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Pink dolphins

Amazon river dolphins may not be oceanic dolphins like the ones that most people are familiar with, but as river dolphins, they still fit under a general classification of "dolphin", even though they are officially classified under a different taxonomic family than ocean-living dolphins. Besides being shockingly pink, they can turn their heads 180 degrees around, if that talent interests you.

















(picture via ISPTR)
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Simultaneous lightning strikes in Chicago

A Chicago Tribune photographer caught two lightning bolts striking both the Trump and Sears (now Willis) Tower at the same time during last night's mega-thunderstorm in Chicago. The resulting image was amazing, and looks like it should be on one of those motivational posters (although I can't imagine what the tag word would be for this picture. Teamwork? Possibility? Impossibility?)

See the photo here.
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Youtube's vuvuzela button

In honor of that never-ending droning heard at the World Cup 2010 games, Youtube has added a vuvuzela button at the bottom of some of their videos (from my research, it shows up not only on World Cup videos, but on some non-related videos as well). It pretty much does the opposite of what 99% of TV viewers want: instead of muting the vuvuzela sounds, it adds them to your video. All you have to do is press that little soccer ball on the right bottom corner, and you can feel like you're watching 30 Rock IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Edit: It looks like the button doesn't show up on externally embedded videos, so double click the video to watch in a separate window and try the button on Youtube's actual site. But I'm going to keep the video here regardless because I like this clip.



(via Techcrunch)
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BATMAN GOLF CART.

This is gold.






















(via This LA Life through Google Reader Play)
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Romanian stowaway

A Romanian man has successfully stowed away on a flight in an external wheel compartment while sustaining minimal injuries.

With all the pressurization that you feel within the cabin during a flight, as well as the frost on the windows that indicate below-freezing temperatures outside of the plane, you would think that a person would never be able to survive outside without certain death. But this guy managed to survive the flight between Vienna and London relatively unharmed, barring some bruises and hypothermia. He wasn't deported or charged - after being taken into custody by the Metropolitan Police in the UK, he was released with no charges against him. He didn't even have to worry about immigration or anything because, as both Romania and the UK are part of the EU, Romanian citizens are allowed to travel freely to London. 

Under normal circumstances, this guy probably wouldn't have survived, so don't try it at home. The plane reportedly had to fly at lower altitudes than normal because of stormy weather, meaning that oxygen levels were still enough to sustain him. If the plane had flown at normal heights (i.e. higher), the lack of oxygen probably would have knocked him out or killed him, not to mention the effect of the colder temperatures at higher altitudes (it was already around -41F at the level the plane was at, so that was BUTT COLD as it was). If he had fallen unconscious, when the wheels came down again, he could have just fallen out and died that way, even if he had managed to find the right spot to hide in so that the wheels wouldn't have crushed him coming up in the first place.

Man, this guy is really lucky. He manages not to die while essentially being holed up outside of the plane for hours, and then he gets off scot-free with the police as well.

(via BBC)
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Hello Kitty petrol

Oh look, Hello Kitty-branded gasoline. $32 for 3L of the stuff. Thanks Japan.

























(via designboom)
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Refs at the World Cup

So after the scandal of Koman Coulibaly and the USA-Slovenia game, I thought that the big refereeing controversies would be over, at least for a little while. After all, how many controversial calls can you fit into the course of a weekend?

I was proven wrong. There were plenty, such as in the Germany-Serbia game, where there were 9 (9!!) yellow cards called in that single game alone. And then, in the Brazil-Ivory Coast game, two handballs were committed in Brazil's second goal, but neither one was spotted by either the refs or the players.


But I think the most mind-boggling one I witnessed was during Sunday's same Brazil-Ivory Coast game. In the replays, the Ivorian Abdul Kater Keita is running, knocks into Kaká (who isn't looking his way), and falls down, clutching his face, even though Kaká's arm had only knocked him in the chest. The ref apparently doesn't really see what went down, but sends Kaká off with a red card anyways, meaning that he's not allowed to play in Brazil's next game against Portugal. Of course, Brazil is already through the group stage, so it's not really that big of a problem, but still. You can see the footage below. What dirty playing from Kader Keita - go to :20 for the action.