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Jumping Stick Insect Looks Like A Sci-Fi Character

Alex Wild took this photo of an Apioscelis jumping stick insect in the Jatun Sacha reserve, Napo, Ecuador, that looks straight out of a sci-fi movie.

Barack Obama sings Call Me Maybe

Fadi Saleh, a 19-year-old biochemistry major, started Barack’s Dubs, a popular YouTube music video series that slices clips from Obama’s speeches together to forcefully recreate pop songs like “Born This Way” and “Call Me Maybe.” Backed by Maker Studies, his channel has over 127,000 subscribers and an online store, featuring T-shirts featuring Obama dressed as Lady Gaga and Redfoo from LMFAO with phrases like “Tea Party” and  “Sorry for party rocking.” Saleh uses videos from the White House public domain and his video-editing skills to produce this quality entertainment. Bravo!

Frankenstein's Monster Variations

This funky Frankenstein's monster sculpture looks good enough to eat! Created as part of the It’s Alive Project, this is one of 80 busts created by different artists striving to show the monster in a different light. Look out for the FrankenBieber, and the hilarious Mt. Frankenmore!

Gull Attack!

Wildlife photographer Markus Varesvuo snapped this amazing picture of a herring gull attacking an eagle. Gulls often join together to drive predators away from breeding grounds, but sometimes solitary gulls do the dirty work, too. For the greatest impact, they swoop in from above and behind a bird of prey.

Ketchup Fountain

Chocolate fountains…psshh, those are so 2008. These days, it’s all about the ketchup fountain when you want to make a classy statement at your next party.

Making of a 3D LEGO Chalk Drawing

After a picture of the LEGO street painting was posted on Reddit, the Internet took over, making it a sensation online. Created for the Sarasota Chalk Festival in Florida, this amazing mashup of Legos and Terracotta warriors is magnificent in every sense of the word.

What exactly went into creating it? "There were some challenges, starting with translating our first design to a gridded blueprint with the exact right distortions," said Peter Westerink of Planet Streetpainting. "Our next challenge was to copy the blueprint to the pavement, again in the exact right proportions, only 100 times bigger (30 x 40 feet)! Last, but not least, we had to make sure we would finish in time, while answering the questions of the thousands of people that came by daily to see our piece."

The Easter Island “Heads” Have Bodies

Maybe this isn’t a newsflash to anyone but me, but, um, the Moai “heads” on Easter Island have bodies. Because some of the statues are set deep into the ground, and because the heads on the statues are disproportionately large, many people (myself included) tend to think of them as just big heads. But the bodies (generally not including legs, though there is at least one kneeling statue) are there — in many cases, underground. What’s even more interesting — there are petroglyphs (rock markings) that have been preserved below the soil level, where they have been protected from erosion. This research report has been making the rounds; it discusses recent progress by The Easter Island Statue Project to uncover, study, and catalogue two statues.

Smiling Faces

What you are looking at here is a cross-section of a blade of marram grass, which is used to stabilize coastal dunes. Fluorescent dye has been added to highlight the internal structures. Those internal structures look happy to see us! Read more about it at Beyond the Human Eye.

Famous Capsules

This artwork by Grégoire Guillemin contains lots of pop culture icons. How many do you recognize? I didn’t count, but most of them are familiar enough. You can see larger images at Guillemin’s gallery (which contains just a couple of spoilers).