"He was twitching because he's got my axe embedded in his nervous system!" But if you have only a mass-produced reproduction of Gimli's axe, you probably won't have as high a kill count as the dwarven hero.

Tony Swatton, fortunately, is a master blacksmith and armorer. He forged a detailed, functional replica of Gimli's axe out of 148 layers of steel. Watch how he did it at the link.

Link [YouTube] -via Nerd Approved

(YouTube link)

John Green gives a quick roundup of grammar mistakes. Honestly, I know the rules, but the mistakes come from either my atrocious typing, my failing eyesight, or the fact that I edit text so much that the tenses don't match up in the finished product. Alex has a much better excuse: English is not his first language. But if we never made any errors, we'd get much fewer comments! -via mental_floss

PS: I never heard "menopause" for "mental floss," but unfortunately, I will now.

Approximately 40 bald eagles swarmed a Nissan truck parked in Unalaska, Alaska--the site of Japanese air raid during World War II. Guys, stop. They've been our allies for decades.

Coincidentally, there were bags of fish in the back of the truck.

Link -via Jalopnik

(Photo: KUCB)

Natural Magic: The Lore of the Forest Pendant Necklace

The Natural Magic: The Lore of the Forest Pendant Necklace from the NeatoShop is a  truly eye-catching piece of jewelry. It is designed to look like the eye of an Ent, a giant talking tree like being and one of the oldest and wisest beings in the dark world of the Middle Ages.  

The Natural Magic Necklace allows you to always keep an eye on someone you love. The necklace is handcrafted in England and is made of pewter. It features a realistic acrylic eye. Swarovski crystals accent this striking piece. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fascinating Jewelry. 

Link

You shall not pass .. without taking a look at this impressive LEGO recreation of The Battle of Helm's Deep from Lord of the Rings. Made by Rick-K and Big J, the diorama is 90% completed yet it's already 100% awesome.

The LEGO Battle of Helm's Deep has over 150,000 pieces and 1,700 minifigs:

Link - via Geekologie

View the neatest Lord of the Rings stuff from the NeatoShop

Muscular dystrophy gives Nick Torrance added challenges at Pickney Community High School in Pickney, Michigan. But opening his locker is no longer one of them, thanks to the mechanical ingenuity of fellow students Micah Stuhldreher and Wyatt Smrcka. Nick can now wave his hand over a sensor on his wheelchair whenever he needs to open or close his locker:

They were told to tear off a locker door and figure out a way to open and close it. They originally installed a relay inside the locker, but it took up too much space, so they switched to a computer.

They originally used a key fob to activate the robotic device, which opened the locker, but they said Torrance wasn’t strong enough to press the button. So they switched to a sensor.

The two students won a $1,500 minigrant from the Society of American Military Engineers so other devices can be made.

Both plan to pursue robotics as a career.

Link -via DVICE

(Photo: Gillis Benedict/Daily Press & Argus)

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Like many people, I watched Star Trek: TNG for years and never noticed how Riker sits down. And stands up. Jonathan Frakes is a tall guy with long legs, and was compelled to wear a jumpsuit uniform, so this might have been the easiest way he found to deal with chairs. Or it could be totally for style. But why did it take so long for anyone to notice? -via Metafilter

Luis Alberto Cayo's clever bronze pendant lets people know that you're a warm, welcoming host. And unlike a facehugger, it won't obscure your vision. Read an interview with Cayo at the link.

Link and Etsy Shop -via Nerd Bastards

(Photo: Girl Gone Geek)

Paraceratherium was a rhinoceros that lived around 20 million years ago. Standing tall with a longer neck, it doesn't much resemble a modern rhinoceros. The 15-20 ton giant is the subject of a new book by paleontologist Donald Prothero called Rhinoceros Giants. But it's not just about Paraceratherium. It's also a book about paleontologists finding evidence of Paraceratherium.

For more than the first half of the book, in fact, Paraceratherium only appears as scattered fragments that puzzled and inspired successive generations of paleontologists. Prothero recounts the lives of fossil mammal researchers such as Walter Granger, Henry Guy Ellcock Pilgrim, Clive Forster Cooper, and Zhou Ming-Zhen, among others, in detail before diving into the geological particulars of where Paraceratherium bones are found and where the giant fit in the wider rhino family tree. While a giant rhino without a horn might look odd compared to living species, Prothero points out that Paraceratherium belonged to a major and totally-extinct group of rhinos, and that most fossil rhinos don’t show any evidence of horns at all. Modern rhinos might look prehistoric, but they’re actually quite different from their varied predecessors.

Read more about this rhino and the book at Laelaps. Link-Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

These wonders can be found in the Rock River Canyon Wilderness area of the upper peninsula of Michigan. Nature photographer Nina Asunto snowshoed there to capture these amazing images. You can view more photos at the link.

Link -via Earth Science Picture of the Day

If you find jogging on the treadmill boring, try this instead: treadmill dancing! Was he inspired by OK GO's Treadmill Dancing?

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Holykaw and Pleated Jean

To celebrate Star Wars Weekends at Disney's Hollywood Studios this year, Etckt made a periodic table featuring the characters from Star Wars! Of course, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are the most elemental characters, with Grand Moff Tarkin up there, too, for some reason. You can recognize some characters by their initials and standing, or see the full-size version at the link to read them.

The allegiances of the characters are categorized, and their order of appearance and movies are numbered in each cell, although in the Arabesh language. Read more about how the chart is put together at Etckt. Link-Thanks, Matthew!

Who *yawn* are the most sleep deprived students in the world? Students from the United States, according to new research by Chad Minnich of Boston College:

"I think we underestimate the impact of sleep. Our data show that across countries internationally, on average, children who have more sleep achieve higher in maths, science and reading. That is exactly what our data show," says Chad Minnich, of the TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center.

"It's the same link for children who are lacking basic nutrition," says Mr Minnich, based at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College.

But what about those Asian students who study all the time?

Asian countries are the highest-performing in maths tests - and Mr Minnich says this has often been associated with long hours and cramming in after-school classes.

"One would assume that they would be extremely tired," he said. "And yet when we look at the sleep factor for them, they don't necessarily seem to be suffering from as much sleep deprivation as the other countries."

Minnich placed the blame on smartphones and laptops. Sean Coughlan of the BBC has more: Link

Bacon--it's nature's font of miracles! Pearl Cantrell of Richland Springs, Texas is 105 years old. How did she live so long? You already know the answer:

"I love bacon, I eat it everyday", says Pearl, "I don't feel as old as I am, that's all I can say", she explains.

Still feisty and full of life, Pearl has been through a lot, and has plenty of reasons to complain or even give up. After mothering seven children, outliving three of them, losing a husband, and enduring decades of physical labor, she still has a smile on her face.

"I would go to the field and work till dinner, then come home to fix dinner, then I would go back out to the field and work again until supper", Pearl tells us.

But Pearl's daughter, Anno, says complaining is the last thing you'll ever hear her mother do.

"She's taught us to work hard and to get up every morning and think about living. She's never thought about dying", says Anno.

Link -via Glenn Reynolds

(Image: KRBC)

Body Arts Teddy Bear (sold separaretly)

I know what you are thinking? Do I feel cuddly?  Well, do ya punk?   

Each adorable Body Arts Teddy Bear from the NeatoShop is made of soft patchwork fabric and features various body modifications. Tattoos, body piercing, and mohawks! Oh, my!

The Body Arts Teddy Bears are available in Chocolate and Gray. Buy both and make your day. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Plush Toys. 

Link

(YouTube link)

He's looking… he's thinking… he's figured it out! If cats had their way, all doors would be opened with latches instead of knobs. No, scratch that. If cats had their way, all doors would just stay open all the time. (via Tastefully Offensive)

Image: Van Engelsdorp, et al./Bee Informed

Nearly one third of commercial honeybee colonies in the United States didn't survive winter, and we're almost to the point of not having enough bees to pollinate crops:

“We’re getting closer and closer to the point where we don’t have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands,” said entomologist Dennis vanEngelstorp of the University of Maryland, who led the survey documenting the declines.

Beekeepers lost 31 percent of their colonies in late 2012 and early 2013, roughly double what’s considered acceptable attrition through natural causes. The losses are in keeping with rates documented since 2006, when beekeeper concerns prompted the first nationwide survey of honeybee health. Hopes raised by drop in rates of loss to 22 percent in 2011-2012 were wiped out by the new numbers.

The honeybee shortage nearly came to a head in March in California, when there were barely enough bees to pollinate the almond crop.

Had the weather not been ideal, the almonds would have gone unpollinated — a taste, as it were, of a future in which honeybee problems are not solved.

“If we want to grow fruits and nuts and berries, this is important,” said vanEngelstorp. “One in every three bites [of food consumed in the U.S.] is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees.”

Link

A Twitterbot has arisen to illustrate Betteridge's law of headlines, which states that any headline in the form of a question can be answered "No."

This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no." The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bollocks, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.

Therefore, The Answer is No replies to such headlines on Twitter with "no." It's a pretty busy bot. Link -via Laughing Squid

During the blanket coverage of the Cleveland kidnapping story, when TV anchors Ashleigh Banfield of CNN interviewed TV commentator Nancy Grace of Headline News, the split-screen satellite simulcast implies that the interviewer and interviewee were at a different location (after all, why would they need satellite, otherwise?), but eagle-eyed viewers pointed out that they were actually both at the same parking lot!

At first it seems like a normal TV "remote," as Banfield interviews Grace from another location. Then the channel's graphics alert viewers: both anchors are in Phoenix. That's odd. Also: They're both outdoors, sitting in what looks to be a parking lot. And is that same building behind them? [...]

It seems that Grace and Banfield are sitting in the same parking lot, facing in the same direction, and judging by the speed of the vehicles in their shots, they cannot be sitting more than 30 feet away from each other. Yet, they're behaving as if the are on opposite sides of the world.

Dashiell Bennett and Philip Bump of of The Atlantic Wire has more: Link

Police in San Adreas, a Colombian island in the Caribbean, arrested three women posing as nuns. They had $35,000 worth of cocaine underneath their habits as they entered the island at the San Adreas airport.

“They weren’t really religious, they weren’t nuns. On the contrary, they were taking advantage of this situation,” San Andres police commissioner Jorge Gomez told RCN TV.

According to the police official, the drugs — 60,000 doses — had a street value of $35,470 and was likely to be distributed locally.

The suspects, ages 20, 32, and 37 were jailed and are awaiting trial. Link -via Arbroath

It's Teacher Appreciation Week. Cartoonist Jim Benton illustrates their work well. I offer my thanks to Mr. Walzer, my sixth grade history teacher, for showing me a new world.

In the comments, tell us about a teacher that helped you.

Link

Remember the first time you gave an olive to your child, and the emotional reaction that came over his face?

Screened at the TEDxSydney conference on Saturday The First Taste captures in delightfully slow motion the unfettered reactions of a group of children trying foods such as anchovy, Vegemite and olives for the first time.

Matt Gilmour, creative director at marketing agency Saatchi & Saatchi, says the inspiration for the film came from his two-year-old daughter, whose bewildered disappointment at a gherkin features towards the end of the film.

These kids were filmed at 500 frames per second, so we don't miss a bit of the melodrama. Link -via Metafilter

The massive Oxford English Dictionary is, practically speaking, the official and exhaustive guide to the words of the English language. John Simpson, the Chief Editor, is retiring after 37 years with the project. He's spent decades tracking down the origins of different words. Simpson wrote in BBC News about his favorite word origins, such as etaoin shrdlu:

Etaoin shrdlu is an expression well known to newspaper compositors and little-known to readers.

It comes from the same stable as Anthony Burgess's Homage to Qwert Yuiop. Qwertyuiop is what you find on a computer screen (or, in the old days, on a typewriter) if you run your fingers along the top row of letters on a keyboard.

Etaoin shrdlu is the equivalent sequence of letters that an old-style Linotype printing machine operator would have put out by running his (or her) finger down the first two (leftmost) columns of Linotype keys.

But etaoin shrdlu had a purpose. The Linotype operator would hit these keys intentionally to signal that an error had been made and the preceding line should be removed from the type before it was printed.

Sometimes the type-setters and proofreaders were asleep and missed this alarm bell.

At the link, you can read about the origins of the words pom, pal, nacho and more.

Link -Thanks, Virginia!

(Photo: zigazou76)

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Stop motion visual effects master Ray Harryhausen died yesterday in London.

Harryhausen’s fascination with animated models began when he first saw Willis O’Brien’s creations in KING KONG with his boyhood friend, the author Ray Bradbury in 1933, and he made his first foray into filmmaking in 1935 with home-movies that featured his youthful attempts at model animation. Over the period of the next 46 years, he made some of the genres best known movies – MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949), IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955), 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957), MYSTERIUOUS ISLAND (1961), ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966), THER VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969), three films based on the adventures of SINBAD and CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981). He is perhaps best remembered for his extraordinary animation of seven skeletons in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) which took him three months to film.

In a career spanning more than half a century, Harryhausen brought a new level of imagination to movies, and influenced generations of visual effects artists. The video here is The Ray Harryhausen Creature List, featuring his stop-motion characters in chronological order. Harryhausen was 92. Link

Having trouble seeing poorly? Get a pair of glasses. Specifically, try Pam Tietze's H0les kaleidoscopic glasses. Will you be able to see better? Let's just say that other people will definitely see you.

Link -via Born Rich