Flickr user Ian Boyd posted this photo of an amusing garage door warning, noting "This was on the old Island 2000 Trust garage up along the Forest Road, sadly now demolished and gone forever." The message reads, "PLEASE DO NOT BLOCK THESE DOORS UNLESS WE SAY 'OH ALRIGHT JUST THIS ONCE THEN.'" Link (Thanks, David!)

 

If you drop molten glass into a bucket of water, it will solidify into what's called a "Prince Rupert's Drop." According to this Corning video, the surface of the drop is in a state of great compression, while the interior is in a state of great tension. You can squeeze the bulbous part of the drop with pliers or bang on it with a hammer to no avail. However, if you snap off the hair-thin tail at the end of the drop, it'll shatter into dust. (Via forgetomori)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to larger size. P-shopped by a Boing Boing reader who posts as HOLTT, from this thread about an ETEch snap. Our colleague Joel Johnson, not pictured, is of course -- the Wizard. (thanks, Teresa!)

Wired New reports that the "herbal viagra" spammers like to peddle contain "unnatural chemicals" that "can affect the cardiovascular system or interact with other drugs" and "are quite dangerous."

This isn't too surprising. Spammers would happily sell cyanide to kids if they could make a buck from it. The real reason I liked this story is for the atrocious and infantile puns in the comments section of the story. That said, I think Boing Boing's members can give Wired's members some stiff competition in this department. Link

Incontrovertible proof that the Lizard Man of Lee County, SC is back.

Dixie Rawson of Bishopville sent WIS News 10 an e-mail about a big surprise she got at her home Thursday morning. “The whole front half of our van is chewed up. There are bite marks right through the front grill. Both sides of the van above the wheel wells were bitten and the metal is bent like a piece of paper.”

It reminded Dixie of the local legend of the “Lizard Man” that stretches back for decades. Now some are wondering if the Lizard Man is back.

Loren Colemn of Crytomundo has some background on the reptilian vandal:

The sighting of the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp (also known as The Lizard Man Of Lee County) was a major media event. First with one sighting and then others, it was said to be a humanoid cryptid, perhaps a merbeing, inhabiting areas of swampland in and around Lee County, South Carolina.

The Lizard Man was described at the time as being quite tall, bipedal, and having what appeared to be scaly skin and glowing red eyes. In the popular media rendering, it was said to have three toes on each foot and three fingers on each hand that end in long black claw-like nails.

The first reported sighting of the Scape Ore creature occurred on June 29, 1988, but was soon followed by others, including information that was revealed about an earlier sighting in 1987.

Now, almost exactly twenty years after the initial media flap of the Scape Ore event, is the Lizard Man back?

Barack OBollywood is a Hindi-film-style music video starring remixed footage of Barack Obama, cleverly cut so that he appears to be singing along. I don't know if the lyrics are political at all -- that would be extra credit, for sure. Link (via Neatorama)

Charles Booth's groundbreaking "Poverty Maps" of London from 1886 to 1903 used survey data to visually represent the quality of life for Londoners across a city that was characterized by enormous economic disparity. The LSE maintains an archive of the maps, zoomable and overlaid with the contemporary London map. The maps are colored from black ("Lowest class. Vicious, semi-criminal.") to yellow ("Upper-middle and Upper classes. Wealthy.") Link