Where does, “Mommy, an alligator bit my hand off” rank in the Top 100 Calls You Never Want To Make?

[CNN]

There’s some kooky stuff going on inside the rings of Saturn. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has identified distinctive giant propellers that could be created by a new class of moon.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spotted the distinctive structures inside some of Saturn’s rings, marking the first time scientists have managed to track the orbits of individual objects from within a debris disk like the one that makes up Saturn’s complicated ring system.

“Observing the motions of these disk-embedded objects provides a rare opportunity to gauge how the planets grew from, and interacted with, the disk of material surrounding the early sun,” said the study’s co-author Carolyn Porco, one of the lead researchers on the Cassini imaging team based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. “It allows us a glimpse into how the solar system ended up looking the way it does.”

Chew on that.

[Space]

You’ve found the physical remains of a dinosaur who a gaudy heart-shaped skull which by all probability was used to capture the attention of the opposite sex. What do you call it?

Over a few beers with fellow paleontologists one night, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: Mojoceratops.

“It was just a joke, but then everyone stopped and looked at each other and said, ‘Wait — that actually sounds cool,’ ” said Longrich, a postdoctoral associate at Yale University. “I tried to come up with serious names after that, but Mojoceratops just sort of stuck.”

With the publication of Longrich’s paper describing his find in the Journal of Paleontology, the name is now official.

Imagining the above clip a heart-headed dinosaur in the Austin Powers role has made my morning, please do the same! Hat tip to Dan Wheeler for sending this along.

[Science Daily]

From The Daily Mail:

Chinese airport was closed after this mysterious object was spotted in the sky.

Arcing over Zhejiang’s provincial capital Hangzhou, the UFO appeared to glow with an eerie white light and left a bright trail in its wake.

Xiaoshan Airport was closed after the UFO was detected at around 9 pm and dozens of flights had to be diverted.

No word yet on the origin of the mystery craft but if you have the gumption to fly across the galaxy, you could at least be courteous enough to obey local no-fly zones, right?

[Daily Mail]

So you’re a cute little monkey, scampering about the Amazon. For the sake of this discussion, your name is Joe. All of a sudden you hear someone yell, “Hey Joe! Nice haircut!” You look around, but don’t see anyone. What anonymous stranger is shouting compliments through the thick underbrush of the rain forest? Do they really like my haircut, or was it one of those backhanded compliments?

Lost in thought you make a left through a bush only to find yourself face to face with a gigantic jungle cat. You’re paralyzed with fear. The cat repeats his haircut compliment in what you now realize is just an uncanny monkey impression.

“By the way,” Jungle Cat purrs in his natural brogue. “Your hair makes your face look fat.”

And with that, you’re devoured. Victim of a deadly impression.

[Live Science]

Undefeated. Undisputed. Unequaled.

Paul The Octopus wins again.

Shooting a diamond bullet at anything might be the most Bowie badass thing ever conceived of, but if, as Chinese scientists are now theorizing it can also create nuclear power then we have a new favorite source of alternative energy.

[Popular Science]

As long as we’ve been circling the darn rock, astronauts have been baffled by the glow surrounding the moon during sunrises and sunsets. A new theory posits that overactive electrons are vomiting lunar dust off the surface and creating such a heavenly glow.

So, now we know.

[Space.com]

A Japanese coal city abandoned in 1974 has been officially off-limits for anyone looking to explore the slowly decaying buildings that once was home to thousands. That did not stop this brave explorer and his trusty guide who not only infiltrated the infamous Battleship Island but took some super insane pictures while there.

[Gakuranman]

Justin Robert Young recounts his harrowing ordeal in the Forest with a Million Eyes. Brian, Andrew and Justin then step into the treacherous mental playground of a loyal listener and reveal their most deep-seated primal motivations when they are faced with surviving in a post-Zombie Apocalypse. One of them will become a ravenous fiend roving the ruins of civilization in search of fresh brains. Another will unleash his inner amoral self and cackle in delight as the world burns and search out female survivors to indulge his earthly desires. The final member of the trio will rise above tragedy and seek out vengeance for the horrific fate the befell is family and adopt a heroic new identity, and another, and another.

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Skeletal remains of a primitive Neanderthals shows the males of the species were hormonally jacked and wielded “Popeye”-esqe arms.

Project leader Maria Mednikova told Discovery News that Neanderthal males hunted in the “extreme,” helping to beef up one arm.

“The common method for killing animals was direct contact with the victim,” said Mednikova, a professor in the Institute of Archaeology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The next step for this area of research confirming the ultimate masculinity of the Neanderthal? Being printed in full on muscle tees to be worn by UFC fighters during their ring entrance.

[Discovery]

We’ve covered the antics of the zoo at Oberhausen, Germany before. To recap, they’ve forced all of their animals to make predictions on German national World Cup games. The most accurate is Paul, an octopus who has correctly predicted every outcome, including one German loss.

Like a tentacled love child of Punxsutawney Phil and Jimmy The Greek, Paul arose from his habitat and pontificated another German victory yesterday over Argentina.

BUT WAIT! The Argentines have countered with their own psychic animal, Sayco a dolphin from the port city of Mar del Plata. The mammal made a dramatic leap out of his pool to knock loose a blue and white ball, ignoring a similar sphere colored red, white and yellow.

Paul! Sayco! Which animal is truly diving the whispers of the future and which is just a filthy, water-logged liar?

[AFP]

The fastest case of human evolution is credited to the Tibetan people who have evolved the ability to live in high altitudes without mountain sickness when compared to the Han Chinese.

Congrats!

[New York Times]