Watch out – eating spinach may be dangerous to your health! An E. coli outbreak has been linked to bagged spinach (the triple-washed, cello-packed kind!)
The FDA warned people nationwide not to eat the spinach. Washing won’t get rid of the tenacious bug, though thorough cooking can kill it. Supermarkets across the country pulled spinach from shelves, and consumers tossed out the leafy green. …
By Friday, the outbreak had grown to include at least 11 states: Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin. Wisconsin accounted for about half the cases, including the lone death, Gov. Jim Doyle said.
Posted by Alex in Art, Pictures on September 15, 2006 at 2:14 pm
A few months ago, Flickr user etravus started a Flickr pool called the Onion Face Paint Project, and invited everyone to paint their own faces on them.
And many people obliged! Link [flickr] – Thanks Spluch!
Apparently, there’s nothing better to do in Øvre Eiker, Norway: now six (count ‘em – six!) people there have received a polaroid picture of someone in a reindeer suit doing stuff like reading the newspaper on their front yards …
Håvard Fiskum was taken aback by the discovery of a Polaroid in his mailbox in Darbu, Øvre Eiker. The photograph showed a ‘reindeer’ reading a newspaper, newspaper Drammens Tidende reports.
The Norwegian media has been fascinated by the story after the news broke of a series of deliveries of photographs in the area – of a mystery figure dressed as a reindeer.
"I was reasonably surprised when I saw what was in my mailbox. A person sitting dressed like a reindeer was sitting in the picture. He or she sat in a wooden camping chair reading a book in my garden," Fiskum told the newspaper’s web site.
We are running a contest over at Worth 1000 to have someone design our upcoming magazine cover on "The Future." The prize is a lot bigger than usual for these things ($500) and of course, the real prize is that the winner’s design might actually end up being the one on newsstands!
So here’s your chance to win fame and money through photoshoppery (is that even a word?): Link
It’s probably safe to say that Bandit the pet raccoon didn’t climb to the tops of many trees, especially when his weight mushroomed to 75 pounds. Shown here in 1991 with owner Deborah Klitsch of Palmerton, Penn., Bandit weighed more than three times the average weight for a male coon. He passed away in May 2004, fat and sassy.
What good is a secret airbase if you can’t speculate on the secret aircraft research that obviously goes on there? A recent Popular Science article sheds light (ok, more speculation) on what goes on in the super-secret, classified base in Groom Lake, Nevada, or better known as Area 51.
Watch Report blog has a neat list of the world’s most expensive watches. This one is Tour de I’lle by Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin, which started making watches in 1755:
In 2005 this watch marked the 250th watchmaker’s anniversary. Tour de l’Ile is probably the busiest watch in the world, as it has 834 separate pieces and 16 complications inside (including tourbillon, power reserve, striking-mechanism torque, moon phase, sunrise and sunset time, perpetual calendar, sky chart and many other features too impress with).
How much? $1.5 million, but you knew that If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
Leslie Saul-Gershenz and Jocelyn Miller found the world’s first example of "cooperative, aggressive mimicry" (basically impersonation by not just one, but a bunch of individuals) among insects:
Clusters of blister beetle larvae mimic female bees in an act of deception so successful that male bees try to mate with them and bring them back to the nest. There the larvae live in the lap of bee luxury by receiving free food and shelter, according to a new study.
Scientists believe the behavior is the first known example of cooperative, aggressive mimicry among insects. Cooperation is involved since the larvae stack up on top of each other and work as a unit to mimic just one female bee. The act is aggressive because, once in the bee’s nest, the sneaky parasites either eat the egg or the bees’ hard-won food.
Posted by Alex in Health on September 15, 2006 at 12:14 am
Jesse Sullivan lost both of his arms in an industrial accident, but thanks to modern technology, he now has a thought-controlled bionic arms:
The motions are coordinated and smooth because his left arm is a bionic device controlled by his brain. He thinks, "Close hand," and electrical signals sent through surgically re-routed nerves make it happen.
Doctors describe Sullivan as the first amputee with a thought-controlled artificial arm.
Vecna Technologies is developing a robot called BEAR (Battlefield Extraction and Retrieval Robot), designed to:
… find, pick up and rescue people in harm’s way, the humanoid BEAR robot can do what humans can’t: Lift heavy loads and carry them long distances. Whether on a battlefield, in a nuclear reactor core, near a toxic chemical spill, or inside a structurally-compromised building after an earthquake, the BEAR can rescue those in need as well as or better than humans can, without risking additional human life.
Hergé [wiki], The author of the popular comic book The Adventures of Tintin [wiki], had a dilemma: as a sailor, the lovable curmudgeon Captain Haddock [wiki] should have a colorful language. But, because he appeared in a children’s comic book, obviously he couldn’t use any swearwords. So, what to do?
The solution came one night when Hergé overheard a political argument between two passers-by in the street. In the heat of the discussion one of the persons became so enraged that he lost his composure for a moment and started yelling at his companion "You… You… You peace-pamphlet yourselves". This was the solution Hergé sought: what if the captain would use strange or difficult words that were not offensive in themselves, but would hurl them out as if they were very strong cusswords…?
So, Herge went on to write some of the strangest cursewords ever uttered by a comic character. See the long list of exclamations ever uttered by Captain Haddock: Link [wiki] | David’s Favorite Captain Haddock Curses – via Look At This …
Posted by Alex in Video Clips on September 15, 2006 at 12:09 am
After an auto part shop was robbed several times in one month, the owner decided to safeguard his junk yard, so he installed a 6,000 volt electric fence. that should fend off the offenders …
But apparently, it didn’t deter rookie TV reporter Andy Geoghegan. You just *know* what will happen next: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Kahsoon
Posted by Alex in Crime & Law on September 15, 2006 at 12:08 am
Ah, this is irony: Duane "Dog" Chapman, a famous bounty hunter and the star of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" TV series was himself arrested for jumping bail in Mexico!
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