Killer jellyfish population explosion warning

It could easily have been the role model for the terrifying creature in the film 'Alien'.

A perfect toxin-loaded killing machine, there is no creature on earth that can dispatch a human being so easily or so quickly.

The box jellyfish is so packed with venom that the briefest of touches can bring agonising death within 180 seconds.

And if comes under sustained attack it responds by sending its compatriots into a super-breeding frenzy in which millions of replacements are created.

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"Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...."

Full-Service Gas Stations Return--Staffed by Robots

Motorists nostalgic for the time they could sit tight while attendants braved windswept garage forecourts to fill their tanks may yet see those heady days return -- compliments of a Dutch robot.

Dutch inventors unveiled last week a 75,000 euro ($111,100) car-fuelling robot they say is the first of its kind, working by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.

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"When they invent the robot mechanic, that'll be the best!"

If You Could Write a Memoir in Six Words, What Would It Say?

When an online storytelling magazine asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, it proved that a whole, real life can be told this way too.
When Ernest Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using a half dozen words. When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, it proved that a whole, real life can be told this way too.

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"Live Forever. So Far, So Good".

Swimming at the edge of Victoria Falls

It may look insane, but the guy at the picture is not a Photoshopped silhouette placed over a fake landscape. He's swimming at the Devil’s Pool, a natural rock pool at the very top of the Victoria Falls, at Zimbabwe, with a height of about 100 metres.
The Victoria Falls is a waterfall situated in southern Africa between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. From September to December, due to low water levels, it is possible to swim at the edge of the falls in a naturally formed safe pool, accessed via Livingstone Island.

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"Seems like a very unique, and if you're not careful, once-in-a-lifetime experiences!"

Science of the orgasm

AS they seek to document and demystify one of life's great thrills, scientists have run across some real head-scratchers.
How, for example, can they explain the fact that some men and women who are paralyzed and numb below the waist are able to have orgasms?
How to explain the "orgasmic auras" that can descend at the onset of epileptic seizures -- sensations so pleasurable they prompt some patients to refuse antiseizure medication?
And how on Earth to explain the case of the amputee who felt his orgasms centered in that missing foot?

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"The next big drug - the orgasm pill - civilization stops!"

Lunch - for only $6 million dollars

The human spirit is amazing. Through the trials that the population of beleaguered Zimbabwe are suffering, the best relief is often light relief.

What does Z$6 million look like?
Hi Guys,
 
We thought you would like to see what 6 million looks like in
1000 Zimbabwe Dollar notes! This was the manager taking
the money away after 8 of us had lunch at Mama Mia's on 10
August, 2 courses each, eating the last fillet steak left in the
restaurant, and even getting some beers - also running out!

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"How much longer can this go on before the entire country collapses?!?!?"

Top Ten Don Cherry Suits

If you're a hockey fan you certainly know who Don Cherry is, even if you don't have the NHL Center Ice package, in which case you've probably seen one of hisRock Em Sock Em Hockey videos. Besides being an outspoken and controversial pundit, Cherry is adored all over Canada and was even named one of the greatest Canadians ever.

The second you see Cherry, there's one thing that instantly pops into your head: "What the hell is he wearing?" Yes, Cherry is a connoisseur of the flashy suit and isn't afraid to sport a number that would burn your retinas.
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"Somewhere, somehow, there is a Hawaiian who is wondering who stole his suit!"

14 Simple Ways to Convert Your Sedentary Lifestyle

We all know we need to exercise more – our lifestyles are way too sedentary compared to that of the previous generations. It's not all our fault. The days of the 9 to 5 job are long over and despite huge advances in technology, our lives seem to be a lot busier compared than that of previous generations.
Even when I have been motivated to get a gym membership and start exercising, it only lasts for a few months. At the first sign of stress and deadlines at work, the gym routine gets kicked off the list. So here are a few tricks to include some activity in daily habits to take it from a sedentary lifestyle to a mildly active one.
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"Some great, not-difficult easy to use common-sense ideas."

The Worst Fake ID in our Entire Galaxy System

"Maybe they're non-identical Siamese twins! Yeah, that's it!"

Insane Ronald McDonald in Japan

"There's really no words sufficient to describe this except this might be what happens if Ronald McDonald had a really bad estacy and acid trip."

107,000 demand Wikipedia remove this image of Muhammad

At last count, 107,000 protesters have signed an online petition demanding that Wikipedia take down this medieval image of the prophet Muhammad. "Please remove these illustrations and respect the peaceful request by vote. I dont want to see this again on any other things too," signer Haris Haseeb from United Kingdom writes on the petition. Wikipedia's frequently asked questions page explains the site's refusal to comply:

"Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia with the goal of representing all topics from a neutral point of view, Wikipedia is not censored for the benefit of any particular group."

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"I'm glad Wikipedia took the stand they did..."

A Street-Legal Vehicle That Makes A Hummer Look Like A Smart-Car

We've seen some outrageous F-650-based vehicles like this before (the DeBerti for one), but for some reason, the Alton F-650 XUV jumped out at us at the Chicago Auto Show. Perhaps we were already focused on Ford's Work Solutions trucks in the vicinity, but this insane beast just put our DSLRs on autopilot. The F-650-based XUV was built by Alton Manufacturing and carries a GVWR of 25,999 lbs. That makes the 660 ft-lbs of torque generated by its 7.2L Caterpillar engine seem paltry.

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"I can almost hear Shell, Exxon, and all the oil & gas companies wetting themselves - I wonder what the gas milea - or is this the first vehicle for the road that will be gas footage??"

'Last Touch'

Adem Hadei, Associated Press. A woman takes her dead son into her arms, as she grieves for her six-year-old son, Dhiya Thamer, who was killed when their family car came under fire by unknown gunmen in Baqouba, capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007. The boy's ten-year old brother, Qusay, was injured in the attack as the family returned from enrolling the children in school, where Dhiya was to begin his first year. "Last Touch"

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"There isn't enough words in the world to ease this mother's grief - any parent out there is agonizing in spirit with her."

New Statutory Rape Ads are Creepy

Statuatory Rape, or Stat-Rape for those in the know, is a distressing subject for any parent with a slutty, angsty, d*cktease of a daughter. Lucky for them, ad agency Serve has come to the rescue and served up some good old young awareness for those pondering the act of pedophilia (I know pedophilia is different, but check the ads and tell me they’re not catering to both):

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"I can't help but think the same thing...."

If I Ever Become the Evil Overlord.../ If I Am Ever the Hero...

1. My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.

2. My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.

3. My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.

4. Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

Hero

1. I will maintain no association with sidekicks who employ prostitutes. While such entertainment doubtlessly relieves my comrade of the wearying burden of the Heroic Struggle, the women met in this fashion tend to filch artifacts needed to defeat the Evil Overlord, act as his spies and/or assassins, carry unpleasant diseases, and (worst of all) get me in trouble with my True Love.

2. I will ignore the Evil Overlord's arguments revolving around honor and/or morality. If he were really all that worked up about either, he would never have become an Evil Overlord in the first place.

3. When the Evil Overlord takes hostages, I will presume the hostages dead and hold a memorial service. Any promises made by the Evil Overlord regarding their safe return shall be summarily ignored. My loved ones will be warned to expect this.

4. I will not walk alone and undisguised into a bar in the Evil Overlord's territory in order to meet with an ex-associate who said a bunch of damaging things about me in one of the Evil Overlord's propaganda pieces.

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"Many. many. many, many more on the above link..."

The World’s Most Annoying Alarm Clocks

I’m not one of those people that needs bombs dropping outside my window to wake up. Depending on various factors I have yet to understand, some nights a sound as gentle as the air-conditioning clicking on or the gentle smell of my cat using the litter box, wafting past my nose from the next room, is enough to wake me. Unfortunately for me and all those like me, I am frequently gifted with roommates who sleep like they’re in comas, and are nearly unwakeable come morning. (I usually end up turning their alarms off for them, then poking them rudely in the head until they stir.)

That’s why I fear the alarm clocks on this list like the plague — not because I need them, but because it’s very likely that people near me will.

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"I would probably kill the first alarm clock on this list after about 2 days..."

The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner

Nero is one of the best piece of softwares available in the market for CD/DVD Burning Purposes, but it ’s quite expensive. It’s bulky and comes with a lot of programs that you’ll never really use. Why not try some freeware CD DVD burning applications that can serve as an alternative to Nero Burning ROM for your Windows PC?

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The More Things Change,The More They Stay The Same

"There will always be those who will find a way to find fault with something."

The Jim Henson Hour - Dr. Bunsen Honeydew & Beaker

From July 16, 1989, the "Health and Fitness" show. Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker show off the latest invention from Muppet Labs, the Exercise-O-Matic Boots.

"Meeeeep!!"

How To Solve A Rubik's Cube

These instructions will teach YOU how to solve a Rubik's cube.
It will also teach you algorithms that will enable you to make your cube "pretty", which will impress people!
Note: This is only ONE algorithm, although it is applicable to ANY "situation" that can be presented to you on the cube.

Materials:
1 Rubik's Cube
1 Good Memory (if you want to impress people)
1 Sack Load of Patience

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"It's too bad this wasn't around 20 years ago...."

Hollywood Physics

In a critical scene in John Woo's motorcycle-heavy second installment of the Mission Impossible series, Tom Cruise and evil Dougray Scott have a head-on showdown on their respective high-powered bikes, which ends in a midair collision after each is somehow able to leap off his bike. Neither seems particularly fazed, as the two continue to grapple apparently unhurt on the ground and for the rest of the movie.

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"Cause we all know Hollywood gets everything accurately in the movie for the sake of realism, right? Right? Right?!? Heh. "

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"Mother Goose Fairy Tales next for Adam and Jamie, I presume?"

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden Movie Trailer

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden is a documentary on the epic action movie scale. A search for the most wanted man on the planet becomes a nice primer about the middle east and terrorists. Filled with humor and pop culture references, yet packed with insights, Osama is a must see for any voting-age American.

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"Looks bloody funny..just from the trailer - GW Bush is going to have an aneurysm over this movie."

The 10 Star Wars Toys that Unintentionally Look Like Other Celebrities

Nowadays, it seems like every celebrity under the sun has an action figure. Corey Feldman just got one, and Cary Elwes has one on the way, and if that isn’t a sign of the apocalypse, I don’t know what is. (Granted, it’s for the long overdue The Princess Bride, but still…Cary Elwes!)
But what about the toys that unintentionally resemble celebrities? In its early years, the Star Wars line suffered from a lot of terrible likenesses, and while we couldn’t find any that looked like Cary Elwes (although there were too many who looked like Corey Feldman to count), we did find ten figures that were the spitting images of actors they were absolutely, positively not intended to resemble.

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"Some are positively hilarious!!!"

Against Me! - Stop

"Stop..and listen to the lyrics - I like the message of this song."

How Hitler Won Over the German People

There were still many Germans who were skeptical of Hitler when he became chancellor in 1933. But Führer propaganda and military success soon turned him into an idol. The adulation helped make the Third Reich catastrophe possible.

"Today Hitler Is All of Germany." The newspaper headline on Aug. 4, 1934 reflected the vital shift in power that had just taken place. Two days earlier, on the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler had lost no time in abolishing the Reich Presidency and having the army swear a personal oath of unconditional obedience to him as "the Führer of the German Reich and People." He was now head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces, as well as head of government and of the monopoly party, the NSDAP. Hitler had total power in Germany, unrestricted by any constitutional constraints.

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"Without trying to invoke Godwin's Law, it sounds a lot like Bush & Co. today, doesn't it?"

Disgust at child fashion use

A poster featuring a cartoon of a scantily clad girl doing drugs and having sex is set to hit the streets this month - and fashion designer Lucie Boshier is making no apologies for it.

The poster, headed, "The fashion industry: Lining up the kids", is the 25-year-old Auckland designer's way of displaying her disgust at the use of young models on the catwalk.

She said she was stung into action after a 12-year-old was used at Australian Fashion Week last September. "Designers are using children - prepubescent girls - to model women's clothes, and they look terrible on them," said Boshier. "It makes women feel inadequate and it makes me feel sick."

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"Controversial poster - it might get some well needed action against the fashion industry."

They Swarm!

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"A Living tapestry..very cool - I wonder what causes attraction to that tree?"

If Iran Were America (And We Were Iran): A Timeline

This is for anyone interested in understanding what American foreign policy has done to people in Iran. (For simplicity's sake, I have combined the roles of the USA and the UK, as the USA was assuming control of the former British Empire at this time.)

1953: Coup in America

Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected President of the United States, a country that receives most of its income from oilfields in Pennsylvania and Texas. The oil is pumped and distributed by the Persian-American Oil Company, owned by Iran.

Fulfilling a major campaign promise, Eisenhower reviews the oil production-sharing agreements between Iran and the USA. As Iran is taking more than 90% of American oil revenues, Eisenhower attempts to renegotiate this arrangement on more even terms for his country.

Prime Minister Mossadegh of Iran is outraged at this show of "American greed." Instead of negotiating, Iran sends its intelligence agents to carry out a policy of regime change. They hire an assortment of American street gangs to do the grunt work.

Bombs destroy churches and community centers across the United States. Fliers and pamphlets appear everywhere, claiming that Eisenhower is a member of Communist Party USA. The Communists, according to the fliers, are destroying churches for Eisenhower to help liberate Americans from the "opiate of the masses." Local newspapers, covertly funded by Iran, echo these ideas. American public opinion is inflamed against President Eisenhower.

The Iranians bribe unpatriotic generals like L.L. Limnitzer to lead the coup against Eisenhower. The Iranians want an authoritarian, fiercely anti-Communist dictator who will never attempt anything resembling nationalization of the American oilfields. After carefully weighing the options, Iran installs Senator Joseph McCarthy as their puppet king to rule the USA.

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"I love these alternative history scenarios...."

Cuts in movies, and their impact on memory

When we watch a movie, we're usually not conscious of the cuts made by the editor. The camera angle may change dozens of times during a scene, and we follow along as if the flashing from one viewpoint to another wasn't at all unusual. You might think this is just because we've been accustomed to watching TV and movies, but researchers have found that even people who've never seen a motion picture have no difficulty following along with the cuts and different camera angles in a video.

But little research has actually been done on the impact of changing camera angles in a movie on our perception and memory of a scene. While cutting abruptly between camera angles seems unnatural, moving a camera from place to place while filming can be quite realistic: after all, people walk around all the time; their own viewpoint is constantly changing. One study did find that people have better memories for a static scene filmed with a moving camera, compared to two still shots taken from the beginning and end- points of the camera's motion.

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"A movie in the eye of an editor..I wonder how movies would be perceived differently from different camera angles or different cuts?"

Why Google will remain the king of search

The verb “googling” has become synonymous with Internet searches, a fact that speaks to Google’s dominance. But don’t expect the verb “msn-yahooing” to become part of the lexicon anytime soon.

Even with the $44.6 billion bid by Microsoft Corp. to buy Yahoo Inc., the combined company would be unable to knock Google Inc. off its web search and web advertising throne, industry watchers say.

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"I fear Gates & Company is starting to realize Google might be harder to take down than previously imagined..in fact, it might be the next Microsoft!"

Play A Multiplayer Online Game While Surfing The Web: PMOG

Want to play a MOG (multiplayer online game) passively while surfing the web all day? Then you’ll like PMOG, the first game developed by California and UK-based GameLayers.

PMOG, which is currently in private beta with 150 or so users, is a Firefox add-on that lets you interact with other users asynchronously on websites you visit. In some ways it is like Stumbleupon - users can create “missions” which are groups of websites under a theme (one is called “Laugh, Hard” and is a group of humor sites; another is called “Tech News Tour” and includes links to Engadget, Gizmodo, Digg and Slashdot). When you go on a mission a controller appears in the bottom right of your screen, letting you move from site to site.

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"Sounds interesting, almost like an after-thought game..the game for players who don't want to be distracted from surfing the net!"

15 T-Shirts You'd Hate to See on Your Daughter's Boyfriend

Some lovely t-shirts that will make most fathers greet their daughter's boyfriend at the door with a loaded 12-gauge shotgun. Not generally considered a wise move by even the most clueless of teenagers.

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"Oh, c'mon, how cheesed off could he possibly be?! BOOM!"