Source: http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/article/253774/250/VIDEO-Lion-tries-to-reach-for-baby
Portland, OR (CNN) - Thank goodness for protective glass.
See source link for video.
This lion at the Oregon Zoo in Portland clearly wanted to get at the little boy who was sitting outside the exhibit.
The child barely noticed what was happening but something about him sure got the animal’s attention.
Zoo workers say lions often interact with young visitors and the glass barrier keeps them safe.
Parasite turns honey bees into zombies
A fly parasite is being blamed for an epidemic that has struck the honey bee population around the world. The parasite nests in the stomach of the bees and causes them to walk in circles, sometimes pursuing bright lights, before eventually dying.
The Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis is responsible for the zombie transformation, laying its eggs inside the abdomen of the honey bee.
“When we observed the bees for some time, the ones that were alive, we found that they walked around in circles, often with no sense of direction,” said San Francisco State University’s Andrew Core lead author on the bee parasite study in the journal Plos One.
Source: http://www.funnymos.com/zombie-bees.html#more-602
A WOMAN has been ordered to stand trial accused of breaking into a man’s home and raping him.
Rebecca Helen Elder, 39, of Parkside, appeared in the District Court this morning.
She pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated serious criminal trespass in a place of residence, and one count of rape.
Prosecution documents, filed with the court, allege both offences took place at a suburban location between September 20 and September 23 last year.
At trial, prosecutors will allege Elder broke into a house while its male occupant – who cannot be named – was lawfully on the premises.
They will further allege she broke in with the intention of committing a further offence of rape.
Finally, prosecutors will allege Elder raped the man by performing an act of oral sex without his consent.
Source: http://www.wtfnews.org/law-politics/woman-accused-of-orally-raping-man-inside-his-house/
15 sheep in 13+ mins.
Napier shearing gun John Kirkpatrick made an early push for a sixth consecutive season as New Zealand’s top-ranked shearer when he regained the Wairarapa Spring Shears Open title on Saturday.
With defending champion and fellow Hawke’s Bay shearer Adam Brausch eliminated in the semifinals, the three-times Golden Shears open champion was a comfortable winner of the four-man final at the Wairarapa A&P; Show at Clareville, near Carterton.
Pushed a little for time honours by Pongaroa farmer David Buick, Kirkpatrick shore his 15 sheep in 13min 41sec, beating Buick by six seconds, but proved demonstrably superior in the quality stakes and won by almost four points. Third was Hawke’s Bay-based Northland shearer Matthew Smith, enjoying another finals preparing for the World Championships New Zealand team selection series which starts at the Canterbury Show at the end of next week.
Having also won the Great Raihania Shears final in Hastings earlier this month, Saturday’s win pushed Kirkpatrick into an early lead in Shearing Sports New Zealand’s 2010-2011 national rankings.
Now in his 20th season of Open-class competition, Kirkpatrick first won the rankings’ Bowen Trophy in 2002, the season in which he ended King Country star David Fagan’s 12-year reign as Golden Shears champion, and has now headed the rankings each season since 2007. A prolific winner in the North and South islands, he’s an early favourite for the eight-round selection series that ends with a final in Gore in February and the naming of two machine shearers for the championships in Masterton.
Kirkpatrick won a World teams title with Taranaki farmer Paul Avery in Norway in 2008, but missed out on a place in the team for last year’s championships in Wales.
The Carterton event also brought important wins in the lower grades, with Kane Kapene, of Martinborough winning a senior final for the first time, Golden Shears junior champion Michael Rolston, of Levin, winning his first senior title and Manahi Fox, of Masterton, winning his first junior final.
The open woolhandling provided a similar success for woolhandler Choppy Patterson, of Alexandra, who claimed her first Open title.
Source: http://www.hawkesbaytoday.co.nz/news/kirkpatrick-rules-again-at-shears-titles/1155881/
SOME planets revolve close enough to their suns to support human-like life.
Some either once had liquid water, or possibly harbour it under their surfaces.
And now Saturn – or more specifically, one of its moons – has shown that Earth doesn’t have a monopoly on oxygen either.
A new report published in Geophysical Research Letters describes how Cassini – the global initiative satellite that’s been orbiting the ringed planet since 2004 – has detected a thin layer of oxygen around icy moon Dione.
The discovery was made two years ago, but these things have to be verified before they can be published, so here it is – heat, water and oxygen all occurring in the universe somewhere other than Earth.
But before you get too excited about that interplanetary move, there’s a few things to consider.
One is that the layer of oxygen around Dione is too thin to be considered an atmosphere, so for now, scientists are calling it an exosphere.
It’s about the equivalent of oxygen on Earth if you were breathing it 500km up.
And as far as the surface of Dione itself goes, there’s no liquid water, which means you’d be relying on a a kind of intergalactic watercooler top-up service, or, if you’re Bear Grylls, drinking your own wee.
The important thing for Team Cassini is the discovery supports a theory that claims oxygen is present in some form on most of the moons around Saturn and Jupiter.
Add that to the fact that some of those moons do indeed support bodies of liquid water and you have a stronger case for finding life in some form.
Enceledus, for example, is another Saturnian moon which is thought to host a liquid ocean beneath its surface.
The oxygen on Dione is thought to be present on Dione due to highly charged particles from Saturn’s radiation belt splitting its ice water into oxygen and hydrogen.
For the now, what it all means is the European Space Agency folk can push for more money to launch an orbiter to Jupiter’s icy moons and begin drilling for life beneath the surface.
Europa is the most likely candidate, although a co-author of the Dione study, Andrew Coates, offers a tantalising future scenario for Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
With its nitrogen and methane atmosphere, he tells the BBC, “it may be an Earth waiting to happen as the outer Solar System warms up”.
Chandra Bahadur Dangi stands just 54.6cm tall, measurements confirmed, 5.3cm shorter than Filipino Junrey Balawing, the previous holder of the “world’s shortest man” title.
“I’m continually amazed that this record keeps getting broken,” Guinness World Records editor-in-chief Craig Glenday said in a statement after the adjudication in the Nepali capital Kathmandu.
“Just when you think it’s impossible for the record to get any smaller, Mr Dangi comes along and astonishes us all.
“What I find equally remarkable is his age – if he really is 72, he is by far the oldest person to be awarded the shortest-man record in Guinness World Record’s 57-year history.”
Mr Dangi has also been declared the shortest human adult ever documented, taking the accolade from India’s Gul Mohammed, who was measured at 57cm before he died in 1997 aged 40.
What if, every time you wanted to switch on a light, you had to bleed? Would you think twice before illuminating the room, and in turn, using up energy?
That’s the idea behind the blood lamp, invented by Mike Thomspon, an English designer based in The Netherlands. The lamp contains luminol – the same chemical forensic scientists use to check for traces of blood at a crime scence. Luminol reacts with the iron in red blood cells and creates a bright blue glow.
To use the lamp, you first need to mix in an activating powder. Then, you break the glass, cut yourself, and drip blood into the opening.
Thompson came up with the rather gruesome idea, reported by New Scientist recently, a few years ago while he was studying for his masters at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He was researching chemical energy for a project and came across luminol.
“It kind of triggered this thought in my mind, that if energy somehow came at a cost to us, then maybe it would make us think differently about the way we use it,” Thompson told LiveScience. The lamp is intended to “challenge people’s preconceived notions about where our energy comes from,” he said, and it forces the user “to rethink how wasteful they are with energy, and how precious it is.”
And the fact that it is a single-use light makes its application all the more meaningful.
“You have to really decide when to use this lamp because it’s only going to work once,” Thompson said. “So it makes it kind of a poignant moment.”
Thompson designed and produced the lamp in 2007, and made a video of his project this year.
Source: http://www.livescience.com/7920-lamp-runs-human-blood.html
Just a pic of one of the new taxi cabs driving around Dubai 
The latest addition to the Dubai Taxi line-up seemes to be the $1 million plus Bugatti Veron. The gas guzzler does 6 miles pr gallon so be sure to have a full wallet when going to the beach in this sexy looking taxi.
And also be sure to check out the source “WTF News.org” for more funny stories.
Source: http://www.wtfnews.org/science-technology/dubai-taxi/
A street cleaner w
ho handed in a Rolex watch could be in for a £60,000 payout after finding three more high-value timepieces in the same drain.
Arron Large was commended for his honesty after discovering the £21,000 Rolex in and promptly handing it in to police.
However, when he returned to the same spot with a local television news crew to explain his story, he was stunned to find three more expensive watches – another Rolex, an Omega and A Franck Muller. 0_o
When all you have around you is mud and sticks and you are jonesing to play some 9-ball, do what comes naturally.
People in this remote African Village couldn’t wait for the Englishman to bring a new Pool table with, so they Improvised with what they have.
Source: http://www.shinbow.com/2012/02/12/when-life-gives-you-mud-and-sticks-make-a-pool-table/
