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Hearts

Dog helps save owner who was hit by car in Dorchester


A dog helped save her owner who was badly injured in a car crash just days before Thanksgiving.

John Miles was walking his dog Lucy on Neponset Street in Dorchester, as he does every day, when both of them were hit by a car.

John blacked out and doesn't remember what happened. Lucy, a husky-beagle mix, who was also injured, limped to a nearby dentist's office and barked until help arrived. She limped back and stayed by John's side until emergency crews arrived.

"I'm very happy that Lucy did what she did," Miles said. "Makes me feel wonderful because if a dog as good as her can get recognition for doing something above and beyond good for her."

John had no identification on him, so first responders used Lucy's ID tags to determine who they were.

Cupcake Choco

Search continues for stolen truck with $120,000 worth of Hershey's

Chocolate!
© Digital TrendsChocolate!
The search is on for a truck stolen in Volusia county that was carrying $120,000 worth of Hershey's chocolate.

Smiley

Grisly remains of 15 hobbits discovered in Peter Jackson's attic

Image
Police say the Oscar-winning film director routinely tortured the halflings before murdering them.
In an appalling incident that has sent shockwaves through the surrounding community, authorities confirmed Thursday that the decayed, dismembered remains of 15 missing hobbits were found in the attic of highly acclaimed film director Peter Jackson.

Jackson, 52, was reportedly taken into police custody immediately and is now awaiting charges.

"At this time, we can confirm that 15 halflings between the ages of 25 and eleventy-one were discovered inside the home of Peter Jackson at approximately 4 p.m. this afternoon," said Wellington Police District Commander Stephen Jones, adding that authorities were initially called when Jackson's neighbors complained of "a rotting odor" emanating from his home, after which officers conducted a comprehensive search of the property. "We eventually found a hidden hatch on the perpetrator's ceiling, which was held shut by three heavy-duty locks. Once we opened the door, we came across the victims, already deceased, all of whom had the hair ripped out from the tops of their feet."

While stressing that autopsies are still pending, Jones told reporters the hobbits appeared to have been gagged, beaten, and routinely starved, often receiving only one breakfast per day. The bodies were reportedly completely emaciated, while several were missing entire rows of teeth and covered in abrasions consistent with Hithlain rope burns.

Cow

Romanian farmers sue when subsidies for 'virtual cows' cut off

FarmVille
© Karen GrahamK. Graham's "virtual farm" on FarmVille. Photo taken 12/08/2013.
It's not unusual to read about governments helping farmers with subsidies. In Romania, farmers are paid $150 per cow, and this can be a big help. There is just one little problem with the plan though. No one thought to mention the cows had to be real.

It was a nervy scheme, and one that lasted for three years, but eight "farmers' in Romania now have a lot of explaining to do after it was discovered their rural farms were "virtual" farms.'

The eight farmers have been collecting subsidies for their 1,860 cows, at the rate of about $150 per cow from the Romanian government. When the payments were stopped, the eight farmers sued the government because, according to the farmers, "when they applied they weren't told the farms had to be real."

Birthday Cake

Non-profit sends Amazon a cake to celebrate third year of unpaid invoice

Attention, Amazon.com finance department: The good folks at MusicBrainz sent you guys a cake to celebrate the third anniversary of you not paying your bill.

Congratulations?
Cake!
© MusicBrainzMusicBrainz just sent this cake to Amazon HQ because of a 3-year unpaid invoice.
We first spotted the story over at Boing Boing, which reports that "MetaBrainz is a charity that oversees MusicBrainz, a free/open music metadata service" that acts as a free encyclopedia for music of all genres.

Apparently, three years ago, Amazon.com hired MusicBrainz for a roughly $20,000 project involving a live data feed. Unfortunately, invoice #144 never got paid.

Yahoo News spoke via email with Robert Kaye of MusicBrainz about cake-gate. "It wasn't that there was no communication," he said. "There was plenty, but all of the actions on Amazon's part were ineffectual. Nothing seemed to work and I wanted the organization on the greater whole to be aware of this problem and to work together to find a solution moving forward."

Kaye told Yahoo News that the people at Amazon with whom he's spoken have been polite and eager to help. "The real reason, from what I can tell, is that Amazon employees are constantly overworked and that MetaBrainz is such a small organization that its hard for them to really find the time to manage this relationship."

He continued, "No one was trying to stiff us. No one was trying to be in the way. It was never about the money. So, I'm not upset at Amazon or the people I dealt with. I'm just frustrated with the overall bureaucracy of that organization."

Smiley

Tippy the fainting squirrel inspires internet sleuths to seek diagnosis

Have you ever seen a narcoleptic squirrel?

Meet Tippy the squirrel, so named because he keeps tipping over for what appears to be mini power naps every few seconds.

A YouTube video of the critter has garnered more than 300,000 views since it was posted last week and has captured the hearts and attention of many people eager to learn why little Tippy keeps losing its balance.


Chalkboard

The witty exam answers that apparently scored top marks

As clever answers to exam questions continue to be well known urban myths, the Telegraph has collected a list of some of the best known stories

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© Alamy
They are the stuff of urban legend, the witty exam answers that while at first look seem implausible, claim to have earned pupils top marks for their ability to use their own logic.

The Barometer problem: In one example, known as 'the barometer problem' a student was asked to explain how to use a barometer to measure the height of a building.

Instead of returning the normal answer that they would measure the pressure at the top and bottom of the building to work this out, one student said he would tie a length of string to the barometer and lower it from the top. The answer is seen as factually correct, but not displaying scientific theory. The student is widely reported to have been Niels Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics. This answer is thought to be one of a number he came up with.

Probability: In another exam, a pupil was asked: "A coin is flipped and then a die is rolled, what is the probability of rolling an odd and then flipping a tails." They replied, 0 per cent, because the coin was flipped first - an answer technically correct, but ignoring the theory of probability.

Health

Rare identical triplets born in Sacramento

identical triplets
© Randy PenchIdentical twins, left to right, Abby, Laurel and Brindabella were born at Sutter Memorial Hospital on November 22, 2013 to parents Hannah and Tom Hepner of Quincy. The proud parents visit with their girls in a self care room at Sutter Memorial on Wednesday, December 4, 2013 in Sacramento, Calif.

They are a rare group these three girls at Sutter Memorial Hospital: identical triplets conceived the old-fashioned way.

Abby, Brin and Laurel Hepner were conceived without fertility treatments. A single fertilized egg split into three, producing three babies who look almost exactly alike.

They were born Nov. 22 to parents Hannah and Tom Hepner, who live in Quincy, Plumas County.

"Identical triplets are anywhere from one-in-a-million and one-in-a hundred million," said Dr. William M. Gilbert, medical director of Sutter Women's Services and founder of Moms of Multiples Center. "It is so rare that it is hard to calculate how frequently they occur."

"We are thinking of bottling the water in Quincy and offering it as a fertility treatment," said Tom Hepner, 33.

At birth, Abby weighed 3 pounds, 2 ounces; Brin was 3 pounds, 11 ounces; and Laurel tipped the scale at 4 pounds. Gilbert said those are good weights for triplets and the babies are doing well.

Eye 1

Lizards of Waverly Place

"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices... to be found only in the minds of men."


Colosseum

Starbucks customers confuse staff by shouting 'I am Spartacus'

The performance involved customers shouting the famous phrase out before being joined by a topless man in a gladiator outfit


This is the moment a group of film fanatics had Starbucks staff and customers in hysterics with their flashmob-style prank "I am Spartacus".

A man queues up and orders a drink, telling the staff member he is called Spartacus so she can write it on the cup.

But in a prank directly mocking the store's habit of writing on cups, a group of jokers recreate the famous scene from Stanley Kubrick's 1960 classic Spartacus.

When the drink is finally ready, instead of getting up for it, the customer stands and stares at the poor staff member.

A second later another customer shouts out "I am Spartacus".

He is followed by another, then another, and so on until half the room have shouted the line out in succession.

Staff and other customers look shocked and a few start laughing at the outburst, as it gets louder and louder.

Eventually a topless man walks in dressed in a gladiator costume and immediately shouts "I am Spartacus", leaving the room in silence.

He calmly walks up and says: "I'm Spartacus and that's my drink, thank you very much. Can I get a straw with this?"

The busy room erupts into applause as he leaves.

The prank was organised by the Improv Everywhere group and uploaded to YouTube as part of their Movies In Real Life series.