UCLA is testing a brain implant that takes the images captured by a tiny camera and converts them into electrical impulses that stimulate the part of the brain responsible for sight. It helps blind people detect darkness and lightness, as well as sensing motion. Plus: tomorrow in London, Kentucky, the 30th annual World Chicken Festival gets underway, and it includes the World’s Largest Stainless Steel Skillet. 

Brain implant restores visual perception to the blind (UCLA)

The origin of the iconic World's Largest Stainless Steel Skillet (Sentinel-Echo)

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The Straw Vinyl project has lined up some high-profile bands to release limited-edition vinyl records that are made out of plastic harvested from old straws. Then your hipster friends can say they were into keeping straws out of landfills before it was cool. Plus: in London, there's a commemorative manhole cover on the site where sewer authorities vanquished the infamous Whitechapel fatberg., 

Bacardi just found the best use for plastic straws ever—turn them into vinyl records (Fast Company)

'Monster' Whitechapel fatberg unveiled at London museum (BBC)

The Whitechapel Fatberg Has Its Own Hidden Memorial (Londonist)

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We always celebrate great space achievements, why not also commemorate some great space screwups? This month marks 60 years since the first time a spacecraft tried to land on the moon but crashed instead. Plus: Mount Airy, NC, where Andy Griffith grew up, is hosting the 30th annual Mayberry Days this week. 

India’s Chandrayaan-2 Marks 60 Years of Moon Crashes and Hard Landings (New York Times)

Mayberry Days

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The weWALK is a smart cane for blind pedestrians, with ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles ahead and Google Maps connections to navigate through and describe the surrounding area. Plus: if you like pickles, the Big Dill festival is back this weekend in Baltimore. 

Blind inventor creates 'smart cane' that uses google maps to navigate visually impaired people (designboom)

Baltimore’s Little-Known Pickle History Celebrated at New Festival (Baltimore Magazine)

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Today in 1975 the BBC aired the first episode of “Fawlty Towers,” a landmark comedy series that was - amazingly - received about as poorly by TV executive and the public as Basil Fawlty’s appalling attitude was received by guests at his hotel. How did it finally get its due? Plus: AC/DC songs can get the bison of Yellowstone National Park. For bison about to rock, we salute you?

Fawlty Towers: the classic sitcom the BBC didn’t want (Telegraph)

I'm afraid I thought this one as dire as its title (Letters of Note)

Cops Blast AC/DC to Get the Reluctant Bison Moving Out of the Road and It Works Like a Charm (TIME)

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Paintings made with Day Glo paint - some by well-known and influential artists - are losing their glow over time. Conservationists don't yet know how to solve this puzzle, but we do at least know how Day Glo got started. Plus: meet a color that absorbs 99.995 percent of incoming light. Even Nigel Tufnel would say that's pretty black. 

Day-Glo masterpieces are fading. A conservator and her team are racing to save them (Los Angeles Times)

How DayGlo Went From Utility Pigment to Design World Darling (AIGA Eye on Design)

Engineers Just Unveiled a New Blackest-Ever Material, Even Darker Than Vantablack (Science Alert)

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Feel the Peel is a big automated juicing machine that turns discarded orange peels into bioplastic cups. Although if you don't have the cup until you juice the orange, how do you drink the first cup's worth of juice? Plus: a new restaurant in London called Pick & Cheese puts you in front of a long conveyor belt that brings you 25 different types of cheese, paired with condiments! 

A Giant Circular Juice Machine That Turns Discarded Peels of Squeezed Oranges Into 3D Printed Juice Cups (Laughing Squid)

This Restaurant Has a Cheese Conveyor Belt (Food & Wine)

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The so-called quiet life on the farm is actually one of the most high-tech places on earth. As envisioned by the University of Kentucky research team, drones could fly above cow herds as they graze, learn which cow is which, and visually check each cow so see if they’re healthy. Plus: someone invented a decoy computer keyboard for cats to sit on so they don't sit on your actual keyboard, which is purr-fect. 

Drones on the farm: Using facial recognition to keep cows healthy (CNet)

This heated fake keyboard was designed to fool your cat (Boing Boing)

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It's the 50th anniversary of the premiere of “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” That’s right, the Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby have been setting traps, being danger prone, dropping glasses, making gigantic sandwiches and solving mysteries for a half-century. But originally the show was going to be VERY different. Plus: Lake Lure, NC is hosting the Dirty Dancing Festival starting today. If you go, I hope you have the time of your life. 

“Like, yeah. We’ve been teenagers forever:” The Evolution of Scooby-Doo’s “Meddling Kids” (24 Frames of Silver)

Iwao Takamoto: My Life with a Thousand Characters 

Dirty Dancing Festival

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There's work out of the University of Arizona that says solar arrays can be even more efficient if you grow food underneath the panels. And no, the panels don't block the plants from growing by taking all the sun. Plus: Chandler, Arizona is hosting the Rockin' Taco Street Fest, which finally combines the goodness of tacos with lucha libre pro wrestling. 

Crops under solar panels can be a win-win (Ars Technica)

Rockin' Taco Street Fest

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