No, this isn't a jellybean. Instead, it's an invention for Gregg Miller to allow neutered dogs to feel complete.
Yup, Gregg mortaged his home to produce his invention: prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs called "neuticles". These neuticles come in different sizes, shapes, weights, and degree of firmness. Link
Miller's strange invention now has also won him the dubious yet strangely coveted Ig Nobel prize, a spoof on the Nobel prize and is awarded for odd scientific accomplishments.
Other Ig Nobel prizes include an experiment to see whether people can swim faster or slower in syrup than in water, experiment to monitor brain activity of locusts while they watch Star Wars, and more. Link
Greek company Intermat has created a paint that conceals military vehicles from thermal and infrared sensors (and from heat-seeking missiles, too!). Link (via Futurismic)
This amazing picture was the sharpest picture of the sun, taken using Swedish Solar Telescope at Canary Island, Spain. Remember, don't look directly at the sun. For more cool astronomy pictures, see: Astronomy Picture Of the Day.
During the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (yes, the one who shouted Eureka) supposedly created a set of mirrors that focused the sun's rays to burn Roman ship anchored nearby.
MIT professor David Wallace's engineering class successfully reconstructed this idea, after the Mythbusters on TV "busted" it as a myth. Link (via BoingBoing)
In April 2005, the image of the Virgin Mary, made from yellow and white stain on the concrete wall of Chicago's Kennedy Expressway underpass has attracted a lot of people.
According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, the stain is caused by salt run-off. But obviously the faithfuls believe otherwise.
Karen and Phil Swift's bulldog Tiberius crowned "Most Beautiful Bulldog" at Iowa's Drake Relay sporting event. He beat 50 other dogs for the "droopy eyes, protruding teeth, and slobbering" that characterize this (cute) breed. Link
Bobby Martin, a legless Ohio teen, was told at halftime that he couldn't play in his highschool football game because of a rule requiring players to wear shoes and knee pads.
Martin said that for the first time he felt disabled.
A week later, the Ohio High School Athletic Association reversed itself. (Stupid bureaucrats! You Go, Bobby!) Link
The Unquiet Tomb website is dedicated to finding (and exploring) abandoned houses, historical sites, and other strange places.
The building on the left is Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, with its shady past of patient cruelty and electroshock therapy. Link | Link to Greystone Park's entry
