got hangovers?! call hangover helpers

BOULDER, Colo. – Your head aches, you're hungry and your house is littered with sticky plastic cups. Who ya gonna call? Hangover Helpers.

boy donates life savings for fire station restoration

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A 5-year-old West Virginia boy has donated his life savings — nearly $46 in change — to help rebuild a volunteer fire station that burned down in an Oct. 1 electrical fire.

monkeys appointed as station masters

monkey station masters pa Two Monkeys Appointed StationMasters in Japan picture
Hojomachi Station in Hyogo prefecture, Japan, has taken the bull by the horns (or something like that), and hired two monkeys as stationmasters in an effort to attract more customers to the floundering railroad line.

ownership of the sun claimed by spanish woman

MADRID (AFP) – After billions of years the Sun finally has an owner -- a woman from Spain's soggy region of Galicia said Friday she had registered the star at a local notary public as being her property.
Angeles Duran, 49, told the online edition of daily El Mundo she took the step in September after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon and most planets in our Solar System.

meet the new member of the disaster rescue squad

TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese police department on Friday appointed a chihuahua as a member of its disaster rescue squad, where it will serve alongside retrievers and German shepherds.

woman stuck in a bathroom for 3 weeks

PARIS (AFP) – French firefighters freed a 69-year-old woman who spent three weeks trapped in her bathroom and whose nocturnal pleas for help -- by tapping on pipes -- were ignored by neighbours, police said Tuesday.

mind controlling fungus in thailand

This is the story of a fungus in Thailand that has seemingly magical powers.  Far away from their origins in Haitian folklore, zombies live again in the world of nature. Scientists are intrigued by this entity’s ability to control the brains of carpenter ants in a process known as “parasitic zombification.”
ant1 Carpenter Ants and Fossilized Mind Control picture
As indicated by the picture above, a reddish brown stalk created by the fungus known as Ophiocordy unilateralis, has invaded the ant’s body. The exposed position is ideal for releasing spores.

giant shrimp found by underwater robot

The ocean remains a humbling and dynamic conundrum every time some unknown or fantastic creature rears its strange and sometimes very bizarre head.
In this case, the species is not unknown and has a name, Bathynomus giganteus. Still, it is not a common sight to see an isopod the size of 2.5 feet!
giant isopod  Giant Isopod Found Attached To Underwater Robot picture
What is an isopod anyway?

robot works as a hospital nurse in japan

Little by little, robots are infiltrating into areas heretofore unexpected. Even for a nation as obsessed with everything robotic such as Japan, a robot replacing a hospital nurse does seem a little bit over the top.
But such is not the case at a company called Kokoro Co. Ltd where a new nurse robot named Actroid-F has come upon the scene. It can perform human-like movements although they are still a bit jerky at this early stage in development.

Designed to provide patients with companionship during their hospital stays, simulating an intangible bedside manner is difficult. This android works by means of mimicry; the operator makes facial expressions, which are then simultaneously imitated by Actroid-F.
Actroid-F is not alone in the world, although she is the first robot-nurse in Japan. Robots have also been used with considerable success in many American hospitals where they dispense medication, make deliveries and visit patients.
Known as Robot-Rx, this automated system ensures that the right medicine reaches the right patient. It stores and dispenses single doses of drugs for entire hospitals.
Pharmacists enter prescriptions into the computer, the robot collects the dosage by scanning the barcodes, and bags them, while keeping track of all medications.
More and more, hospitals all over the world are realizing that robots are efficient messengers who transport materials like food, x-rays, and linens throughout the hospital, saving wear and tear on the feet of over-worked nurses and aides.
Virtual visits from your physician are here as well. Doctors are examining patients continents away with interactive robots and hi-tech visuals. These robots are fully mobile, with computer screens for heads and real-time video cameras for eyes and ears. Doctors operate them by using a joystick and wireless technology.

smart vending machine suggests drinks for buyers

TOKYO (Reuters) – For you sir, a canned coffee. And for madam, perhaps a nice cold tea.
A new Japanese canned drink vending machine uses facial recognition technology to "recommend" drinks based on the customer's age and gender -- and sales have tripled over those from regular vending machines as a result.

church looking for exorcists

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wanted: a few good men to cast out devils.
Overwhelmed with requests for exorcists, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are holding a special training workshop in Baltimore this weekend to teach clerics the esoteric rite, the Catholic News Service reported.

boomerang comes back after 5 months

MARYSVILLE, Wash. – Eleven-year-old Brenden Hale was playing with a boomerang along the Skagit River in Mount Vernon last June when it landed in the water and floated away. He thought it was gone forever, until

job hiring! salary: $31,000 for 1 hour

TOKYO (AFP) – It's the part-time job generations have been waiting for, and no special qualifications are required -- working in a pizza restaurant for just one hour for a juicy 31,000 dollars.

taiwanese marries her own self

TAIPEI (AFP) – A Taiwanese woman said Sunday she had "married" herself by throwing a wedding banquet.
The 30-year-old Chen Wei-yi, who has been an Internet sensation since announcing her "wedding" plans last month, held the ceremony in a Taipei hotel Saturday witnessed by 30 relatives and friends.

chopsticks inside a man's stomach for 28 years

SHANGHAI (AFP) – Surgeons in Shanghai have operated on a 50-year-old Chinese man to remove a chopstick that he swallowed 28 years ago, state media reported.

baby falls from 7th floor and survives

PARIS (AFP) – An 18-month-old boy survived after falling seven floors and bouncing off a Paris cafe awning into the arms of a passer-by, witnesses said Tuesday.

Indian wild owls decrease due to harry potter fever

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has blamed fans of Harry Potter for the demise of wild owls in the country as children seek to emulate the boy wizard by taking the birds as pets.