|
FORGET shoes?
A new type of sock may be set to take feet by storm, promising wearers a shoe free existence. The Swiss Protection socks are comprised of 50% Kevlar, 32% Polyester, 10% Cotton, and 8% Spandex, and come with PVC sole reinforcement, and are designed to allow wearers to walk as close to barefoot as possible without worrying about feet getting cut or meeting irritating surfaces. “It took many years of technical research and designing to create what we have now,” said Swiss Barefoot Company owner Dieter Hesch. “I’m very happy with it and I even think the Swiss Protection Sock could become fashionable. “We’re also working on a new sock design which we think people will be able to run marathons in,” he added. |
|
CARMEX cupcakes.
The iconic beauty brand Carmex invited PD to help celebrate its 75th anniversary with the delivery of super cute Carmex cupcakes at our offices this week. Carmex has grown exponentially over the last 75 years, since its inception by ex-retail buyer Alfred Woelbing, a long time sufferer of dry, chapped lips, whose experimentation over a hotplate in his family kitchen resulted in the creation of the first Carmex therapeutic lip balm. After creating the solution for his own lips, Woelbing started selling his balm to local pharmacies door to door. By the 40’s and 50’s the popularity of Carmex was on a roll and once lanolin rationing subsided, production really took off! Alfred oversaw the business until his death at 100yrs of age in 2001. Currently over 135 Carmex products are sold every minute across 30 countries worldwide. |
|
MIRACLE escape.
Despite every panel of their car being destroyed, race car drivers Jeremy Foley and Yuri Kouznetsov walked away from a recent car crash with only minor injuries. The duo plunged off the side of a mountain during a section of the Pikes Peak race in Colorado called the Devil’s Playground. The car plunged hundreds of feet, cart wheeling eight times on the way and losing wheels, engine parts and body panels. Both men, still conscious when rescuers got to them, were saved by the car’s roll cage. |
|
GLOBAL warming has led to some radical hairdressing in the UK, where a pair of rare hairy donkeys have had their fur trimmed for the first time in 17 years. The Baudet du Poitou breed, originally from France, are not normally groomed, with their fur left to grow into long dreadlocks. However a warm summer in Britain has led their owner to lop locks to stop the beasts of burden getting overly hot and bothered. |
|
NEW sea monster?
Deep sea divers off an oil rig have captured images of what some are calling an “undiscovered sea monster”. The video footage started tongues wagging in cyberspace and clocked around 1.2m views. In the underwater video a huge grey blob-like creature emerges from the deep and floats around the divers. Theories flying about as to the creature’s identity (apart from sea monster) include whale placenta, jelly fish, a science fiction sea creature called Cthulhu, or a large plastic bag. Experts however have chimed into the debate, saying it is most likely the creature is a jelly fish from the Ulmaridae family called Deepstaria enigmatica, however according to other experts the “sea monster’s” organs, shown in the video are not consistent with that type of jellyfish. |
|
PROOF of life after death? British pub goers believe that they have proof that ghosts exist, after capturing a supernatural regular “Reedy” at the Apsley House in Southsea, on camera. According to local legend, Reedy, named after the actor and
famed drinker, Oliver Reed, is known to top up peoples drinks. Reedy was captured on an iPhone at a retirement party for one of the pub’s workers.
“I was taking lots of photos with my iPhone because it was a fancy dress-themed party,” said the ghost’s photographer, Paul Morgan. “I took a few of a group of friends and it was once I looked at them a while later I noticed something strange in the background,” Morgan added. |
|
THE perfect face?
British scientists have uncovered what they believe to
be the perfect face, according to the mathematical principals of the golden ratio. The face belongs to the winner of a Lorraine Cosmetics beauty competition, 18-year old schoolgirl, Florence Colgate.
According to scientists Florence’s face is perfectly
symmetrical, and has the optimum ratio between eyes, mouth, chin and forehead. Adding to that, University of St Andrews researcher, Carmen Lefèvre, said Florence’s “large eyes, high heekbones, and full lips” upped to her overall beauty. |
|
LIFE after death.
A German artist, Iris Schieferstein, is embracing the ‘waste not, want not’ philosophy, by creating a new range of shoes made out of dead animal parts. The unusual shoe collection includes high heeled horse bootscreated utilising the hooves as the sole of the shoe, and sandals created using the carcasses of dead doves. Not for everyone, the shoes are crafted using dead bits of animals collected from Iris’ local butcher (after having been threatened with gaol time for using road kill), which she then spends a week stripping off flesh and bones, before the hide is tanned. Once tanned, the skin of the animal is then moulded around the foot of a shoe model and set in place before the insoles and lining is added. “I love horses and I love shoes so I thought this would be perfect,” Iris said. “Horses have a beautiful walk and I wanted to recreate that with my footwear,” she added. The shoes sell for around $5,700 a pair. |
|
HISTORY in the making. A marketing stunt involving the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire by European bookmaker Paddy Power, has caused uproar, with British citizens saying it cheapens an important historical monument. The White Horse monument is around 3,000 years old, and is a 110m long prehistoric hill figure of a horse, made using deep trenches of white chalk. The bookies however added a jockey to the horse, using canvas and tent pegs, to promote the Cheltenham Festival. |
|
YOU’VE heard of the large intestine, but this is ridiculous. Bowel Cancer Australia is making the most of the thousands of delegates to APP this weekend with a confronting display depicting a gigantic blowup bloody colon. Hopefully not to be used as a jumping castle by attendees, the “super colon” display (pictured below) encourages people not to “sit on their symptoms” and gives information about prevention and treatment of bowel cancer. The quirky display is one of a number of APP Trade Exhibition foyer exhibits which will be open from today. |
|
VISION of the future? Robot maker, Giles Walker, has turned more than a few heads at the recent CeBIT high-tech fair in Germany with his pair of pole dancing robots (pictured below). Created out of old car parts, the duo’s suggestive dancing is computer controlled using wireless technology and is set to music played by a third “DJ” robot, who bops his head as the ladies perform. For those that would want to hire the robots for a party however, the price tag may be a bit of a sticking point, with the trio commanding around US$40,000 per performance. |
|
EVERY pig has its day.
A 250kg Australian pig named Boris is set to make history after a vet agreed to make him the first ungulate to undergo facelift surgery. The surgery has been necessitated by Boris’ recent weight gain, which triggered a deformity which made his brow droop over his eyes, rendering him sightless. According to Boris’ family, putting the porker on a diet did not help the situation, as his weight loss led to even more skin sag over his peepers. |
|
IT’S a dog, no it’s a sheep…?
A sheep farmer in China’s Shaanxi Province is claiming one of his animals has given birth to a puppy, after he found the mother sheep cleaning her newborn. According to reports the animal has wool, but its eyes, nose and mouth seemingly belong to a dog. Scientists have however put the kybosh on the story, saying it was simply not possible for a sheep to give birth to a dog. Animal researcher, Yue Guozhang from the Xi’an City Animal Husbandry Technology Centre, aimed to dispel the myth which has so far drawn flocks of people to see the sheep-dog, telling local media that “it’s likely that this is just an abnormal lamb”. |
|
CLOSE call for pharmacy.
Pharmacy staffers and shoppers at CVS Pharmacy in the US city of Hartford breathed a sigh of relief following a brush with death which involved a car crashing through a solid brick wall to park inside the store. According to reports the driver of the car was trying (fairly unsuccessfully) to score the perfect park outside the chemist, which quickly turned into a more ‘convenient’ park inside the shop. Fortunately no one was injured during the fiasco, however the pharmacy will remain closed until a full assessment of its structural damage can be made. |
|
YOU’D need a sedative afterwards!
A new activity has entered onto the world stage, and is claimed by its originators to be “the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt”. “Extreme Ironing” has taken off on the internet, with YouTube clips of the sport’s contenders ironing in extreme situations (including kayaking, rappelling and even skydiving) racking up thousands of views the world over. It is believed that the genesis of extreme ironing began over a decade ago when a rock climber, Phil Shaw, decided to combine exciting climbing excursions with the drab household chore. The latest extreme ironing stunt shows a man in a dressing gown and slippers ironing in the middle of an empty road. |
|
HEALTH crisis averted.
A Chinese woman is lucky to have escaped unscathed after accidentally reversing her 4WD over the edge of the roof of a multi-storey car park. According to reports, Shan Dan, who had only been driving for six months, ended up precariously perched on the edge of peril after hitting the accelerator instead of the brake whilst reversing out of her car spot. Shan’s 4WD then charged through the car park’s barrier and half over the edge of the car park. “I was absolutely terrified when I got out and saw the precarious position of my car,” she told media. Fortunately she was uninjured during the incident, however she will face a hefty bill after a crane had to be called in to safely lift the vehicle to the ground. |
|
GOOD sporting genes.
An 18-month old Dutch toddler, Baerke van der Meij, will need to wait until he has full mastery of his speaking skills to thank his father and grandfather for helping him to score a 10 year contract with local soccer club, VV Venlo. According to reports, Baerke was nabbed by the club after it viewed a clip of him repeatedly kicking a soccer ball into a toy box. The clip, posted on YouTube by his proud father, has so far attracted around 150,000 views. In a twist of fate, it turns out that Baerke’s grandfather passed the soccer genes down to the toddler, having himself played for VV Venlo. A spokesperson for the club joked with local media that “The toddler’s favourite position has not yet been determined”. “But we can speak of a rightfooted player with a very good kicking technique, perseverance and, importantly, football genes via his grandfather,” the spokesperson added. |
|
A BABY girl has been born in China with two heads and one body, following an emergency Csection earlier in the month. According to reports, the child was shown to be developing normally in the first two scans undertaken by her mother, and it was not until the third scan did doctors notice that the baby had two heads. Soon after the mother went into labour and doctors delivered the little girl who was also found to have two spines, one and a half hearts and other shared organs. ““We couldn’t do a separation surgery on the baby,” said the surgeon who delivered the child “They must live together,” the surgeon added. |
|
MAGNET boy.
An extraordinary six-year old boy in Croatia is enjoying the limelight after he discovered he was magnetic, literally. Objects from cutlery, pans, dumbbells and even mobile phones stick to the boy, with his family now claiming he is able to heal the sick through his touch. The family also claim the boy has super strength. |
|
THE healthy art of engineering.
Engineering students at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany have created the world’s first trike powered solely by two electric screwdrivers. The 20kg trike was structurally inspired by a “skeleton with its organs”, and can reach speeds of up to 20km/h. To operate the rider needs to “sit” in what appears to be an extremely non-ergonomic headlong position, operating the machine via brake and accelerator controls which respond to the tilt of the rider’s body. “It’s definitely not the best vehicle for long distances but is a lot of fun to drive,” a student said. “It makes you want to accelerate, brake, corner, compete and snake your way around obstacles as soon as you get in the driver’s seat,” he added. The students created the trike to compete in a design competition which required the use of screwdrivers. |
|
WHOA! Bunion relief may be needed for this new footwear range. Designer shoes made to look like horses’ hooves have gone on sale at a race carnival in the UK, and are a snap at a meagre £1300 (about $2100) a pair. Debuting at the Cheltenham Festival this week, the knee-length zip-up boots (pictured) are being billed as “the perfect thing to wear for a day at the races”. Some may baulk at the cost, but the makers say neigh to that, with each boot made of up to 5000 individual genuine horse hairs, as well as an imitation carbon-fibre hoof. Proceeds from the sale of the special boots will go to charity, with the items developed by wagering firm Betfair, who said punters wearing the designer hooves would be a “shoe-in for best dressed”. |
|
SLOW and steady wins the race? It took just 26 days and a will of steel for the “human snail” to complete the iconic London Marathon this month. Encased in his snail costume (a character called Brian from a popular UK children’s show), the former soccer player Lloyd Scott toiled for eight hours a day on a metal sled to move, using a periscopic camera to see where he was going. During his epic snail race, Scott suffered consistent nose bleeds and nausea inside the snail, and at one point had to go to hospital to have his nose cauterised. But Scott wasn’t complaining, saying he didn’t want the journey to be easy, as he was raising money for sick children who themselves do not have an easy road. “I mean, it’s the children that are here today that’s really been foremost on my mind and have been driving me forward,” he said. |
|
PHARMACIES looking into expanding their optical range could stock a new product developed by a Chinese farmer. Zhang Xiaolong has fitted his roosters with specially made glasses (pictured) to stop the aggressive birds from fighting. The optical innovation is actually a type of “blinker” which stops the chickens from being able to see straight ahead, which makes confrontations harder. The farmer from Xiamen said he was losing ten birds a day due to the fighting, but now the coop is much more peaceful. |
|
BOWLED over by charity. A 25-tonne rock which demolished the home of Phil Johnson during the recent Christchurch earthquake, has sold online in a charity auction for an impressive $44,000. Listed on the Trade Me site under the description: “For sale, 1 owner, 25-30 tonne landscape feature (answers to the name Rocky).” “He is in pristine condition (just a little bit of concrete dust). “Suitable for garden feature, or as in our case, a magnificent addition to your living area… “Rocky will enhance your ‘indoor-outdoor’ flow considerably.” The winning bid went to a Mount Hutt ski resort, who plan to display Rocky out the front of its establishment. All proceeds from the sale are being donated by Johnson to a relief fund for quake victims. |
|
YOU haven’t seen short until you’ve seen 17 year old Junrey Balawing. Shorter than most one year old infants, Filipino born Balawing stands just 22 inches tall, a whole five inches shorter than the current Guinness Book of Records title holder, Nepalese man Khagendra Thapa Magar. Balawing apparently stopped growing during his early infancy, a condition which makes it hard for him to walk and stand up. He’s said to be thrilled at the prospect of scooping a world record on his 18th birthday in Jun. |
|
EXCESS follicles are not concerning. An 11-year old girl from Thailand, Supatra Sasuphan, has been crowned the world’s hairiest girl by the Guinness Book of Records. Covered with thick hair on her face, ears, arms and legs, Sasuphan has been diagnosed with the extremely rare Ambras Syndrome. Only 50 people have ever been recorded as having the condition, which is caused by a faulty chromosome. Having suffered some teasing for her hair, Sasuphan told media that her new title has made her the most popular girl in school. |
|
DOLPHIN ultrasound.
A 29-year old dolphin, Tapeko, recently rolled belly up for a semi-submersed ultrasound at Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, in exchange for a tasty fish treat. The examination confirmed Tapeko is in the first stages of a 12 month-long pregnancy. “Due to the relationship built on mutual trust and respect between trainers and animals, Tapeko voluntarily cooperated during these exams,” a zoo spokesperson said. |
|
GHOST hunters prepare for battle! Council members in the Tasmanian township of New Norfolk have voted to bring in paranormal experts in order to prove definitively whether the town’s abandoned mental institution is haunted. The former mental health hospital, Willow Court, has been an unofficial drawcard for ghost hunters and curious tourists alike, who visit the spooky site in the hopes of hearing, seeing or smelling some of its famed bumps in the night. Plans are now in place for a team from the Australian Paranormal Investigation Unit to spend three nights in Ward C and Alonnah (where the “criminally insane” residents were held). One skeptic, Leyon Parker, told media that the team would need photographic and aural evidence, as well as eyewitness accounts to change Aussie skeptics’ minds. |
|
LIFE in miniature.
US artist named Christopher Boffoli is making headlines with his depictions of daily activities amongst items of food. The tiny hand painted models of people going about their daily business take Boffoli many weeks to create, and are then popped onto (or into) life size food models. Examples of his artwork include two couples rowing through a bottle of spilt milk, and a man mowing his lawn on top of a broccoli floret. |
|
A STREET sweeper in Bejing has become a local celebrity after a YouTube videoclip of her practising martial arts whilst working hit the internet. “Before I got the job I used to do Tai chi both using my body and with a sword, and I missed them because with this job I start at 5am and finish at 4pm,” said an abashed Zhang Xiufang. “But then one day I was swinging the broom and it reminded me of my old hobby – and then I started practising again,” she added. “I have even been asked by other street sweepers to show them some tricks – it’s a great way to relax and stay fit in what is a very demanding job so why not?” |
|
POOL pony.
The call of nature resulted in an unusual day for one horse enthusiast, who had to call in the cavalry after his horse got stuck in a swimming pool. According to reports, the rider jumped off his horse to have a cheeky wee in the bushes whilst leaving his trusty steed to wait for him unsecured. What started as a simple plan turned into a complicated rescue after the horse became spooked and jumped into a nearby swimming pool. It took a team of 11 firefighters, assisted by a group of horse experts, to calm the wet pony enough to secure it with straps and haul it out of the water to freedom and a few carrots. |
|
THE natural order?
The Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat in Ontario, Canada, has launched an unusual initiative to raise awareness about the plight of polar bears – a ‘people pool’ within the bears enclosure. The polar bear encounter is safer than it sounds, with the people pool and the bear pool separated by 25cm thick Plexiglass. The people pool has been designed to resemble the bears natural environment, and allows bears and people to get a long, close look at each other. Park operators are also hoping that the “encounter” will help to stimulate its bears, a hope which appears to be coming to fruition with staffers witnessing bears at times “stalking” visitors as they would do in the wild. |
|
SOCIAL networking gone mad.
A Dutch woman has had the profile photos of all of her 152 Facebook ‘friends’ tattooed on her arm (pictured). The anonymous female has gone further by posting a video of the tattooing procedure on YouTube. “These are not all my friends – just the people I care most about,” she said. “To me it represents who I am right now and the time we live in”.
To view the graphic procedure see youtube.com/pharmacydaily. |
|
DANGEROUS driving.
A pair of Kazakhstan nationals caught the attention of the German media recently, after they were pulled over for some rather unusual dangerous driving. According to reports, the pair were attempting to save money by transporting their newly acquired Mazda 626 in the back of their van, sideways. The men had manoeuvered the Mazda into the back of the van with the help of a few friends, using mattresses on either side to avoid the car getting scratched. Their dreams came to an end however when police pulled them over because their van had been riding very low to the ground whilst also swaying a lot. Both the van and the Mazda have since been confiscated until the pair can organise other means of transport. |
|
SOME people really don’t let illness interfere with their lives.
A Chinese man has gained instant fame after he was photographed by another motorist driving while receiving an intravenous drip. The photographer, Zhou Tao, spotted the vehicle in the western city of Xian. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw the IV pole sticking out of the window and the driver receiving treatment,” he said. The patient has been nicknamed ‘Injection Brother,’ with internet photos receiving over 100,000 hits in just two hours. |
|
ARMLESS archer.
An US man born without arms, Matt Stutzman, is fast becoming an Olympic favourite after beating out his able-bodied competitors for a chance to be part of archery team trials. Using his feet, head and mouth to work the bow and arrows, Stutzman says he is confident he’ll make the team and win gold, gold, gold for the USA at the London Olympics next year. |
|
SOME enterprising Mexican smugglers have attempted to bypass customs officers, sniffer dogs and body pat-downs by creating a massive “medieval catapult” (pictured) to fling drugs across the US border. Police just south of Arizona have seized 23kg of marijuana and a “metal-framed catapult” complete with a massive elastic band, mounted on a trailer next to the international border fence. |
|
SO clean you can eat off it?
It seems toilet chic is the new look for restaurants in 2011. A recently opened restaurant in the Chinese province of Yunnan is proving to be onto a winner, with tourists and locals alike flocking to have a meal whilst sitting on a loo. Meals on offer include ‘toilet bowl hot pot’, ‘fried poo sticks’ and ‘excrement ice cream’. To add extra ambiance, the Modern Toilet restaurant also features urinal wall features. “We had a survey before opening, and 20% of people wanted to try it, 60% weren’t sure, while only 20% found the idea unacceptable,” said Modern Toilet owner, Xu Liang. |
|
IF you’ve had a hard day at work spare a thought for the road builders working on Shifou Mountain in China’s Hunan Province. Considered one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet, the roadbuilders are currently in the process of creating a 3.21km wooden path thousands of metres above the ground (pictured). “It’s not as dangerous as people think,” said one road builder. “You just wear the ropes, and then everything is okay,” he added. |
|
PEOPLE in need of a comforting cuddle – search no more!
Inventors from the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo have created a device which can dish out the hugs – albeit with strings attached. The Sense-Roid looks like the torso of a mannequin and is covered in silicone skin, inside of which features pressure sensors. To score a hug, users need to don a special jacket with an inbuilt air compressor. Instead of literally being embraced by the torso, the air compressors react to the user embracing the mannequin and replicate the pressure of a hug. Additional vibrations in the jacket add to the effect. |
|
NOT a natural phenomenon.
Scientists baffled by the sudden colour change of the Goldstream River in British Columbia, have uncovered the reason for the transformation, fluorescein. The river, a known tourist haunt because of its natural beauty, appeared to change from its usual clear colour to bright green over the course of an hour, leaving visitors to the area stunned. The colour lasted for around three hours before the river once again ran clear. Subsequent testing of the water found that fluorescein (a fluorescent tracer) had been added to the water. Fortunately no fish or animals were harmed as a result of the colourful addition. It is not yet known who dyed the river green. |
|
The World’s Ugliest Dog crown has been bestowed upon Yoda, a 14-year old Chinese-crested Chihuahua. Rescued from abandonment behind an apartment building by his loving owner, Yoda sports a protuding tongue and almost hairless legs. His owner told media that when she first found her beloved pooch, she thought he was a rat, however having a closer look realised it was a pup, scooped him up took him home and named him after the rather withered-looking Star Wars favourite. Other crowd pleasers in the ugly line-up included Handsome Hector, who was the 2010 Ugliest Dog runner-up and whose entrance elicited more than a few giggles from the crowd with the words: “Handsome Hector, aka Hecki, is, in his own opinion, devastatingly handsome”. |
|
HOW about this for a pithy contribution to the carbon tax debate?
A TV host in China has started riding his bicycle around Guangdong in the nude (pictured). “I want to promote environmental protection and low-carbon life via an extreme but also an effective way, which is the nude body language,” explained Ou Zhihang. |
|
THE dangers of speeding…
A horse from Meppen in the province of Lower Saxony, Germany, has been busted bolting for freedom by a speed and red-light camera, after escaping from its owner’s paddock. The pony was galloping at full tilt for many kilometres before bystanders were able to stop it and lead it safely home. In defense of the horse, the camera only snapped its escapades because a nearby car was speeding. According to reports, the driver of the offending vehicle has since petitioned local authorities to withdraw the speeding fine, due to the fact that he was speeding in an attempt to avoid the wayward horse. |
|
HEALTHY exercise?
A group of employees in China have pushed their boss’s car home after a long lunch. According to reports the group was left in a quandary after enjoying an elongated lunch replete with free alcohol in Changchun. It was towards the end of the excursion that the company president realised he was far too drunk to get behind the wheel of a car, a problem which was further compounded by the fact that none of his company employees had turned down the chance to drink a lot for free. Also worried by the new laws enacted in China this year, which saw drink driving listed as a hazardous crime punishable with gaol time, the company’s Vice President suggested that everyone simply push the car 4.8kms back to their boss’ home, pointing out that the exercise would be good for them all. It took them 45 mins of hard labour, singing and loud laughter to get the VW to their boss’ house, and whilst police decided not to fine them because the engine was not on, they did warn of the dangers of being drunk and pushing a car in traffic. |
|
ONE big headache.
A 22-year old man in China has used a lifetime’s worth of luck to survive a fall and a steel pole to the skull. According to local media the man, a builder, had been working on a construction site in Quanzhou when he fell, impounding a steel pole 15 centimetres into his own skull. The 1.2cm thick pole took a whopping five hours in surgery to remove. “It’s very rare to see such a severely injured patient,” said Doctor Zhuang, who confirmed that the young builder is in a serious but stable condition. |
|
A CASE for some first aid training?
In what could be an attempt for a 2011 Darwin Award, Ukranian zoo owner Aleksandr Pylyshenko has moved into his lions’ den. Taking to his new home like a cat to a couch, Pylyshenko has said that during his stay he will sleep on the wooden floor with the pride, be fed his food through the bars alongside his lions, and perhaps in his most unwise move will be present for the birth of one of his lionesses’ new baby cubs. “I plan to see the cubs being born and spend some time with them but then I will move out,” he said. To capture his lion-like retreat, Pylyshenko has planted four webcams in the cage and is broadcasting his bizarre “reality show” live on the internet. As for his motivation, the stunt is aimed at raising funds for the zoo, with Pylyshenko, an aspiring artist, telling media that he will paint whilst in the cage, and sell his works to help pay the bills. |
|
BALL baffles brilliant brains.
A massive ball of ice has members of the scientific community divided as to its origin. Found by a group of mushroom pickers in the middle of a forest in the Czech Republic, the large ball of ice was surrounded by a pool of mud, which it presumably created by melting. According to reports, there were no footprints around the ice, and no signs of how it came to rest in the middle of a forest. Some are heralding the discovery as the world’s largest hailstone, whilst other scientists have argued that it must be man-made because it is nearly impossible that it fell through the sky to the ground without breaking up. “It would have weighed tonnes – how it was moved here without a lorry is a mystery,” one local farmer told media. Despite scientific skepticism the huge frigid ball is now attracting vast amounts of interest from across the globe by UFO spotters and alien enthusiasts. |
|
A FEW science sums may have saved the day.
An overly zealous truck driver, eager to deliver his quarry of sand in Bejing’s Huairou, may have saved himself a whole lot of trouble by completing a simple calculation before driving onto the Baihe Bridge. According to reports, the truck was carrying 160 tonnes of sand – 105 more than the 55 tonne rating of the bridge. After just a few metres of travel on the bridge, the driver felt a sudden shift underneath his truck, which turned out to be the bridge, buckling and caving under the weight of sand and metal. Fortunately no one was injured in the bridge collapse, however the driver was escorted from the scene for “questioning”. |
|
ALL five food groups?
A hamburger described as breakfast, lunch and dessert rolled into one is being hailed as Australia’s most unhealthy meal. Weighing in with a whopping 6000kJ, the aptly titled ‘OMG’ burger is crafted using two Krispy Kreme doughnuts serving as the bun, two beef patties, two very generous slices of cheese, two slices of bacon, and a token serve of lettuce – just to keep the doughnuts from getting soggy. Now for those of you that aren’t disgusted by the OMG, but are in fact wanting to try it, it may be a long drive between feeds, with the burger only being served up at independent Brisbane fast-food outlet Chompers. Dieticians estimate that diners wanting to burn off the kilojoules from eating one of these monsters would need to run about 21 kilometres. |