Video: LEGO Battle of Helm’s Deep

Check out this chart: % change in currencies priced in gold

James Delingpole writing in The Telegraph: What unites most of us is this sensation that we're on the deck of the Titanic, watching the iceberg drawing closer and closer, and the chief steward keeps passing us these lengthy survey forms to fill in.

How did zebras get their stripes?

Some European scientists have presented a mundane explanation, saying that zebras’ stripes exist to stave off blood-sucking horseflies. This explanation, as it turns out, is one of many possibilities.

By the way, scientists used to think that zebras were white animals with black stripes, because the underbellies of some zebras are white. But it turns out that zebra embryos start out with a dark skin, and go on to develop white stripes before birth. So they are, essentially, dark creatures.

Sperm Trajectories, Evolving Humans and a Tomato Tapestry: The Best Scientific Figures of 2012

My personal favorite is this graphic on embryonic forms from between 640 million and 540 million years ago.  More at Wired.

Why the rare burger may soon become endangered

UK: Council officials are cracking down on the freedom to choose how your burger is done, warning restaurants not to offer them rare or even medium-rare.