Fatbob

The animal kingdom is full of surprises.

This gentle bear at the Budapest Zoo in Hungary shocked onlookers when it rescued a crow from drowning.

The YouTube clip, uploaded by user Aleksander Medves, shows a bear inspecting a crow on June 19 (it was put on YouTube a few days later). The crow was unable to escape a pool in the bear's enclosure, and after a few tense moments, the bear approaches, pulls the crow out and places it safely on the ground

The crow is visibly stunned — most likely, they expected the crow to be the bear's dinner. The bear just moseys off and eats what appears to be an apple instead of his feathered friend Read more...

More about Viral Videos, Animals, Cute Animals, Bear, and Watercooler

You hear cucumber-yogurt soup, and you might think of slim-waisted, still-hungry women sipping delicate spoonfuls. Diana Henry's version in A Change of Appetite is less 'ladies who lunch' and more Elaine Stritch singing "Ladies Who Lunch:" ballsy, dynamic, and unexpectedly complex. Read More

Thanks Mike (from Spain)

Cartoon universes are about to collide in Springfield as both Family Guy and Futurama are set to make appearances in the land of the Flaming Moe.

We all know Family Guy "borrowed" a lot from The Simpsons, like the fact that they both star a fat, oafy father, and they're both satirical takes on the average American family, just to name a few similarities, but these two iconic cartoon families have never come together for a full episode...until now.

Here's a sneak peek at the episode entitled "The Simpsons Guy", which will air on September 28th:

(Video Link)

And after the Griffins pay a visit to Springfield the Planet Express crew is set to come back from the grave for a one episode appearance in Springfield, thanks to a rift between Groening dimensions that really should have been opened years ago:

Simpsorama will feature Bender and Bart colliding in a battle of the bad boys sure to make cartoon history! Is this crossover Futurama's official return to the small screen?

Your guess is as good as mine, but if you want to see these Groening dimensions collide the episode will air on November 9th.

-Via GeekTyrant/io9

 Back in 2002, a small group of developers whipped together an app that was meant to turn a hacked Xbox into a full-fledged media player, capable of playing all sorts of video and music content that the Xbox couldn’t handle out of the box. Reasonably, they dubbed the project “Xbox Media Player”. They’ve spent the last decade moving away from that name; today, the last… Read More

Who says coffee tables can only serve as magazine storage, beverage holders, or less than comfortable footrests? Huzi Design's Ping-Pong coffee table proves they can also be a great way to entertain guests without resorting to breaking out your Catan board.

Read more...

A female octopus lays eggs once in her lifetime and dies soon after. But until the eggs hatch, she guards them fiercely, to the point of not eating. For one octopus in the Monterey Canyon of the Pacific Ocean, that meant a record-breaking four and half years of diligence! Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute first observed this octopus in 2007, traveling to a brooding site. She was seen again 18 times over the next 53 months, always guarding her eggs. Bruce Robison of the institute said that they recognized it was the same octopus by her distinctive scars. In 2011, divers finally found the egg cases empty and the octopus mother gone.

The mother's devotion to her eggs may have been the final act of her life, Robison said, noting that the egg brooding period can occupy as much as the last quarter in the life of a female octopus.

She was never observed away from her egg clutch, he said, and probable never ate during her 53-month vigil.

"Everything we know suggests she probably didn't eat," Robison said.

Octopuses typically experience a single reproductive period after which they die.

The low temperature at the depth of the nest is suspected to be the reason the eggs took so long to hatch, and would also explain how the mother lived so long without food. The 53 months is now a world record for egg brooding, not just for octopuses, but for all animals. The previous record was 20 months for a red shrimp. -via Fortean Times

(Image credit: MBARI)

Today, my best friend became my step-dad. FML

Sea monsters are more than a figment of the imagination for one couple in Massachusetts.

A man and woman in Holyoke, Massachusetts, made an unusual request last week to the state of Massachusetts: To change their middle names to "seamonster."

Melanie Ann Convery and Neal James Coughli officially changed their names to Melanie Seamonster Convery and Neal Seamonster Coughli on Thursday; the couple's initial appeal went viral after it was published in their local paper last week:

Image: The Holyoke Sun

Massachusetts law requires name change requests to be published in a legal notice, stating "the change of name of a person shall be granted unless such change is inconsistent with public interests." If nobody publicly objects to the change, the request goes to a local court to be approved by a judge Read more...

More about Name Change, Us World, Us, Massachusetts, and Weird News

Brooms up!

The world is finally getting a glimpse at the magical trailer for Mudbloods, a documentary about the UCLA Quidditch team's fight to make it to the Fifth Annual Quidditch World Cup, held in New York City.

Image: BOND/360

Potterheads will recognize Quidditch as the sport created by J.K. Rowling and popularized in the Harry Potter series. Several students have managed to turn the game — which involves flying brooms, Bludgers and Snitches — into a real-life collegiate sport, despite scrutiny from their fellow classmates for being "nerds." Read more...

More about Viral Videos, Films, Harry Potter, Film Trailers, and Entertainment

(YouTube link)

David Chesney started building a wooden roller coaster in his backyard in Toronto when he was only 15. Now that he’s 19 and a Queen's University engineering student, The Minotaur is complete! The coaster is 12 feet tall at its highest and 92 feet long.

“My dad didn’t like the idea at all from the beginning,” Chesney explained to the Toronto Star. “Mom was kinda, ‘Uhhhh, I guess so.’ I don’t think that either of them understood the scope of what I had in mind.”

“It just got bigger,” he added. “Then it got to the point where my parents said 'it’s huge but you’ve gotten this far so just finish it and then take it down after.’ ”

Read more about the Minotaur at its Facebook page. The downside of the project is that Chesney’s parents want it out of their backyard now. He’s hoping to find a new home for it. -via Uproxx

Empathy. It's the ability to see and feel things from the perspective of others. Maybe if Hyrule weren't full of such selfish, closed-minded dicks, Dark Link wouldn't have the bad rap that he does.

Lovely Planet is described as "a game of jumping and shooting," which sounds so much more fitting than "first-person shooter." You do shoot your gun at cute little things from a first-person perspective, sure, but I don't want to call something that looks like it exists in the same universe as Katamari Damacy an FPS. That'd feel wrong.

It's probably for the best that Lovely Planet has such a cute art direction, because the game will eventually make you want to break stuff within reach of your computer -- that's what I've gathered from watching videos, anyway. This is a game focused on speed, and later levels aren't afraid to test your skills and your patience. You know they mean business when, upon death, you're instantly thrown back into the action. No "try again" or anything.

This is out on Steam and Humble for Windows, Mac, and Linux at the rather affordable price point of $5.09. For now, I'm digging that upbeat music by Calum Bowen. "Lovely Mountains," indeed.

Today, I was watching my 3 year old brother. He asked me to get him a cookie and I said, "What's the magic word?" He looked at me angrily and said "Bitch, please." FML

The ultimate staple of every record in Weird Al‘s discography has to be the polka medley. While the rest of the tracks are parodies, the polka is the only time where he actually takes the lyrics from the originals, reintroducing them for the contemporary polka audience. In his latest, “NOW That’s What I Call Polka!” from his freshly released Mandatory Fun, he covers several pop smashes we’ve all heard, or overheard.

Miley Cyrus – “Wrecking Ball”
Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks”
One Direction – “The Best Song Ever”
Psy – “Gangnam Style”
Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
will.i.am – “Scream & Shout” (Feat. Britney Spears)
Gotye – “Somebody That I Used To Know” (Feat. Kimbra)
Pitbull – “Timber” (Feat. Ke$ha)
LMFAO – “Sexy And I Know It”
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – “Thrift Shop” (Feat. Wanz)
Daft Punk – “Get Lucky”

You’ll notice that some of these are dated, but it doesn’t seem like the singer/parodist is too tech-savvy. I mean, he doesn’t even have a SoundCloud page. Check out “NOW That’s What I Call Polka!” below:

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Read more articles like "Hear Weird Al’s New Polka Medley Covering Miley Cyrus, Daft Punk & more" on PMA - Pretty Much Amazing.

Tags: Daft Punk, Foster The People, Miley Cyrus, Weird Al