Thread: Strange News

1 Million Reward Up for Return of Stolen Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers

Surrender Dorothy's shoes! A pair of the famed ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland's Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz have been missing for years, and now a $1 million reward has been offered up for the return of the iconic kicks.

According to the Associated Press, an anonymous donor put the seven-figure amount on the line nearly 10 years after the piece of movie memorabilia was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn. To earn the reward, an informant must provide "the exact location of the slippers and the perpetrator's name," unveiling a mysterious theft a decade in the making.

The thief made away with the ruby slippers in August 2005, seemingly entering the Judy Garland Museum through a window and making off with just the shoes, which were on loan to the museum from collector Michael Shaw.

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Stuff in space. There are an estimated 21,000 bits of debris orbiting Earth, according to NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office, and those are only the ones larger than 10 centimeters (4 inches).

Stuff in Space

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McDonald's Denies Happy Meal Minion Swears: " ".

In a statement, McDonald’s blames coincidence: "Minions speak 'Minionese' which is a random combination of many languages and nonsense words and sounds.

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CALGARY, Alberta - A Canadian man went up, up, and away to promote his business.

Daniel Boria took a $10 lawn chair, attached 101 helium balloons and took to the skies over Calgary in a publicity stunt. He says he was risking his life to draw attention to his cleaning products company.

Boria planned on parachuting into the Calgary Stampede, the city's annual rodeo, but the weather didn't cooperate. He missed his intended target, but managed to parachute down uninjured in an industrial field.

He may have gotten attention for his business, but he also caught the eye of the Calgary Police. He was detained by authorities and charged with one count of mischief causing danger to life.

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A man shooting video as his son boarded a ride at a Wisconsin theme park joked, "the ropes are looking a little frayed," before one of the cables snapped.

Dru Larson, whose footage from the Wednesday incident at Mt. Olympus in Wisconsin Dells was posted to ."

Larson's observation turns out to be apt, as one of the two cables attached to the car snaps just as the ride is preparing to commence.

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Chinese cheerleaders fired after winning free BBQ meal

Taiyuan: A promotion run by a restaurant in China’s Shanxi Province has led to several cheerleaders from a local basketball team being fired after allegedly “eating so much free BBQ that they no longer could fit into their outfits”.

As we gather from several online sources, a new BBQ restaurant in Taiyuan was trying to attract customers by inviting a group of cheerleaders to attempt the recent “belly-button touching craze” that has spread across Chinese social media. In an attempt to lure as many cheerleaders as possible, the restaurant offered unlimited BBQ for any girl successfully holding the pose for at least 1 minute. What the restaurant’s owners didn’t realize (but probably should’ve anticipated) is that these girls are incredibly flexible, and practically the whole team succeeded in the challenge.

The story has an amusing footnote, as multiple cheerleaders reportedly chomped their way through so much free brisket and ribs that they were unable to squeeze into their tight cheerleading costumes before the next match. The cheerleading coach, who also attempted the challenge but failed, was merciless in her response, axing those who had gained too much weight. Coach Irene Chen declined a request for an interview, but commented that the fired members “may be reinstated to the team as long as they return to their normal sizes”.

'Atomic Wedgie' Killer Sentenced To 30 Years

An Oklahoma man who killed his stepfather by giving him an "atomic wedgie" during a drunken brawl was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison.

Brad Lee Davis, 35, had hoped for a term as short as four years when he pleaded guilty to asphyxiating Denver Lee St. Clair in 2013 by pulling the elastic waistband of St. Clair's underwear over his head and around his throat. But the judge on Thursday imposed the sentence sought by prosecutors for first-degree manslaughter.

Davis, a former Marine, said he'd acted in self-defense because St. Clair allegedly threw the first punch. He also claimed that he was only trying to embarrass his stepfather by attempting the prank seen in school locker rooms and on an episode of "Seinfeld."

According to Davis, the fight, which happened just a few days before Christmas, erupted because St. Clair had insulted Davis' mother while the two men were drinking together.

But investigators testified that Davis yanked the elastic band over St. Clair's head after he was knocked unconscious in the fight. The prosecution said that St. Clair would have died from the head injuries alone even if he hadn't choked.

Photos on Davis' phone taken before and after the wedgie showed that the crime scene had been altered, investigators also said.

Authorities also alleged that Davis sent a text message to a friend before the fight, writing that he would hurt St. Clair because he had "nothing to lose."

'Atomic Wedgie' Killer Sentenced To 30 Years

British pensioner first to have central vision restored through bionic eye

Ray Flynn, 80, had implant inserted that converts video images into electric pulses, transmitted wirelessly to electrodes on the retina’s surface

A partially sighted pensioner has had his central vision restored for the first time in nearly a decade after he received a bionic eye.

Ray Flynn, 80, from Audenshaw, Manchester, is the world’s first patient with advanced dry age related macular degeneration (AMD) to undergo the procedure.

The retired engineer, who has peripheral vision, is also believed to be the first human being to have the use of combined natural and artificial sight.

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Sam Van Aken, an artist and professor at Syracuse University, uses "chip grafting" to create trees that each bear 40 different varieties of stone fruits, or fruits with pits. The grafting process involves slicing a bit of a branch with a bud from a tree of one of the varieties and inserting it into a slit in a branch on the "working tree," then wrapping the wound with tape until it heals and the bud starts to grow into a new branch. Over several years he adds slices of branches from other varieties to the working tree. In the spring the "Tree of 40 Fruit" has blossoms in many hues of pink and purple, and in the summer it begins to bear the fruits in sequence.

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First woman to receive most advanced bionic hand

A Fort Lauderdale, Florida, woman is the first female patient to receive the most technologically advanced prosthetic hand on the market.

"I feel empowered. I walk into a room and I used to try to blend in - I don't need to blend in now," Lizbeth Uzcategui, who was born without a right arm below her elbow, told CBS Miami's Natalia Zea. "I want everybody to know what this is all about. I cannot wait to learn about all the other things I'm going to be capable of doing."

The precise and programmable prosthetic hand, called the i-limb quantum, is made by a company called Touch Bionics. It uses signals from the remaining limb muscles, sent through electrodes attached to the skin, to control movements. Muscle contractions are picked up by those electrodes, which signal the hand to open or close. The hand is further controlled through Bluetooth technology via a smartphone or desktop app.

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Dolphins Spotted Riding Whales Off The Coast Of Hawaii

It's long been understood that dolphins and whales are incredibly intelligent, playful creatures. They regularly interact playfully with humans, and they've been seen doing the same with other species too.

However it's become apparent that all along the coast of Hawaii, bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales have formed a special kind of bond.

The initial image that sparked interest in the friendship was captured by Lori Mazzuca in Hawaii and posted on the Facebook page The Whale and Dolphin People Project. Mazzuca explained that she observed the dolphin and whale, shown above, seemingly playing with each other – the dolphin testing how long it could stay balanced on the humpback whale's head as it swam along. A powerful swimmer, the dolphin would eventually slide down the whale's back, tail-first before maneuvering its way back on top for another ride.

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RARE WHITE WHALE SPOTTED IN NEW ZEALAND

A rare white (albino) humpback whale has been spotted off the coast of New Zealand. The New Zealand Department of Conservation (DoC) whale survey sighted the whale, thought to be one of just four in the world, in Cook Strait, between the North and South Islands. It is thought that the whale may be Migaloo, a humpback aged at least 24 whot has been sighted annually over several years off the east coast of Australia. A DNA sample will be able to confirm this.

Albinism, the complete or partial absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, is thought to have occurred in around 20 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, but sightings are uncommon.

Yes!! One impressive woman.

Woman kills attacker in self-defense; may have unknowingly killed serial killer
By Stephanie Gallman, CNN
Updated 0434 GMT (1134 HKT) July 28, 2015

He pulled a gun on me! He was going to kill me!"

Those are the chilling words caught in the background of a 911 call placed earlier this month after a woman's face-off with an attacker who tried to rape her, pointing a 9 mm gun to her chest............The victim, who is being called "Heather" by investigators, fought back so hard, police in Charleston, West Virginia, said, that her attacker lost control of his gun.Heather grabbed the weapon and blindly shot it, killing 45-year old Neal Falls in self-defense, police said.


Woman unknowingly kills possible serial killer - CNN.com

Scientists ID Men Who Died at Virginia's Jamestown 400 Years Ago



WASHINGTON—
U.S. scientists have used high-tech detective work to identify the remains of four leaders of Jamestown, the New World's first successful English colony, more than 400 years after they died, the Smithsonian Institution said on Tuesday.

The research also provided new insight into life and death and the importance of religion in the Jamestown settlement in Virginia, about 80 miles (130 km) south of Washington, the Smithsonian said.

The men were identified as the Reverend Robert Hunt, Captain Gabriel Archer, Sir Ferdinando Wainman and Captain William West.

All of them helped guide the colony during its difficult years after its founding in 1607.

"This is an extraordinary discovery," said James Horn, president of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, which teamed with scientists from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to identify the bodies.

The four were found buried within Jamestown's 1608 church, which fell into disrepair in 1617. The burials were investigated in November 2013, according to the Smithsonian.

Researchers used archaeology, skeletal analyses, chemical testing, 3-D technology and genealogical research to identify the men who lived and died when the settlement was on the brink of failure due to famine, disease and war.

About 30 percent of each skeleton was recovered, and the scientific team was able to determine the men's rough ages at death, the Smithsonian said.

Researchers also conducted chemical analyses to examine diet, the presence of heavy metals and the men's origins. The style of coffins and artifacts also led scientists to identify the remains.

Hunt, who died at about age 39 in 1608, was the first Anglican minister at Jamestown, the Smithsonian said.

Archer died in late 1609 or 1610 at 34 during the "starving time," a period when about 250 settlers died from disease, starvation and Indian attacks, the Smithsonian said.

He led some of the earliest expeditions in the Jamestown colony. Researchers also found a small silver box on top of his coffin that is likely a Catholic reliquary, the Smithsonian said.

Wainman died at about 34 and was the cousin of the Virginia governor, Sir Thomas West, the Smithsonian said. Wainman was the first English knight to be buried in America.

William West died at about 24 in 1610 during a skirmish with Powhatan Native Americans, the Smithsonian said. Scientists found scraps of a military leader's sash near his body.

Scientists ID Men Who Died at Virginia's Jamestown 400 Years Ago

A Hong Kong Woman Just Got Convicted of Assaulting a Police Officer With Her Breast

The extent of the officer's physical injuries was not revealed

A court in Hong Kong convicted 30-year-old Ng Lai-ying Thursday (about three weeks ago) of assaulting a police officer by hitting him with her breast during a protest on March 1.

Ng testified that during the protest the officer had reached out his arm to grasp the strap of her bag and that his hand had come in contact with her upper left breast, the South China Morning Post reports.

She told the court that she immediately yelled, “Indecent assault!”

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Man jailed after using explicit images of ex-wife in £2m blackmail bid

James Casbolt posted sexually explicit images of Haley Meijer, daughter of a US hypermarket tycoon, online and threatened her family after split

A British man who married the daughter of an American billionaire has been jailed for 12 years after plotting to extort £2m from the family by posting sexually explicit photos of her online.

James Casbolt, 37, from St Ives in Cornwall, demanded the sum in exchange for not sharing intimate pictures of Haley Meijer following an acrimonious split.

He also sent threatening texts and emails to Meijer, the daughter of the American hypermarket tycoon Hank Meijer, and posted bizarre, unfounded claims about her online.

Casbolt once wrote to her: “If my terms are not met, I can tickle the public interest for years, until the Meijers are so infamous in the world they will not be able to walk down the streets safely.”

In another he said: “If you are living with another guy, you just gave him a death sentence” and threatened to send suicide bombers to her parents’ home.

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Scientists have synthesized a new compound that ‘mimics’ exercise. Could a workout pill be far behind?

Ever fantasize of being able to see the benefits of exercise without having to, you know, work out?

If so, research from Britain's University of Southampton published this week gives a glimpse of what may be possible in the future.

Ali Tavassoli, a professor of chemical biology, and Felino Cagampang, an associate professor in integrative physiology, reported that they had synthesized a molecule that acts as an "exercise mimic" by tricking cells into thinking they have run out of energy.

Dubbed "compound 14," the new molecule does this by triggering a chain reaction of events in the cell. Compound 14 inhibits the function of an enzyme called ATIC which plays a central role in insulin signaling in the body. That in turn leads to the build up of something called ZMP -- known as a "master regulator" of metabolism -- in the cells. It's ZMP that makes cells think they have run out of energy and activate the cell's central energy censor which is known as AMPK. The cells compensate by increasing their glucose update and metabolism -- changes that typically occur during exercise and that lead to weight loss.

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Million-Dollar Find: Shipwreck's Golden Treasure Includes Very Rare Coin

Treasure hunters off the Florida coast recently pulled up the haul of a lifetime: nearly $1 million worth of gold coins and elaborate gold chains, as well as an extremely rare Spanish coin known as a "Tricentennial Royal."

The treasures were hidden on the seafloor for 300 years before the crew of a salvage vessel brought them to the surface last month, on June 17. The riches were found just 1,000 feet (305 meters) offshore of Fort Pierce, Florida, according to Eric Schmitt, captain of the aptly named salvage vessel, Aarrr Booty, which was used to locate the treasure.

The ships that once carried the valuables set sail from Cuba on July 24, 1715, when the island was a Spanish colony. The ships' mission was to transport the riches below deck to Spain, which at the time was waging a war against France and was desperately in need of money to fund battles.

But the ships never made it to Spain. A hurricane off Florida sank all but one of the 12 ships on July 30, 1715. The so-called "1715 Fleet" has been a treasure-hunter's fantasy ever since. In 2010, Brent Brisben and his father, William, obtained permits to explore the wrecks in search of sunken riches.

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The coin is "very round" compared to most coins salvaged from the wrecks, said Schmitt, who told Live Science that the royal coin was die-cast (made by pouring molten gold into a coin mold). Most Colonial coins from this period were made using cruder methods that resulted in less uniform shapes, according to the coin-collecting website Coinquest. The round royal coin, which is about the size of a silver dollar, is worth an estimated $500,000, according to Brent Brisben.

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Boy, 8, Is First Child Ever To Receive Double Hand Transplant

"Never give up on your dreams. It will come true," he said.

"I wanna say thank you guys for helping me down this bumpy road," Zion Harvey said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Zion has spent most of his life without hands and feet. When he was 2 years old, doctors amputated his extremities after an infection caused him to develop gangrene.

His mother, Pattie Ray, said seeing Zion's new hands "felt like he was being reborn," according to NBC News.

"I see my son in the light I haven't seen him in five years," she said. "It was like having a newborn. It was a very joyous moment for me. I was happy for him."

A team of 40 doctors, nurses and staff members worked together for approximately 10 hours during the operation at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Ever wonder why your Asian spouse turns red after a drink? I used to,……

The science of why alcohol makes so many Asians turn red

Not all Asians suffer from this unfortunate condition. The best studies estimate that it affects around 36 percent of Northeast Asians (primarily Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans).

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Corduroy is crowned the oldest living cat

The record-breaking feline previously held the record back in 2014, but lost out when the owners of Tiffany Two submitted a claim for the title. With Tiffany Two sadly recently passing away at the amazing age of 27 years, 2 months and 20 days, the record is now back in the hands of Corduroy.

Born on August 1 1989, Corduroy and his owner Ashley Reed Okura (USA) have been companions since he was a tiny kitten and she was just seven years old.

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The first prenuptial?

Ancient Egyptian women knew what they wanted and exactly how to get it. A massive 8-foot prenuptial contract reveals that wives of the era were solid negotiators, making sure they would still receive money and food long after their marriages ended.

Believed to be 2,480 years old, the 8-foot scroll – written in demotic script, a kind of shorthand for hieroglyphs – states that the wife responsible for the contract would receive “1.2 pieces of silver and 36 bags of grain every year for the rest of her life.”

There was, however, a small catch. The woman had to pay her soon-to-be husband 30 pieces of silver upfront in order for the prenup to exist.

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Koalas Get Laid By Making This Horrifyingly Disgusting Grunting Sound

Listen to the sound in that video. If I had to guess what it meant, soliciting sex would probably be pretty far down my list. It strikes me more as the sound a Chicago Bears fan might make after swilling a pitcher of Bud Light.

But new research has revealed for the first time that this mysterious bellowing is most likely the male koalas' mating call.

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Here's how much each country spends on food

When droughts or crop failures cause food prices to spike, many Americans hardly notice. The average American, after all, spends just 6.5 percent of his or her household budget on food consumed at home. (If you include eating out, that rises to around 11 percent.)

In Pakistan, by contrast, the average person spends 41.4 percent of his or her household budget on food consumed at home. In that situation, those price spikes become a lot more noticeable.

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Thailands Bike for Mom goes into Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records billed the “Bike for Mom” cycling event on Sunday as the biggest simultaneous gathering of cyclists in the world beating the record holder Taiwan.

GWR recorded a total of 146,266 cyclists joining the Sunday’s event compared to Taiwan’s record of 70,000 cyclists.

However, Guinness World Records did not take into consideration more than 10,000 cyclists joining the event in Bangkok as the formation of the cycling procession did not meet the set condition requiring that the bicycles must not be four kilometres apart.

About 40,000 cyclists participated in the bike ride in Bangkok alone.

Medical staff have lots of odd stories – not least from those working in sexual health clinics.

And this early experience of a sexual health case from then-student nurse, Poppy Ward, proved to be nothing short of unforgettable.

Accompanied by a doctor, who she called Dr Ray, Ms Ward explained in a Guardian blog that she chose to deal with a middle-aged woman, who she assumed would be an easy case…how wrong she was.

She had thought the patient was suffering from thrush due her ‘peculiar gait’ and ‘hobble’.

However, on asking the patient what the issue was, the woman explained: ‘I was playing with my son’s dinosaur, and it’s stuck.

‘It’s a T-Rex.’

It turned out the toy was stuck in the lady’s vagina.

Luckily, Ms Ward was able to extricate the improvised dildo using a speculum and a pair of forceps from where it was lodged by the cervix.

Our intrepid nurse then managed to offer the following advise to the woman without giggling: ‘I don’t advise inserting children’s toys during sexual activity, however if you do choose to masturbate with a toy dinosaur, I recommend buying your own, and perhaps putting it in a condom, or tying a leash to its foot.’

No wonder she and Dr Ray broke down in tears of laughter once the mother was out of earshot.


Read more: Woman has toy dinosaur removed from her vagina after using it to masturbate | Metro News

Here are 8 ways redheads’ health is different than the rest of us

1. Might as well be human unicorns

It was only in 2000 that scientists identified the gene responsible for red hair — the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) protein. We all have this gene; however, sometimes the gene mutates, causing the characteristic reddish hue that’s found atop gingers’ heads, along with pale skin and light eyes.

2. More sensitive to painkillers

The same MC1R mutation that turns their hair red also releases a hormone in the brain that has the ability to mimic endorphins.

3. Detect temperature changes more accurately

The same mutation that makes their hair red is also what causes them to be more sensitive to temperature changes — even slight ones.

4. Need more anesthesia during surgery

Redheads need 20 percent more anesthesia than their dark-headed counterparts. Because the MC1R gene belongs to the same family of genes that play a role in pain, the mutation causes redheads to be more sensitive to it.

5. They produce their own vitamin D

Northern European countries have the highest concentrations of redheads, and there’s a reason for that.

6. Increased risk for certain diseases

Unfortunately, redheads are nearly twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease when compared to those with darker hair.

7. Redheads rarely go gray

Redheads’ hair initially turns to light copper, then blonde, and finally white, completely skipping over the gray-hair stage.

8. More sex

When a redhead walks into a room, there’s a good chance they’ll be noticed, giving them — especially women — a competitive advantage in the mating game, according to research by cognitive science and psychologist Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman.

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Police Seek Corpse Stolen From San Antonio Mortuary

Police are seeking clues to the whereabouts of the corpse of a 25-year-old woman stolen from a casket after her funeral at a San Antonio, Texas, chapel last week.

Mission Park Funeral Chapel North is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to those who took Julie Mott's body sometime between her Aug. 15 funeral and the next day, when her corpse was discovered to be missing.

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Mexico: Drones deployed to stop turtle egg poachers

Authorities in Mexico will deploy drones on south-western beaches in Oaxaca to protect against a reported surge in turtle egg poaching of the threatened Olive Ridley turtle, which return to the country's coast each year to lay their eggs in the sand.

The sale of turtle meat and eggs has been banned in Mexico for more than two decades, but the threat of a hefty jail sentence has not been enough to deter poachers. At Ayuta Morro beach, environmental activists estimate that up to 80 percent of the beach's turtle eggs are poached a night after marines guarding the area left following security concerns in other areas of the country. Speaking in Mexico City, prosecutor at Mexico's environmental body Profepa, Guillermo Haro, told media authorities will use drones to curb poaching.

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Pigeon Caught Flying Drugs Into Prison

A pigeon smuggling cocaine and cannabis into a prison in Costa Rica has been caught by guards. The bird was seen landing in the central concourse of the medium security La Reforma jail, in San Rafael de Alajuela, where it was taken into custody. The drugs were contained in a small zipped up pouch strapped to the animals chest.

The guards spotted the bird on Tuesday afternoon as it flew towards an open area of the medium security La Reforma prison. Prison director Paul Bertozzi said: ‘They observed the bulge on the animal so they captured it and confirmed that it carried a bag with zipper – and the drugs were inside… It seems the dove was trained for it.’

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Idaho replaces mile marker 420 with 419.9 to thwart stoners

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — If you're looking for milepost 420, you won't find it in Idaho.

Idaho transportation officials say the mile marker has been replaced with 419.9 signs to curb thieves eager to own a number associated with marijuana enthusiasts.

Turns out, Idaho isn't alone in this problem. States like Washington and Colorado have also replaced 420 signs with 419.9 after consistently having to replace them after thefts by supposed sticky-fingered stoners.

Narcopaloma

Oops

Boy trips in museum and punches hole through painting

A 12-year-old Taiwanese boy lived out a slapstick nightmare at the weekend when he tripped at a museum and broke his fall with a painting, smashing a hole in it.

Exhibition organisers said the painting was a 350-year-old Paolo Porpora oil on canvas work called Flowers, valued at $1.5m.

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Watch As A Hippo Rescues A Drowning Zebra

According to National Geographic’s list of 15 Deadly Animal Facts, the hippo is extremely unpredictable and the most dangerous mammal in Africa – a continent that's home to lions, hyenas and cheetahs. Responsible for more human deaths than any other mammal, hippos have also been known to kill crocodiles.

So, the following video may take you by surprise:

*edit, please watch the WHOLE video. The zebra appears at 1.05

Proving compassion doesn’t just exist in humans, you see a hippo seemingly assist a drowning zebra across a river, nudging it over towards the bank until it’s able to clamber out. It's no precursor to an attack either, the hippo heads back into the water once the zebra is safely on the other side.

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Watch How Easily A Rat Can Wriggle Up Your Toilet

There have lots of stories about unexpected things turning up in toilets, such as snakes, frogs, and even squirrels and possums. And rats, of course.

So how easy would it be for a rat to make its way through the sewers, successfully traverse your internal plumbing, navigate the U-bend and find its way into your toilet?

Well according to National Geographic, pretty darn easy. Did you know that rats can tread water for up to three days, and even hold their breath for three minutes?

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This incredible video by The Online Fisherman shows an orca using fish as bait in order to catch a bird.

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The #1 reason people die early, in each country

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Mumbai: UP boy with three penises operated in Sion hospital

In what is a rarest of rare case, a two-year-old boy who had three penises since birth was operated at Sion hospital last month. The native of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh was brought to Mumbai by his mother for treatment.

"The boy suffers from Diphallia. At birth, he had three penises, but he was able to pass urine through only one of them," said Dr Paras Kothari, head, paediatric surgery in Sion hospital.

Doctors said it is an extremely rare anomaly, with only a hundred such cases reported in medical literature since 1609. Its occurrence is one in 55 lakh live male births.

The family got the boy to Mumbai for surgery after understanding that a complex procedure of removal of penises was not possible in UP. In a surgery that lasted for six hours, doctors at Sion hospital extracted the soft boney mass as well as the rudimentary penis. "The two functional penises were fused into one, by wrapping a mass of skin around them. Further, an anal path was created through the boy's rectum to facilitate the passage of excreta," said Dixit.

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Marijuana Use May Lower Sperm Counts 'Quite a Lot'

Smoking marijuana more than once a week may lower men's sperm counts by about a third, according to a new study.

Researchers found that the men in the study who smoked marijuana more than once a week had sperm counts that were 29 percent lower, on average, than those who did not smoke marijuana, or used the drug less frequently.

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Lost Palace of Sparta Possibly Uncovered

An ancient Greek palace filled with cultic objects and clay tablets written in a lost script may be the long-lost palace of Mycenaean Sparta, one of the most famous civilizations of ancient Greece.

The 10-room complex, called Ayios Vassileios, was filled with striking artifacts, including fragments of ornate murals, a cultic cup with a bull's head, a seal emblazoned with a nautilus and several bronze swords. The palace, which burnt to the ground in the 14th century B.C., also contained several tablets written in Linear B script, the earliest known form of written Greek, the Greek Ministry of Culture said in a statement. The ancient palace was uncovered about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) away from the historical Sparta that arose centuries later.

The discovery could shed light on a mysterious period in the history of the Mycenaean civilization, the Bronze Age culture that mysteriously collapsed in 1200 B.C.

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White woman accidentally impregnated with black man’s sperm loses legal battleใ

A white woman who sued after she was accidentally impregnated with the sperm of an African American man will be forced to refile the lawsuit after an Illinois judge tossed out her claim against the sperm bank.


Jennifer Cramblett filed suit against Midwest Sperm Bank in 2014 because she was artificially inseminated with sperm from the wrong donor and gave birth to a mixed-race daughter.


The sperm bank apologized and refunded part of the cost to Cramblett and her partner Amanda Zinkon. But Cramblett’s suit alleged that the mistake caused her and her family stress, pain, suffering and medical expenses. And, the suit said, in Cramblett’s predominantly white community, she feared that her daughter, Payton, now 3, would grow up feeling like an “outcast.”


But DuPage County judge Ronald Sutter threw out the lawsuit Thursday, agreeing with attorneys for the sperm bank who argued that it lacked legal merit, according to the Chicago Tribune.
[White woman sues sperm bank after she mistakenly gets black donor’s sperm]
Attorneys for the sperm bank had argued that “wrongful birth” suits typically apply to cases where the child is born with a birth defect that doctors should have warned parents about; in this case, the child was healthy. Cramblett had also sought damages for a “breach of warranty.” The judge rejected both claims but said that Cramblett could refile the suit as a “negligence claim,” the Tribune reported.
At the heart of the lawsuit was Cramblett’s claim that she was unprepared to raise an African American child and that her community and her “unconsciously insensitive” family members might not be accepting of a child of a different race.
[Scientist urges 18-year-olds to freeze sperm, argues men’s biological clocks are ticking too]

“Getting a young daughter’s hair cut is not particularly stressful for most mothers, but to Jennifer it is not a routine matter, because Payton has hair typical of an African American girl,” the lawsuit said. “To get a decent cut, Jennifer must travel to a black neighborhood, far from where she lives, where she is obviously different in appearance, and not overtly welcome.”


According to the suit, the couple chose sperm from donor No. 380, a white man; instead, they were given sperm from donor No. 330, a black man. They blame a paper records system that allegedly caused an employee to misread the numbers.
“Jennifer’s stress and anxiety intensify when she envisions Payton entering an all-white school,” the lawsuit says. “Ironically, Jennifer and Amanda moved to Uniontown from racially diverse Akron, because the schools were better and to be closer to family.”


“Jennifer is well aware of the child psychology research and literature correlating intolerance and racism with reduced academic and psychological well-being of bi-racial children.”


She sought at least $50,000 in damages.

This Face Changes the Human Story. But How?

Scientists have discovered a new species of human ancestor deep in a South African cave, adding a baffling new branch to the family tree.

A trove of bones hidden deep within a South African cave represents a new species of human ancestor, scientists announced Thursday in the journal eLife. Homo naledi, as they call it, appears very primitive in some respects—it had a tiny brain, for instance, and apelike shoulders for climbing. But in other ways it looks remarkably like modern humans. When did it live? Where does it fit in the human family tree? And how did its bones get into the deepest hidden chamber of the cave—could such a primitive creature have been disposing of its dead intentionally?

This is the story of one of the greatest fossil discoveries of the past half century, and of what it might mean for our understanding of human evolution.

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Over the next year Berger’s team painstakingly chipped two nearly complete skeletons out of the rock. Dated to about two million years ago, they were the first major finds from South Africa published in decades. (An even more complete skeleton found earlier has yet to be described.) In most respects they were very primitive, but there were some oddly modern traits too.

Snip

There were some 1,550 specimens in all, representing at least 15 individuals. Skulls. Jaws. Ribs. Dozens of teeth. A nearly complete foot. A hand, virtually every bone intact, arranged as in life. Minuscule bones of the inner ear. Elderly adults. Juveniles. Infants, identified by their thimble-size vertebrae. Parts of the skeletons looked astonishingly modern. But others were just as astonishingly primitive—in some cases, even more apelike than the australopithecines. “We’ve found a most remarkable creature,” Berger said. His grin went nearly to his ears.

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Oldest fossil sea turtle discovered

Scientists at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt have described the world's oldest fossil sea turtle known to date. The fossilized reptile is at least 120 million years old – which makes it about 25 million years older than the previously known oldest specimen. The almost completely preserved skeleton from the Cretaceous, with a length of nearly 2 meters, shows all of the characteristic traits of modern marine turtles. The study was published today in the scientific journal PaleoBios.

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What Happens If You Add Propane To Cola?

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Laser Weapon Melts Test Drone in Midair

A new laser weapon that can burn up targets in just a few seconds recently melted and destroyed a test drone flying over California.

Known as the Compact Laser Weapons System, the futuristic, drone-shooting weapon is a smaller, more versatile version of the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), a system developed by Boeing to be mounted on top of U.S. Army vehicles.

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I think I posted about this earlier, but with this post we find out who,….

Italian-Chinese medical team to perform first head transplant

An Italian-Chinese medical team plan to perform the world's first head transplant in China, one of the surgeons said Friday, amid concerns over medical ethics in the country.

Ren Xiaoping, who along with Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero, hope to attempt the procedure within two years, but only if the preparatory research and tests go according to plan, Ren said.

"A lot of media have been saying we will definitely attempt the surgery by 2017, but that's only if every step before that proceeds smoothly," Ren told AFP.

Canavero, who leads the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, first announced his project in 2013, saying at the time that such a procedure could be possible as soon as 2016.

But this timeline seems extremely unlikely given the numerous obstacles and gaps in knowledge

The man who has volunteered for the operation is Russian-born Valery Spiridonov, 30, who suffers from Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, which is a progressive and incurable wasting ailment.

UC Berkeley researchers create small, ultra-thin ‘invisibility cloak’ that can redirect light

A tiny invisibility cloak has been invented by US scientists who are edging ever-closer to a real version of what has until now been a staple of science fiction, researchers said Thursday.

The cloak, described in the journal Science, is microscopic in size but could conceivably be scaled up in the future, according to physicists at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley.

It works by manipulating light, changing how light waves bounce off an object so that it cannot be detected by the eye.

“This is the first time a 3D object of arbitrary shape has been cloaked from visible light,” said lead author Xiang Zhang, director of Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division.

“Our ultra-thin cloak now looks like a coat. It is easy to design and implement, and is potentially scalable for hiding macroscopic objects.”

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10,000-year-old stone tools unearthed in Redmond dig

The project started off as nothing special — just a standard archaeological survey to clear the way for construction.

But it quickly became clear that the site near Redmond Town Center mall was anything but ordinary.

By the time excavations were done, crews had unearthed more than 4,000 stone flakes, scrapers, awls and spear points crafted at least 10,000 years ago by some of the region’s earliest inhabitants.

“We were pretty amazed,” said archaeologist Robert Kopperl, who led the field investigation. “This is the oldest archaeological site in the Puget Sound lowland with stone tools.”

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16 Ancient Pyramids, Burial Sites for a Vanished Kingdom, Found in Sudan

2,000-year-old pyramids have been found in an ancient cemetery, revealing the burial practices of a long-vanished kingdom in Sudan. Discovered near the ancient town of Gematon in Sudan, the 16 pyramids have burial tombs beneath them, and were built during the reign of pharaohs in the kingdom of Kush.

The Kushites built pyramids much like their neighbors to the north, the Egyptians, but not on the same scale. The ruins of the largest of the pyramids found at Gematon (modern Kawa, Sudan) is about 35 feet (10.6 meters) long on each side, and was calculated to have risen approximately 43 feet (13 meters) high.

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Archaeologists find bones of man killed about 1,000 years ago

Skeleton of teenager who suffered violent death discovered in tree roots in Co Slig

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a young man who suffered a violent death almost a millennium ago at Collooney, Co Sligo.

The teenager had two stab wounds to the chest and one to his left hand, presumably from trying to ward off his attacker.

The skeletal remains were found among the roots of a massive beech tree which toppled over after more than 200 years.

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Scientists Uncover The Earliest Known Animal To Have Walked Upright On All Fours

With a weird knobbly face and looking like a cross between a lizard and a hippo, this pre-reptile is now thought to be the earliest known animal to have walked upright on all fours. Know as Bunostegos akokanensis, it lived about 260-million-years ago, plodding around what is now the African country of Niger. Belonging to a group of animals called pareiasaurs, some argue that they eventually gave rise to turtles, though this is debated.

“A lot of the animals that lived around the [same] time had a similar upright or semi-upright hind limb posture, but what's interesting and special about Bunostegos is the forelimb,” explains Morgan Turner, who co-authored the paper published in The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. “The elements and features within the forelimb bones won't allow a sprawling posture. That is unique.”

Giraffes Hum At Night

What does the giraffe say? Until now, they were only known to make a few grunts, snorts, and bleats. Most of their sounds seem to come from sudden bursts of air out their nostrils. But after listening to nearly 1,000 hours of audio, researchers discovered that giraffes make low-frequency humming noises at night. The findings were published in BMC Research Notes this week.

“I was fascinated, because these signal have a very interesting sound and have a complex acoustic structure,” Stoeger told New Scientist. However, because they weren’t able to identify the caller or verify the behavioral context of the calls, the researchers don’t know what sorts of information would be contained in those hums. Vocalizations in other animals with a similar social structure are known to convey information about age, gender, sexual arousal, dominance, or reproductive status.

So why only at night? It’s possible that giraffes communicate visually during the day; after all, they do have excellent vision with potentially long-range acuity, the authors write.

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No Boys Allowed: Snake Mom Has 'Virgin Birth'

A female water snake in Missouri can do something that no human woman can (no matter how badly she might want to): She can have babies without any help from a male.

Earlier this month, a yellow-bellied water snake at the Missouri Department of Conservation's (MDC) Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center gave birth to a litter of baby snakes even though she hasn't had "relations" with a male snake in at least eight years.

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Paraplegic man walks again with own legs

American man, 26, completes 3.5-metre course thanks to computer system that reroutes signals from his brain to electrodes on his knees

A man who lost the use of his legs to a spinal cord injury has walked again after scientists rerouted signals from his brain to electrodes on his knees. The 26-year-old American was confined to a wheelchair five years ago after an accident left him paralysed from the waist down. Doctors said he was the first person with paraplegia caused by a spinal injury to walk without relying on robotic limbs that are controlled manually.

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9,000-year-old case of ritualistic beheading that may be oldest in Americas

om 19th-century tales about tribes hunting for “trophy heads” to Hollywood films such as Mel Gibson’s Apocolypto, the Amazon rain forest has long inspired gruesome stories about ritualistic killing. However, the portrayal of civilisations such as the Incas, Nazcas, and the Wari cultures making human sacrifices in South America may have a much longer tradition than previously thought.

A new study, published in PLOS One, reports the discovery of a 9,000 year-old case of ritualised human decapitation that seems to be the oldest in the Americas by some margin.

The researchers found the remains of the beheaded young man from a rock shelter in Lapa do Santo, East-Central Brazil. Quite astonishingly the decapitated remains date to between 9,100 and 9,400 years ago.

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Why people never smiled in old photographs

1) Very early technology made it harder to capture smiles
2) Early photography was heavily influenced by painting — which meant no smiling
3) Early photographs were seen as a passage to immortality
4) Victorian and Edwardian culture looked down on smiling

Japanese game streamer sets fire to apartment during live broadcast



SHIKOKU, Japan, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- A Japanese man live-streaming his video game session online purportedly set fire to his apartment by accident as his webcam continued to broadcast.

The video, posted to YouTube, shows the man smoking a cigarette and playing with a lighter and attempting to ignite the removable fuse by striking it like a match.

The man eventually succeeds in lighting the fuse, but the flame causes excess fuel on the surface of the lighter to catch fire.

The streamer discards the fuse by throwing it into a bag, but the bag turns out to be filled with paper and erupts in flames while the man is focused on the lighter.

A computerized voice reads comments from his streaming followers, who alert him to the burning paper.

The man attempts to put the fire out with some cardboard, but he ends up only fanning and fueling the flames.

A small amount of water from a bottle and a pillow also fail to curb the spread of the fire.

The resident eventually gives up and flees the room while his computer continues to live stream the fire.

Watch: Game vlogger starts accidental apartment fire - UPI.com

Originally Posted by S Landreth

A 12-year-old jaguar is being sent back from New Delhi zoo after he was found “too fat to breed,” zoo officials said, adding that he just “lies in a corner and refuses to respond” to females enticing him.

Salman the jaguar was brought from the Thiruvananthapuram Zoological Garden in Kerala, southern India in October 2014. In the year that has passed since he has shown “complete disinterest” in females, Delhi zoo officials told the Indian Express.

In fact he “reached out for its meals more keenly” than for the passionate embrace of Kalpana, his female would-be partner, Delhi zoo curator Riaz Khan said.

“He is lazy, a glutton, just loves to eat and relax. Every morning, we find leftovers in the cages of the other jaguars but this one polishes off his entire food. I am sure if we gave him more food, he would finish off that too. He has a bigger appetite than the tigers here,” said one of Salman’s keepers.

Are they sure he doesn't bat left handed?

Mexican company creates El Chapo Halloween costume



A Mexican company is capitalising on the infamy of escaped drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman by selling Halloween costumes of the Sinaloa cartel kingpin.

The company has ramped up production after selling out of 2,000 El Chapo masks and costumes.

El Chapo, who was arrested and jailed last year, achieved worldwide fame when he escaped from a high-security Mexican prison in July by slipping down a hidden tunnel in his cell's shower cubicle.

His elaborate escape plot, which involved a mile-long tunnel and a motorbike inside to move dirt, made headlines across the globe.

The Halloween mask maker told WTAE that by escaping, El Chapo has become the most popular man in Mexico.

Before his arrest, El Chapo was considered the world's richest and most powerful drug trafficker.

Among the other bizarre Halloween costumes for sale this year are a sexed-up Cecil the Lion and a unisex Caitlin outfit, based on Caitlin Jenner's gender transition.

Mexican company creates El Chapo Halloween costume - Telegraph

Where do dogs come from?

Gray wolves are their ancestors. Scientists are pretty consistent about that. And researchers have suggested that dogs’ origins can be traced to Europe, the Near East, Siberia and South China.

Central Asia is the newest and best candidate, according to a large study of dogs from around the world.

Laura M. Shannon and Adam R. Boyko at Cornell University, and an international group of other scientists, studied not only purebred dogs, but also street or village dogs — the free-ranging scavengers that make up about 75 percent of the planet’s one billion dogs.

Dog ancestors diverged from modern wolf ancestors at least 27,000 years ago, researchers have determined with the help of a Taimyr wolf jawbone and rib fossil.

Dr. Shannon analyzed three different kinds of DNA, Dr. Boyko said, the first time this has been done for such a large and diverse group of dogs, more than 4,500 dogs of 161 breeds and 549 village dogs from 38 countries. That allowed the researchers to determine which geographic groups of modern dogs were closest to ancestral populations genetically. And that led them to Central Asia as the place of origin for dogs in much the same way that genetic studies have located the origin of modern humans in East Africa.

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Humongous Sunfish Dwarfs Divers

As scary as it may appear, the gargantuan creature poses no threat to humans.

When fishermen talk about the one that got away they just may be talking about this giant sunfish.

The September 2013 encounter, which just started to go viral recently, documents a sighting of a Mola mola off the coast of Azores, Portugal.

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Beware of black coffee drinkers? Study links enjoying bitter tastes to psychopathy

Austrian psychologists analyzed personality tests and food taste surveys from 1000 people and found a link between enjoying bitter tastes — including that of black coffee — and assorted malevolent personality traits, with the strongest link to psychopathy.

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Titanic's Last Lunch Menu Sells for $88,000 at Auction

A piece of paper that sailed aboard the Titanic was recently sold at auction for the price of a fancy sports car.

The yellowed document — a luncheon menu for the first-class dining room — is dated April 14, 1912. This means that it details the last-ever gourmet lunch served aboard the ill-fated luxury ocean liner. The menu reveals that, the day before the boat sank to the bottom of the icy North Atlantic Ocean, wealthy passengers dined on "grilled mutton chops," soused herring and a variety of other delicacies.

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Thin underwater cables hold the internet. See a map of them all.

These thin underwater cables are the circulatory system of the global internet — while we get our GIFs and videos from fiber optic cables and cellphone towers, high-speed international information is transferred almost entirely under the sea.

For all the talk of a wireless world, fiber optic cables are still the fastest way to move large amounts of information. Even though covering the ocean floor with cables is a complex, laborious task, it's worth it for the gains in international communication speed.

It's these cables that distribute 99 percent of international data and drive everything from high-frequency trading (around the Arctic) to a range of high-tech consumer internet services.

Scientists Explain Why We Love Pizza So Much

In their paper, the authors write: “Addictive substances are rarely in their natural state, but have been altered or processed in a manner that increases their abuse potential. For example, grapes are processed into wine and poppies are refined into opium. A similar process may be occurring within our food supply.”

They also pointed to another study that showed that “rats maintained on a diet of highly processed foods, such as cheesecake, exhibit downregulation in the dopamine system that also occurs in response to drugs of abuse.”

The other reason why pizza seems to be so addictive might be even simpler: cheese.

The crave-inducing properties of cheese come from an ingredient called casein, a protein found in all milk products. When we digest this protein, it releases casomorphins which stimulate opioid receptors, the receptors involved in pain control, reward and addiction.

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Sunscreen Is Killing Coral Reefs

According to a report filed by NWR just two weeks ago, 1% of coral is dying out every year. A recent study on coral bleaching elaborates on the world’s dying corals at an accelerated speed. Researchers say there is a new and underestimated cause of global coral bleaching in the form of sunscreen. The worst affected areas are Hawaii and Caribbean.

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Chesham pilots UK’s first Smart WiFi Pavement with Virgin Media

Chiltern District Council and Virgin Media have joined forces to blanket Chesham’s high street with superfast WiFi. The unlimited WiFi service is available to residents, businesses and visitors passing through the centre of Chesham; the service even covers parts of Lowndes Park – Chesham’s 36 acre park space.

The new network can provide speeds of up to 166Mbps, seven times the average UK broadband speed* and will be delivered using cutting edge technology with connectivity delivered directly from Virgin Media’s street cabinets and the UK’s first ever Smart Pavement.

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These Maps Show Where The Best And Worst Looking Men And Women Live In The United States

Google Is Using Balloons To Bring Internet Access To Millions In Indonesia

Google and Facebook are in a race to connect the world, but where the social network has been criticized for its efforts, Google is looking to excel in style by delivering fast internet access to Indonesia with a series of wind-cruising balloons.

The company plans to set free hundreds of balloons equipped with high-speed LTE mobile internet connections that will serve over 100 million people. About one-third of Indonesians have internet access — with rates hovering around 16 percent have been reported — compared to 43 percent of people in East Asia and Pacific region have internet access. Those numbers may begin to shrink if Google’s mobile balloon network through Project Loon takes off.

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See The First-Ever Video Of The World's Rarest Whale In The Wild

It's the first confirmed ocean sighting of the elusive Omura's whale.

The Omura's whale is so rare and little-known that there hasn't been a single confirmed sighting in the wild by scientists... until now.

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Awesome Animation Shows You What Colorblind People See

Colour blindness, or colour vision deficiency, affects approximately 1 in 12 males, and 1 in 100 females. There are various causes for the condition. For the majority of sufferers, the condition is genetic. However, illnesses such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis can cause degeneration of sight and cause vision deficiencies.

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Why do people cheat on their partners? Apparently, it’s not just to inspire pop songs. AsapSCIENCE has released a new YouTube video, attempting to find out if there’s a science behind infidelity.

We’re one of the few mammals who are, by and large, monogamous. However, despite the evolutionary benefits of staying with one partner, cheating is a fairly common human behaviour – as any romantic comedy will tell you. Turns out, the cause is a cocktail of genetics, hormones and social factors. And yes, alcohol is included in that last one.

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Swim for the Earth: 3D-Printed Bikini Scrubs Water Pollution

Engineers from the University of California, Riverside, teamed up with designers from Eray Carbajo, an architecture and design firm based in New York City, to design a bikini that can absorb contaminants from water while a person swims. The suit keeps the materials locked up in its fabric.

The bikini is molded from a 3D-printed, netlike structure made of synthetic rubber and a reusable and recyclable padding made from a material called Sponge.

Sponge can absorb up to 25 times its own weight. The contaminants are trapped in the inner pores of the sponge material, so they don't touch the skin, and the suit doesn't release any substance it absorbs unless heated to temperatures exceeding 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius).

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Titanic Cracker Sells For $23,000

A collector in Greece has purchased a single cracker that survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 for £15,000 (roughly $23,000 US). According to the auctioneers, Henry Aldridge & Son, the cracker was saved by James Fenwick, a passenger on the SS Carpathia — which went to rescue survivors from history’s most famous sinking ship. Fenwick took many photos of the rescue and kept the cracker in a Kodak envelope.

For $23,000 you could buy around 8,500 lbs. of Ritz Crackers, so we can assume historical value was behind the purchase more than hunger. The “world’s most valuable biscuit” was made by Spillers & Bakers, whose name can be seen stamped on the cracker. And should you imagine first class passengers were enjoying these in the opulent dining saloon, you’d be mistaken. The crackers were part of the survival kits on the rescue boats.

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The ‘driest place on Earth’ is covered in pink flowers after a crazy year of rain

A rare bloom turns the arid Atacama desert in Chile into a magnificent carpet of mauve-colored flowers after the region's heaviest rain in 20 years

The Atacama Desert in Chile, known as the driest place on Earth, is awash with color after a year’s worth of extreme rainfall.

In an average year, this desert is a very dry place. Arica, Chile, in the northern Atacama holds the world record for the longest dry streak, having gone 173 months without a drop of rain in the early 20th century. In another Atacama neighbor to the south of Arica, the average annual rainfall in the city of Antofagasta is just 0.07 inches.