While it sounds like the last half of a Harry Potter book title, the Fire Urchin isn’t quite as fun.

Fire Urchins, which are found off the coast of Maui, Hawaii, get their name not from their typically blazing colorations but from the fantastically painful sting that comes from messing with one of these things. Not only are its red and white hair-like spikes venomous but at the base of each one of those tiny harpoons are small pincers containing even more poison just waiting to latch on to whatever prey wanders too close.

What’s fascinating about the above photo (looking directly down onto the urchin from above) and makes it really weird is that nature photographer David Fleetham caught, for the first time, one of these urchins in its final moments.

Looking at the center of the photo, you’ll see what looks like a bag of balls from a Chuck E. Cheese ball-pit…only not it’s quite as fun…

That sack is actually its entire insides being expelled through its mouth.

SO cute…right?

[New Scientist]

Theme park.

Fun, right? You probably just flash-backed to some awesome memories of going to a theme park with friends and family and having a really good time. You might start humming ‘It’s a Small World’.

Well knock it off. There’s a theme park in this world that is meant to smack those happy memories out of your brain, remind you you’re a sinner and take you into the darkest corners of the world and THAT’S where we’re going…not some pastel-colored, Laughing Place.

We’re going to Wang Saen Suk Gardens where, instead of the smiling face of a familiar and friendly cartoon mouse, there’s the park entrance sign which simply reads:

“Welcome To Hell.”

Here comes the fun-suck, kids.

Wang Saen Suk Gardens in Bangkok, Thailand has a theme not really touched on much here in the states…the theme of Buddhism’s version of hell.

Amongst the statuary on display in the gardens are a plethora of sinners in various states of torture including a guy having his man-parts tugged on by ravenous dogs. Sounds like the perfect family outing, doesn’t it?

If you quietly and sarcastically said, “Not really”, then you’d be surprised to find that this themed destination, while not as smile-inducing as finding out you’re going to Walt Disney World, is quite popular amongst families who take their children there to scare them into complying with the culture’s moral code.

If any of you fine people go? We totally want a sippy cup and a fridge magnet.

Thanks.

[i09]

If you’ve never heard of ‘The Icecreamists’, a cutting edge ice cream lab/shop/parlor in Covent, London where owner Mark O’ Connor came under fire last year for his breastmilk ice cream.

But breastmillk was SO last year.

This year, O’ Connor’s latest creation is called the Vice Lolly (for those that’ve never heard the term, ‘lolly’ refers to candy or sweets…there…we’ve performed our community service for the week).

Made from a mix of holy water imported from the spring at the Grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes, sugar and 80% absinthe frozen into the shape of a pistol.

The holy water, taken from a spring where a 14 year-old claimed she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary. Thousands now flock to the grotto hoping for miracle cures to whatever ailments they may have. Which is what makes this popsicle so expensive…priests sell the supposed miracle holy water for about $123 a liter (~1 quart).

Next time you’re in London, you can experience your own visions via this absinthe imbued popsicle for about $28 (USD).

[The Icecreamists]

Japan suffered a devastating tsunami in March of 2011.

Typically after something like that occurs, an occasional piece of debris will wash up on the shores of other continents following the currents and tides.

In the Pacific Northwest an object washed up on an Oregon beach that could signal the beginning of something on a scale never seen before.

A massive chunk of an actual dock almost seventy-feet long, twenty-feet wide and at least seven-feet tall made landfall a few days ago. Experts didn’t expect to see debris from the horrific 2011 tsunami until March 2013. It’s happening a lot faster than they anticipated.

According to the Japanese Consulate in Portland there may be at least three more of these enormous docks on their way to the beaches of the West Coast.

Fishermen in the area are concerned about the errant debris and the damage it could do to their vessels when it arrives without warning.

In April the Coast Guard opened fire and sank a mysterious ship entering the nearby waters.

Turns out it was a Japanese ‘Ghost Ship’ that had drifted on its own all the way into the shipping lanes of Alaska.

[NPR]

That thing pictured over there to the right? That thing that looks like hair from your shower drain or a Giger-inspired coffee mug? It’s a living organism that just might be the future of how we harvest material for all of our tech needs.

Wait…wha?

That weird-looking thing is actually a genetically engineered living thing that, depending on the materials used to create it, produces various types of material including fiberglass and even magnetic nanoparticles.

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara are continually tweaking the original DNA combinations used in these things to produce not only materials which we are currently using but to produce new types of materials that hadn’t even existed before.

Remember when your grandma would crochet a sweater for you that you’d never wear? In about ten years time you’ll be crocheting a Kevlar-like sweater for your grandchildren except that instead of rolls of yarn? You’ll have a bunch of THESE things producing all your Kevlar in different colors sitting in an adorable little basket covered in holograms of geese wearing bonnets.

[ARSTechnica”]

Mama Nature is not happy lately…at all.

On June 7th in Denver, Colorado a storm system moving through the area brought hail…a friggin’ massive, omg-worthy amount of hail.

Weather Channel reporter Jim Cantore’s Twitter feed exploded with images from people living in the area showing they weren’t joking about there being a LOT of hail!

Did we mention there being a LOT of freakin’ hail?

During this absolutely over the top demonstration of what Mother Nature’s capable of, several tornados also allegedly touched down to wreak havoc across an area that’s ordinarily not affected by such meteorological nonsense.

[Weather.com]

You’ve had a long life. It’s time to check out. It’s a peaceful time and you know it’s about to come to a quiet conclusion. Everything’s cool and right. You hear a calming voice, “Don’t be afraid. I am here to comfort you.” You sigh.

“I am sorry your family and friends can not be here for you right now.”

The voice sounds synthetic. No one’s here? Who’s caressing my arm? Your eyes snap open. Then nothing.

Creepy? Seriously creepy.

Created by artist Dan Chen as part of an installation called ‘Last Moment Hospitable’, the ‘Last Moment Robot’ was inspired by Paro – a robotic seal used to comfort people suffering from Dementia. Chen’s goal was to test the idea of replacing human intimacy on an extreme level.

A “doctor” greets the visitors where they’re guided to lie on a table where the robot’s squeaky padded arm begins caressing their outstretched arms.

The robot keeps caressing through its recorded script.

“Your family and friends love you very much. They will remember you after you are gone.”

The caressing continues quietly for several moments until the robot speaks again…

When it very calmly states your time of death.

[Design Taxi]

Is this curious pig/dog hybrid creature a runaway from a lab experiment? A new cryptid? A beast of myth and fable?

No to the first, probably to the second and hopefully to the third.

As it turns out, this little fella is actually a very rare, and expensive, breed.

The bizarre looking stray – actually a rare pedigree Chinese crested hairless dog – was spotted wandering the streets in Xinxiang, Henan province, central China, close to several scientific research centres and a local medical school.

One witness said: “The pink skin makes it look just like pig gone wrong in some sort of genetic experiment.”

Police believe it got loose after giving it’s rich owners the slip.

[Orange] via readers Raph Ware and

Ever want to experience what it might be to lash out and just bite into another person’s face without taking bath salts or actually biting another person’s face?

Well now you can. But you’ll have to travel to Kittiwat Anarrom’s bakery in Thailand to have that experience.

Anarrom’s taken baking bread to a whole new horrifying level.

Using his Master’s Degree in fine arts and some culinary ingenuity, Anarrom’s family bakery has become something like a gift shop in a Saw film. Mixing food coloring, nuts and various ingredients, Anarrom has crafted arms, feet and even internal organs to add to the heads he originally produced.

As disturbing as all these loaves of bread look? The look on the faces of your kin at the next holiday meal where you’re required to bring a soup bowl will be priceless.

[InventorSpot]

No really…how many of you have been shopping the tool sections of your local hardware stores or hitting up your local big box store for supplies to combat the impending undead parade across the face of the earth?

We’re right there with you.

Just when you thought random face-eating attacks were creepy, a report comes in from Belem, Brazil about a deceased toddler that may have come back to life.

Two-year-old Kelvin Santos had been declared dead at Aberlardo Santos Hospital after pneumonia took him.

An open casket funeral was arranged so that family members could pay their last respects. About an hour before the service Kelvin, sat up, asked his father for a drink of water, then just as quickly as he sat up, he laid back down and went back to being…deceased?

Kelvin’s father Antonio Santos is demanding answers from the hospital and believes that malpractice is to blame for the strange incident.

[Daily Mail]

The zebra spider is unique in that it jumps to kill prey instead of spinning a web. But what happens when you remove gravity. How will the spider adapt. Will it realize it now has amazing John Carter of Mars powers and jump all over the place killing everything?

Thanks to an Egyptian teenager, we will find out for sure later this year. Amr Mohamed of Alexandria won one or two slots for YouTube’s Space Lab competition where anyone was invited to submit experiments that would be carried out on the International Space Station.

It was conceived through Mohamed’s fascination with both science and spiders.

“I’m just interested in how things work, and science seems to answer all my questions,” said Mohamed. “For example, physics can explain the world with just a handful of equations. And biology tells you how your body works. I’m just interested in that stuff.”

Below is Amr’s original video. When space spiders are the scourge of the galaxy, let’s remember who started this.

Just kidding, this kid is awesome. And props to YouTube for providing the opportunity.

[CNN]

Space seems to be the buzz word right now and if you’ve been following this site or its individual members for any length of time, you’ll know how much weight that word has around this place.

On June 5th, the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) on a five-year mission to study the sun, captured these striking images of the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun. Now those images have been compiled into one amazing video.

The event takes place in pairs that are eight years apart. The last time this happened was in 2004. Now, eight years later, it happened again and was caught by cameras with 8x the resolution of standard high-definition televisions to create this incredible video.

Now that it’s over we won’t see it happen again until the year 2117!

And by that time the bath salt epidemic will have wiped us out so enjoy it now, kids.

[NASA Explorer Channel on YouTube]

Robots. They’re already everywhere just waiting for SkyNet to give the word.

Up until now they’ve all been land-based future threats to humanity…up until now.

Besides Bruce, the shark from the original Jaws movie, robots that take to water are about as rare as cats who enjoy a good shower. Specifically humanoid ones.

Swumanoid is about to change that.

Swumanoid, created by Chung Changhyun and Motomu Nakashima at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in order to measure water resistance.

Created using a 3D printer and featuring about 20 waterproof motors, Swumanoid is able to accurately perform a breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, dog paddling and even tread water.

So if you’ve finally gotten over the whole “I’m scared of deep water because I don’t know what’s in there and it freaks me out” craze?

You now have something else to fear in the water besides a mechanical great white shark…

It’s name is Swumanoid.

[PlasticPals]

Every time we laugh about a zombie apocalypse another incident bites our lips right off our smiles and reminds us that we should probably stop laughing and start grabbing shovels.

This time around what began as a domestic disturbance call from neighbors turned into something that’s getting a little too familiar right now.

The ‘zombie’ in this case is 43-year-old Carl Jacquneaux. Todd Credeur, the victim who knew Jacquneaux, was outside working in his yard when we was attacked by Jacquneaux. Credeur stated that he was shocked when Jacquneaux bit him on the face. Credeur was able to spray wasp pray on Jacquneaux’s eyes and escape the attack.

Carl Jacquneaux wasn’t quite finished. He jumped into his car and headed to another friend’s where he that friend at knife-point and snagged a handgun.

That was when the law caught up with him.

While no one’s really sure what set Jacquneaux on his zombie-like attack on Credeur, one of the victim’s friends stated that he was, in fact, under the influence of something at the time.

Anyone want to venture to take you know, a big stab in the dark about what the victim’s friend claims he might’ve been taking?

Yep…

Bath salts.

[KATC News]

Ever grill during the summer? Ever notice how much more the flames rage when they hit a nice piece of fat?

It’s no different for human beings.

A crematorium in Austria caught fire recently not because of an arsonist, not because of some kid playing with matches and definitely not because some some dude tried to torch another dude who’d done too many bath salts before he went out among the populace searching for his next meal.

No. This particular blaze was caused by burning fat. Human burning fat.

A 440-pound Austrian woman was being cremated when the device became overheated and thick black smoke bellowed out of the machine and into the building. When firefighters arrived and tried to put it out they realized that even the vent had been covered in burning fat and was also on fire preventing them from using it to clear the smoke.

After spraying water through the vents from outside and controlling the fire raging from the cremation machine, firefighters were covered in the thick, oily soot you see in the photo.

While several crematoriums around the world are installing larger machines to accommodate the world’s expanding waistlines, many have yet to jump on board.

[Daily Mail]

While not quite a fashionable ‘Apocalyptic Red’ color, Lake Retba in Senegal, West Africa does something flamboyantly cool… it turns pink… like awesome strawberry-milk pink.

Lake Retba and the Dead Sea were given those names because it they were once thought to not be able to harbor life. Those lakes however are alive with a salt-loving organism called Dunaliella Salina which produce a red pigment that sunlights helps to turn pink.

Workers who harvest the salt often spend six to seven hours in the waters of the lake and cover themselves with shea butter which helps provide skin protection and from having salt crystals adhere to their bodies during their time in the lake.

[Daily Mail UK]