Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Question

Ancient meteorite goes unsold in New York as dung sells

Some dinosaur dung was snapped up at auction in New York even as a 4.5 billion year old meteorite which was supposed to top the sale went unsold.

The two chunks of 130-million-year-old coprolite, otherwise known as fossilized dinosaur dung, fetched $960 at Bonhams in New York on Wednesday, the auction house said.

The Jurassic-era rocks were sold for more than double their maximum estimate, said spokeswoman Staci Smith.

Fukang meteorite
©REUTERS/Mike Segar
Marvin Kilgore, owner of the Fukang meteorite poses for photographs with the meteorite at Bonham's Auction house in New York, April 30, 2008.

Pills

Swiss discoverer of LSD dies, aged 102

ZURICH - Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, has died aged 102, the organization that republished his book on the mind-altering substance said.

Albert Hofmann
©REUTERS/Siggi Bucher
Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the mind-bending drug LSD, talks to the audience during the opening of the symposium "LSD: Problem Child and Wonder Drug" at the Congress Centre in Basel, Switzerland in this January 13, 2006 file photo. Hofmann has died aged 102, the organization that republished his book on the mind-altering substance said.

Hofmann, who advocated the medicinal properties of the drug he termed his "problem child," died from a heart attack at his home in Basel, Switzerland on Tuesday, the California-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) said on its website.

Born January 11, 1906, Hofmann discovered LSD -- lysergic acid diethylamide, which later became the favored drug of the 1960s counter-culture -- when a tiny quantity leaked on to his hand during a laboratory experiment in 1943.

Vader

David Blaine sets breathtaking record



David Blaine
Blaine failed in an earlier breath-holding record attempt in New York

Magician David Blaine has set a world record by holding his breath for 17 minutes and four seconds on Oprah Winfrey's US TV show in Chicago.

The star was pulled from a water-filled sphere, and then said he had begun to doubt if he would achieve his goal as he considered his heart rate too high.

The previous record, which was 32 seconds shorter, was set in February.

Robot

Iran official slams smuggling of Barbie, Harry Potter toys

Tehran: Iran's Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi has issued a dire warning about the culturally "destructive" consequences of importing Barbies, Harry Potter toys and more from the West.

Fulla
©Unknown
Forget all about Barbie, and welcome Fulla!

Comment: According to our special corespondents from around the world, it is not Sara nor Dara, but Fulla who kicked Barbie's ass in Arabic countries:
[...]unlike that decadent western slut Barbie, Fulla is a good Muslim girl. She even comes with her own prayer mat to prove it! And it is PINK!


Fulla
©Unknown
Below the austere black abaya and headscarf, Fulla wears Pink!




Bizarro Earth

Blind driver busted again in Estonia

Traffic police in the southern Estonian city of Tartu have again caught a notorious blind and drunk driver, the local police press service said on Tuesday.

Kristjan Gradolf, 20, became a real headache for the city's traffic cops last year after he was caught behind the wheel three times and even hefty fines and five days behind bars did not put him off driving. This time he will face criminal charges as a repeat offender.

Bizarro Earth

Chili eating Indian sisters become famous

Two sisters from a small village in eastern India have gained fame for their ability to eat over a pound of chilies at a time, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) said on Tuesday.

Eighteen month old Tuni and her three-year-old sister Punita began eating chilies "like berries" while helping out on the family farm. At first, they ate from 20 to 50 chilies a day, but later the number increased.

Question

UK: Brazen broccoli bandit strikes four times in a week... to steal a single head from the prized vegetable

It is said a criminal should never return to the scene of the crime - but no one seems to have told the brazen broccoli burglar of King's Somborne.

Four times in the last two weeks he has struck at Frank Fahy's vegetable patch.

On each occasion he has cut through protective netting and pinched a single head of broccoli.

The serial thieving is driving Mr Fahy, a 71-year-old retired professor, to distraction - not least because his efforts to deter the culprit have been fruitless.

Telephone

Now Australia has more cell phones than people

Australia has become the latest country where there are more mobile subscribers compared to people.

Bulb

Wetsuit warms up balding penguin

A balding penguin has been given a new lease of life after scientists created a specially-made wetsuit to keep him warm.

Biologists at the California Academy of Sciences noticed that the African penguin, named Pierre, stopped plunging into the cold water of his tank when he began to lose his feathers.

Image
©AP
Pam Schaller checks the fit in Pierre the penguin's custom wetsuit

Wine

Scotland loses "best whisky in world" title to Japan

Yoichi 20, distilled on Hokkaido, is the first single malt outside Scotland to win Whisky Magazine's top award.

Like English wine, it has suffered from the taint of inauthenticity and has been the butt of condescending jokes. But now Japanese whisky has scotched its critics by being voted the best in the world, ahead of its Scottish rivals.

Yoichi 20-year-old, distilled on the shores of the Sea of Japan, has become the first variety produced outside Scotland to win the coveted single malt award in an international competition run by Whisky Magazine, the industry bible.

The whisky, distilled near Sapporo city, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, beat dozens of other varieties, including last year's winner, Talisker 18-year-old, produced on the Isle of Skye.