Thread: Strange News

Le Griffon Shipwreck found

Divers think they found elusive ‘Le Griffon’ shipwreck? Somewhere in the depths of Lake Michigan, where it’s deepest part measures nearly 1,000 feet, lays an ancient relic that has eluded explorers for 335 years. But now, two divers from Michigan believe they have located it.

Joe Porter, publisher for Wreck Diving Magazine, has penned articles on famous ship wrecks including the Titanic, but said the Griffon is the most fascinating.

“When the Griffin left from Wisconsin, headed back to Niagara, it was never heard from again,” Porter said.

More than 5,000 ship wrecks are scattered throughout the Great Lakes, and Porter said the Le Griffon is the most precious one.

Originally searching for lost gold, Kevin Dykstra and Frederick Monroe believe to have found what more than 20 explorersShip Wreck claim to be the first shipwreck ever to sail Lake Michigan.

“We like to turn the sonar on and just go to places that we haven’t been before, and just try and see what we can find down there,” Dykstra said.

The two treasure hunters were taking measurements of the ship when Dykstra’s magnet, tethered to his scuba gear, picked up an object that few people have ever seen: a hand forged nail that dates back to 1679.

The nail, which has since been observed by historians, is believed to have been on the ship at the time of it’s disappearance, being hauled for building purposes.

Bow Sculpture – Le GriffonIt’s the only artifact so far to be brought back from the ship wreck. Many explorers have claimed to have found Le Griffon in the past, but Dykstra and Monroe are the only ones who’ve found an actual ship wreck.

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India doctors remove 232 teeth from boy's mouth

Doctors in India have extracted 232 teeth from the mouth of a 17-year-old boy in a seven-hour operation.

Ashik Gavai was brought in with a swelling in his right jaw, Dr Sunanda Dhiware, head of Mumbai's JJ Hospital's dental department, told the BBC.

The teenager had been suffering for 18 months and travelled to the city from his village after local doctors failed to identify the cause of the problem.

Doctors have described his condition as "very rare" and "a world record".

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Police bust prostitution rings offering 'breastfeeding for adults' services

Fifteen people have been arrested on prostitution charges over their alleged involvement in websites that hired mothers with newborn babies to breast feed adults.

The Ministry of Public Security co-ordinated police from Beijing and Hebei, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces in China to break up two gangs involved in the business.

More than 200 people from across the country paid for the breastfeeding and prostitution services advertised on websites.

Police in Beijing started to investigate after The Beijing News reported in June that several websites offered to provide young mothers to breast feed adults for a fee.

Charges were discussed on instant messaging apps and photographs of mothers were provided for customers to choose from.

The Beijing News report said one website had been active since September last year.

Customers had to pay 60 yuan (HK$75) a week, or up to 780 yuan a year, to become a member and have access to mothers’ details.

An undercover reporter at the newspaper arranged to be breastfed for 1,000 yuan.

The mother then told the journalist she could also offer sex for 1,500 yuan.

She was quoted by the newspaper as saying that mothers who only provided breastfeeding services would only get regular customers if they offered sex.

A 23-year-old mother said one website offered a weekly and monthly service, costing 40,000 yuan for breastfeeding each month and 50,000 with sex.

Some mothers only breastfed their babies once a day, or even stopped breastfeeding their child, so they could focus on the business, the newspaper report said.
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The restorative IV drip: a hangover cure from 'the dawn of ages'

A new trend has seen companies springing up to intravenously inject the stricken with an IV bag packed with vitamins and medications.

I received two bags of fluid – the ‘Revive’ package, which is billed as “for deathbed relief”. The solution contains:

130 mEq of sodium ion
109 mEq of chloride ion
28 mEq of lactate (pH balancer)
4 mEq of potassium ion
3 mEq of calium ion
Famotidine, a histamine H2-receptor antagonist that inhibits stomach acid production.
Odansetron, a serotonin 5-HT3 receptor antagonist used to prevent nausea
Ketorolac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug

Video in the link

Don't know where to put this, but since S_L is a Floridian (I think) it's as good a place as any to link to Dave Barry's Year in Review

Barry is reliably sharp and Thailand gets a few mentions this year!

^The Miami Herald will (sometimes) request you to join as a member (digital subscription) to view their pages. In case it does and you cannot view it at the Herald site you can view it here without subscribing. It's Dec. 31, and here's Dave Barry's Year in Review | CharlotteObserver.com

Some Thailand related mentions,……

Meanwhile in Thailand, where people have the best names on Earth, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is found guilty of abuse of power by the Constitutional Court, whose members include Nurak Marpraneet, Taweekiat Meenakanit, Udomsak Nitimontree and of course Boonsong Kulbupar. Yingluck is replaced by caretaker prime minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan. There will be a quiz on this.

In Thailand, the national assembly chooses, as the new prime minister replacing Yingluck Shinawatra, General Prayut Chan-O-Cha, whose appointment becomes official when it is approved by King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

On the weather front, eastern Asia is hit by a tropical storm named (really) “Fung-wong.” Incredibly, Fung-wong does not strike Thailand.

And a few I enjoyed,….

…the Democrats get creamed in the midterm elections, which means the Republicans will control both houses of Congress as well as the road commissionership of Carwankle County, which R. Nordstrom Fleemer, despite being unopposed, loses badly, although his wife elects not to tell him. With the federal government now facing total gridlock, Republican and Democratic leaders realize that the only way they can attack the many serious problems facing the nation is to stop their endless cheap-shot partisan bickering and work together in the spirit of … Wow, this is some STRONG stuff I am smoking here.

In an aviation miracle, a 15-year-old boy sneaks into the landing-gear compartment of a Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767 and somehow survives a five-hour flight from San Jose to Maui. Hours later major U.S. airlines jointly announce that they are offering “an exciting new seating option for budget-minder flyers who enjoy fresh air.”

In politics, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, responding to a radio interviewer’s questions about his alleged role in the 2013 “Bridgegate” lane-closure scandal, eats the interviewer.

There’s something for everyone in the article.

A pair of Norwegian scientists are in the middle of a long expedition over the Arctic winter, living out of a hovercraft on a drifting ice floe.
There is no sun, it's freezing and yet they seem to be having a grand ol' time doing science.

The bowhead whale lives over 200 years.

Can its genes tell us why?

A whale that can live over 200 years with little evidence of age-related disease may provide untapped insights into how to live a long and healthy life. In the January 6 issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Reports, researchers present the complete bowhead whale genome and identify key differences compared to other mammals. Alterations in bowhead genes related to cell division, DNA repair, cancer, and aging may have helped increase its longevity and cancer resistance.

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Archaeologists find possible site of Jesus's trial in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — It started 15 years ago with plans to expand the Tower of David Museum. But the story took a strange turn when archaeologists started peeling away layers under the floor in an old abandoned building adjacent to the museum in Jerusalem’s Old City.

They knew it had been used as a prison when the Ottoman Turks and then the British ruled these parts. But, as they carefully dug down, they eventually uncovered something extraordinary: the suspected remains of the palace where one of the more famous scenes of the New Testament may have taken place — the trial of Jesus.

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Rapid Desert Formation May Have Destroyed China's 1st Kingdom

The first known Chinese kingdom may have been destroyed when its lands rapidly transformed into deserts, possibly driving its people into the rest of China, a new study finds.

This new finding suggests that the kingdom may have been more important to Chinese civilization than experts had thought, researchers say.

Prior research suggests the earliest Chinese kingdom might have been Hongshan, established about 6,500 years ago. This was about 2,400 years before the supposed rise of the Xia Dynasty, the first dynasty in China described in ancient historical chronicles. The kingdom's name, which means "Red Mountain," comes from the name of a site in the Inner Mongolia region of China.

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"Imaginary meal" tricks the body into losing weight

LA JOLLA–Salk researchers have developed an entirely new type of pill that tricks the body into thinking it has consumed calories, causing it to burn fat. The compound effectively stopped weight gain, lowered cholesterol, controlled blood sugar and minimized inflammation in mice, making it an excellent candidate for a rapid transition into human clinical trials.

Unlike most diet pills on the market, this new pill, called fexaramine, doesn’t dissolve into the blood like appetite suppressants or caffeine-based diet drugs, but remains in the intestines, causing fewer side effects.

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Astronomers Get Closer Than Ever in the Hunt for Earth's Twin

Astronomers announced today the discovery of eight new planets in their stars’ habitable zones, the region where liquid water can exist on a planetary surface. Three of these planets are similar in size to Earth, nearly doubling the number of possible Earth twins found so far.

“We’re now closer than we’ve ever been for finding a twin for Earth,” said astronomer Fergal Mullally of the Kepler Science Office at a press conference here today at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

The newly confirmed planets were discovered by the Kepler space telescope, bringing the mission’s total to over 1,000. Previously, only five confirmed planets are similar to Earth in size and reside in the habitable zone. Of course, being in the habitable zone only means that it’s possible for liquid water to exist, that it’s not too hot or too cold. Just because these planets are in the zone doesn’t mean they’re covered with balmy seas.

And even if a planet does have water, considered a prerequisite for life based on what we now about life in Earth, the planet still has to have the right chemical compositions, atmospheres, geology, and a host of other factors for life to exist. Two of the three new Earth-size planets, dubbed Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b, have a good chance of clearing one of those hurdles: having a solid surface. The third, Kepler 440b, is less likely to be a rocky planet.

One of the new Earth-sized planets, Kepler-438b, is about 470 light-years away, has a diameter just 12 percent bigger than Earth’s, gets 40 percent more light than our planet, and has a 70 percent chance of being in the habitable zone. Astronomers place the likelihood that this planet’s surface is rocky at 70 percent.

The second planet, Kepler-442b is 1,100 light-years away from Earth, is a third larger than our planet and receives a third less light. Its chance of being in the habitable zone is 97 percent, and the likelihood of being rocky is 60 percent.

1,100 lightyears away

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Rare Albino Dolphin Seen for First Time in Half a Century

A rare albino dolphin, spotted in waters off the Florida coast, was seen for the first time in half a century, according to reports.

Biologists have confirmed instances of albinism among 20 species of dolphins, whales and porpoises, with only 14 previous sightings of albino bottlenose dolphins.

But Danielle Carter, a volunteer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), shot video of what is now number 15 on Dec. 10 in an estuary off Florida's east coast.

In an incredibly unlikely turn of events, Maine fishermen found two albino lobsters in two consecutive weeks. Lobsters are known to take on a number of unusual and rare colorations, but albinism is the rarest by far.

"We thought it was worth sharing due to their rarity but we are not able to give out an exact location for the sake of the animal's safety," FWC spokesman Brandon Basino told Florida Today. "We did not ask for a specific location for this very reason."

The Full-Floor Condo Suite Package: Priced at: $3,000,000

Without the savvy to live off the land that we associate with survivalists, how are the one-percenters supposed to get through the apocalypse? It’s tough to envision the well-heeled skinning deer to feed their Wall Street dinner party guests. But now the elite have another option. Instead of handing the future to bearded crackpots building sandbag barricades on rural compounds, the rich can score a luxury underground Survival Condo nice enough to remind them of the one they left in Manhattan.

Built in two underground missile bunkers at an undisclosed location in Kansas, the units run from $1.5 to $.4.5 million and typically can’t be financed—so that sum’s got to be paid up front. But if you do have a few million lying around, a piece of these fortified underground silos can be yours. So far, there’s no shortage of takers. The first silo is reportedly sold out, and the second is currently accepting contracts.

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British Airways 777 plane blown across Atlantic at supersonic speeds by freak jetstream

A British Airways Boeing 777-200 has recorded the fastest transatlantic crossing by a subsonic passenger plane after freak weather conditions helped it break the sound barrier, and travel at ground speeds of up to 745mph.

BA Flight 114 between New York and London "surfed" on an unusually fast jetstream to make the flight in just 5 hours 16 minutes on Wednesday, an hour-and-a-half ahead of schedule. The only plane to make the crossing quicker is Concorde, which made the journey in 2 hours 52 minutes in 1996.

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1795 Time Capsule Buried By Sam Adams, Paul Revere Opened In Boston

Paul’s great, great, great, great, great, grandfather is Paul Revere. In 1795, Revere and Governor Samuel Adams placed it under a cornerstone of the new State House.

It was dug up once in 1855 and re-buried and then rediscovered in December.

There were five folded newspapers, two dozen coins, some dating back to the 1650s, a seal of the Commonwealth, and a silver plate made by Paul Revere, dedicated on the day it was placed in the cornerstone of the State House. An engraving on the plate reads in part, “on the 4th day of July Anno Domini 1795… being the twentieth anniversary of American independence.”

Michael Comeau, executive director of the Massachusetts Archives and Commonwealth Museum, tells the AP that he has seen the coins offered for as much as $75,000, but given the association with Revere and Adams, the value could be much higher.

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Levitation device moves objects with sound

Brazilian scientists have made advances in causing tiny particles to hover, or levitate, using sound waves. The development could have significant implications for improving safety when handling hazardous materials, as well as providing an opportunity for some mind-blowing kids/grown-up toys.

The acoustic levitation device from researchers at the University of São Paulo is featured on this week's cover of the journal Applied Physics Letters, published by the American Institute of physics (AIP). By bouncing sound waves between two reflectors above and below a tiny polystyrene particle, the ultrasonic device demonstrates how objects can be controlled and held without the need for touching parts.

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Record Breaking Female Shark Stores Sperm For Almost 4 Years

Female sharks are known to be capable of storing sperm, but it still came as a weird and wonderful shock when an egg case laid by a brownbanded bamboo shark in Steinhart Aquarium began to show signs of healthy development. Not only were there no males in the tank, but the females had been completely isolated from males for a staggering 45 months. According to scientists, this could be the longest documented case of sperm storage for any species of shark.

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A dog's life: 'Smart collar' helps you keep tabs on Fido via video

You have a Fitbit, your kids have iPhones. Shouldn't your dog have a smart device too?

Motorola thinks so. It's created the Scout 5000 ($199), a "smart collar" built with GPS, a video camera and Wi-Fi connectivity. The device even has a built-in speaker, so you can yell "Stay!" if your pet is approaching traffic or "Fido, bring in the paper" if you're feeling particularly lazy.

The Scout 5000 isn't the first smart collar on the market. But it is rare for these doggie devices to have cameras capable of sending 720p video directly to the owner's smartphone.

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Why are more and more women shaving their faces?

There is a movement in the world of female beauty and it has nothing to do with facial hair. More and more women are picking up the habit of shaving their faces–just like men do–and it is with the intent to keep their skin healthier and wrinkle-free.

“It’s definitely a thing,” Alexis Wolfer, editor of The Beauty Bean, told Good Morning America. “One reason men are thought to get fewer wrinkles is that they’re constantly exfoliating their faces every time they shave, literally shaving away the outermost layers of skin and encouraging your skin to create new layers.”

Shaving at home is the milder version of a professional process called dermaplaning, where the topmost layers of the skin are shaved away to reveal healthier layers beneath. In a doctor’s office, dermaplaning occurs on a deeper level, and is used to treat issues like acne scars, but at home, shaving can achieve similar results over a matter of time.

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With 0.2 seconds left of the shot clock Gordon Hayward finds Trevor Booker. NBA Player Hits Craziest Shot You'll Ever See And He Has Been Practicing It For Years

Originally Posted by S Landreth

British Airways 777 plane blown across Atlantic at supersonic speeds by freak jetstream

A British Airways Boeing 777-200 has recorded the fastest transatlantic crossing by a subsonic passenger plane after freak weather conditions helped it break the sound barrier, and travel at ground speeds of up to 745mph.

BA Flight 114 between New York and London "surfed" on an unusually fast jetstream to make the flight in just 5 hours 16 minutes on Wednesday, an hour-and-a-half ahead of schedule. The only plane to make the crossing quicker is Concorde, which made the journey in 2 hours 52 minutes in 1996.

Bloody hell.

There is still love there. How romantic.

Jilted wife 'chopped off husband's penis TWICE with scissors after catching him cheating'

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Scotland’s Jurassic past has emerged with the discovery of a prehistoric sea creature so terrifying it makes the Loch Ness monster look like an overgrown seahorse. The ancient marine reptile, called Dearcmhara shawcrossi, had a mouth full of teeth and dolphin-like flippers, measured 14 feet (4.3 meters) long and was a highly skilled swimmer, according to a study published Sunday in the Scottish Journal of Geology.

And it has a wicked eye...Bet it's quick as greased shite...

Originally Posted by S Landreth

The feisty females slipped past a snoozing security guard

Was this in Thailand?...Heh...

Mummy Mask May Reveal Oldest Known Gospel

A text that may be the oldest copy of a gospel known to exist — a fragment of the Gospel of Mark that was written during the first century, before the year 90 — is set to be published.

At present, the oldest surviving copies of the gospel texts date to the second century (the years 101 to 200).

This first-century gospel fragment was written on a sheet of papyrus that was later reused to create a mask that was worn by a mummy. Although the mummies of Egyptian pharaohs wore masks made of gold, ordinary people had to settle for masks made out of papyrus (or linen), paint and glue. Given how expensive papyrus was, people often had to reuse sheets that already had writing on them.

In recent years scientists have developed a technique that allows the glue of mummy masks to be undone without harming the ink on the paper. The text on the sheets can then be read.

Snip

"We're recovering ancient documents from the first, second and third centuries. Not just Christian documents, not just biblical documents, but classical Greek texts, business papers, various mundane papers, personal letters," Evans told Live Science. The documents include philosophical texts and copies of stories by the Greek poet Homer.

The business and personal letters sometimes have dates on them, he said. When the glue was dissolved, the researchers dated the first-century gospel in part by analyzing the other documents found in the same mask.

One drawback to the process is that the mummy mask is destroyed, and so scholars in the field are debating whether that particular method should be used to reveal the texts they contain.

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Why Hitchcock’s horrifying film on the Holocaust was never shown

Two women drag an emaciated female corpse along the ground, its head bouncing on the dirt. When they reach a large pit, they stop, give the naked body a quick tug backward to pick up momentum, then hurl it into the hole. The corpse, which looks like a skeleton covered in a thin film of skin, flops onto a mound of decomposing bodies.

The scene, shot at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of World War II, might never have been seen by the public had a decommissioned film, boasting Alfred Hitchcock as a supervising director and British film pioneer Sidney Bernstein as producer, not been resurrected. Authorized in the spring of 1945 by the Allied forces, German Concentration Camps Factual Survey captured the monstrous realities found during the liberation of Nazi death camps, including Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and Auschwitz.

Yet by August of that year, the film was shelved by British authorities. Everything—reels of footage, the script, the cameramen’s notes—was boxed up and buried in the archives of the Imperial War Museums (IWM) in London. A new HBO documentary, Night Will Fall (January 26), directed by André Singer and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and Jasper Britton, tells the story of how, 70 years later, this lost film came back to life.

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Scientists build rice grain-sized laser powered by quantum dots

Scientists at Princeton have built a tiny microwave laser (a "maser") the size of a rice grain. The laser is made of artificial atoms called quantum dots -- miniature bits of semiconductor material.

"It is basically as small as you can go with these single-electron devices," lead study author Jason Petta, an associate professor of physics at Princeton, said in a recent press release.

The primary goal of the engineering project was to see if they could coax two quantum dots into talking to each other. They succeeded, using light photons as their language.

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CSU device lets you hear with your tongue

In the future, those with substantial hearing loss may no longer need a doctor to surgically implant a cochlear device into their ear to restore their sense of sound.

If researchers at Colorado State University are successful, they may just pop a retainer into their mouths. The team of engineers and neuroscientists are developing a hearing device that bypasses the ear altogether and puts words in the mouth.

Solar Plane's Route for Around-the-World Flight Revealed

In about a month, two Swiss pilots will attempt a record-setting flight around the world without using any fuel, and today (Jan. 20), they announced the route for their ambitious journey aboard their solar-powered plane, Solar Impulse 2.

Pilots André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard will begin their slow-and-steady voyage from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in late February or early March.

They'll stop in Muscat, Oman; the Indian cities Ahmedabad and Varanasi; Mandalay, Myanmar; and the Chinese cities Chongqing and Nanjing, according to the official route. Next, they'll touch down in Hawaii, as well as three places in the continental United States: Phoenix, a to-be-determined location in the Midwest and New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Borschberg and Piccard will then cross the Atlantic and stop somewhere in southern Europe or northern Africa before returning to Abu Dhabi by late July or early August.

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Man Floats In Sky Tied To 90 Balloons

It turns out that floating into the sky with the help of balloons isn't just something that happens in the movies.

Erik Roner, a professional skier and avid BASE jumper, pulled off exactly that last month. After getting friends and family to help tie 90 helium-filled balloons to an old lawn chair, Roner hopped on and lifted off the ground. The adrenaline junkie ended up floating to an altitude of around 8,000 feet.

The adventurer said that his time in the airspace was quite serene, remarking, "It really doesn't get much more peaceful than this."

When it came time to come back down, Roner free-fell, then parachuted to the ground.

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Temporary Tattoo Offers Needle-Free Way to Monitor Glucose Levels

Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have tested a temporary tattoo that both extracts and measures the level of glucose in the fluid in between skin cells. This first-ever example of the flexible, easy-to-wear device could be a promising step forward in noninvasive glucose testing for patients with diabetes.

The sensor was developed and tested by graduate student Amay Bandodkar and colleagues in Professor Joseph Wang’s laboratory at the NanoEngineering Department and the Center for Wearable Sensors at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. Bandodkar said this “proof-of-concept” tattoo could pave the way for the Center to explore other uses of the device, such as detecting other important metabolites in the body or delivering medicines through the skin.

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Archaeologists find 132-year-old Winchester rifle leaning against Nevada desert tree

Archaeologists conducting a survey in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada have stumbled upon a 132-year-old Winchester rifle propped against a tree, possibly having been left there more than a century ago.

The rifle, which records show was manufactured and shipped by the gun maker in 1882, had been leaning against the Juniper tree for so long that the wood of its stock was cracked and deteriorated from the desert sun, its barrel rusted.

“It really is a mystery,” said Nichole Andler, a public information officer for Great Basin National Park. “We know it has been out there awhile because the stock was buried in dirt. But we do not know for how exactly how long.”

Andler said more than 700,000 Winchester Model 1873 rifles were manufactured by the company between 1873 and 1916, becoming known as the “gun that won the West” because of its popularity.

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Mystery Greek tomb contained at least 5 corpses, experts say

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Human bones found in a resplendent ancient tomb in northern Greece belong to at least five individuals, including an elderly woman and a baby, Greek officials said Monday.

The announcement by the Culture Ministry further muddles a high-profile excavation hampered by unrealistic expectations and political attention.

The three-month dig at ancient Amphipolis, 600 kilometers (375 miles) north of Athens, has uncovered three vaulted chambers behind a facade decorated with two big marble sphinxes. Inside, archaeologists found a pair of larger-than-life statues of young women and a mosaic pavement depicting the abduction of the goddess Persephone by Hades, king of the underworld.

It is unclear when each of the five individuals died or were buried and even whether the tomb had been built for them all.

The thoroughly-plundered tomb has been dated to between 325 B.C. — two years before the death of ancient Greek warrior-king Alexander the Great — and 300 B.C., although some archaeologists think it could be considerably later. Experts speculated it could have been built for a general or a relative of Alexander's, who himself was buried in Egypt.

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World's First Wireless Smart In Ear Headphones. 1000 Songs. Performance Tracking. Body Sensors. Secure Fit.

Music is a part of everyone's life. It brings joy, excitement and motivation. However it is not always a pleasure listening to music with headphones. Cables tangle, pull at the headphones and ultimately break. In addition, accessing online content from a smartphone is awesome but needing to carry a smartphone all the time can be a real pain.

The Dash consists of a pair of discrete and completely wireless stereo earphones.They will playback music through a Bluetooth connection or use the embedded 4GB/1000 song music player. Everything about the design is focused on delivering freedom of movement, incredible sound and comfort. The Dash is awesome for sports and great for everything else.

The Dash works in sympathy with the wearer. Movements like pace, steps, cadence and distance are tracked. Heart rate, oxygen saturation and energy spent are measured, all the while real time acoustic feedback is provided. It even works without an attached smartphone.

Safety and the ability to communicate with others are important. In addition to being earphones, the Dash will double as a Bluetooth Headset delivering clear voice quality through the embedded ear bone microphone. The ear bone microphone is not sensitive to background noise, since it picks up mechanical vibration generated by your voice from the ear bone.

It turns out that floating into the sky with the help of balloons isn't just something that happens in the movies.

What idiot wrote that? The movie was based on Lawnchair Larry.

Another newly graduated hack who doesn't research properly?

Aerial drone crashes near U.S. border with methamphetamine payload

A small aerial drone crashed about two miles from the U.S. border in Mexico carrying several pounds of methamphetamine, Mexican police said Wednesday.

The discovery at a shopping mall parking lot in Tijuana, within walking distance of the U.S. border crossing, raises the prospect of a new, high-tech front in the struggle between drug gangs and law enforcement.

Technology. Isn’t it grand?

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World's Largest Animated GIF Created with Ground Paintings and a Satellite Camera

Artist INSA is known for creating mesmerizing animated GIFs using street art and photos. He was recently recruited by the scotch whisky brand Ballantines to create “the world’s largest animated GIF,” one that was created with gigantic paintings on the ground and photos from a satellite camera.

INSA and a group of 20 helpers gathered at a location in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in late 2014. The team painted giant patterns on the ground, doing one design per day over the course of four days. Each of the four paintings measured 14,379 square metes, meaning the project required a total of 57,515 square meters of paint.

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Why Rain Gives Off That Fresh, Earthy Smell

Before it hits the ground, rain is just water. It has no smell. But after the drops hit the ground and interact with dirt, the fresh and almost sweet fragrance of rain is let go. Now, scientists think they've identified the exact mechanism that releases this aroma into the environment.

The smell actually has a name. It's called "petrichor," from the Greek words "petra," meaning "stone," and "ichor," which refers to the fluid that flows like blood in the veins of the gods. The phenomenon was first characterized (as the familiar smell after a light rain) by two Australian scientists in 1964, but until now, researchers didn't understand the physical mechanism behind it.

When a raindrop hits a porous surface it traps tiny pockets of air. These bubbles then speed upward, like bubbles in a glass of champagne, before breaking the drop's surface and releasing microscopic particles, called aerosols, into the air. The researchers think these aerosols carry the rainlike aroma.

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China to build $242 billion high-speed railway from Beijing to Moscow

China is planning to build a 242 billion USD high-speed rail connecting the Chinese capital to Moscow, cutting the journey from five days to two, Beijing's city government announced in a Weibo post on Wednesday.

The 7,000-kilometer railway, which will travel through Kazakhstan, is going to be three times longer than the world's longest high-speed line from Beijing to Guangzhou.

The project was introduced last October when Russia and China signed a memorandum of understanding over the high-speed rail link. First Vice President of Russian Railways Alexander Misharin said the trip could be completed within 30 hours.

Construction is expected to take eight to 10 years, according Misharin.

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Laser-etched metal 'bounces' water

Physicists in the US have created metal surfaces that repel water to the extent that droplets bounce away.

They sculpted the surface of small pieces of platinum, titanium and brass using a very high-powered laser.

The materials "self-clean" because water droplets gather dust particles before they slide away.

If it can be scaled up, it could help produce hygienic, easily maintained devices - from solar panels to toilets - that do not rust or ice up.

'Dragon' dinosaur with ultra-long neck found by Alberta researchers

A new species of dinosaur with a neck half the length of its body has been discovered by University of Alberta paleontologists in China.

And the researchers wonder if the ancient Chinese may have viewed a similar skeleton, leading to the enduring myths of dragons.

The fossil, which included a large neck vertebra with the head attached, was named Qijianglong. That translates to "Dragon of Qijiang," in honour of the fossil's discovery at a southern China construction site near Qijiang City in 2006.

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Divers discover underwater forest off Norfolk coast

A submerged prehistoric forest, discovered 200 metres off the Norfolk Coast, is about 10,000 years old, according to geologists.

Discovered by divers, the forest is part of a prehistoric Doggerland which once spread all the way to Germany.

It was uncovered when last winter's storm surge shifted thousands of tonnes of sand beneath the ocean.

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Rare Fox Takes A Walk In The Park

It's been nearly 100 years since a sighting of a Sierra Nevada red fox was documented in Yosemite National Park, according to park staff. But a remote motion-sensitive camera recently took photos of one of the rare animals as it padded across the snow.

"The Sierra Nevada red fox of California is one of the rarest mammals in North America," reports Ed Joyce of Capital Public Radio, "likely consisting of fewer than 50 individuals."

Now researchers believe they've seen one of the foxes twice since the start of December.

The photogenic animal was spotted by a camera that's part of Yosemite's effort to learn more about rare carnivores that live in the park. The picture was taken in an area of the backcountry in the park's northern region.

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Rocket-Powered 'Bloodhound' Car

Bloodhound SSC is a United Kingdom-based team aiming to break the world land speed with a rocket-powered car. Test drives are expected to occur later this year in South Africa, with the actual record attempt slated for 2016. Here are some photos of the superfast Bloodhound car.

The Bloodhound car is aiming to break the world land speed record by accelerating to 1,000 mph (1,609 km/h) — fast enough to go 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) in just 3.6 seconds.

Bloodhound's projected land-speed record of 1,000 mph (1,600 km/h) would be substantially faster than the current record, which is set at 763 mph (1,228 km/h).

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Rare megamouth shark washes up in the Philippines

The 66th megamouth shark ever seen washed ashore this morning in Marigondon, a port in the Albay province of the Philippines. Initial reports suggest the shark (Megachasma pelagios) was approximately five metres (16 ft.) in length, but until a necropsy can be performed, the finer details about the animal (including the cause of death) will remain a mystery. Sightings like this are rare ... so rare, in fact, that when the first megamouth was spotted in 1976, a new shark family, genus and species had to be created!

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Original Wells Fargo bank site in San Francisco robbed of Gold Rush-era nuggets

Three bandits wearing ski masks crashed a stolen SUV into the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco early on Tuesday and held a security guard at gunpoint before making off with a display of gold nuggets from the 19th century, police said.

The predawn smash-and-grab heist took place at the Montgomery Street building in the city's Financial District on the site where the original Wells Fargo bank was founded in 1852.

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Tiger population increases by 30% in India

The number of tigers in India has seen a sharp rise in the latest tiger census. India now has 2,226 tigers which is around 30% more from 1,706 estimated in the last census. Environement Minister Prakash Javadekar informed this while releasing the Tiger Census 2014.

Study on sexual behavior discovers why some people ‘stay’ while others ‘stray’

Scientists said Wednesday they had amassed the first evidence to back theories that people fall into two broad categories — promiscuity or faithfulness — when it comes to sex.

Everyone knows of couples that are sexually faithful, but also of men cut out to be cads rather than dads.

What has been lacking are the statistics to show these differences, which is a key step to explaining them.

Now a team at the University of Oxford say they have found just that.

Finger length

The longer your ring finger is, compared to your index finger, the higher the likely concentrations of foetal testosterone.

This in turn has been linked to a higher statistical likelihood of promiscuity.

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How To Find A Stolen Bicycle: Smart Pedals

Bikes are stolen all the time. This impedes people’s ability to get to jobs in a timely way, and also costs them a bit of money and inconvenience. Sometimes with no car, no decent mass transit, and no bicycle, these people are really left out of luck, perhaps losing a job.

Even with expensive locks, we must realize that our bikes can one day be stolen. A new technology to can help a great deal if such a thing happens — smart pedals.

The smart pedal from French startup Connected Cycle also includes technology that will notify a bicycle owner if their bike is moved. A tracking app installed on a smartphone reveals the bicycle’s new location.

Along with this personal sleuthing techno system, other conveniences from the pedals and app aid the bicyclist. They can track the speed of cyclists, track routes as other apps do, track inclines and declines, and for the obsessive, the cyclist’s calories burned. Additionally, the smart pedals generate electricity and include their own internet connection.

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Helium Balloon Flight Breaks 2 Longstanding Records

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Two pilots in a helium-filled balloon landed safely off the coast of Mexico early Saturday after an audacious, nearly 7,000-mile-long trip across the Pacific Ocean that shattered two long-standing records for ballooning.

The pilots landed 4 miles offshore in Baja California about 300 miles north of the popular beach destination of Cabo San Lucas, greeted by a team of balloon enthusiasts who assisted with the landing. The pilots came in low and dropped thick trailing ropes into the ocean to help slow the balloon before setting down in a controlled water landing.

Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia lifted off from Japan Sunday morning, and by Friday, they beat what's considered the "holy grail" of ballooning achievements, the 137-hour duration record set in 1978 by the Double Eagle crew of Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman in the first balloon flight across the Atlantic. They also easily exceeded the distance record of 5,209 miles set by the Double Eagle V team during the first trans-Pacific flight in 1981.

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How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?

We at the National Sleep Foundation make it our mission to champion not only sleep science, but sleep health for the individual. And so, on the eve of our 25 th anniversary, we are releasing the results of a world-class study that took more than two years of research to complete – an update to our most-cited guidelines on how much sleep you really need at each age.

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6 Photos of the Oldest Living Things in the World

3,000-year-old llareta, a relative of parsley, Atacama Desert, Chile


100,000-year-old sea grass, Baleric islands, Spain


2,000-year-old Parfuri Baobab, Kruger Game Preserve, South Africa


Soil sample containing 400,000-600,000-year-old Siberian bacteria


2,000-year-old brain coral, Speyside, Tobago


80,000-year-old colony of Quaking Aspens, Fish Lake, Utah

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Rare goblin shark caught in Australian trawl net

‘Living fossil’ species dates back 125 million years and is typically found in depths of 3,000 to 4,000 feet; this juvenile was taken at 2,000 feet

The goblin shark is the world’s rarest shark, and a contender for the world’s ugliest sea creature. It is the lone surviving member of the Mitsukurinidae family, which dates back 125 million years.

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Mysterious Blainville's Beaked Whale Makes An Appearance In Hawaii

Blainville's beaked whales can be as long as 20 feet and weigh as much as 2,300 pounds. They live in tropical waters worldwide, but often spend most of their time at deep depths, where they hunt for squid and small fish.

Because they swim so deep -- they've been known to dive seven times deeper than humpbacks -- Blainville's beaked whales are difficult to observe.

As a result, Blainville's beaked whales are somewhat of a mystery: Scientists don’t know how many there are, or what their life span is.

cows are terrorists and should not be allowed on aeroplanes

Un pétard dans une bouse de vache

Introducing Spot

Spot is a four-legged robot designed for indoor and outdoor operation. It is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. Spot has a sensor head that helps it navigate and negotiate rough terrain. Spot weighs about 160 lbs.

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The bull whose semen is worth $3,000

Yuvraj is a handsome animal with oiled backward-curving horns, a smooth grey-black coat and a slim, bushy tail. He weighs 450kg/990lbs [from me: that animal should come in at about 2,000 (+) lbs], is 10ft long and 5ft 8in tall. He is also used to attention - and slightly disdainful of his latest admirers.

"Every day somebody or the other comes to see him. He's not just another bull, he's a brand," says his proud owner, Karamveer Singh, a 47-year-old third generation farmer in Haryana state.

Snip

His semen is now possibly the most expensive in India, costing up to 350 rupees ($5.65; £3.75) a dose - possibly more than 10 times the average.

A single ejaculation, triggered with the help of a teaser animal and collected in an artificial vagina, provides 500 to 600 sperm "doses", each containing 20 million sperm. The upshot is that Singh earns anything between three and five million rupees every year selling the stuff, which he stores at home in thin frozen strips, preserved at -196C in 50-litre containers of liquid nitrogen.

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Never-Before-Seen Works By Surrealist Master Salvador Dali, On View Now

In the painted world of Salvador Dali, timepieces ooze like cracked eggs, elephants stand on impossibly spindly legs, and tigers leap forth from fish like the most unlikely of nesting dolls. His works reveal a universe populated by both dreams and nightmares, a type of imagery that came to define 20th century Surrealism in its ability to combine absurdism with bits of the familiar to push the boundaries of accepted thought.

As the National Arts Club's Dianne Bernhard said: “Surrealism was an intellectual and artistic movement that was grounded in the psyche of man. Dali expressed what the unconscious mind was thinking in order to simultaneously liberate and expand culture."

A new exhibition at the National Arts Club in New York, titled "Dali: The Golden Years," is paying tribute to the unforgettable artist and, more specifically, a selection of his earliest works on loan from private collectors. The show presents 65 pieces in total, spanning the 1930s to the 1970s, including memorable contributions to the series "The Les Chants Maldoror" (1934), "12 Tribes of Israel" (1971), and "Memories of Surrealism."

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Dogs Can Discriminate Emotional Expressions of Human Faces

If you ever get the impression that your dog can "tell" whether you look content or annoyed, you may be onto something. Dogs may indeed be able to discriminate between happy and angry human faces, according to a new study.

Researchers trained a group of 11 dogs to distinguish between images of the same person making either a happy or an angry face. During the training stage, each dog was shown only the upper half or the lower half of the person's face.

The investigators then tested the pups' ability to discriminate between human facial expressions by showing them different images from the ones used in training. The dogs were shown either the other half of the face used in the training stage, the other halves of people's faces not used in training, a face that was the same half as the training face but from a different person, or the left half of the face used in the training stage.

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Believe it or not, the science behind popcorn's popping may be akin to an Olympic event: Researchers have found that popcorn kernels accomplish their acrobatic feats like somersaulting gymnasts who push off with their legs before launching themselves into a spin.

The study, which relied on high-speed video, also suggests that the characteristic "pop" sound of popcorn does not come from the foamy interior bursting through the kernel's exterior, as some people might think. Instead, water vapor released from the kernel creates tiny resonant cavities inside the kernel, sending out a "pop."

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‘Lone Grand Canyon wolf’ shot dead in Utah

Many in the wildlife industry rejoiced when a gray wolf was spotted in the Grand Canyon last year.

The gray wolf was the first one found in the Grand Canyon for 70 years.

“After an extensive analysis by the University of Idaho, it has been confirmed that the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) killed in Utah on December 28, 2014 is the same wolf seen in the Grand Canyon area last year,” a press release by the agency said.

Geneticists compared the DNA from the wolf found in Utah to samples taken from the wolf near the Grand Canyon.

They were a match.

The investigation into the killing of the wolf is still ongoing.

The gray wolf is endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act.