Offbeat News

[Mister Bent]

Originally Posted by betenoire

Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

He's a Jehovah's Witless?

[SuperFemme]

Weird News: Stephen Hawking Says Aliens Would Eat Us

http://www.tv.com/weird-news-stephen...ews/71336.html

[Rook]

WATERPERRY, England (AFP) - Britain's iconic red phone boxes have become obsolete in the age of the mobile -- but villages across the country are stepping in to save them, with creative flair.

Whether as a place to exhibit art, poetry, or even as a tiny library, hundreds of kiosks have been given a new lease of life by local communities determined to preserve a quintessential part of British life.

In Waterperry, a small village near Oxford, the 120 residents have filled the phone box next to the old manor house with a pot of hyacinths, piles of gardening and cooking magazines, and plastered poems on the walls.

They took control of the kiosk when telecoms operator BT said it was going to pull it down, an announcement that sparked such uproar that one local woman threatened to chain herself to the box to save it.

"I'd have done it," insisted Kendall Turner. "It would have been heartbreaking for the village."

Local councillor Tricia Hallam, who came up with the idea for the phone box's makeover, said "quite a few people" would have joined her, adding: "We couldn't let it go because it's a landmark, it's part of our heritage.

"We need to keep it here, it's an iconic thing, a British icon."

Only three feet (90 centimetres) by three feet wide, and standing eight foot three inches (2.51 metres) tall, the kiosks were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1936 for the 25th anniversary of the reign of King George V.

Painted in "Post Office red" to match the post boxes, they were once a defining image of England and the backdrop to millions of tourist photographs.

Eight years ago there were about 17,000 across Britain, but today, in a country where almost everybody has a mobile phone, 58 percent are no longer profitable and ten percent are only used once a month.

"On average, maintaining them costs 800 pounds a year per kiosk," said John Lumb, general manager for BT Payphones -- about 44 million pounds annually.

Some phone boxes have been converted into kitsch showers or mini-bars, available online for between 1,300 and 3,500 pounds (2,000 and 5,400 dollars, 1,500 and 3,900 euros).

But BT needed a bigger solution and, two years ago, wrote to local authorities to inform them the boxes were going to be dismantled.

"We probably had 100 letters back from the councils asking if they could keep the red kiosk... There were just so many people saying that in small villages, it had been part of their landscape for years," Lumb told AFP.

"The red kiosk is just well recognised within the UK, just like the black taxis. There are quite strong feelings about it in many picturesque villages."

In response, BT launched the "Adopt A Kiosk" programme, allowing local authorities to buy their box for a symbolic one pound.

Since August 2008, 1,118 have been taken over, with a further 4,000 scrapped, and such was the enthusiasm that a competition was launched for the "best adoptive parent".

Last year's winner was the village of Great Shelford near Cambridge in eastern England, whose box is located in a conservation zone between a cemetery and centuries-old thatched cottages.

A mannequin created by the local primary school stands guard inside, changing each month. This month's occupant is the Greek goddess Hera.

Westbury-sub-Mendip, in the southwestern county of Somerset, has also lavished attention on its local phone box, turning it into a library -- "the smallest in the world", according to the 800 proud residents.

"The concept is delightfully simple," says parish councillor Bob Dolby, explaining how residents use it to swap books any time of the day or night.

The box "now houses a different form of communication having moved from the spoken word to the written word", he said.

"In this way the kiosk, which has served the community well for many years, will continue to serve it for years to come."

http://ca.rss.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/1...ations_offbeat

[Jet]

Introducing the "liger" one of six new Hybrid animals.

Pictures and story of the results of different but closely related species occasionally mating....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ygreen/20100...ghybridanimals

[SuperFemme]

Mom turns in son for stealing drugs from her bra

The Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. --A Memphis woman called police after she found her son stealing her prescription sedatives from her bra. The Commercial Appeal reported that police found a 28-year-old man hiding under a neighbor's sport utility vehicle Wednesday morning. The mother, whose name police didn't release, told officer she awakened before dawn to find her son filching Xanax from her bra, where she kept it to prevent him from stealing it.

Police said the man had 22 Xanax pills, 15 of them wrapped in toilet paper and hidden in his sock. Officer said a search of the man's room turned up more pills and various drug paraphernalia.
He was in jail Thursday with bond set at $40,000.

Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2010/04/30/123757...#ixzz0mnGUEWzs

[Jet]

Spanish man with face transplant discharged from hospital

SEVILLE, Spain (AFP) – A Spanish man who received a new face in a transplant this year checked out of hospital on Tuesday, thanking doctors and the donor's family for making the groundbreaking surgery possible.

More.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthsu...ransplantspain

[Rook]

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Police in Columbus are looking for a man they say robbed a bank near downtown, then handed two $100 bills to passers-by as he ran away. FBI Special Agent Harry Trombitas said the man robbed a Huntington Bank branch early Monday afternoon after showing a teller a gun in his waistband. Trombitas said the man was running up the street when he encountered a mother and daughter window-shopping.

The robber stopped and gave them each a $100 bill, assured them it was real, then kept running.

Trombitas said the mother and daughter from the Cleveland area were in town for a visit to Ohio State.

They took the money to the nearest bank which turned out to be the Huntington branch that was just robbed, and there told police what happened.

How come this shit doesn't happen to me??? I need 100 $ too !!!

[Jet]

Modern marvels: 18 of the world's strangest bridges

Just wow!

Gallery

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...op&ha=1&kw=ist

[Jet]

World's largest herring caught of swedish shores

12 footer with pics
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100512/..._giant_herring

[Jet]

Why Snakebites Are About to Get a Lot More Deadly


http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...op&ha=1&kw=ist

[Jet]

Divers explore sunken ruins of Cleopatra's palace

wow
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100525/...en_treasures_2

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by Jet

Divers explore sunken ruins of Cleopatra's palace

wow
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100525/...en_treasures_2

The finds from along the Egyptian coast will go on display at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute from June 5 to Jan. 2 in an exhibition titled "Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt."

tryna think if i know anyone in Philadelphia- i would love to see this...maybe they'll come to Houston

[Medusa]

The "Amityville Horror" house is up for sale:

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05...-the-market-2/

[Jet]

Hawaii first in nation to ban shark fins

By AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 33 mins ago

HONOLULU – Hawaii has become the first state in the nation to ban shark fins. Gov. Linda Lingle on Friday signed a bill prohibiting the possession, sale, trade or distribution of shark fins, which are used in pricey Chinese dishes.
Exceptions will be made for researchers who have obtained a permit from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. Lawmakers hope the new law will help prevent overfishing and extinction of sharks harvested for their fins.

Many Chinese consider shark fins to be a delicacy, served in high-end Chinese restaurants in soup and as fillets in gravy.

The bill passed the state Legislature earlier this year with broad support.

[Enigma]

First human 'infected with computer virus'

By Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent, BBC News
Thursday, 27 May 2010


A British scientist says he is the first man in the world to become infected with a computer virus.

Dr Mark Gasson from the University of Reading had a chip inserted in his hand which was then infected with a virus.

The device, which enables him to pass through security doors and activate his mobile phone, is a sophisticated version of ID chips used to tag pets.

In trials, Dr Gasson showed that the chip was able to pass on the computer virus to external control systems.

If other implanted chips had then connected to the system they too would have been corrupted, he said.
Medical alert

Dr Gasson admits that the test is a proof of principle but he thinks it has important implications for a future where medical devices such as pacemakers and cochlear implants become more sophisticated, and risk being contaminated by other human implants.

"With the benefits of this type of technology come risks. We may improve ourselves in some way but much like the improvements with other technologies, mobile phones for example, they become vulnerable to risks, such as security problems and computer viruses."

He also added: "Many people with medical implants also consider them to be integrated into their concept of their body, and so in this context it is appropriate to talk in terms of people themselves being infected by computer viruses."

However, Dr Gasson predicts that wider use will be made of implanted technology.

"This type of technology has been commercialised in the United States as a type of medical alert bracelet, so that if you're found unconscious you can be scanned and your medical history brought up."

Professor Rafael Capurro of the Steinbeis-Transfer-Institute of Information Ethics in Germany told BBC News that the research was "interesting".

"If someone can get online access to your implant, it could be serious," he said.

Video at BBC News Link

[Nat]

'Gaydar' may actually exist: study shows gay people to be more detail-oriented, discerning

link

"Gaydar," that innate ability gay people supposedly have to zero in on other gays even in a crowd, may really exist.

When Dutch scientists examined how heterosexual and homosexual people focus their attention, they discovered gays are much more detail-oriented.

For the research, 42 gay and straight volunteers were presented with photos of outlines of large squares and rectangles. Each shape was packed with smaller shapes. Generally, the human brain is programmed to take in the larger picture, so when people see a rectangle-filled square, they're likely to say it is filled with squares.

When the men and women were presented with similar questions about the pictures they had been shown, the straight volunteers answered faster but were less accurate. The gay men and women, on the other hand, were slower to answer but were right more of the time, especially when they were asked about the smaller shapes.

This suggests they are able to hone in on even very small details as well as the bigger picture, according to the research, which appeared in the journal Frontiers in Cognition. In gays' daily routine, researchers believe, this close attention to detail could help them to detect others' sexual preferences.

"This is the first time that scientific proof has been found for the existence of a gaydar mechanism amongst homosexuals," researcher Dr. Lorenza Colzato of Leiden University in the Netherlands told the Daily Mail. "This perceptual skill allows homosexuals to recognize other gay people faster and we think it's because they are much more analytic than heterosexuals."

People who are naturally more perceptive and detail-oriented may have a greater chance of picking up on subtle clues in other people that they may be homosexual, which makes it easier for them to search out gay friends and sexual partners, the study found.

[MsDemeanor]

Originally Posted by Nat

study shows gay people to be more detail-oriented, discerning

Oh crap, I'm straight. Now they tell me.

[Nat]

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor

Oh crap, I'm straight. Now they tell me.

haha by those standards so am i. at least way straighter than my straight best friend.

[Jet]

Tiny turtle causes taxiing plane to return to gate


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Tiny-t...92999.html?x=0

[Glenn]

Yuck.. Puke... I'll have nightmares tonight!