Thread: Strange News

Cool! That is fast!

It certainly has the potential to be the fastest passenger vehicle crash in history, innit?

'Vacation Breasts' May Be Next Big Thing in Plastic Surgery

Think of it as test driving plastic surgery: You wouldn't buy a car without driving it, seeing how it feels when you sit in the seat. So why should breasts be any different?

The New York plastic surgeon who developed the "insta breast," a saline injection into the breast that gives the impression of implants for 24 hours, is now working on a method that would last two to three weeks.

"Twenty-four hours is great," said Dr. Norman Rowe, a board certified plastic surgeon who practices in Manhattan, "but it's still just 24 hours."

Two of his insta breast patients have come back for the 24-hour augmentation twice, he said, still unable to decide if surgery is right for them.

Rowe said the two-to-three-week breast "implants" are perfect for a special occasion -- such as a wedding or vacation -- but also give women a better opportunity to see what living with larger breasts is really like.

"You can use 3-D imaging and put implants in bras," he said, "but it's another thing to see what the weight will actually feel like and what it will be like to live with the new breasts."

While Rowe won't disclose the chemical makeup of the solution that will allow the saline-plus-additive to not only last but to stay in the right place, he said it's something that's already widely used in the medical community for other purposes.

"With any procedure, it's important to weigh the benefits versus the risks versus the alternatives," said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News' senior medical contributor. "With this procedure, there is the risk of hitting a blood vessel with the injection (forming a hematoma) as well as a risk of infection, and the long-term risks, while they appear low, are unknown at this time. There are also cost issues."

The cost, Rowe said, will depend largely on how popular the procedure becomes. The more in demand it turns out to be, the lower the price. But he anticipated it will cost less than the insta breast procedure, which cost $2,500.

Rowe said he is in talks with the FDA on new technology, and anticipated the "vacation breasts" will be available in about two years. As with the insta breast, he anticipates there will be no recovery downtime.

A Saudi groom has divorced his bride on their wedding night after seeing her face for the first time when the photographer asked them to pose for pictures.

The couple, from the Western Saudi town of Medinah, had agreed to marry each other despite having not met face to face - a popular custom in certain Middle Eastern countries.

But when the bride removed her veil and smiled for the camera, her new husband leapt to his feet in disgust.

According to local daily Okaz, the bride immediately collapsed in a fit of tears as panicked wedding guests stepped in to try to resolve the dispute.

But their efforts were to no avail.

'The groom said he had not been able to see his bride's face before marriage,' Okaz reported. 'When he divorced her, the bride collapsed and the wedding turned into a night of tears.'

News of the jilting was met with anger on social media.

Afra wrote on one social media network: 'He caused her great pain through his irresponsible attitude, and he deserves to suffer.

'He should appreciate that beauty is in the character, not the face.
'Unfortunately, many young people today are interested only in looks and ignore values and morals.

'May God give her a better husband who will appreciate her for who and what she is.'
Abu Nass added: 'He is not man enough to assume his responsibilities. He is totally, completely insensitive.

'Nobody has forced him to marry her. He should have insisted on seeing her before the wedding and the engagement, and not wait until the wedding night.

'May he always be a loser and may he be deprived of getting married at all. He is not a man and he lacks basic feelings.'


Saudi husband tells bride he wants a divorce during wedding after seeing her face | Daily Mail Online

Indian Basil Fawlty saves family pet:

When Skyplex’s Skyscraper roller coaster opens I’ll stick a GoPro on and post the video here (Thailand to Florida thread). I can just imagine the line to get on this thing now.

Thrill seekers should be pleased with what International Drive's new $250 million, 495,000-square-foot Skyplex entertainment complex has planned for 2017.

Today, the companies behind the project — Mango's Tropical Cafe and US Thrill Rides — unveiled at the International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions Expo the first ride-along video of the complex's centerpiece attraction — the 570-foot-tall Skyscraper polercoaster. The top of the coaster will have an observation deck accessible by elevators. Also, the complex will accommodate tourists with an 1,800-car parking garage.

"With the addition of The Skyscraper and the amazing Skyplex, Orlando will once again cement its reputation as the attractions capital of the world and the No. 1 vacation/convention destination," said Joshua Wallack, managing principal of Skyplex and COO of Mango's Tropical Café, in a prepared statement. "We're certain this thrilling new iconic coaster and facility will attract countless more attraction enthusiasts and visitors to the area."

Scientists remove tapeworm that lived in man’s brain for years
AFP-JIJI
NOV 21, 2014


LONDON – Scientists in Britain removed and studied a rare tapeworm that lived in a man’s brain for four years, researchers said on Friday.

The parasite traveled 5 centimeters (2 inches) from the right side of the brain to the left.

The tapeworm causes sparganosis, an inflammation of body tissues that can cause seizures, memory loss and headaches when it occurs in a person’s brain.

Surgeons removed it, and the patient is now “systemically well,” the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute said.

It was the first time the tapeworm, Spirometra erinaceieuropaei, was reported in Britain. Only 300 cases have been reported since 1953.

The tapeworm is thought to be caught by accidentally eating small infected crustaceans from lakes, eating raw amphibian or reptile meat, or by using a raw frog poultice that is a Chinese remedy for sore eyes.

“We did not expect to see an infection of this kind in the U.K., but global travel means that unfamiliar parasites do sometimes appear,” said Effrossyni Gkrania-Klotsas of the department of Infectious Disease at Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust.

The team managed to sequence the rare parasite’s genome for the first time, allowing them to examine potential treatments.

“Our work shows that, even with only tiny amounts of DNA from clinical samples, we can find out all we need to identify and characterize the parasite,” Gkrania-Klotsas added.

The doctor said the DNA study underlined the importance of a global database of worm genomes to help identify and treat parasites.

Scientists remove tapeworm that lived in man's brain for years | The Japan Times

BERLIN (AP) — A watercolor of Munich's old city hall believed to have been painted by Adolf Hitler a century ago was sold for 130,000 euros ($162,000) at an auction in Germany on Saturday.

Kathrin Weidler, director of the Weider auction house in Nuremberg, said the work attracted bidders from four continents and went to a buyer from the Middle East. She declined to elaborate.

The auction house says the painting is one some 2,000 by Hitler and is thought to be from about 1914, when he was struggling to make a living as an artist, almost two decades before rising to power as the Nazi dictator.

The painting, which had been expected to fetch at least 50,000 euros, was sold by a pair of elderly sisters whose grandfather purchased it in 1916.

Hitler's paintings surface regularly, but the auction house said the 28-by-22 centimeter (11-by-8.5 inch) scene auctioned Saturday also includes the original bill of sale and a signed letter from Hitler's adjutant, Albert Bormann, brother of the dictator's private secretary Martin Bormann.

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Be a super hero: now you can climb glass walls

If you spot someone stuck to the sheer glass side of a building on the Stanford campus, it’s probably Elliot Hawkes testing his dissertation work. A mechanical engineer, he has made a pair of gloves inspired by geckos’ feet that could allow him to climb glass buildings, bringing super-hero fantasy closer to reality.

Gecko toes have the exciting ability to adhere strongly to nearly any surface and yet release with minimal effort. In an attempt to mimic those properties of the lizards, Stanford engineers have designed a controllable adhesive system that can stick to glass and support a person’s weight.

Hawkes, a mechanical engineering graduate student, works with a team of engineers who are developing controllable, reusable adhesive materials that, like the gecko toes that inspire the work, can form a strong bond with smooth surfaces but also release with minimal effort.

Tibetan tapestry fetches record $45 million in Hong Kong

An ancient Tibetan silk tapestry has set a world record for Chinese art after it was sold to a Shanghai tycoon for $45 million (HK$348 million) at auction in Hong Kong, according to Christie's.

The 600-year-old artwork, called a thangka and embroidered in vivid hues of red and gold, was bought by Liu Yiqian on Wednesday and will be displayed at his new museum in Shanghai, the auction house said.

"I am proud to bring back to China this significant and historic 15th century thangka which will be preserved in the Long museum for years to come," he was quoted as saying in a Christie's press release Thursday.

Hong Kong has emerged as one of the biggest global auction hubs alongside New York and London, fuelled by China's economic boom and demand from Chinese and other Asian collectors.

The sale broke the world record for any Chinese work of art sold by an international auction house.

The piece -- which depicts the meditational diety Raktayamari, known as the Red Conqueror of Death, standing stride a buffalo -- was created during the Ming dynasty between 1402 and 1424.

It is one of a set of three thangkas from the Jokhang Monastery in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, according to Christie's.

In April, Liu bought a Ming Dynasty wine cup which broke the world auction record for Chinese porcelain in Hong Kong for $36.05 million (HK$281.24 million).

A taxi driver-turned-financier now aged 50, Liu is one of China's wealthiest men and among the country's new class of super-rich scouring the globe for artwork.

Limestone 'Venus' 23,000 years old dug up in France

A limestone statuette of a shapely woman some 23,000 years old has been discovered in northern France in what archaeologists Thursday described as an "exceptional" find.

Archaeologists stumbled on the Paleolithic-era sculpture during a dig in the summer in Amiens, the first such find in half a century.

"The discovery of this masterpiece is exceptional and internationally significant," said Nicole Phoyu-Yedid, the head of cultural affairs in the area, on showing the find to the media.

"We were expecting to find classical vestiges such as tooled flint or bones," said archaeologist Clement Paris.

But on their second day of fieldwork, the team found a pile of limestone that included fragments which did not seem natural.

"That same night we carefully pieced together the 20-odd fragments and realised it was a female statuette," he added.

Carbon-14 dating showed the statue to be 23,000 years old.

About 12 centimetres (4.7 inches) high, it shows a woman with big breasts and buttocks. The head and arms are less detailed.

"The fact that the sculpture is not totally realistic shows the intent was to produce a symbolic image of a woman linked to fecundity," Paris said.

That looks more like a fossilised turd.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

That looks more like a fossilised turd.

Indeed...Reminds me of the dildo they dug up in China and they thought it was a rare type of mushroom...They got the top part right, anyway...

Hondurans get in the spirit with world record human Christmas tree

The largest human Christmas tree, which has set a new Guinness World Record, at the Plaza La Democracia, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on Dcember 1, 2014

Tegucigalpa (AFP) - Thousands of Hondurans have gone down in history by setting a new Guinness world record for the largest human Christmas tree.

"On behalf of the Guinness Book it is a great pleasure to announce that today ... the people of Honduras in Tegucigalpa, with 2,945 people, have broken the record for world's largest human Christmas tree," said company representative Carlos Martínez.

A smiling President Juan Orlando Hernandez received the certificate outside the presidential residence.

The former record holder had been Thailand, which in 2013 formed one with 852 children.

"It's officially amazing," Hernandez said after reading the document.

It was a bit of good news for the Central American nation, gripped by poverty and the world's highest homicide rate.

For you late night eaters....



A video has surfaced that might turn you off kebabs for a long time… unless you like rat meat.

One hungry customer was eagerly waiting their late night kebab earlier this year when they noticed an unusual staff member attending to the skewered meat.

Upon closer inspection they noticed this staff member was rather small… and hairy… and a rat.

The now not-so-hungry customer whipped out their phone and captured the rat scurrying about the unidentified kebab house.

Food hygiene officers have the ability to shut down a restaurant or food manufacturer immediately if evidence of rats is found on the premises, so it’s fair to say this kebab house is probably breaking a few rules by having a rat on the on meat.

It looks like Ratatouille isn’t so funny in real life.

Customers film a rat climbing up the meat in a take away kebab house | Metro News

World's longest train journey reaches its end in Madrid

Madrid was the final destination on Tuesday for a train which has set the record for making the longest train journey in history: 13,052 kilometers between the Chinese city of Yiwu and the Spanish capital.

The train which arrived in Madrid at 11 am local time (1000 GMT), departed from Yiwu on Nov. 18 with 40 cars, carrying 1,400 tons of cargo, comprised of stationary, crafts and other and Christmas related products. It will return to China filled with Spanish luxury goods such as cured ham, olive oil and wine.

The results of this first historic journey will be evaluated with the aim of opening a regular two-way rail link between China and Spain, which could commence operations in early 2015.

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A record-setting 4.16-pound white truffle has sold for $61,250 at a New York City auction.

Sotheby's says the fungus was sold Saturday to a food and wine lover from Taiwan bidding by phone.

The truffle was found last week in Umbria, Italy, by Sabatino Truffles.

The firm had said it turned down million-dollar offers from buyers in China. Instead, it chose to auction the truffle in New York to benefit Citymeals-on-Wheels and the Children's Glaucoma Foundation.

Sabatino Truffles spokeswoman Jane Walsh had said the truffle was slightly smaller than an American football. She says the average white truffle that's unearthed is about the size of a walnut.

Sotheby's says the previous largest white truffle ever found was 2.5 pounds.

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Originally Posted by S Landreth

Wyckoff-raised naturalist Paul Rosolie will be eaten alive by an Amazonian anaconda in a Discovery Channel special set to air in December.

Not!

The episode followed snake researcher and conservationist Paul Rosolie as he led a camera crew deep into the Amazon in search of a 25-foot anaconda to swallow him whole. But after stumbling around in the jungle for almost 90 commercial-filled, tension-free minutes, he was unable to nab a snake matching that description and wound up feeding himself to a previously captured anaconda.

Naturally, he wasn't volunteering to be eaten au naturel, of course. Rosolie donned a specially rigged suit designed to let him survive the encounter. Turns out he didn’t need it, though, since he called the whole thing off when he felt his arm beginning to break under the snake’s mighty jaws. At that point all those millions of viewers at home cheering him on in his quest to become snake chow promptly turned against him with fury.

Final Verdicts: Sorry, Paul — people would have been a lot happier if you actually had been eaten. Turns out that the viewing public appreciates a little truth in advertising every now and then.

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Restored after 3,000 years, colossal statue of Amenhotep III unveiled in Egypt

Archaeologists on Sunday unveiled a restored colossal statue of Amenhotep III that was toppled in an earthquake more than 3,000 years ago at Egypt’s famed temple city of Luxor.

The statue showing him in a striding attitude was re-erected at the northern gate of the king’s funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile.

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Northern White Rhino Dies At California Zoo, Leaving Only 5 Alive In The World

A northern white rhinoceros that was only one of six left in the world died Sunday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, zoo officials said.

Angalifu, who was about 44 years old, apparently died of old age.

"Angalifu's death is a tremendous loss to all of us," safari park curator Randy Rieches said in a statement. "Not only because he was well beloved here at the park but also because his death brings this wonderful species one step closer to extinction."

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World's first surviving panda triplets given names

After a three-month campaign to name the rare surviving triplet pandas, these awwww-worthy babies have officially been named: Kuku (cool), Shuaishuai (handsome), and Mengmeng (cute.) Cute indeed.

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Ex-fighter pilot and aerobatics champion don jet-propelled wingsuits for an amazing display of airborne aerobatics

To take the most sophisticated selfie (video below)

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Dog Born Without Front Limbs Given 3D Printed Legs (video below)

Derby is a dog who was born with malformed front legs. Unsatisfied with the currently-available wheeled options to assist disabled dogs, Derby’s owner sought additional help. The result was a set of custom designed, 3D printed prosthetic legs that allow Derby to run and play, just like any normal dog.

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Videos

Seriously? A rat with wings? 184,000 dollars?

Police in Germany are looking for a missing pigeon, and any finder could be in line for a 10,000-euro ($12,250) reward.

Duesseldorf police said Tuesday that the 6-year-old male homing pigeon, named AS 969, was stolen at some point on Saturday night from a locked aviary in the city’s suburbs.

They say the light gray bird is valued by its owner at 150,000 euros ($184,000) and police suspect the thief or thieves were “connoisseurs” as it was the most valuable in an aviary full of other homing pigeons.

The owner offered a 10,000-euro reward for the bird’s recovery.

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Volume of world's oldest water estimated

The world's oldest water, which is locked deep within the Earth's crust, is present at a far greater volume than was thought, scientists report.

The liquid, some of which is billions of years old, is found many kilometres beneath the ground.

Researchers estimate there is about 11m cubic kilometres (2.5m cu miles) of it - more water than all the world's rivers, swamps and lakes put together.

The study was presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

Snip

The oldest water, discovered 2.4km down in a deep mine in Canada, has been dated to between one billion and 2.5bn years old.

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Second Longest Insect In The World Discovered In Vietnam

Nope, that’s not a stick. It is in fact a stick insect, and a whopping great huge one at that. This gentle giant, Phryganistria heusii yentuensis, is new to science and was discovered recently during an expedition to Vietnam, alongside two other previously unknown stick insect species. And if the picture doesn’t do it justice, it’s more than a foot long (32 centimeters). But if you then stretch its front legs out, it measures more than half a meter (21 inches) in total length, earning it the title of the second biggest living insect so far described.

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CTA to put rats on birth control

The CTA said it will launch a new weapon in the war on rats next year.

In addition to poisonous traps the CTA uses to kill rats, the agency plans to test new technology that would make female and male rats infertile. A pilot program is expected to start in the spring, though the CTA is still working out details including negotiating the price with the bait maker and deciding where the traps will be placed, CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase said.

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And because it’s Christmas,…… Watch A Snowflake Form Before Your Eyes!

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Spiders Force Family From of Upscale Missouri Home - ABC News

A family was driven from their suburban St. Louis home by thousands of venomous spiders that fell from the ceiling and oozed from the walls.

Brian and Susan Trost bought the $450,000 home overlooking two golf holes at Whitmoor Country Club in Weldon Spring in October 2007 and soon afterward started seeing brown recluse spiders everywhere, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported . Once when showering, Susan Trost dodged a spider as it fell from the ceiling and washed down the drain.

She told St. Louis television station KMOV-TV in 2012 the spiders "started bleeding out of the walls," and at least two pest control companies were unable to eradicate the infestation.

The couple filed a claim in 2008 with their insurance company, State Farm, and a lawsuit against the home's previous owners for not disclosing the brown recluse problem.

At a civil trial in St. Charles County in October 2011, University of Kansas biology professor Jamel Sandidge — considered one of the nation's leading brown recluse researchers — estimated there were between 4,500 and 6,000 spiders in the home. Making matters worse, he said, those calculations were made in the winter when the spiders are least active.

The jury awarded the couple slightly more than $472,000, but the former owners declared bankruptcy, the insurance company still didn't pay anything and the couple moved out two years ago.

The home, now owned by the Federal National Mortgage Association, was covered with nine tarps this week and workers filled it with a gas that permeated the walls to kill the spiders and their eggs.

"There'll be nothing alive in there after this," said Tim McCarthy, president of the company hired to fix the problem once and for all.

Holy fok, I would have screamed like a little biatch if that happened to me. Gave my back a tingle just reading!