UFO: Video wizkids?

Recently a movie displayed here with an UFO. Here is another which looks also pretty awesome. I wonder how they make those movies because they look so damn real.

Rubic cube in 26 steps

Daniel Kunkle can solve a Rubik's Cube in 26 moves. Or at least his computer can.

Kunkle, a computer scientist at Northeastern University in Boston, has proved that 26 moves are enough to solve any Rubik's Cube, no matter how scrambled. That's one move below the previous record. In the process of cracking the cube, he developed algorithms that can be useful for problems as disparate as scheduling air flights and determining how proteins will fold.

Rubik's Cube has approximately 43 quintillion possible configurations. Even a supercomputer can't search through every possible configuration to find the quickest way to unscramble a given starting arrangement in a reasonable amount of time. So Kunkle and his advisor Gene Cooperman developed some clever mathematical and computational strategies to make the puzzle more manageable.

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Look at the movie below. This person soves it in 20 seconds or so. Amazing!

Chocoholic squirrel steals treats from shop

A Finnish squirrel with a sweet tooth heads to a Finnish grocery shop at least twice a day to steal "Kinder Surprise" chocolate-shelled eggs.

"I named it the Kinder-squirrel, after the treats. It always goes after them, other sweets do not seem to interest it as much," the manager of the store in Jyvaskyla, central Finland, told Reuters.

The confectionary, which is intended for children, has a toy inside.

"It removes the foil carefully, eats the chocolate and leaves the store with the toy," Irene Lindroos said.

Unfortunately, the bushy-tailed thief does not clean up after itself, but leaves the wrappers behind, she added.

Squirrels have a well deserved reputation for being clever and adaptable animals. Many a home owner has seen the small rodents raiding their supposedly "squirrel-proof" bird feeders.

Pizza Foils Robbery

Yay pizza! :p

There's pepperoni pizza and pizza with extra cheese.

Then there's pizza as a weapon. Police in Wichita, Kansas, report a Papa John's Pizza delivery man was attacked by a robber. But the pizza guy fought back -- with his pie. Officers say the delivery man was met by a man armed with a metal rod. The would-be robber demanded the pizza and the pizza man's wallet. But the delivery man swung the pizza box at the crook, who ran away. Police say even though the suspect gave a phony address for the delivery, they traced his phone number. Officers say they found the suspect hiding in a closest and busted him.

Meteorite Croatia

Last week a meteorite broke up over Croatia. Speed of the thing was about 200.000 km/h or 125.000 mph. Eventually the thing exploded in two parts.

Cell phones light up operating room during blackout

The light from the cell phone screens allowed surgeons to complete an emergency appendix operation during a blackout in a city in central Argentina, reports said on Saturday.

Leonardo Molina, 29, was on the operating table on July 21, when the power went out in the Policlinico Juan D. Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, a small city in San Luis province.

"The generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work," a hospital spokesman, whose name was not given, told TN television news station.

"The surgeons and anesthetists were in the dark... A family member got some cell phones together from people in the hallway and took them in to provide light," he said.

Ricardo Molina, 39, Leonardo's brother, told La Nacion newspaper that the lights were out for an hour and his brother's anesthesia was wearing off.

"Thriller" inmates

Over 2 million views now. In case you have not seen it. It's original!

"1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice! This is not the final routine, and definitely not a punishment! just a teaser. (more)"



In the second movie they do Radio Gaga from Queen

Out of the blue

Keep that stuff up there!

Unidentified falling object in Bayonne mystifies NASA


When a hunk of metal crashed to the floor of a home Tuesday, it set off a mystery that has NASA, NJ Transit and scientists scratching their heads.

The hunk of gray metal fell with a bang into a multifamily home around lunchtime. It was 3 inches by 5 inches with two hexagonal holes. The man who lives in the home was watching television in the next room when he heard the crash and saw a cloud of dust.

Experts who have seen it say it's man made. But nobody can say where it might have come from.

Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit, said it isn't something that would have flown off the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail tracks just about 100 feet from the home.

Federal Aviation Administration officials who went to the home to check it out said it was not a part that would have fallen from a plane headed into or out of Newark Liberty International Airport.

"It doesn't look very 'space-y,''' Henry Kline, a spokesman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told the Star-Ledger of Newark. "It's obviously made for something ... But we wouldn't know what to do with it.''

U.S. Air Force Major Costas Leonidou at the Pentagon, told the newspaper that he couldn't identify the fallen object either. "It could be Air Force, Navy, Marines, commercial. It could be anything,'' he said.

Authorities in Bayonne like the duplex residents just want to know what it might be.

"It belongs to somebody,'' said Bayonne Police Director Mark Smith.

Update 6.00 PM

A hunk of metal that crashed through the roof of a home had NASA and Federal Aviation Administration officials scratching their heads.

It didn't look "very space-y,'' said Henry Kline, a spokesman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's obviously made for something ... But we wouldn't know what to do with it.''

It didn't appear to be an airplane part either, the FAA said.

Finally, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said Wednesday, a colleague in his office solved the mystery: It was part of a commercial woodchipper. The same part from another woodchipper's grinder had caused similar confusion last year, he said.

How it got on a Bayonne roof was anyone guess, but Peters had a theory. The grinder piece moves very fast and, apparently, it can launch into the air if something goes wrong.

The man who lives in the house was watching television Tuesday when he heard a crash and saw a cloud of dust. In the next room, he found the hunk of gray metal, 3 1/2 inches by 5 inches, with two hexagonal holes in it.

The part was being returned to Bayonne Police on Wednesday, Peters said.

"It belongs to somebody,'' Police Director Mark Smith said.

The one who was foretold, he has come

Already saw this elsewhere and now also it appeared in the Clarín (Argentina) so here it is! Bilingual then!

This mysterious symbol was found next to the Giant of Wessex. Our savior has come!

A bunch of pagans are pissed that it's next to their giant naked man with an erect penis. They feel that it somehow degrades the nudity, or something.

Don't you think the ancient people put that up as a joke? It was probably some drunk stoneage teens who did the equivalent of climbing up on the water tower and painting a big dick. And now that big dick is historical.

I think the drunken teens who made it would have worshipped Homer Simpson as a god.
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Lo hizo la cadena Fox para promocionar la película de "Los Simpsons". La imagen del Gigante de Cerne Abbas, una silueta de 55 metros sobre una colina del sur de Inglaterra, es un símbolo de fertilidad desde hace cientos de años.

El Gigante de Cerne Abbas, la silueta desnuda de 55 metros realizada en piedra caliza en las colinas de Dorset, al sur de Inglaterra, es un símbolo de fertilidad que desde hace cientos de años atrae a mujeres de todo el mundo con la esperanza de quedar embarazadas. Ahora, como parte de la promoción de la película de "Los Simpson", los publicistas de la Fox dibujaron un Homero en calzoncillos tan grande como el Gigante, pero con unos valores algo distintos de los que representa unos de los símbolos de la espiritualidad antigua.

La aparición de la nueva imagen provocó una oleada de críticas entre los paganos, que desean que llueva para que el agua acabe con el dibujo, pintado con productos biodegradables no resistentes al agua. "Deseábamos que llegara un clima más seco, pero hemos cambiado de opinión. Queremos una lluvia mágica que se lo lleve", afirmó la responsable de la Federación Pagana del distrito de Wessex, Ann Bryn-Evans.

Según Bryn-Evans, es "asombroso" que los publicistas de la película –que se estrena el jueves de la semana próxima en la Argentina y un día después en Estados Unidos- hayan logrado el permiso para hacer "algo tan ridículo en un área de interés científico". Sin embargo, no se trata de la primera vez que la industria publicitaria utiliza al famoso gigante para promocionar sus productos: ya lo hizo con preservativos, jeans y bicicletas.

MooTube

A judge on Monday granted a reprieve to Shambo, a sacred bull at a Hindu monastery who had been threatened with slaughter because he is suspected of carrying bovine tuberculosis.

Shambo's plight raised intense arguments about whether public health concerns superseded religious rights. His caretakers at the Skanda Vale monastery in southwestern Wales launched a campaign to save him that included an Internet petition, a blog purportedly giving Shambo's "daily thoughts" and a Webcast called "Moo Tube" that tracked the bull's movements around its hay-filled shrine.

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MooTube webcam

U.S. No Longer Tallest Country in World

America used to be the tallest country in the world. From the days of the founding fathers right on through the industrial revolution and two world wars, Americans literally towered over other nations. In a land of boundless open spaces and limitless natural abundance, the young nation transformed its increasing wealth into human growth. But just as it has in so many other arenas, America's predominance in height has faded. Americans reached a height plateau after World War II, gradually falling behind the rest of the world as it continued growing taller. By the time the baby boomers reached adulthood in the 1960s, most northern and western European countries had caught up with and surpassed the United States. Young adults in Japan and other prosperous Asian countries now stand nearly as tall as Americans do.

Even residents of the formerly communist East Germany are taller than Americans today. In Holland, the tallest country in the world, the typical man now measures 6 feet, a good two inches more than his average American counterpart.

Compare that to 1850, when the situation was reversed. Not just the Dutch but all the nations of western Europe stood 2 1/2 inches shorter than their American brethren.

Does it really matter? Does being taller give the Dutch any advantage over say, the Chinese (men 5 feet, 4.9 inches; women 5 feet, 0.8 inches) or the Brazilians (men 5 feet, 6.5 inches; women 5 feet, 3 inches)?

Many economists would argue that it does matter, because height is correlated with numerous measures of a population's well-being. Tall people are healthier, wealthier and live longer than short people. Some researchers have even suggested that tall people are more intelligent.

It's not that being tall actually makes you smarter, richer or healthier. It's that the same things that make you tall - a nutritious diet, good prenatal care and a healthy childhood - also benefit you in those other ways.

A long wedding train....

A new couple ride on a car to tour around the city of Guiyang, South China’s Guizhou Province, before their wedding ceremony on June 10, 2007.

The bride was wearing a dress with a 28-metre-long train.

Let's do this again, next year!

Always be sure about dates! LOL!

Teacher Dave Barclay flew thousands of miles across the Atlantic to Wales to attend his friend's wedding, only to discover he was a year early.

Barclay, 34, was told about the wedding earlier in the year and assumed it was to take place in 2007.

It was only when he had flown into Cardiff from Toronto, Canada, and rang the bridegroom seeking details of the venue that he discovered the wedding was in 2008.

"I am a year early -- yeah, my mates are loving it, aren't they," he told BBC Radio Wales.

The groom, Dave Best, had emailed his friend at the start of the year.

"He just said July the 6th and I assumed it was this year because if you tell the guy July 6th, they're going to think it's this year," Barclay said.

Barclay, who has been teaching in Toronto for three years spent 500 pounds ($1,015) on his premature flight.

"At least it's assured me a mention in the speech next year," he added.

Man flies 193 miles in lawn chair

That's what i mean. Something fresh and crazy for the blog! Talking about interesting people.

Last weekend, Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks -- and a parachute. Attached to his lawn chair were 105 large helium balloons.

With instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a global positioning system device in his pocket, and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as ballast -- he could turn a spigot, release water and rise -- Couch headed into the Oregon sky.

Nearly nine hours later, the 47-year-old gas station owner came back to earth in a farmer's field near Union, short of Idaho but about 193 miles from home.

"When you're a little kid and you're holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind," Couch told the Bend Bulletin.

"When you're laying in the grass on a summer day, and you see the clouds, you wish you could jump on them," he said. "This is as close as you can come to jumping on them. It's just like that."

Couch is the latest American to emulate Larry Walters -- who in 1982 rose three miles above Los Angeles in a lawn chair lifted by balloons. Walters had surprised an airline pilot, who radioed the control tower that he had just passed a guy in a lawn chair. Walters paid a $1,500 penalty for violating air traffic rules.

It was Couch's second flight.

In September, he got off the ground for six hours. Like Walters, he used a BB gun to pop the balloons, but he went into a rapid descent and eventually parachuted to safety.

This time, he was better prepared. The balloons had a new configuration, so it was easier to reach up and release a bit of helium instead of simply cutting off a balloon.

He took off at 6:06 a.m. Saturday after kissing his wife, Susan, goodbye and petting his Chihuahua, Isabella. As he made about 25 miles an hour, a three-car caravan filled with friends, family and the dog followed him from below.

Couch said he could hear cattle and children and even passed through clouds.

"It was beautiful -- beautiful," he told KTVZ-TV. He described the flight as mostly peaceful and serene, with occasional turbulence, like a hot-air balloon ride sitting down.

Couch decided to stop when he was down to a gallon of water and just eight pounds of ballast. Concerned about the rugged terrain outside La Grande, including Hells Canyon, he decided it was time to land.

He popped enough balloons to set the craft down, although he suffered rope burns. But after he jumped out, the wind grabbed his chair, with his video recorder, and the remaining balloons and swept them away. He's hoping to get them back some day.

Brandon Wilcox, owner of Professional Air, which charters and maintains planes at the Bend airport, said Couch definitely did it. Wilcox said he flew a plane nearby while Couch traveled and took photos of the flying lawn chair.

Whether Couch will take a third trip is up to his wife, and Susan Couch said she's thinking about saying no. But she said she was willing to go along with last weekend's trip.

"I know he'd be thinking about it more and more, it would always be on his mind," she said. "This way, at least he's fulfilled his dream."

Confused penguin strays 5,000km

I did better then! I strayed 12000 kmtrs! :PPPP

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The penguin appears to have become somewhat confused

A Magellanic penguin whose natural habitat is the cool climes of southern Chile has strayed thousands of miles from his home, arriving in Peru.

The penguin, native to the Strait of Magellan region of Chile, swam all the way to Peru's Paracas national reserve.

Scientists say the bird appeared to have made the 5,000km (3,000-mile) journey alone.

They say the penguin must have "got off course" to end up just 14 degrees south of the equator.

Discrimination

Scientists say they fear that the solitary Magellanic penguin may not be accepted by some of the area's 4,000 Humboldt penguins.

Biologist David Orosco told AFP news agency that the native birds may even try to reject the penguin.

"Conditions in the park are not the ones it is used to. They usually seek out their own species, and it could suffer discrimination," Mr Orosco said.

The penguin, found by a fisherman, managed the epic journey suffering only a small wound on its wing.

Mr Orosco said he was trying to contact colleagues in the penguin's home country.

"It would be better for it to go to Chile," he said."

Source

The coolest nail house in history

Off-beat story from globeandmail.com:

BEIJING — It has been dubbed "the nail house." Sticking out like an upright nail, the house and its owner have stubbornly refused to be hammered down by a property developer who has bulldozed everything around it.

The owner, 51-year-old restaurateur Yang Wu, has become a folk hero in China for defending his property rights and refusing to surrender, even when his home became an isolated island in a vast excavated pit at a construction site.

But with the Chinese Internet rapidly transforming the case into a national media sensation, the government stepped into the fray this weekend, abruptly banning any further reporting or commenting on the nail house.

The publication ban was disclosed yesterday by China Digital Times, a website at the University of California that has close contacts with China's Internet community. It quoted a source saying that all Chinese web media were given an urgent notice on Saturday to delete all feature pages about the nail house, and to block access to all comments on the case.

By yesterday, it reported that the major Chinese websites were complying with the ban.

Before the ban, the nail house had become one of the hottest stories on the Chinese Internet. On one website alone, more than 156,000 people had visited a special blog about it.

The mainstream Chinese media, too, was fascinated with the case. Even the stodgy China Daily, the main English-language propaganda newspaper, splashed the story prominently on page three of its Saturday edition, complete with a photo. The story quoted enthusiasts who called it "the coolest nail house in history."

The developer, in the booming city of Chongqing on the Yangtze River, is planning to build a six-storey shopping mall on the site. With offers of compensation, he has persuaded more than 200 residents to move away. But despite a compensation offer of about $525,000 for his 219-square-metre house, Mr. Yang and his wife have refused to leave until they are given a property of similar size in the same area.

Mr. Yang is a former kung-fu champion who is admired for his defiant attitude and his toughness. Last week, he used two steel pipes to climb up to his home from the 10-metre-deep pit that surrounds it. At the top, he waved a Chinese flag and a banner reading "No violation of legitimate private property."

Brandishing a set of wooden clubs, he shouted to onlookers: "If anyone dares to come up, I'll beat them back down."

The case is being portrayed as the first major test of China's new property law. Earlier this month, the national parliament passed a historic law that safeguards private property rights for the first time.

Thousands of property disputes have erupted in China in recent years. Many cases are similar to the nail-house case: A private developer buys up a site, gains support from local officials and puts pressure on hundreds of local residents to leave.

The Chinese media have been sympathetic to Mr. Yang, with one newspaper saying that he is "fighting for the rights of all property owners in China."

Another newspaper, China Youth Daily, urged the government to support the rights of the homeowner. "If this case of the 'lonely island' persists, it could become a landmark test for Chinese law," it said.

"If the government does not respect people's rights in the case, it will raise suspicions about the entanglement of civil rights, property development and government interests."