South Korean scientists create glowing dog

South Korean scientists said they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

A research team from Seoul National University (SNU) said the genetically modified female beagle, named Tegon and born in 2009, has been found to glow fluorescent green under ultraviolet light if given a doxycycline antibiotic, the report said.

The researchers, who completed a two-year test, said the ability to glow can be turned on or off by adding a drug to the dog's food.

"The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," the news agency quoted lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun as saying.

He said the dog was created using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that the university team used to make the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005.

The scientist said that because there are 268 illnesses that humans and dogs have in common, creating dogs that artificially show such symptoms could aid treatment methods for diseases that afflict humans.

S.African man wakes after hours in morgue fridge

JOHANNESBURG: A South African man awoke to find himself in a morgue fridge — nearly a day after his family thought he had died, a health official said.Health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the man awoke Sunday afternoon, 21 hours after his family called in an undertaker who sent him to the morgue after an asthma attack.

Morgue owner Ayanda Maqolo said he sent his driver to collect the body shortly after the family reported the death. Maqolo said he thought the man was around 80 years old.

"When he got there, the driver examined the body, checked his pulse, looked for a heartbeat, but there was nothing," Maqolo told this news agency.But a day after staff put the body into a locked refrigerated compartment, morgue workers heard someone shouting for help. They thought it was a ghost, the morgue owner said.

"I couldn't believe it!" Maqolo said. "I was also scared. But they are my employees and I had to show them I wasn't scared, so I called the police."After police arrived, the group entered the morgue together.

"I was glad they had their firearms, in case something wanted to fight with us," Maqolo said.He said the man was pale when they pulled him out.

"He asked, 'How did I get here?'" Maqolo said.

The health department said the man was then taken to a nearby hospital for observation and later discharged by doctors who deemed him stable.Kupelo, the health department spokesman, urged South Africans to call on health officials to confirm that their relatives are really dead.

The man's family was informed that he was alive during a family meeting convened to make funeral arrangements. They're very happy to have him home, Maqolo said.But Maqolo said he is still trying to recover from the traumatic experience.

"I couldn't sleep last night, I had nightmares," he said. "But today I'm much better." (AP)

Maharaja's tiger hunting Rolls may fetch $1 million

NEW DELHI: Auction house Bonhams will put under the hammer a rare Rolls Royce Phantom modified for tiger hunting by an Indian maharaja during the days of the British Raj, featuring a mounted machine gun and a cannon, that may fetch up to $1 million.

The custom-made 1925 Rolls Royce was originally commissioned by Umed Singh II, the maharaja of Kotah in the 1920s at a time when tiger hunting was hugely popular in India.

The flaming red vehicle, with a convertible canvas roof and bespoke hunting features including a double-barreled shotgun, spotlights for night hunting and a mountable Lantaka cannon, is expected to fetch up to $1 million when it goes on the block in mid-August in Carmel, California.

"It was quite common, most of the maharajahs had specialized customized cars manufactured in the U.S. and they even had gilted frames and all sorts of things," said Pran Nevile, a writer and expert on India's colonial era known as the British Raj.

The car's 8.0-liter, 6-cylinder engine with a low gearing ratio allowed "it to creep powerfully through the roughshod jungles of Rajasthan," wrote Bonhams.

For centuries, big game hunting of tigers, leopards and Asiatic lions in India's forests was a favored pastime of India's rulers from the Mughal emperors to the British elite.

While much tiger hunting was carried out on elephant-back, some Indian maharajahs, or "great kings" of princely states across India including arid Rajasthan, took things to the extreme.

"It was more for a show but everything would be ready and then they would then go and take this Rolls Royce up to a point or the hills and from there shoot the tiger that was already captured by their servants," Nevile told Reuters.

Indiscriminate hunting, however, decimated India's Bengal tiger population from an estimated 40,000 a century ago to about 1,700 today. Tigers are now a protected keystone species throughout Asia from Indonesia's Sumatra to Indochina and India.

Indian maharajas were known for their high living and extravagant spending on all manner of trappings including ornate palaces, vintage cars and Louis Vuitton bags.

The nawab, or ruler, of southern Hyderabad state used the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond, once the largest known gemstone in the world, as a paperweight, while the nawab of tiny western Junagadh state was renowned for spending lavishly on his dog's wedding.

"They wanted to live in ostentatious style. Being a princely lot they had their own grand style and it was even copied by the British," said Nevile. (Reuters)

Nepal measures Everest to settle height confusion

Nepal has begun a project to re-measure Mount Everest in an attempt to end confusion about the exact height of the world's tallest peak, a government spokesman in Kathmandu said Tuesday.

Everest, which straddles Nepal and China, is generally thought to stand at 8,848 metres (29,029 feet) after an Indian survey in 1954, but other more recent measurements have varied by several metres.

Gopal Giri, a spokesman with the Nepalese land reform and management ministry, told that during border talks between the two countries, the Chinese delegates often use their measurement of 8,844 metres.

"We have begun the measurement to clear this confusion. Now we have the technology and the resources, we can measure ourselves," Giri said. "This will be the first time the Nepal government has taken the mountain's height."

He said that the project's results would only be known in two years' time after reference points are set up on Everest and then global-positioning system satellites are used to calculate the precise measurement.

Last year, officials from both nations reached a compromise under which Nepal measured the height of Everest's snowcap at 8,848 metres and China measured the rock peak at 8,844 metres.

The first measurement of Everest was made in 1856. It was conquered in 1953 by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, and has since been climbed by more than 3,000 people. (AFP)

No texting while walking in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA: A ban has been imposed on texting while walking in Philadelphia. Authorities have given residents of the city 11 days to change their habits because people are colliding with each other.Authorities added that people should be aware of their surroundings instead of being lost in their cell phones.

World's Biggest Human Arm

Lui Hua suffers from a rare condition known as macrodactyly. When he was hospitalized in Shanghai on July 2007, his left thumb measured 10.2 inches and his index finger measured close to 12.Surgeons undertook a seven-hour operation to reduce the size of Liu’s fingers and thumb. Doctors removed 11 pounds of flesh and bone in the operation. A second surgery is scheduled to take place. Enlarged limbs can be caused by a number of medical conditions. Lymphedema is perhaps the most common cause and results in some extraordinarily enlarged limbs.

Chandelier Jeans

These jeans were new before they were ‘embellished'. Each leg has 408 glass chandelier prisms, total of 816. Each prism has a 10mm split ring attaching to one another. All put on one by one. Underneath the feathers are 24 metal triangle hangers screwed on to denim, this is how the chandelier chain is attached to the jeans.(Link)

Peppermint Oil, "Know About Toothpaste Ingredients"

Toothpaste even though (in some form or another) has been around as long as the Ancient Greeks have, the formula (as we know it) did not become popular until World War I. As soon as companiesEdit Posts began manufacturing toothpaste, people began to purchase the magical concoction - guaranteed to produce glistening teeth! White teeth were all the rage after World War I had ended, and toothpaste quickly became a product that most people simply couldn't live without.


Minty, minty, minty! Fresh breath can only be kept fresh with the help of peppermint oil! While refreshing when brushing your teeth using toothpaste, peppermint oil can cause a slow pulse, heartburn, and muscle tremors if it is consumed.

Rio-Niteroi Bridge

The Rio-Niteroi connects the cities Rio de Janeiro and Niteroi in Brazil.Construction began emblematically on August 23, 1968, in the existence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in their first and thus far only visit to Brazil.

Its official name is “President Costa e Silva Bridge”, in honor of the Brazilian president who ordered its construction.

Seesmic

There are many Twitter apps on Android. Additionally, Twitter also launched its own-brand app recently. However, Seesmic has had some loyal followers. One of the most advantages of Seesmic is that it offers support for multiple accounts, it has a home page widget that shows latest tweets, and has an incredibly slick and professional design.

World Snail Racing returns to Norfolk

Zoomer won the World Snail Racing Championship final in a time of three minutes and twenty three seconds.
Anton, six, from Ashwicken, near King’s Lynn was entering the championships for the first time.

They were held as part of the Congham village fete at Grimston Cricket Ground yesterday.When the time was right, Neil yelled: "Ready, steady, slow!" And with that proclamation, the 2011 World Snail Racing Championships begin.

Snail master Neil Riseborough said: “Some of the racing was pretty close and intense and there was a dead heat in one race. The final was won quite clearly though.

“It’s a shame that turnout was down by quite a bit compared to what we usually get. We often have about 2,000 people here. Because we’ve had a lot of rain many people assumed it was off.

“The people that did come had a great time though, and I’d like to thank everyone who made the effort to be here.”

Obama fined during London visit

LONDON: US President Barack Obama was fined £120 for not paying the London congestion charge during his state visit to Britain. London mayor, Boris Johnson wanted the £10 congestion fee to be paid for the Presidents armor plated limo "The Beast" and all other cars during his visit in May.Johnson is understood to have raised the issue with Obama at a Buckingham Palace banquet during his visit.

Mutant two-headed snake wows visitors at Ukrainian zoo

A snake with two heads, each able to think and eat separately and even steal food from each other, has become a popular attraction at a Ukrainian zoo.The small albino California Kingsnake, now on show in the Black Sea resort of Yalta is quite a handful, zoo workers told.

The snake's two heads are fiercely independent, are not always in agreement and like to snatch food from each other, said keepers of the private zoo, called Skazka, or Fairy Tale.Zoo worker Ruslan Yakovenko added that he tries to feed the snake's two heads separately as they sometimes fight for food. They said they also need to separate the heads with a barrier.

The private zoo said kingsnakes hunt other reptiles, meaning one of the snake's head could instinctively try to attack and eat the other one.The three-year-old, two-foot-long (60 centimetre) reptile is on loan from Germany.Visitor numbers had nearly doubled since it went on display in early July, said zoo keeper Yakovenko.The snake, believed to be Europe's only two-headed snake, will be on show in Ukraine until September. (AFP)

Lost US love letter delivered 53 years late

A love letter written to a U.S. college student in the state of Pennsylvania and proclaiming "love forever" was finally delivered -- 53 years late.But the tender note penned in 1958 still waits in the mailroom at the California University of Pennsylvania as officials search for its intended recipient, Clark Moore, who now about 70 years old and living in another state, according to university spokeswoman Christine Kindl.

The letter, sent from Pittsburgh and postmarked February 20, 1958, arrived in the mailroom last week, Kindl said."No one here has any idea why it was delayed," she said.

The letter had been addressed to Mr. Clark C. Moore, then a junior at the university, which was known at the time as California State Teachers College, she said.It included a return address, but little other information about the sender, who signed the letter, "Love Forever, Vonnie."

"It's very much the same type of letter that students today might write to a boyfriend who's away at college," Kindl said. "She ends by saying, 'I still miss you as much as ever and love you a thousand times more. Please write me real soon.'"The university hopes to deliver the letter to Moore and has received a few tips on his possible whereabouts, she said. (Reuters)

Oldest Egyptian pyramid saved

The oldest pyramid of Egypt has been saved from collapse through use of large airbags which have been used to prop up the ceilings.The 4,700-year-old pyramid has been stabilised so engineers can carry out permanent repairs.

The huge structure was built as a burial place for Pharaoh Djoser, a warrior who reigned in the third dynasty for 19 years but has been damaged in an earthquake.

The historic pyramid was feared to be so unstable that no-one has taken on the challenge of securing it in the last 19 years. Peter James, a former Royal Navy lieutenant-commander who served in the Falklands War, has won a £1.8million contract to carry out the repairs.

2.5 ft man marries 5 ft 4 inch girl in Mirpur (Pakistan)

MIRPUR: Sardar Arif, a 2.5 ft tall man who works in a shopping mall in Mirpur city of Azad Kashmir, tied the knot with a girl measuring 5ft 4 inch in height, Geo News reported Sunday.

The wedding ceremony was held with full celebration.

They say that love is blind and this could be seen in the case of Sardar Arif (age:35, height: 2.5 ft) and Shumaila (age: 25, height 5ft 4inch). Both of them worked in the same shopping mall where they fell in love and decided to get hitched.

Hundreds of people attended their wedding ceremony including the Chief Executive of the shopping mall where the couple worked.

Talking to Geo News, the groom said it was a love marriage while the bride said she would spend her entire life happily with her man.

Relativity Watch

Modeled on Einstein's theory of relativity, this Relativity Watch actually makes the numbers move instead of the hands. This, of course, makes you dizzy if you continuously stare at it for more than 12 hours. (Link)

Bingo Watch

It seems that nobody wants to adorn their wrists with simple looking watches anymore. The market is flooded with all sorts of weird looking watches out of which these LED watches have become a real craze with tech-savvy people. This new uniquely styled watch called Bingo from Eleeno is available at Japanese online store Tokyoflash. Although the watch would generate great interest in Bingo players but otherwise also it's quite catchy. Telling time is deceptively simple (doesn't look like it though). The outer dot is for hours and the inner one is for minutes. (Link | Via)

Wooden Watch

The WeWood Chrono Watch is made of 100% natural wood, saved from scraps from the flooring industry that would otherwise be destroyed. Saved from the fires! The watch features a wood case, bracelet, and dial. It's the perfect gift for someone who is environmentally conscious or who is allergic to other watch materials. Press a button and the time and date light up the face. Best of all, WeWood plants a tree for each watch purchased.  (Link | Via)

Avatar fan covers back with Neytiri tattoos

LOS ANGELES: Iggy, also known as Mr. Avatar, from Edmonton, Alberta, is a fan of James Cameron’s blockbuster who loved the main female character, Neytiri, so much that he covered his entire back with tattoos of her.

Iggy has taken his passion for the world of Pandora and Neytiri to a whole new level. Back in March 2010, Geekologie first introduced “Avatar Tattoo Guy”, after he had just gotten his first back tattoo. That was only the beginning, because meanwhile he added 10 more (all of Neytiri) and planned his 11th, a big Toruk on his chest. For now, he’s hitting the gym more often, so he can get better places for his Neytiri tattoos.

But while tattoos brought him Internet fame, his obsession with Neytiri isn’t limited to ink on his body. Some of the latest photos he posted on his TypePad profile show his truck got a Neytiri makeover, as well, and a NEYTIRI license plate to boot. He also has photos of the 9-feet-tall alien beauty all over his house.

Guards catch prisoner in Mexico suitcase jailbreak

MEXICO CITY: A Mexican prisoner hoped to take a trip to freedom by packing himself into his girlfriend's suitcase.

But guards at the jail in the southeastern town of Chetumal grew suspicious when the woman seemed nervous as she wheeled out the bulging bag after a conjugal visit with the prisoner.Opening the luggage, guards found Juan Ramirez folded into the fetal position in his underpants and socks, a spokeswoman for local federal police said on Tuesday.Ramirez and his girlfriend face criminal charges over the bungled escape. (Reuters)

Map Watch

The Vacheron Constantin engineers and watchmakers added to an extremely reliable self-winding movement, Vacheron Constantin Calibre 1126AT, a complication necessary to make the time move in the cartographical wake of the famous adventurers. The highly sophisticated and patented mechanism drives both dial parts with help of a number of complicated devices linked by cams featuring the shape inspired by the Vacheron Constantin signature Maltese cross.

The hour wheel has three arms extended by a satellite, each carrying four hour numerals, pointed in the direction set by a cam. The hour crown turns so that to line up the satellite with the necessary hour number in front of the gap found between the two dial parts. The cam then moves the necessary number into the gap and the hour crown makes it move from left to right in precisely one hour over the minute scale featured on the lower dial. (Link)

Facebook launches video chat with Skype

PALO ALTO: Facebook will add Skype video chat to its pages, aiming to spice up the appeal of the world's number one internet social networking service while fending off increased competition from Google.

The agreement, announced by Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg at the company's Palo Alto, California, headquarters on Wednesday, deepens the company's cooperation with Microsoft Corp, which is in the process of buying Skype to build up its web presence.

Zuckerberg said Facebook has hit a record 750 million users. The new service, rolling out from Wednesday, could be a huge boost for Skype, which currently has about 145 million regular users.

The partnership comes as competition heats up in the Internet market, with Facebook and Google, as well as fast-growing companies such as Groupon and Twitter, vying for billions of dollars in online advertising revenue.

Human Hair Necklaces

These incredibly intricate necklaces are made by an art student named Kerry Howley. Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class.

 The human body, apart from its glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fine vellus hair. Most common interest in hair is focused on hair growth, hair types and hair care, but hair is also an important biomaterial primarily composed of protein, notably keratin. The word “hair” often refers to two distinct structures: the part beneath the skin, called the hair follicle or when pulled from the skin, called the bulb. This organ is located in the dermis and maintains stem cells which not only re-grow the hair after it falls out, but also are recruited to regrow skin after a wound; and 2 the shaft, which is the hard filamentous part that extends above the skin surface. A cross section of the hair shaft may be divided roughly into three zones.

Soure

Smartphones help world's winemakers foil fraudsters

BORDEAUX: For Charles Pillitteri, the fight against fraudsters began when he discovered fake bottles of his Canadian ice wine in Taiwan in 1998.He tried everything to safeguard his product from counterfeiting, from
22-carat gold to invisible ink, only to realise that none would protect the consumer at point of purchase.The proprietor of Pillitteri Estates Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, in the Canadian province of Ontario, found his solution in a bottle-top silver bubble seal that is impossible to copy.

"It gives us authenticity, traceability, integrity and customer satisfaction," said Pillitteri as the recent Vinexpo wine industry fair in Bordeaux.The seals -- developed by Prooftag, a French firm that specialises in brand security -- is among several technologies that vintners are embracing to foil fraudsters and reassure consumers that they are buying the real thing.

With Prooftag, a consumer armed with an iPhone, a downloaded software application and Internet access can authenticate a wine in seconds, even while standing at the wine-store shelves."It's easy. You take your iPhone, take a shot of the datamatrix code and it takes you to the website and it shows you a picture of the bubble pattern for the bottle you are looking at," Pillitteri said.

"If you break the seal, all the bubbles are broken, the seal is gone and
you can't copy it."Android and BlackBerry versions of the app are due out by year's end.Ice wine, a sweet dessert wine made from grapes frozen on the vine, is one of the most counterfeited wines in the world, particularly in Asia where it is a prestigious gift item."The bubble code creates a direct link between the final consumer and the brand holder and restores confidence," Clement Kaiser, chief executive of Prooftag, told. (AFP)

Farmers create giant bike to welcome ‘Tour de France’ participants

PARIS: The French farmers created a giant animated bike to welcome the participants of the third stage of the Tour de France 2011 passing their fields.The huge bike was made out of carefully positioned hay bales, but it was the wheels and gearing where the farmers had really displayed their artistic sides.Each of the wheels was made from twelve tractors driving in formation to make it appear as though they were turning and a similar trick was used with smaller vehicles for the gearing.

Space Invaders Watch

Two versions of the watch are being made, one for day (the full color one), and one for night (with glowing ‘Superluminova' invaders). At as little as $10k a piece, why not buy both? Each Space Invaders watch is being made in a very limited run of just 78 pieces. Even so, if you do the math on that, once they sell out, Romain Jerome and TAITO stand to pocket a tidy sum $1,560,000. Not a bad days work for the Space Invaders, eh? (Link | Via)

Earth II Found

The first planet that could support life as we know it outside our solar system has been discovered.
A team of European astronomers say they have detected a rocky world, possibly only 50 per cent larger than the Earth, circling a small red star called Gliese 581, 20.5 light years away in the constellation Libra.
What makes the discovery so important is that the planet orbits in what astronomers call the "Goldilocks zone" – where makes it neither too hot, nor too cold for life.
Astronomers have found more than 200 planets circling other stars, but, until now, all have been unsuitable for life because they are either massive gas balls, resembling Jupiter, that circle scorchingly close to their parent, stars, or have eccentric orbits that take them out into the bitterly cold depths of space.
The newly found "super-Earth," about five times more massive than our planet, is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the sun. As a result, its year lasts only 13 Earth days. It has been named , named 581 c.
However, because the star is only a third the mass of our sun, it is also much cooler.
Astronomers estimate that the world's surface temperature would therefore be between 0 and 40 degrees.
"Water would thus be liquid," one of the discoverers, Stephane Udry, from Switzerland's Geneva Observatory, said.
"Models predict that the planet should be either rocky – like our Earth – or covered with oceans."

Source

Man gets lab-made windpipe

STOCKHOLM: A 36-year-old man who had tracheal cancer has received a new lab-made windpipe seeded with his own stem cells in a procedure in Sweden they call the first successful attempt of its kind, officials said Thursday.

The Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm said the surgery was performed on June 9, and that the patient is on his way to a "full recovery". He was released from a hospital on Friday.

Karolinska said the patient, whose late stage cancer had almost fully blocked his windpipe, had no other options since no suitable donor windpipes were available. Professor Paolo Macchiarini , who has also involved in previous windpipe transplants, said the surgery at Karolinska "is the first synthetic tissue engineered windpipe that has been successfully transplanted."

To perform the surgery, an international team lead by Macchiarini built a scaffold and a bioreactor to seed it with the patient's stem cells. New cells to line and cover the windpipe were then grown on the scaffold for two days before it was transplanted.

"Because the cells used to regenerate the trachea were the patient's own, there has been no rejection of the transplant and the patient is not taking (anti-rejection ) drugs," Karolinska said in a statement.

World's steepest roller coaster opens in Japan

YOU’LL need a good head for heights and a strong stomach on the Takabisha – it’s the world’s steepest roller coaster.From the screaming faces of thrill-seekers braving its maiden voyage yesterday, it’s clearly a scary experience.

The death-defying Takabisha – which means dominant – is 141ft tall and has a free-fall angle of 121 degrees, sending riders hurtling towards the earth at up to 62mph. In just 112 seconds on the white-knuckle ride you zoom along more than two miles of track in a car fitted with motors that accelerate through seven fearsome loops.

Guinness World Records confirmed that the Takabisha at a Tokyo theme park is now the steepest roller coaster on the planet, knocking Yorkshire’s Mumbo Jumbo off the top spot.

That one only has a free-fall angle of 112 degrees, although riders still experience G-Force levels similar to fighter pilots.Still, the angle of the Takabisha, at the Fuji-Q Highland Amusement Park below Mount Fuji in Yamanashi, isn’t the only thing that’s steep about the ride – it cost £23million to build. Source

Green Geek Power Watch

Ready to take to the skies and fight crime with nigh limitless super hero alien powers? Well, this watch won't help you there. But, if you want to feel like you're ready to take on the world's super villains with a watch that looks like it hurtled through space for centuries and just fell through the sky, check out this Green Geek Power Watch, for sale now! The glowing green lights from this out-of-this-world watch shine like beacons, impressing everyone around you, who will be amazed at the willpower it takes to wear such a unique, cool watch, and best yet, yellow has no affect on its powers of good....or evil. (Link)

The World's fastest jet: New York to Sydney in 5 hours

PARIS: Plans have been unveiled for the Hypermach SonicStar, a business jet which will be capable of a top speed of 2,664 mph, making it twice as fast as Concorde. The jet will fly at 62,000ft allowing passengers to see the curvature of the earth. Hypermach claims its SonicStar aircraft will be so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours. A trip from New York to Sydney which takes 20 hours on a commercial airliner will take just 5 hours on the SonicStar.Hypermach chief executive Richard Lugg wants the plane in the skies within ten years and has already secured funding from the Department of Trade and Industry, which has agreed to support the company in Britain.

EleeNo EG3

Japanese company Tokyoflash claims a reputation for weird watch designs, and their latest design the EleeNo EG3. This crazy time teller has a face that represents the time through a series of squares: the top 3 indicate the hour, the middle three show how many minutes past the hour in tens, and the final three represent the single minutes. At ¥9,800 ($80/£41), the EG3 isn't on the high end of the watch hierarchy either. Just think of all the awkward conversations you can have with members of the public that have innocently inquired about the time! (Via)

Iron Samurai Watch

The Iron Samurai watch, a spectacularly ugly bracelet-style watch made from “Samurai sword carbonized steel folded 1000x over,” is available from Chinavision for a questionable $15. The watch hides red LEDs inside the pattern of the bracelet, which is kind of cool in theory but dorktacular in practice. It also comes with one of the weirdest/funniest product descriptions I've ever seen:

The Iron Samurai has been known to increase its wearers' strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma by as much as 20 points each! Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal are said to be Iron Samurai owners, as is David Bowie and Brian Eno. In reality, this watch is perfect for Presidential dinner crashers, Facebook celebs with over 1000 fans, Youtube directors with over 2,000,000 views, anyone who can play the entirety of Neil Zaza's I'm Alright on electric guitar, iPhone 3Gs owners, or anybody who is a somebody.(Link | Via)

Trolley bus converted into battery-powered vehicles

China's biggest city of Shanghai has converted its gasoline-powered trolley buses on the Nanjing Road into battery-powered vehicles as part of the efforts to reduce emissions.The trolley bus, nicknamed "Clang, Clang", has been installed with 24 batteries that will enable it to run for about 60 kilometers or sustain it for a day's operation.

Now all the six old trolley buses have been converted into battery-powered vehicles, emitting no tail gases. The conversion of the rest two will be completed by October 1, according to the trolley bus management company.All the old gasoline powered trolley buses used to emit tail gases far beyond the prescribed standards, according to the environmental monitoring staff members.The conversion of each trolley bus cost about 150,000 yuan, well worth in terms of social and economic effect, the trolley bus management company said.

All the storage batteries are recharged at night at half o the normal price, according to the operator.

Vanity Mirror Watch

Dude, does a hair on your head dare to be out of place? Ladies, does your make-up need a little fixing? Did you simply just forget how incredibly good you look? With this mirror conveniently on your wrist, if you need to interrupt your preening sessions to check the time for your next haircut appointment, you can do so with the press of a button – you'll instantly see the bright red LED display, but only for a moment so you can get back to gazing into those gorgeous eyes. Sigh! Soooo dreamy. (Link)

World's Youngest CEO,"Sindhuja Rajamaran"

At teenage age where most girls would much rather spend their time Facebooking or gossiping about boys, 14-year-old Sindhuja Rajamaran not just has her career charted out but is India's youngest CEO and 2D animatorBorn in a family of overachievers (her dad is the first digital caricaturist in Tamil Nadu and her younger sister is the youngest Indian to write haiku in India), Sindhuja holds a Guinness World Record for becoming the youngest CEO of a Chennai-based animation company called Seppan.

From making a short animated film by raising the issue of global warming and tuberculosis, to making a greeting card designs to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, Sindhuja sure has achieved many things. In the early years, she has mastered many computer software, such as Flash, Photoshop, Corel Painter, After Effects and Maya.

Currently, she heads the company that its employees are aged 18 to 25 years to create animated digital advertisements.All the advantages at this girl in the can from her father, Tamil Nadu. Her father is an ambassador of CorelDRAW, image processing software, was visited by the Indian Territory Manager of Corel's. At that time, he knows that Sindhuja can draw with Corel since 11 years.

"I got invited to attend several launches of Corel products and got honoured as the youngest digital caricaturist and cartoonist," she says, as quoted by the Times of India site.

Currently, Sindhuja very eager to have her own production house and making quality films that are recognized globally. She made herself as the creator of the field workers for experts and beginners.

Tread 1

A company called Devon has just announced their debut model wrist-watch called the Tread 1. It's not so much weird as it is uber cool. Standing true to its name, the Tread 1 uses a treadmill-like system with belts that are woven together and have separate motors. The time is highlighted as the numbers feature inside a cut out shape while they're rotating on the mini treadmill. The watch is made from bulletproof polycarbonate which means it'd be perfect if you were a spy or someone who gets shot at a lot. And if you're getting shot at you're probably very important and if you're very important you probably have a lot of money ergo this watch won't be very expensive for you.(Link | Via)

The Flying Train

The future train might look a whole lot different then the train we are used to at the moment. The new Aero-Train, that could be seen at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics in Shanghai, doensn’t have wheels, but wings.This floating train is with a maximum speed of 200 km/hour not faster than the Bullettrain (almost 300 km/hour). But since the train hovers above the ground it benefits from a dramatic reduction in drag at higher speeds, and thus less energy is needed to maintain momentum.Currently researchers are testing the concept with smaller crafts:

Traveling Hotel without Staff

The German architectural firm NAU designed a “traveling” hotel that adapts to the place where it is located. The hotel is moved every two years and operates without staff.The hotel with a futuristic is called ‘Living roof’. The accommodation consists of three “rings”: one ring for the exterior of the building, a center ring and a ring for the interior.Inside, the interior can be customized according to the wishes of the guest. Solar panels on the roof provide the necessary energy. Rainwater is collected for reuse.

As the mini-hotel has no staff, passengers are welcomed by a computer which provides information on the location and various dining options.The prototype of the hotel will be ready in 2012. The final version of the hotel is completed in 2014.

Sleeping in a Bubble

This must be one of the weirdest hotels in the world: Bubbletree. Sleeping in a Bubble, it might look a bit weird (and there is a lack of privacy off course), but is a pretty smart idea. The bubbles are placed at beatiful places in the outdoors, so you have a roof above you, but you can still enjoy all the great views!The Bubble is large enough for a family. You can find the bubbles in France, in the Bouches Du Rhône, Haute Savoie,Isère, Loir et Cher, Vendée and on Corsica. Prices start at 200 euros a night.

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Unique theatre show makes people go to sleep

LONDON: If a show at a theatre makes you sleep, it usually means it was boring. But not at Barbican in London where they have a show designed to send you to sleep.

'Lullaby' has been specially created to send the audience to sleep and consists of things such as soothing storytelling and singing octopuses.If that wasn't enough, the audience lie in pre-booked beds and attend the 'sublime sleepover' in their pyjamas - ready to be lulled to sleep by the slumber-inducing show.After watching the action and falling asleep, the audience are left to sleep before being woken and served breakfast the following morning at 7.30am… which sure beats a Travelodge.

Simon Casson, producer of the show, says he has fallen asleep in shows including Lord of the Rings and Oliver so came up with the idea of creating a specifically designed show to send people to sleep.So far no one has stayed awake to the end of the show and the cast have to put up with snores rather than a round of applause.

Student Wears Jeans For 15 Months Without Washing Them

Josh Le, a student at the University of Alberta, wore a pair of skin-tight jeans from September 2009 to December 2010, without washing them, just to see how much bacteria would build-up on them.The pair of jeans in question was actually made of raw denim, which isn’t treated with any chemicals, so Le thought they would make a perfect home for bacteria, in the course of 15 months. He declared he wore them almost every day, which is pretty amazing, considering that apart from a few wear marks, they looked pretty clean.

When the 15 months were up, Josh Le took his “contaminated” pair of jeans to one of his teachers’ laboratory, to be tested for bacteria. Professor Rachel McQueen took samples, then washed the jeans and asked Josh to wear them for another two weeks, then tested for bacteria again. Amazingly, the results of the two samples were very similar – five types of skin bacteria, and between 8,500 and 10,000 bacterial units, mostly in the crotch area. McQueen concluded that people could in fact wash their jeans less often in order to protect the environment, without fear of hazardous bacterial contamination.
However, Josh Le admitted he did have some problems with the odour of the jeans, which started smelling funny after only a few months. He solved the problem by triple bagging them and putting them in the freezer.

Onbashira – Japan’s Riskiest Celebration

Held every six years, in the Nagano area of Japan, Onbashira Festival is believed to have continued uninterruptedly, for the last 1200 years.Onbashira, literally translated as “the sacred pillars”, is a Japanese tradition that symbolizes the renewal of Suwa Grand Shrine. It consists of two phases: Yamadashi and Satobiki, the first held in April, and the second in May. Before Onbashira begins, 16 tree trunks, cut form 200-year-old Japanese fir trees are cut down. Each tree can be up to 1 meter across, 16 meters tall and weigh up to 12 tons.