It’s the end of an era in Durham, North Carolina. The 11 Foot 8 Bridge, known as the Can Opener or the Gregson Street Guillotine for its propensity for shearing the tops off rental trucks and other large vehicles, is at last being raised. Probably good for safety, but fans of fail videos are bummed. Plus: artist Reuben Wu uses drones to create light paintings in the sky he calls “aeroglyphs." 

Famously Low '11-Foot-8' Bridge Will Be Raised by Eight Inches to Stop the Carnage (The Drive)

11foot8.com

Aeroglyphs by Reuben Wu

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Science has brought whales and outer space together for the first time since the fourth Star Trek movie. The British Antarctic Survey has been partnering with researchers in Chile on a way to protect whales via satellite. Plus: the story of a paraglider who manages to land smoothly and carefully on a couch.

Stranded whales detected from space (British Antarctic Survey)

Parachute Landing On Couch (YouTube)

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The Saharan silver ant can ran up to 108 of its own body lengths per second, making it the fastest ant in the world. But it lives in the desert, and running in sand usually slows us down. How the heck do they do it? Plus: in Banner Elk, North Carolina, the 42nd annual Woolly Worm Festival gets underway this weekend. 

The world’s fastest ant clocks record speed of 108 times its own body length (Ars Technica)

42nd Annual Woolly Worm Festival 

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Indonesian performance artist Melati Suryodarmo has created a new work called “If We Were XYZ,” and it’s based on her dreams, which she documented with the help of an electroencephalogram machine. Plus: The World Food Championships are now underway in Dallas, with some 1,500 award-winning chefs and cooks putting it all on the line and/or plates.

A Performer Uses Brain-Mapping Technology to Scan Her Dreams (Hyperallergic)

Melati Suryodarmo: Performance Art as Trigger (Ocula)

World Food Championships

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Salem, Massachusetts is now home to the world’s largest Ouija board. These boards are a product of the Spiritualist movement of the 19th century, which emphasized communicating with the “other side.” They happened to be the most practical way to connect! Plus: the name Ouija has been misspelled and mispronounced just about every way possible. Just ask the guy who made a legendary YouTube video about it. 

World’s Largest Ouija Board Unveiled in Salem, Ma. (Geek.com)

History of the Talking Board (Museum of Talking Boards)

Curse of the Weggy Board (YouTube)

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Every era has its forms of entertainment. In the old days, promoters would stage actual train wrecks, using trains that were on their way to the scrap heap. Others would stage massive recreations of disasters and tragedies from the news and history. And thousands of people would pay to see them! Plus: a slightly smaller-scale spectacle in Goshen, Kentucky features massive characters out of hay bales, from Frankenstein’s monster to Dora the Explorer to Baby Shark. 

4 Bizarre Spectacles From History That People Couldn’t Get Enough of (Fodors)

Iconic Characters Sculpted Into Halloween Hay Bales (Laughing Squid)

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Almost everything we do can be measured, and in lots of ways beyond the inches, yards and seconds we normally use. We take a trip through some lesser known measurements, like siriometer, cow's grass, and jiffy (yes, it's an actual term!) Plus: meet the dad who built a full-size claw machine for his daughter's 7th birthday party. 

Enough Measurement Systems to Fill a Rhode Island the Size of Jupiter (Metafilter)  

Science Fun Fact (ESA Science)

10 Of The Most Absurd Units Of Measurement On Earth (io9)

How long is a jiffy? (Science Focus)

Dad Builds Human Claw Machine For Daughter's Birthday (Geekologie)

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When the residents of Pichuclaco, Chiapas, Mexico took part in a public health event, they didn't get to meet Mayor Moisés Aguilar Torres - at least not the real him. But they did get to see, and take pictures with, a cardboard cutout of the mayor. Plus: remember that time the people of New England went bonkers and stole hundreds of cardboard David Hasselhoffs? 

Constituents furious as Mexican mayor sends life-sized cardboard cutout of himself to an official event he couldn't attend (Daily Mail)

‘David Hasselhoff to go, please’: 550 cardboard cutouts stolen (Los Angeles Times)

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Sports tech company Motus Global has developed a high-tech compression sleeve for pitchers. It senses the movement of each pitch and determines how much strain the throws put on the arm, to help avoid injuries. Plus: the story of old-timey pitcher "Phenomenal" Smith, who, it's said, could have used a different kind of smarts in dealing with his teammates. 

Smart Sleeve Tells Baseball Pitchers When to Get Off the Mound (IEEE.org)

How Smith became "Phenomenal"  (Bob Lemke)

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Today we pay a visit to Athens, Georgia - specifically, the intersection of South Finley and Dearing Street. That’s where you’ll find something unusual: The Tree That Owns Itself. Plus: a Japanese design company has created a 3D-printed bonsai, which you can prune once and looks the way you want forever... as long as you don't mind that it's not an actual tree. 

A Tree That Owns Itself? (Farmers Almanac)

Nendo's 3D-printed bonsai tree does away with need for meticulous maintenance (Dezeen)

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