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29 February, 2008

More links for 29 Feb 2008

Famed geneticist creating life form that turns CO2 to fuel. [Afp]
Death Star Hotel in Azerbaijan. [Gizmodo]
A spectacular crash involving a flatbed truck was caught on tape inside the I-90 connector tunnel. [Wbztv]

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Fisherman Swims 10 Hours to Shore

Mr JarrattA fisherman swam for more than 10 hours to find help for the two companions he left behind after their boat sank off the east coast of Australia.

The exhausted swimmer was found on a beach, and coastguards were then able to find one of the men. He had spent 30 hours at sea, clinging to debris.

The search continues for the boat's skipper.

Video after the jump.

Video: BBC
Source: BBC
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Newborn Baby Survives Fall Through Train Toilet Onto Tracks


A newborn baby girl fell through the toilet in a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother prematurely gave birth, surviving nearly two hours before being found, relatives said Thursday.

The child's mother, who uses the single name Bhuri, was traveling with relatives on an overnight train when she went to the bathroom shortly before midnight Tuesday and unexpectedly gave birth to a baby girl, said Arjun Kumar, her brother-in-law.

"Later, she fell unconscious and the baby fell through the toilet," he continued. "Two stations later, we knocked at the door." Bhuri opened the door, soaked in blood.

"When we asked her about what happened, she said the baby had fallen through onto the tracks," Kumar said.

Video: Clip Syndicate
Source: Msnbc
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Real-Life 'Italian Job' Snags $20 Million in Jewels

Damiani's jewelleryThe Milan jewelry heist that brazen thieves committed as the world's focus was on the gem-wearing Oscar stars could have been ripped straight from a Hollywood script.

While the year's best in film were christened Sunday, robbers snatched $20 million in gems from Damiani headquarters, one of the most famous jewelry stores in the world.

The burglars dug a three-foot-wide tunnel into the store while the company's executives partied alongside A-list clients in Tinseltown.

The calculating crooks spent a month digging the tunnel, which began inside a cellar in an empty building next to the jewelry store. They took advantage of the ongoing construction in the area to avoid raising suspicions.

When the time came to pounce, the bandits used an internal staircase in the showroom to avoid the security cameras. The group of seven, which was disguised as police officers, restrained employees with cable ties and construction tape.

They then forced the store manager to open the safe deposit box in what seemed like a real-life "Italian Job." In that film a group plotted an elaborate jewel heist.

Italian police said they expect arrests "rather quickly."

Source: ABC & Ap
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28 February, 2008

More links for 28 Feb 2008

A paternal dog has adopted an abandoned baby goat as his surrogate child.
[DailyMail]
Surveillance lamp. [Gizmodo]
Morph is a concept demonstrating some of the possibilities nanotechnologies might enable in future communication devices. [YouTube]
Classic car shelves. [Car Shelf]
Rise of the machine: Terminator-style robot war 'could be a reality within 10 years.' [DailyMail]
A new calculation predicts that Earth will be swallowed up by the sun in 7.6 billion years, capping off a longstanding debate over whether the sun's gravitational pull will have weakened enough for Earth to escape final destruction or not. [Space.com]

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Hidden Toilet Now Fully Operational

Hidden toilet in ChinaRemember the hidden toilet in China which I mentioned previously about? It is now fully operational.

Hidden toilet in China
Source: Cnet
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The Teenage Girl Who Is Allergic To Water

Ashleigh MorrisNineteen-year-old Ashleigh Morris is used to other people thinking she is dirty.

After all, the young woman from Melbourne, Australia, can’t take a shower – she suffers from a rare skin disorder called Aquagenic Urticaria, which means she is allergic to water.

Since the age of 14, if Morris goes near water, she will break out in a painful rash.

Only a handful of cases are documented worldwide. Doctors believe she developed the condition after a heavy dose of penicillin altered her histamine levels.

In order to keep herself clean, Morris said she takes showers that last no more than a minute – and often the experience is so painful, it makes her cry.

“Although the rash is unsightly, and often looks like I’m diseased, the feeling is so much worse than it looks,” she said.

Source: DailyMail & Fox News
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Romanian Police Officers to Take Ballet Classes


Regulating traffic can be difficult but police officers in western Romania have found a solution to their pains and are taking ballet classes to help them do their work more gracefully.

"The aim is to develop an ability to regulate traffic and achieve elegance in their movements, which will not only be agreeable to the eyes but could also help drivers waiting at a red light get rid of their stress or sadness," the head of the community police in the town of Timisoara, Dorel Cojan, said.

About 20 members of the local community police are already attending classes under two former dancers of the Timisoara Opera Ballet.

Video: LiveLeak
Source: Iol
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Male Spiders Play Dead for Sex


Male spiders will go to extreme lengths to get females, but playing dead might not seem like an obvious strategy. Some male nursery web spiders, however, regularly feign death, and those that do are more likely to mate.

Video: YouTube
Source: Afp & New Scientist
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Boss Bans Smelly Undies

The boss of a Serbian company has banned staff from coming into work with dirty underwear.

Milomir Gligorijevic said: "I am fed up with people with poor personal hygiene standards. I have now made it a sackable offence for people to come in without having a shower - or with dirty underwear."

He has also banned staff from smelling after eating garlic - warning that they need to make sure they brush their teeth - and use perfume and deodorant.

Gligorijevic, who runs a 30-staff stationery company in the capital Belgrade, sent out an official memo to all employees demanding they adopt good standards of personal hygiene.

The memo warned all employees to make sure they brush their teeth, take showers regularly and change their underpants every day.

He did not say how he would make sure his clean underpants rule was followed but warned it would be enforced.

Source: Ananova
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10ft Receipt for Three Items

Judy Clifton with the receiptA shopper who bought three items got more than she bargained for when she was given a receipt 3m (10ft) long.

Judy Clifton paid £85 for two lengths of fabric and a strip of lining - but was given a receipt for every centimetre of material instead of every metre.

Mrs Clifton, 61, had to wait 15 minutes for the receipt to print. She said: 'It was hilarious.'

The Range store, in Swindon, which opened last week, blamed the mistake on 'teething problems'.

Source: Metro
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Son's Tooth Helps Man Gain Vision

A man has regained partial sight after surgeons inserted one of his son's teeth into an eye socket.

Robert McNichol, 57, from County Sligo on Ireland's west coast, was injured in an explosion at his waste recycling business two years ago.

Doctors said nothing could be done, but he found an expert in the UK performing pioneering surgery known as 00KP.

It treats severe cases of blindness by using a tooth to hold a man-made lens in place in the eye socket.

Mr McNichol's son Robert Jnr, 23, volunteered one of his teeth when he heard about the procedure.

The tooth was removed, chiselled through and a lens placed in its core.

It was then inserted into Mr Nichol's right eye after a series of operations.

Doctors said they could not replicate the procedure on his left eye as it was too badly damaged.

Source: BBC
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New Perfume Smells of Blood and Sweat

Women customers at posh store Harvey Nichols are spending £76 ($152) a time on perfume smelling of blood, sweat and spit.

The French scent called Secretions Magnifiques is said to produce a “pinnacle of sensual pleasure”.

Another brand smells of cigarettes. A store spokesman said: “Niche fragrances do very well.”

Expert Roja Dove said it was a refreshing alternative to “bland” scents. But he added: “It would be easy to smell like that without buying it.”

Source: The Sun
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'Bird Boy' Found In Russia

A birdA young boy is close to being more bird than human because he was never spoken to while living in a virtual aviary.

Authorities say the 7-year-old boy’s only form of communication was “chirping” after spending his life in a bird cage-filled apartment with a mother who treated him like one of her pets.

The “bird-boy” – whom authorities said suffered from Mowgli syndrome, from the Jungle Book character raised by wild animals - didn't engage in any normal human communication but instead learnt the language of birds.

Social worker Galina Volskaya said authorities were shocked when they found the boy in a two-bedroom apartment – which had bird droppings scattered across the floor.

“When you start talking to him, he chirps,” Volskaya said.

Volskaya also said when the boy becomes frustrated by being unable to communicate with authorities using bird-talk, he waves his arms as if they were wings.

The boy’s mother has given him over to authorities, who have reportedly placed him in an asylum.

Source: Daily Telegraph
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27 February, 2008

More links for 27 Feb 2008

Girl, 9, banned from tennis club for grunting too loudly. [This Is London]
Funeral home offers 'eco-friendly coffin' made from pineapple leaves. [DailyMail]
Researchers Can Now Determine When A Human Was Born By Looking Into The Eyes Of The Dead. [ScienceDaily]
Some really cool pools. [Oobject]
A look inside the doomsday vault built in an Arctic mountain that will protect seeds of life from annihilation. [ClipSyndicate]
A Japanese man was taken to hospital with a fish hook in his intestines after eating a hamburger from a convenience store. [Afp]

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Fake Leg for Landmine Elephant

Mocha, the elephantA limpalong lump of a three-legged elephant is walking much more easily again after having an artificial limb attached.

The new canvas leg was created for Mocha, a female elephant being cared for by Thai vets.

The animal was severely injured when she stepped on a landmine at the Thai-Myanmar border, losing her front right leg in the blast.

But now experts at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital in northern Thailand's Lampang province have come to her aid - hoping she can soon be set safely free on her own four feet again.

Source: Metro
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Man Builds Cage For Car

A car in a cageA Chinese man has built a cage for his car to stop thieves kidnapping parts and demanding ransom money.

Mr Zhang, of Jilin city, says his car's computerised engine management system was stolen twice.

"Each time I found a note clipped under the wiper, with phone and bank-account numbers," he said.

Each time, Zhang had to wire 500 yuan (£35) to get the part back.

He has now built a cage to keep his car safe outside his home.

Source: Ananova
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Three-Man Snowboard


I have posted about the two-man snowboard previously and it appears that its inventors are taking it to a new lever by coming up with a three-man snowboard. Another record in the making! Hit play to watch the two and three-man snowboard in action.

Video: ClipSyndicate
Source: Localnews8
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Giant Bicycle


A giant bicycle taller than a bus!

Video: LiveLeak
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Stairlift to Heaven for Henry the Dog

Henry the bulldogHitching a ride on a stair-lift might look lazy - but for Henry the bulldog, it's an essential means of transport.

The creature has such short, stumpy legs, that he is unable to negotiate the stairs at his home in Germany, near Hamburg.

When owners Henry Conny and Bernhard Schrader brought Henry to their farm as a puppy, it was easy enough to carry him up and down the stairs.

But now he's an adult, Henry is simply too heavy to hoist - leaving them with a dilemma.

But the pair, who breed horses, came up with a solution when they improvised a lift to transport Henry up the stairs.

Now all Henry needs to do is learn how to push a button to start the mechanism and he can glide up and down the stairs to his heart's content.

Source: DailyMail
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'Horn Tones' Let Drivers Customise Their Honk

The humble "honk honk" of the car horn may soon be a thing of the past - a US company has released an MP3 version which lets you choose your own sounds to scare pedestrians with.

HornTones, a new gadget by technology company ThinkGeek, stores up to ten different tones, and comes with a USB plug socket to allow you to add your own. It is now selling for $299.

ThinkGeek kindly provides a few suggestions for how to use its latest toy, including playing the music from the Empire Strikes Back when outside the tax office; the Back to the Future theme as you approach eighty-eight miles an hour (presumably only on a German autobahn); and the Road-Runner "meep-meep" just before you accelerate away.


Video: YouTube
Source: Telegraph
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Professional Pooper Scoopers Vie for Title


Dog poop is nothing to sniff at -- a huge growth in the business has prompted the explosion of professional pooper scoopers around the country. Many are competing to be Top Dog.

Video: BrightCove
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Cutting Trees With a Minigun


Mythbusters Kari Byron mows down a tree with a minigun.

Video: LiveLeak
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26 February, 2008

More links for 26 Feb 2008

5 body mysteries explained. [Cracked]
Beautiful storm photographs. [Backing Winds]
Mike Rea's wooden sculptures. [Fecalface]
Polish taxmen are offering Poles the chance to pay their tax bills in blood. [Ananova]
Woman fights off armed robber with a beer can. [BBC]
A pregnant woman in Papua New Guinea who was hung from a tree after being accused of sorcery gave birth to her baby while struggling to free herself. [News.com.au]
A ferret stealing a microphone cover. [YouTube via Arbroath]
Rufus Terrill and his newly-created remote controlled robot that protects neighborhood and keeps crime in check. [Ajc]
Pet tortoise sets house on fire. [The Sun]

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Three Siblings Share a Birthday

There's no chance of Robin, Rebecca and Ruby Mackriell's parents forgetting their birthdays - because all three children were born on the same day.

Robin, now 14, arrived first - on 29 January, 1994. Rebecca arrived on the same day - two years later - and Ruby was born on 29 January this year.

Maths experts say the chances of this happening are more than 130,000 to one.

Source: Cbbc & Metro

Road Camera That Counts Car Occupants

Motorists will be targeted by a new generation of road cameras which work out how many people are in a car by measuring the amount of bodily fluid it contains.

The latest snooping device on the nation's roads aims to penalise lone drivers who abuse the more-than-one-occupant rule of car-sharing lanes, and is part of a Government effort to combat congestion at busy times.

The cameras work by sending an infrared beam through the windscreen of vehicles which detects the unique make-up of blood and water content in human skin.

The system's inventors believe it will catch out motorists who try to fool existing CCTV road cameras by placing mannequins in passenger seats or fixing photographs to windscreens.

Source: DailyMail

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Jumbo Jet Pilot Sacked For ‘Fly-By’ At 28 Feet


A British pilot has been dismissed for “buzzing” a control tower in a Top Gun-style stunt during the maiden flight of a Boeing jumbo jet.

Captain Ian Wilkinson astonished passengers by taking the 230-tonne Cathay Pacific jet to within 28ft (8.5m) of the ground shortly after take-off from Boeing’s US manufacturing plant.

The 322mph fly-by was cheered by onlookers, and the pilot, who is said to be one of the most senior aviators with the airline, later toasted the flight with champagne.

Footage of the stunt on January 30 was leaked on to the internet, however, and Mr Wilkinson was suspended. Cathay Pacific executives took a dim view of his actions, which were carried out without authorisation, and he was dismissed after a disciplinary meeting last week.

Video: YouTube
Source: Times Online

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Crowds Flock to Monkey 'Wedding'

Some 3,000 villagers have attended an elaborate Hindu wedding ceremony in eastern India for two monkeys.

The "bride" was dressed in a five-metre long sari and decked in flowers. The ceremony took place last Thursday in Ghanteswara village in Orissa state.

The guests were served a feast of rice, lentils, vegetables, fish and sweets.

Monkeys are revered idols in Hindu mythology. But the couples that took in and "married" off the two monkeys in Orissa say they love them as pets.

Source: BBC

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German Police Dogs to Wear Shoes

A police dogPolice dogs in the western city of Duesseldorf will no longer get their feet dirty when on patrol — the entire dog unit will soon be equipped with blue plastic fiber shoes, a police spokesman said Monday.

"All 20 of our police dogs — German and Belgian shepherds — are currently being trained to walk in these shoes," Andre Hartwich said. "I'm not sure they like it, but they'll have to get used to it."

The unusual footwear is not a fashion statement, Hartwich said, but rather a necessity due to the high rate of paw injuries on duty. Especially in the city's historical old town — famous for both its pubs and drunken revelers — the dogs often step into broken beer bottles.

"Even the street-cleaning doesn't manage to remove all the glass pieces from between the streets' cobble stones," Hartwich said, adding that the dogs frequently get injured by little pieces sticking deep in their paws.

The dogs will start wearing the shoes this spring but only during operations that demand special foot protection. The shoes comes in sizes small, medium and large and were ordered in blue to match the officers uniforms, Hartwich said.

Source: Yahoo News

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Awesome Bunny Animation


An awesome animation created by Michael Sormann.

Video: YouTube

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Colour-Blind Artist Learns To Paint By Hearing

Neil HarbissonA colour-blind artist who could only recognise black and white shades has learnt how to paint with a full palette by “hearing” the hues he cannot see.

Neil Harbisson, 25, has been fitted with a device called an Eyeborg, which converts 360 colours into different sounds.

As an art student at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, he painted only in black and white because that is all he saw. But three years ago he met Adam Montandon, a cybernetics expert who came to give a lecture at the college.

After the talk, Montandon was told of Harbisson’s condition and he took up the challenge of solving the problem, enabling Harbisson to paint in colour. The artist suffers from achromatopsia – or complete congenital colour blindness.

Montandon decided to harness the way in which different colours reflect light at different frequencies, with light vibrating fastest from violet and slowest from red.

The first device fitted to Harbisson’s head was fairly primitive, letting him “hear” only six colours. His current model is far more sophisticated, giving him access to 360 colours.

Source: Times Online

25 February, 2008

More links for 25 Feb 2008

Did Adolf Hitler draw Disney characters? [Telegraph]
Bulletball is a wheelchair friendly game which allows the physically challenged to competitively with anyone. [Bulletball]
Bed built into an "igloo of books." [Flickr via [Boing Boing]
A cat and a dog. [Tinypic]

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Twining Motion of Vines


This video clip shows the extreme nutational movements of morning glory vines. Climbing vines need to find a suitable support on which to grow. Shortly after germinating, the young plant begins what appears to be a hunting motion in which the shoot tip rotates in a nutational movement. This swinging around of the tip is thought to help the plant bump into a support. If the shoot rubs against a support with the right shape, the rubbing induces a thigmotropic response (tropism induced by touch) and the shoot begins to curl around the support. This clip shows three morning glory plants at the stage where they have just begun “looking” for a support to climb. Vines typically show the most extreme nutational movements.

Video: YouTube
Source: ScienceTrack via Bits & Pieces

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Plane Crashes into Couple's Garden

Eileen WatlingAn elderly couple who had a lucky escape after a plane landed in their garden told their unexpected guests "thanks for dropping in".

Eileen Watling, 71, and her husband Alfie, 83, were settling down on Saturday to watch a bank heist movie on television when the Cessna light aircraft, carrying two passengers, landed nose-first in Eileen's conifers.

The dazed pilot and passenger got into trouble in thick fog and didn't realise how low they were flying over the Kent village of Lyminge, about 3pm.

Eileen said: "The film was only two minutes started when the whole house shook and there was what sounded like an explosion. I immediately thought a tree had fallen into the electricity lines, because the power cut out. A man came sprinting up our drive and said a plane had just flown over his car and had crashed in our back garden. First the pilot came stumbling through our bamboo and leaves with blood on his head. His passenger followed, covered in fuel."

The two men weren't seriously hurt and were treated for minor injuries last night.

Source: Telegraph

The Woman Who Keeps 75 Hibernating Tortoises in Her Fridges

In most refrigerators, you don't come across living things. Except maybe some yoghurt or a spot of mould. But open up Shirley Neely's two fridges and you'll find them teeming with life.

On every shelf, wrapped in tea towels, are slumbering tortoises. The smaller ones are snuggled up in a biscuit tin, but the bigger fellows are laid out side-by-side in their makeshift sleeping bags.

Mrs Neely who runs the Jersey-based Tortoise Sanctuary, had to set up the fridges because of the particularly mild winter.

Her tortoises hibernate for up to three months between December and March, and need steady temperatures between 3c and 8c.

Mrs Neely said: "It's much easier to maintain a constantly cool temperature with a fridge than it is with our ever-warming climate."

The towels were removed for these photographs, which gave Mrs Neely an opportunity to check all was well.

She opens the doors each day to waft fresh air inside. As tortoises breathe only once a minute during hibernation, this is sufficient to keep them healthy.

Source: DailyMail

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24 February, 2008

More links for 24 Feb 2008

A game of Space Invaders simulated by humans. With video! [Space Invaders]
A galaxy of little lights created by thousands of living creatures in a cave. [Fogonazos]
Man pays $17K for 4 strands of hair thought to have come from George Washington. [Whec]
Eight horses and $1 make punter a millionaire. [Sunday Express]

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Dog Saves a Life

A dogMary Jo Heidenreich was eating dinner when she felt something lodge in her throat. She began to choke and her dog came to the rescue. Her 4-year-old Shih Tzu, Chewie, jumped on her chest. "He went to jump up in my lap, he hit right below my rib cage," she said. "He wanted to comfort me." Heidenreich, 45, said, at that point, a small piece of tooth came out of her throat.

Heidenreich is convinced 15-pound Chewie saved her life by jumping on her chest. Dr. Robert Kahn says Chewie could have landed in the right spot, but it was probably his owner's reaction that ended her choking spell.

A Heimlich maneuver is used to dislodge a piece of food, typically between the size of a nickel and a quarter, stuck in the esophagus, Dr. Kahn said. The piece of tooth might have been lodged in Heidenreich's posterior pharynx, and that caused her to choke, he added. The pressure of the dog's paws, along with her startled reaction, was probably enough to dislodge the tooth piece, he said.

Source: Whio

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Man OK after Being Run Over By Train

A 34-year-old man was expected to survive after being run over by a train early Saturday morning.

Longmont Police say Todd Hirsh was sitting in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks in the 400 block of Atwood Street at about 3:11 a.m. when the incident occurred.

According to police, a southbound train pulling 76 freight cars had to make an emergency stop, attempting to avoid running over Hirsh.

Authorities say the train didn't stop until it had gone 75 feet south of where Hirsh was sitting.

Longmont Firefighters and Paramedics were able to remove Hirsh out from under the second engine of the three engine train. He was then transported to Longmont United Hospital where his injuries were said to be non-life-threatening.

Source: 9News

Magneto Boy


Meet a boy who calls himself "Magneto Man," and has a reputation for making computers go wild.

Joe, 12, began calling himself "Magneto Man" last year, after his teachers concluded that his presence could crash the school computers.

"Another student could use a computer, and it would be fine. But if Joe was on it, weird things started to happen," said Marie Yerdon, computer lab teacher at Lura Sharp Elementary School in Pulaski, NY. "I think there's something in his body chemistry, something in his makeup, that causes the computers to go haywire."

Video: YouTube
Source: ScienCentralNews

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Windmill Destroyed by Strong Wind


A windmill in Hornslet near Aarhus broke its brakes and a storm made it break.

Video: YouTube

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Dog, Cat, and Rat



Video: YouTube via Arbroath

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Restaurant Owner Claims Record with 134-Pound Burger

A Detroit-area restaurant owner believes he has broken the world record for “largest hamburger commercially available.”

After 12 hours of preparation and baking, the 134-pound (60kg) burger emerged Saturday at Mallie’s Sports Bar and Grill.

The “Absolutely Ridiculous Burger,” made with beef, bacon and cheese, was delivered on a 50-pound (23kg) bun.

It sells for $350, and orders require 24 hours’ notice. Flipping the burger required three men using two steel sheets.

Video after the jump.


Video: Freep
Source: Detnews & DailyNews

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23 February, 2008

More links for 23 Feb 2008

Spot the 'invisible' men and women in artist's amazing photographs. [DailyMail]
12,000-lb. giant mechanical spider. [Jalopnik]
The reason that apparitions, bogeymen and phantoms like to lurk in the shadows may have been revealed by scientists. [Telegraph]

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Highest Waterfall in Estonia Freezes


Highest waterfall in Estonia freezes, creating a spectacular winter wonderland.

The Valaste waterfall is 25-metres high and lies between the village of Ontika which has just 83 inhabitants, and Valaste, where 121 people live.

Strong sea winds and sudden low temperatures have seen much of the waterfall freeze. While water still flows, everything surrounding it is covered in beautiful ice crystals. The strong winds blew the water up from the falls, covering all nearby objects.

Video: Reuters

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The Amazing High Heels That Don't Have a Heel

Shoes without a heelThe 5.5in creations by Briton Antonio Berardi can hardly be described as high heels, since they lack the most important part - a heel.

For the bargain price of £1,800 ($3,600), the wearer will get to totter around with all her weight balanced on a thickened platform sole.

They are going on sale in Browns stores in London, where they have to be ordered up to five weeks in advance.

Source: This Is London

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A School Bus Wearing Skis

WindsledFrom a distance, the large red aluminum contraption parked on the frozen shore of Lake Superior here looks like a small houseboat perched on skis. Up closer, as schoolchildren pile in with their backpacks and iPods, it becomes clear that the mystery vehicle, with two large fans on the back, is something else entirely.

For residents of this remote village on an ice-locked island off the tip of mainland Wisconsin, the gliding boatmobile, known here as a windsled, is a kind of school bus.

The children of La Pointe, on Madeline Island (full-time population 250, triple that in the summer), actually windsled to class several weeks out of every year.

The 9,000-pound vehicle, propelled by its twin fans and steered by a driver much the way a regular bus would be, is heated and has padded benches with room for about 20 students. Beyond that, there are no luxuries. Loud and bumping along at 18 miles an hour, it hardly qualifies as a thrill ride.

Source: Iht

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Tic Tac Toast

Tic tact toastAnother good reason to play with your food! The Tic Tac Toast stamper combines the fun of tic-tac-toe with the tastiness of toast. Just press this 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" plastic stamper into a piece of bread, then put your bread in the toaster. The resulting toast will be branded with a tic-tac-toe grid! When the toasted gameboard is ready, all thats left to do is pick some tasty toppings and play a game. Winner gets to eat the toast!

Source: Perpetual Kid

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The Super-Charged Grandmother Whose Touch Blows Up Kettles

Mavis PriceFor most of us, making a cup of tea is one of life's simpler tasks. For Mavis Price, however, it is fraught with danger - because she can blow up kettles just by touching them.

The 60-year-old grandmother seems to have a freakishly high level of static electricity coursing through her body.

She estimates she has destroyed 15 kettles in the last few years. Housework has also become a problem, with 20 irons and ten vacuum cleaners biting the dust after falling foul of her apparently supercharged touch.

And her friends and family are often left with their hair standing on end after touching her.

Mrs Price says her bizarre condition also means she cannot keep a computer in her house because they go berserk at the brush of her hand.

"It is all a bit mind-boggling really. No one has ever been able to offer me an explanation to why this happens to me. I seem to carry far more electricity than normal people.

Source: This Is London

Dog Steals Truck

DogPolice say Charles McCowan parked his pickup truck in front of an Azusa mini-mart Wednesday, leaving his 80-pound Boxer named Max in the passenger seat.

When he came out, the truck and Max were gone.

McCowan called police, assuming it had been stolen. When officers arrived, they found the truck across the street in a fast-food parking lot, but had no idea how it got there.

In security video shown Thursday, the truck can be seen rolling backward out of the store lot, across a busy street unscathed, and out of view.

Police say after McCowan left the truck, Max somehow released the parking and sent the vehicle rolling backward.

Max's driving skills are better than your average dog. Both he and the truck emerged without a scratch.

Source: Cbs2

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Hubble Peers into the Great Eye of Sauron

The Great Eye of SauronAstronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have released a rather remarkable Hubble image of a ring of dust around star Fomalhaut, described as resembling "the Great Eye of Sauron".

The boffins used the Hubble coronagraph to block light from Fomalhaut and enhance the ring which, as you can see, is "significantly askew". The reason for this, they postulate, is that the dust ring is under the influence of orbiting planet (or planets), possibly a body rotating around the star at approximately Pluto's distance from the sun, or one-third of the ring's radius.

Source: The Register

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22 February, 2008

More links for 22 Feb 2008

Sharkman demonstrates how to tickle a shark - and not lose your fingers. [DailyMail]
A 16-year-old Argentine girl has given birth to female triplets - for the second time. [BBC]
The hands-free umbrella. [OhGizmo!]
Toddler's Elmo Doll makes death threats. [Tbo]
Italian scientists unveil coffee-making robot. [Spiegel]
Footage of the rogue spy satellite destroyed by a Navy SM-3 missile. [YouTube]
5 things you didn’t know about poop. [Mental Floss]

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German Scientists Launch Fish into Space

FishesGerman researchers on Thursday launched a rocket carrying 72 small fish on a brief space flight to study motion sickness.

The cichlids were in an unmanned rocket that blasted off from a launch pad in northern Sweden, said Professor Reinhard Hilbig, who was in charge of the project.

The thumbnail-sized fish were filmed as they swam around weightlessly in small aquariums during the 10-minute space flight.

Hilbig said the fish landed safely and appeared to be in good condition.

"They were very happy, I think they want to have another flight," he said.

Source: Msnbc

Boy Spots Rare, Perfectly Preserved 'Jurassic' Footprints

An eight-year-old boy has impressed experts by finding a set of dinosaur footprints on a beach which date back an incredible 160 million years.

Rhys Nichols was strolling along the sands with dad Richard when he spotted the perfectly preserved nine-inch prints on a rock.

The clever schoolboy immediately realised they could be from a dinosaur - and experts have hailed the find, believing they are the mark of a plant-eating iguanodon creature which roamed the area during the Jurassic era.

Archaeologist Will Watts, of Scarborough Museums Trust, said: "This is a great find as dinosaur prints are not normally that clear.

“We think they are probably from a plant-eating dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic period, which would make the prints about 160 million years old.

"Looking at the size of the prints, the dinosaur was probably the same size as Rhys.

Source: The Mail

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Robber Uses Weapon That Dates Back To Stone Age

Robber Uses Weapon That Dates Back To Stone AgeA robber used a unique weapon -- that harkens back to the Stone Age-- in two West Hartford robberies.

It's a very bizarre armed robbery -- a first for the town of West Hartford. Surveillance photos show a robber that walked into a Subway and pulled out a rock. He held it over the clerk demanding cash. Police say they are looking for the man and hope to make an arrest soon because he has now hit the same store twice in a few months.

"If you look at the size of that thing, it's going to split you open -- you are going to take him seriously," Lt. Stephen Estes, of the West Hartford Police Department, said. "You are going to have to because you have to stop and think about what is the mindset of someone who is going to rob you with a rock? Where is their head actually at?"

Video after the jump (click on link above picture).

Source: Wtnh

Bug's "Bird Poop" Disguise

Bug's This larval swallowtail butterfly's clever disguise (left) is literally a load of crap.

In its larval stages, the Asian swallowtail—also known as the Chinese or Japanese yellow swallowtail—mimics the appearance of bird droppings to prevent predators from gobbling it up.

In its last phase of development, the insect turns green (right) to blend into the leaves on which it lives.

Source: National Geographic

Tetris Ice Trays

Tetris Ice TraysNow, you can play Tetris using ice cubes with these ice trays.

Source: Martin Zampach via Gizmodo

Shell-shaped Nautilus House

This house is more of a sculpture than a dwelling. Taking cues from a Nautilus shell, the house is put together using ferrocement construction, a technique involving a frame of steel-reinforced chicken wire with a special two-inch-thick composite of concrete spread over it, resulting in a structure that's earthquake-proof and maintenance-free.


The open concept inside the house is dominated by smooth surfaces, spiral stairs and natural plantings that makes the inhabitants feel like they're living inside a snail who swallowed the entire contents of somebody's back yard. While the house is surrounded on three sides by the bustling Mexico City, its West side (where most of its portal-style windows are located) has a breathtaking view of the mountains.

More pictures after the jump.

Source: Dvice

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999-Meter-Long Wedding Dress

999-Meter-Long Wedding DressA 999-meter-long scarlet wedding dress is displayed in a shopping mall in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, February 21, 2008. The hand-knitted dress features 2,008 pieces of jade, 29 golden phoenixes and 880 peonies that took dressmakers three months to finish.

999-Meter-Long Wedding Dress
Source: ChinaDaily

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Chocolate F1 Car Goes On Show

Chocolate F1 CarA life-size chocolate model of a Ferrari Formula 1 car has been unveiled in Italy.

Confectioners spent more than a year making the car out of 4,405lbs (2,000kg) of Belgian chocolate.

It has now been delivered to Sorrento, near Naples, where it will be the centrepiece of a Ferrari owners club party.

Luigi Liberti, president of the Scuderia Ferrari Club Napoli, said: "It will go on display until the weekend and then will be smashed up with hammers and handed out to party guests - they will be given bits of the car to take home in a special bag."

The £12,000($24,000) chocolate Ferrari is based on an F2008, and has a red, edible coating.

Source: Ananova

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21 February, 2008

More links for 21 Feb 2008

Swedish couple fined for naming their child "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclll mmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116." [BoingBoing]
The baby born with its heart outside its chest. [DailyMail]
The mysterious G spot - supposedly a route to female sexual satisfaction - can be located with ultrasound, claim Italian scientists. [BBC]
A sleeping rabbit. [YouTube]
Treasure hunters in Germany claim they have found hidden gold in an underground cavern that they are almost certain contains the Amber Room treasure, believed by some to have been stashed away by the Nazis in a secret mission in the dying days of World War II. [Spiegel]
Alice in wonderland syndrome. [Guardian]
A steak toaster. [Ariete]
Gamers will soon be able to interact with the virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone. [BBC]
The U.S. Navy succeeded in its effort to shoot down an inoperable spy satellite before it could crash to Earth and potentially release a cloud of toxic gas. [Cnn]
Stanford drops tuition fees for some students. [Sfgate]
Amazing pictures of countries in the big freeze. [DailyMail]

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DIY Missile Lamp


A floor lamp that looks like an AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking, air-to-air missile!

Video: YouTube
Source: Missile Lamp

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The Amazing Staircase

book-lined staircaseLondon-based Levitate Architects came up with this ingenious solution to a book storage problem by creating a book-lined staircase.

book-lined staircase
Source: Apartment Therapy

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Six-Year Old's Case Closed

Jamie-Lee MorganA six-year-old girl sparked a massive police hunt, including the scrambling of a helicopter, after climbing into a suitcase while playing hide-and-seek.

Jamie-Lee Morgan had zipped herself up in the case while hiding from her grandfather, Bernard Phillips, 58, but fell asleep inside, where she remained for four hours. Mr Phillips and the child's parents searched his home, but there was no sign of the girl.

Her mother, Charlotte Phillips, 24, alerted the police. A squadron of officers sifted through hedges in fields, trawled through alleys and questioned neighbours.

During the search, a police helicopter was drafted in to see if they could locate Jamie-Lee from the air.

Just as the situation became more tense, the schoolgirl awoke, at the same time as officers revisited Mr Phillip's home in Bridgwater, Somerset.

One stunned policeman watched as the case began bouncing around.

He unzipped it and found Jamie-Lee curled up inside.

Source: This Is London & Scotsman

Two-Faced Cat

Double Trouble, the two-faced kittenThis kitten should have no problem looking both ways as it crosses the road - it was born with two faces. Shocked owner Rennee Cook found the mite - named Double Trouble - in a litter delivered in her bedroom by her half-Persian, Amber.

Source: The Sun

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TV Cockroach Causes Outrage

A cockroachA TV station is under investigation after a cockroach was seen scuttling across a news reader's desk during a live broadcast.

Turkmenistan's national station was bombarded with calls from disgusted viewers saying it had put them off their dinners after they saw the insect during the main evening news programme.

Culture Minister Gulmurat Muradov has ordered an internal investigation at the channel.

And now 30 people including editors, directors and technical operators have been sacked over the incident.

Source: Ananova

The Fish That Is a Little Ray of Sunshine

A baby thornbackLooking like Casper the Friendly Ghost's distant undersea cousin, he is one of a dozen baby thornback – or roker – ray fish born as part of a captive breeding programme, hatching from eggs known as 'mermaid's purses' at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Southsea, Hampshire. He's only 12cm (5in) tall.

Source: Metro

Scientist Invents 'Self-Healing' Rubber


A chemistry professor in Paris has come up with a kind of rubber that can "heal" itself.

Ludwik Leibler says his rubber can be stuck back together if it is torn, then used over and over.

Leibler and his colleagues built up their rubber from simple starting materials including vegetable oil and urea, a component of urine. The resulting material is a cross between silly putty and a rubber ball with applications ranging from adhesives to bicycle tires.

When the material melds together again, it has just as much strength as it had before, says Leibler, a polymer chemist at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI) in Paris, France.

Video: YouTube
Source: Canadian Press via New Scientist

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20 February, 2008

More links for 20 Feb 2008

Just how much punishment can your body take? [DailyMail]
Two-Inch Nail Removed from Man’s Genitals. [Bahraini]
A car placed on the roof of a building probably as a prank backfires. With video! [Nbc]
Violent criminals calmed by scent of oranges. [Ananova]

Antarctica's amazing wilderness where spiders are as big as dinner plates. [DailyMail, Video: Clip Syndicate]
The towns where people live the longest. [BBC]

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Mechanic's Urinal Mercedes

ToiletA young Taiwanese mechanic with an unconventional approach to auto-engineering is suspected of having tried to improve a Mercedez-Benz car by attaching a stolen sensor from a urinal.

Police sources in the country have leaked - as it were - the story that Wang Chi-sheng, of Taipei, was arrested on suspicion of trespassing on the grounds of a closed-down petrol station and stealing the sensors used on the urinals.

The police officers escorting Mr Wang have said that they laughed openly as they heard the details of his plan to incorporate the toilet parts in his testing regime as he tried to improve a luxury Mercedes-Benz automobile.

Commenting on the young man's scheme, an incredulous Taiwanese Mercedes-Benz technical department called the plan "unbelievable".

"The probability of successfully using a sensor from a public urinal to replace special factory-made sensors was and remains zero," they said in a statement.

Source: Telegraph

Little Drummer Boy Is Web Big Noise


Four-year-old Jonathan Nicklagard has become the talk of Sweden after demonstrating his drumming ability on national television.

Jonathan was given his red drum kit by his brave parents for Christmas and in just a few weeks has mastered keeping rhythm.

His moment of television fame saw him drumming to a hit by Lars Winnerback, one of the country's most popular singer-songwriters.

He is quite honest about why he is so good: "Because I have played so much. I think it is fun."

Video: YouTube
Source: Sky News

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A Heart Shape Formed Using Smoke Trails

A man takes a photo as members of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) Black Knights aerobatic team form a heart shape using smoke trails during a performance at the Singapore Air Show in Singapore February 19, 2008.

Source: Yahoo News

Seed Pods Shaped Like Tiny Shrunken Heads

Miss Khan had been making the most of the unseasonal sunshine by doing a spot of gardening when she dug up skull-like objects attached to a stalk.

Not only did they bear a startling resemblance to human heads, they came complete with tiny teeth.

She was so terrified by the unusual discovery that she ran straight to a neighbour's house.

"I was just doing a bit of tidying up when I came across this strange thing," said Nasreem.

"It is so bizarre I just can't get over it."

The mystery has been solved by Dr Ian Rotherham, who directs the Tourism and Environmental Change Research Unit at Sheffield Hallam University.

He said: "Bizarre as it appears it is nothing to worry about. What Nasreem found was a seed head and I think it could be Aquilegia.

"It is more commonly known as Columbine and is perfectly harmless."

Source: DailyMail

Grad Student Invents Gravity Lamp

Gravia lampA U.S. graduate student won second place in a "Greener Gadgets Conference" competition inventing a floor lamp powered by gravity.

The LED lamp, named Gravia, is an acrylic column a little more than 4 feet high. The entire column glows when activated by electricity generated by the slow, silent fall of a mass that spins a rotor.

The light output of 600-800 lumens lasts about four hours.

To "turn on" the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp and into a mass sled near the top. The sled begins its gentle glide down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs are illuminated.

"It's more complicated than flipping a switch," said Moulton, "but can be an acceptable, even enjoyable routine, like winding a beautiful clock or making good coffee."

Moulton estimates Gravia's mechanisms will last more than 200 years.

A patent is pending on the Gravia lamp.

Source: Physorg

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Lincoln Portrait Made Out Of Pennies

Lincoln Portrait Made Out Of PenniesJeff Haber, left, and son Danny show off their creation, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln made with pennies. The Habers used 2,400 coins to create the portrait, which they are donating to New Rochelle High School. Danny Haber is a sophomore there.

Source: Lohud

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Pilots Fell Asleep During Flight?

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether two go! Airlines pilots fell asleep during an interisland flight.

The incident centers on a flight on Feb. 13 that did not land when it should have and was out of contact for an extended period of time.

Flight 1002 took off from Honolulu at 9:20 a.m. It was scheduled to land in Hilo at 10:05 a.m.

The plane reportedly flew beyond Hilo for several miles and was out of contact with air traffic controllers for more than 20 minutes, officials said.

Source: Kitv

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Incredible BMX Stunt Rider


Watch as this Japanese mountain biker conquers an incredibly tough course.

Video: YouTube

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Candle Flames That Move & Multiply

Bravit CandlesBravit Candles, designed by German-born and Eindhoven-trained Christophe van Bömmel, are made of sheets of paraffin. They have trails of wicks that cause the original flame to ignite other flames and to die out over time.


Video: YouTube
Source: Dedeceplus via Trendhunter

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DVD In Pocket Saves Man From Bullet

Barry McRoyA DVD in Barry McRoy's jacket pocket stopped a stray bullet from piercing his stomach Saturday during a shooting at a crowded Waffle House.

McRoy, director of Colleton County's Fire and Rescue Department, was shot while trapped in a breezeway with two men struggling over a gun.

The DVD, a gift from an employee who had recorded a TV show about fire extinguishers, didn't fare so well and neither did its case.

McRoy walked away with only a bruise to his stomach. "I was saved by a DVD," McRoy said Monday. "How lucky can you get?

McRoy didn't know he had been shot until he was telling a police officer what happened.

"I felt something like being hit in the stomach and assumed it was the percussion from the discharged firearm," he said.

Then he saw a hole in his jacket. He put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a handful of shattered plastic. The disc was nicked.

He then found a piece of the bullet.

Source: Charleston