Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Magic Wand

A New Prophet: NASA Says World Will Not End In 2012

NASA has launched an investigation in its efforts to prove that world will not come to an end on December 21, 2012, despite the claims of many Internet theorists.


Comment: Frankly speaking, no official body or institution in the position of authority can guarantee anything like that will or will not happen at any given moment, like in 3 years. That's just illogical!


The theory states that world will come to an end, based on deductions from the Mayan calendar, as a mysterious planet, Nibiru, collides with Earth.

The claims have fueled a Sony Picture, titled "2012," which will come to theaters on Friday.

Some Internet theorists have blamed NASA for keeping information concealed about the Earth's doomsday.

"There is no factual basis for these claims," NASA said on its Web site.


Comment: Could you please prove it?


Comment: Did NASA ever hear about comets? They pretend that they didn't. Or they just forgot. Or they are so sure that people will buy any rubbish, no matter how ridiculous and illogical, that they are not afraid of releasing such a pure caricature of propaganda as the one above.


Coffee

'Unfriend' is 2009's Word of the Year: Geek Lexicon Goes Pop

Tech culture has come a long way from its widely-lambasted formative years of LAN parties, red Doritos and Mountain Dew to today, when the New Oxford Dictionary ekes our vocab and ratifies it. "Unfriend," a term used to describe deleting a social networking buddy (like your mom on Facebook) was chosen as 2009's Word of the Year. (Funny, I always thought it was defriend.)

Five of the other Word of the Year finalists also came from the tech world -- two of which could have soiled tech culture's image. For instance, "sexting" -- the sending of sexually explicit text messages -- would have made us appear like sex-crazed smartphone junkies; and "intexticated" -- driving distracted while texting -- paints us to be irresponsible maniacs behind the wheel. So it's a good thing the relatively benign depiction of removing somebody from Facebook made it into Oxford Dictionary.

Beer

Drilling for Scotch Whisky in Antarctica

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The crates of whisky were found under a hut built and used by Shackleton
Wellington, New Zealand -- A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whisky that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

The drillers will be trying to reach two crates of McKinlay and Co. whisky that were shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his abandoned 1909 expedition.

Bizarro Earth

Lock Of Elvis' Hair A Big Hit At Auction

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The tiny, black strand comes with a note of authenticity
A tiny strand of hair said to have been clipped from the head of Elvis Presley has sold at auction for more than £1,000.

The snippet, which is mounted in a 12in by 22in frame alongside a photograph of the music legend, had been tipped to fetch up to £250.

Wiltshire auctioneer Henry Aldridge and Son brought the hammer down at £1,055.

The strand had been cut off and kept by Presley's barber of more than 20 years, Homer Gill Gilleland.

He used to dye the singer's sandy-blond locks black, and cut his hair into a towel.

Newspaper

Swine Flu Causes Surge of Garlic Sales in Serbia

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© AP Photo/Darko VojinovicA girl walks past a stand with garlic at Belgrade green market, Serbia.
Belgrade's open-air markets were a welter of busy customers on Friday, pushing and shoving to buy one item - garlic.

In Serbia, garlic has long been regarded as a good luck charm and a guard against many ailments. As far as the public is concerned, that includes the swine flu pandemic, which recently has spread in Serbia and triggered near panic among the local population.

That is now evident in Belgrade's produce markets, where the price of garlic has shot up, thanks to a sudden increase in demand. The smell of the little white cloves also has become prevalent in public places as people munch on them as if eating apples.

Health officials have publicly urged the population not to take garlic's healing properties so seriously. Instead, they recommend opting for more conventional precautions, such as washing hands, wearing face masks, or eventually getting vaccinated.

Heart

Making the World More Fun

The campaign The Fun Theory of Volkswagen is a series of experiments, captured on video, to find out if making the world more fun can improve people's behavior.

This one is Piano Stairs:

Binoculars

Thieves Steal Popular North Carolina Road Sign...Again

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© Alex Nitzman and Justin CozartIt is a long way from Barstow to Wilmington, North Carolina: 2,554 miles to be exact!
Want to know how far it is from the eastern end of Interstate 40 in North Carolina to the western end in California? You'll have to punch it into your GPS or try MapQuest.

The Star-News of Wilmington reports that a popular sign showing the distance between Wilmington, N.C., and Barstow (BARHS'-toh), Calif., has been stolen for at least the fourth time - and the last.

North Carolina transportation engineer Joe Chance says with the repeated thefts, there won't be another sign that tells motorists it's 2,554 miles to Barstow. That's where the interstate ends.

The sign was a familiar sight to travelers heading west out of Wilmington and had been up for years.

Binoculars

Spider-Man Impostor Slugs Man

A man in a Spider-Man costume was arrested on outstanding warrants in Los Angeles after he allegedly hit a man on Hollywood Boulevard Wednesday, police said.

First, officers had to figure out which Spider-Man impostor was which, because they found four of them dressed as the superhero about 12:30 p.m., police said.

"They stopped one; it wasn't him," Lt. Beverly Lewis told the Los Angeles Times. "They stopped the second, and it was the suspect."

The victim told police he was hit in the face and arms but did not want to press charges against the suspect, Christopher Loomis, 39. But Loomis was booked on outstanding misdemeanor warrants and held on $5,500 bond.

Mr. Potato

California: Great Dane Named World's Tallest Dog

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© AP Photo/The San Diego Union-Tribune, Peggy PeattieDiana Taylor walks with her Great Dane, Titan, along Ocean Beach in San Diego.
Only one animal got credit for a record Thursday, the same day Norway registered the world's largest gingerbread man; the most people hugging in one minute were in the U.K.; Italy set the mark for the fastest consumption of a bowl of pasta; Finland had the most nationalities in a single sauna; and a team from Mexico assembled the world's longest paper clip chain.

In the midst of it all, Guinness World Records officially named Titan, an ailing 4-year-old white Great Dane from San Diego, as the world's tallest dog.

Titan is blind, deaf, epileptic and undergoes acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments every three weeks, owner Diana Taylor said.

Great Danes are built like giraffes one way and submarines the other, Taylor said, so they have spine issues. Titan is doing well on his treatments and medication. He hasn't had a seizure in a year.

He is a gentle soul who befriends everyone during his daily walks on the beach and is often mistaken by young children for a horse or cow, Taylor said.

Smiley

Massachusetts: Principal Bans Four-Letter Word - 'Meep!'

Utterance from The Muppet Show was used repeatedly to interrupt school

Who knew "meep!" was a four-letter word?

The utterance favored by bungling lab assistant Beaker of The Muppet Show has been banned at Danvers High School in Massachusetts after students said it to repeatedly interrupt school.

Principal Thomas Murray says the word was part of a disruption planned using Facebook.