Friday links

Here's what happens when you crack your knuckles, including the researcher who cracked the knuckles in one hand only for over 60 years to see if he'd get arthritis. Related: The Science of Knuckle Cracking.

How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology

The legend of Blackbeard’s silver-plated skull. Kind of related: The Swashbuckling History of Women Pirates.

April 22 is Earth Day: here's the story of the co-founder who killed then composted his girlfriend.

Inside the FBI’s Colossal Pre-Computer Fingerprint Factory.

Artificial Heart Update: A simple artificial heart could permanently replace a failing human one.

ICYMI, Wednesday's links are here, and include the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed 80% of San Francisco, that time Kansas locked up more than 5,000 women and girls for having STDs, why it's almost impossible to throw a 110 mph fastball, and "T'was the eighteenth of April in seventy-five": the midnight ride of William Dawes and Samuel Prescott (and Paul Revere).

Wednesday links

The physics of perfect pancakes, and why it applies to glaucoma treatment.

Move over, Sasquatch: Meet 8 Mysterious Ape Men from Around the World. and if that’s not enough, here are seven more.

Museums display perfect reproductions of fragile works and visitors can’t tell the difference.

Gallery of Photos From Inside The Wreckage Of The Costa Concordia Cruise Ship.

How one single ancestor helped turn our brown eyes blue.

Colorist dyes hair to look like art masterpieces.

ICYMI, Tuesday's links are here and include history's most impressive fortresses, the movie supercut of "I should have killed you when I had the chance", a roundup of recommendations for beer, wine and whiskey pairings to go with Girl Scout cookies, and a photo gallery of early supercomputers ("Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons!").

Friday links

Dave Barry's Halloween column from 1996: Night Of The Living Chocolate.

Mapping bird migration routes to global wind patterns.

How You Could Become A Stunt Driver.

This Is What 7,000 Jack O’Lanterns Look Like, and here's Pumpkin Land.

What Makes Dogs Tilt Their Heads?

Why 'Mom' and 'Dad' Sound So Similar in So Many Languages.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include lots of Daylight Saving Time links (Ben Franklin's satirical proposal, the guy who got two DUIs at the same time (an hour apart)), the world's slowest Rube Goldberg machine, and the extremely weird story of the life and death of the actor who played Vigo The Carpathian.