(via Consumerist)

• Books You Can’t Read, via The Millions. Next installments, foods you can’t eat, cows you can’t milk.
• How easily can you get There From Here? A quick snap-bang-whiz online calculator to give you a “walkability” index for your neighborhood (or the address of your choosing). Based on respectably sensible things like the proximity of grocery stores, parks, public transit, etc. Via MetaFilter, and possibly also PLANetizen.
• Brazilian Psychedelic Groups hawks Oil. A commercial, found courtesy of WFMU.
• Girls Like Pink. Because of Berries. No, really! It’s scientific! Well, it is scientific. Whether or not it stands up as a valid theory is an entirely different issue. Maybe it’s my lack of versing, or maybe a poorly chosen headline, but the whole “may be hardwired” part sets me at a skeptical angle.
• How to destroy bottles. In a very precise, awesome way. Some day this will come in handy. And then you’ll be sorry you didn’t pay more attention. Via MAKE Blog.
• Really? “Cramming doesn’t work in the long-term.” Via EurekAlert.
• Not exactly Ha Ha, but Great. Listen to the latest episode of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency on the BBC. (And by latest, well–it’s not like there are new ones being written. Anyway.) Via Crooked Timber.
• Un-Bear-Lievable. Out in California, another giant cargo net saves the day. Assuming one saved the day in the past. Via Snopes. Follow the link for a heart-warming story of animal rescue.
• Still Great, Great Stills. Frame-by-frame comparisons of Simpsons stills vs. the movies they reference. Via BoingBoing.