• Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy… “We’ve observed a new particle”: leaked video reveals Higgs confirmation
• How the Discovery of the Higgs Boson Could Break Physics
• Complicated Concepts Explained Using Kitchen Items
• The Nicolas Cage Paradox
• Graph: The Recession-Proof Fireworks Industry
• Identifying the “Greatest Threat” that the World Faces
• Horrible Father Abandons Family For New Life in the Philippines – Leaving a son with cancer, daughter with down syndrome (yeah, that’s right)
• Syria’s Torture Centers Revealed
• Infographic: the effects of a sip of soda

Also, legendary entertainer Andy Griffiths died today (aged 86). The internet pays tribute as always, but this mash-up of his sitcom’s theme song and Beyonce is a favourite.

Yeah, I’d watch this.

Rare blue ‘night-shining clouds’ pictured at dusk over Edinburgh

• Seinfeld’s Producer: Listen to Your Gut, Then Fight For What it’s Telling You
• When His Project Was Canceled, an Unemployed Programmer Kept Sneaking Into Apple to Finish the Job
• Higgs week starts with Fermilab updates, strong evidence expected
• Scientists Invent Particles That Will Let You Live Without Breathing
• How Do Glowsticks Glow?
• How To Decide Baking Temperature When a Recipe Doesn’t Mention It
• Why you were just ‘unfriended’ on Facebook
• Anderson Cooper: “The Fact Is, I’m Gay and the internet’s reaction
• With Google Now, Android Puts Apple’s Siri To Shame
• The Oatmeal fights back, snaps photo of cash, sends money to charity
• If Harry Potter was written like a Madeline book
• Bin Laden realized the truth: Terrorism doesn’t work
• Video/Article: On board a real-life ‘ghost train’

Ziccup is becoming my favourite person on the internet. Here’s his latest super-cut:

During the 1960s and 70s, thousands of monuments commemorating the Second World War – called ‘Spomeniks’ – were built throughout the former Yugoslavia; striking monumental sculptures, with an angular geometry echoing the shapes of flowers, crystals, and macro-views of viruses or DNA. In the 1980s the Spomeniks still attracted millions of visitors from the Eastern bloc; today they are largely neglected and unknown, their symbolism lost and unwanted. Antwerp-based photographer Jan Kempenaers travelled the Balkans photographing these eerie objects, presented in this book as a powerful typological series. The beauty and mystery of the isolated, crumbling Spomeniks informs Kempenaer’s enquiry into memory, found beauty, and whether former monuments can function as pure sculpture.

– Roma Publications

Many more of these incredible structures at retronaut

In this video, astrophysics graduate Alex Parker has taken the orbital information about the Kepler-11 system and, by corresponding a musical note with each planets’ transit, has created a beautifully unique sonata.

…The pitch (note) is determined by the planet’s distance from its star (closer=higher), and they are drawn from a minor 11 chord. The volume is determined by the size of the planet (larger=louder).

The near-4:5 mean-motion resonance of the innermost two planets is audible as the notes “beat” against each other.

A triple-transit (three planets crossing the face of the star at once) in August 2010 is also audible. This event is what is illustrated in the artist’s impression of the system used in cover photo.

• How can you distinguish colour? (I managed a score of 11)
• The rediscovery and survival of the largest flightless insect in the world on a deserted volcano island
• For the first time in 100 years, cities growing more than suburbs as young adults shun owning property
• Why our brains are addicted to computers
• Charisma: who has it, and how to get it
• Cyborg makes art using seventh sense
• Redefining ‘Masterpiece’: How a Shift in Collectors’ Focus Is Changing the Art World
• How bad people can make good art
• Graphing the history of philosophy
• The Early Jobs of 24 Famous Writers
• 10 Shocking Secrets of Flight Attendants

Whether you love or hate the prolific writer, this is a pretty fun collection:

This video is a tribute to the work of Aaron Sorkin: the recycled dialogue, recurring phrases, and familiar plot lines. This is not intended as a critique but rather a playful excursion through Sorkin’s wonderful world of words.

While disassembling an engine for repair, youtuber nothingheroek had the brilliant idea to use the reference photos taken and use them to create this stop-frame animation.