An unidentified man was rescued from a waste tank under a rest stop bathroom on Highway 30 near Filer, Idaho on Thursday. He had climbed into the tank to look for his keys. Another driver found him and called emergency services. Police, firefighters, paramedics, and other emergency response personnel responded, and found the man up to his neck in sewage. They summoned highway maintenance department workers, who retrieved the man by opening an access port used to remove waste. Pictured is Filer Police Chief Cliff Johnson, who told the story to local news.

"It took some lifting to get him out, and he had cut himself pretty good trying to get himself out," Johnson said.

The man was allowed to wash off with the fire truck hose at the scene, where he made another painful discovery.

"That's when he discovered the keys were still in his back pocket," Johnson said.

http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2009/03/06/news/local_state/156587.txt -via Arbroath

(image credit: Ashley Smith/Times News)

An exhumation of a mass grave of plague victims in Venice, Italy yielded the skeleton of a woman who was probably considered a vampire in her time. She was buried with a brick in her mouth. The skeleton was found by Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence.

At the time the woman died, many people believed that the plague was spread by "vampires" which, rather than drinking people's blood, spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying. Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them doing this, Borrini says.

The belief in vampires probably arose because blood is sometimes expelled from the mouths of the dead, causing the shroud to sink inwards and tear. Borrini, who presented his findings at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Denver, Colorado, last week, claims this might be the first such vampire to have been forensically examined. The skeleton was removed from a mass grave of victims of the Venetian plague of 1576.

Link -via Digg

(image credit: Matteo Borrini)

A trip to the Smithsonian Institution inspired a post on the history of meteorite veneration at Curious Expeditions. In a tomb in Mexico, a 2.5 ton iron meteorite was buried with its owner as a treasured possession. Ancient civilizations made statues of the gods from them. Even Abraham kept a meteorite in his home! Link

Truck driver Freddie Mitchell delivered a load of dirt to an interstate construction site and left with an empty dump truck near Talcottville, Connecticut. He entered the highway without realizing his dump body was still in the upright position. The truck soon struck an overhead sign. The sign didn't budge, the dump body was caught, and the truck cab lifted 20 feet into the air!

Mitchell remained there until Vernon firefighters, using a ladder-tower truck, rescued him about 10:20 a.m. Mitchell was not injured, authorities said, but was taken to Hartford Hospital to be checked.

"He was fairly calm," said Vernon fire Lt. Michael Levasseur, who helped rescue Mitchell. "He had the presence of mind to do what we were telling him and to stay still till we got him out of there."

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-truckrescue0305.artmar05,0,731492.story -via Unique Daily

Ah, remember Compuserve? This 1983 ad says "You'll use Compuserve's Electronic Mail System (we call it Email™) to compose, edit, and send letters to friends or business associates." You also paid by the minute, PLUS long distance phone charges. This is part of a collection of ads for obsolete technology that we thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread ...at the time. Link -Thanks Kiltak!

Take a virtual nano journey by zooming down to ever smaller and smaller levels in all kinds of different environments! Just click your language, then the suitcase to start. Pictured is a mosquito on a man's arm. I zoomed in past him down to the inside of a cell on my first trip. Link -via Dump Trumpet

The next time you think you can beat a train at a railroad crossing, remember looking through this roundup of train wreck photos at Dark Roasted Blend. Link

An unnamed Mexican chef was detained at the Manchester Airport when he was suspected to be an illegal immigrant to the UK. He claimed to be on a short visit, but a search of his luggage yielded a greeting card that wished him good luck with his "new life in the UK".

The man, arriving at Manchester Airport from Los Angeles, claimed he was on a brief visit to a friend who was opening a restaurant in England's North West.

But he admitted planning to work illegally after border officers found the card and pages of Mexican recipes.

Link -via reddit

This nameless vehicle from Roush Technologies is for training horses and camels.

It might look look just a big can, but this is a piece of high-tech machinery able to monitor racing animals at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. The nameless vehicle has some kind of enclosure in front of it, resembling a horse starting stall, in which animals can walk and gallop while being monitored by veterinarians and racing experts. It has a centered seat for the driver and two more for a racing specialist and a veterinary expert. Onboard technologies include heart, oxygen, breathing and fitness monitoring to make sure they are in top shape for official races.

http://cars.99express.com/2009/03/horse-training-vehicle.html -via Bits and Pieces

Don't you just love this warm piece of fleece roadkill? Also available in possum, skunk, squirrel, fox, and beaver. Link -via Unique Daily

The company Second Sight has developed a bionic eye called the Argus II. The eye uses implanted electrodes to replace a malfunctioning retina. So far, the device has been implanted in 18 patients around the world.

It uses a camera and video processor mounted on sunglasses to send captured images wirelessly to a tiny receiver on the outside of the eye.

In turn, the receiver passes on the data via a tiny cable to an array of electrodes which sit on the retina - the layer of specialised cells that normally respond to light found at the back of the eye.

When these electrodes are stimulated they send messages along the optic nerve to the brain, which is able to perceive patterns of light and dark spots corresponding to which electrodes have been stimulated.

The hope is that patients will learn to interpret the visual patterns produced into meaningful images.

The BBC followed a 73-year-old patient named Ron who received an Argus II.

"For 30 years I've seen absolutely nothing at all, it's all been black, but now light is coming through. Suddenly to be able to see light again is truly wonderful.

"I can actually sort out white socks, grey socks and black socks."

Link -via reddit

The Simpsons have had quite a few guest stars over its 20-year run. In this Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss, you are asked to identify which star played each of 15 characters on the show. So far, the average score is 57%, although that could have been affected by my dismal outcome. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/23183

A jaguar named Macho B. may have been the only wild jaguar left in the United States. He's been photographed near the Mexican border in Arizona since 1996. He was caught and released on February 18th, when wildlife officials fitted him with a tracking device. In the past few days, a biologist tracking Macho B. noticed his lethargic behavior, so Arizona Game and Fish officers recaptured him. They found the jaguar to be suffering from severe kidney failure, and he was euthanized. Macho B. was estimated to be 14-16 years old. Link

(image credit: Arizona Game and Fish Department)

Video games came out in 1972, when Pong debuted, right? Wrong! The first video game was played in 1948! It was called the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, which may explain why it didn't take off. Learn the story behind it and ten other hi-tech machines that have a long history behind them. Link

Ross and Sally Russell built their home with a sliding cover. With a touch of a button, it becomes a glass home to let sunlight in!

When Ross, now 48, presses a button on a remote-control handset, four electric motors start to whirr, hidden wheels begin to turn and the whole 20-ton shell – 52ft long, 20ft wide and 23ft high – slides slowly back on rails to reveal a mostly glass house beneath – and a first-floor bathroom open to the sky. Ross even built a lot of it himself. How, exactly? “I’ve got an O-level in woodwork,” he says, deadpan.

Link to story. Link to video of the finished home in action. -via Metafilter